Well, it's almost 2026, so naturally I want to talk about 2024. For 1500 words or so.
Last year (as in the calendar year 2024, not "most of this last year") was excellent for my video game-playing in both quality and quantity. I finished 40 games, with most of them as first-time plays, and really enjoyed almost everything I played. Overall, a pretty good year, made even better by spending a lot of time with my lovely partner and her cats, who I'm slowly starting to call our cats.
But I also fell a little short in my published gaming goals (more on those soon) and had parts of my calendar revolve around podcast obligations (ditto). Whenever I sat down to choose a game to play, I relied more on whims and vibes than predetermined game planning and veered into retro replays a few times for my own comfort instead of deliberately seeking out backlog targets, I also probably bought more games than I should've. This blog post is here to to semi-document all of that.
So yeah, another list of my games played for the prior year, published a bit too late. And now to establish some criteria: The main list at the end of this blog will be the nine 2024 games I played in that year, plus the one (1) pre-2024 game in my Gaming Goals list that I managed to actually finish (I mentioned I fell a bit short). Three of those 2024 games were on my list of goals, but I'm not here to make excuses. But before the real list, let's bring up everything else:
Final Fantasy XV
Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age
THREE Final Fantasy games
The Rise of the Golden Idol
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes
Visions of Mana
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Each Dragon Age game feels distinctly different from its predecessor, and that's due to a mix of different settings, changing technology, and evolving design philosophy between each game. Veilguard was in development hell (or at least dev. limbo) for around ten years, and what we finally got was probably different from its intended original vision. But I still loved it.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth expands and beautifies the second chapter of FF VII so well that it's a little hard to go back to the original. From the high-flying combat to the wealth of side quests and mini games to the triumphant soundtrack, FF VII has never looked nor sounded better. Rebirth not only gives us incredible versions of FF VII's iconic cast, but a few recontextualizations that are outright superior to the original (mostly thinking of boss fights against Palmer, Rufus, and the Turks).
Dark Souls Remastered
The only pre-2024 game on this list not only lived up to its lofty reputation, it dragged me deeper into FromSouls research and community spaces. Now not only have I played (and loved) the game, I understand the series! I'm starting to form opinions! I even know the memes! I even checked prices on Solaire Amiibos! (They are way too expensive).
Metaphor: ReFantazio
Metaphor: ReFantazio is the culmination of decades of Atlus RPGs rolled into one, with Press Turn combat like Shin Megami Tensei, character relationships and summons like Persona, and elaborate dungeon navigation like Etrian Odyssey. But it also stands on its own as a stellar RPG, as a story of a succession contest storyline that takes on idealism vs. realism and the noblesse oblige of the powerful. Among many, many other (metaphorical) concepts.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
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Unplayed, Embarrassingly
Ghost of Tsushima
The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Resident Evil 2
Suikoden V
Super Mario Bros. Wonder
Triangle Strategy
Xenoblade Chronicles III
I always hate it when a version of this is more than, say, four games long, so nine is pretty embarrassing (and 2025's might be worse). I barely started Mario Wonder (but finished it in January 2025) and Trails from Zero (never got past the second dungeon); I didn't even boot up any of the others. A few of these are on my 2025 list, and a few more might also make my 2026 list. It's never-ending.
Played For the Podcast
Dragon Age II
Fire Emblem Warriors
Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below
Omori
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Firewatch
The Case of the Golden Idol
Day of the Tentacle
Kingdom Hearts II
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake
These are a mix of replays (Dragon Quest, Dragon Age, Zelda), unplanned purchases (Golden Idol, Omori), and overdue backlog cross-offs (Dragon Quest Heroes, Firewatch, Day of the Tentacle, Kingdom Hearts) that I wouldn't have played in 2024 under normal circumstances but did so thanks to the Retro Encounter podcast. I felt each of these playthroughs was (mostly) fun and (always) illuminating, so I don't have any regrets. Around a year and a half ago, I resolved to make 2024 a year of good podcasts before retiring from the show in early 2025, and I did exactly that. If the first-time playthroughs above counted for the ranked list below, Kingdom Hearts II might have finished around the middle. That was the standout game of the lot, to my semi-chagrin as a longtime Kingdom Hearts disdainer.
Additional Distractions
THREE Mario games
Marvel's Spider-Man 2
SIX Mega Man games
THREE Mega Man X games
...Yeah, I'm not sure what happened here. At different times I cruised several Final Fantasy (4 through 6), Mario (2 NES, Yoshi's Island, and 64), and Mega Man (1 through 6 and X2 through X4) games, with all three Mario games and a few of the NES Mega Man games as first-time completions. I mostly used these short-ish action games and familiar SNES RPGs as breaks from denser RPGs and generally had a great time. And jeez, I also finally beat a handful of iconic Mario and Mega Man games for the first time. That's something.
Spider-Man 2 was a game I picked up on sale and played through over a week or so in the summer, and it was a lovely palette cleanser in between gritty fantasy RPGs. If anything, it made me excited for the Insomniac Wolverine game that's alleged to release next year. I think if I considered all the new playthroughs above for the list below, Spider-Man and Yoshi's Island could have finished in the 5-6-7-8 range, but no higher. 2024 was a strong year. And now let me pontificate on the ten 2024 games from 2024 specifically OR my delineated 2024 backlog that I decided to count for The List:
Sollosi's Top Ten of the 2024 Gamer's Dozen
Number Ten
Rise of the Golden Idol is a narrative adventure game that features several logic- and deduction-focused puzzles, usually predicated on solving murders and uncovering bystanders' secrets from a third-person-omniscient viewpoint. It's hard to explain without playing it yourself, but basically you explore video game spaces to learn facts about a given scene, and then fill out scripts and information tables like Mad Libs to solve each case.
ROTGI is good, but its predecessor, Case of the Golden Idol, is better. A few later cases are so convoluted that they became more frustrating than fun, and ROTGI's setting of a 1970s tale of corporate greed isn't as fun as COTGI's 19th-century politics and colonialism. This is a decent-not-great sequel to a better game, and I can't avoid the comparison.
Number Nine
...but speaking of unfair comparisons, I feel bad that Eiyuden was given an impossible task to begin with: both Eiyuden and the beloved Suikoden series are the brainchild (brainchildren?) of Yoshitaka Murayama, who sadly passed away just before Eiyuden's release. Before it was ever published, fans burdened Eiyuden with the legacy of a series beloved by fans (but abandoned by its publisher) as well as the memory of a creator gone too soon.
I wish I could say that Eiyuden lived up to those expectations and more, but that was never to be. This is an RPG with some very good design ideas, satisfying character recruitment and city building, and mechanically sound turn-based combat. However, Eiyuden lacks compelling characters, story, or setting, and its gameplay, while mostly good, isn't exciting or unique enough to surmount its flaws. More than any other game on this list, I wish Eiyuden was a little better.
Number Eight
Visions of Mana is similar to Eiyuden Chronicle in that it lives in the shadow of a beloved (but mostly lapsed) classic RPG series, in this case Square-Enix's Mana series, but does an appreciably better job of living up to that name. Visions of Mana begins with a troubling worldview, in which specially chosen individuals from several tribes must sacrifice their lives to the Mana Tree once every four years in order to restore the world's magic and environmental health; the people selected as tribute are excited to be sacrifices (!?), and accompanied by a bodyguard to safely reach their destination (our hero, Val).
Predictably, Visions of Mana ends up as a story about reversing this cycle of suffering and restoring balance to the world, but the journey to get there is a pretty good time. Five distinct characters each with nine specialized classes make for pretty dynamic gameplay variety. The open world spaces to explore are vibrant and beautiful, with classic Mana character and monster designs highlighting the setting. I really liked VoM, and hope that its moderate success means we get more games like this in the future.
Number Seven
I wish Echoes of Wisdom had been called "The Legend of Link: Zelda's Adventure" or similar, but I won't argue with what we ended up getting. Echoes of Wisdom is full of color and personality, and Zelda's gameplay is meaningfully different enough from traditional Link gameplay that she feels like her own character and not just a Link stand-in. Plus the game's just good! I love 2D Zelda and EOW scratched that itch beautifully.
Also, this game is alleged to have been salvaged from the corpse of a planned "Zelda Maker" game in which players could place assets to make 2D Zelda overworlds and dungeons. I don't know how true that is, but it checks out. Zelda's Tri-Rod powers allowing for the summoning and placement of objects and monsters is always amusing and never got old. Echoes of Wisdom is a delightful Zelda romp, both for its solid series fundamentals (the dungeons are great!) and its unique protagonist.
Number Six
This is what happens when a team *eager* to make a new Prince of Persia game after the IP has sat idle for many years gets to do so, except that they've spent that intervening time playing a ton of Ninja Gaiden and Soulsborne games. This is a fast, snappy Metrovania-style action game respectfully adorned with Prince of Persia iconography and Iranian folklore. And it rules.
This might be one of the tightest combat systems in any Metrovania game, with climbing, swordplay, acrobatics, evasion, parrying, magic, and time-manipulation abilities all working in concert for tricky dungeon navigation and intense boss fights. I probably docked this game one or two spots for hiding part of the story behind optional DLC, which is annoying. But even with part of the full package missing, The Lost Crown is outstanding.
Number Five
DATV has a delightful cast, great dialog, and spirited action-focused gameplay that is very player-driven instead of party-driven (a huge departure from its Dragon Age Oranges origins), but breathtaking to behold. Seven companions, nine class specializations, and combat basics that remind me of God of War or Dark Souls, but with Dragon Age battle synergies twists. Veilguard faced a lot of criticism for characterization and tone, but I feel it's the best-playing and best-looking Dragon Age of the tetralogy, and I'm interested in running through it a second time eventually.
Number Four
But Rebirth isn't just a bigger, prettier FF VII. It's a (strange) meditation on what remaking a story does to its legacy, and a vast, exciting RPG in its own right. The battle system is lively, and the wealth of minigames and side content rival that of a Like a Dragon game. Playing Rebirth had me buzzing with excitement at what the third game of the trilogy might be, and also curious to see how Rebirth's influence affects other Square-Enix projects.
Number Three
But jokes aside, Dark Souls is fabulous. A shining example of tough-but-fair gameplay, a contiguous setting that was both a joy and a terror (non-derogatory) to explore, and boss fights and set pieces that are absolutely iconic. Dark Souls's storyline is sparse, but there are colorful characters and fascinating spaces to explore if you take the time to look. You can probably count me in for one or two FromSoftware playthroughs per year until further notice, despite passing in 2025. Praise the Sun.
Number Two
Metaphor also sports a job system that's pretty dope, and character struggles that are downright breathtaking. There are fourteen class archetypes that are each attached to a specific character and sidequest (except for a handful that are more part of the main story) that are both an analogue of Persona's Social Links and some of the most riveting NPC drama of the year. I don't know if Metaphor should have a sequel or not, but I'm automatically down for whatever Atlus's Studio Zero does next.
Number One
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is an even clearer passing of the torch than its predecessor; we've played through seven-plus Like a Dragon games as Kazuma Kiryu, met Ichiban Kasuga in 2020's Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and in Infinite Wealth the two heroes collaborate, ruminate and kick a whole lot of ass. Ichiban discovering missing pieces of his past in Honolulu contrasting to Kiryu discovering that he's affected lives in positive ways back in Yokohama, Tokyo, and Osaka is exactly the kind of nostalgia I want in my video games.
The dual protagonists are only a few of the great characters and stories in LADIW, as there are eight supporting characters who I feel just as close to. Plus there's a fun job system to explore, a great turn-based battle system that even has environmental context among its combat tricks, and one of the best video game playgrounds ever constructed in the city of Honolulu. The infinite... riches of the city have comedy, tragedy, and drama in every side quest and hidden corner (the "Let It Snow" substory is going down in history as one of the best video game side quests ever written). LAD:IW has a slightly disappointing ending, but otherwise it's everything I want in an RPG. Through its emotional highs and lows and strategic planning and gameplay, it never stops being a total delight.
So yeah. 2024. Definitely my favorite year of videogames since 2020, and possibly going even further back? Lots of great stuff to play in 2024 (which ended nearly a year ago at the time of writing), and it was a fun exercise to revisit it. I composed the skeleton of this blog post several months ago, but the bulk of the writing was done in the last two weeks. Glad to finally cross it off.
And I'll be back on my blog bullshit sooner than usual! I'm posting my annual gaming goals list on January 1st, and at this time I have all thirteen games picked out but there is still a lot of writing to do. See y'all in a few weeks!
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