All correct except for #12.

For #12, 'minimise' and 'party' are key words.

#10
Final Fantasy VIII
Change YoY: +2)

Final Fantasy VIII is quite possibly the most divisive entry in the long running series, with many calling it one of the best games in it while others find it to be one of its weakest entries. For me it has always been near the top, although the order between certain games in the series varies quite a lot almost depending on the day I'm asked. I recently replayed FF VIII, and that's partially the reason why it has jumped up two spots this year. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the game once again, and while its by no means a perfect game it's still genuinely one of my favourite games ever. I need to give a special mention to the game's soundtrack. This is easily one of the greatest scores ever composed for any video game, and could very well be Nobuo Uematsu's single best work to date, although there's some very strong competition on that front.

18 is Ocarina of Time.

Yes it is!

Will post my top 50 here, though I won't play the hints game because I'm very bad at making hints that aren't too obvious :P 

I'll start by giving some honorable mentions:

#60 - Kirby's Return to Dreamland

#59 - Assassin's Creed II

#58 - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

#57 - Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

#56 - God of War II

#55 - Pokémon Emerald

#54 - God of War III

#53 - Sonic Generations

#52 - Ratchet & Clank (2016)

#51 - Mario & Luigi: Bowser's inside Story

Now, the top 50. I won't do long write-ups cuz I'm lazy :P but I'll briefly mention some of the aspects I enjoyed the most about each game (I won't mention things I disliked because I don't want to be negative )

#50 - Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance

What I like the most about this game: The combat system (fun, even if flawed), the worlds selection (especially the world based on the movie "Fantasia"); the flow motion, which makes you super agile; the soundtrack. P.S. I don't think the pokémon-like system is as tedious as some fans make it out to be.

#49 - Bravely Default

 What I like the most about this game: The combat system, the job system, the soundtrack, the visuals. Also, Ringabel is the best character.

#48 - Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies

 What I like the most about this game: The job system, the combat system, the story vignettes for each town (some of them are really moving).

 #47 - World of Final Fantasy

What I like the most about this game: The stacking system, the ATB turn-based battle system like in the old FF games, the two protagonists and their interactions with iconic FF characters, the side-quests involving FF characters.

#46 - Dark Cloud 2

What I like the most about this game: The town-building system, the side-quests to get NPCs into your towns, the art style, the soundtrack. I must mention that this game has my favorite fishing mini-game ever.

More hints:

6. a) While the first game in the series played like an arcade game, this third entry was clearly made for the home with it's over world that let you pick your stages.
b) This game had even more secrets than the first game, which didn't seem possible at the time.

4.  In Japan this PS1 game was meant to be a response to the Fire Emblem series.  However in North America we got this several years before our first Fire Emblem game.

3.  2018 is a great year to honor Stan Lee, but this PC game really payed homage to him way back in 2002 (well him and Jack Kirby too).

#9 Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne - PS2

I’m not that big of a fan of Atlus games, besides the Trauma Center games, their games didn’t have the charm that I look forward to in games, some outright feeling really bland, such was the case of most of Shin Megami Tensei IV, tight gameplay but it didn’t offer much besides that, but it turns out I was looking in the wrong time.

I’m a fan of SMT now, back then when it had a lot of ambition and care put into their games, where you can feel there is some soul and love put into the world and feel they wanted to create, I have played the majority of their old catalogue, mainline and spin offs (except Persona) and this drive to really explore the series started with their single greatest game, Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne feat. Dante from the Devil May Cry series.

What a masterpiece, one of the most atmospheric and heavily engrossing games I had the pleasure of playing.

Compared to other titles in its genre, more so at the time, is very light on story and cutscenes, not many of them and not an abundance of text, that in turn makes for one of its biggest strengths, which is making the few cutscenes that exist, feel special and highly memorable, the cutscene direction and music during each of these is masterful, solely relying on that due to the lack of voice acting, which in this case, the lack of it makes it stand out even more. One of the first cutscenes, the Conception of Tokyo, is a fantastic example of how well done they are.

Characters as is the case with the mainline SMT titles, exist mostly or solely for the purpose of expressing the opposing ideals that will shape the world, but again, these are made more memorable due to the great cutscenes, Chiaki is a Walter (from SMT IV) done very well, is amazing how much difference in quality can make a couple of well done scenes compared to the abundance of dialogue of the same concept.

The presentation is incredible as well, for PS2 this game passes the test of time with flying colors, the 3D modelling has a great shading to it, makes the models pop, a nice blur effect to the overall environments, making the atmosphere that much stronger, also thanks to the main artist, the lost soul in a flower field, Kazuma Kaneko, a man that really defines and accentuates the macabre and more somber tone of the series with his character and demon design.

And that music, atmospheric as hell in the overworlds (very Metroid Prime) and some rocking tunes in battles, a great contrast that does wonders for the game, an oppressing and somber feeling while walking through the world and a feeling of power and just overall badassery during combat, bless Shoji Meguro for the main soundtrack and musicians from the first games for the extra tracks.

The gameplay, oh boy, a challenging but extremely fair and fine-tuned curve. When it comes to RPGs, is just not about the options the player has, which there is plenty, customizing your main character with a single equipment with great variability on the fly with the magatamas, plus the demons you can recruit; but also what the enemies have at their disposals, generally great ramdom enemy loadouts that combine both easy to take out hordes and more tricky battles to keep a good pace, plus most of the bosses having a unique strategy or mechanic to overcome, making it so you can’t out grind these bosses, but rather use a great deal of strategy, El Matador, a really famous boss of the game, is the perfect example of that, a wall that will keep you from progressing unless you actually learn the basics of combat strategy in Nocturne.

Gameplay in RPGs is not just combat for me, there is also the overworlds and everything you do in them and I’m glad Nocturne executes that in the way I like it. First the overworld is fairly linear but it doesn’t feel like you are tied down to a path, you will get to explore new locations and dungeons at a great pace and the dungeons are all well designed, each with a mechanic or general puzzle to solve, something I really love from my favorite RPGs is that extra attention to detail into dungeons, makes them stand out and stick with you for a long time. One of my favorites being Dante chasing you in the fourth Kalpa dungeon, very Paper Mario moment.

Lastly, I want to talk about the avatar, the Demi-fiend, one of my favorite avatars of all time, not just for the cool design, but for what he represents and the world around him.

I’m usually not too immersed with avatars, but with Demi-fiend I felt really connected, is not that he is anything really special compared to others, but more so because he is in Nocturne’s world, besides some really nice details like characters pointing you to places of interest instead of telling you to go to a place outright, always asking you if you want to do a certain task for them, this is a game where every challenge is so fine-tuned it makes you feel like you were the one to overcome it, you completed every dungeon, you fought and befriended demons, you bent the world at your will, every well designed part of Nocturne makes you feel more immersed as that person that changed the world with his bare body, no swords or gun, no tricks, just you, your strategy and your demons, one of the most satisfying and positive experiences I ever had with a game and I can see why so many fans think highly of this tattooed boi.

Overall, I was really impressed with Nocturne, a game I just finished this year, but it gave me a lot of motivation to explore more of the past of SMT and is paying off really well, one of the best RPGs ever made and the single good thing from Devil May Cry 2.

10/10

SimCity 4

• Windows PC
• 2003
• Construction & Management Simulation
• Maxis / Electronic Arts

This is likely my second-most played game ever. In total I made multiple regions with dozens of cities each, one even bigger than the next. I have been playing 'SimCity 4' with it's add-on for as long as the game is out and done so pretty much non-stop. Still, only a couple years ago I broke my record for biggest city I ever made, maxing out at about 420,000 inhabitants, the record for my biggest region remains at about 1.5 million so far though.

The most literal translation of the city-building genre, it's predecessors even defined it, the objective is simply to make a big city. Infrastructure, zoning, utilities and recreation are all on the plate of the player, along with tax and budget management. The word 'ploppable' originates from this series. In this fourth game there's also the opportunity for the player to create their own landscapes from large oceans to tall mountains, so their vision can be realized as realistically as possible and you can as such technically create a whole country with interconnected cities.

After all these years, there still hasn't been a game in it's genre that bested SimCity 4 and I have given up hope that there will ever be one, though 'Cities: Skylines' has been a good contender and deserves a mention. 'SimCity 4' however has already been on many of my computers, and it seems like I will have to take the discs with me everywhere I move to and install them on every new computer I'll have, indefinitely. Not really a problem though.

#8: I recently said in another thread that the 8th game is probably the best objectively speaking, but this one here, the second game, is still my favorite easily regardless. Call it nostalgia, but it just means too much to me personally.

Well, Xenoblade and TMS#FE are correct, Metroid isn't.