Best Ongoing: Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker

Runners-up: Hot Wheels Unleashed, Chivalry 2

Final Fantasy XIV has always been a reasonably good MMORPG, developed and maintained by one of the most consistent teams in the AAA space. Its 2019 expansion, Shadowbringers, elevated it to new heights of popularity as a result of several conjoining factors: the global pandemic pushing more online interactions, and the decline in popularity of one of its main competitors, World of Warcraft in the wake of its ill-received Battle for Azeroth expansion and decline of Activision Blizzard’s image—to name just two. The buildup to 2021’s Endwalker expansion was measurably more pressurized than any previous expansion’s launch from the sheer popularity growth and constant upwards explosions of its player base. This pressure was compounded by it being delayed from the typical summer expansion release schedule all the way to the end of 2021, as a direct result of pandemic-related delays in the development cycle the year prior.

Despite all of this, Endwalker wound up being an exceptional addition to the core game. It succinctly delivers on the key narrative elements of the game’s main story in a satisfying and conclusive manner, which scales up in effectiveness with how much you paid attention during the game’s main story, as well as with how much of the side content you finished, while also opening up the world in new and exciting ways which pave several paths for all sorts of future adventures. Feature-wise, the game has been updated to finally service Oceania players more directly with their very own Data Center, Materia. The inclusion of the gender-locked Hrothgar and Viera player races was one of the primary criticisms of Shadowbringers, and Endwalker’s launch saw the addition of male Viera to the surprise and delight of many (and female Hrothgar are slated to be released in a later patch). This was in spite of previous statements that it would be incredibly difficult to add more player races after Shadowbringers. And yet, the development team was able to accomplish this feat anyway. Final Fantasy XIV’s journey to Endwalker took over a decade of development, and with all the failures and successes along the way, it’s proven to be an adventure worth taking.

– Spencer

Most Disappointing: No More Heroes 3

Runners-up: Pokémon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl, Halo Infinite

It shouldn’t have been like this.

No More Heroes 3 seemed like something Suda51 was going to give his all for. And maybe he did. But due to both his own insistence on trying to impress James Gunn and Takashi Miike, the realities of his company and Marvelous being sold to two different conglomerates, and the COVID-19 pandemic, NMH3 is an unfinished, empty mess of a game hung up on Guardians of the Galaxy, John Riccitello, and Miike’s movies instead of being inspired by them. Suda constantly bemoans the ruining of Shadows of the Damned when he now has the rights to the franchise and can just do whatever he wants. None of the bosses Travis faces add up to anything beyond spectacle, even reducing series mainstay Henry into a Loki ripoff. There’s a part in NMH3 where Travis straight up begs Miike to make a No More Heroes movie. In the previous games, I’d see this as a joke, a little rib at Travis wanting to be included in something he loves. Instead it reads more like Suda pleading for the acceptance of others, making punk feel dead and buried. No More Heroes 3 doesn’t kill the past, it wallows in it.

– John

Best Music: Deltarune Chapter 2

Runners-up: NEO: The World Ends With You, The Longest Road On Earth

I am no stranger to Toby Fox’s musical stylings. My man has been making hits for a while now; hell, I remember when “Megalovania” was the theme for a one winged dog killing an entire dream planet. As such, it’s not a surprise that Chapter 2 of Fox’s newest project Deltarune would deliver when it comes to the soundtrack department. While some pieces from the first chapter still stick around like the battle theme “Rude Buster,” Chapter 2 is unafraid to bring out new leitmotifs and tunes that will stick with you long after you hit credits. “A CYBER’S WORLD?” starts off with a simple melody but builds into a beat drop right as you get a glimpse of the new area you’ll be exploring this time around, confidently stating that there’s gonna be a lot to enjoy sonically. New character Queen has her own leitmotif that’s full of as much character as she is, popping up in different arrangements as you try to stop her nefarious plans. A lot of the musical strengths mainly come from new characters getting the chance to take some of the spotlight, such as Berdly’s themes that suits an awkward teen stepping in as an overzealous henchman for the day or Noelle’s theme which is able to hint at a lot more of the darkness this game has that is slowly starting to leak out.

Of course, I can’t talk about Deltarune Chapter 2 without discussing the sounds of EV3RY BODY ‘S FAVORITE [[Number One Rated Salesman1997]]. Spamton’s entire deal (I KNOW I KNOW I’M SORRY) serves to remind the player that Toby has, indeed, played Earthbound, and his music is no different. Cluttered with samples from not just that game, but also other media sources and a good spattering of the Mega Man X sound font, Spamton reaches a memetic level akin to Sans not just for his Jerk City-esque non sequiturs but from the fact that he’s got some bangers going on this OST. “BIG SHOT (vs. Spamton NEO)” is this chapter’s secret boss song and it manages to take not only bring in Spamton’s instrumentals, but also throws in leitmotifs from the last secret boss of Chapter 1, Mettaton NEO’s theme from the No Mercy route of Undertale, and the dummy theme also from Fox’s last cultural juggernaut. My man is hitting you with a musical brick over the head when it comes to themes of being puppeted around in life by someone else. Suffice to say, the music of Deltarune is usually the first thing that makes me remember that I do have so much anticipation and adoration for the worlds Toby has been able to create over the years, and I’ll be waiting until next time to see what else he has in store.

– Mav

Best Audio: Unpacking

Runners-up: Inscryption, Death’s Door

The excellence of Unpacking’s audio design comes from both its attention to detail and its simplicity. The serene flow of unpacking and putting away your precious little things in a new place is made all the more immersive by the sound of it – every object unique by material, weight, and where it’s placed.

Excuse me what pic.twitter.com/cn6DYE04v1

— Francesco Del Pia (@frandelpia) November 4, 2021

This care for minutiae coupled with a soundtrack that matches the ambiance of each new room does a great job at underscoring Unpacking’s zen and heartfelt story without taking attention away from it. For us, the intricacy and sheer effort of its sound design makes Unpacking our pick for Best Audio of 2021.

– Franny

Worst Game, Presented by Balan Wonderworld from Balan Wonderworld: The Medium

Runners-up: Twelve Minutes, The Artful Escape

Content Warning: This section has mentions of child abuse, sexual abuse, and the Holocaust, which is content that is all present in The Medium.

The Medium is a psychological horror video game released in early 2021, and even now has subsisted as one of the most offensive byproducts of the year to its end. What The Medium got away with is a direct result of its stagnant and expansive press coverage, benefiting from this unintentional strategy of knowing that what the greater public does not see means they will also not be aware of.

The Medium puts the player in the role of a psychic who is able to see both the immediate world and a more metaphysical world, where thoughts and emotions are tangible. To portray this effect, The Medium gives the player the control between two different screens rendered in real time, showing two slightly different versions of the same space. This is executed pretty poorly: Between near-constant amounts of lag and multiple crashes, the gameplay experience (which has been done much more successfully in many other games) quickly becomes embarrassing. However, even that can barely hold a candle to the game’s writing.

Not only are the sparse trigger warnings at the beginning of the game written very vaguely, they also do not excuse just how appallingly things will be handled. As a psychic, players have to subdue a monster that turns out to be a manifestation of the trauma endured by their sister, a victim of sexual abuse. However, The Medium continues to bizarrely expand upon this by also showing the backstory of the abuser in question, which is stacked by even more instances of sexual abuse (with unskippable audio and cutscenes) using the backdrop of the Holocaust in an attempt to demonstrate how trauma begets trauma. The Medium thinks good, mature storytelling means painting layer and layer upon exploitative imagery to ultimately make a point that does not even make sense: The game seems deeply unsympathetic to the initial child abuse victim in question, unfortunately concluding with the implication of her death as necessary to end this horrific cycle…that was not even her fault? As if to add insult to injury, this game was initially released on January 28; International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

This is sadly not the first time developers Bloober Team have done something like this, mishandling similar issues in their Layers of Fear games and treating “sanity” as a mechanic in their game adaptation of Blair Witch while simultaneously claiming post-traumatic stress disorder is being realistically portrayed. It is cruel and downright offensive, and even worse, it somehow has all led to Bloober being rewarded the opportunity to explore their own take on Silent Hill. Everything about and around The Medium just sucks! But what is even sadder is that the game itself is a mere symptom of a bigger problem: Yes, the conception of this game to begin with rests on the developers for making it to begin with, but it is a stark reminder that as long as rampant ignorance and insensitivity on topics dealing with abuse, trauma, and mental health and illness continues to remain a problem, it will be exploited for even more mediocre attempts at edgy narratives.

– Elvie

The post Game of the Year Awards 2021: Day Three appeared first on Gamesline.

TFW You’re Juicin’ Your Game Hard Award For When It Feels Good to Play a Game, Presented by Balan Wonderworld from Balan Wonderworld: Hot Wheels Unleashed

Runners-up: Monster Hunter Rise, Chivalry 2

Hot Wheels: Unleashed has been such a joyful surprise this year, managing to combine the fun aesthetic and scale of Hot Wheels with the blistering pace and limited design of an arcade racing game. We haven’t seen a Hot Wheels game of this quality since the one developed for Windows 98 and while it isn’t as feature rich as larger, more established games like Forza Horizon or Trackmania, Hot Wheels: Unleashed is laser focused on the essentials: boosting out of sick drifts, maneuvering your car in mid-air, doing loops, and extending the gameplay by creating your own tracks, liveries, and racing online with your friends. The way the Italian team at Milestone put this all together and continues to update it with new tracks, cars, and tools makes for a game that is nigh endlessly enjoyable!

Every day that I’ve played HW:U this year I’ve seen players finding new imaginative and creative ways to put the pieces together to make for fun, chaotic, or just plain goofy laugh-out-loud race tracks. If you are looking for me next year, you’ll probably find me juicin’ my Delorean in the Batcave trying to jump through a dinopult from the top of the bat computer or maybe you can catch me juicin’ with friends on Engineer Insane… This track was made by some kind of engineer clearly suffering from insanity.

– Solon

Best Character: Nagi Usui (NEO: The World Ends With You)

Runners-up: Queen (Deltarune Chapter 2), Leshy (Inscryption)

It’s rare to come across a character that manages to poke fun at a subculture while simultaneously showcasing an immaculate sense of growth from beginning to end, but Nagi Usui from NEO: The World Ends With You manages to get the job done and more. Nagi, to put it bluntly, is the best foil to everything surrounding her game not just in character but also in aesthetics. Her large glasses, oversized graphic tee, and itabag decorated with handmade pins of her favorite character from a gacha game clash perfectly with the hypebeast-approved outfits of the protagonists you’ve encountered so far. Her dialogue is expansive and sesquipedalian, she lacks any sense of cool that most of the cast exude near effortlessly, and her English-language voice actor Miranda Parkin has mentioned that “[They] played her as the most awkward lesbian [they] possibly [can].”

In a sense, she’s the most human character out of the whole cast, and by the end of the game this becomes her biggest leverage. It’s hard not to fall in love with the way Nagi interacts with the world. She’ll glare at you flatly if you mess up her food order but then emit a beam of light from her mouth when something is, to use her own words, “Positively ambrosial!” You’ll hear as many battle quotes from her as you will screams of terror, and the phrase, “Pardon the intrusion!” becomes an internal psych-up of sorts as you use her Dive ability to enter demanding gauntlet battles with formidable Noise. In a way, Nagi acts as a surrogate for the player that recognizes this might not be their first Reapers’ Game. She is someone who understands the relationships between people, who strives to learn about others and make sure everyone feels heard and accepted.

Nagi knows that she defines how big or small her world can be and chooses to use that strength to support others who are just coming to realize that, much like many of us are now beginning to give more advice than simply receive it. In a year that felt tumultuous due to the uncertainty of everything, Nagi’s resilience and fervent passion were infectious and outright inspiring. Maybe I’ll go ahead and check out what Fate/Gra– I mean “Elegant Strategy” is all about.

– Mav

Worst Character: The Weapon (Halo Infinite)

Runners-up: The Husband (Twelve Minutes), James Vendetti (The Artful Escape)

Halo Infinite, perhaps in some alternate world, could have featured all sorts of interesting characters new and old to make another game about Master Chief into a compelling work worthy of the “next-generation of Halo”, branding Microsoft has been pushing for the last couple years. Instead, what we got is The Weapon.

The Weapon is a clone of Cortana, developed with the express function of killing the old Cortana who has become evil and done some pretty messed up stuff (off-screen). With the creation of a new Cortana in the modern era of AAA games, coming up with a new premise that doesn’t completely revolve around sexualized mommy girlfriends taking care of their soldier husbands, there was a tentative level of hope in my heart. You know, maybe Halo will finally have a cool or funny woman to make amends for the various women that both Bungie and 343 have had very little interest in elevating over the years. Instead, what we got was a bevy of tropes and Whedonisms wrapped up in an extremely embarrassing relitigation of games writing past.

With Master Chief being fairly soft-spoken, and the only other character involved in the main story spending most of his time off-screen, you end up hearing a lot of The Weapon and good lord, does it wear you down! As you navigate through the open-world of this new Halo ring, The Weapon is sure to have a “””funny””” little bit to announce each new fun activity you find yourself wandering into. Whether it’s making jokes about the various aliens you’re straight up killing along the way, or just the most generic “AMAZING MISSION COMPLETE THAT RIGHT THERE IS WHY YOU’RE THE BEST CHIEF”s you’ve ever heard, The Weapon always has something to say.

In the core missions of Halo Infinite, The Weapon fluctuates between an ignorant child, an omniscient supercomputer, and the type of strawman woman that the guys who go on and on about the old ball and chain love to invent. There could have been interrogations into Cortana’s motives and beliefs through The Weapon, and there could have been some sort of genuine actual acknowledgement that the relationship between Master Chief and his AI is kind of messed up! Instead, at the end of the game, The Weapon announces that her new name will be Cortana, perpetuating a cycle she should have been the end of.

– Rose

Best Moment: Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker

Runners-up: Psychonauts 2, Sable

We went back and forth so many times on what single moment could be the best moment from Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker, a game that is nigh endless for dramatic and emotional high spots, but we know you want something that goes hard and won’t settle for second-best, so here you go:

When Endwalker begins, our character the Warrior of Light is a little bit pissed off that this Light we’re a Warrior of? Our mothercrystal? The person who got us into this mess a decade ago telling us to kill every primal we can? Yeah, she’s also a primal. She wants to be the last primal. It’s a little rude to have omitted that from our discussions over these last four expansions as we’ve taken down empires in her name (albeit not surprising) so we’re pissed. But that’s not the weird part. The weird part is that she’s also literally a woman from our long-ancient past, and we know that when women inhabit primals it’s basically at the sacrifice of their soul. So now our question is, what drives someone to such a brink of cataclysm that their only solution is to turn on their own people, shatter reality into fourteen parts, and put all their hope that a civilization with 1/14th the strength of her own can save the entire sundered world 10,000 years down the line while somehow maintaining a primal form that entire time? Wanna see what a miracle looks like? Here’s a single hail mary moment.

One moment that contains inside of it an entire universe, the creed of a whole MMO’s history, a will to keep living even well after it would be so much easier to give up and die. And yeah it goes hard as hell. Not to say nothing about how much this references and retroactively legitimizes the entire history of this game as a metanarrative, it suffices to say: We will keep walking until the end.

– Solon

What the Fuck: Activision-Blizzard

Runners-up: Quantic Dream v. Le Monde and Mediapart, Final Fantasy XIV’s success breaking the game

Activision Blizzard dominated the news cycle for much of the latter half of 2021 for all of the wrong reasons. It began with a lawsuit by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing in that very summer: As a result of a two-year investigation of the company instituted by the state, a damning investigative report and various legal documents were publicly released that detailed years of sexual harassment and workplace abuse at the company.

Things continued to go south, and an avalanche of bad press continued to befall Activision Blizzard, from various executive and leadership resignations, awkward responses from various other members of the industry, and being subjected to even more suits from both the moral and financial fallout of the situation. The hammer had really hit the nail on the coffin with the total cancellation of their annual BlizzCon for the year.

Meanwhile, Activision Blizzard workers reached the tipping point with their employer, striking back with various labor organization efforts; they have also been calling for the resignation of CEO Bobby Kotick. Kotick may have been aware and complacent to the misconduct that has been going on at the company for a while and despite his claims there are intentions for change otherwise, there is still little to show if there has been any impact. As of this date, he currently remains at the company with a hefty paycheck regardless of his actions.

These developments will continue to take shape and change, but it is easy to frame these circumstances as a single company’s fall from grace. In actuality, what has happened and continues to culminate around Activision Blizzard is not an isolated incident, and it encompasses everything that continues to be wrong with the games industry at large.

– Elvie

For the Win: The workers v. Activision-Blizzard, The first North American video games union at Vodeo Games, Final Fantasy XIV’s success breaking the game

Although the revelations of misconduct that have occurred behind Activision Blizzard’s closed doors have created discord in the industry, the company’s workers acted promptly: There have been multiple labor actions since public knowledge has been made of the company’s ills, such as employee walkouts, work stoppages, and ongoing efforts all hopefully leading up to complete unionization.

Employees have not only also continued to openly sign off on demands to see changes at the company, including continuing calls for CEO Bobby Kotick’s resignation for his complacency, but a strike fund has also been established. Employees at Raven Software—a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard—also walked out and protested in solidarity with several quality assurance workers who were laid off in early December. Raven Software employees have since moved forward in unionizing.

There has been a surge of unionization and various work stoppages across many industries, particularly in the media sector, likely further precipitated by the elevation of preexisting workplace issues that have worsened in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. While Raven Software’s Game Workers Alliance is currently waiting on the legal recognition of their shop, the indie games scene offered Vodeo Games as officially the first legally recognized union shop in North America.

These teases of more unionization sweeping across the games industry have received generally positive reception across the masses, and it is reassuring to see that at least some gamers recognize what is good for their game makers.

But sometimes what gamers recognize as good comes at a cost, and that fate temporarily befell widely acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV for being a little too widely acclaimed. In the wake of its latest Endwalker storyline update, the game’s server congestion worsened at astronomical levels. There also are observations that the game’s population suddenly increased to unprecedented numbers sourced from a huge migration of former players of Activision Blizzard’s World of Warcraft due to teeming disappointment with the latest iterations of the game and the recent events that officially broke the straw on the camel’s back.

Final Fantasy’s developers decided that the best possible option to remedy these issues—for both players and their own team’s sakes—was to temporarily halt the creation of new accounts and pause the game’s advertising. Having garnered years of players’ faith and trust in the team behind it, Final Fantasy XIV was so successful that all new sales and marketing for it had to be halted. And quite honestly, what other game can say they had such bizarre (mis)fortune bestowed upon it for the same reasons?

– Elvie

The post Game of the Year Awards 2021: Day Two appeared first on Gamesline.

Best Visuals: Psychonauts 2

Runners-up: TOEM, Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective

If I had to describe my aesthetic interests outside of just “anime,” I would have to pinpoint the vibrant and kinetic comic look of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, and the caricatured-to-all-hell designs from Ed Edd n Eddy. Suffice to say, Psychonauts overall scratches a lot of itches for what I find visually baller in a video game. The 2021 sequel manages to upscale the Muppet-adjacent cast for next-gen hardware, but also goes above and beyond when it comes to representing the new minds you explore throughout the game. Levels like the PSI King’s Sensorium oversaturate colors to evoke not just 60s psychedelia but also the intensity of sensation PSI King’s panic attacks have on him, which you help him overcome throughout the level. Cassie’s Collection represents one of the former Psychonauts founders through the archetypes she had developed throughout her life; each one a paper sketch representative of these points that try and cohabitate the grand library that is her psyche. 

The cinematography also works hard to highlight the ways brain logic might not lend itself to the rules we consider physical space, seamlessly transitioning between main character Raz standing at a doorway, to only then fall through and end up in nightmarish geometry or a gauntlet against the mind’s internal censors. Psychonauts 2 does a lot to clean up the presentation of its core mechanics to better suit game flow in the current age, but that doesn’t stop the team at Double Fine from pushing the boundary to create something still visually fascinating and emblematic of an aesthetic so many people had been waiting to make a comeback.

– Mav

Best Presentation: Inscryption

Runners-up: NEO: The World Ends With You, No More Heroes 3

From the very first time you see a trailer for Inscryption, you’re most likely either immediately hooked or, at the very least, a little bit intrigued. It boasts a unique visual style paired with really exceptional audio design and a score that sets a tone fitting of a game where you’re trapped in a cabin with a madman who’s forcing you to play a card game he made up. It’s not just one element of this Inscryption’s aesthetic that stands out so well, all of it comes together effortlessly to draw you into the mystery and, if you’re an absolute freak (like me), eventually into a strange multiple century spanning ARG.

Almost every little element of Inscryption feels considered. From the large, hard to ignore text backed by the unnaturally synthesized mumblings of each character, the individual tokens carved out of bone dropping next to your playboard, to the velcro-y sounds of hides slowly being ripped off the bodies of animals in the music for The Trapper’s bossfight, every detail helps fit you into this world. Not only is Inscryption successful at employing sound so well, it’s also great in its utilization of a lack of sound. There are so many moments where you’re sitting there quietly, the only sounds being the shuffling of cards on your board, and you’re left with your thoughts, considering your next move. The twang of a folksy guitar in a minor key will kick in and you’re simply left there in the moment, absorbing the space as it’s laid out so carefully in front of you.

Inscryption doesn’t just have a unique visual style, however, it has three. Inscryption’s different acts shift into almost entirely different games tethered together by the same well constructed card game, and each one is a treat to absorb. While its middle chapter is certainly derivative of a lot of similar trading card game… games, it still sticks out with a really solid soundtrack of it’s own including some great remixes of songs you may have already heard, on top of top notch audio cues (the one that plays when you sacrifice a monster is burned into my brain). Even if you don’t play Inscryption, which you absolutely should, I highly recommend at the very least watching some gameplay. You just gotta see this thing.

– Scott

Best Writing: Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker

Runners-up: Psychonauts 2, Milk outside a bag of milk outside a bag of milk

When Natsuko Ishikawa took over writing duties for the main story of Final Fantasy XIV, there was an immediate and incredible increase in quality. While the narratives of Heavensward and Stormblood had been well-received and acclaimed, Shadowbringers took things to an entirely different level that represented not only a push past the surface-level political aesthetics that the game drowned itself in, but also an incredible attention to detail and character work that made a game of various threads and ideas into a grand tapestry where each thread feeds into the next.

Endwalker uses a narrative approach heavily reliant on retroactive foreshadowing, a technique that utilizes the bedrock of what’s come before as set-up for new stories to be built from. New characters are built out of the ideas and inklings established years and years ago in some off-handed comment or tertiary world-building. Old characters are refined and improved to become an ideal version of themselves, with one-note characters like Estinien, the moody dragoon from Heavensward, becoming a crucial and stalwart friend who’s really bad at managing money, and leaves your room by jumping out the window because he’s a freak. The story of Final Fantasy XIV has always been disconnected and patchworked because of its unfortunate conception, but to see it not only be molded into an interesting story, but a rare testament to what long-running games can actually meaningfully do with their overall experiences, is nothing short of incredible.

There’s a line in the song “Answers”, written by the writer of Final Fantasy XIV’s disastrous 1.0 launch and the English localization lead who’s only become more involved over time: “Look to those who walked before, to lead those who walk after.” While “Answers” was initially used as a cool thing to play in the background of a cinematic, and a cool thing to fight series regular Bahamut to, Endwalker actually managed to utilize this song nearly ten years later to reflect the core thesis of its narrative, while representing exactly the path the development team has taken over and over again. They don’t just forget the past, they learn from it, they build off it, and they remember.

– Rose

Best Mechanic: Metroid Dread

Runners-up: Monster Hunter RIse, Chicory

Samus Aran is not known for doing normal things. Most of her power comes from a mix of technological, terrestrial, and chemical mishaps, like if a sentient 8th grade science volcano was asked to save the galaxy on a regular basis. While it’s been a cool trick, the routine has become stale leaving casual players still asking normal questions like, “Why does Samus always start without any powers? Isn’t she supposed to be a legendary fighter? Why is Samus always so powerless before pillaging the ruins of some long-dead planet looking for ancient algae to shove into her arm cannon?” Nintendo has finally allowed the Metroid series to progress forward by letting Samus start with a tool that builds her as a character as well as helps modernize the conservatively-designed series as a whole.

The parry mechanic in Metroid Dread is not only an extremely powerful tool that helps quickly dispose of enemies, but also the special visuals and sounds that go with it are hype as hell, and its use as a ‘bonus life’ against the one-hit-kill EMMI robots make Samus look like a total never-say-die badass. It’s the last piece of Metroid Dread’s puzzle that keeps Samus looking so fluid and strong through her myriad movement options. The parry has grown from something that was a chore to use in Samus Returns for the 3DS to becoming an inextricable part of the Metroid formula! Metroid games are not known for being normal; the most common way to play them is abnormally, by breaking the game’s mechanics and sequencing to some extent. With this parry mechanic, however, there is now a side-scrolling Metroid game that is just as fun to play the normal way as it is with all the skips and breaks the series is known for. It’s such a normal thing, you’d think Samus always had this power inside her!

– Solon

Worst Mechanic: Pokémon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl

Runners-up: Balan Wonderworld, Emily is Away <3

The Underground in the original Pokemon Diamond and Pearl was already not much of a feature. You could dig up extra evolution stones, fossils, and other assorted knick-knacks, but the best aspect, to me at least, was getting Spiritomb through interactions you had there. Sure, it wasn’t particularly compelling, making you speak to 32 people in the underground before the Pokemon would appear elsewhere, but it was pretty easily cheesed by exiting and entering the Underground over and over, as each visit was considered a separate person. With online connectivity becoming the norm instead of a luxury, you’d think these connections would be made easier, and Spiritomb made a simpler get.

That’s not the case.

Instead, you must now track down 32 separate NPCs in the underground, who spawn at random rates and in even more random locations. There isn’t even an option to speak to other players online, even though you can watch them rush all around you. As the Underground expands while you progress in the overworld, you cannot get Spiritomb until the postgame unless you’re willing to spend hours upon hours resetting spawn points for these NPCs, and even then it’s all up to luck no matter how much of the area is available. The Spiritomb unlocking mechanic is a snapshot of how frustrating Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are, where a simple fix with more modern hindsight is ignored in favor of a baffling “new” concept that makes the game worse to play.

– John

Best Surprise: NEO: The World Ends With You

Runners-up: Hot Wheels Unleashed, Wildermyth

I fail to come up with a word to describe NEO: The World Ends With You that doesn’t just bring me back to “surprising.” Given Square Enix’s recent track record, this game shouldn’t exist, it feels like we should’ve just accepted that tiny bit of representation back in Dream Drop Distance as “good enough.” However, that’s not the only surprise when it comes to the sequel of a fairly beloved DS game from 14 years ago. Gameplay has been revamped to better suit current gen consoles while still maintaining an energy as kinetic as flicking your DS stylus on the bottom screen while fat-thumbing the face buttons to keep a combo up. The music maintains the energy of the original, while also delivering so many new bangers that drive the themes of the series home effortlessly. New protagonists Rindo and Fret do a lot in terms of giving a voice to a new generation of teens who, while constantly online, still echo the loneliness that made Neku equal parts frustrating to witness, but understandable in terms of where that rage came from.

That’s also putting aside the rest of the cast, who bring so much life to the streets of Shibuya! I can go on about each individual aspect of this game but it all serves to highlight the fact I couldn’t have expected a sequel to The World Ends With You. I couldn’t have expected a sequel that happily makes its audience fall in love with new characters, mechanics, visuals, and sounds. I couldn’t have expected this game to leave such an impact on me months after my initial playthrough. NEO: The World Ends With You could have easily been a throwaway sequel that made me look for a new DS and pay more money than I’d like to replay the original. Instead it’s easily one of the best games I’ve played this year and has managed to reignite the series in a way I could never have thought of first listening to Twister all those years ago.

– Mav

The post Game of the Year Awards 2021: Day One appeared first on Gamesline.

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The opening song to this episode is “Twister” by Takeharu Ishimoto, and the ending song is “Breaking Free” also by Takeharu Ishimoto.

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Our theme song is “Crush” by Melt Channel, from the album Magic is Real.

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I highlight this loss of a space I called home because it’s a similar kind of dread I felt when I first heard about NEO: The World Ends With You; Square Enix heads back to the streets of Shibuya for another round of the Reapers’ Game, a jam-packed week full of action, anguish, and a lot of bold fashion choices. The first game, released all the way back in 2007, was a sleeper hit on the Nintendo DS, lauded for its gripping story, flashy visuals and soundtrack, and a gameplay style that utilized nearly all the DS’s features. TWEWY was a game indicative of the metropolitan jungle it wanted to emulate, and for the longest time felt like such a flash in the pan experience that the mention of a sequel was equal parts concerning as it was exciting. Was there a way to bring the energy of the original onto current generation consoles? The Nintendo Switch got an enhanced port of the mobile version which, while good to have for the sake of accessibility, highlighted just how unique the original game was when all combat became mashed into one screen. Footage of NEO: TWEWY was equal parts mind blowing as it was nerve wracking, having to think of replicating that experience for a controller. Maybe this game had a good story, maybe the soundtrack would be enough to save the experience. Overall, that sensation reminded me of sitting in the train waiting for my stop, unsure of what I’d really find once I stepped out onto the sidewalk.

I can comfortably say that, despite all odds, Shibuya’s still the same after all these years. NEO:TWEWY manages to blend the essence of what people loved about the original with a new story, new characters, and an updated gameplay style. It’s unafraid in wanting to take its gameplay to a new direction, and its focus on bridging the gap between its predecessor and what it is now really drives home its overall ethos. 

In NEO: TWEWY, three years have passed since the events of the last Reapers’ Game in Shibuya. You play as Rindo Kanade, a high schooler whose fashion sense already showcases the passage of time from the last time Nomura had to design a hip and happening urban youth. Rindo and his friend Tosai “Fret” Furosawa, spend the day in Shibuya and in a matter of seconds wind up in the middle of a free-for-all between psychics and monsters. The Reapers’ Game is alive and well in Shibuya again. With a new smartphone update and a healthy dose of insults from cat hoodie clad Shoka Sakurane, one of several great new additions to the game when it comes to snappy dialogue and delivery, Rindo and Fret have one week to score points and win it all as the newest team in the Game trying to take down the ever-victorious Ruinbringers.

The most immediate change to recognize between this game and its predecessor comes from the shift to 3D. Shibuya on the DS was a larger than life experience thanks to a slanted perspective and cluttering of passersby in every nook and cranny, each with a mind to read based on whatever minutiae they had to worry about at the time. That spirit gets amplified tenfold thanks to the ability to really see the buildings and bridges that connect the city. The game starts at the Hachiko memorial, a section all its own in the original game, but expands out to reveal that the entire Scramble Crossing is in the same section too. The decision to keep Shibuya as a sectioned off map with a fixed camera in each locale rather than pivot to an open world with a mini map on the corner is one that really does a lot in preserving TWEWY’s energy. The background buildings warp to fix into the perspective, and even as more options in the game open the city up to you, most of it does so in a way to let you see the city in angles hitherto unknown when limited to 2D art assets alone. The achievements that you earn along the way also add some flair to your romps around Shibuya in the form of unlocking graffiti tags for a mural on Cat Street, a place that you run into along the way alongside the original piece Neku idolizes in the first game. There’s no hesitation in giving the old fans some indulgence with references and location updates, but it never does so in a way that keeps new players out of the loop.

One of the biggest helpers when it comes to providing new players some solid footing comes in the form of the new characters that make up the Wicked Twisters, the team Rindo and Fret start in their quest to take down the Ruinbringers. Rindo himself is a great start in showcasing just what this game wants to focus on thematically when compared to Neku. Rather than bring in yet another isolated preteen who wishes everyone around him could shut the hell up, Rindo’s introduction is through a series of annoyed texts to Fret about where exactly to meet up for the day (all done with some choice line stickers that I hope get released officially). For the most part Rindo’s not the kind of kid that needs a lesson specifically, but as the events of the Reapers’ Game carry on the pressure gets put on him to learn how exactly to work alongside others and sus out who he can consider not just on his side, but also willing to fight alongside him. The switch from Neku’s iconic headphones to Rindo’s facemask—which the game will gladly tell you is a fashion statement alongside a few jokes surrounding a group of sanitation-based idols that are in the city—is as much an indicator of what’s going on. If the first game was focused on outright yelling at you to go and meet new people even if it feels scary, NEO: TWEWY recognizes that progress and asks you to consider how tight those circles run. 

Another big help is the fact Rindo plays the straight man to a lot of colorful personalities. Fret is a certified fuckboy in appearance between his bleach job and light scarf, but makes up for it by being the resident Golden Retriever of the group. His Psych, the catchall term for the pin-based psychic abilities everyone has access to in battle, alongside some powers that help with overworld exploration, allows him to remind people of events based on a general theme (done through a quick minigame that reveals a crude drawing that could only be something he’d doodle in an effort to get through to people). For the most part he wins people over, but his lovable schtick stops cold when it comes to playing off the third full member of the party, Nagi Usui. Nagi, to put it bluntly, is a big fucking nerd and the best thing to happen to games writing in terms of navigating how to keep the core tenants of character’s eccentricities when mapping out permanent personality changes. When you first meet her she’s ready to raise hell for a promotional pin featuring the visage of her favorite gacha character who also happens to look like another unexpected member of your party, and this is partially the extra push for her to join up with the Twisters. Nagi calls back to the familiar themes of social awkwardness and needing to learn to reach out to others, but she does so in a way that doesn’t ask her to change who she is entirely. Initial impressions on her eccentricity aside, Rindo and Fret take kindly to her presence. Fret even takes the charge in nicknaming her “Boss” as she’s also the oldest of the three. In exchange, Nagi is constantly gracious about Rindo and Fret being some of the first people she’s been able to talk to since the new Game began. Yes, a lot of the jokes with Nagi revolve around her being cringe and maybe too eager to write doujinshi for the next Totally Not Fate chapter. However, at no point is she shamed for these interests and instead learns to bring that same enthusiasm for her passions into a desire to protect the people she can call her friends.

The gameplay, much like in TWEWY, is the final kicker when it comes to presenting the overall message for the game. In the original DS game, players controlled Neku using the touch screen while coordinating a second partner on the top screen via the D-pad or buttons. The proper know-how with which to coordinate button inputs and various actions on the touch screen is how you could initiate combo strings that filled a meter and let you unleash incredible super moves. NEO: TWEWY does something similarly but is fully aware of the scope of control in using a console controller scheme. Every pin that you acquire in the game is associated with a button: For the PS4, it’s Triangle, Square, and all four shoulder buttons, and in your party you basically assign one button for each character to use. Instead of passing the combo back and forth, the game incorporates a “drop the beat” system that has you coordinate follow-up moves with one another or lead big impact moves into quick hits that fill up the same type of meter. Your pins have some usual archetypes to them between energy blasts, sword-like shockwaves, and area-zoning trip wires and mines to name just a few, each also being acquirable throughout the game in various elements. 

As a resident Sword Liker, I’m a fiend for the shockwave pins and my deck usually has one alongside an energy round pin for an easy switch between blasts and slashes. Charge pins, specifically ones that lead into a MvC-Assist-style dropkick from long distances, also help so much in the early game with being able to add some extra damage and combo extensions. Alongside these classics come some fantastic additions like grenade launchers, homing rockets, full-on lasers, and the ability to just tackle a motherfucker. While these pins show their worth pretty quickly, I can’t say the same for stuff like the mines and time bombs. These are probably the most antithetical to TWEWY’s whole design of resource management given how a whole five seconds to wait for a bomb to blow up basically leads to you getting torn into by a wolf or bear or frog and cursing at the screen and your (read: my) need for completion percentages. I won’t knock a game for trying something new, but I definitely shudder at the idea of someone being able to make an effective deck from a trip wire, time bomb, minefield, and attack boost pin.

Brands also make a comeback, as would be expected in a game set in one of the fashion capitals of the world. Your stats are linked to your clothes, and in order to ball out in combat you gotta ball out in fashion choice. There are 13 brands to choose from, some returning from the original game’s zodiac-inspired lineup like hip hop brand Jupiter of the Monkey and the chic Natural Puppy, to some new additions like the Uniqlo-equivalent Shepherd House and Gatto Nero with its very familiar mascot. The more you shop, the higher your VIP level increases, and the more items you can pick up and eventually trade materials for. But of course, fashion comes at a price, which in this case is your style level. The main way to fill that up is by taking your gaggle of kids to the nearest place serving food to load up, raise stats, fight battles until you’re hungry again, and then load up once more.

The epicenter of all this back and forth is the Social Network feature. Folks, we’ve got a sphere grid here and the main way you fill up this bad boy is through completing side quests that you can uncover throughout each day and the Noise gauntlets that Nagi can access through her own unique Psych. Both offer the opportunity for you to earn Friendship Points that can be spent on unlocking various clothes, special food orders for restaurants, and even new mechanics to increase noise chains, game difficulty, and the ability to farm for higher rarity pins. Just as importantly, you get to learn about every shopkeep and named character and how exactly they know each other. As one of the two resident Trails fans here, these flourishes add so much to creating a game atmosphere where Fret hanging around the Hog Fang on Central Street and giving the nervous shopkeeper there tips on how to act around customers isn’t just cute, it’s literally in the descriptor for that character. Everyone matters in Shibuya and that rules!

In a time where everyone focuses on the difficulty of games in relation to accessibility, NEO: TWEWY proudly says, “Fuck outta here with that” and encourages you to try every difficulty on file if you want every pin possible. If you’re set on keeping to one difficulty, the game also provides a level slider to increase drop rates the more HP you sacrifice for battles. The difficulty is yours to play around with and the notion of the optimal NEO: TWEWY experience is less about how much the Noise kicks your ass as it is about getting really excited about giving the ever edgy Minamimoto enough style points to put on a maid outfit that boosts HP.

The fact that I had so much to say about this game prior to bringing up the soundtrack really says a lot about its overall quality because holy crap are the tunes here something else. TWEWY’s eclectic sound back in 2007 was cultivated by hip hop and J-pop, as heard on the title track “Twister” and “Calling”. NEO honors that tradition and throws in new songs to coincide with remixes of some Shibuya classics. “Bird in the Hand” and “Breaking Free” are easily some of the standouts in this new crop of songs, but each one has its place in the game both in the cue of cutscene BGM and in the general way the game will choose to switch songs out whenever you navigate in and out of menus. You never have just one favorite song in this game, and the fact the entire soundtrack is now available for streaming just makes it prime for replay. Seriously, go stream the soundtracks if you haven’t already.

Every bit of this game succeeds because of its focus on interconnectivity. There’s nuance in being able to not just retell a story built on learning to talk to people, but to really make the most of what that experience entails. In talking about the main story Psychs, Rindo’s basically got time travel, but the decision to have such a powerful ability work as a last resort to avoid certain doom helps to make this more than just a matter of having an immediate “win the story button”. To get to a positive outcome in these moments requires Rindo to actually clue in to the people around him, learn what’s going on and use that info to his own gain. Sometimes this helps him avoid last minute ambushes, other times this forces him to come to terms with the fact that not everyone is someone he can ally with. You can’t shut the world away from you, but you do need to discern the stuff that raises you up from the stuff that pulls you down. 

I think back to that ramen shop I visited in May, and that’s ultimately the core of what NEO: TWEWY is about. A city is as much the buildings and bridges that connect it from point A to B as it is the people who live in those buildings and walk down those bridges. While the game never fully addresses its primary threat as a form of gentrification, it does recognize how unwelcome changes harm the natural ebb and flow of city life. I can’t speak to how much of this game was written prior to the pandemic, but it ultimately ends up becoming something necessary in a social context, much like how its predecessor was deemed necessary by so many who needed to hear they should actually go and talk to people. I didn’t have a love for the crêpe place on 8th Street that closed down my sophomore year because of the food, but because that was where I took a photo with some of the first friends I’d make in a new city, some of which I still keep close to this day. Yeah, sometimes the camera can get difficult to deal with in battles and the melodrama that pushes the story into its final act may not hit for everyone, but I started playing this game on the week I had to leave the apartment I called home for two years, one of which I stayed in with barely a penny to my name aside from whenever I had to pay rent. There’s a lot to unpack there, but at the very least this game helped me remember the things that kept me going, the people both on my block and in my contact lists who were there in one way or another when I needed it most. The world does end with you, and as much as it’s necessary to know your limits, that horizon is ever expanding. 

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