2024 wasn’t the best of years for me and for the world in general, and even in the game industry it was pretty rough, but I’ve still managed to play enough new games to fill up a top ten list for your reading pleasure. You might learn about what games make me tick a bit too!
10. Crow Country
A great hommage to the survival horror genre, Crow Country is a labor of love of the highest quality. It’s a ride that goes strong from start to finish, with a neat story and solid mechanics with a blast of nostalgia along the way.
9. Dragon Age Veilguard
I’m not the biggest Dragon Age fan in the world and maybe that explains my overall positivity on this game; I know of the franchise overall, but it’s been decades since I’ve played another one of these, so my time with Veilguard was entirely rooted in the present; a fun romp with well written characters, good gameplay mechanics that make up a battle system that flows well, a lot of cool content to go through and glimpses of Bioware magic here and there. Might not be for everyone, but they really tried to go for it.
8. The Legend Of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
I mostly prefer 2D zeldas over the 3D ones, and Echoes of Wisdom really delivered on the classic formula with a nice echo-creating twist. It was fun to explore, solve puzzles and fight enemies, even if sometimes the rewards felt… unrewarding and the swordsman mode felt a bit like a cop-out. A really neat game still!
7. Prince of Persia The Lost Crown
A metroidvania of immense proportions, I had a great time with this one. Platforming, combat and puzzles all came together in a perfect little package with unique and inventive mechanics all around.
6. Unicorn Overlord
Feeling a bit like an Ogre Battle spiritual successor, UO is a massive strategy RPG with a unique combat system that could remind one of FF12’s gambit system. A ton of cool characters, an amazing art style and plenty of content made this a game I’m happy to have played in 2024.
5. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
Spending more time with Ichiban and friends in the RPG-fighting, minigame-completing world of Hawaii was a blast, with great new characters, interesting story developments and overall solid mechanics. I’ve spent so much time in the LAD universe that it probably had a compounding effect on my overall enjoyment of this game, but it still was a load of fun.
4. Metaphor: Rephantazio
Another great RPG from Atlus, very adjacent to Shin Megami Tensei, but not quite, Metaphor creates an entirely new world with great characters, locales, enemies and a simply incredible sense of style, both in the game’s interface or music. Very good stuff!
3. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes
This puzzle game taking place in a giant hotel made me think a lot. About the puzzles, which are mostly great and overall well executed, but also about art and media in general. It had big Suda51 vibes to me as well, which was a big plus. A really good game that I won’t say more about.
2. EDF 6
Earth Defense Force is a franchise near and dear to my earth. With its very simple gameplay of shooting hordes of bugs with over the top weaponry in crazy scenarios, it’s always a good time. EDF 6 is the near perfect version of that kind of game, with a great story, inventive new enemies and the same enjoyable loop, I just had a blast.
1.Last Epoch
Maybe it’s because I played this for two months straight when it came out of early access. Maybe it’s because action RPGs are one of my favorite genres and I can just get lost in them. No matter my specific inclinations regarding that kind of game, Last Epoch is just an amazing one of these with well thought mechanics, a ton of build variety and enough staying power to dethrone my previous contenders to the throne of the game I just want to be playing all the time or theorycraft new builds. Can’t wait to see where they go in the future!