Vagrant Story (2000)
I hated Vagrant Story the first time I picked it up. Horror-filled catacombs and zombies roaming the streets? If I’d wanted that I would have played Resident Evil, and I very much did not. But I stuck with it and quickly realized I’d actually discovered one of the best games—still to this day—ever made. The writing is brilliant, the atmospheric dungeon crawling is clever and elegant, and the hybrid turn-based action combat is surprising and satisfying. It only had one problem, and that was the awful damage formulas that rendered all attacks useless unless you spent a ton of time grinding against particular enemy types or mastering its baroque blacksmithing system. But I persevered through the single-digit strikes against enemies and one-hit spells from bosses because the medieval noir thriller at Vagrant Story’s core is second to none.—Ethan Gach
