There's no getting around it: I played many fewer games in 2024 than I played in the last several years. I also spent less time with the games I played in 2024 than I played in recent years.
Still, I put enough hours into enough games to have had a pretty great time in 2024.
Which game captured the most of my free time in 2024? That would be SaGa Emerald Beyond, which I played for just over 122 hours. This is the first time I've spent over 100 hours with a game in a single year since 2018.
- SaGa Emerald Beyond -- 122 hours, 05 minutes
- Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! -- 38 hours, 35 minutes
- Pokémon Violet -- 37 hours, 50 minutes
- Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island -- 33 hours, 45 minutes
- Endless Ocean Luminous — 16 hours, 40 minutes
- Emio — The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club — 10 hours, 45 minutes
- Another Code: Recollection (R) -- 8 hours, 35 minutes
- Another Code: Recollection (Two Memories) -- 8 hours, 15 minutes
- Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid — 6 hours
- Princess Peach Showtime! -- 5 hours, 25 minutes
- Pocket Card Jockey -- 4 hours, 05 minutes
- Uchu Shinshuchu -- 2 hours, 25 minutes
After SaGa Emerald Beyond comes Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On!, Pokemon Violet and Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island, respectively. I devoted more than 30 hours to each of these stellar titles, and I don't regret a single second of it.
It saddens me that I only gave Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid six hours in 2024. Hopefully I can find my way back to it this year.
How did you spend time with games in 2024?
See also: how I spent time with games in 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2020
5 comments:
I checked my Switch stats and it looks like Persona 5 was the only game I played significantly on it last year. It says "over 100 hours", which seems right. I still prefer SMT V overall, but the P5 dungeons are pretty great. It's just the relationship stuff in-between that I am totally sick of at this point. I've been trying to level up my stats high enough so the drag queen will hire me for a job at the gay bar, and it's taking forver!
I tried the demo for SaGa Emerald Beyond, and I just don't get it. But it makes sense, cuz I wasn't a fan of Scarlet Grace either. The Romancing Saga 2 demo was more my cup of tea, but I haven't got around to buying the full game yet.
I love the Shiren games, and I used to buy them all. But I am also terrible at them, and end up rage-quitting fairly quickly. I've learned not to spend money on them anymore. Maybe someday they'll add an easy mode for people like me.
Hello! (Steve, right??) So nice to see you again :)
I've yet to play any version of Persona 5 myself, though I have a copy of the Switch port of 5R. I'm glad to hear you've enjoyed at least some of it.
Yeah, if you didn't like Scarlet Grace, you probably aren't going to like Emerald Beyond either. The Romancing SaGa 2 remake sounds much more "traditional," so you might enjoy it more. I can't say so for sure, because I've yet to play it, too. (I got it for Christmas, though, and hope to start through it soon-ish.)
Hmmm, I respect your awareness of your experience with the Shiren series. It kind of sounds like my own experience with Mario Kart, if you can believe it. Part of me loves playing Mario Kart games, but I also become *enraged* during online races. So, I stopped buying/playing them after the Wii release. Anyway, you're smart not to buy Shiren 6, even though I'm loving it. It is much harder than Shiren 5, IMO, with nothing resembling an easy mode in sight. Which is too bad -- it would be nice if the devs of these games included such a mode to expand who could play them.
Actually, speaking of easy-mode Shirens, have you ever played any of the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games? I've only dabbled in them, but from my experience, that's exactly what they are -- much easier Shirens. Just a thought, if you haven't already given them a try.
I am playing P5 Royale as well, since that's the only one on the Switch. I had tried to play the original on PS3 like 10 years ago, but at that point I had pretty much stopped playing games on a TV so I didn't get far. Anyhow you really should give it a chance some day.
I actually did play the first Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game that came out on 3DS, as well as the GBA and DS ones too. They were a little easier, but at some point I got bored or stuck and stopped. Maybe the difficulty is what makes Shiren more fun? I liked Etrian Mystery Dungeon and Persona Q better, but again got stuck on them both pretty early on. And now that my 3DS is dead I probably will never get to play them.
I don't like Mario Kart either, but it's cuz I think racing games are meant to be played in an arcade and not on a TV with a tiny joycon. Kids these days don't know what they missed out on. :)
Sorry that was me commenting above. Google really screwed this site up huh?
Hello again! Sorry about the weirdness of the comments section these days. Although some of that is Google's/Blogger's fault, it's also partially mine. I didn't realize it until recently, but the Disqus plug-in I was using here for some years started populating the blog with all kinds of gross ads, and the only way to get rid of them was to remove the plug-in and go back to Blogger's built-in comments system, which is far from wonderful. I barely publish any more, though, and few folks comment, so I figured the hassle was worth getting rid of the ads.
As for Persona 5 Royal, I definitely hope to try it sometime soon. It's interesting that you've also basically stopped playing games on a TV, BTW. I did the same after... the Wii era, I guess? I just have very little interest in it these days. I do occasionally hook up an old system to a TV to play its games, but that's about it. (And whenever possible, I emulate those old systems' games on more modern, portable hardware.)
I'm sorry you've already tried some of the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games and not felt much better about them than the Shiren games you've tried. TBH, although I love the idea of Pokemon MD games, I've yet to find one that really appeals to me in the same was as the Shiren or even Tornado MD games have. (I haven't seriously tried any of the Chocobo ones, though I keep meaning to do so.) For me, the difficulty and thus level of tension is too low in the Pokemon MD games. I feel like you need some of that to really make you feel excited about the game.
I own both of the Etrian and Persona Q MD games, but have yet to play them O_O Maybe some day...
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