Yup, it’s a Girls Night. Lorelai and Lily team up to tackle the pod this week with to talk People of Note, Dawntrail, Marathon, Nioh 2, Knights of the Old Republic, and Final Fantasy XIV Fanfest speculation. On account of it didn’t happen yet when this was recorded. But it did happen now that it was posted. Let’s have smun with it.

You can support us on our Patreon, and follow us on social media @gamesline.net, Lorelai at judgementscythe.bsky.social, and Lilith at gallowlessdatura.bsky.social.

Also, don’t forget to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, and tell a friend about the show!

If you want to send in questions, send them to our email podcast@gamesline.net!

You can also join our Discord channel at thegamezone.zone!

Our theme song is “Crush” by Melt Channel, from the album Magic is Real.

Edited by Scott B

The post The Gamesline Podcast Episode 88: Marsupalami Hoobaventure appeared first on Gamesline.

Honorable Mention: dirtbag MAHJONG

This came out of nowhere for me. I missed the Kickstarter and only ended up buying it because my fellow Bluesky Mahjong freaks started posting about it on release. dirtbag MAHJONG is a combination of mahjong with a visual novel story that had me rolling with laughter from the jump. The humor is crass and stupid in all of the best ways. It’s a game about a bunch of complete assholes playing mahjong together with HP pools, attacks you can build up to, and so many dumb ways to play. It’s a genuine delight that does a pretty good job tutorializing Mahjong. The game is exactly what the title says it is: a bunch of complete dirtbags playing Mahjong. A goofy mess of pure fun from start to finish.

Honorable Mention: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

I think it’s a phenomenal game that everyone should play if they have the ability to. Clair Obscur is carried by some incredible performances and some phenomenal art design. The background details of every area shine. It’s a fantastic game that lives up to the legacies of the games that inspired it, but it falls on its face for me in the end. I can pretty much guarantee that if I had beaten the game without doing some of the Chapter 3 sidequests, this would have been in my top five. But one of the main character’s sidequests contradicting the way she acts in the finale completely ruined it for me. The more I think about that decision, the less I liked the game, until it fell off my list.

Honorable Mention: Assassin’s Creed: Shadows

Hey, they made a great Assassin’s Creed game. This spot was bouncing between Ghost of Yotei and this, both games I greatly enjoyed my time with, but one just slightly edging out the other. I am a sucker for open world collectathon checklist podcast games and this one just really did it for me. I think part of it is me just being really into this era of Japanese historical fiction. Being the Nioh/Samurai Warriors freak that I am, it’s fun to go, “I KNOW THAT GUY” every once and a while. All and all it ended up being far more enjoyable than I expected and I don’t regret the 87 hours I spent with it at all. Being able to stealth through the game as Naoe or just barrel in as Yasuke gave me two play styles for whatever mood I was in, and that really tickled my fancy.

10. Octopath Traveler 0

Hey, did you know that if you just have one narrative throughline and more linear storytelling, the Octopath formula works a lot better? I thought they did a lot towards improving their storytelling with Octopath Traveler 2, but this is a much better story that flows from beat to beat rather than being multiple stories that don’t really feel connected. I was someone who did play Champions of the Continent and liked the story they were trying to tell, so it was great to see it put out in a form everyone could enjoy. Its biggest issue is that it is based on a gacha game that brings in everyone from the series, which does make some of the character moments feel lacking while its overall story shines. I would rather have somewhat weaker characters to go with fun turn-based action than great characters with a weaker overall narrative. I’m hoping they do DLC to take a look at some of the other stories that the mobile game has told because there’s some really great stuff in there.

9. Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail

I honestly didn’t think I was going to be writing about this game at all this year. I was burned out, I watched its community be destroyed by grifters, and I was pretty close to uninstalling and being done after finding a lot of the patch story to be lackluster. But then the 7.4 patch came out, and suddenly I was back! I’m enjoying the game more now than I have in a long time. No more burnout, I’m enjoying the game on its merits rather than logging in every day out of some daily necessity. These days I log in to work on pointless achievements and spend time with friends, and it’s been a healing experience. I went from averaging 20+ hours a week to four, and it’s completely rekindled my love of the game and the time I spend on it. I didn’t think I’d ever be an achievement hunter in the game, but playing with a casual purpose is such a relaxing time. Hanging out in space and macro crafting as second screen material while I work is just a nice diversion. I’m making progress towards something, but it’s also relaxing listening to the sounds of crafting while I’m playing other games on my Steam Deck or second monitor.

7.4 came with something I sorely needed, the final raid series, and god damn is it a good one. Finally a raid with no bad fights and all bangers. Seriously, the biggest advancement in Dawntrail has been in the quality of their fight design, and the Heavyweight tier has been incredible to grind out my weekly clears. Do I wish we spent more time in Tuliyollal instead of the cyberpunk city? Oh god yes I do, but what we got this patch was so much better than I expected and has me hooked for what’s coming.

8. Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To

There are two games on my list this year that I think are important for the same reason: experiencing things from a different culture than my own. The game is dripping with the queerness and the Arabic culture of the people who made it, and it’s a genuine delight from start to finish. The main story fleshes out all of the characters, their world, their culture, and the way magic works. It’s a fascinating way to immerse myself in something different. My only complaint is that after you finish the story, the dating sim fully starts and there is a lot less of the match-3 puzzle gameplay. To this day, my morning routine has been to load up a game on Endless Mode, and play until I lose. It’s a zen start to my day, listening to great chill music while I swap tiles to make lines to make things disappear until I lose after around 10 minutes.

7. Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake

I probably wouldn’t have gotten this if I hadn’t gotten a little preview at PAX. I thought it looked good and didn’t fall into the HD-2D trap of muddied visuals from everything needing to have the same fidelity. The demo challenge of an underleveled party going into midgame dungeons was a lot of fun, and led to me snagging the release version for myself. Needless to say, it was a great decision. If you’re going to do a remake while keeping the core of the original intact, this was a pretty incredible way to do it. Not to mention, Dragon Quest II getting an entire extra game worth of stuff added to it that is not only challenging and fun, but surprisingly well written, building up a true end to the trilogy and providing a new experience for someone who had played the originals before, is super fun to see.

6. Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma

When I played Rune Factory 5, I called it a promising start for a new team of developers that had to figure the series out. I was hopeful for the future of the franchise, even while I took major issues with the game. I don’t think they have it 100%, but Guardians of Azuma gives me great hope for the future of the franchise. They gave me a fantastic game with fun town building as well as fun action. The action is where it needs to be for a game like this—the real thing they still need to work on is farming. I found the farming to be relatively boring, and the town management a little lackluster as well. Still, an incredibly charming cast of characters and an overall story that left me very content made this one of my most played games this year, and it’s still one I come back to when I just want to chill out and grind a little.

5. Coral Island

Last time I talked about Coral Island, I spent a significant amount of time gushing about its core while still lamenting the fact that it was not a true 1.0. This year we got two major patches which brought it to a place where I can fully say it feels like a real and complete game. Not only did we get a massive update that adds an underwater farm, and the initially introduced mermaids finally getting characterization, we also got a fantastic online co-op mode that has made the game more than worth revisiting. Coral Island is also steeped in Southeast Asian culture, being developed by Indonesian studio Stairway Games, and it really does make it so much better than just “Stardew Valley in 3D”. If you like the farming style games, this is not only a great one, it might actually be the best of them.

4. Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time

When they announced this, I didn’t have a lot of hope. Previews left me feeling skeptical, and the state of Level-5 as a company makes Fantasy Life i feel like a complete miracle. I was worried it was going to be a game that lacked what I loved about the original, and never have I been happier to be wrong. While I would have loved more varied crafting between all the different crafters, every single craft is fun to pull off, every combat style feels great and has some incredibly fun abilities to play with. Every party member that can join you adds something to the game, whether it’s a crafter who sometimes attacks or regularly throws out buffs and debuffs or the fighting class characters who do a surprising amount of damage while being competent elsewhere. Your crafters can also aid in crafting, and gathering friends can help you by chopping trees to make farming materials so much faster. When you factor in the procedural dungeons, a procedural open world dungeon, and more content than you could play through in a reasonable amount of time, there is something to constantly do and unlock. I thought I was done when I finished the main story, but I keep coming back because there is still something new for me to do after 200 hours.

3. Warriors: Abyss

Who would have thought that a repetitive Dynasty Warriors roguelike would have been one of my most played games of the year? Look, I don’t have a lot to say about this game: the localization is bad, multiple abilities are incredibly confusing to understand, and there is no story to care about at all. But there  is an incredibly fun and rewarding gameplay loop where every character feels different, every stage is fun to blast through, and it goes fast enough that it never feels like it’s wasting your time. It’s been updated multiple times with DLC from the Atelier series, Ninja Gaiden, and more. Every new character they add has been a blast to play with. Is this the best Roguelike of the year? Probably not, but god damn it’s the most fun I’ve had with one in a very, very long time.

2. Dynasty Warriors: Origins

Dynasty Warriors is back! After the disaster of Dynasty Warriors 9 and the sales failure of Samurai Warriors 5, I thought they were done with Musou. But this year they really came back with a vengeance. They finally hit the right formula with deeper movesets and more varied combat, alongside numbers so big that past games wish they could see a KO count that high. Having a big map to run around with multiple sidequest opportunities, along with an emphasis on telling a single story of one person acting as a mercenary, leads to a much meatier story that allows character personality to shine through a lot of visual novel style cutscenes—with a ton of “so bad it’s good” voice acting that filled me with delight. Seriously, the English dub is a thing of beauty with some absolutely hilarious line delivery that captures the magic of the early games while still being something a little more directed. My only issue is the game has gender counterparts that do nothing to change the story, other than making the gayest Lu Bu straight if you were to be able to play as the female character. 

1A. Game of the Year: Unbeatable

I’m not a rhythm gamer, but Unbeatable grabbed me in a way I didn’t expect, and I’ve even been bopping through the arcade mode every morning for a song shortly after I wake up. The story is where this game shines. I keep going back to Chapters 3 and 5 which are where the whole point of the game solidifies. If you go into this wanting a game where music is illegal and you do crimes, you can play Chapter 2, but the chapters where they were going through the actual story they were telling, those hit me hard in the feels. It’s like the writer held a mirror up to my face and said you, this is you. I’ve never felt so seen. There is so much to chew on with the story they told, and while it definitely has some messy transitions and pacing, all of that fits the vibe and truly hit me. The main thesis of the story really is about someone who was lost finding themselves and regaining the will to live through both music and fighting for the people around her.

“I don’t know who I am right now. But I am better than who I was before. I am seven years different. And I am seven years better. And I refuse to be worse than who I was before.”

1B. Game of the Year: Suikoden I&II HD Remaster Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars

You all knew this was coming. Suikoden was one of the most formative games for me growing up. It’s lived rent free in my head since I played it on release. It was a franchise where I had finally accepted that it was dead and gone and the only way we’d ever see anything like it was through spiritual successors like Eiyuden Chronicle. And then after that game had an incredibly successful Kickstarter, suddenly a remaster for the original was announced. You had an active social media presence, you had Konami interacting with fans for a few weeks and then…

Radio silence.

Suikoden was dead again. There was no news, no updates, the social media that was so active went completely silent and whenever they got asked, they refused to say anything. I was sure it wasn’t going to happen. I was back to being mad that they got my hopes up, that my long dead franchise was still dead. Konami was just faking coming back to being a gaming company. All that hope that myself and the other Suikoden freaks felt had become a lie from a company who was only pretending to care about games again.

Then the release date reveal happened… 

My hope was restored. Literal tears on the podcast as I felt an overwhelming wave of joy that I would be able to share this thing I love so much with friends who would never have the chance without shelling out hundreds of dollars on original discs. Something I could share on every system. Then TGS came around and not only were we getting the remasters, we’re getting a stage show, an anime, and a mobile game. Not only was my favorite franchise alive, they seemed to be making the series a core component in their return to video games. I have cried tears of joy more than once over the past year as they continue to show that they care and are acting like they want Suikoden to be one of their tentpole franchises. I don’t know about corporate, but the people on the team sure feel like they have a real passion for everything.

But what about the game you ask? Well, there are two ways to do a remake: you can do the HD-2D thing like Dragon Quest or you can upscale the backgrounds and keep the original work as close as you can. They went with that second option for this one and they nailed it; even going back to address complaints that the fanbase had about background details. There are two games in this world where I would be angry if they remade the spritework: Suikoden and Chrono Trigger. I’m happy to say that the character sprites weren’t touched at all. In some ways the high resolution backgrounds with the original sprites can feel a little off, but the spritework is such a huge part of the charm and personality of these games that if they had messed with it I would have been sent into a violent seething rage.

All of the jank from the original releases is still there. Inventory management in Suikoden 1 is genuinely terrible and always was, but it also was the first RPG released on the Playstation, coming weeks before Final Fantasy 7 completely changed the environment. The story is quick and to the point, with my first playthrough of the remaster being about 20 hours to get everything while going out of my way to talk to every single NPC. The localization of Suikoden 1 sands some edges off, sometimes to its detriment, but is an overall improvement over the original release. If you don’t have the nostalgia for some of the sloppy editing, you’re getting a better version now than you did before. 

Suikoden 2 got the biggest upgrade in this release though. I think it goes to show the power of the story they were telling that it’s still considered one of the best RPGs of all time despite having an absolutely horrendous translation. The translation errors of the original were so numerous, with some NPCs having lines of code in their text boxes. This was a lot less charming than the “All this killing in front of a children” moments from Suikoden 1. With the translation fixed, it’s far easier to appreciate the rest of Suikoden 2’s strengths. Tons of minigames to waste your time with, tons of characters, incredible villains, and sprites that do fit in a lot better with the upscaled backgrounds. This release of Suikoden 2 is by far the definitive version of the game. I wish they could have put the inventory management from 2 into 1 to make it a smoother experience, but overall both games are an incredible experience that I think everyone who wants a great JRPG should pick up. Meet these characters I’ve been obsessed with for the last 30 years of my life, and the woman I named myself after!

The post Lorelai’s Top 10 Games of 2025 That Aren’t Game of the Generation Nioh 2 appeared first on Gamesline.

John’s back this week and joined by Lily as they talk about their week in games. John’s been busy with more of that Hololive TCG, the Pokémon Legends Z-A DLC, Trails in the Sky First Chapter, Digimon, and Juufuutei Raden Picross. Lily’s been digging deep into The House in Fata Morgana, Pathologic 2, Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail, and more Squeakross. In the news, Monster Hunter Wilds runs better if you have the DLC and we’re getting some very expensive Pokémon Legos.

You can support us on our Patreon, and follow us on Social Media @TheGamesline, John, and Lily.

Also, don’t forget to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, and tell a friend about the show!

If you want to send in questions, send them to our email podcast@gamesline.net!

You can also join our Discord channel at thegamezone.zone!

Our theme song is “Crush” by Melt Channel, from the album Magic is Real.

Edited by Lorelai and produced by John and his new Camera

The post The Gamesline Podcast Episode 80: The Anthony Fantano of Gaming appeared first on Gamesline.

John is joined this week by Rose, Lorelai, and Nikolas to talk about how few games they’ve been playing. John’s been playing the Pikmin 2 romhack Pecan 2 and Lorelai was on the road for 3 weeks for a stop at San Diego Comic-Con before arriving home to dive into the new Final Fantasy XIV patch and First Berserker Khazan. Rose has been digging into all of her Gatcha games while Nikolas on the other hand has been playing a whole bunch of Sonic Forces while the crew tries to sell him on the glory of Xenoblade Chronicles X.

In the news, the developers of Wuchang Fallen Feathers caved to right wing trolling and kind of ruined their game, Christian Whitehead teased that a sequel to Sonic Mania was nixed, Arkane’s union is demanding that Microsoft stop supporting Israel, and we touch more on the payment processor news.

You can support us on our Patreon, and follow us on Social Media @TheGamesline, John, Rose, Lorelai, and Nikolas.

Also, don’t forget to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, and tell a friend about the show!

If you want to send in questions, send them to our email podcast@gamesline.net!

You can also join our Discord channel at thegamezone.zone!

Our theme song is “Crush” by Melt Channel, from the album Magic is Real.

Edited and Produced by Lorelai.

The post The Gamesline Podcast Episode 63: Conventional Robots appeared first on Gamesline.

2024 was a wild year in gaming for me, with so many games I loved which could have made my top 10. In fact, I wrote up blurbs for around 50 more games that came out, which were eventually moved off my list when I realized “Oh yeah, that game did come out in 2024.” It was almost funny, at one point or another I had included Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, Persona 3 Reload, Tekken 8, Granblue Fantasy: Relink, Balatro, Helldivers 2, Dragon’s Dogma 2, Nine Sols, and the much better action game than Black Myth Wukong Stellar Blade. 2024 was a fantastic year for video games that were right up my alley, and while so many great games failed to make the list, you’ll never guess where Game of the Generation Nioh 2 falls this year with it’s 280 more hours.

Dishonorable Mention: Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth

When I was initially compiling my list I had this game at number 4, but I can’t justify giving a place on my list to a game that features multiple substories where sexual assault is treated as a funny haha just because it happens to a dude. Yes it’s so funny you raped Ichiban in a dark alley, twice. This single aspect took what would have been one of my favorite games of the year and made it one I have no interest in ever touching it again, despite how much fun I had with it as a game overall. My completionism truly got the worst of me with this one because if I hadn’t been trying to 100% the game, I wouldn’t have maxed the friendships out with the person running the travel agency or the school and I wouldn’t have had the game completely ruined for me. The more I tried to write about how this was going to slot into my list, the more this criticism gnawed at me until I realized that no, I couldn’t have it on my list despite how good it is overall, because this shit isn’t funny, and should never be treated as such.

Honorable Mention: Hades II

I can’t really bring myself to include an early access game on my full list, but Hades II has been a phenomenal time. Its excellence was to the point where it almost got me to break that rule, considering just how much fun I’ve had with it. It’s a game I’ve been enjoying alongside my girlfriend with her having her own save on my Steam Deck and me playing through on my PC. Funnily enough, she’s significantly further along than I am but it’s been fun to be able to play a new version of a game like this that has so much promise coming into its full release whenever that might be. The characterization continues to be fantastic, the mechanics incredibly rewarding, and the art design is second to none. I can not wait to see where this game goes in the future.

10: Earth Defense Force 6

What can I say about Earth Defense Force? It’s absolute dogshit and I love it. It’s the most perfect distillation of something that is so bad it’s good where it knows exactly what it is and it doesn’t pretend to be anything but that. You fly or run around shooting bugs, sometimes you pilot a giant mech, you blow things up and slowly upgrade yourself by picking up giant boxes from the ground labeled Weapon and Armor in the most basic of fonts. It’s EDF, either you love it or you hate it and I am one who loves it. It really doesn’t do much of anything new, it’s just more stages, more funny singing, and a hell of a lot more fun.

9: Dragon Age: The Veilguard

When I first went through this I did not think it would make my list. I enjoyed it, yes, but there was a point towards the end of the game where it would make or break its overall standing, and I had to be sure of my feelings. So I immediately went back in for a second playthrough and somehow managed to enjoy myself more that second time than the first. I think this game is an accomplishment. A team took what would have been a pretty dogwater live service game and turned it around into an experience with a really good overall story that suffers predominately from zones that feel a little bit off and a team dynamic that has absolutely no friction whatsoever. I would have appreciated pushback when I’m choosing all the asshole options. Overall though, the fact that they got me with their twist, along with every class you can play feeling really good, locks this in the top 10 for me.

8: Unicorn Overlord

You know what’s really good? Ogre Battle. You know what’s also really good? Unicorn Overlord. I came into this expecting something pretty good and ended up with one of the best strategy RPGs in a very long time. While the story isn’t anything to really write home about, the strategic gameplay was immaculate. Being able to see the outcome of a fight that was about to initiate and change gear and use items to try to turn the tide if it looked like you were going to lose led me to constantly have a little bit extra on me weapon-wise so I could shift out skills, and while it didn’t always save the day, the amount of times I was able to turn a guaranteed death into a tactical retreat was nice. It’s also just absolutely gorgeous to look at, which isn’t a surprise being a Vanillaware joint, but this one for me is an absolute standout.

7: Dungeons of Hinterberg

Have you ever played a game that is exactly what it says on the tin? I usually avoid calling a game a comfy game, but there is something about this that just hit in the right way for me. It was comfortable, as comfortable as the jacket the main character wears. It’s got a day and night system like a Persona where you decide what to do every day. Do you tackle one of the many dungeons on every map biome? Or do you spend the day relaxing in the zone you chose to travel to? When you get home at night, do you spend it hanging out with a specific friend? Or do you maybe head to the campfire to listen to the other slayers talk and get a little friendship boost with all of them? The nice thing about the game having no time deadline meant I was able to see everything it had to offer in one playthrough. The difficulty is never really a huge challenge but there were more than a few creative boss fights and puzzles in the dungeons that I had a lot of fun deciphering my way through. Every biome having its own set of magic also made each area feel completely different. The snowy mountain being a highlight, where your secondary spell is just a snowboard and you shred through levels, do slalom, and just really have a lot of goofy fun. Overall, Dungeons of Hinterberg is just a pleasantly fun experience that came at a time when I really needed it and is well worth the time you put into it.

6: Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance

SMTV is a game I have a weird relationship with. I loved it when I first played, giving it my #2 game of 2021 and called it the perfect SMT game for newcomers. However, the more I thought about it over the years the more I realized that I never wanted to revisit it, unlike Nocturne and other games in the series I’d replayed multiple times. I take back everything I said about the original release of Shin Megami Tensei V. It’s been completely ruined for me now that this is out. Every decision they made in Vengeance makes it a significantly better game than V was on release. From being able to hang out with your demons to the new characters and more focus on your friends it improves every single aspect of the game. The characters matter more, I care about everyone more, and even the original routes were drastically improved by the changes to the game. It’s rare that what could have just been a basic re-release with some tweaks and a little more story ends up being this much of an improvement over the original, but it truly is worth the full cost of the game and ended up sucking up a lot more of my life than I expected.

5: Metaphor: Refantazio

Hey, hey you there, did you know it’s possible for the Persona team to not completely contradict their main arc and characterization in their social links? Because holy shit they finally actually accomplished this incredible feat. Metaphor is a fantastic game from start to finish with a pacing that doesn’t completely ruin the experience. That’s been my problem with Persona for so long, feeling like if I want to see everything I have to do every new big task as efficiently as possible. Here, I finally got a game where I didn’t need a guide to make sure I made all the right choices to not lock myself out of seeing all the game had to offer. I was just able to do it all which left the only place that felt like it dragged a longer period towards the end of the game where it’s all dedicated to giving you enough time and resources to max out all of your stats and do sidequests. Having not finished every dungeon in a single run, this meant I had things left to do so it didn’t drag for me, but I can 100% understand the people I talked to who just wanted to finish the damn game and having such a huge span of time where there weren’t any ways to progress the main story led to it feeling like a slog for them since if you had just efficiently nailed your way through everything, you were just sitting there spamming to make the days go forward.

From a battle system standpoint I really feel like they nailed it as well, fun classes, fun animations to the attacks, and an emphasis on buffs and debuffs actually mattering unlike what they had done in Persona really made me feel like I was using my whole brain for a decent amount of the fights. Not to mention some of the best super boss encounters they’ve ever put together. I really appreciated what they did with the game this time around. Overall, I think its biggest accomplishment was in making me excited for whatever this team has lined up for the future rather than fearing it.

4: FANTASIAN Neo Dimension

The biggest celebration of the year for me was this game finally being freed from iOS. I had already played through the first half of the game on my phone but there was no way I was going to pay a monthly fee for ONE GAME. So I never really went in to try the second half when it was released. What an incredible game. The first half already had an incredible amount of depth to it, but like the classic Final Fantasy VI you’re left scouring the world, rebuilding your party for the second half. This time, like the World of Ruin, you can go about it in any order, doing tons of new sidequests along the way as you find where all your friends are. Not to mention a spike in difficulty, I can see why now when you finish part one you unlock a completely different leveling system and get access to super moves tied to a bar that builds. You need them and you need them strategically. There was one set of bosses that you had to kill in one big burst or they would fully heal themselves as they swap positions. It was an incredible fight that took me multiple tries to figure out and that just felt good. The whole game has some of the best uses of strategic thinking I’ve seen in a JRPG battle system with its use of a funny temporal prison to trap random battles in. So instead of taking on 2 or 3 enemies at once, you can take on 30-50 while random power ups flood the battlefield. It really adds thought to a lot of what I am doing. Plain and simple, it’s one of the best JRPG battle systems I’ve ever experienced and I am so glad that it’s freed from its Apple Arcade prison.

3: Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail

Wow, it feels good to feel good about Final Fantasy XIV again. There was a long period of time where I wasn’t sure if I was going to keep playing or not, and I think it took finding a healthier balance with the game than I had before. Towards the end of Endwalker I was doing so much that I wasn’t enjoying just to keep going. Fight design was boring, job design was boring, and a lot of the extra stuff I just wasn’t enjoying. I was logging in when I had no real reason to log in and it burned me out. Dawntrail came out and it’s given me hope for the future of the game. It still suffers from the issue of the 2 minute meta that plagued Endwalker, but the fight design is about as night and day of an improvement as you can get. Even dungeon bosses have me engaged, something that was not true at all of Endwalker where everything in the game was like playing a nap. 

The MSQ was really something else as well. For me I found it fantastic, it was something I really wanted from the game and its more emotional beats really connected with me. The final zone had me in tears the whole time and took me multiple sessions to get through just so I could sit with it. It really was something special for me. You take an MSQ I enjoyed with the best combat design since Stormblood and you have an expansion for me that is miles away a better experience than the last one. As much as the community around the game doom posting constantly, please ignore them and jump in because this is honestly the best the game has been in a long time when it comes to actual dungeon and trial design. I went from wondering if this is going to be my last expansion, to extremely excited about the future of the game.

2: Rise of the Ronin

Hey, notice something missing from the top ten this year? That’s right, for the first time since I hopped aboard the Video Game Choo Choo running down the Gamesline tracks, Game of the Generation Nioh 2 is not on my list. The itch has finally been scratched and it feels nice. Does Rise of the Ronin have issues? Yes, it really does, and it all stems from the open world. I enjoy a good open world game, and the challenges in here are fun, but they really do just feel like an afterthought until you unlock Midnight difficulty. I didn’t even know if this game was fully going to make the top 5 until I jumped back into Midnight difficulty that unlocks after you beat the game. Suddenly the open world is exciting, with all the areas suddenly having multiple ranking officers you need to take out, replaced with both Ronin, which are other players characters, and named officers which act like super bosses. Suddenly the open world isn’t a chore, it’s a highlight with incredibly tense and nail biting fights as you strategically try to isolate one of the named characters while you desperately try to take them down. Suddenly that weakness from your initial playthrough becomes the game’s strength as you truly are tested in your knowledge of your weapons and the game’s systems. It feels incredible and it finally scratched that Nioh 2 itch hard enough that the meme has officially been put to rest.

1: Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes

Look, I’m incapable of being subjective here, this is miles away my game of the year, it’s something that truly means everything to me. It’s the final work of a man who really did change my life for the better, and it’s good. Is it the best game in the Suikoden style? No, no it’s not, but it truly does hit all the notes I would want from a game like this. If anything, my only real big complaint is that it plays it far too safe. I never really felt jeopardy for the characters and god were there a lot of them. And shockingly, every line of dialogue is voiced. Normally a game like this would have only the important stuff voiced, but here it’s everything and every character is given enough time and lines of dialogue that you get a feeling for all of them, something I really appreciated. You get just enough to know who they are as a person, but not so much that you’re locked in 100% and can still have enough of the personal interpretation that made Suikoden so special for me as a franchise. When they call this game Hundred Heroes, you can be rest assured of one thing, the title is a complete lie. Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred and Twenty Heroes doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue as well. Overall the flow of the game is really good, with only two missable characters and even then the only reason you can miss them is that you spent no time recruiting and completely ignored the very clear sign that you’re at the point of no return.

The game does pretty much everything I would want from a game like this, I get to delight in one of the better war battle systems I’ve seen in one of these games and the duels, which have been a highlight of Suikoden since the first, continue to shine. I love hearing a line of dialogue and extrapolating what they are going to do to choose the proper counter. I love the fact that it matters again and there also not being as many forced losses also feels a lot better than some Suikoden games where you were forced to lose a significant amount of battles. I felt so much delight watching my town open up and grow, with new shops and areas opening up as I recruited members to fill those spaces. While it’s not my favorite castle and town to watch build up in one of these games, it’s definitely up there and filled a hole that had been missing for a long time for me.

The art and music design in the game absolutely shines with every character being incredibly expressive thanks to the amazing sprite work and portraits from Junko Kawano, and the music from Motoi Sakuraba absolutely kills it, and some of the moments where everything all comes together are truly spectacular. The final war battle is a moment of pure bliss with everything you’ve learned and seen in the game coming together for moment after moment of triumph as you push forward, all seeming lost as the music swells heroically as more and more allies show up to help you push forward, making what seemed insurmountable feel impossible to lose as the theme continues to swell, eventually bringing in the vocals as you make a final push to victory. While I have complaints about the game, they pale in comparison to the emotions I felt when the game really hit, and there were a lot of moments when the game hit and hit hard. I am, to this day, sad that Murayama died before his final work could be released, as I think for those of us who truly did care about his work, he would be happy to see the reactions we had to his goofy crew of misfits trying to save their nation.

The post Lorelai’s Top Games of 2024 appeared first on Gamesline.

We’re back with another episode of the Gamesline Podcast. This week, John and Rose sit down to talk about the week in games. John’s been filling out his Pokédex in Pokémon: Scarlet/Violet when he’s not been playing through Fire Emblem: Engage. Rose has been replaying Monster Hunter World, and digging into Dynasty Warriors: Origins and playing through Lorelai’s Game of the Year last year Witchspring R. She also digs a little deeper into her review of Of the Devil.

In the news, Pokémon TCG Pocket trading is a nightmare and Sony removed a single publisher from their platform in their failed attempt at cleaning up the slop from their storefront. Valve went a little further and reiterated their ban on any game that forces you to watch an ad, and it turns out the ESA announced a new conference starting next year that seems a little bit AAAA focused.

You can support us on our Patreon, and follow us on Social Media @TheGamesline, @Horngal, @Fatamorgana, and @John_Michonski

Also, don’t forget to rate and review us on iTunes, and tell a friend about the show!

If you want to send in questions send them to our ask box at gamesline.tumblr.com/ask.

You can also join our Discord channel at thegamezone.zone!

Our theme song is “Crush” by Melt Channel, from the album Magic is Real.

Edited by Lorelai

The post The Gamesline Podcast Ep. 49: Squanderer, The Ultimate Devil appeared first on Gamesline.

What’s that? A new Episode of the Gamesline Podcast? That’s right, this week John and Lorelai sit down to talk about the most recent news and games they’ve been playing. Lorelai is still living in Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail when she’s not playing Earth Defense Force 6, Coral Island, or the new early access game Fields of Mystria. John’s been playing more Zenless Zone Zero, Granblue Vs. Rising, and Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance.

In the news, they go over everything from the Nintendo Indie World and Partner Showcases with more Capcom fighting game collections, Castlevania DS collections, and the Suikoden remasters actually existing. They also talk about Itsuno leaving Capcom, Marvel Snap not paying Marvel artists, NetEase shutting down the Visions of Mana developer, Guilty Gear Strive getting a switch port and Croc I guess.

You can support us on our Patreon, and follow us on Twitter @TheGamesline, @JudgementScythe, and @John_Michonski.

Also, don’t forget to rate and review us on iTunes, and tell a friend about the show!

If you want to send in questions send them to our ask box at gamesline.tumblr.com/ask.

You can also join our Discord channel at thegamezone.zone!

Our theme song is “Crush” by Melt Channel, from the album Magic is Real.

Edited by Lorelai

The post The Gamesline Podcast Ep. 42: Switching it Up appeared first on Gamesline.

It’s time for a triple pod. This week, John sits down with Lorelai and Scott to talk about the Starfy games coming to switch along with some hot new NES classics. John’s finished Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne, Lorelai’s still playing the hell out of Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail, and Scott regales us with tales of Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree and Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth.

You can support us on our Patreon, and follow us on Twitter @TheGamesline, @JudgementScythe, FKASocks, and @John_Michonski.

Also, don’t forget to rate and review us on iTunes, and tell a friend about the show!

If you want to send in questions send them to our ask box at gamesline.tumblr.com/ask.

You can also join our Discord channel at thegamezone.zone!

Our theme song is “Crush” by Melt Channel, from the album Magic is Real.

Edited by Lorelai

The post The Gamesline Podcast Ep. 41: 3-Sided Starfy appeared first on Gamesline.

A new week a new Podcast. This week John and Lorelai sit down to talk about the new MiHoYo game Zenless Zone Zero, Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne, and of course Lorelai has been losing her life to Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail. In the news, WayForward is porting Sigma Star Saga to modern places, we’re finally getting a Natsu-Mon game outside of Japan, and Uma Musume will let us live our horsegirl dreams in English. Sukeban’s putting out a new game called .45 Parabellum Bloodhound and Dead Rising is getting a promising looking remake.

You can support us on our Patreon, and follow us on Twitter @TheGamesline, @JudgementScythe, and @John_Michonski.

Also, don’t forget to rate and review us on iTunes, and tell a friend about the show!

If you want to send in questions send them to our ask box at gamesline.tumblr.com/ask.

You can also join our Discord channel at thegamezone.zone!

Our theme song is “Crush” by Melt Channel, from the album Magic is Real.

Edited by Lorelai

The post The Gamesline Podcast Ep. 40: Zenless Star Trail appeared first on Gamesline.