Gaming

Star Wars Galaxies - the open world, the city building, the player housing, the ground and space vehicles, the player market, the world pvp. It was so much goodness. Broke all future games for me.

Spyro, Explorers of Sky, and Yoshi Island to name a few.

A lot of my faves on here already, but I'm gonna add Sable. I was so transported by the cell-shaded world and the unforgettable soundtrack. Nothing quite like it.

Medievil

At the risk of dating myself, Heroes of Might and Magic III. Took every bit of grunt my late 90s PC had, still play occasionally.

Nier:Automata

I still remember vividly how ending E broke me back then. Maybe because I have weight of the world in my playlist.

I have a couple games that stuck with me long after I played them. They're not similar to the ones that are being posted here though.

Pokerstars VR: During peak pandemic I played a lot, and a lot of the conversations have stuck with me. My irl friend and I started a little group with people we liked and it ended up being like 15 of us and at least 6 of us would be on every night. Nothing like playing poker and anonymously talking shit lol. I cried laughing a couple times

Minecraft: There are a lot of Minecraft memories I think about often. Some are back on Minecraft Pocket Edition on my iPod 4, some are playing hunger games with my cousin, others are of a server my friend and I made. I miss a lot of those old worlds and still remember where my secret chests are

A Short Hike: I played this game right after a breakup and it made me think back to what made me happy as a kid. The sense of wonder, discovery, and just not knowing anything. It made me realize that I still don't know shit and and I should still have that same sense of wonder. It has made my life significantly better

The original spyro playstation games

Believe it or not, it was a flash game. You can't play it online anymore, though you can find it for download somewhere I'm sure.

It was called "Obliterate Everything 2" - it was just a small game about space battles, with fairly simple mechanics. But the amount of depth it got from that was so absurd. The difficulty curve was a bit wacky, and I remember talking at length to my friends about the various game design principles I'd learned from observing and judging it.

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP is the easy answer for me. It hit me at just the right time, in just the right way. It was masterfully crafted. The sound track was, at the time, perhaps the best pairing of a video game and sound track ever made.

To be honest, for me it's got to be the ending to Nier Automata. That was...intense, thankfully I wasn't spoiled even after playing it so late.

Ar Tonelico. I was very into world building in high school. And this game hits the closest to my imagination at that time. I just can't forget that feeling years after. Regardless of the weird visual novel-y parts of it

The Sims 2 & Animal Crossing: Wild World.
Both of them definitely have a heavy nostalgia filter on top of them but I loved playing Sims 2 and creating all different kinds of stories and lives. 3 & 4 didn't feel that same way. AC:WW was a cozy pocket to hide away in and just be happy. Chatting up some neighbors, decorating your house. I was always eager to see what would be in the shops the next day.
For more modern games, I would say A Short Hike. Cozy and short but sweet story. It's a great pick-me-up if you ever need one.

Ports of Call on the Commodore 64. One of the first video games I ever played. Set up a shipping company, buy a ship, buy low and sell high and get better ships. Occasionally you have to take control of the ship (incredibly rudimentary, but it was 1986, give them a break) to dock or leave port, avoid a collision or avoid reefs, but for whatever reason I keep coming back to it.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1085260/Ports_of_Call_Classic/

The Witcher 3 (mainly the DLCs), the story was so good, like it's the only game I can remember where I was waiting to play it every weekend just for the story.

Ocarina of Time - the music is so amazing, I can still remember all of it.

Runescape Classic (like 2002) for making me impervious to scams - you get scammed by some players once and that sticks with you.

Bioshock Infinite

Red Dead Redemption 2

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. When I finished it I couldn't stop thinking about it for a couple of days. It was quite the experience, hearing the voices and learning to trust them. Factorio. The factory must grow.

Interstate '76. I love the whole vibe of it.

Xenoblade Chronicles. A world so alive and then that ending... I was 15 and it surely shaped the way I think about the world today

Eastward is an indie game I got because I saw someone recommend it on Lemmy a couple years ago. The pixel art was amazing, and some of it had a very unique eerieness. The story was heartwarming at times and creepy at other times. The only real complaint I had was that so much of the story remained unexplained after the ending, I really wanted to see all the little pieces of plot tied together.