Worst PS1 RPGs
What are the (in your opinion) worst original PlayStation role-playing games? Whether it is awful graphics, terrible voice acting, unlikable characters, repetitive music, grating sound effects, broken game-play, poor mechanics, or flawed design, which PSX RPG is king of crud? (Or at least a part of the royal court.)
Though I can't say that it is -THE- worst RPG on PlayStation 1, The Granstream Saga is mighty, mighty cruddy.
I thought Azure Dreams was one of the most annoyingly poorly designed games I've ever seen not just on PS but in general for the RPG genre.
My opinion for worst PSX RPGs are Eternal Eyes, Monster Seed, and Hoshigami. Best are Brigandine, Brigandine Grand Edition, and Tactics Ogre. Coincidence both my favorites and least favorites are TRPGs.
Aside from maybe Shadow Madness which I own but haven't played, the worst of your standard PSX RPGs are still good games, atleast debatably. As difficult as it is, I actually like Beyond the Beyond. My least favorite is actually a highly praised RPG that everyone loves for some reason, and no it's not a highly praised actual good RPG(like how some people who hate on FF7.)
My least favorite out of those I've played though is Valkyrie Profile and since I know there are people who will go :O, but it's my opinion and I'll explain why. The entire game you're doing two things. You're watching story bits that only rarely interconnect on how characters have died and then get those characters to join your party and most of the storyline isn't good except the opening scene when you get your first two characters and a few hidden scenes. After getting allies on your party, you go back to the dungeons that give you the most experience and grind the characters levels by killing every enemy in the dungeon, leaving, then reentering, then make sure you send them to the other world before going to the next chapter. Once characters start starting with 999 points, you really have no need to grind since you can just use all those points and send the characters as they are.
The battle system system is just as repetitive as what you're doing the entire game. You will find one good tactic for each enemy type and you will constantly use and reuse that same tactic ever battle, or every turn in each battle. Each character can attack 1-3 times depending on their equipped weapon and each attack is different to where you might knock an enemy up, knock them back, etc. You'll need to use the attacks in a specific order to make sure each one hits them. Your goal is to find a group of attacks that will get you 100% so you can use your special attacks, although you'd probably be better off finding a two group team that can get 100% or three group team, so you could always use the third character for healing if needed and still take maximum damage. It's a great battle system at first but when you're doing the same thing from the first time you enter battle to the last round of the last boss fight, repetition sets in way way way before you get near the end of the game.
So hit select to find where you need to go in order to get the new character, go to the hardest very small dungeon and grind for exp doing the same set of combos each round, slightly new set with your new character, send the character to Odin, repeat.
I own but haven't played Valkyrie Profile 2, and while the battle system is the same repetitive battle system of the original, you actually have a progressive storyline and dungeons where getting further into the game you'll actually be required to go to new areas, new dungeons, and actually lead towards something rather than, hey, keep going to these same dungeons you've unlocked since chapter two or three to level people up and feel like you've gained literally no progress while doing the same thing endlessly.
Last edited by kupomogli; 05-19-2013 at 11:34 AM.
Everything in the above post is opinion unless stated otherwise.
Valkyrie Profile doesn't require grinding or returning to the same dungeon more than once, not at the beginning of the game nor end. In fact, you could skip some dungeons completely if you wanted. And the battle system in VP2 is very different. It's like Star Ocean 3 + Valkyrie Profile + Star Ocean: Blue Sphere.
Anyway, I've focused on acquiring the "big-name" RPGs for the most part, so I've yet to try several of the budget RPGs from no-name developers/publishers. Monsterseed seems pretty lousy from what little I've played, though. Darkstone seems lame too. But for RPGs I've actually played to completion and can give a genuinely informed opinion on, I'd say Final Fantasy VII and Chrono Cross were the PlayStation RPGs I've least enjoyed so far. I kinda hate to name RPGs that are competently made at the very least in a "Worst RPGs" topic, and I know they're loved by many but I'm honestly not trying to be inflammatory. I've just yet to play through a truly awful RPG on PlayStation, and while I don't think those games are close to being terrible on the level of something like Bubsy 3D, I did indeed dislike them.
Japanese RPGs
Totally forgot about Valkyrie Profile. As soon as the game started I just really hated the way it was laid out. Hated it enough I just shut it off and got rid of the game. :-\
Its a Rouge-like though.Originally Posted by FoxNtd
Beyond the Beyond nuff said
I'm probably going to take a lot of flak but....Final Fantasy 7.
Everyone made a huge deal about this game, I finally played it by the time FFX was out. Boy was I let down. I couldn't get into the story and the characters were a bit forgettable to me. Every one talked it up as the best game ever to grace my unworthy face.
How far did you get in it? The story gets way better further on, and the things Cloud goes through are interesting. The ecological and spiritual themes are handled well, surprising the same company later made that horrible movie. The music is unforgettable.
VII is not the worst, though perhaps VIII is. VII is just highly overrated. IX was mostly quality, though.
There's nothing really wrong with that game, it gave me quite a challenge when it first came out. Sure it's not a beautiful game, nor does it really have to be. The enemy rate encounters are high, but I got through it all save for finding the games last stone tablet to get to the final boss, but find it I did eventually.Beyond the Beyond nuff said
I for one like Beyond the Beyond, my first PS1 RPG I purchased, but not the first one I ever finished (Dragon Warrior 4 NES gets that honor).
You mention what you thought what was great about it,but i didn't i like it.If any thing i thought it broke the game and it's not one of camelot software finest 'if you ask me.I do remember after i completed the game i sold it not to long afterwards.
I don't know if Shadow Madness is the worst, but it is certainly not good. It's just... boring to play, even for a (wannabe) JRPG. Kings Field (which I understand is actually Kings Field II) also falls in to the "so dull I want to claw my eyes out" category.
There are a couple of rpgs that i own that i suspect are corny (rhapsody: a musical adventure and jade cocoon for example) but from the ones i've played definetly legend of dragoon and ogre battle
To be fair i didnt get to far in either and ogre battle looked like it have been pretty decent over time once i got past the graphics and gameplay but legend of dragoon just fucking bored me to tears, everything about it looked wack, graphics were horrible, dialog was horrible, battle system horrible, music horrible, basically everything about that game was screaming for me to gtfo of there and never return, which i have done.
"Kidnap the presidents wife without a plan..."
That was actually one of my favorite PS1 RPGs and I replayed it 10 times so far. Like most RPGs as a teen I used Gameshark the first time to skip the grinding and saved that challenge for later playthroughs. By then I knew where pretty much everything in the game was and was pretty sure I've encountered every monster in the game, including the rare Demon Bat which is formed by a group of bats in the last cave when enough team up (looks just like the monster called Burial)
I haven't actually hated any RPGs for Playstation yet but there are some that I feel are less organized when it comes to keeping track of in-game items. As choppy and ugly Darkstone looks it actually plays quite well. I really liked King's Field games but Shadow Tower seems a bit "off" to me.
[quote name='Shidou Mariya' date='Nov 17 2010, 10:05 PM' post='4889940']
I'm a collector, but only to a certain extent.
Not as extreme as Rickstilwell though.[/quote]
Final Fantasy VII bored me to tears.
Really? Isn't that supposed to be the followup to SoulBlazer/Illusion of Gaia/Terranigma?
http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/quintet/quintet4.htm
"There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge." --Bertrand Russel (attributed)
Does Tail of the Sun count as an RPG? If it does, that's the worst.
While it got good reviews for the time, I thought Wild Arms was crap. The story is meh, the sfx during battle are horrible (literally sounds like you are beating a monkey), and the 3d rendered battle graphics are the worst.
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