Ocarina of Time?

Yes! Congrats on guessing my final game.

So, last year Dragon Quest Builders entered my list. This time I knew I wanted the game. So I abstained from the demo, as I didn't want again fall in love with the demo and then have to wait way too long for the game. And you know what? The first game was great and deserves it's spot in the TOP 50, but DQB2 improves it in nearly every area.

And I couldn't get away from it. I tried to get back from work as fast as possible, fired up the Switch to get to DQB2 and played for hours. Only this quest, only that monster, explore this bit, get this material. And before I knew it was four in the morning and I had again not enough sleep time before work. My Switch says I played it for more than 185 hours.

So, how does DQB2 improves over it's predecessor? Well, there is the story. It is much more grand and more cohesive. The chapters aren't that separated anymore. And each chapter is longer. The free to build area is now part of the story as the Isle of Awakening and has also story parts between the chapters. And building enourmous buildings. And landscaping projects. And when you used everything you learned on the Isle of Awakening you are sent to the next chapter to learn more stuff, more room recipes, more items. And you see more stuff. Did I mention the enourmous dungeons you can find? And then there is the endgame, which in itself is bigger than each of the main chapters. And this part of the story is so great too:

. Isn't that great? Already in the first area you build

.

The game also improves over the building. You get a lot more tools to build with and modify. For instance replace many blocks at once to change a wall or a floor. You can now color many blocks in lots of different colors. Including some cool light sources. Or now you can take blueprints from everything you see to copy it.

But the best, most meaningful change is that you now have a buddy, Malroth. He is with you from the start of the adventure and becomes fast your pal. He helps actually a lot. He fights with you and makes so fighting less tedious. If you harvest some materials he goes around and harvests more of the same stuff, so that you grind less for needed materials. He is deeply tied into the story. And he gives you high fives for completed tasks. This last bit may sound like nothing - but believe me, once he is separated from you for some time, you really start to miss it.

Really, this game is so great, so fun, so addicting, I don't know if Square can top it in the next game. Hell, I doubt they can get it even as good as this one. But I will be very happy if they do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1aOW2wD7kE

#04 - Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii): Like I said, Super Smash Bros. is a very special franchise to me. I played the original game a lot with my friends, we had a lot of fun. However, back when Brawl was launched, neither of us had a Wii, so we could only watch videos and dream. A couple of years later, I could finally play Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but my friend had moved to another town. But even alone, I can say that this is one of the best games I ever played, and still my favorite in this series.

#03 - Alan Wake (PC): Back in 2012, I was very bored with video-games. Until I tried Alan Wake. Man, what a spectacular game. The graphics were one of the best I had seen, the soundtrack is so good that I still listen to it today, and I love the characters. To this day I still have hope that we are going to see a sequel to this masterpiece. Also, if you don't believe me about the soundtrack, just listen to this:

2. Donkey Kong Country 2

It was almost a flip of a coin to place this higher than DKC, but I think I can just about be comfortable placing it here. After DKC became my favourite game ever, I was thrilled to see a sequel appear so quickly. Casting the sidekick in the starring role and making him save the hero never seemed odd to me, but as I look back on it, I wonder how they managed to pull it off (and again in DKC 3), it's difficult to imagine people accepting a new main Sonic, Mario or Crash Bandicoot game where the star is removed.

Of course the graphics are as wonderful as ever, even slightly improved, and the music is perhaps even better than DKC. But the real change is in gameplay. So many new ideas were added to almost every area of gameplay and level design. I think there is much more variety here than DKC. Whether that's better or just less focused, I don't know, which is why I have a hard time ranking these two. Sometimes I think the extra variety is better, sometimes I think the simplicity of DKC works better. Regardless, I think this (and perhaps DKC) is the pinnacle of 2D platforming.

Just like DKC, the SNES rom has been released on newer consoles and is the best way to play. DKC 2 also got a GBA remake, which is pretty good, once again adding a few extras but falling short of the SNES greatness in every major area.

Correct!

One more.

3- The best love story in gaming.

Start off as a mercenary then save your friends.

Fight with a sword or a gun? Why not both?

The main character has a scar from the opening scene, but he also managed to get a hit on his rival.

Final Fantasy 8

Correct!

And that is a wrap for my top 50 as of October 2019. Now I need to type up some epic explanations for these games.

There are several tales of love within FF8, but I think you're correct. Zell and Hotdogs is probably the greatest love story of all time.