u/Fanceepance

So, I've played a lot of games, but I haven't played much apart from like... Warframe, I guess, for quite a while now.

I had an absolutely absurd spree of games a few years ago that, to this day, are legitimately some of my favourite games of all time, and some way, somehow, I bumbled into all of them in a row.

• Haven (The characters, romance, music, graphical style, the "vibes")
• Signalis (The unique storytelling, the graphical style, the music, the worldbuilding, again, the "vibes.")
• Cassette Beasts (Absurdly fun gameplay loop, BANGER soundtrack, fun, memorable characters, a touch of romance, extremely replayable)
• Until Then (The writing and characters are sublime, and I loved the graphical style. It's basically a glorified visual novel though. I'm a huge sucker for romance stuff, which this does have, but it's not particularly why I love this one so much.)
• CrossCode (The sheer expanse of things to do, fun characters, more vibes, the graphical style is excellent, cool world, fun gameplay, and a story and characters that aren't extremely deep or anything, but they REALLY work well as a cohesive package.)
• Sea of Stars (Maybe not a FAVOURITE favourite, but I certainly enjoyed it. Graphical style was GORGEOUS, with an excellent soundtrack, and a really fun general gameplay loop. The story was good enough, but didn't really blow me away, and I'd even go as far as to say that most of the characters were kind of a weak spot for me. Still enjoyed it.)
• I Was a Teenage Exocolonist (Definitely elevated by the characters and choices you can make, romance aspects if you so choose, a REALLY cool world, and shockingly replayable.)
• Astlibra Revision (Absolute 10/10 in the gameplay department, with a GREAT soundtrack, and a story that's definitely running on rule of cool, but damn it WORKS.)
• Little Goody Two Shoes (Vibes. So many vibes. INCREDIBLE presentation, and I had fun the romance aspects. Simple story, but it didn't need to be complex. Gameplay itself was fine.)
• Lenna's Inception (Made by the cassette beasts people, was honestly just super charming, and very short. Dead simple, but still knew how to stand out.)

And from there, the only thing within the past like, year and a half or so that REALLY genuinely hooked me... was Demons Roots. Don't uh, look into that one too hard, I swear to god it's amazing, but it's definitely an awkward recommendation lol. Writing and characters were top notch, and did an amazing job building up a world and a story that's honestly just hype as hell at so many points, the dev is seriously a wizard. Really fun, simple gameplay loop, and a lot of soundtrack stuff that I listen to pretty often. Again, I enjoyed that one so much because it was carried so hard by the writing and characters.

Anyways, those are in no particular order, but they do make up an overwhelming percentage of my favourites, with Demons Roots being the last thing I played that REALLY got me invested, and that was last year sometime.

So, I come here to ask for recommendations.

I'm partial to anime stuff, but as you can see from like, Haven, or I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, it's not necessarily mandatory. CrossCode and Until Then are sorta like... halfway there. I really value a story that can surprise me in literally any number of ways. Hell the story doesn't even have to be like, deserving of awards and medals, as long as it's effective at what it sets out to do, like Astlibra. That game's entire plot is "I gotta find my girlfriend." and it takes SO many interesting twists and turns with that, that I couldn't help but get invested and really care, even though... TECHNICALLY it's really not actually doing much groundbreaking, it's just REALLY good at setting up stuff that's FUN as a story. As much as I love romance, it's a bonus, but not mandatory.

Also, just to throw it out there, I've played the first 2 Trails in the Sky games already, and every Persona that matters, twice. I also kinda bounced off of Metaphor Refantazio, but I suppose I'm not terribly against giving that another shot eventually. Basically though if it's REALLY popular, I've proooobably considered it already, but if you think it's really worth a shot, please do convince my ass lol.

Apologies for the long, ramble-y post, but I do greatly appreciate any recs you can provide! And if you happen to catch an interest in any of the games I listed and have any questions, do feel free to ask, I love to yap about all of these lol.

Edit: I somehow forgot that I played Expedition 33. Yeah that one was pretty damn cool lol.