Guessed by @UnderwaterFunktown
Pokémon Black & White is the kind of game where I can look back on it now and think: just how different would my tastes be today if I hadn't played this?
By the time these came out, I had been falling out of the Pokémon franchise, but just before I checked off entirely, Black & White pulled me right back in with an actually compelling story, exciting characters, great music, much improved visuals and streamlined combat. Whereas recent Pokémon games had felt somewhat bland and lifeless, these two came in packing a punch, they were full of character and charm. I didn't expect much going into them, but I left with one of my all-time favorite videogames.
Of course, I have checked off entirely from the Pokémon franchise since then, but rather than moving on from stuff like this entirely, I just moved over to the next closest thing and fell in love with it (more to talk about that on this event next year!). Without Black & White, who knows, I might've stopped caring about monster-RPG-stuff altogether.
