I love Majora's Mask. It's unironically genius, particularly for an N64 game. Not... fun to play, admittedly.
The worldbuilding, storytelling, atmosphere, psychology, writing and (partly) soundtrack are incredibly good, though, and makes MM one of my favorite games that I never really feel like playing. I don't think it's all that good as a Zelda game, but it's more than good enough to deliver the awesome parts.
I'll never not cry like a little bitch about the Anju/Kafei story - love corrupted by random shit luck and greed, turned into confusion, doubt, loss and insecurity. If you follow the quest all the way to the end and manage to pull it all together, they're still stoically accepting their death - as long as they get to be together and are no longer worried they've been stood up or won't be accepted by their spouse.
The rest of the game is basically more of that, fixing sometimes heartbreaking problems caused by the mask - one at a time, several at a time, dealing with setbacks and resets. Every plotline you resolve does revert back to the miserable start, but you're also left with something "lasting" for each one, until you finally clear the game.
The denialism and eventual panic of the townspeople is really well done, the Clock Town music taking different forms depending on the day, where the third day is explicitly dark and ominous. People are panicking, going about their business as usual, taking refuge, worrying about unsettled scores, blustering and arguing...
It's a bit of a trippy experience wrapped in not-always-riveting gameplay, but the parts that work work extremely well, and if you're in the right frame of mind the game can get pretty philosophical.
I absolutely loved A Link Between Worlds and Twilight Princess. I felt ALBW was a bit on the easier side for Zelda games but had enough challenge to remain fun and interesting. Secrets weren’t too hard to find, but instead required just enough effort to make them satisfying to obtain.
Twilight Princess is really incredible and I recommend getting back around to it. The dungeons are highly creative, the art is top notch, and the story is excellent. I played through it for the first time only a couple years ago. I think it has aged quite well.
In albw, I got frustrated trying to figure out how to get into the desert temple. Haha. I probably would have stuck with it? But I just got a steam deck and was itching to try out some other games.
As everyone else says, I love it. I mostly play retro games through emulation, but I had no trouble getting fallout 4 to run on it. It kind of blows my mind thinking about how far integrated graphics have come. I’ll never buy a dedicated GPU again. I am so happy with the steam deck, that this will be the only way I game from now on.
The thing about GW2 is that it's a good game in its own right, but you really need to not think of it as a GW1 sequel in its game mechanics.
Also, I actually got put off by the story in GW2, it was so very child of destiny, chosen one style. The writing for the side quests is so much better and way more interesting.
Yeah it gets much better after the personal story leveling stuff. It’s an eleven year old game, and unfortunately the content that new players see first is the most dated. They originally leaned more into a more generic RPG story that just happens to be set in an mmo. Heart of Thorns is markedly better, and it just improves from there. By the time of Path of Fire, the story, characters, maps, and mechanics all feel interesting and meaningful imo.
I’ve tried playing various Zelda games over the years but I’ve just never got into any of them. I’ve just started WWHD and it seems to suffer from the classic Zelda problem of having one very specific solution to a puzzle blocking off all progress, and not telling you at all where that puzzle/solution is if you haven’t already identified it! Also it tempted me with an open ocean of sailing and gave me some side-quest maps to follow, then when I tried to follow them it immediately turned me around and said “you can’t go this way yet”!
Just Act Natural on steam is similar and more casual. If you don’t mind the claymation style animation I highly recommend it. Cheaper, more active, and I think more progress has been made than Spy Party too
Lineage 2, I especially like the Dion theme. It’s an old MMORPG though so when it comes to the question of a great story and/or gameplay… well I wouldn’t recommend it lol. Even though I’ve spent a lot of hours in that game
Actually my hours are 3pm-1am and I’m a night owl. It’s only about 40-45mins round trip. Roll out of bed and go to work, then come home to video games and movies.
This is because some people who aren’t as good at the game still want to feel like they earned all of the achievements. I feel that its a lot more inclusive and even though it feels more like “everybody wins a prize” I feel like if you truly love a challenge you shouldn’t need an achievement for doing it. I would rather have gaming be more inclusive than exclude some people.
Earthbound and Mother 3 could be exactly what you’re looking for. There’s just nothing quite like them OST, story, and gameplay wise.
Little Nightmares and Little Nightmares 2 also have excellent music that perfectly complement their soul-squeezing visuals and gameplay.
Portal 2 has very little music but it is GOOD, and perfectly timed to key moments in the story. Also top notch unique gameplay, obvs.
Skyrim music is iconic for a reason.
https://off.fandom.com/wiki/Downloads’s music is similarly iconic and its story and visuals so unique and engaging you’ll likely forgive it for being unapologetically RPG-maker. The latest English translation (3.0) is considered the most faithful to the original French.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/243220/FRACT_OSC/ is a “musical exploration game” where you directly influence the soundtrack by interacting with a beautiful, surreal puzzle landscape with Tron-like visuals.
OFF? WOOOW okay you definitely got me surprised over there. Half a year a I’ve tried running OFF on Linux but I just had too many issues with the compatiblity, so I left it there.
thanks to this lovely FOSS project it can be played on linux and even Android :) I’ve been playing Space Funeral on my phone with it. Actually if you like psychedelic rock, you’d probably love Space Funeral’s music too.
yeah OFF’s soundtrack doesn’t have a lot of tracks, and several are rather minimalist ambient music, but it’s all very unique and it fits the game perfectly. The main battle theme, Pepper Steak, is so catchy that my mom requested I add it to her phone as her ringtone for me 🤭
Some games with soundtracks I particularly enjoyed over the last couple years:
A Hat in Time - a cute, fun collect-a-thon platformer with a kickass soundtrack. This one is particularly fun to play and hits nostalgia vibes for the early 3D Mario games.
Shantae and the Seven Sirens - 2D platformer with an energetic chiptune-y soundtrack. The game itself is OK, but the soundtrack is what really made this one for me.
Subnautica - underwater survival and crafting game with a soundtrack that set the mood very well
Demons Roots - 18+ RPGMaker game where you lead a demon uprising to reclaim the surface world, invading country after country freeing slaves as you go. Very dark game that is unusually good for the type of game it is. If you're not put off by the RPGMaker doujin wabi-sabi and are tolerant of adult content in games this one is worth a look. There are some absolute bangers in the soundtrack.
Pyre - Lord of the Rings meets 3v3 basketball with a very enjoyable soundtrack by Darren Korb (Bastion).
Guilty Gear not even getting mentioned once is criminal, the entire franchise has amazing music, to the point where the fanbase and the fighting game community likes to joke that they get a free game with every new music album whenever a new game comes out.
To add to this, basically everything Daisuke Ishiwatari makes, who is mainly responsible for almost everything about the game.
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