Johnny Legacy's Deep Thoughts
Games of the Year 2024
Another year comes to a close, and once again I'd like to deviate a bit from this blog's normal topic and get into another passion of mine- gaming. Last year I did a Games of the Year post that got a little, uh, out of hand. Slightly novel sized even. I promise to keep it more reined in this year. Once again I'm going to count down my top five personal favorite games released in 2024, plus one honorable mention in a distinct category. But before we get there, like last year I also want to highlight in no particular order some of the games I'm most looking forward to in the coming year or years.
Most Anticipated for 2025 (or beyond)
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (PS5 port)- This has come out this month for PC and XBox, and while I could get it on PC, for a game of this type I'd rather wait for the announced PS5 port to be released next year, especially since I went ahead and forked out for a PS5 Pro. I've been optimistic about this ever since the first real information about it came out, and the stellar reviews are only making me even more excited. This will likely join the LucasArts point and click classic Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis as games that are more worthy of being the 4th and 5th Indy movies than the actual 4th and 5th movies.
Old Skies- The second year this has been on the list, but it will be the last as it's been announced for a spring release. WadjetEye Games point and click adventure games don't miss, and this is their first full in-house one since Unavowed so it will likely be amazing.
Kathy Rain 2- The first Kathy Rain, particularly the Director's Cut version, is one of the best modern point and clicks not put out by WadjetEye (though it is WEG adjacent as Dave Gilbert did the voice directing for it). I wasn't really expecting a sequel, but am very excited one is happening.
Ghost of Yotei- The recently announced highly anticipated follow up to the wonderful Ghost of Tsushima. Knowing modern game production schedules I'd be shocked if this made it out next year, but it will be on this list until it does.
iRacing NASCAR console game- I'm an old, OLD school NASCAR fan. Like the '90s was my NASCAR peak old school. Dale Earnhardt fan for life. I stayed on for a bit into the new century, but it's gotten to the point that I have pretty much no interest in modern NASCAR for various reasons. That said, I still enjoy racing games. I've played a fair amount of NASCAR Heat 5, and I play Gran Turismo 7 regularly in between large game playthroughs. iRacing has been the premiere racing sim on PC for many years, I have no doubt they should do something good for their first console outing.
Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 3 (betting on Reunion being the final title)- Obviously this won't be out next year, but also obviously there's no game I'm more looking forward to than this one. More on this series in a bit (spoilers).
On to the main list. Once again, this is only games I have played in 2024 on the platforms I have (mainly PS5 with some PC). I'm not trying to create a comprehensive best of list, these are just my favorites of what I've played.
Honorable Mention (2023 release bought in 2024): Sea of Stars
Two more quick mentions before hitting the top 5, two games that just missed the cut: EA Sports College Football 25 and Just a To the Moon Series Beach Episode.
5. Balatro
Every once in a while a tiny little indie game comes out of nowhere to suddenly become THE game everyone is talking about. Balatro is easily this year's completely unforseen breakout hit, and it deserves every bit of its reputation. Take poker, then take the concept of wild cards to the biggest possible extreme, add the roguelike (I've always disliked that term but here we are) idea of runs ending in permadeath, and you've got a cocktail that captured the attention of gamers everywhere. Balatro's Jokers have already become close to gaming icons. Lots of people have talked about how addicting this game is and how much time they lose playing it, but honestly it's kind of the opposite for me. I really enjoy it, but this is one of those games I can only play for a couple of sessions, then I have to put it away for a while and come back to it later. I've only manage to successfully get through all 8 antes to complete a run once so far. I'm really good at setting up to make it through the majority, but always seem to get tripped up at ante 6 or 7. Still, I expect I'll be coming back to this in short spurts for years to come.
4. Fantasian Neo Dimension
I said Sea of Stars wasn't going to be the last retro JRPG on this list. Full disclosure: this just came out at the start of December and at the time of this writing I'm only about 10 hours in, but it's plenty enough for Fantasian to make the list. I'm running the risk that it falls flat on its face the back half of the game, but I'm feeling confident it won't. It took only one line of marketing for me to want this game: "From the Father of Final Fantasy Hironobu Sakaguchi". Sakaguchi was indeed the brainchild behind the first Final Fantasy, my all time favorite game franchise, and worked in some capacity on every game in the series through FF X-2. Fantasian was initially released in 2021 as a mobile only game to critical acclaim, and Sakaguchi's Mistwalker company teamed up with his old bosses at SquareEnix to publish this new console version. In addition to Sakaguchi, this game is also a milestone for legendary Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu, who continued his relationship with Sakaguchi after he left Square to found Mistwalker, as this is the last game Uematsu will compose the entire score for.
With Sakaguchi running things Fantasian doesn't stray very far from traditional Final Fantasy gameplay roots. One little thing they did for battles is put in the ability to choose combat options using the L2 and R2 triggers, which doesn't seem like much on paper, but in practice it's a *brilliant* quality of life innovation that helps battles flow even smoother than they already do. One of those genius ideas that seems out of left field until you try it, then you can't imagine life without it. It also brings back "area of effect" style attacks that were originally innovated by, again, Chrono Trigger. Fantasian adds onto it by making offensive magic directionable, meaning you can adjust the trajectory to attack a whole line of enemies, even bypassing guarding enemies in front.
Story wise, again I'm only a bit into it, but so far the broad strokes are pretty familiar to a longtime Final Fantasy veteran but not derivative, with deep characters and some good intrigue at the point I'm at. The graphics style is really interesting. The characters are rendered in a PS1/2 style 3D with smoother polygons and higher resolutions. But it's the backgrounds that are really unique. Every location in the game is a real, hand made diorama that's been digitally scanned and inserted, and they look great on screen. You can check out pictures of some of the raw dioramas here. Another cool new feature for the console version, thanks to the Square partnership, is you can choose from a selection of classic Final Fantasy battle music to play over your fights in this game. Overall, anyone with a hankering for a new but old school Final Fantasy style game, especially with the main series' turn to action style combat, will find a lot to love here.
3. Riven (2024 remake)
An over 25 year old game on the best of list for 2024? You're damn right. Originally released in 1997, Riven was the massively anticipated sequel to the smash hit Myst, the game that single handedly sold thousands if not millions of brand new CD-ROM drives for PCs. Over the years Myst has gotten many (MANY) touch ups, rebuilds and re-releases but until now it was the only one in the series to get that treatment. But the folks at Cyan didn't just put a fresh coat of paint on an old game, oh no. They did this right, completely rebuilding the entire game from the ground up for modern machines. Now, the original is so well made that it still looks pretty damn amazing today, but it's also restricted to point and click static images with occasional animations. For the new version, for the first time you have the ability to freely walk everywhere in these gorgeous environments that look better than ever. That alone was worth the price of upgrading to me.
Cyan didn't stop there however. Not only was the whole game rebuilt from scratch, it was added to and expanded. There's a moment early on in the game, I won't spoil anything, where a path you're used to taking in the original game suddenly becomes, er, inaccessible. Not only is it a great "holy shit" moment, it's also a signal that this isn't going to be quite the game you remember. While most parts of the game remain the same, some of the more difficult puzzles (the original game was legendary for its punishing difficulty as much as the beautiful graphics) have been refined, while entirely new elements have been added, including whole new locations. It was a brilliant way to give us longtime players something new while still staying completely true to the spirit of the original. To me, most if not all of the new story elements are improvements that help flesh out the story even better than before. It's a triumph for the small independent studio that was created before "indie" was even a thing in gaming and has remained steadfastly independent ever since. I'm hopeful they'll turn their attention to the later games in the series for this treatment, particularly the unfairly maligned and underrated Uru.
2. Astro Bot
Astro Bot is pure, absolute joy in video game form. It took a very long time, but Playstation has finally found their signature platforming mascot that can symbolize the company the same way Mario does for Nintendo and Sonic once did for Sega. The cute little bots first got their start on a barely noticed tech demo prepackaged with the PS4 called The Playroom that went unnoticed by many, including me. Later they got their first proper game on VR called Astro Bot Rescue Mission. I've never had a VR set, so again passed me by. Astro's initial big breakout was in the short platformer Astro's Playroom, as The Playroom before it a freebie preinstalled on the PS5. In a way it also acted like a tech demo, showing off all the cool things the new Dualsense controller could do. It's hard to tell what's more fun on Astro's Playroom, the pure 3D platforming gameplay, or how you could collect artifacts from all over Playstation history. It struck the perfect balance of celebrating the past while showing off what the future can and could be.
Astro Bot takes that concept and expands it. The gameplay is just as great as ever, possibly the best 3D platforming game not released by Nintendo in literally decades. Maybe even better than Nintendo's. To continue playing off the other aspect of celebrating Playstation's history, especially with the 30th anniversary right around the corner at time of release, was the inclusion of dozens of special bots dressed up as famous Playstation characters, new and old, famous and obscure, but all fun. Gameplay wise Astro Bot is the perfect package- sensational platforming levels with tight controls, lots of secrets to go off the beaten path to discover, sensational boss fights that all have their own distinct flair, a crazy final end run that does not disappoint, and a bunch of more advanced secret levels to pull a few hairs out over.
There's several years where Astro Bot likely would have been my #1 game of the year. However, 2024 was the year of an extremely special release....
1. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
When the magnificent FF7 Remake ended with the characters looking past Midgar with a hopeful gleam in their eyes, anxious to see what the future held, everyone playing wanted to see that future and the wide open world that was coming RIGHT NOW. Well, I certainly did. The postcredits style scenes showing the team's trek from Midgar to Kalm at the end of the Yuffie-centric Interlude DLC, as wonderful as it was, only seemed to make the wait harder. When Rebirth finally got here in February of this year, it was worth every second of the wait.
Rebirth truly puts the "world" in open world. Saying it's a bit too overstuffed would be a fair criticism if you were so inclined. As if the 40-50 hour main story, a good 10-15 hours longer than Remake's, wasn't enough, there's enough side activities and minigames to fill two or three other games. Like checking things off the open world map? World intel and all the various things included within it, including traditional sidequests. A deep and addictive card game? Queen's Blood. Games in Junon. Games in Costa del Sol. Of course games in the Gold Saucer. It's very easy to get so distracted you forget about the main quest for days. You'd think it'd be the Gold Saucer, but Costa del Sol was probably my favorite location in the game, and not just because it's the only one you can put on some different outfits (and see Aerith and Tifa in them daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn, lots of teenage libidos are going to be discovered through this game), but there's so many fun activities there. Segway riding! I really enjoyed Run Wild. Getting the game long quest to collect items for Johnny's Seaside Inn there is also one of the game's highlights.
See, even I got sidetracked. Getting back to the main story, after the events of Rebirth it's slightly surprising how closely the broad strokes of it still follow the original FF7. One of Remakes's biggest strengths was a combination of perfect voice casting and characterization of these familiar characters, while presenting an expanded yet still compelling version of the original story, and that easily continues in Rebirth. Doing little more than spending time with these characters is such a joy, sometimes it's almost disappointing when big story events pop up to shake everything up. The famous Gold Saucer date scene is a fantastic late game character tentpole to work your way toward. And of course, as I expected coming into it, the whole game leads up to THAT moment from the original. I remember seeing a fair amount of criticism about the game's ending when it first came out, but people seem to forget this is only the middle chapter of a trilogy. You're not supposed to understand everything yet. Thankfully that particular quibble seems to have died down as time has gone on, people have digested what happens more, and realize the final resolution is still to come. I for one can hardly wait. When it's all said and done the FF7 Remake trilogy might well end up being the ultimate crown jewel of this very storied franchise.
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