A pretty fun RTS with the kind of spontaneity and lack of caring about balance that made it very enjoyable and dynamic.

Although I've only played one playthrough of Deus Ex and only very recently, I still found it a very cool game with great writing and mechanics.

Played a lot of this when it came out. I just loved it. There was nothing else like it, although I wasn't much for using my imagination and developing my own style within the game and instead just focused on pursuing job promotions and belongings. My favourite method of playing was starting a house of 8 adults and struggling to get by until a few of them get promotions and then you get all the dough.

I played a lot of Diablo II in my day and like Blizzard's StarCraft, found its dark storyline to be very daunting for young me. Although looking back, there's a lot there I dislike, like how the Paladin and his melee attacks to be underpowered compared to the Sorceress or Amazon, but liked this one.

Although I like Final Fantasy VII a little more and think this game has serious problems, this was a refinement of the PSX-era Final Fantasy. Great world, great story, great graphics... I love the mechanics and the sidequests. The characters are strong and customization is interesting.

Paper Mario is the first game I can think of that really took the JRPG or turn-based RPG as a thesis and wondered what it could do with the concept. It feels like every system was considered in its development. No mechanic in its turn-based battles was assumed.

It's also just top-down great.

Probably the game I had played the most back when it was current. Countless hours spent fighting bots in multiplayer arenas with my siblings.

This also tempered the Rareware shooter formula of making compelling and varied missions with interesting objectives and interactivity, moreso than Goldeneye 007 before it.

Most importantly, this (along with the Animorph books I read when I was a kid) nurtured my love for sci-fi, specifically the kind of glossy, cyberpunky sci-fi that takes place on our world Earth but also involves aliens and stuff.

Although not a proper entry for my 2001 favourites, special mention goes to this expansion pack, which is pretty cool.

Oracle of Seasons (and Oracle of Ages, in spirit) appears on this list for being really solid Zelda titles and doing a cool interconnected game experience that I haven't seen elsewhere. Playing Seasons and then playing Ages after and having Zelda interact with the plot was pretty cool.

Only recently, as of early 2022, have I beat this game fully. Years ago (let's say around 2010) I got to Ganon but couldn't defeat him. This time around, I finished 'im.

Along the way, though, I had some playthroughs of these games go down in flames. I tried playing them years ago, around 2006, but got stuck on Ages' Jabu Jabu dungeon, thinking I softlocked myself. Something similar happened a few years ago (around 2015) where I got stuck on an early dungeon. Twice in my life has this happened where it seemed like I put myself in an impossible position and I'm going on GameFAQs to see if there's any kind of solution, not finding one, then giving up.

I can put these games behind me now.

Unfortunately, my love for Metal Gear has burnt out in the last ten years of replaying them and entering a new era of indie games where Kojima's auteurness didn't seem so great in retrospect. That said, this was still a great game when I played it about ten years after it was released. This game was psychedelic to me. It was so trippy and I wasn't sure what was real by the end of it. It's also very existential.

Special mention to the naked Raiden scene. Everyone was like, "Omigod lol, naked Raiden". Me? I was like, "Colonel's calling me to turn off the game and he needs scissors, I don't know what's real anymore, I'm scared"

The formula would be refined in later games but this first PS2 crime game was still a lot of fun. I could go back to it and have a good time.

The missions on this thing were insane, like that one where you have to scope out a bunch of stands around the island and once you hit one you have to hit them all before the timer goes out. Or that one where you have to drive a very fragile sports car from one side of the game to another. This is a game that pushed the challenge to its limits. I had to level up my playing skill to finish this one, and when I finally did, it was glorious!

This is another game where the jankiness gives the game it's mechanical language. Remember, there was no good third person aiming in this game, so you had to tackle challenges around that.

It's a mildly controversial opinion that I consider this the best Final Fantasy game (aside from Tactics). But to me, Final Fantasy X is everything coming together so well. The story, the gameplay, the themes, the music, the art, the world. This was the beginning of Final Fantasy having really involved post-games. Love it.

Although later games would refine on what this first one was doing, this game is still special in my heart. It got me into the franchise, after all. The ending captivated me and hooked me into the franchise longterm.

Now I am only familiar with the HD update released in 2015 and for that matter I never played the PSX original, but I had a good time with Resident Evil! I liked the strategy of knowing when to kill enemies versus letting them walk around. I loved explored the Spencer mansion! Barry? What a guy! You gotta love Barry! It was a good time, although carrying two items in your inventory to burn corpses was a pain.

Compared to GTA3, Vice City was way more accessible and entertaining. The world was more interesting and even now I still reminisce about all the good times I had with this title.

Where do I begin? The missions were great and unique. The writing was strong. The setting is inviting. The progression and arc of the plot is really good gamey stuff. The music, of course, is great. This might have been the tipping point where I got into old music. After hearing Gary Numan's "Cars" for the tenth time, how could I not be convinced to give old music a chance?

I played this game long after it came out. Close to a decade, in fact. Despite its vintage, I found it's pseudo-stealth platforming action to be very snappy and fun. Each world was really defined and fascinating. The bosses were strong. I had a great time 100%ing this title.

The reason why this is a favourite, though, the reason why it usurps Vice City for my favourite game of 2002 is how important this game was to me in my life. When you beat a level's time challenge, you get audio commentary on the level. I unlocked and listened to each commentary. Listening to these developers talk about their inspirations and craft was A) a reminder that the video game is an artform and development is a craft; B) a realization that I wanted to be part of that craft. It wasn't long after listening to those commentaries that I thought deeply about what I wanted to do with my video ambitions, and I made a change to seriously pursue video game creation.

It took me a few years to finally get around to this game but once I had, I enjoyed it a whole bunch. It's one of those titles that knows very well how to mix genres and create a multi-faceted experience that serves as an in-depth narrative.

On some level I think this game is mediocre. I've played so many RPGs and many of them do the same thing that this game did, but probably better.

What's impressive about Symphonia is how big the scope is without feeling overlong. It's such a big, chunky RPG. I respect that.

I played the HD version of this game and was impressed. This took the ball that AoE2 was carrying and ran with it. The ease of working with these RTS mechanics is fantastic and the campaigns are very involved and fun.

A very cool experimental game. In a way, it's the first traditional Final Fantasy in a while for having a class system. That hadn't been part of the franchise since the fifth game.

I love this game's optimism and poppiness. I love the open-ended nature of its world. It's got problems, like a lack of challenge for one, but it's so unique and I wish Square-Enix tackled something like this again.

I never played much Symphony of the Night back in the day. The Castlevania I first played was this one, and this is likely the best example of the Metroidvania branch of the franchise. The mechanics are snappy and the combat is great. This has a lot of mechanics that had been part of the franchise for a bit, but so much better.

One of the crunchiest RPGs I have ever played. A game so succulent it could easily place on my favourite JRPGs list. The mechanics are deep and satisfying. The customization is engaging and will swallow you whole. The journey is also very deep and I like the morality and pathing with the game's alignments.

I never played much Symphony of the Night back in the day. The Castlevania I first played was this one, and this is likely the best example of the Metroidvania branch of the franchise. The mechanics are snappy and the combat is great. This has a lot of mechanics that had been part of the franchise for a bit, but so much better.

Jak 3 is a weird beast. Every challenge has new mechanics and ideas to throw at you. The weird thing about it is that those ideas are never developed. You get a taste and then it's time to move on to some other new trick.

It was so much easier compared to Jak II but it still had a lot of spectacle.

The plot was weird though. At least Daxter got some pants.

Despite my perennial disappoints with some parts of this game, I can't say it didn't have an effect on me. Thinking about when it came out and when I played it, it's a pretty solid PS2 JRPG with real-time action combat. It was doing it a lot better than its sister series, the Tales games. It shares its composer with the Tales game as well and it really feels like he was allowed to let loose on this soundtrack because it is superb with some absolutely timeless classics like "Expiration" and "Rust Color".

The story has problems but the main plot of finding out Fayt's identity was thrilling. The later parts of the game at the Moonbase and Styx were memorable for the jump in difficulty of its enemy encounters. Combined that with the bleak atmosphere of Styx and you got one of the most memorable and desolate chapters of any JRPG from the PS2 era!

This is also a game that very overtly introduced me to the concept of a 'post-game'. While there were aspects of challenges meant to be harder than the final boss in games like Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XII, I don't think I ever got that far into them back when I played Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. And to be fair I didn't get to the end of the post-game. It involved beating some absolutely hadean superbosses. The fact I got as far as I did was impressive and it was the first time in my gaming career that I butted heads against a lot of bonus bosses with HP numbers with a lot of zeroes. They were intimidating like that but trekking through the Maze of Tribulations and especially the upper floors Sphere Tower felt like pressing against the edges of reality with fits into the game's themes of artificial worlds. It was a transcendent experience.

Although the original came out in 2003, this entry appears in the 2004 section because the version I played was the Director's Cut.

This game was the most involved narrative I had experienced so far in the medium. At least I think so. The game and the conversation around it helped me internalize the idea of video games as art.

Unfortunately, I'm a little sick of MGS nowadays so it won't rank to high in my list.

Paper Mario was already a game I loved but this game took the mechanics and imagination of the first and expanded on them. The world and graphics are improved and the writing is improved as well.

I especially love the party members. There's a strong cast here including Koops, who is a good boy, and Goombella, who is best girl.

It's just so damn cool this was made by a single developer back in 2004 and was such a personal expression of video game love. I played it a couple times over the years, and didn't get the true ending until recently, but it's still a game I treasure.

This game was a pretty successful refinement of the franchise, having more missions than ever and better controls than ever. This world is humongous but it's not just the size of the world, it's how full it is. I just loved wandering around this place and making my own fun. This is the game that made me truly fall in love with open-world environments.

Although not as good as Aria (that artstyle downgrade and inferior world map), it's still a very solid Metroidvania.

Age of Empires III might have bit off more than it could chew with its 3D graphics and the campaign stories are just not as good as previous (more historically accurate) entries in the franchise, but the improvements to the gameplay and decisions with design were really cool and hold up pretty well. I didn't play this one until years later and still found it a lot of fun.

Aside from playing a chunk of Tales of Phantasia through the fan translation, Legendia was my first experience with the franchise and I had a really good time with one. It's held in high regard in the fandom, but I liked the characters, and the story was pretty solid even if it's full of clichés (and if the main character doesn't choose best girl), and the music! This soundtrack was done by someone other than the series' mainstay composer and it's so much better than the norm for the franchise.

Not only was this the best Civilization so far, it was also helped with a lot of terrific mods. The improvements in this one were plenty and well-received but I can't remember specifics past the haze of mods.

When I first played this back in 2005/2006, it was both a joy and a disappointment. I connected with the characters deeper than I had in the game previous, but also felt like the plot was convoluted and absolutely hated how it treated the character of Roxas and other Nobodies.

This was also a game where I tried to max out my stats with grinding and there's nothing quite relaxing then spending hours farming materials for crafting.

The emotional bond I made with this game (especially the sadness of the opening chapter) kept me in the franchise for almost fifteen more.

I first played this after it came out on the PS2 and what more can be said? It's such an amazing and visceral action experience. What bad can I say about it? It goes on for too long, with the third act being a bit of drag. But the third act isn't even bad, it's still really good, just not as excellent as the first two acts. It could use a weapon quick select, too. It is easily one of the best games I've ever played.

I've played through this game at least a half dozen times, probably more. I've finished it on Professional difficulty. I've played it on multiple platforms. This is also a game where I broke out of my gaming instincts and tried different "builds", to use that term very liberally. I think throughout all my playthroughs I have mained every single gun. There are multiple pistols, shotguns, etc and each one of them I've devoted a playthrough to upgrading them and mastering them.

Just a plain ultimate JRPG. Turn-based combat, huge worlds, challenging dungeons, a myriad of bonus content to tackle, an engulfing story. I don't think there's a been a better world map in a JRPG. It's so good.

Although this game originally came out in the nineties, I give special mention to the Advance remake since it's script is pretty charming and is the canonical version of the story for me.

Not as good as the Soma duology of Castlevania games, but still a height in terms of Metroidvanias.

Maybe the formula was wearing on me, but as much as I enjoyed this game, I didn't like it as much as San Andreas or Vice City. The mission design seemed a little weaker, as did the story (although it had its moments). The music didn't seem as standout although it still had a strong mood and had a good selection of tracks.

My first Disgaea game, and while I never got that deep into the post-game, I got deep enough to appreciate how the designers set up their game of numbers. There's something very fascinating about how the Disgaea games scale their power levels.

While I've heard the original is better in this regard, I fell in love with Disgaea 2's story and writing. The cultural references were pretty fresh at time, both in terms of what they were referencing and having referential humour at all. It gave the game an off-the-wall pizzazz to it.

This game has its flaws but exploring the world of Ivalice and getting caught up in this huge political drama about an invading empire and the questions that it raises for its characters. I love the dungeon crawling and the combat although the PS2 was showing its limits with the game. The character building is a lot of fun and the post-game is so cool. Did I ever get far in it? Not really. But it's cool.

This is a game I can really seep in the atmosphere and world-building. It's a place I want to be.

This bizarre Knytt Stories mod is 5 minutes of inspired joke-telling and surrealism.

This one's a remake so it starts it out for 2007 and this was released (in Japan) in the bitter end of 2007.

I never played much of the NES version, but this DS rendition of the classic JRPG is a great update. It looks good, plays good, and for its simplicity, there's a lot of strategy. I had a lot of fun going down this narrative.

More proof that you don't need to complete a game to love it. Don't get me wrong, I got close to the end of this game but never beat it. I had played enough, though, to appreciate its desolate atmosphere and rigid mechanics.

It's hard to talk about the Mass Effect games without talking about the trilogy but this first game was really cool. Citadel was nice, the music was great, and I liked how it harkened back to an earlier kind of RPG with all of its different mechanics.

I like these kinds of shooters where the levels are interconnected, there's upgrades and loadouts. It's so much fun!

Replayed this one and got drawn into the atmosphere and plot beats. Maybe the gamefeel hasn't aged well but I enjoyed myself.

This is the game that got me to pay attention to the Persona franchise although it would be a long time before I got around to playing it. Back in 2006ish this game sounded so cool. Mixing a social life with an RPG? It sounded neat and it turns out, it was neat.

I played the fourth game before getting around to this one, but this one still surprised me with its bleakness and tone. At times the dry atmosphere was intriguing and at other times it just felt melodramatic and unnecessary. They would temper out the story tone in subsequent Persona games.

The game was really hard, though. Not being able to control party members was a bummer and that final boss was gruesome. Someday I will have to play the PSP remake.

Maybe the first time where I paid attention to a game's style with TWEWY's snazzy modern look and attitude. I loved the combat and how you develop your characters. I got DEDICATED into doing the post-game and maxing out my stats. Great music.

To start out 2008, a remake, even if it wouldn't be released in the western world until 2009.

I had played a fair bit of the SNES version of DQ5 and loved that for its scope so when this DS version came out, I was happy to pick it up. The new features are great and I was happy to finally finish this epic story.

Not as refined as RTSes I had played before, but still a campaign I really enjoyed especially with the hammy performances of so many actors. I don't think it would be worth it to play this game again but the one takeaway I got from this game is "Red Storm Over Brighton Beach" is a pretty great battle theme.

This game is maligned for a lot of reasons. I liked it's very gritty story and atmosphere. This world, at the time, felt SO real. I was drawn in even if so many other aspects of the game fell short for in hindsight. The driving mechanics were too realistic. The missions weren't varied and there wasn't a lot of side content to do, at least as far as I know. It's a narrative game for me and it left an impression.

The feel of the shooting gameplay was very good though.

There's a lot about this game I don't like but in terms of being the closing chapter of a character that I loved dearly, it works so well. Those closing cutscenes get me to tear up without fail.

It's also a touchstone for where video games as art were back in 2008.

The writing is very weak but exploring this 3D world was a lot of fun and so new and fresh when I played it back in 2009ish. I have a strong memory of first leaving the first vault and looking across the world and just being blown away with it. 'That's a whole location for me to explore' I thought. And I was correct!

Was this world full of anything terribly interesting? Not very often. I am one of those New Vegas dorks that like that game so much more.

I can't deny how blown away I was with this game when I first played it. Even now, I could play it again and probably enjoy it quite a bit.

I got so lucky with this game. I went into an EB Games looking for it and just as I left, another customer came in and returned their copy.

This was pretty much everything I wanted it to be. A groovy story with lots of heart but also cool TV dimensions and intrigue.

This is a crisp throwback to the NES era of Mega Man games. I like the narrow focus in this game compared to later era titles. The level design, challenge, and music are top notch.

Valkyria Chronicles' twist on the turn-based tactics formula is very inspired and holds up pretty well. I love the fantastical take on World War II, even if I'm a little tired of representations of the holocaust.

Some people hate how operative (or 'anime') the story is but I think it works. It's an over-the-top story, but it hits those notes well.

I've made the joke that Plants vs Zombies is the best game ever made. I mean it's pretty much perfect. It's snappy and just the right length that mixes up surprises when it needs to.

I won't deny this game is bad but I love the combat so much and the linearity emphasizes that aspect the most. I also love the post-game challenges. Glad to have the platinum trophy on PSN. The music is also awesome.

One of the best RPGs on the DS and a great successor to Nocturne. I love this old school dungeon crawler for its crunchy mechanics and powerful atmosphere. I've never beat because that final boss might be the Hardest Final Boss, but I can appreciate all the same.

This game took a little bit to get into. I was told it was an RPG. It is, but I was expecting something different.

I plucked this game on and off for a little while, at one time forgetting how to actually go into the levels, and slowly got my teeth into it. Progress was slow and frustrating. It's a hard game, and I was familiar with hard games but I guess this one was the first one in awhile that I was willing to put my heart into. I played this game without internet, isolated in the middle of the Ontario countryside. There was no looking up guides for when things were confusing.

This was the first time since Jak II/GTA 3 that I had to game up my playing skill. It has been a long time since I felt so overwhelmingly challenged.

There were times when I was really roadblocked and was not making progress, but once I started to finish a few worlds, the momentum changed and I was certain that I would finish the game! When I got credits, I was blown away with myself. I might appreciate game more than Dark Souls, to be honest, even if I think that game is better. This is a game that made me a better player though.