10 - BlazbluePS3/Xbox 360/Arcade – Arc System Works – 2008-2014
Another fighting game, and again I don't really feel like I can pick a favorite. I would tend towards saying the most recent iteration, but to be honest I probably played Continuum Shift the most, so go with that.
Basically, Blazblue is like a shinier version of Guilty Gear with an extremely complicated plotline. The story mode of Blazblue is so long that for the most recent game, Chrono Phantasma, has a story mode so long that skipping through all of the dialog so I could unlock a character took something like four hours. Maybe fifteen minutes of that was fighting. Now, the story is great, it's just maybe a bit too great, too in depth and based around character development and huge conspiracies to work for a fighting game. This is probably because it was originally intended to be a JRPG.
I have to imagine the Blazblue RPG would have been one of the best ever made, and probably ranked even higher on this list, but it is what it is.
Blazblue's music is composed by Daisuke Ishiwatari, who also composed the music for Guilty Gear. Here, we see his craft elevated to a whole new level. Liberal usage of choirs and keyboards along with badass metal riffs and face melting solos make the soundtrack for this game one of my all-time favorites. A few tracks to check out: Rebellion, Queen of Rose, MOTOR HEAD, Gluttony Fang, Plastic Night, X-Matic… again, much like Guilty Gear, pretty much the whole soundtrack is great.
Gameplay-wise, the combat is slightly less face-paced than Guilty Gear, but still makes Street Fighter look like slugs on heroin. It has a pretty innovative button scheme. Like many fighting games, it has buttons A, B, and C, by default Square, Triangle, and Circle on Playstation, which equate to Light, Medium, and Heavy attacks. The D button (X) is where it stands out. This button has a completely different function for each character. For the main character Ragna, attacks done using the D button drain health from his enemies. For Rachel Alucard, pressing D and a direction causes wind to blow in that direction which she can use to move faster. Carl Clover uses his D button to control a robot-like companion in battle.
The unique and creative uses of the D button allow for huge diversity between characters, and no character plays like another. Even Hazama and Terumi, who are actually the same person and whose A, B, and C attacks, as well as their supers, are mostly the same, are made distinct by the completely different functions of their D button. Where Hazama uses his D button to launch chains allowing him to propel himself across the screen or keep enemies at a distance, Terumi uses his to drain his opponent's super meter. Hazama has to play defensively, using his mobility to press any small advantages he can take, where Terumi is relentlessly aggressive, using his draining to fuel near-constant use of super attacks.
The game looks great, with high resolution sprites and a high framerate, and much of the writing is also pretty funny. Obviously if you don't play fighting games, this won't be your thing, but I do, so it is.
9 - Shadow of the ColossusPS2/PS3 – Team ICO – 2006/2011
Oh god, everyone has played Shadow of the Colossus, right? If you haven't, stop now. Go play it. Go. No questions, just do it. Done? Great.
So what an extraordinary game, right? Describing it, or even watching someone else play it, cannot compare to playing it yourself. That feeling when your hand actually gets tired from clinging to a Colossus for so long, that epic music that plays as you fight, the beautiful, enormous, diverse landscape, the subtle but extremely effective story. Anyone who's played this game knows what I'm talking about.
My favorite experience in this game comes from fighting the flying worm Colossus. Early on in the fight, I lost my horse. If you recall this fight, you will recall that your horse is pretty much essential. However, I was resolved. I would not give up this fight. I fought for so long, I memorized the pattern that the Colossus flew around in, and eventually was able to position myself ahead of time so I could intercept him and hit him with arrows, or climb on him when he starts to fly low. I think it must have taken at least an hour, but I finally won. To my vast relief, my horse returned after the boss.
8 - Fate/Stay NightPC/PS2 – Type-Moon - 2004
Another Visual Novel. Another Eroge, though another one where it works just fine (better, even!) without the porn. In fact, this game was re-released on PS2 with all the porn removed (obviously), and it was so popular people made patches for the PC version to turn it into the PS2 version.
This is really a classic Visual Novel. If you've ever played one (besides Ace Attorney), this is probably it. Fate is an extremely popular franchise, with numerous spinoffs, both a prequel (the previously mentioned Fate/Zero) and a sequel, a number of anime…
A probably incomplete of Fate media:
Fate/Stay Night, Fate/Hollow Ataraxia, Fate/Unlimted Codes, Fate/Tiger Colissuem, Fate/Extra, Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya, Fate/Zero, Fate/Apocrypha, two anime adaptations, a movie adaptation, countless fan works… Let's just say it's one of the most popular things you've never heard of.
As a Visual Novel, of course the writing is the main draw, and writer Kinoko Nasu really shines in this game. From awesome action scenes, to touching romantic scenes, to funny scenes, to funny scenes which were supposed to be erotic, to highly disturbing scenes, to highly disturbing scenes which were supposed to be erotic… Really just great all around. Dude's not great at the erotic scenes though, which is why the game really benefits by having them cut out, and again there's the whole "WHY NOW?!" thing, as characters insist upon having sex even though the world is ending around them.
The story is divided into three routes, but unlike most games like this, you are forced to play them in a certain order. Each route has a different romantic interest, storyline, and villain. First is the Fate route, with Saber as the romantic interest and mostly about laying the groundwork of the world. The second route is Unlimited Blade Works, with Rin as the romantic interest and a focus on character development. Then comes the divisive part: Heaven's Feel. Heaven's Feel is my favorite part of the game. Some (so-called) fans don't like Heaven's Feel, maybe because it's when all of the really dark, fucked up, disturbing revelations are made, or maybe because of the romantic interest, Sakura. She's sort of a clingy psycho, but she's not the good part of the route… or rather, she is, because she's also (spoilers) the villain (spoilers). Much to my dismay, Heaven's Feel has never been adapted, preventing me from showing it to my friends who won't play Visual Novels. A new Fate/Stay Night anime was announced to come out this year being made by UFOTable (who did the Fate/Zero anime), and I had hoped it might be an adaptation of Heaven's Feel, but instead it is an 'original story based on the original game'… *sigh*
Anyway, the reason for this forced order is that the main character goes through development over the course of the three routes. This is part of the reason the original anime adaptation is so disappointing, as it only covers the Fate route, wherein Shirou is mostly a useless misogynistic idiot, causing many anime fans to look at me funny when I cite him as my favorite character.
The game's also got some great music, "The Golden King" and "Emiya" particularly. Emiya is the theme that plays whenever the main character is about to do something badass, and The Golden King is the theme for my favorite of the three villains.
If you're going to try out a Visual Novel, try out this one. Make sure you get the Realta Nua patch, which adds additional content from the PS2 version (voice acting, more pictures, extra scenes) as well as the option to remove the erotic scenes.