#7 - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Not since Breath of the Wild has a game so clearly made an impression with me that I knew I would place it in my Top 10 right away. E33 does everything right, the story, the gameplay, the atmosphere, the visuals, the music. 

The game strikes a perfect balance with its systems to provide something that's not overly complex but still deeply customizable. It openly invites its players to "break" the game with crazy Picto combinaisons (think passive abilities and bonuses) and I'm all here for it.

When I said that everything feels right, it's down to the very small things like how consumables refill at save points (allowing me to overcome my aversion to ever using consumables), the weapons you pick up as you progress are not plain boring +5 dmg upgrades to your previous weapon you find in so many RPGs, each weapon has its own perks which synergizes with your Pictos and allows for experimentation. As for the Pictos themselves, they are plentyful but even then very few of them feel useless. All the way through the game, I was always happy to pick up a new one and would marvel at the possibilities available to me.

The cast of characters is small (the way I like it) and everyone is very well defined, you quickly learn that Lune is analytical and entirely focused on the mission while Sciel hides a deep sadness behind a carefree attitude. Gameplay wise every plays differently bringing another layer a customization to your experience.

If I had to pick a few faults with the game, I'd say that Act 3 lacks direction which you might end up in an area way too hard for your team or you can do too much side content and trivialize the final fight. Also the Gestral Beach games can be infuriating!

Other than that, this game is a masterpiece through and through!

Guessed by @UnderwaterFunktown

This was my first all-time favorite game that felt truly mine. Something about its story, its presentation, and its super-fun gameplay just connected with me really deeply, and maybe its controversial nature among Zelda fans made it even closer to my heart. Don't worry Skyward Sword, I got your back.

Seriously though, I've played and replayed and replayed this countless times and every time I pick up that Wiimote it's like I never left (picking up the Joy-Con does not feel the same, not gonna lie). The gameplay just feels so good, the levels are so fun to play through - especially the stellar set of dungeons - and I don't mind putting up with some of the padding if it means re-experiencing this beautiful story about people who'll stop at nothing to save each other and end up saving the world in the process. Nintendo's games in general have gone really downhill since then in terms of storytelling, this was them at their writing peak.

Anyway, I don't really have much more to say that I haven't already. Y'all have read my many posts on this over the years, and I'll always love this game like it's still my #1.

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Guessed by @UnderwaterFunktown

One of the most timeless games to ever timeless.

Ōkami was for a good few years my #1 here before being pushed out by the space raccoon game, and now it's dropped a further place down, but it'll always remain one of my favorite ever gaming experiences. It starts a bit slow, yeah, but it builds up a truly amazing story over time, with an extremely charming cast of characters who all get to play a significant part in getting you emotional.

This game wants to be like a legend come to life, and well, it achieves that. Everything about it feels like you're witnessing an ancient tale, something that's been told and retold across countless generations, now being retold in videogame form. You play as an incarnation of the Sun goddess, yet instead of playing like a power trip, this is a story packed with meaning, that your strength is inherently bound to how you impact other people's lives, that helping others will always lead to good things.

Thus, Amaterasu fulfills her role as the Sun goddess - by shining a light on everyone. Thank you for shining a light on me too, you pretty white wolf.

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Guessed by @UnderwaterFunktown

It's hard to believe it's already been five years since this game blew my mind.

Back then, I ranked it at #5 on this list. I wondered if it was recency bias playing a hand, but I stuck to my guns. And in the years since, this didn't just keep its place, but steadily climbed up and up... At this point, I don't even disregard the possibility of this finding its way into #1 some day.

I love it that much.

Moon Studios literally advertises this game as an "emotional masterpiece", and can you really blame them when it's exactly that. It is the most emotional a game's ever made me. And honestly, it might be the most masterpiece I've seen a game be. Mind you that doesn't mean flawless, there are minor nitpicks I have with this game and small things I wish were better, but those are completely insignificant compared to the magnificence of this work of art.

I've long been an admirer of the more aesthetic aspects of videogames. I like games that look pretty, and this is the prettiest one I've ever seen. I like games with great soundtracks, and this has the best soundtrack I've ever heard. I like games with charming characters and emotional storylines, and... yeah you get the point. Most of my favorites excel at those things, and this game excels at those more than any other. But it also absolutely excels in delivering fun gameplay, and by fun I mean really extremely fun, the kind where I couldn't stop myself replaying this over and over even in spite of the emotional damage I suffered with the narrative each time (especially when I did that one sidequest, if you know you know).

The movement is somehow even more fun than it was in Blind Forest, and the combat is dramatically improved, with loads of different skills and weapons you can use in deep ways, cancelling attacks into jumps, refreshing aerial abilities so you can stay in the air while hitting enemies and dodging attacks, it's absolutely thrilling every time... And the game knows this, because it throws everything at you in the end, with the single most breathtaking final boss battle I've ever seen in this medium. And then, the single most breathtaking ending. An ending I was never emotionally ready for even after witnessing it dozens of times at the end of each speedrun (yes, I was a speedrunner for this).

I think it's safe to say Ori and the Will of the Wisps is the most fun I've had with a game, the most tears I've shed with a game, and the most a game's ever made me stop to appreciate the visuals and music. I remember staring in awe at the title screen when I first booted it up, taking it in before I felt ready to start the game - which took me no less than 30 minutes.

So yeah, Moon Studios, I'll allow you guys to call your own game a masterpiece. It's the truth.

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#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 subseries. 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. I started playing video games well 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. 

#6

Change YoY: =   My Rating: 9.7 / 10

Over 15 years since its original release on the PS2, Shadow of the Colossus remains a wholly unique experience. Many have obviously tried to emulate its style, atmosphere, and tone, including the original creators, but nothing has matched what Team Ico achieved in this masterpiece. From the moment the game begins and the first notes of its introductory song 'To the Ancient Land' hit as you follow a man riding a horse through the wilderness and carrying something on his lap, it felt like I was about to experience something truly special.

There is this sense of quiet grandeur in Shadow of the Colossus that separates it from practically every other game I've ever played. Unlike so much of the medium, it isn't afraid to take its time and let the silent ambience of the world speak for itself. For vast stretches of the game, you're simply riding across the landscape with just your horse for company, just taking in your surroundings. Eventually, it becomes almost a meditative experience. However, when you do reach your destination, the atmosphere changes quite drastically as you come face to face with any of the 16 colossi you need to take down, though the sense of melancholy that permeates the game never completely disappears.

Despite on the surface being about taking down 16 (mostly) huge boss monsters, in a lot of ways SotC is like a puzzle game. Every one of the colossi needs to be taken down in a specific way, and a huge part of the fight against each one is about figuring out just how to do that. It gives the game not only much of its challenge, but makes each fight unique and exciting to tackle. And then, the colossus crumbles down to the ground, the protagonist is hit by black tendrils that cause him to faint, and suddenly the feeling that something's not quite right about what you're doing rears its head once again. It's a beautiful, sad, and poignant experience, one that will undoubtedly remain with me for a very long time.

#5

Change YoY: =   My Rating: 9.7 / 10

I remember buying a PS3 in 2007 mostly for the promise of something great to come later, and then spending much of the following year and a half looking for games to play on the thing. Titles like Assassin's Creed and Uncharted:Drake's Fortune were fine enough, but I wouldn't consider either among my favourites on the console, so it wasn't until the release of Valkyria Chronicles in late 2008 that the first truly great game was released on the system. Initially, it caught my attention thanks to its art style and how the game looked in motion, but in the end it was the gameplay, story, and characters that turned it into one of my all-time favourite games.

If it wasn't for the next game on my list, Valkyria Chronicles would be the best game of its whole generation. While I was thoroughly enjoying my time with the game from the start, the alternate history second world war backdrop and the intriguing characters instantly hooking me into the story, there's a moment roughly around halfway through the game where it effectively cemented its place as something truly special for good. I won't spoil it, but it remains one of only two times I've literally had to walk away from a game for a time because of how much it affected me emotionally. Naturally, things like that are different for everybody, but in my case, there's almost no other game that has hit me quite as hard as Valkyria Chronicles.

The deep, tactical gameplay with various characters classes and units, beautiful visuals, and one of Hitoshi Sakimoto's finest scores make for an excellent experience. I've since played two of the game's sequels, and while they're both great (Valkyria Chronicles 4 in particular), none of them have quite reached these same heights. I recently replayed the original as well, and that only cemented its position near the top of my all-time favourite games list.

#4

Change YoY: =   My Rating: 9.7 / 10

It's a little weird that a game that is this high on my list was one that I didn't actually really get along with all that well when I first played it. I got maybe eight to ten hours in, didn't really understand the gameplay or the story properly, and just ended up giving up after failing to beat the Bell Gargoyles one too many times. Some years later, I watched someone else start a playthrough of the game, and after a while I decided to give the game one more chance before giving up for good. It did look like something I really should enjoy after all, and having watched someone else play for a bit helped me figure out some of those things I had missed earlier. So, I restarted the game, created a new character, and began my journey anew. You can probably guess that the second time around was quite different from the first.

Whatever the reason, this time everything about Dark Souls just clicked into place. The gameplay was challenging but in exactly the right way, as I now had a much better grasp of its intricacies, discovering small fragments of the world's history and lore felt rewarding, and as the game itself slowly opened up, and I found new and interesting locations to explore, there was no going back anymore. I knew I was playing something exceptional and special. Later games in the series, as well as other FromSoftware games, have improved upon the gameplay side, but the feeling and atmosphere that Dark Souls conveys is just something unmatched by any other game of its kind.

My top three favourite games have remained the same for well over 20 years now, and while it's unlikely that anything will ever change that at this point, Dark Souls got extremely close to doing so. Many of the later Soulsborne games may be better in terms of pure gameplay mechanics, but none of that has yet unseated the original Dark Souls from its spot on the top of the genre in my opinion. It's the game that made me fall in love with the whole genre after all, and the one I still compare all others of its kind to this day.

#3

Change YoY: =   My Rating: 9.8 / 10

I've always been more of a console player than a PC one, but there have always been certain games and genres that have drawn me to playing on PC. Whether it was various real-time strategy games, tactical strategy games or, as in the case of this game, space combat sims, certain genres are just inherently better on PC. At the top of my list of great PC games sits Freespace 2, one of the first games that ever made me truly notice the importance of great storytelling in video games. Not that the rest of the game is any less excellent, but there was just something about the constant feeling of uncertainty that this game instilled on you during its various missions that made me take notice. Whatever the mission briefing may have said about your tasks or goals, there was always the sense that everything could change in an instant. You just could never be sure.

Whether it was a new enemy appearing to disrupt the mission, an unexpected discovery in uncharted space, or a call to immediately return from the mission due to something happening elsewhere in the galaxy, you were always kept guessing as to what exactly might happen next. It's just a shame that the cliffhanger that the story ends in has never, and probably will never, be resolved. While the main storyline of the game was concluded, the overarching story that had begun with the first game and continued here never received a proper ending. As a result, there are several mysteries surrounding the game's antagonists, for example, which will likely remain as ones for good.

The rest of the game is just as great, from its gameplay to its music, even after nearly 25 years since its release I can easily go back and replay it. The one aspect that hasn't held up, the graphics, have been vastly improved by fan-created mods, as the game's original source code was released by the developer for everyone to use in 2002. Freespace 2 is a masterpiece, the best game of its genre I've ever played, and probably the one unresolved video game narrative I would want to see concluded more than any other. 

#2

Change YoY: =   My Rating: 9.8 / 10

There are obviously certain games where nostalgia plays a huge factor in how I view them. Some games I loved as a child end up not holding up all that well for one reason or another when replayed years later. Fortunately, there are also certain games that I not only have an immense amount of nostalgia for, but which also hold up remarkably well when I play them today. The Legend of Dragoon is one of them. I practically replay it every few years, and every time it seems like I end up liking it even more than I did before.

Now, there are obviously some elements in the game that don't hold up to scrutiny anymore. First, this is obviously a PS1 game, so the 3D visuals haven't aged in the most graceful manner, though many of the pre-rendered backgrounds still look amazing. The voice acting is typical of its time, that is to say average at best and often just downright awful. Finally, the localization is unfortunately quite shoddy, the English language writing often coming off clumsy and unrefined, a clear sign that whoever were responsible for the translation likely weren't native English speakers. In fact, if there was one aspect of the game I wish I could improve or simply redo entirely, it would the localization, because the English language dialogue and narration leaves quite a lot to be desired. At least there aren't any mistakes that unintentionally change story details, like in some other games of the era, but it does teeter on the edge at times. With all that said, this is still my second favourite game ever, and nothing has changed that in over 20 years, and the reason is that everything else is excellent.

In some ways, the thing that makes The Legend of Dragoon stand out so much to me is difficult to explain. While I love the story, characters, battle system, and music, there's also an intangible element to my opinion about the game. A feeling that I haven't experienced with any other game I've played, an atmosphere and tone that is wholly unique to this particular game. It's the thing that makes me want to start a new playthrough every single time I talk about this game during these year-end events, which is exactly what I did last year.