Yep, spot on again. The first clue refers to the eye you get from defeating Mendez, which you use with the retinal scanner to access the Castle in the original RE4. The second is a reference to the chainsaw sisters which you can avoid if you pick a different path in the original RE4. Third obviously refers to riding the mine carts with Luis.

Absolutely. A line from the heavy metal classic Powerslave. I'm happy that someone got the Iron Maiden reference at the first time of asking.

I believe the original console releases and the recent port are treated as the same game in this poll as they're very similar. I'll have to PM mZuzek to clarify.

#25

Change YoY: =   My Rating: 9.3 / 10

Prior to release, my feeling on Final Fantasy VII Remake was that of cautious optimism. It looked like it could be something quite special, but there was also a lot that could go very wrong in a project like this. Remaking one of the most beloved games of its kind is a tall order, and deciding what to change and what to keep true to the original had to have been quite difficult. Fortunately, the game we ultimately got turned out to be great, though it was also quite different from what I expected, though in a good way. One of the cleverest parts of this whole remake project was that it isn't actually a straight remake, but rather more of a deconstruction of the original game and its story (or a part of it so far). I really like this approach, as not only does it make the new game stand out, it leaves the option open for returning players to be surprised by the story. In addition, the original still exists as well, so I can always go back to that when I feel like it. Neither version is obsolete or unnecessary, rather they can coexist side by side.

The game did a great job at expanding the Midgar section of the original, adding a lot of wonderful details to the world and story, including new sidequests not found in the original, and most significantly, giving so much more depth to many of the characters that lacked it in the original. This was also the game where Square Enix finally managed to properly combine the classic ATB battle system with a real-time one, succeeding in what quite a few past releases have struggled to do. Adding to that is an exceptional soundtrack, with wonderful rearrangements of the original game's music mixed in with all new pieces.

[SPOILERS!]

The only true negative I thought the game had was the decision to make Sephiroth the final boss. Obviously it was just the first encounter, but I thought it should have been saved for a later point in the story. That was the only point that felt too "fanservicy" to me, and kind of unnecessary as well. That one blemish aside, this is a near-perfect remake (or a third of one I suppose) and I can't wait to get to experience the rest of it in the future.

I thought this one would be easily guessed, but okay, let's drop another hint about this game's controversy.

#22 - Willst thou get the girl, or play like one?
Hint 2 - There used to be religious chanting in the music for one of this game's levels, but it was removed in later versions.

Hint 2 suggests Ocarina of Time, but the first clue is lost on me.

I would have known this, but I'm only seeing it now lol.

Always thought that was a strange commercial, Ocarina of Time wasn't exactly about "getting the girl". I guess that's what the NoA marketing department thought was cool to do or something.

Yup, misogyny and homophobia were all the rage back then.

Guessed by @TruckOSaurus

The game that gave me belonging for four years.

Since then, I've been struggling a lot with that word. The Smash community through which I'd made so many friends and had so many good times with has since crumbled completely, and I've been on my own... well, this year I thought I'd found belonging in another community, but I burned bridges with it in a pretty bad way, it was rather traumatizing... but anyway. Yeah, Smash 4 was great, I think it was a much better 1v1 competitive game than Ultimate is, and I miss those days. God I miss those days.

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Guessed by @S.Peelman

"What the hell happened here?"
- Me from 12 years ago, if he saw this

A Link to the Past was my favorite game growing up. I loved it like nothing else back in my early childhood, when I got rather deep into it without knowing a shred of English, but could never finish it. I moved on eventually, but when I gave this another go in 2011, I finally played through the whole game and it remained my favorite game well into my teenage years. However, it's now getting close to a decade since I last played it, maybe it's because I got burnt out from replaying it so many times, but I've genuinely lost interest and just don't think of it as highly as I used to. It's kept a very high place in these lists because of sentimental value, but I feel like even that value is fading. I'm sorry, Link to the Past. You're still a masterpiece.

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Guessed by @drbunnig

While A Link to the Past drops lower than it ever has, Ocarina of Time soars above it for the first time and has its highest placement here since my very first list in 2014. It feels wrong to side with it in the endless ALttP vs. OoT debate, I shouldn't switch sides like this! But I don't know, this game is just so good, it's such a classic. I still think the Child Link portions as a whole are kinda lame, and certainly the third dungeon is an awful mess, but everything else about this game is extremely legendary and largely holds up. I don't like how it gets credit for doing a lot of things ALttP did first, but the truth is, it elevated the atmosphere and storytelling of the Zelda series way beyond what was there before, and still remains one of the strongest in the series since then.

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