The Video Game Blog Challenge: Question 30

Phew! I’ve made it to the end! And kudos to you if you’ve actually read all these video game posts!

30. Favorite Game of All Time

Ugggggh. I guess I should not at all be surprised that this is the final question, but I can’t just pick ONE game. I can’t. It’s like picking a favorite child. So I’ll give you a top five list, and bit of an explanation of why it makes the Top 5.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
I first played this game at eleven years old on my brother’s N64. I started out watching him play, and was completely enraptured by the world. An adventuring child tasked with saving the world in a sprawling beautiful landscape?! I wanted this to be my life.
Eventually, I asked my brother if I could start a game, which he obliged, under the condition that I didn’t pass him (he is four years older than I am, making him 15 at the time, and being passed by his little sister in a video game was unacceptable apparently. We laugh about this a lot today!). I fell head over heels in love once I started to play. I loved the story, the world, the characters, the gameplay.  The feeling of accomplishment when I FINALLY solved a tricky puzzle, or beat a level I’d been stuck on (I’m looking at you, Water Temple. . .). Beating this game filled me with such triumph, and some sadness too, simply because it was over!

2. Final Fantasy VII
This was the next game I delved into after Ocarina of Time, and I’m not sure I can quite convey just how much this game meant to me at 12 years old. I loved it for all the reasons I loved OoT, only multiplied by at least fifty. I found the story incredible, and oh, the characters. This was the first game I played where I became truly attached to the characters, to the point of weeping silently onto my controller when my favorite died. I feel in most cases, the first Final Fantasy you play tends to still be your favorite, and that is so true for me. I have yet to feel another FF game compares to VII. It will stay with me forever.

3. Beyond Good and Evil
This game makes the list because (as previously stated in this section of the VGBC) it’s a game I consider near perfect. It has an excellent story. Great characters, with even better dialogue. A fun world to explore. Excellent gameplay. It’s pretty much the full package, and what I consider a shining example of what video games can be.

4. The Last of Us
No shocker that this game is here! I’ve raved about it already, and I still will. I’m sure you already know that it has a great story, gameplay, and all that. But what really makes is so spectacular to me is how invested I was in these characters. No other game has ever caused me so much emotional turmoil. I had to take a few week-long breaks from playing this game becuase I was either A: truly so creeped out I didn’t want to continue, or B: so stressed out at what was going to potentially happen to the characters that I didn’t want to continue and find out. I realize that actually sounds like a bad thing, but I love caring that much. If a game makes me feel so intensely about the characters, or feel that scared about a fictitious world, you have done something right in a BIG way. I can certainly understand that this game doesn’t appeal to everyone, but it is without a doubt a truly phenomenal game.

5. Mass Effect 3
I’m picking Mass Effect 3 because I loved this whole series, and I really thought that ME3 was great as it was. None of this alternate DLC ending mumbo jumbo! 😉 I went into Mass Effect 3 fully preparing myself to be disappointed with the ending because (like anyone else on the internet at that time) all I had heard were bad things. I avoided specific spoilers, I just heard the overall opinion was BOOOOOOOOO. So I played it through, and loved it! I though the ending was great, and actually made a great deal of sense in the series. Overall, the Mass Effect games were wonderful and it was great to get lost in them. Plus, I was really impressed that they offered not only a female character option to customize but also gay/lesbian relationship options. I feel that was a huge step in a gaming series, especially one so popular, and I definitely applaud that!

Well, I hope you enjoyed getting a look into my video game history. Part of me is sad that I can’t game as much as I used to, but I still get some in when I can! It’s definitely something I won’t ever ‘grow out of’ as my mother was so apt to say haha! Gaming helped shape the person I grew into, and it is something I really love!

I’m using the questions from the Video Game Blog Challenge found here. All screenshots/photos you see are found via a basic Google image search. Copyrighted to their respective owners.