Man, 2024’s been a bit of a doozy. Even amid the madness, lots and lots of games kept coming out every week, including long-awaited ones like Metaphor: ReFantazio. If you’re a fan of RPGs (like me), you probably had a blast checking out all the games that kept on releasing non-stop throughout the entirety of the year.
As for me, I played around 50-ish games this year, though most of ones I played didn’t come out over the past 12 months. From that, I was able to form a coherent list of games that I wanted to give a shake and write about for your viewing pleasure. As for why seven, no reason other than I thought it would be a funny arbitrary number.
So without further ado, here are my top seven games of the year (including games that didn’t come out in 2024), not ranked in any particular order.
Pseudoregalia
This little 2023 indie darling snuck up on me last year, and during my short-games slump in March, I decided to give it a whirl and see how it stacked with its reputation. I’m a big fan of what I call “schmovement games,” i.e. games that focus heavily on linking movement abilities and techniques to break certain sequences or explore a space more interestingly. Therefore, Pseudoregalia embracing this concept but with a Metroidvania-esque approach to exploration in a genuinely quite big environment was a lot of fun. It took me around two days to beat it. and the moment I did, I wanted to go back and try some tech I’d learned on YouTube immediately after.
I wish more games like it existed, though. I think there’s a great space for short, cheap, and interesting games that play hard with their mechanics and leave you going “Wow that was fun!” after around eight hours or so.
Platforms: PC
Granblue Fantasy: Relink
While I’ve already talked about how Granblue Fantasy: Relink (2024) is a great game that encapsulates the core appeal of Granblue for an audience that doesn’t want to spend 500 hours clicking buttons to get one single piece of loot, I’d like focus on another element I didn’t mention before.
You see, Relink is an action roleplaying game about actual, legit, awe-dropping setpieces that always impress in their scale, beauty, and wonder. From the very first mission where you’re jumping through airships, to the incredible desert level and its final boss, to the couple of mech turret sections that rule to the amazing final boss encounter that I dare not spoil, Granblue Fantasy: Relink’s main story always one-ups itself in terms of sheer scale, and it’s glorious to see.
While the main story didn’t do anything for me, what I actually did in the game was some of the most fun I’ve had with a semi-AAA title in a while. I hope they make a sequel eventually because I think that this team has the potential to make these games the coolest experiences ever.
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4 & 5
The Caligula Effect: Overdose
The Caligula Effect: Overdose (2019) is an incredibly janky, kind of unfun, really ugly game that hits more so than it misses with its main story. While a lot of people will undoubtedly compare it to the Persona series thanks to some pretty surface-level comparisons (and the fact the main writer for it worked on Persona 1 and Persona 2), it’s a beast on its own.
I’m not sure if Overdose will hit with some people as it did for me, especially given I streamed the entire game to a couple of friends who really like it. That being said, I think it’s a really special type of experience. It’s a game about the connections we make online and how real they can be if allowed to grow, and how they can stretch from the virtual world to the real one. And streaming it made all of those connections come to life for me… It’s a game about the vulnerabilities of people and how we deal with them, while not interested in the idea of “fixing” the issues for the various characters as much as helping them discover an avenue to cope with their problems healthily.
It’s a messy but beautiful game, and I’m glad it exists as it does.
Platforms: PC, PS4, Nintendo Switch
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
Fun fact: I’d never played a Castlevania game directed by Koji Igarashi before this game, so this was a welcome surprise to me. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (2019) focuses hard on what makes Metroidvanias work and why they’re different from the current wave of indies in the genre: pacing. Bloodstained is a swift 13-hour game where you see most of the content it has for you in a second. There are no dragged-out, boring sections where you have to go back to collect your body because “omg Dark Souls did it first!” (looking at you, Hollow Knight) because it wants you to have the maximum amount of fun possible in its expansive yet still manageable map.
Alongside this, there’s a robust RPG system here that rewards understanding what each weapon does and upgrading them as you go with an honestly engaging crafting system. In turn, this means that there’s no downtime in Bloodstained; just pure fun that starts and ends right when it needs to. I would recommend this over most modern Metroidvanias in a second, honestly.
Standings: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch, Android, iOS, Google Stadia
Hitman: World of Assassination
Let me explain the appeal of Hitman with an anecdote.
I’m playing a level set in the slums of Mumbai. I have three targets: one is a producer in a high-rise building shooting a movie; another is in an abandoned train depot making some shady business deals that involve slave labor; the last one is hidden in plain sight and I must figure out who it is based on clues I can obtain around the city.
As I investigate and check out the map, I find something curious in one of the many apartment buildings: a man is sitting around with a sniper rifle, seemingly targeting my target through the window. I start to piece things together; I could probably set some stuff up so that my target faces him and he shoots him for me. I think about it for a bit and get to work.
After some strewing around, I find a way to get this target closer to the sniper’s vantage point. I have to find a way of convincing him to move from his office to a private painting studio he has on one of the floors, which is easier said than done. I knock out some guards, disguise myself as the painter, and get some other miscellaneous stuff ready and when I manage to get him to follow me, I begin painting his portrait, and his brains are shot across the room.
This is the appeal of Hitman: It’s a puzzle game in the style of a stealth game. Finding how to best kill your targets in the most efficient, funny, dramatic, or interesting ways is addicting, making it so you always want to replay the levels over and over again and find new ways of eliminating these horrible people. If the above anecdote made you interested in the game, then Hitman—even years after its initial 2016 release—is the series for you.
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, PS4, Xbox One, Stadia
NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139…
NieR Replicant is a beautiful game about broken people who wish to be whole. A lot of people read it as a tale of a father who sacrifices everything to save his daughter, but to me, that reading (and the entirety of NieR Gestalt, where Dad Nier exists) is incongruous with how the game decides to tackle its themes of obsession and violence through its structure.
NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… is a big update of NieR Replicant (2010) that was previously only released in Japan, but came to the west in 2021. It’s one of many in the Nier series.
Replicant is a clever game that managed to affect me hard throughout its four separate replays. Despite the combat being honestly really bad, it had its hooks on me for 35 hours and never let go. Definitely a classic and one of the most unique games ever made.
Standings: PC, PS4, Xbox One
Elden Ring (Base Game, Not the DLC)
It’s truly incredible that Elden Ring is as good as it is: a game of uncompromising scope and scale, where you’re always rewarded for going out of your way to find something, be it with a cave, a dungeon, or a new piece of unique equipment. You’re always in peril but the feeling of open adventure never, ever leaves you. You’re able to route out your own unique experience through the mechanics in a way you want, and it makes every playthrough feel like a breath of fresh air every time.
Playing the 2022 GOTY winner as a dedicated mage, compared to my other playthroughs in Dark Souls where I just stuck with a big sword, was incredible. The breadth and amount of cool magic at your disposal make it fun to try and plan how you want to approach the myriad of challenges scattered around the map. A friend of mine once described it as “an 80’s RPG manifested within the modern day,” and while I haven’t played nearly enough old-school RPGs to appreciate that mindset, I can see what they meant in how the world truly is open for you to indulge yourself in, where you never know what secrets may lie within it or what quests you can activate by exploring.
I haven’t played this year’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC expansion yet, and I can’t wait to dive into that and feel this immense feeling all over again. Elden Ring truly is a magical time.
Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
