[General Discussion] Games Worth FINISHING (Yes, so beating...TO THE END)

So, I am betting ninety-nine percent of you are like me. You have a stack of games that you 'swear' you'll go through at some point or another. You get a game, play it for a while, get bored/occupied, then place it on the 'to do' list as another game takes it place.

Usually.

Now, on occasion, there IS that special game that for one reason or another, you have completed. That one game that when you finished, you say, "That was well worth playing from beginning to end". What are those games? Why? Keep in mind that you want to focus more on the games that you beat because you liked beating it rather than just for the sake of beating it.

Here are some games that immediately come to mind for me:

Zelda - Minish Cap - The storyline is pretty standard but the gameplay is tight. There are several new items in the game and the puzzles range from easy to medium for the most part. Boss battles are fairly easy after a few rounds figuring out what to do and how to do it. The music is superb, the graphics have a wonderful look to it, and the game entices you to just keep playing to the end. You just WANT to make it to the end.

Final Fantasy Tactics - A wonderful story, a wonderful soundtrack, and a wonderfully made battle engine. While after leveling your characters you can become basically unbeatable at a certain point, it is fun to slow build up everyone to gain a variety of skills. While the battles aren't that difficult (save for one dungeon IF you are trying to get certain items, ugh), the game still flows nicely and you'll most likely enjoy the battles. The animations for spells, attacks, etc are done well although thankfully there is an option to skip animations. The game's leveling system is also very fun as you can build your guys up (and down if you are clever) to supe up their stats to crazy levels. This is especially useful with jobs as one you master them, you can combine them for some interesting combinations.

Chrono Trigger - Decent graphics at the time, wonderful story, wonderful cast of characters, and some innovation concerning time travel, combo attacks, and other things. The battle engine is not super deep but does have some interesting characteristics in particular the combo system. Time travel plays a huge part and can lead to some interesting developments both small and large in the game. Of course, one of the most well known features of the game is the New Game + in which you are ENCOURAGED to beat the game not once, but over and over again at certain points to get different endings.

Final Fantasy 6 - Decent graphics, decent story (although halfway through the game it doesn't pack as much punch), a wonderful cast of characters, a wonderful battle system, among many other things. The story itself is fairly innovative at it's time, and is compelling at least halfway through. After that, some might say that the story becomes a bit lacking although I have felt that the story still holds up...it's just the story is presented in a different way. The battle system is decent in which everyone has the ability to fight, run, use an item, use magic, and use a special skill. The special skills vary but are fairly useful for the most part. The magic system is prettyadvanced for it's time because what Esper you learn can invariable affect your stats as your character grows stronger. This leads to some long-term planning, and also keeping a close eye on each of your characters to know just when to do what so they get the most out of using Espers. Oh, and speaking of Espers, not only do they help you learn spells, but they also grant an attack, some more useful than others. The music for the game is superb and even fourteen years later still stands up. One can only imagine what it would be like if they remade it for the NDS and redid the music.

Jam it back in, in the dark.