Persona 5. It’s so good that I’m scared that it kinda ruined all other JRPGs for me. I don’t think I will ever find a cooler and more interesting cast of characters.
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King, not only is it my favorite RPG of all time. It's my favorite game of all time.
Honorable Mentions:
Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, Final Fantasy V, Xenoblade Chronicles 1 & 2, Ys 1 & 2, Paper Mario, Pokemon Gen 3, Shining Force 2, Earthbound.
Chrono Trigger followed closely by Chrono Cross.
Nintendo Switch Friend Code: SW-5643-2927-1984
Animal Crossing NH Dream Address: DA-1078-9916-3261
Tales of Symphonia - One of the most formative things of my life, it left a big impact on me as a person. Still my favorite story, cast of characters and a damn near perfect game in terms of design and gameplay.
Baten Kaitos Origins - Is the closest an RPG has ever been to Symphonia for me, an important improvement over the original game and one of the most satisfying origin stories I had the pleasure to play.
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne - Minimalistic, a deep atmosphere and a perfectly tuned challenge, the last masterpiece of the SMT series.
Paper Mario 64, Skies of Arcadia Legends and Fallout New Vegas for me
Xbox: Best hardware, Game Pass best value, best BC, more 1st party genres and multiplayer titles.
RPG's that aren't turn based and generic, which means it's mostly Western RPG's for me.
Step right up come on in, feel the buzz in your veins, I'm like an chemical electrical right into your brain and I'm the one who killed the Radio, soon you'll all see
So pay up motherfuckers you belong to "V"
| Leynos said: RPG is my favorite genre ever. I've played hundreds over the years. I like so much. I love many I have played. I wanted to make a list of my faves. To keep this list manageable I avoided some sub-genres like side-scrolling RPGs or beat em up RPGs and such like Guardian Heroes, Dragon's Crown and the like. You can include whatever you want. I'm just going to stick to more traditional RPGs for my own benefit. I even skipped some WRPGs as I feel that could be its own list. Again you can list whatever sub-genre or not. Ys 1 I don't know why I love this game so much but I do. The opening on the Turbo 16 CD gives me chills every time. Yuzo Koshiro's music is amazing. On paper, this game sounds like every other RPG. The teenage boy saves the day from an evil ruler. There is just something about the combination of music and atmosphere that makes this feel like a grand and fun adventure. Not to mention the speed of this game. Ys series plays fast and furiously. A short game as well. 6-10 hours. This game is quietly one of the most ported and remade games in history. It's been ported and remade on more systems than I can count. The best remake is on Steam with Ys Chronicles.
Grandia 1/2 These IMO are some of the better RPGs of their era but got overlooked for being on SEGA consoles and then poor ports on PlayStation systems. Grandia 1 has one of the best main themes in RPG history. It's up with Skies of Arcadia as the best sense of adventure an RPG has ever had. English version has some of the worst VA in history tho. Grandia 2 is a little darker game in tone but still great fun with great music and enjoyable characters. It came out a year before FFX and at the time considered the best looking RPG ever in 2000 lol. Grandia II improved on the VA as well. Hiring mostly Metal Gear Solid Actors. Jennifer Hale( Every game ever). Cam Clarke (Leo/Rocksteady in TMNT/Liquid Snake in MGS). Paul Eiding(Roy Cambell in MGS). Jodi Benson (Ariel in Little Mermaid) Grandia II may not be the most original but it has a lot of charm and strong performances in well-done characters. On Switch now.
Skies of Arcadia. One of the best RPGs ever that no one has played. No game has taken place in the clouds as fun as this one. This game is not one you play for the story. It's very simple. What it does have is a real adventure feel like pirates. Energetic cast. Fun as hell ship battles. Fantastic music. This your fave Saturday morning cartoon as an RPG game. Sadly it's only on Dreamcast and Gamecube and quite expensive. An emulator is the best bet right now.
Final Fantasy IX This is my fave FF game of all time. The themes. The music. Story and characters. Art. You name it. I love it...except the tetra card battles but that gave me as trouble as the battles in FF7 Gold saucer so whatever. For every reason this is Sakaguchi's fave FF it is also mine. It feels like the purest form of the soul of what FF is supposed to be. That is coming from Sakaguchi and I agree with him. Xenoblade 1/2 The scope and imagination of the unique setting to this series are amazing. They are well written. I care deeply about the characters. Monolith is possibly the best at world-building narratives. I'm super hyped to play the remake next month.
Final Fantasy VII Nothing I can say that has not been said. It's a great game tho some parts have aged like trying to figure out where I am to navigate pre-rendered areas.
Tales of Vesperia Only Tales game I ever liked and I adored this game. In many ways, it reminded me of Grandia II. If you play 1 Tales game this is it. Yuri is one of my fave JRPG protagonists ever. He really breaks a mold. He's not spunky. He's not a teenage silent orphan or only has his mom. He's not a dark edgelord either. He's really well done.
Persona 4 G P5 may have a slicker presentation but IMO P4 has a better story and cast. I feel this has a better sense of comradery. I feel their hurdles are larger. P5 is "cool" where P4 feels they really are overcoming something huge. A string of murders. More complex characters. I love every Persona I played this stands above all IMO
FFVI Again not much can be said that has already been said. One of the best RPGs of all time. Possible the best FF game ever made. |
Very decent list, you are true connoisseur of the genre. Mine is similar.
FFVII- Great Story, Music and Visuals at the time. The story is fantastic, it introduced certain themes to gaming that were previously unheard of. Every character seemed special and had a background story that was relevant to the overall plot. It was a source of inspiration for my first Fan Fics, and I wasn't alone. I don't think that there has ever been a game that has inspired as many fan fictions as this title. A timeless story, that remains meaningful in todays world because many of the socio political issues presented in it are still tremendously relevant.
Lunar 1+2- The older I get, the funnier I find those games (in terms of their witty dialog), they have aged incredibly well. Working Designs truly had the best translations of JRPGs (IMO) and those games are proof of it.
Grandia 1+2- Like you I have a soft spot for this series, though I feel the 3rd iteration sort of dropped the ball a bit. The games are spiritual successors of my beloved Lunar series, and they introduced incredible graphical detail (in their hey day though the PS2 version of Grandia II runs horribly at least in contrast to the wonderful DC one). While I truly enjoyed the first one's epic length and tale of discovery, I have to admit I found Ryudo, Millenia and Elena's tale to be more engrossing and mature. The battle system made turn based battling fun, as it was fast and packed with strategy.
FFVI- This might be the most cinematic game ever made solely in 2-D sprites. IMO it was such a vast improvement in storytelling over every previous FF game, that I truly consider it a "modern" FF in the same vein of FFVII, VIII, and IX. It has the best music in the series at least in my opinion, and some of the most iconic moments in the genre.
Chrono Trigger- The only reason FFVI isn't my favorite SNES game ever; is that Chrono Trigger exists. Square couldn't miss in the 90s and Chromo Trigger is definitely one of the high points of the company. Multiple endings, vast replay value, a timeless tale about time travel, and some of the most gorgeous music you will ever hear.
Chrono Cross- While not quite as great as the first game, very few games can match Trigger, and Cross is more than a worthy sequel. Radical Dreamers remains one of my favorite tracks ever, Mitsuda is every bit the genius that Uematsu is. While the story is convoluted at first, it manages to connect to Trigger and things begin to make sense from there. I definitely think that people should play Trigger first in order to enjoy Cross to its fullest even if it's not required to appreciate the game's greatness.
Xenogears- Another Mitsuda aural masterpiece. The game takes after Grandia in its visual style, except that it features a gigantic overworld in line with the PS1 FF games. The story might be the most ambitious one ever told, in any game. The only problem I could find with Xenogears, is the rushed second disc.
Star Ocean 2- By far my favorite game in the series. Two planets with two fully realized over worlds (In the JRPG format). It also features an incredibly complex item creation system and an excellent action oriented battle system. Rena and Claude's story will never be forgotten.
Tales of Symphonia/Vesperia- I love the tales series, the character development and writing is usually top notch and packed with humor. However those two titles stand above the pack because I found their plots to be more engrossing than the others in the series.
Suikoden 3- A true underdog as most consider the second iteration to be the superior entry. However I felt Suikoden 3 was the best game of the series because I was genuinely engrossed by its Trinity system, a system which allowed me to see the story (and war) from three different perspectives. The game teaches valuable lessons about how cruel and unjust war is.
FFIX- I think this the most refined entry in the series. The translation was top notch, and it combined elements from all of the previous titles into a single heart warming story. A proper ending for the series and the golden age of the JRPG era.
Skies of Arcadia- The only bad thing about SoA is that we never got a sequel. A mesmerizing game at release, and endless sky to explore (or at least it seemed that way back then). A cast of likable characters rounded what perhaps is the best JRPG in that DC-PS2-XBOX-GC era. A shame that Sega hasn't revived this game.
There are plenty of other games that shined one way or another, Star Ocean 3, FFX, Thousand Arms, and others took much of my time during my teenage years but those are the games that I revered and still love the most.
| Chazore said: RPG's that aren't turn based and generic, which means it's mostly Western RPG's for me. |
Implying all JRPGs are generic and turn-based is pretty much a hot take and ignorant. Plenty of generic WRPGs and Turn-based WRPGs. WRPGs invented turn-based RPGs. Japan invented the action-based RPGs.
Final fantasy xii
Chrono cross
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