Mike Minotti Believes That 2024 Was The Year Of JRPGs | Winter Spectacular 2024
Last year was a monumentally good year for gaming. Going into 2024, I didn’t think it could come close. But then JRPGs came and saved the day.
It started early in the year with Persona 3 Reload, an excellent remake of the PS2 classic that has helped modernise the original without losing its spirit. This is now my first recommendation for anyone looking to get into the series. I hope that Persona 4 gets the same treatment soon.
And then it wasn’t too long until we got Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. I love this game. It’s the closest we’ve ever gotten to a triple-A JRPG matching the gameplay scope of the genre’s heyday in the ‘90s. You have a large world that you can explore and a plethora of silly side activities. I’m not sure we’re ever going to get a single-player Final Fantasy game of this size again.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door was another excellent remake this year. I always held the GameCube original in high regard, and I still had an amazing time playing this Switch version. This Mario adventure holds up wonderfully, and it might be his best RPG outing. It also has one of the best casts of any Mario game ever. Shoutouts to Vivian!
October gave us Metaphor ReFantazio, another Atlus joint. This is one of the finest games that the genre has ever produced. It features Atlus’s usual slick aesthetics with one of its most touching stories. And this is another JRPG with an incredible group of characters, especially Heismay.
I played one more big JPRG remake that came out in 2024: Dragon Quest III HD-2D. I actually just finished it the other night. This is, in many ways, the pinnacle of what you want from a classic JRPG. It emphasises exploration in a large overworld, battling through twisty dungeons, and a challenging experience that encourages you to do a bit of grinding. That might make some flee, but I love spending a few extra hours piling on the experience points. That’s what cozy gaming is for me.
It probably sounds like I spent most of 2024 playing JRPGs, and I sort of did! But even I didn’t get to everything. I missed Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth completely, and I feel kind of bad about it. Someday I’m going to have to catch up on that whole series.
But, yeah, what a great year for JRPGs! I don’t know if they helped make 2024 a better year for games than 2023, but they helped make things more competitive than they had any right being.
