@chaser324: Thanks! Yeah, Astalon definitely seems to have been widely overlooked, which is a shame, but I did see it on your list too! I think in this year full of Metroidvanias, it manages to stand out. Axiom Verge 2 is another one that seems to be overlooked, or maybe just divisive. But I enjoyed it a lot!
Great write-up! I may have to try Guardians someday, people really seem to like it. Also, I too got around to Bug Fables this year, and that game is quite a treat. Nice to see it get some recognition even if it's not a "new" game. I think it was overlooked at the time.
This is a good read, Dan. I should really get around to playing Dragon Quest V. I picked up the DS version years ago, but still haven't played it. And glad you enjoyed Super Metroid, one of the games in contention for my favorite game :)
Sorry for your losses this year. Here's hoping 2022 treats you (and all of us) better.
@mento: Can always count on you to rep Ys :) That said, these songs you shared do sound appropriately rad! I didn't play many long games this year, many of which likely have great music, such as Ys. I suspect games like NEO: The World Ends With You, Nier Replicant, and The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles also have great music, but alas, I did not get around to them this year.
Fortunately the games I did play had plenty of great music!
Nice review! Dread is a weird game for sure, with lots of ups and downs, and one I have a lot of complicated thoughts on. But you hit most of both the highs and lows here! I especially agree that the way the game regularly locks you into set paths feels arbitrary, and kind of counter to the kind of exploration this type of game is usually going for.
Also, props for the Axiom Verge 2 callout, which I enjoyed a lot, and more than I enjoyed Dread ;)
@slag: Thanks! I think it's a combination of, I both like Gladius a hell of a lot, and also that PoR, while very good, was never my favorite FE game. Gladius in particular has some really interesting and novel ideas that I'd love to see more of in a tactics game- there's a lot of depth in both party-building and combat. It was especially unique in its time. Where PoR was a fairly standard-ish FE game, so not as unique or impressive to me (and also a little bit of a step down from the GBA ones at the time... which I'm probably an outlier on). I do agree that Gladius is an easy game to burn out on if you do everything haha. Its "strategic layer" was neat, but also had way more side quests than it needed. I had to refrain from doing them all myself :) But damn Gladius is cool.
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