1) The Witcher 3 - This is the best open world fantasy RPG I have played and we'll the best game I have played. It's got a perfect mix of seriousness and humour it's got scary bits, it's got light-hearted bits and it's all round captivating.
The vast open world is beautiful to look at. Particularly in Skellege and Toussaint. The gameplay is solid, with no annoying features. You are encouraged to complete side quests to level up as simply killing enemies does not give you that much XP ensuring the game isn't a grind fest. Not that you need encouragement to do the quests anyway as they are so varied with each character having their own story to tell and there is usually an intriguing reason to help the quest giver.
The main story is great as well as the side quests and it always seems important and integrated well into the whole experience rather than being overshadowed.
The cast of characters is fantastic. All the voice actors did a wonderful job of converting the characters emotions and bringing them to life.
Soundtrack is just 10/10. Hollywood calibre. It fits perfectly and many pieces of music are listenable to and enjoyable to hear even outside of the game.
The DLC is done exactly as DLC should be done. Loads of freebies and as for the paid stuff. It's not overpriced and what you get for it is more content that you get in some single player games. And it's just DLC! Blood and Wine could have actually been a standalone game and it would have been amazing too. And as for Hearts of Stone, whilst not providing a new world like B&W it had a story even better than the Witcher 3's main quest. Next level storytelling there and one of the best villains in gaming.
2) Nier Automata - My second favourite game. Because of the pestering of
@Spirit and
@Link Floyd I decided to get this game. So thank you for the pestering.
It's got fun gameplay but it's the characters and emotional story which made this such a great and unforgettable experience.
I must also praise the outstanding soundtrack!
3) The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Ocarina of Time was just a masterpiece. It still is all these years later. I'm not even sure if it was all intentional considering the different views for what the direction of the game should be held by the creators but they made something truly special with this.
It's got humour, light-heartedness and whimsy. It's also I would say the second darkest entry in the series behind Majora's Mask. Perhaps even it's equal. Yes it's got horror, and scary creatures but every sage sacrifices their old lives and everything they had in the fight against Ganon. And a child's innocence is lost.
OOT felt like a living world taking the player on a range of emotions and to many different places. Each having the perfect accompanying piece of music, enhancing the feel of each place. The ice caverns bell music making the player feel cold. The ethnic instruments and strings used in the spirit temple creating a warm exotic feel.
This game spent a lot of time in my childhood thoughts and got me into a lot of other fantasy series and inspired my creativity. I wouldn't be who I am today without OOT
4) The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - It was hard to decide between this and OOT. It takes the essence of OOT (which I consider to be the essence of what Zelda should be) and made something bigger and in some ways better. With Midna it took character building and writing in Zelda to the next level and we haven't really seen anything like it since. The bosses were great, there was good enemy variety. We had the best portrayal of the Goron tribe with many unique looking Gorons and an interesting setup. (Which they completely got rid of in BoTW!!!)
I'm gonna put it below OOT because it's too easy and it has the sky symbol and city in the sky which I dislike a lot. There isn't anything in OOT which I dread to that extent.
I like the darker games. Tp is gloomy but it doesn't get quite as dark as OOT or MM. Still got the great Zelda humour and possibly the best, most listenable soundtrack in the series.
5) The Last of Us - I really got invested into the unforgettable story and characters of this game. I loved the mushroom zombies, that was a really interesting take on them and I have had many nightmares about clickers since playing so it certainly did its job as a horror!
