Cassylvania's Miserable Little Pile of Platinums

[Cassylvania]

On 11/22/2021 at 9:53 AM, Together_Comic said:

Thanks for the dodge of Nexamon.  Some times I feel like Cass is the Nostalgia Critic of video games... They be like "I suffer through it, so you don't have too..." 

 

It's funny because I honestly try to play good games. And I did like the sequel to Nexomon...for the most part. I don't know if it's because I've reviewed hundreds of games or because I've played thousands, but my tolerance for poor game design seems to get lower every year.

 

On 11/27/2021 at 1:52 PM, winter_bird_22 said:

Other than that and the Contest changes, it's the exact same game. No changes in the original story or post-game, no ancient evil. (That's being saved for Legends Arceus coming out in January.) It was also made by a different company. So they went back to their roots and it is a lot of fun.

 

I actually don't think it looks that bad, despite the mixed reviews. I even like the art style they went with. Still don't think I'm going to buy it, but it's good to know they went back to the basics...

 

Now if only they'd do that with the newer entries.

 

On 11/28/2021 at 10:26 AM, Alternatewarning said:

@Cassylvania I've read through your last few Atelier reviews and I can now confidently say that...I'm going to start with Ryza.

I've seen your thread a few times but never actually looked at it and boy.  Just looking at that platinum number is intimidating.  And here I was proud of my 80 haha

 

I think that's an excellent choice. I don't know how many reviews you read, but the recurring joke is that I say every Atelier game is the best one to start with. If I had to pick one, though, it'd be Ryza. It's my favorite game in the series and also the least frustrating. The storyline is actually pretty good too, which I wasn't expecting. I have a tendency to gloss over that in my Atelier reviews...because I gloss over it in the games too.

 

And yeah, I didn't think I'd ever be approaching 300 platinums. I wonder how many I'd have now if I wasn't bouncing between new accounts from 2011 to 2015.

 

Anyway, speaking of Atelier reviews...

 

Platinum #286 - Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea DX

 

I broke tradition by posting a trophy image that's not the platinum, but I did it because I wanted you to see the two main characters. Which one do you think is Shallie? Take a guess. Is it the one with the giant hairband or the one who cosplays as a Sonic OC?

 

Well, I guessed it was the one with the giant hairband and the other was her pet cat that turned into a human or something, but the answer is even more ridiculous. They're both Shallie. No, they're not twins or clones (Atelier games have already done both of those multiple times). They're just two girls from different towns who happen to have the same name. Well, technically, hairband is Shallistera and cat ears is Shallotte, but they're both called Shallie for short. I won't be doing that. Their names are Stera and Lotte because that's a lot less confusing.

 

Now, just like Escha & Logy, Stera and Lotte have different reasons for beginning their quest. Stera is trying to save her village from a drought. Lotte is tired of cleaning up people's shit. They meet shortly after Stera is attacked by a sand dragon and crashes her giant land boat into Lotte's hometown, which is something I think we can all relate to. It's at that point where you get to pick which girl you'd like to play as, even though they essentially function the same. (Yes, guys, it's another one of those games that will force a second playthrough, but it feels even more unnecessary here than usual.)

 

I chose Stera for my first playthrough, but I don't think it matters.

 

Surprisingly, I actually liked the English voice acting in this game. Both Shallies sound about what I'd expect. You also get the recurring cast from the older games, which is customary in every Atelier trilogy. Escha and Logy remain OP here.

 

I heard this was the easiest Atelier game to date, but I heard the same thing about Ayesha, which ended up being one of the hardest because the DX version added those super bosses that are required for the platinum. That's the problem with this series. You never know which guide to trust. I also heard Escha & Logy had the hardest boss in the entire series, which might be true, but I didn't find her all that difficult. That might be one of those rare instances where the DX version is actually easier than the original, but it's usually the opposite. Just a warning if you ever want to jump into this series. Plus/DX versions are generally better but also harder.

 

In this case, though... Wow. Significantly easier than any other Atelier game. I didn't even need ultimate gear. You can play on the easiest difficulty (Story Watcher), and the only difficult boss is an optional one that comes right before the final boss. The guide says to wait until NG+, but I'm pretty sure I could've taken him in NG. In fact, on my second playthrough, I attempted him once just to see much farming/crafting I would need to do, and he was dead within a few turns. Zero farming required. I mean, sure, I made some decent gear, but I didn't go out of my way to optimize my stats or gather the best properties. I'm not even sure I was using the best team.

 

No time restrictions in this game, which is a nice change of pace. That's usually where the difficulty comes from.

 

And items are...actually not necessary for once. That's because combat revolves almost entirely around Burst Mode, which I didn't care for. Basically, when you're in combat, every attack you do increases your Burst meter. When it reaches max, you enter Burst Mode, which increases your damage substantially. It's almost not even worth attacking until you're in Burst Mode, but you have to attack to enter Burst Mode, so most battles just feel like you're wasting time. I'd argue this is the worst combat I've seen in an Atelier game, but somebody might like it. The fact that the game can be played on the easiest difficulty (where enemies have much less HP) makes it tolerable.

 

The alchemy system is incomprehensible. I'm not even going to pretend like I understood it. You have all these different skills and you can apply a certain number of skills to each ingredient, and you can change the order of skills and ingredients to...I don't know, chain elements together (?)...and I guess that makes the end product more powerful...but you have to make sure that that any element that is used early in the synthesis is present in every ingredient after it...or it doesn't work (sometimes?)...but you can use skills to add elements if that element isn't present...but it takes up a slot that could be used for a different skill...so sometimes you want to use ingredients that have more slots or more elements... By far, the most confusing alchemy system yet. I'd rather have the Tetris blocks from Sophie.

 

That may sound like I didn't enjoy the game, but it was actually fun. I'm tempted to say this would the best Atelier game to start with because of Story Watcher, but the alchemy system would scare away any newcomers, I think, so I won't even do it for the meme.

 

And guys... Other than Ryza 2, that's the entire Atelier series. What do you think? Should I try to rank the games? Best combat? Best alchemy? Best waifu? So many options. So much Atelier.

 

Edited November 30, 2021 by Cassylvania

[winter_bird_22]

Wow, even little ol' me, who hates games which have insanely complex systems, can platinum an Atelier game because you can totally ignore the alchemy in this game and there's doing the game on Critical mode? HOLY FECK, this is crazy. I might even just go crazy and platinum Shallie!

 

If you want to make an easy Atelier game, let me give some advice. Instead of making the platinum the EZPZ game where you can ignore, oh, THE MAIN FOCUS OF YOUR FRANCHISE - AKA ALCHEMY - try making the alchemy system fun and slightly necessary.

 

Great job platinuming the entire Atelier series. You are a trooper.

[Cassylvania]

18 hours ago, winter_bird_22 said:

Wow, even little ol' me, who hates games which have insanely complex systems, can platinum an Atelier game because you can totally ignore the alchemy in this game and there's doing the game on Critical mode? HOLY FECK, this is crazy. I might even just go crazy and platinum Shallie!

 

I mean, you can platinum any Atelier game just using a walkthrough. The only difficulty usually comes down to completing all your tasks on time, not missing any events, and synthesizing ultimate equipment. Every game in the series seems to be bottlenecked by one or more of those things, but Shallie DX seems to be the exception. (Original Ayesha is supposed to be really easy too.)

 

Ready for a rare NAP review?

 

Not a Platinum #Deservedly - Mahjong Royal Towers

 

Not too long ago, somebody asked how I choose my next game to play. I said something sarcastic involving Atelier, but the reality is that I have a backlog with 200 digital games. I have more on physical disc, but my general rule is to try to keep that number at or below 200. That often means scrolling through the list and hiding games that I have no intention of ever playing. This usually involves watching or reading reviews. For example, I recently hid some game called Predator: Hunting Grounds because it looks about as far removed as you can get from my kind of game. Of course, I bought a lot of the games in my backlog, so I probably do intend to play them sometime, but PS+ is always throwing me some garbage that I need to sift through at some point. This was a game I bought a very long time ago and I always get a little annoyed at seeing it because it's near the very bottom of my list. I really wanted to start targeting those games that have sitting there for five years. If not now, then when?

 

Well, if ever a game deserved to be removed from my backlog prematurely, it was this one.

 

Now, I'd like to follow this up by saying that @DrBloodmoney is partially to blame. In his ranking of games, this shit was near the bottom. "How could this be?" I wondered. I like Mahjong and I remember playing one of the other versions (presumably made by the same company). I don't remember it being a great game, but I also don't remember thinking it was one of the worst games I ever played. I guess I was thinking it'd be more along the lines of Pic-a-Pix -- you know, a simple puzzle game that would be serviceable at best and mildly annoying at worst.

 

Let's start with graphics. Garbage. This thing could be played on a toaster. I don't think I'd have a problem with it (I obviously wasn't expecting Elden Ring), but there aren't even any quality of life improvements, like a zoom feature. The tiles are so tiny that I have to practically press my face against the screen to see them. And since it is a Mahjong game, it's kinda necessary to be able to make out the details of the tiles. (If you've never played Mahjong before, you're essentially just matching pairs. The trick is that some tiles are inaccessible until you clear the surrounding tiles, so the order in which you match pairs can affect whether or not the board is completable. You lose if you're unable to make a match.) You do have the option to switch between tile patterns, but I'm pretty sure that feature was able in even the most basic versions of Solitaire on Windows 95. Also, the others weren't any easier to tell apart.

 

The music is hilariously out of place. I don't know how many tracks there are. My favorite is the one that sounds like something truly epic is happening, which just made me wish I was playing a better game. My (actual) favorite was much more subdued and had some creepy vibes to it. I don't know. Music is like sorcery to me. I don't know how it works. I just know when it doesn't fit the tone of the game.

 

The gameplay, if you can even call it that, is so unbelievably bad that I'm convinced this was a port with absolutely no quality control. How could they screw this up? Outside of a few menu buttons, the only controls are left, right, up, down, and X to select. Atari had more options. The problem here is that you can't move the cursor diagonally. If you want to select a tile, you need to first press left or right until you're in the correct column and then scroll up or down. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out which tile is selected in each column as default. It seems to be based on where the tile in the previous column was selected. And since you can only select tiles that can be removed, which is different for every column and changes based on how many tiles have been removed, the cursor is constantly jumping all over the place. And no, you can't hold left or right to quickly cross from one side of the board to the other. If you need to move over ten columns, you need to press the directional pad that many times. Which wouldn't be so bad except...

 

THE GAME IS TIMED. Forget relaxing. Every stage has three crowns that can be earned. You get one crown for clearing the stage, which is generally easy enough, but the others are based on the number of moves you make, points scored, or time. There isn't a ton of difference between those metrics. You get more points if you make matches quickly, and you score more points if you clear all the golden tiles in as few moves as possible. If you try to clear the entire board, you often won't get any of the bonus crowns, which are needed for a trophy and also to unlock the next cup. (There are six cups total. You need 200 crowns to unlock the last cup, and you have to finish at least 30 levels with three crowns. I think there are 20 levels per cup, but I can't be bothered to check.)

 

I ended up having to play some of the earlier stages again so I could get 200 crowns. The time crown is actually the easiest once you get used to the shitty controls. It just takes so long to get from one tile to the next. The game doesn't always read your inputs correctly either. I would constantly select a tile, scroll to the other side of the board, and select a match, only to realize my first selection didn't go through. This was aggravating to say the least. It's like trying to use MS Paint after using Photoshop for a few years. You just want to use a mouse cursor to select the tiles because your eyes can move much faster than your fingers.

 

I don't know how I made a review about this game longer than two lines. It's bad. It's almost unplayable. I'm going to delete this game now, along with Mahjong World Cup, which I bought at the same time but can't possibly be worth the price I paid.

 

Two birds. One stone. Zero out of 10.

Edited December 1, 2021 by Cassylvania

[DrBloodmoney]

13 minutes ago, Cassylvania said:

I'm going to delete this game now, along with Mahjong World Cup, which I bought at the same time but can't possibly be worth the price I paid.

? Good choice - I can’t think of many games more deserving of an unplayed deletion!

 

After all - no matter what you pay, it’s only cheap if your time is worth nothing ?

 

This one made me laugh - and just in case you were wondering what you missed in the other game… it’s literally exactly the same!

 

Tedious, flat and uninspired, with a dash of uneven control, a sprinkling of repetitive eye-strain, and a good health dollop of WTF music.

 

Plus the kicker, of course - the fact that despite selling itself on the name ‘Mahjong’… this is not Mahjong! ?
 

Mahjong is a great, complex, nuanced and interesting game that people play for years to master, devise strategies for, and ties up entire wings of casinos, full of weather-beaten old ladies chainsmoking and taking strangers for their laundry money. 

 

This is pairs - a game every 4 year old is already bored of by the time they start school! ?

Edited December 1, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[Rally-Vincent---]

I had a real Mahjong game on my gameboy. Helped me a lot when I watched this Anime:

 

Spoiler

 

 

[TristanBrown17]

I'm right with ya there on the huge backlog of digital games. It's been one of my goals that as I approach the end of graduate school and hopefully get some more time on my hands, I'd like to work through games I initially played, then deleted for some Triple A titles. Love Mahjong, but not so surprised that your recent completion ended up being a complete mess! Some of those games definitely "ruin" the chance for like-minded games to be played, but in this scenario, sounds like you're dodging a bullet!

[winter_bird_22]

What all this with mahjong? The only time I played it was in the Artifex Mundi series Nightmares from the Deep, which is about pirates. Show me in pirate history when they played Mahjong? The only time I think of that game is when Uncle played it in Jackie Chan Adventures.

 

Also, I just platinumed my 200th game. Not Final Fantasy XIV, but Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart. Great game, I hate myself for sitting on it for so long.

[Cassylvania]

On 12/1/2021 at 5:43 PM, DrBloodmoney said:

This one made me laugh - and just in case you were wondering what you missed in the other game… it’s literally exactly the same!

 

I feared that when I saw the trophy list was nearly identical. Wouldn't surprise me if all the boards were the same too. We really reached an all-time low with that one...

 

On 12/1/2021 at 6:20 PM, TristanBrown17 said:

I'm right with ya there on the huge backlog of digital games. It's been one of my goals that as I approach the end of graduate school and hopefully get some more time on my hands, I'd like to work through games I initially played, then deleted for some Triple A titles. Love Mahjong, but not so surprised that your recent completion ended up being a complete mess! Some of those games definitely "ruin" the chance for like-minded games to be played, but in this scenario, sounds like you're dodging a bullet!

 

At least I wasn't disappointed. I didn't expect The Witness-levels of creativity, but I assumed there would be at least SOME advantage of playing Mahjong on a modern console. It's actually worse. I'm disgusted that the PS5 even runs it. That's like buying a super computer that comes equipped with a floppy disc drive.

 

Anyway, it's that time of the year again. Welcome to...

 

The 3rd Annual Best Games Played in 2021 But Not Necessarily Released in 2021 Awards

 

Opening Ceremony

 

I know what you're thinking. "What happened to the 2nd Annual BGP Awards?" Well, guys -- besides 2020 being a terrible year all around, an awards ceremony would have been completely pointless because Persona 5 Royal would have swept every category. I mean, I guess we could have argued over who gets the scraps, but what fun would that have been? And before you think this year is somehow an improvement over last, let me tell you now that I've looked over most of the games I played in the past eleven months and I'm pretty sure Persona 5 would have swept them too. Yeah, that's what we're dealing with here.

 

Now, since it's been a couple years since we've done this and I pretty much make all this shit up on the spot, let me set the rules first. I'm only considering games I platinumed or 100%'d in 2021. I'm allowing The Messenger and the Slay the Spire on this list because even though I earned some trophies in 2020, I feel the majority of my time playing through these games was in 2021. Any game that I finished years ago and suddenly dropped DLC is ineligible for this list. (Yes, I realize that cuts my potential list in half.) I debated denying any remasters that I've played previously, but the only one is Saints Row III, and I'd feel bad making it the only 2021 game to not make the cut. Everything else is fair game, except for the games I'm currently working on. Sorry. Maybe someday we'll have a "Best Games Played in December" Awards.

 

Assuming I counted right, that means we have 55 entries, making this the biggest awards ceremony yet! Maybe. I didn't verify this. But I figure it's literally a 50/50 chance.

 

Let's meet our contestants...

1. The Messenger
2. Return of the Obra Dinn
3. Never Alone
4. Spirit of the North
5. Slay the Spire
6. Aven Colony
7. Dragon Quest Heroes II
8. Lords of the Fallen
9. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy
10. God of War III Remastered
11. Untitled Goose Game
12. Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep
13. Kingdom Hearts: Re:coded
14. Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin
15. Children of Morta
16. Doraemon: Story of Seasons
17. Shantae and the Seven Sirens
18. Gris
19. The Surge
20. Sparklite
21. Saints Row: The Third Remastered
22. Ikenfell
23. Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of the New World
24. Crossing Souls
25. Kingdom: Two Crowns
26. Banner of the Maid
27. Phantom Doctrine
28. Monster Sanctuary
29. Lair of the Clockwork God
30. Toren
31. Wargroove
32. Ys: Memories of Celceta
33. Shadow Tactics
34. Deiland
35. Stranded Deep
36. Trigger Witch
37. Space Otter Charlie
38. The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep
39. The Mummy Demastered
40. Chasm
41. The Forest
42. The Walking Dead: A New Frontier
43. Night in the Woods
44. The Walking Dead: The Final Season
45. Spiritfarer
46. Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk DX
47. Ghost of a Tale
48. Oxenfree
49. Overcooked! All You Can Eat
50. Afterparty
51. Pumpkin Jack
52. Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky DX
53. Nexomon
54. Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea DX
55. Mahjong Royal Towers

*cough*  Excuse me, I threw up a little in my mouth there. Wow, uh... what a crowd we have here tonight. A truly diverse pool of games.

 

On an unrelated note, we won't just be looking at the best games I played this year. No, guys -- we will be rating and berating the absolutely worst, most vile trash I had the displeasure of playing through since the start of this year. That's right. I've been holding back all this time. Now that I got all you games together in the same room, I can start telling you what I really fu--

 

AJNA: Hey, everybody! I'm Ajna and I will be co-hosting this year's awards ceremony. ?

 

Wait, what's going on?

 

AJNA: What do you mean? I thought you said I could help out...

 

I meant you could provide moral support. This is going to be really confusing if we're sharing the same text box.

 

AJNA: No way! See, you can use pink font and put my name in front of everything. It's totally fine.

 

Do you know how much extra work this is going to be for me?

 

AJNA: Would you rather be playing Torchlight 2?

 

...Good point. [The crowd erupts with laughter.]

 

Anyway... With Ajna's help, we will be rating the best and worst games in 2021 in the following six categories:

• Best/Worst Music
• Best/Worst Graphics
• Best/Worst Story
• Best/Worst Gameplay
• Biggest Surprise/Disappointment
• Best/Worst Game

And there's probably a good chance I'll add one or more category as we get into this.

 

AJNA: I think we need to add Best Indie Title.

 

You realize your game isn't even eligible for this list, don't you?

 

AJNA: Best Female Protagonist in An Indie Game!

 

Well, you'd certainly beat out Toren...

 

TOREN: Hey, f*** you! [storms out]

 

Not like she would have won anything anyway.

 

[Laughter.]

 

This is going to be a long month.

Edited December 4, 2021 by Cassylvania

[Rally-Vincent---]

The audience waits in awe...

 

[Cassylvania]

The 3rd Annual Best Games Played in 2021 But Not Necessarily Released in 2021 Awards

 

Music

 

We'll start with an easy one. Like I said before, I don't really understand music. I appreciate it. I like it. I just don't get it. I don't know how music is made or how it works. I certainly don't understand how you can implement music into a video game. Hell, I don't even think I could tell a tuba apart from an albacore.

 

AJNA: That's a fish...

 

I guess what I'm saying is I'm probably not the best judge of what makes something "good" when it comes to music. I'm probably just going to pick something that stuck out to me, and there's going to be an unfortunate bias towards games I played more recently. I just don't remember a lot of tracks from earlier in the year. I also have a tendency to play games on mute because I'm usually watching or listening to something else while I play. Call it a sin, but I don't feel I play a lot of games where sound is an integral part of the experience. There's a reason you'll never see me play Guitar Hero.

 

I guess we need to start by selecting some nominations. Wow, I really wish I watched an awards ceremony before starting this. I have no clue what I'm doing. Uh... OK, let's just go through the list and select all the games with memorable tracks.

 

SHANTAE: ~ RISE AND SHINE, DON'T WANNA WORK, I'D RATHER PLAY ~

 

SHUT UP, SHANTAE. Your theme song was literally 24 seconds long.

 

[Ajna gives Shantae the stink eye. There is a clear tension between the two waifus.]

 

Ahem. And the nominations for Best Music in 2021 are...

 

AJNA: Shouldn't we start with Worst Music?

 

Everybody already knows it's going to be Mahjong Royal Towers.

 

AJNA: Yeah, but we haven't made it official.

 

Because this whole travesty has been "official" up to this point...

 

AJNA: [shrugs]

 

Fine. And the award for Hope-You-Brought-Ear-Plugs goes to...

 

Worst Music (2021)

 

This is a hard category to rate because some games have little to no music. How can music be worse than not existing? Well, how about if the tracks don't even fit the tone of the game? There's one in particular that makes you feel like you just returned from slaying a dragon, which is just straight-up insulting when you realize all you're doing is matching pairs. So, congrats, I guess. Wear your crown proudly. You assaulted my ears AND my ego.

 

AJNA: This is pretty harsh when you consider how hard you ripped on Deiland...

 

The thing with Deiland is that its one track is pretty good, but it gets interrupted by annoying space aliens saying HEYYY all the time. I mean, how would you like if you were constantly interrup--

 

SHANTAE: ~ SHAKE MY HIPS AND WHIP MY HAIR, IT'S A NEW DAY ~

 

*sigh*

 

AJNA: To be fair, you did kinda walk right into that.

 

I know. Let's just do this. The nominations for Best Music in 2021 (in order of play) to go...

• Return of the Obra Dinn
• Shantae and the Seven Sirens
• Ikenfell
• The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep
• Spiritfarer

SHANTAE: YES!

 

AJNA: ...I think we're only allowed four nominations. [scribbles over the existing card]

 

OK, right. Our finalists are everything I said, minus Shantae.

 

SHANTAE: Boo... [sits back down]

 

THE MESSENGER: Hey, don't feel so bad. Those assholes didn't even acknowledge me.

 

And the winner is...

 

Best Music (2021)

 

I'd like to say this one was close, but it wasn't. This is one of the best soundtracks of any game I have ever played. Beautiful AND haunting. I don't think I stated enough in my review just how much I am love with this music. I still listen to it on my way to work. And one of the best things about this game is that I played it at a time when I had the house to myself for an entire week, so I could really crank the volume. When I said sound is not usually an integral part of the experience in the games I play, THIS is the exception.

 

I don't know if this game is going to win any other awards this year, but I want to take this moment to STRONGLY ENCOURAGE you to check it out or at least listen to the soundtrack when you get a chance. If it doesn't send chills down your spine, you aren't human.

 

SHANTAE: ~ THE MAGIC WILL FLOW! MY HEART YELLS, "LET'S GO!" TRANSFORM AND FLY AWAAAY ~

 

Would somebody please escort her out of here?

 

AJNA: I'll do it! [dives off the stage and tackles Shantae]

 

SHANTAE: [falls to the floor] ~ WE WILL DANCE THROUGH THE DANGER UNTIL THE WORLD IS SAVED ~

 

AJNA: [pulls on Shantae's hair]

 

SHANTAE: [starts kicking Ajna] ~ CAN'T STOP ME NOW, 'CAUSE I'M SHANTAAAE ~

 

[The two continue to roll around, biting and clawing at each other.]

 

This is embarrassing.

 

THE MESSENGER: ...I kinda like it.

Edited December 4, 2021 by Cassylvania

[Cassylvania]

The 3rd Annual Best Games Played in 2021 But Not Necessarily Released in 2021 Awards

 

Graphics

 

I debated even having this category. I don't think graphics are all that important. Want proof? Let's look Return of the Obra Dinn, one of the best games I played all year. 

 

 

That's not just for the title screen. That's how the entire game looks. You've heard of 16-bit graphics? 8-bit? Try 1-bit. Every pixel is either black or white, and yet it's one of the most aesthetically-pleasing games I played all year. Another great game, Thomas Was Alone (which I played in 2016, so I won't show it here), uses basic geometry for all its character and levels. I'm not talking about polygons. The characters are literal shapes, like rectangles and squares, and can only be differentiated by color and size. And yet -- again -- the graphics serve the game perfectly. That's why I don't think we should be looking at which game has the "best" graphics. That doesn't matter. What matters is the presentation. I have very different expectations from a puzzle platformer than an open world RPG, and that's going to make judging these games against each other difficult.

 

AJNA: But we're going to do it anyway, right?

 

Absolutely. But I want to start by looking at four games that, in my opinion, have poor graphics relative to their overall presentation. These are my nominations for worst graphics of 2021 (in order of play):

 

First, Phantom Doctrine. I don't ask for much from the graphics when it comes to XCOM-esque games, but you have to get the character models right. These were horrendous. I have less of an issue with the maps and cutscenes (which use mostly still images), but it's hard to get attached to characters that all look the same -- and that would be more at home on the PS2. At least the interfaces and avatars were nice.

 

Second, Toren. Wow, this was rough. Love the way this game looks on the title screen, but it doesn't translate well into gameplay at all.

 

Deiland is deceiving. On one hand, I want to say I love its graphics. The problem is that it's nauseating to look at. It has a Super Mario Galaxy-type feel, with you controlling a character around a tiny spinning planet, but either the camera is too close or the horizon line is too low because it gave me motion sickness. It was much more enjoyable when you visited the ice planet because at least the ground stopped moving underneath your feet.

 

Hilariously, Mahjong Royal Towers makes it onto this list too. I wasn't expecting GTA V graphics here, but in a game where the only thing you're doing is matching tiles, it's pretty important that the player can actually SEE what's on the tiles. How about a zoom button? How about bigger tiles? Why is 75% of the screen not being used?

 

AJNA: Is Mahjong going to win every "Worst" category?

 

Maybe it should. After all, it's one of the only games I played this year where the graphics actively work against the player. My problems with Phantom Doctrine and Toren really just come down to personal preference. I was going to nominate Saints Row: The Third Remastered for this category too because I felt there were a lot of texture pop-ins and lightning issues, but most people seem to be happy with the updated graphics. When looking at a game's graphics, we should really be considering what is a detriment to the overall presentation. For Mahjong, I'd say being able to actually play the game is pretty important. But you know what's worse?

 

Worst Graphics (2021)

 

Yes, I'm actually giving this to Deiland. This is a controversial take not because it's a popular game and I feel people will argue against me (seriously, nobody has even heard of this game), but because you could look at those graphics and say they are actually very good. And I'd agree. This LOOKS like a beautiful game. I actually loved what the screen looked like when I was standing still and looking at the night sky. The problem is that any time my character was moving, I wanted to fuckin' puke. I can't explain it because it's obviously something you'd need to experience personally, but the way trees, monsters, and other objects "roll" up from the horizon is disorientating (at least to me). Your experience may be different. I haven't heard anybody else complain about this before, but I'd say having to limit myself to a small section of the map just because my stomach can't take doing a full sweep across the planet is enough to give this one the biggest stinker award. At least the tiles in Mahjong were standing still.

 

AJNA: That's pretty sad if those are the worst graphics you experienced this year...

 

Again, I don't think graphics matter much. You can have bad graphics and still be a good game. (Deiland is not.) You can also have good graphics and be a terrible game, like Doraemon: Story of Seasons.

 

AJNA: Oooh, shots fired.

 

But I agree. I'm going through my full list now and there were a LOT of games that had really good graphics. I mean, I'm not going to nominate it for anything, but Untitled Goose Game was great. That had some of the simplest and cleanest graphics I've ever seen. Dragon Quest Heroes 2...you know, it was bright and colorful, which the game should be. The Messenger...was a game...with graphics. Two different styles, actually. That was nice.

 

THE MESSENGER: Does that mean you're actually going to acknowledge me this time?

 

But I can only nominate four games for best graphics, so let's go with the following:

• Return of the Obra Dinn
• Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin
• Children of Morta
• Shantae and the Seven Sirens
• Night in the Woods
• Spiritfarer
• Afterparty

AJNA: [counts on her fingers] ... Hey, wait a second...

 

Each of those games has a beautiful art style. I could probably include about ten more. But when I look back at which graphics really stood out to me this year, those are the ones that came to mind. And what's neat is most of them are very simplistic. We've talked about Obra Dinn, but NitW uses simple shapes and makes excellent use of lighting. Spiritfarer is hand-drawn. Shantae...well, Shantae always looks nice.

 

AJNA: [glares]

 

I chose Afterparty over Oxenfree because even though I think Oxenfree is the better game, Afterparty has a remarkably unique art style. The colors in that game are amazing. And Children of Morta sticks to that philosophy of doing more with less, which is a running theme with this category. I will almost always be more impressed about what a developer can do WITH the graphics it has than the graphics themselves. That I think is the key to designing a good-looking game.

 

AJNA: You're going to give the award to the only game you didn't mention, aren't you?

 

Best Graphics (2021)

 

It was always going to be Sakuna. Colors, lighting, setting, characters -- it's all done wonderfully. There are games that have good graphics and then there are games that have worlds that are so beautiful that you'd want to live in them. Think Breath of the Wild or Genshin Impact. This goes beyond just having graphics that serve a purpose. This is a world teeming with life. Part-2D platformer and part-farming sim, the level of care that went into every model and set piece is nothing short of remarkable, and I pray this game did well enough that this is a genre we'll see again. The fact that the developers even put in the farming aspect, which has you going through literally every major step in rice cultivation, amazes me. The rest of the game is a side-scrolling action platformer, which means they had to put in the time to do 3D modeling and animation solely for a feature that would probably be automated in every other game. They even have a day/night cycle, which admittedly happens too fast, but it's like day and night compared to Deiland. No pun intended.

 

AJNA: You intended that.

 

Absolutely gorgeous game and it probably should have been nominated for best music too.

 

AJNA: [sigh] Are you done gushing about Sakuna now? You gonna marry her?

 

She's like 14, Ajna.

 

AJNA: SO AM I!

 

SAKUNA: If you played my game, you'd know I'm a fully-grown adult...

 

AJNA: "Fully-grown" at three feet tall...

 

OK, ladies. No more fighting. Our show almost got cancelled after the last incident.

 

SAKUNA: Do I even get a trophy out of all of this? What's the point?

 

Stay tuned next time for when we look at the best (and worst) stories these 55 games have to offer!

Edited December 8, 2021 by Cassylvania

[Cassylvania]

The 3rd Annual Best Games Played in 2021 But Not Necessarily Released in 2021 Awards

 

Story

[Meanwhile, behind the scenes...]

 

AJNA: Isn't that cheating?

 

No, it's a clear feature in Torchlight 2.

 

AJNA: You're using a vice grip to clamp down your up button while in a trade window with your alt so you can reload an earlier save and repeat the process until you have one million gold...

 

CLEAR FEATURE, Ajna.

 

AJNA: Why do they only let you transfer 5 gold at a time? This will take all night...

 

Good thing we have a show to do, right?

 

AJNA: Right!

[A few moments later, our wonderful hosts appear from behind the curtain...]

 

Ah, video game stories. Do they even matter?

 

Well... You might be sensing a theme here, but I don't think they're all that important. It's not that I can't appreciate a good story in a video game; it's that a good story usually isn't necessary and a bad or poorly-written story can seriously detract from the overall gameplay. Consider Kingdoms of Amalur. I've used this example before, but that was a game I absolutely hated until I stopped forcing myself to listen to all of the dialogue. Once I focused solely on the gameplay, I started having fun. It was like playing a completely different game. Since then, I've allowed myself to skip text if I feel like it's holding me back from having a good time. I won't do it if the story is integral to the gameplay, such as Telltale games or some RPGs, but it's nice to have that option.

 

How often do I do it? Looking over the list of games I played this year, I can safely say it was only the four Atelier games I played where I didn't fully pay attention to the plot. They will be excluded from this category because of that, as I can't judge them fairly. I will also be excluding Mahjong because it would win Worst Story by default for being the only game without one.

 

AJNA: And that's pretty bad considering one of the games is about otters in space...

 

And one of the games is about witches with guns. Guys, I won't lie -- most of these plots were serviceable at best. But sometimes that's all a game needs to be. Space Otter Charlie and Trigger Witch had equally ridiculous storylines, but I actually liked the otter story more because it wasn't bloated down by unnecessary lore. (Yes, they went WAY too in-depth in the witches-with-guns game.)

 

AJNA: Plus, otters are cute!

 

It's also pretty hard to compare video game stories. You can hear music and see graphics. You could play two tracks or put two screenshots side by side and decide which one you like more or which one fits the overall mood of the game better. With stories, how do you do that? How do you compare the story of Pumpkin Jack to the Cold World-era of Phantom Doctrine, or the increasingly complicated plot of Kingdom Hearts to the player-driven adventure of Stranded Deep? Easy! You be as judgmental as hell. I'll be judging these solely on which video game stories did the best job of keeping me engrossed. Or -- because we'll be looking at the shit list first -- which stories annoyed, frustrated, or bored me the most.

 

Join me in real-time as we look through the list.

 

[real time passes]

 

AJNA: [stands awkwardly on stage]

 

... You know, I don't see a bad story in the first half of the list. Everything up to and including Lair of the Clockwork God was good, great, or serviceable. I could maybe make the argument that Lords of the Fallen had a bad story, but that's like saying the movie Space Mutiny had a bad story. That's the point. I have a lot of issues with Doraemon, but the story tried. Crossing Souls had some corny parts, but...again, I think that was the point. It was supposed to feel like a Saturday morning cartoon. I don't think I can give the thumbs-down to any of these games.

 

The SECOND half of the list, though. Wow, somebody get Toren back here because her ass is getting served. That horrible story was immediately followed up by Wargroove, which I'm also nominating because it was so painfully cliché that it made Lords of the Fallen look original. I THEN jumped into Deiland, which is making this list for fucking up what should have been a halfway decent story (a boy living all alone on a tiny planet). Finally, Nexomon makes the cut for the same reason as Wargroove. Horrible pacing to boot. At the very least, I can say all four of these games had the OPTION to skip most of the text, so I don't feel like I wasted too much of my life.

 

 

Before I announce the "winner," I'd like to say the gap between these four games and everything else is fairly large, but the gap between the worst story and the fourth worth story isn't so big. I hated them all equally. There's just one I hated more equally than the others.

 

Worst Story (2021)

 

Toren was two hours long. Deiland barely had a story. Nexomon was self-aware. If I was ranking this by characters, Wargroove is easily the best of the four, but good characters (well, maybe "good" is a stretch) don't make a good story. This was the hardest one to sit through. Take any fantasy cliché and apply it here. What personality do you think the dog has? He's a good boy. What about the vampire lady? She's evil. What about the old man? Do I even need to tell you? Worst of all is Marcia. She's a righteous person and fights for her friends, dur hur hur. And it wouldn't be so bad if EVERY LINE OF DIALOGUE didn't need to remind you of this. Somebody needs to tell these writers that it's okay for characters to have a personality beyond one adjective. It'd be like if Ajna's entire disposition was summed up by being jealous of other women.

famo

 

AJNA: I hate her blue hair.

 

I don't even need to tell you the plot because you already know it. There's an evil roaming the land. You're the only one who can stop it. You need the mystical weapon of hard-to-pronounce. You make allies along the way. Enemies try to stop you and eventually join you until you're a single united force fighting a common foe. It's been done a million times before and a million times better in Fire Emblem, Dark Souls, Elder Scrolls, Persona, Ys, Dragon Quest, Golden Sun, Final Fantasy, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Earthbound, Mario, Zelda, even POKEMON. This game makes me want to vomit and for very different reasons than Deiland.

 

It doesn't help that they even REPEAT tropes, with multiple characters filling the role of "wise old mentor."

 

But yes, Caesar is a good boy.

 

AJNA: Aw, can we get a Caesar?

 

(The more I think about it, the more I think we should've given the award to Toren, but I was so bored playing it that I don't even remember the plot...)

 

AJNA: (I fell asleep at that part where you kept falling off the ledge.)

 

(I was trying to escape the game.)

 

SAKUNA: GET TO BEST STORY ALREADY!

 

Oh, right. The good stuff. That's much easier to narrow down. First, if you have the word "Kingdom," "Remastered," or "Surge," in your title, you're excused now. Likewise, if your game involves playing as a fox, a goose, an otter, a pumpkin, or a witch... Thanks for coming.

 

AJNA: Maybe it'd be easier if you just nominated four games...

 

I actually can't narrow it down to four. I've gone up and down the list and I'm stuck at seven. I feel like this is another example of where there's a pretty big gap between these games and the rest of the list. So, if you made this list, consider yourself a step above the majority of plots I had to sit through this year.

• Return of the Obra Dinn
• Children of Morta
• Night in the Woods
• Spiritfarer
• Ghost of a Tale
• Oxenfree
• Afterparty

And, like before, I think it's going to be hard to choose a winner among these. They all had surprisingly good stories.

 

Return of the Obra Dinn has probably the most unique story among these because it's something you unravel throughout the course of the game. Children of Morta also reveals more of the story over time, where dying works as a natural progression. It was really neat to learn more about the Bergson family. I told you guys in my review that Night in the Woods didn't have a real payoff, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the story. (Which is good because that's the main thing the game has to offer.) Spiritfarer was touching and emotional and that's about as sappy as I'm ever going to get. Ghost of a Tale...OK, don't laugh, but I actually really enjoyed that world and its characters. It was clever and refreshingly original. I know I'm not trying to rank characters here, but that game and Spiritfarer had some of my favorites. Oxenfree and Afterparty were developed by the same people and were both engaging in very different ways. I'm not sure if playing them back-to-back the way I did was a good idea, but I enjoyed them both. Also had some really great characters.

 

I'd like to give a few honorable mentions here. Obviously, Sakuna was good. TWD too, although I preferred the earlier seasons of Clementine. I also liked Ikenfell and Shadow Tactics...but I think it was more for the characters in those games than the story. I know it can be hard to separate those things. In the end, I'm thinking about what journey I enjoyed going on the most, and that award goes to...

 

Best Story (2021)

 

Sometimes I feel like I need to defend my answer. I don't here. This was a fantastic game and one that did NOT disappoint me, which I can't say about Spiritfarer and Night in the Woods. (Still liked them, but not to this level.) Oxenfree may have been one of the only games this year to surpass my expectations, which is high praise considering I've been railing on games pretty hard lately. The thing is, I can't really TALK about the story for spoiler reasons, which is why I almost gave this to Obra Dinn, which is my runner-up. (Morta would have been a close third, for those asking.)

 

The most frustrating thing is that there is even more of the story to talk about, but I can't because you have to play the game (more than once) to experience it. So, yeah. I guess if my review wasn't solid enough proof for you, maybe this will be.

 

AJNA: I feel bad for Obra Dinn. Three nominations, zero awards.

 

THE MESSENGER: What about me!? I'm the fuckin' Messenger! Best Debut Indie Game of 2018! My plot is AMAZING!

 

SAKUNA: Aren't you just the "Chosen One"?

 

ADOL: Yeah, like me!

 

SORA: And me!

 

THE TWINS FROM DQH2: Us too!

 

HARKYN: GWAHAHA!

 

BARD: Yup.

 

STELLA: I was chosen by Death!

 

MARCIA: Lulz. He thinks he's special.

 

THE MESSENGER: [grumbles and sinks lower in his seat]

 

I should get an award for having to put up with this all year...

Edited December 11, 2021 by Cassylvania

[Cassylvania]

Time for a little break from this month's entertainment.

 

Platinum #287 - Torchlight 2

 

Well, it took 286 platinums to get here, but we've finally reached the new lowest point in my trophy hunting career. I absolutely hated this game. I want to say I hated every second of it, but I think it was actually OK for the first few hours playing with @Briste. The problem is the 100+ hours that followed. (May or may not be an exaggeration. I honestly can't tell.)

 

It takes a lot to ruin a genre for me. When I look back at the other games I disliked this year -- say, Mahjong, Deiland, and Wargroove, since they've each won a raspberry -- I can't say that I've ever been turned off to a genre. I'll still play puzzle games and farming sims and turn-based strategy games. After all, those are all genres that define me. Maybe I'm just not a fan of...whatever this is. Hack and slash? Dungeon crawler? Diablo clone? Call it what you want, but if you ever tell me a game is "like Torchlight 2," I will probably never play it. I can't think of another example like that in my entire library of games.

 

What's the problem? Basically everything. Dungeons are boring, repetitive, and uninspired. So are the enemies. So is the combat. I can't remark on the story because I couldn't be arsed to follow it beyond the initial cutscene and starting area, but the fact that the game looks and plays like an MMO tells me everything I need to know.

 

You have the choice of four classes. I was originally a mage named Jafar (with a pet bird named Iago), hated it, and restarted as a hunter named Jasmine (with a pet tiger named Rajah). I also played as an engineer during my Hardcore run. (I'm sure you can figure out my name and pet name.) They were all extremely dull. You get skills, which would be fun to use, but you're almost always going to be out of mana. And your character will remind you of that. Constantly. This is the soundtrack of the entire game:

 

I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA I'M OUT OF MANA.

 

I GET IT, JAS.

 

So, it's not even a hack and slash because you'll spend most of the time running around until your mana can refill. That's the entire gameplay loop.

 

Enemies are wildly imbalanced for some reason. Some attacks can randomly one shot you. This becomes particularly problematic in your Hardcore run, where a single death means your save file gets deleted. The engineer is recommended for this because you can just lay down spider mines, which track enemies and do the killing for you...which means more running around and more OUT OF MANA until the game decides you can continue playing it.

 

There are about thirty bosses in this game and each one you kill gets you a trophy. You get another trophy for sending your pet to town, which you'll be doing often to sell your loot. That's another gameplay loop I could have done without. You pick up all this garbage, 95% of which you can't even use, and then you have to manually select each item you want to sell. You'll have to do this at least once per dungeon since your character can only hold 100 items at a time.

 

Hilariously, there's a trophy for starting a Hardcore run and another for dying in a Hardcore run, which I got shortly after. At least you can play on the easiest difficulty. Oh, but you know what is really stupid? Your handicap for playing on the higher difficulties is LESS EXPERIENCE. How many games do you know that do that? The worst trophy by far in this game is getting to level 100, and you are actively punished for playing on anything above Casual. And no, you can't change it mid-game.

 

To put things into perspective, the final boss is level 50. You'll probably be around there when you get to him. You can then start NG+, which is just as boring as the first time through the game, but now it takes even longer to level up. I was around level 70 maybe when I finished NG+. Supposedly, you can reach level 100 by the end of NG++ or the start of NG+++, but I opted to do Mapworks, which are post-game dungeons that have some bonus perks or challenges, such as giving your character a faster cast rate, more damage from certain attacks, or (preferably) 5% more experience. I found I could get one level for every two dungeons, which was still a slog. To make matters worse, I was playing on Normal difficulty, so who knows how much longer it took than if I was a Casual. And maybe I just suck at these kind of games, but I CONSTANTLY died. I mean, every few seconds. I spent more time reviving than attacking. The only penalty is you lose like half your gold each time, but once you're down to 100 gold, who cares?

 

(The trophy that requires having one million gold at once cares.)

 

There's also a trophy for finding a legendary item. I only managed this once during my entire playthrough and it was during one of the last Mapworks runs. Fortunately, a friend can give you a legendary item and that counts.

 

And that's the entire game. There's nothing else to talk about. You press whatever button you mapped your best attack to and rotate the joystick around. Congrats -- you're playing Torchlight 2. If this is a sequel, I'd hate to see what Torchlight 1 is like.

 

This game plays like it should be free and feels like you should be getting paid to play it. 0/10.

 

(DISCLAIMER: I'm posting this BEFORE actually earning the platinum because it's super windy in my area and I don't want the power to go out and cause me to lose the review. Should be done in a few hours. There's nothing left to do but keep that vice grip on my controller anyway.)

Edited December 11, 2021 by Cassylvania

[Cassylvania]

Another one!

 

Platinum #288 - Islanders

 

I can already hear the clacking of your keyboard as you Google this game to see if it's real. While you're doing that, you might want to check the price because it's probably worth buying if it's on sale for $4.50 like it was a few weeks ago.

 

What is it? Well, it's what Mahjong Royal Towers should have been -- a relaxing puzzle game for me to play while Atelier Shallie was downloading. At least, I think it would be considered a puzzle game. It's a weird hybrid between that and a resource management game. Basically, you are given a map, which consists of one or more tiny islands, and tasked with placing buildings and other structures on that map in order to maximize your overall score. Each building has an "aura" (which is visible to the player) and you gain or lose points depending on what structures and resources are captured in that aura. For example, a "Lumberjack" building gets 1 point for every nearby tree but loses points for every nearby Lumberjack, so you need to space them out. Houses and Mansions, on the other hand, gain points for every House or Mansion in their aura. Similarly, a Circus is great to put near a lot of Houses, but takes a heavy hit for every Mansion in its space. This is because rich people don't consort with clowns.

 

If all of this sounds confusing, don't worry. It's not. You'll pick up on the game in a matter of minutes. You are only given a few buildings at a time and they come in the form of a "pack" of cards.  It actually reminds me a bit of Frost (another game you've never of). Once you score enough points, you are allowed to open a new pack, which comes with six cards. The packs are technically themed (e.g. Farming, Fishing, City, etc.), but I think it only increases the chances of getting a card from that theme. I'd still get Fishing cards from a City pack and City cards from a Fishing pack.

 

You lose if you run out of cards and are unable to open a new deck. If you score enough points, you can advance to a new island or continue playing on your current island until you run out of cards.

 

This game had the potential to be awful or frustrating, but it does two things that I love. First, there is no time limit. I never understood Zen games like time limits. Technically, there ARE a couple speedrun trophies, but they're very easy once you understand how to play. In fact, that's the second thing I love. The game is easy. Like, very easy. The platinum rarity should be above 80%, and I think the only reason it's not is because it wasn't published by Ratalaika. The thing is, this doesn't FEEL like a very easy game. There's enough strategy here that you get excited when you draw a card you really need or manage to squeeze a building into an area for a huge amount of points. It's the same rush I remember getting from Peggle 2, where the game makes you feel like you did something really epic.

 

Also, the graphics are nice (very minimalistic) and the music is relaxing. The trophies don't ask much out of you and I imagine you could platinum it in a single night.

 

My best score was 10012 in a single match, so you can try to beat that if you want. A lot of the trophies in the game are cumulative, so you could just keep playing the first two islands if you want to grind them out.

 

Going to recommend this one. It's easy, cheap, and fun, while only feeling like it's the latter.

[Cassylvania]

The 3rd Annual Best Games Played in 2021 But Not Necessarily Released in 2021 Awards

 

Gameplay

 

Nope. Sorry. That's not going to work.

 

See, the problem is that if we've learned anything from the past three categories, it's that music, graphics, and story aren't necessary for a good game. Many great games are lacking one, two, or even all three of those qualities. And obviously what makes something "good" is subjective. I consider the music and story in Dark Souls to be amazing, even though they're both very minimal. Return of the Obra Dinn had very minimal graphics, but I thought it looked and sounded great. Slay the Spire barely had a story, but it was still a blast to play. That's because gameplay has always and will always be king.

 

...It also means I can't give out awards for this category because I realized it's essentially just going to be an exact copy of my best and worst games of the year. Not very good foresight on my part.

 

AJNA: But we promised them six episodes...

 

Well, let's just make up some shit. I don't know. Give us a new category. Heck, give us two or three. We got time.

 

AJNA: Oh, oh! Let's do Hardest Game. Everybody likes to talk about difficulty.

 

Can do! So, with difficulty, I don't see much of a reason to talk about the easiest game I played this year. It's obviously going to be one of the two Telltale games, and it's obviously going to be the one that didn't involve shooting two bunnies in quick succession with manual controls and then having to sit through a five minute long cutscene if you miss either shot. Yeah, that was a fun lunch break when I finally got that one done.

 

AJNA: You killed...bunnies... You're kind of an asshole, you know that?

 

Maybe that should win Best Gameplay.

 

AJNA: [glares]

 

OK, well... Let's go through the full list. I'll nominate every game that I thought had a difficult platinum. I won't set out to reach a specific number. Just every game that I remember struggling with.

• Slay the Spire
• Dragon Quest Heroes II
• Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep
• The Surge
• Wargroove
• Shadow Tactics
• Night in the Woods
• Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk DX

Mm... Think that's it. There were other games that were challenging. The Bard's Tale IV probably would've made the list if I hadn't lowered the difficulty mid-game. The Forest and Stranded Deep had their own issues, but it's hard to rate a survival game on difficulty. They're intended to be brutal experiences, you know? Lords of the Fallen had some tricky boss fights. Deiland was hard to play without throwing up. But those eight I picked were probably the hardest, so let's discuss...

 

I think what I'll do is give one reason FOR the nomination and then one reason AGAINST it, as I didn't find any of those games particularly difficult (compared to titles in the past).

 

Slay the Spire is probably the one you most would have expected to make the list. Beating the game once is hard enough, but you essentially have to do it 20 times, where each new run has an additional handicap. I think the difficulty really begins to spike near Ascension 8 or 9. The thing is...the game is made to made to broken. There are all sorts of strategies out there that you can use to abuse the AI and in-game mechanics. I found some late games runs to range anywhere from nearly impossible to laughably easy. I also abused save scums, which can make a lot of games much easier than intended.

 

Dragon Quest Heroes II was grindy as hell, but it also had some difficult boss fights, including the final boss (and the special dungeons you had to grind for those late game weapons... too lazy to look up the name of them right now). There was no Bianca to save us like in the first game. Most of the difficulty can done to RNG, but I guess you could say the same for StS.

 

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep had two things that made it difficult. First, that stupid ice cream mini-game. Second, the fight with Mysterious Figure, particularly as Terra. (He was a joke as the others because they could roll through his attacks.) When I finally beat them, though, they didn't seem too hard, so I dunno.

 

The Surge reminded me a lot like Dark Souls, but less fun. Trash mobs were more dangerous than bosses, which made no sense, and it made running through the game a slog. But I have had a lot of practice with games like this.

 

Wargroove had the potential to be one of the hardest game I've ever played, but only because some of those maps require perfection to S-rank. I HATE when turn count matters in strategy games. It wasn't fun in XCOM 2, it wasn't fun in Phantom Doctrine (which didn't make the list just because the Actor perk is so broken), and it's certainly not fun in a game that already won one "Worst" category this year. Fortunately, there are video guides you can follow, and they USUALLY work as long as you copy the moves exactly... Sometimes you have to improvise.

 

Shadow Tactics is a hard game with even harder in-game challenges. All of which need to be completed for the platinum. Two things make this easy. One, video guides. I didn't need them too much, but there were some really clever tricks out there that I wish I knew about sooner. Second, you don't have to do all the challenges at once. There are nine challenges per level, but you can play through them as many times as you want. Sometimes you have to play through the mission multiple times anyway because some of the challenges conflict with each other, such as a "kill everybody" and "kill nobody" challenge.

 

Similar to Ice Cream Beat in KH:BSS, Night in the Woods had that STUPID rhythm mini-game. Three of them technically, but only the third was difficult. You can even miss like 20 notes and it still took me several days to complete. The problem is I have no rhythm. The rest of the game is piss easy, though.

 

An Atelier game finally makes a list! Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk DX was the hardest Atelier game as far as I'm concerned because of the four super bosses. Especially the last two. Nobody wants an hour-long fight that can result in a party wipe because of bad RNG. It's also stupid that you're basically required to fill your inventory with auto-revive soup because every attack one-shots you. But it is an Atelier game, so...

 

AJNA: The funny thing is they can't see how red your face got just thinking about those games.

 

They really pissed me off. Contrary to popular belief, I don't like hard games.

 

And the winner is...

 

Hardest Game (2021)

 

It kinda has to be. The other games generally had hard bosses or hard mini-games, but Birth by Sleep had both, on top of already being a fairly challenging game. I'll admit -- this game may be the reason I don't play DDD or KH3. They may be easier, but my experience here really soured my taste on the series as a whole. That's the problem I've been getting with a lot of games lately and one of the reasons I'm debating not going for every platinum in the future. This is the first game to make me feel that way this year, and it wasn't the only one...

 

The runner-up would probably be Night in the Woods. Seriously, I hate rhythm games.

 

Well, that's all I have for now. Consider this just another intermission before we get to the main event. I'll accept a couple write-in categories if there are any other awards you guys would be interested in. Maybe Longest Grind or Most Disgusting Game.

 

AJNA: Wouldn't they both be Torchlight 2?

 

Oooh, good one.

Edited December 14, 2021 by Cassylvania

[Cassylvania]

The 3rd Annual Best Games Played in 2021 But Not Necessarily Released in 2021 Awards

 

Biggest Surprise/Disappointment

 

Well, before we begin, I gotta say the DLC-vember is going exceedingly well. I just finished Shantae and the Seven Sirens for like the ninth/tenth time (seriously, stop making trophies just for playing through the game again with only some minor tweaks, WayForward) AND everybody's favorite bunny-killing simulator, The Long Dark. I look forward to playing Episode 5 in 2025.

 

AJNA: Again with the killing of bunnies...

 

SHANTAE: You're going to do the PS5 version of my game now, right? It was just released. Think of the milestones! Trophy #13000, platinum #300! Ooo, maybe BOTH!

 

And while we're on the subject of DLC...hey, it's time for surprises and disappointments! Somehow DLC manages to be both. But today we will be looking at which games this year fell very far ahead or very far below my expectations.

 

Now, I want to emphasize that I'm not saying I really loved or really hated these games. These are games that I went into with a certain expectation. If I went into a game thinking it would be a 10/10 and it ended up being a 5/10, that's a much bigger disappointment than a game that went from an expected 6/10 to a 4/10, despite the end result being a worse game overall. Similarly, a game that went from a 3/10 to an 8/10 is a bigger jump than an 8/10 becoming a 10/10. So don't hate me for my answers. This is probably going to be my most controversial post yet.

 

AJNA: I dunno. There was that one where you said you liked the card mechanic in Chain of Memories...

 

Let's start with biggest disappointment because there were a LOT of games this year that fell below my admittedly high expectations. I said before that 2021 was always going to be a hard year for gaming for me because how do you top Persona 5 Royal? When I said it would've swept the awards last year, I wasn't kidding. The music, graphics, and story in that game were among the best I've seen in ANY video game, let alone a single one. I finished that game in August last year and I don't think it's been surpassed yet. There have been some OK ones, but just look at some of the titles I played near the tail end of 2020: My Time at Portia, Bloodstained, Nexomon: Extinction, Bug Fables. None of them were near Persona 5's level. And that was a game that I went into with an expectation of maybe an 8 or 9 out of 10, knowing that I'm not super into anime, despite what my Atelier collection would lead you to believe. So maybe I did set my expectations a little too high this year. Maybe I expected too many games to be that great title. Let's not forget that 2020 brought us KCD and Hollow Knight as well.

 

So I come to this year and I look across the crowd at all the games that just didn't do it for me. I could probably nominate ten if I thought about it. I'm not going to list them all because I'd really have to think about the ranking I expected versus the ranking I'd give them now, and that's just too much math for this show's budget. Instead, I'm just going to slowly scan my eyes over the list and think about whether each game was a bigger disappointment than the one below...

 

[Some time passes. Everybody sits restless. Some think there is too much filler, but at least nobody accuses the show of being scripted.]

 

...

 

You guys aren't going to like my answer.

 

AJNA: It's Shantae, isn't it?

 

And the loser is...

 

Biggest Disappointment (2021)

 

This one probably doesn't come as a shock after my mediocre review. This was recommended to me many times, and I remember even telling you guys earlier this year that I was just waiting for the right moment to play this. I fully expected a 10/10, GOTY candidate from this. It has crafting, farming, building, beautiful hand-drawn animations, and a really touching story and soundtrack. This should have been amazing. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, I found myself extremely let down.

 

The biggest problem is, much like the format of these awards, the majority of this game is padding. It's boring. You're seeing the same dialogue and animations repeatedly. The longer a passenger is on your ship, the more grueling it becomes because you're constantly trying to keep them happy, and that kinda goes against the very thing the game seems to be trying for. You should WANT your passengers to stay with you. Their presence should be a blessing. I would have liked to see the format completely reversed in this game. Instead of you having to care for your passengers, what if they did all the work for you? What if one of them was a cook and took care of the kitchen, so that when they were gone, you really felt their absence? Or that you never have to do your own farming until your gardener reaches the Everdoor? Imagine if the game was built around the idea that you felt actual loss through the gameplay perspective. I think Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons does something like that (I haven't played it yet, but I heard about it) and it sounds amazing. In Spiritfarer, it just always felt like a relief to get rid of a passenger because it was one less mouth to feed. And maybe "relief" was what the developers were going for. I don't know. But I do know that I just didn't like the fundamental gameplay here, despite every other aspect of the game being superb.

 

They explored that idea a little bit by having passengers occasionally give you items or provide some other perks, but it's usually minor and only happens if they're happy.

 

Other ways to improve the game? Remove the bottlenecking. I reached a point in the game where every story progression was on hold until I obtained a specific item, which took me a few nights (several real world hours) to come across. During that time, there was nothing to do but craft the same items and harvest the same resources and watch the same animations and read the same dialogue, and it really soured my mood.

 

I almost feel like this should have been a linear game.

 

How does this game compare on the ranking scale? I expected a 10/10 and I'd say I got a 5/10, which still isn't bad. I'm traditionally harsh when it comes to scoring things. When I rate movies, an average one usually gets a 3/10. I find a lot of critics are afraid to give anything below a 6 unless it's REALLY bad, in which case they'll drop a 1. I think all the numbers should be used.

 

If I had a runner-up here, it might be Phantom Doctrine or The Surge. I obviously had very high expectations going into those games because they were based on the mechanics of two of my favorite series over the past decade.

 

AJNA: The audience would like to know if you're not letting them speak anymore because you forgot what color font you used for them.

 

And now for the biggest surprise! Believe it or not, there WERE some games this year that were much better than I expected. This may have been the one award Persona 5 wouldn't have won in 2020 because I already knew it'd be a great game. I probably would've given it to A Plague Tale: Innocence, just looking over my list for that year. Knew that one would be good, but not THAT good.

 

For 2021, though... Hm.

 

I've actually done a lot of thinking about this one over the past couple of days. The real question is whether I'm going to give this to a game I thought was going to be average that turned out to be great or a game that I thought would be kinda bad that ended up kinda good. Let's just go ahead and nominate every game that was one of those things:

• Return of the Obra Dinn
• Banner of the Maid
• Lair of the Clockwork God
• The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep
• Ghost of a Tale

I don't think I thought any of those games was going to be bad, but I had pretty low expectations going into all of them. I knew Return of the Obra Dinn was supposed to be good, but I didn't know how. The reviews never made any sense to me. Banner of the Maid looked like just another Fire Emblem ripoff. I've played several of those that never lived up to the OG. I had NO CLUE what Lair of the Clockwork God was. I think I just bought it because it was on sale for $3 or something. The Bard's Tale IV blew me away. I mean, it's the fourth game in the series (allegedly), so it had to be somewhat successful, but I had never played any of the previous games. And Ghost of a Tale had a lot of really neat mechanics that I wasn't expecting for a game about mice and rats. Though I guess you could've said the same thing about A Plague Tale.

 

I'm still not sure what I want to pick.

 

I feel bad NOT giving it to Obra Dinn because it's been nominated for just about everything so far, but I don't know how much it surpassed my expectations. If I thought it'd be a 7 or 8 out of 10, does it really matter how much better it was? Most of the other games were something I expected to be mid-tier. I still think I liked Obra Dinn more than any of them, but...

 

 

Biggest Surprise (2021)

 

Look at that lady's boobs. How can you take this game seriously? I thought I knew what I was getting into here, but Banner of the Maid shocked me by having actual strategy and compelling gameplay. I'd say it was even comparable to Fire Emblem, which is very high praise from me, and it certainly did a better job of representing its genre than Wargroove. I freakin' loved this game.

 

AJNA: Gee, I wonder why...

 

Some of the missions in this game are really difficult. You can't just steamroll every map with a single character like you can in a lot of Fire Emblem games. There's a weapon triangle (I think it's more like a square or pentagon from what I remember), and you get punished HARSHLY if you send the wrong unit into an enemy's range of attack. You need to field a competent team of soldiers and picks your battles carefully, which really makes this feel more like an XCOM game (or FE on Lunatic difficulty). But even beyond that, there's an actual story here, that...OK, it's not super engaging, but it's loosely based on the French Revolution and it has NONE of the pandering you'd expect, outside of the...uh, "exaggerated" artwork. I'm actually being serious, guys. I can't remember a single instance in this game where a perverted joke is made.

 

AJNA: Uh-huh...

 

In the actual PNSP 2021 Awards thread, I gave Best Female Character to Clementine from TWD (for obvious reasons), but Pauline Bonaparte would be a great runner-up. I actually read all the dialogue in this game and thought she was a pretty interesting character. Not sure how much of it is canonically true, but I'm all for more games using alternate versions of real world events to tell a story. This is Wolfenstein for people like me who don't care for first-person shooters.

 

Also, boobs.

 

AJNA: I could've applied to be the new Vanna White, you know.

 

I think that's where we're going to leave it off, guys. Just GOTY to go. We'll probably make that a triple post, I guess. Top 3 best and worst of 2021? I'll need some time to think about it. Probably will have to wait until after Christmas. Maybe #3 and #2 before Christmas and #1 after... I don't know. As you can tell, I just sorta make this up as I go.

 

AJNA: I hear Jeopardy is looking for a new host too.

 

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some Genshin Impact to play!

 

AJNA: Or maybe I can coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars...

[DrBloodmoney]

@Cassylvania

 

Ouch - Spiritfarer and The Surge both contenders for Most Disappointing! ??

 

I have Spiritfarer bought, but still to play- you've rattled me a little...

... but then, I loved The Surge myself, so hopefully we'll be in different boats on Spiritfarer too... (see what I did there? ?)

 

BTW - I menat to say this before, but probably got distractedly a bumblebee or summint... I love how you're breaking up the awards over the course of the month!

...now that I'm trying to do my own awards, I kinda wish I had done the same!

Makes it a bit easier to keep up... and to be separately outraged - OUTRAGED I SAY! - by individual takes! ?

[Rally-Vincent---]

If you don't give at least one award to Obra Dinn, whose corpse will appear on the ship?

[Cassylvania]

On 12/17/2021 at 5:11 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

I have Spiritfarer bought, but still to play- you've rattled me a little...

... but then, I loved The Surge myself, so hopefully we'll be in different boats on Spiritfarer too... (see what I did there? )

 

You'll probably love Spiritfarer! Even at 5/10, I think it's one of the better games I played this year. Most of my problems come down to pacing, which is more of a personal preference. There are definitively times when I said, "I love this game" while playing it, which NEVER happens with a truly bad game.

 

On 12/17/2021 at 9:29 AM, Rally-Vincent--- said:

If you don't give at least one award to Obra Dinn, whose corpse will appear on the ship?

 

I do feel bad. I think it has the January curse. Every game I played at the beginning of this year is a bit hazy right now.

 

Alright. I'm somehow on a five-game streak now when it comes to finishing what I've already started before beginning something new...

 

Platinum #289 - Kitaria Fables

 

This may have been my most anticipated game of 2021. If I were to design a video game, I imagine it would look something like this -- a farming sim with combat and light RPG elements. Sakuna had that and it's definitely in the running for GOTY. My Time at Portia had that and would have been in the running in 2020 if it wasn't for Persona 5. Graveyard Keeper had that and may have been a contender in 2019 if I hadn't played the entire game in December that year. The point is: I'm a sucker for this kind of game. Unfortunately, I'm just a sucker this time. This game was kinda lame.

 

Let's get the usual shit out of the way. The graphics are cute. You play as a cat named Nyan and all the "people" in this world are animals, and all the creatures you fight are monsters. The story is as generic as it gets. Something about a calamity in the past and now all magic is banned but it's totally OK for you to use magic because you're using it for good but don't tell the evil Empire that you work for. Everything is kept PG, which is fine. None of the townsanimals are annoying. Even your tiny pink mascot pet thingy is OK.

 

It's all very serviceable. I don't really feel the need to go into much more detail than that. Ultimately, it comes down to the gameplay, which it where the game falters.

 

Combat is basic. You can attack with a sword, bow, or spells. Your spells cost mana, which you can refill by successfully completing an attack. Realistically, you're going to use a bow over a sword because it's a ranged weapon and you're going to use spells over your bow because they're more powerful, so every battle boils down to spell + bow to refill mana + spell + bow to refill mana, etc. When enemies are about to attack, you can actually see a flashing red area that indicates where they're going to hit, so it's easy enough to roll out of the way. This only ever becomes problematic when there are several enemies attacking you at once or you get hit by a spell that freezes you. Most of my deaths came from the penultimate boss, who has a cheap charge attack that one-shots you and has no indicator but a brief animation. The rest of the enemies are pretty easy once you get better gear and spells. Most of them only have two or three attacks. You essentially eliminate all close range attacks by using a bow.

 

There's a day/night cycle, but there are no seasons. It took me about 50 days to beat the game. When you die, you just revive at your house either that evening or the next morning. There are no other consequences. Thus, I'd simply let enemies kill me if I wanted to get back to town quickly.

 

You have a farm, but I rarely found the need to use it. Early on, I guess it helps you to earn some money, but there are golems in Forest Sanctuary and pixies in Blue Moon Lake that drop amber, which sells for 1k. It seems to be a rare drop, but the pixies also drop leaves (I think every time) that sell decently. You only need to farm them for about an hour to have all the money you'll ever need in the game.

 

So, what do you actually do then? Well, have you done a fetch quest before? Then you've played Kitaria Fables. One of the NPCs in town asks you to harvest five corn, so you buy some seeds from her, plant the corn, and wait for it to grow. Once you give it to her, she asks for five tomatoes, so you do it again. The third time, she asks for kale, and you just pull it out of your storage chest because you know how this shit goes and you already bought every available seed from her and have five of everything she could possibly ask for. Every other NPC in the game wants material dropped by monsters, so you'll be doing the same. Go out, fight some monsters, loot what you can carry, and throw it in a storage chest just in case somebody asks for it down the line.

 

"Well, at least I'm getting combat experience," you think. "I bet that's necessary to advance the game."

 

There is no combat experience. There are no levels. You only get stronger by equipping better gear, which costs -- you guessed it -- materials dropped from monsters. You need 50 obsidian? Better go fight 50 orcs. Need 35 bee stingers? Go pluck them yourself. NPC wants those stingers too? Now you gotta decide between farming for more or skipping that upgrade.

 

The novelty wears off quick. The weird thing is that this concept isn't THAT much different than Sakuna. In that game, you harvested ingredients from monsters, turned them into fertilizer, grew rice using that fertilizer, and then ate that rice to gain increased stats. That was the only way to level up. Hell, even Marenian Tavern Story did that. So I'm not against foregoing a traditional leveling system...but there has to be something more to the game than collecting x of something to gain y to your stats. Kitaria doesn't deliver in that department and that's a shame.

 

Is it the worst game of the year? Not even close. I'd probably give it a 6/10 or slightly above average, but keep in mind that this is a genre I have a major bias towards, so I could be giving it a better score because I naturally like this kind of thing or a worse score because I've seen it done better in other games. I'm probably not the best judge here.

 

...They're going to drop DLC on me, aren't they?

[Cassylvania]

The 3rd Annual Best Games Played in 2021 But Not Necessarily Released in 2021 Awards

 

Game of the Year (3rd Place)

 

And now for the moment you've all been waiting for! Sorta. It would be really anti-climatic to jump right into GOTY, so we're going to start with third place and work our way up. Unfortunately, that means I had to figure out all of the rankings beforehand, so second and first place have already been spoiled for me... Hopefully I can keep them spoiler-free for you.

 

Now, GOTY is trickier than the previous categories because we're no longer looking at something specific. Any monkey can look at two screenshots or listen to two sound clips and determine which game has the better graphics or music. What matters is how these elements are used together. Done correctly, you can end up with a great game. Done poorly, you can end up like this, our third entry for Worst Game of Year...

 

3rd Worst Game of the Year (2021)

 

 

The fact this didn't come in first should trouble you...

 

This is a prime example of a game that fails in every department. I didn't want to nominate it for every category, but it probably could've been. The music was terrible (and hilariously out of place), the graphics were made for someone with better eyes and worse taste than me, the story was non-existent, but somehow the gameplay ended up being the worst thing of all.

 

It's not common for me to hate a game so much that I won't even consider a sequel or spin-off (or, in this case, the exact same game with a different coat of paint). I played The Surge, despite not really caring for Lords of the Fallen. I didn't end up liking The Surge either, but I haven't ruled out The Surge 2. I like to give games the benefit of the doubt. Mahjong Royal Towers is not getting that from me. I will never play another game like this.

 

The worst thing a game can be is boring. I say the same thing about movies. If you're going to be bad, be comically bad. It's worked before. That's one of the reasons I will defend Lords of the Fallen, despite everybody telling me The Surge is the superior game (and that being true on a technical level). Mahjong doesn't try to be anything but a boring, uninspired mess. I hate this game so much that I didn't even want to put it on this list because there's nothing to really talk about. It barely even qualifies as a game. It's a "game" in the same sense that checkers is a sport. Yeah, I mean, I guess you're matching tiles. That's the game. Does that sound like fun? It's not. Pic-a-Pix, for as basic as those games are, at least have some entertainment value. This has none. I had more fun on the character select screen in Minecraft.

 

AJNA: Have you ever thought about going to anger management?

 

Do we have a representative of this game here now?

 

THE KING FROM MAHJONG ROYAL TOWERS: [stands up from his mighty throne in the first row] 'Tis I, the humble king from the game of which you speak! My beautiful wife and I beseech you to reconsider your stance on--

 

[pulls out a gun and shoots the king]

 

Enjoy your crown, asshole.

 

AJNA: Well, this show's getting cancelled...

 

Let's discuss a good game now. This list was much harder to come up with. I can't give out any nominations or honorable mentions for spoiler reasons, but maybe we'll do those at the end. For now, let's just look at the third best game I played this year...

 

3rd Best Game of the Year (2021)

 

 

Rest easy, boys and girls. It was always going to get its due.

 

Return of the Obra Dinn is one of the most memorable games of this year, despite having played it way back in January and platinuming it in 24 hours. It was well-deserving of every nomination it got and only missed out on winning because it's how those aspects work together that make this a masterpiece. This is why I don't think those individual awards mean anything. The story and graphics work in tandem here to create a wholly unique experience that you would never get from hearing me talk about the game or watching a Let's Play. I think this is one of the best examples of a game that you have to play for yourself to truly appreciate.

 

Is it perfect, though? I mean, if it was, it would've ranked higher on my list. Third is still really good. Some of my gripes just have to do with the nature of the game or genre, which isn't something I blame the developers for. They have to have some way to keep you from brute-forcing every answer, so they decided that answers will only be accepted in groups of three. You can still abuse the system by waiting until you're positive on two answers and then brute-forcing the third. There are several answers I had to do that on because I couldn't figure out any other way. Sometimes I think the solution is too vague. If you don't already know the overall gameplay, you're essentially trying to match names to faces in a photograph. (Yes, similar to Mahjong, but with actual purpose.) There are clues scattered throughout the ship, but they come in many forms. It's not as easy as just stumbling across a journal entry all the time. You have to consider clothing, rank, ethnicity, speech patterns... In some instances, it does feel like you have to guess. It doesn't stop it from being an awesome experience from beginning to end. If you haven't played it yet, it's probably my biggest recommendation of the year. (Yes, even above #1 and #2 on my GOTY list.)

 

AJNA: I'd give the game its crown, but the captain is dead and we couldn't exactly fit a ship in the studio...

 

Eh, they were just cheap cardboard crowns I got from Burger King anyway.

Edited December 22, 2021 by Cassylvania

[Cassylvania]

The 3rd Annual Best Games Played in 2021 But Not Necessarily Released in 2021 Awards

 

Game of the Year (2nd Place)

 

I hope everybody had a wonderful Christmas. My family exposed me to the C-word. I take every precaution I can for the entire year and they decide to go out on Christmas Eve, take shots (from the same bottle probably), and infect us all the next day. Is it too late to put myself up for adoption?

 

Well, anyway... Onto the penultimate awards.

 

I spend a lot of time in the car. One of the perks of my job. Gives me time to think. I came up with most of these nominations when I was just driving around town. I actually had a much easier time ranking the good games. There were about ten games I was considering for worst game of the year and only about four for best. I guess that shouldn't come as a shock. I've said it before and I'll say it again: gaming really took a dive for me after Persona 5. That was the last game I played where I remember being really excited for the work day to end so I could come home and boot up the console. I can't think of a single game this year that made me feel that way.

 

When it comes to shit, though, there were several games this year that made actively dread turning on the PS4. I originally had Mahjong at #2 because of that. The thing is, what did I expect? I knew when I bought it that it wasn't going to be some grand adventure to slay a dragon. Expectations are important to me, and there's one game that REALLY dropped the ball in that department.

 

2nd Worst Game of the Year (2021)

 

Everything about this picture is false. Toren isn't a badass. Toren isn't even her name. That's what they call the tower. Her actual name is Moonshine or Starflower or some hippie nonsense like that, and the game is more of a...climbing sim with some light puzzle elements? I don't know. It was bad. Like, bad enough that I decided to put it on this list even though it was over in a couple hours. Just an unpleasant experience all around.

 

AJNA: Personally, I was rooting for the dragon.

 

Shall we discuss something awesome instead?

 

2nd Best Game of the Year (2021)

 

Over the past two weeks, I've been watching a lot of videos on YouTube about liminal spaces. I think it started from the rabbit hole I went down when researching why some people find Super Mario 64 (and other similar N64 games) creepy, despite clearly being intended for a younger audience. I thought I was alone in feeling uneasy whenever I play that game. There's the obvious nightmare fuel from stuff like the never-ending staircase, Mario's vivid drowning animation, and that fuckin' piano, but I never considered the large empty spaces or the eerie stillness of the castle before. There's something very off about that game. It's surreal and that can be terrifying.

 

I point this out because I've come to realize I enjoy tension, even though I don't like scary games.

 

Now, there a nuance to all of this. Anybody can make Five Nights at Freddy's. I have nothing against that game, but jump scares are to horror what slapstick is to comedy. Eventually, you grow numb to it. I think I've talked before about how much I loved the atmosphere in Alien: Isolation, even though I stopped being scared about midway through my first playthrough. There's this feeling that I get when I play certain games that makes me anxious, that makes me get emotionally invested in what my character is doing at that moment. Hell, it's the same feeling I get in XCOM and Dark Souls, when I know that every action could result in my character's death. You want to make a good game? Make me feel that.

 

You want to make a great game? Make me feel that long after I finish.

 

Oxenfree was a phenamonal experience. In a year of mostly forgettable games, this one will linger in my head for a very long time. It was chilling in all the right ways. Sure, there were a few jump scares and they were obviously playing up some common 1980's tropes, but it takes a special kind of game for me to appreciate it even more now (two months later) than when I was playing it. You owe it to yourself to play this game if you haven't already. If that's not enough of an endorsement, there is no game on the PS4 that I'd recommend over this. That includes XCOM, Dark Souls, Persona 5, and this year's #1 GOTY.

 

AJNA: And Shantae.

 

And Shantae.

 

AJNA: And Celeste.

 

Well, Celeste would be my second highest recommendation...

 

AJNA: And A Hat in Time.

 

Are you just naming games that have a female lead?

 

AJNA: And Little Nightmares.

 

She's like six...

 

AJNA: And Valkyria Chronicles.

 

That one doesn't even...

 

AJNA: And--

 

OK! Stay tuned for my best and worst game of the year. You may be surprised.

[Cassylvania]

And on the eleventh hour, we have one final entry to squeeze in. Looks like 2021 will end on a nice round number...

 

Platinum #290 - Wintermoor Tactics Club

 

If I had a magic wand and could make any video game genre become mainstream, it would be turn-based strategy. What an underutilized concept. With the rising popularity of Fire Emblem, I thought this would have happened by now, but it looks like I might have to hold my breath for another decade. At least Wintermoor tries to make things right...

 

So, what is this game? Well, it's Persona 5 if Persona 5 was a tactics game and lacked 95% of the charm. Basically, you take the role of Alicia (no, not the one from Valkyria Chronicles) and you and your nerdy C&C friends (think D&D, but not copyrighted) participate in a snowball tournament at your boarding school to determine who is the Ultimate Club. Oh, and if you lose, your club is disbanded and Krampus takes you away or something. It's pretty weird.

 

Now, the plot is ridiculous. I don't even feel it was necessary. The idea of turning high school tropes into monster classes is gold already. You got the usual high school affair -- jocks, goths, rich kids, furries -- but you and your friends are members of the Tactics Club, the dorkiest idea of a fraternity I can think of. You play board games and make-believe. The thing is, like Jumanji, it seems your world of pretend is beginning to manifest itself in the real world. It's a neat idea. I'm not sure the execution works, but at least it feels there is more at stake than just your nerdy clique.

 

So, while you think the jocks and the kids with actual hand-eye coordination would annihilate everybody in a snowball fight, it turns out that strategy is important. Essentially, all the fights take place in a grid-like environment where you take turns moving and attacking your opponent. Each day has you fighting one other club, but you spend the rest of the day talking to your friends, doing fetch quests, and practicing C&C. Oh, and spying on the other clubs, you little voyeur you. And every time you destroy one of the other clubs' hopes and dreams, one of their members will ask to join your party! You can only use three in battle, but I think most combinations are viable. That's good balancing at least.

 

Each member of your club has a C&C class similar to their real world personality, so Jacob is a rogue because he's a bad boy, Batu is a knight on horseback because he loves horses, and Sarah (*snickers*) is the spawn of Satan. You're a wizard for some reason. Your best friend Colin is a paladin, which sorta makes sense, but it's hard to believe he FIGHTS FOR HIS FRIENDS when he literally spends the entire game accusing you of trying to sabotage the club by allowing other people to join. I never used Colin.

 

The best member is Jania, who is a psychic detective. She's the first outside member to join and the game even tells you her class is broken. It is. She can essentially charm opponents into fighting each other. Positioned correctly, you can sometimes get five or six enemies wailing on each other for a turn.

 

The combat is basic. I'd say this is a lite TBS. Each character essentially only has two moves, but can unlock a third or fourth with the right upgrades (which requiring doing those fetch quests or practice battles I talked about). Your stronger moves require filling up your power meter, which you can do by attacking. Some attacks fill it up more than others, and I think you gain additional bars if you KO an opponent. That means turn order matters. You can only have three characters in battle, but you can move all three before your opponent gets a turn. Sometimes they can play off each other, like Jacob can pull an enemy closer to Jania can hit him or Jania can alter the property of some grid spaces so Alicia can chain lightning through them. Terrain kinda plays a role in this game, but the effects are generally mild (fire that hurts you, bramble that slows you down, smoke that causes you to do less damage, etc.). I found most battles could be won just by playing aggressively with Jania.

 

For the platinum, you do need to S rank every battle, which requires finishing each battle in a specific number of turns with minimal causalities and damage done to your allies. Fortunately, this isn't hard (with one exception -- Duncan's Mastery fight) and you can replay every battle whenever you want. You also don't need to ace the battle in one go. If you get credit for nobody dying, you can replay that battle for a faster turn count. I'd say the vast majority of battles can be aced on your first try.

 

The trophies are fair. A couple are garbage. You need to make sure to read the cat calendar every day or I imagine you'll have to replay the whole game. Some of the side quests are missable if you advance too far into the story. Best to do everything before engaging in that day's snowball fight. I recommend creating a lot of backup saves, but I never had to use them.

 

The artwork in this game is...hard to describe. You know how a lot of adult cartoons use slightly janky animation to make it unappealing to children? I feel like that was done here. Most of the still frames are good, but the overworld feels off. And not in the way I was talking about in my last post. I don't know. It's stiff and lifeless. It's the same graphical style used in the battle sequences, so it should be fine, but it feels unnatural when you're actually moving in real time and seeing the other characters just standing there. It's two styles that I don't think mesh well, but maybe that's just my opinion.

 

Would I recommend this game? Eh, sure. I wouldn't go out of my way for it, but it didn't lie to me. I was expecting a simple turn-based strategy game that I could beat in a few days and I got a simple turn-based strategy game that I could beat in a few days. Now I just need more of the same.

[Maverick6146]

Probably will check Banner of the maiden out. Been looking for a strategy game but still think Vita is the best platform for such kind of games.

 

Thanks for the nice write up though

[Cassylvania]

On 12/30/2021 at 0:10 PM, Maverick6146 said:

Probably will check Banner of the maiden out. Been looking for a strategy game but still think Vita is the best platform for such kind of games.

 

It probably is! I'd like to get a Vita someday, even if I know they've been discontinued. (Fell Seal and God Wars are also decent, lesser-known TBS games on the PS4.)

 

Alright, guys. Now for the moment you've all been waiting for...

 

The 3rd Annual Best Games Played in 2021 But Not Necessarily Released in 2021 Awards

 

Best Female Character

 

AJNA: WHAT!?!

 

This is clearly what this was all leading up to. Who was the best female character of the year? (And we're going with female character instead of waifu because I'm way too lazy to verify everybody on this list is over 18.)

 

AJNA: This is such a stupid idea...

 

This was a heated competition, as you might expect. If we're going to do this, we have to lay out some ground rules first.

 

Rule #1: No customizable characters. I don't think this is going to be much of an issue this year, but I'm not going to consider any character that goes through a character creator. I think the only game affected by this is Saints Row: The Third: Remastered, which honestly shouldn't have even been included in this year's awards because it's not a new game. Every non-playable character in that game is still eligible. Not like they'll make the cut...

 

Rule #2: One character per game. Sorry, but I'm not having this turn into an Atelier fest.

 

Rule #3: The Nelke rule. Speaking of Atelier, Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of the New World would better be called...well, probably anything else, but Atelier All-Stars would make sense, as it's literally a compilation of over 100 characters across every game in the series. I'm not going through all those. I'll accept Nelke and any ORIGINAL character from that game. The rest are out.

 

AJNA: Rule #4. No Shantae.

 

Huh, that's not...

 

AJNA: I SAID NO SHANTAE.

 

Geez, OK. Keep your headband on.

 

#10 - The Chick From the Cover of Mahjong Royal Towers (Mahjong Royal Towers)

 

Redheads are sorta my thing. Too bad she wasn't in a better game.

 

THE KING FROM MAHJONG ROYAL TOWERS: HOW DARE YOU -- THAT IS MY WIFE YOU SPEAK OF!

 

Didn't I shoot you already?

 

THE KING FROM MAHJONG ROYAL TOWERS: I WILL SEE YOU HANGED FOR THIS!

 

#9 - Meena (Dragon Quest Heroes II)

 

What do DQH1 and DQH2 have in common? That's right -- the best character also happens to be the best waifu. I was pretty upset when my bow-wielding goddess Bianca was relegated to DLC dungeons only in this game, but Meena is a worthy successor. She can heal AND attack from range, making her the best choice when you just want to stand back and let the AI do all the work. The only problem is then you have to heal, so I guess you still need to contribute to the fight... But it's better than relying on the AI to do it.

 

Meena also has a twin sister named Maya, if you're into that sort of thing.

 

AJNA: I have a demon form.

 

THE MESSENGER: Ever think of changing out of it?

 

#8 - Charlie (Crossing Souls)

 

That animation speaks for itself.

 

I was a little surprised that Crossing Souls only had one female character. I've always subscribed to the Scooby Doo philosophy that if you're going to have a group of best friends, there should be at least one girl for every two guys. Otherwise, it feels unbalanced. Doesn't help that two of the characters wore glasses and felt redundant.

 

Anyway, Charlie is the best character in the game.

 

AJNA: "Charlie"...?

 

#7 - Karna (Ys: Memories of Celceta)

 

AJNA: ...

 

It's not my fault they gave the redhead a ranged attack. It's like my two favorite things at once.

 

AJNA: This whole awards ceremony is a farce.

 

Hey, Ys should just be happy to be included on a list. I didn't even touch Origins all year.

 

#6 - Gilda (Ikenfell)

 

#5 - Pauline (Banner of the Maid)

 

Never thought I'd spend New Year's Eve talking about Napoleon Bonaparte's sister, but here we are.

 

There are SEVERAL characters from this game who could make the list. Colette was my MVP for much of the game. Eugenie has a phenamonal design. Nicolette is great. Rose has...uh, slightly exaggerated features. But I love what they did with Pauline. She has a personality, she dresses...somewhat appropriately for the time period, I think...and she's a badass. It's just too bad her character is one of the weaker units in the game.

 

Still wins for having an actual personality.

 

#4 - Shallie (Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea)

 

Spoiler! Shallie (the Lotte variety) is the only Atelier character to make the cut.

 

Why did I go with the weirder of the two?

 

See, here's the thing. Most Atelier protagonists (because that's obviously what I'm going to be considering if I'm looking at an Atelier game) have the exact same personality. They're timid, clumsy, and a little awkward. I guess that makes them charming. That said, I've paid less and less attention to the story as I've played through each game, so my knowledge of the characters really kinda stops with the Arland and Mysterious trilogies. By the time I got to Dusk, I was making up my own personality for each character based on their appearance and the few snippets of text I caught while fast-forwarding through the game. I did, however, enjoy what I saw from Shallotte...and actually listened to some of her dialogue!

 

Shallotte is a trash collector. She does other odd jobs around town to pay the bills (I think she's trying to help her mom, who is sick), but her life is basically going nowhere. That makes her instantly relatable. I also love her ridiculous outfit. Most of the characters in these games have an unusual sense of fashion, but it generally feels like they're trying to be attractive. Shallotte dresses like she doesn't care what you think. Her hat alone has ears, eyes, braids, a bracelet, and paint splatter for some reason. Her bow tie doesn't match. She has red sneakers, a blue coat, and a skirt. I don't know what she's dressed for. Anybody else would be embarrassed to leave the house looking at that, but she's not deterred. I love her spunk and she deserves her own game.

 

Other Shallie is pretty cool too.

 

#3 - Yuki (Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun)

 

Yuki is on this list for the same reason Mulan is the best Disney princess. She's the one you want in a fight. Yuki is the "weakest" character in Shadow Tactics (only in the sense that she has to slowly drag bodies across the ground after she murders someone), but she's fast, sneaky, and has the best one-two punch in the game (lay down a trap, lure enemy into trap). I almost soloed entire maps with her. There's something hilarious about one little girl killing an entire army of highly-trained samurai.

 

It was funny in Mulan too.

 

#2 - Maya (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney)

 

When I started this list, I wasn't even sure if Maya was going to make it. I had her at #9, then #5, then... I dunno, she grew on me. Very fun character to have around when you're solving a murder. It's just too bad her powers never seem to work when you need them to.

 

I'd even be tempted to put Ema Skye on this list, as I actually like her design just a little more, but I'm going to have to go with the OG here.

 

#1 - Clementine (The Walking Dead: The Final Season)

 

My girl. While I don't love what they did with her character in the last two games of the series, she still remains the coolest chick I got to know this year. I'm VERY happy that her conclusion was satisfying, as I totally wasn't expecting that. There's only one way that a zombie apocalypse can end. I'm just glad I got to spend it with Clem.

 

AJNA: Are you done now? Did you have your fun?

 

Yes, I think so.

 

AJNA: Good. Because the 200+ girls who didn't make your list would like to have a word with you. Ladies?

 

Uh... I... [takes a step back]

 

THE KING FROM MAHJONG ROYAL TOWERS: VENGEANCE WILL BE OURS!

 

(But seriously, guys, thanks for reading this thread and all the garbage I write. I appreciate it. I'm delaying GOTY until next weekend because I'm trying to finish up a little project to go alongside it.)

Edited January 1, 2022 by Cassylvania

[Grotz99]

Glad you did a Wintermoore writeup as it's currently on sale at a price I was considering, but really on the fence still. I like tbs games, but sounds like I can wait on that one a bit longer.

 

Maya for number 2 is surprising in a good way. Ever since she butted into Phoenix Wrights life at the start, it was always great to get her commentary along the way...basically for 0 pay.

Edited January 2, 2022 by Grotz99