This singular honor goes to Kingdom Hearts; I stared at the case of the original before
I put the game into my sister's Playstation 2 and wondered 'how is this going to work?'
I swiftly got my answer when, in a brilliant stroke of genius, the game not only worked
well enough for my liking but actually excelled at stoking my emotion, imagination and
desire for an overarching storyline. I'm one of THOSE kinds of fans... you know, the
kind that dares to import things for the name of the game, the kind that collects lots of
varied paraphernalia related to something they absolutely love.
That kind.
Suffice to say, I own all of the Kingdom Hearts games available for stateside release,
and one that never came here wholly. Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix - sure, we got the
PS2 remake of Chain of Memories in the form of RE:CoM, but we didn't get the
tweaked and more importantly EXPANDED first game. Extra scenes that I had to
resort to watching on YouTube, a whole boss battle fight that looked to be very
difficult but rewarding with - at the time - an Enigmatic Man, who we'd learn the
identity of later in Kingdom Hearts II.
The game itself caught my attention with its solid play style, and built on that with
its story. Now, in a few weeks comes the latest in the franchise - Birth By Sleep,
a PSP entry, steps back before the original KH game to give a prequel of sorts to
the franchise at it stands today. I've intentionally avoided news, spoilers, etc. on the
game because of my long LONG standing as a fan of the games.
Honorable mentions go to the following franchises, which are some of my other
favorites but don't hold the same generally ingrained place in my heart:
Final Fantasy, Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter, Wild Arms, Valkyria Chronicles
(Which is absolutely beautiful and amazing, if you haven't played it please give it a
shot - download the PSN demo today!), and Dark Cloud (Which definitely deserves
more games - come on Level 5! Get with it!)
What are YOUR favorite games?
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