Didn't expect Skyward Sword to be your favorite Zelda game.

I bought it two years ago, because you and other spoke so highly about it, as you may remember, but I still haven't really played it. I'm sorry.

Correct on both.

I already loved the first Dragon Quest Builders game. The first game was great and deserves it's spot in the TOP 50, but DQB2 improves it in nearly every area. Even though it slipped a bit this year to #4, it remains one of the greatest games of all time.

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 process of 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

As all my games are guessed by now, I also can show a breakdown of the best guessers:

As in the past years, The_Liquid_Laser keeps being the one knowing most of my games.

Yes I am now shocked to see it at #3. Meanwhile it's still safe in my honourable mentions like every year. Which reminds me, I'll need to post today.

Heh. Well I might happen, if I get around to playing it. But with an ever growing back log (ever growing, but really I don't even buy much) of games, I'm afraid if things go on like they are it might end up on the pile of games I just never got around to playing, not because I didn't want to, but because it just never happened. Who knows though, maybe 2022 will be the year!

Only 1, not a good score, figured I could've gotten some more of yours.

Last year you got six of my games. I guess there is a lot of luck involved with timing. The time I post hints vs. the time others that can possibly guess my games are online.

#4: Astral Chain

This game did to me the unthinkable. It managed to top Super Mario Sunshine while not being a Zelda game. When first seeing Astral Chain I knew it was for me, I was intrigued by it's style and gameplay. I got it late last year on sale on the eshop and the next week or two Astral Chain was all I could think about. I just always wanted to continue playing it when I wasn't. I couldn't let go of it.

The world is incredibly intriguing and interesting, all the places you visit have their own identity and atmosphere. The Astral Plain is one of the coolest looking places in any game. Detailed levels with some great puzzles and alot of sidequests with incredible variety. From fetchquests, over motion based quests to difficult puzzles where you need to clear a street from broken down cars. Side quests where you chase a criminal down or spy on one to get intel or simply save someone, show off your shooting skills etc. I love the variety. The characters are mostly very well written and the dialogues are great.

The story is nothing special but it does it's job greatly, with some nice twists thrown in it's pretty good. The game is quite cinematic in places. Huge monsters jumping from building to building around you looks really impressive. They artstyle is right up my alley. It looks darn cool with some strong color themes. The detective work is surprisingly fun and works really well in between the action.

The combat is where the show is really at. It fantastic. Works really well and is way more fun than I expected it to be. Seriously great. The legions all have their own skill tree where you can unlock more possible combos. The combos are fun to pull of and sometimes very satisfying. Each legion also has it's own additional skills that come in handy when solving puzzles which are Zelda level great. The enemies are great with some greatly creative designes. The bosses are fun to fight, the final boss being the absolute highlight with an extreme challenge that takes alot of skill and some very different phases. The ending is very impactful and greatly written.

An incredible game, dare I even say a masterpiece. Very underrated imo. I love it.

Astral Chain is my favorite Switch exclusive.

some extra hints for my top 2

#2 - This is individually the highest selling video game of all time

#1 - my previous hint, "Well here we are again, it's always such a pleasure", is the opening lyric to the game's closing song