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by Marino – Brad Lynch on December 27, 2024After performing live at PAX West and working on Celeste 64, Beastieball, and Minecraft’s Tricky Trials this year, composer Lena Raine has returned to share her favorite games.
Well hi there! This is Lena. It’s been a while since I’ve had the pleasure of gracing Giant Bomb with my opinions on video games, but I’m back baby. As a bit of self-introduction, this year I’ve been responsible for doing music for a silly little game jam called Celeste 64, a new update for Minecraft called Tricky Trials, and a delightful monster sports game in early access called Beastieball. What did I like playing this year? Well, dear reader, read on:
A Couple Misc ThingsBefore my top 10, though, I wanted to write a few shout-outs since there were a few games that I really enjoyed this year that didn’t quite make my big list for an assortment of reasons.
Umineko When They CryThis year was the one I finally got over the intimidation factor of iconic visual novel Umineko’s daunting word count & really dug into it, fully immersing myself in the tale of the golden witch for 2 solid months at the start of the year. It’s an incredible, iconic work that will change how I read & write stories forever. The soundtrack made me cry on multiple occasions, and the characters will stick with me for the rest of my life. It really is that good.
MOTHEREDOne of the neat games that released this year was [ECHOSTASIS], an absolute trip of a game exploring a cyber world inside the brainscape of various AIs. While I bounced a bit off the first version of the game (an update has since released that changes how its gameplay functions in a way that might get me to pick it back up), I did end up playing through both of the previous games in its loosely-collected trilogy. The first game, THE ENIGMA ENGINE (2018), was a really sick first draft of the ideas at place in both following games and introduces the story and world. MOTHERED (2021), the 2nd, was the one that I really dug into. Presented as a role-playing horror game, it shifts perspectives to a gothic horror drama that elaborates its themes in an amazingly chilling way. Definitely recommend checking these three out!
Yu-Gi-Oh (Duel Links)2024 was also the year that I began to believe in the heart of the cards. My good friend & fellow Beastieball developer Harlow gave me a talking-to one day that I was playing the new Pokémon TCG app when I could be downloading Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links and experiencing all of…that. Anyway I dug in and made a Trickstar deck I really enjoyed playing, and ended up beating her Harpy deck (after many many defeats). Which obviously shows that I know what I’m doing now. A lot of the Yu-Gi-Oh meta is extremely silly and involves many decks that have turn-one wins BUT WHO CARES. It’s got Pot of Greed. It’s got Trickstar Band Sweet Guitar (my current favorite card). It’s got it all. It’s got XYZ Summons. What are XYZ Summons? I DON’T KNOW. PLEASE STOP USING THEM ON ME. I CAN ONLY HOLD SO MUCH KNOWLEDGE IN MY SMALL BRAIN AS IT IS.
WarframeI was one of the first Warframe players back in 2013, which I remember because the “wauuguhh” sounds of the Grineer enemies are permanently stuck in my head as some of the best silly guy death sounds of all time. I only picked it back up a couple times since then, but ever since the release of their 1999 update, I got intrigued, and needed to pick it back up… I’ve gotten a small group of friends together to play, and I’m really excited to get caught up on the wild assortment of experiences it has to offer.
Okay Now It’s The Top 10
10. Elden Ring: Shadow of the ErdtreeIt’s really hard for me to stay angry at Elden Ring’s first and only bit of DLC when I went into it feeling so overjoyed at having new content in a game I already played for like 200 hours only to run up against some of the most difficult brick walls in the history of FromSoftware’s lineup. That I still include it here despite not finishing its exceptionally punishing final boss is a bit of a testament to how much I loved it overall. I played so much of its original release, and became a bit infatuated with the lore prospect of Miquela & St. Trina, so when I found out that the DLC would feature them significantly, I knew what kind of life sink I was in for. And I was not really disappointed on the whole! I had some incredible adventures, especially digging into the side area where St. Trina featured prominently. And the final boss LOOKS incredible, SOUNDS amazing. It’s just…hoo boy that difficulty spike. I ended up watching my wife summon the infamous Let Me Solo Her (now Them, by context) and saw the spectacle of the most difficult content being trivialized by solid network play. I saw the ending, for whatever you can constitute an ending for an optional DLC, and so I considered the thing fully closed out on. I had a great time. But I’m still a teensy bit angry.
09. Unicorn OverlordA victim of gradually diminishing free time over the course of this year. I want to go back to it and finish it up, but for what it’s worth, the time I spent with UO was just exceptional. I adore everything about how the game looks, sounds and plays. Maybe the overall story isn’t quite as bombastic as I’d like, especially after the highs of 13 Sentinels, but it still gives me some extremely fun times and some delightful characters to pair up in squads together.
08. Final Fantasy VII RebirthIncluding most AAA games in this sort of year’s retrospective seems fairly poisoned by an explanation of what annoying bit of design glut I had to get over to fully enjoy the game. In Rebirth’s case, it was the constant assault of mini-games that come even more rapid-fire than Remake part 1 and with a way smaller hit rate. It’s not that I don’t enjoy mini-games (I adore Queen’s Blood, and will gratefully play every match of it to hear more of the big band jazz that adorns its gameplay segments), but the inclusion of mini-games that become difficult is something I really can’t stand in a game already brimming with core content. Mini-games are meant to be fun, right? They’re a little vacation from the main gameplay loops. They aren’t the game. So when you lock side-stories and important content behind completely different games that require you to master them it’s just…. hough! The game’s long enough as it is! Anyway, I really enjoyed the main parts of Rebirth. Getting to know the remake version of Nanaki is delightful, and we had a very cute date at the golden saucer (so Tifa & Aerith can have one to themselves, in my head canon). Cait Sith is delightful and did nothing wrong. The way certain events play out in regards to expectations from the original FF7 is also very interesting. Without spoiling it outright in my list here, I am very very interested in seeing where they go with it into the big finale.
07. Snezhinka: Sentinel Girls 2Okay it’s time for indie games (mostly). Snezhinka is technically a sequel to 2021’s Marfusha, but in many ways it feels like a refinement of what the original game started. Since it’s a bit of an obscure game, the best way I can describe it is that it’s a fast-paced micro tower defense where there’s one tower and it’s you (or 2, if you team up with a CPU-controlled companion). Is it bullet heaven?? It might actually be bullet heaven. But, well it’s different okay. Wave after wave of enemies storm the wall in “days” that are more like seconds in how quickly the waves come & get defeated. Rapid-fire, the days will pass by, and each day you’ll get a paycheck with comical deductions for all sorts of taxes and required payments in this totalitarian regime you work for as a PMC soldier. You spend the slow trickle of income on new weapons, companions, defensive gadgets, etc., all in the continued pursuit of your sister (the protagonist of the 1st game). Occasionally, you’ll retreat back to home base to recuperate and talk with your companions to build out their story. You can do 1 minimal task to up a stat before going to sleep and heading back out for more and more days defending the wall. The way in which the game uses this hypnotic routine to show you its world, develop its characters and change its stakes across multiple endings is really fascinating. It draws me in every time I think I’m just gonna do a few waves to unwind. A bit of a stealth attack on my attention and one that has stuck with me for most of the year.
06. Arknights (Again)Okay look Arknights released almost 5 years ago, but it continues to bear fruit as the only gacha game I have ever played that feels worth it. Across 2024, a ton of new event stories and modes have dropped that pulled me back in and got me playing regularly. Between the rerun of Lone Trail which originally ran on global servers at the end of 2023, and the latest event Path of Life (not to mention the finale of Act II which I have sadly not gotten to yet), the game continues to fire on all cylinders when it comes to a fascinating story that focuses on its characters and not just lofty world-building. And between the existing roguelike modes and newly added long-form resource manager mode, there’s so much to dig into that is simply not tied to any form of gacha or energy-driven limitations. It’s just straight up a great game, one that perhaps has a ton of barriers of entry, but one that I still love playing and getting caught up in.
05. BeastieballIn past years, I’ve forbidden myself from including games that I worked on primarily because of how closely tied their gameplay is to the emotional experience that I lay out in my score. But Beastieball is a whole different animal (lol). It’s a game that was already extremely good well before I put my first note into the score. I adore working with developer Greg Lobanov & Wishes Unlimited because, in my extremely biased opinion, he makes some of the smartest design decisions that run counter to the expectations in an industry overflowing with things that feel too homogenized, too also-ran. Beastieball is a game I’ve always wanted to exist, and the fact that I get to write silly music for it is just the cherry on top. I played by far the most of this game over the course of 2024, not just because I had to write music for it, but because I legitimately love playing it. The beasties are adorable, the sports matches are super satisfying, and the writing is some of Greg’s best. It’s in early access, but it’s still great, and I can’t wait for us to finish it up so more ppl will check it out.
04. Picayune DreamsI had not quite gotten bit by the “bullet heaven” sub-genre despite my love of shmups and bullet hells. I did really enjoy playing a bit of Vampire Survivors when it came out, but it all just sorta… I dunno, blended together for me into a big wash of time spent watching number get big & sometimes I get a run where everything explodes real nice. Picayune, on the other hand, has a fascinating direction: a weird story to dissect. RPG Maker style exploration scenes that accompany your first playthrough. A cast of bosses that you learn more and more about as you progress. Extremely sick drum and bass breakcore music. Really crunchy pre-rendered sprite designs. Abilities that not only customize your little weirdo but sink into my squishy aesthetic center so firmly. It’s hard to put it down, and each run you learn how more weapons can chain into each other & tackle the increasing difficulties and weird glitches… The bullet heaven finally got me, if only for this game. It’s so good.
03. MouthwashingThis is going to hurt. At least, that’s how the game opens. And, well, it does. Absolutely devastating bite-sized game filled with character. While there are moments that pay homage to the same sort of inspirations as a previous year’s fave, Signalis, Mouthwashing still brings enough of its own style to bear when it comes to some of its most poignant moments. There’s one that’ll stick with me for a long time that features a monologue by character Swansea cut in silhouette against a montage of stock footage and a gorgeous score moment by composer Martin Halldin. While the game is only a handful of hours, it punches extremely hard for its short runtime.
02. Nine SolsIt’s really speaking to the strength of my number 1 pick that Nine Sols didn’t totally dominate my list ranking this year. It’s one of the most perfectly-designed action games I’ve played in years, with an accessible difficulty adjustment & plenty of build options designed around getting you to make sure you can play through its story… Because that’s where the meat is: the ramifications of why you’re doing this, your main character’s background and his relationship to the world and bosses you end up fighting against. It’s a game that has so much of Taiwanese developer Red Candle’s history baked in and celebrated, but also interrogated in its sci-fi world-building. The music especially feels like a celebration of a music that isn’t as commonly represented in games, and I really wish it was more widely celebrated for the accomplishment it is in being an incredible cyberpunk (taopunk, as labeled by the developers) score that takes inspiration from the greats, but infuses it with exactly enough of its composers’ unique aesthetics to stand out amidst literally everything released this year.
01. 1000xResistWhat a brilliant game. It couldn’t be anything else but a game, and yet it’s one of the finest works of science fiction we’ve had in a long time. I already wrote an entire blog about my favorite of this year, so I’m going to quote some of it here. If you want to read the full thing, screenshots and all, it’s over here.
It’s something, much like other big favorites of mine (13 Sentinels, The House in Fata Morgana), where the less you know going into it, the better. Let it surprise you and take you on the journey. Talk to everyone, remember everything, and don’t stop thinking.
When we reach the finale, I’m struck with the uncomfortable feeling that my memory of the game has served as its biggest message. Every little saying, repeated over and over again, begins to rise to the surface. It is meticulous writing, the kind that a writer gets envious of, because every little detail matters. Every little thing feels so wholly knit into the tapestry of the game and its characters. And it’s in the memory of these things that the game communicates to you. It’s sentiment, and imagery, and ritual.
The way the story is told should be studied. The careful layering of knowledge, the shifts in perspective and how we experience these moments. It’s things we have had moments of elsewhere, but nowhere has it come to a head quite like this. The game isn’t burdened with designing combat encounters, or even much conventional animation. It uses its budget to its favor, providing still poses that become animation when shown in sequence. Whether it’s panning up the stairs to show a rush of movement, or displaying multiple images of a character while the camera rushes forward, or allowing you to advance a tragic moment frame by frame using its own mechanics of time shifting. The strengths are in its restraint and in its independent storytelling. It is honest, and brittle, and deeply personal. No one else could have made this.
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