My RPG backlog is embarassing!

[drewbrim]

I am bound and determined to start a new rpg this weekend. But I have way to many to choose from so I thought I'd ask the good people here which quest I should embark on. I have never played any of these games (and yes I do like rpg's) I just haven't had the time. I will be playing this game all the way through so choose, but choose wisely. The one in the lead by tomorrow evening (10:00 ish) will be the one I play. These games pretty much span the the whole post atari era and I don't have a system preference. Just for a point of reference my favorites in some of the different RPG genre's are Skies of Arcadia, FF7, Dragon Warrior, Soul Blazer, and Shining Force.

Thanks for voting. Help out an indecisive gamer!

[zerohero]

Best thing to do is to site down with each one and play the first 20 min of the game, and see if your really interested in playing it after that point.

You need to add the first Grandia to that list also if you never played it.

[Six Switch]

i would say give lunar a shot.a nice long shot.

[Daria]

Why does everyone say E.V.O. is an RPG? I never got past the intial platformer-esque fish levels, so does it really change genres after that point?

[Mianrtcv]

You think that's embarassing?!?! HAHAHAHA. HAHAHAHAHA. HAHAHAHAHA. I have a backlog like that in basically every genre on consoles oldest, old, newer and not yet released (pre-sell 360 w/ some games). Time is lacking lately. Many games not played.

I voted for SMS Phantasy Star...if you have not played that, do so. The others will still be there. SMS PS is a nice pick me up game. Get into it fairly easily. Very enjoyable.
JMO.

[zerohero]

I choose Super Mario RPG for you. It's a very good, and fun RPG. It will keep you interested, and has lots of side quest and mini games for you to do. I need to find me a copy of this game because it's been a while since I played and beat the game.

Mario RPG
Grandia I
Grandi II
Then the rest......

[unbroken]

Trust me on this one, do your self a BIG favor play xenogears ASAP and right after play mario rpg.

[Biff_McFresh]

Grandia 2 (DC) got my vote. Beautiful game.

[retroman]

Dragon war 2..one of my fav rpgs of all time.

[Daria]

Well since you haven't played the first 2 I wouldn't bother with Suikoden 3. It's kinda lame to put the sequal before the cart.

[PDorr3]

I voted for star ocean, simply because its such a charming game. Also I reccoemnd you play mario rpg and xenogears.

[badinsults]

Final Fantasy II for the win!

[Gemini-Phoenix]

Phantasy Star (SMS)

A nice RPG, but not the best by far. Not even the best example of a Phantasy Star game either. Looks very dated now, ad will most probably jar you off with it's very annoying random battles more than anything. Story is also not very good, and by the looks of your list, you will have a lot more enjoyment playing something else.


Dragon Warrior 2 (NES)

Again, not the best graphics in the world, but that never means a game can't be enjoyable. But again, i'm going to have to advise against this (For now anyway) and also say again that this isn't the best example of a DW game in the series. Weak storyline, and you'll finish it feeling like you could have used the time playing something more enjoyable.


Final Fantasy 2 (SNES)

I am assuming you are American, and FF2 is actually FF4. This is a great game from start to finish, but not quite as good as it's two successors. I personally like this better than FF6, but prefer FF5 out of the three Snes games. This one has some great music in it though, and the game moves at a nice pace, with very few interruptions such as too many random battles or stupidly hard bosses. It is very easy to get into, although the jobs system can be a little overwhelming to some.


Super Mario RPG (SNES)

One of (If not THE) greatest Mario games ever made. I honestly can't see why they didn't follow it up with a second (On the Snes I mean - I know Superstar Saga and Paper Mario are sequels). A fine example of an RPG and a classic Snes / Mario game. Many hours of enjoyment to be had here, and at the end of the day, it's a Squaresoft game, so you know it'll be worth the time!


E.V.O. (SNES)

I can think of a lot more better Snes games than this to devote your time to. And a hell of a lot more RPG's.


Lunar Silver Star Story (Sega CD)

Nice and polished RPG, and has everything a good RPG needs. I am a big fan of the old 2D RPG's, and this is a shining example. There are better in your list, but you won't be disappointed if you chose this. Only thing is, you will get too into it and then want to play Eternal Blue afterwards (Which in my opinion is the better of the two)


Cosmic Fantasy 2 (Turbografx CD)

Not a bad effort - For the TGCD that is. A nice attempt at an RPG, although I can think of better which you can spend your time on. Story isn't very strong, and there are a few bits which are infuriating.


Xenogears (PS1)

A true classic if ever I did see one! Playing this game is like winning the lottery, buying the Playboy mansion, and bedding every single bunny girl. Together! They don't come much better than this, and is one of Squaresoft's finest moments. Once you start, you won't put it down till you complete it.


Star Ocean II (PS1)

A PSone game that still tried to be a Snes game. And it shows. There are too many moments where the screen will "Zoom in" (In exclamation!) and the text will be all blocky and just ruins everything. The gameplay is very slow for my liking, and although the game looks nice, I can think of better efforts from Enix. You can't really expect too much though, seeing as how it was one of the earlier RPG's on the PlayStation, but they could have made it a lot better. You'd be better off playing a Square game instead.


Tales of Destiny 2 (PS1)

Every once in a while, Namco really surprises you with a nice polished RPG. They don't really do RPG's as a general rule (Sticking mainly to arcade games), but every now and again one will shine through to compete with the latest Square / Enix / Atlus contribution. This is one such game. If you like FFVII, you'll probably like this. Nice little RPG, and has a nice storyline too.


Record of Lodoss War (Dreamcast)

Not technically an RPG, but rather more of a top-down hack & slash affair. Suffers from some incredible slowdown when the screen is full of monsters, and it can be a bit hard getting your head around some aspects of the game, but you get used to it after a while. Story is incredibly weak as well. But all this doesn't really matter as the game is so much fun to play! This has got to be one of my top 10 favourite games of all time, just for the shear fact that after you get a good way into the game, you really can't put it down. After a while, you forget all about the story, and just want to continue hacking your way through hoards and hoards of monsters to get enough cash to make your weapons / armour better. The whole weapon / armor collecting side of it makes this game worth playing again and again... If you can deal with th horrendous slowdown that is...


Grandia 2 (Dreamcast)

Has nothing to do with the PlayStation game, and is a 100 times better in my opinion! If you are used to playing FF games, then you might have a bit of difficulty in adjusting to the control method at first, but it soon becomes very easy and natural after a while. Again, Ubisoft ar another company like Namco who don't really do RPG's, but every now and again they'll throw up a cracker! This game would probably rank as my second favourite RPG of all time, behind FFVII (Of course!), and the storyline is amazing, as are the graphics! The DC game is by far the best of the versions, although the PS2 / PC versions are "More complete", they do suffer from glitches and bugs.

This is what I voted for above, and I truly believe that you will play this and walk away content that you chose wisely. Plus, it is easially completable in a short space of time if you put enough hard work and effort into it. Plus, Millennia is so damn hot!!! ;)


Grandia Xtreme (PS2)

Again, doesn't matter that you haven't played any of the others. No way as good as Grandia II, and I doubt anything will ever come that close to perfection. Although very enjoyable, it lacks. You'd be better off going for Grandia II to be honest.


Final Fantasy X-2 (PS2)

Assuming you have played FFX, this should be natural to you. It's just a continuation of the story really, and is like putting in disc two of any other game, although it tends to then lean towards becoming something very different. A nice game, with some great visuals and some nice touches. Unless you've played FFX though, i'd leave it, as it really is worth knowing the back story first.


Suikoden 3 (PS2)

It helps if you have played the first two, but it can be played alright on it's own as a standalone game in it's own right with minimum of fuss. The principals are more or less the same, and the general point of the story is mor eor less the same as the other two - Get 108 stars of destiny (Your friends who will help you along the way). What I like about the Suikoden games is that you can "Collect" 108 characters to use in your party, and each has their own special ability / job which they put to good use whilst not in your party. It is also great to play the game through with various different formations as different people respond to different situations in the game, thus creating a unique experience everytime you play. Not quite as good as I or II, and really does help if you have played the first two first, so that you aren't "Learning" the game on your first play.

[SlayerOfFurbies]

Go with phantasy Star.... That is all!

[fpstream]

Go Final Fantasy II, didn't see that and voted Phantasy Star, so subtract a vote for htat and add it to the best game ever.

[googlefest1]

play phantasy star

[jdc]

I've played most of those, and any Grandia game gets my vote because you can REALLY s-t-r-e-t-c-h the levelling up/ acquiring of skills like a madman if you are into maxing out characters. It looks pretty and has my fave battle system as well.

It makes me cry that the industry has largely forgotten how to make turn-based RPGs. I've learned to stomach real-time RPGs.....but they just aren't the same. :(

[zerohero]

Be on the look out for Grandia III. Thats comming out soon as well.

[cyberfluxor]

I own a good chunk of those and have seen most of them in action... But because I own it and only had a chance to play the first half hour, I chose Tales of Destiny 2 (PS1), but it was really nice all around what I saw. It makes me want to plug my PS1 back in and actually go all out on it, even though I'm currently doing Diddy Kong Racing because I got it yesterday. It always happens this way, I get into 1 game, and end up wanting to play another and forget to finish beatting the previous!

[Daria]

RedPS2Guy's list is just bugging me...

Dragon Warrior 2:
This is the RPG I'd reccomend if you were craving some solid 8-bit traditional gameplay. The kind where you calmly and methodically walk around in circles racking up the levels before prgressing to the next town, dungeon, and plot point- which for some reason is actually a lot of fun on the NES but not for any later system. If you're looking for deep storylines and varied gameplay however stay clear.

Final Fantasy 2:
This is still pretty old school. Again you'll be playing it for all the reasons I'd recomend Dragon Warrior 2 but with a storyline suitable for an SNES title. If you're a Final Fantasy fan and haven't played it already, it is really one of the better games for the series and something you really oughta try eventually.

Super Mario RPG:
If you're a fan of Super Mario World this is an excellent RPG to play. Easily completed within a weekend, the game's neither real long nor very difficult but it's a lot of fun. As I mentioned before the game really takes it's inspiration directly from Super Mario World and neglects the rest of the series (if you want a Mario RPG experience that pays homage to all his games you'll want to try Paper Mario instead). The overworld areas take inspiration from the series, you'll have to jump to reach save and item boxes and the battle, while completely square inspired, do incorperate time attacks to add a feel of plateformer-esque control to the battle. A really wonderful RPG and definately a contender for this thread.

Lunar: Silver Star Story:
I feel one the greatest RPGs ever designed. What Lunar lacks in innovative gameplay or spectacular visuals it more then makes up for in the storytelling and character development department. The story feels so natural and classic it's as though you're playing an epic legend or fairytale. And anyone with a half a sense of humor won't help but snort their milk a more then a few of the one liners here. If I had to choose versions though I'd go with the PlayStation game over Sega CD. In the original Luna leaves the party very earlier and I think it really sacrafices too much build up of the relationship between Alex and herself. Also the text is done in all capital letters and it's a distracting eyesore to try and read. If you like the game, definately follow up with Eternal Blue.

Xenogears:
Mechs/Gundams and Religion/Philosophy. I'm still not sure whether the storyline was brilliant or pretensious but given how damn shallow nearly all RPGs tend to be Xenogears is definately a welcome change. Game'll be a blast right up until the second disk, and prepare to sit back and watch the cutscenes unfold one after another whether you like it or not.

Star Ocean: The Second Story:
Gorgeous 2D game, if you're anything like me you'll love trying to activate the special event triggers for each character. Sidequests and sidestories unflod when you do. The battle system is a lot of fun, you're in direct control of more of more characters in your party, running up and down the battle field in real time blasting out special and attacks in a fleet of fury. Extremely fast paced and a lot of fun. Spells can be a bit of a downer, long absurd animations that are constantly interupting the flow of battle accompanied by amusing yet sometimes annoying battle cries "Ex-PLOSion!". This is the game to go with if you're looking for a fun action-oriented RPG.

Tales of Destiny 2:
I actually enjoyed this one quite a bit more then Star Ocean, the two series are practically sisters, the only difference being that that battles in Tales take place on a flat horizontal plane with those in Star Ocean give the freedom of three dimensional movement. Graphics are more polished, less pixilated. You lose all the extra adgendas to immerse youself in however. No special events or item creation skills here. One thing I loved about ToD2 was the voice acting, you'll hear it a lot and thankfully everyone's well cast- only Meredy will induce the urge to backhand small children however to her credit when speaking alien tounge she sounds awesome. Again if you're looking for a more action oriented battle system this game absolutely rocks. And much like Tales of Symphony don't neglect your select button for added dialouge from the party on your currect situation in the game. PS. Plays absolutely nothing like Final Fantasy 7.

Haven't played too much of the others.

[vultar]

That's a really hard choice, there are some good games there, but of those I think I'd go with Lunar, especially since it's the SCD version, because it's pretty short, well written, and funny game.

I'd also highly recommend Phantasy Star. I wouldn't call the graphics terribly dated other than the fact that they're 2D, which is a big plus in my opinion. Yes the village sprites don't move, but it has first person dungeons, and animated monsters (which is something you can't really say about FF until the PSX). What PS is though, is hard and, at times, very frusturating.

I'd also recommend Xenogears, but it's very talky, and if you're not willing to sit down and really get into its story, it's probably going to bore you. It has some serious flaws though like the fact that there is very little chance to go anywhere other than where the game tells you to, the second disk seems very rushed, and most of the characters don't seem to be very fleshed out, which is a pretty big problem considering the only thing Xenogears really has is a terrific story. One thing about Xenogears though is that every time I've played it, I've never had to do any serious extra leveling (the characters seemed to naturally gain enough levels just by fighting the monsters on the way to the next area) unless I wanted to.

[Aussie2B]

Don't listen to Gemini-Phoenix, he's crazy and doesn't even realize that Star Ocean 2 wasn't made by Enix. :P Go play Star Ocean 2.

And I'd relax about your RPG backlog. Mine is like... a bajillion times bigger than that. :P

[mcarocks2003]

Pick XENOGEARS - Easily up there with FF7 and Chrono Cross.

[davepesc]

I voted Phantasy Star because it:

1) Is a truly great game
2) Is one of the titles that laid the groundwork for RPGs to come
3) Can be beaten in a dedicated weekend.

And I never use guides when playing RPGs, but I bent that rule for some of the later 3D dungeons.

Even mapping only takes you so far when you start warping to unknown locations and all.

Have Fun!

[Lothars]

I would say start Super Mario RPG

it's a great game, I Love it

Easily one of my top 5 RPG's for the SNES

definitly would recommend it.

[Gemini-Phoenix]

Don't listen to Gemini-Phoenix, he's crazy and doesn't even realize that Star Ocean 2 wasn't made by Enix. :P Go play Star Ocean 2.

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00004UC4E.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

:roll:

I believe you read my post all wrong. I meant OTHER Enix RPG's. I knew fine well it was made by Enix.

Also boasts over 80 different endings depending on what you actually trigger throughout the game! ;)

[Aussie2B]

That's the publisher. Publisher logos are generally on the outside of the case, doesn't mean they made it. Pop the game in, and watch the intro. "Enix Presents... A tri-Ace Creation".

Or is your copy sealed and you can't even play it? ;)

[djbeatmongrel]

Trust me on this one, do your self a BIG favor play xenogears ASAP and right after play mario rpg.

says the guy with the Citan Uzuki avatar...

i voted Xenogears to, really that and Skies of arcadia legends are my favorite rpgs ever

[Raedon]

Thanks to MMORPG's, my backlog is off the chart as well.

Go with Phantasy Star.. amazing story and a long game.

[Daria]

Or is your copy sealed and you can't even play it? ;)

*Laughs and snots coke out her nose (the liquid kind :P)*

[zerohero]

I seriously hope you've played Grandia 1. I still think it's better than the sequal. The sequal is very good though!

[drewbrim]

Thanks for everyones vote/suggestions. Looks like I'll be going with FF2, and the next one I'll try to knock out will be Xenogears due to everyones recommendations.

[Gemini-Phoenix]

Or is your copy sealed and you can't even play it? ;)

I shamefully bow my head and regretably admit a "yes" to that question... :embarrassed:

But i'm guessing you knew that already

[fpstream]

Thanks for everyones vote/suggestions. Looks like I'll be going with FF2, and the next one I'll try to knock out will be Xenogears due to everyones recommendations.

Good man! You won't regret it. Oh, and Gemini-Phoenix, I think you have your Final Fantasies mixed up. You said the job system could be confusing. I think you're thinking of FFV, FFIV doesn't have one.

[Gemini-Phoenix]

Thanks for everyones vote/suggestions. Looks like I'll be going with FF2, and the next one I'll try to knock out will be Xenogears due to everyones recommendations.

Good man! You won't regret it. Oh, and Gemini-Phoenix, I think you have your Final Fantasies mixed up. You said the job system could be confusing. I think you're thinking of FFV, FFIV doesn't have one.

I thought that as I was writing it, but couldn't be bothered to check. i ALWAYS get FFVI and FFIV mixed up for some reason... Hmmm, is FFIV the one where the crystal gets split? FFV is the one with the Dragon I remember that. It is easy to get mixed up after playing so many FF's, DW's, Suikoden's, Grandia's, BoF's Etc... BoF games I always mix up as well as they are all virtually the same! Lol!

I'm completely useless when it comes to charcter names for people in the first six FF games though. For some reason, I find it hard to "connect" to any of them as you do with, say, Cloud / Squall / Zidane / Tidus et al...


Still, FF is a good choice out of this lot. I'd strongly reccommend playing Xenogears and Grandia II afterwards though, as people above have said. Followed by Lunar and Star Ocean. Maybe keeping the others for a rainy day...

Might also be worth putting Lodoss War on for a change of pace. You'll probably be appalled by teh shoddy blocky graphics to start with, and it may also seem slow and difficult at first, but once you spend a good hour or two with it, it then becomes very addictive and you forget how bad it looks. If only it wasn't for the slowdown...

(PS: Does the USA version suffer from slowdown too as the PAL version does?)

[drewbrim]

So I just realized that SMRPG actually won this poll. I must have just gave it a quick glance cause I actually thought FF2 received the most votes. Oh well to late now since I've already started my game :D So far so good.

[Aussie2B]

You should definitely give SMRPG a go sometime. Besides tri-Ace's RPGs, it's one of my very favorites.

[drewbrim]

You should definitely give SMRPG a go sometime. Besides tri-Ace's RPGs, it's one of my very favorites.

I will show my ignorance here and ask what other games did Tri-Ace develop? I too though Star Ocean was an Enix game and you quote under your handle has me intrigued.

[Aussie2B]

Star Ocean (Super Famicom)
Star Ocean: The Second Story (PlayStation)
Valkyrie Profile (PlayStation)
Star Ocean: Blue Sphere (Game Boy Color; Japan-only)
Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (PlayStation 2)
Star Ocean: Till the End of Time - Director's Cut (PlayStation 2; the version the US got)
Radiata Stories (PlayStation 2)

That's everything they've done so far. :)