My Favorite Movies of 2021

We can finally put 2021 to rest with the best movies I've seen in 2021. And unlike this year, I came across a really good selection this time around. 

In case you don't know my criteria, any movie that I have seen for the first time in 2021 is in the running. If you haven't already, you should also read my best of regarding games and television. 

I don't got much to say other than that, and I got a lot to cover. Like I said, I watched a lot of fantastic movies. In fact, I came across so many, I am going to have to make this a Top 11. With that in mind...

#11: Running Shine | LoZ: OoT Review 

I was originally going to put Oldboy as the eleventh entry until I saw this video essay on YouTube while enduring an arduous airport layover. And immediately, you might be wondering why I would recognize a two hour video game review over a movie that some have considered as one of the most important films in the 21st Century so far. The answer is easy. I watched this review several times over the course of only a few weeks. Any visual medium that rewatchable must be something special.

It's rewatchable because Running Shine has this utterly striking sense of humor and way of conveying information. Despite his jokes and research shown being pretty commonplace if you are in the know. I mean, his humor is very Mr. Plinkett, and most of the information he shows can seen in practically any gaming YouTube channel. There is clear statement of difference in how Running Shine presents himself. His word choice, delivery, and overall intelligence all create this impeccable and refreshing experience through whatever game he decides to review. 

I also love that he has incredible confidence in his opinion on games. There is a genuine problem where a lot of opinions in the gaming YouTube space are all about the hot takes or innovative observations. Running Shine completely avoids that problem, and his opinions feel incredibly authentic. It doesn't matter if the opinion aligns with the consensus or is even interesting. He just presents it, and you enjoy it because he colors it with his wit and writing style. 

Running Shine is easily among my favorite game reviewers, right up there with Dunkey, Nerrel, Matthewmatosis, and SuperBunnyHop. While all of his reviews are masterful, I will have to give his recent review of Ocarina of Time as his best. I cannot wait for his next review. Until then, I will just watch his reviews several more times. 

Oh and honorable mention to Oldboy. Sorry you got snubbed by a Youtuber. 

#10: Wet Hot American Summer

If movies were like people, Wet Hot American Summer (WHAS) for me would be that high school classmate you never met but knew about. You knew about their reputation. They were nice, but they were weird, like really weird. I finally got a chance to meet WHAS and immediately understood the weirdness they were talking about. 

This movie is a perfect fever dream. All the characters are all 'off' yet it doesn't take away from their likability. It is strange that these characters are more relatable and endearing than movies that take themselves more seriously.

The casting rocks. The comedy is incessantly stupid in a Zucker Brothers kind of way. It has been a very long time since a comedic movie has made me laugh this hard. 

This is one of my new favorite comedies. This movie may not be for everyone. And if you come across someone in your life that hates WHAS, then they probably aren't cool enough to hang out with. You are better off being with other people. 

#9: Spencer

Here's a hot take: biopics, as a genre, are as cliché and generic as comic book films.

A lot of people think of comic book films as lower class because they are committee thinking driven drivel half the time, so they go see an artsy biopic with a pull quote saying it was nominated by an Oscar. They'll watch it and pretend they weren't just advertised to. They will treat any garbage as a masterpiece as long as there is one good performance or the cinematography caught a few good angles. Artsy films are commercialized too. The term Oscar bait exists for a reason, and biopics can be just as soulless, uninteresting, and pointless as your typical Wonder Woman 1984 or Thor 2.

Very few biopics will ever resonant with me. At best they are emotionally impactful and then they disappear from my memory forever.

It's like getting a few pumps from a sexual partner before they fall asleep. At least I think that's what it would feel like. I don't know. I never had sex before.

Spencer, however, is none of that.

For once, a biopic is more than just portraying a neat person on Wikipedia. It's a film with actual narrative importance beyond the surface level.

It reminds me of Citizen Kane or Lawrence of Arabia where the real life human being is used as a vessel to explore a vast amount of themes. Here, we get to see the mental deterioration when faced with a pure lack of agency. We get to see the vapidness of following tradition. We get all of this with Kristen Stewart as our guide giving an excellent performance.

Is Spencer as good as Citizen Kane or Lawrence of Arabia? Not really. However, this film is the definitive example of what a biopic should be: striking, resonant, and doesn't freaking cum after two minutes!

#8: Hereditary

I love a good horror film. I find them strangely therapeutic. I guess I find them relieving to watch a bunch of characters face trauma you will never ever experience in your life. 

Hereditary is different. Unlike a slasher or the subdue psychological horrors in the past, Hereditary takes the horror and relates it to you on a personal level. Yeah, it is safe to believe that demons, cosmic entities, or deranged supernatural serial killers aren't a genuine threat in everyday life. What is a genuine threat, however, is trauma, spontaneous tragedy, and feeling isolated despite being in the company of good people, and that's the horror in Hereditary.

It has slow bits, and you don't really know what the film is trying to do until you're about 80% into the film leaving you mostly confused than scared in certain sequences. But other than that, Hereditary is quite absorbing. I love a film that you can't read or predict. It puts you in a position where you are just as lost and unaware of its direction as the characters are. No preconceived expectations on horror tropes or how a typical movie script is made will save you from Hereditary. You are in a rollercoaster in the dark. And if you can appreciate that kind of experience, then Hereditary stands as one of the most unique horror movies of the 2010s.  

#7: Dune (2021): Part One 

I accidently had a Denis Villeneuve binge this year independently watching Blade Runner 2049, Arrival, and Enemy before watching this.

I might change my mind later on, but this is my favorite film of his so far.

This film is certainly not for everyone. It is definitely a cliff notes movie like Godfather or Ghost in a Shell where you need to have a wiki pulled up alongside it to understand what is going on. It's a tad slow and very dense in trying to adapt the source material. It's not the type of movie that I would love, but it grabbed me anyway.

There is a meditative quality to this film where it smoothly and quietly goes from one set piece to another. This movie was two and a half hours, and I didn't feel it at all. I love when a movie does that. 

The action also has the Blade Runner 2049 quality where the action is slow paced which gives the movement and pacing a weird sense of hypnotism. It feels like a refuge to the deluge of mind numbing action popularized by the Transformers movies. When you watch a Villeneuve action scene, you pay attention to every frame. 

Maybe the Lynch version lowered my expectations, but I was really impressed with this one. It certainly made me fall in love with the world of Dune which I can’t say about the aforementioned. I can't wait for part 2.

#6: Hackers

There is the concept called "so bad it's good." Well today, I will like to introduce to you the concept "so dated it's timeless."

Hackers is corny, cringy, and sometimes upsetting, but I love it anyway. There is something about this film that captured my attention. It's a teenage boy fantasy personified. Even though this is my first time seeing this movie, I felt so much nostalgia. This movie does such a good job at conveying that feeling of an innocent boy who just wants to be cool and badass. It captures the wish fulfillment of wanting to be a techno genius hacker. And if that is not your cup of tea, then you can be greatly amused at the hilariously dated 90s aesthetics or the fact they casted 20 year old's as high school students. It works on both levels.

The film works on another level of being a solid fantasy film....Hear me out...

Obviously, its portrayal of hacking is extremely inaccurate. However, when you start to look at hacking like the Force or magic, then the film becomes a little more entertaining. It basically turns into science fantasy like Star Wars or the Marvel movies. It makes you appreciate some of the writing of the film. Obvious flaws aside, the film is structured pretty well and paced in a way where it doesn't meander like others in the genre. You can say a lot of negative things about Hackers, but I doubt you can call it boring. 

Hackers kind of rocks. It has been officially two months since I have seen this movie, and I haven't stopped thinking about it. I imagine it will continue to be in the back of my mind for the rest of my life. I would call this film a guilty pleasure, but I feel no guilt whatsoever. I will kill a man over Hackers.

#5: Encanto 

I thought I was done with Disney & Pixar animated movies. I can't recall a time where I thoroughly enjoyed a Disney/Pixar film since Moana, and I can't recall a time when I absolutely loved a Disney/Pixar film since Inside Out. Granted, I still haven't seen a majority of the releases. But that's it really, all the movies since Toy Story 4 have been so fucking plain, and they don't speak to me anymore. Soul and Onward look horribly generic. And while I have heard good things about Raya and Luca, they haven't really done enough to compel me to watch them. 

Encanto, on the other hand, simply grabbed me, hook, line, and sinker. God, it is nice to see a Disney movie that has personality and depth. That isn't trying to insecurely pander to Hispanics through chancla and tamale jokes. To me, this is what Coco should have been. A Hispanic movie that simply let's Hispanics be awesome and gorgeous. It's empowering when a culture is allowed to just exist that isn't there for a corporation to score a few woke points. Well ok, Disney is still trying to score woke points, but it doesn't do it the detriment to the quality of the film. 

The plot is painfully predictable, but that's fine. It isn't trying to be subversive or some metanarrative of Disney films. It is just trying to be fun, and it is really good at doing that. The music is some of the best I've seen from Disney, and the pace of the animation is great. There are very few modern Disney movies that struck me as well as this one. For that, it had to be on the list. 

#4: One Night in Miami

One Night in Miami is a...biopic? Historical fiction? I guess we will go with the wiki labeling on this one. 

One Night in Miami is a American drama film about the meeting of four notable civil rights figures during a night in Miami. Since there is no record of what was actually discussed that night, the actual events are a fictional take. For all we know Malcolm X and Sam Cooke could have been arguing about the best Twilight Zone episode. 

That said, what Kemp Powers decides to discuss using these four famous figures is far more engaging than talking about the best Twilight Zone episode. Because really, we all know A Game of Pool is objectively the best episode. If that was all that was discussed, the movie would be like twenty minutes. It was the right idea to focus on the uncertain role of the African American in Civil Rights era America instead. 

I always wanted a biopic that focused on the sometimes conflicting priorities of civil rights figures at the time, and this is that movie. The conflict between Sam Cooke want for economic independency vs. Malcolm X's passionate vision of America. The collateral additions of Mohammed Ali and Jim Brown that color in other views at the time. This movie nails exactly what I wanted with a premise like this. 

This movie is basically dialogue porn. The writing is so good and artful. It's the kind of writing that will never be said in actual human conversations, but it doesn't matter. The writing is too poetic and leaves that nice vibration in your ear when you hear it. 

This will go down as one of my favorite biopics. And considering biopics rarely go above the level of good, it is truly nice to get something as great as One Night in Miami. 

#3: Pig

A film starring Nicholas Cage with a premise that sounds like a spoof parody of John Wick should be the worst movie ever only made worse by casting James Corden or something. Instead, we get one of the instances where our timeline actually gives us something truly nice for once. 

Pig is deep and emotional. And unlike some arthouse films, it doesn't do that with sacrificing good pacing or overusing abstractness. Nicholas Cage gives his performance he likes to give every three to five years where he reminds us that he is still a great actor. The premise, while seemingly silly, takes you in a direction that's truly unexpected. It quickly turns from a film where you expect is a traditional revenge film to a film that's more introspective. 

It's frustrating to talk about this movie because it's basically an effortless movie with very little to complain about. Everything works. Alex Wolff, who also stars in Hereditary, is excellent. The themes, while simple, are effectively told because the premise that frames it are striking and memorable. 

Pig is truly excellent. It's so excellent that I feel weird for putting the next two movies above this one. 

#2: Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999

Last year, I stretch the definition of a movie by including a TV episode as an entry on this list. This year I am doing something similar by including a comedy special. 

It's rare for a comedy special to be really...well special. Unless you are Dave Chappelle or Bill Burr, I am likely only going to give either a middling or underwhelmed response from me, so you can bet my happy surprise when I started James Acaster specials. 

I have been a fan of Acaster for a while with his appearances of shows like Taskmaster and the many British panel shows that litter the European airwaves. It wasn't until this year that I would watch his specials. I started with Repertoire and was easily impressed by the surrealness and quirkiness of his presence. It was like Norm Macdonald except Acaster also supplied a more progressive side that was willing to satirize the government and politically conservative forces. You can say this took his comedy from good to fantastic, and I had to get more. I was so desperate that I was willing to shelve the fifteen dollars for his new special which is unthinkable in a world where you can most watch most comedy specials for free via streaming. I suppose that is a telling sign that this special wasn't going to be like the usual comedy special. 

Cold Lasagne builds on top of Repertoire. It's more quirky. It's more surreal. And more importantly, it was more satirical. It was refreshing to see a social justice perspective on satire as most comedians that I watch tend to push back against that things like "cancel culture" and "SJWs." Acaster manages to rebut these comedians and not just be funny but be fucking hilarious. It was the first time where my comedy heroes like Chappelle and Burr have a run for their money. 

I could end it here and that would more than justify why this special deserves to be on here, yet Acaster builds it even more. On top of even that, Acaster explores other topics providing easily the best comedic rumination on mental health, relationships, and how they relate to one another. 

I can see Cold Lasagne being at least one of my favorites if not the favorite. It should join the likes of Live on the Sunset Strip, Weapons of Self-Destruction, and Killin' Them Softly as one of the best specials in the history of comedy. And if Acaster doesn't develop an American following to equate that, then I will riot!

 

Honorable Mention: Lupin III: The First

I was a little upset that I couldn't put Lupin III on my best of list since I thought it would make a funny gag for these Top Tens to feature a Lupin III movie every year. Nevertheless, I still want to talk about it, because Lupin III: The First rocks. 

Remember Tin Tin? Remember how great that film looked? Well this movie is Tin Tin times eleven. 

Anime and CGI has had a tumultuous relationship. Anime for a while has had a tough time using a technology that has been perfected by Pixar in the early 2000s. In other words, CGI anime was meh at best and Berserk 2016 at worst. And in my experience, I haven't personally found a CGI anime that hit the level of Pixar or other amazing Western animated works until now. 

Lupin III: The First to put it simply is the "first" film to convince me that not only CGI can work in anime but it can work wonderfully. Like Tin Tin, the most amazing thing about Lupin III is how they were able to adapt the flexibility and energy of the 2D counterparts. Even though I became a Lupin III fan as recently as last year, there is a level of nostalgia when watching Lupin in action in a 3D space. 

The movie itself is fine hence why it didn't quite reach the best of list, but it is a treat seeing all these characters rendered beautifully in CGI especially Fujiko....( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)....

Honorable Mention: The Assistant

Earlier in the year, I reviewed the Ozark and I mentioned this movie when I praised Julia Garner. I am afraid to admit that I didn't actually see the Assistant when I wrote that review. I pulled the typical Internet gaffe of referencing and assessing something I haven't even seen. 

The truth was that I was going to see the Assistant during that time but got really squeamish due to the content of the film. It took months later to finally find the bravery to watch it. 

If there is a type of horror that scares me the most, it would definitely be the kind I like to call "social horror." The kind where the scariest thing that happens is a guy catching his wife cheating on him or someone on the verge of losing their job. It's seen everywhere from Sideways to the U.K Office.

The Assistant is the pinnacle of this type of horror. 

What makes the Assistant upsetting is how mundane the presentation of the entire movie is. There is no gravitas. You can say the movie is purposefully boring. But because everything is so starch, it makes the content less gratuitous and more effective. 

This movie is more than a movie about #MeToo. It is a movie that shows a system where people are either powerless or complacent to the numerous abuses around them. If you wondered why it took so long for something like #MeToo to happen, then this movie should shed some light on it. The movie also manages to portray the monotony and psychology torment of an entry level job which gives an added layer of fear and relatability to the main character.  

The Assistant is heart wrenching. If you haven't seen it already, then you most definitely should.   

#1: Knives Out

Depending on who you ask, Rian Johnson is either a solid director or a name that should be associated with Adolf Hitler and Ellen DeGeneres. Frankly, some of the animosity towards the Last Jedi is quite extreme. Cause' really, if the latter side of the opinion are populated by Star Wars fans, it's probably best to stick to the other side. 

And besides, if Last Jedi was truly the worst Star Wars movie ever made and Rian Johnson burned down hospitals in his spare time, he would be easily vindicated by Knives Out. 

I watched this movie early in the year, and Knives Out managed to hold the top spot for me despite an entire year of competition trying to take its place. 

I feel it holds the top spot because it truly struck me specifically in what I want in a film and amazingly in my immediate life as well. The rest of this entry will contain spoilers. Please watch Knives Out if you haven't. It gets my full recommendation. 

The film is a murder mystery that centers mainly around a Latina nurse who accidently kills a wealthy novelist when trying to administer his medication. She tries to avoid getting caught due to her mother being an undocumented immigrant. Unfortunately, this gets complicated as the sole benefactor to the wealth and inheritance is none other than the nurse herself. Cue the wrath of entitled family members who just so happen to be white with some having problematic views on politics relating to minorities. 

All of this was surprisingly more interesting than the mystery itself. I love murder mysteries more than you can possibly imagine, but that layer hit me at my core more than any other. This year was a year full of selfish people. People that refuse to get vaccinated. Government leaders who rather score intangible political points in the face of risking the safety and lives of the same people that vote for them. It's the year where a story about a daughter of an immigrant overcoming manipulative and entitled people representing that zeitgeist proved more cathartic than it ever has been. 

I feel an insecurity putting this film at the top. I feel there is a weakness putting catharsis over something nuance and complicated. I would love to put something like the Green Knight on the top of this list, but I would be ignoring the basic truth that Knives Out was the most fulfilling movie experience I had this year. Sure, Knives Out is pretty straightforward. Other than it being a nice throwback to the murder mystery genre and its commentary on an aspect of racism, there isn't anything particularly groundbreaking about Knives Out. However, it is well acted, the cinematography is sublime, and the set design is wonderful. I am very excited for Rian Johnson especially for how he continues the series in Knives Out 2. If Knives Out 2 is as nearly as good as this one, then I'd expect a return of this series back on this list.     

Actual #1: Sound of Metal 

Yeah sike! In a Knives Out style plot twist, there is a surprise reveal. There is one more film, and it is actually my number one film I've seen in 2021. Admittedly, I was wholeheartedly expecting Knives Out to be number one but Sound of Metal snuck in just before I settled on my complete list. 

The thing that sets this movie among all the others I've seen this year is the fact that Sound of Metal takes you on an emotional journey I've never quite experienced before. Sure, there have been films about being deaf or becoming deaf. There have been films about struggling with disabilities. However, I never seen a film that commits to that concept as well as this one. 

This film really captures the little things about struggling with a forced life change. It reminded me of Three Colours: Blue where you see all the little emotions on the main character's face. Losing your hearing affects more than your career. It affects how you enjoy the wind. It affects how you perceive almost every facet in life. 

The acting rocks. It was nice to see Olivia Cooke from Me Earl and the Dying Girl. It was nice to have a film that feels so deliberate in its choices while presenting itself in a way that feels perfectly effortless. 

This is my new movie that I will recommend to everyone. It's as close to perfect as I want in a movie. Easily my favorite movie I've seen in 2021. 2022 is going to have a tough time topping this one. 

My Favorite Shows of 2021 (incl. Squid Game Review)

Welcome back to my 2021 Retrospective where I talk about all of my favorite things excluding everything that isn't nerd shit. Last blog, I talked about my favorite games. Today, I will diving into my favorite television shows. I should just say shows because some of the entries aren't available on television as you will soon find out. 

The rules are exactly the same as last time. Any show/season that I experienced for the first time this year is in the running. It's the only blog where Sopranos could beat Young Justice and have that make sense. 

While I will only be honoring ten entries, there will be honorable mentions which leads into my next thing. 

Now I always include honorable mentions. There a way for me to talk about things I love that I either can't due to the ruleset or because they weren't quite good enough compared to other contenders. This year, I came across a show that I didn't really love enough to put either on this list or as an honorable mention. It's definitely not bad or else I would have used the dishonorable mention moniker. It is, however, a show I want to talk about. So with that in mind...

A Mention: Squid Game

Squid Game is this year's Netflix darling similar to last year's Queen's Gambit. And if Queen's Gambit taught me anything, it is that I as well as everyone else will likely not remember this show in a few months unless a second season arrives which was recently confirmed to happen. 

Squid Game is fine. Honestly, I can mad lib some of my Queen's Gambit review with Squid Game and nothing will change. In fact, let's do that now: 

In some cases, the teacher's pet still manages to work very well. Acting performances seem to be astounding all around. Park Hae-soo, O Yeong-su, HoYeon Jung (who I just now found out was in Korea's Next Top Model, don't ask), and especially Lee Jung-jae as Seong Gi-hun. There is literally too many great performances to count. I might as well copypasta the cast list from Wikipedia. I guess I should give more of a special mention to Lee Jung-jae since I am getting the same vibe I got when Song Kang-ho started to become more prominent in the early 2010s. 

The obvious difference is that Beth Harmon doesn't get brutally murdered in comically morbid ways for messing up. 

The appeal of Squid Game is quite broad. If you clicked on Squid Game for some dark comedy where people get shot for failing at red light green light, then you will be entertained. If you expect a dark reflection of classism and the tragic reality of crippling debt, then there is plenty to sink your teeth into.

The thing is that there is nothing amazing or special about this story. Its premise, while seemingly unique, is only unique if you ignore As the Gods Will. Even if we were to set aside that hot mess of a plagiarism debate, Squid Game just feels like another battle royale show with a slight twist. And if we were to set aside THAT, Squid Game feels like a traditional horror survival show like the Walking Dead. It even has similar tropes such an estranged family dynamic, two people with a tumultuous history, and a victim of domestic abuse.  

I feel the show is the horror equivalent to eating bread, and its taste is saved by applying a nice swath of Country Crock butter. The butter here is good set design, interesting outcomes from the actual Squid Games, as well as the aforementioned acting which I already said is fantastic. Everything else is as plain as...well bread. 

To its credit, the show did just enough to where I am interested in what season 2 has to offer, but Squid Game is going to have to do a lot more than butter on bread as delicious it may be the first time. 

But now that I got that out of my system, let's begin with my actual favorites. 

 

#10: Tartakovsky's Primal

Tartakovsky returns to my best of list with Primal. 

What I love about this man is that not only are his ideas utterly bizarre, but that they are also surprisingly high concept and simple. You can describe his shows in one sentence. Samurai Jack is about a samurai that time travels to a dystopian future. Dexter's Laboratory is about a eight year old mad scientist. And now we are with Primal, a show about a caveman befriending a T-Rex. And yes, we are suppose to take it kind of seriously. 

Another thing I love about Tartakovsky is his ability to take these wacky premises and make gold out of them. There is so much art and thematic strength about this caveman and T-Rex that I didn't expect. I left the first season having a better understanding of the savagery of nature than if I watched a nature documentary or YouTube video. Our main characters seem to make it out of every survival situation within a inch of their lives, and you get the sense that our characters almost never get an opportunity for respite. Sure, you can argue that there isn't that much tension since they make it out ok at the end of every episode, but it doesn't change how easily enamored you will be as these characters face extreme encounter after extreme encounter. It's this savagery that makes you appreciate technology and society. That we don't live in a reality concerned about what goes bumping in the night.  

Primal is beautifully creative in terms of set pieces and art design. It's the storytelling Samurai Jack taken to another level as he shows all of this without any dialogue. Unless you consider caveman squabbling and other unintelligible spoken word as dialogue. It's perfect in its minimalism.

After watching this and Samurai Jack back to back, Gennedy Tartakovsky has become one of my favorite creative minds in animation. I can easily see his legacy stand next to the likes of Brad Bird and Satoshi Kon. Yeah, I am aware that people have already came to that conclusion. But hey, it is better late than never. 

#9: Kimi Ni Todoke: From Me to You (Season 1)

This anime has a very distinct parallel to School Rumble for me in that both shows were shows I have seen a few episodes of in the past but never completely finished. Last year, I took the time to finish School Rumble and absolutely loved it, so I figured I would get the same reaction as Kimi Ni Todoke. And while Kimi Ni Todoke didn't get quite the love I hold for School Rumble, it did get far enough to make it on this list. 

Kimi Ni Todoke is a Shojo anime about a young girl who vaguely looks like Sadako Yamamura, the monster from the Ring. It doesn't help that her name, Sawako, is merely one letter off. And so, she faces isolation and minor bullying from her classmates. But because it is a Shojo anime, she meets a boy and her life changes forever. 

The draw of the show is the main character Sawako. A lot of what makes the first season so wonderful is seeing Sawako get involved in some of the most basic things the human experience has to offer. Sawako is essentially like a cute alien processing basic emotions like jealousy and fluttery for the first time while simultaneously trying new social experiences like playing soccer and going to non-alcoholic parties. It's very innocent and incredibly wholesome. It also reinforces my theory that Shojo anime operate at their best when their main focus isn't the romance of the main characters. Much like School Rumble and the Kawai Complex, their strength is other interpersonal relationships and sequences beyond just the love interest of two pretty looking teenagers. 

Nothing demonstrates this more in Kimi Ni Todoke than the introduction of one character, Kurumi. I never thought I see the day where I witnessed an antagonist in a slice of life Shojo. Granted, I am admittedly not too well versed in the genre. However, Kurumi surprisingly works despite conflict usually being an almost non-existent factor in Shojo.  I think it works because everything is so low stakes. It is so low stakes that someone as simple as a two faced high school girl comes off more conniving and threatening than the fucking Joker. I guess it makes more sense why Regina George worked so well in her respective film. 

In short, Kimi Ni Todoke is very funny, with beautiful animation, and an easy to digest story. But sadly, I can't praise season 2 the exact same way. It shifts focus more towards the romance leaving a lot of the greater aspects to the sidelines. Don't get me wrong, I like the romance between Sawako and her love interest, but it isn't complemented by her naïve interactions with life's simple pleasures that gave the first season so much delightfulness. 

That said, it doesn't change the fact that the first season is an easy recommend and one of the best shows I've seen in 2021. 

 

#8: Oddtaxi 

The feelings I had from finishing this show is one of the most indescribable feelings I can imagine. I can't say my feelings are "odd" as that would be untrue and a lazy pun for that matter. I can't say if I thought this show was simply good or one of the best shows I've ever seen. All I can confirm is that Oddtaxi should be on this list. 

Oddtaxi is a show designed in such a way that I feel the creative team conspired together to make a show that included as much of the stuff that I like as humanly possible. It's neo-noir, "check." It's got an interesting cast of anthropomorphic characters that for some reason reminds me of the art style of Arthur, "check." It's got a sense of humor so subtle and surreal that it will confuse anyone over the age of thirty-five, "check." And while part of the mystery of the show was predictable in my eyes, the rest of the show gave such a strong enigmatic impression that you will never guess the direction Oddtaxi is taking you. In fact, it feels like Oddtaxi itself doesn't even know the direction it's going. It just effortlessly tells its story that's both memorable and unique. 

"check, check, and double check."

It's not a show that will blow your mind like Steins;Gate, and it's not trying to be. What's mind blowing is how straightforward it presents its complex and sometimes genius commentary and plot reveals. I think that's why Oddtaxi felt underwhelming despite recognizing some of the subtle brilliance this show provides. You can almost describe it as anti-anime. It is not bombastic or over the top. It is just a simple yet engaging story about a walrus taxi driver. 

I hope my love for this show evolves overtime. But until then, I would highly recommend it to almost everyone especially those who are looking for a great entry point into anime. 

#7: Lovecraft Country

(Includes minor spoilers)

Let me tell you a reality that's scarier than any horror television show: A really good show that got cancelled after one season. I thought we as a species were past these kinds of needless tragedies.

This show isn't perfect, and episodes 3-5 are a bit of a slog compared to the better episodes. However, it is still quite amazing. Everything you'd expect from just looking at this poster is there: great cosmic horror and a brilliant take on bigotry, the atrocities of the Jim Crow era, and how that traumatizes and affects everyday black people. In addition, and stuff I didn't expect, the show has incredible world building. It is a great homage to a wide variety of horror and sci fi from the lens of African American culture. The cast and acting made me salivate which was weird. I was pleasantly surprised by the extra miles this show goes. 

This show reminded me of the great Brad Bird style of storytelling where the story will purposefully avoid directions purely because it is an expectation of the viewers. The result is a show where you have no idea where its going. You get wild shit that feels almost rule breaking. Things I thought would be season long arcs ended up getting resolved in two episodes. Characters you think are major characters will get unceremoniously killed off and characters you think are minor end up being essential to the end of the show. A show you think is going more Lovecraft will ignore that path purely because it wants to, and I respect the show for that.  

This show needs a second season. Unfortunately, so does Firefly, Freaks & Geeks, and God, the Devil & Bob. The best we can do now is remember this awesome show and hope for a miracle.

#6: The Magnus Archives

I don't really care for podcasts. I always found them overrated, and I treated them mainly as a way to quell the monotony of chores or long drives. I normally wouldn't enjoy them the same way as a video game or a television show. That was the case until I started listening to the Magnus Archives. 

Rusty Quill's the Magnus Archives is an anthology horror of weird happenings alla SCP Foundation. The twist is that these strange happenings start to bleed into other episodes. And before our host/protagonist starts to catch on, these happenings start to bleed onto him. Yeah, imagine that. It would be like the Twilight Zone started to try to influence the mental state of Rod Serling. 

Anyway, Magnus Archives was a really fun experience. One, it was one of the few non-interactive stories where you are taught to engage with it in a particular way. I found myself treating the earlier episodes like a tutorial where I was learning how to listen to Magnus Archives. How do you listen to Magnus Archives? Well first, learn to remember a lot of English names. And then....well that's it. 

The lack of a visual component certainly has its benefits, but it also has drawbacks. The lack of visuals mean you have to remember a lot of names. It's not like Lost where you can call the characters "fat white guy," "slimy looking white guy," and so on. Get ready to remember shit like characters that will get referenced once before never being mentioned again for another twenty episodes, characters with different names but similar sounding voices, and two names that both sound like Jared/Gerard. 

Certain scenes would have been either scarier or more effective with a visual component. Obviously, it would have been unrealistic for the production team to film or even animate this type of story. I guess that should be a compliment that Magnus Archives was so enjoyable that I wanted it to stimulated my other senses.  

Magnus Archives is a three pronged attack of great characters, great world building, and an excellent mystery. When Magnus Archives is at its best, each episode gives us just enough exploration of each. How the supernatural elements work. How those elements affect the characters mentally. The many questions that are slowly and perfectly peeled like a ripe orange. 

If there is anything bad I can say is that there are stretches of the show that drag. Parts of season 3 and especially season 5 have sections that meander or aren't as interesting. And as a horror story, it leaves a lot to be desired in the scary department especially in the later seasons.  

Sometimes for a medium to be respected, you got to experience the piece of art that earns that respect. Magnus Archives will forever be the show that made me gain a respect and love for audio dramas, and I cannot wait to see what other little diamonds that are lurking in this medium. 

#5: Silicon Valley

So far, we got two horror shows in a row, and we continue this list by highlighting the scariest show I've seen this year. 

Silicon Valley is simply one of the most stressful shows I have ever watched. I know I just said that Primal can make you appreciate the advances of society and technology, yet this show offers a very pointed counter argument. Maybe society and technology are great, but they can also be an anxiety inducing nightmare scape where the cosmic god is the illogical rules and formalities of late stage capitalism. And obviously, this is doubly so for young entrepreneurs hoping to make it in the business of innovation. 

Silicon Valley is a masterclass of satire in both the subtle and in the in-your-face absurd. The creator, Mike Judge, in turn is the master craftsmen in satire. This is easily my favorite work of his.  

The rest of the show is pretty good as well. The characters are dynamic, and they are cartoony but not to the point where they are unrelatable. I like how the show doesn't go the expected route where our main character is slowly becoming a morally objectionable human being instead going into a more grounded journey of someone who has to constantly face that question on an almost per-episode basis. He, like everyone else, is a flawed yet well meaning person who is just trying to do the best he can in this high pressured environment. 

There's occasionally a few cheap jokes that undermine the intelligence of the show as a whole. But other than that, Silicon Valley is rock solid. I can't recall the last time I was this impressed with an American comedy show. 

#4: Midnight Mass

I want to say that this and the next three entries are essentially tied for first place. It's hard to rank when all four were essentially mind blowing pieces of content. However, I am not ending this with a four way tie, so I will organize them the best I can. 

When I finished Midnight Mass, I was washed with a wave of superlatives all at once. All at once, I started seeing the pull quotes: "Best Netflix Show in Recent Memory." "Mike Flanagan's Best Work," "Best Horror Television Show of all time." 

This show is everything I wanted out of American Horror Story season 1 but never got. It doesn't overstay its welcome and has a perfect amount of episodes. Its characters, while deeply flawed, display way more likability than any of the characters in American Horror Story. And most importantly, the show is actually quite creepy. 

This is the type of show that will inevitability bring out "as a ____" opinions. "As an atheist, Midnight Mass does such." "As a Catholic, Midnight Mass does that." Frankly, I find those types of opinions reductive and in this case needless. Yes, this show explores religion, fanaticism, and spirituality without demonizing or glorifying any particular group. Yes, this show can be enjoyed by anyone regardless of personal beliefs. Yet, I feel this show is above all of that tired discourse. Midnight Mass is a show about processing regret, the weight of your own mortality, and making the most out of what you have. It explores some of it through the lens of religion and faith, but it is so much more than that. 

Themes aside, Midnight Mass feels like Twin Peaks without any of the goofiness. The atmosphere is thick. The small town setting is believable. Almost every character in that small town has a layer of importance to the story. You don't really have a sense of what is going to happen next. It is one of those shows where it has a natural ramp up. The escalation never lets up making a show that was engaging from start to finish. 

This show is a masterpiece. And to think, I only put this at number four...     

#3: Invincible 

(includes minor spoilers) 

I saw a handful of superhero shows this year. Most of which were worth watching and would likely make great contenders on this list. However, I figured I will use Invincible as the culminative representative for the superhero shows and the favorite out of the ones I've seen this year. 

Invincible is probably the best subversive super hero story ever told. It presents one tone before slapping you hard with another. And then afterwards, the show continues to slap you with constant surprises that keep you hooked! 

Even if you are aware of every twist Invincible will throw at you, they still remain effective because their core is very character driven and substantial to the context of the world and the plot. Nothing is a surprise for surprise's sakes. They serve to create a world and a theme that has more of an impact than most superhero shows can manage. 

As you might have guessed from reading this so far, Invincible can be a very cynical, sometimes downright existential. It doesn't pull punches on displaying just how self-interested humans can be in any facet of life. Yet underneath the cynicism, there is probably the strongest love for heroism and righteousness I have seen in any superhero show. That despite the world being a figurative garbage pile, there are still great people out there trying to make the world a better place. It's truly inspiring and elevates the righteous likes of Superman to the next level. 

Dare I say, this show is truly perfect. The voice cast is fantastic. The animation is only topped by the likes of One Punch Man season one. The dialogue is amazing. The humor always lands. It only has the one problem that most perfect things have. I wish there was more of it. 

I never thought I would see a superhero show surpass my favorite superhero show which is currently Justice League Unlimited, but Invincible might be my new champion. The best television show to come out in 2021, and my third favorite show I have seen this year. 

#2: Pokémon Challenges: Emerald Kaizo Nuzlocke

If you read my favorite shows of last year, you probably noticed similarities with this list in terms of what I typically pick for my favorites. Both lists have superhero shows in them. Both have shows made by Genndy Tartakovsky. Both have anime that ooze a wholesome tone. Both surprisingly have shows about Californian vapidness. And finally, both seem to have YouTube programs where a video game player takes on an ungodly video game challenge. 

Enter Pokémon Challenges (PC). A Youtuber that specializes in Hardcore Nuzlockes. For those unfamiliar with Nuzlockes, it is a self-imposed challenge in Pokémon that enforces perma-death and less freedom in which Pokémon you are allowed to capture. For those unfamiliar with Hardcore Nuzlockes, it is basically a harder version of that. 

Enter Pokémon Emerald Kaizo. A romhack of Pokémon Emerald except the difficulty is taken to the extreme. You aren't allowed to use items in battles. The encounters and Pokemons' stats are altered mostly against your favor. Trainers, from little Billy to the Elite Four, have altered teams designed to push you to your absolute limit. The game is immensely challenging even without an extra self-imposed challenge, yet Pokemon Challenges is set to try it with Nuzlocke rules anyway. 

When PC set out to do this challenge, Emerald Kaizo had only been successfully completed via Hardcore Nuzlocke precisely one time. Obviously, I won't spoil if he has, but this backstory serves as enough of an undercurrent to really root for Pokémon Challenges to succeed. 

Why is this number two? After all, I just described the number three entry as perfect which about a superlative as you can get. Why is this higher? The answer is....well how do I put this. 

You ever come across a show or movie or anything really, and it serves as a perfect allegory for you as a person and what you are going through? That is what a Pokémon Nuzlocke is for me. Without divulging too much of my personal life, a concept where one works hard going through a process that has little sympathy for them only to fail and have to restart that process speaks volumes to me as of right now, and PC exemplifies that process. I love in Emerald Kaizo how determined he is to complete this seemingly arbitrary gaming challenge. I love how he can do it while simultaneously being very insightful and funny. 

Aside from that, I just love people who are good at what they do do an extremely challenging task. While many others this year also made great content doing Emerald Kaizo Nuzlockes and just Nuzlockes in general, such as WolfeyVGC and Saltydkdan, Pokémon Challenges was my personal favorite. It's well paced, suspenseful, and blood pumping. The best YouTube show I've seen in 2021. 

Honorable Mention: Trevor Moore, Sean Lock & Norm Macdonald

There is a great chance that every comedy fan this year has lost someone important. It started with Trevor Moore of Whitest Kids U Know fame. And while I am not the biggest fan of that show, his death exposed me to a ton of his other work and showed just how anarchic and funny he was. In particular, stuff like the Trevor Moore Show and the Flagship podcast were absolutely delightful.  

However, that death didn't personally hit me as hard as when I heard about the deaths of Sean Lock and Norm Macdonald. 

I discovered Sean Lock in the same way many other people have through his work on 8 out of 10 Cats and 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. Cats Does Countdown was a show that really got me into British television and panel shows, and the person that welcomed me into the genre was Sean Lock. He had that Don Rickles energy where he could be a total asshole, but it would come off as the nicest thing he or anyone could ever done. He was dry, witty, and blunt. The three personality traits I admire most in a comedian. 

And then, there is Norm Macdonald. I feel many have already said so much on the man since his death. When a comedian is practically on every comedian's Top Five should demonstrate how special he was. Of course, he was on my Top Five as well. I remember so vividly the first joke I heard of him (it was the Weekend Update bit on women drivers) and dying of laughter. Over the course of several years, I would watch various Norm Macdonald clips culminating in his masterpiece, Norm Macdonald Live, which is easily my favorite talk show ever made. His anarchic nature is truly beyond human comprehension, and I can't think of anyone that could be as alienating as Norm Macdonald that's also as universally loved. 

I am going to miss all of these comedians. RIP Trevor Moore, Sean Lock, and Norm Macdonald. 

Honorable Mention: Over the Garden Wall 

In preparation of the Redwall series coming out by the same creator, I thought I finally give the series a try to gauge Patrick McHale's story telling chops. It turns out, he is pretty darn good. 

OtGW is one of the better examples of slow boil storytelling. It is definitely an example of a children's cartoon that tricks you into thinking it is just a kid's show in the same vein as Steven Universe and Avatar: the Last Airbender. The amount of slow boil was a little much for my tastes. However, the payoff of the ending makes it where you won't even be thinking about the episodes leading up to it. 

While OtGW isn't mind blowing storytelling as the folks of Reddit or Tumblr might lead you to believe, it is good enough to where you will at least think about it once you are done with the show. I certainly thought a lot about myself. How much I've changed and grown up since I was the age of our two main characters, and the parts of my life that I have let go that teenage me refused to. 

Everything else that is good about OtGW is pretty self-explanatory. The characters are charming. There are great little touches that encourages a second viewing. The voice acting is wonderful. The love for this show is certainly understandable. But for me, it doesn't quite reach the level of one of the best shows I've seen in 2021. 

#1: Bo Jack Horseman (Season 6)

I went into this year having a fair idea at what my number one favorite show will be this year. I knew because I planned on watching the last season of Bo Jack Horseman. I'm glad I am right. 

I am a big fan of Bo Jack Horseman. No amount of superlatives could demonstrate how much this show means to me. However, I was really busy when the first part of Season 6 came out. And thanks to the dumpster fire that is 2020, I wasn't in the mood for the melancholy and harshness of Bo Jack, so I passed on the show yet again when the second part came a few months later.   

This show is a notable finish for me. In an age where one can watch a show in essentially one chunk, Bo Jack Horseman is one of the few shows as of late where I have been following for years. The feeling of finishing a show that has been growing with me for several years is a feeling I didn't realize I was missing. Of course, Bo Jack Horseman isn't on this list just for that. It helps that its last season is an incredible close to a genuinely dark story. 

Bo Jack Horseman has the greatest quality I value in a TV show. It is incredibly consistent. There is absolutely no low points where the show drags. There is no late season nonsense where you are questioning the intelligence of the creative team. The show is always good, always keeping you guessing, and maintaining a rich sense of style and character. It's the kind of show where it is so consistent that the seasons start to bleed together. The show is not just a series of episodes but one cohesive whole. 

Is the show perfect? Not really. Not every arc is as interesting as Bo Jack's path to redemption. However, it is hard to dwell on those issues when after every episode I feel so emotionally satisfied by the sincere darkness and maturity of Bo Jack Horseman. 

{Mild Spoilers From This Point On}

Season 6 is no different. One of my favorite things about this show is how it doesn't try to demonize Bo Jack despite him doing some very heinous actions; all of which are recounted in this season. It would be easy in this cancel culture type world to say that Bo Jack's actions are irredeemable, and that Bo Jack should rot in some metaphorical hell of societal exclusion. However, the creative team behind Bo Jack took a different, more mature, and admittedly hard to swallow path when concluding Bo Jack's story. 

Bo Jack Horseman's thesis is a brutal reality check that life isn't going to be perfect. Even in a life where someone is famous, rich, and world renown can have the worst life imaginable. The show understands that Bo Jack can't just wash his hands free from his sins, but he can at least try to heal. And more importantly, he can be forgiven if he continues to work on bettering himself. In a lot of ways, Bo Jack gave me a lot of hope. My life isn't a storybook dream, neither is yours, and neither are the characters of Bo Jack. Yet despite how rough the plight our characters must go through, they still find happiness in those little spots in their journey, and the last episode really brings that home. I couldn't ask for a more satisfying ending. There are about a million ways Bo Jack Horseman could have ended, but they chose the absolute best way. 

Other things I like in Season 6 is Diane who has her best arc in this season. I always felt the side characters cycled in having their best arcs in each season. Princess Carolyn had hers in Season 4 as an example. I personally didn't cared much for Diane's character compared to the others, but I felt she finally got elevated to the heights of the others in this season. The dinner party episode is one of the funniest sequences in the entire show. There is still the same cutting satire. There is the same rich voice acting. Honestly, what else is there to say about Bo Jack that hasn't already been said? 

This show is hard to write about. It's hard not to talk about this show without going really deep into my personal life. This show really connects you with it. It reflects back at your vulnerabilities, and you can feel a sense of therapy while watching it. After finally finishing the entire show, this is easily one of the best shows ever made, and a go-to example of an adult Western animation actually being adult.     

 

My Favorite Games of 2021

And so, 2021 is coming to a close. I figured I do this again and do best of lists of all of the things I played, watched, and possibly masturbated to. Today, we will be focusing on video games. 

Now because I am not the type to immediately play every game that came out this year, there are very few games on here that actually came out in 2021. All of these games are simply experiences I got the pleasure of appreciating for the first time this year. Games I've played before, among other things, don't count. 

The games I've played this year were wonderful, so I am excited to share my thoughts with each of them. It's no exaggeration that I love doing Top 10 lists, and I would do these all the time if they weren't so generic of an idea, but I digress. Here are my favorite games I have played in 2021: 

#10: Hotline Miami & Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number

A fantasy I have been thinking about ever since I became a misanthropic adult is becoming a hitman, and I am not talking the Agent 47 variety of hitmen. I am talking about the crazed, over the top, burst into a room kind of hitmen. The kind seen in Kill Bill, No More Heroes, and the number ten entry the Hotline Miami series. 

There are some games designed to relieve stress through ultra violence, and this is one of them. These games were a delightful 12 hours. As I just described, Hotline Miami involves you, the player, bursting into rooms and killing large groups of people really quickly. The challenge is in the same vein as Super Meat Boy or Superhot where you too also die really quickly.  And like those games, the fun is the serene rinse and repeat as you mull over a thirty to hundred twenty second challenge for minutes on end. Then you enter a Zen state and play the level perfectly and its onto the next one. Even better, unlike the aforementioned comparisons, the game is really good at encouraging repeat playthroughs to improve your runs. While improving your time is an obvious room of improvement, the game also encourages improvisation and variety in kills. This means the best runs are the runs where caution is thrown to the wind, and the player avoids the safety of stealth in favor of a chaotic flight by the seat of your pants.    

I wish there was more to say, but that is really it from a gameplay standpoint. Yeah, the AI is pretty exploitable making certain levels far too easy on normal difficulty. The second game has a bad case of bugs that caused wonky interactions to unfair deaths. But other than that, these are negligible points, and the game is a nice romp all the way through. 

I guess my only problem is that the stories of both games tries to be more than it actually is. Considering it is an indie game released post-Spec Ops: the Line, any game with gratuitous violence that isn't Mortal Kombat can't help but include some social/meta commentary on the prevalence of violence and desentization to said violence in American pop culture. It's on the nose, and the only good thing I can say about it is that the music and the aesthetic help it from being completely stale. 

Other than that, Hotline Miami 1&2 hold up fairly well even for today. Hotline Miami is almost ten years old. And considering how easy it is to forget the massive amount of indie games that come out every year, I don't want myself to forget this one. At least, I don't want to forget this one in case I start fantasizing about torturing Texas senators again. 

#9: Resident Evil: Village (RE8)   

I have an off and on relationship with the Resident Evil games. The games I picked up are almost at random. I have played 1, 3, 4, and a little bit of Revelations. With 8, I picked it up more out of obligation than any real excitement for the franchise. The marketing for this game was the most relentless I have ever seen from a major release. The Youtubers and gaming outlets kept using buzz words that called to me like a siren. Not to mention the memes made it this game impossible to ignore at one point. 

I picked it up after the game was compared to Resident Evil 4 which is my favorite game in the series as well as one of my favorite games of all time. And yeah, in some ways, Resident Evil 8 displays a lot of qualities of Resident Evil 4. 

The gameplay is about as relentless as its marketing. I played this game on the hardest difficulty which made the game’s opening hours one of the most brutal I’ve played in a AAA release. Certain sections are swarming with monsters that can take large chunks out of your health. And since you are fairly unequipped early on, the first few sections require a lot of retries just to scrap by. However, despite how tedious that process may be, I still find it preferable than playing on normal difficulty which is so easy for hardcore players that it completely takes the horror right out of the experience. Here, the hardcore setting makes you take the threats seriously. 

As you get better equipment and weapons, the game’s difficulty balances out, and you are better prepared at handling the swarms of monsters RE8 throws at you. By the end, the last few bits of challenges are the boss fights which mainly add intensity by testing how well you were at saving ammo up to that point, because they will take a lot of bullets. Overall, the combat is really fun, and it is really satisfying popping head shots or blowing up tons of enemies with a single explosive. 

Moreover, RE8 has the usual strengths of a good Resident Evil title. The environment is fun to explore with trinkets, lore, and items to collect. RE8 might be the best in series in terms of that as there a handful of quality of life adjustments that make collecting things far more enjoyable than they ever have been. Treasures will indicate if they are combinable leaving out the guess work in Resident Evil 4. Your map will tell you if a certain area or room still has items in them to collect. The map will also do a pretty decent job at labeling which areas will require backtracking to receive better items. If I had anything bad to say it is that picking up said items are quite finicky since your character has to be at eye level to pick them up. This is a little annoying when you are simply walking around, but this becomes increasingly problematic if you are being chased or in a boss fight. 

The story is fine for Resident Evil standards and outright frustrating under normal standards. The main draw of this game are the lords which each act as a chapter boss. Each of them have pros and cons. For example, the pro of Lady Dimitrescu is that she is a wonderful presence. The con is that that wonderful presence only lasts for about an hour at the most. While all the lords are great in their own way, each of them are missing that little something to make their characters feel complete as all four of them feel like they have wasted opportunities. Personally, I feel Lady Dimitrescu and her three daughters could have stretched through the whole game yet your character anticlimactically dispatches each of them almost effortlessly. 

The story also has one of the most inconsistent tones I have ever seen in any artform. One section will feel like a genuinely scary set piece while another feels like a wacky rollercoaster. I’m all for varying tones or else I wouldn’t love Mother 3 as much as I do. However, RE8 fails to string them together and both the funny and morbid tones tend to step on each other’s toes. Going back to Dimitrescu, there’s a moment where you are being chased by Lady Dimitrescu in a locked room after she finds out you killed her daughters. It’s intense as Maggie Robertson really showcases her wrath in her performance, yet the moment is severely undercut by an unintentional humorous moment. It seems RE8 tries to do everything to make Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters feel less threatening and therefore less interesting. And again, there are different problems and missed opportunities that play into the other major villains of the game that I won’t spoil for obvious reasons.  

But all that being said, RE8 is on here for a reason. It's no Resident Evil 4, but it is honestly as close as we will get to a new Resident Evil 4. 

#8: Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition

I recall in my first five hours of five JRPGS review how, out of all the games on that blog, I never wanted to like a game more than Xenoblade Chronicles. I remember having trouble pinpointing why I was so frustrated with Xenoblade. Well, I did. I talked about the game's lackluster tutorial and the cluttered menus, but I knew there was something more. Well after my sixty hour playthrough, I finally figured it out. 

There is that famous saying that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. Well, in Xenoblade Chronicles, sometimes doing the same thing does yield different results. I can't count the number of times where I would do a strategy, lose, do the same exact strategy on my next attempt, and end up either doing better or even win the encounter entirely. I didn't level up nor did I change equipment or upgrade abilities. I did exactly the same thing. Turns out, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and occasionally getting different results despite expecting the same results. You can say I felt very gas lit by this game.  

The difficulty curve was also all over the place. Certain sections felt like it was designed by sadists while others felt like playable cutscenes. Certain random encounters felt harder than the boss fights, and don't even get me started on Disciple Loritha. If you asked me if this game was hard or easy, my answer would be yes. 

Now, I spent three whole paragraphs complaining about this game. Why the hell is it on this list? Well despite its problems, I can't deny it was one of the most rewarding games I've played this year. 

The combat can be quite hard at times especially if you go into encounters at low level making winning a tricky boss some of most adrenaline pumping experiences I had this year. And despite its difficulty, it had many quality of life features that made it one of the most RPG friendly games I've played. From fast health regeneration between battles to items telling you that they will be important for later side quests to a lenient quick save feature and checkpoint system. While the game is hard, it is far from punishing. 

I think that is what kept me going. Aside from the lovely voice acting, the wonderful visuals, and chill atmosphere, the game works by being extremely encouraging despite its difficulty. It's a perfect example that difficulty doesn't have to be tedious. 

Story is pretty fun as well if only for having JRPG characters that weren't stupidly annoying unlike the next game on this list. I love the characters in this. While the story was alright, whenever they spent time just exploring these characters, I was engaged. Chapter 12 and the optional heart-to-heart conversations were a highlight for that reason. 

My relationship with this game was turbulent. I went from loving this game to getting frustrated by it, but I ended up going back to really liking it by the end. It's a rare lengthy game that doesn't overstay its welcome, and it sits nicely as my eighth favorite game of 2021. 

#7: Final Fantasy VII: Remake 

This was a surprise for me. Honestly, I went into this game with the expectation that it was a padded mess with Kingdom Hearts bull, and it does have both of that. However, what I didn't expect was how much I enjoyed it anyway. 

The combat is where FF7R shines. The game feel is great. I like the diversity of each character's playstyle where I found myself enjoying all four party members you play as. Unlocking weapon abilities is fun and doesn't feel grindy. Materia combos are just as fun to use as it was in the original. And although enemy attacks can't be easily dodged thanks to the camera, I feel that reinforces the strategy elements of the game as well encourage you to block. In other words, it isn't trying to be like Dark Souls which I appreciated. 

While the bosses are hit and miss, the ones that work really work. In particular, the fights with the Summon Materia were a highlight. My only complaint is how the last one is locked behind a tedious requirement which is probably the only time you have to grind in this game. Oh well, at least it is optional and only a headache for completion nuts like me.  

Gameplay also becomes a chore when doing side quests which are only available during select chapters making it tiring to take them all on in one bulk. But again, the side quests are optional. And in fairness, you net great rewards for doing them.  

I talked about how the story is bogged down by padding in the form of Jessi and the Avalanche. This continues to be a problem after those first five hours specifically in Chapter 14. However, the padding is much less egregious compared to early game, and I found myself liking a couple of the additions to the story. 

Barrett and Aerith were both characters that I was kind of meh about in the original but grown to really like in this remake. They do a better job coloring in their details as people. Aerith does get a little too much screen time which does break the flow somewhat, but it is more accepting considering she is a character that actually matters to the main story unlike Jessi.  

The Remake also manages to fixes one of my biggest pet peeves in the original. In the original, there is a scene in the Don Corneo Mansion where Tifa and Aerith are getting chased around by body guards until Cloud saves them which doesn't make any sense considering these two girls faced killer houses and other worse monstrosities up to this point. Obviously, this was changed, and it is objectively better. 

Those are the story bits that stand out. It is still a bloated mess, and I can certainly list out many hiccups I have with it like how Chapter 14 is the worst and everything involving the Whispers. However, like the original, it makes bullseyes occasionally, and it is worth it for that. If you want a solid hack and slash that is more strategy than dodge rolling, then you will be remiss for not checking this one out. It gets a thumbs up from me. 

#6: Going Under

I know. I said in my review of this game that I wasn't planning on putting this game on this list. However, as imperfect as this game is, it would be disingenuous to snub Going Under in favor of schlock that is FF7 Remake and Resident Evil 8. The way I see it now, each game on this list has flaws, but that shouldn't be enough to disqualify them for being celebrated.  

This game is one of the best tributes to millennial culture. A game that exudes more confidence in its vision than most things I've played and watch. A game that's genuinely funny, satirical, and with characters that feel more like people than punchlines. It also helps that it personally struck a chord with me making Going Under one of the more therapeutic experiences this year. 

I also have to give it props for its gameplay. Even though it isn't perfect, it does a fabulous job at other facets that are hard to ignore. The weapons, perks, powerups, and enemies do so well to support the theme such as Tinder dates acting as NPC allies and the bitcoin levels being prospector themed. It's so clever, and it is only rivaled by the next game on this list in contextualizing all of its gameplay mechanics and environments. 

I wish I can say more, but I already said what I need to say on this game in my initial review. Just play the damn game!

#5: Psychonauts 2

After more than fifteen years and several delays, we finally got our hands on Psychonauts 2. This game was not only my most anticipated release in 2021, but it was also the release I feared the most. While it was likely that Psychonauts 2 could easily blow the first one out of the water, it could also squander that potential. After all, Double Fine last few releases weren't amazing with their only high profile releases being the mildly disappointing Broken Age and standard ports of Grim Fandango and Day of the Tentacle. This game could have been underwhelming. 

In reality, Psychonauts 2 isn't underwhelming at all. It doesn't blow Psychonauts 1 out of the water either, but I can live with that. 

The way I see it, Psychonauts 2 elevates certain aspects of the original but falters in others. Gameplay wise, the game is an all around improvement. Combat has way more diverse enemy types. The controls are more smooth. It still retains the creativity and imagination of the previous game. 

The visuals are bloody mind blowing. I love how this game looks. The colors and the cinematography are ridiculously good. I particularly love the animations of Raz whose running and other movements have more detail than in the original. It makes the run cycle of the original game comparatively outdated. 

The story has all the necessary things in making a good sequel. They expand on the lore of the Psychonauts world. The stakes are higher without lazily being this world ending catastrophe. The characters, both old and new, are explored more deeply. A lot of what I like in Psychonauts 2 is how sentimental it gets. It makes more stride in making these characters relatable while also using them as great avenues in exploring mental health issues. My one, of two, major wishes was that this game would take more opportunities to explore mental health, and that wish was granted in this one. I was shocked in what they manage to go into in this one. Part of me wants to just go into it, but I don't want to ruin the enjoyment for other people who have yet checked out this game. 

Where it falters can be see in the cracks of the good stuff. The combat is great, but it suffers from camera and locking on issues that make certain fights overly chaotic. You also only get four slots for your powers which means you will have to do a lot of menuing to swap powers which breaks up the flow. I love the story. But if we were to grade Psychonauts 2 on its humor, it falls flat more than its predecessor. It's still an amusing game, but it rarely got me gut laughing the way the original did. 

The overworld is great as well, but it certainly suffered from a sequel syndrome. More specifically, it suffered from a Banjo Tooie syndrome where everything is bigger and more spacious but it makes exploring more tedious. It's made more tedious by the loading screens when transitioning to another section of the game. I'm aware that this problem is exclusive to the PS4 version, and it certainly isn't Sonic 06 bad. But holy cow, the load times were terrible. 

I like the stride Psychonauts 2 has made in making 100% more fun. They added more things to buy with your money such as badges that give you unique perks, and you get more substantial upgrades from ranking up. The problem is that badges don't give many perks that change up the game. At best, they are straight upgrades, but they are usually slight differences that mean nothing. I wish there was a badge* that helps track remaining figments as finding all the figments is still a nightmare. My other major wish was that they fixed this. And not only did they not do that, it's worse here because we have badge system where a figment tracker would have been perfect for it. It's a blatant missed opportunity. 

But this game is certainly a case where the good far outweigh the bad. I had a blast, and I hope the success will propel Psychonauts into more mainstream recognition. It's too brilliant and universal to be consigned to mere cult status. It's time Psychonauts gets the love it deserves. 

*Edit: A figment tracker has since been added in a November update. This doesn't change what I thought about my initial playthrough nor its ranking on the list, but I am glad the game will be less tedious for new players and myself when I revisit the game in the future. 

#4: Spiritfarer

Unfortunately this game had a case of me playing it too early in the year for me to care deeply about it anymore. However, I feel it's principle that I recognize this game despite that. It's hard to talk about this game since I already did a lengthy review on the game. I suppose to save you the trouble of reading that. I'll go over again what makes this game so special. 

In spite of the fact Spiritfarer has crafting and repetitive resource collecting, two things I am not a big fan of in games, Spiritfarer is really absorbing. The story is intimate and untraditional compared to games that are combat focused. The characters are some of the most well written and fully realized characters I've seen in a video game. They have a sense of wants and desires on top of their goals that are relevant to the progression of the story. Not everything they do is tied to the story, and they feel real because of that. 

In a combat focused medium, it is also great to see Spiritfarer be one of the few games to really portray the concept and feelings of death in a way that's nuance and emotional. 

It's not a perfect game, but it doesn't need to be, and it helps that Spiritfarer is continually updating. Just this year, Spiritfarer added various updates which adds characters and addresses a lot of the issues I mentioned in my original review. Some glitches are fixed. They added an upgrade that allows you to travel at night. Fast travelling is a little easier. And finally, they add some much needed story bits that make main character's story feel a little more complete. 

While Spiritfarer may not be best game I played this year, I think its staying power will remain constant in my mind for a very long time. It's not my favorite game I played this year, but it is certainly one of the most important. While I would recommend playing all the games on this list, I would recommend playing this one first. It's charming, full of life, and a necessary addition when exploring just how good video game story telling can be. 

#3: Panzer Dragoon Saga (PDS)

I mentioned in passing when I reviewed the first five hours of five JRPGs that I considered a few others games that I eventually didn't do since they wouldn't work for the purposes of that article. 

Panzer Dragoon Saga was one of those contenders. I turned it on with the intent that I was only going to review the first five hours. By the time I got to the five hour mark, I have completed two out of four discs. If I skipped the lengthy cutscenes, I could have gotten much farther. At that point, I might as well review the entire game.   

 

In other words, Panzer Dragoon Saga is Chrono Trigger on crack. 

If JRPGs were food, then a lot of JRPGs would be steakhouses that give too much bread. The bread may be good, oh it may be bloody delicious, but it will make you bloated and less happy in the long run. Panzer Dragoon Saga may have the least amount of bread of all the JRPGs I played this year. And because of that, it is also one of the most concise and satisfying games I've played. 

You play as a guy named Edge, yes like the wrestler, who must get revenge and save the world and...

Ok, I am going to be honest. I couldn't follow the story. I imagine a lot of it gets lost in translation if you haven't played the other Panzer Dragoon games. Even then, I couldn't get myself engaged with the characters and what was going on. There were times where I couldn't tell who was who because certain character designs bled together for me. The boring cutscenes that reminded me of Metal Gear Solid didn't help either. I've heard some people compare this game to Final Fantasy 7 (FF7) and how this game is a much better experience. I won't make the same comparisons. But if I did, I think one thing FF7 excels at better than PDS is that their character designs are perfectly distinct which is pretty essential in an early 3D game. 

But honestly, who really cares? This game is on this blog for a reason, and that reason is the gameplay. 

PDS involves the usual stylings of a Panzer Dragoon game. You ride a dragon and you shoot things with either your dragon or your gun. However, like with what Mario RPG did for the Mario franchise, that formula is put into an RPG genre. Now, you have to wait for a meter to go up in order to attack, but that's not all. You can also move to one of four points of the battle arena via circling around enemies which can be done anytime. This creates a dynamic where the player can exploit weak points, dodge stronger attacks, or have an anime style finish where you blow your strongest attack right at the enemies' face. 

It's great because the mechanics makes the act of waiting for your turn much more bearable. Instead of waiting, you can reposition for the purposes I mentioned above which bring about a great rhythm to the battle. The waiting itself isn't that bad even if there wasn't movement since it takes only a handful of seconds to recharge one move and you can store up to three moves that you can use to unleash three attacks at once or use to activate stronger abilities or spells.  

Basically, all the pet peeves I have in JRPGs are either addressed or made more interesting in some way. I hate deciding which stats to pump points into in case boss fights encourage better speed or defense. But in PDS, you can change your stats in real time and all it costs is one move on your turn meter. The same method can be applied to your equipped items. 

I hate random encounters. But in PDS, you are given an item early on that radars hot spots for random encounters that you can then avoid. And if you don't need it, you can sell the item for a high price allowing more experienced players to get their preferred equipment early on. The item also has the added benefit of revealing enemy weak points that can also be useful for newer players. 

I hate steep learning curves that can only be overcome by reading a bunch of boring menus. And while those boring menus are here in PDS, you can get pretty far in the game with using only a couple of the mechanics if you are initially overwhelmed by what the game throws at ya. On top of that, the game is pretty intuitive and tactfully conveys how more complex mechanics can benefit you in battle if you are willing to experiment. 

There is no need for grinding. You can skip lengthy cutscenes. This game is my dream RPG. 

PDS' boss roster is also the crème de la crème of the genre. Every boss is a masterpiece. The boss roster uses all the buffalo when it comes to its mechanics, mixing it up in interesting ways. They nail it every time! Yeah, there are the usual mix ups like a boss that has a time limit, the boss that can heal itself, etc., but there also some really fun ones that I don't want to spoil. You just have to see for yourself. Of course, that is assuming you are using an emulator as a legit copy will blow a giant hole in your wallet. That or you are holding out hope for a remake/port like I am now. 

Panzer Dragoon Saga, to me, is the best representation of what JRPGs have to offer. It's one of the best PS1 era games. It's the best Sega Saturn game. And it is hands down, one of the best games I've played in 2021.  

Honorable Mention: Chrono Trigger

Part of my criteria for this list is that I have to finish the game in order for it to qualify. And unfortunately, I didn't finish Chrono Trigger. You know how it is. It is not like the game was bad. I just got distracted and never finished it. It's a tragic reality every gamer is familiar with. 

But enough of my self-pity. The least I can do now is to recognize this game as an honorable mention. 

Like Panzer Dragoon Saga, Chrono Trigger is incredibly well paced. There are no random encounters. You don't need to grind. And while most of the non-boss encounters are kind of samey, the combat is solid. And hey, if you are using an emulator, you can merely speed up those samey encounters and get to the good stuff. 

For a lot of people, Chrono Trigger showed people how it's done. It showed how to tell a compelling story that can be elegantly funny, dour, and exciting. It showed that even RPGs can tell a story through meaningful choices and interactivity rather than just text boxes and character sprites. It showed that just how impactful and timeless a video game can be when the music, art direction, scenario design are all excellent and work together in peace and harmony. Chrono Trigger is obviously not the first to do any of these things. It is, however, a game that perfected its genre and the medium of video games itself. 

Honorable Mention: Nier Replicant ver. 1.22

Considering Nier topped last year's list, I feel it would be inappropriate featuring the same game two times in a row. Because if I didn't, Nier would have easily have been number one...again. 

There's not much to say that I haven't already said. I went in with mild hesitation since I didn't know if I could do another playthrough as soon as a year later. However, I was wrong, and I quickly fell in love again with the beautiful world of Nier. 

In many ways, this is the definitive way to play Nier. The game looks polished and plays smoothly. I certainly noticed an improved game feel playing this one. Most of my nitpicks that aren't story related or playing to 100% are mostly addressed in this one. 

The characters and set pieces are still great. Like this remake, my opinion hasn't so much changed but has been refined. 

My only current complaint right now is that they didn't remake Nier Gestalt which can be easily remedied with some DLC. I would buy that shit in a heartbeat. 

After this, I will have to amend my favorite game's list. Instead of the original Nier, I have to put this one on instead. It's one of my favorite remakes/remasters I have played since Shadows of Valentia. 

Dishonorable Mention: Nintendo 

Before I continue with the last two entries on this list, I want to talk about Nintendo. 

I really wanted to give an honorable mention to Bowser's Fury because it was such a great game. However, talking about that game would then lead to talking about a more pertinent topic. 

Nintendo is not above controversy. In fact, their fuck ups are some of the most famous in the industry such as the Virtual Boy, their terrible online services, and practices that enable the proliferation of scalpers. 

However, it is notable that Nintendo has been so bad this year that it has marked a shift in perception in emulation. In all my years, I have never seen emulation get such a positive rap. But thanks to last year's Mario 3D All Stars Collection, the $60 rereleases of games that should be much cheaper, and the insulting $50 price tag to play a small selection of poorly emulated N64 games, Nintendo has singlehandedly made emulation appetizing to consumers. 

I myself didn't want to play $60 for four new hours of Mario content, so I emulated Bower's Fury and never looked back. And if Nintendo continues to take advantage of consumers, I imagine I will continue to emulate for a handful of new titles. 

To me, 2021 was the year consumers started fighting back. Antiwork movements are rising among retail and fast food employees. Video game companies are starting to get increased scrutiny than ever before. Hopefully, companies and employers will finally start seeing the forest for the trees. After all, they need us far more than we need them. 

So after careful consideration, I realized I just couldn't pick a favorite game of 2021. These next two games are essentially tied for me. So with that in mind, my two favorite games of 2021 are: 

#2/1: Disco Elysium

What a surprise/non-surprise. I knew Disco Elysium is good. Every critic under the Sun that I have watched and read said this game was amazing. However,  I didn't expect I would like it enough to put it on the list. I figure based on the type of game it was, it may not click with me. Well, after binging a twenty hour playthrough in the span of a three Saturdays, I figure there is something quite special with the game that has received near universal praise. 

They say that great art is revealing of the audience's self. Sure, great art can say things about the world or about our society, and there is plenty of that in Disco Elysium. However, the truly powerful moments where I saw myself in the gameplay. 

Now, I should mention that I am not good at roleplaying in role playing games. I usually play with efficiency in mind and try to think not as a character but as a player trying to beat a challenge. That said, even I couldn't help putting myself in the character's shoes. There is a moment where your character, who is established to have a problem with alcohol, is presented with his first bottle. Alcohol, along with other drugs, improves the cap to one of your stats at the cost of some health/mental health. The bottle I got ahold of would improve the cap to a stat I would benefit greatly from. The health cost would be negligible. "Why not have a sip?"

I looked at the bottle, and...I couldn't do it. I felt bad. I thought of my friends and family that were recovering from alcoholism. I thought about how drinking would make it easier, but it really wouldn't in the long run. I wouldn't wish that downward spiral on my character. I carried on without it and realized I just roleplayed without even attempting to. 

That's the power of Disco Elysium. There are so many moments that connects you to your character, and you don't have to disconnect to the gameplay in order to do it. You gain thoughts from interacting with characters in a certain way which can give you unique perks. Money has a real gameplay & narrative importance not really seen in other RPGs. Among other things there are plenty of incentives to immerse yourself as this damaged detective. The only time where the story and game may clash is how political values you ride with might give you stat bonuses you don't want. In which case, you will be roleplaying as someone who is politically fickle. However, this is not that big of a deal, and other problems like the crappy fast travel system, the sometimes dense writing, and the lack of a in-game glossary don't get too much in the way in having an enjoyable experience. 

Honestly, I only have one real problem with Disco Elysium. And unfortunately, that problem is a constant while using its core mechanic. I'm not a fan of the skill check system to put it plainly. How you proceed through the game is by facing skill checks where depending on your stats dictates your percentage chance of passing the skill check. The problem is that skill checks is not used for combat like in a traditional game but in the context of socializing, lying to a potential suspect, or coaxing money out of people. The problem is unlike combat, you have little understanding as to what your options are when you fail a skill check. 

Take Fire Emblem for example. If you fail a skill check and miss hitting your opponent, that is not necessarily the end of the world. If you are a good strategist, you can have contingencies and can work around certain misses. It gives the game a dynamic back and forth. And while I hate when a character misses a 85%, I understand I would hate the game more if those occasional misses weren't there. 

With Disco Elysium, you have no idea what you can do if you fail a skill check. You don't get a preview of your dialogue options before the skill check and you don't know if a mistake can be redeemed later or completely lock you out of certain progression. It's unlike say interacting with a dungeon master where your dialogue options are essentially infinite and therefore can plan contingencies accordingly. It encourages you to brute force the skill checks at times by using save scum techniques since punishment for failing skill checks are too tedious and ambiguous for what its worth. Where Fire Emblem is fine having an occasional miss at 85%. In Disco Elysium, it drove me up the wall. I don't think it is within the spirit of the game where I have passed skill checks with a 3% success rate while failing others that were 92%. It doesn't help that certain skill checks are impossible to succeed in, and the game gives no indication on that being the case until after you failed the skill check. Add that on top of the fact clothes change your stats and can be switched on the fly makes the skill checks feel more gamey compared to the overall immersive experience. It's a case of uncanny valley. The closer this game gets to being very immersive the more the unimmersive elements stick out like a sore thumb. 

Now, you can argue the spirit of the game is to take the failures as they come regardless if luck was in your favor. "That's just how life is, bro!" If that were the case, then I don't think giving the player such a lenient save system was a great idea. That or giving Disco Elysium some type of true hit system much like the aforementioned Fire Emblem. That way something like a 3% is practically impossible to succeed and inversely a 85% is practically guaranteed to hit. It would give the player more reassurance that the game isn't luck heavy and would make decision making more interesting. The way I see it I don't see the benefit of perfectly simulating a game as poorly designed and RNG heavy as Life. 

Other than this one problem, I think Disco Elysium is about as freeform of a game as you can get. This game will hook you in very quickly. If I hadn't played Hades last year, I would say that this is one of the best written game narratives I have played in the last five years.  

#1/2: Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling

Bug Fables is Paper Mario. There is no reason to beat around the bush. Bug Fables is Paper Mario, and it's easily the best turn based Paper Mario game since Thousand Year Door. 

Even if we were to ignore the disappointing Paper Mario games such as Sticker Star, Bug Fables excels at doing everything the first three Paper Marios were great at. Bug Fables is amazingly creative. Yeah, a lot of its ideas can be owed to the predecessors. There is one chapter that feels like a derivative to the Flower Fields in Paper Mario 64. The overworld abilities are essentially ripped from Paper Mario. You got your tattle ability, your projectile boomerang that you hold in place, an ability to go under obstructions which doubles as your ability to turn invisible, an ability to destroy obstructions, abilities to cross hazardous flooring or water, and the ability to hover. However, it is not that egregious, and they do enough to make it feel their own. Heck, I wouldn't have mind if Bug Fables did more Paper Mario tropes like having a ghost chapter or a murder mystery sequence. The way I see it is that it has been fourteen years since a proper Paper Mario game; seventeen if you consider Thousand Year Door as proper. I don't mind a rehash if it is something I haven't seen since I was in middle school.  

Bug Fables is certainly less polished than Thousand Year Door. Your overworld abilities can be tedious to use. The timing of certain battle commands such as blocking are somehow more ambiguous. And finally, I admittedly miss the inclusion of some type of special meter similar to the star spirits and the crystal stars. However, Bug Fables makes up for it by what it adds to the formula. 

The side content has more meat packed into it. As much as I love Thousand Year Door, the optional content felt lacking. The only side content it had were the help requests and the second upgrade side quest which were mainly fetch quests; it also had the Pit of the 100 Trials. Bug Fables not only has its own version of the help requests and the Pit of the 100 Trials, but it has other cool side stuff. There's a great optional dungeon that was the highlight of the game for me. There's a slew of optional bosses. The optional content makes the world feel very lived in whereas the old Paper Marios felt too scripted due to how linear they were at times. 

And to give Bug Fables some credit, they do refine the gameplay as well. Backtracking is less egregious thanks to a better fast travel system. Fights after death can be retried without having to rewatch cutscenes. You get more from level ups other than the usual health, magic points, and badge points. 

And while we are still on the subject of nitpicking one of my favorite games, Paper Mario was also lacking in the character department which Bug Fables also addresses. Thousand Year Door has great characters. Vivian in particular is one of my favorite video game characters ever. However, even Vivian has the problem where once their little storyline is completed, they have practically no relevancy to the main plot. Bug Fables approach is to only use three characters meaning menu usage is only necessary to switch badges, use items, and checking your quest log. It also means the characters are more dynamic and fleshed out compared to Paper Mario. I appreciated Bug Fables embrace of more narrative gratifications while still retaining the tone and charm of its predecessors. 

The story of Bug Fables is solid. It's well paced. And unlike a lot of JRPGs I've played in the last few years, it isn't so hell bent on throwing plot twists left and right. There isn't a crazy betrayal. There isn't a surprise villain that shows up halfway through. You don't find out that you were the bad guys all along. Not that these twists can't be interesting, but it is refreshing that Bug Fables didn't randomly indulge in that pie for the sake of it.

I don't know if I will revisit this game as much as I had for Thousand Year Door. However, I will say that Bug Fables was a banger from start to finish and the other best game I played in 2021.