Favorite RPG of all time

[Bioture]

My all-time favorite is The Complete Ultima VII (with Black gate and Serpent Isle)

Its an RPG from the early 90's, which still, imo, exceeds the gameplay of many recent classics. It was amazing in all the ways an RPG should be: interactivity, party management/formation, spells, NPCs, complex quests, immersive storyline/plot. Even the graphics were phenominal, for a RPG thats more than a decade old. I bought this game for $20 when i was 12 (7 yrs ago) and it took me nearly 3 years to finally finish both parts of it without a walkthrough.

Now I play Ultima 7 on my XP machine using 'Exult' http://exult.sourceforge.net/index.php



Whats your favorite RPG of all time and why?

[Azhran]

Phantasy Star IV, great story, nice graphics(for a genesis/megadrive game) and the PCs could do combination moves(ie certain spells/skills could be used together to make a new attack)

[DoTheFandango]

Chrono Trigger.

0wnedZ

[Mayo Inc.]

Originally posted by DoTheFandango
Chrono Trigger.

also FF7

[Cylor]

There are too many great RPGs to just choose one, so I'll name a few.

Final Fantasy 7 is a landmark as far as this genre is concerned. Every new RPG (PSX and newer) is compared to it and (usually) falls in comparison. If you are looking for an introduction to RPGs, look no further than this amazing game. (I should also note that FF8 and FFX are both amazing games, don't get FF9 unless you are a big fan of the series.)

Chrono Trigger is also an amazing game. Originally released on the SNES, it is/was pretty much the best RPG for the system. It is very hard to find the actual SNES cartridge of this game, but they just re-released it on the PSX (or you could play it with an Emulator).

The Diablo and Baldur's Gate series also set the stage for MMORPGs today. While not exactly a true RPG, as it had adventure and action elemetns, it i/was a truly amazing feat to play with people at seperate areas with such gameplay.

Those are probably my favorite three, but I'd also like to mention a few Runner-Ups: Xenogears (Best story of any RPG), Legend of Dragoon (Great fighting), and the Lunar series (LONG!).

[sTuPiD-gErBiL]

Final Fantasy 6 (USA - 3)
the dot Hack series
Phantasy Star II

[Bioture]

I like to think FF IV (ff2 in US) as revolutionary because it introduced the ATB (active time battle) system thats to be used in many more RPGs to come.

[brookus]

I think this subject has been done many times, but... Planescape: Torment.

llater,
Tony

[Adman]

SUPER MARIO RPG

[Bilbo]

Planescape: Torment
Fallout 2
Baldur's Gate 2

[Nickname]

Originally posted by Azhran
Phantasy Star IV, great story, nice graphics(for a genesis/megadrive game) and the PCs could do combination moves(ie certain spells/skills could be used together to make a new attack)

[Puppet Master]

kingdom hearts

[za gophar]

diaspora

[Troll King]

I guess I'm one of the few people who thought FFVII was overrated. I found it to be the least "Final Fantasy-ish" of them all. It also kind of bugs me how popular the character Aeris was, mainly because she dies. Besides, I liked Tifa better

I'm also one of the few people who thought FFIX was underrated. I liked it because it was more of a return to tradition (props for the "return" of Garland) and I felt it had characters that were more sympathetic than the brooding angst-hungry characters from 7 and 8. 9 had more character in a tug of Vivi's cap or the jingle of Steiner's armor than Squall or Cloud put together. Of course, being released so close to FFX hurt this game. And of the side games of recent Final Fantasy's, I think 9's Tetra Master was the most fun (I'm glad to see it return in online form with FFXI).


Other favourite RPGs of mine are the Dragon Quest series which never really hit it off as big here as it did in Japan. Perhaps the merger with Squaresoft will boost the popularity this side of the Pacific.

.hack has an interesting premise, but it gets too repetitive at times with the pacing dropping at points where e-mails are used more often than cut scenes to advance plots.

Xenogears and Xenosaga are great too, with the deepest and more intelligent plots. They do lay it on a bit thick at times, especially with Xenosaga's lengthy cut scenes (which annoyingly can only be viewed when you reach them in the game. How hard would it have been to add a clip viewer?). Xenosaga episode 1 is a very good game, and from the preview screenshots, episode 2 looks even better, thanks to a slightly more realistic/less cartoonish look.


And just as a personal favour to me, can we not get into the usual "Zelda is an RPG" ----> "No it isn't" -----> "What about such and such game?" arguments. These converstions tend to get too bogged down with the semantics of "Role-playing game" that they peter out before their prime.

[Kim]

Originally posted by Adman
SUPER MARIO RPG

Dunno if you're serious, but for an rpg, it blows big time.

My favorite is a deadlock tie between Chrono Trigger / Tales of Phantasia