Top 3 RPG's

Quote:

I guess i'll have to look a little bit harder for I and II, but Im sure i'll find them eventually.

Ahem.

If you can find either of those sitting on a game store shelf, you are a god among men, my friend.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Mine are:

Fallout - It was such a change of pace from all of the sword and magic RPGs I had played, and everything was just so awesome. Never will I get over the feeling of taking on 5 guys by sniping them and watching body parts explode. Besides...you could shoot them in the groin, which was hilarious. Ahh...juvenille humour.

Earthbound - Merely because of the style everything was done in. To date I still think Mr. Saturn is the best alien race in any game.

Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind With mods and everything I logged more than 2000 hours in that game...enough said.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Dr. Uzuki

Ahem.

If you can find either of those sitting on a game store shelf, you are a god among men, my friend.

Yep, that was my first thought, looking on ebay. Chances of finding it in any regular store new and sealed are like 0.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I like how there is a lack of FF7 mentions. Is this intentional? (I wonder...)

EarthBound: Youngin's savin' the world from Giygas' reign from the future! This RPG is a wonder of RPGs, nothing quite like it, and worth it to every person who calls himself an RPG fan to play it. Great music, characters, story, graphics, battle system) I truly have no complaints about the game besides wishing there were more of it.

Final Fantasy VI: Yep. Achieves it as a whole. How can you not want the World of Ruin? That's when the game realizes its dark side. So memorable. Has definetely set a standard in RPGs to this date. The formula is flawless, and it deals with adult issues pretty well, a bit more mature than most RPGs. And quite long!

The third? Gosh... I dunno.

Mother 3? I haven't played it though.

How ya doing, buddy?

Christ, this is a tough question. I mean, how does one guage there answer? Plyability, story, music? All right, keep in mind this is a very rough list, but I'll give it a shot.

Top of the list:

Final Fantasy VI.

Simply the greatest ever in my mind. A strongly executed story, beautiful music and a great variance between characters. No one (not counting Gogo) is a duplicate of another, and they all bring something incredibly special to the table.



Dragon Force.

Probably the most addictive damn game I've ever played. I can go back and wrap this game over and over and over and over again.



Suikoden II.

Story line, story line, story line. Strong as hell from start to finish. Also, Clive kicks ass.


Honourable mentions:

Earthbound, Chrono Trigger, Suikoden V, Final Fantasy Tactics, Shining Force II, Chrono Cross (fuck the haters), Grandia II, Final Fantasy IV, Lufia II, Secret of Mana, Secret of Evermore...

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Top 3 RPG's eh?...

Sadly I've been fairly mainstream in my RPG playing but I'll give it a shot:

Suikoden V (PS2): As Rydia said, the character interactions and relationships are extremely natural and you get a real sense of a bond between the main characters.

Wild ARMs 1 (PS1) (and loosely Wild ARMs: Alter Code F just because its a decent remake): It's been a long time, but it was the first RPG series I played apart from Final Fantasy. The story was great and many of the battles later on were a decent challenge. I'm surprised this game hasnt been mentioned more... though I assume it's greatness has been marred by more recent entries to the series.

Breath of Fire III (PS1): Not sure about anyone else, but this was a damn-difficult and very long game. I remember initially hating it because I couldn't stand the whole "We're hungry and need to find food" initial 10 minutes of the game. Once I jumped that hurdle I dove into a very enjoyable game witha lot of depth and some incredibly difficult encounters.


Runners Up:
The entire FF series: FFVII was the first RPG I'd ever played, and I made it a point to go back and play all the older titles, and have played/beaten every title (except FFXI... fuck ffxi...) since.

Earthbound: Way different from most RPGs i've played, and its distinct sense of humor and the weird cahracters/enemies you encountered made it one very fun game.

Xenogears: Never beat the game (lost the discs at one point as I was halfway done with disc 2), but I couldn't believe how epic and philisophical the whole game felt, with the whole ID thing...

FELIPE NO

What is up with all these people who only started on FF VII? Is it an age thing? I'm 23, and I cut my teeth on FF I. I've been all about RPGs since the beginning. Why the late start for everyone?

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

3. Breath of Fire IV - BoF3 was amazing, but BoF4 carried over everything (non-storywise, of course) that worked, and I'm a sucker a story where, when all is said and done, you have to wonder if justice was done. Almost gave this spot to Lufia 2 (a really gutsy story in that the ending has already been revealed in the prologue of the predecessor), but BoF3/4's gameplay is superior.

2. Final Fantasy VII - Oh, go ahead, roll your eyes. I cut my teeth on FF1, DW1, and Magic of Scheherazade back in the early 90s too, and I still think this one's great. You know what does it for me? The little touches. Like when

Spoiler:

Aeris' "mother" is telling her story just after Aeris is kidnapped, and in mid-story the characters interrupt. Suddenly a text balloon reading "Aeris: Mom." appears out of nowhere, covering the characters. When the balloon disappears, the characters are gone, young Aeris comes down the stairs, and you realize you've been effortlessly carried back into the story. Brilliant bit of directing.

In my opinion, people who base their love/hatred of the game on Cloud vs Sephiroth, the graphics, or on damn-Tifa's-got-big-boobs-hur-hur are missing the point by miles. FF7 is all about the honing of the craft, and as far as I I'm concerned, no other entry of the series pulls it off as well.

That all said, my #1 HAS to be:

1. Paper Mario - Love this game so much. Mario RPG provided much of the foundation, but it's absolutely perfected here. Everyone making RPGs should learn from this one. The design is creative, the dialogue is perfect (Bowser's diary!), and side quests are actually direct, inobtrusive, and fun as hell. Not even the sequel pumps on all cylinders the way this one does (matter of fact, the Peach portions of that one make me feel a bit...unclean. If you've played it you know what I mean). Best ever, hands down.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Wasn't saying FF VII is horrid, Sonic. I like FF VII. I think it suffers from two things: Being over lauded and over criticised. The game was good. There were errors, to be sure. The fact you could miss the whole Zack backstory so easily being very high among them, mistranslations etc... they hurt it, but it certainly isn't as bad as many people make it out to be. My question was why so many people state it as their first RPG.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Oh, don't worry, I got that. I wasn't singling you out, sorry if it came out that way. I was speaking to anyone who would see me list that one and reflexively think I hadn't paid my dues, so to speak. No umbrage intended.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Earthbound: Just for being a refreshing alternative to the fantasy RPG cliche of the time. The game was funky and upbeat. The pop culture references and the game's relationship with the modern era really grabbed a hold of me. Not to mention, I had a lot of fun playing it.

Xenogears: Despite the second disc and its shortcomings, I have a major soft spot for Xenogears. Maybe its because it was the longest RPG I ever played. The amount of time, energy and emotion I invested in the game though was worth it. I felt engaged in the plot and storyline. It could've used some more character development. What really intrigued me were the religious overtones the game intergrated into many aspects of the game.

Final Fantasy VI: Being the first RPG I played and the one of the best, it is fair to say I am definitely biased. Regardless, the game had fabulous characters, a wonderfully twisted villain and great music. In addition, I loved how each character had a special ability and "limit breaks." A lot of innovation not only for the FF series but RPGs in general.

Honorable Mentions
Final Fantasy VII: Sorry, I had to mention it.
Terranigma: I can't explain it exactly. I just had a real connection with the game.
Valkyrie Profile: Mood, atmosphere and music were great. The use of mythology was also wonderful. Did I mention the fun battle system?

I'm not going to lie. I would love to throw Ico and Harvest Moon 64 into the mix, but I'm not sure they count.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I'll give this a shooooot. Australia has missed out on the majority of RPG's and I'm not a fan of turn based fighting, but hey!

- Grandia 2. I really got into this, I just wish the main character would have kept up his childish angst throughout the game, that would have been excellent! He was so ANGRY at the world, then started to love everything. "We gotta go save these people!" "Nah too busy hating this tree" "BUT IT'S JUST A TREE" "You know what? Now I also hate you" "But you're talking to yourself because you have no friends!" *Suicide*. I have both the PS2 and DC versions for no reason!

- Terranigma. Does this count? The ending made me cry! Are you happy? ARE YOU? The world was gigantic-o and and and the music holy moly. I wish I didn't sell it though. That also makes me cry.

- Paper Mario 2. I should probably mention that I hate both Mario & Luigi games and I stopped playing the first Paper Mario due to complete boredom. I dunno why, maybe because a statement like this will make people go "that bloody Infernal has no taste in games! >=(" and I'd smile in reply! Some drool would leak out and we'd have to build an ark! Oh wait! Paper Mario 2! It was comical! The last boss was about as fun as waiting for the toaster to toast bread without it even being plugged in, though.

I'm gonna type Skies of Arcadia here too.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Gonna do two-liners for these.

Vagrant Story
Best RPG that I've played, with my favourite story and characters. I came for the art and story, and stayed for the gameplay and weapon creation/tinkering which I still play around with to this day.

Skies of Arcadia
Something about exploring uncharted lands just struck the right nerve with me. Wonderful characters, battles, music, and a carefree yet focused story with pretty bombastic airship battles that kept me at the edge of my seat.

Xenogears
Since I am a self-professed Xeno-nerd with nearly every facet of Perfect Works memorized and posessing the ability to recite most any plot/character detail in the monolith of a game, I'd say it ranks up there in my faves. I still remember checking out this shitty resolution video capture of a controversial title "Zenogiasu" that almost didn't get brought to the US because of its religious themes. And now look at RPGs today, killin' god all over the place.

How ya doing, buddy?

Star Ocean the Second Story - This was the RPG that got me into RPGs. I had originally decided I didn't like RPGs after seeing FFVII (go figure, I think it was the whole turn base thing). I loved it so much, the characters, the different interactions, the real time battle system, as well as the skill system and actually being able to make things. Now if I could just beat the final boss...

FFIV - I really enjoyed this one of the FF series. Unfortunately I've lost my save 3857340 times, so I haven't beaten it yet. I got fairly attached to the characters, they had fun personalities. Plus the whole Red Wings thing amused me, being from Michigan. *way easily amused*

Not sure what to put down for a third... I do like FFVIII, FFX, and Wild Arms 3... I just haven't really played a whole lot.

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I hate Top # RPGs because what I like (compared to other games I like) fluctuates, kind of like music. Plus it's really @#%#@ hard to pick just 3. So...I guess I'll just say which games had the biggest effect on me.

1. Suikoden - Everyone drooling over II and V aren't wrong...but it seems like everyone is seriously underestimating the start of the series. First RPG I had ever played, and i'm glad I was brought in on one of the best games of all time. I've also played/beaten the game about 6-7 times...way more than I can say for any other game...ever. I suppose II *was* better (best army battle system ever...only close to Skies of Arcadia's ship battles), but the first had a much bigger effect on a personal level.

2. Star Ocean 2 - Excellent battle system (always controlled Dias). Minues the bad translation and the terrible battle voices, the story/bosses/music/dungeons were excellent, one of the very few games where I always looked forward to getting into random battles every time. Item creation is also an excellent system (which they DESTROYED in the sequel).

Tie for 3rd:
Xenogears - Great story, battle system, music (Yasunori Mitsuda, need I say more?), and characters. While the second disc was rushed and had a very different tone than the first, it was still excellent.

Chrono Cross - Exactly the same as above except, like people have mentioned, the 40 characters was a bit overkill (lack of character development).


Honorable Mentions
Wild Arms/Wild Arms 3
Chrono Trigger
Final Fantasy VII/VIII
Every Suikoden except IV
Breath of Fire III (The guy that mentioned this was right on)
Alundra (one of the most underapprectiated RPGs I can think of)
Deus Ex
Grandia (I and II)
Lunar (I and II)


This is why I rarely reply to these threads, too many good titles to narrow them down.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Xenogears is my favourite game of all time (as if it wasn't obvious already). The story is breathtaking, the setting is incomparably beautiful, the characters are vibrant and for once, robustly designed (none of that spindly FF crap here) - And Mitsuda's soundtrack really shines here. And hey, fuck everyone else, I loved the second disc to hell.

Tales of Phantasia for SNES has far more charm than it's credited for. The characters rock, the dialogue is great (well, Dejap's translation certainly is) and the world is pretty huge for an RPG of its era.

Terranigma is a pretty stunning gem which is overlooked far too often. Fun fights, GREAT boss sequences, breathtaking music, beautiful ending.

Runner-ups are Chrono Cross, Chrono Trigger, FFVIII, Seiken Densetsu III and FFVI.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I didn't expect so many people to have played Terranigma. I'm more surprised people have it on their top 3. I was very tempted to put Terranigma on my list too but I think my unexplainable fondness for the game would not be well understood by others because I have no real reason for liking the game so much.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Denicalis

What is up with all these people who only started on FF VII? Is it an age thing? I'm 23, and I cut my teeth on FF I. I've been all about RPGs since the beginning. Why the late start for everyone?

I am nearly 30 years in age myself and I started on FFVII, so age is not likely the only reason. For me it was because I thought RPGs were retarded. The battle system was the most useless idea I had ever come across in a game. The few RPGs I had played before FFVII left a very sour taste in my mouth and so I basically avoided them for years. FFVII was the first RPG I had played and actually enjoyed.

Another reason I dislike RPGs. Anime. Cutesy god damn anime. I loathe that shit. And for some reason cutesy anime and RPG go hand-in-hand. I will not play anime style RPGs. Period. Incidentally this equates to about 87% of the genre.

Parasite EVE happens to be my favourite of the genre and one of the most memorable games I have played. I really enjoyed the modern day New York setting and plot. It's a very welcome change from the flood of medieval themed games out there. The whole take on mitochondria taking over the world was really interesting and somehow believable. This too was very refreshing from the typical "save the queen" plot. Squaresoft never got the praise it deserved for breaking away from the mold with PE.

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1. Final Fantasy IV - Best storyline ive ever read in a game. The characters are brilliant. They are driven by such incredible emotional power that they often sacrifice themselves to benefit everyone else.
The gameplay is great because the elemental bosses are fun and many others are challenging. I like how each character is a specific and unique class.

2. Shining Force CD - Favorite strategy gameplay with my favorite levels and challenging bosses. Cool characters and an on-going storyline.

3. Final Fantasy 1 - Such high replay value because of picking classes.

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Originally Posted by Denicalis

What is up with all these people who only started on FF VII? Is it an age thing? I'm 23, and I cut my teeth on FF I. I've been all about RPGs since the beginning. Why the late start for everyone?

I'm also 23, and although I didn't start with VII, I was a bit late to the party. I didn't have a real awareness of RPGs during my NES days. Willow was the first RPG I played, but I didn't know that it was part of a distinct genre of games. I think I discovered RPGs by accident when I rented Final Fantasy VI one day. I didn't know what I was doing, but I was intrigued by how my little character (I remember it was Cyan) was walking atop the World of Ruin. After that I believe Secret of Mana was the first RPG I bought with all the intention. There are a bunch of RPGs that I rented and played through, such as Final Fantasy IV, Breath of Fire, Ogre Battle and maybe a few others, though I can't recall the order. Eventually I did buy Final Fantasy VI when I recognized it on a store shelf (I remember it cost 80 bucks), and I've been a fan of the genre ever since.

Although I think the initial interest in FFVII for many non-RPG folks did have something to do with the graphics (they blew me away too), once people actually played it, I think most of them came to love it for other reasons, and I'm sure most went back to play those RPGs they had previously dismissed. I like FFVII a lot, and though I don't place it among the best of the best for a few reasons, it comes fairly close. I'll admit however that it rubs me the wrong way sometimes how people give it more credit than it merits. As revolutionary as it might've been in terms of impact and presentation, there was very little in it that FFVI and Chrono Trigger hadn't already introduced and executed well. FFVII just took those ideas into the realm of 3D. So I believe that while FFVII was more revolutionary, FFVI was more evolutionary. FFVII owes a lot to those latter generation SNES RPGs.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Hydelloon

I didn't expect so many people to have played Terranigma. I'm more surprised people have it on their top 3. I was very tempted to put Terranigma on my list too but I think my unexplainable fondness for the game would not be well understood by others because I have no real reason for liking the game so much.

Terranigma is godlike. The fact that we never got a North American release is such a travesty...

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Denicalis

What is up with all these people who only started on FF VII? Is it an age thing? I'm 23, and I cut my teeth on FF I. I've been all about RPGs since the beginning. Why the late start for everyone?

Well I'm 21 and I mostly played more platformy/action games (grew up more on sonic/mario/etc). I first rented FF7 on a whim in 1998 and couldn't believe how much I loved the game. I don't know what it was, but it was a refreshing change from all the platformers I had been playing; nor do I think I would have really understood the games for what they were worth If I had gotten into them before the age of 13.

I didn't get the urge to play the older FF titles until I discovered emulation, and that wasn't until after I had beaten FF8. In discovering emulation, I wound up coming across other AMAZING RPGs such as Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, Zelda (I had always hated it until I began playing RPGs, dunno why), etc.

Edit: And yes, Terranigma was great!

FELIPE NO

My top 3 would have to go as follows:

Xenogears: The only game I have had actual cravings for (aside form a very recent title named Okami); that is to say, the only RPG where I actually found myself thinking about it while I was doing other things, like going to class and work. I just had to know what was going to happen next - I still think it has the best plot of any RPG ever - Xenosaga totally dropped the ball with it.

BoF IV: another extremely solid game, with great graphics, characters, story, translation, and gameplay.

Final Fantasy V: porbably because it was the first one I played without a guide or advance knowledge of the plot, or maybe just the job system, but it still rates as one of my faves.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I'm sixteen, and I started on FFI when I was eight. Played FFIV shortly afterwards, then didn't get anything else in until I was eleven and I discovered emulation. Downloaded a handful of SNES games (Terranigma, Seiken Densetsu III, Tales of Phantasia FFIV, V and VI) and had a ball of a time one summer.

Finally checked out FFVII in 2004 to see what all the hype was about. If it's supposedly the best game ever, it's got to have SOMETHING good about it, right? Nope. Fucking hated it. Graphics were pretty appalling even by 1997's standards, characters annoyed the shit out of me, FMV didn't look all that good and the plot seemed to go nowhere. "It's better once you get out of Midgar!" "Oh, it's better once you're on the boat!" "It gets really really good after Aeris gets you-know-what!" NO. IT FUCKING DOESN'T.

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It's that f@$&in pizza people are livin' underneath! Damnit, Cloud!

There's nowhere I can't reach.