The People's Choice Thread

[Exhuminator]

Console:
Miracle Warriors Seal of the Dark Lord - Master System
Blue Dragon - Xbox 360
Unlimited Saga - PS2 (I know, but the game intrigues me)
Aidyn Chronicles The First Mage - N64

Handheld:
Brave Story New Traveler - PSP
Fire Emblem Awakening - 3DS
The Legend of Heroes Trails in the Sky - PSP
Generation of Chaos - PSP
Gungnir - PSP

Of those, I've only beaten Brave Story New Traveler. I thought it was a very well made JRPG for PSP. It's very streamlined with the fat cut out, I beat it in about 20 hours, which is the sweetspot for JRPGs in general in my mind. Also it has a sexy cat girl and that alone makes it worth playing.

I too own Unlimited Saga, and plan to give it a shot someday, despite the internet. Most people can't handle radically different ideas without a negative reaction.

[Rydon]

I too own Unlimited Saga, and plan to give it a shot someday, despite the internet. Most people can't handle radically different ideas without a negative reaction.

Good on you, and I agree. I kinda like the legend games on gameboy which got me looking into what else there was, etc. I'll let you know what I think on it whenever I get around to playing it.

[Exhuminator]

Besides Unlimited Saga, I also own Romancing Saga on PS2. Well the Saga stuff is Akitoshi Kawazu's love child, and the man does his own thing whether anyone else likes it or not. I admire this though. For example I absolutely loved FFCC: The Crystal Bearers on Wii, despite the press shitting all over it. And every forum gamer telling me not to play it because it was "terrible" and "not a real Final Fantasy".

[Rydon]

I didn't know he made FFCC: The Crystal Bearers. I think I picked that up on a recommendation in the Wii thread (possibly Bone) and I was digging what I played through, which was around 2 -3 hours. I need to go back and finish it.

[MrPopo]

Console:
Miracle Warriors Seal of the Dark Lord - Master System
Blue Dragon - Xbox 360
Unlimited Saga - PS2 (I know, but the game intrigues me)
Aidyn Chronicles The First Mage - N64

Handheld:
Brave Story New Traveler - PSP
Fire Emblem Awakening - 3DS
The Legend of Heroes Trails in the Sky - PSP
Generation of Chaos - PSP
Gungnir - PSP

Console: I'd say go with Blue Dragon. It definitely harkens back to the Dragon Quest school off JRPGs (which is helped by Toriyama doing the art) but still has a fair amount of complexity in the job system. It was a nice piece of traditional RPG during a generation where most of the JRPGs on consoles were going more experimental.

Handheld: Fire Emblem Awakening, no question. Legend of Heroes would be the runner up, but I'm holding off on playing it until third chapter comes out and shotgun them back to back to back. I felt like Brave Story was just too generic.

[Fragems]

Currently thinking about taking on one of these.

Arc Rise Fantasia (Wii)
Blue Dragon (360) also have the 2 ds sequels
Demon's Souls (PS3)
Fire Emblem: Awakening (3DS)
Guided Fate Paradox, The (PS3)
Last Story, The (Wii)
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona (PSP) Have at least 1 version of every game released in the persona series so far, but I've never played them .
Shin Megami Tensei IV (3DS)
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers (3DS)
Tales of Xillia (PS3)
Chrono Trigger (DS)
Valkyria Chronicles (PC)
Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii)
Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht (PS2) Ready to try it again now that I have all 3
Ys I & II Chronicles+ (PC/PSP)

[alienjesus]

Dragon Quest is the foundation of turn-based JRPGs. You'll appreciate a game like Mother much more if you experience Dragon Quest first.

As for the handheld, well I enjoy Final Fantasy Adventure. It's a solid action-RPG and lays the groundwork for two absolutely phenomenal sequels.

Save Fire Emblem for the Summer Challenge. I am.

I dunno, Fire Emblem Fates is out in Europe at the end of May. I'll already have 3 Fire Emblem games to play over the summer

Console:
Miracle Warriors Seal of the Dark Lord - Master System
Blue Dragon - Xbox 360
Unlimited Saga - PS2 (I know, but the game intrigues me)
Aidyn Chronicles The First Mage - N64

Handheld:
Brave Story New Traveler - PSP
Fire Emblem Awakening - 3DS
The Legend of Heroes Trails in the Sky - PSP
Generation of Chaos - PSP
Gungnir - PSP

I'm going to say Miracle Warriors for Home console. Your handheld picks are relatively modern, so it might stop you feel overloaded with 2 simialr games to have something pretty old school.

For handhelds, I'm going to say Fire Emblem, because Fire Emblem is awesome. They should call it Fire Awesome

Currently thinking about taking on one of these.

Fire Awesome: Awakening (3DS)

[Exhuminator]

Last Story, The (Wii)
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers (3DS)
Chrono Trigger (DS)
Valkyria Chronicles (PC)
Ys I & II Chronicles+ (PC/PSP)

Of the ones you listed, those are the ones I've personally finished, and here's how I'd rank them, in order of personal enjoyment:

Valkyria Chronicles
Chrono Trigger
The Last Story
Ys I
SMT: DS: Soul Hackers

[Ack]

Bone:

Literally every one of our options has had someone vouch for it, though several have pointed out back ups as well. Of your five, I admit, I'm most interested in you playing Jade Cocoon, because I own it but have not played it, and I want to know your thoughts on it.

Here's where you stand as of now:

Jade Cocoon: 2 votes
King's Field: 1 vote
Parasite Eve: 1 vote
Valkyrie Profile: 1 vote
Vandal Hearts: 1 vote

alienjesus

If you haven't yet noticed, the choices for you have been pretty one-sided. I'm also going to further throw in my support for Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy Adventure.

Here's where you stand as of now:

Console
Fire Emblem: 0 votes
Opoona: 0 votes
Xenoblade Chronicles X: 0 votes
Earthbound Beginnings: 0 votes
Dragon Quest: 6 votes

Handheld
Atelier Rorona: 0 votes
Bravely Default: 1 vote
Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Bros.: 0 votes
Final Fantasy X-2: 0 votes
Final Fantasy Adventure: 3 votes

Rydon

I admit, the ones on your list I am most familiar with are on the console side, and from what I know of them, they're not exactly marks of quality. But I've never heard of Miracle Warriors. I'm curious now as to what it is. That one gets my vote. As for your handhelds, I really don't have much of an opinion. For what's its worth, it looks like most folks want you to play Fire Emblem.

Here's where you stand as of now:

Console
Miracle Warriors Seal of the Dark Lord: 2 votes
Blue Dragon: 1 vote
Unlimited Saga: 0 votes
Aidyn Chronicles The First Mage: 0 votes

Handheld
Brave Story New Traveler: 1 vote
Fire Emblem Awakening: 3 votes
The Legend of Heroes Trails in the Sky: 0 votes
Generation of Chaos: 0 votes
Gungnir: 0 votes

Fragems

You haven't beaten Chrono Trigger yet? Go do that. It won't take you very long.

Here's where you stand as of now:

Arc Rise Fantasia: 0 votes
Blue Dragon: 0 votes
Demon's Souls: 0 votes
Fire Emblem: Awakening: 1 vote
Guided Fate Paradox, The: 0 votes
Last Story, The: 0 votes
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona: 0 votes
Shin Megami Tensei IV: 0 votes
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers: 0 votes
Tales of Xillia: 0 votes
Chrono Trigger: 1 vote
Valkyria Chronicles: 1 vote
Xenoblade Chronicles: 0 votes
Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht: 0 votes
Ys I & II Chronicles+: 0 votes

TEKTORO

Go finish Suikoden.

[Sarge]

Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu
King's Field
Parasite Eve
Valkyrie Profile
Vandal Hearts

I haven't looked yet, but I know which one Exhuminator's going to recommend!

If we go odd-on favorite of that list, I'd go with Valkyrie Profile. I absolutely loved that game. Splendid presentation, and the stories of the various einherjar are excellent. The main story can be a bit of a mess if you don't use a guide to get the true path (it's possible to get the best ending without one, but as others have mentioned, it's really obtuse). Also, my avatar is Arngrim from that game.

Jade Cocoon is pretty short, but I don't know that it brings much to the Pokemon-style formula. Skip.

Vandal Hearts is supposed to be a solid SRPG, but I don't play a ton of those, so skip. Enemies do erupt in a shower of blood when killed, though, if that's your thing!

Parasite Eve is splendid. It's pretty short, too, probably a 15-hour game. The battle system has shades of Vagrant Story, and the game is legit creepy to boot. One of SquareSoft's PSX gems. If you don't roll with VP, this is my pick.

King's Field is for casuals.