The RPG Thread

[Darrellito]

I dunno if this has been done, (too lazy to look), but I wanted to make a thread about the greatest RPGs that have been made, or are currently in production. (not home made RPGs though of coarse.)

I'll kick it off...


One of the greatest RPGs that I have played to date, has to be Grandia. The battle system was a change of pace in the Final Fantasy age of Playstaion gaming.

The Story: Your character's father was an adventurer. His last adventure was to Alent Garden. He never returned. Therefore, your character follows in his father's footsteps and sets off to Alent Garden.
More happens in the story, so if i'm making it sound like crap, it's because I don't wanna ruin the story for those who actually wanna play the game in the distant future.

Anyways, if this kinda thread hasn't been done, please post your favorite RPG, or one you thought was one of the greats, and tell us a little about it.

[DragonBlaze]

Chrono Trigger ftw. Chrono trigger was an awesome snes game, the battle system was a very good rpg battle system at the time, the graphics were great, and the story was amazing. Basically you accidently go back in time and then forward in time, and you see that the world is basically destroyed, so then you have to go though time trying to stop this event from happening and learn more about the story and characters along the way.

[Moosetroop11]

I'm gonna be the one to say FF7, for the music if nothing else. (Not the greatest soundtrack but in my opinion, the one that fit it's game best)

[Almeidaboo]

Doing me best to be impartial I'd say Xenogears. Everything is best there: Battle system, music, graphics. But the real thing about it is the story and the characters, all so complex and well executed.

[HackersTotalMassLaser]

Traditionally, Chrono Trigger and Tales of Symphonia. Xenosaga falls a bit behind those.

But if i want to go off the wall here, Ocarina of Time. It's for long been considered an RPG.

[Ben]

CronoTrigger and FF7 for music.
For gameplay and story, Im going with FFT
And honestly, graphically, something has always been lacking for me in every RPG Ive ever played.I havent found my favorite yet. For some reason CaveStory had simple colour scemes to their sprites that really stuck with me.I Guess its not an RPG but....There needs to be more side scroller RPGs

[aboutasoandthis]

For me Vagrant Story. It had a DEEP and intelligent storyline that quite possibly surpasses its big brother FFTactics, which was a masterpiece in itself. This is the only JRPG story to me that can get away with being a Pulitzer Prize-winning book. It also had some incredible art direction and great music.

The game's only problem is the gameplay isn't accessible to everyone. There's so much going on from the risk system, to the weapon making, to the reaction commands, to the in-depth equip system, to the platforming, to the puzzles, that it's easy to get lost. Its battle system makes it a very hate it or love it game.

[Apex]

Final Fantasy IX, for the atmosphere, character development, and old school feeling. Probably for the most lovable main character ever too.

Also Kuja wears a man thong.

[Prpl_Mage]

FFIX.
It had the design, the graphics and the music to match it. They held the atmosphere throughout the entire game 'till the end were some parts got a bit confusing.
All the bosses was equally hard and the skill learning system was enjoyable. And of course, you had all these side quests like Excallibur I&II that forced you to act a bit different while playing.
The characters has a special place in my heart since they where the first one I noticed to even think and feel.
Played FFIV before I played FFIX but the lack of conversations more or less let me down. FFIX had all of this with quite unique characters who develope during the game.

Yeah, FFIX begins with a quite cliché idea but it really doesn't end up as predicted...
You are Zidane; one of the members of a mercenary group caled the Thantalus. You and your bunch of comical screw-ups have to get into the castle and kidnapp the Princess(NOT the queen).
But they are hidden under the viel of a theatre group(they could succed with that to actually.) so Zidane&Blank(bad-*** guy with bandana over his eyes) sneak into the castle and bust two guards after a duel scene.
They are then suposed to pour sleeping pwder into a stew but it messes up as a young female with a white mage robe appears. She runs away and Zidane realises that she must be the princess! So they set out.
The prouloge of the game ends with them grabbing the princess while taking the royal knight Steiner and the mage(or hobo) Vivi with them in their airship as well and tries to reach the capitol of Linblum.
The rest of the game is even more awesome as parts of the party splits up and you play different parts from time to time(but it doesn't matter since you got the incredible "magical inventory") and actually know what happened and not just hearing the other chars tellign you how fun it is to ride the Gargan roo.

FFIX ftw.

[Darrellito]

Thousand Arms

This game was pretty much a must have of every Anime and RPG loving gamer. Once again, this game was released during the Age of FF VII, VII, and IX, so little attention was paid to this hidden gem. I can't really remember much of the basis of the storyline, but I do know that you get to travel as a Anime character, dating Anime women. The battle system was cool, but nothing special. Graphics were also a change in pace, consisting mostly of Anime cut shots, and traveling as a sprite, well detailed backgrounds. (But of coarse, which Playstation RPG didn't really consist of terrible sprites, and beautiful backgrounds.)

All in all, if I would rank this game: 7/10

I would definetly recommend this game if your an old school RPG Anime fan.

[Almeidaboo]

Originally posted by Darrellito
Thousand Arms

This game was pretty much a must have of every Anime and RPG loving gamer. Once again, this game was released during the Age of FF VII, VII, and IX, so little attention was paid to this hidden gem. I can't really remember much of the basis of the storyline, but I do know that you get to travel as a Anime character, dating Anime women. The battle system was cool, but nothing special. Graphics were also a change in pace, consisting mostly of Anime cut shots, and traveling as a sprite, well detailed backgrounds. (But of coarse, which Playstation RPG didn't really consist of terrible sprites, and beautiful backgrounds.)

All in all, if I would rank this game: 7/10

I would definetly recommend this game if your an old school RPG Anime fan.

The game is awesome, but the fact that you focus so much on the "anime" side of it makes you look like a nerd (even though Anime is cool...).

Good game indeed. Rare game also.

Best series: suikoden, easily, without any competition.

Best MMO: WOW, i'm just addicted to it now.

Best Strategy: FFT tied with Front Mission.

Best RTS: Starcraft, although I can't stand it anymore.

There, i won't post anymore.

[zuhane1]

Ooooh! I have 3 which all tie in first place...

1. Final Fantasy 10 - Undescribable. Just buy it and get swept away. It is so perfect, it makes you wish you could escape real life and live there. It is flawless and hosts about 70 hours of gameplay, much more if you're gonna master it. Voice acting, stunning visuals, it's perfect. 8,000/10.

2. Disgaea- Not as magical and in depth as FFX but hilariously funny and has the best battle system ever made IMO. It's a grid based turn based RPG which gives you so many options like appeal to judges and kill them if they won't pass bills for you, level up weapons, subdue people in weapons and harness their powers e.g. Kill a coffee maker and get higher resistance to sleep spells and stuff like that. You can also transmigrate back to level 1 and re-level up with higher stats. All characters can reach level 9999 and there are SOOOO many things to do it's unreal.

3- Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door- Such an innovative battle system. You could technically beat the final boss being LV1 if you are good enough. Battles involve pressing key combinations and triggers to dodge attacks and do more damage. No battle is boring, they all involve reactions and skill. The badge system is pure genius and the minimum damage system keeps it simple.

There you go!

[Dragonium]

For me the two greatest RPGs of all time are:

Final Fantasy VIII - FFVIII had everything. Lovely graphics for its time, truly gripping story, excellent soundtrack, characters you could actually care about, humour in all the right places, brilliantly innovative Junction system (If you hate it you're probably an FFVII fanboy), all kinds of stuff. Unfairly underrated. It's amazing and you know it.

Breath of Fire III - Also brilliant. Story you could actually care about and get into. Awesome characters. Rei deserves a slot as one of the best RPG characters ever. Music was lovely. World was so big and epic. Faerie Village mini-game is stupidly addictive. All-round great game.

*Prepares Flame Shield ready for anti-FFVIII Nazis*

[FFL2and3rocks]

Dragon Warrior 7. I love the class system, and the difficulty level is perfect. Hard, but not OMG HOW THE HELL DO I BEAT THIS GUY hard. Except maybe a few bosses like HellCloud. Bah.

It's also really damn long. It took me 170 hours to beat it the first time and 130 the second time. I take my time, but still, 170? o_0

[Ganocide_of_a_Kingdom]

Well, it's always hard to pick one game, hell, it's even hard to pick two games out of all those good games I have played. But it has to be done.

Chrono Cross  - In my opinion one of the best RPG's. Why? Well, I do like the storyline of this game, the game is graphically beautiful, far above average for the PSX and  I certainly love the music of this game, it's by far just perfect, no game to date has had so many good soundtracks in it, almost every song in CC is a treat to the ears (I don't know what's up with the battle theme though, it's just disgusting).  
Another fact that I used to pick this game is that I have NEVER played a video so much in my life, to say that I have beaten CC more than 80-85 times it's no joke, I have played this game so much that a few years back I could tell the whole storyline of this game as if I was counting to 10.
The fact that if you played Chrono Trigger (and actually payed attention to the details and storyline of CT) makes this game even more enjoyable, it's just cool. The amount of characters in the game it's another plus, too. Not to mention the several endings. I also like how the character development in this game takes a break from Leveling up and still the character development is as deep as any leveling up system.
I had such a blast with this title, and that matters a lot to me while playing ANY game.

Chrono Trigger - I don't need to explain myself here. Any true RPGer has played this title and surely knows what makes this game, not only a classic but a great one at that.

Final Fantasy VII - Square's prime years. After their successful hand at SNES, square was on a roll, for sure. Not too long after the launch of the PSX, came this title. I know, I could have picked FFVI, and trust me I was tempted to, but some things kept me from doing so, and I will explain why.
FFVII, was a breakthrough title, not only for Square, but for any self-respecting RPGer. This title had so much that made it the great game it is and sadly, the horribly overrated game that is today. This game was just good, good in so many aspects. Perhaps, this is the last time we will ever see game making at its best, game making for the love of game making. Square wasn't the company it is today, Square back then, was different. You can tell by playing the games Square has done in the past, and playing the crappistic titles that, that same company, is making today, they are obviously money seeking games and not for the sake of good game making.
Anyway, FFVII had introduced a few good stuff and this things made me pick it over FFVI. As you might have guessed, the Materia System it's just superb, not only was it different, to this day, in my opinion, I have yet to see a better system, I haven't and I probably won't in many years.  The storyline was great also, I am a person that likes medieval RPGs, but FFVII is an exception, the storyline mixed everything together well, medieval and modern, in a manner where I had trouble situating myself in a specific time period.
Characters...all the characters were good also, as much as I dislike Cloud, his enigmatic past and present, made him a good candidate to be the main guy in the game and almost all the characters were enigmatic in a way or another. Sephiroth, also greatly overrated, is in my view the best villain in a game. He had it all, personality, power, authority, a huge weapon and a reason to be become what he did, that many (including myself) consider just. What I like about the character/villain in this game is that, you don't get engrossed in the main character's life or get engrossed in the "good guys" life. You also couldn't help but get engrossed in the villain's life too. All in all, character development (in what story concerns), was excellent executed, and yes I do dislike some characters and some are just there I neither like them or dislike them, but that doesn't stop me from seeing what's good about each and how it contributes the overall game experience.
Another important fact is, that this game did not need of pretty graphics (obviously), fancy voice overs and/or good grammar (Yes, as some of you might have noticed, there is some bad grammar in this game and no, I am not talking about Barret's foul mouth, I am talking the overall grammar is kind of bad), this game is pretty much pure old good gameplay.
Music is great, it adds perfectly to the atmosphere of the game, which very dark.
This game has become ridiculously overrated, but I don't see it as people see it in the mainstream, hell most people know about FFVII only because of the movie, or just cos of FFVII: DoC, and yet some, don't even know the movie is based on a great game, but, I see it as the masterpiece it is, from an RPGer and gamer's side of the story.  

This was a hard decision to make, but I just picked the game that gave me the most joy when I played them. After all, this thread is all about personal opinions, we ain't trying to change anyone's mind about anything.