2024, like just about every year before it, was a tumultuous year. We saw some 500+ anti-trans bills brought out by some of the looniest politicians ever, then we saw many of them get re-elected later that year. In gaming, we saw corporate greed and mismanagement result in the biggest gaming layoff year in recent memory. And now as Los Angeles burns, we can reflect on 2024. What a horrible year. And yet, 2025 has only just begun. Personally, my 2024 was pretty middle-of-the-road. Nothing good happened but nothing particularly terrible happened either, so I’m calling it a wash.
That said, wow, what a year for video game releases though, eh? Shove off, climate change and growing income inequality, Project Re:Fantasy released! It was an incredible year for gaming releases, especially if you’re a fan of RPGs, which I am! I did miss out on a few, and I’ll talk about that, but I ended up reviewing over 40 games last year! Not all of them were winners but that hardly matters, I’m just happy that on such a monumental release year, I got to play some of the greats. Let’s start out with what I missed so you know why some of these titles might be absent from the final list.
Space Marine 2 – Highly anticipated, loved the first one, and even though Relic went through the wringer (surprise! layoffs!) I was still very excited about the release. It’s sitting installed on my PS5, I just need to get through a few more releases and reviews before I’ll have a moment to sit down and play this. And that’ll be a recurring theme in the games I didn’t get to play.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth – I didn’t want to dig into this one until I figured out what happened with Joryu so I’m playing Gaiden right now. This also means 2025 will be the year of Infinite Wealth for me and unlikely I’ll get to play Majima as a pirate. Oh well.
Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D – Just as an RPG nut, Dragon Quest is always on my radar and I just want them to bring more Dragon Quest to modern platforms. For the love of god, bring DQ4 – 8 to modern platforms.
Persona 3 Reload – Eh, it looks great, but I can’t say I’m super into the idea of playing this considering I played Persona 3 Portable when it was released on modern consoles the year prior. It’s on my radar, I just might not get to it in 2025.
Ys X: Nordics – I love the Ys series so when I didn’t get a review copy of Nordics I was pretty bummed. And then I was about to buy it and Falcom announced they were about to Atlus their fans by releasing a complete edition or whatever. So, what do I do? Do I play both? Probably. I’m a real sicko like that.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle – Stacked with too many games as it is, I’ll wait for this to release on my preferred platform, the PS5, before I hop in. Looks great though, and my colleagues love it, so I’m excited.
Alright, so those are all the games you didn’t play, Nick, what the heck did you even play last year? Crazily enough, I played:
10. Eastward – Octopia DLC
Hey, if the Keighleys can have a DLC up for Game of the Year, I can put one on my list. I dug Eastward a lot on release, and when the opportunity to take a look at the DLC was presented to me I jumped at it. Offering a bit of a parallel universe to the one that exists in the main game, Octopia allows fans to live out their farming sim life in the Eastward world. Lots of old faces return with different personalities though similar expertise. You have the opportunity to farm, dig, build up an abandoned city, and experience the joy of a farm sim in a dystopian future. Really creative way to give legs to an already excellent game. And considering the price, this DLC is a steal. Of course, I didn’t think it was quite as good as:
9. Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance
I love Shin Megami Tensei and when V released, I was pretty disappointed. It felt like a departure from the series a bit, even though the main story beats eventually tied into a previous game. Still, outside of some of the battle mechanics, I wasn’t a big fan. With the Vengeance release, I really enjoyed a replay. Not to mention, the Vengeance DLC parallel story worked REALLY well. Vengeance itself is much shorter than the original game but has a much bigger and better payoff than the original game. The Canon of Vengeance is a clear improvement on an already good game, and my recommendation when jumping into SMT V. Although I think I had more fun playing:
8. Granblue Fantasy: Relink
Another game in the “long time coming” category, Granblue Fantasy: Relink was originally announced in 2016. Some video footage was released shortly after and it looked bangin’. Delay after delay and eventually it came out in 2024 and was worth the wait. A party-based action-RPG with some of its gacha roots but primarily focusing on multiplayer boss battles, Granblue Fantasy: Relink kinda just works. Relink kind of plays like a more actiony Monster Hunter game, where the gameplay style comes from swapping characters more so than individual weapons. The cast is exciting and the gameplay is truly excellent. I had a really good time playing this one and even got all the achievements for it. I was so hooked. And yet, I found myself a little more addicted to:
7. Balatro
Balatro is one of those games that feels like I’ve had it installed forever and I almost forgot to add it to the list. I can’t believe it only came out in 2024! Matching poker hands to wild jokers that multiply your chip count will never not be fun to me. I kind of suck at the game and still, I refuse to stop playing. Balatro is brilliant in its simplicity and maybe should be higher on this list but, alas, I favor the narrative-driven. However, that hasn’t stopped me from recommending the game to everyone I know and the game is a cultural force. Boasting over 3.5 million copies sold in December, Balatro is definitely something worth checking out if you haven’t. Also, the theme is an absolute banger. Addictive as Balatro is though, I definitely went harder on:
6. Unicorn Overlord
Vanillaware really is the king. Seems like whatever they set their mind to they end up making one of the best if not the best versions of that thing. Unicorn Overlord is a top-tier strategy RPG, bar none. The cast of characters is varied and in typical Vanillaware fashion, the art is stunningly gorgeous. I only put Unicorn Overlord down to write the review and picked it back up immediately after to play until I had exhausted that game of everything it had. Spending entirely too much time working on unit cohesion, making sure units could move fast, hit hard, and survive their encounters was just so much fun. Unicorn Overlord was not to be missed in 2024. Although, one game I might recommend ahead of it is:
5. Until Then
I love a good gut punch. Until Then comes out at a time when the 2D pixel-art adventure genre is seeing a slight resurgence, especially across the globe. Featuring a story that takes place in the Philippines, Until Then has an interesting take on the high school drama. Especially if you’re living in the U.S., there’s a lot to learn about Filipino culture as well as the world and circumstances presented in the game. Mark Borja comes off as a downright unlikable character for the first hour or so of the game but as the story unfolds you really start to see the unusual circumstances the characters find themselves in. I thought back to my time in high school and how difficult of a time I would have had dealing with The Ruling and the other natural disasters plaguing this strange new world. Self-reflection aside, therapy must be working because I think edging Until Then out is:
4. Thank Goodness You’re Here!
Another adventure game with a completely different tone. Instead of a child dealing with unusual circumstances, you’re a salesman that becomes the unusual circumstance as you’re sent to the fictional town of Barnsworth. Thank Goodness You’re Here! Is a comedy game through and through, that’s both fun to play on your own or with an audience. The absurdist humor throughout the game had me in hysterics and that’s to say nothing of the incredible art-style or the work that went into the music selection and narrative threads. Coming off of The Good Time Garden, Coal Supper made something truly bizarre and unique and I simply cannot recommend it enough. Whether you prefer Tiny Tom’s Tiny Pies or are a Big Ron’s Big Pies fan, Thank Goodness You’re Here! Will make you laugh. Of course, now we’re hitting the big three and it’s hard to stack up against:
3. Metaphor: ReFantazio
I got to pick one game to play before the end of the year with what little free time I had and I chose a game I’d been anticipating since 2016. I’m a big fan of Atlus and getting to play their take on a fantasy setting had me champing at the bit. What I wasn’t expecting was a fantasy RPG with themes of diversity, racism, and anxiety. Although, that’s on me considering many fantasy RPGs kinda hit on that in some way. Metaphor not only succeeds in its thematic presentation but also its archetype/job system as well as combat, naturally. Atlus generally excels at combat systems and Metaphor is no exception. The archetype/job system works really well to develop the type of team you want by allowing people outside the party to gain experience and by providing items that give archetype experience outside of combat. Teamed with its Persona-style life-sim system, Metaphor ends up knocking it out of the park. I loved the heck out of this game. It just couldn’t edge out my love for:
2. Dragon Age: The Veilguard
The uproar from grifter youtube channels was like a cherry on top of the giant ice cream sundae that Bioware provided with Dragon Age: The Veilguard. If you make a dumbass youtube video about forced diversity or poor writing in a video game as thinly veiled sexism or transphobia, you gotta pull a Bharv. Dragon Age has slowly been moving away from turn-based combat and the uproar against this new direction in the wake of the absolute success that Baldur’s Gate 3 has become is present. I’m here to play a game on the game’s terms though. Dragon Age: The Veilguard is simply wonderful and though I have my own issues with the combat, this is leagues better than the last two Dragon Age titles when it comes to gameplay. Likewise, though the ever-present threat of Corypheus and the fate of Kirkwall felt strong, The Veilguard managed to give me something Dragon Age hasn’t in some time, urgency. Along with a cast that I couldn’t get enough of, I managed to do every single thing I wanted to do in Dragon Age: The Veilguard and still plan on revisiting Thedas soon. Dragon Age: The Veilguard is an incredible game and was my Game of the Year right up until I played:
1. Fantasian Neo Dimension
What can I say? Fantasian had everything I wanted in a JRPG this year and then some. Two absolute titans at the helm managed to take this mobile experience and blow my expectations out of the water. The individual parts are stellar and Sakaguchi’s world, characters, and themes are an incredible tour de force. Paired with the great Nobuo Uematsu’s handiwork on the soundtrack, you’re given an unforgettable experience that’ll stick with you, at least one month after release (sorry, that’s really all I can vouch for at this point.) After beating Fantasian Neo Dimension I immediately hit up New Game+ and started over, forcing my way through the game and working on everything Fantasian had to offer. It’s an incredibly well-crafted game and I truly enjoyed my time with it. Some novel concepts like the Dimengeon never got stale while traversing between worlds and figuring out why mechteria was leaking into the human world plagued me. I really loved everything about this game, from the combat to the narrative, and especially the soundtrack, which I’m listening to as I type.
Perhaps this list would be different if I had gotten to play all the games I missed out on this year but truly, though some games didn’t stack up this year, I’m really happy with the ones I played. And of the ones I played, this is how I’d rank ‘em. I played Rebirth, and wasn’t a fan. I think Final Fantasy is leaving me behind. I’d love to check out Dragon’s Dogma 2, but after bouncing off of Dark Arisen I’m not sure it’s for me. Black Myth: Wukong looks like one of the most boring games I’ve ever seen and Stellar Blade is right behind it. If you’re a big fan of those games, maybe take my list with a grain of salt. I’m looking forward to 2025 and have already played a few games with 2025 release dates that I’ve really enjoyed. Hoping for a good year for both me and you. Good luck out there, shit sucks!
