Kyle’s Top Games of 2024
Well, another year has come and gone. 2024 has certainly been an interesting year for gaming. This year was just as good as last year (even better in some regards) but the releases were very backloaded. It was a somewhat busy start to the year, followed by a barren summer, and a jam packed last four months.
That being said, making my year-end favorites list was a lot easier this time around. That’s because all my entries are Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure! Okay, not really. That might’ve been my favorite game that I played this year, however that game came out 24 years ago (read my article).
Regardless, this was an incredibly stacked year, and I could easily extend this to a top 10, but we like to follow Game Awards rules. Can’t go against what Father Keighley (hollow be thy shows) would want from us.
Finally, before we start, I just want to tell you not to put too much stock in the order of these games. Aside from my number 1 spot, the positions of these games are all interchangeable with each other. I like everything on here for different reasons, and I hope that I can inspire some of you to look at some games that you might have missed this year.
6: Astro Bot
Image Credit: Team Asobi, Playstation
I’m going to get the boring entries out of the way first. These first couple of entries are two of the biggest games of the year. They reviewed incredibly, and received near-universal praise across the board. And even I can’t deny the sheer love and quality emanating from them. Also, this is why I said “don’t put too much stock in the order”. So let’s get to it.
BEHOLD! The reason to own a PS5! Honestly, this is going to be the hardest game on the list to write about, if only for the fact that there isn’t much more to say about this. It was the highest rated game of the year, and it’s Sony’s highest rated game of all time! This was a universally beloved game, and after playing three levels, it’s easy to see why. Astro Bot is just a very simple, very well made 3D platformer. And from Sony’s first party no less!
This game is just incredibly fun, there’s no two ways of putting it. Tight and simple controls, tons of fun and varied level design, and a lot of challenges to obtain everything in a level. And the levels are incredibly deep as well. The levels will have puzzle pieces, some of them have secret exits that unlock harder levels, and of course there’s the fellow Astro Bots to collect! There are 300 Bots for you to collect, and some of them are pretty tricky to figure out how to get.
And these Astro Bots are so cute as well. About half of them are references and callbacks to old PlayStation franchises, from the Bloodborne Hunter, to the Ape Escape monkies, to Sol Badguy from Guilty Gear, to freaking Mr. Mosquito, and Boku from “Boku no Natsuyasumi”! There’s a ton of obscure deep cuts to PlayStation’s history that you’ll get a smile from any of them. The one that really got me was when I found Amaterasu from “Okami”.
And at the end of every world, there’s a bonus level where you play as a modified version of a popular PlayStation IP. From throwing Kratos’s ax in a “God of War: Ragnarok” styled level, to fighting robot dinosaurs as Aloy in a “Horizon: Zero Dawn” themed area. These levels are super cool, and play scarily similar to the source material they’re pulling from.
Astro Bot also doesn’t overstay its welcome. The game is 5 worlds long, and can easily be beaten in a couple of days. But it’s the sheer amount of simple fun that I was having that made me want to keep playing. I wanted to see what was next.
If I have any complaint, it’s that this game never feels like it takes full advantage of what it can do. This game is very easy, and never feels like it tries to be challenging. There are parts that are tricky, but it’s never anything unmanageable. The game has a lot of cool concepts and power-ups, but it never feels like they’re being fully utilized. I was kind of hoping for some form of post-game challenges like in the 3D Mario games. But the game just ends after the credits roll. Maybe for Astro Bot 2.
On the whole, Astro Bot was phenomenal, there’s no other word for it. Simple and clean fun that will hopefully be a much needed wakeup call for Sony. We don’t need twenty-squillion live service games. No Concord. No Fairgame$. Just good, simple works like Astro Bot. Hats off to you, Team Asobi. I’m looking forward to your future!
5: Metaphor: ReFantazio
Image Credit: Atlus, Studio Zero
If there was one development studio that I would say definitively won this year, it would be Atlus. This year for them was one knockout punch after another. From the Persona 3 Remake (and Episode Aigis DLC), to an enhanced version of SMTV, and the surprise breakout: Metaphor: ReFantazio!
Honestly, I’m still in disbelief that this game exists. A game that tries to appeal to both Persona AND SMT fans, and it managed to do a good job? Past practice has shown that trying to appeal to both sides is a death sentence because it usually just ends up appealing to nobody. But as it turns out, combining the Press-turn combat and difficulty of SMT with a hang out, free time system similar to Persona’s can make for a very fun experience.
What sets Metaphor apart from its older siblings is how it handles character progression. Rather than fusing new Personas to replace your old ones, or recruiting newer, stronger Demons into your party, Metaphor opts for a job class system, ala Final Fantasy 5. You can assign your party members to any job that you have available, and you can unlock stronger jobs by doing the social stuff.
For me personally, Metaphor’s story took a while to hit its stride. It felt like a very slow burn at the start, and while I liked the characters, I wasn’t overly invested in the overall plot. But in a 60+ hour game, something is going to click with you eventually. The part that finally hooked me was the third story section where you have to sneak through the enemy’s ship. For me, that was when the plot really picked up and really only put me back down when they did their usual hour-long exposition dump near the end of the game.
The Press-turn combat system is also pretty interesting. As someone who tried to play SMT: Nocturne once and got filtered pretty early on by the difficulty, it certainly felt nice to play this game and get a proper understanding of how it works. It’s actually a very engaging system that stops one-sided domination because missing any attack could be volatile.
And finally, I need to give praise to Louis. It takes a while before he fully steps into the plot as the big villain, but he takes on the role very well. I love seeing a villain who is completely devoid of morals, and someone who would do anything to achieve his goals. This dude is cold and ruthless, and I was always excited to see what he would do next.
Overall, Metaphor is a fantastic game. It takes its time getting there, but it’s well worth the investment. The final boss fight is atrocious though.
4: Granblue Fantasy: Relink
Image Credit: Cygames
Full disclosure. I am a fraud. Throughout the course of 2024, I’ve been diving into Granblue Fantasy VS Rising, the newest Granblue fighting game from Cygames and ArcSys. I’ve been playing it, and claiming to be a fan of Granblue without really knowing anything about it. Fortunately, the Granblue train doesn’t seem to be stopping, and this newest game is the perfect entry point to the franchise.
The story focuses on your player character (either Gran or Djeeta) and their crew of Skyfarers on their quest to save their friend Lyria from an opposing group called Avia. Lyria is being controlled by them to awaken these Primal beasts that cause destruction when under Lyria’s control.
Granblue Relink is an action RPG that plays like a combination of Monster Hunter and Xenoblade Chronicles. Battles take place in large areas. Your characters all have combos that they can execute using light and heavy attacks. They also have four skills equipped that go on cooldown when they’re used. You can’t take control of your other three party members, but the AI seems to know what they need to do, unlike a lot of other Action RPGs that I’ve played in recent years.
Granblue as a concept has always looked interesting to me. This blend of medieval fantasy meets the industrial revolution seemed like a really cool concept for a world. Going from seeing the world in backgrounds of a fighting game to getting to explore these towns, getting to know these characters. It’s a feeling that I haven’t had with another franchise before.
At the start of the game, your crew consists of six members, but you can recruit more characters by using these tickets that you get either from story progress, or from beating certain quests. These are the characters that I’m familiar with thanks to GBVS, and you can bet that I recruited Zeta to my crew the second that I got the chance. She’s my main in GBVS. I couldn’t just ignore my girl. I’m loyal to my favorites.
The main story only runs about 10-15 hours, but there is a ton of stuff to do in the postgame. To me, the strongest selling point of this game is its combat, and there are a bunch of high level missions for you to tackle in the postgame. There are also boss raids that you can play online, either with randos, or with a group of friends. And honestly, I can’t think of a more fun time than getting three other friends together in a Discord call and chatting during raids.
If you’re like me and you’ve managed to ignore the existence of the Granblue mobile game since 2014, don’t worry about it. You don’t need any prior knowledge of the series to get into Relink. The game doesn’t force you to sit through exposition on all of these established characters. Rather it offers the characters’ backstories through these optional stories called Fate Episodes. If you find yourself getting attached to certain characters and want to know more about them, boot it up and enjoy storytime. Watching these will also provide the character with some stat buffs and give them more equipment slots.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with this game. I ended up buying this game on a whim thanks to a lot of goodwill from the fighting game, and I wasn’t really sure what I was getting with this game. If you’re looking to take a look at a new world, with a new cast of characters, then check this game out. You probably missed it or ignored it since it was released during the start of the year around the time Persona 3: Reload came out, but I think that this is worth your time. And if you’re a Xenoblade fan who’s trying to bide time until March 2025, I think that you’ll be right at home here. I also think it’s really cool to see Granblue start to break away from the “mobile game” label that it’s been branded with. I like the world of Granblue, and I’d love to see more come from this. And if nothing else, this is proof that a game CAN be stuck in dev hell for eight years and still be worthwhile. Take notes, Concord…
If you’re interested in learning more, check out my review.
3: Dragon Ball: SPARKING! Zero
Image Credit: Bandai Namco, Spike Chunsoft
TENKAICHI IS BACK! If we were ranking these games from how much I was anticipating them, this would easily take the number one spot. The Dragon Ball arena fighters will always hold a special place in my heart. I grew up playing Budokai 1 on the PS2 with my older siblings. And after 17 years of being dormant, Sparking Zero is here to pick up right where the series left off with all the same zany gameplay that you loved all those years ago.
Sparking Zero features multiple story paths for you to play that follow the events of the anime from DBZ through Dragon Ball Super. Of course you have the standard options like Goku, Piccolo, and Vegeta, but you also have some weirder story options like Frieza, Jiren, and even Goku Black. If it’s been a while since you’ve experienced Dragon Ball’s story, this is a pretty good way to get the general gist of it.
Beyond following the main story, there are also a ton of “what if” scenarios that you can play if you meet certain conditions in the story fights. These fights are neat, and do a great job of taking advantage of the expanded universe that DB Super introduced. By far my favorite one is Frieza being the leader of Universe Seven’s team in the Tournament of Power, giving you the option to bring back his family, his henchmen (Zarbon and Dodoria), or the whole Ginyu Force. It’s silly stuff like this that I love to see from Dragon Ball games. The world of Dragon Ball lends itself so well to doing out of the box stuff, and I always look forward to what other scenarios can be made with the same set pieces that we’ve become familiar with over the years.
Beyond this, there’s also the VS mode, either in split screen local play, or online VS matches. There are two ways to play. 1v1 matches, and Team Battles where you have 15 points to use on characters to build your team. The team that I played with featured Androids 17 and 18, as well as Goku Black. This game features 182 characters to play as which sounds like a lot, but you’ll learn that the majority of the cast plays very similar to each other, featuring a lot of overlapping skills and moves between each other.
On the whole, I love this game. Not in the same way that I like other fighting games, but rather in the sense of being given a massive toy box and smashing my action figures together. I don’t know if there are plans for any DLC for this game, but there’s a ton of source material that they can still pull from. OG Dragon Ball and GT are both still there for story mode. And if you wanted to get crazier, there’s the new stuff from Super like Beast Gohan, Ultra Ego Vegeta, and Black Frieza. It’s good to have you back, Tenkaichi. You’re still as beautiful as the last time I saw you.
2: Visions of Mana
Image Credit: Square Enix, Ouka Studios
My pick for the most slept on game this year. Visions of Mana is the newest entry in the Mana series. My knowledge on the series is very slim. I’m familiar with Secrets of Mana, though I’ve never played it. I did play the Trials of Mana remake when that came out in 2020, and that was my pick for favorite game of that year. And I’m happy to say that Visions of Mana is even better than Trials was!
The story of this game focuses on Val, a young swordsman who has been tasked with acting as a guard for Hinna on her journey to the Mana Tree. Hinna has been appointed as the Alm of Fire, a special sacrifice, and has to deliver herself to the Mana Tree to maintain balance in the world. Along the journey, other Alms of other elements join on their journey to the Mana Tree.
As for combat, this game features a live action battle system where you can freely swap control between three party members. Along your journey you’ll also obtain these elemental Mana Spirits. By equipping these to your party members, you can change up the play styles of your team, giving each of the five members three different weapons to use. There’s a lot of build variety, and a ton of options for you to keep things fresh on your playthrough.
As for what you’re doing outside of battle, you’ll be going around towns, through dungeons, or exploring open areas. Towns and cities are where you’ll be getting your supplies and side quests. Dungeons are linear, and feature some fun puzzle-solving. And the open fields are where you can find extra uses for the Mana Spirits that you’ve been collecting; doing side activities and getting bonuses from it.
Exploring the overworld was honestly a ton of fun. You have a good amount of movement options that let you get to pretty much anywhere you wanted. Right from the start you have access to a double jump and an air dash that can be used indefinitely, but won’t keep your height. By combining these together, you can get to some items super early on. This includes a very late-game spear for Careena that’s in the same area that she joins the party.
I honestly can’t say enough good about this game, and it sucks that this fun, silly little B-Tier game is doomed to be forgotten. The gaming world needs more B-Tier games like this and Granblue Relink from earlier. The current gaming zeitgeist is so obsessed with every new release being a larger than life smash hit (coupled with unrealistic sales expectations from companies like Square Enix). Try more B-Tier games. You might be surprised by what you find.
On the whole, Visions of Mana was a fantastic experience, and I think that it’s more than worth a look. It’s a game that respects the player’s time, and can be picked up and enjoyed by anyone. I really hope that the team at Ouka Studios gets to keep going for another company. They clearly have a lot of talent, and it would be a shame to leave them like this. If nothing else, at least they went out on a very high note. The critical reception might not reflect that, but the fan reception could certainly be heard.
1: Unicorn Overlord
Image Credit: Vanillaware
Oh look, another sleeper JRPG is at the top of Kyle’s list again. Look, I’m someone who knows what he likes. And it just so happens that Vanilaware’s new game has everything that I like in it. A medieval war story featuring a large cast of unique and colorful characters? Sign me UP!
Here’s the pitch. You’re following the story of a young prince and his two friends as they try to build up an army to fight against the empire that not only took your homeland, but also has control of the entire map. A simple premise, and likely a setup that you’ve heard before, some might even call it “tired”. But if the song keeps being sung, it must be worth hearing.
Unicorn Overlord is a hybrid strategy RPG and tower defense game. You build units of up to five characters and deploy them to the field in real time. There are no turns in this game. You and your enemies move around the map at the same time. And should the two collide, it’s fight time!
One part of the game that took a bit of getting used to is the fact that battles will play without player input. What I mean is that once two squads are in battle, you just need to hope that your squad has a good matchup against the opponent.
The gameplay comes in the form of moving your units, and building your squads. This team building gameplay style is something that I really like, but I can see it being a turnoff for some, but all of the goblin-brained people will get a ton of joy out of min/maxing their team comps. And if that doesn’t win you over, then maybe the cast will.
This game’s cast is just a ton of fun. Every character feels different from each other, and they all have their own motives for joining Prince Alain’s cause. Like another SRPG with a blue-haired protagonist that I can’t remember the name of, you’re going to find the characters that you like. Whether it’s because of their combat utility, their designs, or just because you like their personality.
There are countless people going about their lives not knowing how much of a girlboss Melisandre is. This girl was working for an opposing army, then joined your side because she thinks Alain is handsome. She THEN tells Alain “I don’t want to be your queen. I just want to be in your harem”. We stan a woman who knows what she wants. (For the record, I decided to romance Eltolinde. Her design is peak.)
But easily this game’s biggest selling point is that for an SRPG, it is unbelievably accessible. The game never forces you to engage with the mechanics in great depth (unless you’re going for the true ending). You can very easily beat the game with three or four powerful groups of characters, and the rest of the game will just fold for you. You don’t even really need any team synergy. Just build squads of characters that you like. This is one of the most recommendable SRPGs on the market because there are countless ways for even the most casual player to have their “A-ha!” moment and break the game in half.
Following my stance on what makes something my game of the year, Unicorn Overlord has been the game to give me the most joy during my playthrough. Its story is engaging, and stays focused on what it wants to do. And above all else, it doesn’t feel like it’s wasting the player’s time, unlike a certain remake that isn’t on my list. Please give this game a look. Vanillaware has a ton of talent, and they deserve so much more than they get.
Closing
And there you have it. Another year of fantastic games, some popular, and quite a few that went under the radar. This year had a lot of gems outside of these six that unfortunately had to get cut, and a lot of other greats that I wasn’t able to get to this year. That being said, I’m more than happy to shine a light on these six games. I know that I’ll be thinking about these a lot over the next year.
Anyway, come back next week when one of my co-workers shares their games of the year!