Games of 2024

There were tons of games that came out in 2024, so many so that I often forget which ones I've played - so instead I want to focus on the games that I beat this year. As a father of four, it's tough sometimes to fit gaming into my schedule so the fact that I was able to beat ten games this year was nothing short of a miracle. I want to discuss not only what games I completed, but I want to give my thoughts on the game and a score. I know some of you may think that my "completed" list will be weird - I count Animal Crossing as I got to credits - but I have to stop somewhere so I can get to the next game. My backlog is VAST. I may one day try and do some kind of challenge where I just start hacking away at my backlog and report just like this. I'm also going to put them in order of games from worst to best - but worst isnt that the game is terrible, just that it fell lower on the list for me. Anyway here we go - starting at number..

10. Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade

Console: Playstation 5
Completed: February 2024
Rating: 4/5

I only played the Yuffie scenario, as I beat the full game in 2023 maybe? At any rate, while I did like being able to return to the world of Final Fantasy VII Remake and seeing what happened around the main story - a lot of the time I just kinda felt like it was unnecessary to see most of the stuff going on. Don't get me wrong, my opinion of this changed after playing through Rebirth, but at the time I thought the best part of the game was the ending (and I still kinda stick to that) for story reasons and not sarcastic ones. I really enjoyed playing as Yuffie however, and being able to play as her a bit earlier than the original story was fun. Overall, I think this intermission definitely adds to the narrative in a positive way - even if it feels a bit padded in some places to justify it's existence.

9. Animal Crossing: Happy Home Paradise

Console: Nintendo Switch
Completed: August 2024
Rating: 4/5

Like most people, I caught the Animal Crossing bug in 2020 when New Horizons came out and I've been wanting more Animal Crossing. Happy Home Paradise came out a little while after New Horizons but I was never really able to focus and give it the attention it demanded until this year. I decided to just go all out and try to unlock as much as I could. I enjoyed my time with the game overall. While it mostly dealt with decorating rooms, it had some fun challenges like unlocking Hospitals and Cafes to decorate which in turn would unlock new things to use in other houses. My wife and I would often compare designs to get ideas from each other and while it isn't as in depth as the main game - I found it to be fun to come back to time and time again, until near the end that is when you get a bit tired of constantly trying to unlock stuff so you phone in a LOT of the designs to meet the goals to unlock the next thing. I did appreciate the ability to convert Poki to Bells daily to help with my main island so it wasn't like my home decorating skills were completely a waste - and a LOT of the unlockables are really cool for your main island. All in all, I definitely recommend this if you want more Animal Crossing to play - and as a reminder...you get this with the NSO Expansion Pack if you dont want to shell out the 30 or so dollars for it.

8. Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Console: Nintendo Switch
Completed: July 2024
Rating: 4.5/5

While definitely not the worst game, I had played this at launch and decided to play through it again with a brand new island so that my wife and a couple friends could all play along. I think that's where this game shines is with the ability to play with other people and share designs and supplies. My wife and friends and I would often just hang out and explore each others islands and play pranks on each other (pitfall seeds equal hilarity) but also trade things to help fill out the Art/Fish/Bug and Fossil parts of the museum. All in all, revisiting this game this year was just as fun as the first time we played back in 2020, and if you haven't played it in some time I heavily advise starting a new island and going from there.

7. Final Fantasy V Pixel Remaster

Console: Nintendo Switch
Completed: March 2024
Rating: 4.5/5

I actually played a lot of Remakes/Remasters this year and I really wanted to beat the entire Pixel Remaster series (I did at the end of 2023/beginning of 2024) as there were quite a few Final Fantasy games I never beat (I made it to the end of many of them but never beat the last boss) and FFV is no exception. There's so much to love in this entry with the star being the Job system. I think this is where they really started showing they understood how the Job system worked and what they wanted to do to separate it from the rest of typical RPG classes (the only game I think that does it better is Final Fantasy Tactics with X-2 being close). While I finally beat this game - I think it's definitely got sore spots on it - I think the story drags on a bit too long and it feels very much like they started running out of steam near the end of the game and just tried to figure out an ending. With that being said though - this is a great entry in Final Fantasy and I highly recommend.

6. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

Console: MacOS
Completed: March 2024
Rating: 4.5/5

I'm going to start this out with the fact that I have a love/hate relationship with Final Fantasy XIV. I love it very much and think that it is definitely worthy of being a numbered Final Fantasy game, however I hate the time commitment and the fact that it costs so much over time. As a result, I only just beat A Realm Reborn this year. I've played off and on since it came out (ARR that is, never played 1.0) but just now focused myself to beat the story. I actually beat this in tandem with my wife who also beat ARR along with me. I really want to go back and play more - but it gets hard to commit time to such a massive venture.

5. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (Remaster)

Console: Nintendo Switch
Completed: July 2024
Rating: 4.5/5

Confession time, I never really played this Paper Mario game (or the original - I've just played Origami King and a bit of Color Splash) because I was a huge fan of Super Mario RPG (another game I beat in 2023) and hated the stylistic difference for a long time. However, I decided that I should play this game since a lot of people love this game a lot, and I'm really glad I gave this a shot. I wound up beating it and loving every minute of it. The humor, the battles, and story - I was quite surprised with how involved this got. I like a lot of the call backs as well. The partner system is great in this and I think it definitely deserves to be in many top RPG lists for the Switch. This game definitely deserves every accolade it receives.

4. Resident Evil 4 (Remake)

Console: Playstation 5
Completed: November 2024
Rating: 4.5/5

This was the last game I beat this year, and I was a little nervous going into it as I wasn't the biggest fan of Resident Evil 7/8. I don't feel like they are bad games or anything, it's just a bit jarring playing in first person after growing up with this game in third person. However, I beat this game when it came out on the Gamecube all those years ago and I was interested in seeing if the remake could do it justice or not. I actually kind of liked this remake a lot better - I feel like a lot of elements felt a bit more polished not just graphically but also from a gameplay pov. I'm also willing to admit that this could be due to the fact that I haven't played RE4 in almost 20 years so - there's that too.

3. Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster

Console: Nintendo Switch
Completed: March 2024
Rating: 5/5

Full disclosure: Final Fantasy IV is my favorite game of all time. It encapsulates what I love about RPGs and Final Fantasy as a whole, and the Pixel Remaster did nothing to tarnish that viewpoint to me. In fact, I'd argue that it is one of the best ways to play outside of the Complete Collection on PSP. I loved the new soundtrack (see my article on Soundtracks to see why..) and I loved the updated graphics. I do lament at the fact that we lost the GBA dungeons and the fact that we don't have the after years in this style, but overall I'm so happy I got to revisit this game. It made me fall in love with it all over again. I'm very curious to see how they'll handle the classic Final Fantasy games as we move to console generation to console generation but being able to play these on the go with the Switch is always great in my book. (Now to buy them all over again to trophy hunt on the PS5...)

2. Cyberpunk 2077

Console: Playstation 5
Completed: February 2024
Rating: 5/5

Oh Cyberpunk 2077. When you first came out you were riddled with bugs. I tried to play on the PS4 but it just could NOT handle what you were trying to show us. After that debacle, I put that away for quite some time after launch until I got a PS5, and then I decided to try again and holy crap. This felt like how Cyberpunk 2077 was meant to be played. The graphics, sound, and everything else felt truly next gen in my opinion. I got mercilessly addicted to this game at the end of 2023 and at the beginning of 2024 I decided to stop wasting time with side missions (even though so many were written so well) and move on to the main story and finally beating it in February. I haven't played the DLC yet, but it's on my to-do list in 2025.

1. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

Console: Playstation 5
Completed: March 2024
Rating: 5/5

This game deserved the top spot twenty times over in my opinion. After completing Final Fantasy VII Remake completely just a month before - I eagerly waited for Rebirth's release. Once I got Rebirth it was all I played once it launched. I think the thing for me about the entire Final Fantasy VII Remake project is how they deviate from the original material. I think for me that's the most exciting thing. I really feel like that's what sets this apart from the original in a big way. The whole time, I'd think I know what story beat would come next but then would be pleasantly surprised with the difference. There's so much to love in this game, and while I didn't beat all the side stuff (there's so much more than in Remake imo) what I was able to get through was a combination of the main story and the side stuff. While there were parts of the game I think dragged on a little too long (which...I sense a pattern here) overall I enjoyed this game so much and I can't wait for part 3. I hope it releases before Playstation 6 however - I'd love to be able to play the entire series on one console generation. Or maybe we'll see it released for the Switch 2...? One can hope.