Personal game of the year 2024 + The Game Awards

[Wimmer]

What are your personal thoughts for a GOTY this year and what do you think about The Game Awards (Geoff Keighley’s show).

My pick would either be Astrobot or Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

 

[Tronky.it]

Honestly, and it's purely a matter of taste, I don't like the direction that Final Fantasy's gameplay has taken, now focused on action RPG. I find it quite boring, and I say this as someone who completed Final Fantasy XV in its entirety on PS4.
Astro Bot, on the other hand, seems like a nice game to me, but if I really had to choose the best among those nominated this year I would say Metaphor ReFantazio: beautiful music, interesting graphics, tough gameplay, and a plot with nice messages and exciting moments. Unfortunately I haven't played Black Myth yet, but I've heard good things about it, it seems fun.

 

[Wimmer]

Honestly, and it's purely a matter of taste, I don't like the direction that Final Fantasy's gameplay has taken, now focused on action RPG. I find it quite boring, and I say this as someone who completed Final Fantasy XV in its entirety on PS4.
Astro Bot, on the other hand, seems like a nice game to me, but if I really had to choose the best among those nominated this year I would say Metaphor ReFantazio: beautiful music, interesting graphics, tough gameplay, and a plot with nice messages and exciting moments. Unfortunately I haven't played Black Myth yet, but I've heard good things about it, it seems fun.

Metaphor was my disappointment of the year if anything, I love the gameplay but the story is frustratingly boring and feels a bit childish at times with how they address racism problems.
I also do not enjoy how the game looks at all (ignoring the menu design) it looks worse than persona 5 which released 6 years prior, a lot of the locations just looks like generic medieval fantasy place with no style or uniqueness to it all.
I have yet to finish this game but the story makes it feel like a chore, they never ever stop talking and I wish Atlus would finally start to make cutscenes feel more alive than just models standing and clumsily playing pre set animation based on their emotions.

I feel like this game could’ve been so much more interesting if they didn’t try to make it into a “political game” (quite literally due to the elections) and just made a dark fantasy jrpg without the shoehorned day system of the persona game.

A lot of what I said doesn’t mean the game is bad but it just feels dragged down by its story and the persona aspect that only shackles it down to a “persona but medieval” status.

 

[Tronky.it]

I don't agree about the graphics of the game, personally it captured me for its originality and the way the characters and monsters appear in it.
While I agree with you on the dialogue side, at the end of the game I skipped almost all the dialogues of the characters with whom I reached bond level 8, and during the side missions - only when things were taking a long time, or when they were repetitive... like "but what do you want to understand, what do you want, but what do you know, you don't understand anything, and gnegnegne"

 

[Wimmer]

I don't agree about the graphics of the game, personally it captured me for its originality and the way the characters and monsters appear in it.
While I agree with you on the dialogue side, at the end of the game I skipped almost all the dialogues of the characters with whom I reached bond level 8, and during the side missions - only when things were taking a long time, or when they were repetitive... like "but what do you want to understand, what do you want, but what do you know, you don't understand anything, and gnegnegne"

I think I would’ve enjoyed the graphics more if the characters looked a bit more like their SMT counterparts since they fit better in a more serious looking setting but yes the creepy monster fits well in the environment given.

What I do also find frustrating is that they force the bonding to progress since you need them to evolve archetypes but they didn’t bother to make the bond event more interesting than most persona games unfortunately, they feel like very generic characters development.

I wish they’d keep persona thing in persona games, the day system makes more sense in a modern setting since that’s what we use and the days of the week/month/year matters a lot in everything we do daily but in a fantasy/isekai world the last thing I want to worry about is what day we are and how much time I have left but that’s more of a personal thing I guess.

 

[Tronky.it]

I wish they’d keep persona thing in persona games, the day system makes more sense in a modern setting since that’s what we use and the days of the week/month/year matters a lot in everything we do daily but in a fantasy/isekai world the last thing I want to worry about is what day we are and how much time I have left but that’s more of a personal thing I guess.

That's why I don't play games like Majora's Mask...

I'm already an anxious person, then you also tell me that I have a few days to complete everything and go die for the good of humanity, it's not a great thing xD

 

[She's Kerosene]

Antonblast scratches so many itches in terms of control, difficulty, sound design, ost, and artstyle that I can't not have it as my GOTY.


1. Antonblast
2. Astro Bot
3. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
4. Crow Country
5. Atlyss

 

[Wimmer]

Antonblast scratches so many itches in terms of control, difficulty, sound design, ost, and artstyle that I can't not have it as my GOTY.


1. Antonblast
2. Astro Bot
3. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
4. Crow Country
5. Atlyss

Antonblast looks pretty cool so I’ll eventually try it

 

[Bump'n'Ys]

"What are your personal thoughts for a GOTY this year"
GOTY 2024 for me was DQIII HD. It's not a perfect remake...but it's pretty dang close and I had an amazing time with it on Draconian Mode. The only thing that seemed a little off was the difficulty. I was fine with a lot of changes made like some monsters getting multiple actions a turn and the new bosses were a great addition, but I mean the actual difficulty curve was a little strange. The hardest boss in my opinion was before Baramos, and the final boss was much easier than I had previously experienced in earlier releases. Still, that's honestly a pretty small complaint for me.
"what do you think about The Game Awards (Geoff Keighley’s show)."
Meh. I'll watch it with friends but I've never understood the appeal; I feel like I'm just watching advertisements more than anything and I wouldn't watch it alone.

Metaphor was my disappointment of the year if anything, I love the gameplay but the story is frustratingly boring and feels a bit childish at times with how they address racism problems.
I also do not enjoy how the game looks at all (ignoring the menu design) it looks worse than persona 5 which released 6 years prior, a lot of the locations just looks like generic medieval fantasy place with no style or uniqueness to it all.
I have yet to finish this game but the story makes it feel like a chore, they never ever stop talking and I wish Atlus would finally start to make cutscenes feel more alive than just models standing and clumsily playing pre set animation based on their emotions.

I feel like this game could’ve been so much more interesting if they didn’t try to make it into a “political game” (quite literally due to the elections) and just made a dark fantasy jrpg without the shoehorned day system of the persona game.

A lot of what I said doesn’t mean the game is bad but it just feels dragged down by its story and the persona aspect that only shackles it down to a “persona but medieval” status.

Reading your post if anything has just made me wonder how a Last Bible IV would be. I've heard a lot of people seem mixed on Metaphor and that's a shame that it's not living up to expectations. I haven't played it yet (or Persona even - all my playtime with Megaten is SMT, Majin Tensei, or Last Bible related) but I've been cautiously curious about it. Would you say the game would be fine on sale in the future for like, 20$ USD?

 

[RustySK]

Probably UFO 50 for me, though I guess that might be a bit of a cop out in a way.

I actually hated the game/s at first and found them frustrating in that extra infuriating way only NES games are capable of. Until I found the first entry in the collection that clicked with me, that is - Night Manor, a Shadowgate-style Point & Click.
From that point on I kind of got addicted and at this point I've completed almost all the games.

While not every entry in the collection is going to be enjoyable for everyone and one or two even kind of suck (Barbuta, I'm looking at you - even though its design is intentional, that doesn't make it any more enjoyable), as a whole it really is one hell of a game.

Aside from that most new mainstream releases I tried out this year disappointed me.
FFXVI was gorgeous, but while I'm a sucker for character action games, it had way too few actual combat options to be fun in the long term, Metaphor ReFantazio was alright I suppose, but didn't exactly grip me so I dropped it eventually and Stalker 2 has a super enjoyable gameplay loop and engrossing atmosphere, but is such a technical mess that I bounced off hard.

Indies remain the only actually valid reason I still play newer games at all every now and then. Selaco, Isles of Sea and Sky, Conscript, Skald, the list goes on - all fantastic.


EDIT: Oh right, the Game Awards thing - I genuinely could not give less of a shit. Industry awards in general have nothing to do with quality and everything to do with advertising, profitability and social media groundswell.
Watching rich people pat each other on the back for getting richer is not my idea of a good time.

 

[Logi]

i haven't played a lot of games from this year that i wanted to play (still want to play infinite wealth, crow country, echoes of wisdom, sorry we're closed and a few others)
from the ones i've played it's between CONSCRIPT, Mullet Mad Jack and Mouthwashing

 

[Strategist]

I haven't played many of the games nominated but the ones I've played have been incredibly meh. Just feels like gaming is in a rut with remakes, sequels, open world cinematic action rpgs, and no risk taking. That's fine if you enjoy that type of thing but I'm incredibly uninspired by these years candidates. And then some award nominations are simply insulting our collective intelligence. I'm not going to get into it because my opinions have not been received well in other forums. Let's just say that some of the performance awards are... questionable to say the least.

Edit: Maybe it is that I have a different criteria for what an award show should be about. Not just nominating whatever game sells the most copies in a year but which game really pushed the industry forward, was exceptional technically or did a genre in an outstanding manner. None of the games I played this year are games that I think will stand the test of time.

 

[chrismas]

I struggled to remember any games I played that actually came out this year. I guess that also eliminates Early Access stuff, else I'd throw down Elin or Palworld. Even the one "new" game I have in the mail is a port of a 3 year old phone game (Fantasian my beloved)...
Looking back at my Steam purchase history it seems I played a few new games after all. I also refunded most of them. Guess the likes of Momodora 5 and Dragon's Dogma 2 didn't cut it for me. The rest seem to have fallen out of favor pretty quickly, low playtime on all of them.
--------
Stopped watching TGA after '22. Figure it'll never get better than Elden Ring winning, new Armored Core, and Bill Clinton all in a row. Especially since the rest of that show was a chore to sit through.

 

[Gorse]

Just feels like gaming is in a rut with remakes, sequels, open world cinematic action rpgs, and no risk taking.

I was going to say the same thing. 2024 has been an awful year for video games. (Funnily, I remember people saying this about gaming in 2014, too – maybe it's a ten-year cycle?)

 

[Tronky.it]

(Funnily, I remember people saying this about gaming in 2014, too – maybe it's a ten-year cycle?)

What? Only the first 4 games make me want to forcefully go back in time (except CoD: Advanced Warfare. For me, the series ends with "World at War")

 

[Cu-Neo]

This year I played a lot of indie games, remakes and remasters. But without a doubt my GOTY is Crow Country. Is basically a survival horror with the graphics of Final Fantasy VII (PSX). it's short (like 5-7 hours) but also very memorable and it has unlockables for replay value

And of also Persona 3 reload, Sonic X shadow Generations and Dragon quest 3 remake were amazing

 

[RustySK]

This year I played a lot of indie games, remakes and remasters. But without a doubt my GOTY is Crow Country. Is basically a survival horror with the graphics of Final Fantasy VII (PSX). it's short (like 5-7 hours) but also very memorable and it has unlockables for replay value View attachment 3450
And of also Persona 3 reload, Sonic X shadow Generations and Dragon quest 3 remake were amazing

I feel like 5-7, maybe 8 hours is honestly the sweet spot for survival horror style games. Any shorter and the mechanics and resource management don't have the room they need to feel rewarding and any longer and it starts to feel draining to play in my mind and makes optimizing a playthrough pretty tedious.

 

[burnout2]

It's either Penny's Big Breakaway or Astro Bot for my personal GOTY. If Erdtree wins at The Game Awards I'm gonna laugh my ass off.

 

[dropsmegamega]

I am the only one that hasn't played a single 2024 game..............?

 

[moonbits]

Balatro should win

 

[Dyne]

I'm just realizing I havent played many 2024 games this year. Mostly older games.
Pretty much just:

Unicorn Overlord
Animal Well
Romancing Saga 2: Revenge of the Seven (thats a remake though)
Dragon Quest III HD-2D (also a remake)
Elden Ring DLC doesn't count because its DLC

I'm probably playing Metaphor ReFantazio next, although I really want to play Astro Bot too.

 

[umagumma]

Didn't expect to like Nine Sols more than any other 'troidvania I've played but here we are. Cool that a boss rush mode just got added. I'll have to hand it my Good Game of the Year award since it's the only one I played that actually came out in 2024.
Dropped Yakuza 8: Loadsamoney after like 10 hours, the series' formula has gotten a bit stale for me unfortunately. Rest In Peace

 

[ATenderLad]

Balatrooooooooooooooo


Seriously, I played the new Like a Dragon, Metaphor: Refantazio, Helldivers 2, FF7 Rebirth, Unicorn Overlord, Hades 2, Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Arranger, Fields of Mistria, Tactical Breach Wizards, the Diablo 4 expansion, Metal Slug Tactics, probably some other crap I don't remember....

...and it's Balatro, and it's not even close.

 

[Gorse]

I am the only one that hasn't played a single 2024 game..............?

Neither have I... nothing's really appealed to me this year beyond Sonic X Shadow Generations, a remake of a compilation from 13 years ago. Even the new Zelda game doesn't look that good.

Balatro should definitely win GOTY. It's about sending a message, man.

 

[moonbits]

Balatrooooooooooooooo


Seriously, I played the new Like a Dragon, Metaphor: Refantazio, Helldivers 2, FF7 Rebirth, Unicorn Overlord, Hades 2, Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Arranger, Fields of Mistria, Tactical Breach Wizards, the Diablo 4 expansion, Metal Slug Tactics, probably some other crap I don't remember....

...and it's Balatro, and it's not even close.

hell yeaaaaaa balatroo