Puyo Puyo 20th Anniversary. They took the best competitive puzzle game ever made and added a ton of goodies to make it the best package deal. 20 variant game modes, 24 character stories, a comprehensive set of tutorials, a devilish set of chain challenges, and a final challenge where you play against max level CPU while it's allowed to cheat.
It's a tragedy this game was never released in the west, and I can rant for hours about Sega has criminally neglected the series with the half-assed slop they put out now because they know that crossovers will sell better than the main series ever will.
Puyo Puyo 20th Anniversary. They took the best competitive puzzle game ever made and added a ton of goodies to make it the best package deal. 20 variant game modes, 24 character stories, a comprehensive set of tutorials, a devilish set of chain challenges, and a final challenge where you play against max level CPU while it's allowed to cheat.
It's a tragedy this game was never released in the west, and I can rant for hours about Sega has criminally neglected the series with the half-assed slop they put out now because they know that crossovers will sell better than the main series ever will.
The character that leaves and rejoins the party is not permanently missable. It might be tricky to figure out how to get them back, but there's no fail state.
You can and should do the first playthrough blind. Save the guide for NG+.
There is an optional party member that you can either recruit or fight based on which dialogue option you pick. You'll know it when you see it though, so it's easy to make the right choice.
There are 12 endings (13 in DS and subsequent rereleases). You can easily see all of them in just two playthroughs. Theoretically you could even do them all on the first playthrough, but it's much easier to do in NG+.
The only caveat is that you have to see them in order, you can't backtrack if you miss one, which is why I recommend starting with the final and true ending on your first playthrough, then do all the others on NG+. NG+ makes it pretty easy to speed through things as well, your second playthrough will be much shorter.
I respect the hell out of him for doing the best he could with very limited resources, difficult technical limitations, and an insane deadline. I just can't recommend playing that version today over a better alternative.
There are a lot of JRPGs from this era that I love dearly but would have a hard time recommending to anyone who didn't grow up on these kinds of games. Games that are slow, grindy, and mostly consist of clicking Attack every turn.
Chrono Trigger is the one exception I can recommend to anyone, and then say that if you liked this entry point then you can try some other JRPG classics.
Just note that the original SNES translation should be avoided, play a modern rerelease or a retranslation patch.
The original game (but not CoH) is cleverly designed to be entirely playable with just four inputs, all non-movement actions can be performed with two simultaneous inputs (jumps). So it's entirely playable on a dance pad that way. I haven't tried it myself, but I know it's a thing you can do, and there's footage out there of speedrunners doing dance pad runs.
Cadence of Hyrule - The original Crypt of the Necrodancer is one of my all-time favorites. CoH doesn't quite reach that incredibly high bar, but it's still an excellent game in its own right.
Metroid Dread - Hits all the highs of Super, but with greatly improved combat and bosses. So yes, I am calling this better than Super, you heard me.
Puyo Puyo Champions - Technically, this is not exclusive. However, I am counting it as such because the online playerbase is dead on every other platform. If you want to play the greatest competitive puzzle game ever made, the Switch version of Champions is really the only option.