All time favorite RPG

[JB]

It consists ENTIRELY of plotholes. And like most menu-driven RPGs, there's not a whole lot of gameplay there(the plethora of minigames would make up for this somewhat if they didn't feel like half-assed efforts from a high school programming class).

 

What you call plot holes I call making you think. The major parts of the plot are obvious but some of the details leave you pondering. I like stories like that. Neon Genesis Evangelion is another example.

I like it when the story ends with a cohesive story, not a ragged mess of unfinished plot threads.

GOOD writing makes you think WITHOUT leaving every question asked during the telling left unanswered.

 

As for Eva, never seen it, never gonna.

 

 

 

This guy has thought about it a lot, and has a very interesting take on what the plot was really about. The crazy thing is he could be right, at least on some accounts.

Seen breakdowns before. All little more than fanfiction. They can't even decide if the party lives or dies in the end, much less any of the more involved danglers(aside from Cloud's backstory, where everyone assumes the hardest version to see is the true one).

And NO ONE can explain where Red 13's mate came from.

 

It adds replay value because playing through it again helps you put together the subtler points. The first time I played through it, it blew my mind because I forgot much of the things that had happened. That's just me though.

Funny, I felt cheated that they kept dragging new plot threads out and in the end couldn't be bothered to tie any of them off.

 

It's like if I bought a book and found out that the author decided not to write a third of the chapters.

[sigma]

My favorite modern RPG, as well as my favorite RPG of all, is Final Fantasy VII. It is the most complex game I've ever played. (Gold Saucer alone can keep me entertained for hours at a time.) Of course the plot is awesome, preventing the strongest man in the world from becoming a god while finding your own humanity. You just can't beat it.

*grumblegrumble*

FF7 is the single biggest trainwreck ever passed off as intelligent writing.

It consists ENTIRELY of plotholes. And like most menu-driven RPGs, there's not a whole lot of gameplay there(the plethora of minigames would make up for this somewhat if they didn't feel like half-assed efforts from a high school programming class).

wrong, it's FFVIII. 8 took out everything good about 7 and kept the angst.

 

Anyway, I'm surprised that Terranigma hasn't come up yet

[shep]

 

Anyway, I'm surprised that Terranigma hasn't come up yet

 

I'm not, your the only person I've met who knows anything about this title

[Kenshi]

I like it when the story ends with a cohesive story, not a ragged mess of unfinished plot threads.

GOOD writing makes you think WITHOUT leaving every question asked during the telling left unanswered.

 

That may be what you consider to be good writing, but considering there are several popular stories with the same ambiguity as FF7, it's simply not true for many. It is opinion. I'll stick with my stories that don't spell everything out so blatantly. Hopefully we can let this thread get back to RPG's in general now.

[JB]

My favorite modern RPG, as well as my favorite RPG of all, is Final Fantasy VII. It is the most complex game I've ever played. (Gold Saucer alone can keep me entertained for hours at a time.) Of course the plot is awesome, preventing the strongest man in the world from becoming a god while finding your own humanity. You just can't beat it.

*grumblegrumble*

FF7 is the single biggest trainwreck ever passed off as intelligent writing.

It consists ENTIRELY of plotholes. And like most menu-driven RPGs, there's not a whole lot of gameplay there(the plethora of minigames would make up for this somewhat if they didn't feel like half-assed efforts from a high school programming class).

wrong, it's FFVIII. 8 took out everything good about 7 and kept the angst.

 

Anyway, I'm surprised that Terranigma hasn't come up yet

8 has mildy better writing than 7.

Everything good anbout 7 would be the materia system, so... yup.

 

 

Anyway, I'm surprised that Terranigma hasn't come up yet

 

I'm not, your the only person I've met who knows anything about this title

Sequel to Illusion of Gaia, one of the few games to make it to Europe but not America.

Never played it, but I know of it.

[sku_u]

I don't make a disticinction between Adventure and RPG. Keeping that in mind, here are the first few that come to mind:

 

King's Quest: Quest for the Crown

Gateway to Apshai

Angband

Legend of Zelda

Ultima III

 

I'm not a big fan of modern RPGs as they are too involved and take too much time, but the best ones I can think of from the modern era:

 

Myst

Everquest

[Classic Pac]

Heres a few of my other favorites this time on the Game Boy

 

Link's Awakening DX

Final Fanyasy Legend 3

Final Fantasy Adventure

 

FFA contains my favorite RPG moment where your girlfriend turns into a tree

[Jess Ragan]

I'm pretty fond of Suikoden II and Grandia myself. At a time when RPGs were all style and no substance, Suikoden II dared to give the player the freedom to explore, along with tons and TONS of gameplay. You can have any one of 108 characters in your party, and they're ALL more interesting than any of the schmucks in the mercilessly overhyped and overrated Final Fantasy VII (why do people like this game? Why, I tell you, WHY?!?).

 

Grandia is fantastic for its exciting combat system that acts as a bridge between real-time and turn-based fighting. I'm also really fond of the artwork and the character designs... there have never been adventurers as unapologically cute as the stars of Grandia. The sequel on Dreamcast had a darker storyline and more serious characters, so it wasn't *quite* as good as the Saturn game, despite vastly improved graphics.

 

JR

[MegaManFan]

FF9 is vastly underrated. Some people will want to knock it for dropping the "hyper-realistic" look of FF8, but I think it's a nice compromise between that and FF7, and gets big kudos in my book for dropping the fact you had to "draw" magic to cast it or tie it to your abilities. God I hated that.

[JB]

Grandia is fantastic for its exciting combat system that acts as a bridge between real-time and turn-based fighting.  I'm also really fond of the artwork and the character designs... there have never been adventurers as unapologically cute as the stars of Grandia.  The sequel on Dreamcast had a darker storyline and more serious characters, so it wasn't *quite* as good as the Saturn game, despite vastly improved graphics.

 

JR

I never got into Grandia 1. It was a fun game and all, but Sony's dubbing job made me want to kill someone, and there was no way to avoid the voice clipsaside from killing all sound, so I had to quit playing.

 

Grandia 2 I had buttloads of fun with, even though large chunks of plot felt like they were lifted straight from Lunar 2. May as well rip off the best, I guess.

[sigma]

FF9 is vastly underrated.  Some people will want to knock it for dropping the "hyper-realistic" look of FF8, but I think it's a nice compromise between that and FF7, and gets big kudos in my book for dropping the fact you had to "draw" magic to cast it or tie it to your abilities.  God I hated that.

Yes, 9 was a step back in the right direction, but it still had too much cutscenes/talking in general. A good rpg needs a nice balance of story and questing, and it did not have it.

Sequel to Illusion of Gaia, one of the few games to make it to Europe but not America.  

Never played it, but I know of it.

You should. I'll drop a rom in a pm if you want.

[Lord Helmet]

FF9 is vastly underrated.  Some people will want to knock it for dropping the "hyper-realistic" look of FF8, but I think it's a nice compromise between that and FF7, and gets big kudos in my book for dropping the fact you had to "draw" magic to cast it or tie it to your abilities.  God I hated that.

Yes, 9 was a step back in the right direction, but it still had too much cutscenes/talking in general. A good rpg needs a nice balance of story and questing, and it did not have it.

 

That is the problem with the FF games...to many cut scenes and too much banter...Still, I love playing them.

[MegaManFan]

For cut scene overload, you can't beat Xenosaga. At least in FF games I can wander around in the woods and level up until I'm ready for the next chapter. XS doesn't give you much choice.

 

Which reminds me, one of these days I'll get around to PLAYING Xenogears - I have it but haven't done much with it.

[JB]

Sequel to Illusion of Gaia, one of the few games to make it to Europe but not America.  

Never played it, but I know of it.

You should. I'll drop a rom in a pm if you want.

I can find it.

I may have it, actually.

 

The whole PAL thing turned me off. I want my 60FPS, and the damned region protection can tell what speed it's running at, so you can't force NTSC timing. If they were gonna region protect, they should've RELEASED IT IN AMERICA SO THEY HAD HALF A REASON TO BLOCK THE IMPORT!

[tyranthraxus]

No votes for Wizardry???

 

When I was growing up, we "Ultima Geeks" were always at war with the "Wizardry Geeks" who swore Wizardry was SOOOOooo much better..

 

Guess I was right after all..

 

I think thats because all the Wizardry geeks are enjoying the latest

sequel on their PS2 while all the Ultima nerds are on message boards

bashing EA for not putting out a proper sequel.

[DeV0]

Sequel to Illusion of Gaia, one of the few games to make it to Europe but not America.  

Never played it, but I know of it.

You should. I'll drop a rom in a pm if you want.

I can find it.

I may have it, actually.

 

The whole PAL thing turned me off. I want my 60FPS, and the damned region protection can tell what speed it's running at, so you can't force NTSC timing. If they were gonna region protect, they should've RELEASED IT IN AMERICA SO THEY HAD HALF A REASON TO BLOCK THE IMPORT!

 

Ive got a playstation boot disc that will for ntsc or pal. It works on all my psx pal games including the final fantasy series, retail blacks and hong kong silvers

[shining slade]

I can't believe no one has mentioned any of the Shining Force series yet. By far my favorite series in RPG land. I also really liked Dragon Force on the Saturn, Legend Of Legaia on PS1, & FF III on the SNES. On GBA it has to be either Fire Emblem or Golden Sun.

[Serblander]

My ALL TIME favourite RPG's are the classic SSI games, hands down!

 

For my all time favourite RPG, it would have to be...

 

Wizard's Crown on the Atari ST

 

I can't wait to get myself an Atari 8-Bit disk drive for my XE Games System so i can play the sequel: The Eternal Dagger (i already have the full game - Mint CIB).

 

My other favourite RPG's on different systems are:

 

Pool of Radiance (Amiga 500)

Curse of the Azure Bonds (Amiga 500)

Dungeon Master (Atari ST)

Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday (Sega MegaDrive)

[JB]

Sequel to Illusion of Gaia, one of the few games to make it to Europe but not America.  

Never played it, but I know of it.

You should. I'll drop a rom in a pm if you want.

I can find it.

I may have it, actually.

 

The whole PAL thing turned me off. I want my 60FPS, and the damned region protection can tell what speed it's running at, so you can't force NTSC timing. If they were gonna region protect, they should've RELEASED IT IN AMERICA SO THEY HAD HALF A REASON TO BLOCK THE IMPORT!

 

Ive got a playstation boot disc that will for ntsc or pal. It works on all my psx pal games including the final fantasy series, retail blacks and hong kong silvers

No PS1 games cehck the scren refresh rate after booting.

Many later SNES games do, just to cause problems for people that have already bypassed the region lockout.

...

Though usually they refuse to run on 50Hz decks, not the other way around.

[Goochman]

Have to admit I'm a bit surprised....

 

No votes for Wizardry???

 

When I was growing up, we "Ultima Geeks" were always at war with the "Wizardry Geeks" who swore Wizardry was SOOOOooo much better..

 

Guess I was right after all..

 

:-)

 

desiv

 

Wizardry never came out on an Atari system - I always wanted to play it - When I got the Mac emu on my Atari ST I booted up Wizardy but by that time it looked old compared to Dungeon Master

[DeV0]

I can't believe no one has mentioned any of the Shining Force series yet. By far my favorite series in RPG land. I also really liked Dragon Force on the Saturn, Legend Of Legaia on PS1, & FF III on the SNES. On GBA it has to be either Fire Emblem or Golden Sun.

 

 

I mentioned shining the holy ark for the saturn, one of the best RPG's in existance. Theres some other great saturn rpg's which i have in Japanese like soul hackers. Enemy zero is worth a mention as well.