Annual Summary 2021

Phew.

It’s been a hell of a few past years.  While no cake walk for most of us, I actually think 2021 has been a worse year for me than 2020.  This has generally come from working in a corner of the retail industry that’s experienced a massive increase in business thanks to last year’s shutdown, while being just as short-staffed as everyone else is at the moment.  It’s been an absolutely exhausting year for those of us back in the basic workforce, even by the normal standards of being in the bottom rungs of the economic ladder, and it’s only been in the past couple weeks that my job has begun to even approach normalcy through this entire year.  Yeah--the Christmas season is 2021’s Easy Mode for me.

As a result, of course, I haven’t played nearly as many RPGs as I wanted to this year.  Frustrating, especially considering that quite a few of the games I did get to were very long ones.  Sometimes it was worth it, at least, like with Horizon 0 Dawn, but it sure as hell wasn’t always--The Legend of Legacy might have the lowest Rewarding Experience/Time Spent ratio in the history of RPGs, video games, or even just pastimes as a whole.  I actually intentionally took on a couple of games that I knew were extremely short solely to try to make up for how much time I spent on stuff like the Laxius Force trilogy, which worked out pretty well, as they turned out to be some of the better games I played this year.  At the very least, though, I still maintained a decent spread of RPG experiences, getting a couple oldies, a couple new titles, some mainstream, some indie, major series titles and 1-offs alike.  Sci-Fi, Sci-Fi Survival Horror, Standard Fantasy, Semi-Sorta-Sci-Fi-Fantasy Survival Horror, Humor, Post-Apocalyptic Robotic Dinosaurs, and Pokemon But Somehow Worse Than Usual, I covered a lot of aesthetics and genres, too.  If I can’t play as many RPGs as I’d like to, at least I can keep a decently varied diet of the ones I do get to, I figure.

Anyway, here’s what I played this year.  You may notice that for a couple of them I’ve given links to the RPG--I’ve decided that in cases where finding a game is more complicated than the first result of a web search, I’ll provide the link to where I found it, in case any of y’all are interested.



Celestian Tales 2
Etrian Odyssey Nexus
Horizon 0 Dawn
Journey to Kreisia
Laxius Force 1
Laxius Force 2
Laxius Force 3
The Legend of Legacy
The Outer Worlds
Pokemon Generation 8
Quantum Entanglement
Symphony of Eternity
System Shock 2
Too Fast RPG



And as you can see, somehow, through it all, I was still stupid enough to keep playing Kemco titles.  What I wouldn’t GIVE for Nintendo to put a few more RPGs into their 3DS shop...dead console or not, the 3DS fits into my pocket and the Switch doesn’t, so the former’s what I can bring with me to work to play on those rare occasions when I actually do have a moment to myself.

In spite of my monicker, though, RPGs aren’t the only pastime I have.  And as is my wont at this time each year, I shall now tell you about all the other stuff I’ve gotten up to, because every now and then I like to test my readers’ patience and commitment.


Anime: This year I (finally) watched Kill La Kill, which I feel like was absolutely everywhere some years back, and it’s...alright.  Decent, in its weird way.  I don’t think I ever did get a handle on what exactly it was or wanted to be, but I liked the act of watching it well enough, and Mako’s a laugh riot--it’d be worth the full watch just for her, really.  I also watched Steins; Gate at the recommendation of a friend, which turned out to be pretty neat, interesting, and thoughtful.  It’s neat to see an anime take a more scientific and exploratory interest into the modern theories of reality and time travel than the usual sensationalist approach--Steins; Gate felt at times like the minds behind it were on the same wavelength as classic sci-fi short story authors like Asimov and his peers,* while still being more than capable of excitement, action, and tear-jerking emotion  Lastly (sadly didn’t see as many animes as I had wanted to, either), I caught Non Non Biyori’s new, third, final season, and it was as solid and lovely as those seasons that preceded it.  I’m sorry to have to say goodbye to this quiet, fun, silly, compelling love letter to rural Japan and childhood, but it was really nice while it lasted.

Books: Actually, this was a good year for me in the literature department. I finally feel like I’ve gotten back on the Proper Book Reading horse, and am satisfied with how many I read this year.  Granted, they weren’t all good ones--I started the year with The Cat Who Sang for the Birds, by Lilian Jackson Braun, and was reminded once again of why I only trust Agatha Christie for mysteries, because while TCWSftB is generally inoffensive as a story, it’s also boring, lacks substance, and is less a mystery than it is an excuse for Braun to just aimlessly write about small-town life in Michigan and a possible worship of house cats.  Which is great if that’s your thing, but I think generally when people read a mystery novel they want the mystery to compose maybe more than 5% of its total content.  But then I proved my own policy of only trusting Christie for mysteries wrong by reading The 13 Problems, and finding out that even she can have an off-day as an author, because the book’s basically just a Mary Sue for Miss Marple.  Miss Marple’s a bore in her best moments, but The 13 Problems is almost insufferably tedious with her, possessing the same sort of unreasoning, 12-year-old-fangirl-esque infatuation with one’s own creation that makes shonen anime such routinely tiresome garbage.

Speaking of 13s, I also read Diane Setterfield’s The 13th Tale, which is pretty decent, at a friend’s recommendation.  The gothic style is just not for me, but I can at least recognize that it’s a good specimen of such.  I also read Catherynne M. Valente’s The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by recommendation, this time from my sister, and it was really good!  So good that I then later in the year read the next book in the series, The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There, which, while maybe not quite as compelling and fresh as its predecessor, was also quite enjoyable.  Good stuff if you like classic fairy-tale stuff and old-school children’s stories’ narrative approach.  I’m sure I’ll be looking into the next story in the series soon

Wow, this is getting way too long for such an unimportant rant section.  Let’s speed it up.  Gave Agatha Christie another chance with Murder in Retrospect, and she restored my faith with a story so excellent that it surpasses even her usual quality.  Then she surpassed even that with The Hollow, which might be my third favorite work of hers I’ve encountered thus far.  I read Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer and was thoroughly unimpressed; felt like a paint-by-numbers mimicry of Shakespeare.  I also ran through High Rhulain, by Brian Jacques (shut up, I loved the Redwall series as a kid), which seemed surprisingly subpar, and Into the Land of Unicorns, by Bruce Coville (shut up, I loved unicorns as a kid, and also right now), which was pretty cool, and a series I’m planning to continue.  Had a really weird hankering for Star Trek: The Next Generation content, so I ended up reading some of the books they wrote for the show, those being Here There be Dragons by John Peel (Okay and basically nothing more or less) and Sins of Commission by Susan Wright (decent for its character portrayals, but overall kind of bland and weird in that the plot that you think is going to be the important one just turns out to be a tiny crumb on the side that basically gets resolved off-screen).  Finally, I reread Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, which is as excellent, brilliant, enlightened, and personally revolutionary to me now as it was 20 years ago.

Non-RPG Video Games: Not much this year that wasn’t RPGs.  I kept up with Super Smash Brothers’s new characters, in spite of every instinct I had to drop the game entirely when they put Sephiroth, SEPHIROTH of all fucking wastes of space, in a slot that could have gone to literally any other video game character ever conceived.  I also experienced the new Doki Doki Literature Club content, which I found really touching and strong...while also a huge bummer, because it really sells just how much the player’s presence as a romance visual novel protagonist ruined a genuinely good, healthy, meaningful thing for the rest of them.  Monika wasn’t a monster before we entered the picture.  Lastly, I played System Shock 1, although that was more because I thought it was an RPG, which, even to my own lax standards, it really just kind of isn’t.  It’s alright, not really my kind of game, but I can respect it for what an influence it clearly had on the medium.

TV and the Like: I did it.  I finally did it this year.  I grit my teeth, pulled up my Big Boy Pants, and bit the bullet: I watched the final season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.  It was fun, and magical, and I appreciate how hard the show’s creators were obviously working to touch all the bases they could to bring resolution to the show while also referencing its long and wonderful history, and incorporating as many of its signature elements as they could 1 last time.  I started watching MLPFiM as far back as when its fourth episode had aired, and I loved it from the start.  It’s altered me in a positive way, and it was a profound feeling to finally close the book on this show’s part in my life.

I also watched the third and fourth seasons of The Flash this year, and I’m still enjoying it, although I do see where a lot of its detractors are coming from when they say the show starts falling apart after Season 2.  I checked out the second season of Love, Death, and Robots and was disappointed; the episode with the ice planet and the augmented kids was the only one that’s particularly good.  Additionally, I continued watching DC Superhero Girls, and I eagerly await the next wave of episodes, because it’s just ridiculously fun and clever!

I did do some watching that wasn’t just continuing something I’d already started previously, too.  A coworker introduced me to Community, and I really enjoyed it--very funny and often even pretty wise, in spite of Dan Harmon’s signature need to occasionally use it as no more than a vehicle for gratifying his raging egomania.  And lastly, I watched Netflix’s new Carmen Sandiego reboot, and it is...legitimately, sincerely, wholly awesome.  Seriously, this show is easily in my Top 10 greatest cartoons of all time.  It’s got a strong and fun overall story, compelling characters, an appealing fixation on geography, history, and culture around the world, great writing, engaging humor, stunningly gorgeous visuals, emotional nuance and interesting themes, and maybe most importantly, the people in charge of the show clearly have a dear and comprehensive love for the Carmen Sandiego franchise.  They made a spectacular creation that stands as its own work, while also paying frequent and far-reaching homage to all Carmen Sandiego works that came before them.  If you use this rant as a recommendation for just 1 piece of media to experience, make it...ugh, well, okay, make it Quantum Entanglement, but if you take a second recommendation from me this year, it’s absolutely got to be Carmen Sandiego.  This show is such an amazing gem that I actually forgive Netflix for the Cowboy Bebop live action remake, just because they also made Carmen Sandiego.

Other Crap: I still write rants, I still spend quality time with my family and my pet, and I still work.  Oh dear God do I still work.  So yeah, that stuff took up a fair amount of my time, too.  Not much to report in that regard; just plugging along as usual.  Oh yeah, actually, I guess 1 new thing is that this year I’ve started to experiment with a book of French recipes once a week or 2, and that does actually take up a bit of time now.  Results can be pretty decent, though.


Alright, enough of all that non-RPG crap.  Let’s get to the main event: the crap that IS RPG-related!



RPG Moments of Interest in 2021:

1. I watched Ecclesiastes’s Let’s Play of Final Fantasy 7 Remake this year.  I don’t count it as an RPG I’ve played just yet, in the sense that right now I’m assuming I’ll count all the installments of it as a single whole entity and thus I haven’t really “finished” it yet, but I am caught up with it at the present time.

2. Speaking of: there’s a point in Final Fantasy 7’s Remake in which Cloud goes to check out what all the noise is about in the apartment next to his, and has a sudden vision of the next-door resident being Sephiroth, only it’s just Cloud seeing things.  As a result, Ecclesiastes and I concocted this scenario where it actually IS Sephiroth, who’s legit renting the room next to Cloud’s, and Seph’s like, just sitting on a shitty couch, beer in hand, stained white wife-beater loosely pulled over his standard villain outfit, watching TV, while Cloud’s next door furiously pounding on the wall and hollering at him to turn that shit down, and Sephiroth just raises the remote and determinedly turns up the volume on a public-access local fishing tournament, leading to Cloud marching over to beat the shit out of him.  I know that it loses a lot in the summation and that it’s dumb as hell, but the whole concept was so hilarious to me that I almost hurt myself laughing over it.

3. There is a sidequest in Journey to Kreisia in which you assist a man by finding half a dozen mail-order brides who were lost in the shipping process.  And the brides are sheep.

Kemco, when I criticized you in the past for having games that possess no memorable or unique quality, this was not the solution I had in mind.

4. The Laxius Force trilogy has so many different boosts, debuffs, and status ailments in it that my previous disbelief over Witch Hunt’s having 28 now seems charmingly naive.  Aldorlea Games has got a serious thing for status conditions, y’all.

5. Finding out that SaintBomber (creator of Embric of Wulfhammer’s Castle) is back and as great as ever was a very wonderful thing.  Seriously, this practically made my damn year.

6. Symphony of Eternity’s protagonist is named Kreist.  I’m not sure how you’re supposed to pronounce that, but I think Kemco might be trying to cash in on the religious crowd?

7. You know, I have seen over 1000 different RPG towns, possibly closer to 2000.  So the fact that I was sincerely impressed, almost awed, by Meridian in Horizon 0 Dawn says a lot.  I may have been unexpectedly less entranced by H0D’s overall setting of robot dinosaurs than most, but damn if they didn’t make up for that with how striking the city of Meridian is.

8. In the Murder on Eridanos DLC of The Outer Worlds, I like the fact that enough attention was placed to detail that the Grand Colonial’s rooms all have a little candy on the pillows.  But what I LOVE is the fact that the robot’s room has an energy canister pristinely laid upon the pillow instead.

9. It’s weird to me that there’s a Wilderness Exploitation Preserve in The Outer Worlds, because Borderlands 2 already has an area named almost exactly that (the Wildlife Exploitation Preserve), and both are, I think, intended as a mild jab at corporate mentality and destruction of all it touches.  Is this an homage?  It seems awfully small and obscure a thing to pick to reference Borderlands 2, though.  Did Obsidian just not know about the one in Borderlands 2?  Seems like an amazing coincidence if so.

10. I know that criticizing Kemco is like shooting fish in a barrel when the fish are suicidal and already holding guns to their heads, but it still leaves me dumbfounded that at the end of Dragon Sinker the main antagonist reveals that the heroes’ victory is meaningless because he’s produced offspring that will grow up to terrorize them all just as he has, and the heroes’ response is to...call it a day, congratulate themselves, disband, and go on home to live their own lives for a while, providing Junior ample time to grow up and start causing problems.  Hey, why do today what you can doom the world’s population by putting off until tomorrow, right?

11. This isn’t actually RPG-related, but holy hell, did Netflix produce the live-action Cowboy Bebop because it saw Crunchyroll’s High Guardian Spice as a challenge to see which incompetent, fumbling corporation could more grotesquely disrespect anime?  I mean, considering that this is the same medium that proudly includes Yugioh GX, Love Hina, that one show about the fully adult woman who becomes a maid so she can gain access to the home of an 8-year-old she wants to bang, and Naruto, you wouldn’t think it would even be possible to insult anime’s dignity.  But damn it if Netflix and Crunchyroll aren’t going to fiercely compete their hardest to do so anyway.

12. Speaking of anime, big applause to Kill La Kill for having the courage to answer the question that Chrono Trigger was too cowardly and shortsighted to ask: What if Lavos was a ball of yarn?

13. Can we please just fucking stop naming RPGs “The Legend of”?  Please.  I’ve played a game called The Legend of Legacy, now.  I’ve had enough.  We need to move on.


Quote of the Year
Runners-Up
“Anyone thinking like me?”
“About the holes?”
“It’s like something needs to be inserted in there.”
  --Random and Sarah, Laxius Force 3

"I don’t really have time to be playin’ around with some stimulator.
But, just to be polite, I guess I’ll take it for a spin.”
  --Yuffie, Final Fantasy 7 Remake

"Wow!  Who knew being the Savior would make me so popular...?”
  --Yusis, Journey to Kreisia

Winner
"You may have saved a dog...but would you do the same for humanity?”
  --Unknown, Etrian Odyssey Nexus


Best Prequel/Sequel of 2021
Winner: Celestian Tales 2
As a continuation of the first title, Celestian Tales 2 is exactly what it should be.  It continues each of the Companions’ character arcs very well, not just picking up exactly where CT1 left off, but rather starting at a point where the characters have reached in the past 10 years that have separated the titles.  And for each of them, that point is a natural one which you can easily understand how they got to, and a good beginning state for the continued development that they’ll go through in CT2.  The story and lore are much the same; it’s gratifying and organic to return to the world of Celestian Tales and to see how it has continued on in that decade between games and be able to see and hear how the protagonists’ influence has been a part of that advancement.  Some franchises might clumsily overfill a text file with a surplus of details of every single little detail that happened between games, forcing players to swim through a murky sludge of over-explanation that leaves them more lost than they started (looking at you, Xenosaga 3)...Celestian Tales 2 gets the job done with environmental storytelling, an effective catching-up intro sequence, and some relatively natural dialogue reminiscing and NPC statements here and there.  And the game also effectively capitalizes on the open plot threads left by the first installment, and lets the plot seeds it planted bloom, continuing the Suikoden-esque story of the series through a good, solid game.  Celestian Tales 2 is exactly what the sequel to Celestian Tales 1 should be.

Runners-Up: Etrian Odyssey Nexus; Laxius Force 2; System Shock 2
I can’t say that LF2 is a good RPG, but it does represent a step up from its predecessor in terms of basic story and cast quality, and it expands on the story that the first game began and deepens the stakes of the conflict, so, strictly in terms of being a sequel, it’s good.  Similarly, System Shock 2 builds off of its predecessor’s approach and style, and enhances them.  EON wants to be a celebration of the Etrian Odyssey series which incorporates story elements and characters from all its predecessors, and it does so adequately, while still being its own story.  They’re all solid continuations of their franchises.


Biggest Disappointment of 2021
Loser: Celestian Tales 3
Celestian Tales 3 is a game that does not exist, and what’s so damn disappointing is that it probably never will.  From what I’ve read and gleaned, apparently some dickwad publisher bought the IP after the first game, only barely allowed the second title to be made, and has absolutely no interest whatsoever in finishing the story of the Companions out in the trilogy that CT had been intended to be.  Damn shame; I really was invested in this tale.

Almost as Bad: The Legend of Legacy; Pokemon Generation 8
I went into The Legend of Legacy with no expectations whatsoever, and somehow every nonexistent one of them was let down immensely.  Even no expectations still comes with the belief that you won’t be trapped in a game for weeks and weeks solely because you have to stat-grind nonstop for every unrewarding step forward you take in an utterly empty plot.  As for Pokemon Generation 8, well, it’s a tremendous let-down as the following act to the excellent Pokemon Generation 7, but, as I’ve recently mentioned, even by typical Pokemon standards, it’s absurdly worthless.


Best Finale of 2021
Winner: Horizon 0 Dawn
H0D's finale is a grand clash against the dregs of the terrible past--both the past of a civilization and of a species. It's got a climactic 1-on-1, a battle alongside against an invading army, and a final confrontation with the protagonist being assisted by her closest allies.  All of that is followed by a heartfelt ending in which Aloy finally finds that for which she has always been searching, and in a truly beautiful moment, discovers that what was wanted of her was to be curious, willful, and compassionate...the 3 traits that have defined Aloy, the traits from which her responses in the most important moments are chosen.  What a way to close out a great game.

Runners-Up: The Outer Worlds; Quantum Entanglement; Too Fast RPG
The showdown with the villain in TFRPG is great, and I’m probably reading too much into what is mostly a funny little joke game, but I actually really feel like the ending had some real meaning to it as an observation of us as gamers and just members of society in general.  Even putting that aside, it’s a funny, nice happy ending that I enjoy.  Quantum Entanglement’s final dash is exciting, its consequences and decisions poignant, and its ending (the best one, at least) consistent to the rest of it: a touching display of love that transcends any single existence.  Finally, while I feel like the final mission of The Outer World feels rushed, and I saw the revelation regarding Earth coming from a mile away, it’s a solid conclusion to this tale of humanity at odds with its own social creations, and the ending is a satisfying clip-show detailing what came of the adventure and the player’s actions that gives you just the right mix of closure, and desire to see what will happen in the future.  I really don’t understand why more games don’t make use of this Fallout-style approach to endings; it’s such a perfect and effective way to close out and tie a bow on an adventure.


Worst RPG of 2021
Loser: Pokemon Generation 8
Okay, Game Freak.  I didn’t think this was a thing that needed to actually be explained to you, or literally anyone else on Earth.  I would have thought that this was the kind of thing so basic, so intrinsically understood by the simple act of existing as a human being in contact with other human beings, that the only time you would have to ever say these words aloud would be to explain this basic narrative premise to, I dunno, a race of sapient alien rocks.  Except I’ve seen Steven Universe, so I know even they would automatically get what you apparently don’t grasp.  So here you go:

If your aim is to craft a story-based piece of media, then you need to ACTUALLY WRITE THE FUCKING STORY.

It’s just so lazy.  I’m no stranger to RPGs that were made with absolutely no effort put into their stories and characters--I have played a Dragon Quest title before, thank you very much--but Game Freak really just discovered new lows to sink to with this one.  Usually the problem with a lifeless, uninteresting story is just that the plot in and of itself is boring and pointless, not that the game refuses to share it with you.  Pokemon Sword and Shield actually bar you from being a participant in the very game you’re playing until its last moments, its creators intent on not even telling a story to begin with, and that, to me, is more deserving of scorn than any standard fault of mundane writing.

Almost as Bad: Journey to Kreisia; The Laxius Force Trilogy; The Legend of Legacy
JtK is a low-energy cliche story in which nothing stands out as interesting or different; it’s just standard Kemco fare, an assembly-line RPG that asks for $10 and gives nothing in return.  TLoL is somehow even less than that; it’s like if someone wanted to make a Romancing Saga title, without any of the complicated moving parts of event timing and non-stationary actors, without an understanding of how to balance the nuances of combat and stat growth to keep it from being too tedious, and most of all, without any real story or characters to speak of.  Playing The Legend of Legacy is more tedious and unrewarding a task than struggling to file someone else’s taxes in a language you don’t speak, while Ricky Gervais stands over your shoulder and reads aloud a script of Who’s on First rewritten by Xenogears.

And finally, The Laxius Force trilogy is...not terrible, in some regards, and there are even certain simple elements to its long story that I think are done pretty decently (such as how daunting a task finding and stopping the main villain is as the heroes exhaust 1 possibility after another and keep coming up short, while having just enough successes that it doesn’t feel frustratingly fruitless).  But at the same time, LF suffers the fatal flaw of having 3 out of its 4 most important cast members be a guy who’s an entirely unlikable asswipe, a lady who’s an entirely unlikable idiot, and another lady who’s an entirely unlikable asswipe and idiot--all with character arcs which are not compelling at all, or just lacking development altogether.  And the last of the 4 vital heroes gets saddled with a romance that acts as the most defining angle of her character story, a romance which made it very easily onto my list of the worst in the genre.  I’m not saying the games are great otherwise, I think the plot and the methods for telling it are best described as amateurish, but I probably wouldn’t have seen them as actually bad if we hadn’t had to put up with Random, Sarah, and Wendala as most of the major vehicles for moving the plot forward.


Most Creative of 2021
Winner: Quantum Entanglement
QE is a strikingly unique and fresh examination into the concept of the Self, and the idea that love could be so powerful that it transcends iterations of existence.  It’s a fresh and compelling love story told in a game staged in a unique and interesting manner and setting, all culminating in an inventive climax that’s less about opposition and conflict (typical of RPGs, and most adventures, for that matter) than it is about the legacy and consequences of a different, but also transcendent love story.  The humor is quirky and refreshing, the characters unique, the premise unlike almost any I’ve encountered before...I’ve played more than 400 RPGs now, and Quantum Entanglement is a pleasant reminder that there’s still new and innovative experiences to be had with RPGs, even for a veteran to the genre such as I.

Runners-Up: Horizon 0 Dawn; System Shock 2; Too Fast RPG
The idea of “tribals hunting robot dinosaurs” isn’t so meritorious itself, but Guerilla Games’s ability to create an actually legit, compelling lore for this being the state of the world in H0D certainly is.  As is just how deeply and well they went into developing that world, creating backstory setups for the narrative states they wanted to start at, creating new yet reminiscent cultures in this world, and finding a way to make a post apocalyptic scenario fresh and engaging again.  H0D isn’t just very creative, it also puts a fearsome amount of work into the structure of its singular creation.

System Shock 2 doesn’t seem all that unique and inventive to me in the year 2021, but I can recognize that fact to be evidence of just how much it subtly changed the landscape of game development--because so much of what followed it, so many of the narrative conventions of first-person RPGs (and other FP ventures) followed in its footsteps.  Beyond that, it’s a decently creative story in its own right of a sci-fi survival horror disaster of competing cosmic monstrosities, too.  As for Too Fast RPG, sure, it’s just a (literal) quick gimmick mostly there for laughs, but hey, humor is an exercise in innovation, too (one might make a good case that comedy is 1 of the mediums most demanding creativity, in fact), and I reckon it takes an inventive mind to come up with something like TFRPG, joke game or not.


Best Romance of 2021
Winner: Gabby x Marine (Quantum Entanglement)
As if there were any doubt.

Runners-Up: Atral x Elida (Horizon 0 Dawn); Junlei x Parvati (The Outer Worlds)
They may only be NPCs tied to a sidequest, but Atral and Elida’s variation of the Romeo-Juliet/Pyramus-Thisbe/Buttercup-Bright-Mac trope is still a fairly moving story of love and loss that I felt in my big old softy heart.  As for Junlei and Parvati...well, honestly, we only really see Parvati’s side of their romance in any great detail, but darn it, what more do you need to see than Parvati’s adorable starry-eyed adoration?  Parvati is the ultimate cinnamon roll, and seeing her crush develop into an honest romantic relationship--being able to help encourage its development, in fact--is a sweet, simple joy.  I also like it for...well, its simplicity, I guess.  We’re so used to seeing romantic love develop in RPGs under epic circumstances of world-saving journeys, intrinsically tied to grand happenings and heroic acts, that it’s sort of refreshing to get involved in 1 that’s just a simple, straightforward, everyday case of developing feelings, going on a date, and deciding to be in a relationship.  The normalcy of Parvati’s feelings and how she acts on them is ironically rare, and it was nice to see.


Best Voice Acting of 2021
Winner: Horizon 0 Dawn
The question of whether H0D or The Outer Worlds has superior vocal work is really going to come down to preference more than anything, I reckon.  For me, the tiebreaker is which game has Keith David in a major role.

For real, though, H0D’s spot-on with all its acting, and I can’t think of anyone in it that didn’t turn in a solid performance.  Aloy’s actress noticeably helped cement her character, quite a few side characters like Gildun and the narrator of the Vantage Point logs were just great, and everyone, even minor NPCs having ambient conversations as you pass by, seems to be given an actor devoted to creating a personality for their role.

Runners-Up: The Outer Worlds; System Shock 2
When the majority of your story’s told through audio logs and the demanding, threatening orders of a psychotic AI, it’s important that your voice game be on point, and SS2’s got its act together.  The Outer Worlds’s acting is high quality, with some especially good performances by the actors for Parvati, Phinneas, and Felix.  Nothing more to say, really; voice acting is either a boon or an embarrassment for a game, and for these works, it’s a definite plus.


Funniest of 2021
Winner: Quantum Entanglement
As great as it is for its moving love story, its dark and unnerving concepts, its creativity, and its effective elements of horror, Quantum Entanglement is just as notable for its constant, endearing banter, wisecracks, and wordplay, much in the same way as Embric of Wulfhammer’s Castle, only even more so this time around.  The frequent chuckles that Marine and Gabby’s back-and-forth produces is just what the game needs to keep you in a good frame of mind as you explore a literally and figuratively dark setting for the means of survival and escape--and the humor’s even got a purpose within the game’s own context, too, which is a rarity.**  Good, funny stuff.

Runner-Up: Too Fast RPG
TFRPG may be a humor RPG built upon 1 joke and 1 joke alone, but damn it if it doesn’t know exactly how much and how long to milk that single gag.  The same game that kept Korone in stitches from start to finish also had me chuckling through its course,*** and kudos to it for that.


Best Villain of 2021
Winner: Ted Faro (Horizon 0 Dawn)
Because when you’re a true fucktard, ruining the world once just isn’t enough.

Runners-Up: The Board (The Outer Worlds); Demon King (Too Fast RPG); The Ex (Quantum Entanglement)
Between Ted and the Board, the careless, sociopathic ultra-rich certainly have figured strongly into the problems humanity faces in the RPGs I played this year.  But hey, I’ve heard it said that the best villain is the one that can be found in real life, and what’s a truer-to-life monster whose evil we all suffer from than a corporate CEO?  Well, conceivably a violently deranged ex-lover who’s still in enough of a position of power over us to freely abuse, harm, and terrify us, but Quantum Entanglement’s got that angle covered with chilling effectiveness.  Seriously, I may personally despise Ted and the Board far more strongly, but QE’s Ex is the only villain this year--or in the past several years, for that matter--who actually frightened me.

As for Demon King, he’s got the sympathetic villain thing going for him, and this time it’s not even of the misguided sort.  Guy’s legit in the right.


Best Character of 2021
Winner: Parvati (The Outer Worlds)
...Okay, fine, not really, but I totally love her the most and really want her to win.  Screw personal depth and development (of which Parvati has plenty, mind you, just maybe not enough to legitimately win); can’t I just give her the crown for being such a warm, adorable sweetheart that must be protected and loved at all costs?

...Ugh, FINE.

Actual Winner: Marine (Quantum Entanglement)
Not that there’s anything to actually complain about in giving Marine her due.  She’s a wonderfully-written, nuanced, fun, interesting character who feels pleasantly real and yet no less a heroic figure for it (if anything, she’s all the more impressive).  Her growth is largely in relation to her love for Gabby asserting itself and growing, but that’s no flaw in a romance, and in and of herself she’s a likable, faceted character.  Saint Bomber has a gift for the creation of interesting and highly endearing characters, and Marine’s 1 of his best, to be sure.

Runners-Up: Aloy (Horizon 0 Dawn); Gabby (Quantum Entanglement); Lucienne (Celestian Tales 2)
In the first CT, it was Ylienne and Isaac whose stories and character growth were by far the most interesting to me, but as CT2 moved forward, Aria and Lucienne became the stars for me, the latter most of all.  While every major member of the cast of Celestian Tales has their own arc and time to shine, it’s Lucienne’s grappling with the guilt of being complicit with her uncle’s downfall, and her difficulty with and frustration in caring for and being shackled to the child who (completely beyond her control, of course) is the reason for Lucienne’s woes, that impresses me most.  Solid character writing there.

...And we’ll never see her arc conclude.  Or Aria’s.  Or Ylienne’s, Isaac’s, Camille’s, or Reynard’s.  Damn, it just kills me to see a promising franchise die before its time, sometimes.

Aloy’s a pretty great protagonist, and I like the way she can go through several arcs of development through her journey, yet at the same time stay very true to the beliefs and personal codes that define her.  She’s exactly the kind of person that the spiritual-and-yet-not-reverent Horizon 0 Dawn needed to have as its central figure.  As for Gabby, she’s pretty much right up there with Marine in terms of quality--if there’s any proof of just how talented a character-writer Saint Bomber is, it’s that he could create not just 1, but 2 highly appealing, interesting, deep, and dynamic individuals in the same game who are exactly alike enough to have great chemistry, and yet also exactly dissimilar enough to have great chemistry and be their own distinct people.


Best RPG of 2021
Winner: Horizon 0 Dawn
Every now and then, the hype for a popular game is, indeed, accurate, and that’s certainly the case with H0D.  An epic, purposeful story of searching to understand oneself by one’s origins, as an individual, as a culture, and as a species, with great themes of tribal culture, beliefs and spirituality, a game with a love of the natural world and with a talent for telling stories after their fact, following a compelling protagonist through a carefully, masterfully, and lovingly crafted world whose lore only gets more interesting as you delve deeper into it...Horizon 0 Dawn is an excellent RPG, from all angles.  I mean, hell, you know you’ve got a winner when you can take an idea like “hunters vs. robot dinosaurs” and work out the details well enough that said idea actually becomes an intellectual and well-reasoned conclusion with a lot of deep concepts behind it.  Horizon 0 Dawn is a damn triumph, and that’s all there is to it.

Runners-Up: Celestian Tales 2; The Outer Worlds; Quantum Entanglement
I’m gonna say it, and I don’t care what you think of me: I may objectively recognize Horizon 0 Dawn as the greatest game I’ve played this year, but the one I love the most is without any question Quantum Entanglement.  Saint Bomber knows how to play one’s heart perfectly, the game’s got an intriguing premise, it’s amazing for how well it can generate a frightening mood through no more than RPG Maker assets, I’m a sucker for a great romance, and the damn thing is so intelligent and fascinating to consider.  Quantum Entanglement has its heart, mind, and soul in perfect alignment to affect its audience on a profound level, and it’s fucking great.

The Outer Worlds is a great RPG, with several appealing characters, a good setting and premise that are interesting to explore, and a highly worthwhile purpose.  Even if it doesn’t have the power behind it to live up to the Fallout level of quality that it clearly reaches for, it’s a damned worthy attempt, and it certainly surpasses several of the other works it most significantly patterns itself after, such as Borderlands and, in some regards, Firefly/Serenity.****  Finally, Celestian Tales 2 is a strong continuation of an already solid RPG, and I’ve really enjoyed its story that manages to both be personal, and a larger tale of the events that shape a nation over the course of a decade.  I don’t think I’ve had a really decent Suikoden-esque RPG to enjoy since Suikoden 3,***** and it’s been nice to have that gap filled a bit with Celestian Tales.


List Changes
Greatest Romances: I have not yet added Gabby x Marine to this list, but only because it occurs to me that it’s probably high time I expand it.  Although rest assured, Marine and Gabby would be worthy of the list even if I didn’t; hell, I could revert it back to a mere 5 entries and they’d still be making the cut with room to spare.  But yeah, expect to see this old gal make a return come the new year which properly displays this year’s winning couple.
Greatest Vehicles: This one’s not changing, actually, but I’d like to use this moment to air my grievances about that fact.  Horizon 0 Dawn absolutely should have made it onto this list.  But nooooooo, Guerilla Games had to go and rob itself of the victory.  Here we have a game full of awesome titanic robot animals that you can take control of...and the only 3 you can actually ride are just some stupid basic bitch quadrapeds.  Yeah, because when you show me a game with giant awesome mecha-versions of sabre-toothed tigers and grizzly bears and fucking tyrannosaurus rexes with shoulder cannons, the only one I want to ride atop is a goddamn tin horse.  How novel.
We could have been riding giant mecha-gators across the fields and plains, guys.  Could’ve had a goddamn alligator android as our steed.  A titanic steel crocodilian at our beck and fucking call, and they blew it.  Shame on you, Guerilla Games.  You stole seventh place from yourself.******
I swear, if I don’t get a rideable robot snapping turtle at least in the sequel...
Most Annoying Characters: I think I may have to expand this list next year, too.  Because while the gatekeeper of that list, Lita from Atelier Iris 1, is still more irritating, there is no goddamn way I can accept having a list of the most annoying dipshits in RPGs that doesn’t have Pokemon Generation 8’s Leon on it.
...Wendala of Laxius Force, too, for that matter.
Most Needed Sequels: Celestian Tales 1 + 2 have been added; Mark Leung: Revenge of the Bitch has been removed.  Sorry, Mark, you many meme-mentioning main man.
Pokemon: Worst Pokemon list expanded to 7 places, with Alcremie and Appletun being added.  Wooloo has been added to the Best Pokemon list; Dialga has been removed.  Sorry, you dramatically designed dragon distinct to Diamond.



And that’s 2021 in the bag.  It’s been 1 of the tougher years I’ve had, and I daresay the world at large had a rough go of it, too.  Hopefully it’s been decent enough for the rest of you, but either way, here’s hoping that 2022 will be a bit smoother.  At the very least, I think I’ve got things lined up a bit better going forward for more time to play RPGs, so maybe the rant I post a year from today will have a few more subjects to consider.

As always, I’d like to close the year out with some heartfelt thanks.  Thanks to my sister, and to my friend Ecclesiastes, for being constant, helpful, and incredibly patient editors, sounding boards, and ideas-men, without whom this damn blog would be a complete disaster.  Another thanks to my friend Angel Adonis, for being ready and willing to act as a backup editor on the fly, and indulging an old man on the matter.

Huge, heartfelt thanks to my patrons, Dan Brandt and Ecclesiastes (yes, that’s double thanks to you, sir, don’t spend it all in 1 place).  It’s no less a source of pleased amazement now than ever that you guys actually value my blathering idiocy enough to support me this way.  Seriously.  Thank you, so much!

And lastly, as always, thanks to all of you, who read these rants.  It never stops being gratifying to know that I’m not just shouting fruitlessly into the void, here.  May our 2022 be an awesome year that brings a new and wonderful wealth of joy to us all!

Or at least just doesn’t suck quite so hard as usual.
























* Professional peers, that is.  In terms of talent and skill, of course, Asimov has no peers.


** Have you ever noticed how often comedy and jokes exist in a vacuum within games, shows, movies, etc.?  Characters never laugh or even smile when someone does or says something funny; it’s always solely for the audience to react to, or even just acknowledge.  Always struck me as weird.


*** Yeah, I’ve fallen a bit down the V-Tuber hole, what of it?  I told you, this year I finished watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.  I need something colorful, cute, and fun to take its place, alright?


**** Yeah, I said it.  Whatcha gonna do about it, Whedon-worshippers?


***** Not that I didn’t enjoy Suikoden Tierkreis, mind you, but the whole perspective of the conflict-as-a-part-of-the-character-of-the-nation-itself thing was highly different in that title.

...Also, it’s possible that I HAVE played a decent Suikoden-esque RPG between Suikoden 3 and Celestian Tales, but have managed to forget it.  I find that I’m managing to forget a lot more of the RPGs I’ve played, and the stuff within them, nowadays than I used to.  I optimistically hope this is just because of the number that I’ve played being too damn big at this point, and not a sign of mental deterioration as I age.  But I have a bad feeling about it, not gonna lie.


****** Don’t you go trying to argue the logistics with me.  Real-life crocs will give each other piggy-back rides all the damn time, and Aloy’s like a third the size of these things.  There was 0 feasible cause for us not to be able to ride into town on a pimped-out Megaman X villain.