Games of the Year from 2024
1) Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes
I loved my time with this game so much. I did have to adjust my expectations a little to get to that love though. I went in hoping for Suikoden II, which this game certainly is not. Yes, there are similarities, and big ones at that, but also several key differences. The dark tone, political and military focus, and muted colour palette are all either gone completely or greatly reduced. This game is vibrant, more light-hearted, and the world more diverse in its environments. Initially I was a little disappointed in Eiyuden Chronicle’s approach, but with some time I was able to move past this and my own preconceptions to appreciate this game on its own merits. Then I started to fall in love with it. Hunting down all of its 120 characters and then figuring out my battle party was so much fun, as was developing my castle and seeing it grow and change over time. This game is also packed to the brim with PS1 nostalgia, even to the point of eschewing many QOL updates we see in modern RPGs. This didn’t bother me, maybe because I grew up with games that didn’t have them in the first place and playing without them felt part of that nostalgic quality. On completion, I did feel that the story could have used a little more work, but it certainly wasn’t bad and did not take away from all the positive experiences I had which made this my favourite game of 2024.
2) Granblue Fantasy: Relink
I was starting to think this game would never release because things went quiet for so long after the initial announcement. When we finally got that date, I was very excited, and this was one of my most anticipated games of 2024. However, the game we actually got is not the game I was expecting at all. This may be my fault or marketing, I’m not sure, but I think I was expecting something similar to Final Fantasy XII and what we got was similar to Monster Hunter, but if the weapons were whole characters. As a Monster Hunter fan, this was totally fine with me and I do like a surprise. The gameplay loop here extends beyond Story Mode into individual quests. Quests can be solo and online co-op to grind points to enhance your character (and parts to enhance and level up weapons). They’re extremely addicting and had me hooked for many hours.
3) Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth
Where do I start with this one? Final Fantasy VII is one of my favourite FF games. Not my overall favourite, but it’s up there. FFVII Remake (unfortunately) left me a little disappointed. I did have fun with it, but a whole game set in Midgar felt a little unnecessary to me, and some of the story changes just didn’t sit right. Because of this, I was feeling a little apprehensive about Rebirth, though certainly still excited to play and explore its more open world and wider range of locales. Did I enjoy this game more than Remake? Absolutely, yes. Did some things still frustrate me? Absolutely, yes.
The characters are 100% my highlight, and I’d like to give special mention here to Cait Sith, my favourite character to control in battle and with such a great performance from voice actor Paul Tinto. The world looks incredible, and the story improves as the pace picks up. However, I occasionally found the repetitive nature of the huge open areas a lot to deal with, and fatigue very much set in when exploring. I’m the kind of person who likes to do everything before moving on, and doing everything in this game takes serious time and often feels like work rather than play. Saying that, I do appreciate Square Enix trying new things with this entry, particularly to make the world feel bigger, more expansive, and with more depth. Also, I enjoy a fun minigame, and there are some great ones here. However, there are a lot of infuriating ones, too. Football with Red XIII? Never again, thanks. Even with these minor negatives, this game was a blast and I relished every moment with this cast, who must be one of the best in gaming, or will be once Vincent and Cid are controllable.
Game of the Year from Before 2024
Final Fantasy II
I decided 2024 was the year for me to begin playing through the Pixel Remasters of Final Fantasy I-VI, almost all of which I had never played before (except for half of VI and a tiny bit of IV). Though my quest is only half complete, I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed my time with Final Fantasy II, especially after the amount of negativity I’d observed. While the main characters here don’t have as much personality as later entries in the series, they’re all likable and interesting. Firion is a pretty cool protagonist, and some of the other temporary characters, namely Minwu and Ricard, were highlights of the game; I felt invested in their own (often short) story arcs. The leveling system, while it encourages battle in a slightly unnatural way, was intriguing and allowed for a level of freedom I’m not used to in a Final Fantasy game. I’m sure the Pixel Remaster version smooths out much of the annoyance from the original version of FFII, which can only be a positive. I loved my time with this game, would recommend it to any fans of the series, and am sure I’ll revisit it again in the future.
Games of the year that I need to play more of before they could potentially become “Games of the Year”
It’s fair to say that 2024 has been stacked with notable RPG releases, which is great news for genre fans, but bad news for both my wallet and my time. Unfortunately for me, I get very easily distracted by shiny new games, so the first few months of 2024, along with autumn this year, have been challenging. Both of these periods saw numerous big-name RPGs release within weeks of each other, meaning I have not dedicated enough time to them yet, and I don’t feel ready to class them as my Games of the Year. Instead, these are my potential GotY with special mention here.
1) Metaphor: ReFantazio
I am in love with this game’s art style, which is not surprising, really — it’s an Atlus creation. I think I’ve clocked about 30 hours in this so far, and I’m enjoying my time in this world and with these characters. It’s weird fantasy done very well.
2) Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven
This is my first time playing a game from the SaGa series. (I’m not including the time I tried UNLIMITED SaGa on the PS2 and gave up on it quicker than you can say, “What the heck is going on here?”) I’m drawn in by the non-linear storytelling and how the game handles leveling and character recruitment. Definitely looking forward to spending more time with this one.
3) Dragon Age: The Veilguard
I got this on release day, and the first week I had with it was probably the most obsessed with a game I’ve been this year. I played it daily and, had this been a shorter game, I’d have finished it in that time. There’s not much I’ve disliked so far, and the hate this game got is rather baffling to me, honestly. Yes, some of the writing is clunky, but it doesn’t bother me much. Find me a game that has perfect writing for its entirety. If I were closer to completing it, I imagine this would have made my Games of the Year list.
4) Fantasian: Neo Dimension
As I write this, I’ve only had a copy of Fantasian on my PS5 for a week, so it’s very early on. I’m a big fan of Mistwalker, and obviously Sakaguchi and Uematsu, so when I learned this was finally releasing outside of Apple Arcade, I was thrilled. I’m anticipating I’ll love this game, but I need to spend much more time getting into its world, story, and cast of characters.
5) Unicorn Overlord
This game unfortunately came out during the first part of 2024 amongst a whole bunch of other amazing RPGs, and it became a case of too many games, not enough time. I fully plan to go back to this because I’m a huge Vanillaware fan and their last game, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, is one of my all-time favourites.
