It is that time of year when everyone starts crafting their GOTY lists, cramming all the best RPGs, beloved indies, and surprisingly good AAAs into a top ten list. I'm prone to doing this every year, although often my lists are so long they're barely worth mentioning. 2024 was no different, as my top 10 best games of the year list ended up looking like a top 100 before I eventually gave up.

However, while coming up with my list and finding a place for the year's official GOTY winner, there was always one game that came out on top. No matter how many times I shuffled and reshuffled it, ing games I'd left out or experiences that shot one game from the fiftieth spot to number five, this RPG sat at the top. Surprisingly, I've not seen it mentioned in anyone else's GOTY list, which got me thinking about both its unrecognized excellence and how it's illustrative of 2024's overall quality of games.

2024 Has Been A Phenomenal Year For Gaming

It's Been Especially Good For JRPGs

I didn't have particularly high expectations for 2024 when it came to gaming. Not only were the mass industry layoffs and unexpected studio closures early on in the year a bad omen for what was to come, but 2023 had delivered such a landmark year for gaming that it never occurred to me that 2024 could match it, never mind beat it. However, I was swiftly proven wrong by a plethora of games launching within the first half of the year, including one of my all-time favorite games everyone forgot.

2024 went on to deliver not just great games, but industry-defining experiences, the likes of which players had never seen before. JRPGs made an unexpected comeback, with players absolutely blowing my mind by gravitating towards Atlus' latest effort, the critically acclaimed yet nevertheless seemingly niche Metaphor: ReFantazio. FromSoftware proved that it's both one of the greatest and most generous developers around with the launch of Shadow of the Erdtree, and indies continued to blow everything out of the water with their sheer ambition, range, and ingenuity.

It is impossible for any one player to try all of these games, and I am absolutely guilty of having missed many of them. I unfortunately didn't have the time for some of 2024's best indie games, including Lorelei and the Laser Eyes and the much-discussed Mouthwashing. So, I'm certainly not going to chastise others for having missed a game that happens to be at the top of my GOTY list. However, it does surprise me that so few players are talking about one of the best games of the year, Bloomtown: A Different Story.

Bloomtown: A Different Story Is An Amazing RPG

It's A Perfect Blend Of The Best JRPGs

Bloomtown: A Different Story is an astonishingly good RPG from developers Lazy Bear Games and Different Sense Games that perfectly combines the best gameplay elements and vibes from Persona 5 with the setting of Earthbound. I first heard about it through the occasionally useful X, where the developer was posting regular updates. Its haunting yet cozy art design and eclectic mix of gameplay were instantly intriguing to me, especially as someone who has always thoroughly enjoyed facets of the Persona series and, while shamefully never having dipped their toes into the Earthbound games, constantly insists they will.

It's important to stress that, while I understand the affection for the Persona series, I've never managed to get into it. I've always clashed with its often out-of-touch approach to characters and struggled with its monster-of-the-week format that grates after a hundred hours. That's perhaps why I fell so in love with Bloomtown: A Different Story, as it manages to distill the best aspects of the Persona series without diluting them. It takes the combat, music, and style of Persona 5 and implements a more impactful and compelling narrative hook, better-written characters, and a greater selection of activities to do.

While I suspect a lot of Persona fans may disagree with me, I would also argue that even they would find a lot of joy in Bloomtown: A Different Story's attempts at evolving the social sim JRPG formula. It is also a perfect distillation of just how far the indie scene has advanced over the past few years, with its masterfully crafted pixel art making it one of the best-looking RPGs of the year, its never-bloated 40-hour runtime offering an ambitious experience in both scope and scale, and its finely-tuned combat offering a gameplay loop almost as engrossing as Balatro.

Regardless of whether one loves Bloomtown: A Different Story as much as I do, it's still nevertheless surprising to me that it hasn't appeared on many other GOTY lists for 2024. As alluded to earlier, this made me initially question my taste in games - am I really so wrong for loving the universally hated Left Alive? However, I soon realized that if a game as impressive as Bloomtown could skip so many lists, 2024 must have been a truly exceptional year for gaming.

I Can't Wait To See The Surprising Indies Of 2025

There Are Already So Many To Look Forward To

Bloomtown: A Different Story is the second game I've discussed this year that I feel has gone severely overlooked, and, while that's initially a little disappointing, it's also the best indication of just how gargantuan the world of gaming has become. When I was younger, the concept of a digital storefront hosting thousands of games was a farfetched notion. There were always games I missed out on - we're all born with a backlog after all - but it was never the case that, within a single year, there were games that would me by without at least a brief introduction.

Nowadays, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of incredible games that I never hear about, let alone play. That has, until now, always felt like an overwhelming frustration, something to battle against and overcome. However, after trawling through dozens of GOTY lists looking for Bloomtown: A Different Story to have my opinion validated, only to discover countless more indies I'd never heard of and now want to play, I realized that the world of gaming is - outside the horrendous industry layoffs - far better off now than ever before.

It has made me all the more excited for 2025's highly anticipated indies. There are many I'm already familiar with and likely hundreds more I'll discover during the final few weeks of the year. For the first time, I'm not anxious or overwhelmed by the prospect of having to find time to play everything or having to be aware of every game that releases. 2025 has the potential to be another great year as it's playing host to incredible-looking RPGs, phenomenal indies, and the guaranteed GOTY winner, GTA 6, and I can't wait to dive headfirst into it all.

Source: Twin Sails Interactive/YouTube