1. Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride
Dragon Quest games always have simple core mechanics serving as vehicles for tightly-written fantasy stories, given life by the late Akira Toriyama’s vibrant character and monster designs. I love that every Dragon Quest game has combat and menus from the 1990s or earlier, but stories, artwork, and sentimentality that feel timeless.
Which brings me to Dragon Quest V. Dragon Quest V has solid RPG gameplay (especially monster recruiting), but is ultimately about a hero’s journey through childhood, adulthood, and fatherhood, discovering who he really is in the process. I love recruiting Great Dragons to my wagon, but Dragon Quest V is truly about family and growing up. When I was first getting into RPGs, I preferred the flashy melodrama of Final Fantasy, but over the years, I grew to appreciate Dragon Quest‘s heartwarming optimism. The older I get, the more powerful it feels.
2. Dragon Age: Oranges Origins
The first Dragon Age is a game with huge player efficacy, co-starring a cast of characters as loveable as that of any Japanese RPG. But maybe the thing I appreciate the most about Dragon Age: Oranges is the Warden. The player chooses between six Origin stories, and then shapes their personality, relationships, and world-state through dialog and gameplay choices.
That’s nothing new in RPGs, but no others have the dire stakes of a Darkspawn Blight, the politics of Orzammar and Denerim, or the romance of Alistair, Morrigan, Leliana, or Zevran. And while I would prefer Dragon Age to have more Dragons in it (three isn’t enough), it’s an RPG I’ve played over and over, because it’s so satisfying to live many different lives and make different choices.
3. Trials of Mana
In the early 2000s, I started using software emulation to pirate video games (shameful, I know). Trials of Mana (the artist formerly known as Seiken Densetsu 3) was one of my first targets, after learning about the elusive “Secret of Mana 2” from online forums.
I adore SD3. Its class system and multiple final boss scenarios (my favorite is the Dragon Emperor) had me replaying it over and over for more than 20 years. I tried dozens of class combinations, wrote online forum guides, and broke into confused laughter with my RPGFan friends in a hotel room during E3 2019 when we watched the announcement of its sequel. But most of all, SD3 was a gateway game for my interest in seeking out obscure games and connecting to online communities dedicated to RPGs. Without Trials of Mana, I might not have joined RPGFan.
4. Yakuza: Like a Dragon
Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s signature series has taken many forms over the years, from open-world brawler to zombie shooter to turn-based RPG, but are consistently dramatic and entertaining, and almost always set in a fake neighborhood of a real Japanese city.
When I replayed Yakuza: Like a Dragon in 2023 with my partner, it was in anticipation of a trip to Tokyo and Yokohama we would take later that year. I was already excited to see Japan for the first time, but making the digital-to-physical comparison went beyond my expectations. Everything from our hotel to the waterfront park to the golden Dragon statues in Chinatown made me feel even closer to my most recent RPG obsession. If you can’t visit Japan due to financial, geographical, or time reasons, playing through a Like a Dragon game is the next best thing. I’m going to try and do both.
5. Monster Hunter Freedom Unite
Monster Hunter‘s formula boils down to “hunt stronger monsters to acquire rarer materials to craft better equipment, then repeat,” but its intense action and equally beautiful and threatening monsters have made the series into a global phenomenon. But most importantly, it’s best played with others.
I played Monster Hunter Freedom 2 and Freedom Unite with my best friend so much that I broke two PSPs. My hiatus between Unite and World was mostly because he moved away for grad school, and hunting solo just wasn’t the same. Today, my original hunting partner and I live in the same town, and despite having more responsibilities than ever, we’re hunting Elder Dragons together again in Monster Hunter Wilds (or we would, if Wilds had Elder Dragons in it). When I think of Monster Hunter, I think of the setting, the gear, and the monsters, but most of all the good times.
Non-RPG 1: Capcom Vs SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001
My love of fighting games began in two places, around the same time. My elementary school friends introduced me to Street Fighter II, and I discovered Samurai Shodown II and Fatal Fury Special at a derelict arcade in the beach town where my family used to vacation. This evolved into hundreds of sleepovers Dragon Punching each other in the Street Fighter Alpha games with those same friends, and me seeking out Garou: Mark of the Wolves and other SNK classics on my own.
CVS2 is the best of both worlds, and one of my all-time favorite games. Capcom fighting systems and interfaces borrowing superb SNK character designs was the stuff of my dreams in the early 2000s, and I’m SO excited for 2025’s Capcom Fighting Collection 2. SF Alpha 3 Upper and Power Stone 2 are icing on the SN-Cake.
Non-RPG 2: Mega Man X4
Mega Man was my first favorite video game character. I loved the concept of the wholesome, hardworking robot fighting for the future of humankind and robots alike by defeating foes bigger and cooler than he is, and getting stronger as he does it. I’ve played many incarnations of Mega Man, but I think the formula is close to perfect in Mega Man X4 — choosing your protagonist between X and fan favorite Zero, a fun, powerful version of X’s armor upgrades, and surprising character drama bookended by some of the best so-bad-it’s-great voice performances in video game history. I adore all of it, from the opening stage’s Dragon boss to the final encounter with Sigma.
Remember my Monster Hunter partner from four paragraphs ago? He and I met on our elementary school’s playground because I saw him drawing Mega Man X robots in a notebook.
