Gameplay above all.

If the gameplay is bad, it doesn't matter how well everything else has been made. Gameplay can make or break a game just like that, since it's what makes a game "fun to play". And yes, "exploration" goes into the gameplay category too.

Characters are probably the second most important thing for me. Characters > story. This is what made titles such as Star Ocean 4 fail horribly. In Tales of Vesperia ( which is awesome simply because of its excellent characters and gameplay ) I had trouble picking a party, because I liked too many of the characters. In SO4, the characters were so awful I had a hard time picking because I didn't want to use anyone.

Super Robot Taisen og Saga is a title that honestly has very few things going for it beyond gameplay and characters. Yet I absolutely love it, simply because of the gameplay and characters. These two things are what makes a game fun to play in my eyes.


Story and music comes in after that, building up tension and creating atmospheres. But even if one of these two are lacking, I can still enjoy a game if the gameplay and characters are good enough.