Games of the Year — 2024
10. Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess
Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is such an anomaly. After years focusing on multiple best-selling titles, Capcom took a huge risk with this oddity of a tower defense strategy RTS that is awash in Shinto mythology and ritual. Your character whirls between fierce sword katas and traditional ritual dances, battling gorgeously hideous monsters to the sound of pounding taiko drums. After rescuing the people that have fallen under the corruption’s sway, you can then conscript them to a number of roles to fight alongside you in order to regain their home. It’s a game with a truly Japanese soul, saturated with details big and small that evoke a mythic history seldom seen in games.
9. Venba
Venba is quietly devastating for a game ostensibly about Indian cooking. Set in Toronto, you follow an immigrant couple as they balance preserving the culture they grew up in with the necessity of assimilation — especially once a child enters the picture. You participate in the loving act of cooking, feeding those you love, and then watch as that simple act gets more and more complicated with the passing of time and the demands of the modern world. Venba asks hard questions about how we preserve memory and pass on culture to a new generation when the world pushes back against it.
8. UFO 50
Including UFO 50 on this list is almost cheating. A compilation of 50 full games (not mini-games!) for an 80’s console that never existed, all created by a killers row of indie developers, it’s guaranteed to have SOMEthing you’ll like. For me it was Warptank, where you control a gravity-flipping tank through a series of puzzle rooms. Or maybe it was Party House, a weird draft-based roguelike where you try to throw the most kickass party. Or Valbrace, a first-person old-school dungeon crawler. Or Bushido Ball. Or Pingolf. Or Pilot Quest. Take your pick. An incredible package that is only going to eat more of my time over the next few years.
7. Seer’s Isle
There’s always one game on my backlog that I always intend to play but put off for one reason or another. This year, I finally experienced Seers Isle by developer Nova-box, and it cut me to my heart. Set in a Celtic-themed fantasy world, this visual novel follows the stories of a group of outcasts on a sacred island, each seeking redemption for the sins or failings of their past. Each choice you make is hard, weighty, and laden with consequence. This strange world draws you in though things unknown and unsaid, truly honestly written characters, and a haunting soundtrack that was second to none this year. It’s a game that was very easy to fall in love with, and I doubt I will forget it.
6. Metaphor ReFantazio
When Atlus announced they were making a more explicitly high fantasy Persona game, I was immediately sold. Metaphor: ReFantazio fully embraces its JRPG roots, with varying character classes, dungeon crawling, and story moments that would be at home in any anime. The main story of a tyrannical despot attempting to rig an election to enthone himself as the new king had an uncomfortable resonance given the events of the past year, but I found myself savoring the journeys I took with the characters — visiting the Midnight Sunsands, camping in sight of the Peregrine Falls, and the small meaningful conversations aboard our Gauntlet Runner, a bipedal tank that became a home. It was a meaty world that I delighted in sinking my teeth into, and a marvelous step forward for the form.
5. 1000xRESIST
The first good pandemic game has finally come. 1000xRESIST is a remarkable piece, a science fiction allegory about a post-apocalyptic society of clones surviving centuries after the devastation of an alien disease. It asks questions about how society is constructed, the lies and truths we tell ourselves and each other in the name of civility, and what happens when longtime tensions finally overtop the dams. Drawing direct parallels to the Hong Kong protests of 2019, it attempts to make sense of the meaning of resistance when activism fails. There are no easy answers, just the haunting question of how one chooses to live. Hekki grace, sister.
4. Dragon’s Dogma 2
Creating a sequel to a cult classic game like Dragon’s Dogma runs the risk of alienating those who loved the original in all its ramshackle glory. But Dragon’s Dogma 2 retains the spirit of its predecessor, delighting in its rough edges and limitations. Ostensibly an open world action RPG, the world is unafraid to leave players to their own devices to find the hidden paths and sights that the world has to offer. It captures the simple feeling of walking a dusty road to a small hamlet, keeping a wary eye for wild animals in the brush. There are caves behind waterfalls to explore, battles against magical monsters, and trials facing silent gods in a long-forgotten temple. In a time where AAA games seem afraid to have you miss anything they have to offer, Dragon’s Dogma is content to simply invite you in and let you explore.
3. Helldivers 2
Greetings, citizen. Helldivers 2 exploded onto the scene earlier this year, its immediate popularity far surpassing the expectations of even its creators. On paper, the component pieces all seem mundane — a cornucopia of weapons, mission types, environments, and enemies all blended together in a live-service model, and an over-the-top metanarrative of a hyperpatriotic society a la Starship Troopers. But something more magical lurks beneath.
Helldivers‘ true appeal in its ability to generate incredible stories. And not just the ongoing story of a galaxy at war, created in real time by a Game Master, but also the emergent stories that play out on the battlefield. I can gripe like a grizzled veteran recounting the Vernen Wells campaign and then give the blow-by-blow of approaching a radar station and holding off a Terminid swarm single-handedly while the comm tower slowly raised, foot by agonizing foot. Even the micro-stories — a one-in-a-million autocannon shot that speared a Devastator Hulk in the eye, an airstrike that I found cover from just before it leveled a base, or the view from a hilltop watching a nuclear cloud bloom over a red sunset. Helldivers contains multitudes, and each dive is an adventure.
2. Tactical Breach Wizards
The explosion of indie games in the past decade has allowed designers to explore established genres in new and exciting ways. Tactical Breach Wizards, from Suspicious Developments, blends tactical strategy with puzzle solving while building a sharp and funny world around it all. There is bite in every of perfectly crafted line of exposition, lensed through the bizarre-yet-relatable personalities of your squad.
This is a game that understands that gameplay truly extends to characters, dialogue, and plot. It knows that the texture of the world involves both deep character introspection and world-spanning conspiracies. And that you can have both personal anguish and a character named Steve Clark, Traffic Warlock. (Fuckin’ Steve).
Tactical Breach Wizards is a gem of a game, a perfect encapsulation of the indie promise — a clear vision, wonderfully executed, and a joy from start to finish.
1. Balatro
I thought nothing could tear me away from Slay the Spire. Balatro exploded out of nowhere this year, a deckbuilding roguelike that uses the language and symbols of poker as a jumping off point for a stunningly deep and mechanically complex game.
The conceit is simple — create poker hands to generate increasing totals of chips. But to accomplish it you have modifiers in various forms — Jokers that do everything from double your chip totals to providing multiplier boosts for specific suits, Tarot cards to change the makeup of your hand itself, and Planet cards to increase the value of specific hands. Plus many surprises as you find new decks, challenges, and rulesets to explore.
There is endless creativity on display in how these hundreds of combinations interact with each other. Each run is entirely new, the whole symphony of possibility coalescing into a new way to experience the game. Every run is different, every run is something new to learn. And when you happen upon that perfect run, there’s no greater feeling in the world.