#20 Disco Elysium

Disco Elysium is a great game in many ways but it earns this spot because it’s one I could relate to on many levels. There’s something to be said for a game that can both take an honest look on the negative aspect of life and have a deadbeat cop become the god of dance. It’s a weird mixture which stretched out over a long time for me, which might have helped it leave a bigger impact. I might not have loved all of it but it definitely left a powerful enough impression to be on here.

#19 A Short Hike

Moving on we have another game that’s here for the strong impression it left, but this time it was a purely positive one. A Short Hike was just the game I needed without knowing I needed it, just a game about flying around on a mountain helping people. It’s just a really positively loaded experience and on top of that an actually fun, well-designed game in the way it’s structured and letting you get further as you unlock more golden feathers.

#18 Resident Evil 4 Remake

Resident Evil 4 Remake is honestly a very easy game to nitpick for me. It changes a lot and while it stands really strongly on its own there’s so many little things where you go “they shouldn’t have changed that” or “they should have added that as well”. Obviously, that means the game didn’t quite hit its full potential for me, but my god, it’s still really good. The gameplay has to be the best I’ve experienced in this sort of game and though they could have kept a little more campyness it mostly is an even better retelling. Still, they never shouldn’t have changed Mike.

#17 Celeste

When it comes to difficulty in games I just really, really prefer this way of doing it. Just a series of clean self-contained challenges that puts you right back in the action if you fail. And there’s a lot of failure, but it’s fun and rewarding and there’s even a solid story to boot so what’s not to love?

#16 Ori and the Will of the Wisps

I mean this game is just beautiful both literally and figuratively, and after playing The Blind Forest that’s “all” I really expected of it. But they stepped thing up a notch and delivered one of the best metroidvanias ever made even disregarding the bonus points for beauty. Only a handful of games are as close to perfection as this.

#15 Astral Chain/Nier: Automata/MGR: Revengeance

Astral Chain, Nier: Automata and Revengeance are what I would consider Platinum’s holy trinity and while I rank them very differently normally, they all deserve credit for being awesome action games with sick gameplay, cool aesthetics and powerful moments along the way. These games all go over the top in one way or another and that's why we love them.

#14 Undertale/Deltarune

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Undertale speaks for itself I think and Deltarune is just as good. If anything I like Deltarune just a tad more, but it still has room to grow so Undertale takes the spot for now. But yeah they’re funny, they’re sad, they’re epic and the music is peak.

#13 OMORI

Imagine Undertale but the cute parts are cuter and the dark parts are darker. OMORI is… intense. It’s basicly Earthbound for people who like horror and gut-wrenching stories and I will say this: they do leave an impact.

#12 Persona 3 Reload/Persona 4 Golden

Persona 3 Reload is the highest new entry for me, particularly so with this different format, and  it’s a tricky one because I loved it, but it definitely had much more room for improvement. I really wanted it to be the perfect version of Persona 3 we had been missing and it’s a stretch to call it that, but it did make the gameplay much more compelling and added some great new elements and scenes. P4 Golden is here as well because regardless of which one or which version, these two Persona games have been really strong (and substantial) gaming experiences in my adult life.

#11 God of War (2018)

To me God of War 2018 was one of those beautiful times when both gameplay and story are really captivating and I actually love that it basicly felt like a completely different genre than the previous entries. God of War as an action-adventure with puzzles and everything and Kratos as a man trying to better himself. It sounds weird on paper but the result was amazing.

#10 Tales of Vesperia

Most of the many Tales games I’ve played have been in my late teens or adult life and they’ve basicly all been great, but Vesperia will have to carry the banner itself this time as it’s a good distance above the others I might have listed. It’s just a fantastic JRPG with great characters, that reminded me a lot of another game…

#9 Tears of the Kingdom/Breath of the Wild

The best open-world games I’ve played in my adult life and both really special games in their own way. Tears of the Kingdom stands a little higher among the games of my adult life because it actually did the opposite and made me feel like a kid again just playing around with items and mechanics and doing crazy things. Also, a big shoutout to Majora’s Mask and Ocarina of time which I played pretty late and would might also have made this top 15 if I hadn’t aimed for a bit more variety.

#8 Doki Doki Literature Club!

I’ve mentioned earlier how I really value games that manage to blow my mind and DDLC did not only that but managed to disturb the hell out of me at a time where I really didn’t think any game could do that any longer. DDLC proved me wrong and is a game that delivers perfectly on what it sets out to do which is something I will always revere it for.

#7 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

It honestly hurts me a little to put Ultimate this much higher than Brawl, but well, we’re ranking by eras and Ultimate has no doubt been one of the biggest games of my adult life and easily the one I was most excited for. The extra half week I had to wait because my physical game was delayed was excruciating, but getting my hands on the game, unlocking the characters little by little, playing world of light for the first time, has to be some of my favorite gaming moments in “recent” years. I might have become more critical of the game with time, but there was a while there were it probably was bascily my new favourite game.

#6 Persona 5 (Royal)

It’s very fitting that Persona 5 is the number 1 game of my adult years since I got the PS3 version for my 20th birthday, something I wished for basicly on a whim because P4 Golden was very hyped up. And damn what a good whim that was because P5 has since because one of my absolute favorite games ever. I played Royal this year for the first time and while changing and adding to a game that was already so massive and near-perfect is obviously dangerous, I must admit they honestly did make it just a bit better. It’s only the relative newness of only having been a game I played as an adult that keeps it from breaking into the top 5 games of my life.