Nah, Link doesn't enter the academy, he is already enrolled.

Knowing @Darashiva this is a Trails game, I guess Trails of Cold Steel (the first one).

23 - Final Fantasy VIII? 

#22: The Last of Us

Yes, that is right. Command and Conquer Red Alert Retaliation.

No, never actually played it.

No to both, but they are coming up later.

That's the one. Maybe I'm starting to get predictable or something.

No, it's Trails of Cold Steel as Mnementh guessed. Squall has already been at the academy for years when FFVIII starts.

No, Ellie wasn't specifically created to contain the infection.

Past years list features Assassin's Creed Odyssey, simply because I like the setting of ancient Greece. Do you know why? Because I really like the ancient greece mythology. Now Ubisoft thought they could do better for me, not just a game set in ancient greece, but set in greek mythology. Thanks Ubisoft.

Immortals takes the Assassin's roots and does them better. Open World yes, but not as big as to turn it into a slog. The story much more focused and shorter (yes, that is good). The world more colorful. And filled with my beloved gods from mythology, with all their quirks and shortcomings. Because I love that about the gods of greek mythology: they are very much infused with faults and character flaws. Immortals uses that to create a fun story that still is founded on the roots of the myths.

I like the humour. The game is told as a story, which comes with it's own set of things, as Prometheus and Zeus sometimes discuss how the story goes, which reflects in your game. This starts with the character generation, where Zeus and Prometheus discuss the looks of the hero, while you select options. The things happening to the gods is deeply rooted in the actual mythology, but pokes fun at it. Therefore the antagonist Typhoon turns Ares - the god of war - into a chicken and Athena - the goddess of wisdom and strategy - into a child. You are tasked with restoring the gods.

The game takes a lot of elements from other games, which is not a bad thing, as it results in really solid gameplay. It also isn't just a clone of one game, while it takes some inspiration in exploration from Breath of the Wild, the combat is much more advanced in Immortals and takes more elements from Assassin Creed games. This all is combined with a very unique story with it's own identity. So this games does not feel like a clone to anything else, but it's own thing.

It also has a strong puzzle focus, you will find a lot of different puzzles. Luckily there are enough of them to ignore the puzzles that feel ridiculous to you, but reading some reviews, the reviewers tended to have different preferences than me. So just focus on the types of puzzles that are the most fun to you, and you will have a good time. With the enormous amount of stuff though, I fear anyone trying to be a completionist will ultimately be in trouble.

Fighting has a lot of options and as you advance you unlock much more. This feels pretty good, as it is easy to feel like a badass in combat, pulling off some great combinations of abilities. That all is completely unrealistic, but that is actually not a bad thing if your game is set in epic mythology.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfGuI46pKjo&ab_channel=IGN

#31: Ys IX: Monstrum Nox

A great adventure. Fantastic story, great setting with great level design, phenomenal soundtrack (seriously incredible). The story has even more twists and turns than in Ys VIII and at the end of each chapter it may answer some questions but at the same time only creates more. It's incredibly intriguing.

The dungeons are surprisingly intricate at times with cool looking fun bosses that offer more variety than in Ys VIII.

The combat is great and fun, it introduces some special skills that create alot of verticality in the traversal. This enables some fun collectable hunting.

The characters are all very well written with interesting backstories and mostly very good character development. The dialogue is generally a bit worse then in Ys VIII sadly but that doesn't detract from the experience.

The side quests are fun to do and lead to you learning to know the characters even better.

I got Ys IX right when it launched on the Switch and poured over 100 hours into it 100%ing it. The graphics aren't the best and in battles with alot of enemies on screen the framerate tanks, but that doesn't really bother me to much.

Since I fully completed the game I got the true ending and it made me sad. I wanted the game to continue, this wonderful story, but it was over. It was a great ride. Watching the final cutscene and the credits made me very emotional and I teared up.

Definitely recommend this game to any JRPG fan.

#29: Hint 3: Your enemies are out of this world.

#28: Hint: Excellent work! Now head towards an exit.

#27: Hint: Before this game was revealed nobody, absolutely nobody would have expected this.

#26: Hint: You get funny pictures that move in a funny way when you shake the console.

#25: Hint: Giant Kaiju fights in an experimental setting are not the main course of this game.

#24: Hint: Giant flying beasts are where everyone lives on.

Between the two Ys games I played, VIII and IX, I have a hard time to tell which is better. VIII has the great locale in the Isle of Seiren, while IX has cool movement options and a lot of verticality which is fun. In the end Monstrum Nox did miss my TOP 50 just about on place 55 and Lacrimosa of Dana represents the series for me (very few series have multiple entries in my TOP 50).

#30: Luigi's Mansion

One of my childhood favorites. If you read some of my list's previous entries you will know that the first few games I played were on the DS. Luigi's Mansion was my first Gamecube game. I watched my mom play this alot before I was allowed to do so myself. It was around 2007 or 2008. Not completely sure. Just recently I also played the 3DS version, which is also pretty good.

Luigi's Mansion was the first game to make me genuinly scared beyond just a jumpscare, like what the haunted piano in Super Mario 64 DS gave me. LM's atmosphere is really creepy. I think this might be the reason why I love horror movies. The ghosts look creepy too (I like how they're slightly transparent), but also silly and dumb. Especially scary were the ones that sneak up from behind while invisible and you only see their shadow or reflection. There is a similar ghost in Luigi's Mansion 2, but less creepy looking and more annoying.

E. Gadd is called I. Gidd in the German version, which is pronounced like the word "igitt", which means yuck. Funny wordplay. He is a very weird guy, looks hilarious, eats weird stuff and is just all around weird.

The plot is very straightforward and gives a good excuse as to why Mario isn't available. This time around he is the one in need of saving.

The portrait ghosts are the highlight. They're all more or less interesting puzzles that you need to solve. Some of them are bosses. The boos hiding everywhere is a great concept, since it's fun to find and hunt them all down. Big Boo is one of the better boss fights in the game. King Boo's final fight is the best of the game, like in every Luigi's Mansion game.

Finding money and gems everywhere is fun and pays of in the end with Luigi building a real house where the mansion stood after it disappears and the more money you find the bigger Luigi's real mansion will be.

Luigi's Mansion is easily the game I played through the most. At least 30 times or more. I once spent a whole week just playing through the game over and over again at least once a day. Obviously it helps that the game is very short.

This game is fantastic, full of detail and character. I love it.