gamer boy 2024

[recognito]

Belatedly adding a gamer boy write up for 2024's games. The tier rankings may seem strange and obscure at first, and I will be honest, I do not anticipate my explanations making this make more sense. All my analytical abilities went into novel and short story form, not to games. But I will do my best to make this comprehensible.
 

TIER 1: 2024 games that will almost certainly continue to consume my life in 2025

1. Hades 2 - According to Steam I've put in 200+ hours into H2 since May. I will probably write more fic for this once it's complete... I've never had a game activate the speedrun impulse but alkmfgn here I am. awaiting the next update so I can spend another 100 hours trying to finish this game in under 9 minutes. Will probably start a new save file when the full game's released. The game that singlehandedly made me use a controller instead of keyboard and mouse. I'm down bad.

2. Shogun Showdown - IT'S ALMOST UNFORGIVEABLY WEEBARONI but the gameplay is right up my alley. Similar to Into the Breach: movement, positioning, and timing are all super important, and the higher level difficulties make it so that one mistake will end your run right there. I am going to try to 100% this game, I think. It's good! punishing! Kind of hard to tell which direction you're facing for some characters. I'm more than a little obsessed.

3. Slay the Spire - I 100%'d the achievements and also cleared A20 Heart on all four characters and I'm. still playing. Now playing this while waiting for sts2. please. please. please megacrit. Don't ask me how many hours I've put here.

 

TIER 2: Games I Completed and Enjoyed

1. Pentiment - Super charming game set in a town torn between the lord, the monastery, and you know... murders. The part of me that studied Chaucer and did driveby coursework on medieval literature really loved the historical research that went into this, from how the characters walk to the character designs to the day-to-day structure of daily life. The actual murder investigation elements are not the game's strongest suit, but they're also... you know, the bulk of the game... and the gameplay of the third act wound up being confusing--just felt more barebones than the first two acts. I lol forgot to add this to the original tumblr post, so dear readers of 2025 and beyond, you are benefiting from my crossposting. 

2. Metaphor Refantazio - This game has incredible momentum for the first like 60 hours and then I hit the last month and was like, okay! I bet there's only 5-10 more hours of game, only to fall down a rabbit hole of bonus dungeons, level grinding, and secret bosses... of the four games in this tier, I think this is the one I enjoyed the most and is probably the only one I'll replay/NG+...

As a game, I think it suffers from some classic atlus writing tropes: losing interest in characters after they have their Epiphany, structuring a game around a single word/phrase but keeping it fairly surface level, weird pacing... there's also like, the deep comedy of this being a game where you try to assassinate the same guy six times and keep failing, lol. but long, narrative-driven rpgs are pretty rare and lol I like this SO much better than dragon age veilguard and some of the other games on this list.

metaphor's strengths are also real: incredibly stylish, memorable characters with moving dilemmas and struggles, and adfsjk I do think it does a better job of crafting an ending than the persona series, the fandom where I cut my teeth on, writing-wise. metaphor's a game made with a lot of love for the genre and for the game and the story it wants to tell, and I found that really compelling to play. what is the purpose of fantasy when fantasy cannot be fully realized? fantasy, metaphor argues, is a way of sustaining one's ambitions for a better world; without fantasy, one's hopes for a better world cannot survive the cruelty and sadness of being alive

the art direction for this game is really beautiful, too... fkh I really enjoyed playing it. play it for characters screaming, "living is hell! this world disgusts me! I hope I FUCKING die!!!!" play it for beautiful, adorable heismay. play it to scream "COME ON" when you fail to assassinate the guy for the third time

3. Chrono Jotter - I enjoyed this one! The conceit of it is totally insane but basically perfect... I actually don't have that much to say about this one, largely because by the end of the game I felt like I'd actually enjoy it more if this were an episode of a larger work or series. As is, I felt like the things I wanted most from the game in terms of character development and conclusions were things the narrative itself could not accommodate. Enjoyable visual novel experience on the whole.

4. Tactical Breach Wizards - I love moving little wizards around on a grid. I love defenestrating people. There is a twist with one character that SDLFKMGLH FUCKING... I don't even know. "Did ANYONE think about this???????" Probably not!!! I did find the gameplay compelling enough to finish. The writing of this manages to be tiresome despite being pretty light and thin. I've never felt more "please get with the times" while finishing a game. I've uninstalled it and will not be achievement chasing. but it's not the gameplay's fault. let's put it that way.

 

TIER 3: GAMES I WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY PLAY AGAIN IN 2025

1. Balatro - We all know about the card clown pussy. I'm not explaining this one. if Hades 2 and Shogun Showdown hadn't happened, I would probably still be playing this on the regular.

2. Risk of Rain Returns - Christ, I am not good at this game!!! I am not successful in any way. I've played for 40 hours and have not beaten this game once. but I bet I can. I bet I can get good enough to beat it at least one time. Maybe.

TIER 4: GAMES I WILL MOST CERTAINLY COMPLETE IN 2025 OR MAYBE 2026 DUE TO FAILURES IN MY WILL, NOT A FAULT IN THE GAME

1. Ace Attorney Investigations Collection - I played the first game on the 3/DS and I'm sooooo excited to play the second game. Ace Attorney is a game I really love playing but also a game I'm not really that fannish about. I guess except for Barok/Asougi. They're not here though. I'm on the fifth case and really enjoying it. I bet I can finish this in a few weeks.

2. 428 Shibuya Scramble - This game reeks of "writer has a young daughter and is now beset with regrets and worries about his parenting" but also it's really stylish and funny?! Gameplay is really good, but I haven't finished because of a personality flaw where if I'm sitting at the computer I'm constantly beset with the urge to check other things instead of reading a game. Really fun visual novel with great game design... I will probably finish this in 2026.

 

 

TIER 5: GAMES I PLAYED IN 2024 AND GOD KNOWS IF I WILL EVER FINISH THESE DUE TO FLAWS IN THE GAME

1. Dragon Age: The Veilguard - the writing for this game fills me with despair

2. Unicorn Overlord - I got to the point where I had to marry the prince Alain to someone but I couldn't marry Clive so I stopped here, despite the fun gameplay... sorry, vanillaware, the story is just. so minimal. if I can't marry clive, what else am I supposed to do here