[General Discussion] Your Favorite Video Game Developer?

Atlus (the developer, not the localizer) seems to make most of the games I include in my list of "favorite" games, including Shin Megami Tensei, Majin Tensei II: Spiral Nemesis, and Persona 2: Innocent Sin. Can't say I like the direction the latest Megami Tensei (and spin-off) games have been going in, though. I abhorred the Digital Devil Saga games (cannibalism, dickchicks, annoying accents, and mediocre characters aren't really my thing), as well as Persona 3 (aka Tokimeki Memorial: Demons and Shit), and didn't enjoy Shin Megami Tensei 3: NOCTURNE nearly as much as I did the first Shin Megami Tensei game. Stella Deus was a cool game, too, and I don't even like Strategy-RPGs all that much (great art/character designs, and music, which is ironic, because Hitoshi Sakimoto is one of the most bland composers on the planet, but he did a great job on Stella Deus, with Masaharu Iwata.) So, Atlus is my favorite developer.

Level-5 would probably come in second. Dark Cloud is still one of the games I have the fondest memories of, as it's basically what I would imagine a Quintet game would be like if they still developed games. As with Atlus, I can't really say I like the direction they've taken their games in. I'm not really fan of the "cartoon-y" style they've become so obsessed with, and I find the battle system in Rogue Galaxy to be absolute shit. Regardless, I find their games good enough to declare to be one of the few competent developers around these days.

But, I digress.

Falcom gets an honorable mention. How can anyone not mention Falcom, anyways? I'm hoping Cozy Okada's [one of the founders of Atlus, and the guy who helmed the Megami Tensei series for a long goddamn time] new company, GAIA (the company that did Monster Kingdom: Jewel Summoner), will become a favorite developer, assuming they start releasing more games. Cozy Okada seems to always know what he's doing when it comes to making games, so I have high hopes for GAIA. Of course, that's off-topic.

Jam it back in, in the dark.