Favorite rpgs (a top 10 list)

Trev · Post by **Trev** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 8:21 pm

So, I just beat Guardian War

and I think it is one of my favorite rpgs ever! It got me to thinking ... what are my other favorite rpgs? So I made this top 10 list, along w/brief comments on why I enjoyed each game. It is kinda long, so I just posted the bottom half for now ... stay tuned for the top half, coming shortly.

10 - Suikoden (PSX) The first rpg that I played through from begining to end, it holds sentimental value for me due to the satisfaction of beating a challenging game. Although the battles are a bit too numerous, and the magic is cliched, nothing can match the thrill of being able to customize your party from a selection of 108 characters!

9 - Liberation-captive II (Amiga cd32) It may be premature to list this game since I have not gotten very far in it yet, but it is very appealing. Not a traditonal rpg, but played in a future setting w/a unique 1st person perspective. Tough to go back to reading conversation windows, when all the discussions in Liberation are actual speech!

8 - The Bard's Tale (PS2) This game pokes fun at the entire rpg genre, but in the end it proves to be an excellent rpg in its own right. Your party options are unique, but the main draw is the hilarious voice acting! Great fun that even my fiance enjoys.

7 - Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (GC) Forget the turn based Final Fantasy games, for me nothing beats this real time version. Great music, stunning graphics, and unique multiplayer options via the GBA, make this the most original and fun Fantasy title I've seen yet. With its reasonable length, this is also a good choice for less intense rpg gamers.

6 - .Hack (PS2) Since the rpg genre is more cliched now than it has ever been, it is nice to see this series (4 games) be so original. The combat engine is great, real time (comprable to PSO) but the story is what pushed it to the top for me. Awesome!

I'll post my remaining top 5 soon. If you are an rpg fan, please post your own list so I can see what I might have missed.

bitrate · Post by **bitrate** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 8:32 pm

I tend to gravitate more toward turn-based RPG's.

My favorite RPG's are Dragon Warrior 1-4. The amount of crap they stuffed into an 8-bit cart in Dragon Warrior 4 is amazing.

On the 3DO I also loved Guardian War, and of course Lucienne's Quest.
I haven't completed either of these, but I will as soon as I get a chance.

Gir Draxa · Post by **Gir Draxa** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 8:36 pm

Top 10? Hmm... seems too definitive. I'm kind of more open minded. Here's some greats :

Ultima IV - Quest of the Avatar : Apple II - Great classic RPG action, with a long story and surprizingly good graphics & gameplay for the machine it was on. (NES version lacking the keyboard, lacked the involvement)

Phantasy Star II : Sega Genesis - Great story. Good graphics for an early Genesis title, and very involving.

Wrath of Denethnor : Apple II - Ok, I'm bias on this one. Went to school with the creator and got to play it as it was in progress.

Still cool, and contained innovations to the Ultima series that for some reason, Origin never thought of.

Dark Wizard : Sega CD - Great merger of the RPG & heavy strategy sim. Great also because you had to play both to win.

Lunar : The Silver Star : Sega CD - Great story, great classic gameplay, great audio. One of the true gems of the Sega CD history.

Vay : Sega CD - Bad humor and occasionally boring, but still... I'll play it all the way to see that little turd Pottle DIE! Gets my vote for most annoying RPG character from the 90s.

Drax

UnholyTancred · Post by **UnholyTancred** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 5:51 am

There's no way I could narrow my picks down to just 10 or even put 'em in number 'em in order so I'll just state some of my favorites.

Fallout 1 and 2 (PC) - Simply mindblowing. I love the post-apocalyptic setting. I love the Mad Max influence. I love the humor. I love that it's almost completely non-linear. You could be good, you could be evil. You do whatever the hell you want! So much stuff to do, so much time, so many endings. These 2 games NEVER get old. I must've beaten Fallout 2 around a dozen times.

Final Fantasy VI (SNES) - My first introduction to the Final Fantasy series and I was instantly blown away. The story immediately pulls you in. I believe Square lost their touch after this game. The only exception I believe is the next one on my list.

Final Fantasy Tactics (PSX) - When I first got it, I must've restarted the game about 5 times. It was hard as hell for me. Very tedious so I quickly dropped it. Eventually I picked it up again and got into it and I loved every moment of it. Why can't Square pull off a plot like this anymore?

Destiny Of An Emperor (NES) - I found the premise of your generals HP to represent their amount of troops to be pretty unique. I'm a sucker for games based on the Three Kingdoms period of China so I may be biased but I this is a great RPG.

Shining Force 3 (episode 1 obviously

) (Saturn) - I'm only about 20 hours into the game but I've been hooked. My only gripe is the silent main character. I hate when they do that.

The Bard's Tale (PS2) - Hilarious. Simply hilarious. The engine is a rip off from Baldur's Gate and there are several areas that are very lengthy nonstop dungeon crawls, but the fantastic and hilarious plot keep motivating you to continue playing.

The Summoner (PS2) - I got my first PS2 in 2001 so I was 12 years old. I had no idea what games to get or anything like that. The first 2 games I bought was this and Heroes Of Might And Magic (silly young me thought it'd be like the PC games). Well at first I hated this game. Absolutely hated it. Of course I was too young to understand what the hell was going on. Lenele was such a huge bloody city that I always got lost and took me hours to find my way out. And I thought the game was damn hard. Finally as I got a bit older I decided to try it out again and I immediately fell in love with it. Sure all the characters look as pale as corpses. Sure the sound is a bit buggy and doesn't play all the time. Sure the framerate becomes choppy when there's a lot of crap going on at the same time. But I just didn't care anymore. The plot and the characters pulled me in. The huge detailed beautiful city of Lenele pulled me in. Every single character had something to say. Be it a drunken song, a plea for war not to start, or requesting aid from you. The music by Wally Shaw is simply brilliant as well. I have a save file in the city of Wolong just so I could hear that tune. The sequel was pretty damn good but much different than this one. The characters were more cartoony and there was a good amount of humor which completely contradicted the cold, dark atmosphere of the original game.

Panzer Dragoon Saga (Saturn) - Nothing needs to be said about this game.

There's plenty of more RPG's I played and enjoyed but these ones are my favorite. I would've continued playing Phantasy Star 2 if I didn't keep getting annoyed by printing out maps for the huge dungeons and level up for 2 hours before I could tackle the next set of enemies haha. Still a pretty damn good game and I do intend on finishing it whenever I have the time and patience.

Lemmi · Post by **Lemmi** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 9:28 am

is this all kinds of RPG's? like Strategy, Tactical, Action, Traditional, and Adventure?
if so i can get 10 if not then im down to a handfull

PS - Final Fantasy VII - other than Everquest this is the most modern RPG ive played

SNES - Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, this is just a cool game

SMS - Miracle Warriors - i played this for hours on end

PC - Everquest - wasted 2 years in this game from 2000 to 2002 and my character is still alive and playing but not by me

Gen - Landstalker + Beggar Prince (still not finished)

Sega CD - Dungeon Explorer - this game is easy but it can suck you in

now for the NES list
Faxanadu
Dragon Warrior
Dragon Warrior II

Defender of the Crown
The Legend of Zelda

Post by **3DOKid** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 8:16 pm

I tend to like the idea of RPGs as opposed the reality.

Paper mario 2 on the GC was my favourite. Luciennes Quest on the 3DO

was also fun. (and more importantly for me, easy) FFVII & FFVIII, Power kingdoms I've had a stab at. ... erm. I played Dark Saviour (or something) on the saturn that was pretty good. Skies of Arcadia on the DC was brilliant too. Shenmue 1 & 2? Do they qualify? I really enjoyed Shenmue.

Trev · Post by **Trev** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 8:44 pm

Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 7:21 pm Post subject: Favorite rpgs (a top 10 list)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, I just beat Guardian War and I think it is one of my favorite rpgs ever! It got me to thinking ... what are my other favorite rpgs? So I made this top 10 list, along w/brief comments on why I enjoyed each game. It is kinda long, so I just posted the bottom half for now ... stay tuned for the top half, coming shortly.

10 - Suikoden (PSX) The first rpg that I played through from begining to end, it holds sentimental value for me due to the satisfaction of beating a challenging game. Although the battles are a bit too numerous, and the magic is cliched, nothing can match the thrill of being able to customize your party from a selection of 108 characters!

9 - Liberation-captive II (Amiga cd32) It may be premature to list this game since I have not gotten very far in it yet, but it is very appealing. Not a traditonal rpg, but played in a future setting w/a unique 1st person perspective. Tough to go back to reading conversation windows, when all the discussions in Liberation are actual speech!

8 - The Bard's Tale (PS2) This game pokes fun at the entire rpg genre, but in the end it proves to be an excellent rpg in its own right. Your party options are unique, but the main draw is the hilarious voice acting! Great fun that even my fiance enjoys.

7 - Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (GC) Forget the turn based Final Fantasy games, for me nothing beats this real time version. Great music, stunning graphics, and unique multiplayer options via the GBA, make this the most original and fun Fantasy title I've seen yet. With its reasonable length, this is also a good choice for less intense rpg gamers.

6 - .Hack (PS2) Since the rpg genre is more cliched now than it has ever been, it is nice to see this series (4 games) be so original. The combat engine is great, real time (comprable to PSO) but the story is what pushed it to the top for me. Awesome!

I'll post my remaining top 5 soon. If you are an rpg fan, please post your own list so I can see what I might have missed.

Here is the rest of my list, my top 5 favorite rpgs of all time ...

5 - Lucienne's Quest (3DO) 3DO bias ... perhaps to an extent. But this is a great game on any platform. Combat is quite fun, w/the ability to use the terrain to your advantage (unique). The lead character is a female (also unique) I think the music is great, and the graphics are quite good considering that this was one of the 1st rpgs for a next gen platform (I like the multiple views) The story does not try to be a soap opera, but instead is straightforward & funny. And this is an rpg that can be enjoyed by anyone, regardless of their rpg experience, since it has a more balanced level of difficulty. Great game!

4 - Guardian War/Powers Kingdom (3DO) Perhaps I am ranking this game so high since it is fresh in my mind, but I don't think so. Normally combat is my least favorite part of an rpg, but in Guardian War I love it! (good thing too, since that is basically all it is

) Much deeper than it appears, half the fun is figuring out how to tackle each level (which characters to use, bodies, weapons, etc...) Great graphics, and amazing audio! Truly ahead of its time ... "Another world, another time"

3 - Phantasy Star Online Epidoe I & II plus (GC) The most addictive game ever? Maybe ... Amazing audio/visual package too! GC port beats out the DC original thanks to extra content and a very nice off-line mode. I love this game!

2 - Skies of Arcadia (DC/GC) As far as traditional rpgs go, nothing can touch Skies! Impossible to sum up its brilliant points in just a small paragraph, I'll just say that for turn based rpgs, this is the best there is hands down! Amazing story, that sadly has yet to be continued (where is the sequel Sega?) One of the most satisfying games I've ever beaten

1 - Shenmue (DC) No point in an explanation here, as those who don't enjoy this game won't be swayed by my few words. But for those of us who know ...

As you can see from my list, I prefer real time rpgs to turn based. I also prefer settings that are modern or future. I did not include games like Zelda which are adventure titles, but I will say that Wind Waker is one of the best games ever!

Lemmi · Post by **Lemmi** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 9:30 pm

Trev wrote: I did not include games like Zelda which are adventure titles, but I will say that Wind Waker is one of the best games ever!

Adventure with HIGH role playing
this is where everyone argues

if we went with true classic RPG some of peoples picks wouldnt count

thats why i include them all

Trev · Post by **Trev** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 11:27 pm

So, which Zelda games are your favorites? I love them all, but my top choices are ...

1 - Wind Waker (GC)

2 - The Legend of Zelda (NES/GBA)

3 - Link's Awakening (GBC)

4 - Link to the past (Snes/GBA)

I have yet to play Twilight Princess, but I will as soon as soon as Nintendo decides to produce enough Wii systems to meet the demmand

I'd also love to try out Zelda's Adventure for the cd-i. I used to own one of the side scrolling games which were poor, but this last one looked pretty good actually. (Anyone here play it. I'm sure Devin, Bas & the some of the other guys from the cd-i forum have)

Lemmi · Post by **Lemmi** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 11:57 pm

heh ive only played 4 zelda games, even tho i have atleast 1 zelda game for each of my nintendo systems, so i will just list those

NES
Zelda
Zelda II

CDi
Zelda's Adventure , i actually enjoyed this one, but got bored after awhile and never finished it, plus i was using the remote from the CDi 220 system and i hated that thing
Zelda : The Wand of Gamelon - horrible, horrible, horrible, and because of this game i never even bothered to play the other one

Trev · Post by **Trev** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 12:04 am

CDi
Zelda's Adventure , i actually enjoyed this one, but got bored after awhile and never finished it, plus i was using the remote from the CDi 220 system and i hated that thing
Zelda : The Wand of Gamelon - horrible, horrible, horrible, and because of this game i never even bothered to play the other one

Don't suppose you'd be willing to sell now eh?

In return, I'll monitor the activity of 3DOKid and warn you when he is coming to scoop out your insides.

NikeX · Post by **NikeX** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 5:15 pm

ESIII - Morrowind: Better atmosphere than Oblivion. Not every single detail is explained as it is in Oblivion. Its darker, its more urban. The best virtual RPG in my real life. It has no physics w and annoying flying birds which attack you 24/7, but its the greatest RPG ever. Stunning wide landscapes, dark caves. Great Adventure.

FF VII: I got in touch with Buddhism because of the Lifestream story. Very advanced game. Great music. I wrote a 5000 words long Review about the OST on a german independent games website. FFVII was something like real freedom on PSX. FFVIII lost its freedom and FFIX / X was kitsch.

Suikoden 1: I sold it last year for about 40 €. Great OST, compact but deep storyline, good Gameplay. One of the best RPGs.

Shenmue:: Like Trev wrote. It has an atmosphere like Morrowind.

bonefish · Post by **bonefish** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 4:28 am

No real order:
1. Final Fantasy 6:No Reason needed
2. Final Fantasy 7:Same
3. Super Mario RPG:Legend of the Seven Stars:The most original rpg, the story was excellent considering the source material.
4. Xenogears:Oh yeah... this is #1, amazing game, deep story, edgy themes, beautiful... Need I go on?
5. Final Fantasy Tactics:A more interactive final fantasy, a original story as far as rpg's of the time.
6. Chrono Trigger:A nice lite story, great characters, battles, flow
7. Chrono Cross:Starts out really slow, relies on the graphics and interesting battle system for the first few hours. Then it hits a stride and runs with it.
8. Final Fantasy 9:Excellence, up to the last 2 hours. I just don't like how they wrapped it up, although it ends great. End boss is absolutly the most evil thing in ANY game I've ever played.
9. Zelda OoT: I played through it 5 or so times. But, then again the N64 didn't have much to play.
10. Zelda LttP: Exploration was so well done, it was so close to perfection.
11.... Sorry Zelda WW: I liked the sailing theme although it got a bit old. Boss battles were fun. The cellshading was plain cool.
-

triffid_98 · Post by **triffid_98** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 6:04 am

I loved (and still love) my Dreamcast, but I'm not sure I would rank either of these in my top 10. I loved the art and writing for Skies, but rock/paper/scissors combat just got old after a while. I finished it, I think it's probably the best RPG the DC ever got, but it pales in comparison to what was available on the PC and/or PSX.

Let me think...top 10 RPG? (in no particular order)

Fallout
Fallout 2
Star Control II
Zelda - Occarina of Time
Baldurs Gate II
Neverwinter Nights
Panzer Dragoon Saga
Planescape Torment
Ultima IV
KOTOR

Trev wrote:
Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 7:21 pm Post subject: Favorite rpgs (a top 10 list)

2 - Skies of Arcadia (DC/GC) As far as traditional rpgs go, nothing can touch Skies! Impossible to sum up its brilliant points in just a small paragraph, I'll just say that for turn based rpgs, this is the best there is hands down! Amazing story, that sadly has yet to be continued (where is the sequel Sega?) One of the most satisfying games I've ever beaten

1 - Shenmue (DC) No point in an explanation here, as those who don't enjoy this game won't be swayed by my few words. But for those of us who know ...

Bas · Post by **Bas** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 7:19 pm

I'd also love to try out Zelda's Adventure for the cd-i. I used to own one of the side scrolling games which were poor, but this last one looked pretty good actually. (Anyone here play it. I'm sure Devin, Bas & the some of the other guys from the cd-i forum have)

Oh yeah, and I loved Zelda's Adventure. I don't understand peopel who say they hate the CD-i zelda games. All right, there's a big difference between ZA and the other two, but ZA is definately the best. The atmosphere, the difficulty, it's all very deep and stylish. Later on it got really difficult, mainly because you have like a million items and each enemy or object only works with one of those items. Luckily we have a dutch walkthrough...

zenkov · Post by **zenkov** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 10:18 am

Chrono Trigger

Dengar13 · Post by **Dengar13** » Fri May 25, 2007 12:24 pm

Gir Draxa wrote:Top 10? Hmm... seems too definitive. I'm kind of more open minded. Here's some greats :

Ultima IV - Quest of the Avatar : Apple II - Great classic RPG action, with a long story and surprizingly good graphics & gameplay for the machine it was on. (NES version lacking the keyboard, lacked the involvement)

Phantasy Star II : Sega Genesis - Great story. Good graphics for an early Genesis title, and very involving.

Wrath of Denethnor : Apple II - Ok, I'm bias on this one. Went to school with the creator and got to play it as it was in progress. Still cool, and contained innovations to the Ultima series that for some reason, Origin never thought of.

Dark Wizard : Sega CD - Great merger of the RPG & heavy strategy sim. Great also because you had to play both to win.

Lunar : The Silver Star : Sega CD - Great story, great classic gameplay, great audio. One of the true gems of the Sega CD history.

Vay : Sega CD - Bad humor and occasionally boring, but still... I'll play it all the way to see that little turd Pottle DIE! Gets my vote for most annoying RPG character from the 90s.

Drax

Wow, Vay! That is a very underrated game. I also liked Earthbound for the SNES.