Favorite RPG Compilation.

[Kaelan]

RPGs have always been about the story for me.

"Role Playing Game"
Does not Translate to
"Level Grinding Game"

But, yes you are right... and this thread is a subjective thread.. not an objective thread.

To me, when I really look at it, in the end it's all about the gameplay (which doesn't necessairly translate only into fights). You can have a game with the crappiest story ever, if the gameplay is really good, i'll play it (the first few pokemon games are still some of my favorite games ever). If the story is awesome, but the gameplay sucks, I'll probably end up playing it just because I like good storylines, but it just won't be that fun, which is the entire purpose in the first place, and definetly won't be playing it again. In the end, like you said, it's all very subjective and just varies from person to person, depending on what your idea of having fun is~

My list, in no particular order:

Super Mario RPG - The first RPG I ever played, I loved it way back then. It was just pure simple fun :D

Pokemon - The first (RBY) and second (GSC) generations were great. Despite having a story that, looking back, is almost downright embarassing to play, it was just so much fun. I guess I could say the first time I ever got interested into the idea of something close to an MMO was the first time I found out about the RBY bot that let you simulate player vs player fights over the internet. Great days back then :D

Xenogears - Best story ever and pretty good gameplay too. Probably one of the games I've replayed the most times just to remember what the story was like

Xenosaga III - I had kinda lost hope for the series after II, which was a huge dissapointment. I was never really that impressed with I, although it was pretty fun to play. Then II was horrible. At first, I thought III wouldn't be that great either, but after a while it starts picking up and a lot of things in the storyline start making a lot more sense. The biggest reason I'd list this as one of the best, though, would be the ending. The very last stretch in the game and the ending together made one of the best RPG endings I've ever seen, that was seriously some really amazing stuff. If I had to pick one or two games to play just for the story, this would definetly be on the top of the list

Breath of Fire III - I looooved the dragon gene splicing thing, I've always wanted them to put that back into the series. IV was good too, but III was made of awesome

Final Fantasy Tactics - The reason I started liking strategy games, and I never really got into any other ones as much as I got into playing FFT. That is, until:

Disgaea 2 - I've never played 1, but 2 was so good. The whole light-heartedness of it, combined with great gameplay was a great change of pace from the normal RPG. Normally I'd say stay away from comedy in a game, but this game managed to pull it off very well

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - I could never really like any of the other castlevania games after playing this, I don't know why. It just didn't feel the same I guess. SotN was great, especially for when it came out

Final Fantasy 7 - Looking back, I don't know what exactly I liked about this so much. Maybe because it was my first "serious" RPG. I honestly can't explain why because I have no idea why, but this was definetly one of the games I've had the most fun with, ever. I still have my old CDs backed up in ISOs so I could play them in ePSXe atfer my PS1 broke down

Some others: Dragon Warrior Monsters, Star Ocean 2, Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner(that time you have to fight some guy without being able to see anything and have to dodge his attacks based on what Jehuty tells you to do....best boss fight evar!), Alundra(the first one was great, second one was /gag), Legend of Dragoon, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Monkey Island 3: The Curse of Monkey Island (I don't really think you could call this an RPG at all...but it was still awesome)

[layoneil]

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but ff6 is the same as ff3 right?

yes. 2US = 4, 3US = 6

[BRP]

RPG in videogames =/= RPG tabletop.

No game in all of existance is near a RPG tabletop. This includes ES: Oblivion.

RPG in a videogame means you have a character that can progress in strength and/or stats greatly... it has "RPG" elements, even "Roll-Player-Game". Though, there is something I'm missing here, because Animal Crossing is a RPG for sure.

That is all I'll say on the debate.

[wiegraf]

lets see.. most memorable RPG's

FFT (no brainer)
FF6
Crono Trigger
FF4
SMRPG


meh I guess I'm just a sheep, can't think of any lesser known ones at the moment.. but those were my favs.

Startropics was pretty fun, if you can call it an RPG
and ultima games were pretty fun on the nes, think it was ultima 8 or something

edit* Illusion of gaia, 7th saga and crono cross

[Elcura]

a large chunk of the game is nothing... its mindless fights to powerup shit... which does nothing to advance the story.

but if the fights are fun that's what games are suppose to be for. RPGs =/= movies. while the story is important for RPGs, the fights also have to be entertaining.

whether one RPG has too little story or too much story is subjective and varies from people to people and game to game.

RPGs have always been about the story for me.

"Role Playing Game"
Does not Translate to
"Level Grinding Game"

But, yes you are right... and this thread is a subjective thread.. not an objective thread.

your gripe with the game doesn't make sense, I even question that you've PLAYED the game. you have the main story and the additional content. the main story is good enough, the additional stuff which you don't have to do is just a bonus. you don't HAVE to power up your items to beat the game, you only have to do the item world once, there are story maps that you can easily level up in if aren't stupid.

a large chunk of the game isn't nothing, if you know what you're doing it's a lot of fun and there are crazy ass strong mega bosses for those completionists.

Your right, I didn't. I personally got sick of the game after a few hours due to how easy it was... and... at the time I was still working on Tactics Ogre... which is a vastly superior tactics game.

Those bosses arn't even incredibly strong.. they exist for people to go level to 10000 then revert of level 1 or whatever that shit is... all they are is a grindfest. [This is pretty much how a friend of mine put it as I watched him play the game with one of his ... level 9000+ parties or whatever... made me lol.]

Now to be honest, I did buy Disgaea 2... haven't had time to touch it though... and now that Valkyrie Profile 2 is out and I have time to play games again... yeah I won't for a while.

Wow, you really make yourself look good there. I'm pretty sure the first few hours of a game are supposed to be easy and steadily get harder, Disgaea has a good difficulty curve (Disgaea 2 has a worse difficulty curve but still an excellent game). Well, I suggest you stop talking about Disgaea, because you obviously have no idea what you're talking about. You think FFXI isn't a grindfest as well? if you want it can be. It's all about how you play the game, how you plan it out and what you like.

I just hope you give Disgaea 2 more of a chance then you did 1, because D2 is really such a great game.

[Haelian]

Hey, good job, way to find my point. The whole reason I said that is because Tetris is no more a RPG than FFVIII is a FPS. His argument is that you play the role of a person dropping blocks. That's an idiotic statement, because you don't play the role of anyone. All you do is turn the blocks as they are falling to make them fit, and once you've created a full line, the line is deleted. That does not constitute playing a role.

Yes, Haelian, Mario and Metroid are menial, the latter moreso than the former. These games have not at all revolutionized gaming in any way, shape or form. They simply exist so that Nintendo can keep whoring out the same characters over and over again until one day when people finally decide they're tired of seeing the same little bastard in a red hat doing something that's only remotely different from what he did in the last 10 games that involved him.

I didn't say that "experience-points-to-level-up" was only in PnP D&D. What I said is that it's the only game, to my knowledge, that truly allows you to choose your own alignment. Learn to read, dickweed. The fact that you don't know what PnP D&D is takes away a certain level of credibility from your argument, in my opinion.

Zelda: Wind Waker, from what I've heard, was also the shittiest Zelda game ever created, disallowing the freedoms that were given in most of the other Zelda games, and destroying the gameplay style that had been in place within the Legend of Zelda games since the very first one. Furthermore, I don't even see where it lists the genre of the game on GameSpot, but if you look it up on any of the other gaming retail websites, it's listed as Adventure/Role-playing. So, have a face full of your own foot, on the house.

I'm attacking your method of determining a RPG, because you were stupid enough to say that, based on how "loose" the genres are for the videogaming world, you could say that Tetris fits into that category. I can pretty much guarantee that if you were to say that in a serious discussion with a gamer in the real world, they would ignore you from that point on.

How did Zelda revolutionize gaming where Mario didn't? Last I checked, games like Super Mario Bros. 3 and Mario 64 were major hits and I have faith that they would've been no matter what name they were given. Mario 64 was simply groundbreaking and it's crazy to say otherwise. I do think Zelda has evolved well, but no better than Mario or Metroid. Zelda's transition from overhead 2D to 3D was great, Mario's 2D platformer to 3D was great, Metroid.. maybe not AS great but definitely well enough.

You can't say that the Mario and Metroid series are milking the name when they are still releasing great games. It'd be different if they were throwing out shitty games with the same label, but they're not.

Assuming Wind Waker is a shitty game just from "what you've heard" is pretty ignorant. Someone told me it sucked before I got it, went out and bought it anyway and had a great time with it. But anyway, here's a link to Ocarina of Time/Master Quest on Gamespot where it clearly says Genre: Fantasy Action Adventure.

Might want to learn to read yourself also, since it was someone else who mentioned alignment and you are, for whatever the reason, combining my post with his/hers. And I at least managed to find the word "genre" on a website, dickweed.

The Tetris thing was stupid, I admit, but I was simply trying to make the point that the term RPG is so broad that it can describe a vast majority of games, and that the literal meaning has little to do with which games the its' label is placed on.

[Krandor]

I dont' think it was mentioned yet, I just found these in a box in my attic, but Vandal Hearts I & II were both great strategy RPGs.

[Merryck]

Hey, good job, way to find my point. The whole reason I said that is because Tetris is no more a RPG than FFVIII is a FPS. His argument is that you play the role of a person dropping blocks. That's an idiotic statement, because you don't play the role of anyone. All you do is turn the blocks as they are falling to make them fit, and once you've created a full line, the line is deleted. That does not constitute playing a role.

Yes, Haelian, Mario and Metroid are menial, the latter moreso than the former. These games have not at all revolutionized gaming in any way, shape or form. They simply exist so that Nintendo can keep whoring out the same characters over and over again until one day when people finally decide they're tired of seeing the same little bastard in a red hat doing something that's only remotely different from what he did in the last 10 games that involved him.

I didn't say that "experience-points-to-level-up" was only in PnP D&D. What I said is that it's the only game, to my knowledge, that truly allows you to choose your own alignment. Learn to read, dickweed. The fact that you don't know what PnP D&D is takes away a certain level of credibility from your argument, in my opinion.

Zelda: Wind Waker, from what I've heard, was also the shittiest Zelda game ever created, disallowing the freedoms that were given in most of the other Zelda games, and destroying the gameplay style that had been in place within the Legend of Zelda games since the very first one. Furthermore, I don't even see where it lists the genre of the game on GameSpot, but if you look it up on any of the other gaming retail websites, it's listed as Adventure/Role-playing. So, have a face full of your own foot, on the house.

I'm attacking your method of determining a RPG, because you were stupid enough to say that, based on how "loose" the genres are for the videogaming world, you could say that Tetris fits into that category. I can pretty much guarantee that if you were to say that in a serious discussion with a gamer in the real world, they would ignore you from that point on.

How did Zelda revolutionize gaming where Mario didn't? Last I checked, games like Super Mario Bros. 3 and Mario 64 were major hits and I have faith that they would've been no matter what name they were given. Mario 64 was simply groundbreaking and it's crazy to say otherwise. I do think Zelda has evolved well, but no better than Mario or Metroid. Zelda's transition from overhead 2D to 3D was great, Mario's 2D platformer to 3D was great, Metroid.. maybe not AS great but definitely well enough.

You can't say that the Mario and Metroid series are milking the name when they are still releasing great games. It'd be different if they were throwing out shitty games with the same label, but they're not.

Assuming Wind Waker is a shitty game just from "what you've heard" is pretty ignorant. Someone told me it sucked before I got it, went out and bought it anyway and had a great time with it. But anyway, here's a link to Ocarina of Time/Master Quest on Gamespot where it clearly says Genre: Fantasy Action Adventure.

Might want to learn to read yourself also, since it was someone else who mentioned alignment and you are, for whatever the reason, combining my post with his/hers. And I at least managed to find the word "genre" on a website, dickweed.

The Tetris thing was stupid, I admit, but I was simply trying to make the point that the term RPG is so broad that it can describe a vast majority of games, and that the literal meaning has little to do with which games the its' label is placed on.

If you type in Wind Waker in the search after going to GameSpot.com, you get: http://www.gamespot.com/search.html?typ ... er&x=0&y=0

If you hit the Full Review, you get: http://www.gamespot.com/gamecube/advent ... nd%20Waker

Neither of them mention the genre of the game that was actually in question.

"And how the fuck is a gain-experience-points-to-level-up system only in PnP D&D (I don't even know what PnP means)? I'm pretty sure thousands of games fall into that category, and since that was the only specific I listed, there are a lot more games than just D&D in my RPG genre."

That was said by you, not someone else. Again, and I say this with emphasis: learn to read, dumbass.

[Haelian]

"And how the fuck is a gain-experience-points-to-level-up system only in PnP D&D (I don't even know what PnP means)? I'm pretty sure thousands of games fall into that category, and since that was the only specific I listed, there are a lot more games than just D&D in my RPG genre."

That was said by you, not someone else. Again, and I say this with emphasis: learn to read, dumbass.

I know I fucking said that. And then you said this:

I didn't say that "experience-points-to-level-up" was only in PnP D&D. What I said is that it's the only game, to my knowledge, that truly allows you to choose your own alignment. Learn to read, dickweed. The fact that you don't know what PnP D&D is takes away a certain level of credibility from your argument, in my opinion.

Where in the name of fuck did alignment come from? I didn't mention it, so why would you include it in an argument against what I said? I wasn't asking for games that had an alignment system, my only specification was the experience-points-blahblahblah. But obviously you're fucked and feel the need to make no sense.

[Merryck]

"And how the fuck is a gain-experience-points-to-level-up system only in PnP D&D (I don't even know what PnP means)? I'm pretty sure thousands of games fall into that category, and since that was the only specific I listed, there are a lot more games than just D&D in my RPG genre."

That was said by you, not someone else. Again, and I say this with emphasis: learn to read, dumbass.

I know I fucking said that. And then you said this:

I didn't say that "experience-points-to-level-up" was only in PnP D&D. What I said is that it's the only game, to my knowledge, that truly allows you to choose your own alignment. Learn to read, dickweed. The fact that you don't know what PnP D&D is takes away a certain level of credibility from your argument, in my opinion.

Where in the name of fuck did alignment come from? I didn't mention it, so why would you include it in an argument against what I said? I wasn't asking for games that had an alignment system, my only specification was the experience-points-blahblahblah. But obviously you're fucked and feel the need to make no sense.

Are you really that stupid? Okay, let me run it down for you:

I said, "PnP D&D is the only game I know of that allows you to truly choose your own alignment."

You said, "And how the fuck is a gain-experience-points-to-level-up system only in PnP D&D..."

Since that wasn't at all what I said, I retorted with, "I didn't say that "experience-points-to-level-up" was only in PnP D&D. What I said is that it's the only game, to my knowledge, that truly allows you to choose your own alignment."

Is that still beyond your ability to comprehend, or can you peek through that shroud of ignorance long enough to understand that you're a moron, and any further attempts to argue this point will only result in proving that you are even more of a pompous ass than you've shown yourself to be thus far?

[Elcura]

I dont' think it was mentioned yet, I just found these in a box in my attic, but Vandal Hearts I & II were both great strategy RPGs.

I played Vandal Hearts II, I was stuck on some mission for about 4 years (actually I got bored) and when I came back I finished the game, great fun

[Tilo]

My top rpgs:

Lunar 2
FF6
Breath of Fire 3.. though that desert part drove me insane
FF8
Chrono Cross

[Haelian]

Are you really that stupid? Okay, let me run it down for you:

I said, "PnP D&D is the only game I know of that allows you to truly choose your own alignment."

You said, "And how the fuck is a gain-experience-points-to-level-up system only in PnP D&D..."

Since that wasn't at all what I said, I retorted with, "I didn't say that "experience-points-to-level-up" was only in PnP D&D. What I said is that it's the only game, to my knowledge, that truly allows you to choose your own alignment."

Is that still beyond your ability to comprehend, or can you peek through that shroud of ignorance long enough to understand that you're a moron, and any further attempts to argue this point will only result in proving that you are even more of a pompous ass than you've shown yourself to be thus far?

Okay this is my last reply to this shit stained argument. Why, oh why, would you mention alignment? Just why? You started talking about my reply, then ran it together with alignment. It. Doesn't. Make. Sense. But obviously you're too full of yourself to realize this.[/b]

[Kazen]

1. FF7
2. Xenogears
3. Suikoden 5
4. FF6
5. Lunar 1 & 2
6. Grandia I
7. Star Ocean - The Second Story
8. Tales of Destiny II
9. FFT
10. Thousand Arms

[Krandor]

Anyway back on topic, one of my favourite RPG's has gotta be Pokemon, the original ones for GB. Red / Blue / Yellow, all awesome. Levelling system was perfect, a variety of mob classes and moves (even though you have ones like Mr Mime which were overpowered as fk) and a nice progression system, which that too was optional if you pressed B before your monsters evolved.

I missed Wafik saying this between all the Zelda arguing, but the Gameboy Pokemon RPGs are made of absolute win. I have some good memories of having poke-battles with friends after classes back in high-school (oy do I sound like a nerd saying that).