My favorite game of all time is, no doubt at all in my mind, Final Fantasy IX. Everything about that game is beautiful

My favorite game of all time is, no doubt at all in my mind, Final Fantasy IX. Everything about that game is beautiful

Played it a few years back in an effort to actually complete some FF games and I loved it!
If I had to pick a game that meant the most to me, probably NASCAR Dirt to Daytona for PS2. It was mindblowing as the first professional racing game with a deep career mode where you started off at the grassroots level in dirt racing and made your way up into modifieds, the Truck series, and then finally the top level of NASCAR. There was so much depth to improve your cars at each level and being able to race in multiple series at one time as you built your way up and managing sponsors, I could just devote countless hours into it every time I started a new career.
The EA Sports NASCAR games were more popular, looked a lot nicer, had more side features and they’d eventually ape and expand upon the career mode, but they just never had the same replay-ability for me.
my “home” is the casual-competitive pc multiplayer fps. for that sort of game, nothing hits me like quake 2. there are games with specific traits that i like more, games in that space i think are overall “better,” all that jazz, but quake 2’s specific combination of weird, highly vertical movement exploits & a slightly quirky arsenal (the multiple tiers of shotgun & grenade, the slow (compared to other quake games) rockets, the highly committal chaingun, the railgun that would be completely overpowered if not for the poor netcode & ever-so-tiny delay on firing it) are absolutely perfect for me, specifically, for casual play. and that’s not even mentioning ACTION QUAKE 2, the best multiplayer mod ever made (cs suxx0rz!!!). though i guess i’d rather duel in quake champions, which might say something about me.
but for a singleplayer game, and something that doesn’t require watching youtube tutorials for glitches to ~see the beauty~, the first thing i think of as a “favorite” is mushihimesama. i used to love all those big open systemic western-style roleplaying games (the peak of which i consider to be elder scrolls 2 & 3), but i’ve soured on them for many reasons - dislike of power fantasy & rng mechanics (both on moral & aesthetic levels), labor rights violations, lack of designer focus in favor of Making The Holodeck, employment eating up my free time, &c. that void has been filled by lean, focus arcade action games, especially scrolling shooters. mushi is very mechanically stripped down, has lots of very fun encounter & pattern design (even including the underbaked & frustrating 3rd stage), & is a visual treat.
The World Ends With You
One of the few games I can genuinely say changed my life. I played it at the tail end of my high school years and the themes and messages about personal growth and communication helped me start coming out of my shell I built around myself for many, many reasons I’m still trying to emotionally sort through today. Fantastic cast and music, inventive and fun gameplay, just an all around all timer that can only truly be enjoyed as it was meant to on the DS. I had a thorny period relating to Nomura because all of his additions in ports and sequels frustrated me, it meant that much to me on a personal level.
And as a hot take I am embarrassed about because there is no getting around the unrestrained edginess of the game’s writer and director (especially in Goodbye Deponia), Deponia Doomsday might be my second favorite, and the worst part is it really only hits if you play the trilogy before it - which I cannot recommend to anyone due to the aforementioned edginess (which includes transphobia, racism, and some gross sex stuff in the third game that makes my skin crawl). Even Doomsday still had two truly inexcusable bits that drag down its quality significantly (more transphobia and racism, UGH).
But that game made me sob like a baby. It made me care about Rufus, one of the most purposefully unlikable chodes in the history of video game protagonists. The meta commentary about fandom obsession stretching out into genuine heartfelt, melancholy musings about the inevitability of the end of all things (relationships, the world, your own life, ect) just ripped my heart out and stomped on it by the end, and there’s some genuinely really clever writing mixed in, with satire that hits the mark. If Michaelis could just stop being an edgy shit for one of these Deponia games, I would be singing the praises of this point and click every single year.
I heard about this game a year ago. Someone described as a fever dream, something you thought you’ve played but maybe it was just a dream. The game is really amazing
This game is SOOOOO good. Moreso the original DS version than the Switch or mobile phone remake, because they remove the top screen gameplay and I really enjoyed the complexity of TWEWY’s combat.
I have yet to play the sequel ![]()
I am glad the ports exist for people lacking the hardware, but yeah, it’s nowhere near the same. At least it’s better than 999 ports, which just sort of cut out the puzzles entirely.
My favourite is Pokémon Silver. It has so much sentimental value despite its flaws.
Omg I just finished this a few weeks ago and it’s probably the best game I’ve ever played.
RIGHT?!?!?? My favorite in the whole series ![]()
TWEWY is a masterpiece. Probably in my Top 10.
I’ve got a nice Neku statue on my bookshelf. ![]()
I’ve kinda stopped thinking of things of favorites as a whole but the exceptions are the things that are like now part of me. For videogames that’s gonna be VA-11 Hall-A. Played it at a time in my life where I had a lot of parallels to the main character’s life (if not directly, then comparable) so it is always there with me and sometimes I’ll go back even if it hurts.
I should really go through this game again, it’s one of those things that I know has had quite an impact on me but I haven’t dared touching it in ages.
Don’t worry, same. It’s uncomfortable but catharsis comes in all shapes and sizes and helping Jill work through it at least reminded me it was possible on my end.
my favorite game is unfortunately thief the dark project, which means i’m forced to watch everyone else suck ass at it for the rest of my life. haha
Gunstar Heroes is my go-to answer for “favorite game of all time“, even if I didn’t play it until it appeared on the Wii Virtual Console. The sheer amount of bosses, the variety of weapons, the great art style, the speed, and the cool ideas throughout.
I did play a bit of Chibi-Robo when it appeared on NSO, knew it was going to be good because one of the directors also directed Moon: Remix RPG Adventure, another really neat experience that I played for a little bit that I really need to play through someday (along with Stray Children). Yeah, it’s very good!
Played Gunstar Heroes not too long ago for the first time and it was so cool!
Gunstar Heroes is super fun! I tend to forget about it and then randomly turn it on every few years for a couple fun hours.
Gunstar Heroes fucks so hard. The ability to combine weapons is so smart, and the movement feels great. Excellent fucking game ![]()