crim's Top 10 games (Plus one dishonorable mention) for 2021

[crimson_tide]

Hey. Let's do this! Buckle up because part of the reason this took so long is I am not exactly sure what my number one will be yet (yeah, I know, I am surprised too). Also, DBZ Kakarot is actually really gosh dang good. And continues to be good. Somehow.

Anyway! First up, the only dishonorable mention because**** this game award goes to...



I was totally going to railroad Marvel's Avengers but the reason I even am still half considering muscling my way through that garbage fire is because I. HATE. LEGO. GAME. DESIGN. At bare minimum, I got Marvel's Avengers.

I will never under any circumstance understand the hows and whys of the decisions that go into these obtuse abominations. They put so much time, money and energy into the stories and voice acting and writing in these games...BUT WHY THOUGH!?!?!?!? The 'puzzles' are obtuse and respect no one's time. I get that children are supposed to bang their heads against these things. I thought we stopped doing that to children after the NES. The humor doesn't land (my goddaughter really detests the cutscenes only in these games, she's fine with everything else I've found) and there's so much of it. It's just...I don't get it. I played: Lego Marvel Superheroes, Lego City Undercover, Lego Marvel Superheroes 2, Lego Batman 3 and Lego DC Supervillains. I liked exactly zero of them. It's the same formula over and over again. I love Yakuza. Iteration and refinement are fine, that's not the issue. They made like one innovation and then copy pasted it over licenses ad nauseam without wanton and reckless abandon. We will get through DC Supervillains and then I'm tapping out on these. If I have to buy Paw Patrol for us to play next, so be it. I refuse to play Lego Videogame anything after last year.

10) Kill La Kill IF

Bruh. This might have been a top fiver had it not committed the cardinal sin of freezing during the final boss fight after several attempts. I was truly enamored by the few hours I spent with this thing. Anime arena fighters are my JAM. The Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm games are some of my favorite games ever (that last one was just a BEAST). This one had easy controls, a bonkers story about....evil thread and clothes or something and was just a spectacle monster. There wasn't a lot of game but like Asura's Wrath, what was put on offer was more than enough. Granted, the whole story would take maybe...5 hours? I think that's really pushing it. It's always on sale for like $10. I highly recommend it assuming you don't run into the same game crashing bug I did (sure would have liked to finished it...). Take a look for yourselves, I am not doing this insanity justice:



9) Castlevania Advance Collection

There has to be some bangers if this ended up so low on my list. I had a blast with these back in the day. I am saving Aria of Sorrow as that the one I haven't touched ever as of yet. These are just comfort games. They feel good. They are fun just to dick around in which is how I use them. They cheer me up because they are just fun. Nothing more, nothing less. I like the tweaks they made and love the rewind feature. Sometimes comfort gaming is all you need and this has me covered in spades.

8) Persona 5 Strikers

Yeah, I did it. I put Persona 5 Strikers way low on this list. I was so ready to get all the Persona and plat this game, I bought it day one. It sat in my collection until it was ironically a PS+ game. I just could not get into it at first. It would have been lower but have you heard Life Will Change:



Still amazing...oh wait, sorry. Life Will Change is just that distracting. It alone catapulted this game from being a possible 10 at best. Why? Easy: there's too much. The. whole game is just too much. They made a straight up Persona game with Dynasty Warriors gameplay. So the battles are a lot and just kinda drag on. They are only interesting because have you seen the Persona 5 aesthetic? This game's design doesn't know what restraint means! It looks great...but doesn't really feel great? One of the best parts of Persona is the battle system and the way your time is limited. In Strikers, you can just leave at a checkpoint and go right back. Now let me be clear: this is NOT a bad game. It's actually quite creative the way they blended the two series together. It's just...too much. The Phantom Thieves are great!...but they don't shut the **** up. Every character is there after 2 or so hours and every single one has to say something every single time something happens. The dungeons are needlessly long again because you can just leave, recharge and go right back in, no penalty. The plot just kind of keeps going, there's not even a compelling reason for them to be going on this road trip under the pretense you are given that starts this whole shebang. The final boss just kinda keeps going. That's the whole game. It just doesn't stop. It's the same premise as P5 in new clothes but it just doesn't hit the same way. I thought people slept on this one at first but at 40-50ish hours, I can see why people just kinda let it go. With an editor and more focus next time, they could pull this off right. Again, it's not bad. They should try things like this more often. I hope they learn from this for next time. This could work, I know it...

Well that's it for now. I really expected P5 Strikers to be top three when I bought it. Oh well, more tomorrow, later fam!

[canedaddy]

Earthbound top 5 confirmed!

I don't think I've played a LEGO game since the very first Star Wars entry a zillion years ago, and I don't think I finished that.

[isthatallyougot]

The only Lego game I've ever played was Lego Star Wars back on the PS2 and I played it a ton because my kid loved it since we could play together. I do have a couple Lego games in my Steam backlog because they came in a bundle or ridiculously cheap...who can remember?

I looked up Kill La Kill on Steam and I see why you played it crim...T&A. (I don't know anything about the anime.)

Aria of Sorrow is one I want to get to one day too. It's in my backlog, patiently waiting.

I still ponder what my first Persona game will be, if and when I ever get to one. Sounds like Strikers shouldn't necessarily be a starting point, huh.

[crimson_tide]

Oh old man...Earthbound is in contention for 2022, not this year. It's currently in no way, shape or from of getting remotely close to being on the list at all but it might turn itself around .

izzy...I don't know. You like and have the tolerance for old school stuff. The first 2 (well, 3 because P2 has two parts that make one story) might be your jam. 3 is the start of the current setup with social links, the one more/all out attack stuff. There's just 3 different versions so you would have to pick your poison. The most easily accessible is P4 and P5. P4 is slow but I love it and when it kicks into gear is a simply delightful small town murder mystery. And P5 is about rising up against the system (which is problematic because some of them are part of and actively participate said system and benefit from it but which undercuts the theme of rebellion that's getting into the weeds) and has the most refined play hands down. if you pick one of those, P4 Golden and P5 Royal are the ones you want my friend.

Oh wait, scratch all that. Just buy the Persona Endless Night Dancing Collection when it's on sale next time. Perfect intro to the series .

Now on with the list...

7) FF7 Rmeake

There. They finally ****ing did it. I hope it was worth it for Square to go through ALL THIS TROUBLE just to get me to like something in FF7 featuring Cloud that I don't feel completely whelmed by. They did cheat though. Let's go through the bad first:

-But WHY is Aeris though? I really detested every single moment I was forced to spend with this person and swapped her out immediately the few chances I got. I could not stand her. The game took me so long because I could only deal with her in like hour long spurts. Being forced to control her just did not do anything for me. Her gameplay just doesn't work in the action setting of this game with her spell casting nonsense. Ew. So annoying! I don't understand the manic pixie dream girl by way of ridiculously aloof bordering on idiot angle they took with her at all. Shes's needlessly obnoxious. I don't get the appeal at all.

-Barrett. Stop talking. Ew.

-They made some weird pacing choices? The Hell House bit in particular. It is HARD. I though we were done with skill checks (well, Yakuza Like a Dragon has one but it's easily surmountable with a bit of grinding which they direct you to graciously almost with a giant blinking arrow while yelling at you to take them up on the offer). Then the end of the game, the battle system is straight up just Kingdom Hearts, full stop. They probably should have just done that.

-...oh and the Batman/Joker 'oh dear God, just go ahead and hate **** each other already so you can stop tearing the city down please' energy is the same as Sephiroth/Cloud relationship.

The good!

-Tifa. God I LOVE Tifa. Best character in the game, hands down. It's impossible not to dig this person. I legitimately loved having her in my party. Her combat skills are way more speed and combo focused and looked so cool! Loved everything about her!

-They made it Kingdom Hearts combat at the end. Yes please.

-Barrett was mad swole. I wish I could be Barrett swole. Would love to know how he stays that swole and symmetrical with one hand...I might replace my unrealistic goal of being Chris Redfield one day with the even more unrealistic goal of being Barrett !

-The side quests were very, very Yakuza: Midgar. Is this just a Japanese thing now, to ape the Yakuza side quest model of non sequitur, absurd nuttiness? I dug it.

-The characters were pretty! The battles were great! It felt way, way, WAY better in full vs the demo.

-I didn't hate Cloud. Weird.

-The music was good while I was playing. The remixes hit pretty good. There was nothing I had to run out and listen to again but it fit the game nicely.

-Finally...they did the thing! If we still had spoiler tags, I would go hog wild right now but the end of the game left me DESPERATE for Part 2...I can't believe they did the thing !

So this was way up on my list initially, it was top 4...but I mean it's Yakuza inspired...sooooo

6. Yakuza 3

Soooo...yeah. This Yakuza didn't make my top 5. I beat the other one way back when it first came out in 2009. I loved it then but I think that was just because of my love of Yakuza. This game has hands down the worst combat in the game topped only by Dead Souls because Yakuza as a shooter isn't really my jam. There is so much blocking, bosses have insanely long health bars with equally long combos. Even the first real boss fight against Rikiya is just...blah. It's just not you know...good.

So why so high? Because I LOVE the Okinawa start at the orphanage. Watching Kazuma being a dad just warms my heart. And that story! This is one of the best, most cohesive Yakuza stories yet. Screw the actual plot. I have no idea. Every Yakuza loses the plot when they have to wrap it up. My personal favorite is the final boss of Yakuza 5 who literally admits he has no idea why he is even there! That's never the point of Yakuza. But the theming of Yakuza is always amazing. And Yakuza 3's story of manhood, how to be a man and the vulnerability and intimacy required to achieve that goal is just ludicrously perfect. I love that they took out the literal ONE thing that ran counter to the story they were telling (the transphobic substories) and that just gave the story even tighter focus on its theme. The bond between Rikiya and Kazuma. The Okinawa yakuza. The numerous villains just upping the treachery and violence because MEN!...but the whole game is really just about how if dudes just weren't sound and fury signifying nothing first and didn't just eat their emotions how they could be better people was just a chef's kiss. I am playing Yakuza 4 on and off and loving it because it just plays better. I know the story isn't as good as 3 but it'll probably rank higher on my list this year because it's just more fun. I just know it's way less focused than 3 in story. It will have its moments but 3 might be their high water mark in storytelling until they get to 0 and 6 at least. So for having such a compelling, well told, perfectly themed story, it gets a way higher ranking than it should for its relatively dull and utterly frustrating gameplay.

This week, I'll wrap up the top 5 (sorry, work was a beast this week but midwinter recess is this week so I will have a little more time to get to finish up the list, promise )!

PS - I had a bunch of pics but one of them kept messing up the post so I dumped them all. Bummer.

[isthatallyougot]

izzy...I don't know. You like and have the tolerance for old school stuff. The first 2 (well, 3 because P2 has two parts that make one story) might be your jam. 3 is the start of the current setup with social links, the one more/all out attack stuff. There's just 3 different versions so you would have to pick your poison. The most easily accessible is P4 and P5. P4 is slow but I love it and when it kicks into gear is a simply delightful small town murder mystery. And P5 is about rising up against the system (which is problematic because some of them are part of and actively participate said system and benefit from it but which undercuts the theme of rebellion that's getting into the weeds) and has the most refined play hands down. if you pick one of those, P4 Golden and P5 Royal are the ones you want my friend.

Ok thanks. I have all 3 versions of persona 3. I bought the collector's edition (the original) and still have it sealed. I checked on ebay and it can go for over $200, so I'll not open it. I also have the regular persona 3 and fes physical. Maybe that would be a good starting point. I'm assuming outside the dual entry of Persona 2 that they're mostly self-contained and don't need to be played in any sort of order.
[/quote]

6. Yakuza 3

Soooo...yeah. This Yakuza didn't make my top 5. I beat the other one way back when it first came out in 2009. I loved it then but I think that was just because of my love of Yakuza. This game has hands down the worst combat in the game topped only by Dead Souls because Yakuza as a shooter isn't really my jam. There is so much blocking, bosses have insanely long health bars with equally long combos. Even the first real boss fight against Rikiya is just...blah. It's just not you know...good.

So why so high? Because I LOVE the Okinawa start at the orphanage. Watching Kazuma being a dad just warms my heart. And that story! This is one of the best, most cohesive Yakuza stories yet. Screw the actual plot. I have no idea. Every Yakuza loses the plot when they have to wrap it up. My personal favorite is the final boss of Yakuza 5 who literally admits he has no idea why he is even there! That's never the point of Yakuza. But the theming of Yakuza is always amazing. And Yakuza 3's story of manhood, how to be a man and the vulnerability and intimacy required to achieve that goal is just ludicrously perfect. I love that they took out the literal ONE thing that ran counter to the story they were telling (the transphobic substories) and that just gave the story even tighter focus on its theme. The bond between Rikiya and Kazuma. The Okinawa yakuza. The numerous villains just upping the treachery and violence because MEN!...but the whole game is really just about how if dudes just weren't sound and fury signifying nothing first and didn't just eat their emotions how they could be better people was just a chef's kiss. I am playing Yakuza 4 on and off and loving it because it just plays better. I know the story isn't as good as 3 but it'll probably rank higher on my list this year because it's just more fun. I just know it's way less focused than 3 in story. It will have its moments but 3 might be their high water mark in storytelling until they get to 0 and 6 at least. So for having such a compelling, well told, perfectly themed story, it gets a way higher ranking than it should for its relatively dull and utterly frustrating gameplay.

This week, I'll wrap up the top 5 (sorry, work was a beast this week but midwinter recess is this week so I will have a little more time to get to finish up the list, promise )!

PS - I had a bunch of pics but one of them kept messing up the post so I dumped them all. Bummer.

I've been tempted to play another Yakuza lately. I've only played the original (with its awful, awful...truly awful English dub, lol - still loved the game) and Yakuza 0. I've been wondering if I should play Kiwami (1) even though I've played the original, and it might be worth it just to wash the taste of that dub out of my mind. Or maybe I should just jump to Kiwami 2.

[crimson_tide]

OH OH, YES KIWAMI IS DELIGHTFUL AND SHORT...like manageably short because it's 20-30 hours. Honestly though...if you REALLY want to get into one after your excursion into RDR2 and time is not an issue, I would go with Yakuza 0. I think that's the best point to jump on or jump back in. There is A LOT in that game. And it's all fairly choice stuff. Basic but choice.

And now on with 3-5. Mostly because I am still debating between 1 and 2. And #3 and #4 can like...be in contention as well. But I'm committing to an order now, on to number 5 !

5) Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memories

Don't play this. This is absolutely not a recommendation. You don't care anyway and nor should you. It's actually a bad rhythm game. Please do not buy. Sooooo...why number 5? OVER YAKUZA 3?!!?!?!

Ok...let me tell you a story. One of THE things about Kingdom Hearts is that music BOPS, VIBES & SLAPS ALL AT ONCE, FAM!!! I own so much Kingdom Hearts music, it should be categorized as some kind of addiction honestly. Yoko Shimomura can do no wrong. I would do anything to watch her play some of this ish live! So my wife takes me to the Kingdom Hearts concert at the end of the school year as a gift in 2019 !!! At least I get to experience a Kingdom Hearts concert, couldn't wait! We make it a date night, go to dinner and all that. Get to the concert and it was AMAZING! I was so dang happy! All the music in Kingdom Hearts just is delightful. It fits in well with Disney when it needs to be whimsical or sinister, it has such a vibe that it just takes you back. I knew every song without even having to look at the screen, my wife would die laughing every time I said what game and level/boss/scenario the song was from just with a couple bars. Then it happened. They were going to play the orchestral version of Simple and Clean and Dearly Beloved (the title screen song). And the composer dude pulled some but one more thing nonsense...AND YOKO SHIMOMURA CAME OUT TO PLAY PIANO IN THE MIDDLE OF THE GODDAMNED BRONX !!!! Oh my God, I wouldn't shut up about it, I got to see Yoko 'Yes I also made the music for Street Fighter 2...' Shimomura play the showpiece number from Kingdom Hearts and she played us out with Dearly Beloved. On the drive home, I told my wife of Roxas and Xion (she kinda dug their songs) and it came up how this series needs context because without it, everything sounds utterly nonsensical. As I told her the story, she was really into it which I would not have expected. That's kind of the thing with Kingdom Hearts. It's not a bad story but it is unwieldy. That's because there's clearly moments they want to hit that make perfect sense if you go on the ride with them. And the music cements it. This game is pure nostalgia and it's been 20 years now so Kingdom Hearts the games has its own nostalgia tied directly into this music.

So remembering all of that while playing this super low stakes, middling rhythm game (that they put lore into for some reason ), I couldn't not put it in my top 5. I unlocked every song, bopped my way through them and just had a blast. Again, NOT a good game. But a game that made me happy and I am happy it exists...hell, typing this up made me want to run through a couple songs !

4) Dragon Ball Z Kakarot

Look. I didn't like DBZ. It just kinda washed over me. I couldn't stand Goku, his kid was whiny, his wife shrill. Vegeta and Piccolo were kinda cool though. Oh and the original Dragon Ball show (with Goku as a kid vs the Red Ribbon Army) was a dang good time though. I couldn't get into Z though. I never liked Akira Toriyama's art style (prepping for some crow soon...)

Fast forward 20 years and all my students are STILL into DBZ thanks to Fighterz. They keep saying to try Kakarot. Fine, it's cheap and a Bandai Namco game AND made by CyberConnect2, OF COURSE I'll buy it...eh, it just didn't hit right out the gate. The navigation was funky, it crashed twice. It just wasn't my jam. Also it still looked like Toriyama. Ew...wait. Toriyama made the DQ games? And DQ11S is DQ11S...fine, I will give Kakarot another shot. And then I got to the first saga bosses. ********. HOOKED. I could not put this game down. I was into the Yakuza style substories. I liked the Xenoverse style battle palette combat. I liked that most of the game didn't really focus on Goku but everyone else who wasn't Goku, especially his son Gohan. I came to discover his wife wasn't shrill but Goku was a Superman powerful version of a man child. And that was the trick, the characters made this so much fun. DBZ drags everything out. This did not. You could spend 25 hours and blast through just the 4 main sagas or you could stop and train, meet characters from the original Dragon Ball (deep cut callbacks!) and do a whole ton of goofy stuff. They even have the entire bit where Goku's wife make him go get a license so they can drive like a family since she can't like...you know, fly . Vegeta and Gohan are the clear standouts, the makers really seemed to give them the big moments here. The game itself is breezy as hell, I had a great time with it. The hit points go into like...the trillions I think? It's all fairly insane but easy enough to wrap your brain around in the moment. There's a lot here. And the budget clearly was not here with it. They put their budget into the battles that cap off each saga. That makes sense. There's not a ton of voice work. Stuff was cut left and right (do not look at the mountains. Ewww). But there is some serious heart in this game. Why after Fighterz they didn't give CC2 more time and budget is beyond me. This could have really been something special to the masses. Alas, it is special only to me. So special, it might weasel its way into list this year. I was going through the Trunks Warrior of Hope DLC and I am fairly certain they are going to kill Gohan and I just can't deal with that at the moment. Maybe later in the year. So DBZ Kakarot made me care about Gohan, whiny son of Goku...who is not whiny but has a garbage fire of a father and the game goes well out of its way to highlight. Rock on DBZ Kakarot!...the only real thing they missed is a chance to visit the Home For Infinite Losers (HELL...but everyone there wears t shirts that say HELL so the localizers made if HFIL...I love censorship ). But other than that, chef's kiss, loved it!

3) DQ11S

TORIYAMA, YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARD!!!!! I LOVE THIS GAME!!!! This is another one you will likely see on my 2022 list as well. You see, I only beat the main game, I still have 20-30 hours to go to get the true ending. It's just that something came up and I didn't get back to it in time. I am eagerly waiting for summer to roll around so I can spend a solid week just running through the additional content. This is a simple ass story with high level execution. Everything looks so good. They translated whatever Toriyama designed so well, I was here for it. Even his mad basic faces just worked in this game. I loved the music throughout. I like the context that the story gives when the thing happens (j knows the thing). I absolutely loved the silly little twist with the thing. I like the like time slime...things or whatever and going back to previous DQ games. I loved the skill trees and that you could just respec fairly easily. I loved that I could let my party auto battle and it worked! I loved everything about this game. Hell, anytime I go anywhere in this Godforsaken city, I still hum the overworld tune:



I can't think about anything about this game I did not like. Even weird little things like the title screen changing throughout the adventure depending on where you are in the story is just a nifty little touch. I would make this entry longer but there's just not much else to say other than I am finally a DQ fan after playing this game. I am playing the DQ Heroes game. I am getting into DQ Builders 2. I am here for DQ12. This game needs to be experienced if you even remotely like RPG's. It's long but it surprisingly respects your time with all of the quality of life improvements it makes. Hell, I'm amazed this is not my number 1 game, it's just sooooooo good !

I will be back with my top 2...when I decide which one is my number 1 !

[isthatallyougot]

OH OH, YES KIWAMI IS DELIGHTFUL AND SHORT...like manageably short because it's 20-30 hours. Honestly though...if you REALLY want to get into one after your excursion into RDR2 and time is not an issue, I would go with Yakuza 0. I think that's the best point to jump on or jump back in. There is A LOT in that game. And it's all fairly choice stuff. Basic but choice.

but...

I've been tempted to play another Yakuza lately. I've only played the original (with its awful, awful...truly awful English dub, lol - still loved the game) and Yakuza 0. I've been wondering if I should play Kiwami (1) even though I've played the original, and it might be worth it just to wash the taste of that dub out of my mind. Or maybe I should just jump to Kiwami 2.

I've got to play a Dragon Quest one day. I've been so drawn to Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King. I've got 2 sealed copies in my backlog. I always wondered if this series would click with me. I've also got all the DS entries/remakes. One day.

[crimson_tide]

sorry, I missed that you played 0 . And yes, while Yakuza PS2 had a horrendously awful dub, its mid 2000's hip hop slang coming from random Japanese folks had me howling and really made me fall for the series. The nonsense they would say was just endearing after a certain point because it was so out of left field. Kiwami or Kiwami 2 would be your best bet. I love the Majima Everywhere System to get you to unlock your Dragon moves from Zero in Kiwami 1. It's just as absurd and stupid as it sounds, perfect for Yakuza. And the script is world's better, especially the bits with Nishiki. I think you would appreciate it .

I tried DQ8 multiple times and most recently on 3DS. I like it when I play it, I just never seem to make it through for some reason. It's probably just a tad too old school for me now that I think about it. I need to get back to it, maybe after Earthbound (shooting to wrap it up by the end of March, just have to take breaks ). DQ11S just kept my attention better. It plays better and moves at a solid, consistent pace. DQ11S also takes you through truncated versions of all the other games. DQ5 and 3 seem like ones I might want to get into someday based on what they had in DQ11S.

[isthatallyougot]

I can't believe you're sticking with Earthbound. I'm ready for your rant.

[canedaddy]

3) DQ11S

TORIYAMA, YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARD!!!!! I LOVE THIS GAME!!!! This is another one you will likely see on my 2022 list as well. You see, I only beat the main game, I still have 20-30 hours to go to get the true ending. It's just that something came up and I didn't get back to it in time. I am eagerly waiting for summer to roll around so I can spend a solid week just running through the additional content. This is a simple ass story with high level execution. Everything looks so good. They translated whatever Toriyama designed so well, I was here for it. Even his mad basic faces just worked in this game. I loved the music throughout. I like the context that the story gives when the thing happens (j knows the thing). I absolutely loved the silly little twist with the thing. I like the like time slime...things or whatever and going back to previous DQ games. I loved the skill trees and that you could just respec fairly easily. I loved that I could let my party auto battle and it worked! I loved everything about this game. Hell, anytime I go anywhere in this Godforsaken city, I still hum the overworld tune:



I can't think about anything about this game I did not like. Even weird little things like the title screen changing throughout the adventure depending on where you are in the story is just a nifty little touch. I would make this entry longer but there's just not much else to say other than I am finally a DQ fan after playing this game. I am playing the DQ Heroes game. I am getting into DQ Builders 2. I am here for DQ12. This game needs to be experienced if you even remotely like RPG's. It's long but it surprisingly respects your time with all of the quality of life improvements it makes. Hell, I'm amazed this is not my number 1 game, it's just sooooooo good !

I agree on all points. It's wild to look back a few years ago when it seemed like we might never get another console DQ. Then it finally comes and it's just *chef's kiss*