The 2025 Desert Island Video Game Draft

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Pick 4: Final Fantasy III / VI (SNES)

Elated to loop back around to my turn and be able to complete my holy duo of SNES RPG’s. My personal favorite of all the Final Fantasy’s too!

Known as Final Fantasy III when I had it on my old SNES back in the day is actually FFVI. An incredible cast of characters, each with their own background and individual special skills, making a huge list of unique and new ways to play. One of the most iconic antagonists of the entire franchise. Of course an excellent soundtrack to match!

Another one I come back to every handful of years.

@Sluggah you’re up!

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Very nice! I debated taking this one instead of VII -- and probably would have if someone drafted VII first. I do think VI (III) has my favorite story in the whole series and the soundtrack is pretty much tied for #1 too ("Oh! Maria!"). And then there's Amano's character artwork ... I ended up buying the SNES Final Fantasy III manual on eBay once upon a time even though I never owned an SNES just because I liked the artwork inside of it so much. And this is one of my favorite pieces of art of any kind:

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Hmm. Maybe I should have drafted this game instead. It's a tough call. But Final Fantasy VII was the first one I played so it's still the most special to me.
 
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Pick 4: Final Fantasy III / VI (SNES)

Elated to loop back around to my turn and be able to complete my holy duo of SNES RPG’s. My personal favorite of all the Final Fantasy’s too!

Known as Final Fantasy III when I had it on my old SNES back in the day is actually FFVI. An incredible cast of characters, each with their own background and individual special skills, making a huge list of unique and new ways to play. One of the most iconic antagonists of the entire franchise. Of course an excellent soundtrack to match!

Another one I come back to every handful of years.

@Sluggah you’re up!

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This is the last of my top five favorite games. I went against picking it since I already had a turn based rpg. I'm surprised it lasted this long, but there are many heavy hitters left.
 
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Title: StarCraft II
Format: PC
Year of Release: 2010
Developer: Blizzard

This type of game is a little out of my wheelhouse yet I loved every minute of it. Strange that I’ve never looked for similar games since…guess I’m just holding out for StarCraft 3. These Zerg aren’t going to eradicate themselves. Bonus points that I was able to get this Office reference.

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Note: @‘ing me doesn’t seem to consistently do anything, so may miss a turn in the future
 
Mario Kart Wii
Developer: Nintendo
Year: 2008
Platform: Wii

OK, most of you may know by now I generally don't like console games. I'm old school - grew up using a mouse and keyboard. I can't play an FPS on a console to save my life. If I can't use the mouse with an inverted Y axis I'm screwed. Sometimes you can't teach an old dog new tricks, or at least this old dog.

But when we got the Wii for our young son, this game was an instant winner for me. He and I loved playing against each other and we both had a blast. Easy to play, fun maps, bright cheerful colors, cool music - we could just plop down and play for hours.

I normally wouldn't select this game so highly, but it definitely fills a void in my list (for both game type and sentimentality) and I don't want it to go elsewhere.

Obviously, use of the Wii Wheel is required. :)

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@SLAB - pick a winner!

I'm the same way with FPS games. I tried to play Halo on an X-Box once and it was so painful to watch that I'm pretty sure it soured the experience for everyone else in the room. I'm generally into video games more for the story than the gameplay and I'm way more comfortable with a mouse and keyboard than a console controller, though there are a few exceptions. I did end up buying a PS4 so that I could play Uncharted 4 but there's a reason I gravitate toward console games that emphasize sneaking about instead of shooting at things. If I've got to use a little thumb joystick to move with, I'd better be able to take my time with it.
 
Overcooked 2. Xbox One. 2018.

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When lockdowns arrived in Melbourne, I spent most weekdays at my then girlfriend's (now wife's) small apartment, where we worked and took things sort of seriously. But Friday nights and Saturday mornings were at my place, streaming crappy TV in the evening, then playing this ridiculous game in the morning. It was fun. And fun is important. And, although life is generally pretty good, perhaps it's a bit serious. Sometimes I miss fun.
 
My next pick is a preeminent gem of two celebrated genres. The first genre, with roots in Metroid, is among my favorite game styles. The second genre - The “Souls-like”, in which Elden Ring, Bloodborne and of course Demon’s Souls all hail, typically not so much of a personal favorite. Gothic horror and grinding difficulty aren’t generally draws for me

But apparently, I’m down with masochism and the macabre if everyone is a bunch of little bugs.

Hollow Knight (Switch) - 2018

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I was nearly three years late to the Switch after a half decade exile from gaming due to life experiences - including marriage, moving cities, changing careers, and fatherhood.

Breath of the Wild was my first game back to the hobby once my wife gifted me a Switch having navigated all of the above. It was practically therapeutic, and thematic, returning to the world of a post-apocalytlic Hyrule following so much personal upheaval in my own real world. There is a certain amount of zen in exploring the sparse and nearly barren open world of BotW, if not entirely challenging.

If it was a challenge I was seeking, my second game delivered a return to my NES hard glory days in spades.

Hollow Knight is hard. Consistently so. There’s no real warm-up bosses or training wheels. You’re dropped into a desolate and cursed land with little more than a rusty nail and a dream.

Good luck little Knight. You’re off the edge of the map now.

Here be Monsters

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Ooooh, eerie.

Of course, maybe part of the draw for the dense gothic narrative for me when that typically is a turnoff is the very fact that it’s basically one big subversion of the trope. Literally, at one point when I was reading the complex and sad history of Hallownest and how the Knight’s dark lore connects to it all, I said aloud and a bit confused “but they’re just bugs.”

That spun me into a minor existential meditation as to why the story would be any more meaningful if it were about the fallen kingdom of human knights and wizards, but that’s beside the point.

I found it invigorating being presented an overwrought grimdark story and simultaneously given license to not take it seriously, but still totally taking it seriously.

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Look at that: for seemingly no reason, there’s this totally standard enemy peacefully gazing on the lake as if wistful or meditative. If the Knight leaves him alone, he’ll just stand there not attacking or engaging. Nothing special happens if you leave him alone. Nothing special happens if you attack. It’s just a thing in the game that is equal parts contemplatively mysterious and absolutely adorable. Essentially, it’s open to the player to provide context, or ignore it completely.

I feel Team Cherry brought a similar approach to the game design. Typical Metroid-like games have a standard formula of exploration gated until an item/ability is discovered or boss is defeated - and there’s certainly an amount of that in Hollow Knight. But there’s also a large degree of flexibility, as locations typically have multiple paths to reach them, many bosses can be taken on in a variety of orders or skipped entirely, and there is rarely a choke point in which progress halts entirely until you accomplish X. These means the supreme challenge never becomes overbearing.

Well, except maybe the Path of Pain

And The Radiance can kick rocks.

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In all, Hollow Knight was the first game in a long while to remind me what it meant to be fully captivated and enthralled by interactive art.

Hornet’s a cool character too. Team Cherry should really make a sequel starring her. Just an idea guys.

I feel like you and I would probably get on well in real life. Hah. We certainly have similar tastes in video games, but I recall we also have similar tastes in film (and music, too, perhaps, if I'm remembering our last Desert Album Island Draft correctly). 👍

Man, Hollow Knight is just plain awesome. It and Stardew Valley, though on opposite ends of the stress spectrum, were the two games that convinced me of how special modern indie gaming can be. Disco Elysium and Hades were the next two. The last in my top-5 indies may yet make an appearance amongst my picks. If you don't grab it first, of course.

Also... Silksong is finally coming later this year! I am not among the frothing masses who have been eating up every morsel of news regarding its pending release. I'm a very patient man in most cases, but I must admit that I'm really looking forward to it.
 
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