I'll start this off by saying 2-4 is basically a 3 way tie. Ask me again in a week and I might have these 3 games in a totally different order. All 4 of the games remaining are currently among my top 10 favorite games of all time.
...And 3 of them are from the same franchise! Yall knew I wasn't done with Final Fantasy yet! What game did I play this year that went toe to toe with one of my all time favorite franchises and was equally as great? You'll have to wait and see. For now though, let's talk about Final Fantasy IV.
Point blank, this has arguably the strongest individual character's arc of any game on this list. The only real competition I can think of is Toshiro from Persona 5 Tactica, but nah this game clears his arc. In this game, you play as a man named Cecil. He is a Dark Paladin. At the very start of this game (like, during the opening sequence) you start off this game heading back to your kingdom having just finished razing a small town, killing nearly everyone in it. At the end of the game, you're a Paladin, saving the world from the evil forces that were controlling everything. Your former boss. Nope, you weren't mind controlled or anything, you were committing all those heinous acts by choice. How do we get from Point A to Point B? Well, that's on you to find out for yourself.
The story is the main selling point for this one. It's incredibly compelling, even if it may be a little cliche, it's spun so well that I didn't mind at all. Your party is essentially a revolving door of a cast of memorable and likeable characters. I loved the ensemble cast so much I actually got my partner to pick up a poster of the FFIV cast at an anime con back in like July or August.
There's plenty of memorable moments, from having to go back and actually see the carnage you caused, to having to head to the goddamn moon for the final act... And ofc there's the showstopping moment mentioned above, the exact moment where Cecil changes from a Dark Knight to a Paladin. The exact point where his redemption begins.
This is a tale of redemption. Because there's no way Cecil can go back and undo all the horrors and atrocities he's committed. He's taken countless lives and burned cities to the ground in the name of evil. But he can stand up and make sure nothing like this ever happens again.
