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

Hmm, this is an interesting thread.

1. Final Fantasy 6
2. Secret of Mana
3. Final Fantasy 4
4. Dragon Warrior 3
5. Chrono Trigger
6. Earthbound
7. Wild ARMs
8. Breath of Fire 2
9. Final Fantasy Tactics
10. Lufia 2

I voted up for 1990-1994. Though it does just barely disinclude FF6, I still have to vote for this. The SNES era of RPGs was the best to me. It had so much to offer, from Orge Battle to Secret of Evermore. Plenty to be had during this time period.

Originally Posted by Megavolt

See Monkey King's post before about wallowing in angst. Of course angst has its role. But characters didn't begin to swim in it until FFVII. FFVI had the right balance between dealing with your emotions and dealing with reality. FFVII steers more towards stereotypes with brooding fellows like Vincent and that shady Tifa. The "who am I" bits seem to get taken too far sometimes. If the end result is a contrived plot device like FFVIII's orphanage scene, then it's disappointment city for me. Obviously not everyone will agree with me, but I know some do.

I agree with you. FF6 had things in proper proportions, in both characters and emotional/reality issues. Hence it being first on my list.

FF7, which I thought was good, had more angst than I had previously seen in the series. I have a hard time saying it was just good or okay nowadays because then I get the usual fanboy berating my opinion with "FF7 IS LEIK SO AWESOME!" Sadly, its built up as the monolith of the RPG genre amongst the majority I've talked to.

As for Final Fantasy 12, this'll actually be the first time I don't buy a Final Fantasy at release. I didn't bother with X-2 or FF11, so I'll leave this one to rental. It better be a far step up from X.

EDIT : Oh, as for Kefka. If you'd like to get a little bit more of a backstory to him, go to the Cafe in Vector. I just started a new quest, and didn't know about this. One of the guys in there tells you that Kefka apparently was Cid's first experimental Magitek Knight, but because the process wasn't yet perfected, Kefka's mind snapped. Just in case no one ever talked to him.

Jam it back in, in the dark.