Mega/dal's Aoty & Goty 2021

Okay fine I'll do it again. But only because I feel like doing it again honestly.

Remember that thread I did last year with lists for my personal AOTY (Anime of the Year) and GOTY (Game of the Year) and Special Awards for each lists? Well... this is that. Again. Except for this year. Obviously.

Anyway I'm not ranting this time. Here are the animes I watched and the games I played this year...

Animes:

Attack on Titan: The Final Season, Part 1 (Toonami)
SSSS.Gridman (Toonami)
Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt (Funimation)
BNA (Brand New Animal) (Netflix)
Little Witch Academia (Netflix)
The Promised Neverland S2 (Toonami)
Death Parade (Funimation)
Fairy Tail (finally completed it; Funimation)
Wonder Egg Priority (Funimation Simuldub)
My Hero Academia S5 (Toonami)
Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle (Funimation Simuldub)
Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song (Funimation Simuldub)
Shaman King (2021) (Netflix; ongoing)
Eden's Zero (Netflix; ongoing)
The World Ends With You: The Animation (Funimation Simuldub; ongoing)
Yashahime: Princess Half Demon S1 & S2 (Funimation Simuldub; S2 ongoing)
Shadows House (Funimation Simuldub)
Ranking of Kings (Funimation Simuldub; ongoing)
Naruto Shippuden (Toonami; ongoing)
Pokemon Journeys & Master Journeys (Netflix/'other' methods; ongoing)

Video Games:

World of Final Fantasy (PS4)
Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Remastered (PS4)
Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom (PS4)
Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition (PS4)
The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit & Life is Strange 2 (PS4)
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX (Switch)
Nier Automata (PS4)
Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition (Switch)
Final Fantasy 7 Remake (Part 1) (PS5)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel (PS4)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II (PS4)
Akiba's Beat (PS4)
Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition (Switch; ongoing)
Pokemon Unite (Switch; dropped)

See you on Monday for Special Awards first. Maybe Sunday if I feel like it.

Also... feel free to post your own lists for AOTY and GOTY if you feel like it

 

Let it begin. First up... Anime of the Year Special Awards.

Anime of the Year 2021​

Special Awards
​

Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle wins Funniest Anime of the Year. (https://myanimelist.net/anime/40397/Maoujou_de_Oyasumi). I heard a lot about this anime. So I wasn't sure what to expect going into this one. But boy am I glad that I heard about it and watched it. This anime is freaking hilarious. Legitimately. It is. There were actual times when I was laughing out loud watching it. It's the 'Princess gets kidnapped and is the damsel in distress' trope but then the Princess pulls out and uses the Uno Reverse Card basically. Queue hilarity, crazy antics and just shenanigans in general. Probably the funniest anime I've watched in a long time. I hope it gets more seasons honestly. It deserves it. Do I recommend it? Yep. Go watch it and have yourself a laugh.

Ranking of Kings wins Best Ongoing Simuldub. (https://myanimelist.net/anime/40834/Ousama_Ranking). Another one I heard a lot about. GOOD. GOD. I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO START WITH THIS ANIME. You wouldn't think an anime like this with it's animation style and it's cutesy look WOULD PRODUCE SOMETHING THIS DAMN GOOD. But boy does it ever do that. And more. It only takes 2 episodes to produce AMAZING episodes. Really one episode honestly. It's about a prince who is deaf/hard of hearing and can't speak trying to become the next King in his kingdom. So that disability makes you cheer for him more. He meets a shadow monster that eventually becomes his friend and helps him out. But this is honestly a very bad and bare minimum description. GO WATCH THIS ANIME. RIGHT NOW. YOU WON'T REGRET IT. I PROMISE. The anime style is very 'Ni No Kuni' like as well which I also like about it. I look forward to watching this anime every week. That's how good this one is. If it wasn't still ongoing... it may have made it into my final list. Yep. Just that good. Do I recommend it? HELL YES. GO WATCH IT. RIGHT NOW.

Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song wins Simuldub of the Year. (https://myanimelist.net/anime/46095/Vivy__Fluorite_Eyes_Song). A lot of stuff I kept hearing too much about keeps showing up. It happens again here. Most recommendations turn out well. It's only on the random weird occasions when they don't. But not the case here. I don't know where to start with this one either. Do you know the movie franchise Terminator? It's kind of like that. Except in reverse. So Reverse Terminator basically. Sort of. I'm not good at descriptions okay? Basically... a songstress AI/robot gets visited by a robot from the future warning her about a robot uprising/war/murder spree and the songtress is forced to become a badass to stop it. But honestly I feel like that's not really a good description either. The hits just kept coming with this anime and they didn't stop. I'll admit it does take a couple of episodes to get good... but it is worth it for the most part and once it gets good it stays good until the end. This wouldn't have won if Ranking of Kings had completed though that's for sure lol. But that one is still ongoing. So this was probably the best simuldubbed anime I watched this year. Do I recommend it? Yes but if your not a sci-fi fan it might turn you off. So just keep that in mind. I mean I wouldn't really consider myself a sci-fi fan either but I still really enjoyed it and it won this Special Award. So take that however you want and decide for yourself if you try it out or not.

Eden's Zero wins Best Netflix Anime and Best Ongoing Anime. (https://myanimelist.net/anime/42192/Edens_Zero). Yep. This anime is so good... I gave it two special awards. If it wasn't for the fact that I haven't finished it yet and it was still ongoing (for me at least) it probably would of ended up in my final list as well. This anime is from the same creator as Rave Master and Fairy Tail. I mean... what else is there to be said about that? OF COURSE it was going to be good as well. Hell... there are some people out there that are saying that this anime is actually BETTER than Fairy Tail. Their argument is there is actually an end goal and fights are won by strategy instead of the 'power of friendship' trope. I mean... I don't agree with this opinion but that's a different topic for another day. It's still damn good though. It's good from episode 1 and doesn't stop. In fact... the exact opposite. It just gets better and better. I mean I'll admit I didn't watch a lot of Netflix animes this year (just 4 if you include the ones I haven't finished yet. Only 2 if you don't) but I'd definitely say this was the best one I watched on Netflix and still is the best one I've watched on Netflix yet. It's also really the best ongoing anime that I'm still in the middle of watching and haven't finished yet. This is once again another one I look forward to watching every week. Do I recommend it? Yes, but if your one of those people that hates 'power of friendship' stuff and hates Fairy Tail, Rave Master, etc. then it probably isn't for you.

That's it for the Special Awards. Not much to give out this year unfortunately. Tomorrow I'll be giving out/revealing the special awards for Game of the Year 2021.

 

Game of the Year 2021​

Special Awards
​

World of Final Fantasy (PS4) wins Easiest Game of the Year (https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/168651-world-of-final-fantasy). This game was really cute and really fun honestly. Also... it was definitely the easiest game I played this year. Which isn't a bad thing necessarily. Exact opposite as far as I'm concerned. Nothing in it was overly difficult and I didn't really struggle all that much. Sure there were a couple of annoying moments but even those I overcame relatively quickly. This game is pretty much Pokemon except with Final Fantasy monsters. So if you like Pokemon... you'll definitely like this game. The Final Fantasy character cameos made it even better. It was just an all-around fun and easy experience for me. So if you need a 'break game' this is definitely something you should consider. Story is pretty decent too. For what it is at least lol. Do I recommend it? Yes. If you like Pokemon or Digimon you'll like this game. Plus... it's Final Fantasy so that helps too. But if you don't like either than it obviously isn't for you.

Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition (Switch) wins Hardest Game of the Year (https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/switch/271518-ori-and-the-blind-forest-definitive-edition). Exact opposite of the above pretty much. Don't get me wrong though. It's not that I hated it. The art style is cutesy and the game is sad and overall decent. It was just way too hard for me. I ended up being FORCED to switch it to Easy. I had to do things several times and do several attempts just to complete certain sections. Kind of like when I was playing Crash N. Sane Trilogy. I had to just be persistent and keep trying until I won. Which I did. Eventually. It just got frustrating very quickly and very annoying with it's difficulty. Short game though. So I suppose overall it didn't really matter too much. This was my replacement game for Hollow Knight. Which I dropped before even playing it. Considering I struggled this much with this game... I clearly made the right decision when it comes to Hollow Knight. There's no chance in hell I would have completed Hollow Knight. But at least I completed this game. To my liking at least. Do I recommend it? Um... sure. Just be warned that it's hard.

Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom (PS4) wins Funnest Game of the Year (https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/184021-ni-no-kuni-ii-revenant-kingdom). In other words... this is the game I had the most fun playing. Everything about this game was just great, AMAZING and just outright fun. The complaints about the drastic changes from the first game are completely unwarranted in my opinion. In fact... I think it's the exact opposite. This game worked better as an action RPG than the situation in the last game. Yes I struggled at times, as always, but I was have so much fun with this game I pretty much didn't care. I actually looked forward to playing this game when I was playing it at the time and there was never a single time or occasion when I didn't have fun playing it. Even the slightly boring army RTS mini-game didn't stop me from having fun because once I got back to regular gameplay I forgot everything that just happened with the army RTS. It was just extremely fun. Do I recommend it? Definitely. Story is great, gameplay is great, everything about it is great honestly.

Akiba's Beat (PS4) wins Underrated Game of the Year (https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/190967-akibas-beat). In other words... this is a game that I played that I feel is extremely underrated. It was just so god damn good. It's basically an anime in the form of a video game and that just made it even better too. That's not all either. This game is so self aware of itself that there are legitimately funny moments and fourth wall breaks that make it hilarious. Lots of anime culture references and just anime stuff in general. Mostly because it takes place in Akihabara in Japan (Akiba for short as this game calls it). So it made sense. But it's just freaking great. It really is. I fail to understand why the reviews for this are so bad. They are all wrong. Each and every one of them. More people need to play this game. Seriously. It's just great. I don't understand why this game is so mixed. Really. I don't. Go play this game. Seriously. You won't regret it I promise. Plus... it's an overall easy game too. I didn't struggle at all in this game. It also works as a sort of 'break game.' It's just great and I wish it got more love than it does now or did in the past. Do I recommend it? HELL YES. Please go play this. Please?

That's it for Special Awards. So it's time for full reveals I guess. Which will begin tomorrow. With my personal list for Anime of the Year 2021. Top 3 with an Overall Special Mention (de-facto #4 really)

 

Oh... it's time for final lists already? I... see...

Well... okay

Anime of the Year 2021​

Overall Special Mention: Death Parade (https://myanimelist.net/anime/28223/Death_Parade). Boy... this anime was... unique. Even putting it that way is a very underwhelming explanation or description. But it was really good. It really was. It makes you question morals and stuff like that. Well... the morals of choosing who gets reincarnated and who gets sent to the void I guess and if these 'Death Angels' basically even have the right to decide that. The games to reveal the visitors true selves were really interesting at times and there were some pretty shocking twists and moments at other times. I enjoyed each and every episode though and it was just an overall great experience and just a great anime in general. You don't get a lot of 'original' animes that are good but this is definitely one of them. Do I recommended it? Yes. Yes I do.

#3. Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song (https://myanimelist.net/anime/46095/Vivy__Fluorite_Eyes_Song). I pretty much already talked about this in my special awards. But just to recap... this was probably the best simuldub I watched all year. Hands down. So not only does it get a special award... it's gets a placement in my final list. This anime is just lucky that Ranking of Kings is still ongoing I suppose lol. Regardless I don't consider myself a sci-fi fan... but this anime was just so good that it didn't even matter if I was a sci-fi fan or not. Each episode just got better and better and a character (android) that's just suppose to make people enjoy themselves, have a good time, and smile by singing ends up becoming a fighting badass to stop an android rebellion/rampage/murder spree. It's just really good. It really is. It's hard to really give this anime justice. It's best experienced by just watching it yourself honestly. I can't really do this anime justice as much as I honestly want to. Because I'm not good at that sort of thing that's why. But trust me... it's a really good sci-fi anime and just a really good anime in general. Do I recommend it? Like I said before... Yes. You really should watch this one.

Anime of the Year 2021 Runner-Up (#2). Fairy Tail (https://myanimelist.net/anime/6702/Fairy_Tail ;https://myanimelist.net/anime/22043/Fairy_Tail_2014 and https://myanimelist.net/anime/35972/Fairy_Tail__Final_Series) I'm going to get some rage for this lol. But I honestly don't care. This anime was just WAY to good to not be in my final list this year. I mean yes, technically I started watching it last year but I didn't actually finish it until this year. So it still counts. I fail to understand why it took me so long to actually watch this gem. I really do. It makes me wish I had started watching it sooner honestly lol. Each and every arc is better than the last or it, at minimum, improves more and more. The best arcs are definitely the Grand Magic Games arc, the Tartarus arc and pretty much the entirety of Final Season. It's a long series obviously. So it takes commitment to watch all of it and there are filler episodes so be forewarned and aware of that. But I didn't mind most of the filler honestly. The only 'meh' part is probably Eclipse Celestial Spirit Arc and that's technically a filler arc. I'm not going to hold a filler arc against this anime. Because everything else in it and about it was too good to do something scummy like that (despite the fact that I'm sure others would). I just loved this anime SO MUCH and just enjoyed EVERY SINGLE MOMENT in it that I just couldn't live with myself if I kept it off my final list. So I didn't. It would have outright won too. If not... for... one thing. Regardless... it's not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. Try it out for yourself and decide for yourself. That's what I did. Look what the result is. Do I recommend it? OF COURSE I DO.

Anime of the Year 2021 (#1)​

Attack on Titan: The Final Season (Part 1) (https://myanimelist.net/anime/40028/Shingeki_no_Kyojin__The_Final_Season)

Wow. Where do I even begin with this GOD DAMN AMAZING ANIME. Normally I try to avoid giving awards to a different 'season' for an anime that's been going on for awhile now technically. Clearly doing that was wrong. Also... THERE WASN'T A SINGLE ANIME THAT CAME CLOSE TO HOW AMAZING THIS ONE WAS. I originally watched this anime near the beginning of the year on Toonami. Yeah. The beginning of the year. You would think I'd be able to find something that could have knocked it out. lolnope. Every episode is OUTSTANDING AND AMAZING and keeps you wanting more and wanting to watch the next episode IMMEDIATELY. The story, although confusing for me at first, is still really damn good but also really damn confusing but I can't hate it for that because it JUST MAKES ME WANT MORE SO I CAN UNDERSTAND WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON ALREADY AND WHY ALL THIS IS EVEN HAPPENING. lol. Why is Eren a jerkass now all of a sudden anyway? WHO KNOWS. GUESS WE WAIT FOR PART 2 FOR THAT ANSWER. But yeah... this anime was just too good, too amazing and just kept me watching and wanting more. So there was really no choice here. Trust me. I TRIED. I REALLY DID. I TRIED SO HARD TO FIND SOMETHING TO BEAT IT. But... it just didn't happen. Unfortunate. But I'd say... well deserved. I honestly can't wait for Part 2 which should air on Toonami sometime next month english dubbed. Will this happen again with Part 2? I... don't know honestly. Let's hope not. But... I'm not ruling out that possibility either lol. Do I recommend it? You already know the answer to this. YES. GO WATCH IT RIGHT NOW. But you'll need to watch the other seasons first to understand what's going on obviously lol.

So... there you go. If you don't like my personal list... then put out your own personal list lol.

 

Guess it's that time... huh? Alright then...

Game of the Year 2021​

Overall Special Mention: Akiba's Beat (PS4) (https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/190967-akibas-beat). I already talked about this game during it's special award but it deserves to be talked about again honestly. It was just so god damn good and so god damn fun. As you can see... it won my underrated game of the year. Because it's exactly that. Extremely underrated. I still to this day fail and don't understand why it has such mediocre/bad reviews. I really don't. The game is just great. It's like an anime in video game form. Which just makes it even better in my opinion. That's not even all either. The game is so self aware of itself and what it is that there are lots of funny moments in the game that legitimately made me laugh out loud when these moments happened and as I played it. Like... there are a lot of fourth wall breaking moments as well as anime culture references and just anime stuff in general. It was just great and I enjoyed playing this game every moment I played it. The story is surprisingly good too. Especially once it gets to endgame. Some pretty shocking and unexpected twists that honestly made me sad. Which just made it even better. Easy game too. Which most will probably be turned off from but I, for one, managed to still enjoy everything this game had to offer despite it being Easy. So it didn't matter to me. At all. I really do need more games like this one. Seriously. I do. I wish more people would play this one and give it the love it deserves and deserved back when it came out. But it is what it is I suppose. Do I recommend it? Yes. Please go play this. Please? I swear you won't regret it...

#3. Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom (PS4) (https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/184021-ni-no-kuni-ii-revenant-kingdom). Again... I wish I knew where to start with this game too. I also already talked about this one for my special award of Funnest Game of the Year. But here's another recap sort of. The sequel to Wrath of the White Witch. Which was done utterly and completely differently. Which many might and were turned off by. It's no longer a Monster Catcher/Tamer. It's an ARPG (Action Role Playing Game) now. Similar to Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy XV sort of. Personally... I thought this game worked MUCH BETTER as an ARPG and thought the series worked MUCH BETTER this way in general. The anime cutscenes from the first game were gone, but the game looked so good and was so fun... I pretty much didn't care and didn't even notice. Yep. It was just THAT good. The game already looked anime-ish anyway so it was fine. The gameplay was EXTREMELY fun. There wasn't a single time when I wasn't having fun playing this game back when I was playing it. Not only that... I actually looked forward to playing it every time before I played it. Which just made it a better overall experience and just a great game in general. Story was pretty decent and really good too. Everything about this game was just great. I can't praise it more. I just hope that if there are more Ni No Kuni games... that they get localized and english dubbed for the west (due to Level 5's NA death). Well... we can only hope for the best I suppose. Do I recommend it? YES. IT'S SO FUN AND SO GOOD.

Game of the Year 2021 Runner-Up (#2). Final Fantasy 7 Remake (Part 1) (PS5) (PS4 version will be linked. I just upgraded to the PS5 version since it was free. https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/168653-final-fantasy-vii-remake). Wow. Just wow. This game. It got so close to winning my overall GOTY. It really did. It was extremely fun (at times) and extremely good as well. Re-experiencing FF7 is something that I never honestly expected to be this good or like this. Everything about it was just great and the retelling worked really well. There was just one problem. The one thing that made this game my personal runner-up instead of my overall GOTY. No it wasn't the ending. I didn't notice anything bad or so-called 'controversial' about the ending AT ALL. In fact... I thought the ending was actually pretty good and it makes me look forward to the future parts (whenever those come out lol). I'll admit the absolute final boss was... shocking. To say the least. But it made sense in context I guess. I even finished him off with a Limit Break from Cloud. Perfect way to end it if you ask me. Either way... the one thing that prevented this game from winning my overall GOTY... was it's difficulty. I struggled WAY too much with this game. More than I really should have if you ask me honestly. A couple of the boss fights too me way too many attempts to beat them. Some I would manage to beat on my 2nd or 3rd attempt. But a few took longer to that. Yeah... that's ridiculous. I was playing on Normal just so you know. I don't know if it would have made a difference or not if I had played on Easy or something. Maybe it would have. In fact it probably would have. But I don't like switching to Easy modes unless I'm struggling with the entire game as a whole. Not specific parts. I mean it goes without saying that I overcame them all eventually. But I just felt like I was struggling too much when I really shouldn't have been. So it just hindered my enjoyment of it and prevented this game from winning my overall GOTY. Although honestly... even if I hadn't of struggled as much as I did. I... honestly don't think the list would be any different. My winner... was just too good to not win. Either way... I still really enjoyed this game and I can't wait for more parts. Do I recommend it? Yes. Don't listen to the whiny baby complainers about the way the game ends. It's a great game that is definitely worth experiencing for yourself.

Game of the Year 2021 (#1)​

Nier Automata (PS4) (https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/252848-nier-automata-game-of-the-yorha-edition)

I can't give this game justice. As much as I really want to. I just can't. Why? BECAUSE EVERY. SINGLE. GOD DAMN. THING. IN THIS GAME. IS JUST. SO. GOD DAMN. GOOD. IT REALLY. FREAKING. IS. Story? AMAZING. Graphics? AMAZING. Characters? AMAZING. Gameplay? AMAZING. Music? AMAZING. You see? I'm just not good at this lol. Oh... I forgot to mention... I GOT THE PLATINUM FOR THIS GAME. LEGITIMATELY. WITHOUT BUYING A SINGLE ONE OF THE TROPHIES. (yes you can buy the trophies for this game at one point in the game lol. I didn't. I got them all legitimately. Even if it was a pain in the god damn ass. Which it was. But it was worth it. This game DESERVED me to put myself through some suffering with how GOD DAMN GOOD it was). Not only that... you have to practically replay the game. Multiple times. In order to get the 'Tru(E)' Ending. See what I did there? lol. But don't worry. It's not the same game. At least not when you get to the second and third playthrough. It's practically like a completely different game altogether. I'd explain further... but honestly... just experience it for yourself. It's just better that way. Besides, as you can see, I'm not good at explaining how good a game really is lol. This game was just too damn good. It really was. I wanted to keep playing it. I wanted to get the Platinum for it. I wanted to do everything in this game that I could (for the Platinum at least). This is the second year in the row where a game has won my personal Game of the Year where I'm just like 'HOW IN THE F DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS GAME EARLIER?! WHY DIDN'T I BUY THIS GAME EARLIER?! WHY DIDN'T I PLAY THIS GAME EARLIER?!' It happened last year with Final Fantasy Type-0 HD. It happens again this year with Nier Automata. It's just so damn good. Everyone needs to and should play this game. So go do that. Instead of reading this wall of text praising it. I just wish I had known about this game and played it earlier. Like Final Fantasy Type-0 HD. I'm hoping stuff like this will stop happening. But I always end up finding out about really good games late. That's just how I am I guess. Either way... well deserved honestly. Do I recommend it? COME ON THIS IS OBVIOUS. JUST GO PLAY THIS. RIGHT NOW.

Needless to say... I'm hyped to play Nier Replicant. Whenever that happens. I'm hoping next year but my backlog is still... bad. Which is quite the massive understatement. We'll see I guess.

So yeah. Take that however you want. See you all next year where Digimon Survive wins except it actually won't because even if it comes out next year I probably won't actually play it until 2023 lol

 

So... technically I'm done. But... there is still one thing to talk about. Well... two really. Which is, of course, things to look forward to next year in 2022. So that's how this thread will end. Basically... my 'Most Anticipated' of 2022 and then some Bold Predictions from me for 2022 on New Year's Eve.

Mega/DAL's Most Anticipated of 2022​

Most Anticipated Anime: Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Arc. (https://myanimelist.net/anime/41467/Bleach__Sennen_Kessen-hen). BLEACH IS BACK AND BETTER THAN EVER AND I CAN'T FREAKING WAIT. Admittedly... I don't know if it will be english dubbed within the next year (since I prefer to watch stuff english dubbed) but I'm hoping for the best. That's all I can do anyway. I thought it would take forever for Yashahime: Princess Half Demon to be english dubbed and it got simuldubbed on Funimation. Will the same happen to this new/final Bleach anime? Well... I'M SURE HOPING SO.

Honorable Mentions:
Attack on Titan: The Final Season, Part 2
My Hero Academia S6
Demon Slayer S2
Shadows House S2

Anime is hard to predict honestly so I'm sure there will be more once more are announced.

Most Anticipated Game: Digimon Survive (PS4) (https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/243878-digimon-survive) I SWEAR TO GOD. IF THIS DOESN'T COME OUT NEXT YEAR...... I WILL DO....... SOMETHING. The good news is... there are promising signs. Digimon Con was announced for around the end of February around the middle of this month and it said it would feature Digimon 'games' (PLURAL). Then... literally on Christmas Day (best Christmas ever?) a form where you could submit questions specifically mentioned Digimon Survive. They wouldn't do or even mention it if it wasn't going to be featured it some form or another. Personally... I'm hoping for an official release date. Time will tell I suppose. I'm keeping my hopes up and hoping for the best while expecting the worse. As always.

Honorable Mentions:
Final Fantasy XVI (PS5) (if the winner doesn't come out)
Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Switch) (if neither of the above come out)
Pokemon Legends Arceus (Switch)

Most Anticipated Game (That I'll Actually PLAY): Tales of Xillia games (PS3) or Nier Replicant (PS4) (depends on how much I'm able to play) (https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps3/616012-tales-of-xillia ; https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps3/672891-tales-of-xillia-2 ; https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/286768-nier-replicant-ver122474487139) It's hard to gauge how many games I'll actually be able to play. Especially when I seriously need to go back into the work force at this point and that's going to cut the amount of time I've had to play games for the last 2 years by more than half really. But out of all of the ones that intrigue me most in terms of what I'll actually play next year... it would have to be the Tales of Xillia games and Nier Replicant. If I'm even lucky enough to play Nier Replicant this year. But I'm definitely hyped to play it after Nier Automata took my personal GOTY for this year lol. I've heard a lot of good things about the Tales of Xillia games so I hope they don't disappoint (unlike Vesperia). I bought a lot of the older Tales of games so I'll be playing them all next year hopefully. But I'd say the Xillia games are the ones that I'm looking forward to playing the most.

Honorable Mentions:
Tales of the Abyss (3DS)
Persona 5 Strikers (PS4)
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Switch)
Gravity Rush games (PS4)
Tales of Symphonia/Tales of Symphonia Dawn of the New World replay (Chronicles version) (PS3)

So... yeah. Lots to look forward to next year.

Tomorrow... I'll give some 'Bold Predictions' for things that I think will happen in 2022. I won't talk much about them though because they kind of speak for themselves. Most of them are video game related though honestly.

 

It's the final day of the year. The final day before the new year. The final day of 2021. The final day before the beginning of 2022. So... let's end this thread right. With something that literally everyone else and their mother seems to do anymore. Predictions for 2022!! I'm going to call mine... 'Bold Predictions' because that's all predictions are when it comes right down to it. A Bold Prediction that you really don't know if it will come true or not. It's mostly video game related and I only say stuff that I feel makes the most logical sense to me. In other words... I only make Bold Predictions for stuff that I think could/should/makes the most sense to happen.

So enough of that. Here we go. They are all self-explanatory and just exactly what I said. Bold Predictions. So I'm not going to explain my reasoning for them or why I think the way that I do. We'll just have to see at the end of next year if I'm right about any of these or not lol

Mega/DAL's Bold Predictions for 2022​

1. Digimon Survive will FINALLY come out (I don't have a guess as to when. But I think it'll finally happen. All signs point toward this way at least)
2. Final Fantasy XVI will come out (maybe; release window: idk... November? Sure let's go with that)
3. The 2022 Pokemon game will be Generation 9 (release: October/November 2022. No I don't know what the region will be based off of or what the starters will be like. But this is the only thing that makes logical sense to me)
4. Kingdom Hearts IV will be announced (release window: 2023)
   
5. Persona 6 will be announced (release window: 2023)
6. Sonic Frontiers will be the first decent Sonic game in potentially a decade (hard maybe)
7. WWE will go the way of WCW (idk when it will happen. But I'll say it'll happen sometime next year)

So that's it.

For 4 and 5... both are having anniversary events. I feel like something big will be revealed during the one for 4. It makes the most sense for 5 to happen at the end of it's anniversary event where they are revealing a bunch of stuff and it's already been teased. So 5 is probably my safest prediction that will likely come true. 6 is a hard maybe. I'm cautiously optimistic for it but I'm prepared to be massively disappointed as is always the case anymore when it comes to that franchise. 7... the signs have been pointing toward it for awhile now. I don't have an idea as to when it will happen but I feel like it'll happen sometime next year. If/when/once it does... I'm quitting the wrestling fandom altogether because I refuse to watch AEW only.

There are only two possibilities for 3 during the likely February Pokemon Presents. Generation 9... and Let's Go Johto. So either I will be very happy... or... very angry. I'm hoping for the former. I will not support the latter unless the BS mechanics, the ruined region, wild pokemon battles, and the whole region being a large and stupid Safari Zone are all fixed. Even then it would be a hard maybe.

2 is hard to really know after the recent announcement that the game was pushed back half a year due to COVID. If they keep to their promise of a news update in Spring... it's possible they could announce a release date there. We'll see.

1 has a bunch of signs pointing towards it happening with Digimon Con and the question form that you can fill out specifically mentioning it. So I'm hopeful. But I'm also extremely worried about another year where it doesn't come out still

We'll see if any of these come true.

But I'm done now. See you all next year. Maybe. I guess.