My Top 10 Video Games of the 2010s

Unthinkably, I have returned to this blog! It has been… a while, eh? Anyway, I feel like talking about nerdy stuff. So for the past few months I’ve been thinking about video games. Well, okay, let’s face it: I’m always thinking about video games. I do like to play them a lot, even if I don’t play a lot of them! And because lists are always so enjoyable to make (at least for me, who is obsessed with ordering things), I figured I’d make a list of my Top 10 favorite games of the last decade, the 2010s! Why? Because I wanted to, so why not!

Now, some ground rules. First of all, the games listed here will be those that came out between the years 2011 to 2020. Why? Because that’s the actual 2010s of course! Decades go from 1 to 10, not 0 to 9 (there wasn’t a year 0, after all), just as centuries go from 1 to 100. I know that might seem counterintuitive, but that’s math for ya! Another point: I’m only putting one game per series/franchise on this list, for the sake of variety which I think makes it more enjoyable to go through anyway. And finally, because this is The Internet and this bears saying: this is purely my opinion and based mostly on my enjoyment of these games. My experience with them might have been different to yours, and that’s okay! It’s perfectly fine if you don’t like some or all of these games for one reason or another, but in the same vein it’s perfectly fine for me to like them for my own personal reasons.

Right, now that that’s out of the way, I’d like to begin by mentioning several games that I haven’t gotten around to playing yet, but probably could have made the list (based on what I know of them or my past experiences with their developers). These include:

• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017)
• Hades (2020)
• God of War (2018)
• Any of FromSoftware’s games (Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro)
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015)
• Cuphead (2017)

And of course, a few honorable mentions for games I have played and did enjoy, but for one reason or another didn’t quite crack my Top 10 (they probably could make a Top 20, though):

• Marvel’s Spider-Man (2018): I really liked this game and its DLCs, and Spider-Man is my favorite superhero ever, and Insomniac makes very good games (this one included). I just felt like there was a certain something that was missing, something to give it that oomph. I don’t know what that is exactly, though. The voice acting was top-notch though, especially for Doc Ock, and Black Cat’s design is absolute perfection, and the ending was executed excellently. The combat and traversal were also done well, if nothing special as I had hoped it would be. I do sincerely wish the sequel manages to capture whatever it was that I felt was missing from the original game (at the time of writing this, I have not played the Miles Morales game).
  
  
  
• Horizon Zero Dawn (2017): Ah, this game. A good friend of mine loved this game and really wanted me to play it and so I did. And you know what? It was wonderful, with a very unique take on old tropes managing to make familiar plot points feel fresh. The gameplay was satisfying too, feeling (in my opinion) like a simplified version of Monster Hunter. And it also helped me reconnect with a good friend from university as we used to play it at around the same times! It’s not without its flaws though; some of the character writing rubbed me the wrong way and it just didn’t quite give me that feeling which would’ve pushed it to my Top 10. It does however make me super excited to explore the world more! A phenomenal new IP with sky-high potential.
  
  
  
• Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker’s Memory (2017/2018): I’m a humongous fan of the Digimon mega-franchise, and that includes its video games. The Cyber Sleuth games gave me some of the best feelings playing a Digimon game I have ever felt, especially the second game, Hacker's Memory. The writing is hilarious, the use of the meta-lore was satisfying to a longtime fan, and the character designs are wonderful (even if the fanservice is overused). It was missing one huge part for me though, and that’s an actual trip to the actual Digital World itself! Most of the game is spent in either the Real World or a manmade virtual space that acts as an in-between dimension between the Real World and the Digital World and as I’ve always enjoyed exploring the different games’ takes on the Digital World, this was a sorely disappointing fact. Still, great games for Digimon fans though!
  
  
  
• Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age (2017/2019): Okay, so I played the Switch version, which came out in 2019 (which is why I listed the 2019 year) but turns out it came out in Japan all the way back in 2017?! On the 3DS?! Wild. Anyway, the only reason why this is an honorable mention is that at the time of writing, I haven’t yet finished the game. But I am having so much fun with it, already loving it to all its bits (and mine!), and whenever I get around to finishing the game it will almost definitely earn a spot somewhere on the list. But as of right now, I can’t in good faith put it on my Top 10.

Alright, with the could-haves and the honorable mentions out of the way, let’s get cracking with my actual List of My 10 Favorite Video Games Released Between the Years of 2011 and 2020! (boy, that sure doesn’t roll off the tongue very well, does it?)

10) Monster Hunter: World (2018)

 

Right, you remember how I said earlier that I enjoyed Horizon Zero Dawn’s gameplay because it felt reminiscent of Monster Hunter to me? Yeah, well, I am a fan of this Capcom franchise and World was, at first, an odd re-adjusting experience because it felt so new and, in some ways, unfamiliar to me. But as I got more used to it, the more I found it to be incredibly enjoyable and ultimately I really appreciated all the quality of life upgrades they’ve implemented to the game. I loved the new biomes we got to see (my favorite being the Coral Highlands), I am a big fan of the implementation of having to track and research monsters and presenting them as active agents in their respective environments (even if sometimes they can come across as surface-level), and some of my favorite new monster designs come from this game (the Anjanath and Legiana in particular stand out). Overall it was probably the most fun I’ve had playing a Monster Hunter game (before this I had only played the first game on the PS2 and Freedom Unite on the PSP). I did have a terrible experience with the game at one point (damn desire censor!), but I acknowledge it wasn’t really the game’s fault. Still, I was mad at it for a few months and stopped playing during that time… which made the comeback more exciting!

Speaking of coming back, I play this game on and off and on and off, and it really works! It’s such a nice and easy game to pick up and drop now and again, and if you just wanted to play it for a short bit, you absolutely can! I realize that’s true for basically all Monster Hunter games, but it’s still a plus for World! As well, I found that this game is the perfect game to play while listening to podcasts or even watching a non-demanding YouTube video, both of which are activities I do more often than I care to have you realize. Since the game is (perhaps oddly, for such an action-heavy game) not very demanding, I find it on some level relaxing to just go in and bash some oversized monsters while catching up on my favorite podcasts.

As a (really big) bonus, this was the game that me and my two BFFs from university came to play together. We had constantly agreed to play this game or that game together, but we never did; for some reason Monster Hunter: World was what we ended up playing together and we still do to this day! As someone who generally plays offline single-player games, it’s an absolute blast of an experience and I have this game to thank. So I had to put it on the list!

9) Gravity Rush 2 (2017)

 

One word describes how I feel about the Gravity Rush series: adore. As in, I adore them so much. They’ve got so much charm and character to them that I couldn’t help but adore them! Now they’re not perfect games, and it takes a certain level of willing suspension of disbelief to just… accept the weirdness of the world of Gravity Rush, but if you can do it like I was able to, I think you’re in for a wild ride! Let’s talk about that most unique point though: the gravity control system, which allows the player to traverse the world in such a different (and dizzying!) way than one is probably used to from other games! The way it works is basically it allows you to float mid-air and then control where you fall (at varying velocities), which I feel was a fantastic presentation of how going zero-gravity can be disorienting for us regular folk, and I enjoyed every second of it. The system controlled very smoothly for my tastes; I never got frustrated at what had the potential to be very frustrating, and the power upgrades you get in the second game made sense and only improved what was already great in my opinion.

I’ve already mentioned the world, which is bizarre and whimsical and definitely not for people who like every fantastical aspect of the world explained to them. It’s weird and it never really explains why it’s weird; you just gotta roll with it. Then there are the characters, and really two merit special mention here: Kat the protagonist (i.e. who you play as) and Raven, her best frenemy rival figure. I tell ya, Kat is such a lovable airhead (she’s the ‘dumb blonde’ played charmingly straight) that I couldn’t help but… well, adore her. She’s an airy character with a good soul and the kind of person I would shake my head at for how innocent and naïve she can be at times, while also making me smile for how moral she is. If she were a big beefy dude she would definitely be a himbo. And Raven… boy, there are parts of the game where playing as a badass gravity queen really woman-empowered me, and I’m a man! Those parts are especially amplified with Raven, the cool and silent type to contrast Kat’s cheery talkativeness, with moments between the two that just make me go, “Yass girlfriend, slay queen slay!”

…I regret nothing.

Anyway, I love these games, and the second game was one of those sequels that (to me) felt like it took everything from the first game and made them bigger and, more importantly, better. Like I said, the gameplay mechanics are tweaked and improved upon in Gravity Rush 2, and the world itself is like three times larger or something! I see it as: more to explore in a gravity-controlling game = an absolute win! How could it not crack my Top 10? Both of these games are on the PS4, so if you have access to one you should totally give them a go!

8) Crash Team Racing: Nitro-fueled (2019)

 

Another franchise I’ve been a long-time fan of is the Crash Bandicoot series, specifically the first four games (i.e. the games made by the original developer, Naughty Dog). When the first three games were remade for the current-gen as the N. Sane Trilogy, I was very happy as I had missed those games so much; Crash Bandicoot: Warped especially was a large part of my childhood gaming experience. So was the kart racing spinoff Crash Team Racing, as I used to play that a lot with my brother and late father and even my cousins. So you can guess at my excitement when a remake was announced; it was through the roof because I had played and absolutely loved the N. Sane Trilogy, and when Nitro-fueled came out? Bro. How surprised I was that NF not only remade the original CTR but also added all the tracks from the second racing game in the franchise, Crash Nitro Kart! I never played that game as the only non-Naughty Dog Crash game I had played was Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex on the PS2, so this was like getting to re-experience one of my childhood favorites alongside a brand-new game, all in one beautiful package!

And the finished product was no slouch either! It controlled and sounded very, very well and made me fall in love with CTR more than the original game did, because now as an adult I actually understood how to be, yanno… good at the game! Well, maybe not good, but at least decent. And seriously, I have this game to thank for pushing me because not only were the developers for this remake (Beenox, praise them!) very active in the community, but they put challenges in the game that really made me push my own skills in order to meet them. The biggest of these challenges were the ever-feared Dev Times, where you have to attempt to beat the devs literally at their own game: the developers put in their best times in the game and you can actually attempt to race them to see if you can do better. And hoo boy, these are hard y’all. As a frame of reference: most of them are only a few seconds off from the world records. I actually haven’t beaten any of the dev times so far, but you need to beat lesser challenges in order to unlock them first anyway and opening the prospect of challenging the devs alone was an exhilarating experience that really stoked the fires of healthy competition in me. I love it when games do that.

I would also be remiss if I didn’t point out that for about a year or so, Beenox kept putting out monthly new content, for free. Each month would come with a brand-spankin’ new track (Beenox originals, you could say), some fun decorations, and perhaps most importantly to long-time fans of the franchise: the addition of new playable characters from all across the Crash franchise (and even a few from its sister series, Spyro the Dragon)! That means that whatever part of the franchise you were a fan of, there’s something in here to please you, and I will always love it for that. Not to mention the absolute joy in the constant wave of speculation as to which character would be making their way in the next update, not unlike what the Super Smash Bros. fandom goes through on the regular. So yeah, Crash Team Racing: Nitro-fueled is certainly my new gold standard for video game remakes, so I knew it had to make this list.

7) Celeste (2018)

 

If you’ve played a lot of games, I’m sure you must’ve come across one or two that had a noticeable positive impact on your mental health. For me, that game is Celeste. Going into it I didn’t really know what I was getting into; all I knew about it at the time was that it was a 2D platformer and one of the most beloved games of its year. I got it on my Switch at one point and decided, hey, it’s been a while since I played a 2D platformer; why not give this a go? It’ll be fun, right?

Ow.

Celeste lived up to its reputation of being a brutally difficult platformer, alright. But with its brutality also came something I didn’t expect: a welcoming invite to the challenge. See, the game is centered around the protagonist Madeline as she tries to climb the imposing Mt. Celeste on a quest of proving a point to herself and facing her own inner doubts and insecurities; the platforming comes in through the act of climbing the mountain, which is such a wonderfully intuitive way to incorporate gameplay into the story and its themes. Of course, you play as Madeline trying to conquer this mad mountain, but in the process of all the platforming, you – yes, you, the player – are being equally challenged. At least I felt like it, and so in some way I felt like I was really in Madeline’s shoes. Her failures were all mine. Her falls were all mine. Her struggles were all mine. And at some point through the game, her uncertainties became mine. Her fears became mine. Her doubts became mine.

And when we reached Mt. Celeste’s peak together, shone upon by a rising sun, her victories were all mine.

And that, friends, is how this charming little game managed to positively impact my mental health: it helped give me the strength to power through my own inner demons. If Madeline can do it, why couldn’t I? After all, Madeline was me; it was me who failed through all that platforming hell and at the end of it all, it was me who succeeded. I never gave up no matter how difficult it got at times, and it got maddeningly difficult. And I haven’t even played the epilogue yet! I’m not that good, but hey, I want to. Much like Crash Team Racing: Nitro-fueled, Celeste pushed me in all the right ways. And let’s not tone down the cast of characters here either, for Madeline is a very lovable little lass and I will not a hear a single slanderous word against my boy Theo either. The music was energetic and at times frenetic, perhaps fitting in with what is going on in the levels (or even in your head) at any given moment, and I’m a sucker for those retro chirpy sounds the characters make when talking to one another.

All in all, I never expected to have this little indie platformer as my favorite game of 2018, especially when games like Monster Hunter, Digimon, and Spider-Man were released in the same year. But… here we are. Thanks a bunch, Celeste! (Screw your strawberries, though.)

6) Hollow Knight (2017)

Speaking of indie games, let’s get into one of my most beloved indie games of all time now! Apparently I’m a glutton for difficult platformers, because if Celeste was brutal, Hollow Knight was positive death. For real: there are so many deaths in this game it literally throws you into a dark and depressing pit of despair at one point. If you don’t know, Hollow Knight is a classic-style Metroidvania in the miniscule world of insects, with some dark fantasy elements and storytelling techniques not at all out of place in something like Dark Souls, I'd imagine. Its visuals are downright artistic and its music is simply soothing. Like, I listen to a lot of good music in video games but there's just something special about HK’s soundtrack that speaks to my soul, much in the same way Yoko Shimomura’s compositions do. The theme tune that plays over the main menu? You might as well just make me cry in lonely silence.

Unlike Celeste, I knew I wanted to get into Hollow Knight. I had heard a lot about it, seen still images, and knew I would love it. But I didn’t quite so much fall in love as I was teleported instantly down, because this game and I? We hit it off right away. To showcase how much I loved it: I got the Voidheart edition of the game for free on my PS4 courtesy of the PS Plus program (thanks, Sony!), and before I had even finished my first playthrough I felt immense guilt for not having paid any money towards having this game. So now I plan on buying a digital copy for my Switch (oh, also I bought the soundtrack on Steam. I never buy video game soundtracks!) just to repent for my sin because HOLY KNIGHT does this game deserve all of that, and more. Speaking of my first playthrough, the first few hours gave me that special feeling great games give you plenty of: I don’t want to sleep, I want to play more of this game. Seriously, HK did my already-broken sleep schedule no favors because it really put me in that mindset of ‘just one more level’. Well, the game didn’t really have levels, but the world was just so positively immense and there were so many damn secrets everywhere that I couldn’t put it down. I find that as you grow up, fewer and fewer games make you feel like that, so I am extremely thankful to HK for keeping my faith in video games alive.

Also, the story and just the general writing for this game is so wonderfully intriguing. And sad. Well, maybe ‘bittersweet’ is a more apt description because you could find happiness here and there, but there is a pervasive sense of loss and melancholy everywhere that you can’t help but feel sad for these little bug-eyed buggies. Literal buggies, some cuter than others and some creepier. Way creepier. At the same time, the game knows when to throw some humor at you (and not just dark humor!) so that it never falls too far into that pit. And the combat gets so incredibly tough and tiring at times that I have raged so much at this game when I’m playing it normally, the same level of rage that I normally reserve for when I’m doing stupidly hard challenges in other games. Yyyyyeah. But don’t let that deter you from one of the best games of the decade; if nothing else, give it a go for the story, visuals, and music!

5) Pokémon Sun/Pokémon Moon (2016)

Now we’re getting to some old favorites. If two pop culture franchises define me as a person, one would be Digimon as I mentioned previously. Pokémon is the other one. Yes, as it turns out you can be an equally-devoted fan of both franchises, surprise! Anyway, Pokémon is my number one video game franchise of all time – the core series is, anyway – so of course one (set) of them had to make an appearance here somewhere and it was a relative no-brainer to pick which one: Sun/Moon. If you’re a gamer and somehow aren’t aware of how Pokémon games work: these are basically the same game. It’s not two different games in the same spot, even if it is one game for the price of two…

Where was I? Right, Pokémon. Lemme tell ya: my favorite Pokémon games of all time are the Gen III games, Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald. In fact those games are some of my all-time favorite games, period; they would definitely appear on my Top 10 Games of All Time list. While SM probably wouldn’t, they did do the unthinkable: come very close to toppling RSE as my favorite Pokémon games while I was going through my first playthrough of Pokémon Sun. And that’s no mean feat as RSE has the added advantage of nostalgia, being a major part of my childhood. The feeling did eventually dissipate and SM has a major flaw in that infamously slow first hour or so of the game, but for it to manage to even give me feelings of going through RSE for the first time again, that alone lands it on my list. To me, as someone who overthinks Pokémon on a regular basis, SM stands out as the game where Game Freak (the developer for the core series Pokémon games) absolutely knew what they wanted to do, and did it. Whether or not they did it well is for you to decide; for me, well I think you know the answer to that.

Another thing I loved about SM was its unique little attempt at breaking away from formula… while also sticking to the formula? It’s kinda weird; Game Freak does have a bit of a history of doing that (see: Black/White’s design principle) but here it worked well; they struck a fun balance between a feeling of familiarity and of freshness. I also loved the Alola region the games were set in; I’m from the tropics so is it any surprise my two favorite Pokémon games are the ones set in tropical island settings? Then there’s also the Pokémon designs themselves, which in my opinion is an improvement from their immediate predecessors XY and fit very well with Alola’s general aesthetics (without being overly-stereotypical). And the designs for the Trainers are almost iconic (especially the likes of Kukui, Mallow, Guzma, and, oh yeah, Lusamine); sure, their successors Sword/Shield kinda outdid Sun/Moon in that area, but SM’s Trainer designs are still leagues above XY’s in my opinion. Ultimately, Pokémon Sun/Moon gave me damn near everything I wanted from a new core series Pokémon game, so it’s a shoe-in for the list.

4) The Last of Us: Part II (2020)

Now we come to inarguably the most controversial entry on the list, because how dare I… put something from 2020 on a list of the best games of the 2010s?! If you are one of the people who currently think that, I kindly point you the ground rules we established earlier.

Okay, in all seriousness: Part II? That dumpster fire of a game? Why, yes actually. We all know how divisive this game was and I get it, for the most part I get why it would divide people and the fanbase (heck, even Naughty Dog themselves expected it to!), and, well, I am on the part that loved it. Absolutely LOVED it, way more than the first game. I actually really liked The Last of Us, but I didn’t love it for one reason or another. Part II absolutely did it for me, exactly because of the aforementioned controversial narrative decisions (which I won’t spoil here in case you don’t know what they are and you want to experience them for yourself). I loved that Part II took risks, went in directions that angered people, and challenged you the player to consider uncomfortable positions that you might not have otherwise taken because you’re suuuuuch a good person, right?

Naw, The Last of Us: Part II was an extremely immersive experience in how non-black-and-white the world is. Never was, never will be. And discomfort really was the aim of the game, because if you weren’t feeling some level of discomfort while playing through the game then you weren’t immersing yourself at all in the story and the characters. And those two really shone for me here as having both be significantly better than in the first game. The story here is a lot less straightforward, even in its presentation; it’s not just “get from point A to point B to point C to point D” that the first game’s plot unfortunately boiled down to. And the characters are way greyer here (for the most part; I'm not a fan of the generic “doomsday cult” trope in Part II unfortunately) than in The Last of Us. Don't get me wrong, they were always grey but I feel like the first game didn’t do much to establish that beyond some lip-service here and there with characters like Tess. Part II made it absolutely clear how grey these people are, this world is, and I appreciated the hell out of it.

Now, don’t get me wrong: Part II isn’t without its faults. I already mentioned the doomsday cult thing, and there are some other story decisions that I would’ve changed or even outright cut (such as that long and unnecessary last chapter). But this isn’t meant to be an in-depth review of The Last of Us: Part II; I’m not diving in to what I consider to be its strengths and flaws. Instead, I’m telling you why I loved it so much: Part II basically took everything The Last of Us did (story-wise and gameplay-wise) and amped it all the way hell up, its good and bad both, without ever retreading the same paths as the first game. And that is absolutely what a sequel should do.

3) Batman: Arkham City (2011)

We go from the very end of the decade to the very beginning of the decade. Again, read up on the ground rules if that confuses you. Anyway, where Marvel’s Spider-Man couldn’t quite make the cut, the Batman: Arkham series absolutely can, and does. Honestly I could put all three games here (sans Origins since it wasn’t made by Rocksteady), but I decided to just go with the one that is downright my favorite of the series, City. Weirdly, I didn’t love Asylum as much as the fandom seemed to when it first came out; maybe it’s because I played it way later on the PS4? The remastered versions of both Asylum and City were what I played, and Asylum kinda fell into the same boat as Spider-Man where it was good, and I had a great time with it, but it felt like it was missing a certain something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Knight wasn’t, and in some aspects I think Knight was better than Asylum (while in other aspects I think Asylum was better than Knight), but in my opinion there’s very little that either of them did that City did not straight-up do better.

Batman: Arkham City is pretty much everything I wanted out of a comic book superhero game. Fantastic combat. Great use of comics lore. Phenomenal voice talent. Awesome visual presentation. It scratched that itch I felt Asylum juuuuust missed the mark on, and it scratched it hard and good. It was the perfect length, and it was perfectly challenging. Loved the greater roster of villains utilized here (it’s Batman; he’s got the best-known rogues gallery in pop culture!), including both the A-listers (like The Penguin, Mr. Freeze, and Ra’s al-Ghul) and the lesser-knowns (like Calendar Man, the Mad Hatter, and, oh yeah, Professor Hugo freakin' Strange!). Speaking of, I really enjoyed the back-and-forth between the Batman and Catwoman segments; that was something I felt was sorely missing from Knight. Oh, and this game had some of the best boss battles in all of gaming for me, especially with the aforementioned A-listers and the… you know, final boss.

While on the subject, here’s the real kicker: I was actually spoiled on the big twist. Well, no, I wasn’t, but I was spoiled on the very ending after said big twist was over and done with. And if you know me, you know I despise spoilers with my very being. They truly ruin experiences for me. Yeah, I’m that guy; beat it! But anyway, despite having the end spoiled for me, I still loved Arkham City from beginning to end, without stop. That's a statement in and of itself! There was nary a low point for me, at least any that I could remember, and trying to think of any is kind of a chore. And I don’t do well with chores. I love this game so much that in all honesty, it has a fair shot at cracking my Top 10 Games of All Time. Maybe? Maybe not? I’m not quite sure, but at least it’s in consideration (it would definitely make the honorable mentions if nothing else), and that’s gotta be worth something, right?

2) Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014)

If Batman: Arkham City either does or does not make the cut of my all-time Top 10, Dragon Age: Inquisition absolutely does. And spoiler alert: so does the next game, duh. But setting that aside for now, Dragon Age. I actually got into the series because one of my best friends from university insisted I play it, and he even let me play Origins and II on his PS3, which was awfully kind of him! It was my first Western RPG (yes yes, I had never played The Elder Scrolls or Diablo or Warcraft or whatever before Dragon Age) and it was enjoyable! Like, those first two games didn’t blow my mind or anything, but I had a blast nonetheless (yes, even with the oft-maligned Dragon Age II) and I was proper excited for the third game. Which had come out by the time I started playing Dragon Age anyway, but I bought my own copy as I had my own PS4. I didn’t get around to playing it until later though, much to the consternation of my pal.

Well guess what? Damn Michael, he was right all along.

Dragon Age: Inquisition was everything I never knew I wanted from an epic fantasy RPG. From its gripping story, to its in-depth exploration of the sociopolitics, to its large cast of wacky and lovable characters, to its constantly-entertaining sidequests, to its frankly intriguing world and magic usage, and just everything else and in-between. Oh yeah, and dragons. Looooots of dragons. BioWare’s famous in-game choices you can (and have to) make are back in full force, both from previous games as well as moving forward and I’ll be damned if I say I’m not excited to see the ramifications of my choices in this game. Ugh, is there anything I can’t gush about when it comes to Inquisition? Probably not, honestly. Oh yeah, let’s not forget that Thedas is so much nicer to look at now that there isn’t a world-consuming demonic horde of deathness viewed through a filter best described as tea having pissed in itself and left to stew for a fortnight. Yeah, I’m looking at you, Dragon Age: Origins! If I had to pick my favorite location, hands down it would be The Emerald Graves simply for how downright luscious it is!

Speaking of favorites, my favorite video game character actually comes from my number one favorite game of all time. My second favorite video game character? Comes from this game, and I’m not gonna tell you who it is or why because it’s a spoiler, but uh… how about that ending though, huh? And those DLCs? Wonderful, wonderful DLCs! All three were so different and yet all so worth the money. I spent like 140 hours or something on Dragon Age: Inquisition and I would happily, happily spend five times that just replaying it over and over through different scenarios and different combinations of choices. At the very least I gotta replay it once to make… the other choice. And take on different lovers, ofc.

And how about that ending, huh?

1) Persona 5 (2016/2017)

 

I’ll just come right out and say it: this is my number two favorite video game of all time.

(If you’re wondering why I put two years of release, it’s because the Japanese release was in 2016 while the worldwide release was in 2017. Also, the Royal version would almost definitely replace it here based on what I’ve heard, but since I haven’t actually played Persona 5 Royal I’ll just put the vanilla game here).

What can I say about Persona 5 that will adequately explain to you why this game is near-untouchable in its spot… Well, for one thing, it is the one game, the only video game ever made that felt like it was tailor-made for me. Obviously it wasn’t, but between:

• its primary color motif being red (my favorite color),
• its player character being a tall bespectacled dude with messy black hair (basically me),
• a key protagonist being a black cat (cats being my favorite animals),
• a key location being a café (I am a regular café-goer),
  
• its soundtrack being heavy on funk (one of my favorite genres),
• its central use of the phantom thief trope (a staple favorite of mine),
• its central use of the trickster archetype (a staple favorite of mine),
• its central use of cognitive science (did you know I am a cognitive linguist?),
• Makoto Niijima,
• and, oh yeah, having the only plot twist I managed to figure out before its reveal play out ON MY BIRTHDATE (as in, the 22^nd of August in-game),

Yeah, this game was made for me.

Much like Monster Hunter and Crash Bandicoot, I have long been a massive fan of the Persona series. For a considerable amount of time, Persona 4 actually occupied the position of my number two favorite game of all time, but… well, it’s been booted off now. Sorry P4. If I could have multiple games from the same series than P5 would be number two and P4 would be number three, or at least tied for the number three spot. Relevant for this list however is this: in my honest opinion, Persona 5 is better than Persona 4, which is better than Persona 3, which is better than like 95% of JRPGs ever made. You can disagree, and that’s absolutely fine, but that is my truthful opinion. Persona 5 is that good.

Now, here’s the weird part: you know how I said I couldn’t really think of criticisms for Batman: Arkham City and Dragon Age: Inquisition? I actually can for Persona 5. In some aspects I admit that P4 did certain things better than P5, and P3 also did certain other things better than P5. So in a way, P5 is to me more criticize-able than the two games underneath it on this list. So then, why does this game outrank them?

Well that’s the wrong question. The correct question would be: how high were Persona 5’s highs that it outshone its more-noticeable lows to such a degree over Arkham City and Inquisition’s unnoticeable lows?

The answer is: unthinkably.