Your Favorite RPGs and Why

[SonicDeathMonkey]

Oh I don't think I've posted in this thread yet.

Umm.. in no particular order and without very much thought....


Final Fantasy VII (Uber-nostalgia factor applies here, game has no chance of ever dropping from my favs even though when I replayed it last year I was shocked at how shoddy some aspects of it are. Also, way too easy. I would have a much different opinion of it if I wasn't 8 years old when I played, had no idea what an RPG was and was blown away and hooked instantly.)
Final Fantasy VI
Dragon Quest VI/VII/VIII
Skies of Arcadia
Heroes of Might & Magic III (does this count? sorta questionable i suppose)
Shining Force I/II (i don't wanna play III until i can play all scenarios, RE-RELEASE THIS GAME FFS!!)
Planescape: Torment
Diablo II
Chrono Trigger/Cross
Lunar 1 and 2
Mass Effect series

I think that covers most of the topmost tier, except the ones which I have no doubt I'm forgetting.

[Themadcow]

As another oldie, I'm also going to post these as a list of the RPG's I most enjoyed, as opposed to ones that might stand the test of time today:

1) Bards Tale - Got me into RPG's in the first place (if you excuse the text adventure games that preceded it) and still contains all of the things I love about RPG's today: Full party control and customisation, strategic turn-based combat and dungeon crawling. I'm not sure why but BT2 and 3 didn't quite hold the same appeal as the origina... **AMAGAWD IT'S 4 GROUPS OF 99 BERZERKERS!!!!!**

2) OK, it's an MMO, but WoW made up a big chunk of my life and effectively ruined my interest in any other game ('cept maybe Disgaea) for 5 years. There hasn't really been another thrill in gaming that gets close to the one you get taking down pre-nerf Brutallus on enrage with just 1 raider alive to knock off the final HP. It makes crack look "a bit morish" by comparison.

3) Suikoden 1. Yes, 2 is better but I'd probably not have bought 2 if I hadn't enjoyed myself thoroughly in the first game in the series. Brilliant story and appealed massively to the collector in me who just had to get all the stars of destiny. The ability to select your party from such a huge cast was unique at the time and still probably is.

4) Wizardry 6 - Bane of the Cosmic Forge. the ultimate turn based dungeon crawler imo. Loved it for all the reasons I loved Bards Tale but it just seemed to ratchet up the difficulty to a level that made it a personal challenge as much as a game. Massively looking forward to the new PS3 installment in the series.

5) Pools of Darkness - for the same reasons Zyco loved the D&D gold box games. I just happened to like this installment of the series the best. FIREBALL!!!

6) Final Fantasy VII. No list seems to be complete without it. Great story, wonderful characters and maybe the game that made me admire the craft of game creation more than any other. They didn't NEED to put the effort into the sub-games and locations that they did... but they seemed to care that this was going to be the greatest game they could make. The series has been RUINED by CG cut scenes.

[Zendervai]

My top 5 are:
#5: The first two Shadow Hearts. I put these together since I played them back-to-back and they're kind of mixed in my head. Great story and atmosphere, although the way they go completely insane half-way through Covenant was a little odd. Awesome battle system too.
#4: Final Fantasy X: Great story and characters, battle system is awesome too, and I really liked the way the Aeons worked.
#3: Xenosaga Trilogy: together because they all tell the same story. I got absolutely hooked from the start of Episode 1, and not even Episode II's horrible battle system discouraged me.
#2: The Ar Tonelico trilogy: I just love the characters and world in this series. The 3rd is a little odd, even for the series, but the story makes up for it, at least for me.
#1: Persona 4: This is literally the only video game I've played that made me laugh out loud. Omlette anyone? I really cared about the characters, more than Persona 3, possibly because I actually know a bunch of people who are like the Persona 4 cast, and the 3 cast seemed kind of stilted.

Honourable mentions: Nier (does that count as an RPG?) because even with its flaws, it is truly greater than the sum of its parts. Golden Sun, as just one of the most fun series I have ever played.

[kyuusei]

1) SMT Nocturne. (Everything.)
2) Chrono Trigger (Being the first RPG I really loved, and the only one I've beaten 20+ times)
2) FFVI (Being the first FF I really loved, enjoyed everything about it - music, characters, blah blah)
3) Digital Devil Saga 1&2. (You got to devour your enemies.)
4) Shadow Hearts (Atmosphere & battles)

1) Apparently, I can't count.
2) Mass Effect 2 needs to be up there. Probably between FFVI and DDS, maybe even higher. Either way, Shadow Hearts gets bumped off. Sorry, SH. :( Why? Because ME2 is just one of the best games I've ever played. I love everything about it.

[Bytor]

OK...let's see, in no particular order...


* Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4: pretty much nothing I can think of to make this game better. I felt the character development was great, battle mechanics challenging and fun and the whole SIM aspect added a whole new dimension. Yes, I'm a Persona fanboy.  

* Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES: see above, although I felt the battle system was a tad better in 4 and storyline a tad better in 3.

* Tales of the Abyss: something about this game "spoke" to me. I became totally immersed in the characters and while I know many found the story to be very cliche I loved every minute of it. I feel the interactions between the "good guys" and "bad guys" was so blurred and often so convoluted and complex it simply made for a wonderful story.

* Xenosaga Episode I: Der Willie zur Macht: this isn't a game...it's an interactive movie and I was totally immersed from start to finish. Religion, Sci-Fi and a touch of fantasy, are you kidding? WOW, just doesn't get much better than that combination.

* Rogue Galaxy: another that many will find cliched and done to death. But once again I found the story to be very well told. The graphics were vibrant and colorful. I found the battle system to be complex and fun and the sheer amount of things to do mind boggling, heck you could almost make a game out of the factory itself!

* Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne: hours upon hours upon hours to finish the complex (and yet somewhat simple once it unfolded) story and attempt to get 100% of the demon compendium. This game introduced me to Shin Megami and I never looked back, my first love still has a place in my heart, lol.

* Valkyria Chronicles: a RPG that turns into a SRPG that turns into a shooter game all the while telling a great story, incredible! I loved ever minute of this game and while elated when I finished I was also very sad that I was no longer a part of that world. Now that's a great game!

* Final Fantasy X: great game play, awesome (for the most part) graphics and enough side quests to keep you occupied for hours and hours, and not a bad story at all once it unfolded, especially the ending...WOW!

* Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga: wow, what a great story, awesome game play and I loved the visuals, certainly a great usage of a minimalistic amount of colors. And don't forget awesome, awesome character development!

* Fallout 3: not sure it's a true RPG but then again I'm not sure what I'd label it, other than absolutely incredible in pretty much every aspect!

* Honorable Mention: Eternal Sonata, Radiata Stories, Jeanne D'Arc, Final Fantasy XII, and probably a few I forgot...

[kyuusei]

Fallout 3 is a WRPG, and it definitely counts. It's also one that I have been meaning to play if I can get my hands on the GOTY edition.

[Sorrows Saturn]

I've only played 30, maybe 40 RPG's in my life so far; out of the ones I've played my favorite would definitely be Persona 3 Portable. Simple yet strategic combat, philosophical story with excellent characters...pretty much the same reasons everyone else likes the game.

Kingdom Hearts is the game that got me into RPG's, and is still one of my favorite RPG's so far. I'm also one of the few people who actually likes all of the spin-off games.

Dragon Quest VIII and Final Fantasy XII are also among my favorites, although I've never actually beaten either game.

[Zyco]

Kind of shocking that these lists are so JRPG heavy.. I guess the boom for the PS2 really sold people on them - Shin Megami Tensei of some sort is pretty much on everyones lists.  But also WRPGs seem to be lacking the past few years once MMOs took over.

[Eusis]

Kind of shocking that these lists are so JRPG heavy.. I guess the boom for the PS2 really sold people on them - Shin Megami Tensei of some sort is pretty much on everyones lists.

Actually, if you look at some of the prior iterations of RPGFan's site you'll see there's been a leaning towards JRPGs from the start, most of us came here because of them in some form or another (myself included). If anything WRPG awareness has INCREASED here because of a stronger push by companies like Bethesda and Bioware whereas JRPGs have mostly fled to handhelds.

[deathsaber]

1.  Skies of Arcadia - a pre-ps2 DreamcastRPG that was graphically, eons past the current psx gen that was out in the mainstream at the time- this game ditched the angsty Squaresoft vibe of pretty much everything else out at the time, and gave us a rollicking fun adventure as a sky pirate, with traditional turn based battles, and large scale ship battles.  I'd give anything for it to be availalble now as some type of remake, or better yet, make a real sequel....C'mon Sega!!

2.  Final Fantasy 6 - The Best Final Fantasy by far.  The last great FF before they came out with various "systems" for upgrading your characters.  Huge cast, with each party member completely different from one another in how they battle and their skillsets.    Throw in the best story, and perhaps the best villian in jprg history, and you have a winner.

3.  Final Fantasy 7 - Yes, this entry introduced a lot of hackneyed elements (most notably the overly broody protagonist), but while the psx console at the time was showing cinematic elements in games like Resident Evil that no one had seen before, FF7 took these production values, increased them to all time highs, and applied them to a 40hr+ rpg.  One can debate to the quality of its story, but no game took the genre (or the entire game industry for the matter) further ahead than this title. 

[MeshGearFox]

The last great FF before they came out with various "systems" for upgrading your characters.

FFVI had the Esper system for upgrading your characters also like half the character had unique upgrade mechanics.

[Aeolus]

The last great FF before they came out with various "systems" for upgrading your characters.

FFVI had the Esper system for upgrading your characters also like half the character had unique upgrade mechanics.

And when you think about it, the Esper system isn't all that far removed from the Materia system of VII. They just removed the character based upgrade mechanics and folded everything into Materia except desperation attacks which they upgraded into the Limit Breaks we know as today. VIII then took that to an extreme where it folded nearly everything into it's GFs with the remaining functions folded into Junctions and Limit Breaks were given an upgrade to stupidly ridiculous gamebreakers. IX then went in the opposite direction by folding the system into equipment versus VIII's equipment getting folded into the system and restored character based abilities.

[Zyco]

Kind of shocking that these lists are so JRPG heavy.. I guess the boom for the PS2 really sold people on them - Shin Megami Tensei of some sort is pretty much on everyones lists.

Actually, if you look at some of the prior iterations of RPGFan's site you'll see there's been a leaning towards JRPGs from the start, most of us came here because of them in some form or another (myself included). If anything WRPG awareness has INCREASED here because of a stronger push by companies like Bethesda and Bioware whereas JRPGs have mostly fled to handhelds.

Thats quite a history!  I didnt mean anything by how I said that the lists are so JRPG heavy, I just think that WRPG devs have been dropping the ball for years now and tend to go for the big buck possibilties of putting out a MMO.

Bethesda is one gaming company I truly love, I have been playing the Elder Scroll games since Daggerfall in the mid 90s in college. I should have Morrowind on my list, I have that game and all its expansions on the PC and Xbox and love it on both systems.  I wasnt a huge fan of Oblivion and Fallout 3.. but I do like New Vegas alot and have high hopes for Skyrim.  I just think too many games now are getting into the heavy video/movie watching and less on actual gameplay.

Oh other games that I forgot to add. The Bards Tale and Ultima series on the C64/PCs.  I used to have these copied so I never had instructions on how to play or anything.  So it took me forever to figure them out, and you could literally have 1 floppy with the first 3-4 Ultimas on it.

[deathsaber]

The last great FF before they came out with various "systems" for upgrading your characters.

FFVI had the Esper system for upgrading your characters also like half the character had unique upgrade mechanics.

OK, touche, maybe a little bit. 

But that was still a very basic convention.  Each character was innately still unique and leveled up traditionally- no sphere grids, junctions, materia, etc. that made each character a generic, whatever you want them to be.  I like my fighters to be fighters, mages to be mages, etc.  At least FF9 was a return to form, and I personally think Square desperately needs to do the same with FF15. 

[Maxximum]

There is no Square. Now we have Square-Enix which pumps cash from re-releasing Squares classics over and over again. They also make crappy sequels to numbered games.