2021 - Best to Worst

Includes every game I've finished for the first time in the year 2021.


Still one of my favorite games ever and if anything Golden new content enhanced that feeling. Really enjoyable dungeon crawling, lovable cast of characters, the theming of bonding really well explored and even make some of the things I dislike in the original better. And of course, killer OST. The new dungeon isn't as good but at least I liked the plot and SLink. And the other SLink is great. This game is amazing, was such a great memory of my teenage years and Golden made it even better.
I couldn't believe that exists a TRPG almost as good as FFT. LUCT is amazing, the always great text, a holy combination of Matsuno and O. Smith, another masterpiece of OST by the best duo and one of the best visuals of a Square game. The characters maybe rank above FFT also. The only problems are gameplay ones. Quite big, in fact, the game is really unbalanced, skill ranks evolves way too slowly and the crafting system is boring, still it's a joy to play being more chaotic than FFT. I loved it.
It's not perfect, the tone is clearly out of place for a Megaten game (although the game have good characters and plot for what it's aiming) and the lone survivor tone of other SMT games are better. Also it naturally repeats too many scenarios and dungeons from SMT4 but besides that what an amazing game. The gameplay had a huge improvement compared to the original, nice new villains, all the new songs are great and the pacing is second to none in the series. The most fun SMT to play too.
A little bit of filler and some of the plot points could be better realized but this was incredible. When I started to play XIV in 14' I never thought the ending of this story would be as great as Endwalker. It have the emotional weight that only the best JRPGs had and as always felt so honest with the FF legacy. The instances are all good, it have some of the best areas and OST probably peaked with the song in the last area. The two 'walking' cutscenes are some of the best FF has ever had. I loved it and it is hard to imagine where to go now. At least this arc ended, as gracefully as possible.
This hits many right notes for me. Loved the less intrusive mark points of open world, loved the stealth sections and the stand-offs never got boring. And all the combat options, one more fun than another. As some other games from the studio, this feels something with a lot of heart and if not for some clunky and jank here and there would be pratically a perfect game. Beautiful and emotive ending too hitting all the right notes along the way. And yeah, visually nothing short of beautiful. 9/10
Actually had played the english PS1 version. But I'm considering new because I've played the Japanese version and did all the endings. About the game: Amazing one, even better than I remember. And I'm glad that we had a fantranslation of the incredibly superior japanese version. It plays better than 2, it's more deep and the stages more varied and if it doesn't a insanely interesting setting. I even liked the OST too, it blends so well with the game's artistic style. Perfect, now I just hope for more games as advanced in timeline as this one. And damn the plot twist at the end.
Way better than I was expected and my expectations were quite high. This game is simply GORGEOUS to look at, the way it uses light makes it for one of the most compelling Switch games visually. And I loved how they dabbled with the powerups, some of them are the best they ever been in Metroid and controlling Samus is a dream. The maps are great too, although it would benefit the game having more teleporters. OST could be better but beside these two little flaws the game is a slam dunk.
What a great game. Sure, insanely infuriating at the times, some ideas doesn't hit (like the alignment mechanics this time) and some demon designs are the worst in the series. Also, it suffers a little from bloat at the last 3rd. But the games have some really higher highs like the tone and atmosphere, the fast pacing of the battles and one of the best OSTs of the genre. Mechanically the alignment doesn't work but plot-wise surely does. And the white ending is one of my favorite endings, ever.
The story beats doesn't always works for me and the char design is not much to my taste but this game does so much things right. Great OST, blazing fast pace, lean and perfect gameplay and at the time bring great things for SMT as a whole as the search system for fusions. The chars can be a bit of hit or miss and the atmosphere isn't as good as it could have been with the tone set for the game but still is a pretty great game. A hard but a fair one. Loved it. 8
Amazing one. Even better than 7. It does everything 7 did but better and even borrows good things the series had to offer. Amazing setting, best RE protag, great areas, enjoyable and rewarding backtracking, great production values, nice gauntlets and one of the best REs all around. There's so much on it but at the same it's really cohesive. I hope we have at least another game in this formula.
Great one. It seems Nintendo can't do wrong with Super Mario 3D games. This makes me so interested in a full blown seamless 3D Mario game. Maybe this was a prototype for it.
Cool thing to hoard power-ups too, worked really well.
Great game. I loved the pace, the level design and the cool weapons. The limbs system is nice and keeps the game really engaging until the end. The shop is a great way to balance the game and a easy way to make the player play the game whatever the way they want. Hoarding and selling items to buy nodes is just so good. And of course, the UI is just brilliant. Sadly the PC port is not so good, I really hope we see a remaster down the line. Afterall now EA is interested in making them too.
For me it was a way better experience that people told me it will be. I liked the cast, really liked the fast pace of the game, and think this is the best contact/talk system of any Megaten game. Also, the OST is pretty good (still worse than the PS1 though). The setting is as good as of any other Persona game and the visuals are pretty charming. I would love a new Persona with the same atmosphere of the old Personas.
Still beautiful and a joy to play more than 20 years later. And still a hellish grind and really small selection of cars and specially racing tracks. But gameplay-wise is amazing and almost a miracle for a launch window title to be so polished. The OST is pretty good too, Dogg Turismo 3 made me laugh. And what a sharp presentation overall. GT4 is better probably being the best racing game of all time but GT3 is still pretty good too.
It is a great JRPG as all modern Megatens are but I felt quite disappointed with some design choices. I didn't like some of the chars (I HATE Amanozako), I think the changes of the buff system is a downgrade and the open spaces never captured the best explorations moments of other games. Also the story doesn't know what wants to be. It's not a story per se like SMT IV but never was something atmospheric like Nocturne which I dislike. The QOLs are great though and felt good to play.
Pretty good and a improvement compared to the first one. Also great OST. I just hoped for less ground assault stages. There are too many.
Besides the forgettable soundtrack, some dumb sidequests and the wonky pacing in the last third it's still a good game, with simple but charming plot, nice world lore and concepts and really lovable cast. The gameplay is pretty good for the most part too with a good level of challenge overall. The dungeons are more of a mixed bag: while some of them may be among the best of the genre, others are infuriating and contextually incoherent. Overall a really worthy game to play though.
I think Outer Wilds is at it's best at the first half when you are just in awe discovering things, learning about the universe of the game and just exploring for the sake of exploration. The second half can have really frustating and infuriating moments and some things are a little too obtuse because you have such a small timeframe to explore. Still it's atmosphere and how it conveys the mysteries of this universe makes this more than worth to play

19

Sequel of one of my favorite indie games and although it is not as good as Momodora it's pretty good still. I actually liked the visuals and the atmosphere is really good, but sadly lacks content even more than Momodora. Also, some QoLs here like a mini-map and a better way to deal with spells is really lacking. Still would easily replay it and I liked the weapons (although the selection is short). And the bosses again are a huge highlight, them being as good as ones from Momodora
A really good one by Atlus and get a lot of the things right. Good atmosphere, one of the best settings for the series and really nice and witty writing. It have some problems though, the biggest of them the encounter rate and the lack of zones without encounters. At least the non dark-cities shouldn't have combat. It makes exploration frustrating at times. The combat wouldn't bother me if you had room to breathe. The lack of variety of enemies/compendium is really obvious too.
Pretty cool sequel for a cool game. Loved the new spells, equips and the co-op integration. And yeah, hyped for the third one.
Cool concept and really nice visuals. OST is really good too but the games just loses a lost of steam in the second half. The biggest problem is just not having a way to get in the death scenes instantly. The need to go to the scene every time gets boring so fast. Still a really nice structured game and quite unique too.
Huge ordeal to be next in the line after the amazing AC3 and AC4 don't succeed in everything. The visuals are not as distinct as AC3, the OST not as good, the plot not as crazy and the missions not as varied but it is still a good game. But yeah, a good deal steps back compared to AC3. And the structure of the game, many many stages with focus on ground assault and a timer ticking is just not good overall. Stiil the tight controls and the nice artwork in the storybits makes this worth playing.
Not as good as Doom 2016 in my opinion, the pacing of this game is more akin to a game like DMC than to a FPS. Still works most of the time although some enemies are just frustrating to face. And the new stage structure, yeah, it's just not my kind. Too long too, the last third just dragged on and on without new gameplay elements.
Really frustating at times and amazing in another this is a game with some of the highest highs and lowest lows in Megaten. The characters are compelling and the story is interesting, the scope is just insane for a SNES game but the exploration is bad, the game is bloated and the backtracking is really bad. Also the difficulty spikes in this one are even worse than the first. OST is worse alos. Its really ambitious though, almost as ambitious as Nocturne. And pretty good all considered.
Huge improvement compared to the original. I didn't even finished the Wii version and hated it, this one I liked, felt the game was really decent. Beautiful visuals and the game is so much more pleasant to play now with traditional controls and less Fi and NPC intrusions. You still need to get used to it though. The pading and repetition of areas it's felt and the last third of the game sucks, Song of the Hero is some of the worst arcs of a Zelda game, Still great dungeons, bosses and OST.
A short one but really enjoyable. It starts the series pretty well and have a rocking ost. The last stage is really hard though but not frustrating. It's barebones in content but the sleek gameplay makes for it.
Yeah, it is probably the more concise of the 3 SMTs in SNES but never reach the heights of SMT2. And the Guardian system is really bad although an interesting way to shake things up. Is quite short too what I consider good sometimes but it feels barebones in some aspects and World of Sloth is the worst dungeon to ever appear in a JRPG. OST is just songs of older games although the Akira route battle theme, wow, one of the best Megaten themes. Decent game although quite barebones.
Pretty cool 2D platformer game with a pretty cool idea for some of the boss battles. The game is gorgeous to look and nice to play. even if the character could be a bit less slippery and sometimes the difficulty crosses the line a bit, it still is a recommended one.
Gorgeous as always and really responsive as ever. But I still don't think it never quite reaches the heights of Forza Horizon 1 and Forza Horizon 3. I really dislike the online presence in the campaign, feels really invasive but at least the campaign was better and bigger after the disappointment of FH4 in this regard (and it was less invasive than FH4 also). The setting I felt it was less interesting. And the radios have a really limited selection of songs. Good but a bit of a disappointment
Beautiful to look at and really intense. Even with the new team still is a pretty good game and have a pretty good grasp on what made Gears fun. Still it does feel more like a new thing overall and feels a little slow on pace sometimes. The Snatcher arc took forever. And I have a lot of problems playing the campaign co-op online sadly. Pretty good game but can feel a little too different of Gears sometimes. Not really complaining though, I liked the new direction as a non-hardcore fan.
Pretty good game dev tycoon, visually is the most impressive of the bunch and have quite a lot of depth and good new ideas. The algorithms are a bit inconsitent though and the game feels quite buggy sometimes, even making me lost a savefile. The UI could be better, the HUD is all over the place sometimes. But still a really interesting and addictive experience for people that like these kinds of games.

33

I don't like what they did to JD at all at this game but at least we have a change of pace in gameplay. Still, longer than it should have been. The final boss was a little of a letdown too but at least the ending scene was great. The robot is a nice change pace in gameplay and the game is pretty gorgeous.
Yeah, Didn't grabbed my atention as the base game did. Probably because every enemy is a big hurdle and the drop rates doesn't help. Lost 6 or more hours just to get an Elder Dragon Gem. I disliked the repetitions with some enemies and the lack of options to just skip some cutscenes (yeah, sure, I play this because of the plot and SURE I want to see some big monster screaming at me for the 1000th time...) It's good but probably more for the hardcore MH fan.
Beautiful to look at and the new mechanic is a nice way to spice things up. I would like a more beefier main campaign, still, there are lots of fun to have with this game. A new Tetris is always something good for me. 7/10
The OG. Still fun in some parts and packing a good OST but it's really dated overall and the direct sequel improves it so much that I don't feel you should play this one. A forever important release though and it was amazing what they achieved with it. The License Tests are insanely hard though, harder than the main campaign even, making this lose some good points with me.
"This runs really bad on Xbox and is much more harder than the other Katamari games so it can be frustrating sometimes. The worst Katamari game overall but it isn't a bad one. Still have it's fun moments, amazing ost and the amazing last stage.
Better in some ways than Mini Metro, visually for example but I still find Mini Metro a better composed game overall, in Mini Motorways it feels like the skill floor is too low and the skill ceiling is too high. But it was a different take enough so I could just play and relax for some hours.
Pretty good one and solid gameplay for the most part. The bigger selection of weapons seems like a misstep, many of them are just useless. The verticality of the game a good chunk of the time can be annoying too and the teleport system seems like a misstep also. Still the pace is good and the good presentation really makes the game feel memorable
Inspired on one of my favorite songs of a musician I really like so I was really interested to play it. it really delivers on the promise of the song and the game is cool to look at (although the faces without eyeballs can be a little awkward). And the ost is nice as well using songs of the said artist. The biggest problems is the repetition that gets old fast and the near game-breaking bug that me and many people experienced. A really frustrating that sadly the deveoper never acknowledged. 6
It's alright but ultimately I think this more open ended design will not be for me when it comes to MGS games. I hope to be wrong when I eventually play The Phantom Pain. At least the set up for the game is interesting enough.
Pretty neat and gorgeous DLC. As it is short there's not much going on in it although the final boss battle is pretty good. A cool way to end Gears 5 and prepare terrain for Gears 6
Mixed feelings. For one side we have a start of a great series, the thick atmosphere, amazing OST and nice demon designs but the other side... This game is really slow and really cryptic. I get it, I like the feeling of discovery in JRPGs but not knowing what items and spells do? Not knowing gear stats? And the engine is really slow and clunky too. This runs really nice on PS1 version but this one, yeah, not good. Also the plot and chars are not that great or something. It ends nicely, though. 5

45

Disappointment. Too much boring and unecessary backtracking. Also, braindead combat, lack of QoLs and bad pacing. It is a game worse than the first and that one isn't some classic of the genre or anything. The visuals are still pretty for a GBA game and some dungeons are pretty fun to play but beyond that there isn't much interesting going on in this game.
The writing is pretty boring and bloated, also. So many infinite dialogues that could be better just going straight to the point. 5

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