Traditional RPGs (For Gamers)

[hailthorn011]

Ya know, I think I'm gonna give Fallout another chance. I'm not really playing anything at the moment anyway. Except trying to convince myself to finally beat DQ8. I have 50+ hours in that game, after all. But I think I got burnt out on it after playing it for 10 hours straight on three different occasions.

[BaghwanB]

+1 to Nethack. Liked all the FFs I've played but find the stories kind of lacking. Fire Emblem games are good and HARD for a turn based JRPG (main feature: when a character dies, that's it for him. No Phoenix Down here, people).

Played at lot of D&D and wanted to play a lot of GURPS, but the timing didn't pan out. Just finished my 1st round in Valkyrie Profile for DS. I need to try more endings though (encouraged in this game...).

But obviously I don't spend much time with these things...


Bruce "Yet Another Stupid Dungeon" Young

[hyperpape]

I was a huge Final Fantasy fan. I played 1 and 7 a dozen times each and then everything through 9 (I never owned or finished 9, sadly). Ever since, I've wanted to buy a PS2 or PS3 and play the more recent editions.

Dragon Warrior, I played but found to be a real grind, at least for the first three or four editions.

I'm a terrible RPG fan: I played Baldur's gate at a friend's house, played Fallout but never got into it.

[Tryphon]

I forgot Xenogears, a strange, but sometimes really enjoyable thing...

[oren]

I forgot Xenogears, a strange, but sometimes really enjoyable thing...

I worked through that game over 10 years. I loved it, and it's a shame they couldn't really finish it.

[Tofu]

Nethack! It's almost a sandbox game in its openness and unpredictability, but that same randomness can lead to brutal difficulty.

Nethack was great. Getting the amulet playing as the tourist class (many many years ago) has to be one of the crowning achievements of my gaming career. People are doing great things in the roguelike genre still. A game called TOME is one of my current favorites.

Did anyone play any muds? I was very into them for years and years and played a small one called Dark Pawns for close to a decade. Although the game is closed now, it is the game I look back at with the fondest memories.

I also spent a lot of time playing Neverwinter Nights (and ran a very popular persistent world at my University). I loved the Baldur's Gate series, but think the first NWN with all it's expansions, user created content, and online persistent worlds stands at the pinnacle of graphics based PC RPGs. Dragon Age was good, Mass Effect good, the Final Fantasies and Zeldas were good, but we haven't had a truly great RPG since NWN 1.

As for tabletop RPGs, the old Advanced Dungeons and Dragons v. 2.x was what I played as a kid and I had a blast playing every weekend for years. The "new" D&D system looks ok, but I would miss the 4 sided dice too much.

[Chew Terr]

Hmmm, probably my first RPG was Dragon Warrior 1, as it came free in the mail with Nintendo Power. My father and I beat it together, and it was great. After that, no amount of grinding tedium can wear out the nostalgia.

Of course, I've done my time on most of the Final Fantasies (6 and 12 are best). Basically, any lovable rogue character is my favorite.

I loved roguelikes before I knew what they were. My first was Azure Dreams, but I've ascended several characters in Nethack since. My favorite roguelike is Crawl though (I've got a draconian transmuter going right now).

Some oddball favorite RPGs are Robotrek, Soul Blazer, and the majority of tactical RPGs.

Honestly, I've tried most of the flagship Western RPG series, but never really been able to get into them. I like the idea of the whole 'conversation tree' thing, but it feels too often like it's a mediocre pen&paper RPG with a really bad combat system wrapped around it. A real fan of shooters will probably scoff at mechanics from Mass Effect, someone who played tons of Secret of Mana and so on can see flaws in Dragon Age's gameplay, and so on. I like the ideas behind the game, but can't play them. Anyways, my girlfriend plays each western rpg so thoroughly that the voicework works its way into my dreams, so it's hard to make myself play them.

As far as actual pen&paper goes, I've played a handful of systems, but my favorites are homewbrews. When I run a game myself, I inevitably take the White Wolf ruleset and use them for a setting that they were never meant for. I really enjoyed using them to run a cyberpunk campaign, for example. Also, I love using White Wolf rules for things that may not be supernatural at all, as it serves as an amusing red herring.

The only mud I played much was called Imperium, but I loved it for a good while. They don't display your class in it, so I rolled a character, didn't tell anyone it was mine, and convinced my friends that he was a lovable scamp of a bard, rather than a thief that was picking their pockets throughout. Good times.

[flOvermind]

Chrono Trigger (still haven't tried Crosss)

These two. Definitely.

IMHO, in terms of story, these two are the best RPGs ever made.

If you liked Chrono Trigger, you should definitely try Chrono Cross. At first it seems like the story is completely unrelated, but it really is a sequel (although it takes a while for the story to progress to the point where you realize the connection). Also, Chrono Cross is just massive in terms of gameplay. There are lots of story choices available, 45 playable characters (although not all of them in a single playthrough), tons of sidequests and so on. Even the main story is not completely linear.

What I like most about these two games are the points in the story where everything you thought you know turns out to be completely wrong, and everything you have done so far turns out to be actually helping the bad guys.

For LocoRon, or anyone who already played Chrono Trigger (hidden because it contains Chrono Trigger spoilers, don't read if you haven't played it yet):

Remember the point in Chrono Trigger where you defeated Magus, just to find out that he is really the good guy, and you just prevented him from saving the world from Lavos?

Be prepared for a few of these surprises in Chrono Cross. Saying that Lavos is actually the good guy is perhaps a bit of a stretch, but... Well, you'll see

For everyone else, especially Final Fantasy fans:
You should really try out these two. Generally, the games are very similar to the Final Fantasy series in terms of gameplay. Chrono Trigger is of course relatively old (it's an SNES game), but I still recommend starting with it. Chrono Cross can be played on its own, but you'll be missing a major surprise in the story when you don't know the first part of the series

[LocoRon]

Oh man, I really want to play Cross.

I regret having missed out on PS1/2 era RPGs. Ah well, summer vacation right now, so... what better time to get caught up. :]

[hailthorn011]

Hmmm, probably my first RPG was Dragon Warrior 1, as it came free in the mail with Nintendo Power. My father and I beat it together, and it was great. After that, no amount of grinding tedium can wear out the nostalgia.

Leveling up in Dragon Quest 1 was easy. After you reach level 20 or so, the EXP required to level up is the same. I think it was 5000 points. So I maxed out my character leveling up. Great game. I played this one not too long ago, as a matter of fact. It's the only Dragon Quest I've beaten so far. But hopefully I can add to that. I just need to beat Dragon Quest VIII! lol

[judicata]

I'll throw another shout out for Baldur's Gate and BGII. If you haven't re-played Baldur's Gate I with the mods to run it with the BGII engine (complete with higher resolution graphics!), you are hereby compelled to do so. I'm pretty sure you can do the same with Planescape: Torment.

I'm still convinced Planescape: Torment would have been more successful if it wasn't for the RIDICULOUS art on the box.

With the notable exception of Fallout 3, FPS-style RPGs just don't really do it for me. Basically, the more an RPG is like Baldur's Gate II, the better. I would still buy games that use the Infinity Engine (the engine used in Baldur's Gate, Torment, and Icewind Dale), or some other engine using an isometric perspective. Say what you will, but I think BGII's graphics were better than Neverwinter Nights.

Give me big parties, deep battle mechanics, a heck of a story, and some good side missions!

The Ultima series is also fantastic.

[LocoRon]

Ooh, I just recalled my favorite mmorpg! Crossfire!

It's been so long since I played this. Now I can't recall the name of my favorite server; it was something of a side branch of the main distro, including many custom features and a great client... at some point it changed its name from Crossfire, but I can't remember what it was changed to.

Edit:

Ah, found it.

Deliantra.

Edit 2:

WHHAAAAAAAAAATTTT~~~~~


Apparently it has an in-game Go club! :O

http://www.deliantra.net/screenshots.html
http://www.deliantra.net/sc/sc_goclub.jpg

[hailthorn011]

Any love for the Golden Sun Trilogy? I'm playing through the first one right now, and I have to say it's pretty cool. Not a top 5 for me though.

Kingdom Hearts is an awesome action RPG series.

Muramasa: Demon Blade for the Wii was great.
Musashi Samurai Legend for the PS2 was also pretty cool.

Breath of Fire is another cool turn based RPG series. III was my favorite. Haven't beaten it though. Hm.... SKIES OF ARCADIA! That was one awesome game. Cliche in almost every way storywise, but I think that's where its unique charm was. Oh and I haven't beaten that one yet either. Blame a faulty disk for that.

The Mega Man Battle Network games were awesome. Haven't beaten them.

Yeah, I start a lot of games that I just don't finish lol.

[Psychee]

仙劍奇俠傳
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend ... _and_Fairy

[Bantari]

I see nobody mentioned LSL... what? Not an RPG? Well, darned.... so many hours wasted, lol.

Seriously... for me the best RPG games/series ever were Morrowind (and the rest of ES ilk), Wizardry, M&M (all except the first and the last), and possibly EOB, but this long time ago... I am judging not only on the fun I have had but also on the amount of hours a game kept me occupied.

If I had to vote for two best games of all time, my vote would be on Morrowind and 'Crusaders of the Dark Savant' of the Wizardry series. If I had time to play right now, it would certainly be Morrowind, no doubt about it. Even Oblivion falls way short...

There were other good ones... the BG series (Baldur's Gate I & II, Icewind Dale I & II, Torment) were ok, but I found them too restrictive. You had plenty of room but you only could go here and here but not there. There were also other aspects I did not like about it. Maybe I am spoiled by Morrowind...

FF series I have never played. Each time I think of the FF games I picture the silly Japanese images of little boys and girls with fluffed up hairs carrying huge swords easily 5 times their size... I dunno... guess I just don't get it. But I was always put off by the imagery surrounding the FF games.

Was never attracted to the online games very much.