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[Lynx_7]

This is a very personal list, so the mini analysis are written accordingly.

1. Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne (Best Combat)
I cannot remember the last time I've been so completely engrossed in an experience as I was when I played this game for the first time. It was one of those times where everything just clicked: the somber, lonely, ethereal, almost dreamlike atmosphere which complements the minimalistic storytelling really well, the soundtrack which also works in tandem with the aforementioned qualities, and the battle system which offers just enough options to be satisfyingly challenging. It's not only my favorite RPG but has also been my favorite game overall for a few years.

2. Dark Souls
Quite like my #1 choice, this is one of those dream games that just ticked all the right things I want to see in a game. A dark fantasy Berserk-like world infested with dangerous creatures everywhere? Check. A challenging, satisfying yet not overlycomplicated combat system to complement said setting? Check. One of the most well designed 3D worlds in gaming which rewards exploration and curiosity? Check. Great soundtrack? Check. Praise the sun? Check. Dark Souls just has it all, and might as well have been my number 1 spot if not for some late game stinkers such as Lost Izalith and Crystal Cave. Truthfully, this is the game I'd have awarded "Best Combat" if there was a "Best Art Direction" category to give to Nocturne, but it was not to be.

3. Chrono Trigger (Best Soundtrack)
For over 10 years, Chrono Trigger was my undisputed favorite game of all time. I've written quite a few times about why I think this game is so good, so I'll keep this short. Great sense of pacing with little to no fillers inbetween, fun and varied setpieces, a charming cast of characters, a simple yet fun and quick battle system, a fantastic OST, good writting and an engaging story that doesn't go on for longer than it should and can be reasonably completed in under 20 hours. CT is just one of those games that does most things right and is a prime example of what JRPGs can be like at their best.

4. Persona 4 (Best Writting)
There was a time when I pretty much stopped playing videogames and focused on my other hobbies. I don't remember why or what made me pick up Persona 4, but I did. It got high scores, I read good things about it a few times (keep in mind this is circa 2009-2010, when the game was not nearly as popular as it is now) and for some reason it just picked my curiosity, and I'm freaking glad it did. I was so invested in the story, characters and setting of this game that I'd just play it for 10 hours straight like I've rarely done for a game since.

Now, look, I'm fond of (some types of) animes and all that but I've never cared for waifus or dating sims or any of those hardcore otaku things a lot of people lump this game together with and I had a fucking blast with it, so even if you think this might not be your cup of tea because of what the internet may lead you to believe, I'd still ask you to at least give it a shot. Play it until the end of the first dungeon and if you don't like it then fine, but do give it a try. Maybe, like me, you'll be glad you did. Also this is the game that pretty much introduced me to SMT and made me play Nocturne so I'm eternally grateful for it.

5. Demon's Souls
As someone who played Dark Souls first and this one after, I honestly didn't expect it to hold up as well as it did. In some areas, I'd say it's the superior game. It has one of the best atmospheres in a videogame, some of the best locations of the entire Soulsborne series (I'd still argue Tower of Latria is the single best area in ANY of these games and hasn't been topped yet) and doesn't have the same lows that DkS's second half does. While the bosses here pale in comparison to what its younger sibling has to offer, at least one of them ranks among the most heartbreaking fights of the series. Truth be told, had this been my first Souls game it probably would be higher on the list than DkS, but since it wasn't and your first experience with these games is without a doubt the most memorable one, I just have a softer spot for Dark Souls in my heart.

6. Final Fantasy VI
Like Chrono Trigger, FF VI is also a remarkable, if a bit "clunkier" version of what JRPGs can be at their best, much for the same reasons which I won't bother repeating. As far as storytelling goes, this is probably the more ambitious project of the two, sporting some of the most iconic scenes in the genre. If you could only play one FF title in your life, I'd personally reccomend either this one or IX.

7. Dragon Quest V
The final chapter in my "this is what JRPGs can be" trilogy, and the latest I've played. If CT is the cooler, more polished younger brother, FF VI the edgier, more ambitious middle brother, then DQ V is the charming, more traditional older brother. It's the one that feels most like a "personal epic odyssey" and the game that handles the coming-of-age story better than any other example I can think of in the medium. It also has a very cosy world with charming npcs. Sometimes I would revisit old locations after a major story event and talk to everybody just so I could see new dialogue and use the party chat feature everywhere. It's pretty excellent all around and if you like very traditional turn-based rpgs this game is essential and sadly underrated/overlooked in the west.

8. Final Fantasy IX
Sometimes I wonder whether or not this is the true #1 Final Fantasy in my heart. It was technically the first one I played, but it didn't really click with me until I replayed it several years later. It's got one the most solid casts of the franchise, a pretty good localization which makes the script really shine and is a great homage to the entire series. Its major flaw is the slowest battle system of all FF games which can get a bit tiresome at times, sadly. Still, I only have fond memories of the time I spent with it and it's definetely one of these titles that deserves more love than it gets.

9. BloodBorne
A strong candidate for my GOTY and a terrific game all around, like its other siblings here on this list. It definetely has my favorite soundtrack of the Soulsborne franchise. The only reason it doesn't rank quite as high as them is honestly because of "play order bias", series fatigue and the fact that chalice dungeons get old after a while, though I don't think they're as bad as some people say.

10. Fire Emblem: Awakening
Truth be told, I'm not very familiar with the FE series, so veterans will chastise me for this choice. Having only played FE Shadow Dragon, FE7 up to a certain point (chapter 16 or so) and Awakening, the latter just resonated more with me despite the broken balance and all that. I played it on hard/classic and some of those optional chapters made me sweat bullets. I can still vividly remember things like Nowii saving my ass from a reset with some legendary dodges and crits, or Donnel absolutely beasting his way through a mini army, not to mention my little "Robin and Chrom's last stand" run I made on the very final chapter while DAT Id (Purpose) played. I just have a lot of personal "war stories" from this game which happened organically through gameplay and made for some fond memories, so that's why I think this game deserves a spot here even if it did introduce some questionable elements here and there and the broken balance.

11.Mother 3
I really don't know how to choose between this and Mother 2 (EarthBound). They're both good for different reasons. EarthBound's got the richer, more expansive world, while Mother 3 is a more tightly focused, emotionally driven experience. But whenever I think of moments between the two games that affected me the most, Mother 3 wins by just a hair, so if I need to choose then Mother 3 it is. And remember, no crying until the end.

12. Final Fantasy VII
I didn't like this game as much as I do now when I first beat it. Replaying it recently, however, really made me look at it in a different, more positive perspective. It clicked with me in a way that it hadn't before, perhaps because this time I knew what to expect and didn't have ridiculous expectations. Midgar is a great setting, the soundtrack is memorable and there's just a lot of cool things I didn't properly enjoy at first It's an engrossing experience that unfortunately gets a lot of backlash these days, but I'd still argue it's one of the best FF titles.

13. Persona 3 FES
Obviously when I first beat Persona 4 this game shot up to the #1 spot on my "must play this right the fuck now" list. It's a pretty good game even if the sequel improves on a lot of things, and many people prefer its atmosphere and cast over P4's. While I don't share the same opinion, I can see where they're coming from. My only major criticism towards P3 is that the last few months drags on forever before it picks up the pace at the very end. At the very least it has one of my favorite videogame endings of all time (this being the one aspect where I feel it absolutely trumps P4) so I can forgive it for its faulty pacing.

14. EarthBound
Mother 3's sillier, more adventurous brother. Also the one that has the more terrifying psychological horror bits. It's just one of the most charming games I've ever played, though it's not one I can easily reccomend because of its rather dull gameplay and terrible inventory system (I hate hate hate hate when games limit your inventory to this degree. The modern DQ games handle it the best imo with its limited character supply but infinite "backlog" bag so you don't have to keep throwing items away every 2 minutes).

15. Undertale
Maybe it's recency bias, or maybe it'll rank even higher on this list a few years from now, but I feel like Undertale at least deserves a spot here for being the only game ever to make me feel like a coldhearted asshole for doing a "completionist" run. Something which can manage to get me this invested in a bunch of fictional characters has got to be doing something right. Also, DAT soundtrack. Top 3 game from 2015 for sure.

16. Dragon Quest VIII
My previously favorite DQ title, and the first one I played. There's not much to say here, it's just a solid game that does a lot of things right and is probably the best entry point in the Dragon Quest franchise.

17. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
I absolutely love Mario rpgs. They're just a joy to play and are better than some of his main platformer titles. They definetely rank as my favorite spin-off series of his, and TTYD is the one that veeeery slightly edges out the other titles (sorry, SuperStar Saga). It's a shame the PM series hasn't been (this) good ever since.

18. Final Fantasy X
If FF VII is the game that I started to appreciate more with time, FF X is its direct opposite. Once upon a time it ranked as my favorite FF title, but it just didn't hold up quite as well as I remembered when I replayed the HD rerelease. It still has the best battle system the series has ever seen and is a solid game all around by all means, but some of its cutscenes and dialogue didn't age gracefully. Still a pretty good entry point FF game.

19. Mario&Luigi: SuperStar Saga
I have such good memories of this game. It was the third Mario RPG title I played and the second one I actually beat, and till this day I consider it the strongest title of the Mario&Luigi series (sorry, BIS). One thing I feel like it has over Paper Mario is just how well it captures the whole Mario universe and its characters. As far as I'm concerned, these games have THE official characterizations of every single Mario character and it's how I imagine them and the world they live in to be like.

20. Paper Mario
Sometimes I wonder if this game isn't my de facto favorite Paper Mario game, but it's been so long since I last played it that I'd have to replay the whole thing to form a conclusive opinion. Perhaps that's the reason I feel obliged to at least include it at the very end of this list. As far as Mario RPGs go, this is the one that handles the Mario vs Bowser tale the best, and just has this very "classic adventure" feeling to it.

Honorable mentions
1. Shin Megami Tensei IV – I'm sorry, I really wanted to include you up there. You almost made it
2. Final Fantasy IV
3. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Weird choice I know, but I still haven't played Skyrim, believe it or not.
4. Chrono Cross - Soundtrack of the gods. Based Mitsuda.
5. Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter - Most underrated game ever. I'll fite you irl if you disagree.
6. Pokemon: HeartGold/SoulSilver - The titles which I feel better represent the whole Pokemon franchise.
7. Pokemon: Black/White - My favorite vision of what "modern Pokémon" can be like, before it went in a direction I really didn't care for with X/Y.
8. Devil Survivor: Overclocked
9. Fire Emblem 7
10. Planescape: Torment - Real talk, I haven't finished this yet, but I've been enjoying my experience so far and it has a great setting and REALLY good writting.

****

I probably forgot some titles here and there, but oh well, it's hard to do lists like these. Hopefully I'll have a better one to show next time once I get around to playing a lot of games who could potentially score high positions in my list. I really need to start working on my backlog.

 

[Codeblue]

1. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance - My favorite game of all time. It was my introduction to the series and the genre, and I don't think I've ever clicked with a game like this before. The protagonist starts off as a rookie and slowly becomes more skilled, starts grasping how to lead an army, learns more about each unit and cares for them, mirroring my progress, skills, and feelings. I started a completely unaware of what I was doing, and by the end I was leading a force with a “no man left behind” mindset. Actual Spoiler:

Spoiler

The protagonist is also coming to terms with his father’s death, and I happened to pick this game up only weeks after my father had passed.

The time and circumstance under which I played this was a right game at the right time sort of thing, and I don’t expect many people will have the game click for them like it did with me, but upon replaying it, I still feel like it’s the best in the series.

2. Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - They are two parts of the same game so I can't not mention it. Radiant Dawn is the game that happens after the "Happily Ever After" in games where a war occurs. It tells the story of strife that occurs after war has subsided and the politicians regain power. Not only that, but it tells it from all angles, meaning you're often fighting against the crew you were just controlling. It's also unapologetically difficult right from the start, and I love it for that.

3. Mother 3 (Best Writing) - I can't really get into this too much without totally spoiling it, but I can say that no game has ever hit me harder. Heartrending is an understatement, and yet it was an experience totally worth having. The game is an emotional rollercoaster and will always be a really special experience to me.

4. Earthbound - I don't think a game has ever endeared itself to me the way Earthbound has. I only played it a couple of years ago, but it still has the most charm and heart I've seen in the medium. The dialogue and music are still great after all these years, though the battle system isn't my cup of tea. It was heartfelt without being corny, and it delivered its themes with a light hand. The final battle is something that cemented it as one of my favorite games of all times.

5. The World Ends With You (Best Soundtrack) - Who knew Square still had it in them? It turned out to be a pretty innovative collaboration with Jupiter. The story may have been the same generic stuff about a kid whose heart grew three sizes that day but it's told in an incredibly unique way. I don't think there's anything I didn't like about the game. The battle system is unique, the music is great for the theme. I really want to highlight that I would never listen to this music outside the game, but it does so much to realize the setting and create a cohesive product. Everything is adjustable, there's a collection aspect, plenty of post game content. There's really nothing this game didn't do, and it did it all really well. I've never experienced anything quite like this before, and it came at a time I thought nothing could surprise me anymore.

6. Dark Souls (Best Combat) - This game was a landmark for me this generation. The sense of exploration and place were fantastic. Part of the reason the game is so satisfying isn’t just the difficulty, but also the game allowing you to put everything together for yourself. Every game in the series is great, but I feel that Dark Souls stands a little above the others.

7. Persona 4 - I went into this not knowing what a Persona game even was and I got an incredibly unique experience. I'm not even sure how to describe the game. I feel like I need to mention the soundtrack for not only being really great, but also for tying into the game thematically. Anyway, I was really absorbed in this game for the 100 or so hours of the experience. They do a lot to make you feel like you're part of that world and the payoff was pretty big for me.

8. The Last Story - Amazing game. I loved the unique battle system, especially the vaulting. Great aesthetic, mood, character, and music. Of which, I think this is up there with Uematsu's best. Phenomenal sound track.

9. Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation 2 - Another SRPG. Like Radiant Dawn, I thought this was a strong follow up, but unlike Radiant Dawn I thought the prequel was lacking. It fixed pretty much any complaints I had with the first game, returned with great music, and a strong cast and story.

10. Xenoblade Chronicles - A beautiful fusion of different RPG styles. The story wasn't spectacular, but it was pretty good. The battle system was really fun and had a lot of depth once you got further in the game. It was a pretty great showing of what the Wii was really capable of in terms of scale by producing this giant world for you to explore. That's all great, whatever, but the music blew me away. Shimomura especially outdid herself.

11. Valkyria Chronicles - It was sort of light on the RPG elements but I guess it still counts since other people are listing it. The art direction goes without saying, but it really is one of the things that impacted me most with this game. This is a weird one for me, because I thought the strategy aspect was pretty light and easy, but at the same time super fun and satisfying.

12. Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean - Horrible voice acting aside, I thought the environments were really cool, the combat actually required some thought, and the characters were likable. I never got around to the sequel, unfortunately.

13. Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones - Some of my favorite characters in the series, but I feel like PoR and RD were just stronger entries overall

14. Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga - While I loved the gameplay and the way encounters work, I think the writing really made this game. It was everything I would expect from a Paper Mario game, which is about the highest compliment I can pay to comedy in games.

15. Undertale - Earthbound-Lite. It’s inspired by two of my favorite games of all time, and yet it manages to be inspired by them without being derivative. It manages to deliver something wholly original and actually pay attention to the groundwork Itoi laid on storytelling in a video game.

16. Chrono Trigger - Looking back, it’s a miracle that this game happened. Given the pedigree behind this game, it’s no surprise that it turned out so well. Competent story, solid gameplay, and one of the best soundtracks of all time regardless of genre.

17. Nier - This one came out of nowhere. If I had known that the guy who traumatized me with Drakengard was behind this, I would have never touched it. Whereas Drakengard is novel with story and everything else is designed to make you uncomfortable, Nier manages to evoke emotion and be fun all at the same time. I also want to add that the voice acting was some of the best I’ve heard in a video game.

18. Ys: The Oath in Felghana - No game has made me feel cooler even when I didn’t know what I was doing, and I felt that way even though I was getting rocked. The combat is incredible solid and I don’t even need to talk about the soundtrack since it’s a Falcom game.

19. Fire Emblem Awakening - I thought this was the best game in the series in a lot of respects. The music was solid, the presentation was the best it’s ever been, and the units were people I could care about. I also really liked how the parent/child mechanic was worked into the overall plot.

20. Dragon’s Dogma - This game made me realize that combat was the thing I was missing most in WRPGs. I really hope it gets a sequel, because there was so much potential left untapped here.

Honorable Mentions:
1. Tales of Symphonia - This was my introduction to the Tales series, but more importantly, my introduction to the battle system, which is the reason it is up here. I thought the story was pretty inoffensive though they pull pretty much every cliche in the book. Not much else to say about this.

2. Disgaea: Hour of Darkness - Great story, cast, music, and presentation, everything except it took little strategy to actually beat the game so gameplay is unrewarding. The presentation makes it more than worth playing though.

3. Bravely Default - The dungeon theme in this game is something I’ll never get sick of. It’s difficult to appeal to nostalgia while keeping things fresh, innovating in the genre while reminding us of the golden era. Bravely Default does this, and it’s incredible for it. The more I reflect on this game, the worse the repetition seems though.

4. Xenoblade Chronicles X - My expectations were not met. This wasn’t a game that built on Xenoblade. It might have benefitted from a different name, but regardless, I felt like a lot of things in this game were worse compared to it’s predecessor. Regardless, it had mechs, and even if I wasn’t thrilled with how they handled on the ground, they added this crazy element that put the size of the world in perspective.

5. Persona 3 - I feel like the sequel was an improvement in almost every way, but it laid most of the groundwork that made these games so special.

6. Dark Souls 2 - Another game that fell just short of its predecessor. Everything was great, but they really missed the mark on the world design. It lacked that Metroidvania type exploration that made the first so special.

7. Radiant Historia - I wasn’t interested in this game until I saw Shimomura’s name attached. I was not disappointed.

8. Final Fantasy - Yes, the first one. One of the biggest holes in my gaming library has always been Final Fantasy. My experience with the franchise was limited to a couple of hours of FFVII, and for whatever reason, I never went back. I'm trying to make that right this year, and I decided I wanted to start where it all began, with the original version, dated mechanics and all. The game has aged surprisingly well, with a reasonable encounter rate and a short enough length that it doesn't overstay its welcome, which I feel like a lot of modern RPGs tend to do. The only aspect of the game that really frustrated me was that your characters would swing at enemies even if they had already been defeated by another character that same turn. In any case, while I haven't touched the rest of the series, I could see aspects of the game that have influenced most of the RPGs I play and felt like being able to appreciate that gave me a better overall experience. Also, while the story is pretty bare bones, it's enough to make it interesting and had me talking to all the townspeople, and I really enjoyed everything just going off the rails in the last act. In short, great game, great music.

9. Super Paper Mario - I’ve heard it isn’t the best in the series, but I think the lighter focus on traditional RPG elements helped me approach the series. The writing was top notch.

10. Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem ~Heroes of Light and Shadow~ - A shame that Shadow Dragon poisoned the well. Retains the same awful graphics, but the gameplay is so much improved, and the story is so much more well told. It really speaks to how faithful Intelligent Systems were with these ports. They feel like a generational leap apart.

Order is pretty rough. Looking forward to the results.

 

[human onion]

This certainly is a less active thread than last year. Perhaps there were less significant releases this year to stir interest in RPG's, which is a shame because some fantastic games have come out.

 

[Codeblue]

This certainly is a less active thread than last year. Perhaps there were less significant releases this year to stir interest in RPG's, which is a shame because some fantastic games have come out.

It's actually about the same. The voting in last years thread went up to page 3, everything beyond that is discussion of the results.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

It's actually about the same. The voting in last years thread went up to page 3, everything beyond that is whining about the results and putting out that fire.

Fixed.

It's coming. Brace yourself, cuz it's coming.

 

[human onion]

It's actually about the same. The voting in last years thread went up to page 3, everything beyond that is discussion of the results.

Huh, didn't notice. I should probably read the threads that I look at.

Yeah I certainly object to a few items being on that list, but ultimately this isn't an RPG-centric site, and tastes will always differ.

Edit: Rather, there's some glaring omissions.

 

[Sarek]

1. Baldur's Gate 2 (Best Combat) - I have started to doubt if this game will ever lose the #1 spot for me. It was an absolutely massive game with great story, characters, and combat. Add to that insane level of replayability thanks to all the different character and party combinations and you have a GOAT RPG. I have also given the game the best combat reward, but it is impossible to compare the combat in games like this and eg. Dark Souls.
2. Planescape: Torment (Best Writing) - This is another classic, and just about everything has been said about how great the story is. I'll just add that this is a game where you are constantly surprised how doing mundane things can reveal yet another layer of complexity.
3. Persona 4 Golden - Huge game that completely pulls you into its world. Whats not to like about solving mysteries, and fighting monsters, with a fun group of friends.
4. Fallout New Vegas - This game is Obsidian's magnum opus for me. It has given me hundreds of hours of enjoyment, and proven that Fallout games can modernized well.
5. Dark Souls - For me this game has three things that really set it a part. The combat, the atmosphere, and the multiplayer aspect.
6. Fallout 2 - This is actually the first RPG I remember playing, and I still remember how extremely buggy it was. It was also however a great game that got me into RPGs.
7. Baldur's Gate - I liked the sequel more, but this game is also a classic and actually has better plot than the sequel.
8. Persona 3 FES - Pretty much same things could be said about this as P4. Slightly more darker themes, and less refined systems.
9 - 20 (intentionally left blank)

 

[Benzychenz]

1) Xenoblade Chronicles (Best Soundtrack) - The setting, the soundtrack, the cast, the exploration. This is just simply one of my favourite games of all time. It just defines what an RPG is about to me, in making the majority of the gameplay being the adventure itself, with the stunning world open for you to explore as you play through the storyline, some of the vistas were breathtaking, and it was somehow all done on the little Wii.

2) Xenoblade Chronicles X - And this was a great followup. While the base story and cast was a clear downgrade, it's clear much of the budget went into creating the world itself. The game is incredible to just lose yourself in, with the world now being a seamless open world rather than the segmented areas, and it is full of sidequests much more fleshed out than the original. While the first kept me going until the credits, this one has 140 hours logged so far.

3) Dark Souls - Dying has never been so fun. No other game makes the player feel as skilled as the Souls games. Going from being brutally killed, to the one brutally killing is oh so satisfying. All the enemies tells and animations are just right, and the weight behind all your attacks are perfect. This game just feels so good to play. The dreary atmosphere and fantastic enemy designs make for a superb world, and actually good items and equipment being scattered about makes exploration amazingly rewarding.

4) Demon's Souls - While I feel Dark Souls is the better game, this one excels in one area, the atmosphere of this game is in a class of it's own. Tower of Latria is just superb. I've never felt as I did in that tower. The bells of the cthulhu guards will forever haunt me.

5) Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver - The definitive Pokemon game. The Johto region has the most remarkable areas and lore of the series, Ecruteak and Goldenrod being my favourite cities, and Lugia and Ho-oh are still unmatched as far as cover legendaries go. But the real winner of these games is the amount of content, 16 badges, 2 regions, and the best final boss in the series.

6) Pokemon Black 2/White 2 - Definitely the runner up here, with a stunning variety of Pokemon available from the early routes, you have so many options in how to build your team, which makes it possibly the best game to pick when itching for a Pokemon adventure.

7) Persona 4 - Another one of my favourites. While I did adore the more dark storyline of P3, there was just something special about the more laidback, down to earth, and frankly charming world and story of Persona 4. I really came to care about the characters in this game, and they almost felt like actual friends. They are just so well written, largely due to the social links and extra storyline activities the party partakes in, rather than solely focusing on the supernatural elements of the main storyline.

8) Persona 3 - My introduction to the Persona series. I really appreciated the dreary atmosphere of this game, with death being the biggest theme throughout. Tartarus was somewhat interesting, and I did enjoy making good progress in it, and the boss fights coming at the full moon was a nice way to incorporate a game mechanic. Fuck Ken though.

9) Undertale (Best Writing) - A big highlight of the past year, it takes inspiration from the Mother series, but far surpasses it in my own opinion. A very funny game with an extremely likeable cast of characters, and an incredible soundtrack. A game any RPG fan should have a good look at.

10) Kingdom Hearts - I absolutely adore this game, and I still think it is the best in the series, largely due to the sequels axing the platforming and exploration that made this game so special. No world in the later games has been as great as Hollow Bastion. The Disney worlds were also incorporated into the story far better than later games thanks to the more simple storyline. The action combat is also sublime. Who would have thought a Squaresoft RPG about Disney characters and Final Fantasy cameos could have turned out so well.

11) Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep - Though if I had to pick my next favourite, this would be the clear winner. The three storylines did get repetitive at times, but they were all worthwhile in the end, and this is one of the most emotional stories I have had the pleasure of going through. To put it simply, this prequel is a tragedy that sets the scene for the rest of the series.

12) Dragon's Dogma (Best Combat) - Fighting mythological creatures has never been so fun. The combat system in this game is one of the best in any game I have had the pleasure of playing. Climbing a cyclops and stabbing it in the eye, or summoning hurricanes on a flying griffon, or launching a volley of arrows at a hydra, this game is just a dream. Just writing this out has made me want to go back and play it some more.

13) NieR - One of the most memorable games I've played. The story is fantastic and the music is even better. I found the sidequests to be fun and enjoyed my time spent going for 100%.

14) Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride - One of the classic greats. Takes the foundation laid by the previous games and creates a great story and world, and shows the life of your hero spanning three generations.

15) Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen - If you like the beginnings in an RPG, this is the game for you. It introduces five separate stories one by one, each starting you at level 1, before the cast all meet together for the conclusion. A really interesting game and one I really enjoyed playing.

16) Final Fantasy VII - What I consider to be the epitome of 'the JRPG'. The world map, the airships, the towns, the party, the random battles, the spells and abilities. It all just works so well. The materia system works fantastically, and allows you to customise your party as you see fit, and equip whichever abilities you feel necessary. The world itself is fantastic, the mako, lifestream and all the other terminology is spoken of so convincingly that you can really believe in this world, and Sephiroth and the Shinra make for fantastic villains. All topped off with a superb OST.

17) Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door - Nothing else is quite like Mario RPGs, and this is what I consider the best of the bunch. The party members are fantastic, the locations are memorable, the humour is top notch. The game is just a masterpiece. Feel the RAAAAAWWWK.

18) Ys I & II Chronicles - The Ys series are some of the best action games around, and my only regret is that I never played them sooner, these were the first I played and only recently, but I am sure others in the series will be on my list next year!

19) Chrono Trigger - A SNES classic, this game is truly influential, and remains to many to be the best JRPG around, the game doesn't overstay its welcome, and is on the shorter side of the genre, with a fantastic world and a great soundtrack, it's a part of JRPG history all fans should play through once.

20) Earthbound - While modern settings have become a lot more common in the genre, the atmosphere of this game remains very unique, with quirky characters and a killer soundtrack, this game still sticks out as a must play.

 

[Htown]

Not to worried about order here, with the exception of my top pick, since all the point values are the same.

1. Chrono Trigger (Best Soundtrack) - This is the best JRPG ever made, and I love pretty much everything about it. The battle system feels familiar, but has just enough of a twist on the active time formula to be engaging. The characters are fantastic, the story is a solid time travel tale, the music is phenomenal. On top of all that, it's maybe the most accessible JRPG ever made.

2. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

3. Mount and Blade (Best Combat) - Yes, I gave this best combat over the titles in this list, and no it's not a mistake. The animations are clunky to downright ugly, but the combat is better than it looks, and no other RPG has given me actual army-on-army battles like this one. This game is a fantastic medieval sandbox. Don't look for a story beyond the one you create as you forge your path through Calradia, though that story will be compelling in its own right.

4. Final Fantasy VI

5. Xenoblade Chronicles

6. Fire Emblem (GBA)

7. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance

8. Dark Souls - The game has its problems, most notably in the way that it can be damn near impenetrable if not actively deceptive about itself at times. That said, the combat is fantastic, the world is well-realized, and the game rewards patience and good timing. It's punishing, but not unfair.

9. Lord of the Rings: Online - This is the MMO that captivated me more than any other. Sorry, WoW, but Tolkien's world is better than yours, and exploring it was more interesting.

10. Skies of Arcadia

11. Tales of Symphonia

12. Final Fantasy VII

13. The Last Remnant - possibly Square's most underrated RPG, at least on PC where it has fewer technical issues. Super cool battle system, with your team based around unions (squads) instead of just individual characters.

14. Dark Souls 2

15. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance

16. Dragon Age: Origins

17. The Witcher

18. Path of Exile - for my money, which actually isn't anything because the game is free, this is the best-playing of the Diablo clones

19. Star Trek Online - The ground combat isn't...well... good, but the space combat more than makes up for it.

20. Final Fantasy V

 

[Azuran]

1. Skies of Arcadia - My favorite game of all time which is surprising even to me seeing the battle system is not the deepest and the story is not exactly original. However, all of that doesn't matter much when this game provides one of the greatest sense of adventure in all of gaming. You know you're playing something special when thirty minutes into the game you already manage to successfully defeat a major imperial general and rescued the damsel in distress. Thankfully the game never lets up and before you know it, you're involved in a story that involves traveling to exotic faraway lands in your pirate airship in order to prevent the evil Empire from reviving various ancient gods and blowing up the world. In addition, it has some really unique and innovative aspects like ship battles which as far as I know, haven't been replicated in another game yet. The major thing that separates this game from the rest is the amount of positiveness it oozes as you play. Vyse, Aika, and Fina are so full of determination that you have no choice but to always move forward and do your best out of sheer inspiration. This game makes me happy every single time I play it and that's why I will always love it so much. Oh yeah, I can't forget to mention how consistently awesome the soundtrack is. There's not a single track in the game the I don't like.

2. Xenoblade Chronicles (Best Soundtrack): The sense of scale in this game is unmatched which is perfectly exemplified from the moment you first set foot in Colony 9 and are given the freedom to go whatever you want even thought you basically just started the game. Xenoblade encourages exploration by providing vast worlds full of astonishing landmarks and larger than life enemies for the player to find and defeat. Now add an awesome story full of twists, a great cast of characters, tons of sidequests (for better or worse), an absolutely amazing soundtrack you will continue to listen to for years after you finish the game, and a deep battle system with some really unique features and you got a game that offers everything you could want from a JRPG. Xenoblade Chronicles is Monolith Soft's magnum opus that will likely never be topped.

3. Persona 4: I love this game. I still need to finish it but that's just a formality at this point because I've known for a while that this is one of the greatest games I've ever played in my life. Persona 4 is defined by the power of friendship so the game is all about the characters and their interactions with one another. Therefore, it's only natural that this would lead to one of greatest casts I've seen in a video game. Having a strong cast is essential because it will pretty much force the player to complete all the social link events to personally know more about them. Furthermore, social links also unlock stronger abilities and new Personas which is another great incentive to get them done. The game also provides a great murder mystery story, an amazing soundtrack, and a battle system that will always keep you on your toes. For all I know, it could leapfrog all the way to first once I manage to reach the ending.

4. Final Fantasy XII (Best Combat): My favorite single player Final Fantasy game. I knew this game was going to be special from the moment they let me control the camera for the first time in the series. I don't like Vaan at all but Balthier, Fran, and Ashe are some the BEST characters in the series so they greatly make up for that fault. However, the real reason why I love this game so much will always be the amazing and deep battle system. While it can be very overwhelming at first due to the sheer amount of options, it gradually becomes manageable as you start building and customizing your characters the way you want through the license board and gambit system, which then allows you to have a larger control over the flow of battles as you get deeper in the game. In addition, Ivalice's environments are always fun to explore when looking for treasure to collect and enemies to defeat. Lastly, the soundtrack is absolutely fantastic and always perfectly sets the mood for every moment in the game.

5. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance: The best and deepest story in the series is greatly complimented by the best set of characters so far. In particular, each member of the Greil Mercenaries has unique personalities and developments without falling into cliched tropes later seen in Awakening. Ike is a strong character that lacks the royal refinement of previous Fire Emblem lords which makes him memorable as he was able to avert previous established characterization norms in the series. His characterization was greatly helped by having a story that focuses on heavy themes such as racism, bigotry, religion, and genocide. While the gameplay was nothing we haven't seen before, it was the most refined yet and the difficulty balance was the most consistent in the series.

6. Final Fantasy IV: While I think VI is technically a better game, I always had a lot more fun with IV. The DS version in particular is the best by providing a better balance while increasing the difficulty which makes the battles even deeper by actually forcing the players to think and use buffs and debuffs because simply mashing Attack won't get people anywhere in the game. In addition, the soundtrack remains of the best in the entire series. Every single battle theme always gets you pumped up for battles no matter how many times you've heard them.

7. Valkyria Chronicles: I don't consider this to be much of a RPG compared to other games in this thread, but since it's allowed, I pretty much have to list it considering it's one of my favorite games of all time. Amazing art style, unique gameplay, and my favorite love story in a JRPG.

8. Baten Kaitos Origins: The perfect example of a sequel completely improving on everything from its predecessor. The card battle system was both faster and deeper, the characters were deeper and better developed due to the smaller cast, and the story perfectly tied everything to the original game while providing new twists that changed the way you looked at characters and events in the first game.

9. Tales of the Abyss: The game that surprisingly renewed my love for video games after a long two year hiatus. The soundtrack is one of the best in the series, the story was engrossing while providing multiple twists that adverted established norms and the majority of the playable characters experienced developments that kept them interesting throughout the journey.

10. Pokemon X and Y: Pokemon is my favorite series so I had to have at least one game in my top 10. I went with XY because as a competitive player and collector, it's the one the offers the most options to players by having the largest Pokedex in the series along with a newer type and moves, modern mechanics, and Mega Evolutions.

11. Final Fantasy IX: This game was a breath of fresh air in the PS1 era due to bright and charismatic characters and a simpler story that didn't revel on complex developments and moody characters the previous two games in the series were in love with. An amazing tribute to the classic days of the series.

12. Dragon Age Origins: My favorite WRPG. I'm going to admit I never been a big fan of western RPGs for some reason I can't explain, but Dragon Age manage to hook me from the first moment. Building characters was fun due to a large number of classes, skills, and equipment available which made replaying the game over and over again feel new every time. This was enhanced by events such as party member leaving your party forever and multiple endings being determined by your decisions throughout the game.

13. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door: The game with the best writing in gaming history. There was never moment while playing where I didn't have a huge smile in my face. Even little things like enemy descriptions and filler NPC dialogue was full of charm and joy.

14. Shin Megami Tensei IV: My first Shin Megami Tensei game and I had a great experience with it. The game was really brutal at first but I manage to adapt successfully and everything became a lot more manageable and fun once I gathered a decent party of demons. I also found the battle system to be really engaging by making me keep track of enemy weaknesses at all times. My only regret is that I only played through it once so I didn't fully explore everything it had to offer so I may go back soon to it and do another playthrough now that I'm more accustomed to the series. Don't be surprised if you see this game a lot higher in next year's list.

15. Kingdom Hearts: This is honestly the only game in the series that I really enjoyed. The rest are good too but the story becomes such a mess starting with Chain of Memories that it soured me on the entire series. The first game kept things relatively simple and Disney characters didn't play second fiddle to anime pretty boys.

16. Chrono Trigger: Amazing replayability. The game being so short by JRPG standards is a complete blessing because it allows you to do multiple runs in a really short amount of time. Multiple endings and a majestic soundtrack are awesome too.

17. Dragon Quest V: Seeing your character grow from a little kid to a badass hero was something amazing to behold. It also helps that you get to have a waifu in this game and that always makes things a little bit better when evil wants to take over the world.

18. Fire Emblem: Awakening: Expanding the waifu aspect was a great addition to the series. Cordelia best girl.

19. Final Fantasy VII: Cloud was a badass in this game. Damn you Square Enix for making him such a depressing character in later appearances.

20. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga: Great game just because Luigi finally gets some time in the spotlight for once. Also similarly to the Paper Mario games, the writing and battle system is great and the characters are really charming and memorable.

Honorable Mentions:

Final Fantasy XI: As much as I love this game, I just can't bring myself to place it in my top 20 when it's a MMO which severely limits the amount of people that can play it. However, I had an amazing and unforgettable time with it for two non-stop years so it deserves some sort of mention at least.
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
Xenogears
Earthbound
Golden Sun: The Lost Age
Tales of Symphonia

 

[pixellated_man]

Just to add some context to my list I'll give you a quick summary of my history with rpgs.
In short, I haven't actually played that many. Even though some of the ones I have played ended up being some of my favorite games and I am always excited for interesting looking Jrpgs or Wrpgs. I just find the time commitment a bit daunting nowadays. Oh, how I sometimes wish I was younger and single!

Anyway the following is my personal favorites from the quite limited number of rpgs (compared to some of you anyway) that I have played to completion or at least put enough hours in to have a legitimate opinion on them. I don't think it's fair to judge long story driven games like for example a 60 hr length jrpg based on 10 hours of play. So I won't do that.

Once again, the following are my personal favorites - with no consideration given to their impact on the industry or what their critical reception was on release.

1. Final Fantasy VII (best soundtrack) - I have a curios history with this title. On release (1997 I think) I didn't really enjoy the game as much as most people seemed to and was perplexed by all the acclaim. Sure the graphics and ost were amazing but everything else seemed just okay. For a long time after this initial experience I was in the 'FFVII is overrated camp' and would get angry (lol) when I saw it refered to as the best jrpg / game whatever.

Fast forward about three years ago when I had a decently powerful pc capable of emulating psx games (I have the original ps1 disc sooo..) and while listening to the Ost of the game I was hit with an almost over whelming nostalgia for the game. So, I thought why not try the game again? Maybe this time I would get why this game is so beloved.
Boy, am I glad I did! This game is incredible even today. The ost remains one of the greatest and most emotive in all of gaming, the world (especially Midgar) is so rich, the characters are great (even with the rather bad script they've been handed!) and the story while a little confusing is so complex and deep that it shames almost any game I've ever played in any genre. Rather more surprising (and a little concerning, ha) I felt a connection with the protagonist Cloud. Weird I should do so now that I'm much more older than when I originally played the game in my younger days. This tortured soul was both pitifully weak and strong at the same time and believably human too. Quite the achievement I would say.

What about the game play? The battle system was interesting and deep enough to hold my attention all the way to the end. The mini games were mostly fun to play. The best thing of all in my opinion and maybe the final factor that elevates this game above all other rpgs and indeed maybe any game of any genre (that I have played) is that through the 70 hours it took me to reach the end, I never felt like I was forcing my self to continue onwards. Remarkable in my opinion because I almost always have to slog through it at some point in most long games. It's the perfect story pacing and mix of game systems which ensured that I did not get bored at any point.

2. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (Best Game play) - The mix of platforming and a more action orientated battle system along with the funniest writing in any rpg ever ensures this game is high up on my list. Such a happy go lucky atmosphere is rare in any
rpgs and even rarer executed this well.

3. Elder Scrolls: Morrowind (Best Lore / World) - This game would have been higher if it wasn't for all the pain and frustration I had to endure in order to get it to run on my pc. Even after patching and countless mods to improve stability and improve on some of the more dated aspects of the game like the graphics, I still ran into frequent crashes and other issues. Through it all I still loved my time spent in the world of Morrowind. The art, lore and perfectly suited soundtrack by Jeremy Soule as well as the sheer freedom afforded to you to shape the journey to your will, is something I cannot forget even though I never reached the end.

4. Gothic 1 - Atmosphere. This game has loads of it! Unique and engrossing open prison setting. Janky but still pretty playable to this day.

5. Elder Scrolls: Oblivion - Engrossing world, Jeremy Soule ost and most of the things that I liked about Morrowind (see above) albeit in a watered down form. Unlike others I loved the semi realistic / historical setting. Or maybe it's because I'm just a sucker for a Medieval fantasy setting.

6. Vandal Hearts - More of an SRPG I know, but one that has a strong emphasis on story and character. Good music, fun battle system (if a little on the simplistic and easy side) and the only SRPG that i have ever completed! That must count for something surely!

7. Shadow Hearts - One of the most overlooked jrpgs even here on GAF. The sequel get's all the plaudits but the first in the series is the more darkly atmospheric and better paced game. Amazing soundtrack too.

8. Final Fantasy IV - One of the first rpgs I ever put substantial amount of hours into. The opening hour(s) to this game has never been matched by any other jrpg in my opinion. So perfect.

9. Tales of Symphonia - At the midway point (second world) and so far it has been terrific. I think this game will end up much higher on my list once I have finished it. But for now it has to do with ninth place. Sorry!

10. Chrono Trigger - Suddenly I sense a disturbance in the force...wonder why? All joking aside I must be in the extreme minority who doesn't hold this game in that high regard. Sure it does everything well but in my opinion not one aspect stands out to me as the best in it's genre. Except maybe the pacing and replayability.
Oh okay then, I'll give it another shot. I may 'see the light' on my second play through. Certainly worked with Final Fantasy VII!

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

I'm finally ready to post mine. I had a lot of tough choices, and there are still a lot of classics that I haven't played, but here's my latest attempt at trying to create a personal list that I think best reflects the RPGs that have resonated with me the most and that I find represent our favorite medium the best.

List is somewhat vaguely ordered, but only really in a few cases. It's all very vague, really. The honorable mention list is completely just "order I put them onto the list when I was writing it out".

1. Earthbound: What can I say about Earthbound? The game is, quite simply, my favorite game of all time, despite some stiff competition, because of the intense emotional effect it has had on my life. I can associate it with so many different periods of my life, and as I get older and go back to it, I can appreciate it on entirely new levels as I take the new experiences in life I've had and see how they're reflected in Earthbound. Truly it was a game for the ages. The game also has an excellent soundtrack that really builds the atmosphere very effectively. And while Earthbound's combat might not have been its biggest selling point, it does some very interesting things there, such as having weaker enemies being defeated automatically on the field, and most importantly, the rolling health bar, which I think is still one of the most underrated game features I can think of.

2. Mother 3: This game remains one of the simplest and yet most powerful translations of human emotion into video game form. The beginning of the game alone manages to tell a more compelling story with simple sprites than most games manage even with massive graphics. The chapter by chapter storytelling is done well, and the way the game's setting evolves is handled quite elegantly.

3. Shin Megami Tensei IV: There exist some games that do one thing amazingly well. And there exist some games that do everything competently, but don't excel at any one aspect. And then you have Shin Megami Tensei IV, a game that does almost everything extraordinarily well. It was something I considered for all three of my highlight categories, even though I ultimately wound up giving it none of them (these choices are tough), but it's a legitimate heavyweight in almost every category. The writing is great, not just in terms of the main plot and the characters, but also in terms of all of the incidental writing. Shin Megami Tensei IV is one of those games that understands that a story isn't just told by the main narrative, but by the power of suggestion. Every little bit of NPC dialogue fills in details about the world, and the player is then able to fill in further details in my mind. I would constantly find myself day dreaming about all the little bits of what had happened in the past, inventing bits of backstory for the characters, imagining interactions between various demons, etc. This is a strong example of how to handle storytelling in an RPG. The combat is also worth raving about, as the Press Turn system is quite deep and very fun. The only drawback is that the difficulty really drops once you get to Tokyo. The soundtrack might not be the most hummable, but almost every piece of music is extraordinary in its own way. The game oozes with atmosphere, not only from the music, but also from the art direction. The new and improved fusion system is a joy to play around with. No video game is perfect, but Shin Megami Tensei IV feels like the template you would start with if you were going to draw up the road map to a perfect game.

4. Final Fantasy IX: Perhaps the first game that really captured my heart. While I had some brief experiences with Final Fantasy prior to IX, it was the game that really made me a fan of the series, and it was one of the essential games on my path to being an RPG fanatic. The game's charisma wowed me as a kid, from the art style to the music to the wonderful characters. Yeah, it has some technical limitations holding it back in places (hopefully the Steam release can fix these), but as an overall experience it's just one of the most emotionally fullfilling ones I can think of.

5. Persona 4: One of those games that just nails its environment so well. The town of Inaba feels very realistic, and very unique in its setting. A rural town is one of the rarest possible settings I can think of for a video game, but the game really makes the most of it. The music is, of course, superb, and the story and characters are all really engaging. It's a shame that years of fanservicey spinoffs have watered down what the original game did, but the original still holds up really well and it shouldn't be penalized by what came later.

6. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door: A fantastic sequel to a fantastic game, and it nearly got the best writing nod from me. It takes all of the charm of the original Paper Mario and turns it up even more, with a more memorable cast, sharper writing, and a more engaging plot. If there was a "most charming" category, this would be a strong contender. And like Paper Mario, there are so many memorable vignettes and little side stories. Plus, it has one of the most iconic final boss fights I can think of.

7. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC (Best Writing): When you wait four long years to find out what happens in a game, it has to be a disappointment, right? Well, not this time. Trails in the Sky SC managed to deliver for me on my four years of hype, telling a really compelling story, filled with a pretty exciting plot and great character development. And the series hallmark of the ever evolving NPC dialogue is just as good as ever here, too. You won't find better developed town people in any game out there. The music is up to the typical Falcom standards, as well, and while the combat can occasionally be on the easy side, the battle system is very well thought out, and when the difficulty ramps up it can provide a nice challenge. I imagine this game will be a fixture on my favorite RPGs list for years and years to come.

8. Final Fantasy XIII: A bold new direction for the series that alienated a lot of fans, but I loved it. The battle system was one of the most fun new systems in years, and I just felt a feeling of such joy any time I was playing the game and running around getting into battles. And that alone is a priceless feeling. When coupled with a downright transcendental score from Masashi Hamauzu, I feel like you have a very strong game. Not one that gets love from a lot of people, but for me, it is certainly essential.

9. Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep

10. Ys: The Oath in Felghana (Best Soundtrack): Aside from Nier, the only thing that could have kept me from putting this game down for Best Soundtrack would have been deciding to give it Best Combat instead. The music and combat in Oath in Felghana are both masterful, with the music creating a wonderful sense of excitement at every turn, and the combat constantly challenging you. The difficulty of almost every boss can be frustrating at times, but the feeling of finally defeating a challenging boss is one of the greatest you'll ever get in any video game. And the final boss is just a thing of absolute beauty. My biggest regret is that I waited so long to check this series out.

11. Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen

12. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

13. The Witcher

14. Xenoblade Chronicles

15. Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines

16. Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth: As I played through Cyber Sleuth, all I could think about was “this is the game I've wanted to exist for 15 years”. A big RPG where I can run around through both Tokyo and a cyber world, with my Digimon following me around, able to obtain more than 200 Digimon and evolve them into all manner of things, with a fun battle system and a surprisingly strong story. I don't expect most people to classify this game as one of the absolute giants of the genre, but for me this is a very easy choice.

17. The Last Remnant: Am I doing this right? I guess, I have no clue what all these stats mean or why they're leveling up. Damn, this is pretty fun, though.

18. Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

19. Nier: Beautiful music, a surprisingly touching story at times, a well developed world, and one of the most unique games I've played, with the game constantly shifting into something utterly bizarre at every turn. The combat is a bit underwhelming at times, and the game can feel janky, but what it does well, it does really well.

20. Tales of Graces f (Best Combat): For choosing how to go with Best Combat I had a lot of choices, whether it be an excellent turn based game, some sort of really innovative battle system, or any sort of other number of choices. But when I sat down and really thought about, I ultimately decided to go with Tales of Graces f because of just how strong the battle system was. It says a lot about how good the battle system is that it can make it on here, because the parts of the game that weren't combat were very weak. But Tales of Graces f was something I always loved playing through, just running around getting into fights, messing with the title system, swapping characters in battle and learning how to control each character individually, and more. It definitely stands out as one of the absolute giants of the Action RPG genre, and certainly very deserving of the title of an Essential RPG.

Honorable Mentions:
1. Divinity: Original Sin: I haven't played enough of this game yet to feel comfortable putting it on my main list, but I feel like it is definitely worthy of getting an honorable mention. The combat is very deep, and I just have to reward a game that lets me roleplay as two different characters and get into arguments with myself.

2. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky

3. Dragon Age: Origins

4. Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale

5. Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen

6. Arc Rise Fantasia

7. Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana: This is a title that I think deserves a place on here for how unique it is, if nothing else. Playing through it last year, I found myself getting easily wrapped up in the item synthesis system. I loved messing around with the ingredients to experiment to my hearts content, and I enjoyed how each time I'd synthesize something new, I'd get some new scenes, that would help flesh out the side characters more. The whole system felt very rewarding. While I don't think the game was quite strong enough on every level to put on my main list, it's definitely a game that deserves to be celebrated for how unique it is, and it brings something very different to the genre.

8. Persona 2: Innocent Sin

9. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

10. Paper Mario

 

[Terra_Ex]

My picks:

1.Baldur's Gate 2 - Overall the best rpg ever made. A wealth of content, a direct sequel with a great expansion to round off the saga. The standard by which to judge others.

2.The Witcher 3 (Best Writing) - Draws on the previous games and books to deliver a compelling personal narrative for Geralt, wrapping up his story in a meaningful way. A defining moment in how to utilise a defined protagonist as well a powerful lens to examine how open world rpgs should be crafted. Nails the ending by providing relevant closure to the principal characters, influenced by player choice in obvious and not-so obvious ways. In my view it's the only AAA RPG sequel to uniformly get it right on every level. I can't think of another RPG with similar attention to detail and volume of quality content on this scale. I also appreciated the segments of the game where you play as Ciri, which in addition to building up her character for people who never read the books, also serves to make her eventual reunion with Geralt all the more powerful. The writing is the real standout - the conversations feel real and character motivations feel believable. The recurring characters feel like they are there because they want to be there as opposed to acting as plot devices to drive particular events.

3.Planescape: Torment - One of the all time greats that needs no introduction and age certainly hasn't slowed it down. Sprawling dialogue trees intermingle with unravelling the mystery of the Nameless One's past to form one of the most unique and powerful stories in gaming.

4.Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne - Fantastic combat and core narrative. Although getting wiped can be infuriating on Hard, this is still my favourite SMT game hands down. It's easy to sink hours into fusing better demons for your team to better master the intricacies of the press turn system and the game continues to throw fantastic dungeons and enemies at you right up until the end. The demonic compendium serves to encourage and bolster experimentation with the fusion system, allowing for many viable approaches to each of the game's challenges.

5.Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines - Superb dialogue system married with an intriguing setting. Combat could be better. Unofficial patch is mandatory for the best experience.

6.Divinity: Original Sin (Best Combat)- It gets turn based combat so right I'm wondering where this game has been all my life. Battles are just deeply satisfying, methodical and nicely balanced. There's so much freedom in determining how to build your characters, what skills to increase and what weaponry to use, battle preparation is like a mini-game in and of itself. Combat aside, I loved the exploration and quests, especially that this was the first game in years that didn't treat the player like an idiot - so no giant arrows and quest markers guiding you to the target - the game actually expected you to think about what you needed to do next - a rarity in modern gaming, sadly. I've only put a bit of time into the new Enhanced Edition but after sinking over 100hrs into the original version, D:OS has definitely cemented its place in my list.

7.Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Excellent writing and pacing, great core cast of characters and it doesn't go overboard with reams of irrelevant backstory for minor characters like Hong Kong does. Nice use of the setting, both in terms of visuals and in terms of the lingo and colloquialisms used by denizens of the world, it's that Shadowrun's setting is sufficiently like and unlike the real world that serves to make it so intoxicating.

8.Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer - The best thing to come out of the whole NWN series of modules. A great experience with some neat PS:T vibes.

9.Dragon Age: Origins - Swan song for BioWare's classic (and superior) style of RPGs, while it may not have fully succeeded in taking up Baldur's Gate's mantle, Origins was full of promise and a great baseline to build on in the future. Sad that didn't happen but Origins demonstrated that you can crank up the production values and still deliver a quality experience with a silent protagonist. Fantastic cast of characters, some great choices and actual tactical combat.

10.Demon's Souls - I prefer the hub-based structure of this game to others in the series. It was also my first Souls game so Dark wasn't as impactful for me when it rolled around. Demon's did it first and for me it did it better. Great combat, challenging bosses and a genuine difficulty curve that forces you to learn from your mistakes to have any hope of progressing.

11.Dragon's Dogma - Unparalleled action-based combat, Bitterblack Isle addresses issues with difficulty in the mid to late portion of the game. The story certainly leaves something to be desired but the combat is so good you can overlook it.

12.Nier (Best Soundtrack) - Bought this originally due to internet hype and I wasn't disappointed. A rough exterior keeps the riff-raff out but peer beneath that veneer and there's a lot to love in Nier. Memorable banters and wisecracking between the cast meld with some innovative twists to create a unique experience that only gets better with subsequent playthroughs after the big reveal hits. Godly OST. My only criticisms would be some of the story is locked away in side materials (though these have been fan-translated).

13.Pillars of Eternity - Ultimately it was more Baldurs Gate 1.5 than BG2 for me. The game does a great job of setting out an interesting world and characters yet it falls short of its forebears in some intangible way I can't quite put my finger on. It's a great effort but simply lacks a certain je ne sais quoi for me that would let it stand alongside other genre greats.

14.Fallout 2 - My entry point to the series and it holds a special place because of that. Surprised me and exceeded my expectations in so many ways back when I first played it and it's definitely stood the test of time.

15.Witcher 2 - a tighter focus than W3 and able to pull off some divergent branching because of it. CDPR clearly found their feet with this game and it serves as a nice ramp up towards the third title. I particularly like that neither of the paths through Act 2 give the complete story, requiring a second playthrough to unearth the other half of the story that you missed.

16.Tactics Ogre - I first played this after its more well known cousin, FFT and while it isn't as much of a looker, Tactics Ogre ultimately wins out for me due to its branching paths. I came away from my playthroughs deeply impressed with which characters chooses to ally with and against you based on the choices you make in the game. Deserves a sequel.

17.Valkyrie Profile - An original and melancholic jrpg that is criminally underlooked. Fantastic and innovative battle system and a non-linear approach to quests. The game feels like just one part of a larger tale whilst still being wholly satisfying taken on its own. Wonderful use of norse mythology. There are great, powerful themes being explored in this game when recruiting Einherjar from among those who have died in a heroic sacrifice, particularly when trying to get the A ending.

18.Final Fantasy VI - There are so many things I love about this game and what happens in it. The characters, the music, bosses - it fires on all cylinders and still manages to mix things up in a big way at the half way point. A classic.

19.Suikoden III - Beats out the second entry due to the POV system which adds a lot to the game and far too rpgs have explored similar multi-protagonist approaches.

Spoiler

The final hidden perspective where you revisit certain events from the antagonists POV is particularly great given who they are and how past events have motivated their actions.

It's also the only game in the series to offer a semblance of challenge due to its paired characters during combat, which is greatly appreciated given the series as a whole is altogether far too easy.

20.Fallout New Vegas - Great use of factions and even though Caesar's legion isn't as well realised in the final product as I'd have liked, the fact that Obsidian made an effort towards affording faction choices actual impact in the game world shines through. Nails classic Fallout in a way Bethesda can't match.

Honorable mentions:
1.Deus Ex
2.Shadow Hearts 2
3.Underrail
4.Metal Saga
5.Expeditions Conquistador
6.Risen
7.Age of Decadence
8.Growlanser 2
9.Geneforge 2
10.Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor

 

[Glaurungr]

Not ordered.

1. The Witcher III: Wild Hunt (Best Writing): What impresses me most about The Witcher III is that it feels like such a grounded, believable, coherent world, even though it is full of monsters and magic. It feels more like history, rather than fantasy.
2. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
3. The Witcher (Best Soundtrack)
4. Dragon Age: Origins
5. Pillars of Eternity
6. Baldur’s Gate
7. Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn
8. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
9. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
10. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords
11. Mount & Blade: Warband (Best Combat): I came to this game as a Rome: Total War fan, looking for a game which would allow me to be in the battles, not just directing them, and M&B delivered and then some. The melee combat is my favourite of all time and the mods take the game to a new level.
12. Fallout: New Vegas
13. Mass Effect
14. Mass Effect 2

 

[Niahak]

Not really in any particular order beyond the top few.

1. Suikoden II - Great story, interesting and fun characters, exceptional world-building and a decidedly grounded plot.
2. Persona 3 Portable
3. Mount & Blade: Warband (Best Combat)
4. Suikoden III - While Suikoden II grabbed me from the start, its sequel has gradually crawled up my favorites list with each re-play. From the large cast of fun characters to many optionally-winnable battles and elements that reward some grinding (treasure bosses for example), always enjoy playing this one.
5. Skies of Arcadia - wonderful sense of adventure made this one a pleasure when I played it a decade after release.
6. Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete
7. Xenogears
8. Suikoden V - Even though its opening section is stupid-long and seems pointless at first, the emotional finale of the prologue more than makes up for it.
9. Xenoblade Chronicles
10. Opoona (Best Music)
11. Dragon Quest V
12. Chrono Trigger
13. Planescape: Torment
14. Dark Souls
15. Destiny of an Emperor - Three Kingdoms RPG released on the NES with a surprisingly well-done translation, recruit-able enemies, fantastic music, quick-running battles with pseudo-SRPG flavor... what's not to like?
16. The Spirit Engine 2 - An indie game released before the indie boom, after a couple of lean years on the market without a store-front it was released as freeware and languished ever since. A short (~4 hrs), quick-running RPG with highly strategic combat, 9 characters available with minor plot changes from group to group, and excellent writing make it a great game that really fell under the radar.
17. Earthbound
18. Panzer Dragoon Saga
19. Warsong
20. Phantasy Star IV

Honorable Mentions:
1. Mass Effect
2. Dragon Quest VIII
3. Shadow Hearts
4. Baldur's Gate II
5. Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
6. Persona 4 Golden - Preferred P3's themes overall and felt Golden went a little too anime, but it's mechanically better than 4 PS2
7. Infinite Space
8. Pillars of Eternity
9. Fallout 2
10. Fallout: New Vegas

 

[JerkShep]

That's the problem with starting to write the comments from the bottom, now I'm in a bind and I don't know if I'll manage to write my opinion for the other, more important, titles. I'll just put the list here for know, hopefully I can complete it later tonight.

1. Demon's Souls
2. Xenogears
3. Final Fantasy VII
4. Chrono Trigger
5. Suikoden II
6. Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
7. Fallout New Vegas
8. KotOR 2
9. Deus Ex
10. Mass Effect 2
11. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
12. Shadow Hearts Covenant
13. Bloodborne
14. Xenosaga Ep III - My favorite PS2 jrpg. Story felt a bit rushed towards the end but everything else is sort of incredible considering all the problems the saga had during development. Great OST, locations, characters and surprisingly gameplay, with a very fast SMT-like battle system and good dungeon design.
15. Final Fantasy VI
16. Undertale
17. Fallout
18. Dragon Age Origins
19. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
20. Persona 4

Honorable Mentions:
1. Dark Souls - It's impossible to sum up such a phenomenon in a few words. The first half of the game and "Artorias of the Abyss" are outstanding, unfortunately some of the latter locations have a drop in quality but when Dark Souls reaches its highs no one can compare.
2. Xenoblade Chronicles - It lost a bit of the narrative depth of previous Xeno games, but it set a new bar for exploration and world design.
3. Mass Effect - The game that made me a believer in the seventh generation of videogames. It masterfully set up one of the most interesting universes in gaming.
4. Final Fantasy IX - I prefer other FF games, but IX is a feel-good trip down memory lane and it has some of the best characters in the series.
5. KotOR - It's your standard Bioware rpg, with the usual pros and cons. But the twist is really memorable.
6. Dragon Quest VIII - The world of Dragon Quest VIII was a dream come through in 2006. The gameplay and the narrative were nothing incredible, but you could just lose yourself in the amazing world and the characters were charming enough to keep things interesting.
7. Valkyrie Profile Silmeria - I remember being completely absorbed by the gameplay of Silmeria. Battle system, dungeon design, character development system. Everything was so complex and well thought out.
8. Chrono Cross - The game is mostly here for having the best OST ever created by mortal beings, but I actually enjoyed the story, despite being a convulted mess. It seemed the game had no reverence at all for Chrono Trigger, which I kind of prefer to the usual endless fanservice that sequels have for beloved titles.
9. Suikoden III - Interesting setting and great villains, but it's the structure that stands out for me, seeing the story from different perspectives was just what the series needed to shake things up.
10. Kingdom Hearts - Just a very charming game, much better than the folly that came afterwards. Shimomura's sountrack is incredible.

 

[adj_noun]

I assume you all voted for Darklands.

 

[Faerith]

I made an effort to balance my list by splitting it nearly equaly between PC and console RPGs,
since I'm biased as I've mostly played JRPGs in the last years.
I tried to choose games that offer something special thus making them essential (or unique), but also, in case of older games, with the important aspect of: Do I still want to play and CAN I play it today? (aka: still fun?)
And of course a certain bias can probably be noticed anyway, but hey, real life is not objectiive either.
The list is sorted by the arbitary "oh yeah, that one was a good special game" and by PC/Console.
Sorry for any typos that evaded me, I'll edit them tomorrow. =(

1. Might & Magic: World of Xeen - Xeen comes from a time where PC-RPGs were not grimdark but a had a hint of lightheartedness and sci-fi in their DNA, also geeky references to stuff like Star Trek.
It's an (mostly, iirc?) open world game without the emptiness and filler of modern OWs, there's always something to be found, be it a dungeon (that might include a few puzzles) or a fountain or NPC. It's a simple (compared to Wizardry) yet entertaining game, the peak of the old M6M games and the two worlds concept is still great.

2. Might & Magic: Dark Messiah - An absolutely overlooked gem.
Where else do you have an Action FP-RPG with good fun combat where you can kick your enemies (down a cliff, into spikes) and use ropearrows (I love ropearrows, bff).
Oh and you can actually see your (ugly) body when looking down - no disembodied floating weapons and hands here.
I rarely like FP games, and this one is one of the few actiony games I can fullhearted recomment. (Bonushint: if you use the exe of the demo you won't need the disc anymore)

3. Deus Ex: Human Revolution - If you are like me and just can't get into everybodies darling the original Deus Ex, then there's a Deus Ex for you: with minimaps for ease of navigation, simplified gameplay(afaik?), still Cyberpunk and the possibilty of a stealthy no-kill playthrough. The story is entertaining enough, even though some things can be silly.

4. Age of Decadence - If you like reading in your RPG, lots of reading, and also like the idea of solving quests 'peacefully' without combat this game and having some choices that don't end in RGB this one might be for you.
I don't know if the game will stand the test of "will I still want to play it years later", but for now it should be on this list.

5. Lands of Lore: the throne of chaos - One of the gems created by Westwood. It's a polished dungeoncrawler where the (really) pretty, streamlined outer shine, betrays the hardness underneath.

6. Ultima VII: the black gate - while I have a hate-love relationship with this game, it still belongs on the essentials list: it's one of the few RPGs with a living world ( NPCs with shedules) and interactivity (like baking bread - not for a quest but just because (you have to feed your whining companions that complain when they are hungry and complain when you steal food)), believable cultmembers, a flying carpet with chairs, equal opportunity brothels ( yes, the female Avatar was not a second thought and yes I don't know why I remember the 'weird' stuff) and the storage-management minigame.
It's a really unique RPG and todays player don't have to create their own autoexec.bat anymore too, so give it a try and love-hate it too. Today.

7. Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the dark savant - I love this game although I never played it through, because I always got lost and messed up my mapdrawing attempts.
The Wizardry series is in a way the more hardcore brother of the Might&Magic series, who by the time of VII evolved from its dungeoncrawler roots, but kept all the p&p-roots with weirdly named spells and big lists of passive skills (like climbing, swimming) and fun characterbuilds like fairy-ninjas and added more interaction with NPCs (by typing keywords). It's openworld with deadly enemies, you have various factions in the world that you can be allied to and there are other parties that want to collect the same thingies you want (basicaly a race). Depending on your descisions the ending varies.

8. X-COM: Enemy Unknown - An entertaining turnbased SRPG with mostly solid mechanics (except everyones favourite: constantly missing with a 98% hitchance - no dice I had was THAT bad) and freely customizable soldiers that can be wounded (funtimes when you have one healthy soldier left, everyone else is wounded and you have to pray no mission pops up until you have a full team again) or die. And there's basebuilding too.

9. Ogre Battle: the march of the black queen - SRPG with armies by Matsuno.
"Everything you do bears a will and a why and a wherefore" " Lead an rebelarmy and plan their units, classchanges and movement.
"My life is in your hands, I'll fo and I'll fie
I'll be what you make me, I'll do what you like
I'll be your bad boy"
Your reputation, aligment and the level of your units (fighting loweer/higher level enemies, liberating (or "liberating") towns) themselves influence what ending you will see, what NPCs you can recruit (talk to) and if certain units of yours will be good- aligned or evil. Everyone sings praise of Tactic Ogre and FF Tactics, but this game is more unique and interesting (and good of course).

10. Der Langrisser - unique SRPG with armies, remake of the harder Langrisser 2 that added many alternative story-paths in ONE game (can't help the potshot against the new FE, sorry).
Ally with the empire, ally with demons, or just kill everyone going independant.
Gamplaywise the series is (afaik) still unique with its commanders, surrounded by his/her troops (every unit is moveable individualy), influencing their troops Attack&Defense with his/her commandrange.
Classchange-paths are treelike, meaning a knight(horserider) can still change on a later promotion to groundfighter etc. There's also a trooptriangle (pike>horse>sword, archer>flyer).

11. Xenogears - Storyheavy RPG with tons of symbolism thrown in and a visual novel style second CD many people don't like (I do *shrug*).
The cast is great, the included lovestory and the kid-character are a rare case of not cringeworthy, the story is interesting, the music great, the gamplay/menu-navigation is rather clunky and it has an interactive variant( no, not QTE) of turnbased combat.
Oh and it has giant robots.

12. Dragon Quest VIII - A colourful, very classic RPG mechanicwise, with a charming cast, nice overworld, good music and great voiceacting. While it's predecessors have more fairytaleish little sidestories in maybe better stories, VIII is more approachable and a great entrygame for the series (it was for me).

13. Phantasystar 1 - A very good 3D dungeoncrawlish RPG, with great music, 3 Planetes to visit. It's still playable today (with a map or mapdrawing skills).

14. Nier - Average gameplay mechanics that mix Action-RPG with some bullethell-schmup-style bossfights and some ugly/strange characterdesigns.
An approachable 'father wants to save daughter from deadly illness'-story mixed with an interesting cast and story and some suprising twists during the "newgame+"s and a great soundtrack make a really unique game.

15. Final Fantasy: Mystiq Quest - "Whaaat, why?!"
I actually wanted to but VI here, but then I thought: which FF did I actually replay in the years following its release?
The easy comfortfood light RPG with the great soundtrack that has a NES-style simple enough story to imagine a grand epic behind it.

16. Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter - a hard dungeoncrawler with tactical combat that puts you under pressure to economize every move, every save you make
- when you die (hopefully as late as possible) you can restart and more of the story is revealed; coming from a lineage consisting of mechanical very conservative RPGs it's the odd one.
The soundtrack is great, the designs interesting.
Also: faerystone. I mean, the faeries are cool.

17. Mass Effect - There weren't many sci-fi RPGs and while the combat is average, the planetes quite empty with samey "dungeons", and the third game's RGB ending, the sum of its components makes for an entertaining, during planet-crawling zen-like, game.

18. Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen - Action-RPG with best combat, awesome dragon, darkest of nights, interesting storyconcept and ending.
And for some players a love they never knew before.

19. Chronotrigger - first(?) console RPG with no extra battlescreen but onmap-fighting, no random encounters, combos, multiple endings, sympathic cast, servicable story, great soundtrack. A game before its time that is still fresh.

20. Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne - Turnbased combat where resistance and weakness states are actually important. Mature design and mood. Complex dungeons. Great music. Infurating 2 hour progress lose thanks to Hama.
For me the best of the SMT/Persona/Devil games.


Honorable mentions:
Ultima Underworld - The dungeon, the interactivity and freedom were/are impressive, but the controls and I are no friends.

Anvil of Dawn - A hard dungeoncrawler full of traps. Still very playable today.

Legend of Grimrock - A dungeoncrawler (again...) from modern times with mechanics of old. The combat has too much kiteing, otherwise it's a very solid game.

Child of Light - a light(hoho a pun, was it too soon?) RPG, with rythmic text and a story and design like old faerytales. Combat is inspired by Grandia with its Action-interuptions.

Phantasy Star 2 - the sequel uses 2D dungeons, which doesn't make them easier. The simple story has quite some dramatic deaths, nice autocombat (when you are strong enough not to die of non-supervised fights) and great music.

Dark Sun: shattered lands - unique setting, quests with multiple approaches and Partymemebers that can be 4-armed mantis'. Clunky controls and combat.

Shining Force - SRPG with very streamlined/modern interface and approachable mechanics that can still be played today.

Langrisser IV - SRPG, changed the phasebased gameplay to turnbased, the movement to hexbased (even if it looks like squares ), the other concepts (troops, commandrange, multipath-story) remained.

Growlanser IV - (S)RPG, made by the remnants of the Langrisser-team. No grind, Missions are tactical with "realtime"-movement, positioning is important. Like it's spiritual ancestor it has two storypaths and romancing.

Xenoblade Chronicles X - "Action"-RPG. Absolutley beautiful, colourful world(design) to explore for hours and hours, good music, big robots, fashion option for your equipment so you don't run around like a fashionvictim.
Character-"sidestories" are nice, but the main story is rather sparse. Some horrible female clothing options.

 

[Reda]

1. Final Fantasy VII (Best Soundtrack)- This is the story and the characters I grew up with, it was also my first taste of the Final Fantasy series and it's magic so naturally I have very fond memories of the game.

2. Persona 4 (Best Writing)- Despite some obvious flaws with the dungeons. It's still one of my favorite games of all time. I really enjoyed spending time with the characters and doing activities in Inaba.

3. Mother 3 - This is game is a labor of love. I love a game that has it's own style and Mother 3 has plenty of that.

4. Bloodborne (Best Combat)- I love how fast and adrenaline-inducing the combat is. It has some of the greatest level-design I've ever seen in a game. I could also talk hours on how amazing the boss battles are. I'm looking at you shadows of yharnam.

5. Final Fantasy X - While the Voice acting was not all that great and some moments of the game were cringe-worthy, the time I spent in the fictional world of spiral was simply unforgettable and that beautiful ending made me forget about all the flaws I saw in the game.

6. Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King

7. Mother 3

8. Persona 3

9. Rogue Galaxy

10. EarthBound

11. Undertale

12. Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne

13. The World Ends With You

14. Xenoblade Chronicles

15. Final Fantasy XII

 

[BinaryPork2737]

I really need to play more RPGs, so my personal list lacks a lot of popular titles and has some multiple games from a few franchises. I'll just make this list alphabetical because I can't really decide how to order all of the games otherwise. I wasn't going to participate this year, but I've decided to do one at the last minute, so it's sloppily put together (and written) anyway.


1. Baldur's Gate II: It's still considered a standard for CRPGs for multiple reasons. BG II has a solid story, fleshed out companions, interesting side quests, a detailed world just waiting to be explored, great lore-- it's just all around great, and much better than the first Baldur's Gate.
2. Deus Ex: While I don't think that the actual gameplay holds up all that well, DX1 still deserves plenty of praise for its worldbuilding, level design, and the sheer amount of choices given to players. It also deserves some recognition for its often unintentionally silly voice acting.
3. Deus Ex: Human Revolution: I was pleasantly surprised by HR after being incredibly disappointed with Invisible War. Almost everything about HR is really solid, minus the endings and the original version's boss fights (which are altered for the better in the Director's Cut version of the game).
4. Divinity: Original Sin (Best Combat): Some of the finest turn-based combat I can think of. There's so much to experiment with while in combat. A couple enemies are giving you a hard time? Go out and grab some oil-filled barrels, set them up how you want them, lure the enemies into a trap, and then use some fire to make short work of them. Alternatively, you could summon some localized rain clouds to create some puddles and then stun your enemies with some electricity. And those are only some of the more basic strategies. The game's story is pretty weak, however, and it has a surprisingly abrupt ending/epilogue.
5. Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City: EO III builds on the bases of I and II to create a great dungeon crawling experience. The optional sailing element added a little more variety to the game, but didn't feel fully fleshed out. As of today, EO III is probably my second favorite DS game.
6. Etrian Odyssey IV: Legend of the Titan: It's still my favorite EO at this point. It refines everything from the older games (a recurring theme for my list) while adding a little more variety to the dungeons. The overworld segments feel like a natural step forward from the sailing segments in III. Plus it's got that fantastic Yuzo Koshiro soundtrack.
7. Fallout 2
8. Fallout: New Vegas: Fixes a lot of the problems I had with Fallout 3. NV's writing really stands out in comparison to 3's.
9. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
10. Pillars of Eternity: Essentially a modernized Baldur's Gate game. Most of the cast is fantastic (Durance, Pallegina, and the Grieving Mother all stand out) and the story is decent (though the third act feels rushed compared to the first two acts). The way your decisions affect the game's epilogue is probably my favorite part of the game due to how the final slide of the epilogue caught me completely off-guard.
11. Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal/HeartGold/SoulSilver: The second generation of Pokémon games build upon everything in R/B/G/Y. The gen 2 games fix most of the glitches found in gen 1, including the more annoying glitches associated with different moves. Returning to Kanto and seeing how it changed over time is, of course, one of the highlights of the franchise. HG and SS are everything I could have wanted from remakes of G/S/C and remain the pinnacle of the series for me.
12. Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald/OmegaRuby/AlphaSapphire: I've got a lot of nostalgia for both Ruby and Emerald. OR/AS are good remakes, but aren't nearly as fantastic as HG/SS.
13. Planescape: Torment (Best Writing): Still has some of the highest quality writing in video games after all these years, despite some of the grammatical and spelling errors.
14. Shadowrun: Dragonfall: The Director's Cut version of the game is one of the best CRPGs released in recent years. Set against the backdrop of anarchist Berlin, the game manages to merge cyberpunk and fantasy elements in a way that Shadowrun Returns couldn't. The story is well written and has almost perfect pacing. Glory and Eiger are both memorable characters that I grew attached to over the course of the game (I didn't really like Blitz and felt ambivalent towards Dietrich). It would have been my 2014 GOTY if I had played on release, despite a frustrating glitch I encountered in one of the later missions.
15. Shadowrun: Hong Kong: HK feels more like a side story in the Shadowrun universe rather than a true sequel to Dragonfall. I prefer Hong Kong's cast overall (Racter, Gaichu, and Gobbet are all great), and the side missions are still solid. My main problem with the game was that the pacing felt completely off, which came as a bit of a surprise considering how good the pacing was in Dragonfall. The Matrix sections feel like they could use some polish, too, and I ended up preferring the Matrix in Returns and Dragonfall.
16. Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne: The first game to explain to me why buffs and debuffs really do matter in RPGs.
17. Shin Megami Tensei IV (Best Soundtrack): I have some problems with the game, mainly the sudden drop in difficulty after the introduction and the newer demon designs, but overall it's still my favorite game of 2013. Easily one of my favorite video game soundtracks. The regular boss theme is definitely my favorite boss theme out there. For anyone that hasn't played SMT IV that is interested in listening to the soundtrack, the titles, and comment sections, of some of those videos contain spoilers.
18. Uncharted Waters: New Horizons: One of the best underrated gems on the SNES. The gameplay is a mixture of elements from RPGs, adventure games, and simulation games focusing on sailing in the Age of Discovery. Six different scenarios give the game quite a good amount of replayability and allow the player to experiment with different play-styles (some characters should focus more on naval and hand-to-hand combat while others should focus on exploring or trading between ports). It's my personal favorite pirate/privateer game.
19. Undertale: Mentioning too much about Undertale would probably ruin the experience for first time players, so I'll keep this short. I grew more attached to most of the main cast in a fraction of the time some long RPGs take to complete. The combat never felt stale to me due to the variety of enemy attacks. I'd recommend going in knowing as little as possible.
20. Xenoblade Chronicles

Honorable Mentions:

21. Bravely Default: Would have been better if chapter 5 had been cut entirely while keeping the later chapters intact. Chapter 5 is really the only chapter from the second half of the game that doesn't change anything up.
22. Earthbound
23. Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight: Fantastic remake of my least favorite EO. The game's story mode is much better than the first Untold's, even with its weak sequel hook ending.
24. Expeditions: Conquistador: I've heard it described as Oregon Trail meets King's Bounty set in the Spanish-controlled New World, and that description is pretty spot on. It has a great atmospheric soundtrack.
25. Pokémon X/Y
26. Rune Factory IV
27. Shin Megami Tensei: The original SMT still holds up pretty well in terms of its story. Maybe one day the iOS version of SMT II will be officially localized too. atlus pls
28. Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers: Great cyberpunk-influenced setting that utilizes myths that aren't usually explored by the SMT series.
29. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: Probably my favorite SW game and proof that not all of the old expanded universe was awful.
30. Sunless Sea: Great atmosphere and writing, but it's held back by all of the grinding needed to achieve your goals.

 

[JudgmentJay]

1. Dark Souls - Not only is this my favorite game of all time, it's the only game where I feel compelled to create a backstory for my characters and actually behave as that character would in-game. What armor, weapons, and other equipment I use, what gestures I use, what covenant I join, whether or not I engage in co-op/PvP, and even my playstyle all depends on the backstory I've created in my head. To me that's what makes it the best role-playing game.
2. Final Fantasy IX - I guess this would fit the more traditional definition of an RPG. FFIX is a fun, light-hearted adventure with an interesting cast, a detailed medieval fantasy world, a fantastic soundtrack, a tear-jerker, and a few of the best mini-games in the Final Fantasy series.
3. Final Fantasy Tactics (Best Soundtrack)
4. Chrono Trigger
5. The Witcher III: Wild Hunt (Best Writing)
6. Morrowind
7. Final Fantasy VII
8. Persona 4 Golden
9. Bloodborne (Best Combat)
10. Demon's Souls
11. World of Warcraft
12. Dragon's Crown
13. Dark Souls II
14. Diablo II
15. Divinity: Original Sin
16. Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
17. Xenoblade Chronicles
18. Chrono Cross
10. Bravely Default
20. Valkyria Chronicles

 

[Isendurl]

1. Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (Best Combat) - Godlike encounter design, unmatched enemy variety and spell variety. It never ceases to amaze me how rich this game is.

2. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - “The sword of destiny has two edges. You are one of them.” I have so many complaints about Witcher 3 that if I try to list them, it would take me hours, but if I try list things I absolutely adore about it, it would take me days.

3. Gothic II – This is how open world games should be done. Rich, memorable and fun to explore. Only downside is that it's SO memorable that after few playthroughs you just now it all, forever. :-(

4. Fallout 2 - Excessive in references and jokes, absolutly brilliand in execution of roleplaying elements.

5. Icewind Dale (Best Soundtrack) - This game has a bad reputation for being lesser BG, but there's something really magical in those snow covered valleys.

6. Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer (Best Story)

7. Baldur's Gate - Not as good as BG 2, but still best low level D&D game ever made.

8. Fallout: New Vegas - Fallout should be more than just dumb theme park ride and Obsidian knows it.

9. System Shock 2

10. Fallout - Not as excessive as Fallout 2, but also not as brilliand.

11. Dark Souls
12. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
13. Deus Ex
14. Valkyria Chronicles
15. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
16. Gothic
17. Diablo II
18. Mass Effect 2
19. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
20. Mount&Blade: Warband

 

[ThirtyFive]

1) Grandia: My personal favorite single player game of all time. No game has ever been able to replicate the feelings of adventure I get when playing this one. Although the later games in the series improved on the combat, even the first game is better than most other JRPGs if you're looking for something a little different. The soundtrack also happens to be superb in my opinion.

2) Persona 4 Golden: (BEST SOUNDTRACK) This game surprised me by living up to all of the hype. I couldn't put it down until I finished it. It also happens to be one of the only games to ever inspire me enough to play a second play-through. Persona has what I consider top-tier character interactions, setting, and music, which all work together to enhance the experience. The soundtrack also happens to be incredible.

3) Star Ocean: The Second Story: I love all of the out-of-combat systems in this game. You're telling me I can create some of the best weapons in the game early in the story? I can't resist mechanics like that, and this was my favorite game for a long time because of it. There is so much depth to this game that goes beyond the normal RPG story and combat elements.

4) Dark Souls: (BEST COMBAT) The merits of this game are well documented, so the only thing I can say is that although I had trouble at first, and I never thought I would see the worth of this game, once I saw it; this became the best combat I had ever touched.

5) Final Fantasy XI: My actual favorite game of all time. During the height of its popularity, I had most of my most fond gaming moments. The relationships that could be built with random players due to the forced grouping is one of my favorite aspects, along with the combat system, although it may seem terribly boring to many.

6) Final Fantasy VII: Another game that surprised me by living up to the hype for me personally, even though I only played it this year. I can't put my finger on what exactly draws me to this game, but I think the setting, characters, and soundtrack have something to do with it.

7) Pokémon Gold and Silver: A simple but deep combat system and some of the best character design come together to make a wonderful overall experience. This just happens to be my favorite of the Pokémon games I've played and seems to be one of the more tightly designed in the series.

8) World of Warcraft: The vast world that can be explored makes this one of my favorite RPG experiences. It may not be enticing to many, but the raiding is also a major draw for me, and I consider it some of the better combat I've been exposed to.

9) Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: This game doesn't have any particular aspects that stand out to me, but I still look on my play-through fondly. We need more games that allow the player to become a jedi, I think!

10) System Shock 2: The atmosphere in this game is some of the best, even when played almost 15 (!) years later. I'm a sucker for these types of experiences, which is what puts this game on my list.

Final Fantasy: The first in a long line of popular JRPGS, this is the game that started it all. If you've enjoyed any Final Fantasy game, I feel that this one deserves a play.


Honorable Mentions

1) Final Fantasy 8: I feel like I must put this game on my list, even when I haven't finished it. This is the game that inspired me to start playing RPGs after I played the demo of it from Pizza Hut.

2) Chrono Trigger: Although I thought this game was okay, I just didn't "get" it for some reason. It never clicked for me throughout my entire play-through, although I can understand why it is so beloved by many.

3) Final Fantasy VI: Very similar experience to Chrono Trigger for me. Maybe I just dislike games of the era.

4) Fallout 3: My most personally hyped game of all time. It didn't live up to the hype, sadly. I still enjoyed the experience on many levels, however.

5) Final Fantasy XIII: Although it took me a while to slog through, I still greatly enjoyed the combat and world of this game. I think it doesn't deserve much of the hate it receives.


There are probably many games missing from my list that are very deserving, but outside of FF8, I only included games that I managed to finish (or come exceedingly close to finishing in the case of FF6). If there are any games that anyone thinks I may enjoy missing from my list, I would appreciate PMs with any recommendations.

Thanks for putting this thread together! It's very interesting to me to read through and I look forward to the results. I really appreciate the work done by KuwabaraTheMan to put this together.

 

[Spikematic]

1) Chrono Trigger - My favorite game of all time and it's definitely not the nostalgia talking as it still holds up perfectly right now. Everything about it was almost perfect for me - the simple yet fun combat system, the intriguing story, the spectacular soundtrack and of course, the most memorable and lovable cast of characters to ever grace a game. I will cherish my memories of this masterpiece forever.

2) Final Fantasy VI - Another oldschool RPG that brings me nothing but joy whenever I feel the urge to revisit it. I feel THIS is the game that really elevated the art of storytelling in a video game. Definitely the best entry in my favorite series of games with an incredible roster of characters, compelling story, delightfully evil villain and one of the best soundtracks Uematsu ever composed.

3) Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal - I grew up playing Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow and spent hundreds upon hundreds of hours on competitive battling and trading and whatnot. And then I bought Silver and did it all over again and then some. It really was the perfect sequel, with an insane amount of content and a lot of awesome changes. The best entry in the games (single-player wise at least) and I loved playing the remakes as well.

4) Final Fantasy VII - The love and praise this game has garnered since it's release is not without reason. Another Squaresoft masterpiece that also played an integral role in evolving games to a whole new level. Although I feel it hasn't aged as well as some other Final Fantasies, it's still one of the best games ever made.

5) Persona 4 - I still remember the day two friends of mine were urging me to try this game out. I scoffed at the concept initially and mocked them for playing the "animu relationship simulator." Then I bought a new PC around the time PS2 emulation was all the rage and borrowed the game off one of them to try it out now. After an hour I was totally hooked and boy, was the crow delicious. Fell completely and utterly in love with the characters, the story, the music... everything pretty much. The fact that the emulator rendered the game to an HD-like (if not HD) quality and that I used a patch to play with original Japanese voices probably made me love the game more than I would have if I had just popped the disc in my PS2. In any case, a wonderful game and I'll definitely revisit it on the Vita sometime in the near future.

6) Final Fantasy VIII - Despite some glaring flaws this game has a very special place in my heart. Hasn't aged as well as FF7 or FF9, but for it's time it had a massive impact on me. Excellent character designs, one of the best soundtracks ever and the best sidegame ever makes this one of the top choices for me.

7) Chrono Cross (Best soundtrack) - I was one of the few people who didn't treat this game as a direct sequel to Chrono Trigger, so instead of being disappointed by it's throwaway and somewhat forced references to the first game, I immersed myself in the game's spectacular world design, awesome battle system, intriguing (albeit confusing and borderline nonsensical) story and of course, THE best soundtrack to ever grace a video game. While I'd still love a proper sequel to Chrono Trigger, I will continue to consider Cross as one of the best RPGs I've ever had the pleasure of playing.

8) Diablo II - Blizzard games are responsible for taking up the bulk of most of my gaming time to this day and it was Diablo II that started that trend. To say I was addicted to it is an understatement. While there are plenty of better games out there with much better gameplay and of course, plots (Blizzard's writing was and will always remain atrocious), the sheer amount of fun I had binging on this makes it one of my top picks.

9) Final Fantasy Tactics - Took me a while to get to grips with how awesome this game is since it was quite brutal to get into. Despite the questionable balance, I loved almost everything about it, including the battle system, variety of classes, story, characters and music. The PSP version's updated script made it even better. I still find myself playing it on and off.

10) Final Fantasy IX - Another Final Fantasy game! This one had a very endearing cast of characters, awesome music (yet again) and amazing world design. The most "Final Fantasyish" of all Final Fantasies. Can't wait to play it all over again in the upcoming re release.

11) The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Best writing) - The sheer scope of this game is simply remarkable, especially considering the fact that every single aspect oozes quality.

12) The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind - The first "epic" Bethesda game and still the best one. I've lost track of how many hours I poured into this, just wandering around and exploring the massive world while listening to the stellar soundtrack and experimenting with the hilariously fun spells. It's a pity every followup game has gone on to become less and less ambitious.

13) Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - THE definitive Star Wars game and one of the best stories ever told inside a video game. The things I would do for a spruced up remake...

14) Demon's Souls (Best combat) - One of the most atmospheric games I've ever played. While Dark Souls, DS2 and Bloodborne continued to evolve the gameplay, the original deserves all the credit for unleashing such an awesome series of games upon us!

15) Deus Ex: Human Revolution - I'm one of those blasphemers that never played the original Deus Ex. However, I did extensively play HR and boy, I'm glad that I did. Loved pretty much everything about it, even the janky boss encounters everyone despised (guess it's lucky I didn't go the full stealth path).

 

[0.1.1.2.3.5.8.13.21.34.55]

1. System Shock 2
2. Deus Ex
3. The Witcher 3

 

[djtiesto]

Just gonna throw my answers into the ring, I'm not even sure if this is an accurate top 20 since there are so many RPGs I have played and I'm bad with keeping my rankings straight. And hell, there are some I'm undoubtedly forgetting. Hell, I couldn't even find a place for a Tales or a Ys game.

But what you can sum up is - I love tri-Ace, I love Phantasy Star. I haven't played PS Nova yet though

1. Phantasy Star 2
2. Star Ocean 2
3. Valkyrie Profile (best battle system)
4. Phantasy Star 1
5. Skies of Arcadia
6. Final Fantasy 5
7. Dragon Quest 5
8. Phantasy Star 4
9. Chrono Trigger (best soundtrack)
10. Xenogears (best story)
11. Suikoden 2
12. Final Fantasy 4
13. Final Fantasy 7
14. Xenoblade
15. Arc the Lad 2
16. Shadow Hearts: Covenant
17. Lufia 2 (best dungeon design)
18. Dragon Quest 8
19. Persona 3
20. Terranigma

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

Reminder that voting ends in just under 11 hours. Make sure to get your ballots in by then. And to do any further editing you want if you've already voted.

 

[An-Det]

It's interesting seeing my list from last year and seeing what has changed. Playing (and reading about) Fallout 4 brought to mind all the differences between 3 and NV and convinced me to flip my vote there, and I've experienced a lot more Souls this year so Dark Souls has gone up for me. I rather like extending it to 20, but reading the thread really reminds me that there are so many classics and great games that I want to play.

1. Persona 4/Persona 4 Golden (Best writing) - Endearing cast, great writing, fun combat, amazing music. It's fucking good and replaying it this year has reminded me just how good it really is.

2. Dark Souls - Same with this, with the Steamworks update and rexperiencing a bunch of the game again reminded me quite how much I loved it. Tough but fair, fantastic combat and awesome boss music.

3. Pokemon Silver/Gold/HeartGold/SoulSilver - Formative rpg's for me. A lengthy campaign, lots of new pokemon (but not an overhelming amount), new types, options, and Kanto on top of it.

4. Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen (Best Combat)- Really glad more people will get to experience it this year. The story for most of the game is a wash, but it turns up to 11 near the end and the combat is tops.

5. Mass Effect - The worst combat in the trilogy, but the best rpg elements and it had a bit more of the classic Star Trek vibe than the others.

6. Might & Magic 6: The Mandate of Heaven - A huge world, decent combat, loads of monsters to kill and places to explore. It's not the prettiest game, but it provides so many options.

7. The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind - The quintessential game of Bethesda's style.

8. Chrono Trigger - Solid music, combat, and cast, it's really fucking good.

9. Fallout: New Vegas - Lots of the same problems as Fallout 3, but it adds in Obsidian writing that elevates it.

10. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords - Basically the same situation as New Vegas.

11. Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines - I didn't like the combat, but the world they built within the WoD setting, the characters and the atmosphere is fantastic.

12. Deus Ex: Human Revolution - A fantastic update to the franchise, really solid combat that for the most part let's you play however you'd like.

13. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Best soundtrack) - Fucking amazing story, beautiful to look at, really solid rpg mechanics, and decent combat. I got fucking lost in that world, and Geralt is perhaps the best realized rpg main character I've played.

14. Persona 3 FES - I felt that it had a better story compared to Persona 4, though P4 improved on everything with the gameplay.

15. Bloodborne - Amazing aesthetic and a fantastic speedier version of the Souls combat. Great bosses and world.

16. South Park: The Stick of Truth - Really good combat and great script, it was way better than it had any right to be, and knew not to overstay its welcome.

17. The Witcher - The combat hasn't aged well, but Geralt's first adventure in a game is fucking great.

18. Final Fantasy X - Some of the characters are pretty bad, but the gameplay is top notch, the music is great, and the package is a lot of fun.

19. Shin Megami Tensei 3 Nocturne - Fantastic SMT combat in a desolate, depressing world. It's really good.

20. Guild Wars - A really big world that I sunk over 1000 hours into. Really good combat that prioritized customizing your attacks and strategy over constantly grinding for the next level of gear. It had a lot of really solid updates and improvements and expansions. I really wish Guild Wars 2 had clicked with me.


Honorable Mentions:
Demons Souls
Fable
Lost Odyssey
The Elder Scrolls 3: Skyrim
Final Fantasy 12
Mass Effect 2
Pokemon Red/Blue/Fire Red/Leaf Green
Kingdom Hearts
Chrono Cross

 

[Screaming_Gremlin]

Most of my list hasn't changed since last year. I did add in Divinity and Shadowrun: Hong Kong. Planescape is a clear number 1 for me, but after that they aren't ranked. Numbers are just for counting. Even with the expanded list, I am sticking to my rule not to add any games from the current year. I need to put more distance between myself before determining if they are truly essential or not.

1. Planescape: Torment (Best Writing) – After replaying this game a few years ago, it has become not just my favorite RPG, but favorite videogame. It shows that games can have stories that rival other mediums. But the game is more than just a fantastic story. It contains one of the most unique worlds in RPG history and some of the most interesting characters. While the game is certainly not perfect (while combat is serviceable, I wouldn’t call it fun), it provides an experience few other games can even hope to match.

2. Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn – Baldur’s Gate II doesn’t have a story as good as Planescape, or combat as fun as Icewind Dale, but as a total package it is still one of the most well put together RPGs ever made. It certainly is still Bioware’s crown achievement. There are a myriad of areas to explore, all packed with content. Athkatla is still probably one of the best designed cities in an RPG. The companions have depth, and unlike later Bioware games, the relationships were interesting to explore. Finally, the encounters were well designed, with some of the optional dragons being especially memorable.

3. Fallout: New Vegas – Honestly, this could easily be switched out for Fallout or Fallout 2. The replay value of this game compared to other RPGs is nearly unparalleled (the first game I would compare it to would be Obsidian’s underrated Alpha Protocol). Almost every quest has multiple ways to approach and resolve them, and better yet will actually provide real consequences to your decisions. There are a variety of technical flaws inherited with the Gambryo engine, but thankfully many of them could be fixed with mods.

4. Divinity: Original Sin (Best Combat) – This is a game that took me by surprise. I had heard about Dragon Commander, but knew nothing else about the franchise or developers. But seeing some of the reactions to Divinity on GAF sold me on the game and I am glad it did. The combat is what makes this game. It is both extremely tactical, with just a bit of nonsense thrown in when the elemental

5. Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines – This is a very flawed gem, but one that I can’t help but love. It is very much an example of game that the whole is better than the sum of its parts. The atmosphere maintains a fairly constant level of creepiness, with a few occasions slipping into the horror genre (I might just be a pansy, but the Ocean House Hotel still creeps me out). While the overall story is just fairly good, the dialog is just amazing. You have to play as a Malkavian, as it least once. It is just a shame the combat is mediocre at best and toward the endgame is forced way too much.

6. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 – For a game I never would have paid attention to in the first place if it wasn’t for the Giant Bomb endurance run, I ended up loving Persona 4. The atmosphere and store could push both melancholy and happiness depending on what was happening. Your companions were fun to be around and the game did a fantastic job of showing the friendships that were developed throughout the game. I bought a Vita just to play this and I don’t regret it at all.

7. Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of The Betrayer – Vanilla Neverwinter Nights wasn’t a terrible game, but it wasn’t particular good either. For the expansion, Obsidian decided to follow that up be releasing an expansion with the best story since Planescape Torment. The companions are better, the visuals are more varied, and the quest design is improved. The only real negative is that it is still constrained by the Alpha engine, so you will have sports where you spend more time fighting the camera than you do enemies.

8. World of Warcraft – I played WoW from Beta to the beginning of Cataclysm and to this day it is still the only MMORPG that I have loved. Honestly thinking back to the amount of time I put into this game when I was younger is sort of embarrassing. That said, some of my best gaming memories come from WoW. The first time I entered Westfall (my favorite zone) of my guild’s first Ragnaros kill are still vibrant in my mind.

9. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind – Morrowind is still my favorite of the Elder Scrolls games and it appears to be something that Bethesda isn’t interested in going back to. The sheer amount of freedom this game gave to you was amazing. Sneaking into Daedric shrines before you had any business being in those areas, just so you could swipe some armor that would make you a god. Taking advantage of the game mechanics (thanks alchemy!) to break the game in ways the developers never intended was especially fun. It is a shame that instead of embracing this in future games, they just stripped abilities and systems out of the game. Luckily, with the robust modding community on PC you can still make the game look as nice as most current RPGs.

10. Mass Effect (Best Music) - I am a sap for pulp scifi/space opera. So saying that, I loved Mass Effect. The game has a ton of issues; the inventory system is broken, the Mako was not fun to drive, the random worlds had way too many mountains, and there was too much copy/paste in the environments. Still, the game overcame those issues. The universe it established was fantastic and just sucked me in. I beat the game on Xbox almost 5 times (one of the few games that I have every achievement for), and then went back and beat it a few more times on PC.

11. Alpha Protocol – I consider this to be one of the most underappreciated gems in videogames. For everyone who complains that games don’t provide enough consequences to your actions, they have to play Alpha Protocol. It features unparalleled nonlinearity and reactivity. The approach they took to character interactions is unmatched. You aren’t forced into playing nice with everyone for stat bonuses, in fact in some cases it actually benefits you to go tell someone to fuck off.

12. Skies of Arcadia - I honestly have no idea why I like this game. I hate random battles with a passion and this game has them in such frequency that it is sickening. Despite that, I couldn't stop myself from playing this game. The world it created and the sense of adventure was just so enjoyable.

13. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords – This is both my favorite Star Wars game (well, tied with Tie Fighter) and a bad Star Wars game if that makes sense. Its story and dialog actually is more of a deconstruction of the Star Wars universe. Unfortunately, LucasArts forced Obsidian to rush it out the door before it was finished, so the last chapter of the game is a complete mess.

14. Shadowrun: Dragonfall – Director’s Cut – I felt Shadowrun Returns was an interesting and successful game. I loved the cyberpunk atmosphere and felt like the overall mechanics were solid. It was just missing a few pieces that held it back from being, namely the lack of a save anywhere system and overly linear story. Dragonfall took the basic structure, fixed the majority of the issues from Dead Man’s Switch, and then kicked everything into high gear. The story was engaging, the characters were interesting, and Berlin was a much more compelling setting.

15. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings – CD Projekt’s follow up to immensely satisfying Witcher 1. Instead of improving on the combat system for the first game, they instead implemented a new one. It led to combat being more challenging, but at times felt like it focused on just a couple of techniques. The WItcher 2 has an engaging story and again has an amazing dark fantasy world. Outside of an Obsidian game, it also has some of the weightiest consequences in a videogame, where the entire middle section of the game is different depending on a choice you make in an earlier chapter.

16. Fallout – Compared to its sequels, Fallout is a shorter game, but contains a more tightly focused plot. The atmosphere established by the 50’s retro-futuristic look would become iconic. Combat could be simple, but was still satisfying thanks in no part to the amusing death animations.

17. Fallout 2 – It was a larger world with more stuff to do compared to the first Fallout. Useless skills were made to be less useless and the faction mechanics were better. Unfortunately, that larger world sometime resulted in the game being a bit like a “Theme Park” which is was something that Bethesda ramped up even further in Fallout 3. Also, the pop culture humor at times could be a bit much. Still it was a fantastic RPG, it just wasn’t quite at the same level as the first game.

18. EarthBound – This was one of the few RPGs on consoles that pulled me in when I was a kid. The varied locals just oozed charm. I couldn't wait to see what the next zone would offer. While the combat was nothing special, the game had several memorable (as well as insane) enemies. It still drives me crazy that Nintendo never brought Mother 3 over to the US.

19. Diablo 2 – Loot, loot, Battlenet, loot, and loot. What more needs to be said.

20. Baldur’s Gate – Generally considered being inferior to its sequel, Baldur’s Gate is still a very good RPG. While not exactly open world, it contains a massive number of locations. Despite being constrained with how boring low level combat can be in AD&D, it still manages to be entertaining. You really can see the building blocks for Shadows of Amn being laid down.

 

[Farks!]

1. Planescape: Torment (best writing) - Torment is very unlike most RPG's, but actully end up being more of an RPG for it. It's emphasis on character, narrative and exploration gives it the opportunity to confront the player with interesting, deep and thought-provoking elements that otherwise would not have been possible.
2. Fallout (best soundtrack) - A brilliant mix between the values of older pen and paper roleplaying and the effectiveness computer game design, all wrapped up in one of the most elegant RPG systems ever. Fallout is not only a great gameplay experience, it has an excellent mood and setting as well.
3. Baldur's Gate 2
4. Fallout: New Vegas
5. Deus Ex
6. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
7. Dark Souls (best combat)
8. The Witcher
9. Mass Effect
10. Pokémon Yellow
11. Pokémon Silver
12. Alpha Protocol
13. Fallout 2
14. Baldur's Gate
15. Pillars of Eternity

 

[maxcriden]

Well it's not at all an RPG, not by the most accepted definitions. I wouldn't call similar games like Legacy of Kain or Metroid RPG's either. This isn't the thread for debating a definition, but chances are a list like that wouldn't count anyway.

I always used to hear Zelda referred to as an action RPG. What makes something like Dark Souls or even Landstalker or Alundra an RPg but Zelda not one?

 

[dancrane212]

Sorry, meant to write up something a bit better than the following but I left it too so it's going to be a little dry. I opted to only included 1 game from each franchise to make a bit more of an interesting list (and to save me time gushing over the same series over and over). Plenty of games I still need to play as well like the Witcher 3 and Divinity:OS that I'm sure will impact my list - just need to block out time for them and other classic RPGs, from lists like this thread, to get play to.

1. Mass Effect 3 - Out of all the games on this list Mass Effect 3 is the hardest the write up my feelings on so I’ll keep it simple. Say what you will about the actual ending decisions Bioware made but getting to have one last ride with those characters to bring a definitive close to trilogy's story will always put Mass Effect 3 over the other two games in the series for me. The fantastic combat certainly doesn't hurt either.

I don’t know if anything will ever be able to top those couple months of evening play sessions with Mass Effect 3. That is the reason it is my #1.

2. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (Best Combat) - I enjoy a good challenge but playing through PoR on Hard mode with the intent of not losing a single character was a whole new level for me. Having to pay an extreme amount of attention to what was going on with both my army and the opposition could be extremely frustrating when I lost a character and had to restart but even more accomplished when I completed the level.
Beyond the combat system the world and characters played off my success. Rather than party members disappearing into optional support conversations for the majority of the game I was able to talk to select members in-between missions to try and get intel on what was upcoming in a future mission. By the time the credits rolled it was bittersweet to see the rollcall of all the characters and listen to the little blurb they had to say. Path of Radiance was so good that, despite it, I have not played Radiant Dawn. It, possibly the last big console Fire Emblem, is something I’m saving for a special occasion (also don’t know if I can survive the torment I put myself through in PoR again, that's more of the real reason).

3. Chrono Trigger - Chrono Trigger was a game I always wanted to like. First seeing the game when I was younger and heavily invested in Dragon Ball Z it stood out to me for obvious reasons. While I did not own a SNES the release on PS1 had me excited to finally give the game a shot but, on a rental from Roger's Video, the technical hurdles were a huge turn off. Waiting for a menu to pop up was grating enough that I stopped after getting the Masamune and returned the game. It wasn't until the DS release and hearing that the version was an excellent port that I gave the game another shot and boy did it grab me. For a game released so many years prior the combat, soundtrack, characters and design held up so well I couldn't put it down. It’s easy to see why the game is so highly regarded.

4. Golden Sun - I was not a stranger to JRPGs before Golden Sun. As someone who grew up in the 90s I had plenty of experience with the first two generations of Pokémon games and had dabbled in some other handheld releases like the portable release of Dragon Warrior but, aside from Pokémon, I could never get over the random encounter nature of those classic style games. Golden Sun, with its simple systems and great visuals, clicked with me and got me over that hump of disliking turn-based games. I made sure to complete 100% in time for the sequel (which was the first game to get me to delve into import impressions online due to my excitement of it).

5. NieR (Best Soundtrack) - An utterly bizarre but memorable experience. NieR was a game that kept on surprising me long after the credits rolled for the first time. I highly recommend it to anyone I know with an interest in the genre.

6. Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey - Before Strange Journey I had no interest in traditional DRGPs. Games where I was likely to get lost while getting plagued by random encounters sounded completely out of my wheelhouse but on a whim I picked the game up on clearance and was surprised. Here was a game with a militaristic tone that had fast gameplay, interesting systems and a plot that wasted no time getting rolling. Wish I knew of more DRPGs like Strange Journey - nothing in the genre has connected with me like that game did.

7. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (Best Writing) - A hilarious and fun adventure that is well worth anyone's time.

8. Knights of the Old Republic- “It’s Star Wars but you can make choices” – All it took for to purchase, and love, the game.

9. Persona 3 - Chipping away at this game on my PSP was a highlight of the system for me.

10. Dragon Age: Origins - The playable origin stories were something I really enjoyed and have lamented the loss of since.

 

[hemtae]

1. Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn
2. Chrono Trigger (Best Soundtrack)
3. Dark Souls
4. Deus Ex
5. Divinity: Original Sin

The first two are pretty much the quintessential example of WRPGs and JRPGs. They may have been surpassed in each individual element but nothing so far puts it all together in the same package like these do. Dark Souls has come to codify action combat in these recent years and Divinity: Original Sin will probably end up doing the same for turn-based combat. Deus Ex needs no introduction as it was perhaps the greatest immersive sim that even almost sixteen years later has yet to be matched.

6. Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride
7. Dragon's Dogma
8. Fallout 2
9. Fallout: New Vegas
10. Final Fantasy IX

Fallout 2 gets the nod over Fallout 1 due to the amount of brilliance of all the content it has even if that does cause it to lose some of the focus that Fallout 1 had. Fallout: New Vegas gets the nod over Fallout 3 due to it being superior in every way. Dragon Quest V did the vignette approach of Dragon Quest the best and a strong main story to boot. Also monster catching.

11. Final Fantasy VI
12. Gothic II
13. Jagged Alliance 2 (Best Combat)
14. Might & Magic: World of Xeen
15. Neverwinter Nights 2

16. Planescape: Torment (Best Writing)
17. Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
18. Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together
19. Ultima VII
20. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

Honorable Mentions:
1. The Age of Decadence
2. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
3. Fallout
4. Final Fantasy VII
5. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4

6. Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar
7. Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss
8. Undertale
9. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
10. Wizardry 8

 

[StudsMcKewl]

1. Mass Effect 3

That is one bold mother effing statement sir, and I respect the hell out of you for it even though I disagree.

 

[Mcdohl]

[Post 1/2] [Full condensed list at the end of second post]

In no particular order...

1. Suikoden - My username on this forum and on most MMO's I've played is an homage to the main character of this game: Tir Mcdohl. A great character, that even though silent, is very well developed thanks to the main storyline. But he's just one character in a game filled with over a hundred characters!
Knowing little of what RPGs even where, the fact that there were so many characters was what drew me into this game. Luckily, I was not disappointed. Not only were there a lot of characters, but you could use a lot of them in battle, while others provided services and/or mini-games in your own headquarters, which by the way were another awesome feature from this game.
Suikoden is an incredible game that makes basic politics fun. And of course, there can't be politics without drama, pretty emotional drama. In retrospective, I guess the Suikoden series is the Game of Thrones of JRPGs.
Being one of my first RPGs ever, filled with lots of memorable characters and mechanics, and intriguing / dramatic storyline, Suikoden will always harbor a special place in my heart.
Bonus: This game has three battle systems. Regular battles with 6 member parties, 1 on 1 rock-paper-scissors style duels, and epic wars. Also, Suikoden inspired a lot of mechanics in my RPG Maker games

2. Suikoden II - Can you make a great JRPG better? Yes, you certainly can. Suikoden II was a glorious step forward for the series. With more characters, more drama, more politics, and more everything, Suikoden II pushed the formula to greater heights.
But Suikoden II's experience is magnified if you played the first one, since it's filled with returning characters and throwbacks to the first game. It really helps build a cohesive world between both games.
There's two special things I want to mention about this game.

• Sprites, backgrounds, animations, and tilesets all look beautiful. You can clearly see an improvement in the visual department after Suikoden.
• This game introduces one of the best villains in JRPGs: Luca Blight. A merciless madman. The fight to bring him down is very well done, very tense, and very epic. Superb job, Konami.

Bonus: Mcdohl is (optionally) back and the war system is expanded a lot on this game.

3. Breath of Fire III - This game takes its time in delivering its greatest moments. It revisits a lot of sub-plots hours after you first start them. Basically, you first see things as a child, then in the second arc of the game, you start seeings things as a man.
The game's atmosphere changes a lot between being a child, and being an adult, even though you revisit a lot of places that look almost the same as they did before. Sub-plots are darker on the second arc. IMO, this is further evidenced by the world map's theme. It goes from Casually's playful tone to To A Distant Place's calmer, more reflexive tone.
But this is part of why I love this game. It carefully creates a great build-up to a lot of great moments. The reunion with

Spoiler

Rei

, and the fight against

Spoiler

Teepo

were very emotionally powerful moments. Both were very bittersweet, but I really appreciated how this game managed nostalgia.
And I guess that's how I would describe the game's second arc: Nostalgia. Days as a child are over, shit's all serious know. We'll kill the

Spoiler

Goddess

if we have to. And I guess that nostalgia really resonated with me since I played this game while growing up.
Also, the final part of the game really nailed the venturing into the unknown feeling.
Bonus: Dragon transformations are badass, and

Spoiler

Rei's Weretiger

transformation is even badasser.

4. Breath of Fire IV - This game is very different from Breath of Fire III. And...that's actually great. The first thing that captured my attention was this game's very particular art direction. Everything felt different and new. Even the dragons, they had really unorthodox designs.
Breath of Fire IV also lets players experience the story from the side of the main antagonist: Fou-Lou. This of course helps his character development a lot. The whole game you kinda know, that it will ultimately end in a bout between Ryu and Fou-Lou.

Spoiler

And in one of the endings, it actually does. But it still feels really climatic, because it's the moment you've been waiting for.

The story is more complex than that though, for a while, Fou-Lou and Ryu's party share a common enemy, but different goals.
This game explores the horrors of war carried in a very interesting way, and it really succeeds in doing so through a secondary antagonist called Yuna. I appreciate how well designed the character is, because Capcom succeeded in making me hate that heartless bastard. The mastermind behind a lot of the bad shit that happens in the game.

Spoiler

Oh, and he gets to live in the end. Seriously, there's no fight against him whatsoever. He never pays for what he did.

Bonus: Scias is awesome and I love the combos in the battle system!

5. Shin Megami Tensei IV - How can a game with first-person battles, bare-bones dungeons, and an atrociously designed world map have so much personality? Atmosphere. This game oozes atmosphere. Shin Megami Tensei IV is a game that really puts the resources it has to great use (ok, except the maze-like world map).
As with other SMT titles, this game can be challenging with some intense battles. Battles that are accompanied with some kickass demon designs. I specially love the ones from SMT IV because there are some pretty surreal / otherworldly ones. It really pushes the limits at times. I've heard complains about the angels, but that's what I love about them. And I really dig that, specially on a genre that keeps rehashing monster ideas / designs. The same can be said about the soundtrack. This game has a really unique soundtrack. I really like it, and in a way, it blew my mind. It's something you don't commonly hear in JRPGs. But enough about how much I like the soundtrack, the important thing is that it does its job perfectly. It really helps create a unique atmosphere.
What else is unique? Character designs and crazy-ass plot. Seriously, this is one of the most unique games I've ever played. Sure, there are other games that share a lot with this game, specially other titles from the SMT franchise, but in my opinion (and from what I've played), this one stands out the most, and tries the craziest things even if it meant to upset some series' fans.
Bonus: Listening to Tokyo Overworld Theme is an obsession of mine.

6. Persona 4: Golden - This one was hard for me to get into. I saw it more as a social simulator than RPG, and that did not appeal to me. I also felt it was unnecessary to play each day of the year. That, combined with the corridor-maze-like dungeons, was a complete no in my book. Finally, I had previously tried to get into Persona 3 but after hours, I gave up on it. So if I'm whining so much about it, why is this game on my list? Because it grew on me. Two factors were key on it growing on me: a friend insisting on me playing it, and my daily commute. Playing on the bus made me stop feeling like I wasted my time on such a time-consuming RPG, because there's not much else you can do on a bus.
In the end I realized Persona 4 kinda teaches you how to be a better person. Yeah, it simplifies things a lot, it's a game duh, but very basic stuff such as caring about your friends and social links, and training other disciplines to develop yourself as a person are things that properly map to real life. Yes, common sense to most people, but eye-opening to others.
To me, this game is about friendship. The power of friendship is commonly explored in jRPGs, often in cliche ways, including this title, but Persona 4 is the one that does it the best. Building friendships requires time, effort, and most importantly, love. P4 doesn't force you to build those friendships, but it certainly rewards you for doing so. On a personal note, the ending really clicked with me:

Spoiler

I recently moved away from my hometown and left my friends behind. This game made me promise myself to never forget about them.

Bonus: The game's main plot is about investigating a murder case. It's very intriguing and often times will have you change your mind when guessing the culprit.

Spoiler

A bit too many plot-twists though.

7. Final Fantasy - I've played this game on PS, GBA, and PSP, but never on an actual NES...Anyway, this game is some sort of a house classic for me. My brother and I both really enjoy this FF. This is probably the RPG I've replayed the most (5 times). And I mastered this game before achievements were a thing. Filled the bestiary 100%, including the Warmech and the elusive Tyrannosaur, and opened every damn treasure chest.
The plot is pretty standard, and I'm still not convinced the revelation at the end makes sense, but I don't care. This game is still very charming. I appreciate how it goes straight to the point. Monsters are pretty memorable, specially the four fiends and the final boss. The dungeons are very properly themed, again, specially the four fiends' lairs and the final dungeon. Turns out Final Fantasy minus the drama can also be pretty cool. Upgrading your jobs is pretty cool as well. It helps that this is not a very long game, it's very well paced and with just the right amount of content. Final Fantasy is an RPG that didn't blow my mind, but that certainly won my heart. It makes me feel at home.
Bonus: The newer releases have added new dungeons that include a ton of classic Final Fantasy bosses from other titles in the series.

8. Final Fantasy IV - This is where the real drama starts on the series. Yes, the writing and story might be too cheesy and/or melodramatic at times, but it still works. We got a main character who starts as a Dark Knight then overcomes his inner demons to become a Paladin, a love triangle, an antagonist that ends up being

Spoiler

your brother

, a ton of sacrifices from secondary party members, and we fly to the moon in a spaceship that looks like a whale. This game has it all, it's ridiculously epic, and I love it. All that with Nobuo's music happening in the background.
This title also introduced ATB to the series, and it still holds up amazingly well. Suddenly turn-based battles become a lot more interesting and time-sensitive. There are great boss battles that take advantage of this new feature such as the Mist Dragon and the Demon Wall. By the way, this game has a lot of cool bosses, and just like the original FF, it has four evil fiends that represent the four elements: Earth, Water, Wind, and Fire. They have their boss theme which is very fitting and makes it pretty obvious shit's about to go down.
I personally prefer the 2D versions of the game instead of the 3D one, but to each his own. Either way, this game is the archetype of a Final Fantasy.
Bonus: This game has three world maps. The regular one,

Spoiler

underground

, and the fucking

Spoiler

moon

!!!! Also, Kain is a badass.

9. Final Fantasy VI - Shit got serious. This game's story is by no means silly, and all (at least most) of its dramatic sequences are perfectly justifiable. This game is the ultimate 2D Final Fantasy, and to many, the best title in the series.
First of all, this game looks gorgeous. The steampunk theme worked surprisingly well alongside classic Final Fantasy themes. Character and monster sprites truly pushed the SNES to its limits. And the music really enhances the experience. This time with way more complex pieces such as the one that plays in the Opera scene or the final boss. Uematsu was definitely on his prime here, you can certainly tell the soundtrack was more ambitious than ever.
The fresh storytelling approach it took is also something worth noting. I really liked how the game switched the MC depending on who was more relevant to the moment story-wise. It really boosted how I felt in a lot scenes since the game put you in the shoes of whichever character the plot was focusing on. The best example is Celes' sequence at the beginning of the second arc. But what really makes this game stands apart are three things.

1. Kefka is a great antagonist. A lunatic whose madness drove him to demi-godhood. He committed a ton of atrocities that broke many characters...all while marinating a certain comedic tone. But his defining act was
   Spoiler

   bringing the entire world to ruin
   . If you think about it, even after you beat the game, no one can revert that act.
2. Further elaborating on how not even killing the final boss can change the fact that the
   Spoiler

   world was destroyed
   , I love how this game, maybe unintentionally, is so far from the cliché. In a way, the heroes of this game failed. They're not perfect after all, and that felt very true to me. They're not superheroes, they're just a bunch of cool guys trying to make the world a better place. In a genre filled with chosen ones, this was a very welcoming change. In a way, the fact that there is no one main character backs up this notion. At least this is how I felt about it, whether it was intentional or not.
3. The tonal shift in the game. While I have already talked about this in Breath of Fire III (game being divided into being child and adult, like Ocarine of Time), it is executed very differently in this game. The first half of the game feels like a great, but normal, JRPG with a ton of great moments. But once you get to the second arc, where everything is in
   Spoiler

   ruins
   , you realize it's different this time. But even with all the grimness and hopelessness, it's really inspiring to see the failed heroes gang back up and bring an end to
   Spoiler

   Kefka
   's world domination. But it's not just the characters who have to recover hope, you, as the player too, since the game's difficulty spikes up starting the second arc.

I really love this game. It's a very well-crafted and well-thought piece of art. A masterpiece even after all the years. And I say this having played this game after the PS-era FFs.
Bonus: The final battle in this game is on of the most epic moments I've experienced in gaming, including the dialogue right before it. And it features a fittingly epic (and long) song: Dancing Mad.

10. Final Fantasy VII - My second RPG ever, and the RPG that got me into RPGs. I've read that this is true for a lot of gamers. FF7 is the gateway drug. Before I even start talking about this game, I want to make something clear: This is, in my opinion, the Final Fantasy with the best gameplay. Great execution of the ATB, limit breaks, and most importantly: Materia.
Now, what is so great about this game? Why is it the most famous title in a long standing series? It's just too cool. Everything is over-the-top in this game. From Cloud's gigantic Buster Sword, to a motorcycle sequence, to not having one but three types of Bahamuts, to having attacks with two-minute long animations (Sephiroth's Supernova), to gigantic bosses called Weapons, to a gigantic cannon powered by the Earth itself, to Omnislash, to FMVs, to cross-dressing, to snowboarding, to Vincent transforming into monsters, and even to.....Tifa's FMV model. Seriously, everything is just executed in such a cool and over the top fashion. This game doesn't give a fuck. It's proud to be way over the top, and lots of us, including myself, love it for that. By the way, you know what's also cool? The turks.
But coolness is not enough, the plot is actually very interesting and not hard to follow. Characters are very like-able and well-developed, in this case by delving a lot into their pasts. I also appreciate how unfiltered they are. Barret and Cid curse a lot, something the series hasn't seen since then. Sephiroth is a great villain that starts as a mysterious, but threatening foe. And he becomes the ultimate douchebag by

Spoiler

killing Aeris

. But not everything is drama, there's also some very fun moments like the Honey Bee Inn scene.
Music is top notch this time as well, with some legendary songs such as the themes of Aeris and Sephiroth..FMVs were a beautiful addition to the game. They might not have aged well, but they only made FF7 even cooler.
I give up. It's so hard to organize my thoughts for this game. There's so much to talk about it. It's just way too awesome, and way too memorable. I'm a kid again whenever I talk about this game. I feel like this is the game where Sakaguchi just let it all out, no filters, he just went for it.
One last thing I want to say about this game: Exiting Midgar and realizing it was just a small part of the world and that your journey is just starting was a feeling I don't think I've felt ever since. This game was truly mind-blowing and had a scale, still to this day, of epic proportions.
Bonus: In case magic, summons, ultimate weapons, and whatnot are not enough to visually please you, then keep an eye out for Limit Breaks. Also, mini-games.

11. Final Fantasy X - This Final Fantasy is no longer of epic proportions. Instead, it opted on focusing a lot more on its characters. This game is also maybe too aggressive in telling us to not discriminate (like Wakka with the Al Bhed), and to question everything (like...the whole game). The important thing though, is what this game achieves by exploring those topics. This game is about humanity. Being raised as a Catholic, you can probably guess why this game was particularly impactful for me. The game is not against the concept of faith, but it's pretty obvious how it antagonizes organized religion. Nevertheless, it constantly shows you both sides of the coin. A simple example is Wakka's racism towards the Al Bhed. It's easy to just think that racism is bad, but there's a reason why Wakka is so firmly against them. So yeah, I really enjoy the way this game explores all those concepts.
Aside from the story and its themes, this game has some pretty gorgeous locales. Besaid Island is just beautiful. I recently re-played this game on PS4, and man, it was as beautiful as I remembered it. It's song is pretty cool as well, as is most of the soundtrack. And this time it wasn't fully done by Uematsu, but it's still among my favorites.
The presentation is just great, and the voice acting is pretty solid. A lot of people seem to dislike it, specially the laughter scene, but I think they fit their respective characters pretty well. Another thing I want to point out is how at first I kinda disliked Tidus. But he evolves a lot throughout the game, and most importantly, you see him from not knowing what the hell is going on to being completely determined, thanks to the power of love. The lake scene between Tidus and Yuna might be a bit too cheesy for some, but in my opinion it was very well executed. Tidus and Yuna are the most developed romance in the series, and that's part of why this game is so good.
Bonus: This game's ending is probably my favorite in the series. It might be a bit cheesy, and bittersweet, but it does its job. A very satisfying ending imo.

 

[Mcdohl]

[Post 2/2] [Full condensed list at the end of this post]

12. Final Fantasy XI (Best Soundtrack) - This is my favorite game of all time, even though it can no longer be. I guess I should instead say: This game gave me my favorite gaming experiences of all time. Let me start by saying that objectively, this game has a lot of design flaws. A lot. It was an unnecessarily punishing, grindfest, time-consuming game. It's an MMO after all, so a lot of those flaws were conscious decisions to force the players to spend more time on the game.
There were some serious side-effects to that. This is the hardest Final Fantasy game, and by far. It's (or used to be) way too technical. You had to really know the game if you wanted to enjoy it. And just learning about the game took ages. So what made me love this game so much?

• The world is huge. The largest explore-able areas in any FF yet. Yes, this was probably done so it took the player a long time to traverse between areas. But the areas were very nicely done. Due to the time spent on each area, you eventually appreciate its details. How none of it was randomly-generated. How each area has its own very clearly defined atmosphere, flora, and fauna,...and secrets! It was an accomplishment filled with excitement when you got to a new area. But it was also scary, since a lot of the times, new areas meant new, and more powerful enemies. Hiding from enemies was a thing in this game. A big deal. I'll never forget the one time I was on a boat, from the town of Selbina to Mhaura, a boat ride I've taken plenty of times before, but this time we were attacked by pirates. We were obliterated, but instead of being angry, I was happily surprised. They really gave life to Vana'Diel (the game's world). Oh, you found a cave? Cool, go inside, and surprise! It's a whole bigass dungeon that you are free to explore.
• Teamwork. Nothing could be accomplished in this game without a party. For better or worse, this forced all players to socialize and to truly learn their party roles. This game made sure you would not win if you didn't know what you were doing. Of course, as it happens with anything in life, sometimes there's a lot of team chemistry, and from there real friendships are born. I made some great friends in this game, and that's something I'll never forget. And you know, enduring pain and finally overcoming the daunting challenges this game provided brought an extreme sense of accomplishment that is hard to replicate nowadays.
• Story and lore. A big world also means there's a lot to say about it. Being a Final Fantasy fan, I really appreciated how now a lot of things had backstories. And how there were many side-stories. And yes, there was also a main storyline that was great! The original campaign is a bit too basic, but the expansions is where the plot department really shines. There's just so much know and learn about this game, it can even be overwhelming for some.
• Gameplay. Yes, the game felt clunky at times, and it hasn't aged that well, but battles were really something in this game. Definitely not a spamfest, or something you could play while distracted. I love how you really really had to get to know your job, and how you had to communicate with your team. Skillchains, magic bursts, stun rotations, SATA, pulls, etc. Challening and technical, but very rewarding.

I've spent so much time on this game, it's probably not healthy. But I don't care. It was totally worth it. The most immersive Final Fantasy ever. The game has changed a lot now, and while it's way more accessible, it has lost, in my opinion, a lot of its charm. It's perfectly understandable though, no one has time for a game like this anymore, not even me. Also, a gameplay fully depending on parties when there are not as much players just wouldn't work anymore.
Honestly, I don't have a specific best soundtrack (love lots of them), but I decided to give it to this game because it is among my favorite OSTs, because it's massive, and because it's the one I've probably heard the most.
Bonus: The job system we all know and love from the series, is back, and better than ever. Each jobs plays differently and can completely change your experience of the game.

13. Final Fantasy XII - Took me a while to be able to get into this game. At first it felt very different, even alienating. An offline game with MMORPG-like gameplay I though. Luckily, I did revisit this game, and after playing Final Fantasy XIII. The voice acting on this game is top-notch, and it has a kickass cast (yeah, except Vaan and Penelo). Balthier, Fran, Asce, and Basch are so awesome that I forgive SE for Vaan. Also, the Archadian judges are very cool looking.
The plot in this Final Fantasy felt a bit anti-climatic, but the journey was still very memorable. This game is about the journey, more than the destination. Like it's predecessor, having large explor-able interconnected areas added a lot of atmosphere to the game. A lot of the game's time is spent on getting to places. So, again, as I said, it's more about the journey than the destination. The areas are beautiful, and they help create a very unique world. While the battle system is not my favorite, Gambits made the experience a lot better, and it was an understandable design choice. Can you imagine such large journeys plagued with random encounters or instantiated battles with result screens and whatnot? The game would've taken a bit hit in its pacing.
A beautiful-looking game, even on 2016, it's a crime that SE has not ported it to HD yet. Great characters, great locales, and great cutscenes make this game a very memorable Final Fantasy.
Bonus: This game has an incredible amount of side-content. And not just generic content, but actual substantial content.

14. Golden Sun - I honestly think of the first two Golden Suns as just one game, My vote ultimately goes to the first to avoid spending two votes. Anyways, Golden Sun is like a great SNES-era JRPG...released way after the SNES's days were over.
One of the things Golden Sun did the best was gameplay outside of battles. Field interactions and puzzles were a big part of this game. All thanks to Psynergy, which is this game's name for magic. Basically, magic had field usage in this game that was required in order to progress, solve puzzles, find treasures, etc. It was very well implemented.
Another thing I really liked about this game was the ability to transfer your progress from Golden Sun to Golden Sun: The Lost Age. The way the plot is twisted in TLA was pretty cool, and how

Spoiler

both parties from both games eventually join forces

was a very cool thing.
Battles had very cool animations, specially magics and summons, and even more special when you consider that these were GBA games. Music was pretty good too. Great games with probably my favorite dungeons in the genre. Yes, some puzzles were a bit annoying, but still, I appreciate a lot the interact-ability they had.

15. Undertale (Best Writing) - Too soon? I don't care. This game was a blast from beginning to end. It made me feel a lot of different emotions. Very cleverly written game. From my GOTY post:

While Undertale is by no means a technical marvel or a game with a cinematic approach, it certainly is a game with a huge heart. The hype surrounding this game made me curious about it, and I honestly thought people were exaggerating. I was wrong. I can now see why this game is so highly praised.
This is a unique game with excellent writing. Regardless of what you may think of the story, it's hard to deny its characters are incredibly well presented. I really grew attached to them. It does a great job on making sure no moment in the game is generic, everything either has personality or a purpose.
Undertale is a game that evoked the most feelings out of me this last year, and I'm so happy I had the opportunity to experience this beautiful creation.
Additional points for making fights and dialogues really entertaining, and even more bonus points for its epic masterpiece of a soundtrack.

Bonus: More than choices, your actions are what define the outcome of a lot of events in this game. And outcomes are different enough that you will want to experience them.

[I'll finish the remaining write-ups later...]

16. Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King - This game is simply beautiful. The cel-shaded graphics are very good looking and have aged very well. I even dare to say they are better than Wind Waker's.

17. Dark Souls (Best Combat) - Comments about Game Q

18. Kingdom Hearts - Comments about Game R

19. Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Comments about Game S

20. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Comments about Game T

Full Condensed List:
1. Suikoden -
2. Suikoden II -
3. Breath of Fire III -
4. Breath of Fire IV -
5. Shin Megami Tensei IV -
6. Persona 4: Golden -
7. Final Fantasy -
8. Final Fantasy IV -
9. Final Fantasy VI -
10. Final Fantasy VII -
11. Final Fantasy X -
12. Final Fantasy XI (Best Soundtrack) -
13. Final Fantasy XII -
14. Golden Sun -
15. Undertale (Best Writing) -
16. Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King -
17. Dark Souls (Best Combat) -
18. Kingdom Hearts -
19. Deus Ex: Human Revolution -
20. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim -

Honorable Mentions:
1. Lost Kingdoms -
2. Final Fantasy V -
3. Final Fantasy VIII -
4. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn -
5. Earthbound -
6. NieR -
7. Bloodborne -
8. Fire Emblem -
9. Fallout 4 -
10. South Park: The Stick of Truth -

When I saw that we had to list 30 RPGs, I thought that that was way too much. After trying to come up with the list I realized 30 is not enough. RPG is a genre that has graced gaming with a lot of great games. But those are the 30 I could come up with that have impacted me the most as a gamer

 

[Kotetsu534]

1. Final Fantasy X (Best Writing)
A big budget JRPG with lots of text, lots of voice acting, lots of combat, beautiful, stirring music, and a visual majesty that is still impressive today. Of those, the newest was the voice acting, and at times it's poor (sorry Hedy Buress), but for large stretches, it was superb (consider Tidus' internal monologues, delivered in a deeper, more melancholy tone, Auron's high-handed speech patterns, knowing but genuine, Seymour's campy, villanous speeches). The turn-based combat was refined and efficient, allowing tactical depth without bogging the game down in opaque systems.

But since I've nominated FFX for best writing, I'll talk about it more. The two leads have developed characters which slowly but surely change across the story, their motivations and personal reflections taking up much of the script. The tension is deliberately built to two effective climaxes, around 50% and 90% of the way through, and unlike in so many FFs and RPGs the landing is stuck, the ending delivering a bittersweet punch. A.O. Smith's translation is clean and professional to a degree that few were previously. Away from the main script, Spira's denizens give insights into the fictional world without ever feeling indulgent or remote from the party's driving cause. (It's important here to distinguish a well written script from the voice acting which occasionally takes perfectly serviceable lines and butchers them, and I'm allowing that the music contributes to effective writing.)

2. Persona 4 (Best OST)

It gets inside your head. The overall vibe, I mean. The characters are so natural, so at ease with each other; the music would be outlandish, but here it quickly becomes so natural that you're acutely aware when it's pulled away (to devastating effect late n the game); even the slick menus help keep the player in its spell. The demon fusion system, with its weird, obscure and vulgar monsters, feels like Pokemon's older cousin. And it's an excellent dungeon crawler too. They don't make them like this anymore, except Atlus does.

3. Valkyria Chronicles (Best Combat)
One of the few full fledged console JRPGs in the 7th generation, and one of very few that tried to develop the SRPG. Using a hand-drawn/painted aesthetic created using proprietary software, the player can see a 2D sketch of the battlefield and click on their units to move them. Only whe he clicks on them, he's taken down into the battlefield in full 3D and moves them around in real-time, dodging mines and crossfire, carefully positioning his unit before attacking. Moving units tactically in a 3D space is a stroke of genius that should have revolutionised the SRPG genre (it didn't, of course). VC goes for a quality-over-quantity approach, also rare for the RPG genre, with each storyline battle carefully designed with its own objectives and map. Add in a melanchoic, stirring Hitoshi Sakamoto score, an unusually laid back protagonist, a not-quite-WWII setting, a surprisingly effective love story and a melodramatic tale of a small, improbable group of heroes winning fight after fight while overmatched, and VC is one of those games that worms its way into the memory permanently.

4. Final Fantasy IX
Nostalgia, fun, and then, stealthily, stinging melancholy, all in one place. There's a playful, relaxed mood in FFIX that's so rare in video gaming, never mind RPGs, that it's easy to look past its flaws. Now, if only the battles didn't have 20 seconds of pointless animation each time...

5. Final Fantasy VII
Its spawling, messy, and rightfully legendary, such a superb adventure that almost everything seems small next to it. The City of the Ancients, desolate and forboding, along with Midgar, depressed and downtrodden, are what I remember most. And as blocky and ugly as the 3D models are, the backgrounds are frequently stunning, even in low res. The OST is, I think, Uematsu's best, even against the considerable strength of FFVI, FFVIII and FFIX, and that's saying something.

6. Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter
A slow, tough, dungeon crawler with several mechanics that should have sent Capcom running if they wanted a big hit (permadeath by overuse of powerful techniques? replaying or restarting the game to access secret rooms?), Dragon Quarter showed how to effectively build in survival aspects to the JRPG. The soundtrack isn't as varied or as audacious as Persona 4's, so I didn't give it the nod, but some of the music in this game adds more tension and atmosphere than whole scripts (see 'Industrial Area' and 'Electric Power Building'). Experimental, absorbing and, 15 years removed, a little wistful.

7. Kingdom Hearts II
Because I actually enjoy outright action RPGs too, and although they rarely break through into anything I'd call 'essential', I think KHII does. It's fast, there's lots of moves, lots of the triangle button, and some great boss battles.

 

[human onion]

I always used to hear Zelda referred to as an action RPG. What makes something like Dark Souls or even Landstalker or Alundra an RPg but Zelda not one?

Mostly in character building. Link gets stronger throughout the game, yeah, but in the same way that an FPS protagonist gets new weapons or Samus picks up the Space Jump. RPG's tend to be more abstract, using statistics and skills that improve or unlock over time. In practice this difference is less arbitrary than it sounds. I'm not familiar with the latter two games, but Dark Souls has a variety of statistics that make you hit harder or maintain more poise to roll faster, and you increase these incrementally by leveling up. The system then allows you to end up with a wildly different character than someone else.

Not every RPG follows these rules, though, so I see where you are coming from. People play them for very different reasons as well; some like choice and consequence while others like battle systems. There's also games with RPG elements like stats and leveling up that really aren't RPG's. A lot of times the definition is boiled down to 'games that are similar in a certain way', which is why there are so many different kinds of RPG's. It's why I say that most people don't consider Zelda games RPG's, as they don't really fall under the umbrellas of games that are traditionally considered RPG's.

 

[SatoAilDarko]

1. Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon (Best Writing) - Possibly my favorite game Fragile Dreams is a game about the need of relationships with others. As you meet characters and they have their words you grow attach to them. The writing of this and the occasional narration is excellent. What really makes this game have the best writing though are the optional memory items you can collect throughout the environment. Each object tells a little story of different characters talking to others or their thoughts. They are incredibly varied and revealing on the human soul.
2. Xenoblade Chronicles X (Best Combat) - I just love everything about this game including its eclectic soundtrack except the main narrative being a little short. What more than makes up for that is the large amount of side content. There are many stories to uncover.
I especially appreciated the large amount of optional party members. It felt great to have a variety of different allies fight with me instead of just doing a task for them. The world encourages exploration in a way no other RPG has and the tools you have to traverse this who world (strong dash, huge jump, fast travel and transformable mechs) are superb.
I also loved have a gun weapon that I could switch with melee weapon at will for all characters. Not only did it feel great, allow for unique gameplay strategies but it made sense. The Mechs also added a sense of changing scales to combat I have seen in any other game.
3. Xenoblade Chronicles
4. Xenogears - Very anime mindfucky. I feel there is no more that is need to be said as I am huge fan of such stuff.
5. Xenosaga Episode I
6. Xenosaga Episode II
7. Xenosaga Episode III
8. Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean - The battle system is by far my favorite turn-based one. With the timer and random hand it allows a sense of tension missing from most turn-based systems. I preferred the first games systems because I could regularly set up combos of 10 card chains.
9. Baten Kaitos Origins (Best Soundtrack) - This gets best soundtrack because it takes most of the music from ten original and adds more to it. It's also the best RPG prequel ever as it tells an independent tale from the first game while still being tied to to it in unexpected ways. It also answers almost every question and neatly makes the two games tied up.
10. Paper Mario
11. Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door
12. Opoona
13. The Last Story
14. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers

Honorable Mentions:

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World - I liked the interplay between the three main characters and personally prefer the game to its predecessor.

This list is not in any particular order.

I still have many RPGs in backlog that I need to play and add to this list. I feel like New Vegas, the Digital Devil Saga games, Soul Hackers, Nier will make it on my list when I get to play them.

 

[Lothar]

In order, because that's the only case where lists mean anything

1. Xenogears (Best writing) -The most I've ever been captivated by a game's storyline. I've never cared as much about what append to characters in any other game. Also has an excellent soundtrack and fun gameplay.

2. Final Fantasy X - The only Final Fantasy that did everything right. Some FFs have good story and shit gameplay like FF9. Some FFs have fun gameplay but lousy stories, like FF5, FFX-2, and FF13. Some FFs have good stories and good gameplay but an unlikable cast. Some FFs are too easy so the gameplay gets monotonous and dull over time. Some FFs have a weak second half. FFX was perfect. Wonderful atmosphere, characters, visuals, music, story, and gameplay. Enjoyable from beginning to end.

3. Earthbound - Incredibly charming, funny, creative, unique, and innovative. It's the most fun of any RPG to talk to people in the towns because of the sense of humor. The amount of variety is unparalleled. From Stonehenge, to Zombie towns, to shopping malls, to swamps, to traffic jams, to pyrmaids, to deserts, to metropolitan cities, to beach resorts, to alien bases. The Rolling HP Meter made battles exciting. Being able to squash easy enemies removed some of the tedium that is usually present in RPGs. The constantly changing battle music and settings keeps the battles and dungeons feeling fresh. It's a long game that you don't want to end. Contrary to popular belief, grinding is not required. In fact, doing it makes no sense. You don't lose anything from death except half your money on you. That's not a problem because you shouldn't keep money on yourself. You have an ATM account. When you beat an enemy, money gets automatically deposited to it.

4. Chrono Trigger

5. Dragon Quest VIII

6. Nier (Best Soundtrack)

7. Final Fantasy Tactics

8. Mother 3

9. Secret of Mana

10. Suikoden

11. Persona 4

12. Dragon Quest V

13. Final Fantasy IV

14. Lunar SSSC

15. Final Fantasy VI

16. Suikoden 2

17. SMT: Nocturne (Best Combat)

18. Final Fantasy VII

19. Parasite Eve

20. Dragon Quest VII

Honorable Mentions

Illusion of Gaia
Lufia: Fortress of Doom
Lunar 2: Eternal Blue
Final Fantasy Adventure
Terranigma

I would have put reasons for all of the games. But my laptop battery is going dead and I don't have a charger.

 

[kswiston]

I delayed too long and now need to borrow from my past lists to make the deadline

I will try to fill in more explanations later.

In previous years, I tried to limit my list to one entry per series. However, with 30 spots, I don't feel as much a need to do that.

My Top 20 (in progress) - No Particular Order

1. Grandia – The Grandia series features one of the best battle systems in jrpg history. While Grandia 2 offered a refined version of the original’s combat, I think Grandia is a stronger game in every other respect. Full of interesting locations, charming characters, puzzles to solve, and dungeons to explore, Grandia captured that sense of adventure that a lot of titles aim for. While the graphics are dated (the game is 15 years old) the colorful sprites and 3D overworld still hold up fairly well, especially when playing the game on a PSP/Vita via the PSN version of the game. The biggest downsides to Grandia are the somewhat sloppy translation and the horrendous voice acting. If you can get past those, you are in for a great game.

2. Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven (Best Combat) – Might and Magic VI is awesome and deserves to get the same amount of love that other late 90s CRPGs like Baldurs Gate and Fallout enjoy. The game is a non-linear, open-world RPG that featured excellent dungeon design and an immersive world to explore. While the story is pretty light, exploring the game’s dozens of dungeons and defeating the hordes (and I mean HORDES) of enemies can be very addicting. I lost more than one night of sleep to this game in my high school and college years. I'm giving this game best combat because it deserves more recognition, and it's one of the few RPGs where I don't actively try to avoid killing mobs.

3. Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn – I could pretty much fill my list with Fire Emblem games, as the series is full of excellent titles. Fire Emblem titles are turn-based strategy games which utilize a paper-scissor-rocks combat system where swords have an advantage over axes, axes an advantage over spears, and spears an advantage over swords. The series is well known for its difficulty, mainly due to a permadeath feature which means that characters lost in a battle are gone for good. Radiant Dawn probably has the largest scope and greatest mission diversity of any game in the series. The first three quarters of the game are played from the perspective of three separate armies, each with different (and sometimes opposing) goals. It is fun to see the same battle or moment played out from two opposing viewpoints, and Radiant Dawn offered a nice change of pace from the series’ typical one-dimensional evil villains. While the game features a gigantic cast of characters (over 70), the three party system allows you to utilize a larger percentage of them than is typically the case in other series games. I know that Path of Radiance is typically viewed by the stronger game, but I still prefer Radiant Dawn for trying some thing new (even if the balance is a bit wonky between parties)

4. Shining Force 2 – Shining Force 2 copies the Fire Emblem battle formula (right down to the unit promotions and battle cutscenes) and adds more RPG elements to it. When you are not fighting, you can explore towns and traverse the world map like a normal 16-bit jrpg, revisiting past locations as you please. While the plot centered on defeating an ancient evil that destroyed your kingdom and stole away your princess, Shining Force 2 is a cheerful game that features an excellent soundtrack and made great use of the limited Genesis colour palette. I still whistle the town theme on occasion.

5. Fallout 2 – Fallout 1 and 2 are open world crpgs that featured isometric, turn-based tactical combat. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, you play the descendent of a fallout vault dweller. At the start of the game your character is forced to leave his or her small village in search of an item that would end the horrible drought threatening to destroy the entire community. Fallout 2 is a true sandbox rpg, allowing you to attack/kill anyone (if you can survive the reprocussions of your actions), go anywhere, and complete quests in any number of ways. You can can diligently work towards your goal of saving your little village, or you can let them wither away as you partake in whores and gambling. Whether you prefer brute force or diplomacy in your interactions with the denziens of the wasteland, you will be rewarded with well written characters and dialogue, and memorable locations. I really enjoyed both Fallout 3 and New Vegas. However, playing Fallout 4 has me feeling that Bethesda's current Fallout formula doesn't hold up to iteration as well as the original two games did.

6. Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together – Tactics Ogre is an isometric, turn-based strategy title that served as the template for dozens of SRPGs that followed it. Like a lot of Matsuno games, the story is a tale of war and political backstabbing. You are forced to make several choices throughout the course of the game that actually influence the events and battles you experience, and the characters that you recruit, a neat feature for a tactical JRPG. Tactics Ogre also features an item crafting system that I had a love-hate relationship with. While it is very extensive, the crafting process is soooo slooow, and recipes for the best equipment (which you can’t buy from vendors) came from enemy drops in an easily missable side-quest chain. If you are thinking of playing this title, definitely go with the PSP version.

7. Dragon Quest V – Dragon Quest V is the only JRPG that I can think of which opens to a montage of your young character being sold into slavery and growing up in a slave mine. The story and characters, while fairly simple, were very well done and DQV featured my favourite campaign in the series. The game’s battle system is pretty traditional. You receive a number of party members who each have their own class and who learn new abilities at set levels. However, the game allows you to recruit a number of enemy monsters (up to 70 types in the DS version) that can be used in battle. This monster recruitment system allows for a lot of party customization, and avoids some of my issues with the earliest DQ titles. Battles are quick, and the entire game can be wrapped up in a reasonable 30-35 hours. Fans of games like Chrono Trigger should check out DQV if they haven’t already.

8. Final Fantasy V – FFV is not my favourite Final Fantasy title, but it is often skipped over on these lists and deserves more love. There are two reasons to play a JRPG: for the story/characters, or for the battle system. FFV excels at the later. Utilizing the popular job system first seen in Final Fantasy 3 (and later used in FF Tactics and FFX-2), you can switch your four characters between a suite of classes at any time to build a play style that is to your liking. Featuring over 20 different jobs explore, and the ability to equip the skills of a second job to each character, Final Fantasy V is one of the most replayable games in the series. There are three official English versions of FFV in existence, one for PS1/PSN, one for GBA, and one for iOS/Android (this version was later ported to PC). I can't comment on the mobile version's gameplay, but I will say that I am not a fan of the new art. While the PS1 version is still playable, I would recommend grabbing the GBA version, as it featured bonus content, a better translation, and lacked the menu/save loading issues of the Playstation port.

9. Dragon Force – Dragon Force is a real-time (with pause) tactical game for the Sega Saturn. At the start of the game, you take on the role of one of the continent’s eight rulers, and are tasked with the quest of conquering the other seven kingdoms in an effort to unite the world against an ancient threat. Most of this happens via skirmishes and castle sieges that take place between various cities on the world map. Your army is made up of Generals, each of which controls 10-100 generic troops from one of 10 classes (from soliders and archers to harpies and dragons). Probably the most memorable aspect of Dragon Force are the large scale skirmishes between enemy generals. Starting at opposite sides of the map, you send your forces head first into a Braveheart style melee that can feature up to 200 sprites. While it is light on story, Dragon Force is one of those “one more turn” games that will keep you playing for hours.

10. Baldur’s Gate 2 (Best Writing) – I don’t know if I have anything to say about Baldur’s Gate 2 that hasn’t been said already. It featured one of the best crpg stories released and contained one of my favourite game antagonists. The voice acting was excellent for the time, and Athkatla is one of the best major crpg cities out there. Baldur’s Gate 2 really felt like the end cap of the CRPG renaissance that started around 1993 or so, and was my favourite videogame implementation of the D&D ruleset. I am ashamed to say that I have never finished Planescape Torment. so this will receive best story from me instead.

11. Persona 4 - Persona 4 was my favourite PS2 era RPG. The game fixed almost all of my issues with the PS2 version of Persona 3 (giving you control over your entire party being the most welcome fix). It featured a well-rounded cast of characters, and offered a level of challenge missing from most modern jrpgs. Since status effects and element resistances were actually important in regular battles as well as boss battles, Persona 4 is one of the Rare JRPGs that doesn’t have you spamming the X button for 90% of the game.

12. Mass Effect – The Mass Effect series gets a lot of hate on GAF nowadays, but this was my favourite game of last generation for quite some time. Yes, the combat was janky and yes, most of the explorable planets were empty copy-and-paste jobs, but rarely have I seen such a well realized game world. I loved exploring the citadel, learning the history, culture, and philosophies of every new race I came across. The Elcor are still my favourite fictional space race. If we had a best worldbuilding category, this would have been my pick.

13. Suikoden II - Suikoden 2 is my favourite PS1 rpg. Its battle system is quick and simple, avoiding all the bloat that has plagued the genre in the last 10 years. You would think that a game featuring over 100 playable characters would lead to a cast that lacked individuality, but almost all of the characters were unique and memorable. The story itself was engaging, and while most of the plot threads have been done before, the entire package had a lot of emotional impact. The mini-games in Suikoden 2 were actually fun, and I spent many hours customizing my castle, recruiting optional characters and competing in various cooking competitions. While the $100+ price tag is probably a turn off for most perspective gamers, Suikoden 2 would make a great addition to any game collection. If this game ever sees a re-release on PSN, I would highly recommend it.

14. Final Fantasy Tactics - Probably one of my top 3 favourite games of all time, even if Tactics Ogre is a more balanced game. You get the heavily political story line found in previous Matsuno games, but now with the Final Fantasy job system and bestiary. The difficulty is very uneven and some character builds break the game, but taking down 3-4 enemies with Calculus is hard to top.

15. Panzer Dragoon Saga - It's a pity that playing PDS (legally) is near impossible these days unless you have $300-400 to throw at a used copy. The game takes the universe and atmosphere of the on-rails shooter titles in the Panzer series and adds an RPG spin to it. The battle system is among the most unique that I have played, and the story-telling is first rate.

16. Chrono Trigger (Best Soundtrack) - Chrono Trigger is probably the easiest game to recommend to those interested in JRPGs. It's a tight, 20-25 hour experience that doesn't waste your time with filler. The time travel aspect of the game could have easily been a shallow gimmick, but instead is used in several clever ways throughout the storyline. The Characters are likeable, the soundtrack is top notch, the game has a ton of replayability, and the sprite work has aged very well. I don't know that I would call it the best JRPG of all time, but it is easy to see why others give it that title.

17. Final Fantasy XII - FF12 was a major change-up of the Final Fantasy formula, but its uniqueness made it one of my favorite titles in the series. Battles are no longer turn-based, but based on MMO style cooldowns. You control one character at a time, which scripting handles two other PCs. The game isn't quite open world, but is made up of large zones that offer a lot of non-linear gameplay options. If all of this sounds like Xenoblade, that's probably because XC clearly took inspiration from the title. The voice acting was arguably the best on the PS2. The Soundtrack was also excellent (as is typical in the series). While Matsuno's departure left the game's scenario in a bit of a mess (it starts and ends strong, but is aimless in the middle), I think the game's other features make up for that shortcoming.

18. Dark Cloud 2 - I like Level 5 games and their crafting system, even if their titles tend to be uneven. While Dragon Quest VIII is arguably the best game that Level 5 has worked on, this is my favourite title of their solo ventures. Dark Cloud 2 is an action JRPG that features randomly generated "dungeons", item crafting, a pretty deep weapon upgrade system, fishing, and much more. Rumor has it that Dark Cloud 2 will be coming to PS4 in the near future, so check it out.

19. Dragon Age Origins -

20. X-COM: Enemy Unknown -


Honorable Mentions (WIP)

21. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Bethesda (rightfully) gets a lot of bad press for their buggy software, but there are very few modern games that give me the same sense of exploration and freedom that their titles do. Skyrim borrows heavily from Norse history and mythology to create a world filled with interesting and diverse architecture, beautiful northern scenery, and (of course) big ass dragons. The somewhat shallow game systems start to lose their luster after 20-30 hours, but the time before that is magical. PC owners also have access to a host of fan mods that will enhance their experience from a visual and gameplay perspective.

22. Deus Ex: Human Revolution - For some reason, I never got around to playing the original DX. My PC in 2000 was a shitty Pentium MMX 200mHz that couldn't run anything requiring more juice than Diablo 2, and by the time I had a decent PC (2003 or 2004), there were newer, shinier things to play. That said, I really liked Human Revolution. It's a sandbox shooter/RPG hybrid that leaves it up to you to complete the various game missions. The story was interesting (until the end) and playing around with the various cybernetic character upgrades is fun. Here's hoping that the sequel is a worthy followup.

23. Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky FC -

24. Valkyrie Profile -

25. Fire Emblem Awakening -

26. Pillars of Eternity -

27. Might and Magic VII: For Blood and Honor -

28. Xenoblade -

29. Radiant Historia -

30. Fallout New Vegas -

 

[Benzychenz]

I always used to hear Zelda referred to as an action RPG. What makes something like Dark Souls or even Landstalker or Alundra an RPg but Zelda not one?

I'm guessing you haven't played Dark Souls?

You create your character, you choose which stats to level up, there's tons of different equipment to choose from etc. You can give your character a greatsword and go to town that way, or make them a mage, or some kind of hybrid if you so desire. Plus you can choose different covenants and the like.

It's like the definition of a role playing game.

In Zelda, the only difference between my Link and your Link is in how much optional upgrades we went after.

 

[BlueWord]

Wanted to get this in before the deadline. I'll try and get some write-ups done in the morning.

1. Mother 3 (Best Writing)

I hemmed and hawed over this for a while, but ultimately decided that Mother 3 was the only one that could rightfully occupy the pole position. The reason? In a word, it's emotion; no other game, much less an RPG, has stirred me in the way this one has. There's a literary subtlety in the way Mother 3 invokes emotion that stays with you long after the game's conclusion. Leave it to a novelist like Itoi to really demonstrate the still very amateur state of most writing in this industry.

With that said, although I did initially play this game in Japanese, it was the excellent translation by Tomato and co. that really opened up and allowed me to touch the game's emotional core; and, so, although Itoi was undoubtedly the soul behind the game, I believe that much credit should be given to the Mother 3 translation team for capturing that soul and allowing a wider audience to experience this wonderful game.

2. Chrono Trigger (Best Soundtrack)

The classic.

The first time I played Chrono Trigger, I was mostly just following the advice of critics. To be frank, the premise didn't seem too appealing and the character designs looked so odd and unlikeable. Of course, after a weekend marathon with the game, I could happily look back and see just how wrong I was.

I could wax for hours on the things this game does right, but I feel like there's almost nothing that I can say about this game that hasn't already been said. It's ground zero for modern JRPGS, and represents the pinnacle of the SNES era.

3. Persona 4
4. The World Ends With You
5. Final Fantasy Tactics (Best Story)
6. Earthbound
7. Deus Ex
8. Final Fantasy XII (Best Combat)
9. Final Fantasy VII
10. Dragon Quest VIII
11. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
12. Final Fantasy VI
13. Dragon Quest V
14. Final Fantasy IX
15. Mass Effect
16. Final Fantasy XIV
17. Persona 3
18. Ni No Kuni
19. Fire Emblem: Awakening
20. Final Fantasy X

Honorable Mentions:
Golden Sun
Valkyrie Profile
Radiant Historia
Dragon Quest IX
Dragon Age: Origins
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Resonance of Fate
Pokemon Gold/Silver
Kingdom Hearts
Rogue Galaxy

 

[Thores]

HI here I am right under the wire again! I recycle some material from the list I made last year, but overall I feel like this is a new list and despite having to rush it in parts I'm pretty satisfied with it and consider it worth reading. I hope you do too!

Thores' Essential RPGs

1) Mother 3
Mother 3 approaches you with this goofy, quirky tone, setting your expectations for bizarre situations and corny jokes.. and then it throws tragedy at you, suddenly and unapologetically. And then you think, "okay, this is the actual tone of the game", but the narrative puts a smile back on and continues your journey in an utterly charming way, while never forgetting what it just put you through. The entire adventure goes on like this, delicately balancing whimsy and tragedy, and it never feels unnatural. Everything culminates in a finale that, despite the fact I am not really a crier with my media, had me misty eyed. This is all nailed home by the fan-translation, which is so well done that I would have believed you if you said Nintendo's Treehouse wrote it themselves. It's weird, it's hilarious, it's heartbreaking, it's thoughtful, and I adore it more than every other game on this list.

What's funny about this game, and what's interesting about this year's voting format, is that Mother 3 is without a doubt my favorite RPG. Possibly my favorite game period. But when I thought about which "Best" highlight to give it, and I thought about this for days, each label inevitably went to another game in my list. And that makes M3 even more remarkable to me. It may not have my absolute favorite writing in a role-playing game, or my favorite soundtrack, and certainly not my favorite combat, but all of its ingredients mix together to create something that's better than the sum of its parts.

I ache during every Nintendo Direct, filled with hope that they finally release the conclusion of the Mother franchise on the eShop. Call me absolutely nuts, but I think that's finally going to happen this year.

2) Persona 4 (Best Writing)
Of all the video games I have played, Persona 4 might just have my favorite cast of characters.

Every member of the group you accrue is a distinct, fleshed out person with different motivations, personalities, and secrets that you get to discover by making the decision to spend time with them. They all have entertaining and believable dynamics with each other, driven home by superb voice acting and excellent dialogue from Atlus' localization team. The strength of these dynamics, along with just how convincing they were and how real they felt, was what barely earned P4 my Best Writing award.

It was remarkable, the amount of depth they went to with each character's psyche. Kanji and Naoto's stories in particular are amongst the frigging coolest things I've seen a JRPG do, even if I don't think that those arcs reached their full potential, and they're a big part of why I love both those characters so much.

By the time I reached the game's weird, weird end, I got to see my party bond to an extent that lots of games don't bother with. Usually RPG parties establish that they share a common goal, and then reach the end of their destination as friends that usually go their separate ways, minus the romantic couple. When I beat Persona 4, the main party felt like they had become a family, and the execution of it was so good that I believed that too.

This would also be my top pick in the NeoGAF's Essential Dating Sims thread. Is anybody getting on that?

3) Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald and Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire
If I could just recommend "Pokemon", the entire franchise, as a whole, it would be at the absolute top of the list. It is my favorite series of all time, and the franchise I've undoubtedly sunken the most hours into over my many years of gaming. The endless customization potential of your party of six, the deceptively deep and complex battle system and Type Effectiveness mechanics, and the completionist urges in invoked in me to catch every single one were all elements that had me playing the games since I was 10. Not to mention the superb worldbuilding. From each interesting region with tons to explore, to the incredibly varied ever-growing list of Pokemon themselves, each with their own backstory and fluff... the universe of Pokemon is so rife with cool experiences and stories to me that I actually found a Tabletop RPG adaptation of it online, and have since both played in and ran multiple campaigns using that system. I am super cool.

The hard part is picking the definitive game in the series. And I think the short answer is still that there isn't one yet. Last year I picked HeartGold and SoulSilver, but this year I decided to make my pick a little more personal. The original Pokemon Ruby is the most I've ever played Pokemon. Hoenn was my favorite region, it still is, and I felt like I could be a trainer there forever. Omega Ruby updated everything to the current generation phenomenally, and did one of the greatest things in the franchise to date: Online Secret Bases. I get to make my own house, share it with my friends across the country, and have them fight my Pokemon team? If they had just brought Battle Frontier back, and made the postgame as robust as Emerald's was, ORAS would have been the definitive game in the series.

Oh well. I still love the series as a whole, and am very interested to see what the mainline entry is going to be for Pokemon's 20th Anniversary. There has to be one coming out this year, right?

4) Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
The undisputed king of hilarious dialogue for me, and came incredibly close to winning Best Writing. The localization done by Treehouse is some of their best work to date, with a whimsical and pithy style that you can't really find anywhere else. Some of the scenes were pitch perfect; personal highlights include Mario helping a bumbling penguin detective solve a mystery, and the entire Glitzville arc.

The battle system is also great, and TYD was also on my shortlist for Best Combat. The blend of traditional turn-based menus and input-based action mesh really well together here, and your party's array of abilities bring forth some really cool and unique potential strategies. However, the star is ultimately still the writing and the colorful cast of characters. I was heartbroken when those elements were stripped away in Sticker Star, and I hope that never happens again.

5) Xenoblade Chronicles (Best Combat)
I bought Xenoblade thanks to Project Rainfall and GAF hype. One of the best purchasing decisions I've ever made. The gigantic world was one of the most visually stunning things that the poor little Wii has managed to put out. The cast was fantastic, if a bit archetypal, and I loved seeing them interact on the field and unlocking all of their private conversations. And holy crap, the sidequests. The clever way that they sort of informed you of the personal lives of every single NPC you met, investing you in the universe even further, took away over 120 hours of my life before I realized what was happening. And holy cow, the soundtrack. It's a good thing that you can't stack multiple highlights onto one game because it certainly could have happened here.

What's especially impressive is that the combat isn't even my favorite part, and the combat is phenomenal. It's definitely the best implementation of an MMO style battle system in a single player game I've ever witness. Each character plays like their own distinctive class, the customization options let you do some really cool things and create some very interesting builds (Naked Dunban the Dodge-Tank was a personal highlight for me), and the way battles flow made it surprisingly easy to juggle a large amount of variables at the same time. Giving the Best Combat award to XC was the easiest highlight choice out of the three for me.

I am so, so glad that Nintendo bought Monolith Soft and produced this masterpiece. That said, though I've barely scratched the surface of Xenoblade X, I already know that if it does make it on my Essentials list next year, it'll be for completely different reasons.

6) Live A Live
I swear, this game is going to be on my list every year until people finally realize it exists. I love, love LOVE the selectable chapter system in this title, where each chapter is a new story from the perspective of a completely different character than the last. The game changes genres every time: swapping you from a horror story on a deteriorating spaceship, to a chapter about cavemen where everybody can only talk through word balloons with pictures of meat in them, to Street Fighter: The RPG. The finale is about as excellent as it is unexpected.

This never came to the states, but the fan translation job is fantastic, if not as professional as Mother 3's. All the games on this list are great; Live A Live may be the most underrated.

7) Undertale (Best Soundtrack)
You know what? I'm going to wait to talk about Undertale more in depth until next year. This is because the purest, best experience you can have with this game is going in knowing little to nothing about it. And if you don't use Tumblr, I want you to have that experience too before it's too late. Just play it, especially if you like weird whimsical stuff like the Mother series. I didn't regret it, and I don't think you will either.

I'm seeing that putting games on an Essentials list that were released this past year is frowned upon by some people, and I can see where they're coming from. There are other RPGs that came out this year that I enjoyed, but am waiting to process a bit longer before they earn the right to make my list. Undertale, though, I am absolutely positive will be back on this list next time. So why wait?

8) Earthbound
Mother 3 is now the best game of its kind. Earthbound is finally getting outclassed at the style it perfected. Heck, I think Undertale even manages to surpass it. But dangit, that doesn't mean it's not still a fucking great game. The weird sensibilities that only Itoi could put into a game make it continue to shine brilliantly, despite how archaic the interface is now. All of the unforgettable moments are completely different than its successor's, and fans of the bizarre should absolutely play both. In fact, play Earthbound first, both for the story payoff in Mother 3, and to appreciate all the improvements it made.

One thing that Earthbound did much better than Mother 3, though, is the way it handled its epilogue. I don't want to spoil it, but it was a wonderful way to look back at my entire journey and appreciate the amazing adventure I just had.

9) Chrono Trigger
Funnily enough, I briefly thought about not including this puppy on the list this year, because I like Persona 4 better and I want it to win this year. But that felt cheap. Because as much as I tend to resist the bandwagon, I can't help but respect Chrono Trigger, because it deserves it. The cast is great, the battle system is solid- Dual/Triple techs really attached me to my characters- and the time travel is expertly executed from both a story and gameplay standpoint. Trigger also nearly won Best Soundtrack for "To Far Away Times" alone. That shit is my fucking jam.

I don't think I'll ever get tired of playing the final act, when you have your whole party and you're bouncing through time, getting to experience side arcs in slightly different ways every time because people will say different things depending on your current group layout. My favorite thing of all was to play as much of the game with Ayla as possible. She just threw the serious tone in every scene out the window. "Leave nest! Have baby! Give milk! Have more baby!"

10) Final Fantasy IX
IX is the definitive Final Fantasy to me. It has big story with the intimidating scale, and the constant rewards for exploring. But it also has an overwhelming amount of love and charm injected into it. The world is fun! I wanted to talk to everyone, investigate every distraction, because Square had crafted something precious. Recent Final Fantasies seem hollow and sobering in comparison.

11) Lost Odyssey
FFIX was the best Final Fantasy released in the PS1 generation. Lost Odyssey was the best Final Fantasy game released in the PS3 generation, despite it not actually releasing for the PS3 and not actually being called Final Fantasy. It didn't do a lot that we hadn't seen before, but it executed nearly all of it expertly. The cast was a little generic but also eventually quite charming, and certain dynamics were a pleasant surprise to me. I didn't realize at the time that tucking away a bunch of cool secrets in your RPG would become a relic of the past, and I took them for granted in one of the last games where I saw that happen. One sad note is that this ended up being one of the last games of its scale and scope that Sakaguchi ended up producing; at least it ended up being really good.

12) The World Ends With You
When I started TWEWY (best acronym ever, by the way), I was actually kind of annoyed by it. The protagonist and his dynamic with his partner character were downright insufferable, the battle system was confusing, the music was weird. I love brand new experiences in games and couldn't help but think "what the hell did I just buy" after the first hour. But I kept putting my time in, and everything clicked. The music grew on me and got catchier and catchier. The combat, and the game in general, used all of the DS' features in ways that were both unprecedented and more often than not a great fit. And the modern fantasy world that Neku explored got more and more engaging, and thankfully, so did Neku as he matured as a person. Cool as hell, and I hope Nomura gets to revive his baby and make a new one some day.

13) Final Fantasy X
My second favorite Final Fantasy, for most of the reasons that IX is my favorite. The cast and dialogue is almost as good as IX's, I think the worldbuilding is actually a little better, and on top of that they absolutely knock it out of the park with their subsystems. The Al Bhed Primer was addictive to collect so I could learn the language that they fucking invented (so cool!), the Sphere Grid is just perfect and glorious, and X probably has the best traditional turn based battle system I've experienced. In the end, IX's style ends up being just a little more my thing, but X is still very, very much Square at their best.

14) Dragon Quest V
The way your character grows and progresses through the story is wonderful. You get to make decisions that last for the rest of the game, and you could recruit monsters into your party before Pokemon was even a thing. Dragon Quest V is kind of showing its age these days, even in the DS remake, but in the 90s it was absolutely ahead of its time. If this came out in the US when it first released on the SNES, maybe Dragon Quest wouldn't be a dead franchise over here. Extremely wishful thinking, I know...

15) Brave Fencer Musashi
This past year, I got SO tired of waiting for Brave Fencer Musashi to get a digital release that I bought a new copy of Amazon so I could finally play it again. It wasn't very cheap. But it was incredibly worth it. For starters. Musashi's localization was so well done that it's hard to believe that it came out during the PS1 era. All the voice acting is competent at worst. The dialogue is packed to the brim with charm and wit and is funny as hell. Even the menu text is hilarious. BFM manages to be a pretty fun Action RPG as well, if a bit more unforgiving than I remember. My favorite thing to play with was the Assimilation mechanic, which allowed you to steal other enemies powers and use them yourself. Absolutely a hidden gem, and worth picking up even if doing so is kind of inconvenient these days.

16) Kingdom Hearts
The first KH was where it was at. It was beautiful, charming and sincere, and the story actually revolved around all the Disney stuff that was supposed to be the point of the crossover. For all of the gameplay improvements that later games in the series made, I miss the days when Maleficent was central to the plot instead of an increasing number of mysterious shirtless anime men.

17) Fire Emblem Awakening
Awakening just feels like an RPG to me, more than any other Fire Emblem game. The cast of characters has never felt more important to me, and I got to make so many cool decisions that altered their lives. Getting my army married to each other was incredibly addicting, as was getting to see them meet all of their kids. God. I love that system so much.

18) Valkyria Chronicles
Valkyria Chronicles is gorgeous on both the inside and the outside. It caught my attention with its stunning graphical style, but then I stuck around for the incredible character development and the awesome hybrid battle system. I'm still waiting for my localization of III, dammit.

19) Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together
This actually isn't one of my favorite RPGs. It's my roommate's. He doesn't have a NeoGAF account and so I figured I'd throw him this bone, but I'm also really impressed and respectful of how much it accomplishes. The amount of content is insane, and it has a lot of features that are pretty revolutionary for tactics games. The game changes based on dialogue choices and it has a pretty neat time travel system. I feel like the only reason this game isn't legitimately on my essentials list is because I haven't played it enough yet.

20) Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure
Look. Objectively, I know this game isn't great. But it's very close to my heart. There are songs in it, and the localization of both the voice work and the lyrics are so corny and bad that they become immensely entertaining for the exact opposite reason they're supposed to. Here's a selection of lyrics from a song about pirates:

we are the fearless pirates
we are the most amazing pirates
we hunt for sunken treasure in the ocean
when we get sunburn we put on lotion

Get the PS1 version. The DS version uses Japanese voice acting and cleans up the localization to the point that the game is just mediocre instead of hilarious and inadvertently charming.

Honorable Mentions

21) Chrono Cross - I actually played through most of this game for the first time before I experienced Chrono Trigger. I loved it. I eventually beat Trigger and realized that Cross was probably not an ideal followup, but it's still a fascinating and wonderful RPG on its own merits.

22) Final Fantasy VI - My third favorite Final Fantasy. I held off from including this because I didn't want to oversaturate my list with any one franchise, but hell, if I'm listing 30 damn games, VI deserves to be on it. One of the first really well written stories in an RPG, with a cast that just pulls you in. My first real experience with the game was with the improved script of the GBA version, so that was definitely nice as well.

23) Contact - This weird little game definitely has flaws, but their take on the class system was cool and I loved the story, especially the ending. This was another experience that took advantage of the DS' unique architecture.

24) Bravely Default - Yeah, the second act really makes the entire story's quality plummet downward at a rapid rate. However, the Brave/Default system made that first half feel so fresh, deep and strategic that it more than deserves a mention.

25) Marvel Ultimate Alliance - Not only is this an incredibly eloquent love letter written to the characters and stories of the Marvel universe, but it is also a surprisingly well done co-op RPG experience. I have a lot of fond memories of playing through M:AU with my friends in high school, discovering unique team combinations and unlocking references to obscure characters in the form of special costumes.

26) Monster Rancher 2 - Real talk, I dumped SO MANY hours into Monster Rancher 2. 90% of those were just me going through my entire game collection, followed by my dad's entire music CD collection, to see what kind of monsters the CDs would generate with Monster Rancher's groundbreaking "read other playstation discs while the game is still running to generate monsters" feature. I got a ridiculous amount of mileage out of that, and am incredibly sad that gimmick didn't last into the PS3 generation.

27) Final Fantasy Tactics Advance - Weirdly enough, I like FFTA more than the original Final Fantasy Tactics. The whimsical atmosphere fits me better, and it isn't as unforgivably hard as original Tactics was for me. Those two things helped me get drawn in to Advance's deceptively deep, oddly dark story and completely devour the battle system. This is one of the few games I've 100%ed. Maxed out every class, unlocked every hidden character.

28) Tails Adventure - It's weird. I don't really consider the Zelda games RPGs, but Tails Adventure manages to feel like a role-playing game to me, despite mostly being a Zelda like. I can't really explain why. This is the best thing to come out for the Game Gear though, and more people need to realize it exists.

29) Inazuma Eleven - Soccer Anime RPG! This was such a novel concept for me that I actually imported the European version for the original DS. And it was completely worth it. Inazuma Eleven is a ridiculous, goofy spectacle that stays entertaining for the whole ride. The difficulty spike at the final team is a bit absurd, but I still had a blast overall. I wish America had more opportunities to give this series a shot. Forgive the pun.

30) E.V.O: The Search For Eden - A pretty friggin cool idea that still has not been revisited 20 years later. I love how innovative Enix was back then, and it's aged pretty well despite being HARD.

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

And voting is officially closed.

Thanks to everyone who voted this year. Feel free to add in additional comments to your ballots if you wish, but please don't change any of the titles you have listed.

I'll start tallying up the results shortly.

 

[leroidys]

Just a top 10 for me:


1. Mother 3 (Best Writing) - A beautiful send-off for the GBA, and certainly one of the finest games that never left Japan. Mother 3 takes you on a journey that explores many of the themes found in the other Mother games, such as youth, family, consumerism, magical realism, and the trademark goofy humor of Japanese writer Shigesato Itoi. For my money, it's the most completely realized and engaging of the Mother series, which started humbly as a virtual Dragon Quest clone almost 30 years ago.

2. Panzer Dragoon Saga – In many ways, Panzer Dragoon Saga is a glimpse into a world that almost was. A world where the quads that this game used could have supplanted the now ubiquitous triangular polygon, a world where Panzer Dragoon’s (and the Saturn’s) critical success is met with commercial success, and a world where JRPGs don’t spend the ensuing decade in an endless rut, but innovate with settings, storytelling, and battlesystems.

3. Vagrant Story – A swansong on the last console that square really felt at home, and probably Matsuno’s most well realized game. Similar to other demanding cult classics like Dark Souls or Bayonetta, the first playthrough feels like more of a tutorial than anything, familiarizing the player with the layers and layers of odd mechanics. Once it clicks though, the game is immensely rewarding. Another thing it has in common with the oft-invoked Dark Souls is a tremendous sense of atmosphere, with ornately designed (for the PS1) areas, sparse music, serious story, lore, and enemy design. Don’t skip this one.

4. Final Fantasy XII – I know I just finished talking about how Square lost their mojo after the PS1, but hear me out, Final Fantasy XII has some warts, but under it all it’s an immense game, in terms of systems, content, scope, presentation… everything. The story falls apart, but the characters are engaging, the side-content is compelling, and the mmo-like setting is much more fleshed out and alive feeling than any actual MMO I’ve ever played. Square took a gamble with this one, and in my opinion it most certainly paid off.

5. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door – Paper Mario TTYD is one of those games that you don’t realize how good it was until after you’ve played it. As soon as I finished it, I wasn’t sure if it could dethrone Superstar Saga, or even Bowser’s Inside story. However, the more time that passes, the clearer it is what a unique triumph this game was. The battle system, characters, scenarios, and music were all the pinnacle of any RPG starring Mario. Add to that, it’s by far the most replayable given how leveling up works, and how badges are implemented. There’s some backtracking, and sometimes the dialogue gets old, but that doesn’t detract much from the overall experience.

6. Persona 4 Golden (Best Music) – What’s so great about Persona 4? Is the battle system amazing? No. Is the story head and shoulders above the rest of the genre? No. Are there other gameplay systems outside of battles that really elevate the overall package? Not really. To be honest, I don’t even know if I could tell you what makes Persona 4 so great. But it is, and everyone who has played it agrees, and you should play it.

7. Chrono Trigger – I’m not the first person to write about this game, and I won’t be the last. Suffice it to say that it’s pretty much the perfect JRPG. If you’re reading this thread, you know why.

8. Suikoden II – I first found out about Suikoden II on the bus in 7th grade because one of my classmates would carry the strategy guide around with him. I probably spent hours along with him looking at all 108 (!) characters, the huge array of unite attacks, and the layout of the vast world. I ended up trading in a bunch of Gameboy games to buy this, even though I didn’t even have a playstation. I would carry a memory card and this game around to friends’ houses, and the game was even better than the idealized image I had in my head from reading the strategy guide. The storytelling and scope is still pretty much unparalleled in the genre, and with the way Konami has gone with the series, it’s likely never to be topped.

9. Fire Emblem Path of Radiance – I remember when this game came out, people complained that it was too squarely aimed at the casual audience. The game was too easy (it’s still a nightmare on the harder difficulties), Ike gets ridiculously strong (OK he does), the support convos were too animu… funny looking back and comparing it to the more recent entries, the game seems like a ridiculously hardcore entry in comparison. I’m much more a fan of the ways PoR went about making the series more accessible, and I’d love to get another Tellius game someday. Radiant Dawn is also great, and the gameplay is arguably even better, but I prefer Path of Radiance for its brevity and focus.

10. Pokemon Soul Silver/Heart Gold – Not my favorite pokemon entry (that would be Black/White) and not the titles I have the strongest nostalgia for (that would be Red/Blue), but if you’re only going to play one, I can’t think of a more essential entry than these DS remakes.

 

[leroidys]

Oh damn, I thought it went until 12:00 PST. Was working late tonight

 

[Farks!]

And voting is officially closed.

Thanks to everyone who voted this year. Feel free to add in additional comments to your ballots if you wish, but please don't change any of the titles you have listed.

I'll start tallying up the results shortly.

Did my vote get counted? I forgot about the comments. :/

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

Did my vote get counted? I forgot about the comments. :/

Yeah, you're good. It's going to take me a little bit to get through all of the ballots at any rate.

 

[Lime]

Damn, I was temporarily banned when the voting ended. It's not possible to contribute?