Simply said, a list of games I love and why I enjoy them so much. This list spans any games I’ve played throughout my life, not just recent titles. Since there are so many games I enjoy, I will loosely bisect the list into “games I still have a large interest in today” and “notable mentions / games I loved but no longer spend time playing or thinking about as much.”
Legend of Dragoon
I can’t start this list with any other title. Although Legend of Dragoon is not my highest-rated game, it is my “forever” game. Just the right circumstances lined up for this game to leave a massive impression on me as a child. It became a title I revisited constantly despite its flaws. In particular, the game was built on the idea of cinema and immersion; and the other elements came together well enough that my 11-year-old self was hooked. LoD became my first “favorite” game, and it was only the second RPG I had played after generation-1 Pokémon.
Things I love:
- Interactive combo attacks.
- Great balance of mystery and layer-peeling in the story.
- Backstory (Dragon Campaign era, Soa’s mystery organization).
- Unorthodox designs for Dragons.
- Multiple uses of dimensional magic despite being disregarded in the story.
- Devs moved away from anime art style in favor of realism (but more saturated color), giving LoD its own distinct appearance.