General News - The Best RPGs Of 2021 @ Kotaku

Kotaku thinks these are the best RPGs of 2021:

The Best RPGs Of 2021

From Monster Hunter: Rise to the new League of Legends spin-off, 2021 had some amazing RPGs

There was, I would argue, no genre-defining role-playing game this year, but there were still a hell of a lot of good ones. So many, in fact, that I had a hard time keeping this list from ballooning even larger than it already is. I tried my best, and even knocked off some of my personal favorites.

[…]

• Monster Hunter: Rise
• Bravely Default II
• Disco Elysium: The Final Cut
• Mass Effect Legendary Edition
• Scarlet Nexus
• Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade
• Nier Replicant
• Cris Tales
• The Ascent
• Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
• Tales of Arise
• Wildermyth
• Diablo II: Resurrected
• Dungeon Encounters
• Gloomhaven
• Shin Megami Tensei V
• Ruined King: A League of Legends Story

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Some good games in there, even if they're not all my cup of tea. At least it's a good mix of different RPG styles.

Good luck trying to complete Pathfinder in 100 hours though.

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous is the Witcher: The Wild Hunt of this year. Not even close.

That said I found Mass Effect: Legendary Edition quite pleasant, like an aged wine.

Hey first time I've seen both WotR and Wildermyth listed

Mostly JRPGs again. I don't know if it's my tastes but I don't see the great offerings the writer talks about, At least they mentioned Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous.

That seems to be a more encompassing list than the others that I've seen for this year.

Solasta: Crown of the Magister is my personal best RPG of the year. Granted the only other game I played at all was Mechajammer, but Encased and Wrath of the Righteous are the only 2021 RPGs that interest me and I've yet to pick them up ( based on what I've heard I'm better off waiting for additional patches for both).

Solasta's biggest strength is the dungeon maker, though it still has a lot of limitations compared to something like NWN toolset, what you can do with it already is pretty cool. For example: With some careful placement of activators you can even set up a map to have multiple endings (which I did for the dungeon I made for the latest community contest).

Originally Posted by purpleblob1
Hey first time I've seen both WotR and Wildermyth listed

Wildermyth got PC Gamer's RPG of the year award.

Originally Posted by Zloth
Wildermyth got PC Gamer's RPG of the year award.

Yes but they didn't nominate WotR.

I said first time seeing "both" on the list

Originally Posted by purpleblob1
Hey first time I've seen both WotR and Wildermyth listed

I keep hearing good things about Wildermyth, but the look and the combat really don't appeal to me I know it's very superficial and there's more to a game; perhaps I'll give it a try at some point, it seems worth it.

Originally Posted by daveyd
Solasta: Crown of the Magister is my personal best RPG of the year. Granted the only other game I played at all was Mechajammer, but Encased and Wrath of the Righteous are the only 2021 RPGs that interest me and I've yet to pick them up ( based on what I've heard I'm better off waiting for additional patches for both).

Those are all good names to me Isn't Wrath of the Righteous ripe now? Last time I played, not long ago, I didn't see any of the issues I had before, but I can't tell for the late chapters, mount-related and other tricky features.

I'm wondering when Encased will get its 3rd patch, it should be about now. That's when it would be worth playing it for the first time for those who waited, IMO. The one after is about balancing, that would grant a 2nd run.

This year I played Wildermyth, Trudograd and Encased. They were all great.
Wildermyth was just a great refreshment in long time. So easy to play and you wish it would never end.
Trudograd is shorter than Atom and more restrictive, but still great humor and story specially if you are of Slavic origin in post communist country.
Encased starts great, but when nearing the end, you just want to finish it because it slows down fast and becomes boring.

Waiting for pathfinder to release final edition and also eyeing Solasta.

Gloomhaven is my favourite RPG this year. 300 hours since release, awesome game.

Daniel.

Originally Posted by Redglyph
I keep hearing good things about Wildermyth, but the look and the combat really don't appeal to me I know it's very superficial and there's more to a game; perhaps I'll give it a try at some point, it seems worth it.

There's nothing wrong with feeling off-put by art style imo. I didn't like Wildermyth graphics at first either but after playing the game, I can understand why they chose that style. While I wouldn't say I like Wildermyth graphics, it grew on me enough to not bother me.

To be more specific, I'm meh with human drawing but animals are darn cute in Wildermyth

Originally Posted by purpleblob1
There's nothing wrong with feeling off-put by art style imo. I didn't like Wildermyth graphics at first either but after playing the game, I can understand why they chose that style. While I wouldn't say I like Wildermyth graphics, it grew on me enough to not bother me.

To be more specific, I'm meh with human drawing but animals are darn cute in Wildermyth

I seem to remember someone or an article saying characters were ageing, is this what we see between your two screenshots? Ela seems older on the right. Maybe it's just in my imagination.

Originally Posted by Redglyph
I seem to remember someone or an article saying characters were ageing, is this what we see between your two screenshots? Ela seems older on the right. Maybe it's just in my imagination.

You are indeed correct - Ela is older in RHS screenshot she retired shortly after I took that screenie.

Originally Posted by purpleblob1
You are indeed correct - Ela is older in RHS screenshot she retired shortly after I took that screenie.

That must be a weird feeling to see one's characters go away.

Originally Posted by Redglyph
I keep hearing good things about Wildermyth, but the look and the combat really don't appeal to me I know it's very superficial and there's more to a game; perhaps I'll give it a try at some point, it seems worth it.

You're not alone. I've watched some footage of Wildermyth, and there's just no way I could play that regardless of how good the gameplay might be.

Originally Posted by Redglyph
I keep hearing good things about Wildermyth, but the look and the combat really don't appeal to me I know it's very superficial and there's more to a game; perhaps I'll give it a try at some point, it seems worth it.


Those are all good names to me Isn't Wrath of the Righteous ripe now? Last time I played, not long ago, I didn't see any of the issues I had before, but I can't tell for the late chapters, mount-related and other tricky features.

I'm wondering when Encased will get its 3rd patch, it should be about now. That's when it would be worth playing it for the first time for those who waited, IMO. The one after is about balancing, that would grant a 2nd run.

Well, WotR is a huge game so I expect that lots of bugs remain and need to be squashed. Even if gamebreaking bugs are rare, I'd prefer to wait. I played Kingmaker quite awhile after release (once the TB mode was officially supported) and had no major issues (aside from me losing interest with the last chapter and being disappointed I missed the "secret" ending). Besides WotR seems to be a million classes + the mythic paths, and I still need to figure out what build to play.

I just saw GOG has Encased for 34% off so I'll probably buy it today. I regretted passing on the Kickstarter, but this sale is actually cheaper than the lowest digital copy tier was. Most of the reviews I've read say the game starts out very strong, but the late game feels relatively rushed and empty. Don't know if the patches will address this. But overall it actually sounds like the Fallout successor I've been waiting for, for 20 years.

Great list, but yet another publication that found it acceptable to ignore Solasta. Having a decent game that can claim 1st to provide 5ed D&D should be enough by itself to make the game excitably noteworthy.

Especially if you're also going to be using up space to mention loads of remakes.

Originally Posted by daveyd
I just saw GOG has Encased for 34% off so I'll probably buy it today. I regretted passing on the Kickstarter, but this sale is actually cheaper than the lowest digital copy tier was. Most of the reviews I've read say the game starts out very strong, but the late game feels relatively rushed and empty. Don't know if the patches will address this. But overall it actually sounds like the Fallout successor I've been waiting for, for 20 years.

The incoming patch #3 will add content (and hopefully reduce the content gap between the first and second half of the game). Patch #4 will balance the combat, which becomes quite easy after a few levels. At least that was the plan.

I haven't played Fallout 2, but many are nostalgic about it and I've read a few people saying Encased was not a successor, but rather something in the same vibe. It's always hard to be a successor in nostalgia-land, so don't let too great expectations ruin the game for you.

EDIT: #3 won't happen until mid-January apparently (tweet) - I'll put that in the news for everyone.