Games #50 - #46: http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9080521

Games #45 - #41: http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9080995

Games #40 - #36: http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9082358

Games #35 - #32: http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9082907

Games #31 - #27: http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9084360

Games #26 - #21: http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9086184

Games #20 - #16: http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9087936

Games #15 - #11: http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9089353

Games #10 - #6: http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9091602

And, to finish, the top 5:

#5 - Kingdom Hearts II / Final Mix

KHII has my favorite battle system from any J-RPG ever, thanks to the insane amount of depth it has, which becomes even more evident when you play in Critical Mode (the game's highest difficulty level). One of the best things about it is that it’s perfectly balanced, so there’s no movement/attack that breaks the game, or that is completely useless (though this may not be too evident in lower difficulty modes). Overall, controlling Sora in this game feels really good, a vast improvement over KH1. This takes me to the enemy encounter design and the boss battle design, which are just so incredibly well made, every enemy will require different tactics to beat them and, in particular, the boss battles added in the Final Mix version of the game are some of the most masterfully designed bosses I've seen in J-RPGs.

This game has a lot of moments that were really memorable to me and that I’m really fond of, certain events like when

did truly hit some of the most sensible strings of my heart . Just like in other KH games, one of my favorite aspects of KH2 are the interactions that Sora, Donald and Goofy have with the Disney characters. Overall, I love the Disney movies that they chose to have as worlds in this game (the world based on the classic Disney movie Steamboat Willie is so charming). KH2 also has a lot of side content, especially in its Final Mix version, such as tons of optional boss battles and even a huge optional area which has some really good level design. The game's art style is beautiful and timeless, and the soundtrack is masterful (queen Yoko Shimomura never disappoints). I have so many great memories from playing this game for the first time (though, gameplay wise, my first playthrough in Critical Mode in the Final Mix version was such a revelation because I could finally see the true greatness of the game's combat).

#4 - Chrono Trigger

Chrono Trigger is a memorable experience from beginning to ending (the scene in the image above is one of my favorites in video games), and it's one of those games that truly make you feel like you are in an epic adventure, which is partly thanks to the time travel story, I think that if I had to describe this game with a single word it would be epic. CT's story is perfectly paced, no moment feels like it was added just for filler and the time travel concept is executed masterfully. The game's cast of characters is wonderful, memorable and very charming, definitely one of my favorites in J-RPGs, they all have their share of struggles that the game does a great job at showing in a way that makes you feel attached to them. Both the main characters and the NPC's, as well as the game's world, are fleshed out by the sidequests, which are some of the most memorable in any J-RPG I've played and have a lot of moving moments,  something that I particularly love about them is that your actions during a certain era cause changes in the future of the place where you performed said actions.

The combat in this game uses a turn-based ATB system similar to the one in the old FF games, and it feels very fast paced and dynamic; a gameplay element that I really like are the Double and Triple techniques, which are more powerful movements than your usual attacks/spells but, to use them, you’ll have to wait until the ATB bars of all the characters involved in the attack fill-up, which adds an  extra  layer of strategy to the battle system. Another thing that I really like about the gameplay is that, unlike many other J-RPGs from that time, the enemies are visible on the fields, rather than there being random encounters. Just like in FFVI, this game's sprite art is timeless, and the soundtrack is one of my top 3 video game soundtracks ever, I still remember how blowed away I was by the Zeal Kingdom theme the first time I heard it.

#3 - NieR: Automata

NieR: Automata has my favorite story from any video game ever, thanks to all the thought-provoking moments it has, the themes of existentialism that it touches, as well as all the truly unexpected plot twists it got. No video game story before had the kind of impact that this game’s story had in me, and even now that it's been 2 years since I finished the game, I still think about it. This game also has a lot of memorable characters and it does a fantastic job at making you feel truly attached to them, I particularly love the special relationship between characters YoRHa 2B and YorRHa 9S. I also love the post-apocalyptic setting and the desolate atmosphere of the game’s world, which has a very well-developed lore. The sidequests in NieR: Automata do a fantastic job at showing the background of both the main and the side characters, and at giving even more depth to the world’s lore. I love how the sidequests can be as thought-provoking as the main story.

The battle system is overall very fun, fluid, and it has many sub-systems to play around with, for example, the different special movements that you can use by equipping different pod programs (a pod is a little robot that helps you in battle). Also, I love how these gameplay sub-systems are deeply tied to the game's story and lore. In this game, you'll be playing as 3 different characters, all of whom feel very different to control and have completely different playstyles and even unique gameplay features (for example, 9S is able to control the machine enemies). Something interesting about the gameplay flow that helps to give it some good variety is that the game will sometimes change the perspective of the camera in a way that you’ll feel like you’re playing a side-scrolling game or a top-down game, and there’s even some sections similar to a shoot-‘em-up. This game's soundtrack is masterful and is in my top 3 soundtracks ever.

#2 - Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King

DQVIII is simply a magical experience, one of those that truly make you feel transported to another world, and that's the main reason it's so high in this list. The game's world is wonderful, as it has a great variety of beautiful places to explore and secrets to find and, overall, it really nails the feeling of being in a grand adventure, I love how you're given freedom to explore all the time. The cast of characters is another aspect that I love about this game, they are memorable, charming and have their own, well developed, backstories, which are also highly tied to the main plot, so they all have believable motivations to travel with you. The story, while relatively simple, has a lot of focus on the characters, both the main ones and the side ones, which is something that I really like. The amount of unforgettable, charming and sometimes sad moments that its story has is an aspect where this game truly shines. DQVIII also shines thanks its memorable side characters and side quests, which help to give more life to the world and will keep you entertained for hours. The gameplay is your traditional turn-based battle system, with an additional layer of depth given by the Tension system, which allows you to spend one turn charging up tension so your attack in the next turn will be more powerful (you can charge your tension for several turns to get an even more powerful attack). Also, the item synthesis system in this game (the Alchemy pot) is incredibly deep. Visually, DQVIII is one of the most gorgeous games I've played, thanks to its ageless cel-shaded art style. The OST is amazing, the main field theme gives me so much nostalgia. I think DQVIII is the epitome of the old school J-RPG.

#1 - Xenoblade Chronicles

Xenoblade is at the top of this list thanks to the way it utterly blowed me away like no other game had done before the first time I played it (and I also have a lot of great of memories from the first time I played it). Firstly, the game's world (one of my favorite things about it) is truly mind-blowing, so many times it made me feel completely amazed by its beautiful locations and its sheer scale. Monolith Soft did an incredible job at making it feel truly alive both in the fields and in the towns, where there are lots of NPCs who have their own schedules and activities. The monsters in the fields also change their behavior according to the time of the day. I must mention that the whole concept of people/monsters living on the bodies of two dead titans is my favorite world concept in any video game. Xenoblade’s story is incredibly engaging and the events are overall well-paced, there's so many amazing moments and plot twists that made me have all kinds of emotions. The cast of characters is very well developed, with all of them having believable motivations to travel with Shulk, the gam'es protagonist. Overall, they're very likeable and have great chemistry together.

The battle system is very engaging and deep, with all the characters having their unique play style; also, systems such as gem crafting, the Skill Tree and Skill Links help to give the gameplay a lot of depth. I must mention that I love how certain gameplay elements, for example, Shulk's visions, are deeply tied to the story. The sidequests are probably one of the most divisive aspects of the game, but they have a lot of interesting mini stories that give so much life to the NPCs and give more insight into the personalities of the main playable characters. Xenoblade has a fantastic art direction, which makes up for its technical shortcomings, and it has one of my top 3 soundtracks in video games, along with Chrono Trigger and NieR: Automata.

Happy New Year everyone!

I know it's the 2nd of January already, but I didn't really get around to it yesterday. So, with the final game revealed, which was a big surprise I reckon, here's how you all fared in the guessing game. Congrats to The_Liquid_Laser for guessing the most games! He's followed closely by Flilix and Landale_Star. Since I always post my game at the end of a day regardless if it had been guessed, a total of 10 games went by unguessed. All of the Top 10 was guessed though. Here's the full board:

Some statistics of my top 50 -

By decade:

80s: 4
90s: 7
00s: 12
10s: 27

By platform:

NS: 11
DS: 9
3DS: 7
Wii U: 6
GB: 4
PC: 3
Wii: 3
NES: 3
GEN: 3
N64: 1
GBA: 1
SNES: 1

Top 3 franchises:

Mario: 13
The Legend of Zelda: 8
Pokémon: 7

Top 3 developers:

Nintendo: 26
Game Freak: 7
Sega: 6

I have also updated my tables of statistics in the Official Thread. I pride myself on genuinely being able to have a pretty varied list overall. Most eras and platforms and a wide range of genres are represented. One more than another of course; even though there's something great to be found in every corner of gaming, I do have a general preference.

Microsoft's platforms however are still without a single game, to me it's because beside the very first Xbox, they don't have anything that I can't already play anywhere else. This year the game I had on the G7000 is swapped for one on the Atari 2600 again and with it the sole 1970s game from last year is gone again. The latest generation continues to be lukewarm, while there are good games, hardly any are good enough to be able to break into a Top 50, there's just too many other games that are better and more memorable out there. It's the curse of the 'even-numbered generations' as I'd like to call it, the 6th Generation has a similar problem as well as even the fourth though to a lesser extend. There's no newcomers in the list this year, both from this generation or from an older one, because I hardly played anything new this year.

Speaking of the 8th Generation, the 3DS loses its last featured game, down to zero from a peak of 3 a couple of years ago. Its last game last year was Resident Evil: Revelations. The PS4 and Vita don't have anything I'd consider for the list and WiiU/Switch can boast one entry. A very high one though; The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild at #10. This failure of the 8th Gen takes a toll on the 2010s decade as a whole as well, which is now left with only a single game (above mentioned Zelda game), while halfway through the decade it could still claim up to 5 spots. That was still a stark contrast with the 2000s and 1990s decades, which this year contribute 46 games. The second half of the 90s and the first few years of the 2000s were the golden age of gaming, and 1996-2003 contribute 30 games to the list.

PC is the most featured platform, though that spans across all decades. Otherwise the Nintendo 64 claims the most spots with 8. Nintendo in general is the most featured publisher as their first party offerings are so iconic and recognisable, besides just being around since almost the beginning. Including subsidiaries and Pokémon, they're represented 19 times. Two of their franchises have 3 or more entries; The Legend of Zelda with 6 entries and Mario (this included Mario Kart and Yoshi's Island) with 5 entries. Another big contributor is Star Wars. Back in the day Star Wars productions were top quality. Interesting to note is that Star Wars is mostly featured in the first half of my list, while Zelda is featured in the second half of my list with the first of the six entries (A Link to the Past) is not until #29.

Zelda being an 'adventure' game and Mario consisting of three genres means that the adventure genre is most represented in my list. It consists of the six Zelda games and MediEvil on PlayStation. Another genre that's featured plenty is the 'Construction & Management' genre, mostly known for its 'city-builders'. I like the quiet, relaxing nature of such games and to just build something nice. Because the games of this genre I have featured are so good at what they are though it's pretty difficult for a new one to join the ranks. The genre in my list mostly consists of 'Sim' games.

Platform statistics:

Under here are some statistics like the amount of games from the main list by platform (counted by a game's original platform only) for each platform I own.

Other statistics:

• Best Year: 1997; 7 titles
  
• Best Decade: '90s; 28 titles
• Average Year: 1998.5 (~ June 1998)
  
• Average Game by Age: Kula World (PS), 10 July 1998, #12
• Most Featured Genre: Adventure; 7 titles
• Most Featured Publisher: Nintendo (including subsidiaries); 19 titles
• Oldest Game: Missile Command (A2600), 1981, #50
• Newest Game: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (WiiU/SW), 2017, #10
  
• Highest Newcomer: none
• Highest Re-Entry: Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force (PC), 2000, #38

I completed the game 100%. What was the start screen surprise? I forgot! Spoil away for me!

I give a result of the guesses for my games too:

Laser didn't gave anyone a chance here.

Aaaaaaaahhhhh!! I probably never hacked her! 

I think there is a lot of overlap in the type of games we like.  It's to the point where we have several games at close to the same ranking and I think Final Fantasy X actually was at the same spot.

So, I merged the results of the guessing games for different people I saw posting final results here. That are S.Peelman, Landale_Star, Flilix, The_Liquid_Laser and myself. If I missed someone or you want to add a list, give me a mention and I include this in the results.

Whooo, I'm second!

Laser won on two lists, S.Peelmans and mine, SanAndreasX won LandaleStars list and I won (by one point before S.Peelman) on Flilix's list and also on Liquid_Lasers.

Such domination!