Baldur's Gate

Baldur's Gate is set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe, specifically a place called the Forgotten Realms, you start off as an orphan kid being raised by a super powerful wizard named Gorion in this big fortress library called Candlekeep. The whole vibe is that you've lived a pretty sheltered life there but right at the beginning things go sideways, Gorion wakes you up in the middle of the night, tells you to grab your stuff and you have to flee because some serious trouble is coming, and things get real fast. The game then just drops you into a huge dangerous world with barely any handholding. It's known for being pretty brutal at the start, like, a single bad encounter with a couple of wolves or a lone mage can totally wipe your party if you're not careful, so you gotta earn your stripes.

The character creation is where you first realize this isn't some simple ARPG. It uses the 2nd edition of AD&D rules, which are a total headache if you're new to it but it also means you can make almost any kind of hero you want. You pick a race, a class, abilities, the works. A cool feature is dual-classing, where your character can switch it up later on. Once you're in the world, you meet a ton of characters who can join your party and this is where the game really shines, you've got this huge cast of personalities that make the journey feel alive, but you gotta manage the group's reputation, if you're a goody two shoes, your evil party members might get grumpy and even attack you.

Gameplay is all about tactical pausing and real time strategy. You control your whole party of up to six people and you can pause the action at any second to give out orders. See a mage charging up a fireball? Pause, tell your fighter to charge them, your thief to hide in the shadows and your cleric to cast a buff spell. The main story starts with you investigating this weird iron shortage that's causing everyone's weapons to crumble but it quickly spirals into a much bigger conspiracy about your own past and one mysterious figure. The only real bummer people mention is that navigating tight spaces with a full party can be a total pain and you'll hear the narrator say «You must gather your party before venturing forth»  about a million times.

Graphically, it looks fine, with detailed prerendered backgrounds and cool spell effects. The character sprites are a bit small but you can still tell everyone apart but the real MVP is the sound design, you can hear birds chirping in the forest, the wind howling in the mountains and the general hustle of a city. It pulls you right in, the music is also epic and changes to fit the mood perfectly.

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Also, the game almost had an official PlayStation port that somehow got leaked, and surprisingly it's actually playable from start to finish, but you can immediately tell it never got those final patches or any polishing. We're talking a bug city with tons of glitches, janky controls and load times that test your patience, and the graphics took a hit compared to the PC version too. That said, if you have a New 3DS and you're dying to play some version of this classic, this leak is literally your only option.