Best languages

The best language is the one you can use most comfortably, which is subjective. That's why there are so many! My personal journey started with HyperTalk, which was a light scripting language for HyperCard that probably wasn't meant for any serious work. After getting comfortable with it and outgrowing its limitations, I moved on to Lingo, which was more or less an evolution of HyperTalk that ran in Macromedia Director. The same outgrowth happened again several years later, and I started dabbling in lower level languages, eventually taking a weekend to get familiar with C. I fell in love instantly, and it's been my primary language for nearly 20 years now.

HyperCard and Director don't really exist anymore, and I don't feel like C would be a particularly great starting point before having learned basic principles in a more forgiving environment. I'd imagine a modern version of my journey would look something like: GML in GameMaker -> C# in Unity -> C++ with a custom framework. Both GameMaker and Unity are pretty capable on their own, with a lot more room to grow than I had with the tools I chose - either of them might end up meeting all of your needs on its own.

There are a lot of nearly-universal principles of programming you'll learn with the first language you try, which makes any other language a whole lot easier to pick up. You can pretty much start with anything and use it as a springboard to understand what your needs actually are. It just takes some time, dedication, and curiosity.