I've been playing this game since the '90s, but this is the first time I've actually played through all of the campaigns. I started this playthrough back in October 2020 and I would play it in spurts. I took a break that lasted more than a year, but I always planned on coming back to finish it...and I did.

If you've never played this game before, then just know it's a turn-based strategy game with tons of depth, customization, and nearly endless replay value. There are seven campaigns in the base game and they took me right at 63 hours to complete. The game also offers random maps, scenarios, etc, so yeah, it has A LOT of content if you enjoy the game.

The general idea is that you control some heroes that command an army of various troop types. You take these heroes and explore the map, fight off other creatures / enemy heroes, capture towns, find treasure, and so on. The different towns provide different troop types. For example, the Castle town has pikemen, archers, swordsmen, etc. But the Inferno town has troops like familiars, demons, and devils. The various troop types have their own pros / cons with varying stats that affect armor / resistance, speed, attack, etc.

Your heroes will gain experience too and they can learn all sorts of different abilities that help in a wide variety of impactful ways. And you're not just limited to your troops during combat since your heroes can learn spells to help turn the tide of battle.

There's so much going on in this game and I'll never do it justice in a short description here. Just know that if you enjoy strategy games and are okay with something from the '90s, it doesn't get much better than this one.

Now here's a cozy game for ya! Natsu-mon is very similar to the Boku no Natsuyasumi games and it's more or less an adventure / life simulation game where you play as a young boy and spend the summer in the countryside in Japan. The gameplay loop is similar to Harvest Moon / Story of Seasons and it's up to you to figure out how to manage your time. There are only so many hours in the day, so you have to make them count!

During your stay, you'll meet a wide variety of charming characters, uncover some town secrets / stories, complete quests, find bugs / treasures, and much more. Although the daily time limit always hangs over you and you never feel like you get enough accomplished...this is still a really laid back and relaxing game. It's definitely meant to be played at whatever pace you want and just enjoy the ride. I didn't play it, but the game offers a New Game+ mode as well, if you want to spend another summer while carrying over some of your progress.

My playthrough lasted about 22 hours and I enjoyed every second of it. Highly recommended for cozy game fans!

I have a feeling this game will be high on many other lists and for good reason...it's really good! Astro Bot is a modern platformer that doubles as a celebration of all things PlayStation. The level designs are top notch and the game controls perfectly...though I could do without the motion controls.

Astro Bot is essentially an extension to Astro's Playroom and I'd recommend trying that one out first if you're at all interested (it's a free download). This game received a lot of praise and it's all well deserved. One of the best 2024 releases for sure!

Okay, so I technically finished this game in 2023, but it was after I created my Top 10 list, so I'm counting it here. Final Fantasy VIII has the dubious distinction of being sandwiched between my two favorite games in the series and it's always sort of been the third wheel of PS1 entries as far as I'm concerned. I know that may sound bad, but I think it mostly stems from the game going against the series norms and it takes some getting used to.

In my opinion, one of the biggest shifts is actually the story and characters. Unlike Final Fantasy VII and IX, Square kinda beat you over the head with the Squall / Rinoa romance. Both VII and IX had romance, of course, but they were a bit more playful (and subtle...mostly). Here though, it seems like they thrust it to the forefront and, well, it felt a little messy to me. I think part of it is storytelling in games (especially a 30-40 hour RPG) was a lot different (and harder) back then.

The other major difference here is the Junction and Guardian Force (i.e. summons) systems. I won't lie, I barely understood the Junction system for most of the game and it just seemed needlessly convoluted, especially compared to the beautifully simple Materia system in VII. I found the Guardian Forces to be kind of annoying since characters drop in and out of your party all the time and you have to constantly change your load-out and whatnot (or at least that's what I recall...hopefully I'm remembering that correctly).

In the end though, Final Fantasy VIII is still a great '90s JRPG from the masters at Square. Not as good as VII or IX, but well worth playing for fans of the genre.

I love the fact that PS1-style survival horror is still alive and well in 2024. Crow Country is perhaps best game in the revival genre that I've played. It aims for a different aesthetic and has some unique, almost cartoon-like graphics. But underneath that 1996-esque surface lies a creepy, well-made survival horror game.

In this game, you explore the titular Crow Country, which is an abandoned amusement park. It won't take long for you to start experiencing some rather...unusual events. The gameplay is pretty similar to the old Resident Evil games in that you have to ration ammo / supplies while you find ways to unlock new areas and, of course, fight off various enemies. I had a little trouble in the beginning as I adjusted back to the more hardcore style of not having checkpoints in a game like this, but once I did the game settled in to a nice difficulty balance.

This is a great indie game that I would recommend to any survival horror fan.

The first two Thief games are among my favorites. For whatever reason, I had never really given the third game much of a chance. Sure, I had tried it out before, but something felt...different. I suspect porting the game to Xbox required the team to alter things a bit for control purposes and whatnot, but that's only speculation.

Anyways, I finally decided to give it a proper go and, well, it hooked me pretty good! Yes, it feels a bit different than the first two games as the levels didn't seem quite as big (and non-linear) and the open / hub world slowed the pace down, but for the most part the core sneaking gameplay is spot-on.

Like any good Thief game, the missions are varied and new wrinkles are thrown in all the time to keep you on your toes. My main issue with the game is the open world section. Unlike before, you're able to explore the city a bit in between missions. It's a neat idea, but it just didn't work for me. For starters, I found the city to be incredibly confusing to navigate. The in-game map somewhat helped, but it wasn't great. Yeah, I know, these games aren't known for hand-holding, but shouldn't Garrett at least know his way around the city? It seems like they could've done something to make navigation less of a pain.

And it wouldn't have been such a pain if NPCs wouldn't respawn. When you're in a mission, you can just knock out and enemy and you're good to go. But in the city? Nope! And I get it, there could be people leaving their houses and whatnot, so fine, respawn some NPCs...but can you at least give me a short "cooldown" before you do it? I swear I'd knock someone out and then five seconds later, someone spawns in. I was so annoyed with this section by the end of the game I just ran as fast as I could right through NPCs / enemies, which kinda killed the immersion, but whatever...it worked.

Overall though, this is still solid game in the series, but I don't see myself every replaying it.

I never managed to get very far in Perfect Dark for Nintendo 64. The frame-rate wasn't the greatest and the controls were starting to feel a little clunky by then since I'd moved on to playing FPS games with a keyboard and mouse. As a huge fan of GoldenEye 007 though, I always wanted to play through this one.

Luckily, the Xbox 360 port from 2010 is a great way to experience it. The frame-rate and control issues are both gone and the game plays like a dream now. The gameplay is still very much like a 2000 N64 game and that's A-OK in my book. It's a pretty standard shooter by today's standards, but I could see why it received such a positive reception back then.

Perfect Dark won't change your mind about N64-era FPS games, but if you enjoy the history of the genre, this one is well worth checking out.

This game was easily my most anticipated of 2024 and I'm a little surprised it ranked so low on here. I played the original Dragon Warrior III on NES back in the early '90s and LOVED it! I was super excited when this one was announced and for the most part, it delivered.

Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is a faithful remake of the original and probably the definitive way to play the game at this point. The graphics are by far the best the game has ever looked and the gameplay feels great in a modernized engine. The main sticking point with this one is that it still kinda feels like a late '80s / early '90s NES JRPG. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy those types of games from time to time, but I also feel like the genre improved dramatically in the decade that followed.

I mentioned Final Fantasy VII and IX earlier in this stack and with good reason, they're two of my favorite games ever, regardless of genre. They have some wonderful characters and a huge world with lots of people to talk to and stories to tell. By contrast, the characters and story in Dragon Quest III are actually quite sparse. Sure, you meet characters, but they lack the personality that those VII and IX characters have. I know this is mostly due to when the original game was released (1988 in Japan), but still, I can't help but compare it to other titles. That being said, I'm also glad they didn't completely change everything and that this remake is a faithful one.

I know I'm giving mixed signals here, but all I'm trying to say is yes, this game is a modernized Dragon Quest III, which is exactly what I wanted. At the same time, I wish the original game had been more, now that I've had a taste for what the genre can offer (FF VII and IX, for example). But when I was a kid in 1992 or whenever it was, I hadn't played those games (or any Final Fantasy, for that matter).

Nevertheless, Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is still a heckuva JRPG and I suppose that's all that really matters.

This was a total surprise. Lunistice is a pure, old school type platformer with a PS1 aesthetic. It has a little combat, but mostly it's all about platforming. I had been sitting on this game for a couple of years and boy am I glad I finally tried it out!

I don't really have much to say because the gameplay is actually really simple. You jump from platform to platform. A lot. There are things to collect, but it's not a collectathon type game. There are some enemies to fight, but nothing complicated and they're mostly just in your way. What makes the game stand out amongst a sea of other similar titles is that it's just FUN! It's not rewriting the book on the genre, but it's an absolute joy to play and has just enough challenge to keep you engaged without making you throw your controller.

If you're a fan of platformers, don't sleep on this one.

Man, how long has this game been on my list to play? It seems like forever! I sometimes struggle to stay engaged with visual novels, so they often fall down my playlist. But every once in a while, I'll play one that hooks me and that's exactly what happened with Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.

The cool thing about this one is that it goes beyond just reading text and selecting dialogue options. You actually have to investigate areas / crime scenes, find clues, and ultimately use those in court to turn the tide of the case in your favor. It helped straddle the line between a visual novel and more traditional adventure game and it felt like a perfect combination.

Visual novels live and die by their stories and the one here is pretty good...for the most part. Some of the characters / scenes can be a bit long-winded for my taste, but it's not too bad overall. My biggest complaint is that the fifth case is just toooo loooong! It was originally added when the game was ported to Nintendo DS, but sometimes less is more. It took me a little over 20 hours to complete the game and I swear nearly half of that was probably spent on the extra case. It's not that the story was bad, it just dragged on for way, way too long.

Hopefully the pacing issues are fixed in the sequels, but we'll see!