games of the year

2024-12-31

It's been a minute. Hello! Since I cleaned up this site and Cohost died I: did a bunch of streaming, went on one of the happiest trips of my life (to Japan), got long covid, and had my wretched country's government get taken over by transphobes. It's been hard and I'm rather deeply afraid of 2025 rather than excited or eager in any way, but I'm still alive, so all I can promise is that I will try to live and take care of my bodymind and I hope you all will too.

With that being said, here's my favorite 5 games of 2024:

5: Rabbit and Steel- this is FFXIV raiding distilled and without having to play through and deal with the rest of FFXIV. Incredibly cute. No lalafell but it has chibi rabbits which is just as good.
4: FFXIV Dawntrail- If the writing was better this would be my favorite expansion, and as-is it's up there with Shadowbringers. The world of Tural brought to life in such a way that I wanted dearly to protect and care for it; the second half wouldn't have hit as well as it did if the first half wasn't made with such care. Wuk Lamat is unequivocally amazing and I'm glad Sphene could give me the brainworms straight women have for Emet-Selch thanks.
3: Etrian Odyssey III- absurdly cool oceanic dungeon crawler. Even though the later games polished up the series mechanics to near-perfection the character designs and world of Armoroad / the Deep City ring the most clearly in my mind.
2: Dr. Robotnik's Ring Racers- maximalist ultrapolished pixel kart racer that has spoiled me on all other kart racers forever. Amazing modding scene too. Even if you don't have feelings about Sonic (I didn't before this and do now) I strongly recommend it.
1: Atelier Ayesha- apocalypse world grief and sister tragedy and girls who keep fighting for what matters most even when they're lost and don't know if they'll ever find their way. This sounds dark but it's also hilarious and cute and the duality makes both hit all the more. A beautiful wandering fairytale that I fell hard for and a holomancy game of all time.

Hope to keep seeing you around- I haven't particularly been active on social media since Cohost died but if you've seen me then you'll keep seeing me (if you don't know where I am and want to feel free to ask!).