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VYZNDR

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I played some video games in 2021

Who keeps up with modern games in the year that they come out? Not me! Turns out that was for the best because I played some absolute bangers in 2021. The two top games respectively had a major update and were first released in English this year, though, so I'll count them as "current".

For any story-heavy games, I'm keeping the quick summaries of my feelings entirely spoiler-free.

If anything, I played too many good games this year, so much so that I have no place to mention playing all four main-series The Room games, Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis, or far too much time grinding achievements in Tower Unite.

List items

  • I have next to no experience with CRPGs so I went into Disco Elysium assuming that I'd maybe poke around at it for a couple of hours and then drop it. Instead, I rinsed it as dry as I could in a single playthrough for nearly 40 hours. The writing is amazing, not just "good for a video game" - so couple that with full voice acting throughout with the recent "Final Cut" patch and you've got a genuinely enthralling experience from start to finish.

    It's one of those games that I need to rein myself in when recommending it because I feel like I'm overselling how good it is, I enjoyed it that much.

  • Technically, this is two games, but it makes a lot more sense for them to take a single spot in this list as a) the English language release came as a single collection and b) in reality it's one single story that was spread out across two games in its original release, to the point where the first game would have felt like an unsatisfying cliffhanger if I didn't know that I had a follow-up waiting for me.

    As a single ~90 hour adventure, the big finale reaches highs that the series hasn't hit since the original trilogy. I always feel a bit of post-game blues after finishing an Ace Attorney game. This feeling had been dampened slightly in the 4th through 6th games ("the Apollo trilogy?") but came back hard after finishing this collection. I'd be more than happy for the series to continue following the escapades of Ryunosuke for a few more games, as this complete reset of the cast and setting (even if some new characters look awfully familiar) made everything feel fresh again.

  • I went into Outer Wilds slightly sceptical. I'm generally not a fan of games with a "loop" and no set progress outside of "now you have a little more knowledge than you did before" and I felt daunted from the outset by not knowing where to start. Thankfully, the game's ship computer is invaluable at helping you keep track of which new pieces of information are worth remembering and what areas you haven't cleared out yet.

    Protip if you're equally daunted before you've even taken your first spaceflight - just pick any planet and go to it. Everything is so interlinked that any thread can be pulled on to help guide you along your journey.

    From a slow start, the game eventually became a genuinely awe-inspiring experience that will stick with me for a long time. From the very first ending of a full loop to a final run that is filled with equal parts dread and acceptance, it's the kind of game that comes along once in a generation if you're lucky.

    One or two locations in the game are honestly better at atmospheric horror than any real horror game I've ever played. On that note - if you're playing the DLC do yourself a favour and turn on the "reduced scares" toggle. It loses none of its atmosphere and, if I had known to switch it on right away, it would have prevented me from being entirely soured on the new area.

  • As I wrote above about Outer Wilds, "loop" games have never been my thing and this extends to roguelikes. However, the sheer hype around Hades finally got to me so I checked it out - and boy am I glad that I did!

    The movement is fast, responsive and - outside of the very occasional instance where you just get unlucky with bad upgrades - you're nearly always equipped with the tools you need for a successful run no matter which weapon you picked at the beginning. Most of my successful runs with the bow involved me rarely actually using it and relying entirely on damage caused by Poseidon or Zeus' dash-splash upgrades.

    Hades is a straight-up fun action game paired with a surprisingly interesting story that's interlinked with the die-and-try-again mechanics of a loop game that made me finally get invested in a roguelike.

  • I've always held Kurushi in high regard so I was a little worried upon returning to it that maybe my rose-tinted glasses would be shattered. Thankfully, that was not the case.

    Kurushi has aged astoundingly well and to this day is one of the most intuitive and enjoyable puzzle games I've ever played. Plus, it's a secret all-time great video game soundtrack. (Bonus piece of trivia, the music was composed by the same dude who does the orchestral music for the Slayers anime series and OVAs!)

  • If you were a fan of No Code's previous work, 2017's Stories Untold (and you should be, it's incredible!), you'll enjoy this. The atmosphere is tense throughout without relying on too many predictable horror tropes or jumpscares and the story leaves just enough unexplained - including the ending - to let your mind fill in the blanks. Good endings are few and far between and in this case they did a great job of not trying to wrap everything up in a neat, understandable package.

    The camera movement can be frustratingly slow at times and certain locations are easy to get lost in, but these are minor quibbles.

    For the full experience, play Observation in the dark with a good set of headphones, as the visual and audio design are outstanding.

  • Just as the original Yakuza 2 was an all-around improvement on the first game, Kiwami 2 is a similar step up from its predecessor, especially visually. The combat is much improved too, most importantly by dropping the style switching mechanic which I found tedious in Kiwami 1.

    I don't follow Yakuza fandom so outside of Kiryu and Majima I don't know who is popular amongst fans, but Ryuji Goda has always been one of my favourite characters in the series and this game, in particular, uses him flawlessly to ramp up the Japanese melodrama to perfect extremes for its ending.

    My only beef is that, for licensing reasons, they had to change the music that plays during the scene on the rainy promenade to something that ruins the atmosphere of the original. I believe there's a mod for the PC version that brings back the old audio, so I recommend checking that out.

  • No, not Remake. The original from 1997. I planned to replay it just in time for Remake finally releasing on PC and then jump straight into that, but at a launch price of £69.99, I think I can hold off a bit longer...

    I don't want to get too "old man yells at cloud" here, but there are some aspects of older games that shone brightly here for me. At around 35 hours for the main story plus side-character quests, it's vastly shorter than most modern JRPGs that regularly clock in at 60 hours at a bare minimum. Everything keeps moving at a good pace, always pushing you forward to something new and not asking you to pick up a dozen side quests from NPCs and hunting for collectables in an open world. Things slow down ever so slightly in the second half of the game, but it doesn't have the padding and bloat that has become commonplace in AAA gaming over the past decade. Sure, there is optional content such as breeding a gold Chocobo or fighting Ruby Weapon, but none of it is presented as part of the "true" experience of the game, or even really mentioned to the player unless they accidentally stumble upon it.

    Outside of some classic lines like "This guy are sick" and "Off course!", I didn't remember the translation deserving the reputation it has but turns out that yeah, it's pretty poor. The main story dialogue was generally fine but for anything else, there were a few too many instances of lines that were clearly translated out of context or written in a hurry without proofreading for basic grammar. I'd still recommend playing it without a fan translation as a piece of gaming history, but I wouldn't begrudge someone wanting to patch in a better script with mods.

    The game is still a classic, although if you're younger I can understand it feeling a bit quaint by today's storytelling standards in video games. Simple animations on the blocky 3D characters need a bit of interpretation from the player and perhaps the story isn't as complex and mature as I thought it was when I was 12 - but Final Fantasy VII holds up as an enjoyable game today and it's well worth revisiting.

  • There's very little to write here as Tetris is such a known quantity. You should already know what you're in for if you're thinking of playing this. It's a great modern Tetris game with ever-changing visual aesthetics in a manner very similar to Lumines.

    The only thing I would consider changing is that a small number of the visual themes are a little bit ugly, specifically the "cog" one.

  • It's a great THPS. I don't know what else you want me to say. Just like with Tetris Effect, "it's that thing from when you were young, but prettier" is all you need to know.

    As someone who seldom replays games after finishing them, I did a second complete run-through of all the objectives in the game just a few months after my first completion.
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