Your Games Completed of 2021

Xen … good

Sorry, you've lost me.

No, I know! I know! I was like that too but it's an impossible question that they kind of answer. They do some really neat worldbuilding, some nice encounters and the whole thing looks pretty spectacular. It's about a third longer than it needs to be but, honestly, it's got that really good vibe of 'oh, so this is what they meant'

Is that the Source engine remake?

Yeah.

Ghost of Tsushima
Golf Story
Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Superhot: Mind Control Delete
Monster Hunter World
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne

Astro's Playroom
Monster Hunter Rise

I'm fairly confident I've forgotten something else, too. Oh well.

Astro's Playroom is lovely. Such a nice freebie to throw in with the PS5, and a fine platformer/tech demo to boot.

Monster Hunter Rise I've basically done almost everything on, at least to the point where I've fought and killed every monster, and beaten the proper end to the story (Proof of a Hero played, so I figure it counts), so even though I'm not done I will at least put it in here now, and maybe even try and play some other stuff too…

Yakuza 5

A big, bloated mess of a game that's also kind of a triumph. It's massive - five cities, a suite of minigames that's grander and more varied than anything else, five playable characters, custom music, side stories, dozens of places to eat. I sunk 70 hours into it and my completion rate was about 45% at the end of the game.

The story's interesting, weaving all over the place and with some great character moments. A lot of talk about family, about dreams, about shouldering the responsibility for others failings. The gameplay's as tight as Yakuza gets with fights feeling the most optional of any of the games, and a progression that unlocks slowly and progresses. The animations are superb with the ancient, ps3 era engine producing some truly spectacular vistas.

Absolutely don't play this. Play Yakuza 0 instead.

Every time I feel bad for coming away from Yakuza Kiwami mega disappointed and get tempted to try again, I read stuff like this lol. Feels like the only ones worth playing are Like a Dragon and Zero from what I'm seeing

0 and 7 are definitely the best starting points but 5 is very much up there in terms of quality. It just kind of relies on you having played all the others as well.

Kiwami 2 is also a good time, and I’ve heard lots of good things about 6 and Judgment, which I haven’t played yet.

It’s a variable series for sure but even the weaker entries are lifted by being part of something bigger, if that makes sense.

Yeah I'm moving onto Y6 real soon. Once that's done it's onto Y7.

Dusk

A throwback to Quake 1, Dusk is an incredibly atmospheric first person shooter that's equal parts goofy and horrifying. It's like Evil Dead, knowing you're willing to play along with it, and knowing that it needs to deliver the goods. Some of the weapons aren't quite as meaty as I'd like them to be but it's really rather good.

If you want a shooter that'll give you a tense feeling in the back of your head, this is probably a good one to go with. It's visual style, the sound of it, the music all work to give it this lost-artefact quality that's absolutely tops. Has less polygons than a single room in Resident Evil 8 but more atmosphere than that entire game.

Strongly recommended.

Crysis 3

Kind of wanted to play this when it came out but it's actually really bum. 7 hours long shooter that's got one viable play style.

I didn't like it :( I'm not even sure why. I loved HL back in the day, but perhaps I was expecting a bit more from the remaster. The core game has been pillaged so thoroughly by games that followed it that I found it really difficult to play and enjoy. So much so I refunded it. Which isn't fair, but perhaps I thought the remaster might elevate it more. Conversely I think HL2 stands up OK, and that too has been remorselessly copied. So I dunno. Maybe I wasn't in the right frame of mind when I tried it.

Ys: Memories of Celceta
Ys: Lacrimos of Dana
Ys Origin
Ys I
Ys II
Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk
Tokyo Xanadu Ex+
Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore
Atelier Ryza
Tales of Eternia
Persona 2: Innocent Sin
Ys: The Oath in Felghana
Tales of Xillia 2
Lunar: the Silver Star Complete
Disco Elysium
Wild Arms 3
Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne
Hajimari no Kiseki

Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age

This really is the ultimate RPG isn't it? I still think Persona 5 Royal was an overall better experience, but if you want a more 'traditional' jrpg that oozes more love and soul and care than I don't think you'll ever find it, certainly not in this gen or maybe even the last. If anyone knows how I feel about Witcher 3 I'd say this is the jrpg equivalent in terms of pinnacle. In years to come we (or maybe just me >_>) will still be saying 'X is good but it doesn't compare to DQ11'.

Also, this is one of the most beautiful games I've ever played, let alone jrpg. Every town and field is distinct and looks amazing technically and artistically…it's a shame the game doesn't have a soundtrack to match no matter which option you choose for it.

If you have a LOT of time to spare and like classic style RPGs, definitely try it.

I dunno, it's a very charming and beautiful game but they dropped the ball so hard on the difficulty level that it really hurts it I think. On default settings the game is ridiculously easy to the point where you barely need to engage with any of its systems at all, you just steamroll your way through everything. You can set additional difficulty options for yourself but only at the start of the game so who really knows that they'll need to do that, first time through? And by the time you realise you are playing in brain-dead mode, you're not going to want to go back and replay whatever you've already done.

Also as you point out, the soundtrack is bad bordering on annoying, the option to swap out the most grating tune for the equivalent from a better Dragon Quest game helps for a while but doesn't stop it being repetitive.

I dunno, I played through the first act (25 hours or so) and felt pretty satisfied with what I played, I didn't really feel the need to continue. I really wanted to like it more than I did.

I felt exactly the same way as you, wishing it was like DQ8's difficulty for a long while at the start. but I think the difficulty, whilst never getting super challenging became better than it was eventually, like when bosses as standard start getting 2 or 3 turns to your party's 1, when they can single out someone for 2 or 3 of those turns and whatnot it did make me have to think a little. And of course the more characters you get the more you feel like you're doing things your way rather than just using the Greatsword because the big slash attack it has is super overpowered…

And honestly, the Draconian Trials that makes monsters stronger sounds like it scales up way too much, like it just makes the early easier parts just take longer and I've seen tons of people online mention having to turn it off (since it's possible that way, just once it's off it's off for good) because later boss fights became insane. On balance I'm not too bothered by it anymore.

As a fellow FFXIII enjoyer such as yourself this is going to feel sadly like 'Get to Pulse before you judge FFXIII' but did you get to Act 2? I am not saying it's wrong to quit before then because it's potentially a long way off, but the events that kick off Act 2 really got the ball rolling for me.

I finished Act 1 then put it down and never went back to it. Probably been too long now to return to it.

Good to hear that the difficulty level evens out later on. I keep looking at it on Game Pass and thinking how nice it would be to play this at 60fps/4K (having originally played on Switch) but then again it's been on there a while and I'd hate for it to disappear while I'm halfway through it. It is a long old game.

I've been playing the demo for this over the last week or so - fancy a jrpg and I just didn't click with Ni no Kuni once it got going. I'm enjoying it so far (on Switch). All boxes checked - looks great, plays like every DQ but shinier (which is just what I wanted), slightly clunky menus, nice little narrative twists, annoying first companion. It being a bit easy is fine for me - I don't have the time or patience for grinding at the mo. Music isn't too grating so far but can see how it will become so after a while…

The demo is massive too! I've played about five hours so far (just got back to Cobblestone after visiting Heliopolis) and it's still going. No idea how long it'll let me keep going but I'll definitely make a purchase once it stops.

It's a massive demo. And I believe you can carry over your progress into the full game if you buy? I think that's right.

You definitely can carry your progress over, I did exactly that. The demo's ridiculously long, I got over ten hours out of it from what I remember and I could easily have made it last for longer.

Ah great cheers, I'd assumed that was the case. If I had to start again I think I'd probably not bother…

Max Payne 1 and 2

It's the 20th anniversary of Max Payne 1 so I figured I'd replay it and it's sequel. They're weird games, right on the edge of a third person shooter boom that would dominate games for a while more to come after their release. Stuck in that 'how do we tell stories in games?' period where different things were possible. The gameplay isn't as tight as I remembered it but- I think a lot of that is down to modern hardware. The games could, frankly, use a remaster or a re-release. Something where running them at 60 FPS+ doesn't cause serious damage calculation issues.

Good games still, but showing their age rather sharply.

I still remember playing Max Payne 2 when it came out - it was the first time I’d seen ragdoll physics in a game. I think it beat Half Life 2 and Psi Ops by almost a year.

Lots of fun punting enemies into conveniently located piles of boxes.

Vampyr

Dreadful shit saved only by its short runtime.

January
Blasphemous

February
Horace
Agent A: A Puzzle In Disguise
The Burnable Garbage Day

March
Nothing

April
A Way Out
FEZ

May
South Park: The Fractured But Whole
Call of the Sea
Scott Pilgrim Vs The World

June
Tick Tock: A Game For Two

July
There Is No Game

August
Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective - Gorgeous looking puzzle game that's half Where's Wally, half maze-solving adventure. It's a weird one though because you'd think mazes would be about finding the right path through to the end (and it is). However, there are lots of collectibles in each level (notes, treasure and stars), and finding all of those actually requires you to explore all of the dead ends as well. I didn't really expect that. It's very quaint though, incredibly lovely to look at and doesn't outstay its welcome. I think your kids might like it, Gar and Bri (and anyone else with younger children who have inquisitive minds).

Ys: Memories of Celceta
Ys: Lacrimos of Dana
Ys Origin
Ys I
Ys II
Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk
Tokyo Xanadu Ex+
Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore
Atelier Ryza
Tales of Eternia
Persona 2: Innocent Sin
Ys: The Oath in Felghana
Tales of Xillia 2
Lunar: the Silver Star Complete
Disco Elysium
Wild Arms 3
Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne
Hajimari no Kiseki
Dragon Quest 11

Skies of Arcadia

Aniki, guess I did it beat it 'this weekend' after all! (I dunno why I thought it was the weekend >_<)

This is one of the most …'solid' RPGs I've played in ages, don't think there's a single section I don't like, the whole package is just comprised of a good game. Obviously you need to take into account how old it is for the lack of QoL on stuff we have now and some animations drag a bit, combat is kinda' broken too and if this ever got remade I'd make it so magic was actually worth using. But no, no dungeon ever pissed me off, no gameplay section was ever like 'this is why I hate RPGs sometimes' and it never felt like it was slow to take off like DQ11 did. The bit where you randomly get asked to make a 100k gold annoyed me but that ended up not taking long at all.

Everything from the Deep Sea bed section to the end was also quite the ride, last bosses were insanely easy but we'll let that slide because they gave you a last boss fight on the ship as well. Unless I missed something, I do wish they explained why Ramirez was so devoted to Galcian despite his heritage, they touch upon it and iirc all it told me was why he felt somewhat indebted to him, not crazy obsessed.

Spoiler - click to showKilling off most of the Valuan Generals felt like really earned catharsis and I think only improved my opinion of the story more. Certain other RPGs want their cake and eat it with letting villains off the hook and expecting us to take this shit seriously but here, those that saw they were on the wrong side were too late and those that didn't died because of their character flaws (Obsession with Vyse, their own cowardice etc). Also not related but Drachma's story ending with him ending up feeling sorry for the Whale that killed his son and it turning out to be the Purple Gigas? Perfect.

Anyway, blatant Top 10 all time RPG and it's easy to see why it's so beloved. The first RPG I've played since Lunar to capture that game's charm, maybe even surpasses it (maybe, Lunar does have a Disney Song FMV after all…).

Ape Out

More like Ape Outstays It's Welcome.

Turns out I don't like jazz, I just liked cowboy bebop.

You completed it? I played two levels and was bored already.

I mean it's only got 4 albums. They're pretty similar but it's got that instant restart hotline miami thing.

Last Stop. Doctor Who crossed with Life is Strange, sponsored by Greggs. One of the most gloriously batshit endings in the whole of gaming, too. Absolutely loved this from start to finish.

The Elder Scrolls Online: well, the original main quest, anyway. Nowadays you can do pretty much any quest in any order in this game, but I tried to do this in the way it would have been structured originally: following the Alliance storyline through half a dozen zones or so, and interleaving it with the Soul Shriven plot that ultimately takes you to the "final boss". Turns out this was a massive undertaking and it's taken me absolutely ages - even just following the zone stories and not worrying overmuch about side quests.

Even then, that's a third of the original main game (there are three different alliances with completely separate zones) and I haven't touched any of the five massive expansions or dozens of other bits of story DLC. Big game is big. I might take a little break from this for a while but I'll definitely be back, there's just a huge amount to do here.

The next patch (August 31st) fixes the HDR on console and makes Series X run at 4K 60, so it'll be worth another look next month.

They're finally fixing the HDR? That's going to be interesting.

I mean, objectively it's completely busted. Colours are massively over-saturated, pinks and reds are eye-popping, shadows are blue. Everyone looks like they've been spending too much time on the tanning bed. It looks nothing like the normal version of the game at all.

But - I'm kind of used to it now? After so many hours playing, this is how Elder Scrolls Online looks to me. It lends an air of unreality to the whole thing, like the cover of a 70s pulp paperback or something. I took a quick look at the game in SDR and it all looked a bit drab in comparison, I quickly went scurrying back to my day-glo fantasy overload.

The HDR's been the way it is for five years now, I think they tried to fix it once before and everyone complained so much they just reverted it back. I wonder if they'll have to maintain two versions going forward in order to keep everyone happy? Or if it'll just be a case of "this is how it was always supposed to be, just get used to it". I don't envy them, MMO playerbases are the worst.

I don't envy them, MMO playerbases are the worst.

I would like to introduce you to the Animal Crossing community. Just thinking about them makes me feel ill.

I think I read that the new, fixed HDR will be the default, with an option to switch back to the day-glo version.

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice - well, I've spoken about this at length in the graphic whores thread so I won't repeat myself here. But mechanically this is straightforward but engaging, thematically it's a bit of a mess, combat is really chunky and weighty but gets a bit repetitive, and in terms of audiovisuals it's an absolute assault on the senses and well worth playing on that basis alone. Make sure you use headphones with any fancy 3D processing disabled as the game handles all that stuff on its own. And then take them off before you get to the awful, incongruous emo soft rock song that plays over the end credits.

Very happy to announce that from playing the demo that just dropped, Tales of Arise is a really fun game and feels exactly how a Tales game should, I was a little worried I had hyped myself too much but so far I have no complaints.

January
Blasphemous

February
Horace
Agent A: A Puzzle In Disguise
The Burnable Garbage Day

March
Nothing

April
A Way Out
FEZ

May
South Park: The Fractured But Whole
Call of the Sea
Scott Pilgrim Vs The World

June
Tick Tock: A Game For Two

July
There Is No Game

August
Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective
Metroid: Zero Mission - Dread is my project at work, so I'm playing all the previous 2D games for fun ahead of release. Well… not all the 2D games because Samus Returns isn't good (it's a fine remake, but you can't polish a turd). Haven't played this one in forever, but it's decent - the NES original hasn't aged well at all, but adding the trappings of Super definitely makes it playable again. It's short though, I clocked in at just over four hours before seeing the end (which is after a bonus section that wasn't in the original). Onto Super on my Switch!

Ys: Memories of Celceta
Ys: Lacrimos of Dana
Ys Origin
Ys I
Ys II
Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk
Tokyo Xanadu Ex+
Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore
Atelier Ryza
Tales of Eternia
Persona 2: Innocent Sin
Ys: The Oath in Felghana
Tales of Xillia 2
Lunar: the Silver Star Complete
Disco Elysium
Wild Arms 3
Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne
Hajimari no Kiseki
Dragon Quest 11
Skies of Arcadia

Xenogears
Mechs, martial arts, psychology, a dude who wants to kill God…what more do you want? Helps that this game has three of the best antagonists of the PS1 era and an interesting albeit complicated but mature story.

January
Blasphemous

February
Horace
Agent A: A Puzzle In Disguise
The Burnable Garbage Day

March
Nothing

April
A Way Out
FEZ

May
South Park: The Fractured But Whole
Call of the Sea
Scott Pilgrim Vs The World

June
Tick Tock: A Game For Two

July
There Is No Game

August
Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective
Metroid: Zero Mission
Down in Bermuda - Cute little puzzle game from the folks who made Agent A (which I finished in February). Very short, but that's okay… what it does was still fun. One and done though, deleted.

The Great Ace Attorney - Adventures which is the first part of the Great Ace Attorney Collection (the second part is called Resolve).

So much of this is excellent. The production values are off the charts, the characters are superb, and the translation is amazing. The period setting is used supremely well (and the game doesn't shy away from the racism and xenophobia of the time). Herlock Sholmes could have been a terrible one-note parody but is instead a likeable, surprisingly nuanced character that is both true to the original depiction yet also completely unique. Central character Ryunosuke is more earnest than Phoenix Wright but no less charming for it. There's a not inconsiderable amount of Cockney rhyming slang here, an extraordinary Irishman and the game is, of course, laugh-out-loud funny in many places.

But the pacing completely drags it down. Every case is about 25% longer than it needs to be. There are two introductory cases before the game even really gets going, and they're both inordinately long. There's no back-and-forth between investigations and trials: you get one or the other, or one of each, and that's it. Sometimes it feels like two-thirds of the dialogue is just characters repeating what others have just said. The whole thing badly needs a ruthless edit.

Apparently the pacing in the second game is much better, so I'm looking forward to that. As it is I think I will probably look back on GAA1 fondly, but I'd struggle to say it was always enormous fun to play.

Resolve starts very good (you'll see why as soon as you do Trial 1) and only gets better, Adventures is an okay PW game but maybe not better than the original trilogy because of the stuff you mentioned (you will have more games to rate it against though) but I genuinely think Resolve came close to 3-5 levels of good for me, that's how much more I liked it.

January
Blasphemous

February
Horace
Agent A: A Puzzle In Disguise
The Burnable Garbage Day

March
Nothing

April
A Way Out
FEZ

May
South Park: The Fractured But Whole
Call of the Sea
Scott Pilgrim Vs The World

June
Tick Tock: A Game For Two

July
There Is No Game

August
Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective
Metroid: Zero Mission
Down in Bermuda

September
Super Metroid - Cross another one off the list. I remember less about the latter half of this game than I thought I would, it's harder than I remember. It's also more annoying, as it does some things it really shouldn't (late in the game, there are secret paths that have to be taken which the X-Ray Scanner doesn't show, which is completely bullshit game design). But it's done now and I can move onto Fusion… got about two weeks to finish that, as I'm meant to be getting my copy of Dread in mid-September. Exciting!

Ys: Memories of Celceta
Ys: Lacrimos of Dana
Ys Origin
Ys I
Ys II
Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk
Tokyo Xanadu Ex+
Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore
Atelier Ryza
Tales of Eternia
Persona 2: Innocent Sin
Ys: The Oath in Felghana
Tales of Xillia 2
Lunar: the Silver Star Complete
Disco Elysium
Wild Arms 3
Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne
Hajimari no Kiseki
Dragon Quest 11
Skies of Arcadia
Xenogears

Suikoden - Awesome little RPG about fighting a corrupt empire and along the way recruiting a possible 108 people to do so (This is in every game in the series), some are obviously better at combat, some are better at other jobs like giving you an Inn to heal and save in at the base, or during one of the game's 'war fights' you can use the ninjas to see what the enemy will do on it's next turn. Some will only join if you beat them at a gambling minigame, some will only join if you find their cat, or have more resistancem emebers, it's really cool.

It's abour 20 hours long, it's super easy and despite a few archaic parts (worst item management of all time) it's really fun to play…and everyone will skip it because apparently Suikoden 2 is much the same but better in every single way. A shame, because this is still one of my favourite PS1 RPGs now, all it misses is a better story and what do you know, people say Suikoden 2 has one of the best villains of all time, so there's that. If Suikoden enhances the good of Suikoden 1 and fixes the not amazing parts then that's a Top 3 RPG on PS1 right there.

Monster Train - finally beat Covenant 25 on this excellent, excellent game AND it rolled the credits so I think that counts as a completion. Plenty more to do though, I still need to defeat the Last Divinity super-boss as well as completing it with all the other clans and oh, what's that, Expert Challenges unlocked? Not done with this by a long stretch but I'd take some more DLC in a heartbeat.

If this wasn't £25 on Switch, I'd probably bite.

It's only just launched on Switch, I'm sure it'll get a sale a bit further down the line. It's on Game Pass for both PC and Xbox if that's of any use to you.

I've had three goes on it so far, and early impressions are very good. I'm definitely not up to speed yet, or getting all the systems and their nuances - I did win my third run, but on the second I'd also had a really good thing going before an impressive act of self-sabotage owing to not knowing some of the terminology - but it seems genuinely great.

I'm not keeping a list, besides, the only game I think I've completed this year is Nier Automata…

Until now

Final Fantasy IV (PSP)

Well that was a ride with a boss that felt like it came out of nowhere (and was piss easy to the dungeon that preceded it). Some fairly decent characters in there considering when it was originally made even if it did do the "oh no X has died!" A few hours later "you're alive!!!"

Now for FFIV:Interlude and then FFIV:The After Years!!!

I'm giving the IV ones a little break, been sat on a XII save file since 2019! So gonna finish that one off before deciding which FF to do next.