Your Top 5 RPGs (and why)

[Amiel]

-Valkyrie Profile II: VP I, though great in its own right, felt more like a story than a game. VP II had a good balance of both and I find myself still replaying the scene when Rufus and Alicia face Odin for the first time and many others scenes. Probably takes up half of one of my PS2 memory cards.

I actually got a brand NEW copy of this on Tuesday for 18 bucks at the FYE near my place XD. Also, got Atelier Iris 3 ($18) and Brave Story for the PSP ($24).

Looking forward to test driving these games out!

[layoneil]

Is it a PS1 game? Have to Ebay for it?

the only English version is a PS1 game (published by Atlus), it was originally an SNES game in Japan, there's also a Sega Saturn version in Japan too.

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Top 5

1) Dragon Force - most awesome gameplay of any RPG game ever.

2) Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen - over a dozen possible endings, over a dozen optional characters.

3) Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together - everything that people liked about FFT but more. 10 members on the field at once instead of 6. 3 storyline branches with unique characters. very realistic characters, almost no characters that are evil just because they are evil. much harder gameplay.

4) Front Mission - Tactics Ogre with Mechs, less epic but faster paced, played it in Japanese and didn't know a damn thing about the story (couldn't even tell if one of the characters was a guy or a girl lol).

5) Final Fantasy X - was the most complete traditional RPG i ever played, not perfect but had the most good qualities i liked about RPGs with the least bad qualities.

[Marcin]

No one's into Vagrant Story as much as I was?

[layoneil]

No one's into Vagrant Story as much as I was?

i liked it but i like my RPGs with lots of characters, lots of locations, lots of storylines. VS was a closer to MGS/DMC than it is to RPGs.

[Amiel]

No one's into Vagrant Story as much as I was?

I liked that game but I can't seem to find my copy, I have a feeling >.> my brother gave it away. I also, kinda don't remember much about it since it's been a really long time since I played it.

[Charismatic]

I went into a boss battle on that game unprepared, (was kinda young when it came out) I think it was some big dragon, and none of my weapons had the proper affinity and the most dmg I could do to it was 1.

I had to chain his ass to death with 1 dmg hits, after that fight I hated Vagrant Story.

[Deejay]

1. FFXI - My first online RPG. People don't really realize how passionate they are with their characters and the game's community. I mean think about it, a good percentage of these boards don't even play the game anymore yet still visit this BG multiple times a day. This may not be true for the rest of you guys, but i've easily spent 1000x more hours on FFXI than I have with any other video game in my entire life. I'd be lying if I said it didn't deserve to be in my top 5, how ever "flawed" the game may be.

2. Golden Sun 1+2 - Damn Djinns will always have a place in my heart. Everything in this game was just so likable to me. Most fun I've ever had with my GBA....

3. Pokemon Red Version - I still remember being in grade school playing this shit 24/7. I looked forward to... wait no, relished the idea of road trips because of this game. Every kid who rode my bus played, which meant I always had some fucking intense battles on the way to/from school. The newer ones were awesome, too.

4. Legend of Dragoon - I liked the timing aspect of the game, and the corny characters. Wasn't the best RPG of all time, but I enjoyed it a lot.

5. Final Fantasy Tactics - The reason why I loved FFXI. Near perfect job class system.

[Amiel]

5. Final Fantasy Tactics - The reason why I loved FFXI. Near perfect job class system.

did you changed this cuz I KNOW I saw you typed something like "toss up between KH and Mass Effect". I was going to reply with "oh no you didn't" >

[Viq]

1) Dragon Quest 1 - What can I say, I like grinding. The start of Toriyama's classic enemy design puts it at the top of the list despite the game's playability dropping day by day ;_;

2) Parasite Eve - Great music, interesting story, fun gameplay.

3) Shining Force 3 - Best SRPG ever

4) Final Fantasy III - Again, fantastic grinding.

5) Lunar 2 SCD - Great story, character design, etc. Better pacing than the PSX remake.

[Jefe]

• Chrono Trigger; Great story, memorable characters, amazing battle sys, combos, endings, etc.[/*:m:2zmbr8f9]
• FFVI; Same as above, however, this one is the first FF I played (import obviously)[/*:m:2zmbr8f9]
• Persona 3; Had new elements I hadn't played, music, etc.[/*:m:2zmbr8f9]
• Xenogears; A very complex and interesting story that I had to play 2x in order to get it, was too young to get the concept I guess.[/*:m:2zmbr8f9]
• FFVIII; My favourite from all the fantasies released for the PS1.[/*:m:2zmbr8f9]

Edit: No order :nikkei: all

[Deejay]

5. Final Fantasy Tactics - The reason why I loved FFXI. Near perfect job class system.

did you changed this cuz I KNOW I saw you typed something like "toss up between KH and Mass Effect". I was going to reply with "oh no you didn't" >

Yeah I did, lol. 2 seconds after I made my post I was like "OMG I FORGOT FFT!?!?!?!"

So I switched it, lol.

[Kaylia]

No one's into Vagrant Story as much as I was?

I loved the story, but the ambiance was just too dark. You spend the whole game inside ugly dungeon/castle/cave. Dont get me wrong, I loved the game in overall, but I always have trouble to remember it because of that.

Wouldnt include it in rpg either, even if it's one to some extent.

[Charismatic]

If people are gonna include PE they have to include Vagrant Story!

[Amiel]

No one's into Vagrant Story as much as I was?

I loved the story, but the ambiance was just too dark. You spend the whole game inside ugly dungeon/castle/cave. Dont get me wrong, I loved the game in overall, but I always have trouble to remember it because of that.

Wouldnt include it in rpg either, even if it's one to some extent.

I thought it was just me remembering only "darkness" with this game XD

[Marcin]

I loved the story, but the ambiance was just too dark. You spend the whole game inside ugly dungeon/castle/cave. Dont get me wrong, I loved the game in overall, but I always have trouble to remember it because of that.

Wouldnt include it in rpg either, even if it's one to some extent.

lol, yeah. The entire game was just dungeon after dungeon. When I first got to Leá Monde I just had a slight pause of "holy crap, light! Hooray!" and then out comes another dungeon. The story was pretty amazing though.

I'm really not sure which genre to place it under. It had no towns, no shops, and no other character interaction besides what was in the main story cutscenes. However then you deal with hp/mp, magic, weapon/armor customization that'll make you lose yourself for hours (if you want to be a blacksmith) and the fantasy feel that just gives me nothing but an rpg feel. It's unique though, I don't think anyone can stick it into just one genre. Matsuno himself (according to wiki, and we all know how those are) explained the following, "the development team was not eager to place Vagrant Story into a specific genre, preferring to create the game with a genre of its own."

but yeah, I agree it feels alot like MGS and the like, but whatever D:<

brbz though! I'm actually gonna go pick up Persona3 after reading these threads, now.

[Siniroth]

Any spoilers are unintentional, there shouldn't be any though.

1. Legend of Dragoon - will ALWAYS be my number 1. Graphics are fine for the story, not over the top, not shitty. Battle system is fun, and adds a bit more skill to the game but still allowing for more casual players to be able to fight well. Story was great, even if it started getting fairly fast paced near the end. Music suited every bit.

2. Chrono Trigger - Music, Story, tech system = win. Optional storylines were fun, and never seemed too random to be out of place. New Game+ added much replayability to the game, and it added the ability to get all the additional endings without needing a new game for each of them.

3. Final Fantasy IX - Story line was amazing, even including the lolfinal boss. FF9 was a step back in the right direction for FF games. Never understood the hate for the ability system, as it was fine, it differentiated jobs between characters, and allowed a casual play through that let characters learn their abilities in a good amount of time, with the ability to train for longer to gain extra abilities if desired. Chocobo Hot & Cold was an amazingly fun and addictive mini-game, which could also directly assist your characters due to weapons and armour found in chests. Tetra Master was also a loved minigame by me.

4. Final Fantasy XI Chains of Promathia - Sure, hate it all you want, story line was absolutely epic, music and graphics were very well done, and the fights weren't nearly as difficult as they're made out to be when you have a competent group that allowed you to actually enjoy the storyline. If SE adapted this as a single player game, I would buy it in a heartbeat.

5. Final Fantasy XII - Graphics were nice, but not so nice as to distract you enough to get you killed. Real time battle was a nice change of pace, and the ability to change settings to be more like old school Final Fantasy games for a more casual player. Hunts were an interesting sidequest, although the final hunt didn't necessarily need 130(?) Million HP, and the implementation of the Zodiac Spear was poorly done. Also, some enemy moves were a huge turn off. They were either too strong (Deathga? what the hell?) or too weak (Ohi Megaflare Blade... oh, I can block that? Okay!) for my liking. Also, storyline seemed a bit jumpy at times, but I forgive that because I loved the rest of the game.

[Stolin]

This thread is inspiring me to play through my old games, and HOLY HELL my gameboy is dusty, and it still works. Replaying old school games is turning out to be super fun.

In no order:

-FF7&8

-FFT

-Suikoden 1 & 2

-Pokemon series(replaying one of these games first)

-FFT

-Chrono cross- no I do not know how to count

[Seigfried Of Pandy]

(5) Guardians Crusade(ps1)- Honestly I dont know why i fell in love with this game. Barely anyone has heard of it, not very highly acclaimed but for those who might have actually played it I just had so much fun flying around exploring, going from town to town, discovering all those magic toys and having so much choices between who i wanted to use in battle etc.

(4) Final Fantasy Tactics(ps1)- Bassicly for all the same reasons people has said before, dont wanna say its the best srpg though since tactics orge is probably 6 on this list and could be ahead, i cant choose, depends which i played last haha.

(3) Dark Cloud 2(ps2)- Loved the story, extremely addictive game play, lots of just mindless hack and slash fun just wanting to go one more floor.

(2) TES4: Oblivion(xbox360)- Its nearly impossible for me to put down this game once I start, can play for hours and hours and hours on end, playing my whole different arrays of charecters, with competely different abilities,persona's, objectives and bassicly doing whatever the hell i want.

(1) Skies Of Arcadia(dc)- Always going to hold a special place, fell in love with the characters both heroes and villains. The story really makes you feel a sense of adventure going through the south ocean for the first time and finding the blue moon city, being stranded on an island, creating your own base and ship crew, discovering places. Wow this game is great. Word on the street on latest EGM is they restarted creating a sequel, i'm really hoping just for once EGM doesn't fail me and that it is at least close to as good to the first one.

[Hitoshura]

1. Shin Megami Tensei III
2. Persona 2 Innocent Sin
3. Suikoden II
4. Chrono Trigger
5. Final Fantasy VI

I have to get ready for work but I had already thought up of my perfect list, will post input when I get off.

[Brill Weave]

1. Final Fantasy - FFIII, FFVIII, and FFX to be specific. I loved Locke and Celes in FFIII. I actually liked Squall more than Cloud in FFVIII and I was happy he and Rinoa made it through(despite the horrid plot and how they ended it), and though I didn't like Tidus, I couldn't help but root for him and hope he and Yuna both lived. The ending of FFX made me sad when Yuna said she loved him and then fell right through his apparition.

2. Shining Force - In particular Shining Force 1 & 2 and the first disc of Shining Force III(for Dreamcast, if you're reading this Working Designs RELEASE THE LAST TWO DISCS YOU FUCKERS!) I absolutely loved Shining Force 2. I played through them all so many times it's sad.

3. Warsong - The first strategy/Rpg game I ever played back on the Genesis. If you've never heard of this game you have issues. If you've played this game then you know why it's up here.

4. Mass Effect/KoTR/Jade Empire - I will always love Bioware's games. They also keep me thoroughly entertained from start to finish. There's always plenty of side quests and the main storyline is always top notch. While each of these games had their own problems, the strength of the story was always enough to keep me moving forward.

5. Lunar - Fuck yeah.