1993
I'm in my first essay for this series and I'm already regretting my criteria.
Okay, "regretting" probably isn't the right word. But I am noticing a weakness. See, Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention is my favorite game not named Outer Wilds (Outer Wilds itself being by favorite game not named Shining Force), and while it was released in North America in 1993, its original Japanese release was in 1992. So I can't include Shining Force in this list anywhere.
Well, I can't include Shining Force 1 anywhere. Shining Force II, on the other hand, was released in 1993.
From my experience, Shining Force II is the more popular game among people who talk about the series online. and I think I see why. It's vibrant, it's colorful, and it's certainly grander than the first game. It has a wonderful soundtrack, and it lets your party continue to have dialogue after they join* (*sometimes** (**rarely*** (***but still more than Shining Force 1)). And it does all of this without losing the real heart of what made the first game great: fun tactical fantasy with characters that range from iconic to bizzare, without the stress of longterm consequences for mistakes that some other tactics games (you know the ones) have. It's a good time!
But see, I didn't play Shining Force II as a kid. I knew about it, but I didn't get to play it until I was a teenager, and I didn't give it enough time to beat it until I was in college. The game I did play as a kid was Shining Force 1. The first game defined a tone for me that effects my tastes to this day. It's a little darker, a little more subtle with its storytelling. Bowie, the main character from 2, is cool, but Max from the first game is legendary to me.
So whenever I think about Shining Force II, I compare it unfavorably to a game that can do no wrong in my eyes. Every time I play it, I get to the kraken fight and think it's too hard, but I don't think the same about the marionette. I meet Gerhalt, and instead of delighting in my cool wolf man, I wish he was Zylo. I feel annoyed every time I need to check the guide on where all the mithril pieces are hidden, but I already know where all the costumes and hidden characters are from the first game. Shining Force II can never be the game that I played as a kid.
Is that fair? Does it matter? In my mind I know that Shining Force II is maybe the better game, but Shining Force 1 is my favorite of the two. I don't think that can ever change.
It's a moot point anyway, since only one of them was released in 1993. All bellyaching about not getting to include my favorite game (not named Outer Wilds) in my list, I do love Shining Force II and I'm happy to include it.
My selection for my favorite game of 1993 is Shining Force II.
As an honorable mention, I would like to write a little about Myst. In fact, I've already done so, but that page was mostly about the beginning section. While the opening bit is the strongest to me, the rest of the game is still great. It does suffer a little from I-didn't-know-I-could-click-on-that disease, but it has a cool atmosphere and the puzzles are memorable. Unfortunately for Myst, it's not named Shining Force (or Outer Wilds) so it could never take the crown for 1993.