Up until now whenever I've written a favorite list at the end of the year I've done it on twitter, but this year I decided to change things up a bit and write it here instead. It's partially because twitter is an awful platform if you want to write anything longer, and a blog post like this allows much more freedom, but the real reason is just because this blog is really empty and I want more activity here,
So without further ado, let's get this list started. Welcome to my top 5 favorite games of 2024
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#5 Evenicle (PC, 2015)
Evenicle is a hard game to talk about because at first glance Evenicle sounds like the most generic porn game ever. But while Evenicle is legitimately a porn game, I assure you it is far from generic. In the world of Evenicle there are two rules all humans must follow: you are not allowed to kill other humans and you are not allowed to have sex with more than one person. Breaking either of these rules will make you lose the Goddess' protection, as well as basically all human rights and be banished from society. There is one workaround however, becoming a knight will allow you to have a second sexual partner, and the more heroic deeds you accomplish the more partners you are allowed to have.
And so the protagonist Aster sets out on a journey across the world to become a great hero and have a harem of wives.
But if thats all Evenicle was it wouldn't be on this list. Yet despite that, I must talk about the sex in Evenicle because it does something I've never seen any other harem story do: all of Aster's wives are treated equally as a family. There is no "will they, won't they" with any of the girls, when Aster fancies someone he marries them on the spot (with consent of course, Aster is a gentleman after all). And more importantly, none of the wives are treated as just a member of his harem, everyone is a part of Aster's family, and instead of the girls fighting each other for Aster's affection, all of Aster's wives also treat each other as family. This gives the whole party an incredible dynamic with each other, because they aren't simply friends or companions, the entire party is one big family and that makes following their adventures across the world incredibly endearing.
I think Evenicle is already worth experiencing just for having one of my favorite casts in any JRPG, but it also hides an incredible story behind its generic premise. While the vast majority of Evenicle's story is simply about Aster marrying more girls by doing heroic deeds and beating one dimensionally evil villains, it all slowly builds up towards an incredible climax that works only because Evenicle is a porn game with a world built around strange rules.
My one big caveat with Evenicle is that while its gameplay is not bad per se, it is also not very exciting either. It has a bog standard turn based battle system that doesn't do anything interesting or unique, and every enemy is just easy enough to not pose a challenge, but still hard enough you can't steamroll all encounters without effort, creating a difficulty balance that's just kind of a pain in the ass.
The other big thing holding me back from reccommending Evenicle is that while Aster is a gentleman who respects all his wives, the same can not be said for other characters who do not respect the rules set by the Goddess. Evenicle has a lot of lovely and wholesome sex, but also a lot of disgusting and depraved sex. It's all an important part of Evenicle's story and worldbuilding though, and while some of the scenes in it were really hard to stomach, I wouldn't want Evenicle without them, because every bit of darkness in its world makes the light shine all the more brilliantly.
#4 Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven (2024, Switch, PS4, PS5 and PC)
To my disappointment Revenge of the Seven is not the bold reimagining of Romancing SaGa 2 I was hoping for. My wish was for something similar to Romancing SaGa 1's remake, which changed and added things so much that it is practically a brand new game. Contrast that with Revenge of the Seven, which is simply Romancing SaGa 2 but in 3D.
But despite my disappointment with that aspect, the original Romancing SaGa 2 was an amazing game and this faithful remake is also amazing because of that.
In Romancing SaGa 2 you are the emperor of a country that is under attack by the seven heroes who once saved the world, and have now returned to the human world as monsters to have their vengeance on the ungrateful humans who betrayed them.
How this is reflected in gameplay is what makes Romancing SaGa 2 so cool: there is no set path you need to take across the world, RS2 is a very non-linear game where you can go wherever you want in the world and fight the seven heroes in whatever order you want. However in addition to fighting the seven heroes there is another goal for you: uniting the entire world under your empire, and this is the part where RS2 gets really ambitious and ahead of its time.
Uniting the whole world is too much for one person in a single lifetime, and so sometimes when you annex parts of the world, the game experiences a time skip, after which your emperor has died and you need to choose an heir to carry on the previous emperor's duty. This system is not only super cool as a concept, but it also creates a satisfying gameplay loop where your protagonist is constantly changing, and instead of sticking with just one playstyle (though you can do that if you're boring) you're encouraged to constantly experiment with new builds and classes whenever you need to change your emperor.
There is not much story in Romancing SaGa 2 (most of the story is right at the start of the game and in the heroes' backstories), it's an RPG you play purely for the gameplay, but from a gameplay perspective, as well as its unique premise, this is one of the best RPGs I've ever played (for the optimal experience I highly recommend the classic difficulty mode, even if it seems intimidating).
But it is still a remake of a SNES game, and everything I just said also applies to the original version. Because despite some tweaks to the gameplay to make it more casual and making everything 3D, structurally Revenge of the Seven is more or less the same game as it was on the SNES.
#3 The Legend of Heroes: Kai no Kiseki -Farewell O' Zemuria- (2024, PS4 and PS5)
I'm not sure what I should even say about Kai, it's the 13th entry in a long running series, and if you've never played a Trails game before, Kai is not what you should be looking into, and if you have played Trails games before. you probably don't want to hear me raving about how good Kai is because the game hasn't even been announced for localisation yet.
But trust me when I say Kai is a really damn good game, and you are in for a really good time when it eventually gets released in English. But I also think if Kai was a bit shorter and its pacing wasn't so slow, would've been #2 on my list.
I really can't wait to see what Falcom is cooking for the next game in the series, after Kai I am extremely hyped for the series' future.
#2 Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals (1995, Super Nintendo Entertainment System)
The first Lufia is without any exaggeration one of the the worst games I've ever played. It's a game so bad that I eventually turned on cheats to disable random encounters and make my party level 99, because I just wanted it to end as soon as possible. But despite how much I hated Lufia 1, I kept playing it because everyone was saying the same thing: Lufia 2 is so good it makes suffering through Lufia 1 worth it. I was naturally very doubtful of this, how much of an improvement could Lufia 2 really be when the first game has barely anything in its gameplay that I like.
Well you can probably guess this already from Lufia 2's placement on the list, but it is quite possibly the biggest glow up I've ever seen in a video game sequel. You don't actually need to play Lufia 1 to enjoy the second game like I did, as Lufia 2 is a prequel, but their stories are closely related and I think you do get more out of Lufia 2's story if you play the first game before it (that's the only positive thing I'll say about Lufia 1).
But even on its own merits Lufia 2 is an incredible game. The original Lufia was game that copied Dragon Quest very liberally in its gameplay and didn't have any unique or interesting ideas of its own, but what made it so bad was that on top of being a cheap copy of Dragon Quest, the game was also really grindy and the pace of its battles was dreadfully slow. Add on top of that a really high encounter rate and you have recipe for a game that's not enjoyable in the slightest. Lufia 2 still has all the standard turn based mechanics you're used to seeing in JRPGs (though it's not copying Dragon Quest specifically anymore), but the combat moves quickly and its balanced to give just the right amount of challenge. The game also has no random encounters and it's easy to avoid fighting enemies if you're not in the mood for it, ensuring the fights never grow stale like in many other turn based JRPGs.
But in addition to having fun combat, Lufia 2 does what very few other JRPGs do: the level design is good. Lufia 2 puts so much focus on its dungeons I think it's actually a dungeon crawler rather than a standard JRPG. It is simply masquerading as a standard JRPG with its visuals and having an overworld and towns between every dungeon, but make no mistake, this is without a doubt a dungeon crawler, and a really good one at that.
What makes Lufia 2's dungeons so good is that they are full of puzzles, and these aren't ordinary puzzles where you push a couple blocks to open a door (well some of them are, but those are a minority), they are proper brain teasers that will make you think really hard about the solutions. And all of them are built around Lufia 2's mechanics, it doesn't feel like you're stopping to play Lufia 2 to solve some puzzles, instead the puzzles are an extension of Lufia 2's mechanics. You get various tools you use for puzzle solving and it almost feels like a turn based Zelda game (except unlike in Zelda, you use all your tools throughout the game and not just the latest one you obtained in the current dungeon)
In addition to all this Lufia 2 also has an optional dungeon that turns the game into a roguelike game where you start the dungeon at level 1 with no equipment. The dungeon is randomly generated and you need to search chests for new equipment and actively fight enemies to level up, because the enemies keep getting harder and harder as you progress in the dungeon, and you need to keep your party strong to endure the whole dungeon. I must admit I never actually finished this dungeon so I don't know if its final rewards are worth the effort, but as an optional dungeon I think it's a really fun addition to the game, and especially in 1995 when roguelikes weren't so common (especially on consoles) I'm sure it gave Lufia 2 a lot of replay value.
But the final cherry on top of this cake is its story. Lufia 2 isn't very heavy on story, I was actually shocked at how little focus it puts on it until the end. Instead, much like Evenicle, Lufia 2 is a game that puts all of its writing effort into making its party as likeable as possible. Your whole party is very well fleshed out, and the whole world is reactive to your party's actions. It's not the kind of game where your party stays in obscurity until the very end of the game when they defeat the demon king and get declared as heroes who saved the world. It's a game where your party achieves fame and heroics rather early on, and your journey still continues for a few more years after the party has become heroes to the whole world.
And while the story connecting Lufia 2 with its predecessor gets very little focus in favor of a more character centric narrative, it does have some really emotional moments in its story. And these emotional moments are further amplified if you have played Lufia 1 before it.
Honorable mentions
There are two games I played this year that I'd like to shout out before I talk about my #1. The first is Phantom Brave (2004, PS2). Phantom Brave is a game I would very much like to add to my top 5 list, but I haven't actually finished it. The reason I haven't finished it is because I find it exhaustingly difficult. But aside from the difficulty I love everything about Phantom Brave. Its gameplay has a unique twist to standard SRPG formula that makes it very fun (albeit it is excessively grindy), the music is some of Tenpei Sato's best works, the art is gorgeous and the story is really good (and way darker than I expected from a NIS game made in Disgaea's style). But I still need to see how that story ends before I can say my final judgement on the game, but before I see that end, Phantom Brave gets a preliminary recommendation from me.
The other game I want to shout out is Heaven Burns Red (2024, mobile and PC). I have a hard time getting into live service games, and the only ones that have managed to hold my attention for longer than a month are Granblue Fantasy and Blue Archive. But now Heaven Burns Red is about to be the third game to keep me playing actively for over a month (as I am writing this I have 37 days logged into the game). What I love about HBR is that it never feels intrusive with its live service stuff, once you start the main story you can keep playing without any interruptions as if it's just a regular visual novel (you can even quit in the middle of a story chapter and when you boot the game again it starts from where you left of instead of bringing you to the main menu through several loading screens before you can continue). In fact, while HBR is a very competent RPG even without its story (the battle system is really fun on higher difficulties) all of that can be easily ignored if you just want to experience an incredible visual novel. Aside from having some limitations in its gameplay, it really does not feel like a mobile game at all, and when played on a PC it's easy to forget it even is an RPG designed for mobile phones because it is so easy to ignore all of that as you read through the visual novel portions. And even as a visual novel HBR is so full of personality and charm. I'm still only leaving it as a honorable mention because just like Phantom Brave, I haven't actually finished it yet (not like you can finish a live service game anyway, but I haven't read all the story that is in the game so far) but I am enjoying it just as much as I do Granblue and Blue Archive.
#1 Octopath Traveler II (2023, Switch, PS4, PS5 and PC)
Octopath 2 was one of the first games I played this year, having played it all the way back in January. But even in January I had a feeling nothing else I play this year will top Octopath 2, because this is one of the very best games I have ever played.
Octopath 1 was a flawed game, but despite those flaws I found it very compelling. The game was often frustrating, but I frequently found myself forgiving those frustrations as I fell in love with it.
But when Octopath 2 was announced I actually wasn't excited, part of the reason I loved Octopath was beccause there was nothing else like it, and though it certainly could be improved, I felt getting more games in the style would be boring and take away what made Octopath so special. I'd much rather see the team do more new IPs that share some of the same DNA but are wholly unique in their design, like Triangle Strategy. The first game had quite a middling reception, but once Octopath 2 came out everyone started praising it to high heavens, even the people who disliked the first game were singing their praise to the sequel. Despite all the praise I tried to keep my expectations in check and was prepared to think "yeah, this is cool but I prefer the first game".
I was dead wrong.
Octopath 2 is a masterpiece, it continues the first game's gameplay style and structure while ironing out all of the first game's flaws. The basic idea of the game is the same as before, you have 8 different protagonists with 8 different stories, you can pick whoever of the 8 you want as your primary protagonist and then you travel across the world to recruit the other 7 characters and complete their stories in whatever order you want. But Octopath 2 brings some big changes into this formula.
The original Octopath was an extremely formulaic game. Every character had 4 chapters, you completed the chapters in a set order (though you can do each character in whatever order you want) and each chapter follows a very rigid formula where your character arrives in a town, something bad happanes, you go to a dungeon to investigate the bad thing, you fight a boss and then the chapter is over. It's a very repetitive game and this formulaic structure is maybe my biggest issue with the game.
Octopath 2 still has some of that structure present, but it does the best it can to mitigate the repetition, Now some characters allow you to clear their chapters in a non-linear order, some chapters do not feature any battling at all, and there are new dual chapters where two main characters share a story together.
On top of this the 8 stories of Octopath 2 are much more interconnected than the first game's. I think the individual stories are actually better in the first game, but in 2 they form a much more clear bigger picture, and even after clearing just one of the 8 stories you can start making up your theories on how all of this is connected, and seeing the bigger picture slowly form as you complete the 8 stories and gather other clues hidden throughout the world is a wonderful feeling.
And speaking of things hidden throughout the world, there are a lot of them. I went out of my way to complete as many side quests as possible and explore every corner of the world, because I had so much fun with this game. I wanted to see everything this game has to offer.
The base gameplay isn't actually that different from the first game, but I found it a lot easier and less grindy this time around (your reserve party members still don't get exp, but I found the difference in exp less of an issue here than in the first game), maybe a bit too easy in some parts as the game didn't really offer that much challenge outside of the optional bosses, but I still had a ton of fun with the battle system. There are some new additions though. There are new advanced classes that significantly alter how each character plays, and each character now has their unique skills that can't be passed on to others even via class change. Another change worth talking about is that the game now has a day and night cycle that sometimes brings significant changes to what you can find in each area and town.
There's a lot more I could talk about Octopath 2, but I'm afraid a lot of it would end up just being "this was good in the first game, but they made it even better in the sequel". I am trying to keep these entries short but I could write a whole blog post about why Octopath 2 is such a special game to me (maybe I will do that if people would like to read it), but it is a game I can wholeheartedly recommend to anyone who enjoys turn based RPGs. My final playtime for the game ended up being over 100 hours, but even after all that time I never got tired of it.
Because as I already said in the first paragraph: Octopath 2 is one of the very best games I've ever played.
