Best RPG of the decade

[jphussey]

RPGFan is about to release a feature on the top RPGs of the 00s.

What would be your top 10?

And what should be #1?

JP

[Annubis]

I'd be glad if Zone of the Enders 2 made it in the top 10... but that probably won't happen.
Do ports count? Valkyrie Profile got one this decade... but also probably not gonna happen.
Diablo2? Lord of Destruction came out in 2001.
Persona will be there for sure.

[Kevadu]

Baldur's Gate II should barely qualify since it came out in 2000.  That would probably be my pick for #1.

[MeshGearFox]

Hm. I'll list a top 5 per system. Also my tastes have changed a lot in the past like two years so this is gonna be weird.

Number #1 one overall would be SMT: Nocturne though. Hands down. Also defining this period as 2000-2009

PS2:
SMT: Nocturne
Ookami
Raidou 2

GC:
ToS
TP

PSX:
Chrono Cross (US release was in 2000. Screw you batman)

PC:
Call of Pripyat
VtM: Bloodlines
Gothic 2
Deus Ex

Oh hey that's ten. I'll refine this list once I remember what the fuck games I even own.

[Gen Eric Gui]

Nocturne, and whichever Suikoden games were in that time range.

[Darilon]

I hate it when best does not necessarily mean my favourite.

PSP
Disgaea 1

Jean D'Arc

PS2
Dragon Quest VIII

SMT DDS 1+2 (Assuming they count as one)

SMT Persona 3 FES (I personally preferred 4 but I would say that 3 is the better game)

Shadow Hearts Covenant (A bit overrated but still a great game)

Suikoden V (Admittedly III and IV took more risks but I felt that V went back to what made Suikoden great while keeping the improvments from the previous two installments)


SMT Nocturne

DS
Etrian Odyssey (For many people this was the game that introduced them to dungeon crawlers. It also showed that hard is not necessarily a bad thing)

Rune Factory

[Hathen]

2000-2009, eh? That's a lot of RPGs, pretty hard to come up with a list off the top of my head. Are we counting text adventure games too?

I'd say Vagrant Story would top my list though.

[Lazlowe1984]

Sorry for the space taken...

[Eusis]

So is this being treated as 2000 to 2009, or 2001 to 2010? Games like Vagrant Story came out in 2000 while this year has stuff like Strange Journey and Dragon Quest IX, and that could change everything.

If we go for best as an attempt to be objective though it'd probably have to be Knights of the Old Republic. Buggy, but it was the first PC-style RPG done right on consoles, and was an eye opener for me and undoubtedly many others. For personal favorite though... yeah, going to have to think about that, but my three favorites are Vagrant Story (going by 2000-2009), Dragon Quest VIII, and Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne.

Edit: Then again, that 'objective best' is really more like 'most important'. Hard to think of any others that really match that though, FFX was influential but not really in ways I liked or ways considered necessary for the genre.

[Sagacious-T]

Eh its stupid to count games by the decade. AT least go by the generation

[Farron]

I vote for Persona 3. So good, so original, unlike what we've seen before.
After it, I'd also pick Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect 2.
For a JRPG fan, it's funny how Bioware put two games on my little list but it doesn't matter, the games are great so it's all right.

[Jonathan Ingram]

I`d vote for Demon`s Souls, but since Vagrant Story came out in 2000 and therefore can qualify, my vote goes to it. Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter is another contender.

[jphussey]

A few points

--we already did a "best of the generation" so we thought this was different

--the decade is 00-09

--any time you try a monster task such as this there is sure to be disagreement. As usual, you will individual editors rankings in addition to the master list.

[insertnamehere]

TP

haha, you said "TP"

[Tooker]

So is this being treated as 2000 to 2009, or 2001 to 2010?

Yeah, as JP said, it's 1/1/2000 - 12/31/2009.  We'll call it something like "best of the '00s" to avoid confusion.