Evilbore Opinionated REAL TALK: Best RPG Ever?

[The Sceneman]

Okay I know ALL OF US on this forum LOVE RPGS, so lets talk about our favourties and what we think is the best RPG!

I cant say I have a solid #1 just yet... but I will say that FFVII, VIII and IX are tops for me for nostalgia reasons, and really Baten Kaitos Origins totally blew me away on all levels, awesome characters, VA, story, battle system, graphics, music, everything perfect. Skies of Arcadia also ranks highly.

As for handhelds Contact and Etrian Odyssey are the best portbale rpgs Ive played.

Lets hear your picks

[demi]

Guardian's Crusade

[hyp]

might & magic 3

[Howard Alan Treesong]

Western: Planescape: Torment
Eastern: Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter

[The Sceneman]

Western: Planescape: Torment
Eastern: Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter

my copy is still sealed and marinating in my bedroom, gonna start on it once Im done with DDS

[Mondain]

Eastern: Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne and Final Fantasy VI

Western: Deus Ex and Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines

[TakingBackSunday]

I haven't played many western RPGS unfortunately.  I really dug Oblivion and Morrowind, but I can totally see the flaws in each game.  I truly loved Knights of the Old Republic, but again, I can see why others wouldn't like it.

Eastern RPG, I have so many favorites.  If I had to narrow it down:

1.) Final Fantasy VI
2.) Chrono Trigger
3.) Skies of Arcadia

[The Sceneman]

might have to check FFVI, the GBA version worth getting?

[hyp]

ff4 (ff2 usa) snes version if we're talking japanese w/ ff6/ff3 right behind it.

[hyp]

might have to check FFVI, the GBA version worth getting?

oh god yes.  any version of ff6 is a must-buy.

[Himu]

Best jrpg? Persona 3.

Best wrpg? Baldur's Gate 2.

Personal favorite? Suikoden II, but at this point Persona 3 may top it.

Favorite jrpgs:

1. Suikoden II
2. Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne
3. Dragon Quarter
4. Final Fantasy VIII
5. Chrono Trigger

Favorite wrpgs:

1. Baldurs Gate II
2. Fallout 2
3. Icewind Dale
4. Planescape Torment
5. KOTOR

[Howard Alan Treesong]

it's not an RPG but X-Com is better than anything ever.

Synth knows what is the up.  Black Isle>Not Black Isle

Imaginary KOTOR2 where Obsidian had more than 9 months to develop it > KOTOR1

Fucking LucasArts, all hot to annualize a fucking 60 hour RPG franchise



Even then, KOTOR2's characterization > KOTOR1's

Black Isle > Bioware, always and forever

I have high hopes for Obsidian's Aliens RPG. Too bad Sega's publishing.

[Van Cruncheon]

PC: Planescape Torment and Ultima 4/5 are my favorites. BG2 is in the running.
Console: Skies of Arcadia, VP 1/2, Lufia 2 and Persona 1/2 are usually the ones I think of.
Handheld: Dragon Warrior 3, easily.

[Himu]

Sega's a good publisher though. Developer though lol

[etiolate]

console: Skies of Arcadia, FF6, CT
PC: fallout
multiplayer: guild wars
arpg: secret of mana, diablo 2, terranigma

[Howard Alan Treesong]

OMG Ultima 4 is so fuck awesome.   

4 and 5 are so good. 6 is okay. definitely a fuck-awesome triology.

I never really dug on VII.

[Mondain]

the early Persona games are so terribly outdated, HOLY SHIT... virtually unplayable

it feels like virtually any Genesis or SNES RPG has stood the test of time better than these titles did... I mean, damn

also, I totally wouldn't rate Persona 3 among the very best console RPGs ever... yeah, it has an awesome atmosphere, awesome characters, incredible conversations and brings a lot of novel elements successfully, and it's a truly great game... but the SMT battle engine is really dumbed down a lot, and the story is extremely stupid teenage drama bullshit

[Himu]

also, I totally wouldn't rate Persona 3 among the very best console RPGs ever... yeah, it has an awesome atmosphere, awesome characters, incredible conversations and brings a lot of novel elements successfully, and it's a truly great game... but the SMT battle engine is really dumbed down a lot, and the story is extremely stupid teenage drama bullshit

No. The battle engine hasn't been dumbed down, it's been retooled and rebalanced, but not dumbed down.

Stupid teenager drama bullshit? Uh no. I wouldn't say that. They deal with drama but they do it like actual characters should, so it's not annoying, but actually interesting and makes the characters more fleshed out. And besides, what stupid teenager drama bullshit? All of the characters react to things adult would react to in the same way.

You also forget that the game is probably the only jrpg ever that offers enough variety the entire game to last 80-90 hours without getting boring.

The whole "just one more day" element really works to P3's advantage.

[Van Cruncheon]

actually, all the stupid high school shit and the scheduling thereof has turned me off of persona 3. i do too much scheduling at WORK; i don't wanna do it in the games i play! i am actually quite bored after 6 hours and have found myself playing jeanne d'arc instead. LET ME DUNGEON CRAWL IN MY SMT GAMES. fuck this hs life management bullshit!

[Mondain]

whatever, the battle engine is far more compelling to use in proper SMT games

what I liked the most about it is that you never have to figure out what to do in order to progress, which is an extremely frustrating aspect of most RPGs; this way it's easy to play for many consecutive hours on end

[y2kev]

I won't comment on anything other than best SRPG: It's Tactics Ogre. Perud.

[Van Cruncheon]

tactics ogre luct is still uncontested.

[Error2k4]

Persona 2 is just ugh, after playing P3. talking about completely outdated design, I cant get myself into p2 anymore.

[bluemax]

Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter on PS2.

[BlueTsunami]

I think I prefer Arc The Lad 2 over Tactics Ogre. Final Fantasy Tactics is way up there too.

[Fragamemnon]

Baldur's Gate 2 : Shadows of Amn for me. Planescape is actually third, behind the aforementioned Ultima IV.

The thing about BG2 is that it was a more well-rounded game. Torment might of had the story and writing from god himself, but Bioware did the combat situations and loot way better than Torment did IMO.

I agree with one thing Patel said though-if Obsidian had another nine months, the jump between KotOR 1 and 2 would have been as large as the jump between Baldur's Gate I and II.

The original Grandia is my favorite Japanese RPG, followed by FFVIII. I admit I haven't played anything outside of FFX from that genre on the PS2.

[y2kev]

I think I prefer Arc The Lad 2 over Tactics Ogre. Final Fantasy Tactics is way up there too.

I like FFT too, but in terms of sheer design, TO. FFT is seriously broken. Kinda. In one area.

Oh, and it's not in English.

[Error2k4]

Console RPGs: Grandia, Suikoden 2, P3.
PC: Ultima 4

[The Fake Shemp]

Skies of Arcadia <3

Always wanted a sequel :'(

[Ichirou]

I can't choose. There's way too many good games out there to limit myself to just one as the absolute best.

[bluemax]

Skies of Arcadia <3

Always wanted a sequel :'(

Terrible encounter rate bars SoA from any discussion of best RPG ever.

[Mr. Gundam]

Hmmm....

1. Final Fantasy IV
2. Skies of Arcadia
3. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
4. Phantasy Star II
5. Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne

[tiesto]

Console: Phantasy Star 2, Star Ocean 2, Valkyrie Profile, FF5, Chrono Trigger, DQ5
PC: Planescape: Torment, Ultima IV. I haven't played very many in this genre though.
Handheld: Dragon Warrior III GBC, Etrian Odyssey
Action: Zelda: LTTP, Terranigma, SoulBlazer, FFA, Landstalker
Strategy: Langrisser IV, Shining Force 2

[FlameOfCallandor]

J-RPG: Chrono Trigger 

Wester: World of Warcraft

[ToxicAdam]

Nothing will ever top Pool of Radiance for me.

It was challenging. Your actions effected the world (for good or bad). You could create your own players. It was the grandfather of SRPGs. It had a story that you actually cared about (a rarity back in the 80's.).

[CajoleJuice]

Yea, I don't care for RPGs. I think the only ones I've finished are Golden Sun and Paper Mario 2.

lol

[bork]

Don't care much for RPGs, but on the action RPG front, the best games are Landstalker, Zelda Link's Awakening, and Zelda LttP in that order.

[tiesto]

Nothing will ever top Pool of Radiance for me.

It was challenging. Your actions effected the world (for good or bad). You could create your own players. It was the grandfather of SRPGs. It had a story that you actually cared about (a rarity back in the 80's.).

I think I actually owned this game... was it like a first-person D&D RPG where you were wandering around a big town, and the battles were shown in some strange perspective, that was half isometric and half top-down... but you could move your characters like an SRPG? And it came with a wheel that you would use to decipher a copy-protection code. If so, yeah I remember that game, I got it as a gift for graduating 8th grade... couldn't get far at all in it though.

[Rman]

Where's the FFVII love?

Just joking.

My favs were mostly in the SNES era.

Turn-based

1. Chrono Trigger
2. Earthbound
3. FFVI
4. FFX

Action

1. LOZ: OOT
2. Secret of Mana
3. LOZ: LTTP
4. Illusion of Gaia

Never got into western RPGs with the exception of Oblivion.

[ToxicAdam]

Nothing will ever top Pool of Radiance for me.

It was challenging. Your actions effected the world (for good or bad). You could create your own players. It was the grandfather of SRPGs. It had a story that you actually cared about (a rarity back in the 80's.).

I think I actually owned this game... was it like a first-person D&D RPG where you were wandering around a big town, and the battles were shown in some strange perspective, that was half isometric and half top-down... but you could move your characters like an SRPG? And it came with a wheel that you would use to decipher a copy-protection code. If so, yeah I remember that game, I got it as a gift for graduating 8th grade... couldn't get far at all in it though.

Yea, that's it. You start out in the port of a huge walled city and have to help the people reclaim their city from monsters. It was one of those games that had insane difficulty early one (since all your character have 16hps or less). So it was very easy to get wiped out by a random encounter. Or go too deep into an area and not be able to rest anywhere safely.

But once you get past those slums and gain a few levels, the game becomes easier. I used to love the massive battles where your 6 (or party members would have to take on 20-30 bad guys at one time. You spend a few minutes analyzing the perfect place to throw your sleep or fireball spell ... flank your thief around the mass of monsters so he can backstab the enemy magic user .. then after you win, wait for the screen to load and show you all the loot.

[Bloodwake]

KOTOR (the first one)
FFVI
Oblivion
Neverwinter Nights
FFIV
CHRONO TRIGGER