2021 -- Finished
Games (from any year) which I finished playing in 2021.
List items
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01/01 -- Risk of Rain 2 felt a lot like the first game (although I forgot how long it can be -- and maybe it's more exhausting in 3D).
I can imagine revisiting it in the future, but I requested a refund for now.
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01/01 -- As a co-op shooter, I like a lot about The Division 2. Its core gameplay is especially sharp -- the gun feel and variety are solid, the co-op balance seems really good, the skill choices are useful and some of the level designs are great. It creates a lot of scenarios for team play. In one underground fight, my brother laid down machine gun and autoturret fire while I ducked into a train car with a shotgun. In another rooftop battle, my drone flushed enemies out of cover while my brother sniped with a marksman rifle. The loot management can be a bit of a chore, but the progression is pretty quick and pushed me to try out several new gun types. The post-game specializations are also fun and reward leaning into certain playstyles.
TD2's loot and shoot gameplay carries it for a long time, but it doesn't really offer any other gameplay variety. (There are some acheivement-style goals and the open world occasionally creates some unexpected cross-fire scenarios.) The storytelling also mostly takes a back seat (but that's probably a good thing for this style of game).
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01/02 -- 20XX is a lot of fun co-op (if somewhat short-lived). I'm surprised at how well it pulls off some of the randomized elements in a Mega Man style game. Platforming mistakes don't kill you instantly but instead chip away at your health. There are some fun upgrades, like the "core" (armor and blaster) parts. And the Mega Man/X aesthetic is pretty great.
20XX's difficulty may not be balanced for co-op. My brother and I finished on our second or third run. It was still fun for a few more runs, but an early win took some of the excitement out of the challenge.
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01/26 -- Astroneer's open-ended gameplay probably isn't for everyone. I don't think its pace would work for me in single-player, but I enjoyed it quite a bit in co-op.
There's plenty to discover in Astroneer. You might end up on an adventure, like bouncing around in low gravity or falling into a crater. It can also be really satisfying to set up and connect some of the base building elements. Multiplayer means you can share these stories or ideas, and it helps divide up some of the more rote tasks like resource management. I wouldn't say the progression is completely straightforward, especially its upgrades, but its planets do follow something of a pattern.
The open-ended design and sandbox goofiness which can make Astroneer surprising and interesting, can also make it tedious and frustrating. It's pretty fun to dig wherever you want (and spray collected resources everywhere in the process) but the malleable, bumpy terrain often becomes a chore for tasks like driving or base building. And of course you'll probably try a lot of things which don't work (and miss some things which do).
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02/06 -- I had fun with Immortals, and enjoyed its movement mechanics, combat and sense of humor (mostly). The puzzles and platforming segments were more... OK, even though they make up many of the map activities. (Especially the Vaults, which sometimes require solving an extra puzzle just to get in.) Immortals' world isn't particularly mysterious, but I usually had more fun there just exploring or running from point to point.
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02/12 -- Crying Suns takes a lot of inspiration directly from FTL. ("Clone" would be a bit harsh since its combat and space pixel art style are distinct and pretty good.) It isn't bad, but it isn't great either. It's light on synergies and interactions, making its runs feel a bit flat and uneventful.
Crying Suns' story progresses over several runs. I would enjoy this structure more if there were more gameplay progression or variety to match. There's an unfolding mystery which is interesting, but I wasn't a huge fan of the dark sci-fi setting or story in general.
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02/28 (LSE, Normal) -- I had fun with Halcyon 6, and its Star Trek themes, sense of humor and art style often made me smile. It felt like a pretty straightforward strategy/RPG, at least on Normal difficulty.
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02/28 -- Slime Rancher is fun with some neat sim mechanics, but it has some issues with inventory management, timed(?) progression gates and repetitive minigames.
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03/02 -- Quite strange. I didn't get very far.
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03/21 -- Remnant is a pretty fun co-op shooter. It's a bit linear and straight-forward, but its enemy designs and souls-like "feel" work pretty well. It doesn't offer a ton of character customization, but what's there supports teamwork and different playstyles. (For example, I played close-range with a shotgun, while my brother focused on a healing power and single-shot weapons.) The boss fights are solid -- this is where Remant's "souls-like" design works best. Even on Normal, it was usually worth tuning up our gear and learning an encounter's key mechanics.
Remnant takes inspiration from a grab-bag of fictional settings (possibly including Mad Max, Stargate and Lovecraftian horror), while following From Software's model of obtuse storytelling. It's kind of absurd, but it sets up some cool weapon and enemy designs.
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04/08 -- Loop Hero's unique mix of gameplay mechanics is a little hard to describe. It's technically an "idle game", although it felt more like a single-player RTS. There's a lot going on: deck-building, tile placement, per-run talent choices and frequent gear/stat updates. There are also a lot of little interactions, which are fun to discover early on and interesting (or sometimes challenging) to plan around later. More often than not I found myself actively playing cards, updating gear and looking for optimizations.
That said, pacing is probably still my main complaint with Loop Hero. The town progression was a bit slower than I liked, which led to some grinding. A boss run could also take over an hour and there isn't support for saving mid-run. Loop Hero is also pretty challenging -- only one or two builds seemed viable, RNG plays a factor in both build options and battles and the permanently unlockable talents can easily weaken your pool of options.
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04/13 (Amethyst+) -- I recently had an itch to play a good deckbuilder, and it's kind of cool that MegaCrit added a new character.
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04/19 -- Star Ocean: First Departure R felt like a classic PS1-era JRPG (though I think the original was actually on SFC). It has a colorful cast of characters, an action-based battle system and a complicated, breakable list of skills. I enjoyed learning its mechanics on my own, but found myself poking through a guide near the end. (Sure enough, I'd missed a party member, numerous crafting details and a handful of combat tricks.) I also enjoyed the English voice acting and character portraits offered by the "R" remake.
It stuck out to me how newer games tend to have more respect for the player's time. Random encounters, unskippable animations and hidden information are common design for classic JRPGs, but they can really drag the pace. I was feeling it by the final stretch -- I had pretty well explored the systems and side quests, and still ended up grinding a few levels to help with a late difficulty bump.
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04/22 (All Voids) -- Blue Fire clearly takes inspiration from various popular series. It didn't feel too same-y to me, though -- its 3D platforming is distinct from those game, and the gameplay elements it borrows tend to work for it. There are some rough edges -- I can think of a number of complaints, and they aren't all nitpicks (the camera, clipping and unfriendly checkpoints to name a handful). I still enjoyed playing it overall.
Blue Fire uses not only gameplay ideas, but also lore and story beats. This didn't work for me. Games like Hollow Knight and Dark Souls each have a unique setting and explorable world. Blue Fire's heavy-handed references, on the other hand, were too familiar (and a little immersion-breaking).
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05/08 (Medium difficulty, all lore quests) -- Trials of Fire is a pretty fun deck-builder, although it looks more like a tactical RPG on the surface. (It arguably includes tactical RPG elements but your ability and equipment choices also influence the decks you play with.) The randomized campaigns mostly follow a familiar roguelike structure, with a morale system acting as a soft time limit.
My complaints with Trials of Fire are mostly nit-picks. The "Standard" length runs felt a bit short -- it was sometimes hard to put together even one build before the run ended. And while Trials has an interesting setting, its events, side quests and lore quests hardly explore the bigger picture of the world of Ashe and its mysterious fate.
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05/16 (Normal, finished first run) -- I really enjoyed Star Renegades' combat, but I'm not sure if I'll come back to it.
The turn-based battles offer a lot of interesting strategic decisions: (Should you focus your attacks on shields, armor or health? Do you sacrifice damage for a stagger? When should you take a turn off to defend?) The run-level team building also plays into this. The characters you choose, equipment you pick up and relationships you try to build can set up synergies or balance your team's strengths. (For example, an Aegis could shield my entire team and an Archon could restore shields.)
While I enjoyed Star Renegades' combat, the rest of the game wasn't that interesting. Planet maps boiled down to a handful of straightforward decisions (and were a bit annoying to navigate). The in-run dialogue was almost exclusively generic or silly quips. And given the run length (I think my single run took around 8 hours), I'm on the fence about jumping back in just for more of the combat.
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06/02 (3.0, HR 100+) -- Monster Hunter: Rise was really fun for me in some of the same ways as Monster Hunter: World. Rise may resemble its predecessor, but it felt like a fresh iteration.
The Japanese-inspired Kamura Village is a charming and colorful setting, and it's a good thematic fit for the new mechanics. The "rampage" quests (which mix hunting gameplay with tower defense) are one of my favorites. Traversal also feels better than ever in Rise. You can now quickly hop on your "palamute" companion and still perform a lot of actions (including sharpening, gathering and even carving). New "silkbugs" also allow you to dash and swing through the air -- you can cover a surprising amount of ground with a running start and the right combination of jumps and swings.
Rise carries over some quality-of-life features added later in World and Iceborne, like the two-player balance and craftable layered armor. It also carries over World's 14 weapon types. There are various tweaks, but the silkbind attacks and "switch skills" are completely new (at least from World). Silkbugs can still be used in combat for movement, but they're also tied to new attacks for each weapon. Switch skills also add some flexibility and can change the playstyle for certain weapons (like the Sword and Shield's choice between Drill Slash and Hard Basher combos).
I had a great time with Rise and I'm done (at least for now). It's cool that Capcom continues to add new content, but I hope they reconsider the Hunter Rank requirements. Updates 2.0 and 3.0 gated new hunts as high as HR 100. It's mostly just a required grind -- this was a pace-killer for me in Iceborne, and for my friends who started later in World.
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06/02 -- Bravely Default 2 follows the pattern of old-school JRPGs, with fairly complex job and equipment systems and several tough boss fights. It also has a lot of modern features and polish, like battle speed controls and skippable cut-scenes. I was up for the pace (and occasional grind) and I enjoyed my time with it.
The storytelling isn't bad, although I didn't find it particularly strong. Some of the character moments are quite charming but (I suspect) the pace, filler side-quests and other elements water down any potential strengths. The direct Final Fantasy references also felt a little too familiar here.
Pacing can be hit or miss for a long game like this (though some of that's the way I played). The tougher bosses also tend to counter specific mechanics or builds, which is sometimes a really irritating design. Overall, though, I had a good time mixing together jobs and watching the story sequences.
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06/07 (Switch) -- Meh. I'm not really seeing it after a few hours. Evoland 2's cheeky commentary and on-the-nose references rarely clicked with me. It has the slow pace and clunky feel of a much older ARPG, but without the interesting progression, systems or story that some of those games offer.
Other games play around with genre tropes or "video game logic". Some do so with genuinely good gameplay or unique storytelling.
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06/12 (each character) -- It was clear during early access that Klei wanted Griftlands to mix combat and diplomacy gameplay. It was less clear if the combination was a good fit for a card game.
It actually works pretty well. Negotiation is an alternate card game (with a different deck, mechanics and animations than combat), but there's more to it than that. Each "run" in Griftlands follows the story of a character on a mission. Events often involve other characters, and each NPC's opinion of you can have (passive or active) gameplay consequences -- intimidating or killing your way through one situation might make life hard for you in a future situation. In the Griftlands, a few friends sometimes make a bigger difference than a better gun.
Griftlands takes place in a gritty, slightly weird sci-fi world with wilderness, lawlessness (or corruption) and other dangers. Each character is interesting, and there are plenty of light-hearted quips in the dialogue and descriptions (which are funny and well-done).
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06/21 (PS4) -- It's been a long time since I've played a "musou" game -- probably not since since Dynasty Warriors 2-4 (other than briefly trying out Drakengard). I enjoyed the Warriors series quite a bit, but the games were formulaic and became very repetitive.
Dragon Quest Heroes also felt repetitive at times (and tougher enemies could be sponge-y), but it was still fun to play. The core gameplay still seems to be the same -- your hero (or heroes, in this case) are one-person armies often fighting on various battlefields. DQ Heroes includes several gameplay elements on top of this: an AI team with different hero playstyles, RPG progression elements and deployable "monster medals", for example. The DQ references are also fun and (for a crossover) I was surprised by the effort put into telling the story.
The structure and references have a lot of advantages, but they aren't always a perfect fit for this type of game. The tutorial missions, unlock quests and dialogue sometimes slowed down the action. I also found that the slow DQ-style text boxes and alchemy system didn't work well.
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06/27 -- Like many of the SaGa games, Romancing SaGa 2 has several unique gameplay systems. Some of these work really well... while others aren't so great.
Romancing SaGa 2 isn't a strategy game, but it sometimes evokes a similar feel. The main story concept revolves around building an empire starting from its first emperor. Quests and story events can grow your empire, granting you more revenue, new allies (as party members) and access to more of the world. Investments you make may take a generation to develop. Your emperor and retinue are also mortal (based on "life points" or LP) -- a character who falls too many times in battle dies. Rather than a typical "game over", a party wipe or fallen emperor usually shifts to a new generation.
The SaGa series' obtuse nature and experimental mechanics tend to be a double-edged sword. These can be satisfying or surprising (like disrupting a difficult boss), but are too often frustrating or confusing instead. For example, Romancing SaGa 2 balances its open structure using difficulty scaling. This led to some unpleasant difficulty spikes for me (and notoriously can make the game unwinnable). And while life points add an interesting consequence to falling in battle, the hard-hitting enemies and hidden information (like armor effectiveness) lead to party members getting knocked down too easily in common encounters.
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07/07 -- Fighting games (understandably) tend to be rooted in local multiplayer, so I haven't played many in the past few years. BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger's "visual novel" story mode sounded interesting, and with the recent Steam sale it seemed like a good way to revisit the genre.
The branching story paths are a neat touch and some of the jokes were genuinely funny. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy Calamity Trigger's story. It leans heavily into the kind of anime elements which I usually don't like. The fighting gameplay seemed pretty good (aside from looking a little dated), but each story mode playthrough was also short.
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07/09 -- Subnautica: Below Zero is more of an iterative sequel than I expected. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, though it seemed like the above-water gameplay would be more of a defining feature. The series' combination of story, underwater survival and exploration is still relatively unique (and the vehicles are still fun to pilot).
I hit fewer snags in Below Zero than the first Subnautica (which I actually stopped playing before the ending). That's partly because of a few quality-of-life improvements, and partly because I wasn't as worried about spoilers. Missing a key item or many of the various materials can completely block your progress -- it's one of my main frustrations with this type of game.
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07/16 -- Cyber Shadow's pixel art, sword combat and special attacks would probably fit in a retro Ninja Gaiden, while its checkpoints, movement skills and world design are arguably more modern. It's generally well-executed, and dashing through a stage with the chiptune soundtrack is pretty cool.
Other modern retro games have set a really high bar, though. My casual playthrough was short (probably less than 5 hours) and Cyber Shadow doesn't seem to offer Bloodstained's replayability, The Messenger's creativity or Shovel Knight's content and variety.
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07/18 -- Sakuna: Of Rice And Ruin is a curious mix of beat 'em up, farm sim and RPG. Each of its subgenres is surprisingly developed. The 2.5D action includes challenging enemies, knockback, special attacks and a grappling hook-like mechanic. The farming simulation takes into account weather, seasons, irrigation, fertilization and weed/pest control. There's also a full set of RPG stats, weapons with different attack types, equipment skills and an explorable map with various objectives.
One problems that beat 'em ups sometimes face is that they either tend to be very short (e.g. Streets of Rage 4) or very repetitive (e.g. the "Warriors" franchise). When it works, Sakuna's design has built-in gameplay variety between fighting, exploration and farming. A typical game day might start with farm chores in the morning, hunting or exploration during the day and preparation for the next challenge or farming goal in the evening. The different systems also play into each other -- combat can provide useful materials for crafting and fertilization, while farming and harvesting rice supports your base stats and provides important daily meal buffs (including resistances or health regeneration).
There are some rough edges around Sakuna's design. It has a lot to manage: every aspect of farming, what to eat, which equipment and skills to use for various situations and so on. Time is also an important element, both for farming and combat. This can lead to some pacing issues, like the combat "level ups" happening only after a harvest (once per in-game year). It also creates time pressures which can make story events, the occasional technical glitch or other exploration challenges feel disruptive.
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07/20 - It's a surprise to see a Record of Lodoss War game in 2021, especially a Metroidvania. (Stylistically, Wonder Labyrinth's art and music reminded me more of a Castlevania than what I remember of Lodoss.)
Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth is actually pretty fun. It has some of the movement, weapon types and magic attacks you might expect. It also includes a couple of less familiar mechanics, like Deedlit's two elemental companions, bow and ability to hover. Switching between the elemental types reminded me a little of Ikaruga, which was a nice addition to some of the fights and platforming challenges.
I personally wasn't unhappy with Wonder Labyrinth's length even though it was a bit short and linear. It ramped up quickly, the action gameplay was fun and there were quite a few boss fights. The story was pretty light (and "Wonder Labyrinth" didn't seem connected to the world of Lodoss), but it did explore a few of the characters.
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08/08 (Normal, Intro/Morthagi/Thrixl) -- On a gameplay level, it seems fair to compare Wildermyth to XCOM. There are meaningful differences (like Wildermyth's melee combat and unique terrain mechanics), but a lot of similarities in the structure and various elements.
If you've played a modern XCOM, you might have a few stories about your procedurally generated soldiers. Wildermyth takes this idea and runs with it. Each character has personality traits, and many of the battles and other events are given a story. Characters can form relationships, go on adventures together and even change permanently. Early in my first campaign my company's Warrior fell in a battle. He lost an eye, gaining an accuracy penalty and an eyepatch to match. He later fell in love, fought alongside his son and survived the campaign at an old age. The writing does a good job of supporting these kind of stories.
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08/18 (NG+) -- Boss rush games have been hit or miss for me -- I enjoyed the duels in Furi, but was lukewarm on games like Titan Souls and Shadow of the Colossus.
Eldest Souls is fun, if short. The melee combat is tricky -- bosses hit hard, but there's a way to regain health through offensive play. The light progression and customization elements are a nice touch, with passive and active abilities encouraging different playstyles (like well-timed dodges or setting up damage windows). I also think that light exploration helps the pacing in this type of game.
A New Game+ helped the length, but a single run would have felt unsatisfying. This is probably by design (at least partly).
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08/20 (Normal) -- I haven't played the first Atelier Ryza, but I had heard good things about both games and their alchemy systems... so it was hard to pass up Atelier Ryza 2 when I saw a physical copy on sale.
There's a lot I like about AR2. Of course, crafting is a central gameplay element -- I spent a number of hours puzzling out how to make better equipment and other items (like bombs). I also enjoyed collecting different ingredients and was often on the lookout for new types. (Gathering and some of the quests had aspects of a scavenger hunt.) The more challenging battles were fun (and a good application of crafted items), with the combat combining active-time gameplay, item abilities and teamwork mechanics. And while there are plenty of anime trappings, parts of AR2 remind me of a young adult story.
AR2's gameplay systems don't always fit together perfectly (like how the standard JPRG encounters can interrupt exploration and gathering), but overall it was fun and kind of different.
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09/07 (Hard) -- Ys has been around for a while, but Ys VIII is my first title in the series. (Anecdotally, I've seen it labeled "the premiere action-RPG series from Japan". That's a pretty bold statement.)
Ys VIII has faster-paced combat than I expected. Many of the skills have low costs and short cooldowns, plus "flash guards" and "flash moves" encourage even more aggressive play. Taking hits is dangerous (at least on Hard), but it was satisfying to chain together well-timed flash moves and skills.
Ys VIII isn't really a survival game, but its deserted island setting uses similar themes and gameplay elements. The pacing mostly worked well for me (although the game is long overall). I probably can't say much more about the story without getting into spoiler territory, but I enjoyed the setting, many of the characters and some of the main story beats.
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09/09 -- I doubt I'll finish Indivisible, even though I may be well over halfway through.
Indivisible's gameplay is a combination of platforming, interconnected maps and Valkyrie Profile-inspired battles. I'm not sure these fit together well in this game. The platforming is often demanding, with various skills to juggle. Battles require active inputs with fairly precise timing or coordination. The areas also tend to be large and sprawling (with long one-way corridors and maps which didn't seem to indicate doors or walls). A battle after a tricky platforming section could feel awkward, but backtracking through the platforming challenges was especially tedious. (The latter reminded me of running left in a classic Sonic level.)
Indivisible's character animation is really good. Its story didn't particularly grab me, though.
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09/10 -- I actually stopped playing Mother 3 back in February. I'd tentatively planned to circle back to it but, at this point, it's pretty much dropped off of my list.
Earthbound was a weird and quirky game, but Mother 3 is darker and possibly even stranger. (That may contribute to Nintendo's decision not to release it in English.) Its look and gameplay feel seemed pretty similar to its predecessor.
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10/01 -- I enjoyed Axiom Verge 2 overall, though not nearly as much as its predecessor. AV2 tries a number of new mechanics, but I'm not sure they always work well. (At many points, the combat is a bit clunky, the hacking feels limited, the forms have predefined uses, etc.) The map was a bit hard to read -- there was a particular bottleneck where I got (frustratingly) stuck and ran into a lot of closed one-way doors. Even Indra's motivation wasn't clear at first, which made the story hard to follow for a significant part of the game.
When it opened up, AV2 had some of the satisfying exploration you might expect. I went on a late-game item hunt (with most of the powers unlocked and upgraded) which was particularly fun. Like its predecessor, AV2 also has smooth gameplay, impressive pixel art and a cool soundtrack.
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10/10 (Hard) -- It's a bit dated, but The Oath in Felghana's fast-paced combat was pretty fun. (Playing on Hard was frustrating at times due to technical clunkiness and punishing health swings.)
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10/16 (early access, five bosses) -- Valheim was a lot of fun. Many of its environments present different themes, and its gameplay elements create cool experiences. So I carefully sailed a longship through fog, slowing down to watch for shallows. I ducked into an inhabited cave at night, trading one danger for another. And I waded through dangerous swamps and struggled up steep cliffsides.
Most of Valheim's survival mechanics aren't too tedious, but they matter. Hunger might not kill you directly, for example, but it can make you weak in a fight. The Souls-like combat is pretty challenging and was fun in multiplayer. Learning the systems, preparing and sticking together made a big difference in challenging situations.
Inventory management was a pain -- probably more than it should have been (partly due to the variety of items). Valheim's progression also started to feel a bit predictable in the mid-game, and I wouldn't mind to see more gear options. That said, I'm looking forward to seeing new content and polish as Valheim approaches its full release.
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11/03 (Normal) -- Forge Quest is simple for its genre, but it's lighthearted and pretty fun in multiplayer. It offers a handful of ARPG-style build options and its forging system is a cool idea for maintaining your favorite gear. It's short and silly but I found many of the jokes good for a laugh.
Also... finally! My brother and I started Forge Quest together in 2018. An accidentally deleted character moved it to our backlog for a while.
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11/04 (Prince) -- A pretty fun deckbuilder, in the style of Slay the Spire but with party-based combat and positional elements. The art is quite good -- it's reminiscent of the Redwall novels, although in a darker style.
Banners of Ruin seemed less challenging than similar games -- I botched my first run (by picking an elite fight early) but finished the next two. I didn't see a lot of variety in the events and unlocked items didn't change much at the start of a new run.
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11/07 (Elder's Lair) -- A fun JRPG with quite a bit of gameplay depth. Monster Hunter Stories 2 translates many of the series' elements, from weapon types to monster weaknesses and even utility items.
Battles in Stories 2 can be complex. Many attacks can be countered by the right attack type, especially when teaming up with an ally. Learning a monster's patterns and weaknesses (including weapon types and elements) *and* planning around your allies' actions makes a dramatic difference in difficult encounters. Stories 2 also offers robust monster collection gameplay and quite a bit of post-game and challenge content.
I got to ride around on a Nargacuga in stealth mode, too, which is a win in my book.
The story has ups and downs. The Monster Hunter aesthetic is fun, with colorful locales, cool moments and a cast of hunters and riders to team up with. The theme of taming(?) monsters also offers interesting twists on the setting. The character development and moment-to-moment storytelling are hit-or-miss, though, and the "kinship" theme is heavy-handed at times.
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11/11 (Yuito) -- I had heard good things about Scarlet Nexus, but it was still a pleasant surprise. It's a new IP with a pretty weird "brain-punk" concept -- I wasn't sure if I'd like it.
Scarlet Nexus' action gameplay feels a little different from other games in the genre. While Yuito has a sword with a familiar close-range combo, he can also use telekinesis on nearby objects. Alternating between sword combos and environmental attacks felt stop-and-go at first, but chaining them together has a distinct flow. Ally abilities also feature heavily in the combat, and quickly calling the right allies for a situation can be pretty satisfying.
The story has its fair share of bizarre twists, but a focus on the characters helped ground the storytelling for me. The art and voice-acting are polished and I thought the presentation worked really well. Scarlet Nexus also features a social gameplay element. It's pretty straightforward gameplay-wise but ties-in nicely with the story and combat, unlocking more friendly and familiar voice lines as well as teammate abilities.
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11/22 -- I enjoyed Deep Rock Galactic as a two-player game (and I imagine it'd be even more fun with four). It offers a lot of mission variety and the biomes, special objectives and difficulty spikes mix things up even more. Each class also has distinct abilities, like the Gunner's ziplines, sticky grenades and heavy revolver.
DRG's first 10-15 hours has a pretty fun progression curve. The "main quest" assignment covers most of the mission types and classes level up quickly at first, gradually unlocking weapon, armor and item upgrade options. Things eventually slow down quite a bit (around class level 15-20). The increasing experience requirements and high material costs require a lot of missions, even for the cosmetics and alternate weapons. And while the procedural missions have some built-in variety, revisiting the same objectives and biomes starts to feel familiar.
From the marketing, I was worried that DRG would lean on heavy-handed crude humor. There is a little of that, but the bellyaching, banter and light pokes at corporate culture were usually pretty funny and lighthearted.
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12/15 (Co-op, Rift Lord "Perfect") -- Orcs Must Die! 3 follows pretty closely in the footsteps of its predecessors. That isn't entirely a bad thing -- the formula is fun and my co-op partner for OMD3 was new to the series. (Though having played OMD2 and Unchained, elements of the gameplay felt a bit too familiar at times.)
OMD3's main new feature is its "War Mode". These are larger-scale levels, with wide outdoor areas, bigger orc armies and a set of powerful traps to match. The basic idea is the same, but layering the War Mode traps with regular trap strategies adds nice variety to the campaigns. (They take longer to play, though, so it's good they didn't overdo it.) The two campaigns aren't super-long, but trying to get "perfect" clears on the highest difficulty is still a fun challenge.
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12/20 (Hero) -- "Indie Fire Emblem" seems like a fair description for Dark Deity. It's very directly inspired -- from the GBA-style battle animations to the "support" conversations. It does have some rough edges (including UX issues and a few bugs) and lacks some of the complexity and gameplay features of modern Fire Emblem titles.
I still enjoyed Dark Deity, and it's cool to see an indie take on the Fire Emblem formula. Its writing was interesting, including the world-building and many of the support conversations. The battle animations and character portraits are generally well-done and the voice lines are also a nice touch. Of the various gameplay tweaks, I particularly like the class abilities (like the Rogue's Disarm) which also interact with some of the promotions.
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12/24 (Hard) -- Having played Ys VIII just this year, I was surprised by how similar Ys IX felt. It isn't only the core combat, but IX also reused many other gameplay elements. The action still held up for me but occasionally felt a little too familiar.
Ys IX does have a pretty involved new story with a new setting and characters. From a gameplay perspective, IX also adds new "Monstrum powers" and the explorable city of Balduq. The movement abilities (like climbing and gliding) aren't necessarily unique but I still enjoyed the light exploration segments.
(It would be hard for me to pick a clear winner between VIII and IX. The gameplay is similar enough that it mostly comes down to story. VIII probably has the better story of the two, though I did like the characters and OST in IX. It may be because I played it first, but I also think the gameplay fits Ys VIII's story a little better.)
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12/31 (Action Girl) -- I like the design idea which Unsighted explores. Action games tend to reserve real time limits for achievements or minor rewards (like the endings in a Metroid). Unsighted's ticking clock raises its gameplay stakes -- a misstep might feel more punishing, but a new item, path or information often feels a lot more valuable. It helps that it's also a well-executed Zelda-like with solid combat.
I don't like Unsighted's setting, and some of its elements remind me of Nier: Automata.
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