The 8 greatest video game quotes voted on by fans

On April 13, we launched Polygon’s massive feature 100 greatest video game quotes of all time. The list is a mix of unforgettable moments, profound philosophical statements, infectious memes, and hokey translations. Putting something like this together isn’t an exact science. Even among the Polygon staff, every contributor’s personal list would have looked very different.

When the editors started putting the piece together, the scale of it was daunting. (100 quotes? Far too many! Terrible idea!) But as our planning doc reached critical mass, it soon became clear that we were gonna have to leave a lot of stuff out. (100 quotes? Far too few! Terrible idea!)

The 100 greatest video game quotes of all time

It has been spoken

Once we birthed our gigantic baby unto the world, we wanted to know what you thought should’ve been included. Some of you had ideas that also made our longlist, but got bumped by another quote from the same game or series. A few of you shared some absolute bangers we just plumb forgot. And several folks ardently advocated for quotes that had already been included in the list.

So, without further ado, here’s the best of the rest. These are the quotes we didn’t include — but maybe we should’ve.

8

“Blame yourself, or God.”

Game: Final Fantasy Tactics (1998)

Character: Delita

Submitted by Dean

One of the first things we realized putting together this list was that we could easily make a list of just the top 100 Final Fantasy quotes. At the end of the FF Tactics prologue at Orbonne Monastery, a disguised Delita kidnaps Princess Ovelia and taunts her protector, the knight Agrias, thereby kicking off the War of the Lions that dominates the game’s story. It’s our first glimpse at how much Delita has changed since his adolescent days with our protagonist Ramza — and how he’ll stop at nothing to create a new world order, where the nobility can no longer dominate the common people. In later translations, this line was altered to “‘tis your birth and faith that wrong you, not I,” but the PS1 original has a sharper edge. —Jen Glennon

7

“Just Monika.”

Game: Doki Doki Literature Club (2017)

Character: Monika

Submitted by TMan

There’s some dark shit afoot in Doki Doki Literature Club, which starts out like a typical slice-of-life, high-school dating sim, with four beautiful girls vying for your attention. Then the story makes a hard right turn into metatextual horror, and it turns out class president Monika is the one pulling all the strings — and deleting essential game files on your computer (or console) to ensure she’s the only object of your affection. Who do you love at the end of everything? Just Monika. —JG

6

“I am Error.”

Game: Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link (1987)

Character: Error

Submitted by Sheikah

The original Legend of Zelda may have claimed the top spot in our list, but we left out the NES classic’s awkward sibling. In Zelda 2, Link encounters an NPC introducing themselves, but instead of saying “my name is Error,” we got this meme-worthy line. It’s not exactly a mistranslation, but it’s become an iconic example of awkward localization in the 8- and 16-bit eras. Though it’s been around since the late ‘80s, it was popularized in the early 2000s, similar to Zero Wing’s “all your base are belong to us,” which did make our list. It’s since been lovingly referenced in games like Super Paper Mario, The Binding of Isaac, and Splatoon 2. —JG

5

“Had to be me. Someone else might have gotten it wrong.”

Game: Mass Effect 3 (2012)

Character: Mordin Solus

Submitted by Simon and Dubman 8042

Mordin Solus is one of Mass Effect’s more complicated characters. He’s a pretty good singer who gives romantic advice in the way only a scientist could. He also helped perpetuate one of the most devastating biological weapons in galactic history: the genophage, which causes the vast majority of krogan to die in stillbirth. When he drops this heart-wrenching line in Mass Effect 3, he’s on his way to curing that blight and undoing his awful work. He’s allowed to be at peace now, and find a little redemption for his biggest regret. —Austin Manchester

4

“Kick, punch, it’s all in the mind.”

Game: Parappa the Rapper (1996)

Speaker: Chop Chop Master Onion

Submitted by Darkhawk

“If you’re gonna test me / I’m sure you’ll find / the things I’ll teach ya / are sure to beat ya / but nevertheless you’ll get a lesson from teacher!” If you’re familiar with PaRappa the Rapper, the coolest 2D dog to have ever lived, I have no doubt you finished the verse in your head the second you read “kick, punch.”

The opening line to the very first level in the original game, Chop Chop Master Onion teaches PaRappa the basics of rapping, but also karate. Why? Because PaRappa wants to win the heart of his crush, Sunny Funny, but he needs to impress her more than Joe Chin, his egotistical canine rival. However, Master Onion’s words are more than just about karate: he’s implying that all of PaRappa’s incoming challenges to look cool are futile — winning Sunny’s affection is “all in the mind.” It doesn’t stop him from following this up with learning to drive with Instructor Mooselini though: “Alright / we’re here / just sitting in the car / I want you to show me if you can get far!” —Ford James

3

“When life gives you lemons, don’t make lemonade.”

Game: Portal 2 (2012)

Character: Cave Johnson

Submitted by KForbesy and TMan

This one goes a bit longer, so here’s the full quote:

When life gives you lemons, don’t make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back! Get mad! I don’t want your damn lemons, what the hell am I supposed to do with these? Demand to see life’s manager! Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons! Do you know who I am? I’m the man who’s gonna burn your house down! With the lemons! I’m gonna get my engineers to invent a combustible lemon that burns your house down!

We’ve all heard the proverb, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” It’s a call for resilience and optimism in the face of adversity. In the Portal video game series, founder and CEO of Aperture Science Cave Johnson thinks that’s for fools.

Throughout Portal 2, you can hear various pre-recorded messages from the deceased and disgraced former billionaire. Over time, they grow increasingly erratic as both his company and his own health deteriorate. This truly unhinged rant channels his bitter, self-righteous rage. Instead of making lemonade, he suggests people throw the lemons back and “demand to see life’s manager!” It’s Big Karen Energy, but it’s also something more violent. He even goes so far as to suggest that he’ll get his engineers to design a combustible lemon to burn life’s house down — whatever that means.

It’s easy to read this rant as pure absurdist comedy, but it also perfectly captures who Cave Johnson is and how he ran Aperture Science. In this world, innovation is for the sake of defiance and revenge rather than the good of humanity. Instead of facing adversity with resilience, Johnson instead reacts with stubborn, destructive delusion. After all, it was Aperture Science’s reckless experiments — and those done by competitors Black Mesa — that led to the end of the world because of this exact mindset. — Corey Plante

2

“You spoony bard!”

Game: Final Fantasy 4 (1991)

Character: Tellah

Submitted by Dessa and celestialflower

In the destroyed castle at Damcyan, the crotchety sage Tellah confronts the foppish bard Edward for eloping with his daughter Anna. Yep, spoony is a real word, even if you don’t hear it very often. The meaning sits somewhere between “foolish” and “swooning,” which makes sense for these reckless lovebirds. It’s a classic example of 16-bit Squaresoft localization, courtesy of Ted Woolsey. As a huge FF4 apologist, I wanted this one to be in there, but we had too much Final Fantasy already. Sorry. —JG

1

“Jill, here’s a lockpick. It might come in handy if you, the master of unlocking, take it with you.”

Game: Resident Evil (1996)

Character: Barry Burton

Submitted by Darkhawk, Laurie Dix, and _user_m5e9dcxp

The hardest part about putting together a list of the best video game quotes is deciding which Resident Evil lines make the cut. You could probably make a great top 100 entirely out of Leon S. Kennedy one-liners alone. The survival horror series’ knack for laugh-out-loud moments started with its very first game thanks to some strange localization choices that launched it to stardom. Barry Burton’s “Master of unlocking” line is the pinnacle of that, turning a throwaway moment into an iconic line that fans still joke about 30 years later. Laughing at it became laughing with it over that span. Now, we can look back at that translation goof as patient zero for Resident Evil’s entire B-movie voice. You could say that it… unlocked some doors for the series. —Giovanni Colantonio