Triple Click - Our Favorite Video Games of 2024

Episode Date: December 26, 2024

It's time for the best games of the year! Kirk, Maddy, and Jason go through 2024's lineup and talk about their favorites.GAME OF THE YEAR:Kirk:BalatroAnimal WellHelldivers 21000xRESISTMouthwashingDragon's Dogma 2Tactical Breach WizardsLike a Dragon: Infinite WealthPrince of Persia: The Lost CrownIndiana Jones and the Great CircleMaddy:Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Metaphor: ReFantazio Fields of Mistria Tactical Breach Wizards Balatro Dragon Age: The Veilguard Tales of Kenzera: Zau Animal Well Astro BotJason: Animal WellBalatroFinal Fantasy VII RebirthMetaphor ReFantazioSecrets of GrindeaAstro BotRise of the Golden IdolAce Attorney Investigations 2Dragon Quest 3 HDNine SolsOne More Thing:Kirk: DetroitersMaddy: Battle Royale by Koushun TakamiJason: Happy Endings (Hulu)LINKS:Support Triple Click: http://maximumfun.org/joinBuy Triple Click Merch: https://maxfunstore.com/search?q=triple+click&options%5Bprefix%5D=lastJoin the Triple Click Discord: http://discord.gg/tripleclickpodTriple Click Ethics Policy: https://maximumfun.org/triple-click-ethics-policy/ Happy MaxFunDrive! Right now is the best time to start a membership to support your favorite shows. Learn more and join at https://maximumfun.org/jointripleclick 🚀  SUPPORT TRIPLE CLICK:Join Maximum Fun | Buy TC Merch💬 JOIN THE TRIPLE CLICK DISCORD🎮 Triple Click Ethics Policy📱 SOCIALS | @tripleclickpodInstagram | YouTube | TikTok | Twitch

This year, Christmas and Chanica are on the same day, except Christmas is only one day while Hanukkah is eight. Suck it Christmas! Welcome to Triple Click where we bring the games to you. Christmas, I am so sorry. I didn't mean that. Can you please forgive me? Don't cancel me.

Anyway, today we're talking about games of the year, so let's get to it. I'm Jason Schreier. I'm Kirk Hamilton. And I'm Maddie Myers. Hello. Hello. It's our last episode of 2024. The final episode.

Thank you all for listening this year. If you are a supporter of our show, thank you double. Thank you times two because you make this show possible. If you are not a supporter of this show, it is not too late. You can join. You can write it off on your taxes by joining in 2024. That second thank you. It's sitting right there.

You could just pick that right up and it could be yours. Yeah. You've only got one thank you right now. But what if you had a second one? All you have to do is go to maximum fun.org slash join and you too can become a member of maximum fun, our podcast network. And you can help us make this show possible and get bonus episodes every single month, including one we are about to run a little bit later this week, which is about our everything else of 2024. As you may have seen from the episode title this year is this week is our games of the year. So that bonus episode is our books, shows, movies, podcasts, and albums of the year. So if you want to hear the best of the other things, become a member. But we've also got lots of other stuff in The Works. We've got a metaphor of refontasio spoiler cast coming up next month and a whole backlog full of things. So go and check that out. One more thing before we start today's episode.

We will be off next week. We are taken off for the holidays. So do not expect a new episode from us next week, but we will be running in addition to the bonus episode, which you'll get if you are a member, we will be running a paywall free episode of Triple Quest, episode three. That's the word I was looking for. Paywall free episode of Triple Quest, the finale. So if you are not a member and you have another chance to listen that, you will get to listen to it next week. All right. Today we are doing our games of the year. We're going to do things a little bit differently this year. Usually we each just kind of present our list of 10. This time we still all made lists of 10. But instead of going through them, what we're going to do is we're going to go through all of the games, all of the major games that came out this year that may or may not be on the list. And then each of us will say why that game is on our list if it is. And we'll just kind of talk about it. So I made a big list here of some of the major releases of 2024. I even, um, added a bonus. We'll see if we get to those of a few of the busts of 2024. We'll see if they came up, come up at some point in this conversation. But we want to focus on the good stuff. So I'm going to go through each game and the three of us will each say if it is or is not on our list and then we'll talk about it. So let's get started. We're going to go in basic chronological

order for the most part. I'm going to miss a day or might be slightly out of order, but I think it's mostly in chronological order. Starting with Prince of Persia, the lost crown. Who's got this one? I do. This is on my list as well. How about you, Jason? All right. So Kirk and Maddie. It's not on mine. Oh, just us. Okay. Well, this is one of my favorite games of the year. I mean, I guess no surprise. Maddie Myers likes in Metroidvania, but I really was impressed by this one. I like just about everything about it. Just the, not just the platforming. I like the story, the music. The accessibility features. I like that you could skip puzzles when you're back tracking. I definitely took advantage of that from time to time. Or the

platforming sections that are really hard. You can skip over. them. Great stuff. Really dug it. Kirk, what did you think? Yeah, I mean, this was a great game that I was not expecting to like as much as I did. I think for me it was the moment when I unlocked the ability where you can freeze a copy of yourself in place, keep moving, and then press a button and then warp back to wherever that frozen version of yourself was, and then they build puzzles around that. I mean, yeah, for me, this game was all about the puzzles. I think the platforming and the combat are fun, and that was really what I loved about Hollow Night, in addition to the storytelling like that as still my favorite Metroidvania of all time.

But man, the puzzles in this Prince of Persia game are so cool, the platforming puzzles. They're so inventive. And the abilities that they give you work so well with them that I was just like blown away by this game. I haven't gone back and finished it, but I will, I think, one of these days, just because it keeps getting more interesting. So, okay, it's funny you say that. It's funny you say that because I really like this game when I played it, but one of the

reasons that did not make my final list of 10 is that I haven't had the urge to like go back and finish it. I was just like, okay, I felt like I've had enough of this game. I did obviously finish it. And the final boss is so hard, but really worth it and really cool. I mean, I loved it. So I do really think it's worth getting to the end. But I also know a lot of other things come out. You get distracted. But especially for the listeners who are hearing us talk about these now. I mean, that's the fun of a game of the year episode, right? Is what did I miss? This one came out in January? Like, just really randomly came out and just. kind of what's a good connotation word that's overshadowed whatever that is that's what it did for me

for the rest of the year where I played it at the beginning of the year and it just hit the spot yeah I mean the early year games always get swamped let's move on to another january game which is in like a dragon infinite wealth who's got this one this is on my list I feel like I'm the only one just you I bet okay I wish I'd played it I feel like I missed out on this one so this is another game I didn't finish and I wonder if that's part of why I have so much fondness for it. I played like somewhere around 30 hours of this, which is quite a bit, but it is a very, very long game in the, in the style of most Japanese role-playing games. And I found that because I didn't play it all the way through, it never wore out its welcome with me, which I believe it probably does. I know the first Like a Dragon did. And so I was just so thoroughly charmed by it, I found even the opening, you know, several acts of the game to just be so great. And I mean, Ichibon Katsiga might be my favorite video game. character. Well, I'm not going to say favorite ever, but he is one of my favorites. He has really

launched up there for me. I just love the guy. I love everything that he does. And the way that he is able to forgive people and recruit these misfits into his group. And that guys that you would have thought would have been the villain of the game actually wind up being your friend once you talk to them. And I just think that's like a really nice thing about this game. So just a game that keeps on giving and giving. Charming guy. Yeah. I always bounce off these games. All right, next up on the list, we have Hell Divers 2. Who's got this one? Oh, I mean, I definitely do.

I almost did. Are we allowed to say if it's an honorable mention? Yeah, sure. If you like it. Of course. Yeah, this was another one of my favorites. Easily another one of my favorites. The most fun I've had playing a multiplayer game in a really long time,

I kind of miss playing it now. I think if I could talk the group of guys I was playing with into playing it instead of GTFO or whatever it is that they're playing right now, I think that I would, especially to try out the new stuff they've added to the game. But yeah, I mean, it had been years since I had sat down with this same group of people that, you know, Jason, you and I used to play Destiny with and had this much fun. I mean, I hadn't been having that much fun with Destiny for a long time playing with those guys. So playing Hell Divers too.

And I just remember several games of just cackling, laughing as, you know, these unbelievable sequences of events would happen. Like things that I just wish that I could be capping or, you know, could be streaming or something just to share with people because they were so hilarious. But I think that was the magic of the game, was that you had, everybody had these moments. Everyone had these experiences. It managed to have five or six of them happen every single time you deployed in the game. Yeah. Do you think that one of the reasons that people just have moved on in your kind of gaming group is because it's no longer in the zeitguides. People aren't sharing gifts about it anymore? No, I think they played really hard. I think they maxed out their characters and they got just about.

everything and I don't even know that they burnt out. I think that they just sort of ran out of stuff to chase. And I know they've added more, but it's not as grindy and as service gamey as something like an MMO or, you know, Destiny. So I think they just have kind of moved on to other games. But you'd have to ask them, really. I'm not really sure. The eternal dilemma for developers. Either make it so you can actually finish the game or make it see keep playing and keep paying. The eternal dilemma. Yeah, yeah. It's not even really a knock, right? I'm not playing it now. It's actually probably to the game's credit. No, no, I'm saying it's a, I'm saying that's a dilemma for developers of these kinds of games. Next up, we've a game that has taken the

gaming world by storm this year, Bellatro. This is on my list. Is it on both of yours? It's on my list. It's on my list too. This is our first. We got a triple K here. I want to say so the, my, my kind of description of Volatro is that like if there are any games that I didn't, get a chance to play and include on this list is because instead I was playing Bellatra. Like over the last few weeks, over the last few weeks I pulled out my steam deck and just kind of browsed through my library and be like, okay, I want to check this out and I put a little more time into like a dragon, I want to check out this other thing. And instead I just kind of got sucked into Bellatro. It was just like, all right, I'm just going to play an hour of this

three more runs. That's all I'll do. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's just so cleverly designed. I don't feel like it took over my life the same way that it did for you, Jason. for many other people that I know, but I did really enjoy it in the time period that I was in it. And I've remembered it and really thought about it. And it's kind of like a well-crafted pop song where it seems deceptively simple, but actually designing something that feels that good to play and is unique is almost impossible and unfathomable to me as someone who doesn't design video games or games at all. So I'm really impressed by it and what it does. I still think about just that piece of it, how clever it is.

as a game. Yeah, it's unbelievable. I mean, I, so I started playing this on my phone and found that it's really great on phones. I mean, that is, it is a fantastic way to play. And I was surprised by how quickly I got back into the group, because when you start on a phone, you know, you don't carry over any of your progress or any of your unlocked jokers, but I already had my knowledge of the game. And I very quickly did the best runs I've ever done on phone. Like I had my first, I guess, how many digits is it? I wrote it down. My first 11-figure hand,

where I got 50 billion on a single hand. And then very shortly after that, I got into the exponential numbers for the first time, which I've now done a few times, through the famous, what is it? It's like mimic and baron with steel kings in your hand.

And I just like, I so quickly got back into the groove with my phone and just, yeah, I mean, it's a perfect phone game. It's even better on phones because it just can fill any downtime that you want it to fill. And I just think that's a really rare game. And I also shout out Lewis F, the composer of the theme song. I think the Bolletare theme is like one of the most inimitable video game compositions in a long time.

I could listen to it forever and I guess I kind of have. So anyways, definitely like it should have been nominated for best video game music at the Game Awards. And one of my favorite pieces of music. It's just one song. Yeah. It's so funny, my wife asked me the other day, like, are you just playing like a solitaire game or like a poker game on your steamback? I was like, no, this is so much more.

But also, you kind of are. Well, no, because that's the thing. It has nothing to do with poker. I always have to explain this to people that it's like, it's really just a score-go-up game. It's a number-go-up game where you're just kind of building these systems and trying to find synergies that break the game in the best way possible. A couple of my favorites recently.

One is that I got this card. So they've changed some things since we all were playing in February and March. One of the biggest changes is that Yorick, who's this legendary Joker, it used to be like you have to discard cards to like unlock him and then he would give five times or something. But now it's like you discard cards and you can cumulatively make him go up in his modifier and his multiplier modifier. and I like got him really early and then duplicated him really early and I was able to get him up to like times 23 which was a monster a monster joker getting two times 23 to all of your points is pretty wild and then I had another that was like if you get there's one card you can get that makes all of your joker's value go up every single turn I think it's called gift card and then there's

another joker where like the multiply is based on the value of all your joker so it really those two synergize well. But the fatal flaw of this game and the thing that will always make me bounce off of it is that like after you pass the first eight antis and you get into the extra rounds, the endless run mode of it, the only way to get past anti-12 is to do the one same strategy, which is the one you were talking about Kirk, where you just have a bunch of kings and barren and mimic and steal jokers and stuff. Because compounding multipliers is the only way to get into the exponential numbers. So no matter how clever your synergy is and how what kind of cool machine you've built, there's only really one way to truly win. So I think if this game gets a change, and I think the creator, Local Funk, has said he's

going to be updating this game and adding new stuff in the years to come, I think the biggest change you need to make is to have some sort of way to keep testing out your build and playing around with your build without the numbers getting so incredibly high that you can only beat it with one strategy. There needs to be other kind of modes you can play around with. But otherwise, I mean, it's nearly a perfect video game and I think it could become a perfect video game. Yeah, I'm addicted. I have like many, many hours in Bellotra to answer your question, Maddie. I mean, that's fine.

This is a judgment-free zone. I think we were also, we were both saying mimic, but we should be clear that it's Mime is the card. Mime, yeah. All right, let's keep moving. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. This is on my list. Is it on yours? It almost made it.

So close for you. Yeah, no, not on my list. Though I really enjoyed my time with the game. Same. Yeah, I love this game. I did every single side quest for Chadley, so I got really sucked into this one. Wow. I got like fully all in, all the different activities. Yeah, I love it, mostly because of the music, but everything about it, really. But the music just kind of takes it to the next level and makes it so you have a lot of fun, even just doing kind of mindless activities around these big open worlds.

It's because you get to listen to all these remix versions of old Final Fantasy 7 themes. still kind of ambivalent on the ending. I guess we'll see what happens in the third game. But I really enjoyed it. Part of why I'm still a little mixed on it is because also it's the middle chapter. And I feel like we all are waiting to see what happens in the third one. Do they close everything down in a satisfying way? Still feel like I have a lot of unanswered questions.

And some of the pacing in this one was a little up and down for me, shall we say. in part because there were just so many side quests and I didn't like all of them. I obviously didn't complete every Chadley bonus. But that's fine. That's just me and my personal taste. I still totally agree about the music. Continued to listen to it for long after defeating the game

and still do incredible soundtrack. And love all the Ayrith Tifa side conversations that happen in the game. I think that's one of the strongest parts of the game is just the party dialogue that happens when you're walking around. So good. Yeah, this is an interesting. one for me because I really liked it while I was playing it, and I found that over time,

it just has faded into a memory hole for me in a way that I, it's hard to account for. It's like a number of different things. I think that it's a lot of it is that the game is so surface level, like it's all mini games or a lot of the experiences mini games. And also, yeah, that it's a middle chapter. And also that it makes some interesting narrative choices or some narrative choices that I was sort of less excited about, especially when I consider it against. remake, which had such a promise to make such big changes, finally.

The fact that it, like, made actually not that many changes and really just sort of ballooned everything to a much larger size. Like, I don't know, it's hard for me to totally pin down. It's not any one thing. It's something cumulative about the game that has caused it to just sort of gradually fade away for me, like a fast food meal or something, where I just don't feel all that nourished by it now that months have passed. All right. Well, we can agree to disagree. One thing I'll say also is that Queen's Blood, I think, really is another just kind of real highlight of this one.

Yeah, that was fun. Yeah, I mean, for all the throwaway mini games that were in this game, it also had like a super deep and interesting one in Queensblood. But yeah, I mean, Maddie, I take your point, I think, about the effectiveness of this story. I might feel differently when the third game comes out if they don't stick the landing. So we'll see. Next up we have Secrets of Grindia. This is a game on my list. Gotta be just you.

Yeah, I haven't played it even though. You made it sound really great when you talked about it on the show. Yeah. Yeah, this is a really cool game. Really tough game. I'm on the final, final boss of this true secret ending,

and it's been a real challenge. But really enjoyable, just kind of like Zelda-like, top-down, 2D role-playing game, really fun story and dialogue and skill tree and everything about it. It just feels great to play.

It doesn't wear out its welcome. Like the whole thing you can beat, even though it took something like 13 years to make, you can beat it all in 30 hours or so. Although there is true to its name, there is grinding required if you want to see the true secret ending thing, which has been a trek for me. I actually did a bunch of grinding on my trip to California a couple of weeks ago. Basically, every enemy has a chance at a rare drop of like dropping a card. And if you want to see the true ending, you have to get a card from each enemy. you have to kind of grind on every single type of enemy to get these cards, which I didn't think I was going to do, but it actually turned out to be a little bit soothing while I was like watching TV

on my trip on my Steam deck. So, hey, it made it work. But anyway, it's a great game, aside from the grinding. Moving on, Dragon's Dogma 2. Who's got this? Oh, this is all me. I played a ton of this game. I loved it.

I know I loved it more than the two of you did. And yeah, I mean, really, it was just a game that unlocked for me after a certain. amount of playing. Not some crazy amount exactly, but just enough that I suddenly just saw how it works, that combat clicked, that the whole experience clicked, this kind of weird, immersive, mysterious game full of baffling little systems that occasionally surprise you and often delight you and sometimes really screw you over. There were so many times playing this game that it just did something I didn't know that it could do. I remember, I think this is something that it's A story I've told to other players, and then they'll say, oh, yeah, that happened to me too,

which is that I was riding in the gondola system. There's this sort of complex gondola system you use to travel around the southern area, just riding in it, and you kind of just have to sit there while you're riding in the gondola, and it takes a little while, and I'm sitting there, and I kind of, I think I put my controller down and maybe go get some water, and I come back, and a griffin has attacked and knocked my entire party out of the gondola, and we have a total party kill. So there are a lot of things like that that just sort of come out of nowhere, and you're like, wait, what? I can be attacked by a Griffin while I'm in the gondola.

And then there are these sphinx puzzles as well that were like some of the most fun I had in a game this year. Just these really interesting puzzles where the sphinx really gives you a riddle and you actually have to figure it out. And the solutions are incredibly creative and fun. And I had a great time working them out, occasionally getting hints from friends, but mostly figuring them out myself. And I don't know, this is just like a beguiling, wonderful game. I think about it all the time and loved it. when you tell that story it's like the big wonderful moment is that some an enemy attacked you and you got a total I get it though it's such a Kirk Hamilton story because it's emergent play it's park right too I mean it's it's a kind of thing I

that's not a criticism it's just funny they hear out loud I get it that is 100% dragon stagma too and anyone who loves this game will tell you the same thing like that is what makes the game great yeah it's systems that are fun and that the systems screw you over in funny ways like it isn't just It is like, it gets you and you don't see it coming. Next up, we have Tales of Kanzara Zhao. Definitely a candidate for a worst title on this list, although there are a couple others, a couple other battles. I completely agree. I can't defend the title.

And, you know, whatever, we don't need to spend time on that. A wonderful Metroidvania, though. We'll save it for the titles episode. Coming up soon. It might happen, folks. I think about it a lot. But, yeah, really loved this Metroidvania. other than the title, if I had to have any complaint about it, it's that it's extraordinarily

difficult. Like, you know, that game, Celeste with all the platforming challenges, like another game I really enjoyed. Tales of Kanzarazau is one where I had many times of being like, I'm just going to play this over and over until I get it perfectly. And that can be very fun, very rewarding, but extremely punishing, some occasional thumb pain happening to me while playing this. But, yeah, really dug it.

loved the story. Thought the story was actually stronger than Prince of Persia if I have to directly compare my metradivanias of the year. Very, very haunting story about a guy who is kind of negotiating with death itself, the god of death, in order to bring back his father. But of course, that always has its costs. There's always some downsides to doing something like that. And it kind plays into the idea of grief being circular, repetitious. You revisit the same places over and over. I thought that symbolism really worked with the Metravenia structure, and they really did it well. The developers really did it well in terms of making the story fit exactly what you were doing in the game. And I always enjoy when I'm playing a game that just perfectly does that, does that exact thing.

Really good. Speaking of titles, a thousand times resist, a thousand X resist, I should say. Yeah, which is it? I say times, a thousand times resist those. I have been known to call out a thousand X resist. This is on my list. I think I'm the only one of the three of us that played this game or that really played it. Another one that I'm still probably going to play in my January holdover of picking up stuff I didn't get to.

I would like to check it out. It's going to play it, but Bellatro happened. It happens. Yeah, this game is fantastic. I played this just on Steam Deck while I was traveling and loved it. It didn't know anything about it. I just knew Chris Plant was like, dude, you got to play this game. It's amazing, which is a very common plant move.

And he's usually right, so I took him at his word and played it. And, yeah, this is a fantastic game. One of the best narrative games that I played all year, an incredibly memorable one just overall, a really remarkable narrative. And the thing that made this game work for me was partly that I went in knowing nothing, which I think is a good way to play it, because it's exceptionally mysterious at first. There's a big, complex sci-fi layer over this game, and a lot of the actual gameplay takes place within a very mysterious. sci-fi world that feels somewhat like near automata, something in that kind of Yokotaro, Hideo-Kajima, where, like, those types of worlds where you're just like, what in the world? There's a bunch of terminology.

There's like a very confusing space to explore. I just don't know what anything means, but everyone here seems to know what it means. So presumably they'll explain it to me at some point. And that stuff is cool. And then the game begins to also be a much more personal and relatable story of an actual human being. Kirk, I feel like you've trained yourself by reading all those fantasy novels on getting used to delusion of proper nouns. Yeah, this is a big year for that for you as well. Yeah, it's funny.

I mean, I could, I could, this, that's a larger comparison, but it's quite different, like, reading a Brandon Sanderson novel where, you know, you kind of, you kind of, you kind of, you kind of, you know, there's like a guy with a sword fighting somebody. You kind of understand that there's, like, an oppressive ruler or whatever. In this, this is much more, like, when you start near Atomata and you're like, what the hell? Like, who even are these Androids? Like, what is happening? What happened to the world? Like, where are we? And it's more of that kind of feeling in 1000 X resist, 1,000 times resist.

So anyways, what's cool is it begins to reveal a personal story. And this tells the story of a young woman and her parents and her relationship to her family. That feels much more relatable. That's just sort of a story. Like, there is a global pandemic that takes place as well. But really, it's the story of her and trying to assimilate into Western culture. and her parents doing the same. And, like, that stuff is all much more relatable

and, like, really well-told and really well-written. What I really appreciate about this game and what I think that, I think, is the thing that makes it remarkable is that that high-concept sci-fi layer actually winds up playing a really important role in understanding the flashback personal story layer. It isn't just, like, a cool high-concept sci-fi story where there's also flashbacks with, like, relatable human story.

The whole thing works of a piece. like the sci-fi layer is actually a way of exploring all the different facets of this one person's personality, and it winds up creating this like totalizing sense of the main character in a way that I think is like really, really cool, and I've very rarely seen executed on this level in a video game. So I really think it's a special game, and I know the name is a little weird. There's some janky stuff in it, like there's platforming sequences that are a little weird. The gameplay is never quite like the thing that's drawing you in. but I really think if you're interested in narrative and video games and you want to play a game with good writing, this is it, man. It's really something special.

Cool. Yeah, sounds like something that we might discover or play later on and then appreciate. Yeah, I hope so. Yeah, I do. I really want to check it out. Yeah, it's on my list. Next up we have Animal Well. This is on my list. It's on my list. Yours. Another triple pick. So we got Bellatro and Animal Well are two Unanimous selections Animal Well I think as I've been talking to people about this game more I realize that

Having the unique experience of playing it before it came out And not actually being able to look anything up And having to really deduce it with like Friends and colleagues on Discord and stuff I think that enhanced the experience That said I still think it's such a good game because the fundamentals are so solid and even the first two layers

of this three-layered secret game are so compelling in their own right that I think they still make it like a 10 out of time game for me. But that third layer, I think, is less impactful now that the game's been out and you can just look up all the secrets online. That said, I mean, this game is delightful,

truly phenomenal Metroidvania secret hunting puzzle game. Yeah, I really love just the first layer of the game. I mean, if you're someone who listened to our episode, I think episodes about it, we talked about it a few times, and you were like, oh, I don't love secret hunting and like, you know, having really difficult sequences of trying to look at stuff in a game over and over and figure it out. Even just the first layer of classic Metroidvania stuff is super fun. And it's pretty combat light and heavy on environmental puzzles and exploring, which I love. I mean, look, I'll do some super tricky

platforming. I was just talking about Tales of Kinsera Zhao. I was just talking about the combat in Prince of Persia. Obviously, I'll enjoy that. Animal Well is not that. It's really just emphasizing, just recognizing your surroundings, remembering where you were, scrolling little notes on the map. You can write on the map. That's something really fun in this game. I just think that stuff really hits the spot. So if you like Metroidbania's at all, and just for the expiration part, I still really recommend this. And you don't even have to participate in the whole community-wide aspect. if that part turns you off. You'll still have a good time, I think. Yeah, I want to just explain real quick. So the first, when I say three layers, in case you're not

familiar with this game out there, listener, the first layer is that Metrovania, an incredible puzzle platformer. After you be the game, there's another kind of layer you can delve into, which is more of a traditional secret-arning thing. There's some really tough and fun secrets to find. But you can do it on your own. You don't have to, like, work with anyone else. You can really just spend a bunch of hours just, like, diving in, explore, learning every corner of the map. which, like I would say after layer two is really the real ending of the game, like as much as most people will play it. The third layer is like ARG stuff.

Like you can't do the third layer without finding 50 other people to help you solve like one of the puzzles. So that's the stuff that you'll never ever figure out and like you'll need to look up online. So think of the game is really those first two layers, which is essentially flame hunting and egg hunting. And once you do all that, like that's, even that on its own is like a perfect game. Yeah. Yeah.

for me, I mean, I think all of what you both said. And something that I really love about this game is that it does give you new items to use. And then the one of- New kinds of items, unlike any other Metroidvania. Oh, yes, no, it's not like you get a double jump. It's not like you get, you know, an air dash. Instead, you get a frisbee and you get a bubble wand, and the wand makes little bubbles that you can jump on.

And the magic of this game, for me anyways, was that you learn how to use those items. in ways that you didn't realize you could. You have more abilities than you realize when you pick them up, and then there will be these little eureka moments. You know, there's one that'll happen probably to everybody with the Frisbee. The one I want to talk about is with the bubble wand, and a lot of people have played this game, so I'll just mention this little thing.

But you put a little bubble out, and you can jump on it, and then the bubble starts to sink. But if you time it right and jump right as you're throwing the bubble, you can jump up and put a bubble right underneath yourself. I worked out a way to essentially climb any height using the basic bubble wand, which then actually led me to make my way through this super bananas platforming. It was like a kind of, I don't know, like an up and down, up and down spiked wall room that was incredibly difficult to get through because if you fall, you restart at the very

beginning of the room. And I did this whole thing using the bubble wand. And if the bubbles are ill-timed, if they touch the spike, you fall. And it wound up being a platforming challenge on par with the hardest stuff I ever did in Hollow Night. I spent like an hour on it or something. And it was really, really rewarding and super fun. And then, of course, maybe an hour later, I unlocked the multi-bubble wand, which does multiple bubbles and would have made the whole thing so much easier for me to do. But I did manage to pull it off with the basic bubble wand, which was like a really rewarding thing on its own.

It's something that I did that not every player probably did. Some people maybe found the multi-bubble wand way before they even found that room. room, but the fact that the systems in the game and the abilities are so flexible that they let you discover and come up with these creative ways to use them. It's so cool. And there's all kinds of stuff like that in the game. I mean, I really think, you know, there's a lot that I still probably haven't even discovered, having not found every single egg yet.

So, yeah, I mean, I loved this game. I think it's so freaking cool. It goes even deeper than that, Kirk, in that the only way to get to that multi-bubble wand is to die enough times that you create a staircase for yourself in that little area that gets to the chest where you can find it. And so if you are playing like a no death run in order which like you get a collectible thing, if you get to that part without any deaths, or like you want a minimum number of deaths, you won't be able to get that. So it's cool that there's also a way that you can like do it. And I think that's very deliberate that you can

actually create infinite bubbles without the multi bubble wand. That makes sense. sense. But yeah, incredible game. I'm glad that we all picked it and feel that way about it. Next thing we have nine souls. Kirk, you mentioned that you, this would be on your list. I want to at least mention this just because enough people that I trust and friends that I have who really love games and also who know me and know the kinds of games that I like, read Hollow Night, said to me, dude, why have you not played nine souls yet? Well, guess what? I'm one of them because it's on my list, baby. I had a feeling that was going to be. something you were going to throw at me. I played it. I played it over the last three days. I like have played a dozen

hours of this game. It's so good. Nice. Okay. So be one of those people now. Now we have one of those people on the show. So please, Jason, carry on. Proselytize. Yes. Surprise. Surprise. This is the one that really, you can tell that it's good because it took me away from Volatro and I actually wanted to keep playing it. So Night's, I think

Hollow Night is kind of the surface level comparison, but it's really more like Secura, because you can't play it the way you play hollow night and when I play it the way I play Holland I die. You need to be parrying. It's like 2D Securo. So it looks like Holo Night. It's got an art style that's kind of reminiscent of HoloNite and definitely inspired by Holo Night. It's got a lot of those same ideas as Hollow Night. Solz-y ideas, I guess Sekiro ideas too, but more deliberately from

Hollow Night. Like you find a guy in every new area who will sell you a map and it's kind of got those kind of staples. It's got the dash and it's got at some point the double jump and the air dash and so on and so forth. So it's got the trappings of a Holonite style Metroidvania. But the actual fights and especially the bosses are all about parrying and countering and kind of finding different ways to navigate their cues and react to them. So it's a lot more like a 2D version of Sekiro than Holonite. And yeah, it's freaking awesome. Really, really tough, but really, really awesome. You definitely need to be able to parry. And if you found Sekiro just insurmountable, then you will not enjoy this game.

But as a package, it's really incredible. It's got this awesome story and lore and these characters who are really intriguing. I won't get super in depth, but basic story is that, like, you are this alien trying to essentially, like, kill these nine souls. You're one of these ten souls who are these kind of ruling force of this alien race, and you're trying to, or this alien area, and you're trying to find the other nine and kill them and get their kind of insignia's and there are humans involved and humans are kind of hinted to be enslaved creatures in this world and there's a lot of lore that gets into just kind of how

this science fiction lore, how the science fiction world works and what the deal is with the whole premise of it. And it's really cool. It's got a lot of Metroidvania aspects that you would like Maddie, including seeing something and being able to come back to it once you've got the ability to unlock it. But, But yeah, really tough, and I'm enjoying that a lot. The boss is, like, having to fight a boss 20 times, but then really nailing it is really cool. And then I will say one anecdote real quick is that the very first boss of the game or the very first like real boss of the game, you might spend like a dozen tries trying to beat it, like trying

to figure out the parry timings, trying to recognize its attack patterns, getting it just right, and then you do it. And then it'll jump to the background for a second. It'll be like, yeah, got this shit. And then it comes back out at full health. And it's like, oh, second phase time. It is truly a from software-inspired game. And yeah, I love it.

It's on my list. I haven't beaten it yet, but I've gotten far enough that I feel comfortable at saying it's one of my 10 favorite games of the year. To throw a couple things out there. Since, yeah, I've played like three or four hours of this game. Two things that I found that made it much more doable for me. One is that I actually didn't like playing this on Steam Deck. Like, I found playing it with a regular controller instead of the Steam Deck controller.

It just worked better for me. And it kind of was easier to scan on a larger screen. So I think maybe once I got more used to it, it'd be fine on Steam Deck. Yeah, I'm playing on Steam Deck for what this was worth. I know a lot of people like it, but that's just me. But just throwing that out there. And the other is that this game actually does have a variable difficulty setting. That's pretty cool.

You can change it so that you can, like, adjust how much damage you take and how much damage you do. You can make it a lot easier. You kind of just want to mess around and learn the attack timing, but not be just pounded into the ground by enemies if you do make a mistake, you can make it easier for yourself. And I think you can't undo that once you've changed it to that difficulty setting. But that's not the end of the world. And I'm sure the intended difficulty is really cool if you're into that kind of difficulty, like that kind of challenge.

But it is very nice that they make it possible for you to adjust the game. Got it. Yeah, I didn't even know that. But yeah, cool game, Nine Souls. If you're on the fence, I recommend it. Next step, we have Fields of Mistria. This is you. This has got to be me.

Oh, no, right. this is Maddie. It's me. It's me. So I feel like this is a nice counterpoint. You're like, sounds like a Jason game. No, I just forgot. Yeah, I forgot that it wasn't some classics JRP style game. But no, of course, Maddie. I remember you talking about it. It just sounds like JRP-esque, doesn't it? It's not. It's not. It's actually a Stardue Valley like that builds on, builds on that structure. But it does, it did also really hit the spot for me in between super difficult and also emotionally challenging games that I played this year. Like, this is like a perfect. I'm just going to make my farm. It's actually pretty hard to do stardue and kind of iterate on it. But I actually think

Fields of Mystery pulls it off and that's why I recommend it. I really dig all the townspeople in this game and I dig the story. There's some supernatural elements that emerge, much like in stardew, that I enjoy a lot and found very rewarding to discover and unlock as I went along. And there were also just straight up townspeople I super liked talking to every day. And that's the kind of thing you want out of a game like this is a slow emergent gentle story really really cute pixel art as well so yeah just enjoying it it's actually still an early access and all the more impressive because of it and it's it's gotten updated a couple times and i've really liked the updates so yeah fields of mystery uh strongly recommend if any of that genre wise is your style you will enjoy it nice yeah it's funny kirk i feel like

X of something that ends It sounds like one of those. It sounds like a classic Cherokee. It does. It has like really great music that I'm sure I'd like. But yes, but Maddie, it sounds cool. I will be curious to check it out when it's out of early access. I kind of see what their final like 1.0 version is.

For sure. Next up we have Eldon Ring, Shadow of the Erd Tree. It's on my list. Maybe just me? I don't know. Not me. Didn't make my list either. Wow.

I can talk about why. But Maddie, maybe you start. Oh, fascinating. Oh, I really loved it. I mean, I did too. Don't get me wrong. Not unlike my two co-hosts. I actually like Shadow of Your True. No, I get it, though. There were actually a lot of really good video games this year as this episode is proving.

But I enjoyed this a lot. I really liked just the verticality of the environmental exploration this time around. That ended up being something that I super enjoyed and wasn't a part of the base game Eldon Ring, where I enjoyed exploring and unlocking the map and just going boss by boss. This was like I felt, felt way more like a Metroid game and I am being perfectly myself here. But I- Everything on your list is either a farm game or a Metro game. Yeah, it's either a Metroid game or something that I played to take a break from all the difficult Metroid-esque games.

I was playing. Yeah. But I did really enjoy that aspect of it. I liked getting to like fight the bosses in different orders and just explore. in a weird way. Yeah, I love it too. It just like didn't make the cut because like DLC, I think at least for me, has a much higher bar to clear if it's going to make my top 10 list, uh, compared to it. Just because like it, it's more Eldron Ring, which is great, but Eldon Ring was on my list in 22. Yeah, I get it. Yeah, kind of similar for me. Like I didn't finish it, which I'd gather was

not a bad thing since the final boss I know is a huge pain in the ass. I kind of like, they're not going to deny it. It's kind of like unique to my experience. Or it's, it's something. It's, it's that I did where I was playing with Melady, that really cool, whatever, it's called light long sword or whatever, light great sword, and the stance stuff, and I was getting into that, and it was pretty fun. And then I switched builds to this kind of broken, like, bleed club build that you can get, just because I read some guide or something, because I was already feeling a little listless, and, like, some of the bosses were really hard. So I switched to this just totally other kind of build and respect. And then I just sort of lost steam. Like, I should really

just go and respect back to how I was just because I didn't like playing with a big unga bunga club and I didn't like doing like broken levels of damage to bosses and I sort of I don't know like it kind of messed it up for myself or something and then I just lost steam and it was like it's just more

Eldon Ring yeah I don't know like I sort of lost steam on it despite it being really amazing. So you're saying you got to respect my lady. Yes that's what I'm saying. That's what it's all about. All right. after that one. Tactical Reach Wizards. Definitely on my list. It's on my list. All right. You two have it. Not on mine, but you two. It's a double, double pick. Yeah. Jason, did you ever circle back and beat it? Or no. I didn't beat it. But I did. I made a good amount of progress. Yeah, yeah. But it didn't quite make the, make the list for me. Yeah. I mean, I just, I loved this. I mean, it's kind of the one that's a little bit out of step with some of my other genres here. But given how much I talked about Midnight Suns,

in years previous. I think it's no surprise. I really enjoyed the strategy aspects of this, plus the story being excellent. I mean, I wish we had more games like this that I could be recommending year over year. I feel like we don't get that many where I'm like, oh, the story's really strong,

amazing ensemble cast of characters that you get to know, and there's fun turn-based strategy on top of that. That rules. I would just love to have more games like this in general. Yeah, agree. This is probably like pound for pound my favorite game of the year. I like absolutely loved it. I can't believe how good it is.

It's so good, so strong all the way through. Yeah, I mean like it's incredible. I totally agree, Maddie, that I just wish more. I know it's not easy to make a game this good, obviously. But so many games expand their scope beyond their capacity. So many teams try to do too much. Watching, looking at this game, it's just this like immaculately designed thing. And then, yeah, the writing is just so, so good.

I mean, when Dessa, the medic, goes into, like, the nether realm and suddenly is doing a series of missions with a copy of herself and talking to herself about, like, Jen and the other party members and how she's feeling. And then, you know, the game does that again and again. And they're, you know, the fact that these... I was going to say, that happened to me with Jen playing with a copy of herself. So it's funny that that's...

Oh, it happens to every single character one time. Everybody gets it? Everybody has a dream. sequence, and they're all exceptional. There are real twists that were surprising and delightful. It really just the story, it's kind of this really clever inversion and commentary on the Tom Clancy style military thriller. It manages to be like a military thriller for justice, but also not in a way that feels really preachy. Yeah, plus it's doing it with wizards. So it's like it kind of has this thing that seems like it's going to be a joke at first, but then it's like dead serious, which is also fun.

Yeah, the world building is so good. It has such a a light touch with everything that it's doing. It just doesn't set a foot wrong from start to finish. And that is a very rare thing for any video game, let alone one with this much writing. So yeah, I mean, it's just like, it's an incredible game. I just think everybody should play it. Next up we have Ace Attorney Investigations 2. This is on my list. Yeah, got to be, right? Don't think it's either of yours. So this is part of the Ace Attorney Investigations collection, which includes the first game, which did come out in English, like years ago whenever it was released.

But the second one is really transcendent. The second one is like a top three, maybe top two, ace attorney game, period for me. And so I have to include it on this list because it's just like a complete package, just like one of those games that doesn't have a bad case. Usually Ace Attorney games, you kind of have a filler case in the middle somewhere, and it's always, always drags on a little bit too long, always has a mystery or a sequence of events that is just a little too preposterous. And this one does not.

This one has just like five bangers that are all tied together and all matter to the overarching plot, which I think really, really makes it stand out. And yeah, just really love this one. The only downside to these games is that even though you play as Edworth, you're just doing the same gameplay that you do in the Phoenix Wright games. But, I mean, I could take a new Phoenix Wright game every year. So it's fine with me to just keep doing that same gameplay. But yeah, this one was top-notch for me. I liked what I played of it I'll play more I mean it seemed it seemed great

I played like one of the first chapter You should I think you'll I think you'll really enjoy it Next up we have Astrobot This is also on my list What about you two? This didn't make my list All right didn't make the cut for care

So I'll let me talk a little bit about why I mean I thought it was great Why do you hate joy I thought I actually thought this would be like The third triple pick But it is not it's just me and Maddie I mean, I get it. I almost didn't pick it because it kind of feels like picking like a slice of chocolate

cake with like a bunch of frosting on it. Like it's just, it's so joyful that I just was like, I don't know. There's like nothing wrong with it. It's too fun, but it's not challenging in a way. It's not like advancing. You have to,

if you play the challenging levels. I mean, none of these are why I didn't pick it, but go ahead and tell me why you like it. I don't know. I mean, I do love it, but it just there's something about it that I'm just like,

God's so cute. It's almost cloying in certain ways, but I do love it. I'm not going to deny it. I'm just going to let myself have it. Why? Why not? I mean, there's nothing. So I've been playing it with my kids watch and like pretend to play and sometimes jab the buttons and that cuteness that you mentioned can be cloying. I mean, kids love it. I will say it's like having a rubber ducky to play around within that one bath house level is just a blast. It is challenging if you get into some of the challenging levels. And it also, I think is a perfect balance of challenge because you die at one hit, unlike Mario Games, really of hearts, but at the same time, you recover so quickly in the loading times

are non-existence, so it doesn't really feel like it's a drag. It's got that really, it's able to create tension without feeling frustrating, which I think is a real, real coup for this game. The other thing I'll say is that I was just playing this today, and I was also playing Mario Odyssey with my kids, because they wanted to see both of those games, and playing Astrobat feels a lot better. than playing Mario Odyssey.

There's something about having that extra floaty, like being able to float with your laser beams that as we established in our Astropod episode, shoot out of your butt. There's something about those extra, that extra floatiness that just makes it feel really good and makes it feel better than Odyssey does to play in 2024, at least for me.

I don't know if this is going to get me hate mail for criticizing a Nintendo game, but we'll get into that a little bit more later. Right, I should just embrace it. I mean, it's, it's super cute, and it's got a bunch of PlayStation mascot characters, but I shouldn't be ashamed of it. That's the part that can be cloying. That's the thing where it's like, all right, this is like really just kind of like a soulless brand parade.

But I don't know. It's clearly made by people. Yeah, that's the thing. It's made by people who, like, are doing it because they really love a lot of these franchises and not because they want to advertise for PlayStation. So it feels genuine to me. Kirk, you want to say a sentence or two about why it didn't make the cut for you? Yeah, it was very close.

I mean, I found this to be really joyful and fun game. For me, it's partly that I'm just not like a huge 3D platformer guy. Like, that's just never been my favorite genre of game. And also it's, yeah, it's a little bit just there's something missing. Like, it's a little bit shallow. It's some of it is the brand exercise that it's all Sony nostalgia. It's like a lot of meta jokes with God of War and Uncharted and whatever. And just like, I don't, you know, I didn't really latch on to that.

And there's just kind of a level, a layer of mystery that I really appreciate about games. Actually, Mario Odyssey comes to mind. There's just sort of a layer of mystery to those Nintendo games where in the world there are these strange things. There are all kinds of, you know, I don't know, secrets hidden around. And I just didn't feel that from Asterobot. Like, I didn't feel drawn in to explore or discover that kind of stuff. So in the end, it was like a really fun game every moment that I was playing. It was really great.

It almost made my list. but then it just kind of floats away when I compare it to the other games that did wind up making my list. They're definitely secrets. They're like alternate like exits for some of the levels. It's not to say that there aren't secrets. It's more that the design of the game does not draw me into discovery. It's subjective. It's a vibe.

Yeah. Next up we have UFO 50. I don't think this is on our list. But Kirk, this is a runner up for you. You wanted to bring up real quick? I did want to bring it up because I kind of like when we talked about this the first time, I was just like, well, I kind of tried a little bit of it, and then it just sort of bounced off of it. And I just wanted to say, I played a lot more of this game, and it almost made my list now, because I've gotten into a few of the games, I wrote them down.

NINPEC is great. More tall is incredibly great. Party House is so much fun. I got really into that one. Ping Golf, also really great. Nightmanner, I played almost all the way through. I haven't quite figured out, like, the final couple of puzzles. But Nightmanner is really cool and feels almost like traveling through time.

Tactics is super good. Basically, I went back and I took the time to actually learn some of these games. And I just, like, really want to underline how special and cool this game is that it deserves to be mentioned in any best games of the year list. And I personally, like, I don't feel a strong emotional attachment to games of this era and to this style of, like, often very difficult 2D gameplay. But I still am very, like, I find this game pretty enchanting. And I can't believe that they put it together. And so I wanted to mention it. And then to say that, that I've really, like, I love it.

Like, I've played a lot of it now, and I really think that it's something special. Yeah, I have also played a bunch of it. And I think it would be pretty close to making my list. But I just, like, other than attack tricks, which is the kind of the chess-ish strategy game. Att tactics, yeah. Other than that, I didn't really feel that, like, compelled enough to keep playing many of them. Nightmaner's cool. Yeah.

There are a few others. that stood out to me also. Nightmanor is awesome. It's also for me it's a matter of time. Like the time commitment for 50 is just like unreal. Because as we discussed when we were talking about that game, like it's not just the time commitment of like, oh, all right, I have to find a few hours to play this game. You also have to spend a few hours trying to figure out what you like and like learning rules and stuff, which is, which can be a real barrier for entry for a game like this. Yeah, I think that I think one thing that helped me was that I played it a little later and now there are lists like I think Polygon even like Maddie and you guys this list of the top games of

the year. The best one. In your UFO 50 entry like whoever was who wrote it like listed five or six of their favorite games and I was like all right I'll just start with those and three or four of them like really worked. I think party house was in there and I just it would have taken me forever to get to party house if I've just gone chronologically like in the game but party house is really really fun and like you know a great one to start with. Yeah I'm with you I think that this is one that I think could like in another, if not for Balacho. If I could spend more time with it, I think it might have had a chance of making the list.

But it's close there for me too. Next up, we have mouthwashing. I think I'm still the only one of us who played this one, yeah. Yeah, I really want to check it out, though. And you should remind the listeners as to why. I will, yeah. Most people will not have heard of this

if you want to just explain what it is real quick. I will, yeah, and Maddie, I think you'll like it when you do play it. This is a game that's currently just on Steam. It's a three or four hour narrative, horror, sci-fi game, like psychological horror, more than anything else. It's a pretty, I think I described it as a feel-bad hit in my one more thing when I thought about it.

It's a game where you play a couple of different members of a crew, I believe it's five people, working for basically futuristic Amazon on a shipping vessel in space that crashes, collides with something in space and becomes sort of inoperable and floating in space. And for me, I mean, it's on my list because I can't stop thinking about it. I still think about it all the time. It has such a strong sense of place. It has such a haunting and genuinely chilling story. It's pretty upsetting at times, but in ways that I found really thought-provoking and interesting.

I've seen more discussions and debates in like the Steam reviews and, you know, on reset era or whatever on like different forums about what this game means than a lot of other games that I've played recently. And it just has such a good look and an interesting sense of place. The image that I'll evoke for people is on this ship. You know, this whole game looks kind of like a PS1, PS2 era game. So it's like pretty low poly. The ship has collided with something in space. And as a result, the like a foam, a countermeasure has been deployed across the ship. So everywhere you go, there are like hallways that are just full of this kind of increasingly dirty white foam

that has just filled up every single space in order to keep the vacuum of space from sucking all the air out and killing you pretty much instantly. So everywhere you go, there's this like foam everywhere. And it actually took me a second to even realize why that was the case.

I was playing it. I was like, what is going on? Why is there foam everywhere? And then I kind of figured it out, and of course the foam factors into the story. But like that detail alone that winds are being such a pervasive part of the set design,

it's so kind of gross and creepy and oppressive. And it just, there are a bunch of things like that that the game returns to these kind of visual motifs that are so well done. It's an exceptional game. Really, really amazing. How many mouths do you have to watch? Well, you do. I mean, your ship is carrying a lot of mouthwash.

And everyone starts drinking the mouthwash because you don't have any food. So I guess at least five. Their mouths are pretty washed, I would assume, by the time they've been. I was going to say it sounds like it would be a good sequel to Power Wash simulator. mouthwash simulator. It's not at all. It's not a cozy, relaxing game at all. You know how these indie games, like,

these indie games do the tie-ins? I could see them releasing Power Wash simulator with a mouth-washing tie-in where you're in a giant mouth with the power washer and you're washing the teeth on. You're just washing teeth? You know that.

Next time we have a game that I think is one of the three worst titles on this list. So the three worst, I would say, are Tales of Kanzaro's out, a thousand times resist. And then this next one, metaphor refuntasio. Absurd title.

Still don't know what it means. Beat it, couldn't tell you. This is one of my favorites of the year. What about you guys? It's on my list as well. Okay, Maddie. Didn't make my list. That's what I figured.

Did not make perks. Okay. So very few triple click unanimous picks this year. I know. I know. It's interesting. Yeah, metaphor for me. I love this game.

I've talked about it quite a lot. We've got a spoiler cast coming in January about it, but short version is it feels like. feels like a successor to persona that really just continues iterating and adding like much welcome evolutions to the formula. And plus it just has a lot of interesting things to say. And I just love the vibe, just like the persona games. Like everything about it just combines to create such an unique and interesting vibe. The music is so weird and cool and the art direction is so awesome. And the characters are so like neat, interesting to hang out with, fun to hang out

of. I really loved it. What about you? Yeah. Yeah, I loved the combat in this game. I was willing and ready to play just dozens and dozens of hours of turn-paced RPG combat. And if that doesn't tell you something, what does? I just really enjoyed it. And I love the art design, as Jason said, and the characters had a couple of quibbles about the overall story. Definitely recommend becoming a max fun member so you can hear that Beans cast where we really just dive deep into every, every plot beat that we didn't enjoy. That was really fun conversation. But yeah, just mostly found myself missing playing the game after it was over, which is truly not something I can say for many RPGs I played for 90 hours. It's a good hang and I just dug it. I dug a lot of the, even the boss fights.

I was like, these are kind of fun puzzles for me. I'm enjoying figuring out how to deal with these. And yeah, I just, I so rarely say that about games in the genre and I was really impressed by that. Yeah, I liked this game a lot. And it is something that we, some of the narrative. stuff, the complaints that I have we did talk about in the beans cast, which was a lot of fun that we've, we've already recorded, but it'll be out in like a month. For me, really, it's just that there were enough sections of the game, like chunks of it where I felt a little, like I wasn't being pulled along and I was kind of just going along out of a kind of compulsion because these games get these compulsive loops going. And then ultimately, I just felt like the narrative lost the thread and didn't follow through. Like, it didn't have the courage of its convictions. It was a bit of a failure of imagination in the final act based on how it started. And that just left me.

feeling kind of disappointed. I kind of wish it had, I wish it had followed through and, like, really delivered in terms of the narrative. But it's still a cool game that I was, I was happy to have played. Next up, we have the rise of the Golden Idol. This is on my list. Is it on yours? It's on my honorable mentions. I still haven't actually beaten it. So it didn't feel quite fair to include it. But I did, I am enjoying it. But I think it says a thing that unlike case of the golden idol, where I just devoured it in like a 48-hour time span. This one, I'm like, oh, this is I'm going to have to come back to this. Okay, well, I did devour it in the 40-year-old has been.

You did. You did. I loved it. I mean, this came to me is like a fantastic sequel to the case of the golden idol and really just, I loved it. I mean, it's more of the same in many ways, but it also feels a little bit more advanced. It feels like it's got more ideas. And the overall story, I think, is a lot more coherent and fun to unravel than Case was. I don't know if I like it better necessarily, but I think it's just a worthy sequel. And I will never get sick. You could put me in front of you could give me a new Golden Idol style puzzle, deductive mystery every single day and I would never get sick of them. So I'm just wired that way to love these types of logic puzzles. Yeah, I thought I was. And then it turns out maybe I'm not.

Maybe I can't get sick of them. I don't know. So I am, I mean, honestly, Jason, I agree with every single thing you just said. For me, it's literally just that there were 10 other. games that I put next to it and I was like, I like this a little bit more, this like left a little more of an impression on me. But I loved it. Did you finish it? Yeah, great game. Oh, you did. Okay. I'll circle back. There were just other games, you know? You might, yeah, you might feel differently when you finish it, Maddie. You might like it more. Yeah, maybe I'll,

I'll let you too know if I finish it. And I'm like, actually, it was really great. Stop the presses. Next up we have Dragon Quest 3 HD2D remake, which is on my list. Obviously on my list. It's my only, it's my top 10. Leave all the other night. I was just, sorry, Jason, go ahead. Thank you, Maddie, which is on my list. I didn't expect this one to make it, but as I was kind of reviewing the year's games, it actually stood out to me as something that I really enjoyed playing.

It's very much an old-school, traditional grindy JRP, because this is a remake of a game from, what was it, 1989 or something like that. So this is an old-school game. on invisible random encounters. So you have to be in the mood for that kind of vibe for that kind of, hey, encounters are going to come out of nowhere and interrupt my exploring of this cool dungeon every five seconds. So get used to that. But no, I really enjoyed it.

I mean, it's just one of those games where you can just have a good time playing it while doing something else and enjoying the resource management and character building and watching levels go up and all those other great things about change. RPGs. And then also on top of that, it has this really cool system in the second part of the game, which is where you get this ship and then it turns into this open world where you have to go around and kind of piece together what you have to do next based on conversations with townspeople and stuff like that, which for me was really enjoyable. It is cool. Yeah. And I think this remake comes with quest markers, which I recommend turning off during that portion of the game, because it's a lot

more fun to just try to figure out what you have to do on your own and it turns into an open world game. I think this was the first game. It definitely wasn't the first like open world RPG, but it was the first game, I think, to like present that kind of non-lineararity, linearity in like a JRP like this. I think the ultimate games had that feeling too. I don't know if they came what the sequence of events was, but it was certainly one of the earliest to present like a big open world and be like, you've got to figure out the mysteries, you got to figure out what to do. It was much harder during the NES days when the translations were all gobbledy-gook. But in the remake, it's really cool.

So, yeah, really enjoyed this one. Next up, we have Dragon Age the Veil Guard. This made my list, possibly only mine. Yeah, didn't, I don't know. It wasn't mine. No, I did enjoy it. I really dug this in the end. I don't know if you beat it, Kirk, but I thought just the whole story ended up being really cool.

And some twists at the end surprised me. And I really ended up digging it a lot more than I, expected to going in. I'm not like a big Dragon Age person per se, but I really enjoyed it. I went in disliking Solis, left still disliking Solis, but enjoying all of the Solis debates that I got to have over the course of

Dragon Age of Vailgard and just overall really, really liked the story in the end. And I recommend it from just that vantage point. Nice. I'll finish it. Yeah, I actually am a big dragon age person, as we have discussed many times. Yeah, you kind of are. Yeah. I enjoy the game, I find it to be a pretty breezy play. For me, it's that it's kind of too long.

I, like, played a lot of this freaking game and thought, I was like 50-something hours in, had done a ton, a lot had happened, and then just, I got exclamation points over everybody, and then they're all like a ton more side quest. And I was like, dude, how long is this game? It turns out, I think the game can be like, if you do everything, like 90, 100 hours. It's really, really long. And I'm, so I was kind of looking down another 40 hours of the game. and I have run into kind of a plateau in terms of power scaling and my character build where I just shred everything.

I had mentioned on our triple play that I've boosted up enemy health just to make the fights last longer. So I'm kind of looking down a lot of hours of pure narrative with the gameplay just kind of reduced to like, all right, now I'm going to murder this guy in five seconds. And like I will finish it only because like I've played every other Dragon Age game. I'll definitely finish it. I think you'll find the story's worth it, but I get what you're saying. Yeah, so it's mostly that I was like, it almost made my, I considered it certainly. Like I don't have any ill feeling toward the game.

I like it fine. It's just like, yeah, it was mostly that feeling of like, oh my gosh, 40 more hours. And then if I feel that way about a game, does it really belong on my top 10 list? Maybe not. So that's kind of worried about that. Totally. Yeah. Plus it came out right after metaphor, which for just my emotional state personally was tough.

Yeah. Just for me. I don't know if that's true. But it made your list. It did. In the end. In the end, I like them both. Two LPGs on my list.

Who am I? Last up, and then we'll each read our lists. We have Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Oh, man. Well, I mean, this is on my list. This is. Wasn't on mine. It wasn't on mine, but I haven't, I feel like I haven't played enough of it yet to have a take.

Yeah, if I, when I finish it, it might make a cut. It might. So, Kurt. It is not. Yeah. I mean, I love this game. We just talked about one. But you also finished it, too, right?

I'm not finished. I am up to the final act and Emily's folks are in town and she and I, as I mentioned, have played through the whole game together. So we, that's been, I don't want to finish it without her. Like, that would suck. Like, she's kind of watched the whole story. So I'll wait until either. I mean, we could play it with them around, but we'll probably just finish it in the new year. But I love this game. I mean, what a surprise. What a, like, wonderful type of game. I never played a AAA game that was this puzzle focus, that was this, zany and that totally captured the vibe it was going for so confidently and thoroughly. Like, I really think it's the biggest surprise for me of the year. I thought it would be pretty cool. I didn't realize that I would love it as much as I do. It's super easily made it onto my list. I mean, it's some of the most fun I've had all year. So, yeah, I think this is a really special game.

I hope a lot of people play it, especially because it's on Game Pass. It just seems like it deserves all the success that it gets. So, yeah, loved it. Cool. All right. So before we take a break, let's see you treat our lists, and then we're going to get into a little bit of bust talk. Okay. I'm going to remind first, and then we'll go through yours, Kirks, and then yours Maddies.

So my list is Animal Well, Bellatro, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Metaphor Re-Fantazio, Secrets of Grind Dia, Astrobot, Rise of the Golden Idol, Ace Attorney Investigations 2, Dragon Quest 3, HD 2D remake, Nine Souls as a surprise last contender. Kirk. Nice. Here's my list, and this, of course, is an order of name length, as always, the best order for any list, because it looks so nice. So imagine in your head, if you will, a little ski slope. And the ski slope is built out of these words.

Balatro, animal well, helldivers two, one thousand times resist, mouthwashing, Dragon's Dogma II, tactical breach wizards, like a dragon, infinite wealth, Prince of Persia the Lost Crown, and Indiana Jones in the Great Circle. Great. Annie? Mine is in the order that I remembered them in. Make it that what you will. And it is Prince of Persia the Lost Crown.

Eldon Ring Shadow of the Earth Tree, Metaphor Re Fantasio, Fields of Mysteria, Tactical Breach Wizards, Bellatro, Dragon Age the Veilgard, Tales of Kinsera Zhao, Animal Well, and Astrobot. Cool. All right. So before we take a break, let's get into some bus talk because there were a few high-profile bus and also won for me personally. I just want to shout out. I mean, we could go on and on about Concord and Suicide Squad, which we could.

I mean, Suicide Squad, kill the Justice League, of course, one of the year's biggest bus. I think worth noting because it isn't just some random company that tried to make a service game and failed. It is rock steady, which before this game had been considered one of the most elite developers on the planet. So worth noting they had a bus this year. Concord, of course, is one of the craziest stories in recent gaming history. This game flopped and was pulled from release after two weeks, and the studio behind it was shut down just a couple months later. But the one I want to talk about personally is Auden Chronicle 100 Heroes, which is just so disappointing. It was supposed

to be the successor to Svikodin, made by some of the original team, and I was so expecting it to be just like such a capturing that glory. It had all the right people involved. It had time. It had money. But like it just was so, such a failure for me. So disappointing for me. Then of course we should mention that the legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom did not make this list.

And in fact, no Nintendo games made this list, which might be a first for all. None of us have a Nintendo game on this list. Which, I don't know what that says about Nintendo's year, but it's certainly worth noting. I mean, it just tells us where Nintendo's, is at right now, right? Which is this kind of, what do you want to call it? Like this in-between expecting a new console to be a switch two holding pattern? Yeah, holding pattern where they just,

they're holding a bunch of stuff. Clearly, they're kind of waiting for the switch two. And it just kind of was reflected in the games that came out this year. There were plenty of games that were fine. I mean, I have stuff installed on my switch that was pretty fun. But like, yeah, none of it really made a huge impression. And then write echoes of wisdom, at least for me, it was pretty cool. I think I actually maybe, at least on our episode, I was the most positive on it. But then, you know, it just kind of didn't quite, didn't quite knock anything off the list for me. It wasn't in my top 10. Same. I mean, it almost made it. Early drafts of my list, it was on there, but just didn't make it into the 10. And it clearly didn't even make it into the honorable mentions for me. But what can I say? I thought it was pretty good.

But I don't know. I'm shocked to say that about the first game where I could play a Zelda. Well, and surprising for a Zelda game. Like, Nintendo has such a high bar that for that to be true of a Zelda game kind of registers as a disappointment, even though the game is like good to very good. Yeah, it's like a good game, but it feels like a huge letdown to me because my personal bar is so high, especially what I expected from the experience, which I then had to be like, I might be being a little unfair. Like, what did I think this is going to be?

It feels like it's kind of a B-Team that is making these games as opposed to like their best of the best are on. the massive 3D open world Zelda games and in another six years when we see one of those, it'll be like, oh, okay. And maybe you'll get to play a Zelda in that one. That would be cool. But I don't know, not holding out hope for that one. But yeah, just a strange, a strange year. Any other thoughts before we go to one more, take a break and go to one more thing?

Any other thoughts on like Suicide Squad or Concord or I don't think you too care about aid and Chronicle the way I do? No, I feel sorry for you. I'm sorry that that happened. Thank you. I appreciate that. I appreciate the ambit. I mean, I can totally imagine if, like, the team that made no one lives forever came together to make a new one.

And I was like, holy shit, they're going to do it. And then it came out and it was kind of whack. I would be really bummed out because I would have been very excited. If, like, Metroid Prime 4 is bad, I'll be bereft. I'll be bereft for months. Yeah. It would be sad. Yeah, it would be sad.

Yeah. And shout out to all the people who worked really hard on some of these games and it just didn't come together. It sucks. feel for you too. For sure. Especially Concord people. I know. On top of making a bad game, you also just like spent years of your life on something that

will never be seen or played again. And your studio shut down. So just everything sucks. And like, and it wasn't even like to call Concord a bad game. I don't even know. I didn't play it. But my sense is that it wasn't like bad in the sense of not working well, right? Yeah, I guess that's true too.

I, yeah. Bad game was the wrong word choice. An unsuccessful game. Like a flop game. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Yeah, that was a tough story. Even Suicide Squad, similar deal where I didn't really like Suicide Squad, but I can see what they were trying to do and the live service baggage hanging around at Sannac. Just awful. I hope we're done with that, but we're clearly not. Clearly that trend is going to continue. Yeah, we'll see. I mean, this year I definitely struck a blow for the trend chasing, but there are still,

I don't know if you guys notice this, but 2K announced a game. It was called Project Ethos from a studio called 31st Union, which is run by Michael Conjury, who's a long time call a duty guy. And he started this new studio to make this game. And this game, from what I've heard, has huge

investments from 2K. And it was just kind of announced and nobody noticed by the fact that YouTube project ethos. That's why. It's called Project Ethos. It's like it's a live service shooter. Oh, really? Oh, no. I think that we probably

We can guess what's going to happen. Best of luck to them with that. Yeah. We can hope for the best. We shall see. And it's like a lot of money from what I've heard. A lot of money has gotten into that way. That seems like an ethos of a project that I'm worried about.

Oof. All right. Let's take a break. Hey, Sydney, you're a physician and the co-host of Sawbones, a marital tour of misguided medicine, right? That's true, Justin. Is it true that our medical history podcast is just as good is a visit to your primary care position?

No, Justin. That is absolutely not true. However, our podcast is funny and interesting and a great way to learn about the medical misdeeds of the past as well as some current, not so legit health care fats. So you're saying that by listening to our podcast, people will feel better. Sure. And isn't that the same reason that you go to the doctor? Well, you could say that. And our podcast is free?

Yes, it is free. You heard it here first, folks, Sawbones, Merrill, Deer of Misguide the Medicine right here on Maximum Fun, Just as good as going to the doctor. No, no, no, still not just as good as going to the doctor, but pretty good. It's up there. Who guests on Jordan Jesse Go? I mean, we could just list Pat and Oswald, Kumail Najjani, Maria Bamford, whatever. We couldn't remember all of them.

So we asked my kids. Uh, famous people? How famous? I don't know, pretty famous. Duh. Really tiny celebrities who would go on this. Train wreck instead of a big talk show. There's just a bunch of people on your show.

Jordan Jesse Goh, a comedy show for grownups. And we are back trying to forget what Maddie just said before the break. Let's do one more thing. Why, it was so good and easy to parse. I don't know what you mean. It was a joke on par with the name of that game. Kirk, what's here one more thing? One more thing is a show that I've been watching on.

Netflix that I hope everybody watches. It's called Detroiters, and it makes me laugh and laugh and laugh. Have either of the two of you watched Detroiters yet? No, but I do know what it is, and I should watch it. And it is absurd that someone who has seen, I think you should leave as many times over and over again as I have, hasn't seen Detroiters, but I should. Yeah, so Detroiters is a sitcom starring Sam Richardson and Tim Robinson. of course, both, well, Tim Robinson, the star of I Think You Should Leave, and Sam Richardson, a recurring character.

And one of the producers is one of the co-creator, I think you should leave, Zach Canaan. So it is very much like the I think you should leave before, I think you should leave. And it's so, so funny. I think it was on Comedy Central, like 2017, 2018, around then. So before I, certainly before I was aware of the style of humor, really aware of Tim Robinson. And it's been a little lost to time. It was kind of hard to stream it, and then Netflix got, I guess, got the rights to stream it a little while ago. And now you can watch both seasons.

And I have been doing that. And it's so funny. It's funny in a very similar way to I think you should leave. But what I really like about it is that it's a different format of a show. So I think you should leave is sketch comedy, and Detroiters is a sitcom. And it really makes for a very different show because on Detroiters. So Tim and Sam play characters named Tim and Sam. What are their names?

The names are Sam Duvay and Tim Cramblein. And they work for Cramblein advertising, and they're located in Detroit. And they basically make really low budget kind of, you know, direct access cable commercials for local companies around Detroit. And I gather, I actually watched a couple episodes of this with my friend Dan who grew up in Michigan and knows Detroit really well, lived there for a long time. And like so many of the jokes that were happening on the show, he was explaining to me how that's this like very particular Detroit. reference. So part of the joy of the show is that it's very specific to the Detroit area. Like, each ad that they do is a reference to some actual company. People talk a lot about, like, different regions of the area around Detroit. It's, like, very specific to the area in a way that

I really enjoy. That shows South Side, actually, that's set in the South Side of Chicago has a kind of similar feeling where there's, there are jokes that I can tell I'm not getting because I'm not from there, but I sort of like that. But really, this show just feels like I think you should leave. It feels like so many of the jokes feel similar. And Tim Robinson and Sam Richardson have such great chemistry. Sam Richardson is honestly one of the funniest people working right now. He's so funny, especially when he tries to be sexy or do a sexy dance, when he tries to seduce someone. Like, I just laugh and laugh and laugh.

And I mean, yeah, if anyone has loved, I think you should leave and hasn't watched this show yet. You're in for a treat. It's like a great thing to just sort of marathon over the holidays. I love it so much. I love that both of their names, their first names end in M's, and their second names are just other first names ending with Sun. Oh, yeah, that's true. That's true. Good serendipity there.

And yeah, it's a good show. I love the part. I mean, there's so many good gags and so many random physical moments in the moment. But when that episode ends with Sam Richardson's character, just writing on his, like, bored, like, woman on top. Yeah. Incredible. That's a good one. The one, I recently watched the one where they like to go poop on the third floor, but then they can't because the tech company moves in and they're so upset.

And of course, there are many jokes and a lot of rituals built around this that are then disrupted. And yeah, it's just really good. Yeah, very very good. My wife for some reason does not appreciate this humor. I turned it on at one point. And she was like, is that the guy who did the thing with the wet stakes? And I was like, come on. Yeah, you're a real piece of shit.

Yeah, right. She does not enjoy it. It's not for everybody. It's very specific and hard to explain. Very. You either like it or you don't. Yes. You start doing like bits and saying lines to people and you're like, this is making it

worse. They're understanding it less than more I do this. But I will say I'll go next because my one more thing is the show that she really does enjoy that both of us do, which is a show called Happy Endings. I've talked about this before on the show. I think it's been my one more thing in the past. We've both been rewatching it because it is incredible. It might be the best sitcom ever made.

it's also the most underrated sitcom ever made, because most people have not even heard of it. But this is a show. It ran for three seasons. I forgot what, Network, but it was incredible. It is truly an incredible show. It is just so packed with jokes, and some of them are just so good. God, I just crack up thinking about him. There's one amazing jokes in the episode we saw last night as we were re-watching it, where it's like this one character is this kind of like hippie, kind of like douchey, who just just has the most ridiculous analogies and comments. He's talking about, like, how he really wished he had, like, he really missed out on something. And he's like, oh, yeah, he's my bin Laden.

Jessica bin Laden. She was a super hot Arab girl. I went to his goal with it. But anyway, it's just, like, so good. And so few people appreciate it. Maybe because it never, it didn't really have a hook. It doesn't really have a gimmick. The original hook, like in the pilot, is that two of the characters are set to be married,

and then one of them leaves the other one at the altar, because this guy in roller skates comes in and is like, come, come, like, leave him for me. And she just runs away. She's played by Alicia Cuthbert, who is the only person who's like known on the show.

I think also Damon Wayan Jr. in it is in it. But his dad, I think, is more famous. Damon Wayans Jr. is in it. But so maybe that's the other thing is that,

like, it didn't have any recognizable stars. But anyway, that premise from the beginning, is that like then the group of friends has to figure out to navigate this broken up couple and like choose who to go with. But they give up on that premise after like three episodes and then it just becomes a sitcom about like friends living in Chicago

who like do absurd things and go to like extremely ridiculous scenarios. And then it just gets incredible from there. And it's three seasons and yeah, I just wish more people watch it. I think the closest comparison as far as humor goes might be the league. it reminds me of the league in a lot of ways, which is a show that got a lot more attention, and which I also love to death.

A lot of kind of a lot of the guest characters on happy endings you have probably seen on the league like Paul Scheer and like Rob Heubel, that kind of like comedy nerd crowd, people who I think comedy nerds will really appreciate. But yeah, it's such a good show that I think you would both love it immediately and want to rewatch it like 10 times, just like I think you should like. So I highly recommend it. Happy endings. People should go watch that show. Go check it out. It's on Hulu. So it's very easy to watch right now. So go watch it. I love sitcoms. What are you waiting for? It's amazing. So it's wild that I haven't seen it. There's so many that I've seen. And I've watched terrible sitcoms. So I have no excuse. You could be watching happy endings or Detroiters right now, Maddie. What are you doing? I know. Maybe I will right after this. Who's to say? Maddie, what's your one more thing? It's not a sitcom. It's like the complete opposite of what a sitcom could ever be, which is a book I'm reading. called Battle Royale by Koshin Takami. So I have been meaning to read Battle Royale for a very long time.

We actually did a bonus episode on this show where we talked about the movie Battle Royale and Fortnite and PubG and just Battle Royals and pop culture generally. It was a really fun episode and I really liked that movie and thought it was fascinating. And I had meant to read the book beforehand, but I just never got to it. So it's been on my personal wish list for a long time. And I don't know why I was in the mood for it this week. This book rocks. Like, it's amazing.

It's like... So the movie is based on the book? Yes, the book came first. And there's a manga, too, right? Or am I right about that? Yes, but the book is, the book precedes that as well. Okay. Yeah.

The book is like the original version of this story. And I think, I mean, it's kind of hard to say. It's like, yeah, the idea of very young teenagers being set by society to battle to the death is kind of mythical. So it's sort of hard to say what the first iteration of it was. but it's certainly one of the most famous first iterations of this. And there's a specific change from the movie that I think is more effective that I think I talked about on the episode, but I didn't know as much about because I hadn't read the book yet,

which is in the movie, the characters all don't know that they're going to be enlisted in this battle royale against one another. All the teenagers at this high school, this one grade, is chosen at random to be forced to battle to the death on an island, just in case you somehow didn't know the plot of battle royale. You made it this far. You didn't know. In the book, they live in a totalitarian regime where they're very aware of it, similar to Hunger Games or any other kind of version of this premise. Like the kids grow up knowing about it and hoping they won't be picked. And also, you get to know all the kids in a different way and the way that only a book can do because you get all their innermost thoughts. Again, I have to compare it to Hunger Games. Part of why I think those books are better is because you get to hear what Katness is thinking the whole time. And like it's for all that the movies can can do with, uh, you know, showing you Jennifer Lawrence's wonderful facial expressions. There's just a difference with the book. You get to actually kind of follow along with each of the characters as they're internally debating what to do next. And it's just, it's really effective.

Uh, just smart, sharp horror. It's, it's brief in the moments that you'd want it to be goes long in the moments where you'd want it to. I just, I just think it really works. and there's a reason why it's extremely famous. So, yeah, the book, Battle Royale. I recommend it. Cool. I might read that. That would love to read that.

Can read it between Fortnite rounds. Yeah. Yeah. It's good. How far we've come. All right. That is it for 2024. It is.

Yep. See you both next year. I hope you have an awesome holiday celebration and whatnot. And happy New Year to all of the listeners. Yeah. Happy holidays and happy New Year to everyone out there. And I will see the, two of you in 2025.

Yeah. Bye. Bye. Triple Click is produced by Jason Schreier, Maddie Myers, and me, Kirk Hamilton. I edit and mix the show and also wrote our theme music. Our show art is by Tom DJ. Some of the games and products we talked about on this episode

may have been sent to us for free for review consideration. You can find a link to our ethics policy in the show notes. Triple Click is a proud member of the Maximum Fun podcast network. And if you like our show, we hope you'll consider supporting us by becoming a member at maximum fun.org slash join. Find us on Twitter at triple clickpod. Send email the triple click at maximum fun.org and find a link to our Discord in the show notes.

Thanks for listening. See you next time. Maximum Fun. A worker-owned network of artists-owned shows. Supported directly by you.