Introduction by Mike Salbato

We've put together so many features over the years, so we decided an anniversary like this one was a fine time to look back on some of them. There's bound to be things you haven't seen here, or at least a memorable walk through history. We're going to highlight several each week in June, so check out the first part below, and keep coming back as we add more! Be sure to let us know your favorites, and what kind of features you'd like to see us revisit or expand upon in the future.

One of our most popular features of 2017 was born from Fenner's desire to give fans a primer on Falcom's long-running Ys series. A well-known quantity in Western markets today, Ys was more of a mystery in its early years. In addition, several games in the series would be remade under entirely new names, so newcomers to the series would have no idea that a game called "Ys: Oath in Felghana" is a re-imagined Ys III. Fenner covers this and so much more in his well-researched Ys primer and overview.

A strong cast can be the cornerstone of any good RPG. Okay, it's often the cornerstone of any story, regardless of medium. There are so many to choose from, so nine RPGFan team members assembled, and each brought a tale of one of their favorite casts. We were fortunate to cover quite a spectrum of games with each person's contributions, ranging from Mass Effect 2 to Tales of Vesperia to Koudelka and more. Several of the writers also took some time to record a companion episode of Retro Encounter, so don't miss that.

A conversation with famed composer Yoko Shimomura about her Drammatica album, her work on Radiant Historia, and much more. This was conducted in 2013, so it's before we would hear most of her work on Final Fantasy XV, but even before XV, she had a notable catalogue of work.

Way back when, in the distant past of 2010, eleven RPGFan team members laid out plans for their visions of sequels, prequels, or reboots to some beloved RPGs. Sometimes, RPG sequels aren't exactly what we expect, and too often, worlds we love are not ones we'll ever get to revisit. Just what would a modern day followup to Vagrant Story be like? Is the world ready for more Legend of Dragoon? These dream sequel ideas and more await you.

One of the more unique and introspective features we've ever run, RPGs as Therapy compiles tales and thoughts of five editors, each with a unique focus and perspective. Whether it's insight on how games can help one cope with anger or chronic pain, or provide a calming influence, we hope some of these short articles can be of help. (We're also looking into running a followup to this feature in the future.)

We'll admit, we haven't done these in awhile, but mostly because we're working on something for RPGFan in general that will mean all games get similar treatment... but more on that later. In the late '00s and early '10s, we had a handful of Complete Coverage hubs, which compiled the multiple reviews, features, music reviews, and more for a certain title. As you can see, we ran an extensive one for Mass Effect 3, but we also had Complete Coverage for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, indie darling To the Moon, and the comeback of Deus Ex, with Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

While not quite as mind-blowingly-popular as its companion piece (more on that next week), our Top 20 DS Games feature was still great fun to put together. An eclectic mix of games, from RPGs to visual novels, led us to change the title from "Top 20 DS RPGs" to what you see here, because we simply couldn't omit things like Ghost Trick.

Perhaps one of the lesser-known features on this list, a couple of our team members attended a Video Game Orchestra performance in Boston, and while there, managed to chat a bit with some names that, you know, might just be familiar to RPG music fans, such as Hitoshi Sakimoto (Final Fantasy Tactics), Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts), and more. It's a quick read, but fun to have several legendary composers in one place.

We've done some "best of" for specific consoles, and even console generations, but some of those lines get blurred over the years, with some consoles debuting mid-generation, and ports to other platforms. On this feature, we just set a block of five years and picked our favorite RPGs from any platform within those years. It's perhaps one of the most extensive such lists we've ever done, and each item on here links to other coverage like reviews, music, and more.

Our Best Female RPG Characters actually ran first, with this followup in 2012. Instead of simply picking a bunch of "cool guys," for Best Male RPG Characters," we wanted a good twist, so we chose guys that represented certain roles, such as Family Man, Anti-Hero, and more.

What better way to celebrate Valentine's Day than to highlight some of our favorite couples in RPGs? We enjoyed the light-hearted approach to this one, and even if our writers' thoughts were sincere with their pairings, there's still plenty of room for some light-hearted fun here. This ran in 2013, but perhaps we're due for a sequel?

At this point, we don't expect Sony will bother going into the handheld console space again, after the PSP and Vita. Both were — and the Vita continues to be — powerful little devices, and in terms of specs, capability, and yes, sex appeal, far beyond Nintendo's DS/3DS line. But while the PSP couldn't compete in terms of market and software support, it has a fervent fan base and some stellar games. Our Top 20 PSP RPGs feature continues to be one of the more popular ones we've ever run, so if you still haven't seen it, now is the time.

In 2015, we sat down (or maybe we stood?) with the immensely talented Jillian Aversa to talk about her thoughts on music, games, and to get an insight into her creative process. If Jillian's name isn't familiar to you — hell, even if it is — you'll want to check this out (and yes, we included some videos of her performances).

Is this cheating? Games of the Year is a collection of features, since we couldn't simply pick a single year to feature here. But if you want to know what titles we awarded honors to during every year of our 20-year existence, this is the place. See what beat Kingdom Hearts in 2002 for the top spot, remember John's lament in 2006 about Front Mission 5 not leaving Japan, the domination of The Witcher in two separate years, and much more.

Way back in the medieval days of 2003-2006, we had a pair of editors well-versed in Japanese, who helped facilitate multiple sets of interviews with prominent figures in the RPG industry. Chris and Eve translated some interviews from Japanese media, but most of these were talks conducuted ourselves. As a result, we were able to post interviews with people from companies such as GameArts, Cavia, Level-5, Sega, Capcom, Nippon Ichi, and more.

One of the larger collaborative features we've run — aside from the last thing on this page, of course — we really wanted to publish a feature that was simply, bluntly, "The Best RPGs of All Time." That kind of list is trendy and sure to be controversial at times, but... wow, it's just a hard thing to do when you have diverse tastes and 40+ team members on your staff. There's always someone who ends up being the only person who played a hidden gem, and those get lost in "group" lists. Instead, we had 13 people each write their own Best RPGs of All Time. You're certain to find your own favorites and possibly future favorites across these lists.

This feature wasn't inspired around Mike Salbato's innate need to find an excuse to talk about Samus on RPGFan, but believe that he took advantage. Aside from that, this was a fun feature to run in 2011. We had input from so many team members, and covered the gamut in RPGs: Both Western and Japanese games made the list, as did characters as recent as NieR's Kaine, and as far back as Alis Landale from the original Phantasy Star. Like with our Best Male RPG Characters we featured earlier this month, there's been countless new worthwhile heroes and heroines in the RPG world since this feature ran, so we're nearing a point where a feature sequel makes sense.

Yes, 2016. No, we did not run one for 2017 due to being short-staffed in our Music department this year. We know a lot of you wanted to see it, and we wanted to do it, but it wasn't in the cards. So while we encourage you to check out any of the Music of the Year or other music features we have, for now we're highlighting our most recent year-end celebration. Know that Music of the Year will indeed come back, and we're hoping it was worth the wait. Luckily, good RPG music never goes out of style.

Every year — at least in recent years — we run Complete Coverage for E3. Let's face it, here in mid-2018, RPGFan's structure is still not as modern as newer websites, so we don't have easy ways to tag and group information around a single event like E3. So we sit down and get dirty... with HTML. After the show wraps, we pour every relevant link we can, from hands-on previews, hands-off previews, interviews, tons of media updates, and noteworthy news, into a big hub page. It's easy to miss things during the onslaught of information during the show, so Complete Coverage lets you see it all in one place, and we hope it's made your media consumption easier!

Members of the RPGFan staff almost always attend MAGFest each year. Sometimes we run features on it, but more often, we're using it as a vacation and decide not to work. Still, in 2013, Bradley sat down with legendary composer Yuzo Koshiro and talked about music. We can already hear your first question once you've finished, and yes, we hope to get back into composer interviews, as well as Music of the Year. Stay tuned!

We can't overstate the work involved in this one. Thirty-six articles, a full month of Final Fantasy-themed Retro Encounter podcasts, and nineteen pieces of amazing, exclusive artwork from one of our own, Fabula Nova Anniversaris became our largest feature ever. Stressful to put together, but rewarding to show off, we hope you enjoyed our celebration. Maybe we should prep for the next anniversary... now.