There Would've Been a Top 10 Games List for 2021, but I Let it Woosh By...

My Game of the Year for 2021, plus an example of one of my better action screenshots. —Captured on Switch (Handheld Mode)

Note: There's early spoilers for Eastward in this post. This is a game I recommend playing blind if you're into a top-down, Zelda-like experience for the story alone. 

So last year, I had this idea of doing a personal top ten for my favorite new Switch games for 2021. Some of my own rules included that I couldn't places games on there that were already released on different platforms, meaning that Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne and Disco Elysium: The Final Cut would be honorable mentions. 

Here's what the top five would have been...

1. Eastward
2. Metroid Dread
3. Shin Megami Tensei V
4. Axiom Verge 2
5. Cotton Reboot!  

There's a nice combination of well-known franchises—one unexpected comeback and another with four years in the making—a full-on remake of a classic title, a sequel to an well-received indie title, and another indie game that blew me away.

Developed by the team at PixPil, Eastward was one of the options in my first poll to decide which game I'd review for the blog. It was a game that started gently, in which Potcrock Isle's resident miner, John, and his adopted daughter, Sam, lived an almost quiet life in an underground enclave. Fellow residents feared what wonders existed on the surface with an air of conspiracy, and would openly shun those associated with anyone who dared to set foot on the forbidden soil (whether by choice or not). Even worse, in John and Sam's case, wandering around an abandoned grocery store which coincidentally leads there is a one-way ticket on Charon.

Yes, Charon, but also not exactly. John and Sam are merely exiled into the rest of the world which has managed to make a niche for itself with boats substituting as dwellings and an entire city sitting on the side of a dam. The game's art direction does the game's world justice in a way that my brief descriptions never could—reminding me of both the old Mario & Luigi role-playing games alongside the Secret of Mana—and Joel Corelitz's soundtrack adds just enough spice (and 80's-sounding synths) to make that eastbound journey worthwhile.       

For me, Eastward, was a game that felt very character driven with John and Sam at the helm. Even the world-building integrated itself around the conceit. Having the entire setting almost play second-fiddle works in this game's favor, and I don't think that I can say that of many games. Not to my knowledge anyway. 

Part-Roguelike, Part-RPG, and slightly more significant than this screenshot leads on —Captured on Switch (Handheld Mode)  

What made this even better was one motif: Earthborn. A game that you could play in-between tasks. A in-game television show, which seemed to be the only thing on air anywhere—even on Potcrock Isle. A cultural phenomenon that is highly revered by the characters who grace Eastward, both major and minor.

It gave the game an extra layer of literary depth and without saying too much, they make it work spectacularly!

That, and it helped make Eastward into an ambitious package that managed to make everything work in an almost-perfect state of synchronicity.

Too early of a screenshot to be used in the review proper, but it works as a transition...sort of. —Captured on Switch (Handheld Mode) 

Enough rambling about Eastward though...

The idea ended up being forgotten, but in hindsight, I'm glad that it actually didn't come to fruition. Replaying through both Axiom Verge 2 and Shin Megami Tensei V (a little after I reviewed it) made me think that their placement on that list was wrong.

I feel like it could be explained better like this: I ranked Metroid Dread below Eastward because, while Dread was an action-packed tour-de-force, it was mostly familiar territory. In this case it's far from a bad thing because of the fact that the game felt exhilarating. That feeling helped in preserving the nostalgia I had for the series while giving it a newfound respect for the work put in by the developers.  

It of course helps that Dread had a solid story to reinforce the gameplay elements, but the same cannot be said of Shin Megami Tensei V. I noted that the game's allegorical story was very weak in the review, since it seemed to favor one side over the other. The battles, and the pseudo open-world gameplay held the game together, but on a new game where you can keep all of your old demons, the whole thing does not hold up the second time around. 

Axiom Verge 2 does, and I'll let the eventual review explain itself and why I now want to place it in my top three for 2021. 

Until then, I have two words: third playthrough.