1. Valkyrie Profile
When I discovered RPGs as a child, I experienced simplistic and slow-paced battles with teenage boy protagonists rescuing damsels in distress. I wanted something different and exciting, dark and mature, and wholly unique. Valkyrie Profile granted this in spades and shattered my expectations while showing me that RPGs could be so much more than games about plucky kids versus evil empires.
The exciting and rewarding combat, dark and morally grey vignettes, and challenging but unique dungeons ensured Valkyrie Profile stood high above the games I’d played prior while sending me down a rabbit hole of cerebral RPGs I would’ve otherwise missed. Though the game’s protagonist, Lenneth, still serves as a watermark for what I look for in a heroine, I’ll always hold a special place in my heart for the gruff Arngrim, snarky Mystina, and even that creepy little bastard Lezard.
2. Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy VIII was the third FF I played, yet it was the first I actually finished. While I dabbled in VI and played a short amount of VII, VIII was the first one that I bought with my own money rather than borrowed. I had an entire summer to bury myself in the game, become attached to the rag-tag group of weird teenagers, and break the combat system wide open. Playing through Final Fantasy VIII was a formative experience, and the game is patient zero when it comes to identifying where my love for absurd narrative escalation and exploiting game mechanics comes from.
The love story between Squall and Rinoa, the bizarre narrative, and the endearing cast still stay strong in my memory decades later. To this day, when playing RPGs, I try to recreate the spirit of Final Fantasy VIII‘s Doomtrain by trying to apply every single status effect on one enemy.
3. Atelier Totori
Although Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana was my first Atelier, Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland was where the series claimed my heart. The follow-up, Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland, quickly cemented the Atelier series as one of my favorites while becoming highly influential on my tastes. After spending well over a decade saving the world from evil villains in other games, there was something wholly unique and refreshing about Atelier Totori‘s small-scale adventure focused on the titular Totori becoming an adventurer and finding her mom. Charming characters, a deceptively simple combat system, and a world that slowly unfolded with just the right pacing put Atelier Totori slightly above Atelier Rorona. However, the absurdly in-depth synthesis system struck a chord and fueled my desire to crack open a game’s mechanics and use every system possible to make battles wholly unfair to the enemy. Naturally, I’ve been elated that each Atelier sub-series since has continually escalated in mechanical complexity.
4. NieR: Automata
NieR: Automata is far and away one of my favorite games of all time. From minute one, I found myself entranced by the world, characters, and music while being completely engaged in the mechanics of the combat system. Every single battle felt rewarding, and simply running around the ruined world was a treat in itself, thanks to the smooth controls and blissful music. The set-piece moments and eye-catching vistas continually show that NieR: Automata is a striking piece of art that has spawned many followers yet produced no rivals. When it comes to dramatic action with cinematic moments laden with the most gorgeous soundtrack ever made, NieR: Automata stands at the top and plants itself firmly as the pinnacle of visual, aural, mechanical, and narrative resonance. While the games I’ve listed before may have shaped my tastes, NieR: Automata added all the intricate details that highlight what I look for in RPGs and games as a whole.
5. Parasite Eve
Parasite Eve is the perfect blend of horror and RPG. It’s short, sweet, and punchy with pacing that never drags and characters that live rent-free in my head over twenty-five years later. Despite having an RPG battle system that should, in theory, eliminate all sense of dread, Parasite Eve keeps the tension tight as any horror game should. The characters are charming, the world feels lived in, and almost every scene feels unforgettable. The chilling theater fire, the rat transformation scene, the t-rex coming to life, Sheeva, and the amphitheater all immediately spark to life from memory and serve as a reminder that RPGs can create striking, haunting moments that stick with us for a lifetime. Every few years, I replay Parasite Eve to remind myself of just how much it shaped my tastes for the next two decades, and it holds up every single time.
