First 6061. Metroid Prime Hunters (NDS)
62. Metroid Prime Federation Force (3DS)
63. Panzer Dragoon: Remake (Switch)
64. Unsighted (Switch)Unsighted is a stupendous indie action-adventure game that just edges out Metroid Dread as my 2021 GOTY.
In Unsighted, essence from a meteor provides androids with consciousness, but humans, in fear of their newly self-aware robot companions, locked the meteor away before fleeing off-world. As a result, the androids left behind are slowly losing their identities, and when an android loses its consciousness altogether (i.e., goes “unsighted”), it lashes out, in rage, at everything. You play as Alma, a battle android, looking for her friend/lover Racquel and trying to help her fellow androids retain their consciousness, and since humans left long ago, “unsighted” androids are the primary antagonists.
The game is played from an overhead perspective, and it clearly draws a lot of inspiration from The Legend of Zelda. That is, you navigate an over world to various caves and dungeons, locating new equipment that provides you with access to new areas of the over world and, in turn, new caves, dungeons, and upgrades. The game layers a lot of mechanics on top of that tried-and-true design, however, such as crafting, reconfigurable abilities, upgradable weapons, etc. These mechanics allow you to sequence break rather easily, and as a result, the game provides you much more freedom to explore than most other games in its genre.
Easily the most interesting mechanic, however, is a timer, telling you precisely how much time you, and everyone you meet, has until becoming unsighted. More specifically, you start the game with a pre-determined number of hours, and each in game hour equates to about a minute of real time. You can extend that time by finding and consuming meteor dust, a rare item. Moreover, every friendly NPC, from the little fairy of accompanying you on your quest, to your mentor android, to a lowly shopkeeper, also has a timer, and when that timer expires, the android goes unsighted. At that point, your only option is to put them down, and you lose access to that character
permanently. Losing access to a NPC also means losing access to side quests, upgrades, story elements, etc. Thankfully, some of the NPCs start out with a lot of time, and you can give them some of the meteor dust you find during your adventure to keep them conscious longer. There is only so much meteor dust, however, and there certainly isn’t enough meteor dust to save them all, especially if, like me, you spend a lot of time exploring the game’s massive map.
The timer adds a lot of tension to the game, and there is nothing like getting a notice that a beloved NPC has less than 24 hours remaining when you’re deep into a dungeon with no easy escape route and not much meteor dust to spare. Moreover, the parry-dependent combat can be brutal, and until you get the hang of it, unsighted androids will cut you down very, very quickly. I loved the challenge, but the developers (rightly) realized that this might be too much for some people. Accordingly, you can adjust different aspects of the difficulty to your liking. (For example, you could tone down the combat and turn off the timers. Or, you could adjust just one or the other to the play the game however you like.)
Finally, the game includes amazing boss fights, and it is loaded with secrets and hidden content, including multiple endings, hidden upgrades, optional dungeons, and secret bosses. If you explore really, really deeply, you’ll even discover that:
I love when a good game, like this, rewards players with even more great content, and once I adjusted to the game’s challenge, I really couldn’t put it down.
As much as I loved the game, however, it doesn’t do everything right. While the graphics are presented in a very pleasing pseudo-16-bit style, the music is sometimes a bit discordant. (“What is with the smooth jazz playing in the fire dungeon?”) Additionally, the game has a few too many mechanics: I never used the spin attack; weapon upgrading is pointless; distance weapons, while great for solving puzzles, are worthless in a fight; etc. Some of the game’s secrets are also a bit too well-hidden, and I consulted a guide to find a few things I needed to really complete the game. I think that the game tried to do just a bit too much, and I think it would have benefitted from just a little streamlining.
Small complaints aside, I really, really loved Unsighted Moreover, despite spending almost a dozen hours with the game and uncovering 105%, I still didn’t touch everything that the game has to offer. (Beating the game unlocks both a boss rush and a rogue like dungeon rush. The game also feature drop-in, drop-out couch co-op.). I really cannot recommend Unsighted enough, and I hope at least a few of you will give this great game a try. As I mentioned earlier, it edges out Metroid Dread as my 2021 GOTY, and it is neck-and-neck with Ghostrunner as the best game I played this year.