Best Older RPG that I Played (For the First Time) in 2024: Linda³ Again
Playing Linda³ for the first time today feels like NieR went back in time and had a child with EarthBound. This is the best way I’ve been able to convey what makes this PSX boundary-pusher such a special game. I’d heard chatter about this being yet another lost Japan-only classic from the era, and with a recent and professionally executed fan translation, I finally got to see what’s up with it. What’s up is honestly a lot. Linda³ is a narratively dense game with some horrific representations of psychological abuse and graphic violence spread across three playthroughs (Scenarios A, B, C) depicting an actively collapsing planet.
Each playthrough tasks its two protagonists, the power couple of Ken Challenger and Linda (Cubed?), with collecting one male and female animal of every species into a spaceship they are meant to escape on before a meteorite wipes everything out. You accomplish this through turn-based battles where you must whittle down the animal’s health to a low percentage without murdering the poor thing. In the meantime, a whole bunch of other stuff happens—sometimes involving people dressed as Santa. It’s like the biblical story of Noah’s Ark if it was written by Hideaki Anno of Neon Genesis Evangelion fame. If that doesn’t at least pique your curiosity, I don’t know what will.
The Game with the Most to Say: 1000xRESIST
If you’re like me, you’ve seen 1000xRESIST pop off in this year’s awards season, and you have heard enough vague yet shining praise to give it a shot. And if, like me, you appreciate videogames as a potentially powerful storytelling medium, you probably realized this game is the newest revelation in that regard.
Quite simply, if you appreciate the art of narrative design, you should play 1000xRESIST. It’s rare that a game cleanly and compellingly manages so many nuanced layers of thematic depth. It seamlessly blends a captivating sci-fi conceit surrounding a utopia/dystopia of devout clones with a deeply personal story about a character’s struggles with intergenerational trauma and the way it can affect one’s relationships and worldview. Many videogame stories are excellent “for a game.” This one is just straight-up excellent.
The Game I Really Wish We Could Cover: Nine Sols
Nine Sols knows how to appeal exactly to me. Design-wise, it blends elements of Hollow Knight and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice—maybe my two favorite games that fall just outside of our coverage. While it doesn’t achieve the heights of what those two influences do best (exploration and combat, respectively), it balances them expertly enough to be the next best thing. Whether I was dashing through its platforming challenges or perfect-parrying its phenomenal bosses’ beautifully choreographed attacks, Nine Sols’ gameplay had me engaged at every second. But this ignores what ended up being the most welcome surprise about the game: its story.
Behind Nine Sols’ challenging mechanics is a revenge tale that meditates on the progress of scientific engineering versus the inaction of Taoism. The Taiwanese developer, Red Candle Games, is known for reflecting on political and religious themes surrounding their home country in previous games, and Nine Sols is no exception. Don’t be fooled by the cute anthropomorphic cat-like creatures in the main cast. This is a game that spoke to my spirit as much as my fingers.
The Game with the Most to Play: Caves of Qud
I will review Caves of Qud—an RPG roguelike that recently left early access after almost a decade—I’m just not sure when. I know there’s an ending to reach but I still don’t know how to get there. And the game isn’t exactly incentivizing me to rush. Easy deaths lie in every dungeon you dig too deep into, and in every expedition across its expansive world if you don’t stock up on supplies and proceed carefully. But, as with the best challenging games, death feels like a learning experience: an opportunity to apply knowledge from failure and try something new (and fun!) rather than a discouraging admonishment on your inability to do a thing.
The fun starts with character building. The world of Qud is populated with mutated beings. Your characters’ mutations are a crucial part of your build. They’re sometimes chosen and sometimes formed without your input. Maybe you spent too much time wandering around mushroom fields and contracted a fungal growth on your arm that emits toxic spores when enemies attack you. The game’s simplistic presentation is a canvas for some of the most imaginative systems-driven gameplay and prose-driven worldbuilding I’ve ever encountered. And if you’re allergic to the word “roguelike,” you can even select a saveable “Roleplay” mode.
The Game That Hit Me the Hardest: Persona 3 Reload
Persona 3 Reload pulled off a fascinating feat: it made me realize that Persona 3 is one of my favorite RPGs. The original had a remarkable impact on me when I played it, but parts of it felt like such a grind that, over time, it became a game I respected more than adored. I’m not sure I would’ve gotten around to replaying it if not for this simultaneously faithful and rejuvenating remake, and now I’m already considering my next playthrough.
Persona 3 is still the Atlus RPG that uses its calendar system the most expressively. Even the slow-burn start serves its purpose in the story’s progression. It has more naturalistic writing than its successors, built around characterizations that feel perfectly imperfect. I lived this game for the few weeks that I played it. There aren’t too many other RPGs that grip me so completely through their gameplay loop and story that I could say that about.
