2024 -- Finished
Games (from any year) which I finished playing in 2024.
List items
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01/24 (Normal) -- Odin Sphere Leifthrasir is a fun beat 'em up action RPG. Branching paths, hidden secrets and optional mini-bosses add some variety to the 2D side scrolling gameplay. It's surprisingly story heavy, with a striking (storybook?) visual style and several solid background tracks.
OSL has a repeating story structure featuring five characters. This is pretty cool from a storytelling perspective, as the various character stories diverge and overlap. I started feeling the gameplay repetition around the third playthrough -- there's some variety in each character's playstyle and content, but the structure tends to be the same.
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01/26 (Lead Seal) -- City builders mostly haven't grabbed me in recent years. Games like Banished and They Are Billions were fun for one or two maps, but some structure would have helped.
Against the Storm mixes up a lot of elements each map, like access to different races, perks and even types of buildings. These can line up into great synergies (or you might struggle to cobble together any advanced resources). The campaign structure gradually ramps up the difficulty while the meta progression unlocks new options and advantages.
I enjoyed Against the Storm for 50+ hours, but maps still take a while. My last run involved losing at the Silver Seal by a matter of seconds. It was close and exciting, but also reset around 8 settlements worth of progress.
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01/27 (EO3, Armoroad) -- Etrian Odyssey 3 is a classic dungeon crawler. It's easy to pick up and play and I enjoyed my time with it. The old-school challenge is refreshing, but it's a bit slow and straightforward.
There are some fun ideas in addition to the base gameplay, like a built-in map (with some auto-mapping), camping and harvesting and rare drops from meeting conditions.
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01/30 (Melanie) -- I enjoyed Voice of Cards for what it was. It's pretty, polished and effective at telling its story with simple animations and narration. The story itself has a good dose of humor with some surprising plot twists.
Voice of Cards' exploration and combat are pretty straightforward. The gameplay isn't bad, but it *is* slow. Unskippable animations and a high encounter rate drag the pace at times. (There was also a touch of lag, potentially because of the Switch.)
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02/03 (110%) -- Moonlit Farewell reminds me of Reverie Under the Moonlight. Both are solid Metroidvanias with charming pixel art. They have exploration, platforming and combat segments which can be challenging, but I wouldn't call them hardcore.
I feel like there was a missed opportunity with both Momodora games. They have interesting worlds which probably could have supported more story paths.
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02/07 (Yuna) -- I enjoyed Eternights mainly for its characters. Its main story elements are sometimes contrived and confused, but the teenagers were convincing. They struggle with horrors, survivor's guilt and personal regrets within the apocalyptic setting. They talk about their hopes and scavenge for familiar comforts. They also joke around and get bored or annoyed at being stuck together.
Eternights definitely feels like it was made by a small or indie team. It mostly gets the job done, despite having plenty of rough edges. The character models are blocky, but expressive. The combat is fun, if janky, with timed dodges, special attacks and finishers. The minigames were hit-or-miss, but I thought the progression systems worked pretty well.
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03/18 (Normal) -- VanillaWare's annoucement trailer claimed that Unicorn Overlord would be the "rebirth of tactical fantasy RPGs". That's a bold claim, although I can't think of many games in this style (like Ogre Battle, Dragon Force or maybe The Nephilim Saga).
UO's gameplay does a great job of scratching the strategy RPG itch, and I found the Normal difficulty pretty forgiving. The strategy layer includes smart balancing options (like unit stamina and map timers). It also has a wide variety of unit and equipment options -- tuning equipment, tactics and unit compositions was fascinating. (I did get a little overwhelmed after 30 or so individual characters.)
VanillaWare's artistic 2D style looked great for both the story sequences and character battles. The story itself pulled me along from country to country, meeting and helping the races of Fevrith. (The campaign itself involves liberating and rebuilding cities and regions.) It also has side quests and Fire Emblem-esque rapport conversations.
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03/18 (Proto-Bahamut) -- It's fair to compare GranBlue Fantasy ReLink to Monster Hunter games (which I've greatly enjoyed), although it's also fair to say it's different. I personally loved its skyfaring aesthetic and lighthearted, adventurous tone.
Like Monster Hunter, GranBlue features hub areas with quest counters. It has repeatable missions, material drops and difficulty ranks. It also has a short(-ish), bombastic story campaign. On the other hand, GranBlue's combat is more party-focused with a wide variety of (generally less complicated) individual characters. Its story also focuses much more on its characters and includes the series' backstory.
I have mixed feelings about the progression. There's a lot of it (including EXP, mastery points, weapons and sigils). Each character must be developed individually (and you'll have at least four if you're playing with AI companions). I enjoyed replaying many of the missions and often felt like I was getting something, but there were tedious elements.
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04/04 -- I have mixed feelings about My Time at Sandrock. Its focus on scavenging, refining and crafting/assembling is different from many farm sims in an interesting way. The distinct skill trees were also a cool idea and its inventory management seemed player-friendly. However, many of the other gameplay systems (like combat and mining) were mediocre to fine. I probably enjoyed it for 30+ hours, but it started to drag around the transition to advanced machines.
I might have pushed more toward My Time at Sandrock's end-game, but its cartoonish style and setting didn't click with me. I wasn't particularly interested in any of its characters. I also didn't get into the social gameplay, minigames or systems like farming.
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04/13 -- (Side note: "Harvest Moon" has a confusing history. Apparently, Winds of Anthos is part of a new series which started in 2014.)
Winds of Anthos is a mixed bag. I think it would be a boring game based on its farming and social gameplay alone. The familiar elements are all there, but are mostly just servicable. The open world is what adds a surprisingly fun wrinkle -- exploration leads to new seeds, new farm plots with various properties and permanent upgrades via collectibles. There are also a few towns to open up (which can be improved by shipping crops or completing requests). I usually found myself juggling various requests, upgrades and exploration goals.
The open world works relatively well but the design certainly isn't perfect. Most seed types can only be found or bought in tiny quantities (around 1-5), which hurts dedicated farming.
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02/09 -- I previously intended to revisit Lil Guardsman, but never got back around to it.
I would describe it as kind of like Papers, Please with a Cartoon Network aesthetic. I personally wasn't a fan of the art style. The humor was hit-or-miss for me, and the game occasionally makes odd pokes at player decisions.
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04/20 -- Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has many of the same strengths (and weaknesses) as FF7 Remake. Its core combat is interesting and varied (but is held back by poor enemy and encounter designs). The characters are well-written and developed, including the new additions like Red and Yuffie. It also features a lot of excellent cinematic moments.
That said, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is... too much. I lost a lot of steam after the halfway point. The layers upon layers of minigames were a big factor in this. The bland activities in the new open world also contributed. (The open world itself is a good fit for the setting and the environments look great. But it wasn't an effective change of pace against a glut of other minigame elements.)
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