Here it is, my favorite game of all time. The combat, the story, the enemies, the absolutely gorgeous world it all takes place in. There is not a thing about this game I don't love, even after playing it several times over. This was the first game I ever got a platinum trophy on and I loved every minute of it, even the grinding for the skill tree and prosthetic tools. Once you get into the rhythm of the combat, literally everything in this game becomes 10x more fun. The rush of going blow for blow with a difficult boss and landing those perfect deflects, or being able to clear out a whole room full of enemies whether it be all at once or stealthily taking them out one at a time. There's so much to do and learn in this game, figuring out the best uses for each prosthetic and being able to switch up your fighting style on the fly depending on who you're facing really makes you feel accomplished to an extent that no other game has done for me. I remember my final run for the 100% I managed to get the Shura ending in just over 4 hours. I'm no speedrunner by any means and I know there are people out there who have got it down to less than an hour but I've never been more proud of myself for beating a videogame before. To this day sometimes I will just start up a new save just for fun, I've done everything there is to do but Sekiro just has so much charm I keep coming back.

Ok so I've been playing through the entire Pikmin series from the beginning in preparation for Pikmin 4, and as someone who knew virtually nothing about Pikmin besides what Smash Bros taught me (very little) this game was a lot more difficult than I ever would have thought. I actually ended up restarting my whole playthrough on day 9 because I was falling behind on ship parts so badly. Once I got the hang of the basic strategies and techniques though I was averaging on 2-3 ship parts each day. Still, the bosses in this game gave me a lot of trouble and I'd still lose a lot of pikmin to stupid things like drowning or accidentally leading my blue and yellow pikmin into fire traps. But you live and learn, and this game was a welcome challenge that I was not expecting from something which such a fun and goofy atmosphere.

The fact that I bought this game in 2016 expecting something like Skyrim still makes me laugh to this day. Never played a Dark Souls or Fromsoftware game in my life and this was my introduction to the series, certainly was a real shakeup when the first boss took me over 10 hours to beat on its own. I dropped the game several times before I ended up beating it, but I'm so glad I saw it through. Dark Souls is one of my favorite series on this planet and no other game can match the atmosphere, world design, lore and combat that this brings to the table. Truly a game like no other and a fitting end to the series.

Fucking incredible. As someone whose introduction to the franchise was 7 I almost put it down because I was too used to the turn based fighting as opposed to the beat em up style of the prior games, but I'm so glad I saw it through to the end. The story is incredible, each chapter throws another twist and turn at you and watching the whole thing unfold kept me on my toes for the entire playthrough. I still wouldn't say I've mastered the fighting mechanics but I managed to beat the game so I'll say that's good enough haha. Great game, would recommend.

This was my introduction to the Yakuza/Like A Dragon series and I can honestly say it's both a great and terrible place to start. For one, it blew my socks off with the writing, gameplay and gags. Never have I played a game that manages to be completely absurd yet so interesting that I can't ever look away. I've never been much into turn based combat either but the difficulty this game provided even on normal kept me going, trying to do my best to beat every fight and get stronger after every loss. No spoilers either, but this game features a brand new protagonist in the franchise with a brand new story, so it's not really required to play the other Yakuza games in order to enjoy this one. However, the reason I say this might not be a great place to start is because going back to the beginning of the series after playing this one is a rough transition. I put off playing Yakuza 0 for so long because I just could not learn the combat well enough to consistently win fights without getting a serious beating. I've gotten a bit better now, and I'm sure this is mostly just a me-problem but it might just be something to keep in mind for those who are new to the series.

I'm pretty sure I actually started Portal 2 before Portal 1 but then paused midway through to play through Portal 1 because I had no clue who this damn talking potato was supposed to be. Anyways, really fantastic game that does a lot to expand on the already mysterious and fascinating world of Aperture Science the first game laid the foundation for. I really enjoyed getting to learn more about the background of the company and the characters within it while also being taunted and tortured by one of my favorite villains in the history of gaming.

In terms of gameplay, DOOM Eternal does everything DOOM 2016 did but 10x better. The gunplay is more satisfying, the increased amount of tools at your disposal allows you to play in a lot of different ways that you couldn't before. I sort of have a love/hate relationship with the story of this game though. I both like and dislike how much more fantastical they chose to make the storyline of this game, I enjoy being able to explore all of these different parts of the DOOM universe and take in all of the crazy environments and characters we're introduced to, but it is a stark contrast from the more desperate and terrifying atmosphere of DOOM 2016 and I really enjoyed nervously walking through the UAC hallways anticipating some giant beast to hop out and chase me down.