Where to begin? Once again it feels like entertainment has played an essential role in making life more manageable this year – with our homes being as much a place to work and be productive as they are to unwind, it’s been important to make time for the things we enjoy. The modems and routers in homes haven’t just been helping remote workers stay connected during the working week, but they’ve played host to an abundance of streaming and gaming – enough to provide a welcome escape from the four walls that we’re becoming so familiar with. I was already contemplating some of the highlights of the past twelve months before I began drafting notes for the inaugural “Qazi’s Disposable 2021” round-up… and if you’ve followed the published articles on this website then you might have an idea of what to expect. Let’s begin.
Qazi’s Disposable 2021: Watching
I’ve been in the mood for a lot of light and mindless entertainment this year – it’s just that it’s ended up being some extremely well-produced light and mindless entertainment. On the one side of this spectrum, I’ve made time to check out some old comedies that I missed back in the day, such as the Adam Sandler power-fantasy “Click” and Zachary Levi in “Shazam!” (I also watched “Space Jam: A New Legacy” recently, which was a welcome escape into surreal cartoon nonsense.) On the other side, I’ve been watching out-and-out action flicks – the spectacular “Godzilla vs. Kong”, the magnificent “Nobody” and the “I feel obliged to watch this after the Dark Knight Trilogy” viewing of “Suicide Squad (2016).” I think that “Nobody” was easily the highlight: a one-man revenge story that at first had me expecting John Wick, but Odenkirk’s character brings an entirely different flavour to the format. Looking back, I felt that Keanu’s films started to lose their vibe with the sequels, whilst Nobody feels as fresh as Wick 1.
Qazi’s Disposable 2021: Listening
It’s been a bit of a low-key year for my usual musical favourites – I’ve been listening to more EPs than anything else, and one of the few big albums was “Not Forever” by The Upbeats – something I already covered in August. At the same time, those EPs have contained a lot of new favourite songs; in particular, I enjoyed the “Clairvoyant” EP by QZB, Machinedrum’s “Psyconia” and “Compassion” from Special Request. There have been a few sour points during 2021, as I’ve seen some of my favourite artists move away from music and into NFT production (a move that necessitated some tidying of my custom Twitter feeds so that my interests in music news are better catered for), but the majority of the people I follow have continued to produce excellent music. I was kind of let down by technology during this year – my phone either lost tracks I’d added to my library (due to syncing issues) or drained its battery alarmingly quickly – but I feel like I’ve still been able to keep up with the music I care about.
Qazi’s Disposable 2021: Playing
It was always going to be hard for 2021 to match the previous year’s output – a year that gave me three excellent JRPGs in FFVII Remake, Persona 5 Royal and Yakuza: Like A Dragon – even so, there have been a few highlights worth talking about. I managed to get into the beta for Elden Ring before its release next year, and even though the beta testers were trapped within the confines of its invisible walls, the beta worked well as an early pitch for the full game – teasing explorable catacombs, the “spectral steed” that can be summoned and the possibility of simply pointing your character in a different direction if you find a particular location too challenging. Whether or not I’ll be able to endure a full game of this remains to be seen, but I look forward to finding out. Elsewhere, Neo: The World Ends With You finally provided more of the unique RPG gameplay offered by the 2007 DS game, but with streamlined gameplay that accommodates a single screen. Whilst it suffers from some pacing issues at times, the enjoyable battles easily outweigh the frustrating ones, and the overall aesthetic makes every battle a unique spectacle. I also have a few honourable mentions that weren’t really covered on this site: in particular, the adorable and hilarious Deltarune Chapter 2, the stark but compelling R-Type Final 2 and the “Connected” update to Tetris Effect. Oh, and my completion of Chrono Trigger was also a satisfying milestone – one more game on my JRPG bucket list that’s been conquered.
Where next?
To be honest, I was expecting this year to be a bit of a stopgap before some big hits threatened to arrive in 2022 – however, I’ve ended up with a lot of things that have made this year another great one. Next year I’m hoping for most of my evenings to be consumed by Elden Ring, I’ll be continuing to catch up on various old movies, and I may have some more personal streaming sessions planned. We’ll see. Until then, thanks for continuing to read and support our content – don’t forget to take a look at Dan’s round-up of the year – and we hope you have a great 2022.