Games beaten in 2021
This is a simple list to keep track of all the games I've played this year and to give my short thoughts on them all. Spoilers will be unmarked
List items
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Jan.5
This game was majorly disappointing following right after Witcher 3 one of my all time favorite rpgs. The game lacks polish, direction, and was clearly badly managed. The game is not bad but certainly not good either, the main story is much too short and pointless in narrative while 70% of the side content is copy pasted missions. You never get to know that many characters and the ones you do their relationship with you is not reflected in the choices you've made throughout the story.
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Jan.27
Remains the strongest of the yakuza series story wise by a mile imo. Extremely strong character introduction in Kaoru and Ryuji. Ryuji Goda is the goat yakuza antagonist he remains 'honor' bound throughout the series wanting a true fight with Kiryu ending with one of the best final sequences (it was me no me no actually it was me). The substories are not quite as good as as other entries in the series same with the majority of the mini games available. The real problem with the game is the fighting engine it just doesn't feel good and to do any real damage you have to rely on weapons which the game expects you to use many of. This also goes in line with the exp system which takes way to long to get Kiryu going with any of the baseline skills you normally would have. Overall though the story stays mostly the same and is absolutely worth playing for that alone.
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Feb.2
Fantastic follow up to Hitman 2 and a strong finale for the trilogy. Possibly my favorite collection of maps out of all 3 although Sapienza from 1 remains so strong. Will most likely continue to put a lot of time into the game this year.
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Feb.5
Really cool indie horror game that reminded me a lot of Inside. A lot hide-and-seek gameplay with you being a tiny main character trying to hide from the large monsters of the world. Atmosphere is really good and I love the switch up change of pace when you enter the guest chambers area. Neat touch I noticed is halfway through it's revealed that this was all taking place on a boat and I realized that the camera was constantly rocking. Looking forward to the dlc and the sequel, especially on ps5 because they did some cool rumble mechanics for this one and hopefully make full use of the ds5.
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Feb.15
I've loved this game for a long time but never finished it as I sold it as a kid. It is just as good as I remember it puzzle-solving horror game with a great environment and fun enemies. Music is really good and adds to the atmosphere when luigi is humming along or shouting for mario. Game ends with you decapitating bowser so nintendo isn't afraid of anything
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March.15
Bad stalker clone with multiplayer
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April.11
ITS YAKUZA BABY COME ON. The first real massive change for the franchise with a new protagonist and also completely different gameplay from brawler -> jrpg turn based combat. Ichiban is great and the story and characters retain the feeling you want when playing a yakuza game. The combat system needs some fine tuning there are no visible set damage value for skills outside of descriptions that mean nothing a lvl 5 skill could be used all game and the later versions of the skill are worse. Outside of Ichiban Saeko was probably my favorite of the main crew although I liked all of them besides Nanba/Eri who is basically ignored. Excited to see where this series will go following the conclusion of this game.
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April.16
Continues the story of the first in some interesting ways, although is not as good as the original. Lots of gimmicky fights that have bad/confusing elements, although getting to play as Shinobu and Henry is cool. The best fight in the game is definitely Alice but Margaret and Vladimir have very cool boss designs.
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April.17
Finished all the content available in the base game and I loved it. Great roster of monsters for the base game much better than world. I love the wirebug and overall think this is a stronger game than world.
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April.19
Wanted more out of this game than just a longer run and gun vr game. The story is not good enough to make you want to learn more. The real issue with the game is how bad the guns feel aiming is too hard because the game was made for sitting and it is almost impossible to peek around corners. Many guns can be held with your other hand to stabilize them but it glitches out constantly causing more harm than good.
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April.21
Honestly the gameplay is annoying as hell and I did not enjoy that aspect basically at all. The writing is good however and what I wanted out of a Suda game and this game more than previous ties all his other games together with many characters appearing in cameos and the like. Excited to play proper NMH 3 soon as well as the Silver Case games.
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May.10
Going to make Emil my bride and Ending E healed my soul
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May.20
Excellent RE game, I really enjoyed the story in this one with all the four lords and whatever the hell was going on with Ethan. Every area felt really fresh and different from one another and exploring for treasure and items was fun.
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May.30
As far as gameplay is considered this is a poor game, the real shine comes from the story, world and characters that Yoko Taro founds in this game. Playing as a group of characters described as neither good nor evil but are frankly bad people doing things for their own selfish needs most of the time. This alone makes it interesting playing someone who many people are initially and possibly even in the end not like because of their personality. The world and story presented is grim things often don't go the way the protagonists plan for as the world falls apart around them. The final routes D + E really delve into some hellish landscapes and creatures as the Gods of the world have turned on humanity and the Grotesques appear. Ending E is the real crown of the game, apparently originally a joke ending but eventually spawns the Nier franchise. The shift in time and setting to modern day with things falling into Tokyo while doing one of the hardest video game boss fights that is completely separated from the gameplay experienced throughout the rest of the game is so damn cool. All the story and lore that comes after in Nier and drama cds, and extra books is all because they decided to go off and put something this crazy at the end. This dark fantasy game's final ending leaves off with a message by a Japanese fighter jet pilot it's sick.
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June.7
Fun game showing Kodaka and Uchikoshi move away from death games. The story is interesting and feels like a fun road trip with a group of classmates with some cool twists as is typical with both directors. Character designs are really cute and easily recognizable from pokemon sun/moon games. All of this gets weighed down by how shit the game feels to play however most of this likely because it was made for mobile as well. Still a good game overall.
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June.9
This game is extremely cool and a much need improvement over the 1st, I really hope a Drakengard remake is in the future at some point in time. Disciples and Intoners are fleshed out and interesting and the world is as cool as always. Zero is a feral queen and my wife
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June.15
Man I love how this game looks alongside the atmosphere they go to portray. The scariest thing in the game is the environment not the enemies as the world constantly changes and shifts. My favorite area in the game was Nowhere at the end as I feel it culminated all the strong points of the entire game there at the end.
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June.19
This game is scary as hell definitely caught me many times. The idea of a horror game where you have to look directly at the things chasing you while standing still is genius, its made to get you tense and scared. The setting of this large abandoned japanese mansion is really neat and the outside environments were extremely cool. Biggest knock against the game is the story and dialogue which seems to be the victim of a poor translation, many lines repeat themselves and go in circles. Also there are some major emulation bugs which make them game p difficult but that is my own fault anyway overall fantastic game.
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July.1
It's wario ware and it's great
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July.5
Another death game inspired adventure game filled with great characters you hate to lose. This is a freeware game that is not quite done yet (waiting on one final chapter) but I played everything so far and is extremely strong a holds up to the more polished and higher budget games that inspired it.
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July.8
Really neat that this game was remade and the fact it came out in the US at all seems like a miracle. Pretty simple for an adventure game a lot of the twists I had figured out pretty early on but it is still entertaining. A lot of the choices about what you need to do at some points are really obscure and annoying which is unfortunately kind of typical for the genre. The game really shines in its visual presentation though as the backgrounds and character animations are beautiful combined with solid voice acting the treatment this game got I wish was applied to all my favorite vns.
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July.9
James kills his wife and then a sick guitar riff follows cool game. Pyramid Head is og and scary as hell wish he showed up more tbh. Felt a lot of the maps were too big for how much stuff was explorable and found myself getting lost a lot. Still game was really fun and overall stronger than the first.
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July.13
You and your bro play an excellent coop game where you are going through a divorce. As awkward as that may sound to play this surpasses A Way Out in every direction as a fantastic coop experience and as a platformer in its own right. Great cast of side characters and minigames actually add a lot and are funny despite most games failing at that. the james bond esque squirrels were my favorite
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July.29
Finally able to play Suda's most story heavy entry in the kill the past universe. absolutely full of style very reminiscent of something like serial experiment lain which came out a year prior. Story is all over the place but i think i got most of it and im excited to play the sequel. Hope to see a return of Tokio and Kusabi my favorite characters.
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August.24
Lower down on my list of mario games, the levels felt really creative and the 3d is actually used for once on the 3ds. It is extremely easy however, and worlds go by really quickly. The jump physics also feel really floaty and combined with the 3d/2d levels can make it hard to make any kind of precise jumps that are required from time to time.
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September.1
Phenomenal entry in the Ace attorney series, easily on par with my other favorite being the third game in the franchise. I love the old victorian england and meiji japan era that everything take place during. Holmes is very unexpected in how he's portrayed in this game and is hilariously cocky. Van Zieks is so over the top and every moment throws a wine bottle or slams his leg on the table is. Last the final case was excellent and a wild ride was completely fooled by the trap delivered from Susato and amazed with how hidden the trick behind the case was in plain sight. Also sorry to Maya Fey but Susato is so incredibly good with her mannerisms and judo ability .
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September.5
No more heroes is fucking back and it delivers
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September.21
It's more warioware baby. Multiple ways to tackle a single minigame with the way the characters work is real neat
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September.22
Does really cool things with story telling and pulls off the fmw rather well. Story is engaging and by just throwing you in you want to find out more. I feel that it doesn't all come together as interesting as it suggests and ends rather abruptly. I wish the game didn't just end when you find enough clues for an ending or however it was decided. Wish there was more interaction with putting pieces of the puzzle together and a goal of solving the mysteries.
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October.16
Honestly one of the hardest games out there. The gameplay mechanics are extremely complex and allow for a ton of variety in play styles but it's just a little too much for me. Game was fun to co op but wouldnt have played it otherwise due to this. Love the enemy designs and the fact that there are so many as well as level design/how good the game looks. On top of this the ps5 runs at 120fps which is super impressive.
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October.20
These games continue to be great co-op experiences with this game improving a lot over man of medan imo. The setting of the witch trials was really neat and the twist at the end was pretty good although not completely surprising. Overall just a really strong entry
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November.30
Really awesome card based rouge-like that becomes much more than it is. Really cool world building and wall breaking narratives that kept me super interested
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December.17
Another good SMT game, I had a lot of fun with this one. Felt a bit easier than my introduction to SMT which was Strange Journey not sure if this is due to the game or just increased knowledge on how to play these. Enjoyed the fusion system and essences felt like you could really get your favorite demon to work all the way till the end if you really wanted (I did bring Hua Po with me all the way). Story was pretty weak up until the last leg unfortunately. I really liked Nuwa and Yakumo but after the first fight they disappear for a long time. The battle of the Gods is a really cool idea and the final area was definitely the strongest imo. Also they made Cleopatra a milf and I like that they did that for me. Oh and Demeter is super cute in this also. Oh and Odin has a super cool redesign. Oh
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December.19
Absolute classic of the vn genre and one of type moons really early works. I enjoyed the near side routes more as they had a bit more going on/ far side routes between Hisui and Kohaku are v similar and Akiha's is the only one more different. I also thought the far side routes were just a little messy with how everything was explained and how certain things happened with SHIKI bond affecting Akiha and Shiki differently and how it was passed around. I wish the far and near side routes had more inter-lapping it was a shame to not see Arcuied or Ciel basically at all in the longer half of the game. The main problem i had with the story was the bond SHIKI and Shiki had they never really explained how that happened or how Akiha was able to form a bond w Shiki it all just came across as confusing to me. Overall I enjoyed thee characters and the story though and can see how influential it was for vns to come. I don't know if it was directly inspired but i was reminded of the theme of forgotten promises being a key to the stories origins with both this and Umineko.
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December.23
Actually ended up liking this a lot more than I thought. Went into this just to get the backstory on some of the characters exclusive to this game because I saw them pop up in the board game that just recently came out. Story was stronger than I expected with classic hope vs despair cliche stuff that was enjoyable and the characters were good as always. Lots of Toko action in the game which being one of my favorite characters in the series as a whole I loved and her interactions with Komaru weer very good. Komaeda showing up was a treat as well. The kid despairs were pretty weak outside of Kotoko but their motivation was solid and made you feel for them. def recommend if you enjoy the danganronpa series,
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