5 Best Video Game RPGs

[rayner23]

My kids are taking a test, and I'm bored, so I thought I would throw this out there and see what everyone thinks.

Five Greatest RPGs (personal favorites more than anything)

5) Disgaea - so many things to do in this game. Soooo much time wasted.

4) Suikoden - it's like the Pokemon of RPGs. Gotta find all the 108 stars!

3) Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen - This was the first RPG I ever played and I love it so very much. It is so meticulous and engaging.

2) Breath of Fire III/Breath of Fire IV - III had better graphics and boss fights, but IV had a better story and battle system. They both tie at 2.

1) Final Fantasy Tactics for the Playstation - you can play this game dozens of times and never play it the same way twice. I still argue with my friends over the best team possible. I think I have it down now.

[Tadanori Oyama]

5) Xenosaga Series/Xenogears
Linked for ease of reference. Battling robots, alien ghosts made of salt, and the real iron man: Ziggy (Ziggurat 8, not the cartoon).

4) Persona III
One of the most potent examples of personal projection onto the lead character I've ever been through.

3) Ogre Battle 64- Person of Lordly Caliber
Meaningful choices to be made, wars to be won and lost, and many characters to discover and learn about. Not much tastes as sweet as a Dragoon with three front row strikes from a greatsword after all that work with did to unlock the class.

2) Breath of Fire II
The lead character didn't talk but he didn't have to. Engaging characters, a story I felt compelled by, strange dungeons, the shaman fusion system, and turning into a dragon. BoF III and IV made it better, but I tasted Breath of Fire II first.

1) Final Fantasy III (the American SNES version of what would later be FFVI)
First SNES game I ever owned. Massive game, a 14 characters, all of whom I cared about, and a storyline that circled the world twice, broke it, and circled it again.

[rayner23]

I've heard the N64 Ogre Battle was great, but alas, I never had the system.

[Tadanori Oyama]

You heard correctly. My favorite personal moment in the game was when one of the units I'd tended to for a long, long time died in a fight. The fight was part of a string of fight events and I didn't have the chance to resurrect her before the scenario ended.

If a character is dead at the end of a scenario there is a chance of them rising from the dead as a zombie or other form of undead. I had my fingers crossed (I'd had units I cared less about become zombies, I didn't want that to happen here) as the various end of stage windows popped up a closed.

Then wham! There's her portiate in the rising as undead window. I was reaching over to his the reset button and replay the stage when I noticed the box didn't say "unit became a zombie". It said "unit became a seraph". She'd turned into an angel.

I looked it up later and found out that if you have the right equipment there's a chance of female characters becoming angels rather than zombies but at the time I had no clue that could happen.

It was epic.

[rayner23]

That sounds badass! I just love how in-depth all of those games are.

One of my favorite things about Final Fantasy Tactics is finding ways to dick around with the skills and things to make yourself the ultimate badass.

For instance, I wasted hours upon hours to see if I could make Orlandu a Knight with a Two-Sword ninja ability just to see if he could cast his Holy Sword abilities twice. Just for the record: he can't.

Also, there are so many secret characters that are just awesome. I'm not a Final Fantasy VII fan, but it is still cool to see Cloud appear in FFT as a playable character. I even went so far as to level him up a ton to see if he could eventually become really badass. Verdict: he is.

[Maze]

I never got past the second battle! Curse those auto-resolving battles!


5- Super Mario RPG / Paper Mario

4- Valkyria Chronicles

3- Fire Emblem : Seisen no keifu - at some point, all your characters die during the game and you play as their kids. It's epic.

2- Final Fantasy VI - Poor Rachel.

1- Chrono Trigger - Duh.

[Tadanori Oyama]

I'm playing through the PSP remake of Final Fantasy Tactics (which I highly recommend) and it's like playing a different game that's just as fun.

They've rehashed the dialog and the ability names for reflect the more established Ivalice setting. The characters actually talk with vaguely European accents now and say things like "thine mother lay with gutter swine" without taking it so far as to be silly or eyerollingly bad.

They've also cleaned up the storyline, made some of the groups and side knowledge easier to grasp.

I'm currently trying to get the new Final Fantasy import: Balthier.



Valkyria Chronicles has been awesome. It was practically the reason I bought a PS3 (along with Disgaea 3, who should also have been on my list) and I consider it money well spent.

[Maze]

You just wait for "Heavy Rain" to come out, I'll be the one buying a PS3 for that game.

Cody: What do you teach anyway?

[Tadanori Oyama]

It did look amazing and I'll certainly play it but I'm on the edge of my seat for White Knight Chronicles by Level 5 Studios, the ones who did Rogue Galaxy and Joan de Arc.

[clockworkjoe]

BAH

These are the best video game RPGs

Planescape Torment: It has a real plot, great writing and characterization.

Fallout: Real character choices between good, evil and selfishness. One of the best endings ever.

Fallout 2: A bit buggy in some areas, but war, war never changes.

Terranigma: you have to play it on an emulator and the game is similar to secret of mana but the ending is worth it.

Dungeon Crawl: Play it and find out http://crawl-ref.sourceforge.net/

[rayner23]

I teach high school English. Mostly, I have sophomores, but I also teach a newspaper class to a bunch of lazy, good for nothing slackers.

White Knight Chronicles looks amazing! My wife and I are debating about a PS3 for this and this only (until Final Fantasy XIII comes out that is).

[dragonshaos]

My random favorites
Disgaea
Ogre Battle 64(My first rpg, Im holding onto my n64 just in case I find this game again)
Final Fantasy Tactics PSP (Never owned a ps1 and too late when i got a ps2 to play)
Morrowind for the Xbox was fun, until i got it for the PC then i just edited everything to my favor.
Fallout
Does the original Pokemon count?  if so Blue and Red Version.
Mass Effect was entertaining.
Final Fantasy X
([Cause people say I look like Auron when I cover my lower face; the samurai guy] FUCK BLITZBALL!)
ummm...Oh,
Golden Sun for the Gameboy SP, both 1&2 (never beat 1)
That's all I got for now.

[wrotenbe]

1.) Fallout 2 - Great setting mixed with a great story, winning combination. I picked this one because I think it's a much smoother game than the original.

2.) Arcanum - The single best steampunk game ever released. You can play a knight with a hand-cannon and a mechanical spider pet, what's not to like?

3.) VtM: Bloodlines - There are so few modern RPG games that it's worth mentioning, plus the characters are actually interesting.

4.) Deus Ex - Cyberpunk goodness.

5.) System Shock 2 - "L-L-Look at you, hacker... A p-pathetic creature of meat and bone... Panting and sweating as you ru-ru-run through my corridors... How can you challenge a perfect immortal machine?"

[Maze]

Oh yeah, Golden Sun was awesome, great story, great gameplay, great soundtrack. The sequel starts immediately as the first one ends. They're more like a game split in two, really.

I forgot to mention this amazing game on Nintendo DS: "The World Ends With You." If you have a DS, definitely go check it out, it's a lot of hours of RPG fun with an interesting soundtrack and interesting story.

[rayner23]

Final Fantasy X is my guilty pleasure. I really like the leveling up system and it is just all around a fun battle system and pretty to look at.

Final Fantasy XII is the best though. The story is just okay, but the characters are awesome and the battle system is perfect.