RPGs that still hold up pretty well

[JC48573]

it's been like forever since I last beat Final Fantasy VII and I still feel like it was just yesterday. The game was really well designed. What is the RPG that you keep on coming back to?

[ninjainspandex]

the first two paper mario games for sure, always a classic and not a huge time commitment. definitely one of my favorite rpgs of all time

[Jmustang1968]

I think almost all of them except the ones that weren't good in the first place have held up well. This is part of the reason most RPGs retain their value as well as they do. The biggest complaint is often the random encounters in many of the jrpgs.

[ninjainspandex]

Personally I think the original Dragon Warrior/Quest games dont hold up very well today. Its just way to old fashioned and boring combat with way too much grinding.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger, and Earthbound are timeless games - and my top three favorites of all time.

[Hazerd]

Super Mario RPG, Final Fantasy VI, Secret of Mana, never get old.

[AppleQueso]

the first two paper mario games for sure, always a classic and not a huge time commitment. definitely one of my favorite rpgs of all time

Yeah, this goes doubly for Paper Mario. That graphical style has aged very nicely, it's easy to forget you're actually playing it on the n64!

[sonic2041]

I enjoy going back to Mario RPG, Cronotrigger, Earthbound, and Skies of Arcadia.

I think the reason these games hold up well is because they had turn based combat. There isn't much that more powerful hardware can add to that, except prettier scenes when you use your special moves.

[Menegrothx]

What is the RPG that you keep on coming back to?

Subjective favorites isn't exactly the same thing as RPGs that still hold up pretty well. Well the obvious answer is a large amount of the best SNES&PS1 and late 1990s/early 2000 PC RPGs, that was when both JRPGs and WRPGs had their peak (although not the same time, there was a few year gap between the two).
How do you define a game that holds up pretty well anyways? The Ultima games are still technically and story wise superioir to 99% of RPGs that came after them (1993 onwards), but from a modern perspective they haven't aged well (lore books, no journal, no hand holding or tutorials and so on). Dragon Quest 8 is a grindy game with a story that moves at an sluggish pace but it still is more charming than more modern RPGs like Final Fantasy 13.

[Stark]

I recently played through FF IV for the first time and it was amazing. I was really surprised at how I got sucked into the story.