Favorite Video Games?

[PitterPomCB]

One thing I feel like y'all should know about me is the fact that video games are my life. I've been playing them ever since I was just a wee lad, and I certainly don't plan on stopping! I figure I'm not the only one in this forum who does, so here's my question: what are some of your favorite games ever and why? I suppose I might as well get it started, so here goes!

"Just Shapes & Beats" (PC, Switch, PS4): A bullet hell / shoot 'em up style game with rhythm elements mixed into it. With multiple levels carefully crafted to match the beat of the music, which consists of chiptune and dubstep songs composed by various artists, the game is sure to give you an intense experience that's sure to get your head bopping!
"A Hat in Time" (PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch): A modern 3D platformer that tries its hardest to match the charm of old-school 3D platformers like Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie. And succeeds! A Hat in Time has multiple different ways to customize your experience collecting the missing hourglasses, including Badges that add certain effects when equipped, color dyes for your clothes, and a collection of hats that give you different powers. Complete with full voice acting, likable characters, great boss fights, amazing music, and clever easter eggs and references, it's an absolute must-have for any fan of the genre!
"Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" (Switch): An enormous crossover fighting game that has won the world over, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is regarded as one of the best of the entire fighting genre. It features an absolutely huge roster of playable characters, familiar locations, cameos in the form of "Spirits", and much, much more. The sheer amount of content in this game is completely breathtaking, and with even more planned for release in the future, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is a game capable of uniting gamers from every corner of the globe. And that is a beautiful thing! (P.S., I'm also a Terry main!)

 

[WildBoots]

Some favorites:
- Stardew Valley
- Spore
- Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story
- Undertale
- Lost Constellation (Night in the Woods mini game)
- Botanicula
- Untitled Goose Game (wish there was more!)
- Every Day the Same Dream (and a lot of what Molleindustria churns out)


Really want to get Later Alligator & Heaven’s Vault. Have also been really enjoying tag-teaming Disco Elysium at my friends’ house.

I like puzzle games, platformers, sand boxes, and story-driven indie games. 🙃

 

[kyeugh]

Some favorites:
- Stardew Valley
- Spore

oh man, these two are so good. i feel like spore is kind of an interesting case, like... i think basically everyone has played this game, and if you ask people about it they're often like "oh yeah that game is fun!" but people rarely think or talk about it. it's one of my all time favorites though, i really wish they'd give it a sequel...

whenever i talk about games i always have to throw out an honorable mention to two absolutely GOATed titles: inaniquarium and zoo tycoon! which i don't play anymore, but, come on, that's the pinnacle of gaming.

i don't game nearly as much as i really expected i would as a college student, lol. my favorites are nominally some of the classics—super mario 64 and yoshi's story are up at the top there, as they're games i grew up with—and of course i love pokémon too. but as far as what i actually play most of the time, i'm more into grand strategy stuff these days. basically all the time i spend playing games anymore is spent on paradox games. my favorites are crusader kings 2, cities: skylines, and stellaris. i play some other strategy stuff, too, like civilization, although i don't spend so much time on those anymore.

 

[Negrek]

Well, there are these monster-catching titles I'm rather fond of...

Joking aside, while I love Pokémon as a franchise the most, my favorite single game is probably Ghost Trick, a story-driven puzzle game where you use "powers of the dead" to manipulate objects and rewind time to solve the mystery of your own murder. The story is super twisty, by turns funny, heartwarming, sad, and even downright creepy sometimes (if you've played, then you know about that one moment in Chapter 15). The gameplay is solid and really well-integrated with the story, and the animations are ridiculously well-done, even by the standards of the 3DS. I replayed this one for the first time in a couple years recently and was floored all over again by how good it was. How is this game so good? It's like everything about it just works; it's a game that knows exactly what it wants to be, and executes on the concept perfectly.

Anyhow, Ghost Trick is great, and everybody should play Ghost Trick. If you're at all curious and want to borrow my copy, I'm happy to lend it to you... I've mailed it to several people online and not had an unsatisfied customer yet! (It's for the DS.)

Another big one for me is The World Ends with You, an action-RPG about a misanthropic amnesiac teenager who wakes up to find himself trapped in the "Reaper's Game," a mysterious weeklong competition where the only options are win or be permanently erased from existence. This is one of those games that has a style that it absolutely commits to--it's set in Shibuya, Tokyo, and the artwork, the character design, the mechanics, the music are all steeped in the youth culture of that place. Fun story, fun characters, and a really interesting world (albeit one you only get small glimpses of). IMO the soundtrack and all its endless remixes deserve special mention, too; not your typical game soundtrack at all, but really well done and something that adds a ton to the game's atmosphere. This game commits hard to its style and stands out as original despite drawing on man familiar JRPG tropes and archetypes. Also simply a solid game, with a number of mechanics that were new/cutting-edge at the time and are now much more commonly used (because they're GOOD!). This one recently got a Switch port and is therefore easy to get your hands on, although I hear that a lot of the added features/story are lackluster to downright bad. But the base game is great and definitely worth a play if you at all enjoy JRPGs!

Anyhow, I'll let Ghost Trick's Bailey Panic Dance this post off for me... In these trying times, remember to keep calm and Panic Dance on. And play Ghost Trick, seriously it's a heartwarming game, everyone should play Ghost Trick

 

[Chibi Pika]

So it's pretty hard for me to talk about games without bringing up that I'm a huge Zelda fan. One of my very first video games was Link's Awakening, which I played obsessively in grade school, possibly as much as the gen 1 Pokémon games! Oddly enough, I didn't get into other Zelda games until much later. I didn't play Ocarina of Time until I was adult, and wasn't a huge fan. :P My first 3D Zelda was Twilight Princess, and it still has a special place in my heart. But I think my favorite is Skyward Sword. I'm aware that this is ~contentious~ and I know it's flawed, but look. The artstyle is gorgeous and the music is gorgeous and the dungeons are ingenious and the characters are endearing and the gameplay is creative and I like the motion controls, fite me. >:P

I'm also a huge fan of platformers. My favorite 2D platformer is Yoshi's island--I just think it strikes that perfect blend of charming and accessible while being absolutely devious in the later levels. The art style is timeless, the stages varied and creative, and Yoshi's controls are probably my favorite of any platformer (even the mainline Mario games!) Perfectly smooth~

I'm also a huge Smash Bros fan and I'm terrified to think of how many hours I sank into Melee and Brawl during college. Smash bros is how I met the friend group that basically became a second family to me, including my platonic lifemate, so y'know, it's a pretty big part of my life. ;P

Let's see, in terms of one-offs. Negrek already mentioned Ghost Trick, and Dragonfree got me to play it, and yes, it is indeed excellent. While I've technically never played Undertale, I've got an undying love for the world and characters and narrative that it presents, and the way that none of its meta-narrative themes would work in any other medium. (I did play Deltarune though!)

Oh, and Johto gets a big high five for Bowser's Inside Story!

 

[WildBoots]

My favorite 2D platformer is Yoshi's island

Oh yessss this hits me right in the childhood. Still have the gameboy advanced cartridge. Two of us used to sit on either side of our 3rd friend and watch them play late into the night. I suspect the penguin levels are part of why we became obsessed with delibirds later. But now my favorite is Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy. Yoshi is a better protagonist than Mario — change my mind.

Oh and also — ✨ Quarantine Update ✨ — I got myself a copy of Witcher 3, and I’m enjoying it so much. Thought it would be way above my skill level but I’m totally managing to hold my own. I like how many ways there are to solve a problem. All I want to do all day is talk about how much I love Geralt... even though he’s a terrible womanizer. Because I can tell the real story of Witcher is the love between a man and his goodest loyalest horse, his literal ride or die. ❤️ She’s too good for this world.

 

[Starlight Aurate]

So it's pretty hard for me to talk about games without bringing up that I'm a huge Zelda fan. One of my very first video games was Link's Awakening, which I played obsessively in grade school, possibly as much as the gen 1 Pokémon games! Oddly enough, I didn't get into other Zelda games until much later. I didn't play Ocarina of Time until I was adult, and wasn't a huge fan. :P My first 3D Zelda was Twilight Princess, and it still has a special place in my heart. But I think my favorite is Skyward Sword. I'm aware that this is ~contentious~ and I know it's flawed, but look. The artstyle is gorgeous and the music is gorgeous and the dungeons are ingenious and the characters are endearing and the gameplay is creative and I like the motion controls, fite me. >:P

Oh man I LOVE Skyward Sword! It was my first Zelda game (I didn't grow up playing them, I started playing when I was a teenager lol) and fell in love with it for the same reasons you described. I later played WindWaker and then Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess. I played Four Swords Adventures once and it was pretty fun but I didn't get far lol. I played Breath of the Wild a few times and it was okay; I think I would like it if I got to really invest in it but I don't own a personal copy.

I haven't played a ton of video games; I spent a ton of time playing Pokemon handheld games growing up but my parents didn't want us investing too much time in them.

I'm a fan of Dynasty Warriors, though! I've only played Dynasty Warriors 5 and I think it's fun. It might also be because I studied Chinese and so having the loosely-historical basis made it more interesting for me haha.

 

[zion of arcadia]

There are a lot of games I love (pokemon being an obvious one), but Celeste probably resonated with me the most in recent years, especially since it's a platformer and I quite enjoy the genre.

 

[WildBoots]

There are a lot of games I love (pokemon being an obvious one), but Celeste probably resonated with me the most in recent years, especially since it's a platformer and I quite enjoy the genre.

Celeste has a great soundtrack, too!

 

[zion of arcadia]

@OldschoolJohto Oh yeah, love the soundtrack.

 

[Caliburn]

Favorite games...

• Hollow Knight is a wonderful metroidvania with a beautiful world and engaging combat that had me eager to explore every nook and cranny of Hallownest. I can't get into Dark Souls, but Hollow Knight is good enough for me and I'm looking forward to Silksong.
• Katana Zero's a short and sweet retro-styled hack-n-slash that gave me the same rush of adrenaline as Hollow Knight with its quick and brutal gameplay. I really wish we got more than just the first part of a larger story in this game, but I'm fine with the game anyhow.
• The Fire Emblem series is one of my absolute favorites and I could ramble about every single game but I'll just highlight three of my faves.
  • Three Houses, the most recent entry, is pretty fresh mechanically and has some of the best characters in the whole franchise. The branching story, while not perfectly executed, is also cool in how it paints the game's story from multiple angles, each one giving you a different set of details about the world's lore and characters.
  • Thracia 776 is legendarily difficult (and obscure) but its eccentricities just make it more fun to me. Definitely not a game I'd recommend to newcomers, but if you're willing to put up with a bit of BS, it's pretty neat.
  • Echoes is a remake of the second game on the Famicom and they somehow made it super beautiful? Like, it's a labor of love and even if the mechanics are a bit basic compared to most of the franchise, there's still so much effort and dedication put into it all that I just adore it.
• Obviously I love Pokemon, but if I had to pick a favorite title? Black and White. Music slaps, sprite art was on point, story was a step up for the franchise, it just sucks that people bashed it when it came out.
• The Etrian Odyssey series has some of my favorite RPG gameplay and I really hope Nexus isn't the last installment. Its unique mechanic of drawing your dungeon map on the DS's bottom screen means it's kinda tough to bring it to the Switch but a girl can dream dammit.
• Seraphic Blue is a super-obscure RPG Maker game from Japan with a shaky translation but I have a weird fascination with it. It has a unique battle system revolving around elemental fields, and the story tackles some heavy-hitting topics without completely dropping the ball. It's a bit clumsy, but I can respect what it tries to do and I think it handles things well for the most part. Also it has a smarmy gun-toting pastor named Nixon Cromwell and he's the best. Look at this man.

​

I could ramble a lot more but I don't wanna make this post too big, so I'll leave it at this.

 

[DeliriousAbsol]

Well... this is a tough one. Pokemon titles aside, here goes:

Chibi Robo - All-time favourite GameCube game! It's so charming.

Sonic Adventure - I have a huge soft spot for this. I played it a lot when my Dad had a Dreamcast, and I loved it. The GameCube version is great, but lacks the little Chao pet via the video memory card. Nevertheless, I still love it. I'm not usually all that fussed with Sonic games (despite my love of the blue hedgehog) but this and Forces are games I will probably often go back to.

Animal Crossing - Pretty much all iterations, from the GameCube to the Switch. Although I've never played the Wii game... I didn't know it had its own game until recently, I thought it was an extension of Wild World XD

Jazz Jack Rabbit - Classic platforming, and it is NOT easy. At all. I was stoked to find you can pick his games up on GOG! (I'm probably seriously showing my age here...)

Dragon Warrior Monsters - I had to include another monster taming game didn't I? This one is a classic. I also like its remake on the 3DS, but there's something about making a seriously OP Pillow Rat I love, and you just can't do that in the remake with its altered breeding mechanics.

Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King - I haven't played it in years, and I need to re-play it to remember why I loved it so much. (I only have a copy of it in Japanese now.) It's the first RPG I completed that wasn't a Pokemon game. I remember a lot of fun things about it, like the tiny little mouse called Munchie who you could play as at one point, the engaging plot-line, running around recruiting monsters to battle in a colosseum side-activity, and an item called Highly Strung Cheese which amuses me to this day.


Hah! XD I remembered more than I thought I would!

 

[AmericanPi]

• 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.
• Nintendogs was the first video game I owned, and I still have a special place in my heart for it.
• I really enjoyed Mario Kart DS. I loved Daisy and was sad that I couldn't really master her Kart.
• The quintessential Super Smash Bros. series has been a constant presence throughout my life.
• Doki Doki Literature Club! literally changed my life. It's just so good and creative.
• I'm a fan of visual novels in general, including Hatoful Boyfriend and Hiveswap Friendsim, both of which are quirky but poignant.
• I never finished Undertale, but its story is amazing. It's absolutely an "Enjoy The Story, Skip The Game" situation for me.
• Recently I've been really enjoying Fire Emblem Awakening, and I'm interested in checking out Fates despite everything said about it.
• Also recently my best friend has been marathoning the Assassin's Creed series, and I hope to get into it once I get a PlayStation/Switch.

 

[K_S]

I will play anything with a nice story, I grew up on JRPGS, the 'mon games, and the Tales Of series has a strong place in my heart...

I'd say top 5 is

Hollowknight
LOZ Breath of the Wild
LOZ Windwaker
UNtitled goose game (best stress relief ever that one)
Tales of the Abyss

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Here’s my top five, in no particular order:

Hollow Knight:
Let’s get the obvious one out of the way first. Hollow Knight is the most fun I’ve had with the actual gameplay of a game. There’s games that rival it for my love, but that’s because of non-gameplay stuff. I got all the things, Speedrun II, Path of Pain, Pure Completion, even Embrace the Void if you don’t disqualify me for modding Ascended-Arena Markoth out. Which you probably should disqualify me for, but still, I beat the moth who’s supposed to be the hardest boss legit. Also, the sort of lore/worldbuilding with Void is something I adore.

PMD:
Another one that won’t really surprise anyone with its presence, but for an interesting reason: It was one of the games that crack my trans egg. Like, I just tell the mysterious voice on little lie, and I get to be turned into a girl? (Turns out, that “lie” wasn’t really much of one after all.) Either way, I had to do it to get the starter I wanted, so it clearly couldn’t be a trans thing. (Spoiler: It was.)

Despite having finished using it for sorting out human feeling about gender, I still like using it to toy with human stuff. Contrasting human stuff with PMD worlds is a good time, and was part of what inspired Elegy for Humanity.

The World Ends With You:
The other game that cracked my egg. This was the one that finally did it in. After completing my PMD save, I needed another game to play on the trip I was going on. I ended up getting to the part about... uhh..

Spoiler: Twewy Spoilers for Week 1

Entry Fees. The game has a plot thingy where, in exchange for your second shot at life, the Reapers take away a part of you that you value. Something that’s holding you back from growing as a person. That night, in the uncomfortable pullout couch that the place had called a “bed,” I was thinking about what my entry fee could be in such a scenario. I was jealous of Shiki, one of the game characters who gets a whole new body as her entry fee. I wanted a whole new girl body, too! Of course, would that even be an entry fee... What would they be taking away? How could it make me grow as a person? Here’s what younger Phan though: “Well, they could be taking away my denial that I’m tra- Wait no not like that. Oh god oh fuck why do I feel like this, I don’t wanna feel like this.” That was about the end of that eggshell.

Don’t Starve:
How can I ignore what was my favourite game for at least a solid five years? I used to, like, dig through quotes files looking for lore tidbits, or interesting character bits. I was up to date on the lore an the cutting edge of the theories, even coming up with some of my own. I was, like, neck deep in the forums. I’d install the betas and look for new things on the map, new crafting recipes, or new random prefabs to spawn in. I fell out of step a few updates into Return of Them, but I still keep up with the character shorts or update trailers for some free hits of lore, and got caught up with most of the new stuff recently. Now just to find someone to play Don’t Starve Together with...

OneShot:
The game to dethrone Don’t Starve from it’s half-decade reign. I can’t reinstall it and play it again, for reason those who’ve played it will know, but the ost can still hit me with the feelings. (I’d feel bad editing my save to kidnap Niko.) I think the fact I’d just started HRT boosted how much it emotionally affected me, but gosh I used some tissues... The ending I chose before Solstice? Save Niko. Right in the first room, The World Machine told me to make sure Niko got home safely. I made sure accomplished that task... no matter the cost.

Honorable mentions to:
Celeste, which I got too recently to really rate, I’ve only had 2 play sessions.
Darkest Dungeon: My go-to game for getting distracted during class in high school.
Enter the Gungeon: It was fun. Once in a while I’ll pop back in to ascend to broken OP-ness with a Robot Rainbow Run.
Invisible Inc: It really pulls off the heist thriller feel, and the cyberpunk aesthetic is sweet. Nika + Archive Internationale forever. Give me that 30 AP, alarms be damned. Nika + Predictive Brawling OTP. That and Chameleon Movement + Holocircuit Overloaders. Carry 3+ cloaking rigs with that setup and it’s almost impossible to lose.
Mark of the Ninja: Definitely 6th place. Playing a no kills, no detection run of this was amazing, and I ended up going back to get all the achievements, too, which was also fun. I still want more. Also, the nature of the Mark single-handedly inspired Eleventh Hour.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

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. What's funny is that I almost gave up on it early on because I didn't understand the battle system! But after I figured that out thanks to my best friend, I was quickly drawn in with the depth of characters and story.

And yes I get my username from it.

 

[Luxray1000]

Obligatory 'Pokemon'. PMD Sky is my single favourite game of all time, with the rest of the PMD series not far behind, and other Pokemon games not far behind that, both main series and other spin-offs (Ranger and Conquest in particular). PMD is also the series that got me into writing fanfic in general.

As for games that might not be universal to everyone on this PMD-focused forum, my favourite non-Pokemon RPG is Dragon Quest. I played 9 when I was younger, loved it, then played 5 later, loved that too. As of right now, I've finished every main series game in the series apart from 7, 8, and 10 (and I don't really count the latter. If you know, you know). Echoes of an Elusive Age was fantastic. 9, 5 and 11 are my favourites of the series, though I wouldn't hesitate to recommend any of them to a newcomer to the series.

Mass Effect is another series I love. The ending of 3 nonwithstanding, the trilogy is amazing and 3 in particular is on the short list of games that actually can make me cry. "Does this unit have a soul?".

Undertale is the first game that got me to truly appreciate video game soundtrack in particular. The great story didn't hurt, either.

I've put more hours into Terraria than virtually any other game. A fantastic block-based game.

XCOM is my strategy game of choice, and I love both the Firaxis reboot and the 1993 original series.

 

[K_S]

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. What's funny is that I almost gave up on it early on because I didn't understand the battle system! But after I figured that out thanks to my best friend, I was quickly drawn in with the depth of characters and story.

And yes I get my username from it.

I wondered if it was also where you got your avatar pic from? It looks a lot like terra from ff6 disideia version...

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

I wondered if it was also where you got your avatar pic from? It looks a lot like terra from ff6 disideia version...

That's exactly who it is!

 

[K_S]

While not my favorite ff, six does have a place in my heart and has my favorite female protagonist from the series and my favorite ending twist/villain of the series. It's nice to meet another fan of the series.