The year is almost over which means it’s once again time for game of the year lists. Since I never agree with any of those, and because I love making lists, I’ve decided to make my own for the second year in a row. The criteria for Anosou’s Game of the Year list is simple: I must’ve made up a reason to put it on this list.
Time to get GotY’d!
Most exciting backlog addition: Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord
I really love first-person party-based dungeon crawlers. That love can almost be considered theoretical based on how few of them I’ve actually played to completion, but it’s still love. Now, 43 years after its initial launch, it’s totally feasible to play the game that spawned the entire genre: Wizardry. Thanks to the lovely people at Digital Eclipse, this remake made the original game widely available and easily enjoyable. As soon as I get in the right mind set I’m going to crawl some dungeons.
Honorable mentions: Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island, Unicorn Overlord, Gunvein, Humanity
Best remake or re-release: Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth
Is it a remake? Or is it a re-imagining? Whatever it is, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth was an absolutely stellar video game. You can read all about what I thought right here so I won’t go on and on, but needless to say I thought it was brilliant. The problem with Final Fantasy XVI was apparently the lack of mini-games, as Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth was more than happy to prove.
Honorable mentions: Wizardry, Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Most exciting import: Radirgy 2
I’ve been a fan of shooters by Milestone for a long time, but honestly that’s mostly because the soundtracks are absolutely brilliant and I’ve hardly played them. Finally, a few years ago, I sat down to play Radirgy Swag and I loved it. Now Radirgy 2 is here and it was the only thing I demanded my girlfriend brought me back from Japan when she went there (I’ve still never been…). It’ll be a test of my gameplay deciphering skills as it’s one of very few shooters that probably does need a translation to be understood, but damn it I will try. And if I fail I can at least blast the soundtrack CD!
Honorable mentions: Momotarō Dentetsu: Shōwa, Heisei, Reiwa mo Teiban! Asia Edition is the first ever Momotarō Dentetsu game localized in English and that’s pretty damn cool. Clearly I had to buy it.
Best game I played that was not released this year: Trails in the Sky trilogy, Trails from Zero, and Trails to Azure
I’m kind of cheating by grouping these five games together. Still, picking up the Trails series is one of the better video game decisions I’ve made in recent memory. They scratch that old school RPG itch in a way that few other games manage nowadays. They all feature spectacular writing, an interconnected story and world, and effective turn-based battles. If you’re even slightly into Japanese RPGs, you should try Trails.
I’m currently up to Cold Steel II but the move to 3D was not without its problems… we’ll see if I can get back into it in 2025!
Honorable mentions: Vampire Survivors, Monster Hunter: Rise
Best expansion or DLC: Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail
I don’t really play expansions or DLCs very often, but Final Fantasy XIV is an exception. While the reception of Dawntrail seems to have been lukewarm among the more hardcore fans, for me it was lovely to feel the adventure starting anew. With a new continent and characters, a sense of exploration, and some tie-ins to my favorite Final Fantasy I really enjoyed my time in Dawntrail. Now the big question is if Square Enix can build on this story to make it feel as majestic as the previous story arc… only time will tell!
Best old game I played this year: Devil Crash
Devil’s Crush, Devil Crash—call it what you want. It’s demonic pinball on the PC Engine. This was the year I kind of fell down a rabbit hole when a few HuCards showed up on Tradera (Swedish eBay) and I remembered that I have the HuCard adapter for my Analogue Pocket. I quickly started snatching up some games to live that PC Engine life. I would of course be lying if I said this decision was not influenced by JP Wentz‘s appearances on the 8-4 Play podcast, but I speak true when I say it was a great decision.
Being an avid fan of pinball video games (and pinball in general), I was aware of Devil Crash but 2024 was the year I finally got to play it. The game was, of course, every bit as brilliant as I thought it would be! As a welcome side-effect, I’m now more excited than ever to see Xenotilt ported to consoles just like Demon’s Tilt was before it.
Honorable mentions: Galaga ’88, Tomba!
Best disappointment: The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
Echoes of Wisdom was never supposed to be the best new Zelda, yet I couldn’t help feeling a bit disappointed when I reached the end. It felt nice to be back in top-down Zelda land, just like in the Link’s Awakening remake before it, but I was missing the clever dungeon designs from the main entries. Using echoes to solve problems was fun but sometimes frustrating due to clunky inventory navigation. Don’t get me wrong, Echoes of Wisdom was a great game, but with a series like The Legend of Zelda even great can feel like a disappointment.
Honorable mentions: Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-, which honestly was rather shit
Best stress relief: Balatro
Balatro’s been on every GOTY list this year and for good reason. For me though, it was primarily a stress relief game. This year my cat Loyd sadly passed away after battling an aggressive liver disease. During the horrible weeks of vet visits and tube feeding, Balatro was my distraction. It does give the game a certain air of grief for me but it did its job remarkably well—it’s a truly addictive and engrossing game that helped me through tough times. Hard to believe it’s based around drawing some good poker hands, really.
Honorable mentions: Pinball FX, Picross S NAMCO LEGENDARY edition
Most objects on screen: Astro Bot
There are many reasons to love Astro Bot and I was very close to naming it my ACTUAL REAL GOTY 2024. However, another game took that spot so I wanted another reason to put it on this list. It could’ve been “most joyful”, “best pacing”, or maybe even “best controls” but in the end what I remember most fondly is the sheer amount of objects on screen at any given time. A new console generation always promises greatness and I pretty much never care. Photo realism or ray-tracing or great performance isn’t what I’m looking for in a game. But when I pulled a piece of wire and a metric fuckton of acorns fell out around my little robot feet, I finally considered my purchase of a PlayStation 5 worth it.
Best game I picked up again: Monster Hunter: Rise & Sunbreak
Monster Hunter Wilds looks spectacular. Sadly it didn’t release 2024, it’s releasing in 2025 and that’s next year. After I played the Wilds beta, the Monster Hunter craving was so bad I simply had to get my fix. Luckily I stopped playing Monster Hunter: Rise before it really got good and never even bought Sunbreak. Many many hours later, I can confidently say that Monster Hunter: Rise & Sunbreak were, in fact, fantastic games and I’m happy I picked them up again.
Best pinball machine: Jaws
Keith Elwin’s team released their fifth machine this year and it’s a doozy. What many at first glance dismissed as a “boring layout” turned out to have some truly satisfying shots, plenty of choices, a deep rule set, and lovely theme integration.
Make no mistake, Jaws is not an easy game. It can be brutal when you start playing it, but once you find the shots it’s a spectacular. I’m actually really happy that it can be brutal, as it makes it much more fun in tournaments compared to the endless grind of Godzilla. Also, who can resist hitting a moving shark fin? Some of the call outs and video clips already feel like pinball classics, too. I’m particularly fond of the drunk singing during the Scars mode, “Shoot it, shoot it now. Kill it!”, and the tilt warning clips.
Honorable mentions: The Uncanny X-Men is really, really exciting but I need to play it more to have an informed opinion. John Wick has blinking lights and tight shots and I don’t like John Wick.
Best pinball machine I played that did not release this year: Grand Lizard
The pinball club I’m in rotates a lot of games. Some break, some finally get repaired, others simply appear. This year’s highlight was Grand Lizard. Owned by one of the members and bought for him by the club for his birthday, it had long been in the workshop for repairs. Then suddenly, one day, there it was.
Grand Lizard is probably not anyone’s favorite game. It can play really long in tournaments due to the upper playfield, one strategy is clearly better than all others, and you can keep a multiball going pretty much all the time. I love it though. It has relatively simple rules, fun repeatable shots, and an absolutely spectacular visual design that’s kitsch in all the right ways. Once the we sort out the multiball occasionally starting on its own, I’m grinding for Grand Champion.
Honorable mentions: Pinball Champ ’82, Fathom
Best game of 2024 I have not finished yet: Fantasian: Neo Dimension
I started playing Fantasian this christmas because I wanted something cozy to play on the long train ride to visit my mother. Fantasian is the brainchild of Hironobu Sakaguchi, father of Final Fantasy. It was originally released on Apple Arcade in 2021 and I’ve held out hope for a console port since then. Now I’m around 25 hours in and it’s been a fantastic journey. Sakaguchi’s on the record of being inspired by his own Final Fantasy VI, but I’m also getting a lot of PS1 vibes and I adore it. If I had to complain I’d say the loading times are a bit annoying on Switch. As is the move to joystick controls. Overall though, this game ticks all my boxes. Even a tiny, insignificant detail like the placement and frequency of hidden items and treasure chests feels just like coming home to a dear friend. I’ll definitely write more about this game when I’ve finished it.
Best game music: Fantasian: Neo Dimension
The biggest highlight is not necessarily the game though… it’s the soundtrack by my big idol Nobuo Uematsu. The music has all the charm of his work from the PlayStation era, but not held back by the capabilities of an on-board sound chip. The sound choices and compositions are generally much more adventurous, but with just as many memorable melodies and intriguing harmonies. This is likely the last full soundtrack Nobuo Uematsu will ever compose (at least he said as much) but he sure went out with a bang!
ACTUAL REAL GOTY 2024: Metaphor: ReFantazio
Metaphor: ReFantazio was the best gosh darn video game of 2024. I’ve already rambled about why I loved it, but it was so great that I want to ramble some more. Metaphor was a return to form for the Japanese RPG as a genre. Atlus previously struck gold with Persona 5 but this game proves they actually understood what made that game great. No, it wasn’t the high school setting—it was the perfectly tuned RPG systems. The best parts of those systems were improved and transplanted into a bold and wonderful new fantasy world filled with interesting characters and environments, resulting in one of the best Japanese role-playing games ever made.
Metaphor: ReFantazio drew me in and didn’t let go until it was over. It reminded me why I love Japanese RPGs and even video games in general. It perfectly balanced a sense of wonder and a captivating story with what truly matters in a video game: the gameplay. For those reasons—and many more—it’s my game of the year.
