Dark Souls
Best gameplay/mechanics trait: Good overall enemy design and a large number of methods (weapons, spells, etc.) to take them down.
Worst gameplay/mechanics trait: Game almost requires a FAQ, and could use more/more obvious recovery points.
Best plot/character trait: Nothing. Dark Souls is an all-time bottom tier game at this, to me.
Worst plot/character trait: Everything that goes on being underexplained, with special shoutout to the Fire Keeper murderer arc. A silent main, a total lack of characterisation, a total lack of direction to the plot.
Has this game aged well?: uh it's not even two years old...
Did the setting/world grab your attention?: No, the game tries to develop its setting through a boring "tell" at the start and then promptly fails to do anything with it thereafter. Lack of music really hurts the environments, too.
What from this game (Be it a funny character or story or good controls or even a catchy tune) you would you most like to see again?: I think the unforgiving NES-style approach to things is pretty underused these days and would like to see more of it, even if it's sometimes questionable in the way it consumes time. That's a tight line to walk.
Dragon Quest 4
Best gameplay/mechanics trait: Decent challenge balance, game keeps you on your toes and also makes you care about resources.
Worst gameplay/mechanics trait: It's clunky in that old way, and in that DQ way. Boss design and character balance if you want more specific points.
Best plot/character trait: Yeah, the unusual story structure with the chapters.
Worst plot/character trait: Like most DQs, it spends way too much time on irrelevant arcs while barely developping its main plot.
Has this game aged well?: Not really, I have a hard time recommending it now.
Did the setting/world grab your attention? Why or why not?: Like many old RPGs, its setting feels like an unconnected patchwork of towns and kingdoms, and falls flat to me.
What from this game (Be it a funny character or story or good controls or even a catchy tune) you would you most like to see again?: In this genre, you can't have enough rotating-perspective games.
Wild ARMs XF
Best gameplay/mechanics trait: The job system. Duh. Loads of flexibility, loads of customisation, and a game that calls upon you to make use of it. Unlike some people I really like how the game expects you to change jobs to deal with challenges, instead of just letting you mash through everything with your fighter/cleric/wizard team like many such games.
Worst gameplay/mechanics trait: The game could really have used feedback on the quality of its more esoteric maps. Some are pretty great, but some really aren't, such as the swamp with the random 3h pillar and the first jelly blob fight, and end up wasting a lot of time.
Best plot/character trait: Villain cast. One of the best out there, and villain casts are very important to me, so yeah. Charlton, Edna, Katrina, Rupert, and Weisheit are all a lot of fun, particularly when they interact with each other.
Worst plot/character trait: Ragnar not only annoys me, but he talks way too much and he summons the one part of the villain cast that sucks.
Has this game aged well?: Decently, although no sceneskip hurts.
Did the setting/world grab your attention? Why or why not?: I love this game's soundtrack, great battle themes are a weakness of mine and this game delivers in spades. Setting-wise, mm. It'd have worked better if we really had any idea about Elesius' neighbours, although Elesius itself was decently effective.
What from this game (Be it a funny character or story or good controls or even a catchy tune) you would you most like to see again?: More SRPGs with good class systems which fight back decently: the most elf-approved thing ever pretty much.
