Guessed by @TruckOSaurus 

As we reach number 18 we get to the first 'Legendary' on my list and it's one that's quite fitting for the title. Compared to Rebirth I don't have as much to say about the original. FF7 is a classic among classics, it raised the bar for JRPGs compared to what came before and is one of only 2 games from the 90s I consider this good (Ocarina of Time is also great but around 20 spots lower on my list this year). And yeah I love the character and story, the materia system, the remakes really owe most of what makes them great to this timeless classic that still holds up fantastically on its own.

#31

Change YoY: -2   My Rating: 9.2 / 10

Persona 4 was, at least for me, the swansong of the PS2, the last truly great game the system received before the next generation really took over the console space from the aging system. By the time Persona 4 was released in Europe, the PS3 had been out for over two years, this being the last new game I bought for the PS2 (obviously not counting later digital purchases on PS Store, for example) before I moved on to the next console generation as well. There aren't many better ways I can think of to end a generation than with a game as great as this one.

While almost every aspect of Persona 4 is great, the main reason it is this high on my list are the characters and story. The music by Shoji Meguro is great, and the battle system is a lot of fun, but the main reason I kept playing Persona 4 was to see the next story beat and character interaction, to develop my relationship with them and learn more about them and their pasts. In fact, a few times those were the things that kept me playing when the game was testing my patience with some of its repetitive and overlong dungeons. In fact, I would consider the dungeon design one of the few, if not the only real drawback of the game, but fortunately they rarely bothered me for too long due to the strength of everything else it has to offer. This is also one of the games I really need to go back to at some point. It's been a long time since I've played it last, and I'm curious to see if my opinion on it would change in some way if I played it again years later.

Finally got my hands on Digimon Story Time Stranger a couple days ago and my god, I'm completely losing myself in it, heh. Shame it's too late to put it on the list, but it feels like a shoe-in for next year's, hopefully it stays good. It will be nice to rank it almost a full year after playing it too, really gives me time for my thoughts to simmer down.

Anyway, I'm already falling behind again so let's rectify that. Hints!

#19 - The only game in this series to feature no recurring "characters"... well, at least not before you get to the post-game.
Extra hint - The franchise I just mentioned in this post is very often compared with this game's franchise.

#18 - The previous game's villain turns into a potato.

#17 - This was the most recent game in this franchise for over a decade until a new game finally came out this year, to high acclaim.

19) Pokemon Black and White

18) Potato 2, eh I mean Portal 2

17) DKC Tropical Freeze probably

17) It's 16 but with less content and stronger atmosphere and the story isn't quite as far in the past

16) It's 17 but more divise and they put its world in a sandwich and let you stick things together to create ridiculous inventions

Yup yup!

Ahh it's clear now!

17) Breath of the Wild

16) Tears of the Kingdom

Hint thief!!! ;)

Oops! Great minds think alike  

Correct!