My Five Games

There is a thread floating around right now on twitter where you are asked to pick five games that you will play for the rest of your life, or some variant of that concept. I’ve watched it morph a few times as it burns its way through different circles. Yesterday I managed to get tagged twice in the same day within a few hours of each other, and because I am always looking for an excuse to turn something into a blog post you are getting my response here. First off thanks to Maryalee Scarlet and Dusty Monk for tagging me.

First up lets talk a little bit about theory behind this, because in theory I probably should have picked 5 living MMORPGs and called it good because the constant flow of content would ultimately keep me entertained. However instead I tried to pick five games that more or less represent my tastes in gaming and would cover the majority of my interests. Unfortunately even with that there are things that are going to get left off the list that I am sorta bummed about. However I am doing a few honorable mentions in addition to my official five.

Final Fantasy XIV

I am nowhere near as engaged in this game as I could be, and there are so many rocks that I have left uncovered. For example I have barely scratched the deep crafting system, and I could spend months delving into that along. There are of course a ton of the various artifact weapon quests that I could chase as well and I’ve not really touched raiding since Heavensward. If I so chose, I could be very happy chasing the objectives in Final Fantasy XIV and as a result I am throwing it on the list even though I am not actively playing it right now.

Mass Effect Trilogy

I am absolutely cheating my ass off right here with this pick. However it was in fact released as a single package and there are rumors about it getting a remaster at some point, so for the purpose of this challenge I am calling it a single pick. I love the Mass Effect trilogy and I could see myself playing through it at least once a year start to finish. The real question is whether or not I will keep making some of the same decisions each time because I have never been able to successfully complete a renegade run.

Minecraft

Minecraft is one of those titles that I can continue returning to over and over no matter how many times I have played it. I seem to go through these periods where I just need to do something creative for a bit and I build an entire civilization in Minecraft, and then wander off once finished never to visit again. I figure I have to come up with a way to feed that instinct when narrowing down my five games and as such I’m going for the original. There are other builders out there that are much better “games” but the truth is when I go through one of these phases all I care about is building and ultimately wind up playing the game on creative mode.

Destiny 2

I absolutely love this game and no matter what I am doing cannot seem to stay far away from it. Right now I am heavily into bingeing single player games, but I still spent the entire evening last night playing Destiny. I cannot see a future where I am not playing this game or something similar, and the one I keep returning to is Destiny. It managed to gain traction in a manner that none of the similar looter shooters ever managed to. There are so many secrets that I have yet to unlock and I have still not experienced most of the raid content. The moment to moment gameplay however is what keeps me coming back because it is just fun to fire space weapons at space enemies.

Diablo 3

Some of the most fun I have had over the last few years has been hanging out with my friend Grace while grinding Diablo. As such there is no way in hell it does not make the list… that was absolutely intended. While I am absolutely looking forward to Diablo 4, there is just something about the rhythm of Diablo 3 that makes me wonder if I will ever truly abandon it. There is just something it is doing that the other ARPGs are not and because of it I keep returning time and time again. Also there is something special about the launch of a brand new season that feels very much like starting and MMORPG for the first time every few months.

The Honorable Mentions

Now that I have my official five out of the way it is time for me to delve into some games that almost made the list for various reasons.

World of Warcraft

I have to admit that right now I have a really fraught relationship with this game. In part it is probably why FFXIV got the nod and WoW didn’t because at this very moment I think I would be way happier playing in Eorzea than Azeroth. That said I cannot deny that World of Warcraft would also be an exceptionally strong pick because of the decade and a half worth of content waiting on me to re-experience. That said… the level squishes and gear squishes end up making it feel like a vastly different experience than what I remember, so I am not entirely certain how enjoyable it would be. There is also a lot of repetition going on, and in truth… I find the concept of doing everything on a single character way more compelling than alts.

Elder Scrolls Online

Elder Scrolls Online also came super close to getting the nod because I absolutely love all of the story in this game. I could see myself returning to it over and over to experience different pieces of it and I have yet to actually play a second character to any significant level. That said what stopped me from promoting this title is that I am not in love with its combat. I get that it is doing its best to be Elder Scrolls in MMORPG form, but in truth… I never really loved combat in Elder Scrolls in the first place either. Those games have always been about the freedom of exploration and the rich story being told and not so much combat. Ultimately gets me to walk away from ESO is that I find the combat unsatisfying.

Witcher 3

This game was a real strong contender for maybe knocking Mass Effect off the chart, but ultimately didn’t get the nod because I really only feel strongly about the third game. I cannot under any circumstances get myself to play through the first game, and while the second game has a good story I would not consider it to be a wonderful gameplay experience. All of that said the strength of the third game damned near convinced me to give it a proper place in the list, and I am certain that I will replay my way through it in the near future.

Castlevania Symphony of the Night

For years when someone has asked me what my favorite game is, I have often times said Symphony of the Night. There is just so much that I enjoy about this experience. That said I have also been replaying this game on a regular basis since its original release on the Playstation, and own it for pretty much every platform that it exists on. I am not sure if I want to keep doing this for the rest of my life. As it stands there are only so many more secrets for it to summon forth and only so much more joy that I can squeeze out of it. It is so filled with nostalgia and good memories… but maybe it is time for me to see other games.

Bloodstained Ritual of the Night

In a similar fashion Bloodstained damned near made the list because if I were going to choose between this and SOTN right now… I am more than likely going to be playing Bloodstained. It does everything I loved about Symphony of the Night but better and presents it in a much higher fidelity package. The only reason why I didn’t make the cut is that I have not spent anywhere near as much time with it as I have with some of the other titles. I know that I can keep returning to the ones that made the list, I am not sure how I will feel about this game on repeat playings.

So there are my five games. I am going to stop the chain however and not name any successors because I figure this viral thread will burn its way through the gaming community with or without my help. I could tag some of the AggroChat crew but honestly… we just did something similar and have our games of the decade show that we still plan on recording where we have asked everyone to chip in with topics.