Guessed by @drbunnig
If Astral Chain was my "what the fuck happened here" for this year, then A Link to the Past would be the equivalent of that but over the last few years. This used to be my unequivocal favourite game of all time before I played through Skyward Sword in 2013. Since then, and in my first many years of doing these lists, it was a shoe-in for a Top 10 position, only dropping barely out of it to #11 in 2020 - and after that, it only dropped more and more and more.
I don't know what happened, I guess my nostalgia for it just... ran out? This game strongly marked both my young childhood and my teenage years. It was my first experience with a more "story-driven" adventure videogame, and even back when I was a little kid who barely understood a word of English, it sparked a sense of wonder other videogames just didn't come close to. It taught me that this was always going to be the kind of game that resonated with me. The kind that makes you believe in a make-believe world, in make-believe characters, in make-believe stories. The kind where you just lose yourself in a world of fantasy.
I'll always cherish A Link to the Past for being that game for me, even if I don't hold it in as high regard as I used to.
