Bitter's Games of 2024
It was a good year for games, much like every year. It was a year with basically no Nintendo to speak of, but otherwise a ton of great games, especially indie games.
I hate when articles don't have the list towards the top, so here it is:
- Tactical Breach Wizards
- 1000 x Resist
- Metaphor: Refantazio
- Fields of Mistria
- Stellar Blade
- Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
- Balatro
- Mouthwashing
- UFO 50
- Granblue Fantasy: Relink
- Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess
- Honkai: Star Rail
- Unicorn Overlord
- Helldivers 2
- Call of Duty Black Ops 6
Spoilers for things will be pretty light overall, but I'd just skip over anything where you care about spoilers.
Honorable Mentions
Marvel Rivals - I don't care about Marvel but I did always like Overwatch. This has been surprisingly fun to play, even if I have no idea who Luna Snow is. Wait, what do you mean she's from the mobile game? There's a Marvel mobile game?
Risk of Rain 2: Seekers of the Storm - This first DLC release by Gearbox was uhhhh, fine. They missed the mark with a lot of stuff and broke most of my modlist. The second balance pass on monsters and items seems to be much better. This game is still fun and I'll likely continue to play for the foreseeable future.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle - This is a game I just didn't quite get to finish this year, although it likely would have made the list if I had. If you're in the market for a good piece Indiana Jones media, this is something you should check out because it nails the vibe. I blame PoE2 for not finishing this in time.
Path of Exile 2 - Ruined my plan to play some more 2024 games in December because I was playing this instead. I fully expect this to be on a future list once it fully releases. I'm playing a witch minion build and having a blast.
(the art for the Infernalist fucks)
15. Call of Duty Black Ops 6
I actually played a Call of Duty game campaign for the first time in probably 15 years. There are some really interesting, almost horror levels in the campaign that shook things up a bit in the middle of what was a fairly normal CoD campaign. That said, it fails to deliver on a lot of interesting threads it creates. This game could have greatly benefited from 5-6 more hours of campaign runtime. The game was a good time for what it was, but I won't be rushing back to play more CoD campaigns in the future.
14. Helldivers 2
So few developers can seem to nail the simple feeling of Left 4 Dead. That co-op experience of fighting hordes of enemies in a desperate situation. Helldivers 2 nails it, and then takes it further. Everything you do feels satisfying. Correctly doing the inputs on something, calling in air support to blow up a nest, rescuing a teammate, taking out that large enemy. Everything feels like a desperate struggle, but you have all the tools you need to make something work against the odds. Doing simple input codes instead of having players hold down one button for X amount of time is one of the smartest things I've seen in gaming this year. Despite some rough balance updates and PlayStation account requirement fiasco, this game deserves all its accolades.
13. Unicorn Overlord
It takes a certain type of sicko to like Unicorn Overlord. This game has a deep team building system that I never even full sunk my teeth into. Being able to program a team of 1-6 units to do specific sequence was incredibly satisfying once you nailed down the right order of operations and class synergies. While this isn't my favorite type of strategy game, there was clearly a lot of thought put into how all the systems tie together.
The art style of Vanillaware is phenomenal and on full display here as one would expect. Here's hoping they continue to make the games for sickos for many years to come.
12. Honkai: Star Rail
Look, I played a lot of HSR in 2024 and I'll be playing a lot in 2025. It's easy to keep up with daily which is something a lot of other gacha/live service games struggle with. Playing through Divergent Universe and the endgame content every so often continues to be really fun. The story is always a good time with some very satisfying climax moments. 3.0 is around the corner and I find myself looking forward to the newest arc in the game. Wish me luck in pulling for THE Herta.
11. Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess
Games like this just don't get made by AAA studios and publishers. It feels like something I'd have seen on the shelf at Toys R Us about 15 years ago for the PS3.
Despite feeling like its something I pulled out of a time capsule, I found myself enchanted by this game. The tower defense + action gameplay was reminiscent of something like Dynasty Warriors where you have people to control tactically, but you yourself are the most important piece on the board. Boss fights were always unique and interesting, all with their own gimmicks.
The menu upgrade screen in the tent with Yoshiro felt more immersive than I expected, with her reacting to different things depending on what I was doing. She would softly clap when I upgraded something or you could gift her little desserts that she would then eat. Such a small thing, but I still remember how charming that was. Sometimes it's the small ways a game does something that will stick with you and elevate the experience.
Capcom has been on a roll lately, and I hope they continue to push games like this one.
10. Granblue Fantasy: Relink
I had a ton of fun playing all the different characters in this game. Each character had their own playstyle that made the feel distinct. It does a great job at letting you do cool, flashy, anime moves on your enemies. At time, this almost felt more proof of concept than a full game. I hope they plan on making more entries into this series and expand upon what they've built. The combat works well and the characters feel great, if they can expand with some more stuff to do in this game, I think we'll be in for the Granblue Fantasy games people have been wanting for years.
This isn't the best or most through provoking game this year, but it was a fun ride from beginning to end. I see a ton of potential here for things to come.
(if she's evil, then why is she so hot?)
9. UFO 50
50 games in 1 game dressed up as a single fictional game company's entire catalogue through the 80s is a fantastic hook for a game. The fact that every game has had a ton of thought put into it is literally insane. Taking modern game design and applying it to something that could have come out in 1987 in genius. All of these games work and everyone I've talked to about this has their own favorites. Party House alone might have made it onto my list this year, but there are 49 more games!
I doubt we'll see a game like this ever again, and this game will be talked about for years to come with all the interesting stuff these games are doing. I still think about Mooncat and how they literally just reimagined what movement could look like in video games AND IT WORKED.
8. Mouthwashing
The longer I sit with this game, the more I appreciate what it had to say and how it said it. The true horror of this game wasn't living under endgame capitalism, or being stuck in space, or the body horror or jump scares or horse themed monsters. Rather the real horror was a leader hand waving someone's terrible behavior, ignoring warning signs, and enabling them because "Well I've known them for years." The aftermath when this individual does what you expect them to because the people with the power to stop them did nothing. The system put in place to prevent this failed. The horror is how real and commonplace this can be in our everyday lives. THAT'S the scary part.
This game has some raw feeling writing. Characters will pull no punches sometimes and what they're saying will hit you like a truck. A few of these lines will stick with me for some time. This quote from Swansea is a great example.
"You think it's all goin' somewhere but every failure leaves you a little more mangled than before. Older. Uglier. Meaner. Smarter in a worse way."
The villain in this game isn't fun, and there is little catharsis to the tragedy. Only a cargo hold full of mouthwash.
7. Balatro
What can I say about Balatro that hasn't been said? When the numbers catch on fire I feel good. It's probably the best deck builder game that's ever come out. And the sound design + the ONE song is so phenomenal you could probably write an essay on it. This game is for sickos, and it will turn you into one. (now available on Android and iOS)
6. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
For being the middle of a 3 part trilogy, this game was a lot of fun. There was A LOT of bloat in here. Checking boxes on the map, Chadley, Queensblood, lots of fluff moments. Some of it hits and lots of it misses for me. (Not Queensblood though, loved that)
That said, the combat was rock solid. The characters were still just as interesting as they were in Remake. Story beats always hit and almost everything in the main quest was great. Seeing these classic locations realized in full 3D so beautifully was awesome. The game was a visual treat for the eyes and to say the soundtrack was staggering would be an understatement.
This game was made with a lot of love, maybe too much love considering how much of it there is. Somewhere in here is a FF7:Rebirth that's game of the year. One with the fluff cut down. But alas, that's not that game that exists. So it sits just outside my top 5.
5. Stellar Blade
Yep, Eve is hot. Yep, most of the outfits are ludicrously horny. I know, you know, everyone knows this already. This conversation has been had around this game all year, and I'm not super interested in rehashing it here.
The game itself is one some of the most fun I had all year. I think of this as a "souls-lite" or something closer to God of War. It's not as punishing but has some borrowed systems from other games, chief among them being "bonfires" that act as checkpoints and the respawning enemies. As you progress through the game, you get more skills that allow you to do flashier and flashier moves as Eve. These are ALWAYS cool and it just never got old for me. Parrying in this game was very satisfying and having skills to make it more forgiving for my shitty reflexes was a godsend.
There are a variety of bosses fighting them was always a treat. It always allowed you the chance to do something flashy and cool, especially when finishing them off. None of the bosses were as deep as something in a FromSoft game, but I think for the tone of this game they work well. All of them were something that could catch you off guard if you weren't paying attention.
Exploring the world to collect different outfits, hairstyles, accessories and cans that had nothing to do with the gameplay was charming. Sure, sometimes the outfit sucked, but when you did get rewarded with a cool accessory or outfit, it was incredibly satisfying. Who doesn't love to find a little trinket that functionally does nothing?
There is a moment in this game where you ride a space elevator and slowly watch the Earth get smaller. It was one of the coolest moments I had this year. Many parts of the game are cinematic and the action sequences were always fun.
Stellar Blade is a treat to look at and the soundtrack is the best one of the year for gaming. This game jumped straight out of the PS3 era along with Kunitsu-Gami, and I'm here for as many of these "this feels like it came out on the PS3 but with modern game design sense" games as devs want to release. It's stylish, flashy, a treat for the eyes and ears and just plain fun to play.
4. Fields of Mistria
I had to stop myself from playing more of this. I have a personal rule that early access games can't be in my top 3, so to number 4 it went.
This is the best farming sim rpg harvest moon-like game to do it since Stardew Valley. You can tell the people who made this game are fans of this genre of games. The sheer amount of quality of life in this game is so nice to see. This game sets itself apart from others with a brighter, fantasy, 90s anime coat of paint.
The dialogue is plentiful and charming. I never read the same line twice in 20 hours. Friday nights all the townspeople gather at the inn and just hang out. The way this ends up further characterizing everyone gives all the characters a feeling of depth that's missing from other games like this sometimes. These characters feel as though they actually interact with each other rather than just exist for the sake of the player.
I expect this to be on my list next year as well, and if it wasn't for this being early access, I would have played more. But I had already reached max hearts with Juniper at the time. Rest assured I'll be back to marry her. (or maybe Valen, OR maybe they should let us have TWO girlfriends)
(I think she likes me)
3. Metaphor: Refantazio
I'm gonna keep this one short because you've surely read/heard a million things about this game already. I also don't want to spoil it.
It's an excellent jrpg that hooked me almost immediately with its interesting world. This game is one hell of a rollercoaster with some incredibly fun twists and turns.
The EN voice acting is great, Basilio and Del being standouts.
I would do ANYTHING for Brigitta.
I could never get into Person games because of the length and the setting. This game's interesting setting was what finally got me. That said, I've for sure had my fill for a while and likely won't be playing another long ass Atlus jrpg until a sequel to this comes out, if it does at all.
2. 1000 X Resist
This game builds one of the best narratives I've ever seen. The sci-fi world building juxtaposed next to real world events was incredible. The game seamlessly mixes the two into one cohesive narrative. I'm a sucker for a game that will show you a climax or ending right at the start, then record scratch and spent 10 hours telling you what happened leading up to that very first scene you saw. And for that scene to still hit so hard? Incredible.
One thing I'd like to touch on is the small phrases that the sisters say to each other. Hekki grace, hekki almo, hair to hair, sphere to square. Each has a different meaning, a different time when its appropriate to say. They can be greetings, partings, or affirming words. A different subtext depending on the context around when it was said. I've never seen such an interesting bit of language in any game where these phrases can convey so much so subtlety. The game doesn't spell out what these words mean to you either, you slowly come to understand the subculture that has developed among the sisters over time.
I could say SO MUCH about this game, but I'll just say this: If there is one game people play from all the Game of the Year lists, make it this one. It'll be on game of the decade list and will age better than almost anything on here.
1. Tactical Breach Wizards
Sometimes a game comes along that was made for you. And this game was made for me.
It has some of the most interesting tactics I've seen in a hot minute. TBW gives you enough tools to deal with the bad guys in 11 different ways, and then challenges you to hit certain goals in order for the characters to gain confidence to wear cooler outfits.
You can push people through a portal into a pocket dimension, push people out of a window, push people into a wall. Turns out pushing the bad guys around and into things if fun. Figuring out how to line up multiple objects, enemies and yourself in order to get that one big turn never got old. And the best part was that the game encourage you to experiment. At any time, you just undo your action and try again. Play out a whole turn only to crumple it up and toss the whole plan in the trash and try it again. The game pushes you to be more efficient, better, but never punishes you for messing up.
For a game about wizards in tactical gear, it also had some of the best character writing in games this year. Several laugh out loud moments with the most misfit wizard weirdos you could hope for. But for how silly it could be, the world building was impressive and often serious. The longer I played the more interested I was in what was happening in the world. There were several serious threats and everyone all had different feelings and motivations for why they were doing what they were. The Anxiety Dreams where you dive into each characters psyche were incredible looks into each character and what makes them tick. Each one being sure to make smart use of the character's unique ability. Most video games characters don't get half the development as the characters in TBW do in their Anxiety Dream levels.
The "healer" character shoots people to bring them back to life. AND it makes sense within the game world. What more could you ask for? This game has bits and runs with them. This is a game laser targeted at me and is the most fun I had playing anything all year.
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