I played a lot of FreeCiv and had a lot of fun with it. Not sure if it’s still dev/maintained

They do, but it’s a very small part of their total financing (less than 1% I think), and they don’t have government appointed staff or anything like that.

Are you trying the original or Enhanced Edition? I’ve had no issues playing the EE versions of Infinity Engine games on Ubuntu

This 100%. The only games I’ve managed to finish in the past ten years are on Switch or a portable system.

You beat the materia keeper without using materia!?

I loved Ogre Battle 64. To date, I can’t remember playing anything else quite like it.

I can get behind the CC vs CT take. I finished CT first circa 1998 but found it pretty boring (I have a better appreciation for it now). CC was a lot more enjoyable to me–combat had a lot going on, and the music is an unmitigated masterpiece.

Putting DQ7 on here is almost a bit spicy, but I think it’s one of the best representations of the series in terms of scope, pacing, gameplay, and storytelling. It’s absolutely slow, but that was sort of the point.

Depends on what you like about EO. EO makes party building and finding synergy a core part of it’s gameplay. For something like that, Star crawlers, Paper Sorcerer, and Wizardry 8 are good choices (7th Dragon series also falls under this, though it’s not first-person).

If the mapping is what you like, I don’t think there are any other games that integrate it into the game itself, but a lot of games expect the player to map using graph paper. For those, Wizardry 1-3 are good to start with as they are challenging but always fit on a 20 x 20 grid. Later Wizardry 5-7 are also very good but have larger maps that will end up going off the edge of the paper sometimes (though they tend to have more interesting combat too). Might and Magic III would also be a good choice if you want to do more than dungeon crawl. If you do try classic Wizardry, I’d recommend one of the console ports. Robert Woodhead (programming of Wizardry on Apple II) has actually said the Famicom version is the “best”. I’d say the GBC or SNES version are best.

For something more modern but still like Wizardry, there’s Elminage. It’s a modern take on Wizardry from a dev that actually made a lot of Wizardry spin-offs. It has more interesting classes that classic Wizardry. Experience also has some modern takes on the formula (Undernauts being the most recent) but I have trouble getting past the aesthetics of them.

Finally, if you want something more tactical and don’t mind AD&D, take a look at some of the gold box games like Pool of Radiance. Dark Heart of Uukrul probably falls in here too (but is not D&D). They have first person mazes, but grid based combat, sort of like a proto version of Tactics Ogre.

And my final off-the-wall recommendation is Legend of Legacy. It’s not first person, but it has the same explore, map, and push your limit loop as a good DRPG.

I respect this, but always had trouble with portal 2. It has some great parts but is also way too long.

I think BotW used music very well in its world building. While I missed having catchy music all the time to hum along to, the fact that the hardest hitting song is saved for Hyrule Castle makes the whole end of the game much better. When the music came it, it was almost a surprise to hear and really heighten the last bit. The ending was still a bit of a let down, but that music really swung for the fences. It took a lot of restraint to know you can do pieces like that and basically save all of it until the end

I just beat Kirby Mass Attack a few days ago. I went on a Kirby kick this year and knocked out Forgotten Land, Canvas Curse, Super Star Ultra, and Nightmare in Dreamland as well.

SaGa (the series in general). Always heard it was the obtuse bastard child in the RPG family. The series has tried a lot of interesting things and while most games in the series are flawed, they are all really interesting in spite of themselves.

I think this is a totally valid complaint and felt the same way playing MP2 when it came out. I feel that first person games in general benefit from integrating HUD elements and menus into the game world more than other genres. MP1 was a masterclass in that areas, so MP2 was surprising.

20XX has been on my wishlist for awhile. Always loved the X series. Tried to get into Gunvolt but it doesn’t seem to scratch the same itch.

I played Stardew Valley on Switch, but I cannot recommend it enough. One of the best games I’ve every played.

This was my BotW experience. Once I figured out how to make fully recovery meals, that’s all I ever used. I had like a thousand random rocks, bugs, and lizards and I have no idea what they do (and don’t really care to figure it out)

Everdrive

DSi CFW

No backlight mods. I actually like the stock screen. Not having a backlight is what gave the GB and GBC it’s legendary battery life. In addition, many GB and GBC (not not necessarily all GBA) games were designed with a non-backlit screen in mind.

That said my GBA is a SP AGS100 (front light)

I general stick with a GBC or GBA with an Everdrive, as well as a DSi with custom firmware. It gives me the benefit of original hardware without paying the absurd retro game prices.