Guessed by @Darashiva 

Rise and shine, Mr. Freeman. Rise and shine.

The official top 10 starts! I'll mark the occasion by including a quote from now on. Half-Life is like the OoT of PC gaming, an undeniable revered all-time classic, but in Half-Life's case there's two of them that are almost equally legendary. Basicly every game Valve ever made started as a Half-Life mod (except for that one they took from Warcraft 3), probably including Half-Life 2, the influence that first game had can not be understated and while Valve themselves never remade it luckily a group of dedicated fans did in the form of Black Mesa which is even better than both original and sequel. But yeah essentially this series just screams 95+, on Meta and in own my book, it's some of the best games you can find and I'm glad I could just fit them both in the top 10.

#25

Change YoY: -2   My Rating: 9.3 / 10

To say Trails of Cold Steel IV had quite a lot of expectations to live up to would be putting it lightly. It was the culmination of a story that had at that point spanned eight earlier games (though only six had been released in the west at that point), it needed to tie together plot threads from three separate sub-series within the franchise, conclude its own internal storylines in a suitable manner, and do so in a way that not only made sense, but would also serve as a satisfying conclusion to said plot threads that had in some cases been built up over several hundred hours. If you ask me, it did that about as well as I could have ever hoped. 

As you might know, or guess by what I just wrote above, Trails of Cold Steel IV is also a very long game, precisely because it has to wrap up so many different stories from across so many different games, but unlike what often happens with long games, it all feels earned. To me, it never felt like the game was overstaying its welcome, as these were characters and stories I was fully invested in, and I wanted to see this final chapter be given the time to properly tell its story without rushing through anything unnecessarily. And that's what they did, as this game took me over 130 hours to complete, and I thoroughly enjoyed every last moment I spent with this game, and the Cold Steel series in general. Of course, this is still not the end of the whole story, just the conclusion of a part of it.

#24

Change YoY: -2   My Rating: 9.3 / 10

I've long since lost track of all the Metroidvania games I've played over the years, from the two series that gave the genre its name, to far too many indie games to even count at this point. That effectively spans a period of 30 years if we consider Super Metroid as the origin point, and out of all of them, Hollow Knight stands as the unquestionable peak of the whole genre in my opinion. Not only is the game instantly visually gorgeous, it also has some of the tightest, most rewarding gameplay that I've experienced in any 2D Metroidvania. In addition, the setting is wonderfully designed, each location flowing into each other in a way that always makes sense once you realize where you are, making each location in the world feel like a place with a past and a culture of its own.

The game also lets the player figure out a lot of the story for themselves, rather than spelling everything out, which is one of the elements where the game's Dark Souls inspiration shows up. The characters talk about past events and many items you find provide hints at the larger context that everything fits into, but much of it is still left for the player to put together as they discover new locations and characters that each provide another piece to the puzzle. Very few games have held my interest as effortlessly as Hollow Knight, even through the most challenging sections and battles, I never felt the need to stop playing for long. It effectively strikes a perfect balance between challenge and constant sense of discovery. There are so many places to visit and secrets to find behind every corner that it's very easy to fall into the "just one more attempt" flow. The soundtrack is also one of the best of the last decade.

Guessed by @Darashiva (and unguessed)

Colors weave into a spire of flame ♪

I know what you're thinking: How does he fit 3 games into 2 spots? Host powers that's how. Kidding aside Super Smash Flash 2 is only an honorable mention this year but I did consider for a moment there giving it Ultimate's spot. Still I wanted to shoutout this whole "trilogy" since these are the Smash games that means the most to me, Brawl both for nostalgia, subspace and getting so many surrounding things right, Ultimate for being the biggest with the best gameplay and Flash 2 for being an incredibly impressive fan project with fantastic additional character and which I always enjoy whenever I boot it up. If you could only mix the best of these you'd have the truly Ultimate fighting game, but either way the series is already stupidly good and Melee and possibly Smash 4 would probably also be worthy of spots on my list if I was willing to spare them.

If anybody was worried I can confirm that the results are happening this year. And after compiling 4 list we had a fourway tie for 2nd place which I thought was a little funny.

And Merry Christmas everyone! Will take a few days break before I return with the exciting last 6 games.

I still haven't formally submitted my list yet. Has the deadline passed? I have awful internet connection at the moment so would be a few days before I could send it off

#23

Change YoY: -2   My Rating: 9.4 / 10

And now we come to the best game in the Trails of Cold Steel series, though still not quite the best The Legend of Heroes game. Trails of Cold Steel II is one of the very few games I've ever rushed to buy the moment I finished the previous game in a series. I remember quite vividly watching the end credits to the first game, and immediately afterwards ordering the second game from an online store. Can't say I regret that decision. This was the perfect follow-up to the first game, with an exceptional sense of escalation in the story, raising the stakes and eventually wrapping up many of the main plot threads from the first game while also putting many new ones in motion for the next two games in the series.

I like the increased variety in the gameplay, especially when it comes to the battles, because in addition to the normal weapon-based combat, the game properly introduces mech combat as a significant element going forward, something the later games would further expand massively on. The characters are given more depth as their backstories are explored further, the world feels vast and varied as we are introduced to many new locations, and the music is excellent. Anyway, I've already talked about three different entries in this series during this event, and I still have another three more to go, so maybe I'll save something for later. To put it simply, I'm a huge fan of this series, I've played eleven different games in it, seven are in my top 50 games of all time (more than any other series), and none of them have been anything less than great.