HELL YA THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I felt Xeonogears overconvolution is what made the story not so good. I played 40hrs into the game, with no discernable plot in site. It felt like most of the game was Fae aimlessly wandering from town to town being swept into situations that are not all that connected. Was not a fan of that. Fortunately the battle system was superb.

My personal choice is a no brainer, FFVII. I enjoyed the characters and themes. I always appreciate an RPG that does not exposite to you (FFXIII) but lays down the necessities to get you by and then lets you discover the details on your own. Most JRPGs of today no longer do this, which is sad. That was part of the enjoyment of traveling a world map. You never knew what mystery you could uncover. Example, Vincent being a secret character. He also has a cave tied to his story that gives you insight into Lucrecia and Sephiroth orgin. None of it is required, but when you do it it enriches the story as a whole.

I very much enjoyed PS4's story. Yet I cannot say if it is the Story I enjoy so much, or the enriched Characterizations of the characters. The series definitely takes the medal for individual Character growths.

Kingdom Hearts series has my favorite light hearted storyline, with a mix of a convoluted epic. KH dips into tropes I hated in games like Xeonogears/saga but maintains a certain level of consistancy in pacing that they lacked.

Yeah I did too. Better than Trigger too (One of the few lol). FFX is a good choice!

a lot of people hate on ten because of things like dialogue but I did find it had one of the best stories in the series. Especially when it comes to overall game lore. Take the Pyre Fly. These things are everywhere in Spira and have strong ties to several world elements. Firstly, they absorb emotions and thoughts of those around them. It is the basis of their magic. When a person dies in Spira, one with a strong resonating emotion can cause Pyreflies to shift and take form. This is how you end up with Fiends, the Fayth, Auron, even Tidus. It is also the basis of the save point spheres in the game, recording the character's memories. In FFX-2 they are taken a step further with Dresspheres, which are crystalized pyreflies that encase the thoughts of someone proficient in a certain JobClass. A main plot point of that game was that the emotional ressonance within Yuna's Songstress DS was so strong it was giving her dreams/nightmares of Lenne/Shuyin.

Rarely does a game craft such an intricate mythos. FFXIII really wanted to create a mythos as strong as 10 but it really fell flat over all with several horrendous retcons they did.

Final Fantasy X

Close second for me is Suikoden 2. And in third place Xenogears.

Also Xenogears. Xenosaga, Tactics Ogre Let Us Cling Together, and Final Fantasy Tactics are up there.

*Opens thread*
*ctrl-f's and types Suikoden*
*finds quite a few people mentioning Suikoden II*
*leaves this thread very happy and recomforted*

Other than S2, I'd say Persona 4, Final Fantasy Tactics and Chrono Cross

Parasite Eve is mine. Though there are some where I like the worlds and characters considerably more.

The first one. The second and the third birthday didn't even have good stories IMO. Nor are they JRPGs in any sense. (tho I actually liked t3b, but not the second one.)

I've not played Xenogears but from the ones I've played i'd say Final Fantasy X, becuse it's pretty interesting from start to end. I also love Chrono Trigger's story, actually there are many stories that I like even if they are not that complex.

Xenogears is the best one. Chrono Cross i would rate second, FFT i would rate third and FF7 i would rate fourth. Kingdom hearts gets a special mention cause its a whole series and not a single game.

Convoluted is usually synonim of a great storyline. People call it convoluted cause they cant really grasp it. It takes more effort than a dudebro storyline to understand.