Branching Path: Bryan Vitale's Top 10 Games of 2024

In a lot of ways, keeping up with RPG releases for RPG Site this year actually stressed me out a fair bit. Starting out with Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth in January and never really slowing down, 2024 was packed with several long RPGs from many series that I am a fan of along with a few new surprises. From beating brutal-level challenges in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth to summoning salutors in 1905 Warsaw in The Thaumaturge, this year had a ton of memorable moments and characters -- ordering the list from one to ten proved to be quite a challenge.

2024 was a challenging year for me on a personal level, so I am still very glad I can contribute to RPG Site in small ways as a way to ground myself to a hobby that I hope to have for the rest of my life. Without getting too sentimental and without further ado, here are my top ten games of 2024:

Honorable Mentions

• Dragon Age: The Veilguard - If The Veilguard had been released 6 or 7 years ago, it would have likely been my most anticipated game at the time. I almost feel like a stranger saying this in 2025, but if you asked a younger me who my favorite game developer was, the answer was likely Bioware. While Veilguard didn’t quite hit the mark for me, it still surprised me in some ways that keeps me hopeful for the franchise.
   
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak - I had loved certain entries from the Sky and Crossbell games, but had lost a lot of interest in the Trails series over the last several years -- but wanted to stay caught up nonetheless. I had heard a lot of good news about Kuro no Kiseki featuring a new protagonist in a new region of the world, and it turns out that positive word of mouth was largely correct. By shrinking the focus of the conflict with Almata and having a breath of fresh air with Van as protagonist, Daybreak has me excited for the next entry in the series for the first time in a while.
   
• The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom - It hasn’t been that long, but I had been longing for a return for a new 2D-style Zelda since A Link Between Worlds. On top of that, a new title with Zelda herself in a lead role seemed like just the sort of shakeup that I was hoping to see in last year’s Tears of the Kingdom. While some of the specific systems such as the Echo and Bond mechanics were misses for me, I still enjoyed some of that nostalgic exploration and dungeon-crawling that hasn’t been a focus of the other recent Zelda games. I hope the title was successful enough that we can hope to continue to see Zelda occasionally in the protagonist’s seat in future entries.

10) Mario & Luigi: Brothership

This first entry on the list is one of the most surprising. I’ve never been a huge fan of the Mario & Luigi series of RPGs, only really liking the first two Paper Mario titles. Mario and Luigi: Brothership was a title I originally intended to skip, but decided to pick it up primarily as a convenient game to poke away at during holiday travel. By the time it came to put this top ten list together, I realized that I felt strongly enough about the game that I didn’t want to leave it out of my top ten, so…sorry Dragon Age.

Brothership feels like a natural evolution of what I have previously experienced with the series in Superstar Saga and Bowser’s Inside Story. New series developer Acquire was able to faithfully adapt the look and feel of the series to its new 3d ‘console-style’ wrapping. Even all of the new locations and inhabitants of Concordia feel like natural additions to the long-running series. While the story went on a little long and I wish the game took place in the Mushroom Kingdom, Brothership is still a strong recommendation for Mario RPG fans, which I didn’t at all expect when it was announced in mid-2024.

9) SaGa Emerald Beyond

SaGa Scarlet Grace was one of my most surprising video games of all time. It didn’t show up on any of my top ten lists because I played it ‘late’ but it was from a series I was unfamiliar with and I only gave it a try because of some really strong word of mouth. While SaGa Emerald Beyond seemed like the natural follow-up and still possesses one of the best renditions of a round-based battle system ever, it didn’t quite live up to the same heights, but still stays installed on my PC because it remains incredibly fun to play --- even if the new framework didn’t quite land for me.

Emerald Beyond is a great example of a game where a single strong foundation -- in this case, the battle system, is able to carry the rest of the experience. This couples well with the multiple character routes to keep things fresh and interesting even if the other ancillary systems are pared back a fair bit. What I expected least of all was that there would be not one, but two SaGa games on this list.

8) Ys X: Nordics

I have a weird love-hate relationship with Ys as a series. I was introduced to the series with Ys Origin and Ys: The Oath in Felghana in the mid-2010s which I thought were excellent, but nothing since has quite lived up to that bar -- though Ys VIII did come close. Ys X: Nordics promised a change-up that I think was largely successful.

While not solely an Adol-focused adventure, the removal of the party-mechanic from the previous three games to focus instead on Adol and Karja, as well as a revamp of the Flash Step / Flash Guard systems meant that Ys X was the freshest-playing entry in the series in a good long while. With some interesting and challenging combat encounters and some decent exploration and platforming, Ys X felt like a return to form in many ways. It’s one major remaining weakness for me is that the supporting cast and overall story still feel like afterthoughts. They don’t detract from the experience, but this recommendation is primarily on the strength of the gameplay, not story or characters.

It’s unfortunate that things lined up so that a newer version of Ys X was announced so soon after the official english release, because otherwise I would recommend Ys X: Nordics to even lapsed Ys fans. At this point, we’ll have to see how substantial the additions to Ys X: Proud Nordics turn out to be.

7) The Thaumaturge

Of all of the games on this list, The Thaumaturge is the one entry that I think I would be baffled by if I showed it to my past self. I have no prior history with Fool’s Theory, and I otherwise wasn’t that interested in the game’s vibe or setting when it was announced. 

While I normally keep a gameplay-over-story focus most of the time, The Thaumaturge won me over with its strong setting, voice acting and characters, and classic role-playing potential. The only place it really falters is the limited variety in the Clue system, which often boiled down to finding interactable objects on screen more than actually deducing meaningful information or recounting a series of events. Despite that, a fun (surprisingly Paper Mario-like) combat system, a cool double-edged sword with the Pride system, and a story that meshes dark fantasy in an underutilized historical setting, The Thaumaturge is the one under-the-radar game from this year that I would point people to play if they are interested in trying something new.

6) Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth

When Yakuza: Like a Dragon upended the series brawler convention a few years back in exchange for a turn-based RPG, we of course applauded the effort at RPG Site. With an exuberant new protagonist and a fun take on a well-worn gameplay style, Ichiban’s first adventure ended up endearing itself to fans old and new. However, a lot of the gameplay balance showed a lot of first-time clunk: battles were too frequent and not rewarding, moves and jobs were very unbalanced, and enemies wandering out of the way of your party’s attacks never ceased to be annoying.

However, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth managed to address almost all of these. In addition, the game managed to balance a large cast of characters across two protagonists between Kiryu and Ichiban, and the setting shift to Hawaii somehow felt natural and fitting for the series. As someone who has spent the last several years getting caught up on all mainline Yakuza / Like A Dragon series games prior to Infinite Wealth, the celebration of all of the previous characters and moments in Infinite Wealth was a hugely impactful payoff of dozens if not hundreds of hours with these characters.

I only wish that Infinite Wealth better nailed the landing for Ichiban’s half of the story. While the game didn’t sideline Ichiban and his friends as much as I feared when it was first announced that both he and Kiryu would be protagonists, I still felt like I am looking forward for Ichiban’s true accepting of the reins of the series.

5) Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader

I am very glad that I waited several months to play Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader. I’m going by RPG Site conventions here and looping in Rogue Trader with 2024 releases since it first launched in December 2023. In addition to that, partially due to the headaches that I experienced playing Owlcat Games’ Pathfinder titles at launch, I felt it best to wait for a few rounds of polish before jumping in. This contributed to Rogue Trader becoming my favorite title yet from Owlcat.

I had no first-hand experience with the Warhammer 40,000 universe or IP at all, and I was hesitant to jump into an RPG as blind as I was. However, Owlcat really crafted a fun and immersive game that naturally integrated all of the key tenants and attributes of Warhammer into both its story and gameplay systems. It was the first time in a long time that I felt I had to absorb a whole new frame of worldbuilding and setting on that scale, and Rogue Trader felt like a really great fit for even someone with not familiar with the setting going in.

With an incredibly unique cast of characters, a morality system unlike any in any game I’ve played, strong turn-based combat in the vein of Wasteland 3, and a meaty multi-act narrative, Rogue Trader really is a perfect followup for those who are open-minded to trying out other settings for turn-based CRPGS after Baldur’s Gate 3.

4) Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

When the remake of Final Fantasy VII was first announced back in 2015, I think that the game many people were immediately picturing in their imaginations was actually Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Faithfully recreating scenes like Barret facing down Dyne near Corel, Red XIII learning about his history at Cosmo Canyon, and all of the Gold Saucer, Rebirth brought to life most of the key moments that I associate with my original playthrough from Final Fantasy VII as a child. Yes, Midgar is cool, but the variety in locations and environments in Rebirth are stunning from beginning to end.

When I reviewed Final Fantasy VII Remake for the site, I felt after the fact that I spent far too much time focusing in on the combat system of the game, but it’s what I like most about both games in the Remake trilogy so far. Rebirth only extended that further with a larger cast of playable characters and the introductions of Synergy abilities. Combined with top-tier production values like the Squaresoft of old, Rebirth spends most of its runtime dazzling the senses and keeping my rose-tinted glasses secured firmly to my face. I didn’t even mind the incredibly challenging post-game simulator battles as it took me nearly 200 hours to happily complete everything Rebirth had to offer. I even loved the mini-games.

The only drawback for Rebirth was a fairly clunky handling of the much-anticipated ending sequences at the Temple of the Ancients. While fans and critics have been speculating for nearly a year at this point about what exactly everything means at the end of Rebirth, I felt that the ending sequences were needlessly convoluted and failed to satisfy both original game purists and Remake Trilogy evangelists alike. Needless to say, we can’t truly have a complete grasp until we await the final part of the trilogy in the coming years.

3) Dragon's Dogma II

The appeal of Dragon’s Dogma II is the toughest to explain in a short blurb. I played nearly 100 hours of Dragon’s Dogma back in 2016, and despite being a fairly typically ‘western-style high fantasy’ setting that could have been plucked out of any Tolkien book, something about the setting really stuck with me since then. From being one of the first action RPGs I played that made spell-casting actually feel like accomplishing feats of magic, to spending hours stomping through Bitterblack Isle, it was a game that I always felt could be followed up on and polished up to become truly something special.

With that said, Dragon’s Dogma II’s greatest strength and criticism is exactly that. It is more a refinement of the ideas and themes of the original game rather than something that extends out past the original game’s foundation. While they were lauded and somewhat revolutionary at the time, the Pawn system returns largely as it was a decade with only a few changes to usability. Most of the enemy types such as cyclops and griffins return as well. There are some incredibly neat mechanics with how side objectives can unlock new vocations, how the beastren kingdom interacts with the main human settlements, everything involving the Sphinx, and how NPCs are integrated into the various quests along with the main story. Dragon’s Dogma II is really an amalgamation of several neat ideas that are packaged together in a way that can admittedly be a bit of an acquired taste.

I think Dragon’s Dogma II is perfectly suited for those that loved and played the original Dragon’s Dogma, were nostalgic for it, and wanted to have a very similar experience with a new coat of paint and some new gimmicks. Those who hadn’t played Dragon’s Dogma might not have the affinity for the same quirky aspects of the game and might get more frustrated at the limited enemy variety. Those who played Dragon’s Dogma recently might see the sequel as slightly too derivative from the first game. I happened to fall into the space though where it landed at the right place and at the right time. I loved it.

2) Metaphor: ReFantazio

I am not the biggest Atlus fan. I loved Persona 4 Golden and played through it multiple times on my Vita. I’ve only played Shin Megami Tensei V, haven’t played any Etrian Odyssey title, and Persona 5 Royal perpetually sits in my backlog. I never really followed Project Re Fantasy, and when it was unveiled as Metaphor: ReFantazio in 2023, I thought it was neat, but I didn’t really latch onto it.

However, the more I learned about the setting and the differences between Metaphor and the Persona series, the more intrigued I was to try out Atlus’s newest IP. At a surface level, the high fantasy setting interested me more than the school settings of the Persona series, and I loved the idea of multiple races of people having to interact in a new and foreign society.

More than that, Metaphor: ReFantazio felt like it had a lot of actual substance between the characters and the conflict that engulfs them in the trial for the throne. From a nobleman struggling to figure out the most ethical way to impart a sort of noblesse oblige in his day-to-day life, to a former spy trying to set aside his learned prejudices, to the less fortunate allying themselves with a tyrant in order to be seen or heard at all, it felt like a lot of thought and care went into presenting relatable conflicts with no easy answers.

While Metaphor’s ending isn't the best landing for many of the themes and challenges brought up during the game, it feels like Metaphor: ReFantazio is 2024’s ‘complete package’ RPG. Anyone who likes JRPGs of any flavor owes it to themselves to try it out.

1) Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven

When my peers at RPG Site were explaining to me what exactly Romancing SaGa 2 was about when Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven was announced in the middle of the year, it was hard to see at the time why they were so excited about the somewhat surprising announcement. I had just recently finished SaGa Emerald Beyond and had also made my way through SaGa Frontier Remastered and SaGa Scarlet Grace so I thought I had a decent idea about what constitutes a ‘SaGa game’, but Romancing SaGa 2 was described quite a bit differently.

On paper, Romancing SaGa 2 sounds like it could have been frustrating. Taking place over several generations, Romancing SaGa 2 bucks conventions of having a fixed party of key narrative participants and swaps that out instead for a retinue comprised of individuals that are really more chess pieces than fully-fleshed-out characters. Without any warning, hundreds of years can pass and the player is informed that a new emperor is in charge and have to have a whole new retinue of characters replaced and re-recruited.

In this way, instead of focusing on a party of like-minded individuals, SaGa 2 often instead focuses on telling the stories of places, or the stories of civilizations. It’s not a perfect comparison, but the set up is almost rogue-lite-ish in a way, where each generation of emperor serves as an opportunity to learn a little bit more about the world, progress in strength, and eventually solve an over-arching conflict.

I think one key reason that Revenge of the Seven specifically succeeds even for a series with acquired taste such as SaGa is that it is one of the larger attempts to break down some of the series quirks through smart use of UI elements and clearly communicating quest and gameplay progression, rather than obfuscating details in the sake of emergent narrative or gameplay. It’s admittedly a bit of a compromise and makes things a bit ‘game-y’, but it’s a compromise that I think pays off incredibly well.

It also helps that Xeen’s work with this remaster is incredibly pleasing with strong character and environmental art. Additionally, there’s an incredibly satisfying progression as each emperor gets the opportunity to travel further from the capital, learn about a new region of the world, work to solve a local conflict, and then eventually add each region to their kingdom. It makes the overarching goal very clear from the start. While the battle system isn’t as tight-knit as the ones found in Scarlet Grace and Emerald Beyond, there are still enough wrinkles to keep the gameplay fresh from start to finish.

I think that Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven is the one game on this list that I would recommend to anyone regardless of their status as a SaGa fan or even JRPG fan. It doesn’t really compare to anything else, even within its own series. Wholly considered as a sum of smart but economical storytelling, an addictive gameplay loop, and just the right amount of challenge, Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven just edged out the rest of the list as my favorite game of 2024.