Top 10 RPGs, According to RPG Fans

[the7k]

I just found Final Fantasy X to be extremely linear, the story to be weak and the characters didn't appeal to me at all - and if I did like any of the characters, it was because they were practically clones of characters from previous entries. It certainly wasn't because they were well developed.

Lack of strategy is another complaint, but at this point such a complaint almost goes without saying when it comes to RPGs. Still, there is something to be said for having limitations in place.

In Final Fantasy VII, the Materia system allowed for some completely broken exploits, but at least you couldn't have every Materia on every character at the same time. To me, that's exactly what the Sphere Grid felt like - having access to unlimited power. Not to mention that by the end of the game, all of your characters lose their identity. You no longer have a Healer, a Warrior, a Wizard - you just have a bunch of Swiss Army Knives, with little reason to choose one over another.

Another complaint that at this point also goes without saying when it comes to RPGs - the cut-scenes. The long, over-done, unskippable, horribly voice-acted cut-scenes. If any game needed a fast-forward option... The gameplay to cut-scene ratio reminds me of a radio station. "10 Non-Stop minutes of music! Right after you sit through 20 minutes of commercials!"

[jfrost]

Actually, you could get all Materia in one character at a time, with Master Materias. Took long to grow the Materias, but it was possible.

[Reverend Finch]

What, no Phantasy Star IV?

[the7k]

Actually, you could get all Materia in one character at a time, with Master Materias. Took long to grow the Materias, but it was possible.

Well, yeah, but that was just one character - not all of them. Looking at the FFX save files of all my friends, all of their characters were exactly the same. The only thing different with any of them was their Limit Breaks (or whatever they called them)... which didn't matter either, because they'd always transfer their Limit Breaks to Wakka because of his being so utterly broken.

Plus, I never really found Master Materia to be all that useful. What's the point of casting Comet 2 if I can't link it with HP Absorb and MP Absorb, so that I get full health and full mana back everytime I cast it? What's the point of using Hades if I can't link it which Added Attack, so that my attacks will paralyze, poison and slow my enemies?

[jfrost]

Actually, you could get all Materia in one character at a time, with Master Materias. Took long to grow the Materias, but it was possible.

Well, yeah, but that was just one character - not all of them.

No, it was all of them. It took forever to grow the Materia, but you could grow Master Materias to all your characters. But you're right on your comment about linking Materias, if I recall correctly you couldn't do that with Master Materias.

But then again, I don't care that much that the characters in FFX can grow to be so similar. Maybe that's because my favorite FF is VIII, in which all characters can be almost the same from the beginning (provided you have a little bit of patience). All that changed was pretty much the base stats. But then again, I think a big deal of FFVIII were the Limit Breaks, so the characters didn't ever feel too similar. (And, again, I like the Junction system, broken as it is, I think it's quite clever.)

[kgcarini]

I'm surprised that a LOT of action RPGS are on the list. I'm also surprised RPG's from this generation are on there. There should be stupulations that only RPGs from the sixth or fifth generation could be picked. I agree Persona 3 is better than Persona 4; however, I really enjoyed both.

Since Mogus is no longer here I don't have to hear how the combonation of a rpg and sims game is a demon spawn from hell!

[tcpballa93]

I'm surprised that a LOT of action RPGS are on the list. I'm also surprised RPG's from this generation are on there. There should be stupulations that only RPGs from the sixth or fifth generation could be picked. I agree Persona 3 is better than Persona 4; however, I really enjoyed both.

Since Mogus is no longer here I don't have to hear how the combonation of a rpg and sims game is a demon spawn from hell!

I actually like both types of action RPG, both P3F and fallout 3 are in my 10 best games ever. I like both P3F and P4, I just find the story of 3 is more compelling and I prefer the music. I do like the execution of the story in P4. I also love Teddy from P4, one of my favorite characters ever.

[Original_Name]

I could flip over my computer desk in fury for the omission of any of the games you guys have mentioned, but I sorta would've expected to see Grandia on here... I mean, it was one of only two Saturn games to sell over a million copies (in Japan alone, no less), and it was called the "Final Fantasy VII-killer" over there. I mean think about the other Saturn title to sell over a million copies: Virtua Fighter 2. I'm pretty sure that Virtua Fighter 2 (or at least VF4 or VF5) would make it onto a list of Top 10 Fighters according to Fighting Game Fans... oh, who am I kidding? Capitalism is hopeless.

[Ack]

I could flip over my computer desk in fury for the omission of any of the games you guys have mentioned, but I sorta would've expected to see Grandia on here... I mean, it was one of only two Saturn games to sell over a million copies (in Japan alone, no less), and it was called the "Final Fantasy VII-killer" over there. I mean think about the other Saturn title to sell over a million copies: Virtua Fighter 2. I'm pretty sure that Virtua Fighter 2 (or at least VF4 or VF5) would make it onto a list of Top 10 Fighters according to Fighting Game Fans... oh, who am I kidding? Capitalism is hopeless.

What..? What does capitalism have to do with a top ten RPGs list? I mean, if anything we should be wondering about the average age of the person they asked, and wondering if the here-and-now attitudes of the Japanese youth had something to do with this.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

I could flip over my computer desk in fury for the omission of any of the games you guys have mentioned, but I sorta would've expected to see Grandia on here... I mean, it was one of only two Saturn games to sell over a million copies (in Japan alone, no less), and it was called the "Final Fantasy VII-killer" over there. I mean think about the other Saturn title to sell over a million copies: Virtua Fighter 2. I'm pretty sure that Virtua Fighter 2 (or at least VF4 or VF5) would make it onto a list of Top 10 Fighters according to Fighting Game Fans... oh, who am I kidding? Capitalism is hopeless.

What..? What does capitalism have to do with a top ten RPGs list? I mean, if anything we should be wondering about the average age of the person they asked, and wondering if the here-and-now attitudes of the Japanese youth had something to do with this.

Exactly, not to be an ass or anything, but a large portion of Japan's current youth generation are going through a strange phase where they feel a very odd sense of false pride and self-entitlement to ignore the rest of the world and are shirking off their true priorities for the overly stylistic realms of a fantasy world.

That having been said I don't really know how most older titles have been written completely off of the list in a country with such a large base of gamers and retro enthusiasts.