Because I don't have much else to do with the little free time I have, I sit around thinking. I was just pondering what I believe have been the best RPG's of all time. Why? Because I'm a complete Nerd!!! So, without further ado, my top 5 RPG's of all time...
5. Star Ocean: The Second Story (Playstation 1) : You know, back in the late 90's most J-RPG's were straight, old-school, turn-based romps with Anime characters pretending to be European Knights and Druids. If you remember those games on the Playstation and the Saturn, please raise your hand now. There was an exception to this, and it was Star Ocean! Yes, 3 was just okay, but the Second one was a revolutionary console RPG. It allowed you to move around the battle screen in real time while the computer controlled the other 3 characters based on your commands. The game was, at times, quite viscous to the player, featuring bosses with HP levels well into the upper hundred thousands! One optional boss named Isciella Queen had 5,000,000 HP and could travel at a seemingly ludicrous speed!!! She could also kill some characters with a single hit, even if they had 9999 HP! My point is, the game was revolutionary, challenging, and fun. It's rather hard to track down nowadays, but if you can find it, you will not be disappointed.
4. Suikoden II (Playstation 1) : Yeah I know, another obscure J-RPG, but I can't help it. Suikoden II was the early, high water mark of the series. This one makes it mostly for it's outstanding story. It revolved around two boys who are drafted into the army of the Kingdom of Highland. Late one night the camp is raided and they are set off on a journey together to find a way home. The first of the four acts ends with the one boy, by the name of Jowy, assassinating a key political figure in the opposing side's capital. As you can tell, it has been a loong time since I've played this one, so bear with me. The story unravels with the two boys, childhood friends, leading opposing armies against one another in a show down of literary scale. Looking back upon it, you would have thought the story came out of an ancient epic! The sad thing is that it's probably the hardest game on this list to track down. The last time I looked, they were going for around $120 on Ebay.
3. Final Fantasy III/VI (Super Nintendo, Playstation, Gameboy Advance) : To hell with VII Square, re-make Final Fantasy VI! It's truly amazing how fun this game is so many years after it's release in 1993! Cool story, interesting characters, great battles, it has the lot! You can find this one rather easy, so go knave, find it!!!
2. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Xbox, PC) : This was the game I wanted an Xbox for, and I was not disappointed in the least when I picked it up! It was the first Western RPG I ever played, and since then I havn't looked at J-RPG's with the same fondness since! Creating a player and being able to change the gaming experience based on my actions proved to be amazing! Bioware created this masterpiece, and I might have to update this list when their next work of art, Mass Effect, comes out this fall! You gotta give a lot of credit to a group who managed to create a Star Wars game that didn't suck, but they were the first. Go get it!
1. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Xbox 360, PS3, PC) : Wow. So many choices, so much to do. I, really can't explain what this experience is like to you. This is the type of game that causes you to give up your social life. I, a Nordic, Nightblade who was born under the sign of The Warrior (See how fun creating a character is!), bid you to go buy this game, for it is boss!!!
Agree? Disagree? Do tell. What's your top five?
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6 comments:
No Lunar 2? :-(
I actually havn't played that one before. I played the original, but I just couldn't bring myself to include it in my list because 5 others got in the way. Lunar 2 is just so damn expensive on-line now, just like Suikoden II. The difference is that I owned that, and was then stupid enough to trade it in for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. God I was stupid when I was 13!
A lot of Working Design games are really rare and expensive. I still have the packaging for my old Sega CD copy of Lunar 2, but the disc has suffered much damage since 1995, so I have to use an ISO to play it. You can actually play CD-Rs on a real Sega CD system, so I would recommend going that route if you ever decide to revisit Lunar 2.
Also, if you think that trade-in story is stupid, I once traded in Tales of Destiny for Star Wars Episode III on the DS. I could've much more money for it on Amazon. >_<
So we've both made that stupid decision. Wow, SWEIII on the DS, at least my friends and I had lots of fun with THPS, I can't imagine having any semblance of fun with Episode III. I tried it on PS2 when it came out and despised it, not even remotely close to the masterpiece that was LOTR: ROTK on the PS2. That is likely the greatest hack'n'slash game ever conceived. If you havn't played it yet, do it now. It's on all three last-gen systems.
Episode III DS actually wasn't that bad, it's just not worth trading in Tales of Destiny. :(
My favorite hack'n'slash is X-Men Legends 2, though I'm not quite sure it qualifies as one. Shining Force Neo is also a good one.
The X-Men Legends series is more of a stat brawler, whereas EA's LOTR games like The Two Towers and Return of the King have been straight up hack'n'slash brawlers. There are power-ups that you accumulate over time, but you don't have as much control over the characters' development as you have in X-Men Legends and Marvel Ultimate Alliance. The purpose of the LOTR games is to plant you squarely into the films with some of the most awesome in-game cut-scenes and chaotic battles ever. Before dead Rising, I had never seen as many enemies on a screen at one time as I had seen in ROTK, it was just jaw-dropping. You truly got the feeling that you were in the middle of The Battle of Pellenor Field or The Battle of the Black Gate in this game. It was truly a marvel, but it wasn't liked all that much due to the often excruciating difficulty of the game. Since it came out, movie companies have been imitating (or should I say, trying to imitate it) it to no end. Both Pirates of the Carribbean games, Eragon, King Arthur, Star Wars Episode III, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of fire have tried and failed to imitate its formula, but none have come remotely close to succeeding. You can get it for dirt cheap now, if you havn't played it yet then go get it. It is one of the few great Movie tie-in games. Admittedly, I have never played Shining Force NEO, but I may have to pick it up now that you have suggested it.
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