Have you ever looked at a game and didn't quite pick up on what it ☂was? Like it might have looked interesting, but you didn't actually understand what the game was even about? Or maybe you've heard all the hype behind a game but thought it just looked way too boring or uninteresting to be worthy of all the hype iꦏt's been given?
We Still Aren’t Surไe What T🐭hese RPG Stats Actually Do
I mean... I kinda know, but not really, ya know?
The great joy of games is the interactive e🦄lement of them𝐆. It's what sets them apart from just about every other medium there is. And because of that, just reading about or watching a game being played is so different from sitting down and playing the game yourself. And these games are some of the most prominent examples of that. It just won't make sense until you try it for yourself.
9 Undertale
You Had To Be There
- ESRB
- E10⛎+ for Everyone 10+: Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Mild Language, Simulated Gambling, Use of Tobacco 𒆙
- Developer(s)
- Toby Fox
- Publisher(s)
- Toby Fo🅷x, 8-4
- Engine
- GameMaker
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
- How Long To Beat
- 7 Hours
- PS Plus Availability
- Extra & Premium 🦋 ꦓ
Undertale is one of those games that you know is massive, but it's pretty hard to understand why. What makes U൲ndertale even harder to get into is the fact that it became a cultural phenomenon on the i♓nternet basically immediately after its release, and to penetrate it felt like you had to cut through layers of discussion to comprehend the game. Like it was some kind of endless ARG
Of course, you can also just play the game. It really is quite special. I stepped into it years after the fact, and refused to engage with all the online discussion because I would ne𒈔ver give the game a chance otherwise. And it is genuinely one of the stronger examples of a game 𓄧that is so painfully aware of what it is, down to the very idea of why combat even exists in games and what we accept as the default.
8 Dragon's Dogma
I will Never Forget Frog Nasty
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Language, Sexual Themes, Violence 💫
- Developer(s)
- Capcom
- Publisher(s)
- Capcom
- Engine
- RE Engine
- Franchise
- Dragon's Dogma
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS5, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Xbox Series X, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Xbox Series S
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
- How Long To Beat
- 30 Hours
- PS Plus Availability
- N/A
- Wiki
- Metascore
- 88
One of Dragon's Dogma 's strongest selling points is something that in any other game would be seen as a glaring flaw. It does not have a single curated companion, with all of them organically created by otไher players for you to hire ꧒along your adventure. From the outside, it can be hard to understand why, exactly, this is seen as such a good thing.
And it won't really make sense until you play it. Hiring these companions, Pawns they are called, feels so much more personal. They learn ꦚfrom their own masters, and that means they will act differently from any other Pawn you hire, even with the same class and inclination. I met a Pawn called Frog Nasty, and they terrified me in a way that only a deranged human mind can in a spur-of-the-moment decision. Frog Nasty would never find their 😼way into a full game as a curated companion.
7 🌸 Anything From Team Ico
Reviews Don't Do It Justice
- ESRB
- ☂ T For Teen // Blood, Fantasy Violence 🅠
- Developer(s)
- Team Ico
- Publisher(s)
- 🤪 Sony Computer Entertainment
- Number of Players
- 1
- Platform(s)
- 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:PlayStation 2
- How Long To Beat
- 9.5 hours
- How Long To Beat (Completionist Runs)
- 21.5 hours ♏ ꦓ
- PS Plus Availability
- Premium
Just about every game from Team Ico (now GenDesign) are renowned. Ico forms the studio's original namesake, while Shadow of the Colossus is often held in incredibly♋ high regard. Even the studio's most troubled game, The Last Guardian, is regarded as an exceptional game. But praise doesn't really mean much without act💃ing on it.
Words and videos can only go so far. It's not until you have to guide Yorda yourself, until you have to plunge a blade into a Colossus yourself, until you have to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:painfully guide Trico yourself, t💝hat these games finally click. The weight of the controls, the barren areas in which you find yourself. It makes sense when you're the one pushing the buttons.
6 🍬 Dark Souls 2
From's Magnum Opus (?)
- ESRB
- ♛ T for Tee💃n: Blood and Gore, Mild Language, Partial Nudity, Violence
- Developer(s)
- ꦯ From Software
- Publisher(s)
- 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Bandai Namco Entertainment, From Software
- Engine
- havok
- Multiplayer
- Onli🧸ne Multiplayer
- Franchise
- 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dark Souls
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
- Wiki
There's no point in acting like FromSoftw💧are's games are some unheard of, complex gems. They have been emulated ad nauseum, they are incredibly popular, and they are only still increasing in popularity. And🦄 while they can have some complex writing that really only makes sense when you experience it first-hand, it's still fairly approachable from the outside.
No, it's in Dark Souls 2 it gets more complex. There is a great reason that it is such a controversial g🙈ame, simultaneously heralded as From's best and worst game. Looking at it from outside, you would struggle to understand what's even different. The combat and enemy design seems the same, the levels are made in a similar fashion. What's the big deal? Except those opinions are anathema to the camps that both love and hate the game, and it takes playing it to really u🥀nderstandwhy.
5 Kingd𓂃om Hearts
Why Is Sephiroth Fighting Donald And Goofy Again?
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Kingdom Hearts 2
- Released
- March 28, 2006
- ESRB
- E10+ For Everyone 𝐆10+ Due To Mild Blood, Use of Alcohol, Violence
- Developer(s)
- ꦍ Square Enix 🍸
- Publisher(s)
- ♉ Square Enix
- Engine
- Unreal Engin🔯e 4
- Franchise
- 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Kingdom Hearts
- How Long To Beat
- 32 Hours
Kingdom Hearts is massively popula🐓r, even if it only gets a new entry once in a blue moon. It has the incredib♕le strength of nostalgia to make old fans return, and the allure of Disney to bring new players in. It is nice and steady. Except for those whom Kingdom Hearts has not already won over, it's pretty easy to look at it and see it as nothing more than a walking advertisement for Disney, another feather in a massively consumerist cap.
Every Final Fantasy C🌌haracter In🍎 Kingdom Hearts, Ranked By How Accurate They Are To Their Original Selves
Kingdom Hearts' takes on ಌFinal Fantasy characters often are𒊎n't the most accurate.
Except Kingdom Hearts is so much more. It is incredibly earnest, and play with its Disney characters in w🤡ays that aren't really seen anymore. And yes, it is priceless to see Final Fantasy characters interact with people like Mickey Mouse, even if some of it just feels like fanservice. Who are the people who wanted to see Mickey Mouse fight Sephiroth, I'll never know. But it is hype moments and aura a𝔍ll around.
4 Stranger Of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin ♎ 🃏
Jack Is A Very Angry, And Oddly Endearing, Protagonist
- ESRB
- ꦫ M for Mature: Blood and Gore, 🀅Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
- Developer(s)
- 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Team Ninja
- Publisher(s)
- 168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Square Enix
- Engine
- unreal engine 4 ꧅ ไ
- Multiplayer
- ꧙ 🐲 Online Co-Op
- Franchise
- 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy
- Number of Players
- 1-3
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Xbox Series X, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Xbox Series S
- OpenCritic Rating
- Fair
- How Long To Beat
- 18 Hours
- PS Plus Availability
- 🍰 Extra & Pre𓃲mium
- Wiki
- Metascore
- 72
When Stranger of Paradise was announced, it was🦩 cast aside before it even had a chance to shine. It was treated like a meme from day one. A protagonist who looked incredibly generic, and was admitted by the developers to just be an incredibly, irredeemably angry man. It didn't help that in its initial demo, the performance was very dodgy, and the graphics left quite a lot to be desired.
But seriously, Stranger of Paradise is one-of-a-kind. I am completely serious when I say Jack Garland is a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:top-tier Final Fantasy protagonist. As you play the 🌃game, the story will feel so disjointed, your companions will talk as if there's something you're already meant to know that's never been said. And then, finally, it clicks. Not just for y꧒ou, but for Jack as well. This journey is for both of you. So get out there and kill Chaos. It's so very much worth it.
3 💃 Crusader Kings
I Promise It's More Than Just Menus
- ESRB
- T for Teens: Drug Reference, Languageꦰ, Mild Violence, Suggestive Themes
- Developer(s)
- 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Paradox Interactive
- Publisher(s)
- 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Paradox Interactive
- Engine
- 💖 Clausewitz Engine ♉
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer 𓆉
- Franchise
- 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Crusader Kings
- Platform(s)
- PS5, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Xbox Series X, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Xbox Series S, PC
- How Long To Beat
- 70 Hours
- X|S Optimized
- Yes
- File Size Xbox Series
- 11 GB (November 2023) 𝓀 ✱
- PS Plus Availability
- ꦅ Extra & Premium
- Metascore
- 91
I am a glutton for grand strate🍌gy games. I simply adore them and their copious menus. I feel like I spend more time in them scrolling through menus and navigating the map learning values and locations than I do actually doing any specific task. And I get it. If you've neve🧸r played a grand strategy game like Crusader Kings, it can seem impenetrable. I mean who plays a game just to juggle like 50 different menus?
9 Best Short Strategy Games You Can Fin🐬ish in a Weekend
Here are the shortest strategy video games!
But it's about what those menus represent! When I figure 𒅌out exactly where my armies are coming from, I know who I can effectively conquer. If I trawl through someone's family tree, I can find their living descendants and put someone more amenable to me on a foreign throne instead. The menus give rise to roleplay opportunities. And sometimes that goes wrong. It's not exactly exciting to look at, but it is obscenely enjoyable when you're managing all those menus for your own goals.
2 The Woꩵnderful 101
You'll get It By time You Reach The Credits
- ESRB
- e
- Developer(s)
- 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Platinum Games
- Publisher(s)
- 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Platinum Games, Nintendo
- Engine
- ♏ platinum en♏gine
- Multiplayer
- 🎶 𓆉Online Multiplayer
- Platform(s)
- 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Nintendo Switch, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Nintendo Wii U, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Amazon Luna
- How Long To Beat
- 17 hours
PlatinumGames is known for its 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:character-action games. They are flashy and stylish, and also incredibly fun. The likes of ꦰBayonetta can be incredibly punishing, but it is also more forgiving in terms of how you can build combos, letting even the uninitiated get into these games. But then you also have The Wo꧅nderful 101, and that is a game that just visually does not make sense.
The Wonderful 101 is a character-action game. It is action-packed and exhilarating. And yet even with all that, it's kind of impossible to look at it and actually comprehend what's going on. There are literally hundreds of people running around on screen at once, it's all from an isometric perspective, and you have to draw your weapons in real-time. Frankly, even playing the game will still have you struggling to click with it, but it's not really like much el꧋se out there.
1 D♎eath Stranding ꦉ
Yes, Walking Can Be That Fun
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ // Violence, Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Strong Language ✱
- Developer(s)
- 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Kojima Productions
- Publisher(s)
- 𒐪 Sony Interactive Entertainment ꦅ
- Engine
- Decima
- Franchise
- 🌜 𓆉 Death Stranding
- Number of Players
- Single-player 🐻
- PS5 Release Date
- 🎐 June 26, 2025 🍌
- Platform(s)
- 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:PlayStation 5
Death Stranding is about walking. If you've ever watched a trailer for Death Stranding, you have been mislꦿed on what the game is actually about. Those trailers ar basically the definition of hype moments and aura. Death Stranding actually has very few of those. You will be walking everywhere. You will be falling constantly. You will be damaging cargo. You will not be sneaking around and engaging in firefights. That is not what a porter does.
Even in Death Stranding 2 where the more action-oriented elements are pushed to the forefront, this is still first-and-foremost a walking game. The quintessential walking simulator. And I'll be the firs to admit that just watching that is not fun. Walking is not fun to watch! But when you're the one planning the journey, choosing what to bring with you, and being careful with literally eve🐲ry step you take, then you'll get just how exciting and stressful Death Stranding can be. 'Fun' is not the be-all and end-all of game design.
