Darashiva's post is only seconds after mine. After I sent my post my Buddy was marked blue with his post, as he answered me too.

A game which I don't often see featured as a classic great game, although it really is. This Wizardry spinoff is one the greatest RPGs of all time. It's battle system is classic but works well. The scenario and story are interesting and dark, the design of enemies is inventive and it has nicely implemented characters. The game has stellar level-design, something I see often for Atlus games. This whole package is pretty great.

Tale of the Forsaken Land is a dungeon crawler. You create your character quite freely and then go hire more people to form a party to start exploring the labyrinth. The story background is the kingdom of Duhan, which is pretty destroyed as an event called the Flash struck the land. Now a dangerous labyrinth exists within the ruins with lots of monsters. The labyrinth has parts of the former kingdom of Duhan, that are now through the events rearranged and becoming part of the dangerous landscape. You set off with your party to explore the labyrinth and discover the reasons for the recent events.

Although there can be humorous moments, the overall tone of the game is pretty dark. This is expressed by colors, music, the quests you get from the people in the Inn and how the story unfolds.

The fighting system is quite classic, but has some twists with the allied actions. In the labyrinth you have additional things to do, like open new paths or unlock trapped treasure chests.

This game is a pretty gem, clearly underrated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvWkzFNTBo0

This is such an underrated game! Great choice!

Deus Ex is right!

Two games left unguessed:

#6: Guessed by Darashiva: Dragon Quest Builders 2

#5: Guessed by S.Peelman: Tokyo Mirage Session ♯FE

#4: Guessed by UnderwaterFunktown: Heroes of Might and Magic III

#3: Magandang tanghali po!
Buenos días!
Boa tarde!

#2: Guessed by drbunnig: Pandoras Tower
Use the Oraclos chain.
The chain is not only useful in combat, but also in solving puzzles.
You acquire monster flesh for your love to eat.

#1: Guessed by UnderwaterFunktown: Elden Ring

_{ranking in the guessing game, list so far}

And that's it for me! Here's the full list for anyone interested.

I hope to shake up my list a lot next year. To do that I plan to replay games in my top 50 to see how they hold up, and also play some beloved games that have been on my back burner for too long.

I can already preview one new game that will make the list in 2023: Chained Echoes (2022).

Pandora's Tower?

Indeed it is.

The main mario games make up for me the best franchise of all (overall) and even though today's big N games in general like me less and less, Mario games always continues to amaze me.

In my top 50 alone there are 3 marios (Super Mario Odyssey position no. 11, Super Mario 64 position no. 14) in total listed but this is still my favorite of all time.

Now into the top 3!

#3 Final Fantasy VIII

Be aware of spoilers. You have been warned.

Out of my top 5 games, I played this game the least, but I did play it first. One might even say it was the game that got me into gaming, while before it was a fun side activity, this game made me think of myself as a gamer. I only replayed this game 1 or 2 times in the past 25 years, so it will be more difficult for me to remember the finer details. I will say though even after playing it 3 times through, the game is still amazing. As a person, I rarely replay or rewatch or redo anything. I think only the top 30 of my all time favorite games warrant full replays, but even some of them, I have never replayed.

Squall and Seifer start the game out with an epic bloody sword fight. The scars a constant reminder throughout the entire game, with a consistent rivalry. Never again is there a game that captures the spirit of rivalry as with these two. The first main mission you have with him in your party, he is egging Squall on to be the stronger mercenary. But Squall at this point in the story is very hesitant and reserved. He reluctantly takes on the challenge and is chosen as leader. In the end Seifer abandons the team to follow his own dream. It kind of feels like Squall envies him at this point, but since Squall stayed one, he is promoted and now has to lead of the main missions of Balamb. Meeting Seifer again and it is clear he has fallen under the sway of the sorceress and quite plainly declares his superiority over Squall. At this point you have to fight him and even though Odin comes to help he is beaten by Seifer with his own move reversed into him, in one of the most epic moments of gaming. When this happened, I thought for sure Odin would one shot him like he had done many times before to the trash monsters. But Squall has to prove his superiority on his own merit. Odin only came at the start of battle to one shot everything, so now another Guardian Force appears from the void left by Odin. He, contrary to Odin, comes when he pleases. Continuing the fight with Seifer has yet another epic moment. Gilgamesh has arrived, and he won't lose to a lowly human like Seifer and defeats him in one blow. He thought Seifer might have been Bartz, which is an interesting crossover from FFV. FF is a game series with their own enclosed stories, so a throwback in an important story moment is interesting. Moments and storylines like these make this game special. Nobody expected a Guardian Force to interact so closely with a Story boss. On top of that who would have expected something that one shots everything to lose like Odin did? A lot of these Guardian Forces aren't even required to acquire in order to advance the story, so getting them feels impactful gameplay and story wise in this game. Especially since this game links all of your extra junctions and abilities for your party to the GFs themselves.

With the defeat of Seifer, it feels like Squall's main purpose has been fulfilled. But Squall is a complicated character with significant development throughout the game. He meets this girl called Rinoa at a party. She happens to be a rebel leader of a small force. Compared to Squall she seems so outgoing and aggressive. But Squall could feel a special connection. She was just the person Squall needed to develop into a leader, a man, and a great person. In fact when she gets launched into space, Squall knew he couldn't live without her. He would sacrifice everything to save her. When saving her, a beautiful song is played "Eyes on Me" by Faye Wong. A perfect song to match the situation on top of an already perfect soundtrack thus far. Side note is I watched a movie with Faye Wong starring in it called Chunking express and she was amazing.

Going to post this half now in case I lose it, because I gotta go.

To be Continued...