Favorite Video Games?

[Nubushi]

One of my very first video games was Link's Awakening, which I played obsessively in grade school

Yesss, that game is so nostalgic (even if it doesn't quite make it onto my own favorites list). Whimsical, idyllic at times, bittersweet, yet at other times it had such an incredibly foreboding atmosphere (the southern shrine prior to the Face Shrine dungeon), and I loved what it did with the musical instruments. Then there's the ending, with a real sense of loss, as well as hope. Magical, and something you don't come across every day.

My best friend gave me Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs for my birthday one year and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I adored it.

Nice to see someone else who has played and liked the Ranger spin-offs! I've only played the second one (Shadows of Almia), and although it was pretty easy, I really enjoyed it liked the concept a lot (use a device that conveys your feelings of friendship and sincerity to pokemon, and once they're sufficiently convinced of your good will, they decide to tag along and help you out for a bit).

My favorite game ever is Final Fantasy 6. It introduced me to the idea of games as transcendent storytellers, and shaped my life from then on.

YES, I am with you there 100%!

My favorites:

Terranigma: Probably the single game that had the biggest influence on me out of any game I played as an adult. It made me re-think the way I view the world, and even just listening to the soundtrack brings back the emotions of the game powerfully. (GREAT soundtrack, BTW.) On the surface a fun action-RPG with a plot that revolves around the revival of the world and the growth of civilization, but I won't say anything else lest I spoil the plot.

Final Fantasy VI: Probably the game that influenced me most as a child; played this countless times growing up. Love the characters and the story. (And the music!) I also appreciate the greater freedom to move around the map as you wish, and form parties of your own choosing, compared to IX.

Chrono Trigger/Cross: So classic I hardly feel anything needs to be said. Great, well-balanced, fun games with tons of replay value (and great soundtracks). I know a lot of people prefer Trigger over Cross, but I think I probably enjoyed them about equally. Cross was fun to replay not just for the different endings, but also to see what actions/choices allowed which characters to be recruitable, and to experience using different people in your party.

Romancing SaGa 2 and 3:

The SaGa series has a different gameplay style than most people are used to and is not for everyone, but I really like the ability to choose the way your characters grow (skills you practice get better, just like in real life), and I think they are really enjoyable when taken on their own terms: non-linear, with a unique growth system, and (conveniently) with no hiking around on the worldmap to go from place to place.

Romancing SaGa 3 lets you wander the world at will (after the intro) and complete quests in an order of your choosing, until eventually you face off against the larger threat facing the world. None of the stories have much depth on their own, but they are like a bunch of little vignettes including all sorts of quirky tropes and characters. Pirate treasure, vampires, talking snowmen, masked superheroes, a creepy religious cult, a beautiful genius inventor whose inventions get out of hand, a murder mystery . . . Also, the game has a great soundtrack!

Romancing SaGa 2 lets you control a whole succession of emperors/empresses, gradually expanding your empire (usually by being nice to people and helping them out) and passing down your skills with each generational shift. It is incredibly satisfying watching the area you control on the worldmap grow--and also probably the hardest RPG I have played.

And of course, the Pokemon franchise. In total, I've definitely played more games in the Pokemon franchise (gens 1-5), and spent more total hours on it, than on any other game series. Hard to pick a favorite, but I love all the gen 3-5 games and would have to pick HGSS as my absolute favorite if pressed. Hoenn is a great region, Gen 4 in general hits a sweet spot for me in terms of balance between retro nostalgia and (some) modern conveniences like running, and Gen 5 had the most intriguing storylines.

. . . . . . . . .

And some honorable mentions:

Mana series: Particularly Seiken Densetsu 2 (Secret of Mana) and Legend of Mana. SD2 is a pure, fun, magical action-RPG adventure. Legend of Mana was a game that I thought at the time I was playing it was good, but not great, but certain bits and pieces of atmosphere, character, and story have really lingered in my memory. (This is another non-linear RPG with a bunch of little story vignettes, which range from whimsical or humorous to mysterious to tragic.)

F-Zero and F-Zero X. Never got into any other racing games, but I enjoy the futuristic look and the precision controls.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Terranigma: Probably the single game that had the biggest influence on me out of any game I played as an adult. It made me re-think the way I view the world, and even just listening to the soundtrack brings back the emotions of the game powerfully. (GREAT soundtrack, BTW.) On the surface a fun action-RPG with a plot that revolves around the revival of the world and the growth of civilization, but I won't say anything else lest I spoil the plot.

Ever play Illusion of Gaia then?

 

[Nubushi]

Ever play Illusion of Gaia then?

Playing it right now. ;) I'm on Angkor Wat!

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Well when you get done I have some music to show you.

 

[K_S]

.. not to butt in but you are doing the red gem collection quest, right? Because the reward... Well I enjoyed it but then I like steel soul in hollow knight so there is that, but you have to do something very specific at the beginning of the game that's very easy to overlook and can scupper a 100% collection attempt.

 

[Nubushi]

Well when you get done I have some music to show you.

Cool, I'll PM you when that happens.

.. not to butt in but you are doing the red gem collection quest, right? Because the reward... Well I enjoyed it but then I like steel soul in hollow knight so there is that, but you have to do something very specific at the beginning of the game that's very easy to overlook and can scupper a 100% collection attempt.

In Illusion of Gaia? I'm collecting as many as I can, but I'm not a completionist, so I won't be heartbroken if I don't get all of them. Thanks for the heads-up, though!

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Yes, the red gems lead to a hidden boss. You have to...compromise your morals to get all of them though.

 

[K_S]

Yes, the red gems lead to a hidden boss. You have to...compromise your morals to get all of them though.

I'll see you one evil transaction for 100 percent completion and raise you this...

Spoiler: canon spoiler

that canon scene involving russian roulette

.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Oh IKR what the heck was that you're like 12 or something.

 

[K_S]

Seriously considering JRPGs like making their protags 10 my guess was that Will was 10 at that time... Which makes that scene and the Jackle scene so much worse.

 

[Katanaeyegaming]

1. Monster hunter
2. Rhythm games
3. Dark souls
4. Pokemon
5. Katana zero

 

[Railgun]

I know this thread is old but besides Pokémon… I love me some Fire Emblem.

Persona is another good series.

I love Mario games - the retro ones especially. Including spin-offs such as Mario Kart.

Professor Layton and Ace Attorney? Sign me up.

Oh I also dig classic Mega Man. Some bangers in the soundtrack here and there.

That’s all I can think of, for now!

 

[FauxFox]

The pokemon series in general, but especially Explorers of Time and Shadows of Almia, as those where too of my first games.
From there I like Hollow Knight, Fallout: New Vegas, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and Dungeons 3.
And can't forget Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess, that is probably my favorite game of all time

 

[InfiniteBakuphoon]

I don’t really have a “list” of favorite games, per se, mainly because I find that I haven’t played nearly as many lately as I did when I was younger, haha. That said, I do have two games that I would call my “most favorite”, choices influenced very heavily by nostalgia. How can you tell? They’re both N64 games!

Super Mario 64 is a game that I’ve always held dear to my heart as one of the first games I ever played that wasn’t Pokémon, haha, and for helping develop my love of platformers. Even playing it now, I think that it’s still quite a playable game (albeit probably with an actual N64 controller), and it’s obvious how it was truly revolutionary and blew everything else away at the time. The sheer amount of freedom that was given was incredible; a lot of the fun I had with the game was just messing around with Mario, seeing how far I could push the game engine and how much fun I could have torturing Mario, haha. To this day, I’ve never played the game on anything other than an actual childhood N64; no Virtual Console or emulators or anything like that! Which is something that I’m weirdly proud of, haha.

Meanwhile, a very strong contender for my favorite game of all time is Rayman 2: The Great Escape. Again, for the N64, so not the more well-known Dreamcast version (although that one is awesome, too!). It’s a far more linear and straightforward game that Super Mario 64 is, but it’s the journey that counts here, I think. The game is highly memorable for its art and atmosphere, solid game mechanics for the time (that, while perhaps not aging as gracefully as Super Mario 64, still aren’t too bad today), and for its excellent soundtrack (which I actually think is superior on the N64 versus the other versions, haha, which is probably a very unpopular opinion!) that I happily listen to by itself whenever I’m in the mood. Oh, and did I mention its art and atmosphere? If you think that the Japanese are insane in those departments, spend some time with a French game developer, haha…

 

[StellarWind]

This is probably necromancy of the highest order but there you have it, then.
Let's see, a smattering of favourites from across various points in time, then, not including Pokémon titles.

I suppose I had better start with my current fixation... Final Fantasy XIV, a game that, despite me very emphatically not being an MMORPG person at all, managed to get its gnarled claws in me on account of being far better than it has any gods-damned right to be - between its world, its lore, the story and the characters, the music (my gods, the music) and the equal parts passion and utter gremlinry that the dev team and localization team are prone to, I honestly consider it one of the best Final Fantasy games, period. It's become about as much of a creative outlet for me as Pokémon is, and given the not-insignificant overlap between its aetheric shenanigans and how I've been handling Pokémon elemental energies (which is another thing that drew me in), It's been definitely giving me some ideas.

Much as I love FFXIV, though I still can't quite count it as a mainline FF title on account of being kind of its own thing - an MMO rather than a single-player adventure. Putting it aside, my absolute favourite FF title is Final Fantasy VI - by far the best numbered entry as far as I'm concerned for reasons that have all been stated by other people in this thread – followed by Final Fantasy XII (the original, at least, I don't care for The Zodiac Age's changes at all). Controversial choice, I know, and I concede the plot is basically Star Wars featuring Aladdin. But the gorgeous environments and the detailed bestiaries and background lore really appealed to the worldbuilder in me and the soundtrack and rather unique battle system certainly helped.

Veering away from FF but staying within the realm of JRPGs you have titles like Chrono Trigger and Terranigma which have been previously mentioned by others (and I am SO glad to see more Terranigma fans, we're a rare breed), alongside the classic Phantasy Star series (the first entry in which for the Sega Master System was my introduction to the world of JRPGs in general when I was still a protoform, and the fourth entry in which still holds out phenomenally to this day), Earthbound, Live-a-Live, the Wild Arms series (and particularly Wild Arms: 2nd Ignition), the two Digital Devil Saga games (which honestly might as well be one game in two parts), Tales of the Abyss (my proper introduction to the series, which went from "Why am I playing this derivative nonsense that treats me, the player, like an idiot, and refuses to explain jack shit?" to "Oh. HOLY. FRICK. THAT'S WHY." in one impressive wham moment that turned my perception of the game on its head and it was so damn good from that point on), the western-developed Septerra Core which may have its imperfections but my gods I love that world.. and honestly there are probably more that don't immediately spring to mind.

But it's not all JRPGs and JRPG-alikes for me. In other genres you can find Super Metroid (and to a lesser extent Metroid Fusion), a game which I utterly adore on account of its atmosphere and exploration-based gameplay, some 3rd-person adventures such as Horizon: Zero Dawn and the Mass Effect series (honourable mentions must go to some titles in the Elder Scrolls series and Dragon Age: Inquisition) and an absolute metric frellton of point-and-click adventure games which also had a massive influence on me even in my earliest years of gaming. If I started listen all of THOSE we'd be here all night and you've probably already tuned me out as is. xD

And lastly to plug a few indie titles that you might not have heard of but are worth a look:

- Monster Sanctuary is an absolutely brilliant hybrid of monster taming game and a Metroid-like, meshing the two genres together in a way I never thought was possible until I gave the damn thing a whirl.

- The Darkside Detective and its sequel, A Fumble in the Dark are point-and-click adventures which are an absolute love letter to the genre and are absolutely full of puns, snark and references to a wide variety of things. Its sense of humour was certainly up my alley.

- I don't think this one counts as an indie title, but The Room series - a series of short point-and-click adventure-lite puzzle games with a mystery/mild cosmic horror theme certainly stuck with me to the point that every once in a while I find myself replaying the whole thing.

 

[K_S]

Tales of the Abyss (my proper introduction to the series, which went from "Why am I playing this derivative nonsense that treats me, the player, like an idiot, and refuses to explain jack shit?" to "Oh. HOLY. FRICK. THAT'S WHY." in one impressive wham moment that turned my perception of the game on its head and it was so damn good from that point on)

Ah Akzeriuth... The point where most playes stopped wanting to throttle Luke and give him a hug instead...