favorite video game
this has been my favorite video game for over a decade now. it's difficult to put into words why it is my favorite video game. it just is. it feels correct to answer this question with this game any time i see it. that's all.

honorable mention: phantasy star online episode I and II plus

favorite series
yeah this isn't surprising. i don't like every single SMT game i've played, but it's the series that has provoked the most thought and intrigue from me both in its main and spinoff games, and it's produced the art that's meant the most to me when it comes to video games.

honorable mention: final fantasy

favorite soundtrack
sonic adventure 2's soundtrack doesn't just fuck, it cums. it impregnates me with joy. it's a good soundtrack. thank god the game is also extremely perfect to play.

honorable mention: shin megami tensei: persona 3

favorite protagonist
sorry. i'm cheating and calling hector the protagonist of this one even though the game is a story of a trio of characters (and even then, you would probably consider eliwood the de facto protagonist if you had to pick). hector is an extremely interesting character because his greatest strength (his unwavering loyalty to his friends) is also ironically his biggest flaw that ultimately causes a chain of events that leads to his death. hector is always a captivating guy to see in cutscenes because while he is a jovial and fun guy, he also has this sincere bloodthirst to him that a protagonist in this series likely would to kill all the people they do. hector is saddeningly real in a provocative and endearing way and he's always the first person i think of when i think of interesting video game characters.

honorable mention: final fantasy xii (ashe)

favorite antagonist
look man. i could go into a huge essay about why vayne is a superb antagonist and how he falls under the rarely done well "the villain is right" archetype. but all i'm gonna say is that his introductory cutscene is maybe one of my favorite "this is who the villain is" establishing cutscenes of all time. if you haven't watched it before, here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFAl51qtjEM

honorable mention: yakuza 2 (ryuji goda)

favorite story
lol oops i have to use this game again. i don't care if this game's pacing does fumble in the last 20% or so, the story is consistently excellent and while there are minor edits i would make (introduce reddas sooner, give penelo more plot relevance outside of her interactions with larsa), these are what i consider to be the minorest of nitpicks. absolutely adore this game's story and both its presentation and content captivates me to this day.

honorable mention: phoenix wright: ace attorney: justice for all (die mad about it), final fantasy tactics

game you have not played yet but want to
i've heard so many things about this fucking thing i need to know if it's as bad as they say. as i type this i'm in the middle of replaying IV to get all endings and 100% the compendium and after that will be IVA. so this one's definitely further down the pipeline. but it is on my to-do list rest assured.

honorable mention: uhh. who cares. um. fallout 2

game you love that everyone hates
i owe no one any explanation for why i love this game or why i think it's gotten the most unfair critiques of all time. but i will give you both. what i find is that the lion's share of complaints of this game come from people who are not willing to meet the game halfway at all. "there's no experience or partners!!" what, did you think that was just some silly oversight that they forgot to include and would've had they remembered? the game was intentionally designed this way. it is not meant to be ttyd 2 like so many of you demanded it to be. it's a game that functions more as a collectathon with turn-based combat. "what is the point of combat if you don't get experience" so you can a. eliminate obstacles b. get coins for efficiently dealing with them c. familiarize yourself with the combat for the boss fights. but whatever. this game is very special to me in that it's the first time i've ever had a profoundly positive experience with a game that i simultaneously had to regularly explain and defend. anyways, beyond all that, i love this game, it has a lot of fun and memorable moments that stand out in my mind. i've 100%'d this game twice and both times i had a blast. lastly, the soundtrack is phenomenal and the final boss theme unironically makes me tear up. if you haven't listened to it, here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUSWolUk3Kw

honorable mention: it's hard to think of a second place here because nothing comes close to sticker star levels of hate that i still enjoy. gun to the head i would say something like drakengard 1 (i unironically enjoy the gameplay to it), hotline miami 2 (this one's more love-or-hate than anything else tbh). actually wait mega man battle network 4 does. that's the honorable mention.

game you hate that everyone loves
there were so many fun picks i could've gone with like steins;gate or persona 4 or bloodborne. but i'll go with pikmin 2. not exaggerating at all when i say that i enjoy pikmin 1 less now because pikmin 2 has retroactively made me dislike the gameplay and story, something i usually think is impossible to truly do. if you have not read my little malded out essay on why i hate this game, you should, especially if you like the game and want to dogpile me for this opinion. https://www.backloggd.com/u/averypaledog/review/46957/

honorable mention: well i kind of just gave it away with those three mentions. they all would fit here so let me pick a fourth game and say final fantasy VII remake. fun fact: i'm going to replay that soon since rebirth comes out in a couple weeks and see if that game still induces a type of angry dread like no other game has. oh and sonic heroes might've qualified if it didn't have such a mixed legacy.

batshit insane game
is there literally any other game i could put here? well, probably zero time dilemma. anyway, i call this game batshit insane in the most flattering way possible.

honorable mention: ever17 (iykyk), yakuza 2 (most of the game is fairly grounded but that final setpiece and final boss live in my head rent-free), drakengard 1 (don't look up any spoilers to it. just play it.)

best art style
there is literally no other choice for this category

honorable mention: the world ends with you

favorite ending
i'm not going to spoil this ending because my boyfriend is going to read this list at some point and i am going to force him at gunpoint to play this game eventually. so all i will say is tfw you're in despair.

honorable mention: yakuza 1, sonic adventure 2 (im so serious dont fuck with me on this one), mother 3, phoenix wright: ace attorney (literally all three of the trilogy qualify for this imo), metal gear solid 2: sons of liberty, mega man battle network 3 (i love mmbn4 and 5 but imagine the universe where this series ended here. i wish i lived in it.), shin megami tensei: nocturne neutral ending (oops i cheated and put a game with multiple endings cdi link laughing gif)

favorite boss fight
going to give you a curve ball answer here and say the fight against caellach in eirika mode, specifically when you fight him with joshua. their boss fight banter + the music is just so immaculate. the fact that we also get cormag vs. valter in that same chapter. . . it's the peak of the entire game for me, it really is.

honorable mention: shin megami tensei: nocturne final boss (both of them idc), shin megami tensei: devil survivor gin ending final boss (when "demon of darkness" starts playing i feel like this gif https://media.tenor.com/IhQukrqbsDMAAAAM/laser-sports.gif ), demon's souls (specifically 1-4's boss fight)

childhood game
oops i grew up on pokemon. let no one ever tell you pokemon gen 1 was bad. these games were fucking incredible successes to have as much content and be as functional as they were on the god damn gameboy of all systems. have you played like literally any other gameboy game recently?

honorable mention: crash bandicoot (i played the whole trilogy as a kid, but the first one is the one i most associate with childhood), bugs bunny: lost in time, gex: enter the gecko, sonic the hedgehog 3

relaxing game
going to loosely paraphrase my review of this by saying that you have not truly lived until you've mowed down several people running and screaming in fear from you while "cherry tree times" plays and you hear the children's chorus go "LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LAAAAAAAAA"

honorable mention: super smash bros. melee (i very occasionally with just play a 99 stock match with items on and pick pokefloats and enjoy the next like half hour of my life)

stressful game
i go for silent assassin on professional in these games and there is nothing like the overwhelming stress that gets buoyed by the cathartic hit of pleasure when you realize you've successfully killed your target and gotten away with no one knowing.

honorable mention: dead rising 1 (maybe the right answer in the wrong way, but trying to save people in this game is so fucking horribly tedious and annoying. but i do love the game.)

game that depressed you
very weird and nebulous and interpretive category, so i'm gonna go with this in a positive way. strange journey has such a large condemnation of humanity within it that it's very easy to walk away from it feeling sullen about the state of things. but, i also value art that can challenge me in this way. there's specifically a very small and largely unimportant moment in the game that has still resonated with me. the game's just really provocative in that way.

honorable mention: dark souls (a very beautiful game)

game you always come back to
i can't recommend this game to a living soul nor can i explain why i've put so much time into it or regularly return to it. just leave me alone. i love this game so much i wanna fuck it.

honorable mention: fire emblem 7

guilty pleasure
i don't feel guilt for liking things but whatever, i get the category. i'm gonna just c/p my review of this game because it gets the point across: "what, you guys are telling me you DON'T like the game where people play soccer with bombs attached to the ball, ghosts are inexplicably introduced as real and mega man can exorcise them by inputting console commands, hideo kojima is an npc, and the final dungeon is a meteor that's connected to the internet and you save the world by hacking it?"

honorable mention: mario party 3 (i feel like i would get shot looks if i said this was maybe one of the most replayable and fun games on the planet)

game that would cause a divorce
what the fuck does this mean. what the hell is this category supposed to be. whatever. if someone was like really into persona 4 they would probably find it insufferable to listen to me talk about how this game is like, regressive in basically every single possible way. at least the soundtrack is good (though probably some of meguro's worse work tbh).

honorable mention: nier automata (i feel like if someone REALLY liked this game they would get put off by me saying it was mid at best)

tons of hours played
what the hell why did igdb use the xbox cover instead of the gc one. anyways yeah phantasy star online easily wins this one. i can't think of any game that comes even remotely close. like several hundreds if not thousands of hours by this point.

honorable mention: super smash bros. melee, fire emblem 7

evil game
do i even need to explain this one. do i really.

honorable mention: heavy rain