My favorite games of all time and why.

Over the years, I have played many games. Some were better than others.

These aren’t the games I have played the most; those are multiplayer games. These are my all-time favorites, the ones that stirred feelings I will never forget.

1. Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber

My all-time favorite.

A friend and I rented this game when he was staying over because my parents were going out. I didn’t like the look of the box at first, but he insisted, and as always, I obliged.

I think one reason I loved it so much is that another friend, who liked to spoil stories for me at that time in my life (mainly books), couldn’t ruin it. I played it first, so everything was new to me.

I remember some very cool scenes that brought tears to my eyes through sheer passion. By far, the best is this one:

My favorite scene: when Dio defends Magnus

Dio stays to fight Rhade with a couple of Amazons. What happens next depends on what the player chooses just before:

• Choosing “…” leads to Dio becoming a Dragoon, and you have to kill him later.
• Choosing “I can’t do it…” brings Dio back safely when Magnus joins the Revolutionary Army.

That is the most important decision in the game. You need Dio for the Zenobians to join you, which in turn is required for many other characters to join and, ultimately, to get the best ending.

So do you have the balls to speak up, or are you a coward like everyone else?

2. Tenchu 2

I fell for it from the very first cinematic, the intro. It was artistic, beautiful, and strange. Then I started the game: the story was very cool, and the gameplay hooked me. All these games have very cool gameplay as well as amazing stories, although the stories are what I remember most fondly.

The stealth is amazing. A Tenchu game on PSP also hooked me in that regard, with different gameplay mechanics. But as I said, the story is the main thing. There are three playable characters; at first, you can choose only two of them: Rikimaru and Ayame.

Each character shows their part of the story. Unlike the first Tenchu (which I played later and didn’t like), where choosing Rikimaru means Ayame gets captured and vice versa, Tenchu 2 shows each character’s part separately, without those kinds of complications, as far as I remember.

Rikimaru’s campaign is a typical hero story. You learn that Tatsumaru, the third playable character, has lost his memory and never gets it back. You defeat the main villain, Kagami. It’s all fairly standard, but it’s a very cool story.

Ayame’s campaign, on the other hand, shows that Tatsumaru actually recovers his memory but chooses to stay on Kagami’s side until he meets his end in a confrontation with Ayame. In fact, he takes his sword, Izayoi, the clan leader’s sword, and stabs himself. It’s certainly deeper and darker than Rikimaru’s part.

When you finish those two campaigns, you unlock Tatsumaru’s. There, you see why he decides to stay on Kagami’s side: he fell in love with her.

The whole game is very emotional: Tatsumaru killing their master, fighting Tachibana Jubei, the greatest Goda warrior, and recovering his memory thanks to Ayame, among other moments. I don’t really have one favorite scene.

3. Chrono Trigger

This is a very emotional RPG. As soon as I finished it, I said, “This is the greatest RPG ever.” No RPG I’ve played since has topped it, although I don’t play RPGs anymore.

It is funny in many parts and emotional in many others. I can’t think of a favorite scene, so I’ll share my favorite piece of music from it. To me, it’s one of two games with a perfect soundtrack (the other is Zelda).

That piece is Frog’s Theme. Here’s an amazing cover by Taylor Davis:

Watch on YouTube

4. Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy

I fell in love with this interactive, cinematic way of telling a story. It made Quantic Dream my favorite company, ahead of Capcom, which had taken several games to earn that spot.

To this day, I haven’t played the other Quantic Dream games. I’ve had at least Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls installed on my computer for years, but I still haven’t played them.

My favorite scene: when Lucas fights the police back

My favorite scene is the one in which the main character, Lucas, is about to be arrested by the police but decides to fight back. To his own surprise, he discovers that he has superhuman abilities.

It starts like a regular game-over cinematic. When the police capture you in that game, a short cinematic plays in which Lucas laments that he can do nothing more to clear his name (if I recall correctly).

This cinematic begins in the same way. Lucas delivers a monologue while the police follow the arrest procedures, but then he decides to fight back. It includes a cool chase through the streets.

Watch on YouTube