Quest to Zero’s Best Games Played in 2024

My guilty pleasure is a "best games of the year" list, but here's my slightly different take - the best games I've played this year, regardless of release date.

I’m usually not one for a “listicle”; in fact, I often think they’re the bane of the internet when it comes to people generating them for endless gaming-the-system AI slop. However, there’s something about a “best games of the year” list that remains a guilty pleasure of mine. Nothing quite gives you an insight into where someone currently is – if not in their life, at least in their gaming journey – quite like a best-of-the-year list.

Now, this list will be slightly different in that it’s not quite a best games of the year list, but a best games I’ve played this year list, meaning I can include whatever the hell I like regardless of when it was released, as long as I’ve played it this calendar year!

So with that in mind, I’ve put together my top 5 games I’ve played in 2024. Antithetically, these may not even actually be the best games in the literal sense, but rather the games that have made the biggest impression on me – the games, and I don’t say this lightly, that I have vibed with.

5. Diablo IV [2023]

Diablo IV

Diablo IV is, dare I say it, a genuinely great live service game. Set up perfectly to jump in and out whenever you want, especially with the seasons where you can just start a new character and be on an even keel with everyone else. It’s a brilliant Steam Deck title too; it runs well for the most part and feels almost perfectly set up with a controller in mind.

4. Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition [2020]

Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition

Whilst it’s only 4th on the list here, Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition at least wins the trophy for most ridiculously longwinded title I have ever seen. Dragon Quest XI S is actually my first introduction to the Dragon Quest series, and it’s certainly piqued my interest enough to explore some of the other Dragon Quest games. Dragon Quest XI S has a wonderful cast of characters, apart from the boring mute bobblehead that is the main hero you play as, and a beautifully realised world, even if it leans a bit too much on each area being a stereotype of a real-world country.

3. Balatro [2024]

Balatro

Such a strange game, an initially slow-burn experience with a very high skill ceiling. When you get on a roll, it can make you feel like a Poker genius, but when you’re on a bad run, it can feel like the most awful experience ever. As someone who is not good at Poker, it often feels like my run is much more in the lap of the RNG gods than people who are much more skilled than me, and that’s the only negative I can really give to the game, even though if you think about it, the fault is really with me and not Balatro! A very unique experience, and one I like to come back to again and again every month or so.

2. Thank Goodness You’re Here [2024]

Thank Goodness You’re Here

I loved this game, a true love letter to northern towns, as you may be able to tell from my review earlier this year:

“Gameplay-wise, Thank Goodness You’re Here is a simple affair. You go around the town of Barnsworth, politely slapping people who seem to be very excited about your existence. They then ask you to help them with seemingly mundane tasks that always take a turn for the incredibly weird. That’s about all there is to it, really, but the game does a lot with such simple mechanics. It looks bloody lovely, too. The characters and town are charmingly drawn, the animation is fantastic, and the voice acting is spot-on. Strangely, for a game set in Yorkshire, it’s the Scottish repairman I enjoyed the most.”

“There’s really a lovely comforting charm to how everything is so recognisably northern: the people arguing about bins, a lad with a big head being called a bellend at school, [and] the importance of a cup of tea.”

1. Metaphor: ReFantazio [2024]

Metaphor: ReFantazio

How was there ever going to be another answer? Metaphor: ReFantazio is an absolute treat of a JRPG, here are some choice quotes from my earlier review:

“Metaphor: ReFantazio has single-handedly reinvigorated my love of JRPGs. A genre I’d fallen out of love with for such a long time, often because the long run times are difficult to keep up with as the father of a young child. But Atlus has crafted a fantastic game here, taking everything good from the Persona series and scrubbing it of everything I generally found off-putting about them – the major one being, you aren’t a child going to school!”

“There’s a unique style to everything Metaphor: ReFantazio tries to do, with the music being some of the most original to soundtrack a game I have ever heard. It’s dark and moody, which the story often takes its turn into as well. Some characters have gone through the heartbreaking loss of a child and have come to terms with this in different, sometimes incredibly disturbing ways. There’s humour in the game too, however, which lifts the mood in what is often an oppressive world. I especially liked the fact that you’d gain a point in your luck stat sometimes when you used the toilet, or the characters ripping into Hulkenberg, the elf-like knight, for her appetite for eating absolutely anything and everything.”

Nothing else was going to come close to Metaphor: ReFantazio, and I have yet to play a game since that has had quite such a profound effect upon me. I just hope future Atlus games follow this lead.

Ashley Mills
Ashley Mills

Hello. My name is Ashley, and I have a hoarding problem. None of this is physical though; my hoarding is entirely of a digital nature. I have nearly 1,000 games in my Steam library, and yet 95% of those have been completely unplayed. That's not even everything either—there are games I own on GOG, Epic, etc. as well!

So what's the point of all this? I guess it's to hold myself accountable, to finally plough through my gaming backlog of shame. With the advent of handheld PC gaming (the Steam Deck truly is one of the greatest ever creations), I'm finding it easier to make my way through what originally felt like a Herculean task. I'll be writing a review of each game, some of which will be triple-A (quadruple-A even!) mainstream behemoths, whilst others will be niche little novelties, but I'll treat them all with the respect they deserve (or don't, in some instances).

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