10 Favoritest Genres Of All Time
Just to be clear: I don't use a word as classy as "favoritest" for just anything.
I went with genres over games for a bit more variety. The reason it's a list of games is because they're representative.
List items
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GENRE: Hybrid Dungeoncrawler. WHAT?: Essentially a Roguelike dungeon trek combined with something else to break up the sanity-stretching 100-floor slogs. In Dark Cloud 2's case, that's about five other games (but chiefly the puzzle/building-sim parts). SEE ALSO: Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale, Persona 3 & 4.
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GENRE: Exploration/Strategy. WHAT?: A strategy game, often of the empire-building ilk, that allows the more, shall we say, easy-going player to faff off and explore dungeons and stuff for a while. SEE ALSO: Star Control II, Heroes of Might & Magic III.
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GENRE: Traditional JRPG. WHAT?: The most common RPG type in existence: the turn-based(usually) Japanese(usually)-made RPG where you and a plucky bunch of youths go save the world from an effeminate evil guy. Though a genre plagued with clichés, the vast number of them often allows for some imaginative outliers that shine all the more brightly next to the dreck. Shadow Hearts is one such series that uses a somewhat skewed adaptation of the formula, what with Lovecraftian beasties popping up during an alternative WW1. SEE ALSO: Final Fantasy VI, Tales of Eternia, Secret of Mana, Grandia, Skies of Arcadia, Earthbound and Anachronox as a rare Western variant.
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GENRE: Open-World CRPG. WHAT?: Definitely more of a Western RPG thing, the open-world RPG is one that gives you a vague primary objective and lets you run off and explore the huge world of secondary objectives that's been built for you. Don't expect to put it down for several months. SEE ALSO: Elder Scrolls, Baldur's Gate (or, hell, any Bioware series).
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GENRE: SRPG (Strategy Role-Playing Game) WHAT?: Essentially a skirmish-based RPG with full command of your team in a grid-like environment. FFT has the highest level of customization and battlefield complexity I've seen without ever being too complicated or confusing. Uhh, excluding the actual story, that is. SEE ALSO: Any NIS game, Vandal Hearts (I specifically appreciate its oddball black sheep of a sequel).
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GENRE: Team-Based Puzzle. WHAT?: Use teams of experts to explore your surroundings and figure out how to defeat enemies, collect treasure and progress past obstacles. Pikmin's puzzles are largely based on which color Pikmin to use to dislodge a valuable item and bring it home. SEE ALSO: Little King's Story, Lemmings.
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GENRE: 3D Platformer. WHAT?: 3D platformers, when they're good, give players a far more open-world for them to explore at their leisure - performing tasks and finding treasures in just about any order. Sly 2 is the king of this, with each mission being part of the set-up for one amazing heist. SEE ALSO: Any 3D Mario, the Rare stable of N64 platformers, Chibi Robo, Ratchet & Clank.
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GENRE: Metroidvania. WHAT?: A portmanteau to describe a particular type of non-linear action platformer where exploration rewards players with various upgrades and abilities. SEE ALSO: Super Metroid. You can try the other Metroidvanias from either franchise, but those two are the proverbial twin peaks. It seems a large number of Indie games also borrow this formula. You know, because of how original the Indie market is.
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GENRE: 2D Platformer. WHAT?: No "WHAT?" necessary. Platformers come in all shapes and sizes, but all of them are about making tricky jumps from platform to platform. This entry is specifically about the 2D ones. SEE ALSO: Any other Mario game, really. The early Sonics too, I suppose. Oh, and the Mega Mans. Skyblazer was pretty neat.
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GENRE: Whatever the hell Zelda games are. Adventure-Puzzle? WHAT?: So yeah, Zelda games. They have their own mostly-unique little formula and stick to it pretty religiously. Link to the Past is my personal favorite, but long-time series aficionados might prefer Majora's Mask for its atypical and unsettling approach. SEE ALSO: Uh, Alundra?
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