The best RPG(s) you've ever played and why

[Venetia]

Chrono Cross and Skies of Arcadia will always hold my heart. The huge number of characters and the gorgeous map design (still gorgeous, if you ignore the low poly characters) capivated me with CC, and with SoA, the magnificent feeling of freedom and the real depth of story (I was still guessing who was the main baddie until the very end!) sucked me in and held me fast!


And HARLE! SO CUTE!

http://theepok.free.fr/IMG/cc/avatar/harle.jpg[/IMG]

 

[arcthemonkey]

I also really appreciated Chrono Cross. I guess I forgot about that one.

Oh, and G-Man, I wouldn't say that Xenogears took shots at religion per se - it's exceptionally gnostic, and gnosticism is just sort, I dunno... that way. Lots of secrets. The concepts of the anima/animus/pleroma/sophia run deeply through the game, and since the entire gnostic religion resolves around an upper class having some special esetoric knowledge, while the rest of the world is in the dark, the game is thematically very faithful to gnosticism. That gnosticism is an off-shoot of christianity in many ways, and thus resembles christianity and what many would call "religion", the fact is that Xenogears portrays gnostic themes and symbolism faithfully rather than referencing christian themes and symbolism in a negative light.

That being said, I think Xenogears is the bees knees. Yeah, I went there.

 

[G-man]

XD I agree, though I hardly paid attention to the story, I loved the custom battle system, tho it did get ....repeative.

 

[Yum]

PERSONA 3!!!

 

[Fafnir]

You played Xenosaga III before II? Wow, way to kinda cripple parts of the story, there! (I know some of it is in the database, but it doesn't quite cover it.) And Ep. II wasn't BAD, it just wasn't as good as the first or second, and the side-quest thing was excruciating.

Well, it's not a matter of not wanting to play it, it's a matter of not being able to find it. I've only seen a used copy of Xeno 1 when I bought my PS2(about a month ago), so I picked that up right away. After finishing Xeno 1, I was at the mall, and saw two unused copies of Xeno3, so I picked that up, because I didn't expect to ever see it in stock again.

The only time I've ever seen Xeno2 'in the flesh' was when it was released.

 

[Cruelty]

ff9 and la pucelle:tactics were both cool games

 

[Fafnir]

PERSONA 3!!!

That game is on my *want to buy* list right now. Just need to get some money lol.

 

[Grandor]

I think one of my favorites was Fable. It has lots of customization, and lots of things to do. And lots of realism (eating to much makes you fat, standing in the sun to long tans your skin, even fighting in battle and getting cuts leaves scars)

Story could have been better.

 

[G-man]

Not really, wasn't as opened ended as I'd like to think, you still ended up in the same places, you were just either evil or good, now a real non linear rpg like that is Fallout, the best game of that kind, you could kill the first person you saw! Or go through the whole game without fighting!

 

[LightAndMagic]

Legend of Mana: Don't really know why, just everytime I load it up, I have a lot of fun. Incredibly replayable, and I just loved the atmosphere of the game. It's also got my favourite video game soundtrack of all time.

Suikoden: Just so amazing, it's just got a certain quality to it that I really enjoy. And I like how some of the characters are ugly. Not every one in a giant army is going to be good looking.

Kingdom Hearts II: I don't care. I like it. I find it fun.

 

[Zankoku no Yami]

Kingdom Hearts II: I don't care. I like it. I find it fun.

I bloody love KH2!! So much so that it still makes me mad as heck that they didnt release KH2:FM+ in America!! *twitch*

But yes, that game owned. The only things i didnt like about it were fixed (so i've read) in KH2:FM+. I knew after i heard all the added and changed things, that i wasn't the only one who felt it needed some more attention to make it as priceless as it should have been.

The story itself was brilliant and strong; it just wasn't protrayed correctly. I mean, i KNOW they could have done more with the story (mainly, Roxas and Namine's). But i think they cleared some of that up in FM+ (from the added scenes and what not). But gah, the battle system is to drool over!

 

[Yum]

Well Fafnir, you should put it in your *must buy* list instead. It's a dating sim/ rpg, modern setting, excellent soundtrack and voiceovers + the deepest and most flexible customization i've ever seen in an rpg... what's not to like? Although to be honest, I still prefer SMT: Nocturne... but they're a bit different from each other so...

 

[Grandor]

Not really, wasn't as opened ended as I'd like to think, you still ended up in the same places, you were just either evil or good, now a real non linear rpg like that is Fallout, the best game of that kind, you could kill the first person you saw! Or go through the whole game without fighting!

If Grand Theft Auto was a RPG, it would top that.

 

[itachi-hime]

Lol I wish I could figure out why people like final fantasy 9... or 12... 12 really, really, really sucked. It was almost like you HAD to do sidequests because the main quest was so short. I liked the characters some times. The sidequests were just killing monsters basically. It was fun for a little while but the storyline was so shallow. And ff9... It just wasn't a good game. The characters irked me I guess. This thread is pretty interesting. Alot of RPG's I've never heard of. Oh and kingdom hearts I didn't like either. It seemed like a hodgepodge of different games mixed together. Seemed sorta childish to me.

 

[Diogo //Skyfusion//]

The sidequests were just killing monsters basically.

The main sidequest of FFXII wasn't about killing random normal monsters. It was about killing bosses. No, it was about exploring areas, killing bosses, and being rewarded for doing so. Exploration, challenge and rewards. The Mob Hunt was genious because it mixed the three greatest aspects of a RPG gameplay-wise into one.

It's those challenging bosses that take the battle system to its full potential, not filler encounters that die in one or two hits and render most commands useless.

 

[arcthemonkey]

I am one of the ones who thought that FFXII was incredible, and I'm thrilled I was able to experiance it, but, I hope they don't do it again. Is that fair? Like the original Arc the Lad. I loved that game, but when Arc the Lad 2 came out, and it was basically the exact same game but three times as long, I quickly became very tired of it.

I also loved FF9, but whatever.

I can't believe I didn't mention Legend of Mana, though! To me, Legend of Mana was the peak of the series, and it's all been downhill from there (sword of mana was okay, if only because it kept to its roots). I miss the mana series... Dawn of Mana was not what I was looking for.

 

[Celesinator]

This one is hard...

Chrono Trigger probably... with FFVI next to it. I'm not sure... but I really do like CT and FFVI. Deffinatly the best games I have ever played. My all time favorites.

Add FFIX, too. And IV.

 

[Ratty524]

Chrono Trigger as of now. While it didn't feel oh-so-deep as far as storyline, the unique, cool-looking gameplay kept me interested. The music of the game is memorable, too.

 

[Dopples]

FFXII was the first great FF in a LOOOOOOOOONNNNNGGGGGGGGG while. It was poorly recieved by FF fans in my opinion due to the fact that it was, ZOMG DIFFERENT. Which isn't SquareEnix's style mostly.


Oh, and I'll bring it up again because noone else did.


Valkyrie Profile. And I mean Lenneth, a.k.a. the PSX one. VP2 was pretty much a snore fest and Lezard was....meh, not himself. Also, Arngrim didn't even have to be there.

 

[itachi-hime]

OMFG I LOVE YOUR SIG! *dies* Yay pyramid head! No, it wasn't the fact that it was different, it was just too short and monotonous. the storyline was very shallow.