What games am I tasking myself to play in 2021? And how did I do on my 2020 list? Both of these questions answered below.
I did it. 11 targets completed out of 13, which is an 84% B grade that I happily accept. I was surprisingly close to getting 100%, but my PC crashing on Far Cry 4 twice and holiday gift games distracting me from Majora's Mask kept my GPA down a bit. But I completed 10+ targets for the first time since 2014, got a good grade overall for the first time since 2012, and still played a lot of other great games outside my list of targets! The system works, so it isn't changing. My 2021 gaming goals shall be approximately equal to my 2020 goals in quantity.My selection of games worked for me last year, but also confirmed that I'm much more interested in console gaming than PC gaming unless it's Final Fantasy XIV. I procrastinated on two of my PC gaming goals, finishing Tomb Raider in November and dropping the ball on Far Cry in December; and I played Transistor on Switch instead of my computer after getting it on sale. Thus, I'm forgoing my Steam backlog in 2021 and expanding my console options, while still playing a few new games. My 2021 gaming goals consist of: three 2021 releases, three PS4 backlog games, three Switch backlog games, and one each of PS1, PS2, PS3, and 3DS backlog games.
These choices... are me bending the rules a bit. One of the 2021 games is a PS4 remake of a PS3 game. All three Switch games are ports originating on other systems. I am *definitely* going to try and schedule at least two of my gaming goals as podcast games in 2020. Maybe more. But one thing for sure, games absent from the list below CANNOT count towards my official gaming goals unless there are extenuating circumstances.
I think this list is a little more ambitious than my 2020 list, because it has more RPGs (always dangerous) and a few of the non-RPGs are long as hell in their own right. Yikes. In 2020 I aced my gaming goals for the only the third time since starting these in 2011, but 2021 will be a little more challenging. Just like last year: A passing grade is officially 11 games beaten out of 13. The games are listed in alphabetical order. Here, have a list:
2021 Gamers' Dozen
I have only played one Assassin's Creed game at length (2009's AC2, which I quite enjoyed), and it's high time to revisit what's going on with the dueling orders of Assassins and Knights Templar. I somehow own six AC games, but the one that I'm most interested to play is the most recent among the ones I own, because of its combination of the ancient Egyptian setting, elaborate RPG elements, and more modern gaming conveniences than older Assassin's Creed(s). I bought a used copy of AC: Origins during the 2020 pandemic in a bout of retail therapy and I want to get my money's worth (I think it was about $7 or $8?).
I enjoy character action games; I enjoy the work of Hideki Kamiya; and I enjoy several games made by PlatinumGames and the former Clover Studio. So why have I completely missed out on both Bayonetta games over the past decade? Couldn't tell you. I picked up the Switch version of Bayonetta 2 in 2018, which came with a download code for Bayo 1. Now's the time I cash in on that deal and see if I can connect with Bayonetta's fancy action the same way I connected with that of Devil May Cry, Okami, and Nier: Automata - two Kamiya titles from his time at Capcom and one non-Kamiya PlatinumGames joint, all three of which I love.
One small disappointment of 2020 (a year of many, many larger disappointments and even despairs) was Bravely Default II delaying a few months from "late 2020" to "26th of February 2021." I'm good as long as I finally get to play this thing. Bravely Default and Bravely Second are two of my favorite 3DS games, and their Switch sequel is a new setting with new characters, but similar mechanics and job system. They're also bringing back Revo to compose the soundtrack. All of that sounds great (especially Revo and the job system, the two best things about Bravely Default). My February and March of 2021 are going to be busy.
I haven't put hard time into a Disgaea game since 2013, which is surprising and a little sad. I love the first four Disgaea games (and explored the postgame for two out of the four), but didn't enjoy the PS3 spinoff Disgaea Dimension 2 much at all. I passed on Disgaea 5 when it released on PS4 (I was always busy with some game or another), and now several years and multiple ports later, I have the Switch version ready to go thanks to a sale in early 2020. Disgaea 5 is well-regarded by series fans, and I would love nothing more than for D5 to wash the disappointing taste of DD2 out of my mouth.
Hollow Knight comes highly recommended by several of my friends and a great many members of the video games press (mostly around when the console version came out in 2018, a year after the PC version) and I picked it up on sale over a year ago. An intense 2D action game with elements of both Soulsborne and Metrovania, with a "dark Gothic insects" motif, I'm a little intimidated by Hollow Knight for its reputation as a brutal, bleak action game that goes for 30+ hours. But in 2021 I'm up for the challenge (I hope).
I went from being a Yakuza nonplayer in early 2020 to an enthusiastic fan today, playing Yakuza 0 last summer, Yakuza Kiwami last fall, and Yakuza: Like A Dragon last month. I'm currently in the middle of Yakuza Kiwami 2. Whew. I received Judgment as a birthday gift in 2020 (thanks David!) and I was intrigued to try an open-world action game about a detective / lawyer. This guy is basically a Japanese Perry Mason! Judgment is set in the same place and time as the Yakuza games that I've grown fond of, and the protagonist is the likeness of the former pop star who played the main character in Hero (a very good Japanese crime drama TV show). All part of my plan to continue playing RGG Studio games until I run out of new ones.
One of the most acclaimed games of the entire 2010s completely skipped me because of my disdain for both stealth and survival-horror. I bought the early-PS4 edition of this late-PS3 blockbuster a few years ago, where it's sat on my shelf untouched entirely for genre preference reasons. Well, my interest re-ignited in TLOU because of its popular-but-controversial 2020 sequel and YEARS of acclaim for the first game wearing me down. I'm also a casual fan of Naughty Dog's games and can't deny their level of polish (reports of work crunch at the parent studio notwithstanding). I don't know if The Last Of Us will be my cup of coffee, but in 2021 I gotta take at least one or two steps outside my video game comfort zone.
I miss Monster Hunter. I was obsessed with a few of the PSP Monster Hunter games in the late 2000s and early 2010s (Freedom 2 and Freedom Unite), binged HARD on Monster Hunter: World in its first several months of release in 2018, and dabbled in a few others in between (mostly Portable 3rd for PSP and Generations for 3DS). It's a series I have a weird relationship with, with most of that being love. So why haven't I played the spinoff RPG? Which looks fun and adorable? Well, I didn't own it until buying it on a whim last summer, but other than that I have no acceptable answer. Time to dust off the Year of Luigi machine.
I own a copy of the PS3 NieR but it remains untouched on my shelf; I played NieR: Automata on PS4 in early 2020 and was blown away. Playing and loving NieR: Automata renewed my interest in its predecessor, and mere months after I finished Automata Square-Enix announced a 2021 PS4 remaster of the original, this time the Replicant version and with a strange numerical subtitle (North America received the Gestalt version in 2010, and I have no idea what those numbers mean). Playing this cult classic with the context of its sequel and improved visuals, controls, and UI? Sounds like an ideal 2021 target game.
The most glaring omission in my personal Persona resumé is that I've never made it past the first few hours of Persona 2: Eternal Punishment (I'm not interested in trying Persona 1 again at this time, and the less said about Persona 3: The Answer the better). I really liked P2: Innocent Sin when I played it a few years ago, and I have P2:EP on both PS3/Vita download and PS1 disc. So I have options, I have precedent, and I have an appreciation of Persona that is more interested in a novel experience than replaying Persona 4 for the fifth time. It's time to open up a negotiations guide, steel myself for a lot of random battles, and revisit Sumaru City. And probably also cry.
I have put significant hours into only one Suikoden game, and that was when I played and finished Suikoden II in autumn of 2018. It was excellent, and I'm going to try and coordinate playing Suikoden III with some of the same group of people this year. Nothing much else to say here. Suikoden's great. 108 characters called "Stars of Destiny," influenced by Chinese classical novels, building your own castle town. Tactical battles? Six-person battle parties? Runes? Sorry, I'm not a Suikoden expert. Don't come at me, Suikoden faithful. (There are a great many of you and I'm a little scared).
I've beaten six Tales Of RPGs (I had to do some math and check some lists to arrive at that number), but the most recent of those is 2007's Tales of Vesperia (which I cleared first in the early 2010s on 360 and a second time in 2019 on its Remastered version). So I really like Tales Of, but I've only beaten a handful of them. I've *started* playthroughs of several others but never finished, and now I intend to fix that. I played the first 5 or 6 hours of Tales of Xillia shortly after it came out, but the person I was playing with in co-op moved away and I fell off the wagon. I'll give ToX1 a full-faith effort from a clean save file in 2021.
I love Ys. I've played all the Ys games that came out in North America after 2000; that's a very specific qualifier, I know, but equates to eight action RPGs of a few different sizes and styles. In fact, I think I enjoy Ys more than Falcom's other big series (Legend of Heroes / Trails / Kiseki), and as such I've been looking forward to Monstrum Nox since details started emerging on it in early 2019. Word is for Adol's ninth adventure he's locked in a castle town and gained mysterious superpowers, and has to solve the town's mystery accompanied by a bunch of other superhumans. Sure. And it drops in North America on the 2nd of February? Let me at it.
Contingency Plan: If any of the above 2021 releases gets delayed or canceled, or if one of my backlog games is damaged or unplayable, it will be replaced with Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below. This is one of the PS4 games I've owned the longest (I think it's one of the first three PS4 games I bought?), and I'd really like to cross it off the list. But especially if it needs to replace one of my 2021 target games.
I'm looking REAL hard at several other new releases in 2021, including Tales of Arise, Super Mario 3D World (Switch), Shin Megami Tensei III (Remastered), Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny, Monster Hunter: Rise, and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, but ultimately decided to pinpoint three that I'm both really excited for and fairly certain will drop in 2021 (Bravely, NieR, Ys). I may yet buy and play a few of those others, but I can't count them for the list. And I'm not confident enough that Final Fantasy XVI or Project Re: Fantasy will come out in 2021 at all. I considered making a larger proportion of my 2021 goals new games, but I thought that's betraying my goal of cleaning up my gaming backlog.
Lastly, my history with Final Fantasy XIV and these gaming goals posts is fraught, so I can't in good conscience place whatever the 2021 FF XIV expansion ends up being on the list because my FF XIV career comes and goes. I'm definitely excited for it, but I can't guarantee playing it in 2021. I'm too cowardly to place FF XIV on the list only to fail, like what happened in 2018 with Heavensward and Stormblood.
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Right now I'm midway through Yakuza Kiwami 2, but once January 1st hits all systems are go to play any of the above thirteen games. Bring it on!
I'm looking REAL hard at several other new releases in 2021, including Tales of Arise, Super Mario 3D World (Switch), Shin Megami Tensei III (Remastered), Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny, Monster Hunter: Rise, and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, but ultimately decided to pinpoint three that I'm both really excited for and fairly certain will drop in 2021 (Bravely, NieR, Ys). I may yet buy and play a few of those others, but I can't count them for the list. And I'm not confident enough that Final Fantasy XVI or Project Re: Fantasy will come out in 2021 at all. I considered making a larger proportion of my 2021 goals new games, but I thought that's betraying my goal of cleaning up my gaming backlog.
Lastly, my history with Final Fantasy XIV and these gaming goals posts is fraught, so I can't in good conscience place whatever the 2021 FF XIV expansion ends up being on the list because my FF XIV career comes and goes. I'm definitely excited for it, but I can't guarantee playing it in 2021. I'm too cowardly to place FF XIV on the list only to fail, like what happened in 2018 with Heavensward and Stormblood.
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Right now I'm midway through Yakuza Kiwami 2, but once January 1st hits all systems are go to play any of the above thirteen games. Bring it on!
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