That’s a hard question! I'd say mine are:
Recent: Pentiment
Older: Journey
Childhood: The Secret of Monkey Island

Recent: NieR:Automata (this is almost a decade old now but it's a bit more recent compared to my other choices)

Older: Grand Theft Auto IV (Predicable online commentary/jokes about Roman always phoning you up to play bowling don't stop this being one of the most immersive and detailed open world games ever made)

Childhood: Full Throttle (I played other adventure games as a child but Full Throttle was always my favourite)

Recent: The Witness

Great game. The trailer for Order of the Sinking Star made me I start a new play through since it's been long enough since I first played it I don't remember the specific puzzle solutions so I can almost play it fresh again...

Older: Shenmue

I need to get back to playing this after starting it a few years ago. I'm pretty sure it is a game/series I'll like but I had other real life distractions going on at the time so didn't get too far into it.

Recent: The Witness

Great game. The trailer for Order of the Sinking Star made me I start a new play through since it's been long enough since I first played it I don't remember the specific puzzle solutions so I can almost play it fresh again...

I heard about Order of the Sinking Star somewhere on the forum here. It looks kind of.. 'normal' but I'm excited to find out more about it.

Older: Shenmue

I need to get back to playing this after starting it a few years ago. I'm pretty sure it is a game/series I'll like but I had other real life distractions going on at the time so didn't get too far into it.

Ha! Yes, it is a game that's a lot like real life in many ways so if you don't want two real lives going on at the same time, maybe wait until you have time!

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That’s a hard question! I'd say mine are:

IKR - I keep looking at my own choices and thinking, "That's not right, what about..."

Anyway, yours are solid choices

Great topic.

Non-adventure games:

Childhood: Prince of Persia. 'Prince' was the first word I learned how to spell. CD\ Prince *enter* Prince *enter*. Burned into my brain since age 3.

Older: Chrono Cross. This was my first experience with an RPG. My first time getting completely swept away by a world, a history, a tremendous cast of characters, a plot that spanned centuries across parallel universes, a musical score with several songs that still carry me back to that time and those places and make me feel awed (including Scars of Time, one of my favorite songs period), and artwork that did the same. Also the best gameplay of any JRPG I've ever played. This game made me realize that games could encompass so much more than I'd previously believed.

Recent: Celeste. After seeing this game get perfect scores everywhere when it came out, I got it for Switch and couldn't put it down for a couple of months. I rarely get into games to the point where I try to master them --I just want to get by and enjoy the experience, ya know? I don't really care for all the completionist stuff you can do after the credits roll. But with Celeste, I think I beat every level in the game. If you've ever played the game, you'll know that that is no small feat. It's pretty much the most perfectly playing platformer of its kind since...Super Mario World? It might even be more perfect, even if it might *not* be better.
Was tempted to put Dragon Quest XI here --I like it more than Celeste, but didn't want to put two JRPG's.

Adventure games:

Childhood: Conquest of the Longbow. Not that we got very far, even with dozens of hours of play between me and my siblings, but over the years we chipped away at it and made it maybe halfway through the game, taking what would probably be considered a very very sub-optimal path. Since then I've beaten it 3-4 times at least, and it's amazing how much easier this game is when you didn't lose the documentation at the bottom of the toy box and you actually take the time to read and pay attention to what the other characters are telling you.

Old: Day of the Tentacle. (Does that count as old in adventure game years? I feel like adventure game retro operates on a different timeline than regular retro, you know?) If you are American or well learned in Revolutionary-era American history, this is as perfect an adventure game as has ever and will ever be made.

Recent: Lucy Dreaming. Perfectly balanced adventure gameplay, super funny, and completely adorable. It's not as 'important' feeling as other recent big adventure games, but maybe that's part of what makes it so good.

Bonus:

I'd be remiss not to mention Dance Dance Revolution. I've been playing that game on and off since I was 11 or 12 years old, and I'm about to turn 39. Without a doubt, I have played DDR for more hours than any other game, by far.

Likewise, Ring Fit Adventure for Switch. I played that more than any game not called DDR. It's a phenomenal workout and a lot of fun and probably more of a 'favorite' than Dragon Quest XI or Celeste, but I thought it was too un-traditional to put as my Recent favorite.

Honorable mentions: Guitar Hero. Snake. Epic Pinball.Picross DS. Mario Kart. Twisted Metal: Black. Soul Calibur. Street Fighter 2. Virtua Fighter 5. Crazy Taxi. Time Crisis 2. NBA Jam.

Chrono Cross was a fantastic game! It had fallen into the deep recesses of my brain. Did you ever play Chrono Trigger? I always heard it was nowhere near as good, but i would’ve tried it anyway, only I was never able to get my hands on it back then.

Chrono Cross was a fantastic game! It had fallen into the deep recesses of my brain. Did you ever play Chrono Trigger? I always heard it was nowhere near as good, but i would’ve tried it anyway, only I was never able to get my hands on it back then.

Chrono Trigger is phenomenal. As a kid, I saved and scrimped and pinched and contrived to get an SNES and a copy of that game so I could play it after Chrono Cross (even though CT is the first game in the series, I didn't know it existed until after getting into CC). It's more lighthearted, and all the character and monster art was done by Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball, Sandland, Dragonquest, etc). Funnily, *a lot* and I mean **A LOT** of people were upset that CC was it's own game and not Another Chrono Trigger. Critics loved it, but a lot of fans didn't. I prefer CC, but they are both top-tier favorites. The nice thing about CT is that even if you do everything in the game, including the optional sidequests, it's like 25 hours long, very reasonable for a JRPG. Otherwise, 18-20 hours, I'd say. Best way to play it is the DS cartridge on a 3DS or 3DS XL.

Both Chrono Cross and Chrono Trigger are absolutely amazing games! I can understand why CT fans didn't like CC on release, because it's so very different in gameplay and visuals, and the connection between the two doesn't come into play until essentially the end of the game. It's the reason a lot of sequels don't make it: The game doesn't deliver on the expectations of the players.

But judged by its own merits, CC is an absolute marvel of a JRPG!