WK's Top something or other... let's just say "games" and call it good list.

[Wolf Kanno]

Birth by Sleep!

BbS suffers from just enough issues to fall short of the list for me. Like many of SE's endeavors for the PSP, I just felt like the game deserved to be on better hardware and building the worlds to spec on even the PS2 could have saved the game from some of the more tedious retread of the scenario. My other issue is that along with KH2, BbS is sort of where I decided that I had indulged Nomura's battrout insane plot for the series enough. Dream Drop Distance killed my interest in the series but Ventus' plot thread along with all the bombshells from KH2 was already sending me there. With all that said, I did quite enjoy Aqua's story and Terra's was pretty good if a bit too predictable since I had kind of guessed he was the "Xehanort" from the earlier games once they showed his actual face. KH has always been a guilty pleasure of mine but not one I've ever taken as serious as some other titles.

I thought maybe Alundra? Underrated, but awesome. It would make my top 100

I missed out on Alundra, but it is a title I've been interested in for awhile. I actually made a thread a few months ago where I asked people what game I should pick up from PSN and it was a title I listed but it didn't get as much love as the other entries.

I smurfing love Chrono Trigger and indeed I love all three games in your top 3.

I don't know your opinion on the Persona series at all, so Fynn will no doubt come out and shout at me "omg of course WK doesn't love Persona 4!" but that's a title I've heard a lot of things about and thought it might be up there.

FFVII, of course! But for real, not ironically. I knew that it would not be in your top ten, but my perception was that you think it gets too much attention compared to its siblings but it was still up there as a great FF. I thought perhaps it could've been in the 70's to 100.

Okay, so P4 was a bit of a surprise for me too, and I think it was on the list but as I added games to it, it kept slipping lower and lower. Unlike the rest of the series, P4 has been an entry I've never really wanted to go back to after finishing it. I've played P3 a few more times since finishing P4, so the game never really grabbed me like it did other people and I kind of blame it on the fact that not only is the game kind of a poor mystery story, but the lack of drama among the cast didn't help either. Of anything, P4 felt so much like a "young people" game to me. Like I can feel for Kanji and the other people for their problems but it never really stopped me from always kind of chuckling to myself and thinking how much their issues felt more like high school problems to me. The bigger issues I had with the game was the awful gameplay decisions like adding an extra step to knocking down enemies, completely trivializing defensive gameplay options in favor of all out offense, how unbalanced the party felt, the dungeons going back to P2's borefest and the fact that money was a pain in the ass to accumulate in the game cause they opted for a loot system. I've been meaning to go through it again to see if my mind would change on it but it sadly doesn't take much to talk me out of it.

As for the great big pink elephant in the room, I did not snub VII to be edgy, and if my list had been built on pure objective principles, it would have made it to this list easily because I do feel VII has a lot of strong merits. The issue it came down to is that I don't have a lot of good memories or feelings about this game. It's not a title where thinking about the opening gives me a warm tingling feeling inside like some other titles on this list. I don't have any real nostalgia for it. Part of that is due to the fact that I did walk away from the game disappointed after my initial playthrough, an even larger part is the fact that when I think of VII, my first thought is just tiresome arguments I've had with fans over the years and while I've come around on my feelings about the game, this feeling of exhausted dread is my usual reaction to talking about it. So yeah, a lot of my issues is the fanbase in my past killed my enjoyment for it. I do still get moments of wanting to play it and stuff, but the game frankly doesn't do anything for me despite being an objectively good game.

I was a bit surprised The Simpsons arcade game wasn't on the list. When I think of the great arcade games, X-Men, TMNT, and Simpsons are always on there, and you included the other two. Maybe you just didn't play it much.

It was also surprising Mass Effect was so close to 100, and that the other two games weren't on the list.

I also expected FFVII to be on the list. As much of a hard time as I give the game, it would be on mine somewhere.

Super Mario Bros. 2 being on the list was a pretty big surprise.

Since you've made the list, I replayed Shadow of the Colossus and actually finished it this time. It had been about a decade since my last attempt, and I wanted to see if now that I'm older I might get more out of the game. I can see the appeal but it just doesn't do much for me.

It also made me want to replay through the MGS series in order, minus 5. I have one sit-down left to finish 3 and then I'll move on to the original title.

Funny story about the Simpsons arcade, my first job had the machine and I eventually just grew sick and tired (along with the rest of the staff) listening to the machine run that we eventually shut it down. I do like the game, but by the time it started popping up more in the arcade scene, I was getting more invested in console gaming, platforms and the budding fighting game scene.

Part of the issue with Mass Effect was the fact the games got less interesting as the series went on, and the heavier Third Persona shooter focus and the heavy streamlining of the non-dialogue option RPG elements made plaything through the later games more of a chore for me since I'm not really big into shooter type games. I liked the characters and setting, but not enough to debate whether I would name my kids Garrus or Tali. The other issue is that the games were competing with entries I was very familiar with, whereas ME is something I've only played through once, and I have too many unplayed titles to convince myself to give the series a second run. Hell, I was so burnt out from ME2 that it took me about two years to get around to playing ME3. The gameplay though is the largest factor because while I love the dialogue choices, the heavy shooter combat and the general lack of real exploration in the sequels kind of killed my interest in the franchise. It's why I use the analogy of ME1 feeling like a novel while the sequels felt like streamlined action film adaptions of the rest of the story.

Metal Gear Solid 3 and Chrono Trigger are both examples of games I played at the wrong time. In MGS3's case I had played it RIGHT after 1 and 2, so I was overwhelmed by the complete gameplay overhaul and was scared off. Fortunately, I lost a bet with a friend and I had to play through the game at least once, even if it was on Very Easy. So I plowed through the game with the EZ Gun, knowing I was depriving myself of the experience, but not really caring, and I don't think it really hit me how fun the game was until reaching Grozynj Grad. Upon beating the game, I immediately reloaded the game to play on normal. MGS3 is definitely the height of the series; the added complexity that had originally scared me off is one of its biggest draws, to say nothing of the level design! The one problem I have with every game to follow is the addition of a "shop" feature of one kind or another; there was a genuine sense of excitement exploring the jungles of Russia (?) and finding a powerful gun, or the crocodile hat. One of my biggest disappointments with MGSV is the extent to which I had to rely on Mother Base to progress. Ironically, Breath of the Wild feels more like the open world MGS3 I wanted than MGSV.

Chrono Trigger's time is coming. When I first played it, it was, unfortunately, the PS1 version. I feel like I could stop there, but it doesn't help that I was also feeling burnout from playing Final Fantasy throughout Middle School and High School. I also bought the DS version to play for a school trip, but at that point, I recall forcing myself to play the game because it was Chrono friggin' Trigger, and not because I was ready to play it. Additionally, despite the improved translation (imo. Sorry Woolsey, I still love your take on FFVI) and simpler UI, Chrono Trigger feels like such a console experience, I felt like I was missing something by NOT playing it on a TV while sitting on my couch (had a similar experience with A Link to the Past, which has since become tied with Majora as my favorite Zelda). Essentially what I'm getting at is I hope the Switch's Virtual Console library explodes soon (that, or I can get a SNES Classic and mod it to include CT).

Glad you got into MGS3 eventually, I love this game as you can tell. I can get behind your feelings about CT and not only that feeling it's a console title, which is an issue I have with the DS version as well, but also just having bad timing with a game.