Nipah

I suppose it depends on how much I can bend the rules…

If I’m allowed to use the console only ‘as-is’, then probably the Nintendo DS. This gives me DS games (which are great), but also GBA games as well (though you’ll miss out on GBC/GB games, which is a bit sad); this also nets you a smattering of NES/SNES ports to boot, so that’s nice. But most importantly, it gets me Chrono Trigger and a bunch of my favorite Castlevania games all in one place (sad that SotN doesn’t get here, but…)

If I’m allowed to use the console with no hold’s barred, then Playstation Vita. Mod that little sucker and you’ve got access to a ton of stuff… PSV games obviously, but emulated PS1, PSP, GBA, GBC, GB, NES, SNES, and Genesis also (and maybe more, I don’t think I’ve tried any others though).

Avenging Spirits. When I was younger, a friend and I loaned each other a bunch of our games. Sadly, he ended up moving away before we managed to swap back, and he got the better end of the deal when it came to the games. However, I did get left with a copy of Avenging Spirits… the game is a bit strange but its very fun and the sprite work is just adorable.

The game has you playing as a spirit who can possess enemies. You start off with a few you can possess, and then you gain more choices as you progress. Or so I believe… I wasn’t all that good at the game back in the day, so I don’t remember getting too far in it.

If Dark Souls had easier difficulties, they wouldn’t have the reputation they do. People would turn down the difficulty instead of learning the bosses and how to beat them.

Which is hilarious because people ‘turn down the difficulty’ constantly by using summons or ‘jolly cooperation’ all the time in the games and don’t seem to differentiate that from a difficulty option.

Superhard Games without difficulty options. Looking at you Soulsborne games; I appreciate that some people like a challenge, but I really think that whole genre would only benefit from giving the player options. I have noticed that seems to be getting more common though.

I’m torn on this… I love playing Dark Souls 1/2/3/etc for the world and the enemies and exploring and overcoming the difficulties and finding cool gear and weapons and trying out new builds.

But I also absolutely hate pretty much every single boss fight in the games.

Yeah, FFXIV makes is super convenient to revisit a place once you’ve already been there via the aetheryte, meaning you’re probably not going to visit it on foot more than a few times. This means you don’t really make that connection between zones (or at least, I didn’t) and thus don’t really view it as an interconnected world (the loading areas between each zone doesn’t really help).

I’m struggling to give proper credit to WoW because I’m not sure if its the staggering amount of time I played the game, the time of my life when I played the game (younger brain retaining knowledge better?), or the seamless transition between zones which lends it to sticking in my memory so hard as a ‘real, interconnected world’… probably a combination of the three, if we’re being honest.

• Bastion
• Castlevania (series, special mention for Symphony of the Night)
• Chrono Trigger/Cross
• Dead Cells
• Destiny 1/2
• Dragon’s Dogma (mainly Into Free, but still…)
• Final Fantasy (series, but special mention for XI and XIV)
• Persona 4/5
• Portal 1/2
• River City Girls (probably 2 as well, but still waiting on my LRG copy)
• Scott Pilgrim vs the World (the game (the soundtrack))
• Tony Hawk (series); a bit of a cop out, as they’re all licensed songs
• Zelda (series, special mention for the Cadence of Hyrule soundtrack)

And then just a lot of old, nostalgia for NES games (Duck Tales, River City Ransom, TMNT, etc) and SNES/PS1 RPGs (Lufia, Super Mario RPG, Suikoden, Thousand Arms, etc)

But that main just are the ones I either bought or downloaded because I loved the music so much.