Your (not shmup) likelies for 2021 GOTY so far?

[Mischief Maker]

I've got three candidates so far, pending patches and DLCs.

1. Slipways

It's an absolutely brilliant puzzle/strategy distillation of the non-violent parts of a sci fi 4X. In a randomly generated (and potentially infinite) starfield, you have 25 years to peacefully colonize planets and set up FTL gateway trade routes between them to fulfill needs and export products. The more needs on a planet are met and the more successful colonies it's trading with, the more prosperous the colony which adds to a cumulative happiness score modifier.

On top of that you build space stations to burn excess goods for scientific research and perform missions for your alien allies for profit and bonuses. A special note is that the campaign mode, instead of being a tutorial, is actually a more difficult challenge mode on top of the base game.

A wonderful challenge that always puts me in a good mood. Most likely gonna be the GOTY.

2. Clone Drone in the Danger Zone

I hate most 3rd person FPS-controls sword fighting games, but when someone manages to get it right I REALLY love it. CDitDZ gets it right. I've been playing and loving it since 2016, and it leaves Early Access at the end of the month.

It's a voxel-based arena battle game with roguelite upgrade elements where you're a human downloaded into a robotic body and forced to fight to the death in successive gladiatorial battles while commentated and mocked by a robotic Howard Cosell and Don Meredith.

In the story campaign things get very VERY wacky. If 1.0 adds more of the campaign wackiness to the endless mode this could overtake Slipways.

3. Trials of Fire

A deckbuilder/SRPG hybrid that accumulates the good ideas from dozens of Slay the Spire's copycats (from Deep Sky Derelicts to Fights in Tight Spaces to even a little Curious Expedition) into a really satisfying whole.

Your party of three heroes travel from boss fight to boss fight across a blasted post-apocalyptic fantasy wasteland, wandering off the path to explore spots of interest and complete side quests to level your dudes high enough to keep pace with the next boss before the time-limiter saps your strength.

I really can't describe all the systems in proper detail in a single paragraph, I'll just say it feels more RPG-like than most roguelite RPGs, and that the deckbuilding is only a portion of the gameplay.

Probably won't be GOTY unless there's a freaking amazing DLC.

What are some of yours?

[Sumez]

Ghosts n Goblins Resurrection, not even a second of doubt.

[To Far Away Times]

Monster Hunter Rise.

Though admittedly I haven't played a lot of 2021 releases. The 'rona seems to have taken quite a toll on game development.

[Marc]

I'm gonna cheat and say mine will be the Spelunky 1&2 pack for Switch.

Erm, I'm not sure I've played any 2021 releases....

[Vanguard]

My pick so far is Ruina: Fairy Tale of the Forgotten Ruins. The game itself isn't new but the english translation came out this year. Great game. Some of the strongest writing and atmosphere I've seen in the gaming medium. Tons of choices with meaningful consequences.

Runner up is Black Souls 2 which also did not come out this year, but it did recently get its big final update.