RPGamer’s 2024 New Year’s Resolutions
2023 was a spectacular year for RPGamers. There were many releases, series with new entries, and even stellar indie releases. There was something for everyone. While our backlogs grew, it’s time to look at them and see what we all wish to prioritize. The RPGamer staff thought long and hard and decided to present to the readers their 2024 resolutions. From wanting to review more titles for the site to tackling specific games or series, they hope to put these goals out into the ether to see if they will succeed. Do you have any gaming resolutions? Please let us know in the comments.
Matt Masem: My gaming style fits my role as co-host of RPG Backtrack well: I rarely play new releases. Most often I’m playing something two-to-ten years old with pairs of eyes looking over my shoulders. With young boys approaching peak gaming age, there are often arguments about who’s playing which game and when. To alleviate the arguments and to afford games responsibly, I’m going to resolve this year to move to only digital versions of games (that can be played on multiple devices) and/or are available to purchase at 50% off their premium new price. There are great sales to be found in digital storefronts weekly and plenty of cheaper used copies available of games that don’t often drop their price digitally. I resolve to look primarily for those deals! Additionally, there are tons of classic series I’ve never played, so I’d love to take a crack at Breath of Fire, Lunar, Mana, Suikoden, Phantasy Star IV, and Super Mario RPG.
Robert Sinclair: My New Year’s resolution is to focus on getting caught up with the Trails series. Seeing as I’m still relatively early in Cold Steel II and I haven’t played the Trails in the Sky trilogy, I think this could easily take a fair few months to get through. I’ve definitely put it off too long, but I’m excited to jump back in!
Erik van Asselt: Last year I spent all my time on the Disgaea series. I finished all of them and also killed Baal in every single game. You could have been part of that journey since I streamed it all on our RPGamer Twitch channel. This means that this ordeal is now over and I can do something else. During the last stream of the year, I talked about all the series I haven’t played yet and found I have quite a few blind spots in my backlog. So for this year, I want to play those missed classics. Series like Breath of Fire, Wild Arms, Phantasy Star, and Star Ocean. So you will see more retro games from me during my 2024 streams.
Sarah McGarr: For my good ol’ 2024 resolution, I’m going to get through Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker without getting insanely depressed. I’m barely into it and I already don’t want to go further because parts are so depressing. I will just look towards the light at the end of the tunnel for the next happy expansion, Dawntrail.
Ryan Radcliff: Over the past few years, I have been slowly building up my physical collection of PS1 RPGs to the point where I have nearly collected every PS1 RPG released in the US. This year I plan to finish this collection and purchase the final nine games I am missing: Torneko: The Last Hope, Darkstone, Battle Hunter, Digimon World, King’s Field 2, Shadow Tower, Tecmo’s Deception, Chocobo Dungeon 2, and Thousand Arms. The plan is to save up money and try to purchase one game every month. Some of these games are more expensive than others, and with how the market prices of the games fluctuate, I am not sure if it’s better to buy the pricier games first or wait and hope the prices drop. All I know is the end is near, and I want to be done with this collection so I can focus on my next expenditure, whatever it may be!
Sam Wachter: My gaming resolution is to do a gaming low buy. While I’ve done well over the years in trimming down how many new games I purchase, I’d like to keep that trend up and put that money into other things such as my savings. I am such a responsible adult! I hope that I can also clear out more titles from my backlog. I beat 45 games in 2023, and while I don’t think I will achieve that in 2024, I would like to get a few titles out of the backlog that have been nagging me, like Trails of Cold Steel III and Atelier Sophie 2. I also want to not be afraid to pick up longer timesinks, as sometimes I will avoid them because I am easily intimidated (despite putting 100 hours into Assassin’s Creed Odyssey). Here’s hoping I at least beat Cold Steel III and Sophie 2!
Murillo Zerbinatto: My gaming resolution is to not freak out about my ever-increasing backlog and to play for enjoyment. There came a time when I noticed I was running a race against myself. While I wanted to quickly finish some RPGs to jump to the next one, I still insisted on chasing platinum trophies, a huge time-sinking endeavor. I don’t want to choose between one or the other! Yeah, I want to expand my portfolio of completed RPGs and delve into new series, such as Trails or Atelier. Still, I only feel fulfilled if I do practically everything the game offers me. My Xenoblade Chronicles playthrough clocked in at 250 hours, and I don’t regret a single minute.
Cassandra Ramos: My gaming resolution is not only to play more video games in general but to play more non-RPGs. I find myself playing nothing but RPGs back-to-back, and I fear I may be burning out on them. I want something to act like a gaming palate cleaner, so short non-RPGs may be just what I need. I’m quite busy with work and my personal life, so I find myself with little time to game. A short game I can beat in a few days as opposed to weeks/months would be refreshing. I may even be able to finish more RPGs this way. After I complete the Pokémon Violet DLC and Legend of Mana, I intend to finally play that copy of Detective Pikachu that has been sitting on my shelf for the longest time. After that, I can finally start Dragon Quest V and Luigi’s Mansion 2: Dark Moon. From there we shall see what I play.
Pascal Tekaia: When it comes to game series, I like to play their respective entries in order if possible. I’m weird like that. This often means that I may not get to a game I have my eyes on for some time, as I first need to polish off any preceding series entries, if they are also already in my backlog. My New Year’s resolution is to get caught up on several series I’ve either been working my way through or still looking to get started. I’ve played the seven Yakuza games that make up Kiryu’s saga, as well as Judgment, but already three further games are waiting on my shelf, with a fourth already on its way. In my journey through the greater Trails epic, I’ve veered off after Cold Steel II to work through the Sky trilogy and Crossbell arc before coming back for Cold Steel III and IV. I am in the endgame stages of Stranger of Paradise, I’ve still got Final Fantasy XVI and Crisis Core on deck to be ready for the upcoming second part of VII. Here’s hoping that 2024 will be the year of getting caught up on my favorite RPG series.
Zach Welhouse: I closed out 2023 with a string of weird, sad RPGs (Weird & Unfortunate Things Are Happening, Meg’s Monster, Omori, Yume Nikki, In Stars and Time) that fall on the Undertale and Earthbound side of the sub-genre membrane. I’m hoping to dig into some more mainstream titles this year. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth will lure me back to the world of longer, large-budget RPGs with Ichiban Kasuga’s avuncular bonhomie. From there, it’s a hop and a skip to Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes and beyond!
Andron Smith: For 2024, I’m resolving to actually complete the games I pick up for enjoyment and not just those I review for RPGamer. Similar to other staffers, my backlog continues to grow and I have a tendency to ditch a game right before the end credits to instead start up something brand spanking new. I’m about 90% done with Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Fire Emblem: Engage, and even Mario RPG Remake, whose original version is one of my all-time favorite games. Of course, with the insane number of new games, especially RPGs, coming out in just the first few months of 2024, this goal may become impossible very quickly. If I manage to complete at least a game for every month of the year, I’ll count it as a win.
Ryan Costa: As many of my contemporaries have mentioned I could talk about my backlog, but with that total number of games in the four digits I’m not very likely to make a dent even if I focused solely on it. With new games costing more these days, looking at deals, indies, and that backlog has become enticing. But where to begin? Entire chunks of my gaming history have holes in them from not playing certain franchises due to how lengthy they are. Ultimately, I figure an attempt at a resolution is to try and play, and hopefully beat, a few games scheduled for this year’s Backtrack podcasts all while continuing to write as much content as I usually do, if not more so. Here’s to a great 2024 everyone, may we all game to our heart’s content.
Joshua Carpenter: 2023 was filled with life events that each threw me off track for a month at a time and that proved to not be a great recipe for playing video games. There were many instances of coming back to a game after weeks away and I would have no clue what was going on. Since this year should be calmer, I’d like to make it a year where I resolve to focus on both ends of the backlog. There are plenty of games from last year like Baulder’s Gate III and Final Fantasy XVI that got lost in the shuffle that I want to try out. However, the Steam Deck has gotten me back into PC gaming and I just got around to getting my old gaming PC set up so I really want to knock out some games in my Steam backlog. I want to hit some of the indie titles like The Banner Saga games that have been there for years as well as some larger ones like XCOM 2. I’m especially embarrassed about having never played XCOM 2 since I’ve played all the other modern incarnations and have loved them, but just never made the time for it. Overall, I’m probably a bit optimistic about these resolutions, but if I shoot for the moon and miss, at least I’ll land among the stars.
Ryan McCarthy: Due to circumstances going on in my life last year, my game-playing was a tad messy, to say the least. I ended up dropping some games for various reasons and only finished a relatively small handful of games compared to other staff members. This extends to reviewing games for the site as my issues with executive dysfunction have prevented me from getting more reviews out. In 2024, I’m doing backlog bingo with a group on Discord where we play games from our backlogs that are listed on bingo cards that are handled by another person in the group. Backlog games include Undertale (which I’m playing as of this writing), Yakuza: Like A Dragon, and Xenoblade Chronicles 3, among many others. I’m also currently in the middle of Octopath Traveler II and would like to get that finished as soon as possible. I also plan to abstain from buying new games to make it easier to cut down on my current backlog as well as to find the time to review games for the site whenever possible. I’d consider it a win if I successfully make a dent doing all of this.
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