RPGHQ 2024 BEST RPG AWARD

[Finarfin]

Since @Oyster Sauce was sad, I thought I actually make one. Problem is, other HQers played more unique/indie/niche rpgs so this might only reflect more normie RPGs.

[Nooneatall]

Of the games I played on this list none were goty

[Valter]

You played Metaphor but not Persona 3 Reload?

[Finarfin]

You played Metaphor but not Persona 3 Reload?

I think it's in game pass and I also got the expansion pass gifted so I might actually play it, but I didn't include it due to it being a remake. I try to not include addons or remakes unlike some ****** award show.

[Tangerine]

I haven't played any of this, but I voted for Visions of Mana because it's the underdog.

[Valter]

Downloading Granblue Fantasy Relink right now so I have something to vote for (this was an uninteresting year)

[Finarfin]

Downloading Granblue Fantasy Relink right now so I have something to vote for (this was an uninteresting year)

If you play on PC, you can add me on steam. The code is in my signature.

[logincrash]

I was gonna vote for Veilguard as a joke but it's not even on this list.

[Valter]

Oh Last Epoch did leave early access this year. Last Epoch it is.

[Tweed]

I didn't play any of this ****.

[Vergil]

The only one of these I've played for more than 10 minutes is FFVII remake integrade revelations resurrection special edition HD and I don't even think I got to the part of the game that's actually from this year.

[J1M]

I thought we agreed to vote for a year prior so the votes would have the benefit of hindsight.

[Jordy]

The only one of these I've played for more than 10 minutes is FFVII remake integrade revelations resurrection special edition HD and I don't even think I got to the part of the game that's actually from this year.

Rumours about your demise have been greatly exaggerated.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I voted for Granblue Fantasy Relink. Held my interest for 300 hours. Good aesthetics, good soundtrack, serviceable adventure story, was fun beating the boss fights. Hope a sequel comes out soon.

The runnerups would be Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail and World of Warcraft: The War Within, but they both had problems.




Dawntrail's long visual novel story was often devoid of tension and had a lot of boring, repetitive soliloquies, and the cast is overall the same boring pleasant personalities and scholar types. Once again there is really wonky messaging in the last act, where the protagonists do whatever they hell they want because apparently being a protagonist automatically makes you right. The English dub was overall above average, but the main heroine being voiced by a man really harmed the experience. The dungeon boss battles were more engaging than usual and required you to anticipate what was going to happen next rather than just waiting for the AoE telegraph to appear. The new Viper class has spectacular blue super sayian animations where you are dashing around, but otherwise combat remains boring and stale as usual. The new land Tural has some novel aesthetics, but the worldbuilding is very shallow compared to ARR. The main story was overall fun enough to finish, but the expac doesn't have much going for it outside of that. The Arcadion 8 man raid story was neat but you're done with that in an hour. The five rolequestline sidequests were nothing to write home about. Regular sidequests are almost all forgettable. And that is pretty much all of the Dawntrail content out ATM. Soundtrack was decent but has the usual issues with repetitive melodies. Gets stale to listen to much more quickly compared to other annual release game franchise OSTs like Trails or Atelier.




The War Within has more entertaining combat, and is more fun to fly through its world. The main story also had more entertaining gameplay sections than Dawntrail, though sadly the difficulty is very easy and unengaging outside of the raid. I always wanted an underground expansion, but you only get four zones total in TWW, with only three of them being underground. Lots of zone material was squandered. Hallowfall looks gorgeous, but was not as big as I had hoped it would be. Not fond of the Earthen aesthetics. The expansion has a lot of really obnoxious feminist and rebellious messaging. The cutscene writing and music continues to be awful. The villain is aggravating, not in a good way that makes you want to take her down but makes you want to turn off of the game and play something else. The story has an unsatisfying non-ending; Dawntrail's story was lackluster but at least you get the satisfaction of having gotten a complete story, and with the prior WoW expansion Dragonflight at least the base game ends with you killing the evil lightning dragon you saw at the beginning, but TWW ends with you not killing the big bad and instead killing some random fodder villain who comes at the end and who you don't care about. The hero talents were overall a wash, nowhere near as transformative as GW2's Elite Specializations. Only a handful of hero talent specs get anything vaguely cool or notable likeable summoning the Four Horseman or summoning a Pitlord or Deathbringer's double scythe attack. Most hero talents are lame or unnoticeable. Once you beat the story and the raid, TWW like Dawntrail hardly any longevity, any reason to stick around. Soundtrack is an improvement from Dragonflight's but still overall not as enjoyable to listen to as a JRPG OST.




I suppose Kuro no Kiseki aka Trails Through Daybreak got an official localization release this year. I played with the fan translation last year. I liked the higher fidelity visuals. Pleasant characters, but the main cast of playables were overall boring and I wish the game had been about the NPCs instead. The setting of Calvard is very disappointing compared to Erebonia, and is boring and sterile. Story is once again an overall waste of time as you futilely chase cartoon villains around and accomplish nothing. Aggravating globalist agenda messaging, very surprising to see the woke agenda in a Japanese RPG. Wonder who is telling them that their customers want this. Combat is sadly very easy and boring, even on nightmare difficulty. Soundtrack is overall okay. The game had performance issues during S-craft animations even with a 3080 Ti, don't know if those got fixed.

So for 2024 games, I would say Granblue Fantasy Relink >>> Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail > Kuro no Kiseki/Trails through Daybreak > World of Warcraft: The War Within

[Roderick]

Rough year.

[MC_Sea]

I was originally going to vote for Granblue Fantasy Relink or Unicorn Overlord but then I remembered the censorship of outfits and the terrible localisation that was done for both of them. It's a real shame too since both of them are great games besides that nonsense.

In the end, I decided to choose Felvidek because it manages to have an interesting story, visual style, and unique combat without overstaying its welcome. It really does deserve more attention than it is currently getting.
The Last Epoch and Stellar Blade were a close 2nd and 3rd. I haven't heard of King Arthur: Legion IX until now so I have no thoughts on it although the trailers do make it look interesting.

As for the rest of the list, I ignored it due to being made by pozzed developers like Square Enix, Atlus, Sega, and Capcom.

[rusty_shackleford]

Swordhaven

[Finarfin]

Swordhaven

early access

[Valter]

I've had my eye on the Romancing Saga 2 remake, looks kinda like DQ11. Too late now I guess

[rusty_shackleford]

Swordhaven

early access

Yeah but it's still better than anything listed.

[J1M]

Needs a "nope" option.

[Nooneatall]

I hate video games

[GhostCow]

Infinite Wealth is the only game on this list that even looked appealing to me. I enjoyed it plenty too. I was originally interested in Visions of Mana, but I heard it's a downgrade from Trails of Mana, so I didn't bother with it

[1998]

Only played Legion IX from that list, sooo..

Dread Delusion my RPG of the year (obviously very weak year)

[Cipher]

I've had my eye on the Romancing Saga 2 remake, looks kinda like DQ11. Too late now I guess

It's awesome. It's a true remake, made with passion and respect for the fans, the series and the original Romancing SaGa 2.

If you like Romancing SaGa games or are a fan of the original, its a must buy in my humble opinion. If you like SaGa games in general, I would still recommend it 100%.

[Valter]

I've had my eye on the Romancing Saga 2 remake, looks kinda like DQ11. Too late now I guess

It's awesome. It's a true remake, made with passion and respect for the fans, the series and the original Romancing SaGa 2.

If you like Romancing SaGa games or are a fan of the original, its a must buy in my humble opinion. If you like SaGa games in general, I would still recommend it 100%.

That's cool to hear about from a fan of the series. I've never played a Romancing Saga game before and it also looks great.

[Tinky Winky]

Didn't play any of this ****, hell, I don't even recognize any of these. Although I haven't played anything released this year other than Stalker 2 (****) and Drova

[Oyster Sauce]

Two Worlds

[Oyster Sauce]

Two Worlds

► Show Spoiler

Elder Legacy

[Unhelpful Contrarian]

Stellar Blade for me which is a sad indictment of the state of the industry.