Hi friends, it’s been a while. I started putting this post together a year ago and never got around to actually writing most of it. I had all the games picked out, all the screenshots uploaded…I just never actually wrote the damn thing.
2024 was the first full year I didn’t do Make Me A Gamer as a podcast, and 2025 was worse than 2024 for me. But I’m hoping to turn things around in 2026. My first goal is to do my top 2025 games at a reasonable timeframe, but the completionist in me needs to get my 2024 thoughts out first. So you’re going to get a very abbreviated thoughts on my 2024 list, now even further out.
It’s been hard to be excited for video games because there have been so many layoffs and general disappointment in the industry as a whole, on top of the world outside of games. However, there were many bright spots in the actual games themselves. I didn’t finish nearly as many games as I normally did in 2024, mostly because there were so many massive RPGs that released that took up a ton of my time. I also hit a few games in my backlog – Pentiment, Immortals of Aveum, and Donut County were all non-2024 games that I really enjoyed and wanted to throw a mention out to here before I get to the official list.
So without further ado, here are my top 10 games of 2024.
Honorable Mention #1: Nine Sols
Do you like parrying things and 2D platform exploration? If so, Nine Sols is the game for you. Its difficulty is brutal and I gave up on it multiple times only to go back because I couldn’t put it down. I didn’t like Sekiro but Nine Sols’ mechanics were addicting and right up my alley. It’s well polished and worth your time, but an honorable mention because I barely scratched the surface of the game with how far I got into it.
Honorable Mention #2: Helldivers 2
Helldivers 2 came out of the gate very strong and is honestly the last multiplayer game I really had a good time in. However I think it’s been over a year and a half since I touched it at this point and it was already falling down the list back at the beginning of 2025. Still, it’s fun and hilarious to play with friends and we can always use a good skewering of capitalist imperialism.
Honorable Mention #3: Mario & Luigi: Brothership
I think this will end up being a good game but I only got a few hours into it. Definitely the best Mario & Luigi game since Bowser’s Inside Story (even though I played very little of it) but a victim of me pulling away from the Switch system due to the hardware getting old and me using my Steam Deck more in its place. Maybe whenever I get a Switch 2 I will revisit and fully play this one.
10. Animal Well
Animal Well is a puzzle game that also tests your platforming skills. There were a lot of moments where I felt like I had the biggest brain in the world when I solved something, but there was also a lot of frustrating moments trying to figure out what the game wanted from me. It was quite enjoyable to play in real-time with a community trying to find all the secrets, and this was the start of a shift in my mental space towards games that flex my brain more than my reflexes.
9. Balatro
I mean, Balatro is Balatro. I don’t think it’s legally possible for a best of 2024 list to not have Balatro, just like it’s not legal for a 2025 list to not have Expedition 33. If somehow you haven’t heard of Balatro yet in the year of our lord 2026, well, it’s available everywhere and you should give it a shot because it’s pretty simple to learn and you will get addicted very fast.
8. Star Wars Outlaws
I played Star Wars Outlaws in December 2024 after it released in August. My experience with this was the start of me not caring as much about playing games right on release. In the months between its launch and when I played, a ton of bugs and fixes were established and the game was much better overall. It was also really fun and the best video game exploration of the Star Wars universe in a long time. And no lightsabers! It still has an Ubisoft open world checklist, but it is probably the most underrated gem of a game on this list.
7. Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth
Infinite Wealth, aka Yakuza 8, aka Yakuza 7 and a half, aka Ichiban and Kiryu’s Great Adventure, aka Kiryu’s Actual Last Game This Time We REALLY Mean It, was a game that suffered from doing too much. I took a break 20 hours in to spend 10 hours doing an Animal Crossing minigame within the game. I barely touched the Pokemon minigame and there’s a bunch of side content I didn’t even start. And the game’s already a good 60-70 hours of RPG if you just focus on the main story. But the story itself was weak compared to the previous game and it felt out of sync with itself trying to juggle a competent story for Ichiban while also bidding farewell to Kiryu. Hopefully next game they return the focus to just one protagonist.
6. Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail
FFXIV fans were pretty divided on Dawntrail at release and I was on the side of really enjoying it. I liked the new character Wuk Lamat and while there were some things I wish they did better (like expanding more on the contest in the first half and not having an entire zone that just sort of didn’t mean anything to the plot at all, and maybe introducing the second half plotlines a little earlier) overall I really enjoyed the themes of this one. The expansions since the main 7.0 release have also built on the great foundation and I’m excited to see where 8.0 takes us.
5. Zenless Zone Zero
I got into my first gacha game in 2024. I’m still not sure if it was good for me or not, but considering I’m still playing ZZZ in 2026 (although not keeping up with it every day like I was in 2024) the game must be doing something right. It leans a little too hard into fanservice with some of its character designs, and it’s only gotten worse recently which is one of the reasons I’ve pulled back from it. But the core combat is actually well done and tightly designed. The story has kind of fallen off since the beginning in 2024 though, which is disappointing.
4. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
Another gigantic RPG that I was drawn into in 2024, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth stumbled a little bit from Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s highs. There are certain parts I loved (namely the parts where they embraced what I loved about Remake and how it was different from the original) and certain parts I really enjoyed (Queen’s Gambit was a fun as hell card game that beats out Triple Triad imo) but it leaned too hard into open world checklists as a way to extend gameplay. When it kept the story tight I really loved all the character moments and they absolutely nailed the finale, but it was just a little too much game for me and I was burned out by the end.
3. Metaphor: ReFantazio
Oh hey another huge-ass RPG. Again, this game was great. The music was fantastic. Having a Persona-style system but with adults and not high schoolers was refreshing. I really, really enjoyed everything they did with Metaphor and unlike the other RPGs I’ve had on this list, I was not ever overwhelmed by its content. It had the exact right amount of balancing story and sidequests without burning you out on its world and the gameplay itself. It was certainly the best executed of the big RPGs of 2024. But because there were so many BIG games this year, it was the smaller, tighter experiences that really stuck with me.
2. Astro Bot
Astro Bot is fucking charming as hell. It’s exactly what gaming needs nowadays – a celebration of video games that isn’t trying to be dark or gritty. It’s fun and silly but also has challenging portions that test your platforming skills. All the Playstation Astro Bot characters you can find are cute and adorable, and interacting with them in your hub is the highlight of the game, honestly. I won’t ever forget my friend screaming in surprise and terror when he accidentally hit a button I didn’t know existed and made every single Astro Bot start chasing him around the hub world. It keeps itself short and to the point, which I really appreciated. I had a smile on my face the entire time I played it, and if you have any attachment to Playstation or grew up playing their games, you owe it to yourself to play this.
1. Tactical Breach Wizards
My favorite game of 2024 is a game that Steam tells me I played for 13.7 hours. Comparatively I’m pretty sure I had over 100 hours in ZZZ, Metaphor, FF7 Rebirth, Yakuza 8, and Dawntrail each. But Tactical Breach Wizards was the absolute best game of the year and stands tall in my pantheon of games. It’s an XCOM style tactics game that uses breach mechanics and magic in interesting ways. Figuring out how you can clear a room without even letting the enemy get a turn is a highlight to its gameplay. It also had some surprisingly strong emotional beats that I didn’t expect. The dialogue between the main characters is great, as you’re treated to their conversations before each breach. And the final boss is one of the best executed final bosses in any tactics game, not being too easy or too difficult while forcing you to remember and use every mechanic you’ve learned over the course of the game.
A game excels when it knows what it is and what it wants to do, and Tactical Breach Wizards is a perfect example of that kind of game being at the top of its class.
Phew, okay, I’ve finally talked about 2024. See you soon for my 2025 list.
Atma's Weapon 