What's your favorite video game of all time?

[busterkeatonrules]

Grandia. The first one.

This game is a genuine joy to play. It is colorful, comical and light-hearted, but still manages to convey an awe-inspiring, epic feel as main man Justin and crew explore its sprawling world (spanning two cram-packed PS1 discs!)

The graphics are somewhat primitive, but the game world is still beautifully crafted and it's clear from the outset that everybody involved wanted to make the best game possible with the resources available. (And Grandia actually looks better than Final Fantasy VII!)

The combat system is hailed as pure genius to this day. It is surprisingly deep, yet as intuitive as anything. Leave the game for ten years, come back, resume kicking ass. And yes, I am actually speaking from experience here. It IS turn-based, but FAR more dynamic than in Final Fantasy games of its time. The battle screen actually looks like a battle, for one thing.

Spoiler: The music-

-actually rivals most of Nobuo Uematsu's work! YES, I just said that. No regrets.

Seriously, people, try Grandia if you haven't already. It's available on PSN. It's like playing through a Studio Ghibli movie!
[small]OK, I admit that I haven't tried Ni No Kuni. It's expensive, hard to find, and has been getting less-than-promising reviews.[/small]

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

UGh, there are so many contenders for a #1 that I can't even make a top 5 or top 10 list without a sub-heading like "of the NES" or "RPGs of all time"... I've played games since '85 and I couldn't even tell you what my favorite game of the 80's were and that only includes 5 years of gaming... fuck this hobby for making lists impossible for me

 

[Eve Charm]

Persona 4 golden hands down.

Before that RE4.

 

[emeraldrafael]

Persona 3 Fes, PS2 (so many good games). In case it wasnt obvious.

 

[Grey Edwards]

Mass Effect 2:

When I first got to the suicide mission, I was really psyched up for it. The music, the direction, the execution, all of it left me on edge with adrenaline pumping, and an early mistake about what classified as a techie(I was still thinking in ME1 terms and thought Mordin was the engineer class...) left me terrified that even the slightest misstep could cause me to lose another beloved character. It will forever, in my mind, be the greatest hour in gaming history.

 

[Exhuminator]

For me, that would probably be Shadow of the Colossus. I've played through that game at least ten times by now

Have you been here yet?:
http://teamico.wikia.com/wiki/Hidden_Garden_Of_The_Temple

Grandia. The first one.

How do you feel Grandia II and III hold up in comparison?

===

My own personal favorite game of all time is:

http://www.gog.com/game/thief_gold

I can not even begin to list all the reasons why. But I'll just say this. I've been gaming since Atari 2600 all the way to today, and the original Thief is the only game I'd give a perfect score to. (Not that I don't keep looking for another piece of absolute perfection.)

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

Gothic II.

I played Oblivion first, but it was Gothic that made me love RPGs. It's my favourite for a number of reasons.

Atmosphere: it has a very deep atmosphere and a believable world. The characters are all quite believable (albeit with mediocre to often bad voice acting), many with their own goals and ideas that may or may not conflict with your own. There are plenty of characters who are just minding their own business as well, which makes the city and farms feel more alive. The music compliments the game as well, and helps build up the atmosphere.

Combat: Where to start. The combat is fucking brilliant in this. I personally think this has the best melee system of any game. Melee consists of timed parries, dodges and either single or combo-ed strikes in real time. Sounds simple when written, but it just works so fucking well in game. You can have awesome melee duels with NPCs and Orcs that can be very challenging but rewarding (I have a little tradition for myself where I fight an Orc one on one just a few levels into the game. Very tough, but fun and you feel accomplished when you finally beat him). I also like the desperation of combat when you're fighting more than one enemy at once. It's hard as hell, because you have to dodge and strafe to avoid the attacks, since you can't parry two strikes at the same time for obvious reasons. Also, you can parry blades and axes, but you can't parry magic or animals, so you need to master timed dodging to fight animals. You really have to be quite skilled to get good at the melee system, and that's something I appreciate.

The magic combat is also very good, with some fantastic spells. If you have the patience for it, magic can also be the most dominant force in the game. The variety of magic is great: there are summoning spells (such as the insanely powerful Army of Darkness), spells that freeze your enemy solid in ice - effectively making him a sitting duck until it wears off (usually by that point you have killed him, unless you use the spell to even the odds in battle) and there are also spells that cause amnesia on NPCs, causing them to forget any reasons they may have to hate you. There are a lot of more standard spells as well, but those are some of the more memorable ones. Oh yeah, there is transformation magic too, that allows you to transform into various different creatures (some of which are actually really fucking strong). It's just an awesome system.

Story: the story is nothing special by todays standards, sure, but it's very competent and it's what got me interested in magic and wizards (especially dark/demon magic). You don't really play a Gothic or Risen game for its story though.

The graphics are, of course, dated but it is a 2002 game so it's to be expected. I think they hold up rather well, personally.

Anyway, yeah, I love the game if this large post isn't evident enough. The only game that comes close to matching it in quality in my mind are the two Witcher games, though Gothic and Witcher are very different styles of RPG.

 

[Drummodino]

The only answer is Persona 4 Golden. I've played through it twice since September and I'm planning to play through it again soon. Each play through lasts between 65-100 hours as well.

It has a thrilling, intriguing murder mystery story with the best cast of characaters of any game I've ever played. There are ~10 main characters all with full individual story arcs and character development.

The turn based battles and dungeon crawling are a lot of fun and the joy of levelling up and fusing new personas is a blast.

That game makes me laugh, makes me cry, fills me with righteous anger and a whole range of other emotions. It is not a mere game to me, it is an experience. An experience that everyone should have, even if you're not traditionally a JRPG fan.

I could go on forever about just how good this game is. Personally I believe purchasing a Vita is worth it just to play this game.

So everyone do that! Do it nooooooooowwwww!

 

[Beffudled Sheep_v1legacy]

Spyro the Dragon.

I love everything about the game. Its colorful, simple but fun, the level designs and art are imaginative and fantastic and the music is probably the greatest and most fitting music in any video game I've ever played. I've beaten the game dozens of times and I'm still not bored with it. I don't think this game will ever lose its charm.

And the Sheep from the game are adorable

 

[Hero of Lime]

For me it's The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Not the most original choice, but it's pretty much perfect to me. The visuals and controls still feel great to me, and with the 3DS version, everything was made even better. I looooove just about everything about it!

For me it is the perfection of the traditional Zelda story of the Triforce, and the conflict between Link and Zelda against Ganondorf. It brought so much to the series from items, races, themes, Z/L targeting, etc. Not much else to say, just about every good thing about the game has already been said.

 

[scorptatious]

For me, that would probably be Shadow of the Colossus. I've played through that game at least ten times by now

Have you been here yet?:
http://teamico.wikia.com/wiki/Hidden_Garden_Of_The_Temple

.)

Why yes I have.

I knew about it, but I didn't attempt to go after it until a few years after I first played through the game.

 

[The Madman]

Probably Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn if I have to pick just one.

Simply put in my mind at least it's as close to rpg perfection as any game has gotten so far. And while there are other games that do one or two elements better; Planescape: Torment has a better story, Temple of Elemental Evil better tactical combat, Baldur's Gate 2 is the only game that wraps everything up into one amazing package.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Earthbound or Paper Mario, probably.

Mass Effect as a series for writing, Saint's Row for fun.

Hell, or Fallout New Vegas, bugs and all. Or Xenoblade Chronicles.

Or Journey, and don't pretend you don't know why.

 

[scorptatious]

Twilight Princess. First Zelda game I played right when it came out. I prefer the Gamecube version. (Of course, the other four 3-D Zelda games are in my top 6 video games of all time, with RE4 being the sole non-Zelda game there.)

The game is just so fun to play. And has the nuts to be rated T.

The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD

I personally didn't like some of the changes made to the game. Like the Forest Firefly becoming worthless and the Hero's Charm being much harder to obtain and only available much later in the game. I loved getting the Hero's Charm right after Dragon's Roost Cavern in my replays. The new sail was definitely a plus, but the HD version doesn't make the original better.

Never played the original, so I wouldn't know.

What were the fireflies supposed to do anyway?

 

[ThreeName]

Fallout: New Vegas, probably. I just keep going back to the Mojave.

A close second would be the original Deus Ex, followed by Vampire the Masqurade: Bloodlines.

Nostalgia "It's Still Good!" Award: Red Alert 2
Childhood "Hurts to play Now" Award: Pokemon Yellow
Series "Every Game Is Solid Gold" Award: Saints Row 2-4
Multiplayer "Misanthrope" Award: Counter-Strike: Source/Global Offensive
Genre "I Never Thought I'd Like This" Award: XCOM: Enemy Unknown

Also I really need to go back and play Zelda: Majora's Mask.

 

[scorptatious]

Never played the original, so I wouldn't know.

What were the fireflies supposed to do anyway?

Allows you to upgrade the Picto Box to the Deluxe Picto Box if you showed it to Lenzo.

The Hero's Charm was originally obtained by giving Mrs. Marie 60 total Joy Pendants. Since Bokoblins are plentiful in Dragon Roost Cavern and the dungeon's item, the Grappling Hook, makes farming Joy Pendants easy as all Hell, I was always able to get the Hero's Charm right after I finished Dragon Roost Cavern in all of my replays (or whenever I figured out I could do it.)

K.

How did they make the fireflies useless in the HD version? And how do you obtain the Hero's Charm now?

 

[Proverbial Jon]

Favourite video game of all time?

Silent Hill 2 hands down, every time.

This game does it all. The concept of the story is simple: find your dead wife who is inexplicably waiting for you within Silent Hill. Battle horrors from the deepest corners of your own psyche. For me the most amazing part is how well the story is weaved within the gameplay and environments, creating an amazingly terrifying and yet compelling narrative. You get more and more out of this game on repeat plays.

I love feeling emoshuns in games and this one has them all. In fact I find SH2 so bloody scary that I can't play it very often and I have to be in the right frame of mind which I think is awesome. It makes the game even more special to play. Then of course there's the greatest antagonist of all time...

Half Life 2, The Last of Us, Bioshock Infinite... they all tell amazing stories and realistic, living worlds. But none come close to my personal experience of Silent Hill 2.

 

[Poppy JR.]

Wasn't that game called Out of this World in the US? Or am I thinking of another game?

Yes it was. I kinda flip-flop between the two names, but both are correct.