silver-crescent

Funnily enough I actually own the three games in the banner (Beyond Galaxyland, Crypt Custodian and Inkulinati), and none of the others. All very cool games, and Bloomtown and El Shaddai are both on my wishlist too, loved playing the original version of the latter back on the PS3.

Some cool hidden gems which I don't think were even mentioned on Nintendo Life at all are Dungeon Drafters (Mystery Dungeon-like), Alina of the Arena (movement-based deckbuilder), Between Horizons (sci-fi mystery narrative adventure), Tavern Talk (kinda like Coffee Talk, but make it classic fantasy), Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles (dice-based deckbuilder) and Sagres (old-school nautical adventure).

The Eiyuden Chronicle Switch performance issues have been almost entirely been fixed by now, so that's worth keeping in mind. My personal GOTY for sure, absolute classic JRPG excellence. The latest Shiren game should really be on the list, but I suppose not enough people have scored it, easily the best Mystery Dungeon game ever made and one of the very best roguelites ever. In terms of indies, Balatro isn't the only card game worth a mention, Dicefolk and Shogun Showdown are both also top notch.

@SlowPokemon That game hadn't really grabbed my attent from what little I'd seen of it, but after seeing it compared to Obra Dinn and reading a bit about it it looks pretty fantastic, guess that'll be my next purchase.

Mainly Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island which has become a late 2024 favourite, sadly too late to appear in my Year In Review. Quite possibly the best Mystery Dungeon game ever. Also playing Mario Party: Jamboree, which is a blast, making my way through the second Voice of Cards, which is excellent just like the first, and playing a couple of fun roguelites, Shogun Showdown and Peglin.

I like both the Ys and Trails series but genuinely had no idea this existed.

Randomly enough my most played game was actually SaGa Scarlet Grace: Ambitions. I had already played it on the PS4 a few years ago, but since I'd only gone through one of the four character routes I thought I'd grab it in preparation for the new SaGa game (Emerald Beyond), and lo and behold I ended up getting totally hooked on it, and actually am still not quite finished, currently on my fourth and final playthrough. Goes without saying I haven't actually started Emerald Beyond, or Romancing SaGa either, yet, I imagine those will appear on my 2025 list. My most played game actually released in 2024 (and second overall) was Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, which for anyone still on the fence due to the buggy launch, has been extensively patched and plays great on the Switch now, and is easily one of the very best JRPGs I've played in years. My #3 was Darkest Dungeon II, an excellent sequel to one of the best roguelites ever (I actually replayed the original this year and it also made my top), and I game I imagine I'll also spend quite a bit of time on in 2025 with the upcoming new content.

Wacky World of Sports actually seemed potential fun, a shame it turned out the way it.

Nice, I was waiting for this patch before starting the game, so looks like I'll be doing that today.

The excellent Bug Fables is also on sale for practically just 10€, so if you haven't played that yet please don't sleep on one of the best indie RPGs (and indie games in general) ever made. I grabbed both that and Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon, a pair of games I loved playing on the PS4 a few years ago and which seemed perfect for a replay on the Switch.

Absolutely not! We've gotten some of the best games of recent years thanks to this and I'm sure there's plenty morre to look forward to in the future. I like how the votes are more or less evenly split between the five games too, goes to show how great they all are.

Damn, I missed the "not" before "confirmed" in the title at first. Still, Moonlighter is great and it getting a sequel is a very pleasant surprise. Bring in the Switch 2 version.

This looks really cute/fun, and being free (or, well, if not free then I can't imagine the Switch version being particularly pricey) makes it even better.

I've always wanted to give this series a shot so this is nice. Does it make more sense to start with the first one or is jumping straight into the sequel fine?

Loco Motive for me, and as for the games that weren't reviewed I actually can't think of any this month. I think it's a real shame these polls are being removed next year by the way, they're quite fun.

I'm very much looking forward to Fantasian. I think that's the only December release I'll be getting, unless something else unexpectedly grabs my attention.

I'm making my way through both Dragon Quest III 2D-HD and the updated version of Sea of Stars, and also been hooked on Loop Hero after grabbing it on sale a few days ago and that's probably what I'll actually be spending the most time on. Also probably a little bit of some other games like Coffee Talk: Episode 2 and the first Shiren The Wanderer game on the Switch, which I want to beat before starting the newest one, which looks much more interesting.

Genuinely one of my biggest hopes for the Switch 2 eShop is this kind of crap being dealt with, it's actually insane how flooded the eShop is with games like these.

Nice to know the first review is quite positive. Really looking forward to this one, it's not quite the same but it looks like it'll really scratch that Bravely Default-y "modernised classic turn-based JRPG" itch.

I grabbed this one yesterday along with a few Black Friday deals (this being 10% off I guess it kinda counts as one too). It really looks super fun.

Oh this is one one the best indie games ever to me, and I'd been debating for a while whether to buy it for the Switch even though I already played it on the PS4. I guess this update is the excuse I needed to do that and do another playthrough.

This looks very promising and is going on my wishlist, but it does feel like a bit of a wasted opportunity not to port the first one to the Switch to go along with it.

Nothing here for me as I pretty much already have all I'm interested in, but I think I'll grab the latest Shiren game, which finally got a nice price cut, and maybe also Natsu-Mon and Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus.

Never heard of this before but it does look quite cool, kinda like a third-persion version of Paradise Killer (minus the murder).

This game never quite clicked for me, guess this is the perfect opportunity to give it another shot. On one hand I'm actually happy I haven't spent more than a few short hours on it, or starting from scratch to see the new stuff might have been a bit annoying.

Annoying how the US seems to get much better rewards than Europe. We didn't get the Echoes if Wisdom bag and all we got for Brothership were some plain black Mario/Luigi-shaped pins.

Well, for once I haven't played any of these games. Shin Chan is the one I'm planning on getting eventually though. As for missed games it's easily the excellent Wildermyth, which I'm so glad to finally be able to play that game on console. By the way, that game actually appears twice in the database, both as Wildermyth and Wildermyth (Console Version), I imagine that's not supposed to happen.

I don't even quite recall what I was doing in the game when I stopped playing it all those months ago thinking I'd continue in a couple weeks when the patch dropped, not sure I'll manage to get back into the game at this point... but better late than never I guess.

This was actually one of the first games I ever played, and while I'm not sure it really was all that special, a remaster does pique my curiosity a bit.

I might grab the Dominus Collection. I've never actually played any 2D Castlevanias despite loving Metroidvanias, and while the games in the older collections look a bit too old-school, these do seem pretty enjoyable.

I love how they keep adding more stuff to this game, I haven't played it in a while but I guess this patch will have me... diving... back into it.

A new Rayman game is definitely something to look forward to but this supposedly being a remake of the first one rather than something brand new is a bit ehh

I thought this article was going to be about a Buzz-style trivia game at first, hah. There actually was one literally about pop music back in the day. Anyway Raye is great! Her dog being called Yoshi is really cute, I didn't know that.

I've been curious about A Little To The Left and Cursed To Golf for a while, guess I'll be giving those a shot.

Oh this looks quite good and I like the whole base building aspect, definitely going on the wishlist.

These lists are always interesting, though unfortunately I didn't get around to submitting anything, but oh well, there's always next time.

Out of the games listed I've only played stitch., which is just great and has also become one of the most played games of the year for me. Arco and Peglin are both on the wishlist, and Lotus Reverie and The Land Beneath Us both seem interesting as well.

I hadn't heard of this but a mix between Vampire Survivors, Slay The Spire and Paper Mario seems like a very cool idea. Might give it a shot, especially considering it's quite cheap.

Well that's a bummer, I was looking forward to this one. Guess I'll wait for a while and see if the biggest issues get fixed and maybe grab it on sale a few months down the line.

Sorry if it's already been mentioned but what's the deadline for the recommendations? I'd like to send one or two but would like to know that first.

I'm surprised Beyond Galaxyland didn't make the top 3, definitely the month's #1 for me. Bloomtown does look great as well, but haven't tried that one yet, and same goes for Ace Attorney Investigatios and Shogun Showdown.

In terms of missed games I'm surprised Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles hasn't been mentioned on this site at all given it's one of the most most acclaimed deckbuilders of recent times and the Switch release had been a long time coming. Between Horizons is another good one, a great narrative game.

Sky Oceans: Wings For Hire is October's must buy for me, been looking forward to that one for a while. Also have my eye on Mark of the Deep.

@DripDropCop146 That's very true and there are many fantastic games which really aren't very original at all so it's not really that big of a deal. I mainly said that because going by the title and Pirate theme I was expecting a bit of a different flavour, not something that kind of feels like Curse of the Dead Gods with a different coat of paint. But it's fine, the game still looks fun for sure.

First time hearing about this one, it looks pretty cool (even if not particularly original), will be keeping an eye on it.

The headline had me thinking this game was on the way out which seemed kinda shocking, but it being these particular countries makes sense I guess.

I already bought three September indies, Between Horizons, Beyond Galaxyland and Astrea: Six Sided Oracles (I'm surprised this one hasn't been mentioned in this site at all by the way), as well as a couple older ones on sale, and while this looks cool I was thinking of leaving for later, but honestly this review really sold it for me, so maybe there's room for one more.

"you play as the only animal in what is otherwise a location populated by humans"

So it's basically reverse Animal Crossing. Human Crossing?

I'm very excited for this but I just saw the 60€ price tag, and really? Does the game really improve on the original that much to justify that price? I'd assumed it'd be like half of that.

I thought I'd read the whole game would be playable with normal controls (as opposed to motion ones)? A bit disappointing if that ends up not being the case, even if the game still looks very fun.

Happy to see this is as good as it looks! Very much looking forward to diving in later today.

Sea of Stars-inspired, really? Why not just say it's inspired by the same games Sea of Stars was...

I really wish they'd gone with a different art style for this because sadly it does look quite ugly, even if the idea of the game is very appealing.