Most Personally Memorable/Favourite Games (1 – 10)

10: Fatal Frame: This game contains my favourite female character ever and maybe my favourite character ever, and the game was very creepy and had the perfect atmosphere for the sort of game it was trying to be. So after talking about it recently, what more do I have to say? Well, how about why it’s only 10th on the list. The reason? It’s fairly short, and sometimes it’s too hard to solve its puzzles without a FAQ. But considering the strength of the games that are left on the list, that’s enough for it to only come in at number 10.

9: City of Heroes: My favourite MMO. Classes played differently enough to allow for my altitis, especially combined with the mass of character customization options. The early levels weren’t boring, and the game did play reasonably well solo at least at low levels. Task forces were amazing additions and some of the most fun I had in the game … and that was even with me playing with other people. The Hallowe’en events were really cool. I was really, really sad to see this one go.

8: Star Wars: Rebellion: I’ve talked about this game here, and again there isn’t much more to say about it.

7: Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom: An interactive movie attached to a flight simulator, true, but it’s a good one. It examines a number of deep issues, I like a lot of the characters, and the choices are actually big ones and ones that you can indeed role play a bit. But the very best thing about this game is how it ends and how you win the game: not in the cockpit, but on the Senate floor. You have to win a debate against the man behind the latest war and who wants to remake humanity stronger, faster and better, with or without their consent. This is a game that embraces its interactive movie component as much as it does its flight sim component … and the PS1 version has an invincible mode so that I could, indeed, actually finish it.

6: Romance of the Three Kingdoms VIII: This is a strategy game where you aren’t a nameless and faceless leader, but are a person who gets hired to lead armies. You can get married. You make friends. You get promoted. You play politics. You do more things day to day using your skills than leading armies. One of my most memorable moments was when I played a character that was the son of another general. I was working for one city, and my father was working for a city that they wanted to invade. They asked me to go and do something dishonourable using that relationship. I told them no and quit, and moved away from the battle altogether. Remember, this was in a strategy game, not an RPG, and it followed from the actual events in the game. That moment solidified this as one of my favourite games ever.

5: Hardball 5: Now, you might be wondering how a sports game got up this high on the list, when no other sports games even made the list. The reason is that this was the perfect sports game for me. When I created my own personal roster of players and made them great — but still great for certain roles — and played this on the default difficulty, I pretty much won every game, but they were pretty much all close games. I didn’t blow them out 15 – 0 very often, like I do in MLB 07 The Show. And that’s what I want out of a sports game: to win but to have it be close. I’d rather take a blowout win than a close loss if that’s what happens in most of the games I play. And this game did it without trying, and no game in no sport that I’ve tried has even come close.

4: Knights of the Old Republic: This game captures the Star Wars feel and has interesting characters to boot. You get to play as a Jedi. The story is interesting. The combat system works and is cool. Really, what can I say about this game? It may seem a little clunky now, but it’s still an interesting game.

3: Suikoden III: The tri-view system is an amazing way to tell the story. The characters are great. The story is great. You can actually get the stars without an insane amount of trouble, although the reward for that is a bit slim. The battles are done well and even involve some strategy. It’s not quite as addictive as the Personas, but it’s definitely an excellent RPG.

2: Persona 4: And my top two games are games in the same series that are, in fact, both about equally good. This is the one where the dungeons mean something, but where the S-links mean less. This is the game that got me to buy a Vita, for the Golden version. And yet at the end of the day, it sits just a wee bit behind Persona 3 for one main reason …

1: Persona 3: This one gets the nod for my best game ever over Persona 4 because … it started my love for this series. I bought it, put it aside for a few months, and then decided to try it on a long Christmas vacation. I loved it so much that when it ended I immediately started over, which I never do for games that don’t have a different story or let you take a different path with a different character. This was a very linear game, but the story was strong and the S-links were amazing. This is the game that also started me down the path of looking for games with dating sim options, and for me this is a true RPG in the sense that I get to decide who my friends are and how I live my life and, through that, what kind of person I am, while still remaining in a world where I have a power and have to save it. This is my favourite game ever.

Tags: Most Memorable Games