Your 2022 Gaming Plans and Predictions

[Ashley]

I appreciate there's a gaming dairy thread every year and this isn't trying to be that but rather what are you looking forward to next year and what you hope to see. 

Plus if you have any gaming events, shows etc you're looking forward to attending (pandemic permitting). 

I'll start with the only game I can think of: the new Kirby one. 

Mostly because my brain isn't working right now so I can't think of others but I'm looking forward to seeing what that little pink guy is doing in a post-apocalypse world. 

I also hope this drive to incorporate NFTs into gaming will die but sadly I fear it won't. 

[Ronnie]

Nintendo wise, that we know of...

Breath of the Wild 2 - duh

Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope - duh

Kirby - looks fun, nice to finally have a 3D iteration

Splatoon 3 - Skipped 2 so looking forward to jumping back in

Triangle Strategy - I fell off Octopath Traveller but I think a tactics game might be more my style

Elsewhere...

Horizon Forbidden West - It'll likely be another cookie cutter Sony openworld game, but the quality will still be high regardless. Enjoyed the first one well enough.

Lego Star Wars The Skywalker Saga - This is taking an age so I can only hope they're working to get it right. I'll likely only play Eps 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 probably :-D

God of War Ragnarok - Loved the first game, very much looking forward to this

Starfield - really love the look and vibe of this, will probably be my first ever Bethesda game

Tunic - looks amazing

Darkest Dungeon 2 - Not guaranteed to release in 2022, but if all goes well that's the plan. A sequel to one of my fav games ever.

Edited December 17, 2021 by Ronnie

[Ashley]

Ah yes Mario + Rabbids. I knew there was another. 

I am curious about the new Pokémon game. Not to buy it but just to see how it lands. 

[Dcubed]

TBH, there's not much on the immediate horizon that excites me.  It's pretty much just Kirby & The Forgotten Land and Advance Wars Reboot Camp that I'm truly excited for as far as known 2022 releases go.

Splatoon 3 will no doubt be decent, but I have no faith in Bayonetta 3 actually coming out in 2022; or indeed for the current Switch at all (I was shocked to even see any footage at all this past year! But I still think it's gonna get pushed back to being a launch window title for Switch 2 in 2023; Nintendo would be absolutely stupid not to do this).  Likewise, I'm convinced that Metroid Prime 4 will be a launch window title for Switch 2 in 2023.

I have zero interest in Pokemon Legends Arceus or BOTW 2 (so long as they are open world games, they occupy 0% of my interest).  I've also had my fill of Mario & Rabbids, not particularily excited for more of the same (same goes for Splatoon 3).  Triangle Strategy will probably be good, though I'm much more interested in Advance Wars personally (even though it's a remake!).

Personally? I'm just wanting to skip over 2022 as far as new releases go and jump straight into Switch 2 in 2023.  I'm more than ready for a new console and a fresh start at this point; so please just stick me in cryogenic stasis already!

As far as my actual time being spent in 2022 goes? I'll most likely be spending it with retro games, catching up on some Switch releases (like No More Heroes 3 and Neo The World Ends With You), the Steam Deck, the occassional Gamepass game, the odd indie release (Windjammers 2 springs to mind) and maybe the Playdate if I can get my hands on one.  I'll mostly be sitting 2022 out as far as new releases go, but I'll have plenty to play elsewhere I'm sure

Edited December 17, 2021 by Dcubed

[Cube]

Some games I'm looking forward to:

Metroid Dread: I haven't gotten around to getting yet, but I definitely want to.

Halo Infinite: When split screen gets released I'll give it a go.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land: This looks like a lot of fun.

Breath of the Wild 2: It should be great.

Splatoon 3: If it takes cues from the Octo Expansion, then it will be a really good singleplayer game.

 

I'll probably continue trying out random games on Game Pass, plus continuing on with my Sonic games. Sonic Frontiers included if it makes 2022, as well as Sonic Origins. 

 

Horizon Forbidden West and God of War Ragnarok I can thankfully play on my PS4, buy may end up playing in 2023 depending on DLC plans and discounts.

 

 

[Julius]

If this year was the Year of 9's, next year - on paper, at this moment in time - has a seriously high chance of being the Year of 10's, and one of the greatest years in gaming. So I'm hyped. 

For me there's a lot I'm looking forward to, but next year I want to focus mainly on knocking games off of my shelves because I've got too many that I haven't yet played, and to save this list from getting too long I'll focus on the titles I'll be picking up Day 1, no questions asked, which I would choose over other games: 

 

Elden Ring 

I'm still relatively new to From Software's Soulsbornekiroring games, but I had a great time with both Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, and so I'm hyped to go into one of these games fully blind and at the onset of the zeitgeist. Biggest challenge for me that I foresee is that I've played their two oldest games that are like this, so I imagine this will be a lot faster paced when it comes to boss fights.

This game is also the reason you won't see Horizon on my list - I'm excited by it, but there's no way I'm risking burnout on open world games by playing that in the week leading up to Elden Ring. Gran Turismo 7 is a week later too, so I guess that's not getting on this list either. 

 

Pokémon Legends: Arceus 

I'm cautiously optimistic on this one, but coming off the back of the nostalgia trip that was Brilliant Diamond - which is the most I've engaged with a Pokémon game in a very long time, and I had a whole lot of fun with it - I definitely have the appetite for another Pokémon game, and so how I'm going to stave that off until Arceus I'm not quite sure. Looking forward to seeing the new evolutions and Hisuian forms, and obviously to see how well Game Freak's first "open world" turns out. 

 

God of War Ragnarök 

Like others, I loved the 2018 game, and I can't wait to see how the story pans out, but also for any new mechanics (or weapons) that SSM might be keeping to themselves. This is probably the one I'm most confident about turning out well, because it doesn't seem to be diverging from what we see in GoW 2018 (which is a good thing, because it doesn't need to!). 

 

Starfield 

I've also yet to play a Bethesda game (I won't lie, I am very tempted to dive into Skyrim), but this has spoken to me since before it was announced at E3, and was only a rumour. Something about this project is just gripping to me, I guess I'm kind of hoping to see the strengths of space exploration seen in a game like No Man's Sky combined with the RPG nous of Bethesda Game Studios. Probably the biggest reason I'm going to be picking up a Series X next year. 

 

The sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 

I know there's a decent chance it'll slip into 2023, but right now it's slated for 2022, which means I'm going to be holding onto some of my work holidays for next year until we either see this delayed or it gets a 2022 release date, because I can't wait to just lose some days to exploring Hyrule again. I was late to the party in getting a Switch and playing Breath of the Wild, and despite it having glaring areas to improve in, I couldn't be more onboard, I loved my experience with that game.

To be frank, though, this is also the one which I think could have the toughest time living up to expectations -- how do you keep that sense of exploration fresh this time around, when we're already intimately familiar with the map? I had hoped Link would be relegated to the underground and that Zelda would be playable above ground, with us rebuilding Hyrule, seeing a bunch more settlements, and getting to use her magic, but the trailers so far seem to point to anything but that happening. 

 

Granblue Fantasy Relink 

I've been following the development of this game for a few years now, and I'm super excited to see what Cygames has in store for us with their first console RPG. For those that don't know, Granblue Fantasy is a huuuuuuge mobile game in Japan, and has drawn many comparisons to Final Fantasy games of old (having the same composer and character designer probably helps that somewhat!), so assuming this does release in 2022, I have high hopes and expectations for it. At the very least, it looks stunning! 

 

Omori 

I've heard too many good things from those who played it on PC to not be super excited about it. 

 

Now, in terms of things that don't have a 2022 release date attached, but I'm bullish about releasing next year...

 

Final Fantasy XVI 

Why we haven't seen this game in 2021 I'm not sure, but next year is the 35th anniversary for the series, and both Stranger of Paradise and Forspoken are scheduled to release in the first six months of 2022 -- barring any significant delays, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to piece together when they're hoping to release XVI. If you need a reason to be excited beyond the trailer we had last year, look at the love XIV and Endwalker is getting, and think of what Creative Business Unit III could achieve in a single player game. 

 

Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters - ON CONSOLE 

For years I have been yammering on and on around here about wanting the first six Final Fantasy games to be brought to modern platforms, and well -- the gaming gods heard me, decided I wasn't specific enough, threw a monkey's paw middle finger my way, and put them up on Steam and mobile.

Not. This. Time. It's happening in 2022, on modern consoles, or so help me Gilgamesh!

It's the 35th anniversary for the franchise and they have put so much more effort and time into this than their other PC ports of beloved games (I'm sorry Chrono Trigger). They know the hunger is there for it to happen. It would be one of the most idiotic moves made by Square Enix in years if it doesn't happen. 

Do it you cowards. 

Edited December 17, 2021 by Julius

[Glen-i]

Kirby's the big one that I'm certain is coming out in 2022.

Apart from that, meh. I agree with @Dcubed that Bayo 3 likely isn't coming out next year. So not much I know about that I'm looking forward to.

I had to hold off on Shin Megami Tensei V. (Why would you release it around the same time as Pokémon!?) So I'll likely be getting that next year.

And that's about it. 2022 isn't off to the most stellar of starts for me. Hopefully some of my wishlist games get some sales to fill out the gaps.

[bob]

My plan for the start of 2022 is just to try and get some more gaming in at all. 

I've asked for Paper Mario Switch so that should start me off well. I'm not all that excited about it, but I know that it being a Nintendo game, it should be good.

I mean to complete God of War PS4 at some point. It's been a while since I played it though, so i'm probably going to spend the first couple of hours complaining that they moved all the button mappings while I wasn't looking.

I've been thinking I might try and buy some of the PS4 games on the cheap, like Uncharted, or Tomb Raider too. Something fun with a good story.

I would love to play some of the new releases, especially now that they are coming to PS4 (Horizon), but I don't know if it isn't worth waiting and seeing if I end up picking up a PS5 at some point in the future? I know buying one now (even if they were available anywhere), would be a bit pointless since it wouldn't get any use, but i'm hoping my life settles down enough that I can try and fit in some gaming in the evenings. 

[Ronnie]

4 hours ago, Julius said:

God of War Ragnarök 

Like others, I loved the 2018 game, and I can't wait to see how the story pans out, but also for any new mechanics (or weapons) that SSM might be keeping to themselves. This is probably the one I'm most confident about turning out well, because it doesn't seem to be diverging from what we see in GoW 2018 (which is a good thing, because it doesn't need to!).

The only thing I thought was missing from GOW were more NPCs. The world was deserted save for literally like 4 or 5 people. I know there was a story reason for it but yeah, the only negative on an otherwise brilliant game. 

 

4 hours ago, Julius said:

To be frank, though, this is also the one which I think could have the toughest time living up to expectations -- how do you keep that sense of exploration fresh this time around, when we're already intimately familiar with the map?

That’s the main thing for me too. Hopefully there’s plenty of new areas to explore. It’s what held back A Link Between Worlds for me as being an absolute classic, the re-used overworld. I think the BOTW team know they have a hell of a game to live up to and they’ll do it justice. Hopefully. 

[Jonnas]

As far as confirmed upcoming games go, it's just Advance Wars and Triangle Strategy for me. Maybe Kirby, but I'm not putting much stock into it, and there's also the possibility that a certain Indie sequel is coming this year. Other than that, it's all about the backlog.

I'd really like to actually finish one of my backlog goals for once! In other years I aimed for "All my physical games" or "Just the digital eShop games", but that hasn't panned out. Came really close with the 3DS games, so I might aim to clear that one.

Edited December 18, 2021 by Jonnas

[Julius]

18 hours ago, Ronnie said:

The only thing I thought was missing from GOW were more NPCs. The world was deserted save for literally like 4 or 5 people. I know there was a story reason for it but yeah, the only negative on an otherwise brilliant game. 

Yeah, got to agree with you there. It doesn't exactly weaken the first game, but another arrow in the quiver in this situation can only be a good thing, I think. That we saw a settlement in the September State of Play trailer gives me confidence with this, though, and it makes me hope for another two or three more! 

Total aside, not related to the gameplay but rather the story: I'm not a fan of how they've come out and said it's a duology rather than a trilogy ahead of release, as I think we all assumed would be the case. Because now I feel like the ending is going to be pretty predictable, whereas if we went into this game expecting a trilogy and realised it was only a duology once the credits rolled, it would've been much more exciting I think. 

19 hours ago, Ronnie said:

That’s the main thing for me too. Hopefully there’s plenty of new areas to explore. It’s what held back A Link Between Worlds for me as being an absolute classic, the re-used overworld. I think the BOTW team know they have a hell of a game to live up to and they’ll do it justice. Hopefully. 

I feel like a relatively easy way they could have kept it fresh, based purely on what we've seen in the trailers but taken a bit further, is to just throw Hyrule Castle so high that certain parts of the map are in an eclipsed state and are much cooler -- for example, imagine if snow spread down into the Gerudo desert because of this, which would change so much of the game's economy (for example, certain fruit might not be able to grow there anymore), and most importantly it would just visibly look different, as well as give a reason to see characters crop up elsewhere (items to change the weather, which given the rain situation in the first game I think should be coming anyways, could also play into this). Or they could've just basically nuked Hyrule when the castle went up into the sky I guess, like how Elden Ring clearly has chunks of castles and stuff just sticking out of the ground. 

We'll see, but yeah, based on what we've seen so far I'm a bit nervous. Adding new sections through verticality with the underground and sky is awesome, but if the ground level looks essentially the same just with different enemy compositions and maybe another couple of towns, I don't think that's enough of a shift, because I could see it forcing me down the critical path. 

It's a tricky one, and I don't envy them. Obviously a lot of this is based on pretty short trailers for a massive open world, so fingers crossed it's just a case of them not showing us those changes yet!

[Aperson]

Yeah, 2022 is absolutely nuts for some of the games that are coming out in it. Not sure how many of them I'm actually going to get but now I have a PS5 it will probably be getting some of the games that you can only get on that console. So starting with PS5 plans:

 

Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart - This may yet be a 2021 purchase for me but probably better placed as something to play in the early part of January, I still have to start Astro's Playroom after all. But Rift Apart is definitely a game I want to play through on PS5 even if I haven't really played any of the newer Ratchet games outside of the 2016 remake when that was given away for free. So it will be good to play a game that isn't attached to level design I already knew of. Plus it would funnily enough be a year after playing Crash 4 which has some similar mechanics.

 

Guardians of the Galaxy - This looked pretty decent and the general feedback I've seen on Youtube suggests this is actually a very good game. I like the Spider-Man games so any good Marvel game is something I'd definitely look into.

 

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade - Intending to upgrade my PS4 copy of FFVIIR to a PS5 copy so that I can play all of the new content.

 

Super Mario RPG - With WiiU eShop closing I need to get on it and buy Super Mario RPG before I miss out on the chance of ever being able to play it.

 

Pokemon Legends Arceus - The first big purchase of 2022 easily. I skipped Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl because of this game, it looks a lot more original than BDSP and I really hope it does well, otherwise I fear this series may go into a stale state where we get nothing but low quality lazy games.

 

Elden Ring - I have multiple friends who are into Dark Souls and after finally beating Dark Souls 1 myself last year it finally opens the door to play more of these types of games, but with Elden Ring coming I decided it would be a better idea to wait until the newest game from FromSoftware released and get that as my next experience. Finally that game is arriving, Elden Ring will be a game I play a lot and talk about with my friends... and then not finish for another 5 years while they've already beaten it!

 

Splatoon 3 - This comes with the caveat that I generally don't do much multiplayer in these types of games and tend to play more of the single player content, so hopefully Splatoon 3 has good single player. They at least seem to be trying to expand on the formula from the first two games for this one which could make for a really good title.

 

Those last three are the definitive big studio games that I'm looking at, may get Chocobo GP if I feel like it to try and stall off Mario Kart pings but honestly Elden Ring is going to last a very long time and that game alone will probably take up much of my time on the console. Similarly I haven't got round to getting Castlevania Advance Collection yet. I'm not really into tactical RPGs so Triangle Strategy gets a hard pass from me. I MIGHT be tempted to play FFVI again through the pixel remaster though...

 

Of course, this list seems quite short right now but actually its going to be a lot longer than this because I'm looking more at the indie scene, especially since getting Rivals of Aether. I have found myself accuring a big list of indie games I'm interested in getting that have already been out for a number of years. These games being:

 

Hyper Light Drifter - This one managed to pass me by a while back but been looking for a decent indie game inspired by top down Zelda games and this seems like one of the better received ones with its own identiy.

Crosscode - Similar to HLD but with its own Zelda like gameplay combined with elements from Square Enix JRPGs. Since Final Fantasy VI is my favourite game of all time and this game draws from games like FFVI and Chrono Trigger this is on my radar to check out at some point. Supposed to be really good but hasn't really been given mass exposure so the only accounts are from the minority that have actually played it. Seems up my alley though so might have to join the cult of Crosscode lol.

Downwell - I hadn't really heard of this game until relatively recently but Welltaro's inclusion in Indie crossovers like Indie Pogo and a game I'm going to be mentioning in the future as well as being a mod on Rivals of Aether. Fun fact, the creator of this game went on to work for Nintendo for a year but then quit his job after that just to go indie again!

Slay the Spire - Partly because of @drahkon's glowing praise, partly because I'm into card games like MTG but also because of the character's inclusion in a game I'll be mentioning in the future. This has definitely been one of those games that looks really good and something I want to check out in the future, though I must admit I've never really got into roguelikes which is probably what's keeping me from getting this game.

Cadence of Hyrule - This should be obvious, surprised I haven't got it yet.

Celeste - Yeah... I haven't actually played this game. Despite all the glowing praise it gets. Its similarity to Super Meat Boy though does make me want to finish the latter before considering a purchase of Celeste. This has been on my list for a while when I shortlisted it with two other Indie games and only wanted to get one, the other two being one still on the list and the one I actually went with, Hollow Knight.

The Messenger - The Completionist gave this one really good reviews so its been on my radar for a while but looking at its gameplay style I'm not sure whether it is my style of game or not, which has been somewhat detracting me from getting it since it seems to be based on Ninja Gaiden while also being a Metroidvania with this cool 8-bit/16-bit switch styles of play.

 

That's it as far as indie games that are already out. I am slower to pick these up but things may chance for these upcoming three indie games that are out next year.

 

Fraymakers - Comes out in Early Access next year. Created by the developers of Super Smash Flash and featuring a roster of Commander Video, Octodad, Orcane, Fishbunjin, Welltaro and The Watcher, this is looking like the game that might well just be the definitve "Indie Smash Bros" game. All the fighters are from various indie games and there's an extensive assist system which also features a number of other indies. The game is going to have four other full time fighters and they are polling people based on what they want, so chances are we're going to see some big name additions to the roster, I'm hoping they can get either The Knight or Hornet as playable fighters on the base roster as well as Hat Kid since neither of them have really been in indie crossovers, in fact I think both have only made one appearance outside of their own indie games as cameos. But it doesn't really matter if your favourite doesn't make it in because Fraytools is going to be available almost immediately giving this game a huge modding scene which will pretty much make it more than just an indie fighter, it'll be a MUGEN fighter. Depending on how usable Fraytools is and whether it can be done on consoles I could see the modding support come to consoles which leaves the Switch as an option for it.

 

Freedom Planet 2 - I'm going to fully admit that for a large portion of this year I wasn't going to get this game, Sonic Mania had already scratched the itch for a fast paced 2D action platformer to the point it had killed my interest in getting the FP sequel, however with the current direction that Sega is going in, with Sonic Mania 2 looking likely to never happen and eventually after checking out gameplay for this game I can see this is a significant improvement over the first game with all the issues fixed. Not that the first game was bad by any means but I did feel like the story dragged the game down somewhat from the otherwise excellent gameplay and because Mania was so good I'd forgotten a lot more about what FP did differently on its own merits. Regardless, the sequel is ridiculous in its scope and its extensive time in development is making it look like a much better game. That and the fact that I know one of the level designers on Discord and so feel obliged to buy the game to support her efforts

 

OMORI - We may never get an officially localised version of Mother 3 and since I don't play on emulators I'm probably never playing the fan translation. Therefore, this game looks likely to be the closest thing we get to Mother 3. Technically already out but I want to play it on Switch moreso so therefore 2022 it is. All I know is that its good, but that to know any more would be to spoil the story.

 

Overall my actual most anticipated games in the long run are Breath of the Wild 2, Metroid Prime 4 and Hollow Knight: Silkesong but no idea when any of those are coming out so will just have to wait and see how those pan out. Final Fantasy XVI is another that I'm looking at in the future but I suspect that game is going to be a ways from releasing. Hopefully inserting an X into the title of my favourite game of all time will still make it a good game.

[drahkon]

On 12/20/2021 at 12:15 AM, Aperson said:

Slay the Spire - Partly because of @drahkon's glowing praise