Here's a list of my top 10 games of 2024. To qualify, they would've had to come out officially in English this year because I did not want to count fan translations or disqualify games that took multiple years to be localized for the English market.
#10 - Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail
Final Fantasy XIV has become something of a constant for me, it’s a game I go into at least once a week running various dungeons and other content. I never thought I would get so into an MMO, but here we are. A new expansion came out this year, and I really enjoyed it! Dawntrail sits comfortably after Endwalker and Shadowbringers as by third favorite expansion for FFXIV. I was wondering where they’d take the story next and starting it off as a new adventure in a far away land was a good choice. The create-a-character Warrior of Light is now taking a step back into a mentor role for the new character this expansion, Wuk Lamat. I really liked her as a character and loved her shounen protagonist-esque energy that she brings and I think she goes through some nice development. With her being the de facto main character though, your opinion on her will either make or break how you feel about the expansion. Dawntrail does have similar problems to every other expansion in the game, mainly in its pacing. There’s a very clear divide between the first and second halves of the story and while it kinda breezes through some sections, I really enjoyed the big reveals towards the end.
Outside of the story, this is the best FFXIV content has been for me. All of the dungeons are fun with some pretty challenging bosses and the trials themselves were a blast to play. The bits of raid content we got so far are also some of my favorites in the game. Structuring the normal raids like a tournament was a really smart idea and the Alliance Raid was pretty good even if I have no context for FFXI. Both of the classes they added are also great and I ended up maining both of them. Also not to mention the music for this expansion is killer, getting to Tuliyollal the first time and hearing a song right out of Donkey Kong and then giving the bee themed idol in the raid tier a Vocal Theme was incredibly smart.
#9 - Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance
Shin Megami Tensei V was one of the reasons why I bought a Switch and was one of my favorite games of 2021, but my biggest issue with the game was the Switch itself. The game looked blurry as hell and the menus ran slow. I just wanted to play a version of it on stronger hardware. Thankfully this year ATLUS released SMTV: Vengeance, a version of the game I could play on PS5 and it looks gorgeous. All of the games stunning art direction could really pop and running at a rock solid 60fps made everything feel smooth. If they just stopped at a simple port I would be so happy, but they didn’t. They provided a whole ass expansion.
Vengeance now as a brand-new campaign addressing some of the criticisms from the first version. In the original you can really feel the development hit a snag due to things like covid and the Switch’s outdated hardware. The new campaign introduces a new character and brings a greater focus on the games cast in general. SMTV wasn’t a story heavy game, but it still was a bit disappointing in that department. Now they have a bit more to do in the story and can even join your party at times. The new story is more engaging than the previous one, and all of the new gameplay stuff is great. Every demon now having a passive trait like in Persona 5 can make some bosses even more difficult and change up how you build your team. Also like the original, the music is still incredible and some of the new tracks are absolutely amazing. This is easily my favorite entry in the series and I’m excited to see what the team does next.
#8 - Emio: The Smiling Man - Famicom Detective Club
I think it’s great that Nintendo is bringing back some of their more dormant franchises. Famicom Detective Club was a two-game series of adventure games releasing back on the NES that recently got remakes on the Switch a few years ago, and now they decided to make a third entry for the series. Emio: The Smiling Man fixes up some of the more obtuse elements of the original, it’s a lot clearer what you need to do for progression and I never once thought I had accidentally soft locked myself. The gameplay is still pretty basic, just asking questions and checking the environment, but the visuals and music are really outstanding. On a presentation standpoint the game is top notch, everything is so well animated and it all looks great. For the music one of my favorite composers worked on this and the remakes of the first two, Takeshi Abo. His tracks are set the mood perfectly and really elevate the games atmosphere. The story itself is alright and I think the mystery is interesting and genuinely unsettling but I was a tad disappointed with the finale. I feel like it wraps up a bit too quickly and there was some stuff left hanging.
However, after the credits is when the true final section of Emio starts. When I started this part, I was floored at both how much money Nintendo dedicated to this project and to just how good this part of the game was. It answers all of the lingering questions from the base game and is just overall outstanding. The main antagonist is given a lot of depth and it really elevated my opinion of the game as a whole. I’m glad something like this exists and that Nintendo is willing to take chances on some of their older series that have gone dormant.
#7 - Astro Bot
When I played Astro’s Playroom in 2020, I was desperate for a full version of that game. It was an incredibly fun platformer that was also pretty short due to being a pack in game for the PS5. Well a full game finally came out and not only did it exceed my expectations, it’s easily one of the best 3D platformers I’ve ever played. Astro Bot is just pure joy and whimsy, everything from the cute animations to the infectious music made it always put a smile on my face. Not just that put the gameplay itself is tight and incredibly satisfying with the level design being interesting the whole way through, albeit it maybe needed some aesthetic variety. My one issue with the levels is that Horizon is one of the cameo levels in the game and it’s easily the worst one. I also wish the God of War one was based on the PS2 games instead of Ragnarök. Having only one hit before you die can by annoying, but checkpoints are abundant, so it never felt like an issue. The power ups you get become the main gimmick of whatever stage you’re in and all of them feel great, my favorite one being the dog that lets you rocket forward a bit. The best part about having levels dedicated to powerup means you can have specific challenges that revolve around them. Some of the hidden levels are hard as hell, but felt super satisfying to finally conquer. I never thought that Sony could put out a game that’s leagues better than the last 3D Mario game, but they proved me wrong. Turns out not going overboard and shotgunning collectables all over your map and instead having designed, unique challenges makes your platforming game better.
Also, I’m glad that I’m not so cynical that I see this game as an “IP Graveyard” and can instead take it for what it is, a fun ass platformer. Please let this team make another game after this, maybe even Ape Escape? Yeah that’d be sick as hell.
#6 - Tsukihime: A Piece of Blue Glass Moon
I honestly can’t believe that the Tsukihime remake came out after being announced in 2008 and taking 13 years to release. Not only that, I also can’t believe they put it out in English officially this year. And on top of all of that, the official English translation is really solid. I know this will sound strange, but I think Tsukihme: A Piece of Blue Glass Moon is the closest we will get to a “AAA” big budget visual novel. It’s really stunning to look at with all of the unique art assets and how they animate “static” images, working within the limitations of the medium to make something incredibly impressive. Outside of the visuals this was my first time going through anything Tsukihime related and I quite liked the story. I loved Nasu’s world building in Fate/Stay Night so finally being able to read something new from them was a treat. Finally getting to experience a classic part of the medium through a remake that looks and sounds this good was an incredible time. I loved the characters in this one and my only real issue with it is that Akiha and the maids didn’t get enough screentime, but considering this is only part one of a two-part remake I’m eagerly awaiting the next entry. I just hope it doesn’t take over a decade again.
#5 - Persona 3 Reload
Persona 3 was ground zero for my love of JRPGs. Sure I played Pokémon and a few Final Fantasy before it, but Persona 3 is where I started to really fall in love with the genre. However, it was never my favorite in the series, both P4 and P5 did things better and really improved upon the formula. So I was ecstatic when they announced Persona 3 Reload, a remake of the game I fell in love with all those years ago. I’m glad to say that not only is Persona 3 Reload a great game, it’ll be my go to way to play P3 from now on. They updated the gameplay to make battles incredibly smooth, thankfully giving us full party control and skill selection for fusion which brings it in line with P4G and P5. Tartarus was always something from the original that I wasn’t the biggest fan of, but they fix up some stuff here and make it better. There’s no annoying fatigue system and now each block of Tartarus looks more visually distinct which helps it feel a tad less repetitive. The new twilight fragment system is fantastic, rewarding you for doing social links and letting you get cool rewards in the dungeon or helping you level up your party members that are underleveled. Also adding a limit break-like mechanic was smart and I like how each character has a different requirement based on their personality.
In terms of the story, Reload sports a much stronger localization and better voice direction which makes moments hit harder than the original. I really love the new English voice cast and think they all do a stellar job, and now **every** Social Link is fully voice acted. Persona 6 really needs this option because it makes them so much better. Now your male party members have something called Link Episodes, which I honestly like more than Social Links. They’re just small story moments you have with them that relate to what’s currently happening in the story and really help give them a bit more depth. Other than that, it's still Persona 3 which I really like overall. I do think the game unfortunately runs out of stuff to do by the end kinda turning it into a slog, like the original, and not even the new hangout events you can do with your party fill the void enough. There’s also a newly arranged soundtrack which I actually like a whole lot, adding more Lotus Juice into the game is always good and I genuinely think the new singer really fits the existing songs and they, at minimum, sound as good as the original. I’m even willing to say that I mostly prefer a lot of the songs in this version since every vocal song gets a second verse and all of the new songs are so good. I’ve literally had Color Your Night on repeat all year.
Overall, this is my favorite version of Persona 3 and I’m glad people have a version of it to play that’s as good as P4 and P5. Just don’t bother with Episode Aigis, it wasn’t good on the PS2 and it still isn’t good here even with all of the gameplay improvements.
#4 - Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Square Enix releasing a big budget AAA video game that feels reminiscent of their output for the PS2 is a surefire way to appeal to me directly. Iterating on the foundation laid down by the previous Final Fantasy VII Remake, Rebirth is a game with the confidence and scope deserving of the original 1997 entry. I already really liked the ATB based action gameplay of the original, but the refinements made here in Rebirth will make it incredibly hard to go back. Some of my biggest issues with the original is that fighting flying enemies was annoying and not knowing an enemy’s resistances prior to starting a flight could leave you without their weakness to use against them. Giving your melee fighters and easy way to dive towards an enemy in the air makes aerial enemies a nonissue and now you have tons of new ATB attacks with elemental affinities that make you feel less underprepared when going into a fight. Outside of those the new additions of synergy attacks that give bonuses like extending your ATB or increasing stagger time and the new abilities you have to play around with in general makes Rebirth my favorite action RPG from a gameplay standpoint. Combine that with the game taking a note from the Xenoblade series and dropping you into incredibly large areas to explore filles with mini boss encounters, minigames, and new bits of lore and I was never bored in the over 100 hours I dumped into the game. Out of all the side activities I loved Queen’s Blood the most, a fun card game that I ended up liking even more than Triple Triad and I hope they flesh it out even more in the next game. Not all of the minigames are winners, there’s actually some really bad ones sprinkled throughout, but they’re thankfully hidden in the ton of side content the game has and are not mandatory.
On a story front, Rebirth nails what it sets out to do. It’s a, mostly, faithful retelling of the original with new moments sprinkled in. I do think they maybe over emphasize Zack’s role in the game and I kinda wish they deviated a bit more from the original, but all of the story beats in the game are great and the game’s finale is leaving me with a lot of questions that I hope the next game can answer. Aside from the core story, all of the character writing is excellent, the little hangout events you get with them in every town flesh them out nicely and on top of that every sidequest in the game has a different party member accompany you leading to great moments like Barret talking about how much he loves his daughter while you follow a dog across a field and an [infectious vocal song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpcKd1dvzmA) plays in the background. Speaking of the music, Rebirth’s soundtrack is enormous featuring hundreds of songs ranging from remixes and reimagining’s of classics from the original PS1 game to wholly new songs and all of it is excellent. Easily some of the best music to come out of Square Enix and their in-house composers.
As a whole I loved Rebirth and am incredibly excited for whatever the next entry brings. There are a few story things that I don’t know how to feel about yet, but I’m reserving those in the back of my mind until I see if the final entry is able to address them and wrap everything up. It’s gonna be a large task for the development team, but Rebirth was so good that I have faith that they’re gonna be able to deliver on what they promised. Oh, also did I mention this game has a sequel to Crazy Chocobo from Final Fantasy XIII-2? Might be the hardest I’ve laughed at a game this year, I’m so happy they brought it back.
#3 - Metaphor: ReFantazio
Back in 2016 key members of the Persona 5 development team spun off into their own internal studio to make a new fantasy RPG and after years of complete radio silence I honestly started to forget about it, but then it was finally rerevealed as Metaphor: ReFantazio in 2023. This fantasy RPG isn’t just a new IP from ATLUS, but a celebration of their 35 years of history. It’s full of elements and mechanics from so many of their different franchises, building off things like the calendar and bond system from Persona, the press turn system from Shin Megami Tensei, synergies from Digital Devil Saga, and the job system from Etrian Odyssey. These all come together in some of the most fun I’ve ever had with an ATLUS RPG in the last few years. The job system is fantastic and it’s incredibly satisfying to build out your characters using the different jobs you learn. There’s a ton of openness which lets you break some parts over your knee if you plan it out well enough utilizing different passives, buffs, and class exclusive synergy abilities. Through the calendar system you have to plan out how to tackle the main story dungeons, like in P4 and P5, but now you have to also account for going to side quest dungeons and the travel time between them which led me to taking as many side quests as possible and planning out my route to try and finish everything before the deadline. The calendar here is a lot more lenient than the ones in Persona but trying to fit everything into my schedule was fun to plan out, especially when you also have to advance some of your parties’ bonds on the gauntlet runner while traveling.
The bond systems in Metaphor are great since now you level them up every single rank which cuts down on some of the busy work you have in Persona, but unfortunately unlike Persona 3 Reload these are not fully voiced. Through the bonds you get to grow close to Metaphor’s incredibly great cast and unlock all of the game’s jobs. Your main party is one of the strongest ATLUS have had, with my favorites being Strohl, Eupha, and Heismay. The sidecast you get to see through the bonds are also great and I even wish some of the other side characters had bond events that you could do too. Thankfully the ones we have are great and the main story itself is pretty good and is consistently elevated by the game’s main antagonist Louis, who is probably one of the greatest antagonists ATLUS has had. He exudes charisma and takes over every scene he’s in, making some of the most entertaining moments of the game especially in the lead up to the game’s finale.
Metaphor is easily one of my favorite ATLUS games of all time and my favorite of the three they released this year with its stunning art direction and incredibly fun and open battle system. I hope this is able to become a new series from them and that they can continue to innovate on some of the core ideas they’ve developed here. Just maybe next time I hope they’re able to give the game a soundtrack that doesn’t end up sounding really samey over the course of its runtime.
#2 - Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
After Yakuza: Like a Dragon, I was excited for the future of the series now that Ichiban was going to be the main character, and they were going to move forward with his games being turn based RPGs. Last year’s Like a Dragon Gaiden was great and it sets the stage for what Infinite Wealth was going to be, a sequel to Y:LAD and a redo of Kiryu’s final game after Yakuza 6 was contentious. I liked Yakuza 6 well enough and thought it was a good send off for Kiryu, but I wanted to see what they could do with a game that wasn’t compromised by having to be built around a new engine. Thankfully I though Infinite Wealth was incredible, it’s currently my favorite game in the series and goes much farther in being a good final game for him then Y6 ever was.
From a gameplay standpoint, I could forgive a lot of the shortcomings that plagued Yakuza: Like a Dragon due to it being the first RPG the team had made and thankfully Infinite Wealth fixes every single issue I had with the original. Being able to move around in battle, the jobs being more distinct, and not getting your stat increases from job levels are some of the best fixes to the system. You’re also now alerted on what level the upcoming dungeon is, so you don’t get surprised but a suddenly high-level boss. They went from making an RPG with several caveats to one that is just wholly a good RPG all the way though. Outside of the RPG portions this is easily the best side activities have been in the series. Once I got to Dondoko Island, their Animal Crossing-like mode, I spent nearly 20 hours doing everything there is to do. Other activities like the Sujimon battles, Sicko Snap, and Crazy Delivery were pretty fun and really thought there weren’t any duds in the bunch.
Being both a follow up to Yakuza: Like a Dragon and the new final game for Kiryu, Infinite Wealth has a lot on its plate and honestly, I do agree with people when they say it lacks a bit of focus compared to the previous game. Once Ichiban and Kiryu split up you spend time changing between the two parties and the story feels a tad disjointed, but man I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love a lot of what they do. Kiryu’s side is incredibly good, all of his sidequests call back to previous games and bring back characters I never thought I would see again (who the hell remembers his boss at the Taxi company in Yakuza 5?). It feels like not just a sendoff, but a celebration of his legacy. I got teary eyed multiple times during his segments, remembering how much this series has affected me and how I’ve seen these characters grow and change over the course of the years I’ve been a fan. Ichiban’s side of the story is also good, I really liked the new cast members in this game, but the antagonists that both sides go up against are a bit unremarkable. Thankfully it ends really well, and I think it all wraps up nicely. There are definitely warts here and there, but it all comes together nicely and is my favorite game in the series. Excited to see where Ichiban goes next.
#1 - The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak
The eleventh game in Nihon Falcom’s long running Trails series finally came out in English this year and it’s easily my favorite entry yet. Being the start of a new arc, it sets up a lot of things going forward into future games for both the story and gameplay systems. Metaphor may have come out this year and featured a hybrid action and turn based system, but Daybreak was one to do it first when it came out in Japan back in 2021. I actually think it feels better in this game, but it’s also a bit too basic most of the time with you only having an attack, charge, and dodge. The actual turn-based combat of the series is still good and mostly the same, but now introducing a boost system which can raise your stats mid battle and let you pull of the S-Craft attacks (kinda like limit breaks from Final Fantasy). Orbments are now different since rather than giving you skills they give you various passive buffs that have a chance to activate in battle with that chance only going up when you boost. For the first game this change has been in, it’s alright but is sorely missing a bit of variety from the different effects you can get. Daybreak’s structure is still the same that the series has been for forever, go around in the hub city to do some sidequests then going out to a different part of the country to tackle what problem they have while doing some more quests. It’s a structure that I still really like and it’s great finally being in a new setting after five games set in the country Cold Steel takes place in.
Some of the things about Daybreak that ended up making it favorite in the series and my game of the year is the story and cast. This is probably one of my favorite RPG casts in years and is also elevated by the main character, Van Arkride, having his entire arc being one of the core pillars of the story. Finding out about his past and how it entangles with the primary villain was gripping, even if I think the main antagonist is underwhelming. The end of every chapter in the game is bookended by him transforming into a demonic form called the Grendel, which was hype every time it happened and brings up more questions about the nature of this ability. He’s one of the strongest parts of the game and the interactions he has with the party range from being heartwarming to really funny, sometimes he acts as a father figure for one of the younger characters and other times he’s the butt of the joke for being too serious. His whole arc being in this game definitely helped elevate him and I’m curious to see where they go with his character next since they’re already explored his past. The other characters all have their little arcs and it’s great being down to a reasonable amount of side characters compared to the last few entries, even if I still really like those games. For the sidequests, Daybreak probably has the best set in the series and Van being someone who’s a bit morally grey allows them to give you some interesting scenarios in them that are also tied into the games weird morality system that only effect one chapter of the game briefly. As a longtime fan some of the lore implications towards the end make me really excited where the series is going from here and is what’s making Daybreak II my most anticipated game of 2025.
As a whole, Daybreak is exactly what I want out of the series. A fun turn-based combat system, great sidequests, a well written cast, and further introduces new lore and intrigue for the world. It’s my current favorite entry and is my game of the year for 2024. I’m in for the long haul on Trails and I’m really looking forward to where it goes next.
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