RPGs with the best: Story, Characters, Atmosphere, and Plot twists?

[Sagacious-T]

i actually never finished FF8, but I have fond memories of the early game as well as the card minigame. The worst part about the game is how it made you feel as if you were getting weaker due to the scaled enemies.

[Yggdrasil]

Disk 1 was some of my favorite role playing from that gen...

Agreed, Disc 1 was great. after that, I don't know what the fuck happens...

I think FF8 is one FF that would have benefited from mission style gameplay where Squall's mercenary unit selects from a roster of missions and depending on which missions are selected, they'll find themselves on different sides of the political conflict.  Certain missions available through one set of decisions may be frozen out if another set is chosen.  Of course, there would be multiple endings.  FF8 did a fair amount of things right, but it could have been a much more dynamic FF.

Like Final Fantasy X-2 you say? Interesting.

Final Fantasy VIII had so much potential, it was a missed opportunity for Squaresoft at the time. But shit happens and life go on.

[Farron]

Story: Final Fantasy VI, FFVII & Valkyrie Profile 2.
FFVI was so great at telling the story that I can’t believe I only played it last year, even those tiny pixels almost brought a tear to my eyes.
FFVII is my all time love for a game, but not only that, the way the story tells how you move forward and tells flashbacks of your childhood and young days of soldier and your mentor who lost his mind, even connecting it to the weapons, everything is just great!
Valkyrie Profile 2 is partially a dungeon crawler but it has more story than many other games, the way you walk around with a Valkyrie and a human in the same body, than find out another one is walking with you, then “someone” betrays you, as they did in VP1, you go back in time, oh my god, just thinking about this game makes me wanna play it all over again.

Characters: Mass Effect 2 characters just kept growing on me and as I did their loyalty missions they were getting better and better, even Grunt who at first I didn’t like (more like didn’t want to like) became cool.

Atmosphere: Xenosaga I, for the first time in a game I really felt like I was there, as if I was in space (not like Star Ocean 3 that lied to me about space travel).

Plot Twist: This one for me is easily Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, without giving away too much for those who haven’t played it, you go through the entire game searching this guy and when you finally find him, he’s been right under your nose the entire time ? That was just awesome!

[DizzyDial]

Story: Probably Final Fantasy VI, if only because it intertwined characters perfectly.

Characters: Well Mass Effect 2 gets an extra special nod for the insane originality and variety of the personalities in my squad, but I have to give it to Tales of Vesperia; Yuri is my idol.

Atmosphere: Easily Skies of Arcadia, and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (train mission anyone!?)

Plot twists: Final Fantasy X.

[howitis]

FFVII has the best story of any game i have ever played.  since then i really like the mass effect1/2 story

[Yggdrasil]

FFVII has the best story of any game i have ever played.

Final Fantasy VII; The game that ruined the gaming community for ever.

[howitis]

FFVII has the best story of any game i have ever played.

Final Fantasy VII; The game that ruined the gaming community for ever.

i wouldn't say that, but i would say it ruined square and jrpgs in general.  they seem to have said hmmm, looks like we need a cinematic story to get the success of ff7, and not all the side quests, optional bosses,   and character quests. 

[Yggdrasil]

i wouldn't say that, but i would say it ruined square

In some ways, yes. But Final Fantasy VII wasn't really the game that damage the JRPG scene, Final Fantasy VII just alienated fans all over the fucking place.

...and jrpgs in general.

No. You need to play and read more about RPGs in general to see that right now we are in a great time for RPGs, forget about Square Enix for a minute... you see? there's goods RPGs out there. The problem with Square Enix is the public who's trying to please aren't really RPG players with good taste in games.

They are just, mindless consumers. And that's being kind.

[howitis]

i wouldn't say that, but i would say it ruined square

In some ways, yes. But Final Fantasy VII wasn't really the game that damage the JRPG scene, Final Fantasy VII just alienated fans all over the fucking place.

...and jrpgs in general.

No. You need to play and read more about RPGs in general to see that right now we are in a great time for RPGs, forget about Square Enix for a minute... you see? there's goods RPGs out there. The problem with Square Enix is the public who's trying to please aren't really RPG players with good taste in games.

They are just, mindless consumers. And that's being kind.

i don't see how ff7 alienated fans.  the nerd battles that take place in forums on which game is better would take place if FF7 never existed.  FF7 is kind of like Micheal Jordan in that kobe and lebron fans don't see what all the fuss was about because they didnt see him play.  so when they want to go around saying kobe's the best there is always someone who says don't forget jordan.

[MeshGearFox]

Dude this is nerdsville nobody knows who all these baseball players are.

[Kevadu]

i don't see how ff7 alienated fans.  the nerd battles that take place in forums on which game is better would take place if FF7 never existed.  FF7 is kind of like Micheal Jordan in that kobe and lebron fans don't see what all the fuss was about because they didnt see him play.  so when they want to go around saying kobe's the best there is always someone who says don't forget jordan.

I think FFVII did alienate some existing fans, however today those fans have been completely outnumbered by people who only became fans in the post-FFVII era.

As far as nerd battles not taking place without FFVII, that's total nonsense.  People certainly did argue about whether IV or VI was better back in the day (though we called them II and III back then...).  This isn't even hypothetical; I remember doing it.

[howitis]

i don't see how ff7 alienated fans.  the nerd battles that take place in forums on which game is better would take place if FF7 never existed.  FF7 is kind of like Micheal Jordan in that kobe and lebron fans don't see what all the fuss was about because they didnt see him play.  so when they want to go around saying kobe's the best there is always someone who says don't forget jordan.

I think FFVII did alienate some existing fans, however today those fans have been completely outnumbered by people who only became fans in the post-FFVII era.

As far as nerd battles not taking place without FFVII, that's total nonsense.  People certainly did argue about whether IV or VI was better back in the day (though we called them II and III back then...).  This isn't even hypothetical; I remember doing it.

no one said they wouldn't take place.  i said they would.  we made the same point

[Sagacious-T]

These youngsters don't know how it was for us, Kevadu. It's tough being a veteran of the console wars.

[Aeolus]

Dude this is nerdsville nobody knows who all these baseball players are.

Those are basketball players. Didn't you ever play Barkley's Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden?

[Darilon]

Story I have always liked the story told in Final fantasy VI. Although it has its fair share of cliches they are told rather well and do not detract from the story. It was probably the first rpg I had played that had such mature themes such as Celes attempted suicide (oops, I meant "leap of faith") in the beginning of the world of ruin.

Characters I have always liked the characters in the Suikoden series. The characters personalities on both sides were neither black or white but rather shades of grey. The characters were well developed for such a huge cast.

Plot twist Digital devil saga 2. The only plot twist more unexpected than that at the end was the true identity of Sera's father.

Atmosphere I always loved the atmosphere in Guardian Crusade(also known as Knight and Baby) If you just look at screenshots of the game you would probably think I was insane but there is just something there that can only be explained by playing it yourself.