#7

Change YoY: =   My Rating: 9.6 / 10

Trails in the Sky SC is the absolute peak of the series, one that no other game in it has managed to reach despite several excellent entries having followed it since. Picking up pretty much immediately after the first game, following mostly the same cast of characters with a few nice additions thrown in, SC uses the foundation set up in the first game to push the story to new places and begins to reveal the larger world that would soon be explored even further. However, even with the scale of later games dwarfing this one, none of them have quite reached the same heights of storytelling and character development as Nihon Falcom did here. 

The writing here is excellent (owing much to the wonderful localization work by Xseed Games), and though it is not quite as vast as some of the later games in the series, anyone who wants to experience everything Trails in the Sky SC has to offer can still expect upwards of 60 hours of game time, practically all of it brilliant. A distinct element that makes The Legend of Heroes games stand out are the little stories that happen around the main characters. There are several minor characters in this series whose exploits have spanned several games in the series, across different sub-series. You can meet characters here that will later appear in the Trails of Cold Steel games for example, still continuing their own stories that began here. It's not something the developer really needed to do, but it makes the world feel so much richer and lived in, simply because it's not just the main cast that have lives. People around them travel the world, get married, find jobs, and it's all up to the player to witness these little stories should they choose to do it.

With an excellent score and a great, tactically deep battle system rounding things up, this is simply one of the best games I've ever played. It also features one of the absolute best main characters of all time in Estelle Bright I started playing video games over 30 years ago now, and in that time very few games have had such an impact on me as the first two Trails in the Sky games. The Legend of Heroes is a series that is behind only Final Fantasy and Dark Souls (or just Sousborne in general) in my personal estimates, and this is the very best entry in it thus far. 

Time for the final finale of finalness. Only the top 5 games of my life remain.

5) The greatest FPS, which was given away for free this year as part of it's anniversary

4) The greatest western RPG, which had a sequel revealed recently with the character you were searching for as the new lead

3) The greatest puzzle game, which doesn't need your damn lemons

2) The greatest RTS, which is still hanging in there despite the developers best attempts

1) The greatest JRPG, where the protagonist believes two swords are twice as strong as one (the math checks out)

1) Tales of Symphonia?

No. 8. Elden Ring

What can I say about this that hasn't already been said. Just a masterpiece. 

No. 7 GTA5

I vibe with the campaign of this game way more than most people do, I think it is a phenomenal story and one of the best in video gaming but there is so much more to this game than the main story. Simply driving around in the world and seeing the sights still to this day, is a great experience. 1250 hours in this, 1000 of which are campaign replays and time spend in single player and many more hours to come. This game never gets old, every new playthrough feels like the first time again. Phenomenal game and deserves the sales it got. 

No. 6. Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

Story issues aside and the feeling as if the game is incomplete this game is thee best stealth game ever, the best Rambo simulator, the best action in media to come out of the 80's that didn't even come out of the 80's. The gameplay is so good, you could cut out the missions completely and add checklists and it would still be a phenomenal game. 600 hours and 100 more hours in Ground Zeros with in one playthrough, like a dozen more in a second playthrough. The gameplay loop just never let go of the addiction and I couldn't put this game down until I had 100%'d everything and seen ever little detail and gotten so good that I could infiltrate any camp without being spotted. As a MGS game it's a little bit of a let down but as an 80's action simulator it is the best there is and everything about it, is so cool. I can't believe this game is THIS good when it's clearly not finished, despite that it still feels more polished than most games releasing today. Nothing beats rolling into a mission in your helicopter with The man who stole the world blaring gon the speaker and you're geared up to infiltrate a camp, kidnap all the enemies and brain wash them into working for you. Near 10 years on and I still can't get over how good this game is.

is 4 Witcher 3? 

5 - Half Life 2

3 - Portal 2

2- Age of Empires II? 

Clues for #10-6:

#10 - The best-selling game on Switch

#9 - This game is sort of the Goldfinger of the series, because it set the blueprint for decades to come and also because it was the third installment

#8 - This game, which almost didn't make it to North America, has since spawned several sequels and remasters, one of which is due in March

#7 - There was a rumor the long-awaited sequel to this game would be announced at The Game Awards

#6 - Your best friend is on the roof in this groundbreaking game

10 would be Mario Kart 8 I presume?

and 9 - possibly Super Mario Bros 3?

#10 is correct!

#9 is something else. But you're in the right time period, as long as we go by North American release dates.

I'd say 9 is Mega Man 3 based on that hint but I'd argue 2 is more the 'blueprint' for the series.