My games of the year 2021 (GOTY 2021)

Best Shooter

Battlefield 2042 (PS5)

Battlefield might have thrown away nearly everything including the entire solo mode, the multiplayer experience stays unrivaled. Even more so in this PS5 version where 128 players can fight at the same time. With perfect sniping, non-stop action and armored warfare, Battlefield 2042 finally brings to console the promise of the perfect, PC-level Battlefield.

Runner-up : none

Best Action/Adventure game

Resident evil Village (PS5)

While Resident Evil Village was first in the series, I think I picked the right one. I tried Resident Evil VII soon after I liked it much less, so I do think Village is especially well directed. More focused on atmosphere, less linear and more spectacular, it’s undoubtedly a major installment of the series.

Runner-up : none

Best RPG

Tales of Arise (PS5)

It was a risky return but BandaiNamco made a flawless comeback with Tales of Arise. Advanced graphics, fantastic characters, epic fights, divine music… Every ingredient of the golden age of JRPG is there in a modern title that never forgets its roots.

Runner-up : The Legend of Heroes Kuro no Kiseki (PS4) & Scarlet Nexus (PS5)

Best design

The Legend of Heroes Kuro no Kiseki (PS4)

Falcom pulled its best for this new chapter of The Legend of Heroes. The world of the Calvard republic is incredibly rich and detailed, thanks to picturesque towns and remarkable secondary characters. The main characters are especially great, making a even finer casting than Sen no Kiseki in its time.

Runner-up : Scarlet Nexus (PS5)

Best graphics

Battlefield 2042 (PS5)

No real surprise here, DICE offers to PS5 players the best of technology in the FPS genre. Maps are splendid, and varied. The fight est more intense than evez thanks to more troops, more vehicles on the field. Weather effects bring an nice apocalyptic touch to the genre.

Runner-up : Resident Evil Village (PS5)

Best soundtrack

The Legend of Heroes Kuro no Kiseki (PS4)

New prize for Falcom Sound Team. From the splendid opening to great boss battle themes, not forgetting the town music, Kuro no Kiseki is a marvel for your ears. Dynamic, grandiose, Falcom’s new hit is the msucial journey of the year.

Runner-up : Tales of Arise (PS5)

Best atmosphere

Resident Evil Village (PS5)

Even though it’s more strictly the case in the first two chapters, Resident Evil Village serves delicious Japanese horror. The castle and especially the doll house are paragons of sinister. The fear is acute and the exploration thrilling.

Runner-up : Doki Doki Literature Club + (PS4)

Special Prize

Scarlet Nexus (PS5)

There aren’t studios capable of creating full new IPs as ambitious as Scarlet Nexus. I created this special prize in order to reward a high level of originality and quality. The gameplay in Scarlet Nexus is totally revolutionary, the challenge is intense and the character design vastly outstanding. This is the greatest new title in years. I hope the sequel comes quick…

Biggest letdown

Caligula 2 (PS4)

There’s always a risk when you release a stellar new IP : it’s hard to keep up in a sequel. Furyu fell right into this issue with Caligula 2, not even remotely as great as Caligula or Caligula Overdose. The publisher get into the market a underwhelming RPG plagued with short and lackluster writing, terrible gameplay balance and outdated graphics. Let’s point it out once more : using a big name is not enough.

Runner-up : Neptunia X Senran Kagura Ninja Wars (PS4)

Game of the Year

Tales of Arise (PS5)

As I said last year, we have to celebrate true JRPG when we see it. Like SquareEnix last year, BandaiNamco invested massively to deliver an purely traditional JRPG, but in modern standards. When many aren’t making their best because they target casuals, wokes or Nintendo subsidies, BandaiNamco’s effort in going forward with both Tales of Arise and Scarlet Nexus deserves our warmest praise. Long live the best publisher of 2021!

Scarlet Nexus (PS5)

The Legend of Heroes Kuro no Kiseki (PS4)

Resident Evil Village (PS5)

2021 – A year in review

2021 was complicated year in nearly everything, but turned out quite a great year for gaming. Here are the top/flops in reviews, before going to GOTY.

Atelier Ryza 2 (PS5)

This how a series goes quickly downwards. Atelier Ryza 2 is a horribly boring installment with dull characters and even worse talk, impoverished gameplay and light content. KoeiTecmo is obviously trying to lure the casual crowd, so much that they seem to confuse, or worse, transform Atelier into some life simulation garbage for noobs like Story of Seasons. Fortunately, the U-turn taken with the announcement of Atelier Sophie 2 might save the series.

Neptunia Virtual Stars (PS4)

Neptunia Virtual Stars is what I would call “why not?” level of quality. The gameplay is obviously bad, combat being terrible especially during boss fights. Yet it’s fun. The game is pretty, all the parody jokes are well-thought, there are new cool characters, great voice acting, original features… It’s worth a shot for series fans, and restropectively a lot better that the Senran Kagura crossover.

Love Live! School Idol Festival (PS4)

A great game for orphans of the Project Diva series (as I am). Love Live! School Idol Festival has the challenge, the music, the cute graphics to satisfy rythm games fans. That said, it is expensive : nearly all the songs are sold in DLC packs, so the bill can be quite hefty at the end. The costume-making is also really annoying, but aimed at selling even more DLC.

Wings of Darkness (PS4)

I’ve never regretted a purchase more than this limited edition. True, Wings of Darkness as high production values for a indie game in graphics and animation : the aerial fights are dynamic and loud, and then pretty cool. But it’s a 6-hour long game of very easy fighting and frustratingly underdeveloped narrative.

Tales of Arise (PS5)

We are back to the golden age with this one. Namco’s grandiose epic has an incredible wealth of cool characters, intense fighting, breathtaking landscapes, hilarious side content… Every quality of a great JRPG gathered in modern graphic standards. It couldn’t be more thrilling.

The Caligula Effect 2 (PS4)

That was bad but in the end I wasn’t so surprised. The Caligula Effect 2 is ugly, clearly not the level of a end-of-generation PS4 game. Combat is awful, much too long and tiresome. But my biggest problem is the terrible writing which only equals to the miserable overall content. Both The Caligula Effect and The Caligula Effect Overdose brought enough innovation and story content to stand out on the JRPG scene, but The Caligula Effect 2 merely rehashes the formula with zero effort. It can’t be a coincidence that the game was initially revealed during a Nintendo Direct. They probably had their shipment guaranteed and had no intention to work on it at all.

Battlefield 2042 (PS5)

While the bare-bones main menu was indeed shocking (content really dried up since BFV), what remained (just Conquest) was really greatly made in splendid maps, fine sniping, lots of vehicles, cool teamplay. A good FPS and I don’t understand all the racket against it.

Review – Genso Rogoku

No Japanese firm announced a PSVita game after Genso Rogoku was released in December 2020, making it the last physical game to hit Sony’s handheld there. Iwai Hime Matsuri made me like Ryukishi07’s narratives, but unfortunately this game didn’t get the same kind of attention.

Genso Rogoku has a intriguing rule : four girls are held in basement and are forced to take part in a death game to get out. The trouble is that the game only lets three persons out. Survival or friendship, such is the dilemma set by Entergram’s game over a dozen of hours.

Each chapter, the player chooses a role for Karin, Mizuna, Fûka and Doremi. Funnily, the first kanji of each heroine corresponds to the elements fire, water, wind and earth. That said, the roles they received are “prisoner”, “pierrot” and two “judges”. The prisoner is, very sadly for her, stuck on a iron chair. One of the judges can swap her situation with the pierrot, or declare her “guilty”. In this particular case, the other judge just has to pull a lever and everyone goes free.

As you can expect, it doesn’t happen that easily : the lever inflicts severe pain to the guilty person. Also, all of them have only five minutes before the whole room is engulfed in fire. Therefore, the tension goes high quicker than in a street demonstration. If you enjoy hearing girls argue at each other, this game is made for you. The story is just a flurry of invectives and spine-chilling stares.

But despite scare being the big theme of Genso Rogoku, it’s far less efficient than Iwai Hime Matsuri in that aspect. You can already notice the boxart having a CERO D rating when Iwai Hime Matsuri was Z. I see a sign that Entergram only did half the job. There’s next to no artwork to illustrate the fear and violence. Often, those are silhouettes of the characters on a red background, which doesn’t show much and leaves your imagination do the rest. Genso Rogoku doesn’t really express fear, there was a lot more to be done for that.

The other issue of the concept is its annoying redundancy. You try every prisoner/pierrot combination but every time the scenario is more or less the same. One of the girls is going to recall some unfullfilled promise, blame, and ultimately sacrifice another for it. It is, regrettably enough, literally twelve times the same story. Let’s stress that the author tries a contrast between cute childhood scenes and the killings. It kinda make sense and cleverly prepares the happy end at the close.

I honestly can’t believe that anyone in this project really gave its best. Genso Rogoku is too short, shallow and definitely not scary enough. However painful it may seem, it was far from being the dream-like last Vita game we hoped for.

My games of the year 2020 (GOTY 2020)

Best Action game

The Last of Us Part II (PS4)

With Ellie as official heroine of The Last of Us II, a dream came true. So I took the time to go through the anticipated title between my usual Japanese games. Those were incredibly intense days, proportionally to the quality of this outstanding adventure. Even though I thought the story was very plain, the sequence of events, the action parts and especially the ending were really stellar.

Runner-up : none

Best Shooter

Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War (PS5)

I came back to Call of Duty after a downright horrible Black Ops 4, and I was pleasantly surprised. Black Ops Cold War reintegrates the solo campaign with great effort. Innovative, varied, non linear, it’s the best solo play since Black Ops II. The multiplayer mode being still enjoyable, I’d say the mission is accomplished for COD this year.

Runner-up : none

Best RPG

Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4)

Obvious to say that Final Fantasy VII Remake was much awaited. FFVII is the reverse of FFXV. SquareEnix then had to choose if they wanted to release a JRPG, or a FFXV-like RPG. Fortunately, Final Fantasy VII Remake keeps the original spirit while adding very good hybrid gameplay and state of the art graphics.

Runner-up : Persona 5 Strikers (PS4)

Best Design

Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4)

Final Fantasy VII Remake beautifully revives the original game, its locations and its characters. The charisma of the protagonists is incredible, this is Advent Children in real time! In terms of locations, you re-discover a Midgar of fresh and real look. In other words, the backgrounds have turned into a really immersive megalopolis. SquareEnix has further improved the greatness of the FFVII universe thanks to limitless efforts and creativity.

Runner-up : Atelier Ryza 2 (PS5)

Best graphics

The Last of Us Part II (PS4)

It’s hard to decide between The Last of Us Part II and Final Fantasy VII Remake, but the former seems slightly above in terms of graphics and animation. The extreme realism given to Ellie, the other characters or the places you go into are just mindblowing.

Runner-up : Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4)

Most disappointing

Atelier Ryza 2 (PS5)

I will write a big review about this, but I now really think that the Ryza series is downright killing Atelier. Aside the pure alchemy system, everything just became horribly commonplace. Characters, story, dialog, artwork… all that has reached concerning levels of mediocrity. Gust now must choose either to restore former Atelier glory or pursue the content breakage to seduce mainstream audience, in which case the Atelier we know will just disappear.

Runner-up : Death end re;Quest 2 (PS4)

Game of the Year

Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4)

Like I said, discovering Final Fantasy VII Remake has been the most heartwarming moment of 2020. Yes, we got to experience a great JRPG again with great characters, great side content, great atmosphere… in even better thanks to stellar technics and direction! The return of FFVII is an astounding success and SquareEnix is officially great again.

Persona 5 Strikers (PS4)

The Last of Us Part II (PS4)

Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War (PS5)

2020 – A Year In Review

So eh… yeah, I skipped every possible article this year. COVID terror, lockdown, lot of work, (non-COVID) hospital stay and ultimately moving house made me eat lot of time this year. After all, it’s not so bad to review all of it at once, right?

Ys IX Monstrum Nox (PS4)

As it was my second favorite game of 2019, you’d suspect there’s a very high mark here. From storytelling to quest system, Ys IX is a truly enjoyable Action-RPG that also puts an admirable effort in its (very large) character cast. From Adol to the smallest NPC, everyone you meet in Ys IX has an incredible personality and all this together forms a colorful and memorable new Ys Universe.

Persona 5 Royal (PS4)

This needs no introduction. The very best JRPG of the PS4 generation comes back with added content, but late added content. Sadly enough, I need to wait until you’ve finished the Persona 5 part order to add Su… eh, Kasumi as permanent member. This is a hundred hours of doing it all over, but the other surprise guest in the Royal part might make it worth the trouble.

Sakura Wars (PS4)

Sega more or less ruined the comeback of Sakura Taisen here. It’s more difficult to make a great action game than a decent Strategy-RPG. Sakura Wars PS4 could easily have been a decent SRPG, but in the end became a terrible action game. Combat is horrendous and boring. The dating part was cool though, as well as music, graphics and Tokyo’s historic look. A partially fun game that can be interesting at a reduced price.

Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4)

A ray of light in the heart of the COVID scare. SquareEnix did a near perfect job in reviving the most iconic Playstation JRPG. They kept everything that made the legend of FFVII over the years, and didn’t try to tone it down, westernize it or worse, make it look even a tiny bit like FFXV. There’s guenuine RPG gameplay, ridiculous mini-games, fuzzy sidequests, eccentric characters… In other words, Final Fantasy creators have not forgotten what a JRPG is. That alone, is the greatest thing in 2020 gaming.

Death end re;Quest 2 (PS4)

After clearing this game, I do believe it is the beginning of the end and Death of Compile Heart. Death end re;Quest 2 has been utterly tame in its horror aspect, that is to say its main aspect. Illustrations have been toned down and don’t look especially frightening anymore. Gameplay is a sub-version of the previous system, character development is pitifully wrong and story doesn’t even feel like it happens in the same universe as Death end re;Quest 1. I don’t think we can expect anything anymore from a company that wastes half of its time porting old games instead of putting real effort in the new ones.

Sword Art Online Alicization Lycoris (PS4)

What went wrong there, seriously? It was the chosen one in the long saga of SAO games and just miserably failed to offer a entertaining experience. SAOAL has a really big and fascinating Xenoblade-like world, but full of tedious mandatory quests, boring combat full of duplicate characters when they absolutely HAD to translate the uniqueness of SAO Underworld. I hear there’s still tons of DLC planned but, seriously, who will even care now? Fairy Tail was so massively superior that they could as well rethink their way of doing stuff and get to something else.

13 Sentinels Aegis Rim (PS4)

I’m very glad the consensus went so positive about it. 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim is the best and most clever storytelling I’ve seen in quite some time. True, it’s not very difficult and the battle graphics are unimpressive, but the gameplay had something deeply fun into it. The aesthetitics of 80’s Tokyo are as as charming as the characters. A great exclusive I recommend to anyone who’s into Japanese gaming.

Persona 5 Strikers (PS4)

A year with double ration of Persona 5 can’t be that bad. Atlus knew that people wanted more Persona 5 and they gave it : the true and marvelous Persona 5 sequel which brillantly extends the pleasure. OK, you won’t have the stellar turn-based system, but instead you have a stellar Action-RPG system. So there zero reason to complain about the “Warriorization” of P5S. It’s an absolutely fantastic continuation of Persona 5, true the Persona spirit.

Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War (PS5)

I had been very curious about Black Ops Cold War from the very first teaser. It turned out that Activision delivered exactly what was promised : a fascinating historic experience and a deep dive into the Cold War era. It definitely has one of the greatest (best or second-best I’d say) COD campaign. It’s very innovative including puzzles, infiltration, choices and… sidequests! The multiplayer is enjoyable as well, even though far still from the Battlefield level of awesomeness.

Review – Haruoto Alice Gram Snow Drop

Even though the support seems to have ended now, Entergram has kept Vita much alive with tons of visual novels. The company had notably partnered with NanaWind to get a console version of Haruoto Alice Gram Snow Drop, as often ported from a PC adult game.

Haruoto Alice Gram Snow Drop is visual novel entirely centered around a school environment, but with a drop (lol) of fantasy and mystery. The player appears as Sotaro Sema, an average high-schooler at first sight, but actually super talented. He’s member of the Tasogare club, student group who helps classmates here and there. The Tasogare members are part of the student council, and Sotaro will be asked to help against the Shinseikai, rival group that tries to take control of the school affairs.

That’s most of the story, and honestly it’s not very dense : barely anything happens, even during te final clash between the two groups. Haruoto Alice Gram Snow Drop then starts a second half that has a little more mystery. The Tasogare club faces a intruiging man called Zero, and discovers doors leading to an eerie world. Zero sends coded letters to Sotaro’s group, which each time must break the code in order to stop him.

My issue with this game is that the narrative never tries to go deeper in that paranormal aspect. There is no actual puzzle gameplay when you get Zero’s letters : the player just witnesses the outcome passively. Satoro as well as the heroines possess magic cards that grant them some superpowers (look into someone’s memory, detect lies, etc.) but here again it’s very minor part of the story : each card is used only once and you don’t really know where they come from.

Same goes for the parallel world, since the characters just briefly enter it twice. Haruoto Alice Gram Snow Drop sadly is very plain, including in its school life. It looks more like some big introduction to something else. Indeed, NanaWind’s website (watch out, adult site) shows a sequel called ShiroKoi Alice Gram, only for PC at the moment. Perhaps the narrative gets better but the chances to play it on Vita are essentially zero.

Then, we have to make do with the dating events with the main girls, who aren’t too shabby to be honest. I did like Yaya’s scenes. The head of Tasogare is a real genius but she’s also a flirtatious one. She spends here time teasing Sotaro and the others with absolutely hilarious lines. She’s the funniest character by far.

Kuzaha, the leader of the school discipline bureau, wasn’t bad either. Especially talking about her physical side, since she shows up in the hottest scenes. I realy wished she’d played a bigger role in the story. She’s some sort of drawing geek but she represses her feelings. A shame that aspect of her personality couldn’t be more explained in the scenario.

Yuki is the girl I flagged the ending of, after approximately 20 hours. She’s a real, assumed PC geek who plays MMO games all the time. There are a couple of gaming easter eggs which I found very fun. The dating part felt very flat though. Let’s stress that Haruoto Alice Gram Snow Drop was hit by censorship, in at least two event pictures. There aren’t that many sexy happenings, so nothing wild there. The progression system seems quite vague as well : it’s very linear and there’s no clear choice of which ending you’re going towards.

Haruoto Alice Gram Snow Drop is globally a disappointing experience. Too long for a visual novel of this type, it’s terribly paced and very shy in nearly every aspect it introduces. Granted, there are extremely pretty girls, great artwork but there’s a lot better in the genre on PSVita.