|
What's the deadline for submissions? I have a couple of games I wanna complete first before I complete my rankings but will only have time off to do extended gaming next week.
|
#
¿
Dec 15, 2021 10:31
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 11, 2024 07:35 |
|
|
 My eyes just skipped over that part in the OP because I was too excited to read the monthly wrap up.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 15, 2021 10:38
|
|
|
2020 was the year I really got back into gaming as a whole after health and financial circumstances forced me to sell off my PS2 in 2004 and prevented me from being able to spend on anything that wasn't absolutely essential for a good long while after. The announcement of FF7R in 2019 pushed me to buy a PS4 on sale that Christmas, and it ended up being my favorite game of 2020. That game was pretty much a ripping off of the gaming band-aid for me, specifically JRPGs, and those pretty much dominate my list for 2021. Thanks to the goons in the RPG thread for recommending almost everything that's on this list, and for helping me rediscover the love I had for the genre. 10. Battletech (PC/Steam) XCOM but with stompy giant robots in a setting that's relatively grimdark but not quite WH4K levels. That's pretty much the best way to describe this game. This was my number 3 game last year, and I somehow sunk yet another 100 hours into it this year. The multiple massive mods set at different periods in the Battletech timeline gave this game huge replayability and kept things fresh for me. 9. 80 Days (PC/Steam) A steampunk re-imagining of one of the classics, this was recommended to me on Discord after I mentioned playing the Lone Wolf gamebooks as one of my favorite childhood memories. I ended up really liking the interactive fiction genre and this quickly became a nice way to relax and decompress with a glass of wine at the end of a long workday. I still revisit this a couple of times a month to see if there are any events or paths I have yet to explore. 8. Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster (PC/Steam) The original FF2 (US) was the very first JRPG I ever played and was the catalyst for my love of the genre; to this day, I will still defend it as my second-favorite mainline FF game. This Pixel Remaster was the first time I've played it (without emulation) since the original SNES version, and it retains all the charm it had then. The previous poster calling it a 'comfort game' is 100% on the money. 7. Super Robot Wars X (PC/Steam) My first foray into the SRW franchise, and it was a memorable one. In my experience, this was a comfortingly familar tactical JRPG skeleton surrounded by an insane 'how many Mecha Anime can we gather together' premise. While the plot had me scratching my head at multiple times, getting to wreck poo poo with the Gundam Wing, Mazinger Z and Gurren Lagann crew was boatloads of fun, and I've started watching the G-Reco and Code Geass anime as a result. Once SRW30 goes on sale, you better believe I'm playing that poo poo next. 6. Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intergrade (PS5) FF7R was the main reason I caved and bought a PS4, and FF7R: Intergrade was the main reason I ripped the band-aid off and bought a PS5. As mentioned earlier, FF7R was my #1 game in last year's GOTY thread, and a personal indicator for me of how much I love a game is how much time I devote to getting 100% completion of everything, and boy, did I spend a lot of time last year on getting 100% both in-game and in the PS trophies. Intergrade makes this year's list because I wanted to play through everything again with the PS5 QOL upgrades, and the overall experience of the main game was even better than last year. The INTERmission chapters were a welcome addition storyline-wise and seeing Yuffie's personality and motivations fleshed out and reworked turned her from someone I loving HATED in the original FF7 to an actual relatable and sympathetic character. The ending teaser just furthered my desire to see where the revamped FF7R storyline goes, which means Nomura, Toriyama, and the rest of the crew have done their job well. This was the game I actually had the hardest time placing in this list. I wanted so badly to put it higher because of how much I appreciated the QOL upgrades, despite the new content being only two additional chapters. Ultimately, the reason I'm leaving it out of my top 5 is that I have lost the motivation to get 100% completion on the expanded game, and it all boils down to the loving Shinra Box Buster game being a source of nothing but pain and frustration. Not even the pullup contest in the main storyline made me want to throw my controller at the wall as much as this minigame did. I still love this game to bits, but holy poo poo Squeenix, please release a loving targeting patch. I'm begging you. 5. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky FC (PC/Steam) Yet another goon recommendation, I had some initial doubts about how I would enjoy playing this when I saw that this was a 17-year old game. I should have never doubted the collective goonmind. The combat tries to marry elements from three different Final Fantasy games (the grid-based movement with knockback in FFT, the materia system from FF7, and the turn tracker from FFX), and it comes together really well. Planning out turns to maximize combat advantages was extremely my poo poo. The other elements of this game hold up their end as well. The atmosphere is light and whimsical thanks to the music, the pace is easy with subquests galore, and the main characters are charming and easy to get invested in. And holy gently caress did the developers not skimp on the world-building, pretty much my favorite thing in the genre. This might have the most expansive NPC dialogue in a game I've ever played to date, and scurrying back and forth to see how narratives change after key events quickly became the main reason I got so immersed in this. I've got the other two games in the Trails in the Sky trilogy in my Steam library for next year's play, and the only reason I haven't bought the Trails of Cold Steel series yet is the fact I still have a metric fuckton of backlog I still wanna work through. 4. Persona 4 Golden (PC/Steam) I asked the RPG thread last year about other turn-based RPGs I could get into after finishing FF7R, and the Persona series pretty much topped the list of recommendations. Ended up buying and playing P4G first because I felt I should play the older game first if I'm going to try out multiple entries in a series. That ended up being the right call. I don't know what I was expecting when I started up the game, but a whodunit/life sim with Jungian philosophy underpinnings wasn't it. But holy poo poo, it works. The modern-day setting and relationship building aspects really got me immersed, and the supernatural portions gave pizazz to the murder mystery storyline. Not to mention the earworm soundtrack that is one of the best I've heard in JRPGs outside of Squeenix titles. Combat added weakness-hunting on top of a fairly standard turn-based formula, and creating and customizing Personas to break the game open became a huge (but still fun) time sink. While I wish a few characters were a little more well-developed (Teddie is loving ew, Kanji is sadly an example of what could have been for certain gamers, and most of the Investigation Team don't get much character development outside of their dungeons), the rest of the game was still more than enjoyable enough that I had no problems putting it this high on the list. 3. Valkyria Chronicles 4 (PS4) The first game I played in 2021, and the first tactical RPG I've played since Front Mission 4, which ended up being the final game I played on the PS2 before that was sold. The dieselpunk, anime WWII setting was something I was very much into as a military hardware and war history geek and I found myself reading up on the overarching war storyline between the Atlantic Federation and the East Europan Imperial Alliance covered in the other games. I definitely want to revisit this setting in the future. The gameplay is a combination of turn-based tactical unit selection and placement, and real-time action where you have the unit run, duck, shoot and interact with the environment during the unit's actual turn. I loving LOVED this twist on the classic tactical JRPG and wish more games would adopt this moving forward. The character development isn't the best (most of the Squad E members' development are hidden behind missable sidequests, Raz can go gently caress himself and Claude is the RPG protagonist I've liked the least since Squall), but the setting, overarching storyline and gameplay were more than enough to offset that. Hopefully the next game in the series can build its characters as well as it has the in-game world. 2. Persona 5 Strikers (Switch) I really went on an Atlus tear this year. I even started Yakuza 7 a couple of months ago but fell off for reasons I'll explain later - definitely gonna revisit that game in 2022 though. P5S was the last Atlus game I finished this year, and the first game I hit 100% completion on in 2021. Japan is undoubtedly my favorite place to visit as a tourist, and I had plans to travel there in late 2020 or early 2021 before everything went to poo poo. With the recent closure of the borders until around spring next year at the earliest, being able to travel back there under the same conditions is going to be a huge question mark for the foreseeable future. This is why this game's setting of the Phantom Thieves roadtripping through Japan, full of locations I loved visiting and want to go back to, really struck a chord with me. While the musou combat system took some getting used to (and I finally adjusted to it by treating it like FF7R where selecting Persona abilities gave me a chance to pause, take stock and strategize), and the storyline became a retread of the base Persona 5 game near the end, what made me love this game so much came down to two things. First was the outstanding job done with remixing the P5 OST and adding some excellent new tunes. Second was the effort put in by the writers and VAs to really flesh out the characters of the Phantom Thieves and really make them feel like a group of friends with close ties to each other embarking on a grand adventure rather than a bunch of people revolving around Joker. The introduction of the new Phantom Thieves was also done very well, and Sophia in particular reminded me a lot of Vivi from FFIX in that her journey of learning and growth was also central to the story. This was a sequel that I didn't know I wanted but am now thankful I got to experience. 1. Persona 5 Royal (PS4) I wasn't really planning to play P5R this year with the sheer size of my backlog, but after finishing P4G in February, I ended up caving in and started playing this two weeks after. I ended up stranding at least half a dozen other longish games on my backlog in 2021 (including the aforementioned Yakuza 7) due solely to this game, and I have absolutely no regrets doing so. First off, I do wanna acknowledge what other people have said in this thread. As I mentioned earlier, the character writing wasn't the best - there's a lot of dissonance between several characters in their sidestories vs the main storyline. The pacing is very uneven - the beginning literally takes hours before gameplay opens up and actually gives you poo poo to do, and there are regularly-occurring lulls where options get constricted and you're left hitting the X button continuously to progress. The Jungian elements getting pushed to the background in favor of an overarching theme of rebellion against an unjust society, then being resolved the way it was in the main Persona 5 storyline was problematic from the start and ended in a somewhat unsatisfying manner for me blowing a god's brains out notwithstanding. Even with those flaws, I ended up putting 176 hours into finishing this game last March and April. On my first playthrough. I started New Game+ last month to get 100% completion and take on the secret boss and as of this writing am another 100+ hours in. There was no way I wasn't putting this game on top of my 2021 list with how much time I put into playing it. Why do I love playing this game so much? First, the soundtrack. Holy gently caress, the soundtrack. I thought Squeenix had no rival in terms when it came to JRPG OSTs, but when a game's songs and covers of those songs end up dominating my Spotify 2021 Wrapped results, that means the OST was otherworldly. Second, the setting and backdrops were A+ for me. The realistic and accurately-rendered locations I had actually visited in Tokyo and the aesthetically-pleasing and wide variety of dungeons were a visual delight. And the general storyline (rebellion theme aside) making this a heist film compared to the murder mystery of P4G was well done, especially the key plot twist in November. The theme of Royal's Third Semester pivoting away from rebellion towards something more introspective, culminating in probably the best-written antagonist I've seen in a JRPG to date was also a big highlight. Third, the gameplay mechanics were top-notch. They added several welcome elements to the Persona customization from P4G, and the combat might be the best execution of traditional turn-based combat I've seen. The relationship-building and life sim aspects were also enjoyable because for the most part, you aren't really penalized for a 'suboptimal' decision on how to spend your time. All those reasons put together result in a game that's just dripping in style and swag, and was far and away the most enjoyable gaming experience I had this year. TLDR list: 10. Battletech 9. 80 Days 8. Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster 7. Super Robot Wars X 6. Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intergrade 5. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky FC 4. Persona 4 Golden 3. Valkyria Chronicles 4 2. Persona 5 Strikers 1. Persona 5 Royal anakha fucked around with this message at 16:44 on Dec 30, 2021 |
|
#
¿
Dec 30, 2021 11:17
|
|
|
Jay Rust posted:Post your favourite 2021 game music! Instrumental: Welcome to the Jail Freedom Buzz Dance Songs w/ Lyrics: Counter Strike Daredevil What You Wish For Rivers in the Desert Remix
|
|
#
¿
Jan 1, 2022 19:13
|
|
|
VideoGames posted:72. FINAL FANTASY IX Considering your squees of delight yesterday when you finally started getting the hang of Triple Triad, Are you honestly 100% sure you're gonna be done by April? 
|
|
#
¿
Jan 8, 2022 18:27
|
|
|
7 of my top 10 didn't make the countdown  , but I'm holding out hope my remaining three will at least make top 20.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 8, 2022 18:47
|
|
|
Veeg, I hope to see your FFVIII / FFIX magnum opus in 12 months' time.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 8, 2022 19:55
|
|
|
Waffleman_ posted:I can't believe we got GOTY leaks here Stop the count
|
|
#
¿
Jan 8, 2022 21:28
|
|
|
anakha posted:7 of my top 10 didn't make the countdown
|
|
#
¿
Jan 8, 2022 21:40
|
|
|
Nice
|
|
#
¿
Jan 8, 2022 21:46
|
|
|
Rarity posted:I've got bad news for you 
|
|
#
¿
Jan 8, 2022 21:55
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 11, 2024 07:35 |
|
|
VideoGames posted:
Time to jam out.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 8, 2022 22:03
|
|
