Overdue to post in this topic...and cursing that I have to pick only 10, because 15 would have given me much more breathing room. xD
10. Resonance of Fate. A game that was released in the shadow of FFXIII and largely forgotten about as a result, it is nonetheless one of my favourite PS3 games, both for its unique battle system, merciless difficulty spikes, and steampunk setting, which was relatively uncommon for the time. The story wasn't much to speak of, but the interaction between the three main characters was great, and that counts for a lot sometimes.
9. Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate. I lost 500 hours to this game over about 2 months on the 3DS, then another 200 or so on the Switch in less than a month. It's the only game asides from FFXIV that I have been able to play for longer than 12 hours in a single day. The difference? I LOVE this game. The online multiplayer makes it so engaging, the monster variety is obscene, the hunting styles make it so, SO much more fun than any other Monster Hunter title – seriously, when you can Adept Evade through anything, it's very satisfying, and Aerial style makes mounting so much easier – and the music is top-notch; with most major monsters having their own themes, making their hunts feel special. The additional monsters in Generations Ultimate gave it some additional value, but the main plus for that release was transmog. This is without doubt the definitive Monster Hunter experience...and will probably remain so for some time to come.
8. Baten Kaitos: Neverending Wings and the Lost Ocean. This game still stands out to me for its card-based battle system, which was surprisingly complex. It was ridiculously difficult at points – the trio still give me nightmares – and the plot was confusing, but I owe this game a lot. I joined my first internet forum because of this game! I would love to play the second, or get this remastered for Switch. For its time this game also had beautiful visuals, and some of Sakuraba's best soundtrack...which is saying something, because Sakuraba's music sounds very similar after you've played every Tales title.
7. Hyrule Warriors. This is a love letter to a franchise that has been with me since early childhood, and it's filled with everything you could ask for. The sheer variety in characters was incredible, the maps were taken straight from Zelda games, the music was a brilliant rock album remix of classic Zelda titles, and there was just So. Much. Content. It took me 240 hours to clear the Adventure Mode maps, and I never got bored with it; each one felt like a mini dungeon in and of itself with the item cards they needed, and despite starting life out on the Wii U, it feels just as polished on the Switch. The story mode is nothing to write home about, but who plays Zelda for story? This is exactly what a Warriors spinoff should look like.
6. Final Fantasy VIII. I feel so bad putting this on here ahead of FFXII and FF Tactics: War of the Lions - which are both better games, and I know this - but FFVIII has and always will hold a special place in my favourites, for being the first FF I really got into. The plot is a train wreck, but it's an anime kind of train wreck, which means you either love it or hate it...and personally, I love it. The cast is entertaining, the music is the best Final Fantasy has ever been – whilst there ARE better tracks in other games, none are this consistently excellent – and then there's Triple Triad, which is good enough to be a game by itself. I've probably spent more time playing Triple Triad than I have the rest of the game! But despite the gameplay bumps, the rigours of time, and the release of games with a better narrative, I find myself coming back to FFVIII time and again, and when I think of my favourite titles, I always reserve a spot for it.
5. Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana. I have never been a huge fan of the Ys series – I enjoyed Memories of Celceta well enough I suppose, but the earlier titles never really captivated me, because Adol just isn't interesting – but this game was something else. Finding the castaways and building a relationship with them to discover their backstory, learning more about Dana and the circumstances surrounding the destruction of her civilisation, and just uncovering every square inch of the map for 100% completion, was extremely addicting. The combat was absolutely brilliant, too. I'm definitely a fan if the next games are going to be like this one.
4. NieR. I knew I was going to like this game from the first teaser trailer Square Enix shared...then the teaser website went up with Blu Bird playing in the background and holy shit I fell in love hard for this game. It didn't disappoint, giving me a delightfully complex and heartbreaking narrative connected to one of my favourite PS2 games of all time - Drakengard - and the greatest video game soundtrack ever composed, bar none. NieR is over a decade old and I still listen to the OST almost every day; nothing compares, not even the sequel. There are no words to describe how excited I am for the remastered version of Replicant, which never made it outside of Japan...not that I minded, because I find the father/daughter dynamic to be more interesting, but damn me if I don't want to experience this again with a full re-recorded soundtrack. NieR is just one of those games that gets it right in every department that matters (for me that's soundtrack, narrative, and characterisation) and is just classic Yoko Taro - dark and disturbing but with some real emotion and thought put into it.
3. Disgaea 4. Delightful political satire, an excellent lead in Valvatorez, surprisingly good character development arcs for all of the main cast – whilst Fuka and Desco never hit the same highs as Etna and Flonne, they still played well off one another – and a fantastic postgame. Disgaea 4 is the pinnacle of the series and the pinnacle of the SRPG genre. I spent 120 hours platting the Vita version and loved every second of it. Disgaea 5 was a horrific step backwards from this, and it's easily the best the series has ever been.
2. Tales of Berseria. Where do I even begin with this game? When I heard this was a prequel to Zestiria, which is one of the worst Tales titles I have ever played – right alongside Vesperia and Abyss – I was initially put off. The "emotion over reason" theme was something that made me very doubtful it would be particularly good either, because that is in direct opposition to my own thought processes: I have always been someone who prefers to think things through logically, and outright suppress emotions wherever I can. I was expecting a bleeding heart, preachy game with a weak-willed protagonist who was basically a Milla Maxwell palette swap in fanservice clothing. I was fully prepared to hate this game, and I put it off for months when it was released to play Horizon: Zero Dawn.
...god, it's so nice to be wrong sometimes. Berseria is a masterpiece in storytelling; an emotion tale about revenge on par with Xenoblade for its character development and story twists. Any one of the party members could easily be seen as an antagonist; indeed, they actively play that role in the game's world. They're utterly detestable, selfish people. But the way they interact with one another is so genuine that it's difficult not to like all of them, and even to sympathise with them. Watching them butt heads is extremely entertaining, and they all get their own personal redemption arcs even as they are swept up in Velvet's quest...well, if you can call killing your opposite "redemption" I suppose. But it's hard not to root for them or see their perspective. This game also does the impossible: it makes Tales of Zestiria better. With a backstory like this, replaying that game with that context makes it seem so much more meaningful.
1. Xenoblade Chronicles. I suspect that anyone who saw me post in this topic would know this would be #1, and really, can you blame me? Xenoblade Chronicles is a masterpiece, the perfect blend of engaging storytelling, gameplay, and exploration. The use of foreshadowing in this game to tease you into what is coming whilst simultaneously keeping you in the dark is nothing short of genius, as the visions will lead you into believing things will happen a certain way, only to discover that they are part of a greater event that you could never have predicted...and it keeps this up for over 60 hours. Excluding sidequests. Everything about this game is new and exciting (or was at the time of release) and for me, this did something extremely important: it revitalised my interest in video games, when I was convinced that I'd seen it all. Xenoblade Chronicles is my new gold standard for JRPGs and for storytelling in video games, and it seems unlikely that it will be surpassed for years to come...not if XC2 is any indicator, anyway. I hesitate to call it the perfect game, because all things could stand to be improved, and honestly whilst Berseria made Zestiria better, XC2 and Future Connected have both made this game worse, but judging it on its individual merits I still think it stands head and shoulders above everything else.
