You see, I, too, was once an awkward nerdy middle school girl and the go-to move for showing a guy you liked him was to get way into one of his hobbies.
I never owned my own copy of Wind Waker. I borrowed it when I was a kid from a friend and then later I played the Wii-U version from a different friend. Now that I’m like, an adult (more or less) with my own console, I want a copy for myself. And also I want to play it again. Man! Love that game!
I read “EverQuest” and my brain commented, “You mean EverCrack,” immediately.
My cousin was horrifically addicted. Luckily for me, my opinion on subscribing to a game was, "no matter how good a game is, I’m not paying for it over and over, " even in middle school, so he couldn’t convince me to try it.
I’m really looking forward to pulling this crap as I get older.
Particularly about Pokémon. I grew up with Pokémon. I’ve played every single main game (or at least one of the two that released!) I cannot wait to call them all Pikachu just to watch a kid squirm.
Just to add support to your point, it’s literally in The Official Stardew Valley Cookbook that the inspiration comes from Harvest Moon. He’s not at all claiming to have invented anything. ConcernedApe is a humble treasure.
(I just finished reading the cookbook is why I pulled that information from there. I’m sure there’s lots of other places where he said that.)
I’ve played them all over the years. My favorite for a long time was Wind Waker, because of the feeling of freedom it gave me, so it’ll surprise no one that Breath of the Wild beats it.
Breath of the Wild is my new fave. I gotta say that the story of Tears of the Kingdom really did it for me (just absolutely sobbing at points) but since it feels like it wouldn’t have had that impact if it wasn’t for Breath of the Wild, I give it to Breath of the Wild.
(Special shout out to Link Between Worlds. Really feel like that game was fun as hell.)
Edit: Gotta be real. I don’t remember which one I played first? I think it was Link to the Past.