2024 Games That I Played and Enjoyed

I probably played some video games this year that I particularly enjoyed.
As always, presented in no particular order.

Games What Technically Came Out Before 2024

Great game; Tango being canned so quickly after the accolades felt like the most obvious and visible sign at the time that the games industry is completely fucked. Layoffs haven't stopped anywhere, so it still is.
This is the kind of game that just doesn't get made anymore and that sucks. We need more mid-tier stuff like this.
Pros: Saturday Morning Cartoon vibes, great licensed soundtrack
Cons: Keeping rhythm can get tiring fast, repetitive post-game

Time loops are a plot device inherently suited to video games and this does a good job with it. Got me to write a post on the idea of replayability in general. Gives me the vibes of something that a western game journo might say "breaks new ground in the visual novel genre" despite having not played many visual novels, but that's not the game's fault so much as the fault of the air in the room.
Favorite Routes: Prisoner, Adversary, Thorn
Meh Routes: Razor, Nightmare

Did a replay for a "game book club" situation that immediately fizzled out. Best Supergiant game, and I wouldn't have a chip on my shoulder about it if I hadn't met so many comically smug Hades fans. I obviously don't want a sequel, and I don't even necessarily need another Oregon-Trail-Wizard-Basketball game, but I definitely want a follow up that carries the spirit of Pyre. Whatever that means.
Found Their Way Home: Hedwyn, Rukey Greentail, Jodariel, Kae
Stayed True to the End: Ti'zo, Volfred Sandalwood, Big Bertrude

Slick action platformer (not Metroidvania) with really endearing pixel art and animation. The story's pretty standard stuff but has just enough twists in the details that I had a good time. A solid 6-8 hour romp.
Favorite touch: "This is the plan" marker drawings visible in background
Tired of These Levels: Chased by a big crosshair

A classic that's never quite left my brain. I own a Super Famicom cart of this (my SNES has the plastic tab broken off that lets me stick in JP games) and I played the Switch version day 1, but I picked this up on PC during a sale to stream to my friends. I understand why nobody else does it from a production standpoint, but the anthology format really ought be put to work elsewhere.
Machete Order: Imperial China, Prehistory, Wild West, Near Future, Present Day, Edo Japan, Far Future
Why Did They Keep This In: Random chance item crafting in Near Future

It sucks that the guy who bought me this turned out to be an asshole who on a whim burned not only his bridge with me but also all the bridges between me and our mutuals, but he was right that it's a great game. If you were the kind of person who played the fan translation of this instead of Live-a-Live back in the early-to-mid 00s, I see how it would permanently alter your brain. Just full of bizarre secrets and weird mechanical minutiae that you can only figure out through experimentation or collaboration.
Best Party Members: Nora, Boston
Worst Party Members: Julian, Herman

Capcom not beating the allegations that Dragon's Dogma is an elaborate psy-op to get people into Monster Hunter. I played enough of these that I will get Wilds on launch and that was a completely unthinkable concept to me even six months ago. I'm also glad I started with Rise instead of World for reasons a smidge too complex to get into right here.
Weapons of Choice: Hammer, Gunlance, Bow, Charge Blade
Never Want to Hunt This Asshole Again: Amatsu, Raging Brachydios

Showed this one to some friends who hadn't seen it. Still a really neat bit of sci-fi writing that knows how to wring every drop out of a single word. I really wish the guy hired some voice actors instead of using synthesized text-to-speech (even if it is supposedly from public domain recordings), but I suppose we simply can't get anything anymore that isn't tainted in some way. It's free and only about 90 minutes, so give it a go.
Best Tangent: Seabun & Monaco
Worst TTS Line Read: "Secretes" as "Sek-retts"

A really cool turn-based battle system trapped inside an unbearably twee roguelite (yes I somehow found this even more annoying than I Was a Teenage Exocolonist). I'd probably feel a bit better about this game if the runs didn't take so fucking long (like 4-6 hours).
Most Consistently Useful Skill: Archon's Discharge
Most Eye-rolling Reference: Keanu's "you're breathtaking" line

Wrote some posts about it and there's nothing I could squeeze into one paragraph that wouldn't be better elaborated upon in those. The day before I'm typing these words they put out a huge patch for the game and I'm just reminded that nobody should play any video games until they're two years old, three for CRPGs.
MVP: Sister Argenta's Improved Heavy Bolter
Are fuckin' loser chumps, apparently: Lords of Change

Another one I ended up writing a whole-ass post about. Some comments I got from people with broader perspectives on this game have given me food for thought for a post that, as of me typing these words, is not finished yet. The kind of product that only exists when attached to a multi-billion franchise, I suppose.
Coolest New Design: Rider
Needed More Screentime: Yui Shousetsu

The best Mario RPG, IMO. I don't remember who wrote it now, but they described this as "the kind of game whose cultural memory makes people defend Nintendo". I couldn't have put it better.
Still Works Too Well: Danger Mario
Didn't Realize Until Now: Goombella is incredibly catty

I sit in on the supplementary Let's Plays for the Updated Autopsy Report Podcast, and it's been nice going back through some of those games (in 2024, we did AA6 and most of GAA1&2). Let Shu Takumi free.
Best Use of Limited Assets: G2-3's workshop Dance of Deduction
Worst Use of Limited Assets: The SAME ship

Review here. Came out worldwide in 2024 but originally released in 2021. Playing this and sorting my feelings out in the review felt like releasing a breath I'd been holding for a decade; I got genuinely emotional about it. Long skirt Arcueid supremacy.
Still Cool as Hell: "This is what it means to kill."
Drags Like Hell: Lumina

Now all the anime-only or gacha-only fair weather fans have no excuse. Feels comically dated after the Tsukihime remake but it's a classic for a reason. It's also nice to have a professional translation; I played a bit side-by-side with the old fan one and the new version flows so much more smoothly.
Funniest Fumble: Random Mode
I Will Never Acknowledge: "Altria"

A late Christmas present addition to the list. Technically this 3D remake did come out in 2024, but it's otherwise so faithful to the original 1981 version (you can even toggle the original Apple II UI) that I'm putting it in this section. This is one of those "Rosetta Stone" games that contains the pieces that everything else ever then iterates upon. I especially had fun realizing exactly how much Wizardry there is in Dungeon Meshi, which I always knew logically to be the case but didn't truly understand until now.
Greatest Adventure: Losing 15 characters on the 6th floor and spending all day saving them one by one
Worst Grind: Each level takes ~70% of the TOTAL EXP you've gotten so far

Started a dumbass Let's Play of this while my home was undergoing repairs for water damage and it was my Main Project up until Cohost collapsed. I still haven't fully reconstructed the LP because it's pretty dull and tedious work, and while I said this wasn't dead who even knows at this point. It's pretty demoralizing to lose any evidence of readers.
Favorite Original Stands: Ocean Blue, Wildhearts, Mr. Big
Worst Original Character: Joey

Games What Actually Came Out In 2024

It's a testament to how great the middle of this game is that I still remember it fondly despite how terrible the ending is. It establishes dangerous precedents that make the a third Ichiban-helmed game an incredibly shaky proposition. Still, it's genuinely got some of the highest highs of the series yet.
Best Substory (Possibly Ever): Let It Snow
What Were They Thinking: Making Toru Furuya speak so much English

Somehow even more insidious of a time black hole than Vampire Survivors was. I will never play this again and that's okay.
Best Hand: High Card
Worst Joker: Matador

I upgraded my PC to play this game and maybe I shouldn't have. This could have never possibly lived up to the version of it that I built in my head and I have to accept that. I still think it's a really neat game, but it's lacking much of the scrappy, minutiae-obsessed spirit of the original. Perhaps one day, the wind will push us into the skies again.
Best Sphinx Quest: Riddle of Futility
Biggest Disappointment: Half-baked back third

Again, I wish Supergiant didn't make this but I respect the need to do so in this capitalist hellhole. It's good and I knew it would be good, but I find the entire concept kind of saddening. Who knows if we'll get a new original from them this decade, if ever?
Best New Design: Hephaestus
Worst Redesign: Dionysus

Fantastic sci-fi story deeply informed by the global socioeconomic situation the past few years. Laser targeted at the Asian diaspora in ways that few things are. There's so much to unpack in even the small details that it's kind of hard to even talk about, but I highly recommend it (also highly recommend Kastel's post about it). Hekki grace, sisters.
Best Sister: Bang Bang Fire
Worst Bit of Tedium: Hope you like wandering a confusing hub level

Yes, it is Hollow Knight meets Sekiro by way of Taoism, and turns out that's a real slick combination. Yi is a great protagonist with some genuine layers; he is not a good person and he knows it. Combat really does nail the same feelings as Sekiro, where any given boss phase feels impossible at first and by the time you're fighting the next phase regularly, you aren't getting hit even once.
Best Feeling: No-hit first phase two hours after first phase obliterated you
REALLY Tired of These Levels: Chased by a big crosshair

Reaching some of the highest highs FromSoftware has hit yet means that the relative lows feel way worse in comparison. Actual ending is dry toast which makes it even more frustrating/fascinating that the best stuff is shunted off to play second fiddle.
Best Lore Drop: Shaman's Village
Worst Lore Drop: Final Boss's Armor Description

When the Switch came out, I was worried that we'd end up losing the mid-tier handheld Nintendo game entirely. Alas, that did broadly happen, but Echoes of Wisdom is a lovely reminder that we still have room for 2D Zelda games. It's interesting to see BoTW's design ethos adapted to a different form.
Best Echo: Water Block
Worst UI Decision: No favorites menu

I cooked up the definitive Ranking of UFO 50 back when this came out. They really commit to the bit and some of the individual games in here could be the full asking price on their own. Worth the wait, somehow.
Most Likely to Secretly Be a Circa-2010 Indie Game: Warptank
Game I Want to Play But Don't Have Patience For: Golfaria

I said most of what I have to say about this game in my post/review. It's broadly well made and I don't regret playing it, but I also fundamentally find it a disappointment.
Best Non-Party Follower: Brigitta
Biggest Letdown: Mage Academy

Rogue Trader, as my first foray into 40K, had me in the mood to check out some other stuff in the grim darkness of humanity's future. I played this via a friend's account so I could avoid dropping $60 on it, and that was the right choice. Sometimes an 8-10 hour romp of shooting aliens in the head is all you need.
Best Melee Weapon: Thunder Hammer
Worst Ranged Weapon: Plasma Incinerator

Wrote a joint post about these two, not because they're actually connected at all but because my brain kinda sorted them into the same box. I'd love to see more games like these: just solid $15-20 RPGs that last for about 15-20 hours. Good times.
Best Class: Ranger (SKALD), Paladin (Scarmonde)
Biggest Pain in the Ass: Slimes (SKALD), Lv2 Orbs (Scarmonde)

I was really taken by this when I played the demo during some NextFest or another, but then ended up putting it off until the last week of December. I think it's really quite good, but it started to drag a bit once I got into the back third of the game; it could have been half as long and hit just as hard. Great anime-inspired animation and solid, affecting character work.
Deserved More Screentime: Sofia
Probably Should've Been Reworked A Bit: Jake

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