Need: Good RPG Recommendations

[Eldena]

Shadow Hearts Series is quite ok for the PS2 too. I loved the battle system.

[luckysvn777]

Shadow Hearts was pretty cool, only played the second one though. I just found the fact that it takes place on Earth and kinda follows real events and people.. except with demons and stuff xD Awesome idea in my opinion

[Eladin]

Robotrek
Earthbound
Super Mario RPG

but i guess i like kickin it old school? all SNES games, but pretty fun ones in my opinion.
Valkyrie Profile? for PSOne

I liked Shining Force 1 and 2 for Genesis, and the Phantasy Star series...mostly.

i liked Front Mission 4 for the PS2, though it was more of a TRPG i guess?

Fire Emblem for the GBA, and if you're really bored, Pokemon games.

for the PC, i would suggest Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, Arcanum, Neverwinter Nights, or Deus Ex.

XBOX, Knights of the Old Republic still stands out to me as a good RPG for the system.

my 360 is still mostly new, and though i own Mass Effect, i haven't played it yet...
the only one on the system i've done thus far is Operation Darkness...which...meh. isn't...horrible. the setting is interesting and all, but it's definitely not for everyone.

[Xovian]

Neverwinter Nights (the first one) is still great even if it is a bit dated graphics wise by today's standards.
Breath of Fire 3 was good, not sure about the rest of that series.
The Witcher, though that one will depend on age as it is age restricted, due to some sexual content.

Those are my votes.

[Artist]

ew wow ITT lame games(except select few, like chrono trigger, and yes I've played all of... well not ALL of them, but pretty much there), as an indie game developer, it saddens me to see the public selection of videogames these days.


If you really want to play some outstanding, artistically done games in terms of game design and ingenuity, check out my list. These are defensively my top teir selections, and also a few games that I think you'd enjoy.

Riviera: The Promised Land, you'd like this if you're into the whole weeaboo anime stuff. Seeing that this is the Alteil forums, I'd guess you do.
EarthBound/Mother 2: Made simpler for the US audience, but the mood and theme is what's interesting. Try Mother 3 if you got the chance too.
FIre Emblem 4: Sessin no Keifu/Genology of the Holy War: Best Fire emblem game by far with the best story, as well as best character lineup. Requires a lot of patience and skill. At least play FE 7 before playing FE 9, you'll just spoil yourself if you do that.
Yggdra Union: Another strategy based game with a very interesting story, almost a plot twist to directly put the player into a very uncomfortable role.
If you're gonna count Zelda and Okami, you might as well count Castlevania games as well since they're actually closer to the RPG system, thus
Castlevania Aria of Sorrow: Best game I've seen that incorporated a RPG system in a seemingly non-rpg game.
Sweet Home: This is an old NES Japan only game, but there's a English patch for it. It was made by Capcom and it sparked the beginning of the horror game genre (and later inspired Capcom to make Resident Evil). It's quite the granddaddy of videogames and a must play for its story and game style.



If you speak Japanese or Chinese, there's a few groundbreaking legendary games that you must play:
Taikō Risshiden 5 (太閤立志伝5), my absolute favorite game of all time. You take on the role of Hideoshi Toyotomi under the rule of Oda Nobunaga in Sengoku Japan. Extraordinarily complex and addicting, and throughout the game you'll learn more Japanese history than actually taking a course on it, while having a huge blast.
Daikoukai Jidai IV: Porto Estado (Uncharted Waters 4 is the localized name), Near my 2nd or 3rd favorite game this one. You get so much out of this game it's amazing. I think there may be an English version out there.
Xuanyuan Sword 4 Legend: The Millennium Destiny (軒轅劍外傳：蒼之濤) as far as I know this game is traditional Chinese only, and it requires A LOT of Chinese knowledge to play, including history and culture. However, I would say that this is the best traditional styled RPG game that I've ever played. It has a very deep plot and character development including taoist theories and complex philosophies of time and space, as well as perfect incorporation into Chinese historical events. Another good one is Xuanyuan Sword 3 Legend: The Scar in the Sky (軒轅劍參外傳：天之痕) but that one is generally more touchy feely ronery girls.


Localized RPGs are just below par once you've actually tried some of the really good ones out there in the world.

[fargone]

I will second Xovian's suggestions, and add the star wars series, such as Knight of the Old Republic

[Eladin]

ew wow ITT lame games(except select few, like chrono trigger, and yes I've played all of... well not ALL of them, but pretty much there), as an indie game developer, it saddens me to see the public selection of videogames these days.

it just isn't an opinion based forum until you get the elitist post. hooray! quota made!

i forgot to mention by the way since you mentioned that you liked Secret of Mana, that you might also like Secret of Evermore, since it's pretty dang similar in terms of gameplay and whatnot. i would say though, that there are some things that it does that make it a little more interesting in some aspects though.

i'm probably the only one who actually liked 7th Saga for the SNES. not great graphics, kinda lousy music, pretty linear in a lot of ways...but for some reason i just kinda liked it. probably because it actually gave you a choice of characters from the start. hmmm...yeah...actually i don't know anybody else who actually liked this game like i do...so maybe stay away from it lol.

oh, i played Bahamut Lagoon on an emulator before, and that was a pretty neat game.

[Artist]

it just isn't an opinion based forum until you get the elitist post. hooray! quota made!

totally, we don't actually play games, we just come here to troll.

[Ginnazoh]

Earthbound series - I've thoroughly enjoyed both games with Ness and Lucas (i dont remember the numbering system since its all wierd) on the SNES. definitely a classic.

Shadow hearts - sitting back home ... i've had it for a while but never got around to playing it

Super Mario RPG - I played the SNES way back in the day and I'm pretty impartial to it

Paper Mario 1- It was enjoyable for most of the game...

Fire Emblem - I played the GBA ones and the game cube one...and I enjoyed them
I'll probably take the time this summer to find all the games and play through this franchise.

Valkyrie Profile - Beat it like 4 or 5 times already, I really like this game. I'm kind of impartial to VP2 tho.

Neverwinter Nights - definitely a classic PC game ... although I haven't played it for a while.

Castlevania - I've played all of the castlevania on SNES, PS1, PS2 and GBA..yes I had a huge castlevania craze a few years back.

Metroid - I played all the Metroid for NES, SNES, GBA and GC (except for the last game in the prime series)

Sweet Home - sounds interesting so I will definitely take a look into it. for some reason whenever I think of SNES and horror games I think of Clock Tower..lol

I will definitely check out both 太閤立志伝 and 軒轅劍外傳 since I've heard of both of them before but never played them. ditto 仙剑...except the 4th one which I didn't know about until recently.

ps
dont ask how i play so many games...I've developed a habit of gaming while re-listening to my lectures online >.>
and it works just fine for me xD

[Artist]

I will definitely check out both 太閤立志伝 and 軒轅劍外傳 since I've heard of both of them before but never played them. ditto 仙剑...except the 4th one which I didn't know about until recently.

You are officially my new best friend. I know so few people who's ever even heard of these games, makes me so happy to hear that you have lol.

I played 仙剑1-3. 1 was really good for its time, the popularity was pretty much equivalent of FF7. 2 was kind of shaky, the plot was way lacking compared to 1. 3 was pretty horrible IMO, finished it a few month ago, liked the TV show better actually which is kinda sad. The game mechanics are just horrible, it's so glitchy (I actually got my character stuck once so I had to completely restart the game from the beginning), moving around has never been more painful in a RPG game. The plot is very generic and the characters were insignificant. If you speak Chinese, just watch the TV show instead rofl.

4 as far as I know is mediocre as well. Softstar has been going downhill with it in general. I have 4 but I haven't tried it yet, not much motivation.

as far as 軒轅劍 goes, I consider it the holy grail of Chinese RPGs. 軒轅劍 1 started off as a tech demo pretty much, also it was pretty much a break through game being the first RPG in China. 軒轅劍 2 was a continuation of 1 with much better detail and almost a pokemonish gameplay (which later gets developed better and better). 軒轅劍 2x was a game with the same engine but it took a historical setting in ancient China, and you actually meet a lot of very famous historical figures of war and science like 鲁班 (Inventor of the saw and umbrella.

軒轅劍 3X (which I would recommend) is probably the most famous of the series with a complex love themes, perfect for people who want to go ronery on videogame characters. It takes place during um... Don't exactly remember what time in China, but it has a realistic historical setting as well.

軒轅劍 4 and 5 are both pretty bad, because they have a pretty horribly made plot and boring gameplay. 4X however is my personal favorite in the series, the setting is during the war between 秦 and 晋 in Ancient China. It incorporates the technologies from all the previous games, a lot of mythology, and the graphics were really well done too for its time. There's some very notable plot twists as well, and I think it's overall a great game. 軒轅劍 5x goes along further into more recent history, and it takes place during the time when probably the most popular culture plays around, the San Guo period (Three Kingdoms).

Lastly, touching base on 太閤立志伝 (which means the success story of the Taiko), it's probably THE best game Koei has made (the guys who made Dynasty Warriors, but that game sucks). It's like a RPG-strategy-tactics-history-simulation game which will really make your head explode at the amount of depth required to play it. At first you take the role of Toyotomi Hideyoshi in an open free roam world RPG style, as a lowly commander of a mere 100 unit army under the family of Oda Nobunaga. However, after a series of realistic historical events which you have to trigger, like defeating 今川, constructing that 墨something city, construction of 安土, burning the monks in 本能寺, etc etc, Oda will be betrayed by 明智 and Hideoshi will go through the events to take over the Oda family, the game becomes totally macromanagement dependent, ordering subordinates around like in other games like Romance of the 3 Kingdoms, and after warfare with Takeda, Mori, Uesugi, Hojo, etc, Hideoshi will finally unite Japan under one rule, and become the Taiko. Don't worry, I'm not really spoiling any plot here. This is all probably taught in Japanese history courses lol.

Anyways, after that huge essay, I feel like playing some of these games again lol. Nice to meet someone who actually knows what I'm talking about. You have no idea how happy I am.


EDIT: Apparently 軒轅劍 5x 2 just game out 2 months ago. Holy monkey balls, my life has meaning again.