Are RPG's getting worse every 5 years? (List your top 10 RPG's ever to help!)

Arright I've been subscribed to this thread, but never actually posted in it. Guess it's about time I did.

Here's the thing about my list -- it doesn't indicate a particular "era" of RPGs. Hence, I'm not voting for one. These are the RPGs that have left a lasting enough of an impression for me to recall them, and in no particular order:

Legend of Legaia: I absolutely loved this game -- every minute of it. The story might be a little simplistic, but it's fantastic. The battle system is great -- it combines combination-style attacks (indicated by left arm, right arm, a down attack or an up attack) with a turn-based system, and it's a lot of fun to simply watch the combos. The characters are likeable enough, with Vahn being pretty likeable, Noa being extremely cute and bubbly, and Gala being the brick wall. Also, it's one of the few RPGs where every piece of armor has its own image, and changes your character's image accordingly, including on the battlefield -- weapons, helmets, chest pieces, boots, whatever.

Chrono Trigger: Yes, Chrono Trigger. Must've played through the game a dozen or more times. What more could I say beyond what everyone else has already said over the past decade this game's been out? It's got a great storyline, great character, great artwork, cool attacks, a great soundtrack, etc. etc.

Megaman Legends series: It's debatable whether or not you'd call this an RPG, but I will. It's more of an adventure/RPG hybrid, but it's still there. The easiest thing to compare would be something akin to an offline MMORPG. You have quests, you go fetch items, you get the better item, and you go dungeon crawling. But it's MEGAMAN. Creating new weapons is always a blast, and it's really just fun to get his skate-thingies and just spin a long town. I uh...used to chase cars. >__>; Beyond that, the voices are good, the graphics were, at the time, slightly above par, and it was really just a lot of fun.

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: So why not mention Link to the Past, or include the disclaimer "series" as a suffix? Simple -- I enjoyed Ocarina of Time that much more than the rest of the series, but before and after. I enjoyed it for many of the same reasons I enjoyed MML, save for one crucial fact -- instead of repeatedly chasing cars on roller skates, I took to seeing how fast I could clear the Gerudo place. >___>;; In any case, I had a lot of fun mainly just piddling around with the game. God knows how many times I made poor Link dive off that damn waterfall in the Zera caves.

Grandia II: Fuckin' awesome. Battle system+++. This game had by far the best battle system of the Grandia series in my book. It was simple and effective, and not a circle. I. Hate. The. Goddamn. circle action bars in Xtreme and III. The bar is just easier to read in my book. Anywho, the voices were decent (heard worse), but the story was all-out. Religious zelots? Check. Damsel in distress becomes fighting champion? Check. Loner lead warms up to friends and conquers all through the power of love? Semi-check. Psycho-bitch with wings? Triple check. The characters were by far the best thing about this game, as all of them were fantastically written out. Mareg, IMO, was the weakest as far as character development (he seemed a little TOO focused on finding Melfice) goes, but the remaining characters all fulfilled their roles fantastically. The award goes to both Tio and Millenia -- Tio was just plain awesome, and Millenia was...well come on, it's Millenia. If I didn't give her an award, she'd probably eat me. o__o;

Dark Cloud 2: Oh yeah. I hadn't forgotten about this one. Not a chance in hizzell. Dark Cloud 2 remains, to this day, my favorite PS2 game ever. None, and I mean none of the characters are shallow pieces of crap. Max has a huge plot twist in his story, as does Monica. The voices are fantastic (Max = Teen Titans' Robin) and all of the supporting characters are great. Dungeon crawling has been fixed to be a little more gamer-friendly, as they're not nearly as long as the first game's, but there are at least two crucial elements to what makes this game so fantastic: the Georama system and the Invention system.

The Georama system is what you use to rebuild cities that have, for reasons contained within the plot, been wiped out. Rebuilding these cities is an absolute BLAST. So much fun. You have total creative control, albeit you do have a guideline should you actually wish to complete the city to 100% completion. 'Tis not necessary, as only certain requirements need be fulfilled to continue on. However, there's one place, Veniccio, that requires very minimal to not only complete it, but to get 100% completion as well, and it leaves you a broad portion of the map to play with. Needless to say I spent many, many hours just seeing what I could do with this space. I made it look really really cool. ^___^

Then there's the Invention system, which is split in to two parts. First, you must take pictures of the "ideas for inventions." That is to say that you may need to take a picture of a chimney to get an idea for a part you'll need to create a weapon for your Ridepod. Once you have the necessary images (three are needed per invention), you can come up with a plan to invent and a list of raw materials you'll need to invent. And that's at least a 50 hour portion of gameplay, provided you want to collect every picture and create every invention, which you will.

There're also the minigames in Dark Cloud 2. Spheda is a golf-based minigame which sounds boring and stupid, but it actually makes the dungeon crawling a little more fun, as Spheda opens up as an option to you with every level you complete. At the end, when you've beaten it, you're given the option to play Spheda. Winning gets you an item, losing gets you nothing but lost time. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's quite challenging, and it's always very rewarding and fun to play. There're also fishing contests that come in two varieties -- a weighing contest and a race. The weighing contests are simple enough (and there are at least a dozen different venues to fish at, all of which have unique fish), and the race is a bit more in-depth. You'll build an aquarium to store your fish, and you can feed it different items to boost its stamina, speed, and even change its gender! It's a lot of fun breeding a fast fish to race!

Hmm...on to other RPGs now. The studio who created the (in my mind) legendary Dark Cloud 2, Level-5, was given complete control in bringing a hugely popular Japanese RPG from 2D into 3D, and they did a magnificent job. The game they completed most recently?

Dragon Quest VIII: And fail they did not. DQ8 is a wonderfully visual game, sporting vivid cel-shaded graphics for the land and the characters. Draw distances stretch for what could be conceived as miles. The characters are also really likeable -- the nameless hero's a pretty good guy overall, Yangus is...well, he's hilarious. And popular, as the bandit scored his own spin-off game, starring him as a child. Jessica's got the VA-VA-VOOOM to work with and she's actually very cool, with a really great voice actress. And Angelo's a typical ladies' man, but he's a got a past deeper than some would suspect. This game is extremely well-made, sporting interactive environments beyond any other RPG I've ever come across. Minor things too, such as actually reaching in the bag to retrieve an item, or pulling a book from a shelf and flipping through pages while reading. Really, America, you should pull your head out of your ass and give this game the respect it deserves, you FF-loving pieces of shit. Of course, I'm about to contradict myself...

Final Fantasy VII: Yeah whatever. Get over it, because I really enjoyed this game. Not gonna say much on it though.

Final Fantasy X: If I rated RPGs based on their mini-games, this would tie with Dark Cloud 2 -- maybe get 2nd place, actually. I spent over 100 hours play Blitzball. Beyond that though, I really enjoyed this game's story (Even the laughing part. I admit, it was pretty stupid, but I did crack a grin the first time I saw it.) and the characters weren't half-bad either. The only one that ever truly got on my nerves was the ever-brooding Lulu, but she wasn't all that bad. Although, looking back on it, I probably thought of this game more as a side-story to Blitzball than anything else, heh. I wish Squeenix would release Blitzball online...I'd totally pwn at that. >>;

Legend of Dragoon: Gonna take it back in time now. I really, really wish S-E would either re-release the game (Hey, VP did it on the PSP! Now do it again with LoD! Bastards!) or remake it and give it a sequel *cough*VP2*cough*. Legend of Dragoon deserves so much better than what it's garnered so far. The battles were really cool, and I liked the timed attacks as well. Plus, hello Dragoon Transformations? Those were awesome, and the attacks were really cool as well. The story was also really enthralling if not a little convoluted at times, and the characters were all pretty cool, though not necessarily likeable. Dart, Rose, and Albert were pretty cool, but the rest I was kinda iffy toward. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the hell outta this game and I'd like to see it get some sort of current-gen or next-gen rememberence.

Valkyrie Profile: So. Yeah. VP. Gonna play the sequel here soon, just played the re-release on the PSP and sadly got the B ending -- must've screwed up somewhere. Anyway, it's fantastic. The best things about it are the characters and the story. Tragedy, betrayal, [i]shocking revelations[/i, perversion a la Lezard, etc. This is a very intelligent game (no dimwits allowed, lawlz). Moreover, it's a tragic one. It was released probably way before its time when it first debuted on the PSone, but I think now was the perfect time to put it out in the sun once again. The new CG scenes rock, by the way. There's really nothing I don't like about the game -- it's just that damn good. Extremely addictive gameplay, great battle systems that change basically with every character you change in the party, semi-nonlinear direction as far as where you want to go in each chapter, and it's just really fun.

Xenosaga series: This'll be my last one for now, as I'm starting to get tired. My friend brought his copy of the first game over to my dorm room when it first came out and let me check it out. Played through, I guess, the first couple hours of the game and went out to Wal-Mart that night to buy my own copy. The first game is absolutely stellar -- the voices, the music, the characters, the story and the battle system are all really well done....

...which is why the second one was such a big letdown for me. So much so that I've never actually completed it, nor do I plan to now that I know all the info I need can be found in Xenosaga III's in-game database. Xenosaga II was graphically superior, as were the character designs, I admit. However, I care not for the new voice actors they included, nor do I have any respect for the clusterfuck of a battle system they included. Granted, these are just the rantings of a gamer, but Xenosaga II really irked me. Those retarded side-quests, the fact that there is no money to buy anything with (what. the. fuck.) and the sheer lack of polish on the game has officially made it nothing but shelf-space for me.

However, I have enough respect for the Xenosaga series that I will buy III, especially after I found out what changes they were making. Xenosaga I will likely remain my favorite of the three though.

Jam it back in, in the dark.