Pokémon X & Y (nice hint)

Keeping up the hint train.

12) Ended on a heart-felt note

Hint 2: I'm not referring to the ending of the game's story

Hint 3: The word heart is the key.

Hint 4: It's not Kingdom Hearts, but...

10) From Amaterasu to Sif to Zamazenta, blade wielding dogs seems to repeat.

Hint 2: This game was exclusive to an Xbox console at first.

9) When you wish upon a star...

Hint 2: You might just wish for more shooting stars

8) This remake greatly expanded upon the final chapters of the original

7) To me this is the most disturbing horror game I've played

Baldur's Gate is one of the best attempts to bring a Dungeons&Dragons campaign to a video game. It had D&D license and made a lot of stuff very truthfully to the source material. The world is based on the D&D campaign-setting Forgotten Realms in the region of the Sword Coast. For this game the Infinity engine was developed, which was the base for a lot of similar games, including the sequel Baldur's Gate II, but also Planescape: Torment and Icewind Dale.

As in a D&D round you gather a party of individual adventurers and step out in the world to exterminate evil… or get rich… or both. You create your main character, following the D&D rules, but the other characters you find in the game and include them into your party, if you want. But once they are part of your group, you control them all directly. In combat things happen in real-time and you can give orders. If you are overwhelmed (and probably a good idea at the start of battle), you can pause the action to give direct orders. This can be in very fine detail, including which enemy to target, which spell to cast or which weapon to use.

Also outside of battles the game uses D&D rules, for instance for stealth, for pickpocket or for other interactions. Freedom to do what you want is the key philosophy here. Baldur's Gate is a game which often allowed you to play how you want. Therefore systems exists for a lot of things. Decide which party members to recruit. Which way to go. Be evil or a do-gooder. In a way it is a Skyrim with isometric view, a party (instead of a single fighter) and a much deeper battle system.

In Baldur's Gate you create your character based on the D&D-system, which starts out at the fort Candlekeep were you grew up. One day your mentor hastily wants you to leave the keep with him. Outside you encounter a figure that demand of your mentor to hand you over. Your mentor denies this request and fights to allow your escape. On your own now you try to uncover the secrets about this encounter and meet a lot of interesting characters on the way.

The characters are also great in this game. Who doesn't remember Minsc and his miniature giant space hamster Boo? Look, how lovely they are:

Interplay projected 200K sales for the game, in the end it sold past 2 million, a major success for the time.

These group of games seemed gone from the market after the demise of Black Isle, but Black Isle veterans founded Obsidian and developed Pillars of Eternity, Interplay veteran founde inXile which released Torment: Tides of Numenera and Larian Studios started to go in this direction with Divinity. So in modern times we have more games in the style Baldur's Gate started, including after a long time Baldur's Gate III by Larian Studios.

The game got an Enhanced Edition some time back (also including console versions), which probably is the best way to play it these days.

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

I have new titles entering my list (eight this year), which in turn means - others are going away. So here are the titles, that were present on my list in past years, but didn't make the cut this time. Which doesn't mean they are bad.

10. Panzer Dragoon Saga (Sega Saturn – 1998)

Yes, I got a Sega Saturn, and yes I got a copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga. But believe me, I find no enjoyment in the exclusivity of that, as I would wish this masterpiece of a game was accessible to a lot more people. I know Saturn emulation on PC has come a long way, but there are probably still some limitations.

Panzer Dragoon Saga is one of these games that is huge, unique and just overall masterful in every way. The world building is unbelievable, though it probably takes a lot of inspiration from Star Wars and Dune, but still manages to outdo both! The story is deep and nuanced, with exceptional characters, and the battle system is ingenious, and still extremely unique. Surprisingly no game seem to have ever copied the core idea of the battle system. The game is relatively short for an RPG (15-20 hours), with limited optional content, but I like it that way, as the experience is so strong, focused and deep. I am not that much into RPGs really, but this one is something truly special.

24 - Correct! 

21 - Also Correct! 

20 - nope!

11 - Yeah I'd be disappointed if this wasn't figured out immediately. 

18 - Correct! 

16 - Also Correct! 

20 cannot be correct sicne 16 is FFX. 

#6: DOTA2

Yes!

Excellent. All three guessed now.

For a good while if I saw you online on Steam or Discord there would be "Playing DOTA 2" next to your name.

#11: Super Mario Galaxy

Super Mario Galaxy is fantastic. A masterpiece. What else is there to say? The soundtrack is insanely good, the art design is amazing, every level looks beautiful. Bowser's plans have become more ambitious than ever before and he's out to kill Mario. Rosalina is a great character and the Lumas are cute. The gravity stuff and all those small planets lead to some very different levels from everything that came before.

Galaxy is very nostalgic for me, barring Wii Sports it was my first Wii game when I was still a little kid. Playing it on the Switch last year in HD was a huge nostalgia trip.

The game would be basically perfect if it weren't for one thing, namely the camera in underwater levels, it's crap. Apart from that it's perfect. Incredible game.

Super Mario Galaxy is the fourth 3D Mario platformer on my list so far.