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[Mondai]

Lost Odyssey, 1000 years of dreams: All of them are great and I would always get super happy when I found them.

Dragons Dogma, Bitterblack Isle: Aside from the combat, I consider BI to be the other best part of the game, running through it underleved is always a great time.

Persona 5 Royal, Extra chapter: I love the whole game but the extra chapter really brings it home for me. First time I played through it , I stayed there farming stuff because I didn’t want it to end.

YS VIII, the combat: Not sure what more I can say, the combat is really good.

FFXIV, Stormblood Trials: Best trials for me with some of them having the best songs in the game.

 

[Graciaus]

Usually the waifus.

 

[brian0057]

The bank heist missions from both Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and Thief II: The Metal Age.
The gold standard by which every other stealth game is judged against.

 

[Fredrik]

Super Metroid - The exploration and gear-based traversal.

Zelda BOTW - The open world, exploration, traversal, physics and freedom.

Skyrim - The open world, exploration, freedom, role playing and modding capabilities.

Forza Horizon 5 - The open map, freedom and focus on fun and speed.

No Man’s Sky - A whole universe to explore and the freedom, crafting, building, farming and knowing nobody else in the world has seen the same planets.

Metroid Dread - The exploration, gear-based traversal, controls and boss fights.

Elden Ring - The open map, path choices, exploration, action, loot, combat variations.

 

[Fbh]

Man there's so many.
Some that come to mind:

Witcher 3: The sidequests, how a lot of them have unique stories, characters, twists, decisions, etc

EldenRing/BotW: The fun to explore open world that feels like it's designed to actually be explored instead of guided through. An open world where I'm actually meant to look at the world itself and be like "that part looks cool, let's go see what's there" instead of "my minimap says there's a point of interest in this direction".

Outer Wilds: The world design and how progression is about learning the various systems that are build into the world rather than finding upgrades or gear.

Chrono Trigger: A JRPG without the classic JRPG bloat

Shadow of the Colossus: Enemies with an unparalleled sense of scale even compared to modern games.

Bloodborne: The world, and how it gradually shifts from traditiona horror to cosmic/lovecraftian one.

 

[TintoConCasera]

It's usually the gameplay or the music.

Sometimes, when I'm very lucky, it's both.

 

[Fredrik]

It's usually the gameplay or the music.

Sometimes, when I'm very lucky, it's both.

Oh yes the music can elevate a game a ton if they get it right.
Need for Speed on PS1, seems like a decent racing game at first, then you hear this godly music:


I used to play it 90% because of the music. So so good.

Turrican is another one, without the music it’s not the same game. And The Last Ninja.

 

[Mister Wolf]

The story.

 

[German Hops]

I really enjoy Fallout 3 for the loot.

 

[BadBurger]

Spider-Man: finding all of the collectibles and photo locations, taking those little trips down memory lane with Peter, was fantastic as a long time Spider-Man fan. The mock Twitter feed that responded to in-game events was a really nice touch as well.

Ah man, I am about to start my third playthrough of that game, aren't I?

 

[Griffon]

No matter how good a game is, it can only be as good as its music. For that FFXIV is my most recent favorite.






When the story hits its climax, the big boss is on phase 3, and the beat drops and the main theme starts... you know that feeling.

 

[CaptainSlayAHo]

Rdr 2 :the last ride

Only video game moment to bring me to literal tears, mixture of the music, cinematography, realization that I might never experience a gaming moment like that again etc

Jesus, getting emotional just writing this lol

EDIT:misunderstood the question, but the story if that didn't come across

 

[PanzerAzel]

STALKER (not any official release but modded, most notably GAMMA): I love these games to death precisely because they don’t give a single shit about the player. They throw you in the deep end right off the bat, laugh at you and say, “best of luck, sucka!”. In an industry where games are always designed around the player’s presence in the world, STALKER does the opposite….the Zone is the star, the player, just an instance, and one that’s going to get mercilessly brutalized until you can barely survive and begin to build yourself in the world.

This is why, in today’s industry, I hold out no hope for STALKER 2 whatsoever. I fear it’ll be designed to cater around a player power fantasy, scripted and hand-tailored, and consequently, the Zone will cease to exist for itself, and will instead do so for the player. That will destroy what this game series is, but it’s what the market expects.

Ghost of Tsushima: the combat. This game would falter and not even be half as good as it is were the combat not so engaging.

 

[Ghost of Caelid]

Elden Ring: The exploration is bar none, the combat is bar none, the lore is fun to discover and follow, the art direction is amazing.

Divinity Original Sin II: The combat, the story, the sheet amount of choices, the narration

TLOU2: polish on the game play, the story is the best in gaming

Inside: the atmosphere is bar none, the game is polished as it gets and the story is fun to think on

DS3 & Bloodborne: The haunting atmosphere, gameplay and combat are bar none

Death Stranding: Great story, unique gameplay loop, great zen gaming

Fallout 3: Some of the best side quest in gaming, again atmosphere, made me fall in love with rpg gaming

Atmosphere is really important to my personal taste.

 

[mistuhcahlos]

The Warriors - The level where you beat the Hi Hats in a graffiti competition and end it with trashing their art collection. So much fun and I’ve played it countless times.

XCOM2 - Getting through any mission with no casualties felt SO GOOD.

Personas - All S links. Even the dumb ones.

Smash - Looking at the player select screen and seeing my entire childhood brings me joy. I also got a kick out of the 3D trophy viewer on the 3DS version. Sending someone flying off the screen never gets old.

TLOU - All of it. I thought it was beautiful and terrifying.

 

[amigastar]

GTA Series: The Music

 

[Alan Wake]

Rayman Legends: The mix of platforming, music, and design.

The Last of Us: The dialogue, the environments, and the story.

BioShock Infinite: The atmosphere, the story, and the graphics.

Metro Exodus: The story, the characters, and the train.

Sonic 2: Everything.

 

[kanjobazooie]

Subjectively, of course...

Banjo-Kazooie: Exploring Rusty Bucket Bay.
Perfect Dark: Area 51 infiltration.
MGS1: The first Sniper Wolf encounter.
MGS3: Infiltrating the Graniny Gorki lab.
MGSV: Infiltrating OKB0.
FF9: Searching for survivors in Burmecia.
Lightning Returns: Nursing the Angel of Valhalla back to health.

 

[Banjo64]

The Last of Us: The dialogue, the environments, and the story.

Yes.

Banjo-Kazooie: Exploring Rusty Bucket Bay.

You mad man.

It’s been years since I played Uncharted 1-3 on PS3, so I’ve forgotten a lot about the games. I’d say Uncharted 4 when you arrive at the tropical islands in the speed boat, absolutely beautiful.

Journey - got to be the first play through when you first see someone on the horizon and then realise they’re actually a human player.

DeS - defeating Phalanx. Such a crap boss in hindsight but I felt like I’d just conquered the world. Great intro to the game and From for me.

Ico - eating watermelon on the beach.