BoB's Top 100 Games

[Loony BoB]

I don't consider that predictable, I consider that me having stated what my favourite game is about 100 times on this forum.

[Dat Matt]

This is where is #1 game is something trout like 2048, or Secret of the Magic Crystals or something. All the buildup for nothing.

[Shauna]

Same difference. x}

[Loony BoB]

Well, after #1 is announced, I can at least throw a few extra games in that I've been playing over the past year.

[Shauna]

Oh god. It never ends!

[Ayen]

You all need to learn to have short term memory lost. I can't remember what BoB's favorite game is.

[Wolf Kanno]

skeleton-computer.jpg

[Loony BoB]

1. Final Fantasy VII
PSX, 1997

I first played Final Fantasy VII - or rather, watched someone play it - for about five minutes at my neighbour's place. One of his friends brought a bunch of games over and he played that to show it off for a short while, but as we were wanting multiplayer games it was quickly turned off in favour of Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit. It would be a couple of years before I would see it again. I was renting games and thought I'd give this one a try as I was looking for a bit of variety.

I hopped in and it took my interest pretty quickly. It was different to other games I'd played. I'd played WRPGs, sure, but the characters and story were always so bland. This one focused much more on the storytelling. In the end, I would be captured by it, immediately looking up all the information I could online about it. Discovering sites, forums, etc. I would quickly be playing the previous FFs and buying FFVIII. I had found a new genre and I loved it.

FFVII, though, still managed to outdo all other games in this genre, and every other game I have played since. It offers me everything. I have multiple things I can do in the game, all of which I got enjoyment from. I liked the materia system, which firstly gave you the conundrum of "Must save up for all this materia", then "Which materia should I put on each character?", followed by "Oh man, which materia should I link?" and eventually "Which materia should I grow!?" Just one small part of the game and it had so much done for it, particularly when compared to some other systems in the FF series which rely on "Learn skill, retain skill forever, done."

The characters were all decent at minimum and some of them remain my favourites of the series. Tifa is probably my favourite character of all time, with enough revealed about her to know her personality and story, while still retaining a lot of mystery given how much she seems to keep in her head. Red XIII is also an excellent character and a brave step into the non-humanoid form by Square Enix. I wish there were more non-humanoid characters. The only gripe I have with Red is that after he learned about Seto, he became a little wusspuss. But such things are forgiven when in battle he is still badass. Barret, Cloud, Cid, I loved these characters too. Aeris I did not like much at all. I'm one of the few who celebrated in their head when she died. Yes! Take that! High five to Sephiroth! I'm a bad person, aren't I?

Chocobos are awesome and no other game did chocobos as well as FFVII did. Chocobo breeding, chocobo racing? Hell to the yes! And then golden chocobos that can take you to the far reaches of the world, too, for amazing reward!? Even better!

The story itself had the right kind of twists, the ones you don't generally anticipate, but also that worked and didn't cheapen the overall plot. I found the story quite confusing when I first played it, mostly because it was the first game that I found myself having to really pay attention to such things. Most dominant games - a la Air Combat, Doom and Gran Turismo - required no focus on the story whatsoever, it was gameplay with some vague plot tacked on. This (and Resident Evil to be fair) was different for a gamer like me.

In the end I've probably said way more than enough boring drivel here - I love FFVII. It's a timeless game and every time I've replayed it I've still found it enjoyable. I haven't even beaten all the Weapons after all these years! It's weird how much I can play the game and just enjoy the start to finish. Endgame is a bonus that I never went out of my way for - but it just goes to show that a game I love more than any other has something I can still go back to and check out should I want to. It also says a lot that you can play this game and do a crapload of stuff and still have more to do.

Overall just fantastic.

Huzzah! #1 over! I'm done! It's only been, what, 15 months?

[Ayen]

I actually thought it was going to be Final Fantasy XIV, unless that was listed already and I missed it.

I can also go back to FFVII at any time and still enjoy it as much today as I did... seventeen years ago.

Jesus Christ, it's been seventeen years since this game came out.

[Loony BoB]

FFXIV was included in the list "as of 1.23". I'm not sure where I'd place the most recent version. Probably pretty close to where it was then, though. The full list is in the first post of this thread, behind a spoiler tag. I'll start to think over adding some games in that I've played since deciding on the list soon, as things like "37.5" or whatever. Will first need to remember all the new games I've played over this year and a bit...

[Shauna]

This will actually never end.

[Loony BoB]

Oh, ye of little faith. It's not a major part of the list so I'm just gonna slap 'em on.

13.5 - The Last of Us
35.5 - Final Fantasy XIV (as of patch 2.38) would move it ahead of the Zoombinis.
38.5 - Rayman Legends
43.5 - Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
51.5 - Assassin's Creed II
57.5 - Assassin's Creed
58.5 - Borderlands 2
84.5 - Gone Home
96.5 - Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (at a push - really tricky as the pros were great but the cons were also massive, so... hmm, tough one).

[Ayen]

Woohoo, The Last of Us. Making you feel good about beating cops to death.

[Shauna]

Very nice list. Some good games up on in there. :} Although I'm sure this would have been better if it didn't take fifteen months to complete.

Thanks for all your hard work on the extra long Ciddies. :3

[Slothy]

Average list. 5/10. Would not spend 15 months reading again.