What's your lineage of favorite RPGs?

[Gamerforlife]

banging head against wall at people calling Zelda games rpgs....

Don't mind me though, continue the thread and ignore the troll

[Dakinggamer87]

mine would be:

Chrono Trigger: the first RPG i've finished multiple times. enjoyed every bit of it during summer time in my late teens. great story line and battle strategy. simply one of my favorite snes games.
Final Fantasy 3 (VI): most likely my favorite FF of them all. great story line with unforgettable characters, awesome sound tracks and the second RPG i've played over and over again.
Secret of Mana: the first multi-player RPG i've played and it's a good one. really enjoy this classic.
Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time: i love this 3D RPG. one of the reason i got a N64. simply classic. memorable music and puzzles i still remember to this day. i can hear the music of Kokiri Forest music now...

All amazing RPG's!!

Chrono Trigger was one of my first RPG's aside from Super Mario RPG that I played multiple times.

i wished i had played and complete more RPG's but after Oracina of Time, college took all that time away. i did play other great RPGs after but never finished them so i can't consider them on my list.

I know what you mean RPG's are getting harder for me to finish due to lack of time from work/training but I still play them just at a slower pace than I did years ago

[o.pwuaioc]

I've been very lucky with my progression of RPGs, so that I've hit the classics early and followed a natural order. My first RPG, after having beaten Link to the Past, was Secret of Mana. This was everything I was looking for in a follow-up to LttP, and I wasn't disappointed at all. The graphics were good, the music was so good that I still like to keep it in rotation today, and the gameplay has forever kept me coming back, each time trying to bring someone else with me. It's always been a hit at RB meetups when it's brought out, and now my gf and I are going through it.

Immediately after Secret of Mana, I found and fell in love with Final Fantasy II (aka Final Fantasy IV). Gone were the simplistic story of SoM and LttP and replacing the swing of the sword or axe was a strategic turn-based system. It helps that I started reading Lord of the Rings around this time, so everything just fit right in place. The story is still compelling, the music phenomenal, and although the graphics were a step down from LttP and SoM (except for the awesomely drawn enemies). To this day, I still compare all turn-based games to it, and although there have been several contenders, the charm still makes it rank number one in my book.

Years after FFIV, my friend loaned me his copy of Ogre Battle 64. I had been hungering for an RPG experience after Legend of the Dragoon, and boy, did this sure fill it! Instead of just a few characters, you can equip and train a whole army! It had some cheese, certainly, but overall it was finely made and I'm glad I now have seriously one of the best games on the N64, let alone the best reason to actually get an N64. Too bad this title was often overlooked.

For me, nothing outdoes these titles, although to be fair, I've only played a small handful of SRPGs, and I'm still very far behind in PS1 RPGs, but who has time these days to beat all the RPGs of old?

[Nemoide]

Dragon Warrior (Quest) III - I played the Gameboy Color version via Gameboy Player and it totally blew me away. I had more fun with this title than any other 8-bit RPG. I really love the entire Dragon Quest series, IMO they represent the peak of what a JRPG can be in terms of form. The music, the maps, the character/monster designs, the progression/exploration, I love the whole series (after the second one)! I default to the third one being my favorite because it so far exceeded my expectations.

Phantasy Star IV - Definitely my favorite game in the Phantasy Star series. The story is the most engaging of any 16-bit game I've played. The characters are great and I think the Phantasy Star series' setting is unique and fascinating. The gameplay is fast-paced and doesn't drag.

Panzer Dragoon Saga - the first RPG I ever played and it BLEW MY MIND. It really ties together the world of the first two and contains a surrealistic wonder I haven't seen in any other RPG. While the combat was usually on the easy side, I still think the battle system is one of the best I've played.

Runner-up: Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete - I like anime cutscenes, the songs, the characters... it's nostalgic and fun!

[Erik_Twice]

banging head against wall at people calling Zelda games rpgs....

Don't mind me though, continue the thread and ignore the troll

Hey, I bang the head for every single game mentioned here being called a roleplaying game, so you have it better than I do

[sevin0seven]

I've been very lucky with my progression of RPGs, so that I've hit the classics early and followed a natural order. My first RPG, after having beaten Link to the Past, was Secret of Mana. This was everything I was looking for in a follow-up to LttP, and I wasn't disappointed at all. The graphics were good, the music was so good that I still like to keep it in rotation today, and the gameplay has forever kept me coming back, each time trying to bring someone else with me. It's always been a hit at RB meetups when it's brought out, and now my gf and I are going through it.

Immediately after Secret of Mana, I found and fell in love with Final Fantasy II (aka Final Fantasy IV). Gone were the simplistic story of SoM and LttP and replacing the swing of the sword or axe was a strategic turn-based system. It helps that I started reading Lord of the Rings around this time, so everything just fit right in place. The story is still compelling, the music phenomenal, and although the graphics were a step down from LttP and SoM (except for the awesomely drawn enemies). To this day, I still compare all turn-based games to it, and although there have been several contenders, the charm still makes it rank number one in my book.

Years after FFIV, my friend loaned me his copy of Ogre Battle 64. I had been hungering for an RPG experience after Legend of the Dragoon, and boy, did this sure fill it! Instead of just a few characters, you can equip and train a whole army! It had some cheese, certainly, but overall it was finely made and I'm glad I now have seriously one of the best games on the N64, let alone the best reason to actually get an N64. Too bad this title was often overlooked.

For me, nothing outdoes these titles, although to be fair, I've only played a small handful of SRPGs, and I'm still very far behind in PS1 RPGs, but who has time these days to beat all the RPGs of old?

i knew i forgot about Link to the Past in my RPG list. Probably my favorite Zelda game of all time.

Orgre Battle 64 is a great game. i believe i only went half through the game until i got busy with life and forgot about it during college days. This is one of the game i had complete but threw the box away not knowing the full value of a CIB during those times. i kept the manual of course.

[ksloth]

I cut my teeth on RPG's of old such as Ultima, The Magic Candle, Dungeon Master, and Wizardry.

After my dads 286 was no longer capable of running the latest games that all required a 386 processor (!), I began to play console RPG's and really enjoyed the likes of Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy, as well as some ARPGs such as Secret of Mana and Zelda. Once I got a Sega, this included the venerable Shining Force series.

Once the CD age hit, I got way into the PS1 epic RPG's like FF7, King's Field, and others. That lasted well into the PS2 era, with the same basic games, but better graphics. There was a bit of time in here where I played some of the PC RPG's in the golden 90's, like Fallout, Baldur's Gate, and Icewind Dale. After the late 90's early 2000's I never got back into PC RPG's, I just couldn't afford to maintain a PC that felt outdated so quickly.

Nowadays, I play the occasional RPG on either the Xbox 360 (Lost Odyssey) or PS3 (Demon's/Dark Souls), but mostly I play handheld RPG's, such as Devil Survivor, Persona 3 Portable, or any other of a number of great PSP and (3)DS titles. The handheld is just a better fit for my busy family life.

I love retro RPG's because they remind me of my childhood and 2D graphics age really well. Plus, they just don't make em like they used to.

[Gamerforlife]

banging head against wall at people calling Zelda games rpgs....

Don't mind me though, continue the thread and ignore the troll

Hey, I bang the head for every single game mentioned here being called a roleplaying game, so you have it better than I do

Yeah, yeah, I know. I suppose the only real role playing game consists of pen, paper and dice

[Jmustang1968]

mine would be:

Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time: i love this 3D RPG. one of the reason i got a N64. simply classic. memorable music and puzzles i still remember to this day. i can hear the music of Kokiri Forest music now...

to each it's own mr Mustang or co-host of podcast

Haha I think OoT is a good game, I just don't consider it an rpg

[Jmustang1968]

banging head against wall at people calling Zelda games rpgs....

Don't mind me though, continue the thread and ignore the troll

Hey, I bang the head for every single game mentioned here being called a roleplaying game, so you have it better than I do

Yeah, yeah, I know. I suppose the only real role playing game consists of pen, paper and dice

Yeah, that is where rpgs originate from. But video game rpgs tried to convert the pen & paper to video game form and focused more on narrative. Rpg and video game rpg aren't one and the same. What we have now is the evolution of the early efforts to bring pen & paper to a digital format.