Bastion

Bastion is a top-down action RPG set in a world shattered by a mysterious calamity. You play as a young man called the Kid, who wakes up amid the ruins and sets out to find fragments that could restore the last remaining refuge. The most striking feature is the narrator, who comments on practically everything you do, including your falls, your weapon choices, and how you decide to deal with defeated enemies. What would be a mere gimmick elsewhere becomes the game's central storytelling device here, one that manages to be both funny and surprisingly moving.

The gameplay is built on combat in small floating levels that literally assemble themselves beneath your feet as you move forward. You always carry two weapons out of a fairly wide selection, from hammers and rifles to bows and more exotic pieces, plus a special attack and a block ability that lets you deflect projectiles back at enemies. Weapons can be upgraded, and the game features a system of shrines where you voluntarily raise the difficulty in exchange for better rewards, an elegant way to fine-tune the experience. Alongside the main story there are also challenge arenas where you can compete with individual weapons.

The audiovisual side is the main reason many people remember this game. The hand-painted art, rich with color, feels like an illustration brought to life, and on PC the game runs smoothly even on older hardware. The music blends acoustic instruments with American and folk motifs, and together with two sung tracks it ranks among the best-reviewed soundtracks of its era. Bastion was its studio's first title, and its success opened the door to further projects that kept the same emphasis on storytelling, style, and music. Today it feels shorter and simpler than the same creators' later games, but its atmosphere and the narrator's voice have aged remarkably well. A playthrough takes roughly eight hours, and the game also offers a New Game Plus mode that keeps your gear, which is fitting, since the narration reveals another layer on a second run.