Board 8 > Mac ranks 63 games played in 2021

(+) Yeah! (+)

40. Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth (2016) - PC

This was certainly better than the first game. Basically every character has a much better showing here (other than the devil made flesh, Kuon). The MC especially is a huge improvement, along with Nekone. The game being more serious is a big plus, though the comedy was somewhat improved as well. I wouldn't say it's necessarily the best part of the game, but the opening few hours is when I most into the game as a whole. Everything was a big change, and they were consistently delivering good content. Unfortunately, I still feel like the pacing wasn't the greatest in general. There are some real slow parts where they're hanging around in Ennakamuy not really doing anything for hours, particularly the spot of the game after Kuon comes back. There's a lot more bad comedy content there. Even the serious content can be a bit slow at times, but that's better. There's a spot maybe 2/3 of the game in where they mention a certain battle being the final battle, but the game stretches out quite a lot beyond that. Not necessarily in bad ways, but it generally felt like too much.

The villains weren't the best, and some were hyped up as smart while not actually doing much that's smart during the game. It cranks up the harem aspects, to its detriment. The first Utawarerumono game was a hentai game so everyone being into the MC and him banging all the girls made sense, but here it just makes the girls worse. The biggest improvement was the gameplay. There are more battles, and they're far more interesting. They aren't hard, but they're at least moderately challenging. The mechanics are much better explained and there are more of them. They're mostly spaced out better throughout the game too, I think. Solid game overall, but I still liked the first Uta the best.

Next game hint: the hottest game on the list.

39. Firewatch (2016) - PC

Pretty solid walking simulator! I enjoyed pretty much all the dialogue, and didn't hate the ending. Characters were fun, and the gameplay was at that level where it's just engaging enough that you can pay 100% attention to the dialogue. There were a couple times I spent too much time wandering in the wilderness, but it wasn't a major issue, thankfully. Surpassed my expectations!

Next game hint: Hop, skip, and jumping into the future.

38. Rabi-Ribi (2016) - PC

It's funny how playing games nowadays can work. A game is released, and then it can get patches for years, so someone playing it now has a very different experience from someone playing in 2016 would've. I enjoyed pretty much everything in the main game that was originally published. The ending was satisfying. The combat is cool in that you have ranged moves and melee moves, both of which use resources, so you have to switch between ranged and melee if you want to maximize your damage. The story is highly silly, but it's fun. The spritework is quite good, and the music often rocks. It's neat how big the world is, too. Felt like one of the biggest in a Metroidvania I've played, even though it's not one of the longest. There's autosaves and a ton of fast travel points. The game's paced quite well between story, exploration, boss fights, regular combat, and secret items, so nothing ever gets old.

The final three chapters of the game which were added post-release don't quite maintain this balance, unfortunately. The first bit is real good. There's a bunch of new ideas. We have a boss that turns the game into a horizontal shooter, bringing its bullet hell roots into focus, and some fun new environments with more vertical traversal than the horizontal stuff we got for most of the game. It gets kinda bad after that though. There's a really long part with hard enemies (regular hits from mobs deal over 1/3 of your health in damage, when usually it's around 1/20), and it wasn't fun at all IMO. After that you get a long boss rush (think it was like 16 bosses?) which isn't particularly fun either. There's basically no upgrade items here compared to the rest of the game, and nothing to really explore. I didn't like it at all. The bosses turn more damage sponge-y too, with huge HP bars. The exploration/story/boss/items balance is gone. Sad it had to end that way. Kinda makes me wonder if I would've liked Hollow Knight less if I played it after all the DLC rather than before it.

Next game hint: Despite these two Metroidvanias being next to each other in the list and being similar in some ways, I liked the next one a great deal more.

37. Ender Lilies - Quietus of the Nights (2021) - PC

Man, games are tough to rank sometimes. EL has a strong start, with real good atmosphere and a gradual introduction to how things work. After a while I started to feel like things got kinda samey, with an overly slow drip of new movement abilities and not much distinction between areas. It also got a lot harder (probably partly because I wasn't using ideal strategies), and I found it quite frustrating for a while. But then I got more movement abilities, and the area design felt like it got better, and the bosses got less frustrating. I really enjoyed my last few hours with the game, finishing the story and cleaning up all the items and such.

The atmosphere and story were among the stronger parts of the game overall. I quite enjoy the dark feeling, and the reveals of the story are all good. It has a bit of a Dark Souls-y lore drip feed, but I like it more here than I have in those games, and there are regular cutscenes too. I was frustrated by the lack of movement abilities, but there are tons of combat abilities, so if one strategy's not working, it's easy to change things up. The game has a ton of awesome QoL features, like showing when a map area has been completed, returning to the last save point anytime, and just a smooth interface in general. Bosses can be difficult, but usually in a fair way, with a couple exceptions (though it sounds like the most annoying one got patched to be easier after I beat him, lol). The area design isn't super unique, but some places are nice, especially the coven area with a bunch of upward flowing waterfalls. The last area was delightfully oppressive too. It's also nice and open-ended - I think I played the game in a fairly different order than what's usually recommended. This is a good game, and I can see people liking it more than me, but I can't quite get over the problems I had with the middle section.

Next game hint: I like this new trend of mini-sequels or turning expansions into separate games.

I'm currently in the middle of playing they the Yakuza games (in the middle of 4 right now) so I was worried when I saw Yakuza 6 so low because I'm really looking forward to it. However, I wasn't the biggest fan of 3 and seeing as how you haven't dropped it yet makes me think that perhaps we just have different tastes, though I'm not sure how differing tastes can be when it comes to Yakuza.

I feel like there's a fairly wide variety of opinions on the games? I've heard all sorts of different opinions on 2-6. I've heard a few people say 6 is the worst, but I've also seen a number of people say it's the best. Same with 5, really. I like all of them other than 1 and 6, personally.

36. Spider-Man: Miles Morales (PS5) - 2021

This was neat. The story is cool, and basically all the changes from SM2018 are good. I like the electricity powers, and being able to re-enter stealth after being detected is nice. It still FEELS real similar to the last game though. Lots of the same open world activities, and obviously the same map. Cool side quests at least. I would've liked something that felt more fresh, but this sort of thing is cool too once in a while.

Next game hint: tfw the critics say a game is a revolutionary leap forward and it ends up being an average-to-below-average game for the franchise.

Arise?

Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart

35. Tales of Arise (2021) - PS5

I feel like I should've liked this more than I did, but for every good thing about it, there was something else holding it down. Almost all the main cast members were instantly likable and had entertaining dialogue (Shionne rules), but they get less interesting as they get more development, kind of like all their edge is shaved off. The villain cast is a solid bunch of irredeemable assholes, but the main villain is incredibly bland. The story has a fun premise and gets off to an excellent start, and while I enjoyed pretty much all of the plot twists, the delivery of the plot gets pretty repetitive and slow later on, with some awful moments. The graphics are pretty cool and the dungeon look better than ever, but character expressions are more limited and the dungeon designs aren't generally that interesting, with the final dungeon being a boring slog. The combat lets you do a lot of fun things, and the boost system is quite enjoyable, but the battles late in the game take way too long. The skill system is very good at least. Berseria's weapon skill system was fun, but you leveled skills so slowly that you were stuck using the same weapons forever. This system's a lot more balanced, with bonuses for completing areas of the skill tree, but the bonuses aren't big enough that you can't just skip some branches if you're uninterested.

All in all, it feels like a game that had a lot of great ideas, and even executed them well, but then they forgot how to execute those ideas as the game went on. Lots of Tales games suffer from this sort of problem, and Arise at least feels like the most polished game since Vesperia, which smooths out a lot of the pain, I just wish it had played out a bit better in general. I also feel like it didn't have that one outstanding factor to pull me through and make me love it anyway. Lots of Tales games are more flawed than this one, but have something special (Yuri in Vesperia, leveling up shops in Xillia, nifty alternate dimensions and fun cast additions in Xillia 2, etc.) that make me really like them anyway. There wasn't any x-factor in Arise that made me care about the game other than being fun and generally solid, so the flaws are a little tougher to overlook.

Next game hint: turns out living on a boat is more serious than you might expect

34. Spiritfarer (2020) - PC

Real cool game in a lot of ways. It's about a woman who days and becomes a Spiritfarer, helping dead spirits move on to the afterlife. I like the integration of farming gameplay with exploration in a mostly plot-based game. There are tons of mini-games for harvesting materials, and a lot of them were pretty fun too. The graphics are fantastic - everything looks real good and enhances the gameplay. Very impressive for an indie game in that respect. Unfortunately, I didn't find it quite as emotional as some people. There were some good, moving scenes, but I never came close to crying or anything. The bigger problem is that the game's real long. There's not like a ton of story content, but the game's like 30 hours long because of how much gameplay grinding you have to do. Mostly I enjoyed the gameplay, but I got stuck at one point because I hadn't advanced the right storylines and ended up grinding for a long time to get past that. Think it would've been better for them to reduce the requirements for some of these.

Next game hint: easily one of the best Sword Art Online clones of all time.

gotta be CrossCode, right?

33. CrossCode (PC) - 2015

This is almost a great game. I like most of the things about this a lot. The combat is fun, it controls very well, the graphical style works great (basically looks like a late SNES RPG but with more effects), the music is good, and the writing is fun. The setting is neat since it allows for the game to be both self-aware and serious as need be, and keeps things lighthearted for the most part. The story's well-done, though I wish there was more of it early on. The late-game stuff is all excellent and it ends about as well as it could. Exploration is pretty well done, with quests to explore and optional puzzles to get to chests/secret areas. And the dungeons seemed really cool... at first. They're basically LttP-style dungeons, which I've always liked. Unfortunately, they get REALLY puzzle heavy, and I wasn't that great at a lot of the puzzles. Their existence was extremely frustrating to me, and by the time I was halfway through solving the puzzles mainly made me feel relief rather than satisfaction. I'd still recommend it as a cool modern RPG, but I personally would've liked it a lot more with half (or even a quarter of) the puzzles...

Next game hint: the game with the most main characters on this list (I think).

I am enjoying reading these, though we appear to have pretty different tastes. I liked CrossCode's puzzles more than its combat!

Guessing 13 sen next

The hint was wrong lol

32. Yakuza 5 (2012) - PC

I guess what I should've said for the hint is that the game has the most main characters in its series! This is a pretty inconsistent experience. I like the new engine - it looks much prettier, and playing the game generally feels smoother, though 0's improvements made it better still. Kiryu's chapter was great, Saejima's was good but less engaging/emotional than his 4 chapter, and Shinada's should've been excised from the game. The finale tried to bring everything together, and kinda succeeded in terms of spectacle, but the story itself was bad and the final boss's identity was stupid. Haruka/Akiyama chapter was pretty refreshing gameplay-wise, but the story wasn't the best in the first half. The side stories were a cool addition too, though I certainly didn't do them all. Neat game, I just wish the content after part 3 had been better. This might've been the strongest Yakuza game in terms of gameplay, but the story shits the bed so hard. I also didn't do all the side content, which there is a ton of, but it's cool that it's there.

Next game hint: I always wonder what the original's like when I play a remake of a game I've never played before.

obviously Final Fantasy VII R

That's a good writeup for Arise

Ys IX should've been ranked already, although I get a feeling you're a fan/defender

it was not FF7R

And yeah, I think I've talked to you about Ys IX a bit.

31. Yakuza Kiwami 2 (2017) - PC

This is almost a really good game. I enjoyed playing it quite a bit. The combat's solid (much better than Kiwami 1, though not quite as varied as 0), and the minigames are fun, with better Karaoke and Cabaret than the games I previously played. The Construction minigame wasn't so good, unfortunately, so I ended up just Youtubing that stuff. The substories were consistently entertaining, and while some were less impressive, they usually only took like a minute, so they weren't really boring or whatever. Solid cast of good guys too. One guy gets real good development, going from being a crazed racist to the guy with the most depth in the cast. Unfortunately, the plot mostly sucked. The villains are ass, and there are some pointless plot twists later on. Wish they could have good villains in more Yakuza games...

Aren't games that rhyme with concepts from the game wonderful? Funny how Japanese people come up with strange names like this...

Bravely Default 2, maybe?

I do appreciate the Bravely Default series' name much better once I see their meaning in-game. Though it still doesn't make a lot of sense out of it.

30. Astral Chain (2019) - Switch

A game that takes place on the Astral Plane. I liked pretty much everything about it (other than maybe the ending), but it generally didn't blow me away in the manner some other Platinum games have. The combat is quite enjoyable - you get an ally called a Legion to accompany you in battle early on, with five different combat styles, and you have three weapons you can use. Between those there's a pretty decent variety in combat, with different Legions and weapons being useful in different situations, though I mostly stuck to the basics. The level design is generally good as well, and the enemies are cleverly crafted. I was impressed by how many different bosses there are - some of the later levels will have like 5 sidequests that all have unique bosses. Makes it feel like they poured a lot of care into the game since they don't always reuse enemies. The story's not anything special, but it's better than other Platinum stories at least. Having a silent protagonist is silly, though it doesn't hurt the game too badly since they write around it pretty competently. My main problem with the game overall is that there's too much fat on the bone. It took me over 25 hours to beat, which is more than Bayonetta 1 and 2 combined, I think. There was never a time when I wasn't enjoying myself, but there's a pretty decent chunk of middling sidequests and exploration that could be cut away without losing much IMO.

Finally, the music was very nice. Lots of fun epic battle music. Go my Jena Anderson.

Next game hint: can robots be more human than humans?

29. Unsighted (2021) - PC

A Zelda-like in the vein of of Hyper Light Drifter or CrossCode or Death's Door, but this one connected with me way more than those. There are still puzzles, but not a lot, and I was able to grasp the combat quite quickly. It focuses a lot on a parry system, which took me a while to grasp. It felt good once I got it though, and you don't have to parry most enemies if you'd rather dodge instead. The items you get are also excellent, particularly the Spinner, which is literally just the Spinner from Twilight Princess, but you can use it everywhere so it's a great way to travel quickly. Really wish TP had let you do that too... Combat's well-done in general, being neither too difficult nor too easy, and the bosses are all pretty fun.

The other aspects of the game are solid as well. Everyone in the game is a robot, and they're nearing the end of their lifespan due to human interference. You can give them items to extend their lifespans, but otherwise they'll die as time passes. The system can be turned off, but it gave an interesting urgency to the game, and it was fun to have a few people die. The world has a solid apocalyptic atmosphere. The writing wasn't the best - felt like it was written by someone who speaks English as a second language - but the story was interesting. Almost all the robots are women, so you get a bunch of lesbian robots, which is fun. The design of the world can be neat at times too. One of the dungeons is the Highways, which is basically a set of freeways that are above the rest of the city. Felt like a novel concept for a dungeon. Looking forward to more from the devs in the future.

Next game hint: the most Australian game on the list.

BOOMERANG x

The forgotten city for being made by an Australian developer

boomerangs are more Australian than Australians tbqh

28. Boomerang X (2021) - PC

This game is pure, concentrated fun. If you don't know what it's about, you're basically alone on an island with a boomerang, and you have to fight a bunch of enemies while getting more powers. The battles are mostly combat arenas, which works out fine, though the game could be more engaging with actual levels I think. I feel like a Boomerang X 2 would have a lot of potential. The thing that makes the game work is that the powers are basically all really fun and work together well. The first power you get basically teleports you to your boomerang, so you can throw it up and basically spend 100% of your time in the air flying around. You get to slow down time, too, which makes beating the enemies a lot more feasible. You basically get a new power every other level, so you're always doing something new. The game's only a few hours long, but considering the format, I think that was the perfect length. I never got tired of it, and though it was hard at times, there weren't enough hard levels for me to get frustrated and give up. I feel like pretty much everyone would enjoy this, even people who aren't usually into FPSs, since it feels so fresh and different.

Next game hint: apparently the most overrated (by me) game!

Overboard

bravely default 2

Mac Arrowny posted...

Go my Jena Anderson.

She gets 3 themes, and they're all bangers!
Personally I think Astral's plot was really rushed through and could've done with having more breathing room between reveals, but I guess it was already on the long side for the kind of game it is.

Unsighted is on Game Pass so I'll definitely get around to it, high hopes for that one.

predicts Ys IX

CrossCode and Unsighted seem like standouts so far imo. Always down for Zelda and they sound great

Astral Chain might be the most slept on switch exclusive. I know it's generally well-regarded, but it should be a bigger thing/franchise instead of just filler game to tide you over until bayo 3.

Shonen_Bat posted...

CrossCode and Unsighted seem like standouts so far imo. Always down for Zelda and they sound great

Definitely recommended for Zelda-lovers! They adapt the formula in pretty different ways, too.

27. Bravely Default 2 (2021) - Switch

I mostly enjoyed playing this game a good amount. I'd describe it as very competent. There's nothing bad here. The art's mostly nice (though I'm still not super into the character style, other than for guys with beards), with some amazingly beautiful towns. The music is solid, if not as good as BD1's. The gameplay is great, with lots of variety, though because I'm lame I stuck to the same strategies a fair amount of the time. Battling was generally pretty cool, and the bosses had some neat gimmicks to make them somewhat challenging. Breaking the game at the end was fun, and it's neat that the game made it so you had to break it for some optional battles (one optional boss will kill you if it gets a turn, so you have to keep it permanently stunlocked or give yourself infinite turns). The sidequests are a little more flawed. There's a decent chunk of them (like 120?) for the length of the game, and they're a good mix of more story important ones and fetchquesty ones (defeat this monster, collect this material), which is fine for an RPG, but I would've liked more completion QoL, like an option to automatically go back to the questgiver after finishing a quest. The story ones were pretty cool at least.

The real problem with the game is the writing quality. The story's not bad, and a couple of the characters are pretty good, but most of the writing is just boring and it's hard to care that much about what's going on. Dialogue won't be particularly interesting and while the game has some neat fourth-wall breaking story interactions, the delivery of most twists doesn't hit as hard as it could. Octopath Traveler had more severe story issues than this, but it also had far higher highs, storywise (and it was more stylish to boot). I enjoyed my time with the game, but I can't say I'd highly recommend it, which is a shame after how great BD1 was.

Next game hint: isn't it fun when the number of a game in a series is adapted to have importance in said game?

Persona 5 Strikers has the number 5 in the title to signify that it features the cast of Persona 5

one of the most amazing guesses of all time

26. Yakuza 4 (2010) - PC

Okay, so the Yakuza series has this dumb trope where they let the bad guy keep a gun after beating him up, which leads to bad things. Why do the writers love this trope so much? You can do it once and it's okay I guess, but when Kiryu constantly does this with villains it just makes him look like an idiot. It happens twice with the same villain in a 5 minute time span in this game. Dumb.

Other than that and one other dumb twist, this game has a good plot and villains. There were lots of unpredictable twists, but they all made sense in retrospect, unlike the ones in YK2. The gameplay gets some moderate improvements from 3 - I just wish they'd nerf the dumb high encounter rate. Splitting the game between four characters was a great idea, and I actually liked the other characters' parts more than Kiryu's. They go to a lot of effort to make their side quests feel distinct, which is really cool. I like all three of the new characters a good amount. Saejima's just awesome during his chapter, and Akiyama's great too. This game feels like the biggest shakeup to the Yakuza formula thus far, in a good way. Playing this game made 5 seem like it'd keep with this pattern to an even bigger extreme, which would've been cool. Not sure how playing this game shortly after two Yakuza games made me feel... (I played 5 a few days later too, heh).

Next game hint: it's not often the sequel to a shooter switches over to melee combat.

25. Axiom Verge 2 (2021) - PC

This is a bit of a tough one to talk about. I feel like almost everything about it is really good. The start is not so great, but every power you get makes exploration more fun, and the game's really creative with its powers for the most part. The increased focus on the drone is really neat, to the point where I preferred drone stuff for most of the game. Almost all the bosses are optional rather than mandatory, which has its pros and cons. Bosses basically being parts of the environment was super cool, and there's no frustration since you can just skip them if you want (and they're easy anyway), but the bosses made for pretty intense encounters in the original and some of them were pretty fun. It's a less combat-focused game, so the switch to melee combat instead of ranged doesn't hurt it as much as it could, but it's less unique and the melee combat isn't particularly good. The design of the world is probably the biggest improvement over AV1. Everything is connected and designed super well. It always feels like you have tons of choices where to go, and you really have to think about how to use your powers to get everywhere. The biggest downgrade is the story. It's not bad or anything, and there's some interesting lore, plus one awesome sequence, but the original AV was way more interesting than this one. There's nothing as cool as the Rusalki. Still an enjoyable experience, with some flaws sanded away, it just doesn't feel as special as AV1.

Next game hint: my favorite orphanage in gaming.

It takes two

Yakuza 3?

impossible ffviii isn't on the list

24. Yakuza 3 (2009) - PC

My favorite of the original mainline (1-6) Yakuza games! Sure, the gameplay's kind of a step down from the previous games (which are actually later due to remastering/remaking nonsense <_<), the QoL kinda sucks (the map is not so good), and the encounter rate is painful, but the plot is the best of the series. I actually enjoyed the scenes with the villains, and the orphanage stuff was great. Okinawa was a good new location and it was nice how easy it was to get around. The final confrontation was epic, and the final villain had logical motivations that made sense for a villain to have, which is pretty unique for a Yakuza game. I'd rank the series as a whole something like 0 > 3 > 4 > 2 > 5 > 6 > 1 (though I played the Kiwami versions of 1 and 2). I enjoyed all the games to some extent other than 1, though 0 is the only one I'd call genuinely great. Will have to see how 7 goes in 2022!

Next game hint: goddesses > gods

23. Shin Megami Tensei V (2021) - Switch

Easily the greatest mainline SMT game I've ever played (Nocturne is the only other). I may not be remembering SMT3 super well, but this seems like a big improvement in basically every way. The combat is quite a bit better here, with a system that really emphasizes the abilities of the demons who're with you. I like how you're able to get so many bonus Press Turns and deny them to the enemy as well. All the special abilities are fun, though it's a shame the default ability is basically the best one. Fusing is generally a blast, and I can see how you could totally break the system by repeatedly fusing downwards for stronger low level monsters, but I wasn't really interested in that. They have a system where you gain permanent abilities called Miracles (SMT4 apparently had a similar system) with bonuses from making your abilities cheaper to enhancing demon negotiations, and it felt great to gain more Miracles as I played through the game. Gave a cool sense of progress beyond simply leveling up and getting better demons.

The most interesting change was turning it into a semi-open world game. There are dungeons as well, but most of the game takes place in four huge areas. Exploring them was a lot of fun, since they had good designs and running/jumping around just plain feels good in this game. And the areas are far from empty. There's all sorts of demons everywhere, and they generally had entertaining dialogue/backstories. There's a bunch of sidequests with amusing results (you save a group of Mermaids from an evil demon, so they're free to go lure humans to their doom), and the demons make for likable characters in general. I played with the Japanese voices, and the way Demeter says harvest (haavesto!) all the time in Engrish is adorable. The main story is pretty interesting too, and there are a lot more cutscenes than SMT3 had. Unfortunately, the story gets less interesting later on due to focusing on some of the more boring characters, and the endings are forgettable. Still a good game, but it would be a bit higher if it stuck the landing.

Next game hint: the one game on the list that I'm 90% sure no one else here has played.

Overboard!

Overboard or Thumper I'd guess

it actually has to be Tsukihime remake

22. Tsukihime Remake (2021) - Switch

This is something I'd both been looking forward to and anxious about. I loved the original Tsukihime, which was my first VN, so getting an updated version with nicer art sounded good to me. I'm not a fan of the new character designs, but hoo boy does the art deliver in general. The direction is fantastic, and they do a great job of giving scenes a living feel despite being populated by (mostly) unmoving portraits. I've always felt like Type-Moon stuff is directed better than other VNs, just by how much more kinetic they feel. Utawarerumono feels like a joke compared to this, for something I played recently. The sound is an upgrade too, of course. The voice cast is quite good (other than Shiki, who yells too much IMO), and while the original had a good soundtrack, it was also 9 songs, so moving up to 90 songs instead is a big upgrade. I enjoy the battle songs in particular a lot, and Arach's theme (whatever it's called) is fantastic.

The changes to the plot are a mixed bag, leaning positive with one major exception. I quite like basically all the new characters that they added. Arach is awesome, and Noel is pretty entertaining too. Ciel's route gets a bunch of new content which is mostly quite cool, including a neat backstory scene that leans deeper into the mythology and an epic ending battle that takes things ridiculously over the top in a fun way. Nrvnsqr is replaced by a less cool vampire, but the replacement is basically an excuse for cool battles, so that part's fine (and the battles are very cool indeed). The main issue is the endings - the one I like most was deleted, the one I don't care for stayed the same, and the other two which were alright/good are changed to be pretty boring. I dunno what they were thinking there.

The fundamental negative of the remake itself is the pacing. There's a lot more description/dialogue added, so everything goes slower. This was exacerbated by me reading it in Japanese, which I read somewhat slower than English, so it's not entirely the game's fault. It does make me less excited to read the next part of the remake, though. The unchanged content is basically as good as ever, at least. Interacting with Akiha and the maids is always entertaining, Arcueid's development is cool, and Ciel manages to be a much better character here (though I'm still not really a fan). The fights are good times too. Overall, it's an almost great game that suffers a little from the "more is better" philosophy.

Next game hint: a game where you murder people.

Mac Arrowny posted...

Next game hint: a game where you murder people.

Animal Crossing

https://mobile.twitter.com/girl_reply/status/1479714338797613058

21. Overboard! (2021) - PC

The most overlooked timeloop game of 2021. It's a real neat experience. At the start of the game, you murder your husband on a boat trip from England to America, and you have 8 hours to arrive. You basically have to try not to get arrested, and there are a few ways to avoid it. You can murder anyone who suspects you, you can convince other people you didn't do it, or you can plant false evidence on someone else and blame them. It's basically an adventure/VN type thing, and if you fail, it's pretty easy to replay from the start (the eight hours will usually take maybe 20-30 minutes at most after your first go, since there's a skip function). The characters are quirky and fun, and the MC rocks. You get to pray to god, who gives you advice on how to get away with murder. You can do the most random, dumbest shit, or be a conniving supervillain. It's mostly a blast, but I got frustrated about screwing things up a few times. Everyone should play this, IMO. I only spent a few hours on it, and it was some of the best hours I had with a game this year.

Next game hint: better than any Jurassic Park game (though Jurassic Park SNES was pretty fun IMO).

The list so far!

63. 12 Minutes
62. Star Wars: Jedi: Fallen Order
61. Fallout: New Vegas
60. Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception
59. Forza Horizon 5
58. Crusader Kings 3
57. Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom
56. Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair
55. Kena: Bridge of Spirits
54. Towerfall Ascension
53. Wildermyth
52. Quake
51. Yakuza 6
50. Doom 1993
49. Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle
48. Inscryption
47. Deathloop
46. Final Fantasy 7 Remake INTERmission
45. Death's Door
44. Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE
43. Chicory
42. Psychonauts 2
41. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
40. Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth
39. Firewatch
38. Rabi-Ribi
37. Ender Lilies - Quietus of the Nights
36. Spider-Man: Miles Morales
35. Tales of Arise
34. Spiritfarer
33. CrossCode
32. Yakuza 5
31. Yakuza Kiwami 2
30. Astral Chain
29. Unsighted
28. Boomerang X
27. Bravely Default 2
26. Yakuza 4
25. Axiom Verge 2
24. Yakuza 3
23. Shin Megami Tensei V
22. Tsukihime Remake
21. Overboard!

The top 20!

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
Astro's Playroom
Cyberpunk 2077
Final Fantasy VII R
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker
Forgotten City
Horizon Zero Dawn
It Takes Two
Judgment
Lost Judgment
Metroid Dread
NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139
Omori
Persona 5 Strikers
Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart
Severed Steel
SM3DW + Bowser's Fury
Thumper
Va11 Hall-A
Ys IX: Monstrum Nox

Starting to get into the stuff I like quite a bit now. Feel free to make any guesses about the top 10/5/1/whatever!

forgotten city because lost world i guess

horizon has dino sours