Playstation 1 RPGs

[Klyde Chroma]

Though my recall of the few aforementioned titles is pretty fuzzy as well, I do recall liking but not finishing LoL or BtB for some reason... What I do remember is really not digging the limited cast in LoL.... In either event, neither were stellar enough to demand my attention again later in life...

I'll tell you what is demanding my attention as a result of this thread is Breath of Fire... I've been itching for another run through of 3 in the worst way... I think that is going to be my next "classic" to pop in once I finished my Earthbound play-through.

Also, to the original poster, good move picking up Suikoden man, you won't regret it :) Dare I say, you may even feel enclined to shell out the bucks for 2 (as I did) after giving it a go.

[Starmongoose]

You made the right choice.

[Raze]

Just thoughts on psx games people have suggested.

Suikoden: Great games, particularly 2 as said is a classic. They do have one notable fault in that for a game where one of the draws is so many characters it sure makes it a pain to swap teams(And they will MAKE you swap teams as people butt in your party). Gotta unequip your old guys, reequip the new guys, temper the new guys weapons and take off and reequip your runes(Which you can't just do, you have to hit a npc). You'd really think the series would have eventually adopted macromanaging over micromanaging, but they never did. Still don't let that discourage you from playing a great game.

Grandia: Bad voice acting and so easy it's almost insulting. Don't expect to be hit for more than single digits except on rare occasions. But it captures the feel of adventure really well. Don't play it on PS2, it tends to lock up.

Xenogears: Very overrated do to poor gameplay. If you're in it for the story though go for it.

Alundra: Solid Zelda clone. Darker story than you'd expect, which is to it's credit.

Legend of Mana: Fun game, good soundtrack and beautiful art(Backgrounds and such, characters were kind of ugly). You can play through just fine without one, but it is a 'you need a faqs for this' game if you want to explore some of the side stuff you can do like golem building, pet raising and weapon tempering. And hell, you probably won't understand weapon tempering even with a faqs.

Final Fantasy Tactics: Really good game. More about building strong characters than 'strategy', but as long as you go in knowing that you'll have fun. If the game prompts you to save do it on a second slot. It's possible to get locked into a certain battle you might not be able to beat it won't let you leave to level.

Star Ocean 2: I don't know how this holds up with Tales games having refined the playstyle over the years, but it was a fun action rpg for it's time.

Wild Arms 1/2: People are up playing the wild west theme of the games. There's some influence there in the character designs, it's share of guitar tracks and you'll come across a western themed mining town here and there, but it's much more standard fantasy and anime. WA3 is the exception as it leans a lot more towards wild west themes, but that's PS2. They're still good games though. Puzzles aren't deep or anything, but they keep you busy. Second game introduces my favorite random encounter system where a ! pops over your head and if you don't want to fight you just push a button and you don't fight.

Granstream Saga: This was pretty terrible. Big disappointment seeing as it's from the terranigma guys.

Brave Fencer Musashi: Fun game that doesn't take itself seriously. I rented but never beat it because it threw a simon says rhythm game at me and I have no rhythm. Good ride until that point though.

Breath of Fire 3/4: Expect a lot of travelling without really advancing things. But enjoyable with good sprite animation. Really liked Fou-Lu's story in 4.

Saga Frontier: Hated the first. Didn't hate the second, but wouldn't really go out of my way to recommend it either.

[PotRoast]

Gee, I probably spent a little too much time with Squaresoft PS1 RPGs, neglecting other companies. Oh well, here's a couple of my favorites:

Vagrant Story: I think this is one of the best PS1 games of any genre, but it reaches farther than it could grasp and comes up short often in the gameplay department. Specifically, the combat mechanics are complicated, a bit overwhelming at first, and in some cases rather cumbersome. Some aspects of it can also seem rather antiquated by today's standards. However, it can be very educational about the development of games because VS really is sort of a transitional game in terms of combat in many ways. That said, the story, setting, and music are still incredible, even today. And the exploration aspect of the game really is top notch. This is a game everyone should at least try playing.

SaGa Frontiet II: If I had to give this game a letter grade, it would have always been a B+. But this is one of those games where I feel like that is selling it short. The gameplay is OK, that's why most people play games, and that's what is really holding it back. But aesthetically it is incredible. The soundtrack is one of the best of any game, the visual style with all the hand-painted backgrounds makes it one of the prettiest games one the PS1, though the sprites aren't all that great. As for the story, it isn't groundbreaking, but the storytelling certainly is.

[Dice]

SaGa Frontiet II: though the sprites aren't all that great.

Are you mad???  Did you forget about the "HD battles"?

[Pmayo]

Dice-  isn't Tri-Ace working on some 3DS dungeon crawler? which reminds me, I still need to play Resonance of Fate.

I'll tell you what is demanding my attention as a result of this thread is Breath of Fire... I've been itching for another run through of 3 in the worst way... I think that is going to be my next "classic" to pop in once I finished my Earthbound play-through.

Also, to the original poster, good move picking up Suikoden man, you won't regret it :) Dare I say, you may even feel enclined to shell out the bucks for 2 (as I did) after giving it a go.

Thanks Klyde :) my copy should be shipping soon, and knowing me I will also end up spending way to much on the sequel..

Also enjoy Earthbound. One of my favorite games of all time. I bought the game when It came out for Snes in that huge box with the players guide. I liked it so much that when Halloween rolled around I really wanted to dress up as Ness for it, but my mother had to rain in on my parade, letting me know I would just look like a normal kid on his way to school with a red baseball cap and a backpack, and no one would think I even dressed up, my dreams where shattered :(

[PotRoast]

SaGa Frontiet II: though the sprites aren't all that great.

Are you mad???  Did you forget about the "HD battles"?

notsureifsrs.jpg     >.<

[Dice]

Dice-  isn't Tri-Ace working on some 3DS dungeon crawler? which reminds me, I still need to play Resonance of Fate.

They did.  And they did a PSP game.  Both of which were less than stellar which is really disappointing for a bias fan, such as myself, to hear.

I'm hoping a lack of announcements right now means they're doing something for the PS360.

notsureifsrs.jpg     >.<

If that counts as BAD PSX 2D, I can't imagine what's good, so yeah, I'm shenrious. :)

[DPB]

If that counts as BAD PSX 2D, I can't imagine what's good, so yeah, I'm shenrious. :)

I can see his point, they don't have a lot of frames of animation, especially compared to the sprites in the two Breath of Fire games which are beautfiully smooth.

[Aeolus]

I wanted to toss another psx rpg out for suggestion...though some may dislike it. Beyond the Beyond. I enjoyed it, though it was pretty damn hard at times. It's been years since I played it though, so I may be a bit fuzzy on my memory of it though.

Beyond the Beyond: Is a spiteful bitch that seeks to find the most arbitrary bullshit for you to slog through while arming you with badly implemented ideas stolen from better games. The sole redeeming feature is the fact that you eventually get to fly around in NGE's Third Angel. (Seriously, no game that purposefully tries to implement its own version of DQ2's Road to Rhone for its penultimate dungeon can be considered to be a good game.)

[Agent D.]

So you did NOT like Beyond the Beyond?

[Dice]

If that counts as BAD PSX 2D, I can't imagine what's good, so yeah, I'm shenrious. :)

I can see his point, they don't have a lot of frames of animation, especially compared to the sprites in the two Breath of Fire games which are beautfiully smooth.

The standing animation looked fine, they sort of bobbed on the spot or whatever, and it's to a scale that not even BoF hit unless it was for bosses (SF2 has a pretty big character roster).  Given the budget and the fact it tried to work with some dynamic (the sliding around), not even BoF did that (BoF3 was two directions, front and back, then mirrored to hit the opposite angle, and BoF4 was just everyone "facing off" in one direction -- and also, they're an exception of high quality 2D sprite work, not the standard... come to think of it, has SquareSoft ever done outstanding 2D work??).

Wow, am I the only one who likes the big-sprite battles?

[Pmayo]

Saga Frontier 2 sounds intimidating, but I love the look of it. I am not usually the best at wrapping my head around overly complicated systems. I usually like the thought of mastering something with lots and lots of depth, more then I actually nd up enjoying it in practice, so we shall see

[Maxximum]

SaGa 2 is pretty good. I don't want to spoil the story too much, but lets just say that its structured in a way that I don't think I've ever seen done before or since. Rather than focus on a specific group of characters, the story itself is the focus. It may sound confusing now, but it will become clear once you play. It also has one of the weirdest and hardest bosses in my personal jRPGs history.

[Agent D.]

Can't forget the semi-unbeatable final strategy battle on gustave's side. Man that shit was impossible, I never saw what happened afterwards. I should go youtube it