Crystal Mind

I didn't conceptualize it at the time, but Yoshi's Story was probably the first real Favorite Game. I wrote fanfiction about this game as a very young kid. I didn't conceptualize it as such, I just wanted to write about Yoshi adventures because Yoshi was the fucking coolest. To be clear, all of the dialogue was, in fact, "Yoshi," then talking about what they did. Child me was a visionary and I will never match her talents.

Pokemon obviously had successive impact. I loved Blue, didn't like Yellow as much, loved Silver, then decided Crystal was my favorite forever. Crystal still holds a really strong place in my heart. I did enjoy Gen 1, but Gen 2 immediately captivated me by having what felt like a lot more stuff going on that related to the world. It's an odd one to talk about, but Sprout Tower was so cool to me; you have monks but their focus is on Bellsprout because it wobbles like their shitty tower? That's so cool! And Celebi's shrine in the forest was a neat mystery to uncover. All of this is obviously in Silver/Gold as well, but Crystal had three things in its favor. One was sprite animation, which felt really fun. One was in its changes from the base games, including things like early Phanpy/Teddiursa, and the dedicated Suicune encounter. And one was just...girl protagonist. My cousin pointed it out, but this was functionally the first game with a female protagonist we got. It was notable.

Majora's Mask was around the same time, and the initial frustration of Clock Town aside, it was an instant favorite. The vibes of that game are beyond anything, and it's still my favorite Zelda, well above the rest. I really loved that, unlike the rest of the series, your role as hero was very much about direct help to people without substantial recognition. It landed so well for me.

With the GameCube, one of my favorite games on that was Yugioh: Falsebound Kingdom. Is it a good game? Absolutely not. I adore it. It's just a broken nonsense game that is really, really easy to become overpowered in, but also it takes forever to play because of how slowly it moves, and how many maps have constant enemy healing that is extremely hard to work through without access to a ton of your own items and funds. Admittedly, I just liked playing the monsters this way. And I do enjoy games that have just objectively broken elements.

Similar Yugioh vein, Capsule Monster Coliseum on the PS2 was another really fun one. Grid-based tactical, similar focus on playing as the monsters, and honestly I adored how they handled things like fusion and "evolution" of monsters. Granted, much easier to do with guides that tell you the tile conditions to unlock some of them, but to give my favorite example: despite how the system works, it's incredibly easy and beneficial to take Petit Moth and just keep using it everywhere as it evolves into Larvae Moth, Great Moth, and Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth, which is really good. It's a little harder to get 100% completion of the roster, just because the matches are always the same, but by round 2 you're like wildly overpowered and there's not much challenge anymore, but I still love it.

Around this time, my dad got a Dreamcast. Now, this largely went nowhere, but. It did get us access to Grandia 2, which is definitely a contender if I had to pick a specific favorite. This was, by all accounts, my first story and character RPG, and I really got into it. Fun fact: my brother and I did not understand the mechanics and beat half the game without actually upgrading anything. I still don't know how we did this. But it remains a really influential game for me.

Fire Emblem: Blazing Blade also remains my favorite Fire Emblem, although that one at least has some competition. But it was a wild departure from our usual. My mother did not like that we played video games, so we got very little to actually play ever. Fire Emblem was the first time I could get myself something, and I can't even remember what drew me to it. I had never heard of it, I just liked the art and was curious about the tactical aspect. I really enjoyed it. It was so different, and really appealed to my character love thanks to the support conversations. I absolutely got 100% completion of it, and had a lot of opinions.

When I got into Final Fantasy games, the early favorite was 4. I just liked it, hard to fully explain why I was so attached. But that gave way real quick to 12 when it released. I adore 12. I realize not everyone loved it, and having played Zodiac Age, I definitely feel many of the original's issues as well as the issues still around. But god, I loved exploring that world. I found it delightful and really relaxing to play. I also just really like the story. It's compelling to me, and there are several scenes that live in my head forever. Also, there's a side-quest to defeat the Ringwyrm given to you by a man named Balzak. 11/10 game, tbh.

For a long time, Pokemon Platinum then usurped Crystal as the favorite game. This was largely based on enjoyment of the lore; I loved how they handled legendary Pokemon and found the whole region fascinating. Sadly for me, it is also when I learned how EVs work and got into both competitive and the Battle facilities. I actually enjoyed doing all that around age 14 when I had the time to do it. These days, I have more issues with Platinum than I sometimes care to admit, despite considering it one of the best still. So I wouldn't necessarily consider it a favorite anymore, but it was very long-lived in a favorite position so it gets a mention.

To be incendiary: the Wii and WiiU eras were flops. I picked up basically nothing that dazzled me into selecting a new favorite game. My family also fell off the Playstation train when my mother insisted my step-brothers would not be bringing it into the house because of the Grand Theft Auto, so I had not experience with PS3 games and didn't get to the major releases of that era until way later, where one did stand out to me pretty strongly.

Atelier Rorona. I really enjoyed that era of Atelier. I've largely fallen off the series, I think Ryza 2 legitimately killed my enjoyment of it, but that game was the first time in a long time that I played something and just felt the click of a favorite. I replayed it once a year for like five years running, fresh start each time. I'd argue Meruru is kind of tied in that first place favorite position, but if I'm really honest with myself, Meruru is a little too open-ended for it to feel as casual as Rorona.

With the advent of having a 3DS, I also picked up Etrian Odyssey 4, which was another astounding click favorite. That game was so fun. I tried to play older games in the series and the difficulty was too high for me at the time to appreciate. The Untold games didn't land as well, either. These days, I'd probably say EO3 and EO5 are the favorites? I like 3 by raw vibe and presentation, while 5 I think has an interesting and easy to understand class set. 4's oddly taken a back seat, mostly due to my team being so guaranteed. It never deviates. Still play sometimes, though.