Top 10 Best Games of 2021 - ProJared 

You have to play SMT V it’s great and I can’t wait for your ff12 video!

Please review Xenoblade please and thank you

You make great content ! Thank you for all the smiles you brought to me in 2021 !

You completed 12? …you know what that means right jared? Go rip 13 apart like it deserves!!!!

Hope you're doing well Jared. Happy new year big dawg

I preordered that shit the day it was announced

I bought a whole switch just to get this game. Worth every dollar.

I bought it the moment it was released

This feels both like a r/thathappened moment and a genuine moment at the same time.

@@joshrivet4011 yeah it does. Ha, never noticed that.

Gotta agree with that one, I look forward to these pretty much every year

There's no such thing, it all depends on your own personal preference, just like the subject of the video itself.

Final Fantasy XIV? Meh

@@redheat465 think he meant projareds lists

nah, lots of good stuff missing here.... SMTV, Pathfinder wrath of Righteous, Deaths door, Trials of Fire to name a few. Still, better than quite a lot of other lists I've seen.

Dunkey reference?

@@cangrejopendejo4909 No clue, but I remember the general sentiment being said about Half Life 2 back in the day as well.

Yeah, and then there's that one nerd who couldn't even find the most basic of intended progression paths and insulted the whole game as a result. Like, seriously, less than fifteen minutes into the game.

@@hauntedshadowslegacy2826 Name that nerd!!!

@@SkelvinKnight I think it was that guy who worked on God of War. He apparently got stuck because the game didn't have an arrow that said "shoot here". He said it was bad game design.

Not going to lie the only reason I've been looking at the Switch is because the games on it, I don't do consoles anymore because everything else is either available on my computer and plays better there or is just not interesting. Nintendo really nailed it with this generation console though. Wii was kind of lackluster to me release wise but still fun and had some good games. Switch? That thing has nothing but bangers!

I feel similarly. Even beyond '21, I think some of the best games of all time have come out in the last few years. Stuff like Doom/Doom Eternal, Monster Hunter World, Dragon Quest XI, Hollow Knight--and those are just the ones in my own wheelhouse.

@@dragoneye6229 Well the Switch cheats since it have everything great on it... even many of the titles i played when i was a kid. I think i never had as fun playing games like when mom got sick earlier in the pandemic. Since she didn't have much energy she was laying in bed with the portable remote, while i used the TV... then we played trough all the old Mario games(She used to play such games with me when i was in grade school). Switch is more family fun then other consoles, even the old Wii and Wii-U targeted that demographic, but these days they got some really great singleplayer games aswell something both Wii and Wii-U lacked in my opinion... Which honestly makes my PS5 feel, well... lame in comparison. We also played trough cuphead and she actually finnished Zelda Breath of the wild. So yeah... she played alot of games those two weeks she wasn't really moving around alot.

There's only one major issue I have with Dread- WHY IS THERE NO RIDLEY X(?!?!?!

I loved dread. Put over 40 hours in over three playthroughs. 100% completion and all the speedrunning challenges too :)

Same I've only played Shin Megami Tensei V

Not a very brave pick, huh?

You absolute mad lad.

Same, but with Ys 9 Monstrum Nox

Ha

Arise is a great game! But i kinda wished they step up their story a bit

I liked it but it felt too dialogue heavy, especially in part 2

They killed all the humour in Tales of Arise though. It doesn't feel like a Tales game. Tales games always had great doses of humour, and now the game is all srrrsssss

Well the last tales game was pretty bad. Tales of berseria

Sorry i don't agree on the "Tales just getting better and better" Xillia2,Zesteria and in an extent Berseria were really underwhelming/bad. I do have hopes for Arise.

Me too! Happy New year

@@bernardoheusi6146 You too, man. I didn't know I was gonna get a lot of thumbs up. Typicall, when I comment under a ProJared video, I don't get any thumbs downs. Weird.

We all know he's gonna start by saying: "Every single game this year SUCKED!"

I know... We got the sweet out of the way. Now, it is time for the salt!!

Wouldn't be surprised if Jared's #1 for that list is "...Blizzard. As in, the whole company". He's done it before for Konami. EDIT: Surprised it wasn't any of the top 3 on the list after all (should've swapped places with Balan Wonderworld at least IMO), but totally called it.

SMT V gameplay is fantastic. Really wish RU-vidr wasn't sleeping on it :) But it's understandable since it came out this late.

and Loop Hero

Deathloop was pretty meh for me, but the other 2 are tired for my GOTY

I had the same feeling. This year just went by so flippin' fast that everything that happened just feels like it was 2 or 3 years ago.

BD2 is pretty good, but Bravely Second is still better in literally every aspect. Better story, better overall cast, better job system, better gameplay, better plot twists, much more bonus content, etc. Seth is one of the most boring protagonists of all time and we STILL know nothing about his backstory. Gloria isn't much better and is just "generic princess who wants to save her ruined kingdom." Gloria is just 10x less interesting Ashe from FFXII and that game isn't really known for having that great of a main story or cast to begin with. (though the world building, level design, and gameplay is the best in the series IMO) At least Elvis and Adelle are amazing, but the story mainly doesn't focus on them and everything past Chapter 3 in BD2 feels extremely rushed unlike BS which was paced perfectly. Yew is also the best written character in the series with a very well written backstory, good motivations, and an excellent character arc. The romance also feels perfectly natural and not forced like in BD2. Also BD2 has basically no side content while BS has 3 bonus post game dungeons all with superbosses, the Baals, the Super Baals, AND the Nemesis. BD2 didn't even have a single major 4th wall breaking moment outside of the "deleting the main villains save file" thing near the end compared to BD1 and BD2 which went crazy with the plot twists and 4th wall breaks which both subtitles having hidden meanings and at the end of BS the final boss directly addresses the player and his ultimate attack is attempting to delete your save file and it's a crazy mind screw about the nature of free will and it's SO GOOD. Meanwhile all the final boss of BD2 does is make the screen go all grainy and visually rips off Anima from FFX. (they literally have the same design) Also BD2 is filled with plotholes and unanswered questions while BS had no plotholes and only one unanswered question about the purpose of the Sword of the Brave and the three keys. Also BS has a far superior OST IMO since it reuses the majority of the best tracks of BD1 and adds in some bangers along with them. I firmly believe Battle of Providence is the best final boss theme of all time (Serpent Eating at the Ground, The One they Call the Witch/Daughter of the Dark God, and The Nexus Gazes into Darkness being #2, #3, and #4 respectively, and they're all made by the same guys)

@@krimsonkatt agreed.

@@krimsonkatt false

Jared's is the only list I've seen it on. And I'm glad it's getting some recognition

I've heard quite a few youtubers praise it. I played a lot of the big jrpgs in 2021 but didn't really like any of them. I'm keen to check out bravely default 2 though.

I liked it overall but the story wasn't great and it got really grindy towards the end.

The more minimal story is kind of what makes the game great. The game gives you a little more agency because of the looser narrative. Persona's more linear, more character focused. And that's fine, they're great too. Megaten's more about your story. Too weak for the challenges ahead? That's okay. Take your time and get stronger, the plot will wait for you.

I think my problem wasn't the minimalist approach, but the lack of build up IN that minimalist approach.

Nocturne did a minimalist approach so much better though... So i kinda just treat SMT V as having a bad story. At least the gameplay wasn't bad, but it wasn't as good as 4A, so all in all, i kinda just found the game to be rough... Still in my top 5 this year though.

If you plan on checking out Inscryption I'd recommend the first two entries of the series, Pony Island, and The Hex. The card game elements are just a tool to move the plot of the series forward.

@@annabunni64 Wait, it's by the Pony Island developers? That's awesome! I had no idea...

@@KingVasuki Yeah! A lot of people don't know that since the third game got so much more popular. But it continues the storyline of the second game "The Hex" and you kinda need that context for the third game or it won't make a whole lot of sense after the card game facade breaks down.

It's announcement almost made me cry of joy

It kinda bombed writing and story wise, which if anyone tells you story and writing haven't ever been a big part of SMT, they need to get their head out of their ass.

@@Pie_The_Man But it's kind of true, even going back to Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei. Most of the stories in SMT are very simplistic

@@Pie_The_Man i agree. SMT V really did drop the ball when it came to writing, but the gameplay was honestly so good i hardly cared.

@@Zance21 Difference between story and writing being minimalistic, and being shit. Nocturne was minimalistic, but Nocturne is a piece of art that had a clear concise direction, with an impactful story with well thought out themes and purpose behind every scene. V feels like it's trying to be Nocturne but only understanding the surface level traits, and ending up feeling like a soulless rehash.

@@Pie_The_Man But it's literally true, every numbered SMT game besides IV doesn't focus on those things.

IDK SMT has never had a ton of cutscenes like it's cousin Persona. Also I feel like you went neutral.

I’m with Yahtzee on SMT, when told to play a “real” SMT game I just hear “play this game that has everything you liked about Persona removed, it’s a REAL game”

@@kingcaesar3693 just because the games never had many cutscenes doesn’t mean they had bad stories. Smt 5 writing/narrative just sucks ass especially compared to smt 4, it’s like they didn’t improve from smt4:A at all.

@@pillarsofsnow7940 Persona has really bad gameplay, except 5 which is alright but also the easiest of the series, but it has a good story. SMT has a flawed story in basically all of the games, but it's gameplay is fantastic.

@@cvetomirgeorgiev9106 I don’t really care for rpgs when it comes to gameplay, 9 times out of 10 I only really care for the story and play on lowest difficulty

Its excellent, but Idk if console port would be as good. The base game is easily an 8/10, but its built for modding, and the mods easily take it to a 10/10. Hopefully the devs include at least the most popular mods.

Do you mean of new game reviews? Or the "ProJared" videos like the Final Fantasy videos and Spiderman/Xmen?

@@projared I think he means regular reviews like games like Metroid Dread.The only game you reviewed this year was Bravely Default 2.

To me, the One Minute Review is still the best.

I bought Wildermyth last weekend, and I'm kinda addicted to it. I'm already partially through the third campaign. Thanks so much for the recommendation!

I love twewy, obe of the best games ever. The sequel is very flawed though. On PC it is Epic games store exclusive, which i can't support.

@@Last_Resort991 I agree that it being EGS exclusive on PC is pretty shit, but other than that I actually cannot possibly comprehend how you think the sequel is flawed.

Neo is the only new release I played this year (not counting Great Ace Attorney Chronicles), and I'm kind of shocked it wasn't on this list

@@KashKey- Are you that bad in reading comprehension? You just stated, in your first sentence, my reasoning why it is flawed.

@@Last_Resort991 ... Bro, seriously? That's your only reason? Dude, just get it on another platform or wait until it comes to Steam. Square is clearly planning on pushing any port they have on EGS the moment the exclusivity contract runs out of time.

For me, XIV's plot has always been woefully poorly written to the point that I'm shocked whenever anyone says it resonated with them, and this is coming from someone who's beaten everything up to the end of SHB. Uninteresting plot, undeveloped characters, 9 million fetch quests, it just pales in comparison to any actual single player JRPG story.

@@Jordan3DS Alright, I'm going to begin this by saying everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I do feel a need to point out some very strange takes that make this come off as a woefully bad take. "Uninteresting plot", the overall msq plot has been heavily praised by new and old fans as one of the best of the series. "Underdeveloped charecter", by what standards. Each of the main cast has gotten more personal time and development then a large portion of the last 5 ff games."9 million fetch quest", a majority fetch quest were in ARR. Past that, many were cut into side quest. When you have 100+ quest in one expansion msq, 10 of them being "fetch" is not 9 million. To be blunt, your entire take reaks of the weird, hipster esq attitude that comes with the jrpg crowed whenever something gets attention that's not a 1500 hr plot that requires 900 of those hrs being mob grinding for exp and items. You don't have to like the game, the gameplay, ect. But to call it awful and "incomparable to old jrpgs" when a huge portion of old and new players of jrpgs, RPGs, and MMOs in general praise it so highly, makes you come off as a closed mind fool who has a personal grudge rather then someone actually trying to put forth a good will argument on the flaws of the game. If you can't offer honest, constructive criticism, then your opinion is basically as useless as a dragoon who doesn't know how to jump.

@@Jordan3DS found the WoW player

@@Jordan3DS cope more copium andy

@@MisterFister612 I played WOW when I was a kid and played XIV more recently, and I like XIV more. You need to learn that just because someone criticizes something, that doesn't mean you should just write their criticism off as "well they dislike it out of unfairness, not for legitimate reasons, so I don't have to actually think about what they're saying".