I struggle quite immensely when thinking about favorites in my media consumption.
I don’t mean this in the sense that I can’t list off some of my favorite games, movies, or music of all time. To me, the lists are the easy part. The actual problem comes with taking a definitive stance and saying “I think ___ is my favorite insert media here of all time”. And to be honest, I’m not completely sure why that is the case.
As a young kid getting into games media, questions like this were ever prevalent. Listicles like “TOP 25 PSP GAMES OF ALL TIME” or “BEST RPGS ON THE SUPER NINTENDO”, while being a dime a dozen on certain websites, helped cut through the cruft of B games and crummy annual licensed titles and also occasionally helped find hidden gems. The adverse effect this had on my young mind though was feeling this need to always have an answer at the ready for whenever someone hypothetically grilled me on what I thought was the best or my favorite game of all time. I needed to be able to justify what held that top slot and why.
I was never able to give to a solid answer. I’m not sure if it was due to my undiagnosed ADHD or my commitment issues but the idea of saying with conviction that something was the #1 over everything else was a daunting task. It felt like I was signing a bill into law and because of that, it gave a simple, admittedly silly question a level of weight it surely does not deserve.
As I got older and I consumed more games media and different opinions on media in general, my own opinions grew and became much more nuanced. The one thing I never grew out of though was my inability to answer that silly question that always plagued me. Any time I felt like a game shook me to my core and rocketed to the top of the list, the finality of deciding that game to be “the one” made me back off and shy away from answering in confidence. This continued on and on until 2017 when I played a game that changed things for me for the better, and unbeknownst to me at the time, somewhat for the worse.
Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age was a revelation to me. I was almost proudly not a Japanese roll playing game kind of guy at the time it was released, but in watching Jared Petty discuss it during its review period on Kinda Funny Games, his adoration and glowing words about it enticed me to give it a shot. From jump, it wowed me with the presentation and the charm. The colors vibrantly popped, the characters felt like they had a life of their own thanks to Akira Toriyama’s phenomenal art design, and the music provided the necessary backbone to the sense of whimsy adventure the remainder of the game presented. I picked it up almost immediately and fell mostly in love with it, but the love didn’t envelop me until the release of the Definitive Edition on the Nintendo Switch the following year.
As I said earlier, I was not a JRPG person, but much to my surprise, everything about that game spoke to who I am in a fundamental sense that no other game had before. From the story being lighthearted but dark and deeply emotional at points to the ultra-refined turn-based JRPG gameplay, everything meshed with how my psyche works and it pushed all of my brain buttons in exactly the right combination to finally break through the barrier. I had officially found my favorite game of all time and confidently solidified it in its rightful spot any time I was asked.
It didn’t stop there, though. The love soon bore way to obsession. I wanted to see where the game I love so dearly got its DNA, so I went back and played the first three games, originally released on the Famicom/NES. From there, I found the online consensus was Dragon Quest V was the best of the series, so I hunted down a complete copy of the North American release on the Nintendo DS. That then led to wanting to collect every version of the US-released main series titles over several years. To this day, I have a shelf in my apartment proudly displaying the entirety of my collection and while a lot of it sits and gathers dust, I don’t regret a moment or penny spent.
I now had a de facto response to the question that plagued me for so long and I had the receipts to prove it. My love only grew and grew for Dragon Quest XI, and the Dragon Quest series as a whole, as I collected its forebears and it seemingly had no way of losing that top slot in my rankings.
Leading up to the release of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S in late 2020, it was announced that Yakuza: Like A Dragon would be slated as a launch title for the Xbox platforms. The Yakuza franchise, a long-celebrated series of brawler games starring protagonist Kazuma Kiryu punching his way through the Japanese underground, was well known for its beat-em-up action. After an April Fools joke gone serious, the new sequel to Kazuma Kiryu’s final game (at the time) substituted in a new main character in Ichiban Kasuga as well as changing the tried-and-true combat system for a new turn-based, JRPG style combat. The real kicker to this though was that the change was made story relevant as Ichiban was a character who saw the world through through eyes of an old-school JRPG — Dragon Quest to be exact.
Reading that this new character heading up a storied franchise into its transition to JRPG was influenced by Dragon Quest was enough to get me extremely excited and want to check out a series that had eluded me for years. I had tried to play prior entries but the brawler combat just didn’t jive, however this new turn-based jaunt however seemed right up my alley. With them name dropping my favorite series, what could go wrong?
I eagerly anticipated the release and upon receiving my Xbox Series X on launch day, the first game I purchased and installed was Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Over the next 60+ hours, I was filled with an immense joy I hadn’t felt since the first time I played Dragon Quest XI. It tapped into my being the same way that Dragon Quest did, and in some ways, even more. It was obscenely goofy, it had melodrama in spades, but above all else, it had heart. There was passion in the characters and while the gameplay was a bit janky (due to this being Ryo Ga Gotoku Studios’ first foray into turn-based combat), the jank only added to the heart the game had.
After crossing the finish line, I was in love. I clearly had a new #2 favorite game of all time, and like Dragon Quest, a new-found lust for needing to play the rest of the series. I tried once more to play the brawler entries and again, it just didn’t click. Maybe the rest of the Yakuza series just wasn’t for me. Either way, my new #2 had been firmly planted on the list and my love for Yakuza: Like a Dragon never faltered. If I couldn’t go back and play the previous games, I would have to just wait for the sequel with the gameplay style I connected with.
A few years later, I got my wish. Like a Dragon 8 was announced on September 14th, 2022 and with it, the fun surprise that the two revered series protagonists, Kazuma Kiryu and Ichiban Kasuga, were both going to be front and center for this installment. With Kiryu being as prominent for this entry as the marketing made him out to be, I finally decided that it was time for me to buck up and rip through the rest of the games to prepare myself for the release of Like a Dragon 8, now called Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. If he was going to be as involved as he seemed to be, I needed to know his story, and with my recently acquired Steam Deck, it seemed easy enough to plow through each of the franchises seven prior games before the release of the next sequel.
I started off with Yakuza 0 as it was technically first in the chronological order but also the game that universally was praised the most in the series. In standard Yakuza fashion, the story was gripping, the side content was doofy and plentiful, and the combat, while snappy and refined, still did not click at the beginning. Thankfully, everything else in the package propelled me forward until I had built up my brawler sea legs and I was able to progress steadily. Once I hit that comfort level, the remainder of the game felt like a fever dream. Mornings before work, nights before bed, breaks between chores — every free moment was spent absorbing every ounce of the game possible. By the end of the sprint, I was spent but still elated to have half a dozen more games to play.
During the next several months, any free time not spent playing the year’s newest releases was used to engross myself in the life and times of Kazuma Kiryu (with a not-so-small pit stop to Like a Dragon: Ishin, the samurai spin-off remaster released in February 2023). While some games in the series aged superbly like Yakuza 0, Yakuza Kiwami 2, and Yakuza 5, others didn’t fare as well. Yakuza 3 and 4 were both sore spots of the series due to the original releases landing at the beginning of the PlayStation 3’s life cycle. Yakuza 1 and 2 were both remade under the Kiwami moniker and with that came a new coat of paint and refinement that their older siblings did not receive until Yakuza 6 released on the PlayStation 4.
While not all of the games were certified bangers, all of them had the same heart, melodrama, and goofiness that kept me around in the first place. Even through the stinkers, I still pushed through because I adored the world and needed to see Kiryu’s story through, partly for my own curiosity and knowing he was going to be integral to the next numbered sequel, but also because he grew on me and quickly became one of my favorite written characters in all of games.
By the time I started the (at the time) end of Kiryu’s story with Yakuza 6, a festering thought had been growing quicker and quicker in the back of my mind — does my new-found adoration for this series usurp the love I have for Dragon Quest? For several years, my instinct was to say that Dragon Quest was my all-around favorite. After playing all of these Yakuza games back to back to back, even the more doodoo of the bunch, and still adoring them the way I do without the desire to chase down physical copies, does that mean I like it more than I like Dragon Quest? I hadn’t, and still haven’t, played through all of the Dragon Quest games and felt like it was a shoe-in for my favorite series. Now that I have played almost as many games in a series where several of them are veritable stinkers, does that mean my favorite has changed by default?
As I played through Yakuza 6, this question fed into every cutscene, every gameplay moment, every long night and early morning of wanting to play as much as I could as quick as I could. It bred this crisis of identity in me that no game had since finishing Dragon Quest XI. It felt like I was a traitor to myself, forgoing dancing with the one who brought me for the new hotness. I was continuously flooded with the ghosts of my past non-committal relationship with favorites and was heavily conflicted the entire time playing through Yakuza 6. Why do I feel this way? Why is it so important to me? Why does it matter?
Around the end of my playthrough, a gameplay trailer for Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth was released that floored me like no other. Everything I considered janky in Yakuza: Like a Dragon looked to have been fixed and along with it came boatloads of new and wacky inclusions that had me quite literally giggling with glee at points. Several weeks later, an additional trailer was released showcasing an entire side mode dedicated to an Animal-Crossing-style simulation island that was equally as goofy and stimulating to my lizard brain.
My conflicting feelings combined with the excitement over the next entry gave way to a realization: there is a genuine chance that Infinite Wealth dethrones Dragon Quest XI as my favorite game of all time. With that realization came a pang of sadness and guilt that fed into the feeling like I was letting Dragon Quest down. This franchise that I hold so dear and helped me break through a life-long mental barrier now felt cast aside for the homewrecker. I only felt worse as my enjoyment of Yakuza 6 steadily grew through the end of the game.
Upon wrapping up Kiryu’s story, I was left in a state of existential crisis. I was now split between two loves and choosing a favorite felt like picking which child you loved more. Years of conditioning and unconditioning put me in an unwinnable spot between two titans of my life, fighting it out with me in the middle as collateral damage. But as I thought about it over the few days after finishing the game, something became clear: it’s okay to feel this way.
No longer was I this awkward, confused child who couldn’t think for himself and trust his instincts and likes. I have grown over the years and with growth comes change. Just because I used to have this primal need to explain myself, my likes, and justify what my favorite is does not mean that’s who I am now or what my needs are now. Dragon Quest XI can still be my favorite game of all time and the Yakuza series can be my new favorite game series of all time and both can coexist. And if I get to the point where Infinite Wealth releases and ends up taking down Dragon Quest XI for the top slot, that doesn’t eliminate what Dragon Quest XI meant and still means to me. Those emotions, experiences, and memories are still real and will never change, even if my opinions on other things do.
So in all reality, I kind of hope that Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth swoops in and dethrones Dragon Quest XI. And for what it’s worth, if it does, I hope another game down the line comes and knocks Infinite Wealth down a peg. Favorites don’t mean anything unless you grow with them and as long as I can be true to myself by being definitive about what my favorite is, but also be flexible, adaptive, and accepting to newcomers, I think I’ll be able to live a little more crisis-free going forward.