Katharine Byrne
It's by no means the best Final Fantasy game there's ever been, especially once it forces you to bid farewell to your easy-going road trip and sit on a literal train for the rest of the story, providing tiny, tantalizing glimpses of other open worlds that might have been if only they'd had another ten years to actually finish the damn thing, but I'll eat my chocobo hat if it isn't the most interesting, experimental and important one the series has ever seen.
On the whole, though, Okami is a delight from start to finish. It gives you the freedom to savour and indulge in every last drop of its ink-washed world, and its combat and story are both superb – particularly if you have even the slightest bit of interest in Japanese mythology.
A slight and repetitive but cute farming game, Slime Rancher doesn't quite reach the heights of its sub-genre.
Smart without being overbearing, Zero Escape: The Nonary Games continues to set the bar for its genre.