GOTY 2024: Adam Cook
It’s been a year of MetroidVanias and massive role-players for me, and as such, I feel like my GOTY 2024 list is going to be pretty different from normal. And honestly, I feel like every year I say it’s been a more trying, or testing year than the last, but I think instead, I’ll focus on the positives, which has largely been those very same RPGs you’re going to read about in this list. It’s felt like a return home for me, to the games I loved as a youngster, and honestly: I can’t remember a year I’ve played through so many 40-plus hour games.
Titles won’t make the list, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t finish them or play them. Metaphor: ReFantazio not being in my top ten is astonishing to me as it is to you, reader, but it just felt like it ran out of ideas at the end, and I finished it glad it was over, not happy it had happened. Likewise, Romancing SaGa 2 is one I didn’t finish, but I did adore what I played of it.
That said, I can’t actually ignore some of the personal events of 2024. But rather than be dour and bring people down ahead of what’s supposed to be a celebration of games, I do want to say that, to the team here, to my friends on Discord… I wouldn’t have made it through this year without you. Your friendship and love has been everything to me, so thank you. And now… bring on the games.
GOTY 2024 Honourable Mentions
Life is Strange: Double Exposure: A new list; a new LiS game. Plot holes exist, but there’s something I just adore about this world, and I cannot wait for more of it.
UFO 50: A game that shouldn’t exist. Magical, marvelous, ridiculous. I pray it comes to all consoles and everyone else gets to have their minds blown like I did.
Helldivers 2: The hell bomb. That is all. Well, no… actually, this is a first-class multiplayer game, and I absolutely adore it.
Minishoot’ Adventures: Bizarre grammatical naming conventions be damned, this game is a throwback in the very best ways, and encompasses pretty much everything I adore about MetroidVanias, shoot-em-ups, and adventure games.
Balatro: Despite being essentially “perfect” at what it sets out to do, let’s call this my “first runner up”. Magical, and even better on mobile.
10. Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes
This is the most “heart over head” game on my list. I know it isn’t perfect, but there was something about the way every part of it comes together that I couldn’t put it down. From the base building to the simplified, but fast paced combat, to the story that delivered, and the way it managed to bring those hundred (or more) characters to life with their own unique feel and story. Even the large scale battles were fun, and there was the right level of difficulty throughout. Just a rollocking good time, and an early sign for me that RPGs were going to dominate my year.
GOTY 2024: 9. The Thaumaturge
Just a bizarre mix of storytelling, turn-based combat, characters, and detective style gameplay made The Thaumaturge a very late entry into my top ten GOTY 2024 list. It took the game coming to console (PS5 for me) to finally sit down and indulge myself with it, and I found the choices interesting and impactful. But the turn-based combat is deeper than it initially suggest, and the detective gameplay outside of that is moreish and addictive. Play this, folks, it’s just a strange game, but a rewarding one.
8. Stellar Blade
Speaking of the “feel in your hands”, Stellar Blade might have one of the most satisfying parries in gaming for a long time. The cold hard truth is that you could have any protagonist in the place of Eve, with that combat and world to explore, and it’d be great. At first it seems like it might be “Soulslike”, but it’s not. This is a character action game in the vein of Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, etc, and that ilk. It gives you new abilities at a great click, has fantastic boss fights, and has a superb soundtrack. I get why people would skip this, but we really don’t get enough games that are “just” action, without the Souls.
7. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
The quintessential MetroidVania, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown may have been an early 2024 title, but it never left my list for very long. The platforming is exquisite, with some challenges that have you ripping your hair out, yet never frustrating because you know it’s your execution of the pinpoint perfect jumps that’s letting you down. But that’s not even all it has: the combat is also brilliant, the powers exciting, and even the story is fairly interesting throughout. It’s a travesty this game didn’t get more love, because in a world where people wish huge publishers would take risks on smaller games and ideas, this could be the pick of the bunch. A phenomenal game that’s all about the feel in your hands.
6. Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
Don’t Nod have long been a favourite developer of mine. From the earliest days of Remember Me, the team has always seemingly strived for interesting games over the tried and tested “big selling ideas”. With some of the best voice acting I’ve heard in years, Banishers is closest to the modern era God of War games if trying to describe it to someone. The combat takes a little too long to open up, so I can understand if the early game puts people off, but the world and stories are absolutely fantastic. With some of the most difficult decisions I’ve ever made in a choice-based narrative, even though I got the bad ending, this game is one I would recommend anyone give a try.
GOTY 2024: 5. Zenless Zone Zero
I cannot believe a free to play gacha game is anywhere near my top ten, let alone this high. But (on last check) I had spent over 100 hours on ZZZ, and I had even bought two separate battle passes (my first and second ever), so if I ignored it out of some weird snobbery, I’d be lying to myself. Brilliant, thrilling combat animations that initially belie the deeper, more hardcore difficulty that hides underneath, the original release was a daily game for me for months on end. In fact, it was only as they added more content, bizarrely, that I slowly stepped away.
4. Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Given it was ten years in the making, and given that it’s not the same BioWare that made those games I loved, there was every chance The Veilguard could have been a disaster. Instead, BioWare delivered a superb combat system, characters I grew to adore, and a narrative that brought me to tears. While some of the writing doesn’t quite land, I couldn’t put this game down. It looks great, sounds amazing, plays brilliantly… I mean, what’s not to love?
3. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
There were so many ways that Infinite Wealth could have gone wrong. Without spoiling it, the lead-up to release meant we all knew that certain characters were going to have to endure certain things, and that things were coming to some kind of an end. Yet, somehow, RGG Studios made every second count. Infinite Wealth feels like every bit of brilliance from the Yakuza games distilled into one. The humour; the pathos; the emotion. Let’s not forget, either, this game basically had a full on Pokemon title, and an Animal Crossing game within it. I genuinely think I could have played this all year and never got bored. God knows where the team goes next for the next mainline Like a Dragon game, but I’ll be there day one.
GOTY 2024: 2. Astro Bot
We don’t do an award for “least surprisingly good game” of the year, but if we did, Astro Bot would be nailed on. Platforming perfection, with some individual levels that are best in class. It’s about time Mario had some competition, frankly, and Team Asobi is exactly that. From the mouse level to the casino, the tree, and the end of world themed levels. Simply magical. To this day I can’t tell if it’s a good sign I hammered it to platinum within a few days, or not. I want more!
1. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
I’ll say right here and now: I didn’t like how Rebirth ended. But as a middle part of a trilogy of games based on my joint favourite game of all time, it nailed everything else. One of the most visually arresting games of the generation, and maybe some of the best combat in an RPG of all time, from the second I heard the title screen music and took control of my boy Cloud again, I was enraptured.
Some will dislike the checkbox nature of the open world, but I genuinely adored it. I wanted to 100% this game, but some brutal difficulty-based challenges put me off. Visiting areas new to the second part was absolutely wonderful, and revisiting the game on PS5 Pro, I just wanted to spend another 65 hours playing it all over again.
