I dunno facher I finished Cross and still couldn't allow myself to associate it with Chrono Trigger. It was a good RPG, but nowhere near the same caliber and certainly not near the same style.

I've never played Skies of Arcadia. I should play it sometime.

 I read a comment from the dev team (either the producer or the script writer, I can't remember which) that [he] doesn't think Chrono Cross' true objectives were realized by the general audience.  I admit it took me about 3 complete playthroughs for me to understand the connectivity with Trigger.

 But I probably like storylines above all, since it has the most emotional impact on me.

I still think Planescape: Torment is possibly the most complete, the graphics are so pleasing, the world feels real, and it's very adult.  The story is killer too, it's like reading a book.  I've always been a fan of hand-drawn, or non 3D-generated content.  Gogo Infinity Engine!

1. FFVI
2.FFIX
3. Star Ocean the second story
4.FFX
5.Knuckles in Chinaland (if you can call that a RPG).

If you don't know that knuckles game:

gladius

paper mario GC

super paper mario Wii

super mario rpg

eragon

Super Mario RPG
Paper Mario
Kingdom Hearts
Pokemon Diamond
Paper Mario TTYD

It's not strange.  Arcanum wasn't given much exposure which is really too bad.  Great game though; the plot was very well done despite its mostly non-linear gameplay.

It's a classic through and through, and definitely worth a play (to anyone reading this who hasn't played it).

It's interensting what kind of definitions people use for RPGs.

1. Open world to explore; in that category we can put many games including Zelda, GTA, Morrowind, Metroid Prime, Fallout, Final Fantasy etc.

2. Story driven; well then we can include most from the first category again

3. Character driven; same here I suppose

4. Turn based/menu interface combat; if you use this definition thn you have to exclude all games in the first category except  Fallout and Final Fantasy.

5. Free choice of character development. In this category I think that Fallout together with Morrowind are the only games that fit (from my examples)

It's kind of a vauge/indefinite category of games. 

I liked Arcanum, it's just not among my top 5.

I'm glad to see lots of love for FFVI and FFIX. FFIX especially is often ignored.

 Play the game. ITo me is one of the most fresh and well designed RPG's ever made. Unfortunately it was overlooked and didn't do very well in sales. But all the people I know who played this game agrees that is worthy of a sequel of prequel. This could be a great franchise :D 

1.Phantasy Star IV

2.Shining Force 2

3.Skies of Arcadia

4.Final Fantasy VI

5.Tales of the Abyss