I guess the Link in the new Zelda could be androgynous to let people decide Link's gender, and they won't confirm an official gender.
It'd give people a thing to talk about and bring attention to the series.

You could maybe try going by the dates they were released?

In a world so cyber and punk it makes Cyberpunk 2077 look like Steampunk 1877...
You're a bartender, and your sidekick is a talking corgi (named Killer) and also your bouncer. The gameplay involves fast paced drink serving action.

Wonderful 101 has co-op, and Bayonetta 2 has multiplayer something, but maybe not co-op.
edit: Trine 2 and Pikmin 3 also have co-op.

I think the idea may be that with the studio constantly pushing out something major every year, it takes development's attention away from the next big thing that isn't a port.

But anyway, for Rob: play SH2 or you're doing yourself a disservice, then play SH1 and be amazed by the improvements made between them.
SH2 (iirc, besides the director's cut) doesn't have any superbosses that involve min-maxing or exploiting the mechanics to extreme measures, and the twists at the end are pretty damn good/original.
The difficulty is generally right around the level of being challenging but you should be able to scrape by and barely get out alive.
And the only things I imagine you may not like so much about it are the Judgment Ring and dungeon linearity, but they were like that in SH1 so if you didn't have a problem with it then, you should be okay now.
Play it.

I'll never under the reason people call it that, it's a stupid name. Especially because Sony did release an official PSX that wasn't the PS1.


you're so funny it hurts

...the capital of Selasse, and the signal is faint, but it looks as though Crestee's mother Marta is someplace in the city.

The party makes their way out of the forest onto the world map with the help of Dincrest. The journey is substantial and on the way an airship passes in the opposite direction, towards Sherdal's house. The airship lands outside the forest, long out of sight from our party. Two men step out. The large man named Zidd that interrogated Crestee and imprisoned Alex. The other man being the one with long silvery hair, only without a mask, the one who gave the order to destroy Crestee's village.
These two make a bee line through the woods to Sherdal's house, knocking on the door.
Sherdal: "Who is it?"
????: "An old acquaintance."
Sherdal gasps as he hears the voice and opens the door.
Sherdal: "Varthlokkur..."
Varth: "Varth with suffice. You know why I'm here, right? Make this easy on yourself, and I promise you won't be harmed."
Sherdal: "I still don't think you'll be able to wield it effectively, I can sense it."
Varth: "Then we duel for it. I've waited for this ever since you sent me out on my own. I need the Eye of Spacetime, father."
Sherdal: "Are you prepared for the consequences?"
Varth: "Absolutely. I'll do anything in my power to reclaim what I lost."
Sherdal takes out a longsword, and Varth unsheathes his katana. Zidd merely watches as the duel starts and goes on for well over 5 minutes at the least. It's a close match, and Sherdal puts up an impressive fight for his age, but Varth overpowers him with a well placed thrust. Sherdal is mortally wounded but not dead yet.

Varth and Zidd look through the house for a couple minutes, soon finding the Eye hidden in a vase. They go back to the airship and take off. Varth is admiring the Eye and can't look away. He gives an amused smile that gradually turns sinister, and he breaks out into a sickening laughter.
Zidd: "Sir?"
Varth: "Haahaheheheh... Heeheehee... Hahahha.... bwAAHAHahAeHEEHaHA...."
And suddenly the Eye envelops the entire airship in a brilliant light, until the airship completely vanishes and the Eye falls to the ground. As the light around the airship fades, Varth is still laughing, but Zidd notices three things that seem odd. One is that Varth looks completely disfigured now. He's also never laughed like this at all. Could the Eye of Spacetime have made him go crazy? And the second thing is that the Eye is gone from Varth's hands. The third thing being the landscape around them is vastly different than they knew it. They're 100 years in the future.

Back with our party, Dincrest has a foreboding feeling and demands that they use the Eye to see if something has gone wrong. We see an image of Sherdal lying on the floor of his home, bleeding out.
Dincrest: "FATHER!"
Crestee and Alex gasp in astonishment. Dincrest is running like the wind back to his house, it's quite a feat that anyone can run so quickly.
A brief talk amongst the party in agreement that perhaps they should split up, one group going after Dincrest and one to the capital. Alexandra should probably follow Dincrest as she has a healing spell. Crestee should go to the capital to look for her mom, if not follow Dincrest.

How will you split up the party? Or will everyone go after Dincrest? Will he get there in time?

Grave of the Fireflies, American History X, and the Green Mile are the big three.
Gladiator, Braveheart, and Shawshank Redemption (Brooks) are the second big three.
Interstellar made me tear up slightly.

Inside his home, he offered to make them tea, and across the room they notice a young man practicing with a sword against a dummy. The house seems much bigger inside than it looks outside, and quite cozy also with stairs going down to suggest it has multiple floors.
The old man gestures the party to sit down.
????: "Dincrest, come over and meet these people that have stumbled into our abode."
Crestee is shocked to find her ancestor the hero, Dincrest, in place like this.
Dincrest: "Sorry, father. I got caught up in my training. It's nice to meet you."
????: "I'm (______*). What brings you to these parts?
Leona: "We had to find a friend, this girl over here in fact."
Alex: "She's my sister, but she doesn't seem to remember me, or anything from our time."
????: "Hm? Your time?"
Leona: "Uh oh, maybe that was a mistake."
Alex: "Never mind. Umm."
????: "I suppose you must have the Eye, then."
Roko: "Whaaat? Never heard of it."
????: "The Eye of Spacetime? You must be living under a rock if you haven't heard of it."
Dincrest: "It's terrible, all the major countries in the world are fighting for it, because they're power hungry."
????: "Don't worry. Even if you have it, we won't try to take it from you."
Alex: "Okay then, uhh, yeah we have it."
????: "So when did you come from? And why?
Crestee: "100 years from now. I'm lookin' for my mom. I guess she ended up here after touching the eye. My hometown was destroyed by an airship, and so now all I really have left is my mom."
Alex: "As we came back in time, we saw my sister with the Eye, whom we just rescued. But she doesn't doesn't seem to remember anything."
????: "I'm sure something can be worked out to find your mother. Don't worry, young one. As for your sister. Have you considered the possibility of amnesia? Or maybe she could be an ancestor of your sister and they happen to look alike. Or some combination of both perhaps?"

(*choose a name for this character, I can only seem to think of him as either Gandalf or maybe Shrek; a tall guy lives in a swamp, has a house built into a tree with a door that looks too small for someone so tall.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGGlBjwqL6Y
You could try Shepherd's Crossing.
It's also on PS2 and has a sequel on DS.
And look into Rune Factory, most people seem to like 3, 4, and Frontier the most, but I've only played Frontier.

...signs telling the party to turn back and no trespassers, with skeletons littering the ground. The skeletons reanimate and begin attacking the party. It's a tough battle, but the skeletons are subdued and they fall back to the ground with the bones looking haphazardly placed.

Venturing forth, with Crestee leading the way, Alex notices a tripwire but it's too late. Crestee is hanging from a tree and looks bewildered.
Crestee: "Ack. Help meeeeeee. Please?"
Roko: "Such a vulnerable position, I like it..."
Alex: "SHH!!"
Alex hushes the rest of the party, and they hear rustling in the bushes, until suddenly two tribal warriors jump out begin speaking in a harsh tone with a thick accent.
Native: "I guess you didn't read the signs. That was foolish of you. You''l be coming with us, then. The girl that tripped the wire will stay here."
Making their way through the woods, the see various traps with occasional bodies laying around. Upon reaching the tribal village, we find a girl hung up on a rack, the torture device for stretching the limbs of its victims.
Roko: "Kinky."
Alex: "ALEXANDRA!"

Running up to the girl laid out on the rack, she looked puzzled and replied with a faint voice.
Alexandra: "Who are you? Do you know me? I don't recognize you."
Alex: "Are you serious? I'm your twin brother, Alexander! We were born into nobility in the kingdom of Selasse. How can you not remember?
Alexandra(?): "I don't know an Alexander, or Alexandra for that matter. I don't have a brother, much less a family. I'm all alone in this cruel world..."

Leona: "I think you're forgetting something. A family heirloom, perhaps."
Crestee struggles to answer, shaken by grief.
Leona: "I'm sure it survived, after all, it is a powerful artifact. It's survived several wars over thousands of years."
Crestee: "U-umm..."
Leona: "I'll go find it for you."
Crestee: "That's fine. I need to bury my family."
After about ten minutes, Crestee was only able to find her uncle.

The cat comes back with a pendant in its mouth.
Leona: "Go ahead, take it."
Crestee does so and immediately the pendant shines brilliantly, as if reacting to Crestee. The two of them see Marta, sitting on the ground sobbing in the exact spot where their house was, with the town gone also.
Crestee: "MOM!"
She runs to hug her mom but she falls to the ground as if this were just some apparition. And then the house returns and Marta disappears as a voice breaks into the silence.
Alex: "Crestee? Are you okay?"
Crestee: "I don't know."
Leona: "That family heirloom of yours is actually something many people have thought was lost, but someone recently came looking for it.  The Eye of Spacetime. You just saw your mom in the past. 100 years ago to be precise."
Crestee: "During the war?"
Leona: "Right. I'm here to help you bring her back."
Crestee: "It sounds like you knew this would happen. Why not stop it?"
Leona: "I don't have power to change these things, and I'm sure no one would believe a talking cat that they'd be transported through time."
Crestee: "I suppose not."
Leona: "For right now, let's call me your guardian angel."

...flan.
(Like this as a play on this since it's in a similar category to flapjacks/pancakes.)

The flan is weak to fire magic, and this battle serves as an introduction to magic, normally only used by civilians as a way to perform simple tasks and household chores like washing dishes/laundry, sometimes even powering primitive vehicles. Or burning weak enemies to a crisp. The flan drops a shiny trinket accessory and a key that lets our party out of the dungeon.

The two come out into a back alley in a dingy looking part of the city, and it appears to be a slum. After exploring a bit, we realize there's no airship nearby and it doesn't look as though it crashed. Alex mentions he lives nearby and takes Crestee there, but it's little more than a tent with a few blankets and pillows, general bedding items.

Alex: "What should we do now?"
Crestee: "I should get back home, my mom is probably worrying about me by now, since I disappeared. It isn't too far."
Alex: "Right, let's go."

Exiting the city and on the world map, Crestee and Alex begin socializing.
Crestee: "Do you have any family? What are they like?"
Alex: "I have a twin sister. Everyone else is dead."
Crestee: " I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have asked..."
Alex: "No no no, they're dead to me, not literally dead. They're all stuck up selfish and corrupt nobility, except my sister, she's great. I cut ties with the rest of my family though, so I went to live on my own in the slums. I don't mind it though, it's certainly better than suffocating in our mansion."
Crestee: "Sooo you're nobility. That... IS REALLY COOL!! I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO MEET A NOBLE! Are you a prince or what?"
Alex: "What? Umm, my 'parents' are duke and duchess. If you'd like, you could meet my sister Alexand --"
Crestee: "ARE YOU SERIOUS? Holy cow, today's my lucky day, even if I was kidnapped by that weird guy. I met a cute guy that happens to be nobility, this is so awesome."
Alex: "Huh? I'm not really cute, come on. I also renounced my nobility."
Crestee: "--and I can even meet his sister, yayyyyyyy."
The conversation continues like this, with intermittent battles, until they get back to Crestee's house, and her uncle gives Crestee a shopping list from her mother, Marta. She'll need to go into the next town over to get many of these things and so she does with Alex tagging along and they use her trusty horse.

Meanwhile another airship comes into view overhead near Crestee's hometown, and we cut to a dark room with a man shrouded by a mask and cloak, long silvery hair (not Sephiroth, think this guy) flowing behind him. He calmly orders the crew of the airship to fire at will below them. At that very moment, Marta is in Crestee's room putting away clothes and notices the family heirloom sitting at the bottom of Crestee's sock drawer. She picks it up and reminisces about the day she gave it to her daughter, the day she became a teenager. Marta looks up and out the window, seeing the airship about to fire a volley of cannonfire on the village, in complete disbelief. She disappears into thin air and the next thing she knows, she's in a field, the very field her property was on, but it's all gone, the town is gone and it's as if it never existed.

Crestee and Alex exit the item shop, and notice the smoke on the horizon, in the direction of her town. Racing back home on horseback, she finds acres of burning land, Crestee's hometown completely razed, with her house burning rapidly and heavy rain falling in a torrent.

She sees her uncle over at the stable, barely alive.
Crestee: "UNCLE ARE YOU OKAY?"
Uncle: "I'm sorry I couldn't protect Marta, she was inside, and I couldn't reach her before I got wounded..."
He dies in Crestee's arms and she kisses his forehead, pushing back tears.
Crestee: "MOTHER!"
Alex: "WAIT!"
Crestee runs into the house faster than ever as Alex tries to keep up.

(Sucks that Phoenix Downs/revive items are so expensive)

...dance.

The music was upbeat and happy, people were enjoying themselves, it's the sight of a peaceful small town holding festivities.

An airship is passing by overhead and the man commandeering the ship is a big and brave, noble looking warrior that's survived thousands of long battles, evident by his extensive scarring. He teleports down nearby and makes his way to the dance at the town square, approaching Crestee and asks "Where is the Eye of Spacetime?" with a deep voice. She only looks back at him confusedly. "I'll ask again. Where is the Eye of Spacetime?" She has no idea what he could be talking about and asks as much. He grabs her impatiently and she tries to break free to no avail. "I'm sorry, you'll need to come with me." They warp back to the airship as storm clouds gather over the town.

He explains that the Eye of Spacetime is an ancient device that can supposedly let the user travel through time.
Crestee: "Why would I know anything about that? I'm just a teenager from a tiny village."
????: "We found a large mana signature coming from your town, and you're giving off by far the highest amount of mana out of anyone from your village. Please don't play dumb, there could be grave consequences for such an action."
Crestee: "Are you threatening me?"
????: "I would not put it that way, but perhaps something else."
Crestee: "Who are you?
????: "I cannot tell you that."

>>>> "WHY NOT? (pout)"
> Make a break for it.

Crestee: "Why not?"
????: "Because of reasons. Stop asking questions."

> "WHY NOT? (pout)"
>>>> Make a break for it.

Crestee got up and ran the fastest she possibly could. Years of farmwork paid off in this respect, and was thankful for once that she had to do all those chores. The man ordered guards to give chase, but she was able to defeat them all with relative ease. And it was this time she met an inmate that had escaped the brig, Crestee introduced herself. The inmate introduced (him/her*)self as Alex, but as they had no time for chit chat they found it seems the only way out was through a ventilation shaft. This mini-dungeon had several guards waiting for them, but it only led to a mazelike sewer dungeon replete with traps, puzzles and a boss battle.

Crestee: "WHAT IS UP WITH THIS LAYOUT? >:("

(*choose a gender)