Games Sam Harrison Wishes He Played in 2021 | Winter Spectacular 2021
There are SO many games. A few years ago I was able to do things like keep up with Destiny 2 and still play most major AAA and indie releases. Then I became a dad and my free time was decimated. After two years I have clawed back a couple of hours a night, but unfortunately, this means I don’t get to play a tonne of games.
At the end of every year I sit down and make a little list of the games that I missed upon release, with the intention of playing them when there’s a gap in releases next year, and this year the lovely people at startmenu thought you might like to read it. So, in no particular order, here are the games I wished that I had time to play in 2021:
Still in The Plastic Wrap!
Sometimes it is enough just knowing that your friends are there if you want to hang out.
Persona 5 Strikers
Persona 5 is the best Persona game. If you don’t agree with me, that’s fine. I just think you’re wrong. That was why I was so excited for this game. A continuation of the excellent story of Persona 5 with the combat of a Musou game? I had played through and loved Fire Emblem Warriors, so seeing this gameplay attached to a series I cared even more about made me think this was a sure-fire hit for me. Unfortunately, when the release came around I was still finishing up Ys IX: Monstrum Nox, and the gameplay was so similar looking I just didn’t have much interest in playing it afterwards.
Sorry P5 Strikers you deserved better!
Scarlet Nexus
A cyberpunk action JRPG from the team behind the Tales series? Excellent graphics and an interesting world and combat system? Surely we have another must play on our hands here, right?
Okay, this one is a bit embarrassing. I was very into Scarlet Nexus when it was coming close to release. I played the demo, I read up about it and watched all the pre-release marketing stuff. I ordered a copy and it is currently sitting unwrapped in a storage tub I’m resting my feet on while I write this. Could I have not written this and just played Scarlet Nexus? Well no because I really wanted to write this.
This is actually just Sam’s reaction when he checked the How Long To Beat on this game.
Gnosia
I don’t know a lot about Gnosia, but my friend Allyson described it as a time loop detective visual novel and honestly, I was sold there. On top of this, the reviews have been really strong and I love the art that I’ve seen from it. Most of the time games on my backlog just sit there, unloved and unplayed, but Gnosia is something I am going to try and go back to next year.
PAINT THE TOWN PASTEL!
Chicory: A Colourful Tale
Chicory is a game where you play as a dog with a paintbrush so clearly, it’s GOTY. I’m not sure why I didn’t get to this one… Oh, it came out the day before Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart. This game looked great, but there’s only so many months I can stare at the very expensive PS5 I got on launch and then proceeded to exclusively play PS4 JRPGs on. So I put Chicory on the backlog for a quiet period of 2021 and here we are, without a quiet period.
You cannot convince me that this is not the name of a fake video game created for a TV show.
Shadowverse: Champion’s Battle
So I found out about this game the day before it came out. It’s basically the Game Boy Pokemon Card Game, where you have a big JRPG adventure but the battles are played out as card games. It is a game within a game, you see. In Shadowverse: Champion’s Battle you play Shadowverse, a popular mobile card battle game. As somebody who completely forgot the entire story of Witcher 3 in a quest to become Gwent world champion, you can imagine I was excited for this. Unfortunately, time conspired against me and it moved to the backlog. This is another one I will be going back to when I can, or when I next travel anywhere with my Switch (so 2024?).
Now this is a real strand-game.
Lake
I am embarrassed to not have played Lake. It’s exactly my sort of game, it isn’t very long and it doesn’t cost very much. I have no excuses. It’s 1986, you play as career-focused city woman Meredith, who quits her job to become a mail carrier in a small town by a lake. Basically everything I ever wanted in an indie game, again I am going to play this I promise.
Okay fine I’ll buy it now. I’m buying it, stop hounding me!
I Wish I Had More Time For These!
You might be able to tell from some previous picks and the games I yell about on Twitter, but I love big and long JRPGs. In 2020 I played the whole Trails of Cold Steel series, which took me almost 350 hours, and dipped into a fair few others… I think I might be starting to realise why my backlog is so long…
Anyway, here are the games I started this year but wound up putting aside for shorter titles. Again in no particular order:
I thought about swapping the Tales and Scarlet Nexus images for this piece just to see how angry I could make JRPG fans.
Tales of Arise
This game. It looks phenomenal, the gameplay is engaging, the story is really fun (although I just don’t get the reasoning for the lifeless skits, just make them cutscenes or dialogue) and I really like all of the characters. I’ve yet to uninstall this from my PS5, so I am counting that as me taking a pause and not giving up.
Lost Judgment
The original Judgment was one of the best games I played in 2019 and I was psyched to get into the sequel, but the opening chapters of the game just don’t have the energy that the original had for me. Also I’ve been playing some of the mainline Yakuza games this year and I think maybe I burned myself out on this style of game. Lost Judgment is also still installed, but I think it won’t last. Sorry Yagami!
*Yagami looks in my general direction*
*Fans self then promptly faints*
Welcome class. In today’s lesson we will be learning how to tell the difference between your Tales, your Trails and your Trials when it comes to long running JRPGs.
There will be a test.
More Trails Games
This is a bit of a cheat as none of these came out in 2021, but after being obsessed with the Trails of Cold Steel games for a year, I wanted to go back and play the Trails in the Sky series this year. Unfortunately parenthood, going freelance and training for an ultramarathon conspired against me having any free time at all and I barely played six hours of the first game. I’m going to have to beat them next year if I want to be caught up for the western releases of the Crossbell games. I’d better get a move on.
I’ve talked a lot about Trails games in the past, in short, they’re a continuous story across multiple arcs of multiple high quality JRPGs. If you like shonen manga or anime and JRPGs you will love these games.
Oh God, I am So Behind!
Reading this article may give you the same feelings of existential dread I got reading through the Wikipedia article of “2021 in Video Games” and if it has, I am sorry. Here’s the final entries on my list, two games that came out this year I really want to play but I am so behind I have not even played the previous entry in their respective series.
It is time for your hardest target yet 47. Your backlog of games.
Hitman 3
I played and loved Hitman (2016) and if you haven’t played it you totally should. It’s kind of a sandbox assassination simulator with a light touch of story. The levels you stalk prey around are like little clockwork menageries, everyone in the level has a story and they play out the same every time - until you interfere.
Hitman 3 got rave reviews and that’s awesome, but my brain won’t let me play until I beat Hitman 2 - A game I have owned since 2018.
Somehow Atelier Ryza is only the second most video game-y video game name on this list. There really is no topping Shadowverse: Champion’s Battle.
Atelier Ryza 2
This is another recommendation from my friend Allyson. She has impeccable taste and I love how these games look, so it’s kind of a no-brainer. If you’ve not heard of Atelier, they’re basically JRPGs with an extremely strong focus on crafting. Unfortunately for… me… I haven’t played the first Atelier Ryza (and it is never on sale damnit) so I am holding off on 2.
