2021 Gaming List

[Rune Lai]

Because my interests shift, I'm once again updating my Should Play and Should Finish lists. Some of the games I didn't get around to I'm replacing with other games in a similar situation.

Should Play:
Tales of Berseria
Collar x Malice Unlimited
Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk
Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town

Should Finish:
Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City
The Caligula Effect: Overdose
Joe Dever's Lone Wolf
My Vow to My Liege
Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Not Yet Bought:
Piofiore - Wishlist item until price is $20 or less
Steam Prison - Maybe? The English language Twitter for the dev announced it's coming to Switch, which I'd prefer over Steam, but even though they launched an English website for it, the product page only lists prices in yen.
Variable Barricade - Planning to pre-order
Ys IX: Monstrum Nox - Hoping for a sale before physical runs out of copies
Bustafellows - Might pre-order, otherwise will wait for sale
Persona 5 Strikers - Wishlist item until price is $30 or less
Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster - Wishlist item until price is $30 or less
Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town - Tempted to pre-order for the buffalo plush
TBD Steam Game During Annual Summer Sale

I kinda ran out of steam at the end of 2020 (gee, I wonder why) which was definitely an impact on what I played and how I played, though I still chewed through a fair number of games. Hopefully this coming year will be better.

For 2021 I'm keeping Tales of Berseria on my Should Play list, because I still want to get through that, even though 2020 didn't allow me the time to manage a second JRPG. Keeping things portable-ish (which includes Switch games since I never play docked), I'm adding Collar x Malice Unlimited, which I wanted to play when it released last year, but it got punted since I was already in the middle of multiple games when it arrived at my door. (And apparently the translation quality was so bad Aksys actually patched it, so being late seems to be a good thing.) Also adding Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk since I need to get around to that, having played its partner game in 2020. Rounding out the list with Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town to give me something different from RPGs and visual novels.

My Should Finish list is only keeping Etrian Odyssey III. I'm adding Joe Dever's Lone Wolf and My Vow to My Liege to it and pulling Persona 4 Arena and Soul Calibur IV. I might not be up to fighting games for a while (a little too reflex-oriented for me), and I really do want to finish Lone Wolf once I get well enough to play it again, but the combat quick time events are not sick person friendly given how many of them have to be done and how long combat lasts. Finishing MVtML is also part of my refusal to accumulate a Steam backlog. Finally, I swapped Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright for Fire Emblem: Three Houses and moved The Caligula Effect: Overdose from the Should Play list into the one remaining empty space where I actually finished something. Finishing it should be a gimme since I'm in the final dungeon. It's just a ridiculously big dungeon, so it's asking for playing stamina I don't have for a console game right now. (Mad regrets for not buying it for Switch, but I didn't have a Switch at the time.)

[Rune Lai]

Well, I already wandered off and played a game not on the list with free indie Our Life: Beginnings & Always, mostly because I wanted something quick. I probably should have picked something I already owned, but wanted to see what the fuss was. Also finished the timesink known as Fire Emblem: Three Houses.

I found out that Variable Barricade isn't going to be released until 2022, so I pulled it off my buy list. I'm a tad grumpy since I was looking forward to it more than anything else this year, and it's weird for a company to announce a license for a completed game over a year in advance. At this rate, Aksys will be announced the next batch of Otomate licenses while still sitting on top of the previous three.

On top of that, Steam Prison for Switch turned out to be nosebleed expensive compared to Steam (on account of matching the JP price) so I probably won't pick it up until it's on sale, and all else being equal I'd rather get the Switch version on account of having additional content on top of being on a handheld.

So the otome glut I expected to face this year is surprisingly minimized. I might actually play some indies.

Finally, I bought Raging Loop during a Switch sale and Gnosia which just came out earlier this month as games to play while I recover from my surgery. Normally I play with walkthroughs and reference material, but I don't do that for mystery games since that spoils all the problem solving. This means I don't need to figure out the logistics of how to manage my laptop and a Switch at the same time in bed.

My progress as it currently stands:

Should Play:
Tales of Berseria
Collar x Malice Unlimited
Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk
Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town

Should Finish:
Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City
The Caligula Effect: Overdose
Joe Dever's Lone Wolf
My Vow to My Liege
Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Not Yet Bought:
Piofiore - Wishlist item until price is $20 or less
Steam Prison - Wishlist item until price is $30 or less on Switch
Ys IX: Monstrum Nox - Hoping for a sale before physical runs out of copies
Bustafellows - Might pre-order, otherwise will wait for sale
Persona 5 Strikers - Wishlist item until price is $30 or less
Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster - Wishlist item until price is $30 or less
Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town - Pre-ordered
TBD Steam Game During Annual Summer Sale

Added to Backlog:
Raging Loop
Gnosia

Finished even though it wasn't on the list:
Our Life: Beginnings & Always

Total games completed in 2021: 2

[Rune Lai]

Crossing off Gnosia. Probably will do Raging Loop next. Not because I'm really in the mood for another game of Werewolf so much as I'm still feeling under the weather and want a game I can play with no walkthrough.

My progress as it currently stands:

Should Play:
Tales of Berseria
Collar x Malice Unlimited
Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk
Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town

Should Finish:
Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City
The Caligula Effect: Overdose
Joe Dever's Lone Wolf
My Vow to My Liege
Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Not Yet Bought:
Piofiore - Wishlist item until price is $20 or less
Steam Prison - Wishlist item until price is $30 or less on Switch
Ys IX: Monstrum Nox - Hoping for a sale before physical runs out of copies
Bustafellows - Might pre-order, otherwise will wait for sale
Persona 5 Strikers - Wishlist item until price is $30 or less
Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster - Wishlist item until price is $30 or less
TBD Steam Game During Annual Summer Sale

Added to Backlog:
Raging Loop
Gnosia
Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town - pre-ordered

Finished even though it wasn't on the list:
Our Life: Beginnings & Always

Total games completed in 2021: 3

[Rune Lai]

Crossing off Raging Loop. Not sure what to play next. There's a download-only detective game currently on sale for Switch for pretty cheap that I might pick up, but I've also heard it's pretty short. Or I might go back to Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town for a change of pace.

My progress as it currently stands:

Should Play:
Tales of Berseria
Collar x Malice Unlimited
Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk
Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town

Should Finish:
Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City
The Caligula Effect: Overdose
Joe Dever's Lone Wolf
My Vow to My Liege
Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Not Yet Bought:
Piofiore - Wishlist item until price is $20 or less
Steam Prison - Wishlist item until price is $30 or less on Switch
Ys IX: Monstrum Nox - Hoping for a sale before physical runs out of copies
Bustafellows - Might pre-order, otherwise will wait for sale
Persona 5 Strikers - Wishlist item until price is $30 or less
Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster - Wishlist item until price is $30 or less
TBD Steam Game During Annual Summer Sale

Added to Backlog:
Raging Loop
Gnosia
Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town

Finished even though it wasn't on the list:
Our Life: Beginnings & Always

Total games completed in 2021: 4

[Rune Lai]

Finished Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk. Might do Collar x Malice Unlimited next just because it's another portable VN.

My progress as it currently stands:

Should Play:
Tales of Berseria
Collar x Malice Unlimited
Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk
Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town

Should Finish:
Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City
The Caligula Effect: Overdose
Joe Dever's Lone Wolf
My Vow to My Liege
Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Not Yet Bought:
Piofiore - Wishlist item until price is $20 or less
Steam Prison - Wishlist item until price is $30 or less on Switch
Ys IX: Monstrum Nox - Hoping for a sale before physical runs out of copies
Bustafellows - Might pre-order, otherwise will wait for sale
Persona 5 Strikers - Wishlist item until price is $30 or less
Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster - Wishlist item until price is $30 or less
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles
TBD Steam Game During Annual Summer Sale

Added to Backlog:
Raging Loop
Gnosia
Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town

Finished even though it wasn't on the list:
Our Life: Beginnings & Always

Total games completed in 2021: 5

[Rune Lai]

Finished My Vow to My Liege which gets rid of one more on my list. My hands are getting better so returning to Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town might be a change of pace possibility. But if not, I have more VNs.

Bought the two Famicom Detective Club games because I love mystery games and being on Switch makes them portable. They had a $10 promotion for buying both games which brought them under my $30 price threshold and goodness knows with all this chemo I could use more games I can play in bed.


My progress as it currently stands:

Should Play:
Tales of Berseria
Collar x Malice Unlimited
Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk
Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town

Should Finish:
Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City
The Caligula Effect: Overdose
Joe Dever's Lone Wolf
My Vow to My Liege
Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Not Yet Bought:
Piofiore - Wishlist item until price is $20 or less
Steam Prison - Wishlist item until price is $30 or less on Switch
Ys IX: Monstrum Nox - Hoping for a sale before physical runs out of copies
Bustafellows - Pre-ordered
Persona 5 Strikers - Wishlist item until price is $30 or less
Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster - Wishlist item until price is $30 or less
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles - Pre-ordering
TBD Steam Game During Annual Summer Sale

Added to Backlog:
Raging Loop
Gnosia
Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town
Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir
Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind

Finished even though it wasn't on the list:
Our Life: Beginnings & Always

Total games completed in 2021: 6

[Solana]

Oooh, I didn't realize that 'The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles' was getting an English translation! I'd seen mentions of it here and there. (Adds to own list.)

[Rune Lai]

Yeah, I'm really happy about that. Now we just need a compilation with the Miles Edgeworth spin-offs and we'll be set.

[Solana]

Oh, yes! I've seen screenshots and would LOVE more of Franziska von Karma. I was always sorry we didn't see her after 'Trials and Tribulations'. She was my favorite prosecutor to square off against.

[Rune Lai]

The first of the Miles games was localized. I have it on DS, so I've seen her more recently recently than Trials and Tribulations (and she's great, as always), but that game hasn't been rereleased on newer systems. I'm hoping that's just because they're working on a remaster like they did with the original trilogy.

[Rune Lai]

Combo post! I finished both The Caligula Effect: Overdose and Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir this holiday weekend, which wasn't intentional, but things worked out that way. Eight games done and it's the end of May? What is this?

Granted a lot of them have been shorter VNs, but Fire Emblem: Three Houses was a 100+ hour monster so it evens out. (And I know most of this gaming speed has really been because I've been laid up so much this year. So there was definitely a not-normal amount of hours dropped into laying around with my Switch.)

I might play the second Famicom Detective Club game next since I'm in the mood, though a part of me wants to save it for a rainy day with no mystery games.

My progress as it currently stands:

Should Play:
Tales of Berseria
Collar x Malice Unlimited
Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk
Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town

Should Finish:
Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City
The Caligula Effect: Overdose
Joe Dever's Lone Wolf
My Vow to My Liege
Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Not Yet Bought:
Piofiore - Wishlist item until price is $20 or less
Steam Prison - Wishlist item until price is $30 or less on Switch
Ys IX: Monstrum Nox - Hoping for a sale before physical runs out of copies
Bustafellows - Pre-ordered
Persona 5 Strikers - Wishlist item until price is $30 or less
Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster - Wishlist item until price is $30 or less
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles - Pre-ordering
TBD Steam Game During Annual Summer Sale

Added to Backlog:
Raging Loop
Gnosia
Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town
Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir
Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind

Finished even though it wasn't on the list:
Our Life: Beginnings & Always

Total games completed in 2021: 8

[Rune Lai]

Nine games done! I'm rather happy that with Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind complete that most of my new purchases aren't lingering unplayed. The only one that might is Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Oliver Town, but I knew that would happen since the US and JP releases have been so close together that the biggest English guide maker hasn't had the time to get everything ready. (She usually plays the Japanese first and writes the guide in the year it takes for the translation to come out, but she couldn't this time!)

If I hit 12 games before the end of the year with time to spare I may replay Fire Emblem: Three Houses and try another route. I feel pretty visual noveled out at this point, and Great Ace Attorney is coming in July so maybe I'll go back to farming in Friends of Mineral Town.

My progress as it currently stands:

Should Play:
Tales of Berseria
Collar x Malice Unlimited
Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk
Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town

Should Finish:
Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City
The Caligula Effect: Overdose
Joe Dever's Lone Wolf
My Vow to My Liege
Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Not Yet Bought:
Piofiore - Wishlist item until price is $20 or less
Steam Prison - Wishlist item until price is $30 or less on Switch
Ys IX: Monstrum Nox - Hoping for a sale before physical runs out of copies
Bustafellows - Pre-ordered
Persona 5 Strikers - Wishlist item until price is $30 or less
Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster - Wishlist item until price is $30 or less
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles - Pre-ordering
TBD Steam Game During Annual Summer Sale

Added to Backlog:
Raging Loop
Gnosia
Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town
Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir
Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind

Finished even though it wasn't on the list:
Our Life: Beginnings & Always

Total games completed in 2021: 9

[Rune Lai]

I've been kinda terrible with purchases since I last posted in this thread. First I picked up Steam Prison because the import seller had it discounted enough that it was cheaper than digital.

Then I bought the SEGA Ages version of Phantasy Star which I'd been meaning to do for ages (no pun intended). It's not the first RPG I ever played, but the first I finished, and I damn well worked for it. I actually wanted to play it during my brain dead post-surgery recovery, but wanted to pick it up on sale and it wasn't at the time (not that my neuropathy would have let me anyway).

I also picked up Piofiore cheap as part of an Amazon lightning deal (it's a bit unnerving seeing that I have 15 min to buy or it's gone >.>) so even though I wasn't planning to buy at that moment, I was planning to eventually.

Similarly I'd been waiting for a sale to pick up 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim and then it dropped even lower than I expected so I grabbed it. It's the only game that's been nominated for a Seiun Award (a Japanese sf literary award) so I have high expectations for the story.

Because of all this purchasing I've decided to pass on the Steam sale this year. With my currently pending pre-orders this pushes me up to 12 new games this year, and while I'm ahead of schedule for completing things, it would be nice to actually start reducing the backlog (and maybe replay some old faves). Cupid Parasite getting announced for this year was a surprise and I already know I'm going to pre-order it once pre-orders become available, pushing me to 13 games.

And speaking of pre-orders, The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles and Bustafellows arrived! So now I'm overloaded with games.

My progress as it currently stands:

Should Play:
Tales of Berseria
Collar x Malice Unlimited
Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk
Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town

Should Finish:
Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City
The Caligula Effect: Overdose
Joe Dever's Lone Wolf
My Vow to My Liege
Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Not Yet Bought:
Ys IX: Monstrum Nox - Hoping for a sale before physical runs out of copies
Persona 5 Strikers - Wishlist item until price is $30 or less
Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster - Wishlist item until price is $30 or less
Civilization VI Anthology - Wishlist until cheap "enough" because I got too many games
Shin Megami Tensei V - Pre-ordered
Cupid Parasite - Wow, I did not expect this to get localized

Added to Backlog:
Raging Loop
Gnosia
Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town
Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir
Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind
Steam Prison
Sega Ages Phantasy Star
Piofiore: Fated Memories
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles
Bustafellows

Finished even though it wasn't on the list:
Our Life: Beginnings & Always

Total games completed in 2021: 10

[Solana]

I'm looking forward to hearing about the Great Ace Attorney Chronicles!

[Rune Lai]

That's my next game! Or rather, next two games! I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to count it on this tally I've been keeping. I only listed Chronicles as a single item, but it's really GAA 1 and 2. >.>