I
n 2019, Disco Elysium sailed beyond the edge of
our convenient definitions, an RPG so
revolutionary some weren’t sure it counted as
an RPG at all. Disco Elysium felt like a product
of an overgrown hothouse, surely about to
produce more unusually proportioned fruit.
By contrast, RPGs in 2021 felt safe, predictable. For
starters, there was a wave of remasters, re-releases, and
ports like Mass Effect Legendary Edition, Diablo 2:
Resurrected, the Final Fantasy pixel remasters, Nier
Replicant, Legend of Mana HD, Geneforge 1 – Mutagen,
more Kingdom Hearts games than anyone could ever play,
and the incremental update of Skyrim Anniversary Edition.
Many of the new RPGs that squeezed out between the
re-release herd in 2021 re-didn’t feel like the future either.
They were celebrations of their past, games that will
inevitably be described as ‘love letters’. Pathfinder: Wrath
of the Righteous was a particularly blatant example, a
homage to Baldur’s Gate with a strategy layer from Heroes
of Might & Magic, one chapter set in an extraplanar city
reminiscent of Planescape, and two dungeons referencing
Fallout vaults. Other retro RPGs like Eastward, Encased,
Monster Crown, and Solasta also felt similarly old-
fashioned, like they should have come with a pair of
suspenders and a top hat.
ROLE WITH IT
Not every RPG that looked back was pure love letter,
though. Gamedec, about a cyberpunk detective who solves
crimes inside games, took jabs at everything from Stardew
Valley to Star Citizen (its protagonist collects incredibly
expensive spaceships for a videogame that remains
unfinished even in the 22nd century).
More pointed was Get in the Car, Loser!, which flipped
the pushy heterosexuality of Final Fantasy XV with its
crew of playable bros and a bikini-top mechanic for the
lads. By way of contrast, it’s a self-described “lesbian road
trip RPG”, with a cast diverse enough to make the average
comment section sneer itself into a tiny shrivelled raisin.
There’s value in parody and commentary, in criticism
that comes from inside the house. Maybe it can help clear
the deck for more RPGs that feel like steps forward for the
form. I only played a couple of those in 2021. Interestingly,
they were both games about the past.
Wildermyth was a tactics RPG that cared more about
simulating the tangled inter-character relationships of
long-running D&D games than their shopping trips. Its
adventurers never earn gold, but instead develop rivalries
and romances, have children, and retire.
When you finish one campaign and start another, some
of those legacy heroes return. Though levelled down and
young again, snippets of their history remain. They’rePast and
future
When RPGs look
back, they’re
mirroring fantasy
fiction. Trad
fantasy idealises
lost empires, and
‘ancient’ usually
means ‘better’.
Even sci-fi RPGs
obsess over their
history, though.
Encased, a 2021
homage to
isometric Fallout,
replaced the
parody of 1950s
sci-fi with
dystopian fiction
of the 1970s,
swapping
jetpacks for
jumpsuits.RETRO MANIA
2021 : great year for RPGs, if you hate new things
All these urns are probably
full of authentic Ancient
Roman fish juice.PCG INVESTIGATESSpecial
Report