End of Year Roundup - 2024
Hello all, and welcome to the first-ever Lawrence and Goliath Yearly Roundup! This is my first time doing something like this, so join me as I look back through the year and highlight the games I played from start to finish. Honestly, I've been torn on how to approach this. At first, I wanted to do a Game Awards style format where I make up nominations like Most Memorable or Best Narrative but considering my feelings towards TGA as nothing more than a dog and pony show (this year's show was admittedly quite the spectacle), I scrapped the idea. Instead, I want to take this chance to actually reminisce and talk about the games that left an impact.
I've mentioned it before, but my time management still needs some work. As such, the number of games I got to play this year pales in comparison to other fans of the medium with similarly heavy backlogs.
This year, my list of games included:
- Super Mario RPG
- Sifu*
- Palworld
- Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince
- Hogwarts Legacy
- L.A. Noire
- Pokémon Violet
- Pokémon FireRed
- Helldivers 2
- Pokémon: Crystal Legacy
- Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen
- Dragon's Dogma II
- Kirby and the Forgotten Land
- Minecraft
- Star Fox 64 3D
- Erica
- Final Fantasy I & II Dawn of Souls
- Atomic Heart
- Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics
- Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate
- Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2
- FOOTSIES
- Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm and Boxing
- Arcus Chroma
- Elden Ring
- Forspoken
- Pokémon: Omega Ruby
- Halo: Combat Evolved (MCC Version)
- Halo: Reach (MCC Version)
- No Man's Sky
- Pokémon: Light Platinum
- Fort Solis
- 1-2 Switch
- Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
- Unicorn Overlord
- Monster Hunter: World
- Pokémon Gold
- Arco
- Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero!
- Dead Island 2
- Rivals of Aether 2
- Valorant
- Super Mario Party Jamboree
- Marvel Rivals
With demos and betas for:
- Princess Peach Showtime
- Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On!
- Unicorn Overlord
- Rivals of Aether 2
- Stellar Blade
- Radio the Universe
- Red Thread
- Retromine
- Monster Hunter: Wilds
The games in bold are the ones that I rolled credits on (I've technically done this in Sifu but have yet to get the 'good' ending). Some games on the list don't have definitive ends, but most everything else is a game that I want to come back to and finish. I've never been much of an achievement hunter either, so nothing on here has been 100%'d.
A few games on this list lost their appeal for me fairly quickly. Palworld, Pokémon: Light Platinum, and Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 are the only games that I disliked enough to abandon. Survival games have mostly lost their luster in my eyes, Light Platinum has aged poorly since the early days of Pokémon ROM hacks, and Xenoverse 2 was a cheap holdover that failed to satiate my desire for Sparking Zero.
Looking back on the games that I did complete, the number is undoubtedly low compared to previous years, and the fault is no one else's but my own. Too much time on social media, corpo burnout in full effect, and not enough time spent reading, or writing, or hiking, or playing games. But with that, not all hope has to be lost. I'll be beginning the New Year with a focus on grad school and my health and trying to use my energy for more fruitful endeavors...including finishing more games.
So, let's reflect. How did the games I finished get me to think? What experiences stood out? Changed me as a person? Left a lasting impact? The detail won't be as grand as a full review, but more the highlights of 2024. I'll be going down the order they were played, not any kind of ranking.
As always, subscribing to Lawrence and Goliath throws monetary support my way that helps me keep indulging in this magazine. Everything on here will always be free to read, so I thank you for lending your eyes to this page. Happy New Year!
- Super Mario RPG
The first carryover game from 2023, Super Mario RPG sits in an interesting spot in my memory. Even though I finished it way back in January, I couldn't help but have it re-enter my mind after finishing Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. The way these two games handle combat and RPG elements are so different, with Super Mario RPG being a much more traditional game, and TTYD taking some lengths to make combat more unique and standout. SMRPG is exactly what the title says: a Super Mario RPG. It reminds me of the very first Final Fantasy if I'm being honest. Mario is the Red Mage of the group, an all-rounder donned in a nice red hat. Peach is the White Mage offering healing and weak attacks. Mallow is the Black Mage focused on magic attacks, Bowser is the Warrior with a focus on melee, and Geno falls into the Thief class with his high speed and critical hits. The party goes on an adventure across the land to collect mystical shapes (this time they're stars!) and eventually use the power of these polygons to defeat the evil force that's also trying to collect them to take over the world. SMRPG feels like a relic of the past that's aged comfortably in a world of bombastic, 100+ hour RPGs with intense narratives.
Gaming has progressed in a weird way, where games are meant to last forever through rapid repetition, or last so long that rolling credits seems impossible if you've joined the workforce or gotten your High School Diploma. In only 16 hours I was able to beat the game and get put right back in a position where I could go back and do all the things I missed from my playthrough. The enemies are relics of their time, one-off baddies who only appear in this dreamlike world. I appreciate SMRPG for reminding us that not everything is meant to last forever. We don't need to conform to the modern idea of stretching things out to last an eternity.
- Sifu
January is always a time for reflection. Not only is it the new year, but it's also my birthday month, which means I have to come to terms with the fact that aging is continually adding more and more consequences to my life every year. I anticipate what changes will occur in the coming months, lament the fact that the early winter is so short and that the summer is so long (but still feels short), and come to terms with the fact that autumn will be here sooner than I know it. So, why not play a game about trying your hardest over and over again?
Sifu made me feel something other roguelikes haven't before. It made me look inside myself for answers that I didn't want, legitimately altering my perspective because it meant that I needed to change to fit the world around me, not the other way around. Sifu is full of messages about how we face our grief, how we remember our loved ones, how we overcome the struggles around us. It emphasizes that we never stop growing, but we do choose which direction we want to grow, and it speaks to the idea that truth is like a person, being three-dimensional but appearing one-dimensional when we don't dig deep enough. And all of this is wrapped up in one of the most visually stunning, high-octane games I've ever played.
The combat feels like music, every fight scene feels like a different rhythm to accompany with the most gorgeous visualizer you've ever seen. The story beats run deep and through every detail of sight and sound. It's an intense experience through and through, and it sits deep in my core. Sifu is art in the strongest definition of the word, and I encourage all of you to play it. If this isn't enough, Geordi Ferguson wrote about the game on SUPERJUMP around the same time I put the game down to take a break. Please go check it out.
- Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince
Dragon Quest Monsters is where I started to lose steam with completing games this year. I tried hard to enjoy this game, especially after the snoozefest that was Palworld. There's a lot to be enjoyed here, there really is! Akira Toriyama's art is timeless, and his work on Dragon Quest will always be felt and full of inspiration. Psaro, the main character, is the main villain in Dragon Quest IV, and this game sees you playing as a younger version of him on his path to becoming the king of monsters. It's a unique kind of monster-catching game - monsters will only join Psaro if they think he's strong enough, and from there they can be a part of the team at any point. Monsters can also be fused to create other monsters, borrowing some moves and stats from their "parent" monsters. This was my favorite mechanic to play around with, as I was always trying to fuse the rarer monsters to add to my collection before finding them naturally later in the game. So, what turned me away from such a charming game, especially one so deviant from other games similar to it like Pokémon or Persona?
The combat is dull. Controlling the monsters and their commands during combat isn't the promoted way to battle, even though it's an option. Instead, battles are automatic, with each monster being able to choose a type of action to go for on each turn. Some monsters are better at healing, others are more suited for attacks that hit multiple opponents, all the usual stuff. There are colosseum sections that act as boss fights between areas, and I feel like they lose a lot of their luster by not allowing any kind of input from the player. I get that it's testing the strength of the monsters, but it just isn't a super fun mechanic. There's so much room for team building and getting creative, the amount of variety in this game is staggering!
I want to come back to this game eventually, I had made some good headway before putting it down, but maybe it just isn't for me.
- L.A. Noire
I'll be honest, I don't particularly enjoy the approach I took to L.A. Noire. This was one of the only 'girlfriend games' that I played this year, meaning that it was something my girlfriend wanted to watch me play. We sat on the couch in her basement taking on cases and she guided me through to pick the correct answers for each case. It felt like we were meeting up and watching a show more than it felt like playing a game, and there was so much content that I didn't engage with. There are plenty of side stories that I chose to ignore, and it feels like I left the entire world isolated for the sake of getting to the end credits. The fictional Los Angeles that hosts the events of L.A. Noire is so interesting. It feels like going into a time machine and experiencing life in the late 1940s as the world quietly changes underneath everyone's noses. I plan to come back to this game and experience it on my own, getting back into gear with Cole Phelps and taking on the streets of L.A. with a bit more intent.
- Pokémon Violet
For a while now, I've had very mixed feelings about the 3D Pokémon games. Since Pokémon X and Y, they've been met with middling reception from fans. Veterans of the franchise tend to lean more in favor of the games before the 3D era, and newcomers to the series hold the new games in high regard. Being the most popular franchise in the world, Pokémon is almost inherently divisive but still brings people together in one way or another. So, on my revisit to the Paldea region to experience the game again as a Wonderlocke, I reaquainted myself with the various ups and downs of the 9th generation of Pokémon. Honestly? I don't love them, but I can see that there's something behind the graphical issues and Terastallization just not being a good fit for a classic monotype gym structure.
The variety of Pokémon available makes for some fun team composition, especially with the randomness of Surprise Trades. Battles weren't all that challenging until the end, and I still wish the open world scaled appropriately to the player, but I had a fun time. Along with these, this game has some of the best characters from a Pokémon game hands-down, in both characterization and visual design. There are a bunch of little details scattered about that make the closer looks a bit more interesting.
At the same time, Pokémon don't feel like monsters in your pocket anymore, but I'm willing to account this much more to the Nintendo Switch UI/UX rather than the content itself. The designs of the monsters are cool, but because of the switch to a bigger screen, it sort of loses the "pocket" effect of it all.
Perhaps this is just how I've grown and changed as a fan of the series. I'll admit that I have a harder time playing these games regularly now outside of a first experience. Nuzlockes and themed runs have become my default way to replay Pokemon games, and blind nuzlockes are even more entertaining.
I don't hate these games, but I do wish they had the charm that the older entries do. That said, I'll never stop playing this franchise.
- Helldivers 2
My first GOTY contender, Helldivers 2 had me in a chokehold for the first month of its release. It makes me wonder if it would've had the same effect as Animal Crossing New Horizons had it come out a few years earlier...
Helldivers 2 needs no introduction. You play as a space marine shooting big aliens and robots. It's partially a big, gorgeous battlefield that allows players to live their space soldier fantasies to the fullest. It's also a glorious piece of satire that pokes at how quickly we react to things that are different, and how easy it would be to label something as "bad" and follow that as gospel truth. Ain't it grand?
I found myself on the role-player spectrum of the Helldivers 2 fandom, with my initial interest being piqued by a TikTok account delivering daily updates about the events of the game's planetary statistics like a newsreel. I bought the game a week before I could play it, and when I finally got home, I booted it up and got to shooting. This game is massive with its rolling landscapes, snowy hills, dense swamps, and weather that will twist you up and toss you around just like the enemies can. While I understand the teams of four are for lore reasons (I think?), I would love it if this game added a sort of big-team-battle mode where big groups of players could tackle the battlefield together. The chaos that would ensue sounds...liberating.
- Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen + Dragon's Dogma II
Something about this game calls to me.
I started playing Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen in the midst of the hype surrounding Dragon's Dogma II's release. My manager at the time had told me to play it and that it was his favorite game of all time. With an endorsement like that, who can say no? I built my character to look like me the best I could in a 2012 character creator, chose to be a mage in my constant struggle of choosing sword or sorcery, and hopped into the land of Gransys. I never finished the game, but as someone who spent most of their gaming time in the early 2010s on the Nintendo DS, I was blown away at the quality of Dragon's Dogma. The world is grand and speaks to a level of adventure that few things parallel, especially given the time it released. The desaturated colors add to the storybook nature of it all, and the combat cements the player in their class with little variance in the early stages. I only spent about 10 hours or so on Dark Arisen, but that was only halted by the arrival of its sequel.
Dragon's Dogma II is damn near peak video gaming. I'm surprised that a game with combat this impressive, NPCs with a capacity to legitimately learn, monster battles that are incredibly dynamic and reactive, and one of the most robust character creators ever wasn't nominated for Game of the Year.
Dragon's Dogma II encapsulates that grand fantasy adventure feeling, from toppling giants to hopping on the backs of beasts while they take to the skies. There are a few areas where the game is lacking - the invisible social mechanic with NPCs is odd and feels like an afterthought, and some of the voice acting is subpar. Despite those, this game still shines and beckons me to play it and see it through.
I binged 30 hours of Dragon's Dogma II during the two weeks I was unemployed while the game was out. I can't help but wish I had more time to spend with both of these games. It feels like a 'right-game-wrong-time' sort of situation that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. I will return to both of these games in due time, and when I do it'll be an adventure to remember.
- Kirby and the Forgotten Land
I talked extensively about Kirby and the Forgotten Land in my review of it earlier this year. Instead of talking about how I felt about this game, I want to talk about how this made me think about my environment and how I approach tasks. I've been known to compartmentalize my life, and video games are a part of that. I want to engross myself with them, be fully involved in the process, and I do so for two reasons: 1. Because it's more fun to be fully involved in something than to do it in passing, and 2. Because I don't want to miss anything important. I lean fairly closely to the idea that games are a form of escapism. I don't play games just because I'm looking for fun, I'm looking for a way to be something that I can't be in the real world. There's this split perspective of the person experiencing the art, and transporting yourself into the art, and I love bouncing between these two things.
Every time I played Kirby and the Forgotten Land I dove deep. Headphones on, outside world gone, completely locked in, and as I did this it made me think about the Nintendo Switch as a piece of hardware. It's still my favorite modern console, but the Joy-Cons are a pain in the ass to use for long periods of time (bless HORI for creating the Split Pad). The longer that I used my Switch, the more I just couldn't tear myself away from thinking about the 3DS and its form factor. The clamshell design is convenient, the Activity Log is something that I miss dearly, and StreetPass should've come back with the Switch. So, while I enjoyed Kirby for the fun action/adventure game it is, I couldn't help but wonder why the hardware I played it on felt so...lacking.
With the successor to the Nintendo Switch on the horizon, and the Steam Deck being what it is, I'm curious to see what direction the handheld/at-home gaming fusion will go in going forward.
Star Fox 64 3D
I should've beaten this game years ago, but I'm glad I didn't! There's a certain kind of magic to replaying something from your childhood that you never actually beat, and there's an even greater magic to that when you realize how fondly you regarded it as a kid. Nostalgia's a hell of a drug.
Star Fox 64 3D is the only rail shooter I think I've ever played. It's such a fun time zipping through levels in an Arwing, and I didn't even realize this game had branching paths with all sorts of different stipulations. It's such a product of its time in a way that I don't think we see very often anymore. After Nintendo's other attempts to breathe life into the series with Star Fox Zero, Star Fox as a franchise feels like it's on Smash Bros. life support. What makes this game thrive, in my opinion, is the simplicity of it all. It's an arcade with secret passages, and hidden answers to questions that might not even come up in a first playthrough. It's an iconic experience to be a part of, and it's surprising that it's such lightning in a bottle.
- Erica
If I were doing categories and nominations this year, Erica would win "Most Interesting Gameplay" out of all of my games. This is a modern FMV game, where the only part of the controller you use is the touchpad. The PS4 version of the game has a companion app on smartphones that does the same thing the touchpad does, but I didn't get to try it because I played it on PS5.
While the primary focus of Erica is the story, I'd be lying if I said I remembered a lot of it. The worldbuilding itself feels lightweight, with only the important details popping up. That said, the game is still a pretty tense experience, and the buildup feels great. I just wish the path to the payoff was a bit longer, as Erica can be completed in around six hours. Erica is full of variables that connect at a few major plot points but lead to different endings. Holly Earl does a wonderful job as the main character, aptly named Erica, playing the role of a girl who doesn't know her place in an experiment bigger than her.
I'd rather not spoil much about this game's story. Please play it if you have the means, it's a genuinely unique experience that's worth the few hours it takes to finish.
- Fort Solis
There isn't much to say about Fort Solis that I haven't said already. In my retrospective playthrough of it this year, I talk about how the game is still entertaining, but with its flaws and some ghosts of its early development stages. It wants to be a broad, explorative experience but puts itself on a straight and narrow path. It roots itself in a narrative that initially had multiple endings but ended up only having two that aren't that different. And yet, despite this, I feel as if my time spent studying it has made us grow closer together. I want to see more of what the development studios can produce in the future after creating a theatrical piece of art. I'll cherish the relationship I've built with Fort Solis, but don't have much new to say at the moment.
- Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
If you were to ask me what my Game of the Year was a few weeks ago, I'd have probably said Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Remake. If you told me to limit it to games that came out this year, I'd have said Dragon's Dogma II, because it feels strange putting a remake of a game from 20 years ago as my Game of the Year when put up against new ideas (or at least sequels) of the current year.
I played a lot of Thousand-Year Door on the go, trying to find the right times to play it and really sink my teeth in. My time in my hotel room during the Portland Retro Gaming Expo was in the Pit of 100 Trials. Because of this compartmentalization, it took me a good while to finish what I would consider a near 10/10, but it was worth the wait. Between the fun setting, great characters and dialogue, and really fun combat with Action Commands, there's so much in this game to be explored and you can see how someone else's playthrough could be entirely different than yours. I spoke about this briefly above, but finishing this pushed me in the direction of other Mario RPGs. I want to explore how these spin-offs have carved their niche in the broader JRPG genre, not just as Mario RPGs. Thousand-Year Door already subverts the usual class system, instead opting to give characters multiple attacks and at least one 'utility' move. 60 hours in Rogueport were enough for me, but I'd love to see what other turn-based adventures Mario had in store for me.
For some bonus stats, here are my various gaming wrap-ups!
My PlayStation & Nintendo Switch 2024 stats. Steam Replay has been having some issues...
It's a strange feeling to be nostalgic about something you experienced only a year ago. Going back through the screenshots for the games on this list brought back a lot of positive feelings that I'm ashamed to say I forgot about. Video games really are a transformative piece of art, and I'm glad that I can take my time to continually love this medium.
Thank you all for joining me this year! While my list of games was short this year, I can't help but feel accomplished with how I was able to engage with everything. As a part of my New Year's resolutions, I plan on being way more purposeful with how I track and pay attention to my playtime going forward.
