Eric Van Allen’s Top 10 Games of 2024

Hello! I’m Eric Van Allen. You might know me as a co-host of Axe of the Blood God, an independent RPG podcast. Or maybe as half of Normandy FM. Maybe even just from seeing me around the internet, appearing like a random battle in the tall grass, just like I’m doing right now on Giant Bomb Dot Com.

This was a good year for RPGs, and a bad year for (gestures around). Media, especially, has been rough, so I want to take a moment to encourage y’all to celebrate the folks that stick around, continuing to deliver the stuff you like to listen to, watch, and read. I guarantee you, they appreciate every nice comment you send.

I’ve been following Giant Bomb since I first started out in games media, and now, it’s pretty stinkin’ cool to actually publish a list here. I’ve always dug reading the top 10s on here and seeing the variety of games, so I hope you find something that strikes your fancy here. Let’s run it down.

10. Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail

I’m a relative newcomer to the popular MMORPG, with a free trial up to level… you know the rest. I started at arguably the worst time possible, using up server space to deliver wine and cheese in A Realm Reborn while long-time fans were trying to finish Endwalker.

Dawntrail was special for a few reasons. It was the first MMO expansion I had ever played at launch; I got to experience the joy of discovery and exploration as I tore through the content with others in real time. It was also the first time I’d ever formed a static and run some of the harder end-game content. Learning the dance of Valigarmanda Extreme was so satisfying, and I got some sick SGE weapons, too.

But as a story, I really did click with Dawntrail. In its first half, it’s essentially a tournament arc; in its latter half, it grapples with mortality, loss, and grief. It hit at a prime time for me, and I really enjoyed my own story pulling back a bit so characters like Wuk Lamat, Koana, and Krile could step forward. For all those reasons, plus dozens of hours hunting for those last Triple Triad cards I need, FFXIV was a constant for me in 2024.

9. Tekken 8

Tekken is great, and with its seventh entry, stood at the top of the fighting game world for years. It was a relief when Tekken 8 came out and was still just as good.

I spent hours in the lab this year, toiling away, learning a character and playing matches online. When I was falling asleep or commuting, I’d be running through button sequences for Reina combos in my head. I’d watch competitions, high-level VODs, anything I could glean new information from. Tekken 8 had me in its clutches for the first half of this year.

Fighting games are at their best when they instill a drive to improve. Not to win, necessarily, but to be better than you were the day before. Learning Tekken 8 helped me appreciate the long journeys and time spent to learn a craft, and it gave me some pretty good results. (Don’t try me now though, my Reina is a little rusty.)

8. Helldivers II

I had a soft spot in my heart for the first Helldivers, but the sequel took everything good about that game and cranked it up to 11. The perspective shift and refreshed graphics are spectacular, sure, but changing the camera didn’t just alter the way the game handles. It emphasized the chaos and carnage of Helldivers in a new, incredible way.

Giant storms and blizzards rolling through areas. Swarms of bugs crawling out of nests, burrowing out of holes, threatening to overwhelm your squad in seconds. The sight of lasers firing through smoke, sweeping across the battlefield as my Helldiver leaps for cover. The visual language of Helldivers 2 is unbridled chaos, perfectly matching its gameplay, and I love it.

I had fallen off for a while, and this almost missed making my list, but the new Illuminate threat roped me back in and reminded me why I dug this game so much in the first place. I really hope Arrowhead gets some room to run on this one, as it’s certainly a game I’ll want to keep coming back to.

7. Balatro

Honestly, who didn’t lose hours upon hours to Balatro this year? Localthunk’s roguish take on video poker is clean and understandable, yet deep and expansive, playing with all the different possible variables a game of poker could contain. Odds and evens, suits and flushes, even modifying cards by changing their texture and face. It’s brilliant.

I really don’t know what else I could even say about Balatro. It’s elegant to play, and compelling to watch others play. Balatro is not just something I played a lot this year. It’s something I see myself playing again and again, years from now, the way I play Slay the Spire or even solitaire.

6. Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club

Playing Emio in 2024 feels a bit like a window through time. It has all the mechanics and interactions of the classic Famicom Detective Club games. You prod interviewees for answers, move from location to location, and read through lines and lines of dialogue. While it has a modern look, Emio plays like an older game.

But it’s that approach that made Emio – The Smiling Man so compelling for me. It’s a slow-burn mystery about a town rocked by a murder case, drenched in folklore and local legends. There’s interpersonal drama and stories behind every nervous shift in someone’s seat. Emio is a game about the places we live, the people in them, and the tales that carry over and repeat themselves, generation after generation. It’s not a game for everyone, but if you’ve craved a good slow-burn detective story that feels like it tunneled from 1988 to 2024, this is it.

5. Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

After 80 or 90 hours of Elden Ring in 2022, I wondered how FromSoftware would manage to build upon the Lands Between. Sure, the studio’s DLC has always been consistently solid, but where would Erdtree even go within the massive world of Elden Ring?

The world and story Shadow of the Erdtree crafts wound up being something totally new, fresh, and exciting. A new power scaling system, tons of new weapons, more summons, and fights that pushed a lot of Elden Ring players even further than the base game. It was certainly a challenge, something I struggled with a bit.

But the other side of the tree won me over with its gorgeous vistas, unearthly sights, and compelling tales. The main cast of the DLC, essentially a Band of the Hawk-esque troupe caught up chasing their lord Miquella, are poised for beautiful, heartbreaking failures. Shadow of the Erdtree put a nice bow on Elden Ring, and I can’t imagine what else FromSoft could- (puts fingers to earpiece) Wait, what? What do you mean, “Nightreign?”

4. Unicorn Overlord

Vanillaware’s games always seem to target me, specifically, from 13 Sentinels to Odin Sphere. Unicorn Overlord is maybe the most targeted I have felt: a strategy RPG mixing real-time troop movements with clockwork squad-based tactics, running on an if-then system akin to Final Fantasy XII’s Gambit system.

Each squad felt like a little concentrated auto-battler build. Every battle throws new concerns and threats at me, encouraging me to find new ways to make use of the army I’d built. Some of the biggest, grandest battles in this game hit some supreme strategic highs. And it’s Vanillaware, so the art is absolutely gorgeous, from the spectacular character models to the delicious food served at taverns.

Unicorn Overlord was a game guaranteed to catch my attention, and it managed to hold it for hours and hours upon end.

3. Mouthwashing

Every year, there’s usually at least one game I think everyone, no matter what their genre preferences or histories are, should experience. For 2024, Mouthwashing is that game. A short-form sci-fi horror story from Wrong Organ, Mouthwashing is brutal, memorable, and in my opinion, essential.

The story Wrong Organ crafts isn’t filled with jump-scares or your typical monsters, but dread and anguish as the crew of a space freighter finds themselves stranded in the infinite void. Days blend and meld together, past and present colliding to show you what went wrong and where.

But, as I talk about in my review for the excellent But Why Tho?, Mouthwashing also paints an unsettling picture of real issues. It forces the player to grapple with the realities of harm and questions of complicity, amid a mouthwash-fue