[[Blogroll]] [[Writing About My Favorite Games]] ## Pokémon Gold I am not a big fan of Pokemon. I enjoy it as much as any other person on *checks notes* planet earth. But I don't get super excited about it for the most part. Except for **Pokémon Gold**. This game altered my brain chemistry with Mt. Silver as a kid. Climbing that difficult gauntlet and getting to the top, only to be confronted by my past-self, a silent warrior akin to Ryu from **Street Fighter**, waiting to beat the brakes off me? Inject that shit directly into my VEINS y'all. I'm getting goosebumps literally just thinking about this. In particular, that moment came in the late 90s, when the internet was still in its infancy and rumors were still able to exist before immediately getting debunked. The magic was still there. There was no YouTube thumbnail to spoil the moment for me. It's hard to replicate in 2024. Also **Gold** was just one of those games that happened during this era where it was an absolute improvement on everything from the last game - day/night cycles, eggs, moves that work properly, etc. It's the definitive **Pokémon** experience to me. ## Yakuza 0 This isn't my favorite **Yakuza** game (I don't *think* anyways, it changes by the day) but it's the one that I'm most thankful for. I dunno what happened, but I'm so glad **Yakuza 0** showed the world what an incredible series it is and it got the love it deserved. I've been there since day one, praying for releases to come to the states, scraping for crumbs from Sega every event, combing through the translation guide of **Isshin** on GameFaqs. This isn't me gatekeeping - that shit *sucked*. I don't care if **Yakuza** gets hit by silly "Dame Da Ne Guy" memes by people who've probably never played one of the games. It's a small price to pay for simultaneous releases of new games. Even reading that sentence back is baffling to me. I'm so happy about how far we've come! ## ASTLIBRA **ASTLIBRA** may one day be in my top 10. Granted, it's not without its problems. It's too horny for its own good at times, and it has some puzzles that will make you wanna tear your hair out. But what **ASTLIBRA** lacks in polish, it makes up for it in sheer, unadulterated vision. It's a game made by one man across a decade of his life, and it shows. This game wasn't made for me - it was made for KEIZO. Hell, [the man says as much himself](https://www.rpgsite.net/interview/13567-an-interview-with-keizo-the-creator-of-astlibra-revision-15-years-in-the-making-nintendo-switch-version-in-development-bakers-daughter-mini-story-dlc-and-more)! When you play **ASTLIBRA**, you're being given the privilege to experience a game by someone who was laser-focused on creating the Action RPG of his dreams. Luckily, KEIZO has some solid dreams, because I could not put ASTLIBRA down once I booted it up. The action is sublime, the power-curve is pitch-perfect, and the twists and turns of its bonkers plot just keep on hitting. I will never forget my time with this game. ## Crystal Project In case you can't tell with my writing and the choices of games, I'm pretty much constantly chasing the high of my time playing games as a kid like a Scholastic Bookfair. My favorite games tend to be the ones that can bring me back to that place - where I feel a sense of awe and discovery and shed my cynicism, if only for a brief moment. **Crystal Project** got me there. I had no assumptions about this game when I first booted it up. At best I thought I'd be getting a couple of hours out of another game from a guy close to my age that really likes **Final Fantasy**. What I didn't expect was to be staying up late into the night, every night I was playing, for *days*, until I finished the game. 40ish~ hours in about a week is pretty much unheard from me these days. It was such a blast exploring areas, and just when I thought I'd hit the end-game of the traveling's loop, I'd get a new tool to move in new ways and find new areas. The story is minimal which is something I pretty much always love. *And* it has an in-depth and interesting class system, one of my favorite game tropes. Just thinking about it makes me want to install it again. There are so many games that claim to be inspired by the all-time SNES JRPG greats. It pisses me off. I can't believe we live in a world where **Sea of Stars** gets more attention than **Crystal Project**.