As I wrote in my blog post last month, I created a new YouTube channel earlier in the year which has been quite fulfilling for me, but it has also taken up a considerable amount of my time and left me with much less time for gaming than in previous years. However, I think I still managed to carve out a nice beaten games list this year that is just shy of 90 titles. As usual, I try to mix my gaming up with a wide variety of titles from different consoles, genres, and generations, and this year was no exception.



Latest and Greatest

Thanks to services like Game Pass and some lingering discounted pre-orders I had from my old Best Buy GCU subscription, I was able to play many of the new releases for the year. Some of the standout highlights include Ori and the Will of the Wisps, The Last of Us Part II, and Paper Mario: The Origami King. I also played some highly anticipated high profile releases such as Resident Evil 3, Doom Eternal, and Final Fantasy VII Remake, and, while I did enjoy these games, I came away with mixed feelings overall. Persona 5 Royal was a great way to revisit one of my all-time favorite games via an expanded and updated edition that really brings a whole lot more to the original game (maybe even too much!), and of course I got my annual trip to Kamurocho via Yakuza: Like a Dragon, the latest and experimental entry in Sega's series that is a serious contender for my GOTY.

Top 20 Lists

The Top 20 lists that have been curated by site member EZ Racer have been a great excuse to dedicate some time to certain systems. Whether it was playing some backlog titles for the first time or revisiting games that I haven't played in many years, this proved to be a good way to expand my knowledge of each system's respective library. For the SNES, I was finally able to get to some long-awaited backlog titles such as ActRaiser, Soul Blazer, Ys III, Lufia II, and Demon's Crest, all of which I really enjoyed. The only Genesis title I got around to playing for the first time was Phantasy Star IV which I also enjoyed and has been on my backlog since playing the first Phantasy Star years ago. For the PS1, I mostly revisited games that I played some 20 years ago when they were new such as Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy IX, and Final Fantasy Tactics, but I was also able to play through Suikoden II for the first time.


Community Playthroughs

My old friends at the RFG PlayCast were at it again this year with choosing games that I couldn't resist playing. Although I dropped the ball on a few playthroughs and didn't finish the games, BioShock 2 was a particular highlight that I really enjoyed and couldn't put down. Fatal Frame II was also a big backlog game for me that I've wanted to play for years. Over at the Cartridge Club, I had the opportunity to revisit an old favorite with Parasite Eve and was also exposed to a new favorite in Bloodborne which has rapidly become one of my favorite games in recent years. They also gave me an excuse to finally play CD Project Red's highly acclaimed RPG The Witcher III which I really enjoyed.

Odds and Ends

As far as random picks from the 'ol backlog, early in the year I played the golf-sim/RPG hybrid known as Golf Story which was a really pleasant experience. I also got the chance to delve even further into the Dragon Quest series with the DS remake of Dragon Quest IV which I was lukewarm on to be honest, but I'm glad to have played it. I also rounded out the GBA/DS Castlevania titles with Harmony of Dissonance, Dawn of Sorrow, and Portrait of Ruin (the latter of which I'm still working on), and finishing these titles has been a longstanding goal of mine for quite some time. Timespinner and Costume Quest 2 were a couple of random picks but were titles that I enjoyed even more than I thought I would.

Heading into the new year

While I still played quite a lot of games this year, the time spent on music for my channel has definitely put a dent in my gaming time as of late. I even had some new releases on hand such as Trials of Mana, Ghost of Tsushima, and Cyberpunk 2077 that are unfortunately going to spill into the backlog due to lack of time. That being said, this has also left me with much less time to write as well, so many of my blog posts going forward will likely be mostly content from my channel. I hope you guys enjoy the change-up in content!

See you guys in 2021!

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