What rare RPGs have you found?

[Sagacious-T]

I was at a local video store the other day, snooping around the games section. Vacant-eyed shoppers silently wandered the premises, but I was there for another reason. My eyes gazed upon the extensive shelf lineup of games. I gazed at the game selection carefully. PS3? I don't have one of those! Xbox 360? All they had were action games I've beaten or have no interest in! Oh Dreamcast! ... Damn, no Shenmue (I made an oath to save every existing Shenmue copy from destruction, but that's another story) and all sports games!

Alas, I approached the Gamecube section. Nintendo's swan song to their childhood fanbase. My hands dug through the rubble, through the piles of overpriced 1st party Nintendo games that somehow never drop below $15-$20 in price. That's when I saw it. A glowing light buried under a pile of Luigi's Mansion, Rogue Squadron and Pikmin.. I saw Skies of Arcadia: Legends! The case was a bit worn.. but the decals fresh and crisp. The manual was in there too, and in good condition! Here's the kicker, it was only ten dollars! Oh yeah, I also grabbed a complete copy of Metal Gear Solid for the PSX for 3 bucks!

So now I can finally play this long awaited game, heavily censored as it may be. They turned wine and alcohol into juice/water? I think the localization team had it backwards..

What rare RPGs do you have, and how did you find them?

(Queue Lunar 2 and Panzer Dragoon Saga stories)

[Hoshino_Kid]

I found Astonishia Story, Ys: Ark of Napishtim, and Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth at my local store (all 3 for PSP). I just got Valkyrie Profile.

[Aeolus]

Back in 2009 I picked up SMT: Nocturne during the launch of CoD:MW2, then the start of this year I picked up both Suikoden 1 and Snatcher, and then in February I picked up Suikoden II, Ogre Battle: MotBQ PSX version, and Dragon Force, but I had to pass up Shining Force III Part I to get Dragon Force.

And that's just my most recent moments of win and own.

[Uru]

Back in 2009 I picked up SMT: Nocturne during the launch of CoD:MW2, then the start of this year I picked up both Suikoden 1 and Snatcher, and then in February I picked up Suikoden II, Ogre Battle: MotBQ PSX version, and Dragon Force, but I had to pass up Shining Force III Part I to get Dragon Force.

And that's just my most recent moments of win and own.

I also own the PSX version of Ogre Battle (good god man, those load time were fucking rediculous!). Other than that, not sure if you would call them "gems" but the games that are rare to my heart that I own are: FF Tactics for the PSX (orginal, not greatest hits), Lunar Silver Star on PSX (just the jewel case and not the omake boxset), Lunar Eternal Blue for PSX with Omake boxset, xenogears (orginal), Parasite eve 1 and 2. Some others, dont want to disturb the box.

Wow, never noticed all my decent finds were for the PSX...

[Gen Eric Gui]

PSX had some of the hardest to find games.

Also, I had no idea Skies of Arcadia GC was hard to find.  I've been witness to stores having piles of copies laying around in my area.

Anyway, I have lots of rare and unusual games, but my crowning achievement was digging a sealed copy of Suikoden 2 out of a Wal-mart clearance bin, nabbing it for $20.  Average going price at the time was well over $200.  Felt good man.

[Jet16]

I go to eBay for pretty much every game I want to get, so I haven't had many discoveries in stores or difficulty finding something rare. The only one I can think of is Digital Devil Saga 2 which was around $30 complete and practically brand new in some random Gamestop.

Average going price at the time was well over $200.  Felt good man.

Lucky bastard. I had to pay $120 for that.

[Starmongoose]

Digital Devil Saga 2, which they seemed to only have one of and didn't have any record of having it in the store. So it was a bit weird, but I got it.
My Mana Khemia game, I don't know how common they are in the US but when I saw it here in Ireland it felt like I had uncovered some ancient relic.

[kyuusei]

All I've got is the millennium collections of Xenogears. There's a Fei one and an Elly one, and I've got both. Elly's sealed. Trust me, they weren't cheap. :P

I guess Digital Devil Saga counts, but when I got them last summer, they weren't hard to get (at least off Amazon anyways) and were $30 each.

[FlamingR1ft]

Probably a lot of games you guys can get easily in the USA are very hard to find here in Australia (A lot of stuff doesn't get a PAL release and others are just never released here anyway). As such, here are the "rare for Australia" RPGs I own...

-- PlayStation 1 --
Vagrant Story

-- GameCube --
Tales of Symphonia

-- PlayStation 2 --
Disgaea 1 (Yes, even this is rare here.)
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 1
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
Star Ocean 3
Shadow Hearts
Shadow Hearts: Covenant

-- PlayStation Portable --
PoPoLoCrois
Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth
Tales of Eternia
Jeanne D'Arc (This one wasn't even officially released here. I got one of only a handful of 'official' Australian copies through my work.)

-- Nintendo DS --
Final Fantasy Tactics A2 (Discontinued the day of its release.)
Luminous Arc 1

I have a few others, but not quite as hard to get as these.

[MeshGearFox]

How are we defining rare, here? Technically anything that's been out of print for more than six or seven years could be considered rare. Also a lot of it's regional. For instance, I had a VERY hard time getting copies of Gradius 5 and Pikmin 2. On the other hand, my area's swamped with copies of FES and P4.

Anyway.

Can someone just provide a list of RPGs considered rare and then let everyone check off what they've got or something :(

[Uru]

Im for that idea. This way we can make secret bids to one another for stuff. *cough* millennium edition xenogears *cough*

[WildArms]

-- PlayStation 2 --
Disgaea 1 (Yes, even this is rare here.)

omg, if i remember correctly this was released by atlus? i got disgaea 2 for ps2, but had to beat disgaea 1 in psp D:

[ShadowLaguna]

Alright. I'm unsure about the rarity of some of these games elsewhere, but here in New Zealand, they can be really really really hard to find. I'm sure F1amingRift can relate to this slightly (because New Zealand and Australia are neighbours after all).

Here are the bargain rare games which I have bought. (All prices listed are in NZD.)

-Skies of Arcadia Legends which I managed to get ex-rental for $10 (but still in fairly sweet condition for an ex-rental title). I also got Legaia 2: Duel Saga ex-rental for 10 at a different video store.

-Breath of Fire III, I found for $6 at a second hand shop. I found the disc of IV at the same place for 5.

-More recently, I picked up a pre-owned Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne/Lucifer's Call at EBgames for $12. Complete, and in very good condition.

-A couple of years ago, I got Suikoden V new at EBgames for $15 with the help of a $15 giftcard which I got that previous Christmas.

-I love Japan! I'll say that much.

Here are some other rare RPGs which I own which weren't amazing bargains from what I can remember:

-PlayStation-
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy IX
Chrono Cross

-PlayStation 2-
Dark Cloud
Dark Chronicle/Cloud 2
Star Ocean: Till the End of Time
Tales of the Abyss
Xenosaga Episode II (PAL Collector's Edition)
Persona 3 FES
Persona 4

-GameCube-
Tales of Symphonia

-PSP-
Tales of Eternia
Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth

-DS-
Final Fantasy III
The World Ends With You (Possibly one of the most annoying games to find ever! I could never find a copy at a retail store. EVER!)

I have several other titles, but these are the ones that stand out to me as rare.

[rpgseeker]

PS1:
Wild Arms
Wild Arms 2

[Lazlowe1984]

Shining Force 3 Scenario 1,2,3 -Sega Saturn

Panzer Dragoon Saga -Sega Saturn

Final Fantasy IV-Wonderswan Color

Dragon Force -Sega Saturn

I also have a copy of Secret of Mana but it doesn't work :(