1) Ice Wind Dale 1 (plus Expansion Heart of Winter & Trails of the Lure Master). 2) Ice Wind Dale 2 3) Fire Emblem (GC) 4) Baldurs Gate 1 (all Expansions) (PC) 5) Tie for every FF's before 7 (that I played) 6) Baten Kiatos (Thankful that Nintendo bought them). ...all of you that said that you love the Fall- Out series understand the joy that Interplay's Infinity Engine brought PC players. I wish Interplay still used that engine to make games and that they brought those from the PC to Wii and DS. While they are at it why not bring- out a new Fall-Out. And no I don't need any extra polygons! Somebody with some know- how start a letter campaign to Interplay! Please.

It's a tie between Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy IV for me.

Grandia 2 for Dreamcast (with Skies close second). I just loved the characters, the special moves and the battle system. While most of the magic and things were cliche and some of the characters were a little bit EH i could play that game forever simply because I enjoy the battle system SO MUCH!!

1)Chrono Trigger- just perfect. great story, music, characters, pacing, battle system, no random battles.

2)Skies of Arcadia- pirates! roaming the skies in a 128bit sky was just epic. ship battles. base building. neat battle systems.

3)Suikoden III- three different perspectives led to one cool story that becomes so satisfying when everyone joins up. I have a thing for collecting characters and building bases. Suikoden V's mechanically a better game, but there's something to be said for the one that started it all (III was the first I played in the series)

 I really wanna play Suikoden II and Panzer Dragoon Saga. I've heard so many good things about them. I also can't claim to be an RPG afficianado w/out them.

DIABLO 2 W/ EXPANSION LORD OF DESTRUCTION

Baldurs Gate II. I don't really get jrpg's, I think the party based ad&d RPG's are much more complex, in depth and exciting, not to mention challenging. The story is usually better as well. As far as JRPG's go, I think Grandia 2 is by far the best.

omgwtfbbq, if Interplay/ Black Isle made a B.G. III but used the same game engine (the Infinity Engine used for Icewindale 1&2, Fall Out, BG I... ect) so that it looked almost the same, would you play it.

Also if you want a good and complicated Rpg from Japan w/ a great story, play the Game Cube Fire Emblem, I bought it for $14 dollars at Gamestop it was well worth it. I was hesitant to buy it but now I know how foolish I was.

Definitely Ultima VII (a huge gameworld where you may go to pick up some wheat, take it to the mill, make some flour and from the flour with an owen some bread... cities with hundreds people to tal with... and all in 1993, a bit before Oblivion) and Planescape: Torment (the best screenplay ever written for a videogame: the best black isle / bioware game so far)

By stepping out of the norm I am going to say radiata stories. Very funny action rpg. The stories, charachters, environments and gameplay are very unique and have such strong personalities you cannot help but fall in love with the entire game.

Almost every named character can be recruted into your "clan" and each environment has it's own secrets music and feel. The kingdom actually feels alive with people going about their business or popping up in places that you do not expect.

You can  adventure from the castle, to the slums, sewers, church area, acadamia district  and the theatere area. The city feels so large and alive it is almost astonishing when you realize that outside of the kingdom is a world that is as detailed (if not even more so than whats inside the city.

Time for choices: This game is actually one of the few games that eventual drastically alters the storyline, area's and even the people you meet depending on the actions that you do. Instead of some kotor/fable safe run, where you eventually run into the characters no matter your disposition, there are characters  in radiata that you will not run into "period" depending on your choices. This game is a great ride the first time through and when you realize how strongly your actions have on the game you wouldn't mind playing a second time around.

My top five are (not in order): Baldur's Gate 2 Fallout 2 Grandia 2 Skies of Arcadia Final Fantasy 10