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

[arcthemonkey]

It wasn't shallow compared to any story you'd see in a movie, or often even read in a book. It just wasn't as psychotically involved as previous Final Fantasy games.

That game was all about style and nuance, and I think it worked very well.

But no, it's not for everyone, however, I thought it had one of the best thought out, original, and humanly realistic stories I've ever seen in a video game.

 

[Fallofthetyrant]

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Majestic and hauntingly beautiful game, soundtrack is very well done, a must-have game!
The only think I didn't like was the fact that they used the same voice actors for most characters.
Otherwise a great game

 

[Diedrupo]

You can only pick one??

Well in that case, my all time favorite RPG ever, is Ultima 5. If we are talking about console-only, then it'd be Dragon Quest 3 (SNES remake). That's the only jRPG that I've played that I consider closest to perfection.

 

[PINEDAXP]

Xenogears isn't close to perfection, it is just Perfect!

 

[kokoro]

I love ALL Final Fantasy games except for FFIX (because they fucked it up by putting different designers on the team and the only good character was Vivi) and I have a lot of resentment towards the whole FFVII collection. I think the reason I dislike the.. entity.. that is FFVII, is because of all the fanboys who think it's better than every game ever when it definitely is not... Let's face it, Final Fantasy X has an amazing storyline that really keeps you paying attention.. Fun side-quests.. Stunning FMVs and cutscenes (which, I am not a graphics hound as I enjoy FF I - VI but I really loved the FMVs).. I mean come on, it was an excellent game. I'm not saying it was BETTER than FFVII, but it was excellent and I hate how people seem to think FFVII is above all other video games for some reason. (ALSO, I HAAAATE super-deformed [chibi] style, unless it's on a handheld console or other which can not handle a lot of pixels)

However! Final Fantasy is not the only series I like! Ohhhh no!
I friggin love Legend of Dragoon. It's too bad I lost it now, but it was a brilliant game and I friggin loved it more than life when I was a kid. It had great plot (and plot twists), great graphics for it's time, etc.. It was just all-around friggin awesome and I loved it. I wish they'd revive it on PS3 or make a sequel for it on PS3.. That'd be amazing. Wii does it all the time! Why can't PS3 Lazy developers.

Also I don't know that it's very popular but one game I loooved was Saga Frontier, which had kind of a "Mana" feeling in terms of characters, but it was based in a more futuristic era.. Anyway there was a bunch of different characters to choose from and they all had their own storyline. It was sooo good.

Obviously the entire Pokemon series. It entertained me throughout my childhood no matter where I was and I never had to buy my own batteries.

The Legend of Zelda series. Hells yes. I'm currently enjoying the Phantom Houglass (JP Version) on my DS :D.. It's sooo good.

Kingdom Hearts series. Best theme songs ever, and incredibly fun, cute and active gameplay (though Kingdom Hearts II was incredibly easy). If they make a third one they'd better get Utada to do the theme song again.

I know there's more games I've just forgot for now lol..

 

[Marcus]

The only think I didn't like was the fact that they used the same voice actors for most characters.

Actually, Oblivion had a really diverse cast... they all just happened to sound the same (no, I'm being serious; look at the credits). It also has about 40 hours of recorded voice acting (every character and voice actor combined) meaning it would take you almost 2 days to listen to every single spoken line.

Well in that case, my all time favorite RPG ever, is Ultima 5.

I thought Ultima 4 was pretty much THE highlight of the series. Because U4 is freeware now, you can download it with the U5 tileset.

Xenogears isn't close to perfection, it is just Perfect!

Until you get to the horrendous second disc...

I love ALL Final Fantasy games except for FFIX (because they fucked it up by putting different designers on the team and the only good character was Vivi)

Which is kind of ironic because FFIX focused on the characters more than any FF. To me, FF9 felt really personal; here you have a cast of characters with a wide range of personalities and they all shine on screen. There was a lot of "hidden" things that you had to pay attention to like the relationship between Freya and Adamant (or whatever his name was), the beautiful scene with Steiner and Beatrice, not to mention the stunted relationship with Ecco (uh... was that her name) and Zidane. It was interesting to note Garnet's growth from a naive but fun-loving princess to a serious warrior who wanted only to save her insane mother and how Zidane morphed from a quirky perverted thief to a serious champion of justice. Vivi is probably one of Final Fantasy's greatest characters as he started as a quiet, "blank-slate" who's personality was filled in by the other characters and events (I love the Zidane and Vivi pissing scene to no end).

Finally, the game was really poetic and had one of the best cold intros out of any videogame I've played. At every turn there was action and in the first 5 hours you put on a faux-Shakespearian play, kidnap a princess oceans 11 style, duke it out with a knight on a flying ship, crash land into a haunted forest, and battle it out with three malignant constructs with a wicked name (Black Waltz, yes). The moogles were bad ass (if you call the save moogle too many times, he threatens to stab you) and the chocobo music was probably the best in the series. And need I mention the badass siege which involved an incredible battle between Bahamut and Alexander and Steiner and Beatrice's team-up debut with a terrific musical score?

As far as I can see it, the animosity towards FF9 is probably from the fact that it was the most down to earth of the Final Fantasy's. The game was still pretty much fantasy, but unlike FF7 or 8 where anything "out of the norm" was seen as weird or evil, FF9 accepted it's world as a WORLD. There was a lot of insight into the character's personal lives with the Star Ocean 2 inspired system that let you view additional cinemas, and the game's villain was a castaway seeking acceptance rather than LOL DESTRUCTION.

I friggin love Legend of Dragoon

Man, how come so many people liked this game??? I thought it was so generic.

 

[arcthemonkey]

I thought Legend of Dragoon was a cash in on FFVII, you know, because it was. I did, however, appreciate the cash-in. It was an enjoyable diversion. The plot was... about 50% great, 50% awful.

Final Fantasy IX was easily one of the best 3 Final Fantasy games.

Oh hey, I almost forgot about Grandia!

Grandia frikkin rocked!

 

[Diedrupo]

I thought Ultima 4 was pretty much THE highlight of the series. Because U4 is freeware now, you can download it with the U5 tileset.

U4 would definately be my #2. They were the two RPGs of my childhood and still had the biggest impact on me compared to any other game after or before.

I'm going to have to admit that shallowly, the only reason I like U5 better is cause the graphics and stuff were an obvious leap over U4. I was like 11 or 12 at the time, so U4's superior story didn't really affect me as well as it should have (I was all about finding shit and killing stuff in the Ultima games back then).

 

[strykr]

The best rpg (series) ive ever played is the Phantasy Star Online and Universe Games.. due to the fact that it is very character oriented and not so less rpg skill set. You can do ALMOST the same things offline as you can do with most rpgs online.

 

[G-man]

I loved Legend Of Legaia, tho I wasn't a fan of it's time consuming battler, but the music was upbeat and powerful ^_- and the story had solidity as well.

 

[itachi-hime]

Lol, last night I was like "I bet someone is going to say phantasy star universe." that game was TERRIBLE. Seriously one of the only games that I couldn't finish. I wanted to go to the creator and STRANGLE him with his own entrails. The story line was mediocre. But those little bits of story line was about the ONLY reason I could bear to drag myself through the arduous dungeons. The battle system really sucked. It was a wanna be star ocean TtEoT. After awhile I got really sick of just cutscene dungeon cutscene dungeon and I gave up. It was a terrible, terrible game.

 

[kantizuni]

^^ I liked Phantasy Star Online for the same reason I liked Gauntlet. Multiplayer button mashing fun. But as an RPG, it was seriously out to lunch. Universe i've never tried.

My favorite RPGs would have to be Fallout and Shadow Hearts. And it's a toss-up between Shadow Hearts 1 and 3. I only played a little bit of 2, so I can't judge that one. I like the dark, dreary hopelessness.

I loved Final Fantasy 6. My biggest problem with 12 was how much it felt like I was playing an MMORPG that was really unpopular (hence, empty of other players). After having just given up all MMORPGs, I was really turned off by anything resembling one.

So many people seem to like Legend of Dragoon! My girlfriend has a copy of it on our gaming shelf, but i've never had any desire to play it. Maybe i'll give it a go one of these days.

 

[Skie Fortress]

Atelier Iris Eternal Mana 1 & 2 along with Ar Tonelico. Those games pretty much embody everything I enjoy in an RPG.

Under that is the Tales of/Star Ocean Series.

 

[Anonymous]

I wont mention Final Fantasy purely because of the fact its pure genious and simply too popular so I'll go for my second choice/s which are..

Dark Cloud/Chronicle and Kingdom Hearts.

Dark Cloud was simply brilliant it had it all. Lots of interactive sequences, action and stuff to do. Fair enough the dungeon was pretty bog standard and a tad tedious at times but the overall atmosphere of the game was amazing. Cronicle took the series to a new level introducing machines which were of course upgradeable through out the game. Inventions were a good idea and if you were willing to go the extra mile you could please the citizens of each town by changing the town to their satisfaction then of course receiving awards to help you on your journey.

Kingdom Hearts was again a fantastic game I do think people got the wrong end of the stick most the time. They saw Disney characters and instantly switched off, I personally think they made a huge mistake as RPG fans especially ones that like Action RPG's such as myself. I must admit at the time I thought maybe I was a bit too old for a game that had Disney characters but I went with my gut instinct and decided to try it out. I'm glad I choose to buy it and the second one in the series. First one was certainly better with bigger levels and end optional bosses for acquiring the ultimate rewards but of course these rewards were pretty useless plainly because if you can defeat these monsters then the last boss is a very big joke.

 

[itachi-hime]

AW I LOVED DARK CLOUD. It did get monotonous but it really was really cute!

@kantizuni: Go play legend of the dragoon. It was really a great game.

 

[groudyogre]

hmmm... I won't say FF cuz thats boring... Tales of Symphonia had a great storyline, yeah, ToS for me fo pure storyline brilliance and intresting battles.

 

[Fallofthetyrant]

Ultima III: Exodus was an influential game (1982 or '83, rats I forgot)
Ultima should be known by every *ahem* so called RPG fan.

 

[Mr_Smith]

Well, does mmo's count? Guildwars, its just great. Nice graphics, highly animated battle system, lots of missions/quests, now around 12 professions, (counted Eye of the North with it) Tomorrow comes EotN out, looks great.

 

[arcthemonkey]

Hehe, I think it would have made sense for me to mention guild wars, since I have a tendancy of playing it for 8+ hours on my days off.

 

[Fafnir]

Hehe, I think it would have made sense for me to mention guild wars, since I have a tendancy of playing it for 8+ hours on my days off.

I'll jump into RA every once in a while when I've got nothing to do, and sometimes if I'm feeling into it, do a mission. Great game.

However, looking at EotN, I'm quite dissapointed. Many skills are way overpowered(but they gotta get the PvP buffs to buy I guess...), and most of the new armours are cheap reskins...(I was pretty pissed when I found out 2 of the new *male* Paragon armours were reskins of the Vabbi set, which took a long time for me to get, and now two new armours look very, very, very similar to it). And the sets that are somewhat original look pretty bad, mostly because of the fur(although the sin ones are of decent quality, they're just too spikey. I was hoping for something that would look like an arabic assassin SOMETIME, but nope... Just spikes spikes spikes!). Atleast the new rit armours look great(and I love my rits).

Sadly, they seem to be heading more and more towards a grinding game, which I don't like(Which would be almost contradicting, considering I have Vabbi, but I did not get it by grinding at all).