The Impact Factor’s Top 10 Games of 2024
Hey! It's the 10th anniversary of this silly GOTY list. And I almost didn't make it. I have no good reason as to why. I still love games, and I still rank them throughout the year. Maybe I'll work through that in 2025. A LOT happened in 2024. Major life changes -- most good, some very challenging. But we're here. Let's get into my Top 10 list.
10. Nine Sols
This 2D search action "metroidvania" game combines elements from some of my favorite genres and games. Hints of the Souls series and Sekiro echo throughout. Nine Sols starts slow, but then builds upon itself to deliver a combat-rich and mysterious adventure that got its hooks into me.
9. Animal Well
Speaking of mystery, let's talk about Animal Well. This delightful and thoughtfully paced pixel art search action game is a puzzle box wrapped in a puzzle. Light on combat but overflowing with creative exploration and rewarding puzzles, Animal Well is a game that respects your intelligence and curiosity and rewards it over and over again.
8. Super Mario Party Jamboree
I can say without hesitation that this is the best, most feature complete Mario Party game that has ever been made. Mini games match the series best. Jamboree provides tons of ways to play, while maintaining the chaotic (and often rage inducing) board game experience. For the first time, Mario Party added rules to remove some of that randomness, likely to appease even the most steadfast Mario Party hater. Jamboree rules, and I had a blast playing it at every game night.
7. Persona 3 Reload
If you have followed me for any period of time, you know how much I adore JRPGs and the Persona franchise. P3 Reload is my first experience with what is commonly regarded as the first of the modern Persona era. P3 Reload is everything I wanted it to be. Fun characters, an engaging world and central conflict, and some good-as-heck dungeon crawling. P3 shows a bit of its age when compared to Persona 5, with a little too much empty space in the calendar system, but my nitpicks are just that. The ending hit me like a ton of bricks.
6. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
JRPG number two. FF7 Rebirth is a gargantuan game. It took me -- and this is not an exaggeration -- about 5 months of play to complete. Rebirth features some of the best "Final Fantasy" that I have ever experienced. Fantastic characters, an amazing world, and what is still one of the best JRPG combat systems out there. If you were to take just the best parts, FF7 Rebirth would probably be in my Top 3. Unfortunately there is just SO MUCH game there, and a lot of it isn't great. This might just be a me problem, but I struggled to maintain momentum while playing. Still. It was a heck of a good time, overall.
5. Marvel Rivals
Marvel Rivals is a shockingly good time. Sure it's just Marvel Overwatch, but it's also... not? I may still have my rose tinted glasses on, but Rivals seems to have learned about what worked, and what didn't, with Overwatch and took all the good while ditching the bad. Roles are more fluid, team ups allow new strategies and compositions, and character kits (with the exception of a few) are all fun. Above all, this is something my wife and I got to play together. And play a lot. It has been a blast, and I cannot wait to play more.
4. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
Yet another JRPG! Infinite Wealth is fantastic. Characters, combat, melodrama. Above all, it has an almost intangible "life" to it that no other game on this list is able to match. It is silly in all the best ways. It has that content overload like I discussed with FF7 Rebirth but... does it better? I couldn't wait to train more miscreants for Pokemon-inspired battles, or build my Dondoco Island resort. Ichiban Kasuga is so fun to inhabit. I did not finish this one, but I am thrilled to get back to it ASAP in 2025.
3. Dragon's Dogma 2
Perhaps my most controversial pick and placement on this list. General public and Dragon's Dogma fans alike bemoaned the slog, lack of enemy variety -- some even citing that this was a step down from the original game. Not for me. I was immediately hooked into DD2's signature combat and survival-inspired exploration. I wanted to know everything about this weird fantasy world, and uncovering secrets and quests was more rewarding here than in any other game on this list. DD2 demands you approach it on its own terms and I deeply respect it. It feels like a true, fantasy adventure. Once I started, I did not stop until I rolled credits.
2. Astro Bot
This was my game of the year right up until...well.. I wrote this list. Astro Bot is a perfect video game. It is an experience, a joy, that can only be provided by a video game. Bright, colorful, responsive and immersive, Astro Bot has it all. It is my favorite 2D platformer of all time. It takes everything that works in Mario and just... does it a little more simply and efficiently? Astro Bot is filled to the brim with novel gameplay mechanics and fun ideas. The speedrun levels are just a delight. Every time a new level dropped, I was there. I'm still hoping for an expansion. Just a fantastic, game that deserves all the accolades it received.
1. Metaphor: ReFantazio
Yeah. This one is special. What if take all of the goodness of Persona but place it in perhaps one of the most interesting fantasy worlds I have experienced in a long time? Heck yeah. It takes everything that has worked in the calendar-based dungeon crawler genre and trims the fat. Metaphor has a flow, a feel, that hooks you and continuously compels you to play more. This alone could earn it game of the year -- but what really pushed it over the edge was the story and characters. A fantasy world experiencing democracy for the first time is a wild concept, and one that was executed with a surprising amount of thoughtfulness and intrigue. Taken as a whole, this is my favorite JRPG party of all time. Heismay is the best character of 2024. Loved loved loved this one. 90+ hours played as a sprint, my wife and I could not stop playing. Congrats Metaphor: ReFantazio -- you're my Game of the Year!
