Tales of Maj'Eyal
ToME is my most-played game ever. It is the game that got me into roguelikes, not only because it's more friendly and accessible than most of its peers, with decent graphics, a great UI and full mouse controls, but also because it feels as a "normal" RPG, with a fixed world map and main quest, including different factions and side-quests with multiple outcomes. You can even turn off permadeath if you wish.
However, my favorite part of the game is how it handles power. ToME's combat is not about DPS or min-maxing stats, is about carefully managing your resources, position and utility spells. It's a challenging and extremely tactical system, fueled by all sorts of interesting abilities. A Chronomancer can split time, test multiple tactics for a few turns and then choose the timeline that worked better; a Doombringer can take an enemy with him into a demonic plane to duel; a Necromancer can perform a dark ritual to turn into a Lich and avoid (perma)death once, and so on. Every class is unique, and there's a lot of room for experimentation.
Finally, it has a crazy amount of secrets, unlockables and achievements to pursue, with the developer constantly adding new content and expansions, meaning I still plan to play this for years and years to come.
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen
Dragon's Dogma is a kind of game that should be common, but it's actually extremely rare: an open-world RPG with good combat.
Created by Hideaki Itsunom, director of Devil May Cry, the combat here is not only fast and satisfying, but also has a unique a sense of weight and interactivity, as you can grapple enemies and climb on top of large monsters. It's a a whole new experience to be climbing on a hippogryph's back to attack its head when the beast flies into the air, taking you away from your party and making you desperately cling to the beast, lest you fall into your death. Monsters can also get injured and even lose body parts as combat progresses, similarly to Monster Hunter. Add in tons of equipment and consumables, many status effects and a class system similar to Final Fantasy Tactic's Job System and you have a damn good combat.
Sadly, Dragon's Dogma often fails to play to its strengths. Battles against unique large beasts are sparse in the main game, with many monsters only being available in the post-game content or in the excellent Dark Arisen expansion (bundled with the PC release). Similarly, the game has other amazing ideas that it fails to fully employ: the game tracks your relationship with every NPC in the game, and many quests have multiple outcomes based on your actions, but all that reactivity is so hidden under the hood that you might think the game is entirely linear until you replay it or read a wiki. The party system is also a bit gimmicky, with you creating a companion and going online to hire other player's companions to your party, meaning I really recommend you to play this while you can - who knows when Capcom will shut those serves down?
Undertale
I get that not everyone likes Undertale's characters and story. They are cutesy, humorous, sentimental and talk about subjects such as sexuality in a way that will make some shout "SJW CRAP!!!1" and never give it a chance. However, interwoven with that lies a game that fully explores the meta aspects of video games. Created by a single person, everything in Undertale, from the music to the UI to the characters, the combat and even the files on the installation folder are used to build and tell a story. This can be something cosmetic, such as each character having a unique dialog font and theme song, to using the combat system to interact with characters. It's a game that plays on your expectations by shattering the unspoken rules we learned after playing video games for decades.
Undertale is a short and sweet experience that any video game fan should give a try, even if only to realize how 'inside the box" most video games are.
