Was hoping to get in on this, so thanks for the blanket tag! Hard to pick just 5 formative games though...

1. The Faery Tale Adventure (1987)
2. Ecco the Dolphin (1992)
3. Phantasy Star IV (1997)
4. Morrowind (2002)
5. the uncle who works for nintendo (2014)

(Details below!) https://twitter.com/Spdrcstl/status/1293958034927095810

The Faery Tale Adventure:

Open-world folklore roguelike? 3 sibs make their way in the world, rescue folk, befriend animals, etc. When one dies, a younger sib inherits their treasures and role as hero. Got me into exploration, permadeath, and story consequences beyond Game Overs.

Ecco the Dolphin:

Dolphin loses his pod to a strange storm, wanders the sea seeking answers. Discovers Geiger-inspired aquatic alien colonizers, consuming Earth's seas to enable their unsustainable society. Pretty, sad, scary, & shamelessly weird. Big tonal/narrative influence!

Phantasy Star IV:

A once-interplanetary civilization faces climate collapse, as ancient terraforming AIs and tech they no longer understand break down. My first jRPG, and a big aesthetic influence. Got me into genre-bending, apocalypse, body horror, robots, and... and catgirls?

Morrowind:

A huge, fresh, weird, sandboxy fantasy world to explore. Colonialism problems, steampunk ruins, and knights in bug-shell armor. It's weird world and free exploration were influential, and I LOVE it's topic-based dialog system; it offers so much conversational freedom!

the uncle who works for nintendo:

My intro to modern interactive fiction. Took a spooky fun creepypasta, and wove it into a sad, surreal, sometimes gut-punching meditation on games, escapism, and cycles of abuse. Completely changed my outlook on the power of linear story-games.

Honorable mentions:
- Darius Gaiden: Inspired a design doc at 8yo.
- Stonekeep: Moody dungeon crawler w/ fun characters
- Panzer Dragoon: Laser dragon tours a Moebius comic
- Cave Story: Cute, sad, & inspired me to do game dev
- Minecraft: My first missed commission/eternal shame

Oh no, my dumb ass forgot to tag people!

If you read this thread (or are reading this right now), and have some influential or favorite games you wanna share, consider yourself tagged!