Likewise, but “If you’d just APPLY yourself” can still reliably make my shoulders go up around my ears.

More personally though, For whatever reason, playing as a dragoness in it absolutely hammered at my egg. Ive spent the past years groping about going 'wow, this really feels like the inside of an egg' but it was so unexpectedly visceral this time. Maybe it was the magical pink princess armor.

Next up, a recent rpg based on dice~ BG3. It's a great game, with tons of options, mods, and some great writing, as well as excellent multiplayer support.

A zelda style top down overworld, but scifi, and all items were weapons. Specifically, weapons suited for a to down shmup as well as the overworld, because the dungeon bosses for each zone were a top down space shooter.
Excellent music in it as well.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=wbYH...

Next up, the game that was probably my favorite on the original NES. The Guardian Legend. In a lot of ways, since I missed the OG until emulators later, this was the first zelda-ish game I played.

The glitz pit and the Excess Express are levels every other dev should study.
Not only that, it has one of gamings first openly trans characters. One of the best things nintendo has ever released.

And to round out the mainline nintendo games, one that is both my favorite Mario game, and a favourite jrpg as well
Paper Mario: the thousand year door.
This game is /hilarious/. The writing is top notch, all the designs are great, and creativity abounds.

As great as the first one was, I couldn't stand the controlls on the original, and it was 3 that brought me back to the series with the wiimote nonsense. If i had to ick a single console game for that gen, itd be this disk. It also looks good, Despite the lower specs on the wii.

Metroid next, since I'm consoling~
I have to say the Prime Trilogy, if I'm being honest. Every year or soit comes out, and I play through one of the 3 again. If I had to rank them, it'd be 3, 1, 2.

Skyward, otoh was all dungeon, and TP was a good mix, to illustrate what I mean.
(Also I want the bird bard to play me like his accordian, but thats another issue <3)

Wind Waker was my favorite for a long time because it focused more on the exploration, and all the things it did right in that aspect, botw turned up to 11. The 'go secret hunt' part was all the time,not just an interlude after an item, and it pulled me 8n the way very few games manage to.

Gonna do some for my own sanity.
Lets start with Zelda~
I'm gonna have to go with BotW for my zelda pick. In my experience, there are two gameplay styles poeple come to the series for: exploration and dungeon crawling.

Or given up because they don't feel safe.