Yoshi's Story is without a doubt my favorite game of all time. I grew up playing it constantly on the family N64, over and over and over. The homemade storybook aesthetic of the game combined with cute little Yoshi's running around making the most adorable noises ever is just unmatched. The game still looks phenomenal all these years later, and is still so fun to play.

Since you can only choose one level every chapter of your playthrough, that makes replay ability great, and they get harder if you're feeling bold. The game itself isn't really difficult, but it is impossible not to have fun gathering fruit and running around stomping on shy guys and other creatures. The mechanics are solid and feel satisfying to use, and the levels all offer unique experiences to traverse. The music is also so iconic to me and is one of Nintendo's best soundtracks to date.

I could go on all day but please try Yoshi's Story at least once in your life because god DAMN it's just so super happy and fun!

I played this game when it first came out as an app on IOS. I loved the game so much and when it came out on steam I immediately slurped it up as fast as one would slurp up a pizza. My one qualm is how much riddle there is in figuring out someone's order but other than that it's a great game and the art is so cute and so homey. I kind of miss how simple it used to be without all the in-app purchasing and decorations for seasonal times but I still enjoy it, the base game plays the same way anyways. Highly recommend.

Bravely Default is a JRPG with a super unique battle system. In battle you can stock up actions by using a defensive move called 'Default' mid battle to block attacks and store up 'Brave Points' to then use 'Brave' and unleash multiple different skills, items, or attacks all within a single turn depending on how many Brave Points you have.
As you progress and defeat bosses you will gain new classes or 'jobs' you can change your party members into to completely change how you strategize and go about battles.

The menu and battles screens can be navigated super fast with the snappy controls and helpful built in optimization that keeps things aware from being a chore. The game also has on the fly toggleable difficulty and the ability to disable enemy encounters if you want to back track without wasting time.

The gameplay is amazing, but its also carried by its music, voice acting, and characters. The music is consistently absolute bangers from the start to the end of the game. The final boss theme is one of the best I've ever heard. The voice acting ranges from just entertaining and funny to actually really impressive, it never got annoying and was enjoying to listen to throughout the whole game. The 4 main characters can be stubborn, annoying, and questionable at first in how they work together, however as it picks up and progresses they actually do grow and change in meaningful ways and its great to see how far they go. The villains and side characters are hilarious and amazing, with outlandish designs and voices that kept me wanting more of them.

The only real downside this game has (Besides for random encounters in general) is the horrible late game pacing. The gameplay pacing suddenly gets really weird later in the game and forces you to do a lot of the task you've already done over and over again countless times if you want to achieve the 'true ending' the game has. A lot of end game side quest also have little rewards or incentives unless you just want the challenge and the chance to interact with the characters and villians more. The story can also be questionable especially in the later half of the game as it becomes more convoluted with the pacing.

However for me the story, characters, voice acting, incredible music, and minute to minute gameplay kept me going even through the tedium (and entirely on hard mode) through all the side content and all the way to the true ending of the game. which felt like one of the craziest things I've ever accomplished in a game.

This needed to walk so Dark Souls 3 could run

This game introduced a lot of gameplay fixes on the original’s design with many unique features that make it a great experience amongst the souls-borne series. It also introduced a lot of what I disliked in the series such as linear areas, returning to the hub area and speaking to an NPC to level up rather than at any bonfire, and warping between every bonfire (the interconnected world of DS1 can never be topped)
That, plus a lot of cheap-shot placed enemies and insta-kill attacks with a soul-tier system that makes it hard to play with friends left a sour taste in my mouth when playing