Edit: Yeah.. ignore this post. I thought long and hard about it but I just can't come up with enough games and decent explanations - I'm really bad at that.

1) - Paper Mario - This was my first RPG, before I even know what RPG stood for. Paper Mario has charm out the ass, the writing, the graphics, the music, everything. It also is easily the best looking N64 game. The art style still holds up today as evidenced by subsequent Paper Mario games. The combat is pretty simple, but has depth too and lends itself well to low level runs.

2) - Chrono Trigger - This game doesn't waste your time. The main game is only about 20 hours long and everything you do along the way serves a purpose. No tedious dead end quests or empty filler. Despite being a colab between the designers of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest this game feel like a hand crafted singular vision. I don't even need to explain the music.

3) - Persona 4 - Stylish as fuck. Some of the most real and relatable characters in a game. I've never been so engaged in such a simple murder mystery before. 80 hours short.

Here's my list. Done.

1) Final Fantasy 6 – This was my first real RPG, and even after all this time it still stands out. It set my standards pretty high for what a game should be and it is considered to be one of the defining games of the SNES era by most.

2) Chrono Trigger – Same as FF6 but to a slightly lesser extent. A paramount of RPGs. This is a prime example of a bloat-less RPG.

3) Xenoblade Chronicles – No other game I've played has handled world building with the same care as Xenoblade. Memorable characters, music, and the setting make for a modern classic.

4) Persona 4 – The most “real” characters I've ever seen in a game. While not necessarily a stunner story-wise, persona 4 is an interpersonal wonder. Love it.

5) Dark Souls – Pure quality gameplay. Everyone on GAF knows what this is whether they want to or not. Pure quality in all aspects except technical.

6) Demon's Souls – Same as above, but the Artorias DLC in Dark Souls puts it above this only slightly. The atmosphere is still unparalleled in Demon's however maybe Bloodborne will take that crown next year.

7) Final Fantasy 9 – My personal favorite final fantasy. It ranks as the quintessential fantasy adventure with its only flaw being the tediously slow battle system.

8) Nier – A clunky, cheesy, wonderfully deep and powerful narrative. It isn't for everyone, but I love it. Playthrough A is interesting for the most part, but B-D left me speechless.

9) SMT 3: Nocturne (3 Points) – While obviously not my favorite (being at #9) I believe this game needs special mention and the additional 3 points. Nocturne represents a close-call for me. The first time I played Nocturne was post-P3. As such I was uninterested and decided the game “sucked” due to it being nothing like P3. Around 2 years later (and having played through the other PS2 SMT games) I picked it back up to give it another try. I was absolutely hooked. Nocturne demanded a certain mindset and mood from me, but it was all worth it. No other RPG on this list can provide the pure RPG experience that Nocturne does. While Chrono Trigger provides a perfect view of what RPGs probably should be narratively/pacing-wise, Nocturne provides the opposite spectrum where pure gameplay supersedes all else. I'd recommend it, but with some hesitation due to its a-typical focus.

10) Witcher 2 – The only WRPG in my top 10, but for good reason. I loved this game for its excellent world building and focus on preparation before action. Can't wait for W3.


Honorable Mentions

11) Persona 3 FES – My first “SMT” and it got me into the series. While not as good as other entries in the series, its definitely worth mentioning. If tartarus was less terrible and you could control your characters (yes I know P3P exists, I don't like the lack of cutscenes/acted scenes/moving around town) this would be up there with P4 for me.

12) Radiant Historia – Stocke is easily one of my favorite protagonists to come out of a JRPG in a long time. The game itself is quite good, but he stands out the most. A truly down to earth hero is rare and welcome.

13) Valkyria Chronicles – Easily my favorite SRPG. It's such a fun and hassle-free take on the genre.

14) Final Fantasy 12 – Wonderful world, great combat/progression system, fun time. Wish the story and characters were more coherent.

15) Shadow Hearts – Corny dialogue and atrocious acting aside, I absolutely love the atmosphere and story in this game. I like Covenant as well, but I prefer the first due to its more PS1-like feeling.

16) Kingdom Hearts BBS – The best of the KH's imo. Best implementation of the “card” system. 3 different but related stories with some of the more interesting events in the KH universe. Aqua especially is fantastic.

17) Divinity Original Sin – This would be higher up, but I ended up having issues with the pacing around the 30 hour mark and it ended up losing my interest. However, that isn't to say that this game wasn't a total surprise.

18) Super Mario RPG – I love this more than the M&L games or the Paper Mario games. It's probably nostalgia, but I absolutely adore the look and feel of everything.

19) Digital Devil Saga – I'd consider DDS 1 and 2 to basically be the same game separated into 2 parts, but I specifically like the first game for its tribal/war themes.

20) Tales of Vesperia - Yuri

Work in Progress. In no particular order

#) Final Fantasy XII - (insert explanation here)

#) Final Fantasy X - (insert explanation here)

#) Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines - (insert explanation here)

#) Chrono Cross - (insert explanation here)

#) The Witcher 2 - (insert explanation here)

#) Star Ocean 3: Till the End of Time - (insert explanation here)

#) Suikoden II - (insert explanation here)

#) Tales of the Abyss - (insert explanation here)

#) Legend of Dragoon - (insert explanation here)

#) Radiata Stories - (insert explanation here)


Honorable Mentions


#) Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow - (insert explanation here)

#) Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars - (insert explanation here)

#) Dragon's Dogma - (insert explanation here)

#) Alpha Protocol - (insert explanation here)

#) Chrono Trigger - (insert explanation here)

#) Tales of Vesperia - (insert explanation here)

#) Fallout: New Vegas - (insert explanation here)

#) Final Fantasy VIII - (insert explanation here)

#) Suikoden V - (insert explanation here)

#) Persona 4 - (insert explanation here)


Unranked Honorable Mentions


Final Fantasy VII
The Last Remnant
Dark Souls
Dragon Age: Origins
Kingdom Hearts II
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2

I believe I'll make a subjectively controversial call and simply rank what I would consider the essential role-playing titles exclusively from the seventh generation. I feel wholly confident a number of classics will swap the final results from other respective listings. Because of that notion, I'd like to highlight select entries in the genre both from the perspective of that era of gaming as well as an accustomed action-adventure gamer.

01) Nier [3 points] - My personal game of the seventh generation. Superb, evocative storytelling that unravels in a way that's probably exclusive to the medium. Wonderful voice acting that you'd expect from the setting and a variety of gameplay aesthetics that pay homage to various genres like bullet-hell and visual novels. It features one of the most gorgeous soundtracks of all time similar to Shadow of the Colossus and Silent Hill 2 in my honest opinion. Free-roaming combat can feel repetitive with its lengthy design set between twenty-to-forty hours to experience just the scope of its main campaign. It's essential that you play it twice as numerous plot details are uncovered specifically in the second round. Afterward, you could likely stream the third and fourth endings (massive, detrimental spoilers) which are locked behind a collect-a-thon of weapons. Check out the partly translated Grimoire Nier for additional and significant story lore, too.

02) Demon's Souls
03) Deus Ex: Human Revolution
04) Valkyria Chronicles
05) Mass Effect
06) Fallout 3
07) Lost Odyssey
08) Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
09) The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
10) Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

1) Xenoblade Chronicles - Xenoblade Chronicles does not have the best combat ever and the side quests suck, so why is it my #1? Because the World it creates and sets you in is so amazing that it's something everyone should experience, it helps that it has a great story, AMAZING Soundtrack, and a good cast of characters.

2) Ys: The Oath in Felghana - What can I say? Ys: The Oath in Felghana is the best Action RPG I have ever played, the combat is perfect, the game is full of amazing boss battles that are challenging and fun, the music is AMAZING, and the story is simple and yet pretty good imo.

3) Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan (3 points) - I'm the biggest EO4 fan in the world, so having it in my list should be a surprise to no one. EO4 is simply an amazing game, the music, level design, and combat are better than ever for the EO series and the jump from DS to 3DS was exceptional. I could talk days about this game but even I get sick of talking about EO4 at times, haha.

4) Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City - Probably the best EO game so far, even if EO4 is my favorite, EO3 gave us subclassing and it still stands up as one of the best dungeon crawlers ever created.

5) Earthbound - Earthbound stinks.

6) Mother 3 - I have never cried as much as I cried while playing this god damn game, Mother 3 was a game that we waited a decade to play and yet it surpassed my expectations, play Mother 3 and cry forever.

7) Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door - Who would have thought that one of the best RPGs of all time would have Mario as the MC, I have a hard time expressing why TTYD is such an amazing game, but let's just say that I have never played a game with as much charm as TTYD. It also helps that the game is amusing as hell.

8) The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - A JRPG about setting up a world for the next games in the series, TitS ends up being a memorable experience because of its superb writing and amazing cast of characters, it's not an "epic" game, but it still reminds me of why I love JRPGs so much, memorable characters in an interesting quest, I can't wait for SC.

9) Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne - The atmosphere in Nocturne is out of this world, Nocturne is a game that no JRPG fan should miss.

10) Persona 3 Portable - FeMC and party control? aw yeah.


Honorable Mentions


11) Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix - I finally got a chance to play KH2FM this year, and it's amazing, they somehow fixed all the problems I had with the original game and Critical Mode makes the game go from a button masher into an amazing action game.

12) Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky - Best Atelier game of all time.

14) Etrian Odyssey - The game that started it all, It deserves a mention.

15) Demon’s Souls - I'm crazy about the Souls series, and Demon's Souls is still the best of the Trilogy, this is definitely a game you shouldn't miss out on.

Dang it I had longer explanations but the power cut off and I lost everything.


1)Final Fantasy IV - First FF game that I got really into. Compared to the games that came before it, the ATB system that was introduced in this game gives a lot of variety to the gameplay and essentially made battles more intense. Boss fights where a lot more lively where they would do actions in the middle of battle to make the player change their strategy on the fly While simple, the story is still pretty good in today's standards and the cast of characters really help make the story. the soundtrack is pretty rad as well

2) Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 - Subjectively, this is my favorite of the two modern Persona games. I preferred the darker setting in P3 in contrast to P4's cheery setting. I also had the good fortune of the friendly AI not doing anything too terrible. Having a dating sim attached to this JRPG helped me stay engaged with the game long periods of time giving me that "Just one more day" feeling. I spent so many hours just fusing Personas and trying to make them as OP as possible

3) Earthbound - This would be the game where you would show a friend who thinks JRPGs are the same old bland thing. To this day, I haven't seen that many games take certain gameplay elements from Earthbound. For starters, if enemies in a random encounter were certain levels below you, you would just automatically win. The game doesn't waste your time with them and you can move on. Also the HP having "Rolling meters" was a great concept for me. If one of your party members received a fatal blow, you can save them from death by putting out a health item/spell before their health reaches 0. Aside from the gameplay, Earthbound just gives you this relaxed feeling to it and just puts a smile on my face from start to end. Don't get me started at all the interesting twisted things you can find in this game by doing a little bit of research.

4) Valkyria Chronicles - This is a game where I expected very little out of it, but came back totally blown away. Being able to move your units in real time rather than a square grid really fits the war setting in this game and also helps the battle flow more naturally. It has a simple level up system where you are more focused on getting better gear for your units and tanks rather than grinding for stat increases. Each character having their own perks and disabilities helps make each characters have more personality without having to be directly related to the story. While a bit slow at first, the story is pretty darn good once it gets running.

5) Fallout 3 - I spent much more time exploring The Capital Wasteland instead of actually following the main story (Which isn't very good in the first place, but interesting in some parts). If this game was just exploration, I would of been totally fine with it. Great character customization in terms of skills and perks. The V.A.T.S system is the game is pretty enjoyable, getting slow motion head shots are always satisfying.

6) Chrono Trigger - Great pacing by allowing your characters go into and out of battle in real time without having to go through any transitions first. Tons of replay value by having endings that changes depending on when you face the final boss (which you can absolutely do at any point of the game). Great use of time travel within the story and some of the side quests. There's really not much I can say that hasn't been said a thousand times before.

7) Dragon's Crown - Great combination of a beat em up and an RPG, and pretty much a love letter to the Dungeons and Dragons arcade games. Each class feels unique from one another and within that you can change how a certain class is played by the in depth level up system. Fantastic combat controls that never feels remotely awakward. Sidequests are fun to do just to see what kind of art/lore you are going to get. Your first playthrough of the game just feels like a huge tutorial compared to the challenges that come next. If you can get past some of the terrible character design, I highly recommend to pick this up and give it a shot.

8) Fire Emblem: Awakening - Really you can put any other Fire Emblem game, but Awakening is where most people can get into the series. A solid SRPG that is just addicting to play with a fun marriage system attached to it (although to push the marriage stuff a little too hard tbh) While the story is a little lacking, the great cast characters you can interact with sort of makes up for it.

9) XCOM: Enemy Unknown - One of the more intense titles on my list, especially with Ironman mode on. If you need something with a challenge, this game will bring it to you and it will bring it to you hard. This game doesn't even wait for you to get your units in shape. While you think you are good to go on the new weapon you developed, the enemy may have developed a better one with their technology. Being able to individually level up your character rather than as a whole class allows you to be able to have a variety of options inside those class. With the Heavy unit, you can have a Heavy that specializes in covering your team while another Heavy could specialize in taking down heavy enemies. On the side, you are doing some base management and making sure you don't lose too many countries. You can easily put in hundreds of hours into this game

10) Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut - For some reason I just can't go back to the first Deus Ex game, but Human Revolution is the closest thing I can to that "handle the mission any way you want" feeling from the first game. Being able to handle a certain task like handling a bomb situation or handling a boss fight in like 5 different ways just makes the experience deep and refreshing compared to other stealth games at the time.


Honorable Mentions


11) Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 - Greatly improved a lot of the flaws that Persona 3 had: Ability to directly control other party members, you can hang out in dungeons for as long as you want without the game forcing you to leave i.e sick status, and dungeons( in general ) were handled a little better.

12) Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey - Challenging JRPG that will last you a good amount of time. They couldn't have picked a more perfect title than "Strange Journey". Each dungeon is a massive labyrinth for you to explore and conquer. Very easy for you to get into the story and setting, as the title implies , the further you get into the game , the more interesting it becomes. Tons of unforgiving bosses that will take you at least a few tries. Pretty good replay value with the SMT staple of having a Law/Neutral/Chaos endings (and a new dungeon to explore in NG+). Only big problem with the game is some parts on dungeons where you have to navigate blindly.

13) The World Ends With You - What a wild ride, I knew next to nothing about this game when it launched, but I saw an ad on a website and knew I had to pick it up. TWEWY is an action RPG where you use the bottom screen to move and attack with the main character and use the d-pad/face buttons to control your other party member. Yeah the controls sound like a nightmare, and it is, but only at first. Really getting used to the controls is the only difficulty curve in the game, after that you can just enjoy the game. Great characters and a fantastic soundtrack really bring in this unique experience

14) Fallout: New Vegas - This game could of easily been part of the main list if it wasn't so darn buggy. New Vegas has a lot going for it coming from Fallout 3 with some improvements to the gameplay, but it just doesn't have that polish that it should of have.

15) Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor - Fun, challenging SRPG that is easy to spend more than 100 hours playing. Between Devil Survivor 1 or 2, I would hands down pick the first one any day. While Devil Survivor 1 and 2 are pretty much the same gameplay wise, I find that Devil Survivor 1 outshines Devil Survivor 2 in everything else. What stands out to me the most about it are the different paths you can take in this game. Each path holds a different meaning and purpose that each different path feels very unique from one another. With the Overclocked remake, it makes each path even more unique resulting in each path ending with a different final boss.

15) Radiant Historia - Another JRPG that handles time traveling very nicely. While Chrono Trigger's time travel has to do with visiting different periods of time, Radiant Historia has you going back and forth between alternative futures. The turn based battle system is one of the more in depth ones I have seen but, because of that, random encounters take way much longer than they need to be. Time traveling is part of the gameplay where one thing you do in one timeline maybe use to solve another problem in another time line. Aside from that, you can get a lot of "bad" endings along the way which makes the story a lot more interesting.

17) Final Fantasy Tactics A2 - I would love to play the first FFT game someday since everyone loves it so much, but FFT A2 is my first and only FFT game I played. My memory is a little hazy with this game, but all I remember is just having so much stuff to do in the game. There are plenty of different classes to choose from, plenty of sidequest with some of them each having their own mini-story line, aside from battle you can take part of auctions to gain land, and so much more.

18) Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars - Every time I played a Mario RPG, it always felt like something was missing or done wrong to make me feel not totally satisfied with the game. Mario & Luigi Dream Team was a nice long game, but it felt really repetitive at times. Paper Mario on the N64 was amazing, but it felt way too slow for me. Super Mario RPG was the only Mario RPG game i played where i was enjoying it the whole time. Combat felt nice and fast for me to stay engaged. Great characters, setting, and soundtrack really helped make an experience.

19) Deus Ex - I can pretty much state the same reason as i did with Deus Ex: Human Revolution. I just find it really hard to get back into this one.

20) Bravely Default - Square Enix returning to a turn based RPG was a blessing. They managed to take something old and made it felt new again. The addition to the Brave/Default system adds a lot more depth to the battle system. Challenging game where even random encounters could possibly take you down if you are not too careful. Boss fights are a blast go through with the challenge they bring. And yeah, the 2nd half of the game is the worst thing ever, but after that is a pretty darn good finale. Just when you think you saw every last plot twist, the game just drops twist after twist at the end. Anyways, it could of been on the main list if only the 2nd half of the game was handled better.


Unranked Honorable Mentions
Kingdom Hearts ll
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 2: Innocent Sin
Alpha Protocol
Pokemon: Gold/Silver
Paper Mario
Tales of the Abyss

I am reserving my post! This is my first time participating in something like this so I am quite excited.

1. Final Fantasy IX - Personifies the wistful adventurous journey that the genre once reveled in, eventually introducing some of the "defining" character development for better or worse that you began to see more of as the 32-bit RPGs tried redefining how the stories were told. While the gameplay can be stagnant, this is the perfect example of a game with great characters, story, music, art, minigames, etc. coming together to enhance an RPGs experience. And I don't mean to trash the battle system, but the technical limitations hold it back significantly, which is a shame as I love the characters unique abilities and classes, and really enjoyed the learning skills from equipment development.

2. Valkyrie Profile 2 - The one game that took the gameplay of what a JRPG could do and showed everyone how to do it better. The depth and wealth of options is unrivaled, the ferocious pace and satisfaction of juggling, breaking off enemy pieces, and overkilling your foes was so god damn satisfactory. The Einherjar lost their focus from the first game, in favor of focusing on a more traditional cast, and while it was a controversial move I still loved it for different reasons. It also includes some of the best villain dialogue ever, and cemented Liam o'Brien as one of my favorite voice actors of all time. The music is Sakuraba at some of his best, the art is beautiful, and the graphics were just mindblowing for Playstation 2.

3. The Last Remnant - I've heard it described as a SaGa game which unfortunately is a franchise I don't have a lot of experience with, but I can appreciate that it is a unique entity in the genre. It emphasizes gameplay above all else, though I was also a big fan of the music. The time you can sink into the huge amount of quests is nothing short of impressive, especially because it's the same fantastic battle system that keeps you coming back for more. It feels extremely non-linear, filled to the brim with little world-building pieces and great lore, all wrapped in a generic forgettable story, but stands head and shoulders above so many of its piers.

4. Baten Kaitos Origins - It is really hard for me to pick between the original and the prequel, but just due to the better localization alone I give Origins the nod. It has fantastic characters, lets you revisit the beautiful handpainted backdrops of the original, and revamps the battle system (imo neither better nor worse than the first game) to give a beautiful spin on what was already a great experience the first time around. It is so impressive that it can feel so recycled from the first game but so completely new at the same time. Also Sakuraba's BEST SOUNDTRACK. Period!

5. Dark Souls - Reinvigorated my love for gaming when it felt like it was dwindling. I really don't need to say much about this I believe, except that this is of course composer Motoi Sakuraba's third entry on my list, so well fucking done.

6. Valkyria Chronicles - Phenomenal blend of strategy RPG with real time elements that brought probably the best production values to the genre even still. The story felt like a legitimately good anime with characters I liked, Sakimoto had a great soundtrack, the game had a great dub, and it was just all around a fantastic experience that I've been dying to find the time to replay.

7. Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions - Already one of my favorite games of all time enhanced by beautiful cutscenes, great voice acting, and fun new additions with new classes and fanservice characters thrown into the mix. I make sure on a daily basis to tell Square-Enix to fuck themselves for depriving me of this on Android for their shitty arbitrary reasons. Entry number 2 for composer Sakimoto!

8. Xenoblade Chronicles - Haven't even beaten it and it still deserves to be on this list. No game has ever been so satisfactory for me to explore the world of, to jump off mountains, to find gigantic enemies, to just generally move around in. Complemented by unprecedented art and beautiful music, this game is obviously something special.

9. Mother 3 - Beautiful characters, a more invested story than Earthbound, enhanced and much better balanced gameplay, beautiful music, gorgeous animated 2D graphics.

10. Final Fantasy XII - Still the best Final Fantasy gameplay. The lore of the world and the architecture, the enemies, the bestiary, the little details make it so alive moreso than any other game in the series. The scale of it all and the fantastic dub the series finally received, SO GOOD! So much to do and see, so much to play with. Sakimoto entry number 3, good job sir, you tied with Sakuraba! Truly bombastic score.

Honorable Mentions

1. Odin Sphere - A beautiful and often heart breaking story told in an incredible way that makes for a fantastic playthrough (and a slog of replays).

2. Tales of Phantasia - The original and still my favorite. While the gameplay has certainly been outdone by later entries, so many elements of the series which would just become tropes were legitimately enjoyable for the first release. The world building that continued in Tales of Symphonia was mindblowing to me as a teenager, and in particular because of how much I just loved the original! Sakuraba's 4th entry on my list, the music still stands out to me.

3. Demons Souls - Much like its successor, was a mindblowing time sink that showed me games could still be so fun. I actually clicked with this one much quicker that Dark Souls, but after recently replaying it decided I do ultimately like Dark Souls more... though Dark Souls II still sits somewhere around there where I'm not sure where to put it.

4. Final Fantasy VII - My first RPG ever, aside from a half playthrough of Secret of Mana, and it was just earth shattering awesome at the tender of age of 10. Probably the RPG I replayed most, I love the music and the setting, the art and even the story. But above all, I do think the music is ingrained into my mind.

5. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles - Multiplayer RPG done right. Gorgeous visuals, absolutely breathtaking music, and an interesting combat system that fully engages the players.

6. Baten Kaitos - For the reasons I stated for the prequel, except with the negative of the shitty shitty dub and awful sound quality of the voices.

7. Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance - I'm sure if anyone reads my list they will be pissed that this is my only western RPG. I'm sorry, but I am a lootwhore, and like FFCC, this is a multiplayer RPG done right to me. I've probably spent hundreds of hours between this, its sequel, and the Champions of Norrath games.

8.PoPoLoCrois - Absolutely adorable game with surprisingly tactile, engaging battle system and a simple, cute story enhanced by wonderful characters. The battle systems being a mixture of sRPG like tile moves with the turnbased nature on the overworld were always so special to me.

9. Pokemon Red - Truly the one game in the series that engaged with me like it did, I absolutely couldn't put this down for YEARS!

10. Resonance of Fate - I'm sad when people sing this games praises in lieu of Valkyrie Profile 2, but praises should still be sung. Fun, engaging battle system, a super interesting world with a unique method of telling a subdued story, fun and funny characters, and MORE Sakuraba goodness.

1. Fallout 3 (3 points)- My favorite game of all time. The first RPG I ever played. Sunk around 200 hours into, and could still go back to it and not be bored.

2. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim- Like Fallout 3 but with swords! Technically a better game, but I just love the setting and time period (huge fan of the 40s/50s) of Fallout more.

3. Mass Effect 2- Was like crack to me when I first got it. I was hooked from the opening sequence. Turned a good game (ME) into a great game by fixing every problem that Mass Effect had. Wish there was a little more open worldness, maybe in the form of side quests.

4. Fallout: New Vegas- More fallout, but was a little buggy, and just didn't have all the magic that Fallout 3 had. Plus the faction stuff got confusing.

5. Mass Effect- Fun space game, a little outdated with annoying aspects, but definitely worth playing.

6. Borderlands- Fun shooter, but got a little tedious.

Honorable Mentions

1. Dragon Age: Origins- Never beat it, but really enjoyed what I played until I lost interest
2. Mass Effect 3- Enjoyed it but disappointing

I'm looking forward to playing Dragon Age Inquisitions and Shadow of Mordor soon, but I can't say.

Making this list was extremely difficult. I could have put down half a dozen more games into honorable mentions that are as good as the ones that made the list. I culled certain old favorites like Ultima VII because it's been so long from my last playthrough that trying to rate them now would be nothing but nostalgia talking. I also suspect some games (like Dragon Age inquisition) would had made the list, but I haven't played them yet.


1. Baldur's Gate 2 (3 points)
The number one on my list is solified with every replay. Now with fan mods, the game is even better now than it was when it first came out. The best RPG of all time, nothing else comes even close.

2. Baldur's Gate
It was a fine game 20 years ago, but now with mods it's a fantastic one. The challenge, the sense of scope and adventure and the depth are only rivaled by the sequel.

3. Dragon Age: Origins
This game still has some old-school sensibilities in the best possible way. The gameplay is interesting, but the memorable cast and the world of Thedas (much more interesting than first appears) make it a classic in my eyes.

4. Mass Effect
The fully realized world, interesting characters and gripping story make it a highlight.

5. Persona 4
The best JRPG of all time. I can't even put my finger on really what exactly makes it so good.

6. Might and Magic: World of Xeen (MM4 and MM5 combined)
Constantly fun and rewarding.

7. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic
Characters, setting, story, gameplay.

8. Jade Empire
I think people were so down on this game because they were still expecting Bioware to make another Baldur's Gate, not a streamlined action RPG. Jade Empire is a good, story-driven ARPG, but the thing I enjoyed the most about it was the unique setting.

9. Might & Magic X: Legacy
A colorful and varied world full of intresting stuff to find,with fun tactical combat.

10. Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium
I honestly believe the reason why this game isn't heralded as the best 16-bit JRPG is because it came on a less popular console and cost $100 on release, meaning less people are nostalgic about it than Final Fantasy or Chrono Trigger. I think the writing and characters surpass the SNES RPGs, and a certain death scene is even more moving than the famous one in FF VII.

Honorable mentions:

11. Mass Effect 2
IMO not quite as good as the original due to streamlining and a less interesting story, otherwise the same praise applies.

12. Persona 3
The only reason why it didn't make the top ten is because Persona 4 did it all better.

13. Might and Magic VI: Mandate of Heaven
It's amazing how any game can be addicting for 100+ hours.

14. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2
If only it weren't released unfinished, it would have made top ten.

15. Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos
Puzzles, world, story, fun all around.

16. King's Bounty: The Legend
Brightly colored, turn-based tactical RPG. It was pratically made for me.

17. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Exploring a world is rarely this memorable.

18. Divine Divinity
Feels like an adventure and gets addictive.

19. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
It's a strategy RPG that does it all right.

20. Elminage Original
Excellent non-linear level design and great monsters make it stand out.

1) Fallout New Vegas - (insert explanation here)

2) - Planescape Torment (insert explanation here)

3) Dragon Age Inquisition (3 points) - Not my favorite rpg of all time but it's my favorite in the series and also the best good surprise after a disappointing DA II, so Kudos.

4) Alpha Protocol - (insert explanation here)

5) Wasteland 2 - This old school rpg has many weird design choices (redundant skills for example) but it's still a classic in my eyes, on par with the fallouts of old.

6) Bravely Default - (insert explanation here)

7) Expeditions Conquistador- Probably one of the most overlooked rpg that came out recently, an excellent rpg set in Mexico and Hispaniola during the Spanish Conquest.

8) Nier- (insert explanation here)

9) Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey- A great Dungeon rpg or whatever this genre is called, one of the few (the only?) SMT games not set in Tokyo.

10) Mass Effect 3 - ME3 in itself probably doesn't deserve to be on the list, but I'm putting it here because I loved the Citadel DLC.

Honorable Mentions

11) Shadowrun Dragonfall - (insert explanation here)

12) Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door- (insert explanation here)

13) Fallout 2 -

14) Devil Survivor - (insert explanation here)

15) Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne - (insert explanation here)

15) Divinity Dragon Commander- (insert explanation here)

17) Arcanum - (insert explanation here)

18) Fire Emblem Awakening - (insert explanation here)

19) KOTOR 2 - (insert explanation here)

20) Mass Effect 2 - (insert explanation here)

1) Final Fantasy VI

I'm slowly making my way through this entire series again along with a friend who had never played any of these games before. Revisiting an old favourite always makes me a bit nervous, as it makes me question how much I've changed as a person, and possibly have to re-evaluate my old tastes and opinions. Final Fantasy 6 still held up beautifully, though being a bit more savvy about sprite-art, localisation and deeper mechanics, you can definitely spot some rough spots. It's still a grandiose adventure with a colourful and interesting cast. There's a certain elegance in what it attempts and what subjects it tries to bring up. The understated minimalism of the 16-bit presentation complements this very well, as it mannerisms and tone are mostly carried by the music. The music is incredible as well, I should add.
2) Chrono Trigger

It may not be the most complex, and by modern standards it's actually quite short, but I could not think of a better suited story to tell through this interactive medium. With its perfect pacing, Chrono Trigger's brilliantly uses time travel to set up a grand conflict, while keeping the pressure off the player, as said conflict takes place centuries in the future. The result of this is that is one of the few games you'll see where side-questing will not seem like your party is being needlessly distracted from their pressing goal. It also confronts players with their choices in some very clever ways, in which only a game can do. Your party members, while kept rather simple, show a lot of character, and feel very distinct from another. They play off eachother very well, and usually punctuate the times they came from. I'm not sure if there's a thing as a perfect video game, but Chrono Trigger comes ever so close.
3) Final Fantasy IX

Without being too overdramatic about it, this kind of was my final Final Fantasy. The last one that really spoke to me and appealed to my tastes and sensibilities. I have no doubt that this in part colours my judgement, so bare this in mind. Of all the games in this list, this game has my favourite cast. Everyone is a lot of fun and interesting, and following their little arcs to the end was definitely my driving-force to the end. Gameplay-wise it is a rather vanilla game, but all the systems are very matured, and it does bring a Final Fantasy Tactics-esque element to the table for learning abilities. Looking forward to replay this one the most, which I'll hopefully get around to next year.
4) Xenoblade Chronicles

Never having been a huge fan of the Xeno games, this was a huge surprise to me. Its scale, battlesystem and take on questing will definitely give off the impression you're playing an MMORPG. However thanks to it being an offline game, it is able to subvert a lot of the weaknesses of that genre. Your party is not pushed to the sidelines to tell a story about someone else, nor are they vague avatars without any sort of definition. Xenoblade is definitely a lighter experience than the other titles that carry the Xeno prefix, but it's my favourite of them all.
5) Dragon Quest V

I initially wasn't the biggest fan of this when I first played it. I was huddled around a translation guide with a friend of mine, taking turns over the controls. The Super Famicom was seemingly runnning on its last legs, which made it it flicker to black and white every now and then, which made an already ugly game uglier. We still had a decent time, but deep down I know we were only pressing on because we sunk good money into this. Then many moons later Square Enix released a DS port. With all the initial hurdles out of the way, as well as the benefit of matured systems, I was finally able to experience the game the way it was meant to. I was treated to a grand journey that spanned generations. A rudimentary Pokémon catching system helps spice the battles up, which are very speedy I should add. Dragon Quest at its finest in my opinion.
6) Chrono Cross

Of all the games in my list, this is definitely the hardest to defend. It contains some questionable choices in the story and game design department that not everyone may appreciate. There's a distinct quantity over quality approach in the character department. The characters are a little simplistic, but they were in Trigger as well, and I really liked how many of the characters knew eachother. Seeing characters have friends and family when you interact with NPCs is something you don't see a lot of in games, and the game did it in a rather subtle way. It helped a lot in making the game's worlds feel like an actual place. I should close off with the fact that Cross has some of the finest music in any game out there.
7) Terranigma

Terranigma can be best described as a Zelda game with fewer puzzles and more RPG mechanics. I really love the way the world is set up in this game, and how it grows. The goal of the game is to guide the course of the world, by restoring the continents, foiling opressive forces and nurturing the ones you think will benefit the greater good. Super interesting game and a lot of fun.
8) Paper Mario

Paper Mario understands how to increase complexity by simplifying. By removing the inflated numers, you are given the ability to meticulously plan ahead for several turns. Count in the fantastic badge customisation and active timed hits, and you have a winner on your hands. I was debating whether or not to put its sequel on here, which polishes up and expands a lot of the systems, but I ultimately prefer the world and music of the first one. As someone who likes to subject himself to arbitrary rules, the badge and leveling systems allowed me to play a game where Mario was at 1HP at all times throughout the game, which is my favourite run of this game to date.
9) Mega Man Battle Network 2

As a Mega Man and an RPG fan, this was like a dream marriage to me. While the story and characters are a little naff, the gameplay is nothing short of brilliant. Centred around the digitising of the world, you plug your e-Pokémon into all sorts of items and bust viruses or breach firewalls. The battle system is like a card game where you move in real-time and you take terrain into account and you combine your "cards" and you can transform into elemental forms. The sequel doesn't make any drastic changes over the original. It just adds more content and polished up the existing systems. The series would get more content and more polish as it went on, but fatigue started to set in by then.
10) Half-minute Hero

Clever, hiliarious, and bite-sized sessions. They saw a concept and they utilised it fully through several game-modes. The world is ending in (roughly) 30 seconds, and you have to go through an entire RPG or anime "chapter". You sometimes get some help from the goddess of time, who can fill your 30 seconds back up. During that time you level up, buy gear, solve sidequests, open paths and you often have multiple branches and achievements to unlock. One of the best titles on the PSP.

Honourable Mentions of games that did not make the cut, but you should still give a shot:
- Earthbound: Very interesting mechanics and a strong emotional core. I've seen a few people describe this game as the type of roleplaying kids do, and how their styles of imagination blend when a new person joins in. That's actually not a bad description of its tone and pacing.
- Bowser's Inside Story: The third and my personal favourite entry in the Mario & Luigi series. The mechanics of the old games are still as fun as ever, but this time they throw Bowser into the mix as well. The Bowser segments are the highlight for me and I weirdly even wish the game had more Bowser and fewer Mario & Luigi.
- Mass Effect 2: Out of all the three games, this was the one I liked the best. Improved over the original, and does not end with a disappointing climax. Characters can be pretty fun, and Jennifer Hale simply makes a strong lead.
- Legend of Mana: Gorgeous game that actually contains three stories in one. It also has quite a lot of complex systems under the hood, though the game feels balanced around you not knowing or caring about them. I don't always agree with the Mana series, but if you're into action RPGs, this one has a lot to offer.
- Valkyrie Profile: I think I like this one more in theory than in practice. It features interesting characters, a story that had a lot of potential and some pretty inventive mechanics. Sadly enough this is one of those games that expects you to play with a guide on your lap and follow it to the letter. The game is on a timer, and you need to hit hidden objectives in order to unlock the later parts of the game. Definitely a bad mark on an otherwise cool game.

1. Diablo 2 (3 points) - best loot RPG ever. Each class plays completely different than the rest, it has the best loot system I have ever seen in a game,and a great atmosphere.

2. Planescape torment - best story and best writing in a video game ever.

3. Morrowind -

4. Arcanum -

5. Divinity: original sin - Amazing battle system, challenging batles, and an innovative dialog system that lets you roleplay two different characters\play with a friend.

6. Fallout 2 -

7. Fallout 1 -

8. Baldur's gate 2 -

9. Vampire the masquerade: bloodlines -

10. Baten Kaitos origins - great card based battle system, a good story and a godly soundtrack.


Honorable mentions:

1. Gothic 2
2. Suikoden 2
3. Witcher
4. Witcher 2
5. Chrono Cross
6. Xenogears
7. Tales of the Abyss
8. Demon's souls
9. Dark Souls
10. Final fantasy 9

I'll probably just copy-paste last year list... I can do that, right?

(NOT FINISHED)

Final Fantasy !X
Final Fantasy X
Deus Ex - Human Revolution
Mass Effect 2
Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy VI

1. Chrono Trigger: The first RPG I have ever played. Fell in love with the game and still holds up today. Instant classic and a game that my kids will play when they get introduced to video games.

2. Super Mario RPG: What do you get when nintendo and squaresoft make a game together? A cute rpg with dept and a great game overall.

3. Diablo 2: Addiction at it's finest. Other than street fighter 2, this is the only game I can think off the top of my head that I'll play from start to finish.

4. Final Fantasy VII: One reason why I bought a psone back in the day. Was one of my top 3 games I played during the 32 bit era.

5. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: One of the best games on xbox and the first western RPG that I fell in love with. Star war is fucking awesome, and with bioware it just makes it an instant classic.

6. Pokemon Red / Blue: One of the best portable games I have ever played. The RPG features are bare bones, but the whole complete package of trading / dueling with your friends with the pokemon you catch is endless fun that took majority of my time back in middle / high school.

7. Final Fantasy VIII: The last final fantasy I have played from start to finish. Yeah, the junction system is a pain in the ass but the characters and story make up for it. Loved it. a diamond in the rough for the series.

8. Mass Effect: The only game I didn't finish on this list, but still an amazing game none the less.

9. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga: Great portable rpg game from nintendo that brought back great memories of playing super mario rpg.

10. Kingdom Hearts: The reason why I bought a ps2 back in the day. Great game, a little rough in the edges but enjoyed every min of the game.

hmm this was supposed to be highlighted lol.

My personal favorite; Skyrim is a game world I continue to live in and enjoy - even three years after its release. The atmosphere when walking through those mountains always create a sense of escape for me. The music contains some of my favorite game tracks ever, and fit perfectly within the environment! It does not offer the greatest combat mechanics or some of the depth of its predecessors, but there are countless hooks that draw you into the world and it is still so satisfying to use Dragon shouts!! If you play on PC, you will find even more countless hours and ways to play the game thanks to a thriving modding community! It is a game designed to inhabit, rather than simply beat - though there is a fun main quest to explore if you wish, along with different factions and sidequests to discover!


2. Dark Souls

This game had the largest barrier of entry I've ever experienced starting out. I actually quit the game for a month after making little progress and felt quite jaded by the experience. To make a long story short, I took another stab at it one rainy day and well... things clicked and I was hooked!! I discovered the most rewarding gaming experience in years! The combat is sublime and the emotion you experience is crazy! Finding a shortcut, or returning to beat a boss that once bested you thoroughly is indescribable! Play this game!


3. Demon's Souls

I bought this mainly because of Dark Souls, and it basically is amazing as well! I love the nexus setup and There is sooo much depth and things to try. It is a bit "scarier" overall than most games I normally play, but that's mainly due to Tower of freaking Latria haha. The atmosphere is a big strength of this game. I love it!


4. The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask

OK I apologize if this is not 100% an rpg classification, but I HAVE to make mention, because it does have some elements and I owe so much to this game! It was an rpg to me lol. The game was so unique and is my favorite Nintendo game ever! The 3 day cycle is insane fun; I wish more games took influence from MM. Between collecting masks and powerups, masquerading as a Goron, and saving cows from aliens (one of several awesome sidequests) this game was my escape as a kid, and was an adventure I will never forget! I am stoked to hear it is being remade too!


5. Dark Souls 2

Another game I can thank the original Dark Souls for inspiring me to try. Honestly I'm waiting for the GOTY edition coming next spring to delve fully into it, but what I have played so far has been solid fun! More souls is a good thing and I recommend this game too!

Planescape Torment
I'm not sure if it was the talking street or the brothel for intellectual stimulation (i.e. philosophcal debates and such instead of sex) when I realized that I was playing something very special. This game is an astounding achievement in terms of world and character design outside of any boundaries so tightly constructed by all those wannabe-Tolkiens inhabiting game design. It would be better if the quality of the gameplay matched the writing and the world and its inhabitants. Unfortunately, combat is not very good but at times inevitable... I hope that the upcoming Torment game rectifies this.

Deus Ex
There must be a parallel universe where the superiority of Deus Ex' level design compared to average shooters is common knowledge and games are taking this as their gold standard they are trying to reach. Vast, open levels, multiple ways of solving things, dialogue options and all the other things make Deus Ex a game well worth experiencing to this day.

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
It's rare that a game or really any cultural product is interesting to both adults and kids. Normally it's either too complex or too dull. The Gamecube Paper Mario is hitting that sweet spot. Children can enjoy a cute Mario game, adults can laugh at clever jokes and allusions and have an interesting combat system to play with as well. When I first played that game I was absolutely bewildered by the quality of the dialogue, it's just that good and extremely unique.

Baldur's Gate 2 (+Throne of Bhaal)
The big one. There is no other CRPG like this with that amount of interesting content and quests. Never again has Bioware even come close to this, it is the very definition of epic.
The pacing of the game feels so nicely anachronistic these days. Instead of pushing you forward it gives you so much room to breathe. Your first big quest is to raise an enormous amount of money, which can only be achieved by exploring the world and its hundreds of cool sidequests.

Final Fantasy VII
I must admit, this one is pure nostalgia. I got this for Christmas 1997 and spend the most beautiful Christmas break with it. It doesn't hold up today but my heart gets all warm thinking about this.

Dark Souls
There is no RPG world that feels as grim and horrible as the land of Lordran. Exploring a world where everything exists to make you suffer is a very special feeling. The combat system is simply perfect, there is no other word to describe this. And then the feeling of accomplishment. Beating Ornstein and Smough without any help may just be the greatest moment of my gaming career.

Fallout: New Vegas
Fallout 3, to me, was a bland and boring game. New Vegas was, in many ways, the complete opposite. Interesting plot, good questdesign and especially interesting factions. It had its fair share of bugs even when I played it list year and the gameplay itself is ultimately flawed but it remains a very enjoyable experience.

Diablo 3
Diablo 3 is Hack'n'Slash perfected, at least after the release of the add-on. There are almost no little obstacles and annoyances that stand in the way of enjoying the chase after carrot. It's simple, it's dumb, it's great.

Morrowind
Later entries in the Elder Scrolls series had more traditional fantasy setting and were just so much more boring for it. The alien world of Vvardenfell will forever be hammered into my brain.

Secret of Mana
In retrospect a lot aspects can be criticized about Secret of Mana, but playing through an epic adventure with my best friend playing alongside will always be one of my favourite gaming memories.

Final list. Only added comments to games that needed special reasoning.

1. Elder Scrolls Skyrim Legendary Edition
Single most played game Ive ever played. Amazing world with a great story, with side quests that most of the time as even crazier than the main portion of the story. Loved every part of this game and have zero complaints. This game does really well on PC especially because of the Mods. Im going through again and its a completely different experience with Mods.

2. Deus Ex Human Revolution (Director's Cut)
If you loved the original or never played any of the Deus Ex games you will still fall in love with this game. It has the perfect SciFi world that I want from an RPG in a cyberpunk setting.

3. Persona 3 FES
Best story from a Persona game so far. Completely different from anything else in it's genre but it still manages to be one of the best. Every day you are frantically rushing to save the world while juggling basketball practice or your Wifu.

4. Dark Souls PC
5. Fallout 3 Goty
6. Mass Effect 2
7. Xcom Enemy Unkown (enemy within added plus!)
8. Kingdom Hearts 2
9. Persona 4 Golden
10. Valkyria Chronicles



Honorable mentions;

1. Dragon Age Inquisition
2. Divinity Original Sin

3. Fallout NV Goty
Not as good as its predecessor but still an awesome open world RPG.

4. Path of Exile
Only on this part of the list because its not finished and every update changes the game.

5. Grim Dawn
Also not finished so I cant give it a full chance to judge yet, but so far its everything I want from a new Titan Quest.

6. Final Fantasy XIV ARR
7. Shin Megami Tensei IV
8. Diablo 3 Ultimate Edition
9. Legends of Grimrock 2
10. Tourchland 2

1.- Persona 4 Golden

Battle system may not be as complex as traditional SMT games and the dungeons may be boring, but it's an incredible and emotional ride. The character and their social links are really well done and the overall mood of the games reminds people how they were during those years. The Persona fusing elements are really good and even if it breaks the game, customizing your Persona with the skills you wants is really interesting. Battle system is really fun too, has some really neat ideas (like giving a bigger role to the support character) and is a perfect entry point for people that wanted to dive into SMT. the story eludes the save-the-world trope and is just about looking for a serial killer. And the OST is incredible, I'll face myself - Reincarnation is probably my GOAT battle system.

2.- Tales of Vesperia

If I had to give an example that proved why character driven JRPGs are better than story driven JRPGs, this game would be my choice. Story may go shit in the latter 1/3 of the story, but even then, you'll stay interested due to the amazing cast they've managed to create. Yuri is a really nice and not archetypical character and even if he may not evolve all that much through the game, he is the trigger that makes the other party members change and develop. The amount of skits and dialogs is insane, it's graphics are really good and its overworld is beautiful. Battle system is really fun even if not as advanced as Graces or Xillia 2 and there is Fury Sparks, which is my favorite Tales theme.

3.- Tales of Xillia 2 (Highlight)

I can't say enough how good this game is. The battle systems feels like what Xillia should have been from the start, the characters are much more fleshed out in the original and what could have been a lame excuse to reuse assets like crazy (which is the game biggest flaw) becomes a key element of the best story in the series (and one of my favorite stories in JRPGs and videogames in general). The "Main Chapter" / "Character Chapter" structure is really nice and something I'd like to see in more JRPGs and it has one of the few kids characters that you don't want to actually mute (which must have been especially hard since the MC is mute and most of the time she talks in your place).

I wanted to highlight this one because I feel the game, being a JRPG sequel (which usually are a bit half-assed) narrow its appeal. But this is not Symphonia 2 bros, this is the real deal and more people should play it.

4.- Demons Souls

It's the only Souls game I've played, but I'm glad I did it. The game is really good, more than what I imagined when I finally gave a try to the Plus version. The game is hard but most of the time fair (fuck 1-2 dragon), doesn't have handholding, it's about learning and exploring the areas, finding the playstyle that suits you and learning the story little by little, in a quite game-y form. The atmosphere is great, being able to select what level you want to do at a time is great, the combat system is quite good too. And I love the message system. It's great and makes you feel part of the world. I loved the feeling when you see that somebody has recommended your message.

5.- Digital Devil Saga

Really weird game. But it's really good. The setting is really strange and at first it's hard to follow what the hell is going on, but I love how you learn everything as the same time as people do it. The cutscenes are incredibly well done and the game is quite well paced. I love how the character are developed through the game and the fact that they aren't truly humans until they become demons. The battle system is totally awesome, like you'd expect from a SMT game. I really like the boss battles.

I still have to play part 2. But if it lives up to the original it may enter in my top3 next year.

6.- Persona 3 Portable.

The game has some flaws that show that this game was the first to use the current Persona formula but despite now being perfect, it is a great game. Tartarus might be really boring and the Social Links may not feel as organic as in Persona 4, but this game is a really good ride. The story is darker and the character are more hostile to each other than what you see in P4. There are some unexpected twists here and there and the ending was great.

In the gameplay side, I really appreciate that this game has 3 different physichal weaknesses (Cut, Hit, Pierce) which makes more skills useful. Being able to control the whole party may make the game easier, but I found it much better than FES. The Great/Normal/Tired/Sick mechanic is still there, and while not perfect, I found it better than the one in FES (which was quite bad for the first few hours). And even if Tartarus was boring, there were other (and better) dungeons at the end of each month, a trait I missed in its sequel.

And there is the FeMC, which unlocks many new Social Links that never were in the original game.

7.- Final Fantasy X

It was one of the first JRPGs I ever played (along KH, Pokemon and Digimon World 3) and my first Final Fantasy title. So there was some magic there when the 11-12 years old me played the game. I've grown up quite a lot since then, and I don't think the story is as good as I thought it was when I was a child, but I still love it. The battle system is really good, the graphics were too and I really liked the characters. The story, while having some lows, it's quite entertaining and has some really nice twists as far as I remember. The world itself was really, really interesting, and the idea of Sin was quite well executed. I need to buy the HD remaster for my PSVita in order to play the X duology again.

8.- Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep

Kingdom Hearts is another franchise that introduced me to JRPGs and gaming in general. And Birth by Sleep is by far (IMO) the best game in the series. The battle system is the best in the series, the three characters where a fresh idea even if it was done mainly to reduce the amount of assets in the game (since you played the same world 3 times). I really liked Aqua, it was the first time I actually felt that magic was an important part of the game. And finally knowing what the hell was going on was nice. Birth by Sleep explained a lot of stuff and even if KH story isn't really valued here (for a reason, nobody can't deny it's really, really convulted and weird) it was nice being able to understand it a little bit more.

9.- Pokemon Blue/Red/Yellow

My first Pokemon game was Yellow. I mean, having Pikachu follow you? What's not to love there! It's been a long while since I've played Pokemon (Emerald was the last game I bought in the series) but it was one of the reasons why I got into gaming and the first game I got when my parents finally got me a handheld. The rock/paper/scissors gameplay is still as good as always and watching competitive matches online might be impressive (well, if I understood what is happening there) but the fact that a game that is almost 20 years old doesn't feel dated at all (aside graphics) is mightly impressive.

10.- World of Warcraft

Considering the amount of time I've spent (or wasted lol) in this game it's hard to not have it on my all time favorite RPGs list. I played during the TBC, WotLK and Cataclysm days and had a lot of fun raiding, doing PvP or just talking with my guild buddies. I had a great time with my Blood Elf Paladin (mostly) Tank, which was my main character (and spec) for the whole time I spent with the game, even though I had other characters.

I can't help but feel that, as years passed, even if the game became better, more accesible and convenient for the player some of the magic and sense of community was lost midway. I still have really fond memories of every expansion I played.

Honorable mentions:

- Tales of Hearts R
- Tales of Graces
- Dragon's Dogma
- Crisis Core
- Dark Cloud
- Final Fantasy VIII
- Final Fantasy VII
- Mass Effect
- Pokemon Gold / Silver / Crystal
- Diablo II

1. Xenogears
2. Suikoden II
3. Persona 3 : FES
4. Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
5. Legend of Legaia
6. Persona 4
7. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
8. Legend of Dragoon
9. Valkyrie Profile
10. Star Ocean: The 2nd story

Ranked games

1. Xenoblade Chronicles - You can explore this massive world all you want. Except for swimming in the vast Eryth Sea, it never gets boring, because there is always something just around the corner. The combat system is also very attractive, with different party set-ups bringing vastly different chemistry to the combat.
2. The Last Story - The world certainly isn't as big and the levels are linear. However, the strategical combat, excellent graphics and story make up for it. I have always been a sucker for majestic stories, and The Last Story certainly delivers.
3. Pandora's Tower - A severely underrated game. As the third game of the Rainfall trio, it had to cope with the expectations Xenoblade and The Last Story set. With only one NPC that you can interact with, the scope seems much smaller. However, because the story focusses only on the relationship between you and the girl, the depth of the relationship is bigger than any other game I have played so far. How long you need to finish a boss actually determines the story. Furthermore, the chain-based combat and the Zelda-esque dungeons combine into the best Wii RPG.
4. Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: Rings of Fate - It is one of the two Crystal Chronicles spin-offs on the DS and by far the best of the two. Just like the previous spin-off, combat is done by hack and slash with elements of platforming in each level. What truly differentiates this entry from Echoes of Time or other DS RPGs is the incredibly touching story, which matches up with the best in the industry.
5. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Although it is not the best Zelda game, it is most certainly the Zelda game with the most RPG elements. No longer is Link a lone wanderer who traverses the world and explores dungeons, he is now someone who helps and gets helped by the townsfolk. On top of that, Midna is the sole sidekick who actually contributes to the game.
6. Rune Factory 3 - The Rune Factory series originally started as a spin-off from the Harvest Moon series. With creating the spin-off, Neverland also took out the main points of irritation of the Harvest Moon series. Relationships are now quantified, villagers have years of dialogue in them and the farming is streamlines. More than the previous Rune Factory games (I haven't played 4 yet ), Rune Factory 3 perfects this formula. With tons of sidequests that actually deepen the characters in game, tons of festivals and an overkill on levelable stats as well as a random dungeon generator, this game approaches perfection. Recently, I started replaying this. I had in mind that this was by far the best DS game. My expectations still were crushed. Oh, as a bonus: wicked waifus.
7. Fire Emblem Awakening - Awakening opens up the series to the casual and less hardcore public. However, it does so much more. With the opening up to a wider audience, constraints that held the series back have been lifted. For example, you can now support with everyone that is compatible, while in the earlier instalments that I played, it was more limited. The support dialogues are the most interesting in the series, as even the side characters get their time to shine. The (high-ish priced) DLC also adds funny pieces of dialogue. The combat is still as solid as ever, as the permadeath mode is still available.
8. Little Big Adventure (PS1) - It was my first game on my first real console, so nostalgia might be a bitch in this one. With excellent isometric graphics and fully voiced in three languages, it most certainly impressed me back then. Although it has a high-fantasy setting, being on a planet stable between two suns (which is impossible if you apply basic laws of gravity) with four species living on it. You are the chosen one, as you have a prophetic dream, yada yada. Long story short, your girl gets kidnapped and you have to get her back. While traversing the different islands, you actually find that the setting is more grim than you actually imagined, drawing inspiration of the Cold War in Europe. On every corner of the street, there can be an enemy that instantly knocks you out with a homing shot. Also, because you need to go in the underground circuit to gather information sealed by the government, the Cold War feels are really triggered.


Honourable mentions
9. Crimson Shroud - One of Level-5's Guild games, available on the 3DS eShop. It imitates a table-top RPG, so expect your characters to be represented as amiibo's. Because of these visuals and the - in the beginning - generic story, you really get the feeling that you are playing a table-top RPG. Further in, the story gets more interesting, until suddenly (spoiler, obv.) .
10. Attack of the Friday Monsters - Another one of the Guild games. What does this 'game' do? Nothing actually. You are a Japanese boy who walks through a Japanese village. I have never been Japanese in my life (as far as I know), but I still feel very nostalgic when playing it. It's very charming and, with its three hours of play time, it is the perfect length for a J-boy simulator.
11. Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers - Usually dismissed because of its waggly combat mechanics, this game is an underrated gem on the Wii. Opposed to popular opinion, the combat system is very deep and challenges the player to get creative. Have a fire enemy? Throw a barrel of gunpowder on it. Mix a skeleton with a robot? Get a biker skeleton. Biker skeleton comes at you at full speed? Make it crash into the wall. The only reason I didn't place it in the top-10 is because I am not very fond of the story, which ended up being more of an excuse to unlock areas rather than an engaging roleplay.

1) Demon's Souls - The first of the Souls series and probably my favourite, because of its unique atmosphere and because it got me back into gaming. A masterpiece in every single way.
2) Dark Souls - PvP isn't as good as Demon's, but it largely improved on the rest. An easy choice.
3) Dark Souls II - I don't care what anyone says, this game is fantastic and as good as Dark Souls in many respects. These three games are the best games I've ever played and have made From Software my favourite developer right now. My GotY 2014 easily.
4) Panzer Dragoon Saga - Best jRPG of all time, with an amazing combat system, soundtrack, story, world building and lore, atmosphere, art direction... the only flaw is that it's fairly short, but in this way it doesn't overstay its welcome.
5) Final Fantasy Tactics - A classic in the SRPG genre, with the amazingly deep job system, wonderful art direction and one of the best stories in gaming. It's a crime that there has been no sequel (the FFTAs don't count).
6) Dragon's Dogma - My favourite action-RPG after the Souls games, with its amazing combat and encounter design.
7) Shining Force II - Another classic SRPG, Shining Force is what got me into gaming, period. I nominate SF2 over the first, though, because it simply improved on just about every aspect.
8) Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millenium - My first jRPG and still one of my favourites. Fun, quick battles, cool combo system (before Chrono Trigger made it famous! ), classic 90's style sci-fi Anime art, soundtrack, this game has it all.
9) Final Fantasy VI - As far as more traditional JRPGs go, this is the cream of the crop. No explanation needed, I reckon.
10) Wild ARMs - A brilliant mix of western, fantasy and sci-fi gives it a unique flavour. Brilliant western-style soundtrack, lovable cast, tons of puzzles, this game was my first RPG for the PS1 and still one of my favourites.

Honourable mentions
1) Shining Force III
2) Suikoden II
3) Borderlands 2
4) Breath of Fire III
5) Deus Ex: Human Revolution
6) Dragon's Crown
7) Final Fantasy IV
8) Ys: The Oath in Felghana
9) Shining Force
10) Fallout: New Vegas

Unranked honourable mentions:

Xenogears
Chrono Trigger
Final Fantasy V
Golden Sun
Suikoden
Suikoden III
Suikoden V
Shining the Holy Ark
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together
Skyborn

Earthpainting said:

Reserving a spot. Will update later.

1) Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood -
2) Paladin's Quest -
3) Final Fantasy All the Bravest -
4) Lunar: Dragon Song -
5) Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage -
6) Quest 64 -
7) Unlimited Saga -
8) Two Worlds -
9) Infinite Undiscovery -
10) Dragon Age 2 -

Click to expand...

lol. I hope the "will update later" means this current list is a joke...

1) Suikoden II (3 points) - I've played this game more than any other game; at least 15-20 times, I've lost count. Often called the 'Game of Thrones" of rpgs, Suikoden II's story and characters are amazing. Gameplay and graphics have withstood the test of time and is still excellent till this day. With the recent release on PSN, I'm sure this game will eventually reach a lot of people's lists whom haven't played it yet.

2) Chrono Trigger - The first game and first rpg I have ever played. Chrono Trigger is perhaps the one rpg I can think of that has zero weaknesses. Great characters, good story, amazing soundtrack (in fact, probably the best of all time), and amazing depth. Everybody should play this game!

3) Final Fantasy Tactics - My 3rd most played game of all time. Great depth, my favorite villain, and gameplay was so fun (until Thunder Cid). Please square, give me a proper sequel.

4) Persona 4 Golden - Best character cast of all time! The dialogue in this game is the best ever along with a very interesting story, and good gameplay. Get yourself a vita and play this game if you haven't!

5) Final Fantasy 9 - My favorite FF of all time and I've played all of them. Great characters and a large number of memorable moments.

6) Star Ocean 2 - My 2nd most play game of all time. Sure there's a lot of flaws in the game, especially apparent now, but the game was extremely fun! Voice acting was so bad that it was awesome.

7) Final Fantasy 7 - Let's be real guys, FF7 was a great game! Being the first 3d world rpg I've played, and that world map was an amazing experience. This game is arguably the most important and played rpg of all time.

8) Suikoden 5 - What can I say, I love Suikoden and this is the 2nd best Suikoden in my opinion. Great story and the most similar to Suikoden II. Starts off slow, but gets extremely awesome after about 5 or so hours. One of the few games that I beat, then replayed again immediately after just to experience it again.

9) Exit Fate - Underground rpg that is just plain amazing. Doesn't have the best graphics, not an original soundtrack, not the best art style, etc and yet I completely loved this game. Truly amazing by the developer to develop a game with so many characters and such a rich story. Old school RPG gamers should give this game a chance!

10) Xenogears - Best rpg story of all time to me. 2nd disc sucks since it was so rushed but the whole package was great. Also that soundtrack!


Honorable Mentions


11) Xenoblade - Will probably make my top 10 someday. Don't want to put it there yet since I just finished it and I don't want to overreact. Exploration in this game is amazing and is truly the most next gen rpg I've seen (not graphic wise). This game is straight amazing.

12) Seiken Densetsu 3 - Even better then Secret of Mana. Great game, class systems, numerous characters. Why has this game not made it stateside?!

13) Grandia II - I loved this game and think it gets underrated sometimes. Ryudo was entertaining and Grandia has my favorite battles system.

14) Final Fantasy 6 - My 3rd rpg I ever played. To be honest, I liked it back then but moreso appreciate it now then ever before.

15) Breath of FIre III - I always feel like playing this game for some reason. Games where you grow up are always awesome to me, and I always enjoyed this game. Capcom, please get that mobile crap out of here.

Reserved 'n subscribed.

I have to give this some thought...

Gonna update accordingly.

Alrighty then.

1. Final Fantasy XII (3 points) aka possibly the most underrated FF game (although that's starting to change, yay). I fully admit to viewing this game through rose-tinted spectacles, as it was the first "classic" (read: PS1/2-era FF) I ever played, but I still love everything about it. Even the long, grindy, plotless segments. Even Vaan and Penelo. The world is amazingly huge and insanely detailed; combat is fast-paced but strategic; the plot is full of GoT-esque political intrigue and backstabbing; and the characters, including NPCs like Larsa and Gabranth, are all great in their own way. Squeenix, gimme dat HD remake.

2. Persona 4: Golden, one of my favourite games of all time. The battle system is nothing really groundbreaking although being able to switch Personas on the fly and target enemy weaknesses adds an element of strategy, and if you don't fuse good Personas you won't last long. The game's best part, though, is the plot and, most of all, the characters - a great, well-rounded cast that you can't help but get attached to. I know people complain about "waifu simulator", and to be honest I find the romance aspect pretty dull; but being able to help characters face their demons and develop is hugely satisfying. This is one of the rare games in which the NPCs - namely Nanako and Dojima (who is, incidentally, my favourite character in any work of fiction, ever) - are on a level with party members in terms of plot importance and emotional development. Too bad the sequels and anime suck, cos I definitely want to see more of this world.

3. Kingdom Hearts - the original and (though the gameplay hasn't aged too well) still the best in terms of story and fun, without any needlessly convoluted plot twists. Combat is a little button-mashy and not especially deep but the platforming elements are fun, and fighting alongside Disney characters like Aladdin and Jack Skellington never gets old. It's a sweet game and super charming. Definitely a must-play imo.

4. Radiant Historia; this game's gimmick is being able to travel in time and jump between two separate timelines, and watch how your actions in one affect the other. It's one of the few JRPGs where your choices and actions actually seem to matter. The battle system is strategic, what with having to knock enemies around the battlefield and target weaknesses. It's a great little game and easily one of the best on DS.

5. Dragon Age: Origins, for a change of pace: the fusion of real-time and tactical combat is great (even if I'm not exactly good at it >.>); the world is rich in lore and great fun to explore, and it's fun to get to know your party members through both plot quests and conversations when you're just chilling in camp. Yeah, DA2 is shit mountain, etc., but from what I hear, Inquisition is a return to form, and I can't wait to play it.

6. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (modded PC version, obviously). The sheer size of the world is insane, and (with the right mods) it looks absolutely amazing. There's no better feeling than walking across the Whiterun plains at night and looking up to see your first aurora borealis. Melee combat is pretty brain-dead, but archery and magic are great, and playing as a thief character is insanely fun. Definitely one of the standouts of last gen.

7. Resonance of Fate. A pretty niche game with a weird, yet awesome, battle system and a plot that's trippy by JRPG standards. Still, the main characters are surprisingly likeable, especially Vashyron (inexplicably voiced by Nolan North). The game is pretty fun and very good at making you feel like a badass.

Honourable mentions:

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. The first game in the series to really recapture the magic of the original (although the usual twisty clone nonsense is still present), and it helps that the battle system is easily one of the best in the whole series.

Final Fantasy VIII: this game gets a lot of flack, especially since it came on the heels of FF7, but it's still, weirdly, one of my favourite FFs. The plot and gameplay are kind of... out there, to put it lightly, but it's got a certain charm to it.

1) Shadowrun: Dragonfall - For those unfamiliar with the Shadowrun universe it is an amazing mix of science fiction cyberpunk and fantasy. The setting is unique and intriguing. The world is run by megacorporations and dragons. They own everything, wealth, businesses, lands, information and human resources. When conflicts arises they hire specialists to do their dirty work, these specialists are called Shadowrunners. Some humans have evolved into goblins, dwarves or other fantasy creatures. Others have discovered the power of magic through rituals. Technology also allows for many enhancements including the ability to enter cyber space to steal information or disable systems.

What I appreciate the most from this game are its uniqueness and the setting. The setting sets it apart from most RPGs already however the cast of characters and stories continue to keep me interested and wanting more. The party members you get in Dragonfall are all veteran Shadowrunners, you a new to this team and as you befriend them you get to find out more about their history, how they turned into the character that they are. They do not start friendly and some will outright be hostile and challenge your authority, call you out on your mistakes. The stories from your party members and NPCs in general all add to the world and lore. I found myself visiting the NPCs in the city hub between each mission - something I rarely do - just to chat and find out more about the world. For instance there is a woman who is clearly an addict of some kind. She is talking nonsense and clearly unhealthy. As you speak to her more you find out she is on "sims" or Simulation software you jack into your brain. She uses these to escape reality, you occasionally can get some coherent talk out of her and I found myself wanting to find out what happens.

Gameplay is very solid. Nothing groundbreaking but everything is fairly simple and quite fun. You start with template of a character such as a Shaman but as you level you can distribute points as you see fit. Customisation is up to you. You can install a datajack in your head so you can hack things, enter the cyber space etc. You can also add prosthetics, enhancing your overall abilities however this the more you replace or add to your body the less "humanity" you have remaining. You have an example of someone who is heavily enhanced and lacking in humanity on your party. You need humanity to cast magics.

The original game is Shadowrun Returns which features Deadman's Switch campaign. Shadowrun: Dragonfall began as an expansion but grew into its own game and has its own stand alone campaign. I personally find Dragonfall a much better game though I also hear that the first game has had some patching to fix some of the nuances that were addressed in Dragonfall.

Both games also support Steam Workshop and have player made campaigns and missions.

2) Divinity Original Sin - A lot of fun. Lots of quirks that make this game interesting and a joy to play. Fully implemented co-op mode and having duo protagonists. Combining elements make each battle an interesting challenge.

3) Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines - I love the setting here. Story, atmosphere and voice acting are fantastic. Lots of fun prowling the streets as a vampire. The world is fun to explore and the dialogue is cleverly done. Bonus to Malkavian playthrough.

4) Bravely Default Flying Fairy - It is cute, fun and a return to the older style JRPGs from SE. The job system, brave/default system are pretty good. some may complain that certain combos are gamebreaking and will work for 95% of the battles but I don't mind this, the job system allows you to experiment and tailor your characters however you like. A lot of people hate the game after the midway point due to story reasons. I honestly didn't mind it at all. I agree it is a bit of a drop in quality but I am still very happy with the game. The second half was quite quick and felt a bit more like the "bonus end/post game" content that many old classics have, like trying to beat all the Weapons in FFVII or obtaining the best ending in Suikoden.

5) Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together - This game has a pretty basic story but I would say it is executed well. The characters all have their motives and reasons. There are many recruitable units, different classes and 3 story paths with choices that will change smaller events in the ending. The World system allows you to time travel back to previously played points and alter choices or get missed characters this makes it easier to play without having to worry about missing things the first time through. Art direction and music are very nice too.


6) Rune Factory 4 (3 points) - This gem gets my vote. Partly because I almost didn't get to play it (Europe/Australia) and partly because it is the best the series has to offer. Cameos and references from the old games, small references and trivia things in conversations with NPCs, light hearted and fun blurbs/descriptions for items and characters. This game felt like it had love and attention poured into it because of all the tiny details you will continually discover. There are a lot of skills, everything from running to throwing items to consuming food and sleeping. Weapons, spells, farming, mining, logging, cooking, crafting, forging. Plenty to do and to some, plenty to grind. I didn't really bother with everything, I just did what interests me and what seems convenient and have an absolute blast playing it.

7) Ys: Oath of Felgana - My personal favourite Ys game. I think they nailed the platforming and combat perfectly. It was brutally hard at times but the challenge was also great fun and the tight controls with fast pace action combat made beating these challenges all the more satisfying. Not the prettiest and not exactly a game nor series that has amazing stories but the simplistic combat is easy to pickup and hard to master.

8) Persona 3 - Mechanically I would say P4G is better but I prefer the themes and style of P3. I really like the characters and the story.

9) Dark Souls - The art direction, the combat and challenge were fantastic. I love the weight of the weapons and I really enjoyed the numerous weapon types. Riposting feels so good.

10) Radiant Historia - Sometimes a game comes out that reminds you that old style games with new gimmicks can work and be great fun. This is what Radiant Historia felt like to me. It was like playing an old Final Fantasy but with a bit more modern characters. The protagonist, Stocke, is fantastic. He is a veteran soldier and it shows due to his intelligence and ability to make rational, logical decisions. The combat is turn based but offers attacks that can move enemies in a grid. You can move a group of enemies together and punish that tile with big attacks to deal damage to all enemies. Clever and interesting.


Honorable Mentions


11) Persona 4 The Golden - Murder mystery had me hooked. Characters are well developed and there are some fantastic scenes. Voices are also great.

12) Final Fantasy Tactics War of The Lion - I'm a sucker for SRPGs and RPGs with many recruitable characters. This hits the spot nicely and offers a good story with it.

13) The World Ends With You - A unique JRPG that is fun, catchy and has a nice plot twist.

14) The Legend of Mana - Beautiful, charming and relaxing. Plenty to do and lots of options in companions, pets and weapon types.

15) Star Ocean The Second Story - My favourite Star Ocean game. Fun combat and I liked having the option to pick between protagonists. Characters are likeable and the story is decent compared to some of the others in the series.

15) Valkyrie Profile - Platforming, fun combo oriented combat system and recruitable characters. The flying around the world map was neat and something I really liked back in the day. Voice acting and art direction is also very good.

17) Suikoden III - With Suikoden 2's release on PSN I think we will see plenty of that on the list this year so I want to bring forth my second favourite in the series. I like this one because you play from multiple character's perspective.

18) Baldur's Gate 2 - This classic doesn't really need much more praise. Story and characters all the way. It is just a fantastic experience, the banter is great and the gameplay is solid once you get the hang of playing these types of RPGs.

19) The Elderscrolls III: Morrowind - Hand placed loot and far less level scaling, leveled loot and such. The world was alien and magic like. It was a joy to explore and overcome the hostile environments of Vvardenfell.

20) Planescape Torment - Great story, great world, fantastic dialogue choices that matter and it was just wonderfully written game with some interesting mechanics like dying and waking up in the morgue.


Unranked Honorable Mentions
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky
- NieR Gestalt
- Final Fantasy VIII

Also reserving a spot because I can't make up my mind right now.


Edit: Wow the way some of you put so much effort into presenting your lists makes me feel bad for half-assing my own list lol. Either way:

1. Breath of Fire III (3 Points)

Okay so I still have not finished this and I'm playing the PSP version, but this is the most charming and full-of-character RPG I've played to date. It does nothing groundbreaking (it has your standard turn-based battle system, the standard protagonist suffering from amnesia that evolves from a frightened boy to a fierce warrior etc.) but it does it so well that I had more fun playing this than pretty much any other RPG. Also the music's awesome. (it sounds like Chrono Trigger at parts) I have not played BoF IV yet but if it's as good as 3 then this list might need an update in the future.

2. Chrono Trigger

Not a lot to say on this one that hasn't been said to death already. Basically, play this. If you know nothing about jrpgs, still play this. At the very least you'll get a time travelling system that makes the one in Ocarina of Time look like a joke.

3. Earthbound

Another charmer. This was slightly slower and clunkier than I remembered, but it's still a weird likable RPG unlike any other. That's why I'm looking forward to Mother 4, but I fear the guys making it are not half as talented as the team behind this one.

4. Super Mario RPG

Still the best Mario RPG. Godly soundtrack by Shimomura. Awesome new characters (Geno <3). It's basically a light Final Fantasy coated with Mario paint but I ended up liking it more than any Final Fantasy game.

5. Mario & Luigi: Dream Team

Speaking of soundtracks by Shimomura, this is also a good one. It also looks great. It also has one of the best (most active) battle systems I've seen in an RPG. If only it weren't so damn bloated and had an actual story...

6. Final Fantasy VII

Also not a lot to say on this one that hasn't been said to death. I wouldn't advise starting with this one as your first jrpg though (I did and didn't like it, then played again after having finished a couple jrpgs and I appreciated it more. Maybe it's just me)

7. Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time

In retrospect this was kind of short, but again the battle system is so active! I just love fighting with all 4 bros and dealing huge amounts of damages with special attacks. Apparently this is regarded as the worst of the 4 M&L games, with Dream Team being the second worst one. If so M&L 1&3 better blow me away because these games are already very fun.

Aand I'm gonna stop here since I haven't completed another RPG I think (technically BoF 3 is also not finished, but...). Hopefully I'll have a lot more games to talk about next year.

It's difficult to narrow this down to 20 games overall, there's some that haven't made it that I'd still recommend and enjoyed playing, but this is the cream of the crop for me.

1. Deus Ex 3 Points
Still my favourite game of all time. The graphics haven't aged very well and the Chinese accents are awful, but everything else is sublime. Combining nearly every conspiracy-theory of the time into a coherent story along with the ability to kill off major story characters and still continue on with the game made for an impressive game that still stands up over a decade later.

2. System Shock 2
The best sci-fi horror around, with one of the greatest villains in video game history. With three character-progression routes offering a varied approach to advancing through the game, there's replayability value plus a co-oop mode that now actually works properly since the Steam/GOG release.

3. Final Fantasy VII
Oh it isn't perfect and if there's ever a remake, it'll need more than just a graphical polish. As it stands though, it's still the JRPG with the best cast of characters and a brilliant plot with enough twists and turns to leave your head spinning. Plus, I bloody loved the Materia system.

4. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Open-world exploration crafted to its absolute pinnacle. Go anywhere. Be anyone. Get horrendously lost and have unexpected adventures in a bizarre landscape trying to match up landmarks to the paper map that came in the box.

5. Fallout 2
Fallout 2 is wonderful because it allows you to mess up so, so much and still stagger like a loon towards the end of the game. Or you can play it as the suavest conversationalist in the wastelands and talk the leader of the bad guys into stepping down. Or you can be the greatest dead-aim gunslinger New Reno has ever seen, join the mob, have a love-child with the mob-boss' wife and never go anywhere with the main plot.

6. Knights of The Old Republic
Still Bioware's best RPG. A suitably epic tale that shows you don't need recognisable characters to create an authentic Star Wars experience.

7. Dragon Age: Origins
Bioware's second-best. Essentially the plot is Mass Effect with dragons and elves, but plays as a love-letter to the classic CRPGs, the style of which had been lost in the mainstream for several years. The setting is also one that I love, with a few subversions of Tolkien-esque tropes and the prominence of the one true path of magic; Blood Magic.

8. Vampire Bloodlines
Combining horror, tabletop-RPG stats and brilliant narrative hooks, this was the first commercial non-Valve release of a game on the Source engine. Suffers in some areas from being forced into combat situations, which can be a pain if you hadn't put points into some form of ranged weaponry, but everything else provides the best non-tabletop Vampire experience currently available (Also features one of the scariest levels ever put into a game: the Ocean House Hotel).

9. Alpha Protocol
A game where your choices genuinely matter in how events play out throughout the course of the story. Main characters can be killed off, alliances with groups can be made which change the objectives and approach for future missions and completing missions in certain orders can produce knock-on effects. Alas, the original release was plagued with bugs and got a critical kicking for it. Whilst it's still not 100% stable these days, it's perfectly playable and a sign of just how good Obsidian are when it comes to branching narratives.

10. Planescape Torment
Possibly the greatest narrative-led RPG of all time, it truly grasps the mantra of "Be who you want to be". It's entirely possible to beat the game without getting into combat even once. Or you can slaughter your way through it. Any approach you take fits into the overarching story of the main character; The Nameless One and is widely revered amongst critics and those who have played it for a good reason: It's really rather brilliant.


Honourable Mentions.

Final Fantasy VI
Persona 4
Super Paper Mario 2: The Thousand-Year Door
Resonance of Fate
X-Men Legends
Knights of The Old Republic II
Vagrant Story
Mass Effect 2
Dark Souls
Skies of Arcadia

I have to said beforehand that my "essential" pick for some games that is part of a series seems strange, unusual, or unfitting for there is other game that is better to fit in into the list. My reason is that sadly I haven't played them yet, and only the most recent one that I can get my hand into. Perhaps in next year, or next essential list, I could give a "better" pick for my essential RPGs.

1) Space Rangers 2: Rise of the Dominators (3 points)

What is Space Rangers 2? Let me quote Fragamemnon post that describe this game beautifully:

Fragamemnon said:

This game is another space RPG with a similar isometic view, but it features a huge open world galaxy with a extreme variety of gameplay you can engage in, ranging from text adventures to trading to piracy. It's a truly free space RPG adventure game with limitless possibilities and nearly endless gameplay. There's a finite beginning and end to a campaign but again you're not dealing with the game serving up some massive turdfest of scripted missions to get there. It kind of just happens.

Click to expand...

Space Rangers 2 is an all-time favorite RPG of mine. The main combat is solid as it is an interesting mix (kind of) between turn based and RTwP. There also a real-time-arcade-like-bullt-hell spaceship shooter and (half-baked) RTS robot builder and combat to keep the game fresh throughout. The customization option for your ship is vast and most importantly you can also customized the difficulty option to make the game even more replayable. Not to mention the amazing soundtrack it have. But then it's not just solely for the limitless possibility and the open-nature of the gameplay that I have just described.

The reason what make Space Rangers 2 so great is because it have so much "story" content that makes me invested to the world as I exploring it. It is part of the gameplay in the form of text-based adventure. Very similar to Planescape: Torment that can contain great narrative due to its text-heavy nature opens so much room for narrative exploration, character's reaction and dialogue, text-based quest in Space Rangers 2 offered varying narrative experience that different to each other. I can be pirate or merchant, but most of the time no matter how I started my playthrough I'll ended up as the most interesting man in the galaxy because it's impossible (and not advisable) to skip the text-based quest. They're just that interesting to play as they're funny to read (actually the quest in general, even fetch-quest and escort have very funny flavor text).

Also like other element of the game that got randomized, so does the text-based quest (set wise, because the element in each text-based quest themselves are randomized for each retry ). There's a time in my certain playthrough where I don't get resort tycoon (I love it) text-quest and received other one that I have never seen before. This makes me deeply invested for initial playthrough(s) since I know I'll discover something different for each new game, especially when certain quests are locked to specific race.

For me Space Rangers 2 is the greatest open-world space RPG. It have great atmosphere due to the soundtrack, a limitless possibilities for replays, and wide array of gameplay. But what makes it different to its contemporaries (that is open-world RPG) that it have quest that is well written, witty, and funny both to read and to play. I'll always have something to strife for, a goal for me to explore the galaxy, making the journey in Space Rangers 2's open-world galaxy a meaningful experience to have.

2) Demon's Souls

Many people said that Demon's Souls is Dark Souls beta. I can agree that Dark Souls have better combat refinement in general. Also Dark Souls have wider array of equipments that different to each other and seamlessly fitted in to the world whole design. But most of all, unlike Demon's Souls, Dark Souls have boss designs that could keep the game challenging for each playthrough since they are designed around combat rather than being a puzzle like most bosses in Demon's Souls did.

But for me, as a game in whole, Demon's Souls is a better one due to how the game features designed to fall perfectly into the place, right from the title of the game. Story-wise, It's about an adventurer that enter Boletaria in search of demon's souls. Gameplay element-wise, each bosses drop a demon's souls that you can utilized in various of way, unlike Dark Souls which the souls of the bosses are more limited in how you used them, making them very essential to the game. The things that I've just said shows how the title of game perfectly represent what's the game about.

What makes me most impressed though, is that almost all the gameplay element in Demon's Souls add to the atmosphere and the whole experience of the game. The inventory weight for instance, the feature that many people complained for when they come from Dark Souls, is a gameplay element that enforce "risk-taking" nature of Demon's Souls. Should I bring more equipment and items that would perhaps helped me to beat the level? Or maybe I just have to take out some vital consumables so I can loot any drops that I might to came so I don't have to discard any item in exchange? These questions are what I asked each time I about to leave the nexus. It was not once that I bring too many items and have to discard some when I found a crystal lizard and loot it. How Demon's Souls achieve this in organic way, is what makes it a very engrossing experience, while I've yet to feel the same while playing Dark Souls

3) Romance of The Three Kingdoms X

It looks odd that I have picked Romance of the Three Kingdom(RoTK) X as an essential RPG. After all, the series is well known as a grand strategy games. But I need to said that some titles in the series utilized RPG element to makes the gameplay different from the titles that focused more on the grand strategy aspect. As the odd numbered IX and XI focused on the grand strategy aspect, VIII and X focused on the RPG where you play as a single historical person (fictitious created one) in the Three Kingdom era.

RoTK is a great RPG obviously not because the customization, but rather the immersiveness of the world you live in. The game offer beautiful pre-rendered background graphic that different for each cities. But one factor that will sucked you in is the beautiful chinese orchestra soundtrack that play in the background. It will makes you feel at peace when you're at your home, and as much as you feel like a drifting cloud when you wandered throughout China. Even now, I haven't seen any RPG (beside Nier that is) that utilize musical score to immerse the player, to show the richness of its world.

4) Dragon Age: Origins

Dragon Age: Origins is a personal favorite of mine because how it feels original to me when I first played it (I was 15 at the time, and haven't read many fantasy book yet). Even when I grow older, and look back into series, I'm still impressed by how well the world design is compared to its contemporaries, including other Bioware games (Mass Effect). I really liked how they make the world of Dragon Age: Origins feels grounded, from its art direction, and writing of the lore, while not stepping into the realm of crapshoot world. The Grey Warden becomes obsolete as the world felt long time peace from the absence of a new Blight. Magic is limited as they are unpredictable, making the stark contrast of the Chantry control of the magi and Tevinter Imperium rule by the magocracy. The original DA:O world is one of the few contemporary fantasy which I deemed able to make its fantastical with showing on how the world works rather resorting to cheap fantasy element.

5) Wasteland 2

I've never played the original Wasteland game that always being cited as the main inspiration of Fallout series. Despite how different Wasteland 2 to Fallout New Vegas in many aspect, I ended like more of the former than the latter. While the main is serious as much as some side quest did, the whole writing in Wasteland 2 is witty, and funny. But it know when to act goofy or when to act serious, which makes the story feels consistent throughout the game. The combat itself oftenly said as simple, but for me it what makes it so fitting with the post-apocalyptic setting of Wasteland 2. The only thing I regret playing this game is that I don't born soon enough to understand the 80's references in it, but despite that the whole experience still feel very fresh, fun, and engrossing.

6) Shin Megami Tensei 4

SMT IV is the first mainline SMT games that I've played. Safely to say that I'm very impressed and satified with what Atlus have offered in this "ambitious" title of a 3DS game. The gameplay itself for me is satisfying. The Press Turn system combined with how the demon fusion works makes a very addicting team building and demon-catching gameplay. But what I like most about the game is very similar to many of my other essential pick: it have great atmosphere. The destructed landscape of Tokyo strangely fits in with the electric/rock soundtrack of the game (my favorite track is the ones from Mikado though, which while sounds very medieval-fantasy-ish, rarely I heard so from such games) and combined with the story behinds it results in a unique atmosphere of cyber-demon apocalypse. The main story itself is rather simple, but that what makes it so great about it because it never felt as detriment to the gameplay while it's still well written to to keep you engaged throughout the game. Not only just the main story, but the side story as well where many of them have small detail that makes me invested in them.

7) Persona 4

Personally, I prefer the grim tone of Persona 3 to cheerful tone of Persona 4. But other than that, Persona 4 is just mile better. The main plot of the game is more solid and well written. There isn't any asspull twist, or convenience healing disability that killed off one of the main character. Though sadly. how Persona 4 handled the main party development into S.Link makes their feel inconsistent in relation to what happened in the main plot. It makes the characters of P4 individually feels weaker. But as a group, the cast of Persona 4 is miles better since they really act as a group of friends that feels believable. They always interact to each other when the right occasion rises and While there many over-the-top reaction, what they said and what they've done never over the board with the context of the situation. Many times in JRPG where "Friendship" being conveniently asspulled as a plot device. It wasn't the case with Persona 4, as it is a game about high-school friendship from the ground up.

8) Fallout New Vegas)

Honestly, I prefer Fallout 3 "post-apocalyptic" atmosphere over New Vegas's western one. But it just New Vegas is better in any other aspect, especially the writing of the story, character, dialogue, and basically everything else. I always thought that open-world games, especially the one who come from Bethesda, offered only meaningless freedom with lackluster story and empty characters. Obsidian completely turned that around as they able to make New Vegas an open world RPG with writing quality that could match CRPGs. It have interesting character that react believably and appropriate to the my action in the world. They have their own life, set of ideals, and past that could make them kill if what I did is completely at odds with them. While the core gameplay is still sucks due to its engine, New Vegas have redeeming element such as Hardcore mode. In the end, Fallout New Vegas is the one that makes me appreciate the uniqueness and the quirkiness of the Fallout universe more that Fallout 3 did.

9) Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

While many games in my list makes it due to their atmosphere, writing, or their story, perhaps Dragon's Dogma is the only RPG that listed for its gameplay alone. The story I could said, is very lacklusting and on my own assumption, the "loose" feel of it was caused by Capcom's attempt to make it resembling Demon's Souls or perhaps TES IV. Despite how the main story is sucks, the premise itself is very promising and actually it takes off after the death of Grigori, then it greatest point of it takes place in the expansion, Dark Arisen. The gameplay, and the customization element though, is what makes Dragon's Dogma a very entertaining game and a great one for roleplaying. The combat of Dragon's Dogma is very solid despite technical issue, and it managed to make very class in the game very fun to play and stylish. What I liked the most from the gameplay though, is the Pawn system that I have to say, resembling the message system in Souls games in some way, but being much better and alive. It somehow makes Dragon's Dogma an unforgettable emergent narrative experience for me to have.

10) Fire Emblem: Awakening

Like Persona 4, Fire Emblem Awakening made it to this list not only because its gameplay alone. Yes, I think the gameplay is good, well designed with a very open nature of it. Newcomer could try the game without being in fear of losing their beloved units, and grind when they hit the wall. Meanwhile, the veteran could pretty much choose the classic difficulty, and went through the game on the hard difficulty without grind to the endgame. It is the Support Conversation system though that makes me fall in love with FEA. Admittedly, is outright bad because it suffers identity crisis of whom story it told (it is supposed to be Chrom and Lucina's but most of the game actually focused on the exploit of MyUnit, my avatar) and only few characters from such vast cast of unit that actvely involved in the story. If it not because the Support Conversation, it would impossible to know the story behind their quirkiness. Many support conversation extend the characters outside of their "gimmick", which makes them feels more like an actual character, not just flandere character that act only within their own gimmick. Any other RPG with a large cast of character should take note of support conversation system in order to open more room for the characters to show off themselves aside from the main story which is very limited to do so.


Honorable Mentions (Some games I haven't play at least to their midpoint yet due to horrible time management, but enough to form some opinion, at least for me)

11) Dark Souls

Obliviously I have finished Dark Souls. Three times in fact. So why does it only ended up as a honorable mention? My reason is that because Dark Souls have less-tightly knitted world design in relation to its gameplay compared to its spiritual predecessor that is Demon's Souls. While many praise the variety of the open-world design of Dark Souls (at least before Lordvessel that is), that design decision makes Dark Souls have lesser atmosphere compared to Demon's Souls and suffered potato-land problem to some extent. The gameplay itself is better, but for someone like me who looks for story, or atmosphere in a game, Dark Souls just feel the lesser souls game to Demon's Souls.

12) Planescape: Torment
As many have said, the writing in this game is beautifully crafted. It's capable of matching, even surpass some fantasy book that I have just read in past two years in term of "fantastic element". Sadly, I haven't found the right time yet to continue the game as I feel it need serious dedication to play through all of those narrative text and dialogue.

13) Nier
Different from many of its contemporaries of JRPG, Nier focused on small cast of character despite the larger plot of the game revolved around the whole world. While the game is very melodramatic, the character themselves are very well done in relation to what happened to them in the game's world. But the greatest thing of Nier is the music, how it can completely defined an event by it tunes. The song and its lyric feels magical as, making it the world of Nier feels fantastical and vast despite being a game that revolved around personal tragedies of some individuals.

14) Valkyria Chronicles

Valkyria Chronicles is probably one of the best SRPG that Sega or maybe even Japan could ever produce. It offers a near completely new formula to the genre of SRPG that any other games have yet to match in the term of inventiveness. While the gameplay is the main reason what makes the game worth mentioning, Valkyria Chronicles also done other part right. Firstly, the story takes a place in a war resembling WWII in a pseudo-eruope countries, a setting and premise that have yet to be taken by any other games, or even manga and anime (that is not related to VC of course). Secondly, the musical piece makes the atmosphere of the game as a "theatre of war" comes to life fully. The only thing that it lacks is the tone consistency of the story. It doesn't need to be serious, grim, and crapshoot. What VC need is a bit more seriousness, one that resemble Legend of the Galactic Heroes. If only VC have an ounce of LoGH tone consistency, it'll be the greatest game bar none.

15) Etrian Odyssey IV: Legend of the Titans

Etrian Odyssey IV is a very solid DRPG from many aspect. The story, atmosphere, and the art direction of the game is simple and light-hearted which works very well because they neatly executed together. The light-hearted tone of the game makes interesting contrast on how unforgiving the game is if you don't pay any attention to your surrounding or what others have said about the quest they've given to you. EO IV is a solid game that give me an old-school experience with a touch of modern design.

16) The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles
Shivering Isles got a sweet spot from me for its attempt in making Sheogorath, the Mad Prince, as its central figure of the game. I always baffled whenever I see Bethesda released a new TES game because they always choose the most generic element of its universe despite having much more unique, strange, and fantastical lore. Sheogorath, perhaps should be one of the most unpredictable and the incomprehensible out of the 16 Daedra Princes. But Bethesda team poor writing sadly couldn't get the best potential out of him and his Shivering Isle. Despite that, from the premise alone I prefer Shivering Isles over any other TES game.

17)Knight of the Old Republic 2

I played KOTOR 2 as a kid, which makes me can't remember or makes any worthwhile opinion out of it. But one thing that I remembered for sure is that I'm satisfied with the gameplay, and I remembered no one from the cast of KOTOR 2 as being clearly evil. Even when Kreia turns out to be a Sith Lord, I still respect her and instead of hating, I want to know more about the motivation behind her action all the time. Later I'll replayed it with the restored content mod so I can form a more solid opinion on it.

Top 10
&#8226; Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland (PS3) - Few other Japanese RPGs offer as much freedom. As an alchemist you need to divide your time between gathering ingredients, synthesizing items, fighting monsters, and completing quests. Some of the more recent entries have improved systems although Totori has a more likeable cast of characters.
&#8226; Demon's Souls (PS3) - A perfect combination between action-oriented combat and traditional RPG mechanics.
&#8226; The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (PC) - Daggerfall, Oblivion and Skyrim all have merits that can't be found in other games, but on average Morrowind is still my favorite Elder Scrolls game.
&#8226; Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (PSP) - Easier to approach than Tactics Ogre and with so many classes it's very replayable.
&#8226; Mount and Blade: Warband (PC) - It's certainly a bit rough around the edges and almost all aspects of it could be easily improved. Despite that it's one of the best games I've played and hopefully M&B2 will fix most of my issues with it.
&#8226; Quest for Glory: So You Want to Be a Hero (PC) - A perfect blend between Sierra's old adventure games and a stat-driven RPG. Pick one of three classes and follow your hero through five excellent games.
&#8226; Shin Megami Tensei IV - I'm only 25 hours in, but I think this might replace Nocture as my favorite in the series.
&#8226; Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 - I started playing Persona 4 Arena: Ultimax this week and I realized how much I missed the cast from P4.
&#8226; Valkyrie Profile (PS1) - I really hope we get VP3 this generation.
&#8226; Vampire: The Masquerade &#8211; Bloodlines (PC) - It holds up surprisingly well, especially with the unofficial fan patch.

Honorable Mentions
&#8226; Chrono Trigger (SNES) - It has great pacing and does almost nothing wrong.
&#8226; Final Fantasy VI (SNES) - The best game in a series of great games.
&#8226; Fire Emblem: Awakening (3DS) - A sweet mix between strategy and command-based RPGs.
&#8226; Koudelka (PS1) - If it wasn't for the slow speed it might even make the top 10.
&#8226; Legend of Grimrock (PC) - This is the first western first-person dungeon crawler I've managed to finish even though I've played classics like Dungeon Master and Eye of the Beholder. It's especially impressive considering the tiny dev team size.
&#8226; Might & Magic X: Legacy (PC) - Old school dungeon crawlers are better than ever.
&#8226; Parasite Eve (PS1) - It's one of the few RPGs that managed to pull off a modern setting.
&#8226; Suikoden III (PS2) - Suikoden is a great series and it's really difficult to pick only one game, but the different perspectives and non-linearity of SIII makes it a bit more special than the others.
&#8226; Valkyria Chronicles (PS3) - It's not only beautiful, but it also showed that strategy role-playing games can improve and evolve with modern gaming systems.
&#8226; Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land (PS2) - There are plenty of Japanese dungeon crawlers that I enjoy, but this one has better music, art, and story then the rest. On the other hand games like Etrian Odyssey are a lot more customizable.

Let me know if I need to change the format to fit a parser.

...

Here's my list. I'll be adding in descriptions or possibly making changes later on:

1, Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne (3 points)
2, Chrono Trigger
3, Valkyria Chronicles
4, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
5, Etrian Odyssey IV
6, Witcher 2
7, Pokemon Black/White
8, Radiant Historia
9, Digital Devil Saga
10, Dragon Quest IV

Special Mention: Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

1) Final Fantasy VII - The game that brought me to JRPG.
2) Fallout 2 - The game that brought me to CRPG.
3) Suikoden II (3 points) - Best RPG of all time.
4) Final Fantasy IX
5) Baldur's Gate 2
6) The Witcher 2
7) Final Fantasy XII
8) Final Fantasy X
9) Diablo 2
10) Chrono Cross

Honorable mentions:

11) Mass Effect trilogy
12) Dragon Age trilogy
13) Xenoblade Chronicles
14) Divinity Original Sin
15) Persona 3

I'll probably edit the descriptions later.

I'm going to do something different this year. I am not going to pick any game that I picked last time. I will focus on newer role playing games this time. This means that many of my all time favorite games will not be included in my list. Here's my list from last time: 2013

1) Divinity: Original Sin - Released in 2014, this is my Game of the Year. Turn-based role playing game that allows you to control 2-4 characters depending on how you spec your characters. There's lots of interactivity with objects that you can use to your advantage in combat. Use explosive barrels, or other types of barrels to help you gain an advantage in fights. Use boxes or other obstacles to hinder the advancement of enemies and kill them off from distance. These are some examples of what you can do. The game doesn't use a class system even if it starts with you choosing an archetype at the beginning. (You can customize from scratch if you wish.) There's lots of skills and abilities to learn, and finding awesome combinations is a great moment. Story and dialogue aren't amazing, but the combat and exploration made me stay for the whole adventure. Despite not caring overly much for the story, I played this for 98 hours. The soundtrack uses some songs from previous larian games due to the composer getting ill during production. It is good then, that the songs are good. Both new and old.

2) Radiant Historia - Turn-based jrpg for the Nintendo DS, can also be played on the Nintendo 3DS. This never got a European release which is a crime. Hadn't this game been region free, I would never have gotten to experience it. You are going to be time-travelling through two parallel universes. It's not exactly like Chrono Trigger but the idea is similar I guess. The thing is that once you go back and do something in one universe, it changes things in the other. That is how one proceeds with side quests and the main story. The player can choose if they want to engage enemies on the field or not as they are visible. Enemeis are placed on a 3x3 grid with some bigger enemies occupying more than one slot. Depending on position and type of attacks you can push enemies into the same slot for more damage. I really enjoy the story but will not get into detail here as I am always afraid of going into spoiler territory. Stocke is a main character that I really liked and that is not something I usually say about main protagonists in jrpgs. I must also give two thumbs up to the soundtrack by Yoko Shimomura. Some of these songs are great and to this day, I listen to the soundtrack. The thing that I could complain about would be repetition or asset recycling. While I think the songs are great, there aren't really that many. You will also revisit locations a lot of times. This leads me to believe that maybe the game didn't have the worlds biggest budget.

3) Bravely Default: Flying Fairy - It has some faults like a not so amazing story, and there is repetition. Then why do you recommend this? Because the combat system is fun with its Brave and Default system. It adds a risk and reward system to your strategies in combat. Do you use up all your Brave points to attack several times in the same turns, but leave your character vulnerable for a few turns after that, or do you do something else? The class system is a lot of fun to use and it gives you a lot of room to experiment with different class combos and skills.

4) The Legend of Heroes, Trails in the Sky FC - A solid turn-based rpg with lots and lots of text. The characters are mostly likable, and the story is decent at first but ramps up by the end and ends with an ending that makes you yearn for the sequel. The game has a very slow start, which is its weakest point. It is easy to give up on the game and I can sort of understand that. But if you give it time, you will find yourself going on a very fun adventure. You don't really have to grind in this game, because you will know by how much/little exp you are gaining if you are on a good enough level to take on enemies. Combat is a mix of regular turn-based rpg that takes place on a field similar to trpgs. You need to use spells and abilities in the best way possible to survive the more challenging fights. Just doing things blindly will get you killed. That's where Orbments are so important. You equip your character with different Orbments and they determine the skills you will have at your disposal.

5) Mass Effect - Space Opera game by BioWare. I haven't been a big BioWare fans for years now. Mass Effect was the best game they have released in a long time. It did have loading issues on the Xbox 360, but the game was good enough for me to ignore technical issues. The final boss fight is also not amazing, but still better than many of their recent games. The game plays in 3rd person view and is a rpg/shooter hybrid. There's exploration of planets, lots of quests and characters that I generally like. In my opinion, the best game in the series, even if ME2 and ME3 improved combat (imo). I liked most of the companions and there were some good side characters. While exploration of same planets were very repetitive, there was enough good about the game that made me research everything in the game.

6) Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director's Cut - Combat is fairly simplistic in my opinion, but I had a lot of fun with this turn-based rpg. Decent companions and good writing for those that enjoy story over fighting. I have yet to play the Director's Cut, but I hear that it has improved on the original release and I intend to play the DC in the future. I like the setting a lot, and I think others that like cyberpunk will feel the same way.

7) Final Fantasy XII - Disliked by a lot of people, but appreciated by me. For the first time in the main series (barring XI), you could freely move your character while in combat. People complain about the game playing itself because of the gambit system. I couldn't applaud the gambit system more than I already have. If I am only allowed to control one character, like in FFXII, let me set up detailed instructions for the AI controlled characters. People have also complained about not needing to rearrange gambits for the entire game. I wonder how much these people did grind and how many optional bosses people fought. It had some of the most exciting boss fights in the mainline offline games. Why I like this game so much is because of the dialogue and story. It's unfortunate, that there are some lengthy parts without much story, because the localization of this game and what remains of Matsuno's script are great. (I admit that I like political plots.)

8) Blue Dragon - It might not have best story or voice acting, but the combat system and the feeling of playing a game that could be mistaken for a mainline Final Fantasy game are good enough reasons to play this game. I like the job system and the way you are allowed to equip your characters with skills from different classes to customize how that character will help you in battles. The inclusion of a world map also helps make the game feel fun to explore. Finding dungeons and treasures.

9) Expeditions: Conquistador - Turn-based strategy game with some choices and rpg elements. I took a chance on this on day one and really enjoyed it. The writing was better than I expected and the combat was decent. Trying to survive, not starve and not suffer a mutiny were all things you had to consider. In general, this game is one of the biggest positive surprises when it comes to video games.

10. Fire Emblem: Awakening - A solid turn-based rpg with a decent story and some likable characters. You can choose to play with permanent death or not. There are difficulty options, so that new players can choose to try out the series without getting completely obliterated. The lack of feet on the characters is still funny, though. Support conversations were msotly good and funny and the battles were fairly challenging.

1) Panzer Dragoon Saga - feels fresh and original even after all this time. The Saturn 3D graphics haven't aged too well, yet the game still oozes style. The soundtrack is stunning, the story simple but beautiful. The battle system is unique, dynamic and elegant. The world design is still unmatched.
2) Digital Devil Saga (3 points) - 1/2 should really count as one single game, but in case of doubt, the first one is my favorite. DDS has the best dungeon design in the wider SMT series, and my favorite characters as well. The world design is a completely crazy cross between, uh, cyber buddhism and cannibalism horror, but it just works out so beautifully. 3 points simply because I replayed it a week ago and it holds up so well.
3) Final Fantasy 8 - the most underrated entry in the series. Great soundtrack, unique world design. Original and fun battle and ability system. And yes, the story isn't half as bad as some people like to make it out to be. The last Final Fantasy I enjoyed without reservations (not that I hate the more recent ones).
4) Persona 4 - Persona is the only RPG series which I've played from the beginning and where I liked each installment better than its predecessor. Needless to say, my expectations for 5 are through the roof.
5) Dragon Quest 5 - best story and characters in a Dragon Quest game, and monster recruiting was so much fun. One of those games that make you feel nostalgic even though you didn't experience it when it originally came out.
6) Shadow Hearts: Covenant - best game in a fine series that kept alive the experimental spirit of 32bit RPGs in the PS2 era.
7) Suikoden 5 - I like all entries in the main series about equally, except for the 4th one, so I'll just let 5 stand here for its brethren, as it is the most refined title in terms of storytelling and visuals.
8) Seiken densetsu 3 - like all the other SD games, this one doesn't really have outstanding gameplay or a deep story, but charms you with its world design and soundtrack and beautiful graphics. This game just epitomizes 16bit gaming for me. I play it from time to time just to chill a little.
9) Shadowrun Returns & Dragonfall DLC - I'm so happy to have backed this on Kickstarter, I almost wish I had payed the more than just $35. The original game is just a nice nostalgia trip for fans of the pen and paper game that nails the writing and world design of the original. But Dragonfall is where the game really comes into its own. Just a great classic tactical CRPG.
10) Dragon's Dogma - a great continent to explore, thrilling boss fights, great design and overall atmosphere. A WRPG where combat is actually fun! My favorite RPG of the last console generation.

Honorable Mentions
11) Rebus/Legend of Kartia - largely unknown and IMO underrated PSX SRPG. The gameplay is nothing special, but the story and character designs (by Amano Yoshitaka) are really great. In addition, it perfectly defines the 1990s Japanese approach to SF/F storytelling by naming one of the main characters "Lacryma Christi." Eat your heart out, Xenogears.
12) Sakura Taisen - another SRPG with somewhat banal gameplay but really outstanding character and world design and a very solid story. The 32bit era had these in spades. It's steampunk Takarazuka, what more do you need?
13) Final Fantasy 5 - still in love with the job system. The only FF from the 16bit era that I still have fun playing.
14) Dragon Quest 7 - has a great soundtrack, and some of the sub quest storylines were just beautiful. A bit too long for its own good though.
15) Morrowind - just a great and wonderfully strange world to explore.
16) Realms of Arkania trilogy - the series that introduced me to CRPGs. A bit cumbersome to play by today's standards, but has very solid world design and lore and exploration, and a great scope. I liked this better than Baldur's Gate.
17) Planescape Torment - an exceptionally well written storyline in a fascinating setting. The story unfortunately somewhat drowns out the game underneath with its walls and walls of text. Still, a must-play.
18) Dragon Quest IV - just an awesome timeless 8bit RPG overall, but the chapters system is what makes it really great.
19) Parasite Eve - an original concept and setting that felt like a breath of fresh air in the PSX era.
20) Lunar SSC - a solid classic RPG that greatly benefits from the irreverent Working Designs translation. I recently tried to get into the Japanese version, but I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as the US one.

And that's about it. Can't believe I didn't find a place for FF6/7/Tactics or Xenogears or CT or Nocturne, but I'm sure enough other people will vote for these.

1) Final Fantasy VI - Still the GOAT. Its a rollercoaster ride of an RPG in many ways, jumping from serene calm to spine-tingling drama several times throughout the playthrough. Yet no matter what its doing, it never fails to be super memorable. And that's the entire game in a nutshell - everything about it is memorable and sticks with you. Because it is just that well designed and that amazing of a game. From the art style, to the music(which is the best of any game in my opinion), to the cast of characters, to the story, to the locations, to the side quests - its all absolutely top notch. I suppose the combat isn't super inspired, but it does a decent job and certainly isn't anything to complain about - it just doesn't quite match the incredible heights all the other aspects of game achieve. This is an utter classic and something I do not think any RPG fan should *ever* go without playing.

2) The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - I don't care how many flaws you can name(I can name a ton as well), what this game does well still makes this one of the greatest RPG experiences ever. The Elder Scrolls brand of open world design and gameplay is something I cant get enough of and the world building and sense of exploration and awe in Skyrim is, in my opinion, unmatched in any other game. Being immersed in this game is a treat and one that I don't really get tired of. And that was before I even got my hands on a gaming PC and checked out the modding scene, which has definitely breathed whole new life into the game, and not just because of graphical upgrades. The Dragonborn DLC is also a really fine addition, adding even more variety to the experience. I know this game can be divisive and my list is somewhat tailored to what I consider to be 'Essential RPG's' rather than *just* personal favourite rankings, but I still cant help but stick this way high up the order.

3) Dark Souls - Its pretty much everything people say it is. Its very challenging, but *very* rewarding as a result. It is a masterclass of level design, with its semi-open, interconnected layout that will have you constantly impressed by how cohesive it all is. This is the primary reason why I feel its better than Demon's Souls. Its a bit of mere preference, but I also feel that this required a lot more thought and effort than how Demon's Souls did things. It also a beautiful game. Not a technical masterpiece by any means, but the art style and environment and character/creature design are basically in a class of their own. The story aspect is minimalized in the game in terms of its presentation, creating a bit of a unique character to the game where you discover the story through exploration, observation, items and some putting two and two together in your mind. There is depth in the story for those who wish to discover it and it can also be mostly ignored if you are not interested. The combat is one of the stars of the show, letting you play with a number of different playstyles that all need a level of learning in order to succeed with them. Stat progression is merely a boost, but not anything you can rely on to get you through anything.

4) Xenoblade Chronicles - Such a special, epic game. I bought a Wii mostly just for this game and it alone might actually have justified the purchase. It exceeded my expectations, even after being told how great it was over and over by others. It is almost Elder Scrolls-esque in terms of how it almost overwhelms you with quests and things to do and the huge scale of the areas increases the daunting feeling of 'holy crap, what should I do?', but its all in a good way, in my opinion. You will eventually learn that you do not need to do the majority of this stuff and you can basically progress through the game at whatever pace pleases you. Even then, it'll still likely take you north of 80-100 hours to beat. And its a really great way to spend those 80-100 hours. Its beautiful, sprawling and I actually did find the story to be quite interesting(I'm usually not too fond of stories we find in video games). The combat is a bit divisive, but I enjoyed it, and found that messing with other characters was a good bit of fun. By far the best JRPG of last generation.

5) Final Fantasy VII - This will be my only other FF on the list as I don't want the list to be overwhelmed with Final Fantasy's. Anyways, I think most people are pretty familiar with this one by now and its an undeniable classic and a regular 'best FF' winner in a whole lot of people's minds. I certainly agree its up there and its popularity and reputation are well deserved. It has one of the best soundtracks of all the FF's, second only to VI. It's primitive 3d graphics look dated by modern standards, but I still feel its prerendered backgrounds give it a charm of sorts, although that may well be nostalgia talking. But either way, its a grand experience from start to finish and one that feels so incredibly well crafted that playing it today really makes you appreciate just how god damn amazing Square's RPG craft was during this time.

6) The World Ends With You - One of the most surprising games I've ever played. I had a bad first impression with the first few hours of the game, thinking I might not be able to deal with such generic anime stereotypes, but boy does this game throw you for a loop once you stick with it some more. It almost feels self aware in that respect, slowly changing things from a cliché anime tropes to intricate and developed characterization. And of course the rest of the game is just genius in so many ways. The touchscreen combat is fresh and fun, the music is quirky and will get into your head, the best 'difficulty system' ever created(seriously, its brilliant), and just overall, has such a level of depth and polish that seems absolutely insane to see from a handheld game like this. I still haven't gotten the mobile version, but its on my 'to do' list and I look forward to playing it on a decent screen. Not that it wasn't pleasing to look at already, but I'm anxious to see how good it looks with a good PPI and more vibrant display.

7) Mass Effect - I think ME2 is probably the better overall game as a whole package, but I think naming the first one here is more fitting as its the better actual RPG of the two. And is still a great game, obviously. An amazing setting that should give any sci fi fan a hard-on and one that I think even non sci fi fans can still appreciate. I personally enjoyed the story of Mass Effect most in the first one. It was genuinely interesting and some of the elements(like the Reapers) were far more intriguing when they were unexplained and seemed like this mysterious looming evil. The choice system was decent, but not anything I'm usually too huge on in games, so I cant comment too much on that, even though I know its a big deal for others. The combat is pretty fun and having this 3rd person, semi-tactical experience along with the Force-like powers ultimately gives Mass Effect a flavour unlike any other RPG.

8) Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - Highly recommended to people who are RPG fans, but for those who are RPG fans *and* Star Wars fans, this is absolutely essential. There have been a lot of pretty great Star Wars games, but this is the one that I really felt best captured the essence of the franchise, as the longer nature of an RPG allows you to go on this great journey that genuinely does the Star Wars name proud. Its not necessarily the most polished experience ever, but its still seriously enjoyable. Especially loved crafting and customizing lightsabers. The sequel was pretty much equally good, doing some things better, some things worse, and should definitely go on your playlist if you enjoyed the first.

9) Divinity: Original Sin - The newcomer to the list this year. Its deserved it. I'm not super well versed on isometric RPG's, but I wanted to give this one a shot and I'm very glad I did. It blew me away. Its a lovely game, maybe not quite AAA levels of graphical polish, but still very pleasing to look at and totally a great modern take on late 90's/early 00's CRPG's visual design. Its a lengthy adventure split into fairly distinct acts that do a decent enough job of keeping you from getting bored with your main goals, but the story itself isn't quite up to the level of the other aspects of the game, not that its bad at all. The combat is really what makes this game. Definitely the best turn-based combat I've ever experienced. You have such a great range of awesome skills at your disposal and the way you take advantage of the environment is amazingly well done where most games usually treat this as an afterthought or simply don't execute it very well. And best of all, your enemies basically have all the same capabilities that you do and can and will take advantage of the environment as well. The enemy AI is impressive too, and while it cant quite match the intelligence of a human, balance is created with the number of enemies you face, ultimately creating properly challenging and tense battle scenarios.

10) Fallout: New Vegas - Ya know, I think I still probably prefer Fallout 3, but I know New Vegas is widely considered the better actual RPG and I agree with the reasonings, so in a list of essential RPG's, I'll go with New Vegas. Its certainly right there with Fallout 3 to me, so I'm not going to any lengths to try and pretend I like it more than I do or anything. Its still brilliant. The Bethesda open world game design is fully at play here, which I absolutely love love love, and this one gets the benefit of having a bit more story, dialogue and quest character due to being developed by Obsidian. Its also got a fair bit of depth in terms of the RPG mechanics and shooting without VATS is actually a semi-practical option, giving a large variety of ways to play and things to delve into. Again, this is another game that has some really great mods available for it that take it to an even greater level if you're on the PC.

A lot of games that were tough to leave off the list. These honourable mentions are(not worried about these being counted):

- Chrono Trigger
- Final Fantasy IV, VIII, X and XII
- Secret of Mana
- Fallout 3
- Elder Scrolls Oblivion
- Demon's Souls and Dark Souls II
- Knights of the Old Republic 2
- Mass Effect 2

Also want to add that there's still a lot of RPG's I haven't gotten around to yet and really hope to in 2015. I've never played any of the Dragon Age's and I'm going to start with the first here soon. Never played any of the Dragon Quest games, which I hope to get around to a couple of them at some point. Never played any SMT/Persona games, which I will rectify. And I've never played either Baldur's Gate and I think due to massive size of the games, I will simply play the 2nd one. Thanks to the people who contribute to these threads so I know which of these games to play and maybe next year I will have the pain of having to reshuffle my list again after having played some great RPG's that I hadn't before!

Here are my first five. More might come later after I think and consider which games I want to add.

1) Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (3 points)- The game of my life. This is the game cemented my love of RPG's and gaming in general. Great story, awesome gameplay, memorable cast (HK-47), charming world, great music by Jeremy Soule deeply involving and this great sense of adventure that I haven't experienced since. It is a great game even if you aren't a fan of Star Wars, but if you are a fan it becomes even that much more special. It is an old 2003/2004 game but if you give it a genuine chance (play until you leave the starting planet) you will find and amazing game.

2) Final Fantasy VI - This is one of the most moving games I have ever played in my whole life. I can recommend this one even though it is so old (1994 I think) because I played it in 2005 and still found it awesome. This game probably has the best cast of characters I have ever encountered in a game. I never finished it but it is definitely something I will go play again once I get my hand on the right version for the right system. It also has of the best soundtracks in all of gaming composed by Nobuo Uematsu.

3)The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings - The current crowned kind of the mature RPG kingdom. Always measured and never overstated it nevertheless neither lacks charm nor character. Featuring some of the best writing, most memorable, believable characters, most convincing dialogue (ever?) and one of the more gritty yet still charming game worlds (in it's own dark way), this game comes highly recommended. Beware though, this game is challenging even on the easier difficulty (till you get to point (on easy)) but if you push through you will be rewarded with of the best RPG's in recent memory.

4)Chrono Trigger - This game has one of the best most memorable opening sequences I have ever experience in gaming. It also has one of the more charming visual styles ever. It may be old like Final Fantasy VI but unlike that game it is still a pretty great looking game (in the same way something like Mario World still looks great). Unfortunately I never got far with this (got stuck at a boss) but it left a strong impression in me due to its strong charms, great cast (as much as I saw) and impressive combat system. Will definitel get back to it.

5)The Elder Scrolls Skyrim - I only played 20 something hours of this game but those hours flew bly like they didn't exist. If you aren't concerned with narrative and want game to suck you life away this is the one I recommend. The music by Jeremy Soule is quite beautiful. If my nerves could handly being underground so often and the perpetual tension this game generates I would still be playing this.

6) Final Quest 6 - (insert explanation here)

7) Final Quest 7 - (insert explanation here)

8) Final Quest 8 - (insert explanation here)

9) Final Quest 9 - (insert explanation here)

10) Final Quest 10 - (insert explanation here)

1) Ultima 7 - The best RPG ever made
2) Ultima 6 - The best game before Ultima 6
3) Ultima 5 - In many ways better than Ultima 4
4) Ultima 4 - Not quite as good as Ultima 5
5) Ultima 3 - A worthy #5
6) Ultima Underworld 2 - Improved on Ultima Underworld 1 in many important ways
7) Ultima Underworld - Needed improvement, but still a must try
8) Worlds of Ultima: Martian Dreams - Top notch cast
9) Worlds of Ultima: Savage Empire - Ultima and Dinosaurs, a winning combination
10) Ultima 8 - Bit of a mess, but it still had a few cool moments

1) Planescape Torment - not only an excellent story carried by good, atypical characters but bove everything else, one of the most profoundly original campaign setting that has ever been produced by TSR; the "thinking man's D&D" , a kitchen-sink of cultural references and mythological influences, a "new weird" construct where gods and demons beings rub shoulders (or tentacles) in alien Sigil.

2) Xenogears - a distillation of what made decades and decades of anime awesome, concentrated in one game.

3) Dark Souls - a D&D megadungeon module in videogame form, done right.

4) Final Fantasy VI - the first FF you play is always the best.

5) Ultima IV - epoch-making game, thirty years after all its lessons about freedom, choice and roleplay in a videogame RPG are still to be assimilited by an industry that, more often than not, prefer taking the easy way out of diifficult gamedesign choices.

6) Far East of Eden Manjimaru (3 points) - when talking about Manjimaru, it's easy to align rows after rows of impressive numbers about what may have been, in its time, one of the first AAA title ever produced; it's an easy way of missing the point of what constitutes the charm of this game, an incredible sense of rhythm where there is always something happening every quarter of hour, functionnal and quirky characters, and a colorful universe.

7) Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

8) The Elder Scrolls - Daggerfall

9) Vampire: The Masquerade &#8211; Bloodlines - of the best transposition on screen of an existing tabletop RPG.

10) Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne

Honorable mentions:

11) Chrono Trigger
12) Ultima Underworld
13) Valkyrie Profile
14) Phantasy Star IV
15) Fallout 2
16) Demon's Souls
17) SMT Strange Journey
18) Dragon Quest IV
19) Grandia
20) Terranigma

Unranked :

Mother 2
Grandia
Seiken densetsu 3
Wizardry 8
Ultima VII
Fallout 2
Baldur 2
SMT1/SMT2
Minstrel's Song

Explanations to be edited in later.

Reserving

In terms of my personal context for the list I've selected them based on a combination of the overall experience and how it would feel to sit down and play them today. Some games havent aged well or have had novel aspects ground down by time and imitation.

*In the process of editing*

1) Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES- While its sequel, which pops up further down, improved on it both mechanically and in terms of content, P3:FES remains my favourite out of the Persona games because I feel it has the most interesting and engaging characters as well as a superor storyline. I dont think theyre objectively better, I simply prefer the scope, tone and theme of P3:FES storyline. I also prefer the design of the unique Persona's in P3 over the other games.

2) The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings - The undisputed king of "New-Wave" WCRPG's. A fully realised amazing looking world populated with well rounded characaters who ooze verisimilitude and a mature storyline (and storytelling) that allows the player to make meaningful choices both within the context of ther character and the world at large.

3) Baldur's Gate - While its sequels and spiritual successors improved on various elements (Baldur's Gate II has more content, Icewind Dale has better combat and Plancescape: Torment has a better story) none of them struck the same kind of balance between all three that Baldur's Gate did.

4) Ultima VII: The Black Gate - Very few other RPG's even come close to capturing the detail and scale of the world presented in Ultima VII.

5) Valkyria Chronicles - A glorious combination of disparate elements that ultimately transcends the sum of its part. All presented with a unique, beautiful and timeless visual aplomb.

6) Dragon's Dogma (3 points) - Dragon's Dogma has, I feel, hands down the best combat in any action heavy CRPG. A few other games come close but nothing feels as smooth and as simply fun as the combat in Dragon's Dogma. While other games have had you scaling monstrous enemies, none have you scaling monstrous enemies so you can stab them in the eyes. While the story and characters are presented in a workmanlike fashion at best (though the story actually has something of a twist which I quite enjoyed) the world itself feels amazing. Its a joy simply to explore, no other game has ever come close to exhibiting the same kind of verisimilitude, the feel that you are adventuring in a fully realised world as opposed to a slice of the world as presented to you really made the game for me. The unscripted interaction of the various monsters and animals was great (running across a field only to see a Griffon randomly snatch up a cow or lizardmen sunning themselves only to be interrupted by wolves in the distance was amazing).

7) Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne - Nocturne's minimal storytelling and relentless mechanical focus and precision combine to create a compelling and unique experience.

8) Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 Golden - A significant improvement on the basic version of Persona 4, it polishes the modern Persona formula to a fine gleam. The best Persona in terms of content and mechanics (both combat, social and general UI etc.) I found the storyline and characters to be a bit less appealing than earlier entries and the predominantly local focus of the storyline made the game feel a little "smaller" (the forced attempt to expand the focus of the narrative towards the end was also a little jarring). Still a great cast and the game still explores some interesting issues (societal gender roles, etc.) in an enjoyable way. As an odd, though warranted I think, provisio, I'd very strongly recommend playing the game and forming your own opinion of it before descending into the murky sewer that online discussion of it can be.

9) Disgaea 4 - The most mechanically polished game in the series so far it also has a cast equally as likeable as the originals (which had the best cast), though I feel the story suffers some pacing problems which puts it a little behind the orginal on that front. However as I mentioned the improved mechanics, the daunting amount of content and the updated graphics make this the best Disgaea yet.

10) Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht - An enjoyable game with an interesting combat system featuring two conflict scales. Plenty of content, an engaging story, good characters and solidly paced. But what really sets it apart for me are the layers of symbolism and reference built into it, covering everything from the games cosmology to the names of throwaway references. The allusions to gnosticism, medieval alchemical theory, post-modernism, biblical apocrypha, Jungian psychology, videogame references, etc. really made the game for me. They give the story and universe a depth that is unmatched, and unfortunately all too easily missed unless you have a particular interest in and familiarity with the subject matter it refers to.

Honorable Mentions

11) Shadow Hearts: Covenant - Cool alternate history setting, long and enjoyable story, unique charactrs, hybrid between turn based and action combat

12) Demon Soul's - I'm not sure if it becuase it was the first or my first Souls games but neither of its sequels ever really came close to capturing the same sense of tension that Demon's Souls did. Nor did they ever get close to levels like the Tower of Latria. For me Demon Soul's offers a superior Soul's experience in terms of athmosphere, difficulty, progression, setting, etc.

13) Final Fantasy X - It feels odd having this rather than VII as my highest ranked mainline Final Fantasy game. But I as I mentioned, in the context of recommending a game for someone to sit down and play today I feel that VII has aged poorly, both in terms of apperance and mechanics. Perhaps more importantly the mysteries and plot twists of VII have also, understandably, become common knowledge and I feel that would deteriorate from the narrative experience. FFX presents a unique and intersting world and culture with a strong visual and narrative theme. It has a sizeable amount of distinctive characters, an interesting storyline, an enjoyable (but not intimidating) amount of side-quests, solid combat system and what remains one of my favourite character experience systems in any CRPG.

14) Suikoden III (insert explanation here)

15) Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - With the 2.0 patch followed directly by Reaper of Souls Dibalo III went from one of my biggest disappointments to one of my favourite action RPG's. The fluidity of the new talent system, the ability to mix and match your spec and your build to whatever gear you get or mood youre in is a big step forward for the genre as a whole and one that hopefully catches on. While other entries in the genre, Path of Exile, Marvel Heroes 2015, etc. all have unique elements to offer they all pale before the fluid feel of D3's combat and animation, which is a core part of the experience.

15) Front Mission 3 - (insert explanation here)

17) Dragon Age: Inquisition - The current pinnacle and epitome of modern Bioware RPG's. It mixes a cinematic story with a trule immersive sense of exploration.

18) Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - (insert explanation here)

19) Resonance of Fate - An interesting world, well realised cast, extremely fun and fairly unique combat system, detailed and enjoyable weapon upgrade and costume system. It also presented the narrative in an interesting episodic "slice of life" fashion, which didnt always work but was at least an interesting experiment.

20) Mass Effect - (insert explanation here)


Unranked Honorable Mentions
- Divinity Original Sin: Backed this on Kickstarter and was really looking forward to it. My reaction upon receiving it and playing the shit out of it was mixed. The game is mechanically astounding, combat is really fun and enjoyably demanding. However the game fell down entirely in terms of story. Which for "traditional" CRPG's I consider at least, if not more important, than the mechanics. If the story and characters had simply been mediocre I think I would have listed this higher. But the story, world and characters are presented with a weird undertone of what could be mistaken for parody but which felt to me to be genuine distaste. As if the writers themselves thought it was bullshit. That totally undermined the already shaky narrative elements of the game for me and put me off it to a pretty large degree.

- Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind: The best of the Elder Scrolls series before it became the oddly neutered and vaguely pedestrian/boring experience it is today.

I made a slight change to this year's rules. You can now vote for 10 games and 10 HMs (which get half points). While I said as much in the wording of the rules, I forgot to update my voting ballot template to reflect this change.

Those of you who had more than 5 HMs that you wanted to list can edit up to 5 extra titles into your lists if you want to. Of course, you don't have to include HMs at all if you just wanted to highlight 5-10 titles.

1. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
2. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
3. Demon's Souls
4. Chrono Trigger
5. Shin Megami Tensei 3 Nocturne
6. Xenoblade Chronicles
7. Fire Emblem Path of Radiance
8. Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door
9. Final Fantasy VI
10. Trickster Online

Honorable mentiones:

1. Super Paper Mario
2. Dark Souls
3. Fire Emblem The Sacred Stones
4. Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
5. Devil Survivor

P.S: Not counting Pokémon games. Yes, those are RPG, but... eh.

Random note: I need to play the Mother games.

With no particular order except for the top 3 and the separation ranked/honorable mention:

Ranked Games
1) Shin Megami Tensei III (aka Nocturne (J/US) aka Lucifer's call (PAL)) (3 points)

Probably not just my favorite RPG, but also my favoite game overall.
Almost everything in this game is perfect: the art direction is gorgeous (thanks Kaneko), the resulting aesthetics (including dungeons) ingame is... whoa, the atmosphere in the game is quite unlike anything I've seen in other games (and tops them all), the OST is accordingly good, the fusion system is addictive, and it has the best turned based gameplay in RPGs, supported by a consistent difficulty throughout the game, which keeps the combats interesting.

You are basically, after 10 minutes of gameplay, put in a destroyed Tokyo after the Wrold ended; your role is to decide how the world will be rebuild. Everything in this game is made to emphasis the desolation that became Tokyo, and that hooked me up for 80+ hours. Every step of the way, you'll have to be thinking of your party management: should I heal now, or wait a bit? What demons to take in my default party to not get whipe out in a turn? Should I maybe fuse some demons to get better ones?
All this is tied to the combat gameplay, the Press Turn System. You basically have to watch out for the elemental weaknesses of your party and your ennemies, as that will pretty much decide the battle. And we finally have a jRPG where buffs and status/death spells really work well, so you'll have to take that into account too.

On the down side, some could wish for a more dense story; the storytelling is minimalistic, the game focuses more on wolrd-building and gameplay mechanisms.
I'd definitvely recommend for Persona 3/4 fans to try it at least a few hours. There is no social links, but all the rest tops these games. Also a good pick for those who prefered Persona 3's atmosphere over Persona 4's; it's quite dark.
Likewise, those that like SMT4 could give it a try, as it tops it in every compartiment aside story and ergonomy of the menues.

2) The Witcher

Like Nocturne/Lucifer's call, the game convinced me with its atmosphere, general mood and OST. I liked how I felt included in the game, with the feeling of control over the actions of Geralt, as seen by small inpacts of your choices in the story.
The combats and fetch quests are sadly not the strong points of the game.

3) Nier

Nier is an intersting game: taken separartly, everything in this game ranges from mediocre to bad, except for the music that is god tier.
But put together, a synergy becomes visible which turns in a very emotionnal, harrowing experience (especially the NG+); the melancholic feel of the game is hard to top. I especially liked how the gameplay switches (A-RPG, shoot'em up, Light Novel, RE-like) introduced a change of pace to the storytelling.
I'll definitively look forward to Taro's next games. His views on game developping are quite refreshing ( 40 minute conference on GDC, with spoilers of Nier ).
Also, have I mentioned this has the best original soundtrack ever?

Definitively a divisive game, as I can quite understand the people who disliked it. Either the game's charm works or it doesn't, and if it doesn't I guess you'll hate the approx. 20 hours the first run takes.
If you tried it and liked your first playthrough, doing the quick (ca. 5 hours) NG+ is an absolute must.

Persona 3

Persona 3 was notably noticed for its clever inclusion of "dating sim" like elements in its RPG-elements. Both aspects work quite well together, and especially are combined together, with the LN elements having direct impact on the RPG gameplay. I'd like Persona 5 go even further down this road, but we'll see what Atlus will do.
Now, Persona 4 largely improved on the gameplay and mechanisms of Persona 3, which is why one could arguably rank Persona 4 higher.
I, however, was far more touched by Persona 3's atmosphere (notice a trend in what I like in games?) and story, which is why Persona 3 ranks higher.
Also, that music... And that scene almost roght at the beginning.

Star Ocean 3

This, I think, was my first real action jRPG (unless you count Zelda as one, which I don't). I was quite happy with the fast, interesting combats. The futuristic wolrd and the second part of the story were a nice touch, and the crafting system was great.

Shadow Heart: Covenants

Again a game which impressed me with its setting, atmosphere and story. The wheel during the combats was a nice addition to traditional turn based combats, and Yuri's "Personas" (sorry, forgot the right name) were quite fun to unlock and develop.
Unlike many fans of the series, I almost quite equally enjoyed From the New World, bt Covenant still is the more consistent good game.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Nice setting and atmosphere (yeah I now, I should skip writing it down for every comment, as all of my favorite games have that as common point), controverse art direction (I liked it), and interesting outlook on the near future. The different aproach for each mission made for a nice gameplay for me.
I'll have to play the first Deus Ex one of these days...

Alpha Protocol

Having so much choices which have such important impact on the rest of the game was great.
The lame combats and bugs not so much.

Atelier Escha & Logy -

I love alchemy in Gust games, and Esha is by far the best Atelier game I played. I wish more games would go for the formula of the Atlier series (illustrated in that image), maybe with a darker or different tone (I have to admit, the Moe effect can get on my nerves sometimes). Can't wait for its Vita port and the next installement of the series.

Final Fantasy 10

My first dip into jRPG, I really enjoyed it, which lead me to be more interested in the genre (and sadly skipping WRPG at the time). Great setting, nice story, interesting combats, the english voices and boring post game content were a letdown though.


Honorable Mentions

Persona 4 - Persona 3, with a lighter atmosphere, but better mechanism - pretty great.
Devil Survivor 2 - I don't like tactical RPGs, but this one convinced me, partly because of the adapted press turn system, partly for (again) the SMT-esque setting and atmosphere.
Valkyria Chronicles - same as above, it's unusual for me to like tacticals. This one though looks gorgeous, and the mixed in real time combats are great. The compagnon stuff was better managed in Valkyria 2 though imho. I need to test 3, but a Valkyria 4 on PS4/Vita would be an instant buy.
Dragon Age Origin - I was hooked by the combat system, and the whole world/background they created for this. Inquisition could take Origins place on this top though, despite its shitty tactical camera.
The Last Remnant - Hands down one of the best combat system (on PC), but also the least well explained one in jRPGs I've played. I'd love SE to expand on this system, but alas that won't happen.
The Last Story - Good combat, but what sold me was the solid storytelling: nothing fancy or new, just a decent game story very well told.
Xenoblade - Great setting, great world, but lame second part of the game, and improvable combats
Resonance of Fate (/End of Eternity) - God was the combat system fun. Beating an ennemy that has 20 levels more than you just by exploiting the terrain and combat system was very satisfying. A shame the story telling becomes weak after a few chapters.
Mana Khemia 2 - Strange for me to have two games from a small studio like Gust in my top, but I had to add this one. While Atelier Esha is the most complete game (and looks gorgeous, in comparison to the PS1 look of MK2), Mana Khemia 2 has my favorite level up system of Gust games, the alchemy is like always great, the battle system is fun (and actually quite close to what Esha does) but above all, it has a loveable cast and some great, funny moments in between.
South Park: The Stick of Truth - Best licence adaptation ever (just before the recent Batman games), of a show I really love on top of that, and it just so hapens to be a (actually pretty good, even if on the easy side) RPG, so it earns its place in this list.


Unranked Honorable Mentions
- Pokemon Red/Blue - The SMTs collecting/fusion system Pokemon copied is still better, but I don't have to describe the hystery this game caused small children like me when in came out in the late '90s.
- Final Fantasy XIII: Lightning Returns - not a great game, but my favorite of the FF XIII trilogy. Very fun combat, which offers quite some intersting combinations to beat hard bosses low level.
- Pandora's Tower - Great setting, great story, intersting gameplay. Didn't rank it because I'm not sure I'd call it a RPG; I think it'd get a placed among my top 10 if I'd count it as jRPG.


I'm sadly still trying to find time to play some classics from the 90's (Planescape: Torment is on top of my todo list), but I don't know if I'll ever find it.

Chrono Trigger - Unparalleled charm, excellent soundtrack, lots of replayability, clever use of time hopping to different eras. When you open up the dictionary at the word adventure, it may as well have a picture of this game there.


Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines - Deus Ex with vampires. A surprisingly accurate description with the amount of possibilites open to you, but it's much heavier on the RPG elements than DE. You can tackle situations in lots of ways. How you develop your character and even the race you pick at the very beginning may completely alter your playstyle. The game's style, writing and atmosphere are superb.


Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together - There are lots of different little branches you can go on during your journey, ranging from small stuff like not killing or helping someone at your first meeting means you will have a chance to recruit them later, to major decisions that alter the whole story. And there's a wealth of side content on top of that, with The World system making sure you can go back to alter your actions or lack thereof. The gameplay is great and story is worth paying attention to.


Final Fantasy Tactics - A truly worthy spiritual successor to Tactics Ogre, once again with a good story, a deep class system, memorable characters and great art direction. A fantastic game.


Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - Accessible and fun gameplay, creative quests, colorful and quirky worlds that compel you to explore every nook and cranny in them, excellent art direction and music, memorable cast, a plot twist that people bring up to this day and it captured that classic Star Wars space adventure charm perfectly. A terrific package for all ages, it's like a pixar movie in video game form.


Deus Ex - You have some of the best choice and consequence system in any video game ever, and the game handles it with grace, it doesn't try to shove it in your face, you have to explore your possibilities yourself. Great level design allows for different ways to handle situations, and the game creates an immersive cyberpunk atmosphere. Deus Ex was lightyears ahead of its time, it's A BOMB.


Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance - The title that finally (and briefly) returned FE to the big screen. I prefer this FE over others mostly for its characters and narrative, not to mention it brought some great new mechanics to the table that make it a refreshing improvement over the somewhat stagnant predecessors.


Dark Souls - Challenging and rewarding, exploring the eerie locations of Dark Souls for the first time will be an unforgettable experience for many ARPG fans.


Valkyrie Profile (3 points) - You're a valkyrie who flies around the world recruiting exceptional warriors on the verge of death to your side in order to prepare for the end of the world. Each of those warriors have their own tale to tell. It has dungeon crawling with some platforming mixed in, the combo-based combat system is simple and fun. The game had some very nice designs and catchy tunes from Motoi Sakuraba. And unlike most JRPGs at the time, it had voice acting. Also unlike more JRPGs at the time, it lacked random encounters, which was a most welcome change for me. Unfortunately, getting the "true end" requires some meticulous effort, you basically need a guide; but as they say the journey is what's important and I felt it was great. Out of all my picks, this might be the game that the least amount of people are familiar with, so I'm giving it three points.


Xenoblade Chronicles - I already liked the very similar FFXII but I felt there was little to no chemistry between the party members, and while its story sounded good on paper, due to its poor pacing and how disconnected some of the events felt, it just never hooked me. Then along comes Xenoblade and it not only fixes those issues, it ups the ante when it comes to the setting. Just gorgeous art design and a stunning sense of scale. While I felt a lot more effort could've gone into the optional content, the party AI, and making the combat less dependent on lowering level gaps, Xenoblade was an absolutely terrific experience. The journey through the Bionis was magical. Also probably my favorite video game OST.

Honorable mentions:
Mount & Blade: Warband - It may not offer much when it comes to anything else that isn't combat but the one thing it does well, it does extremely well.
Kingdom Hearts - Like for many people who grew up in the 90's, Disney and Final Fantasy were major parts of my childhood so smiting evil in Disney worlds with cameos from popular FF titles was just a nostalgia-fueled joyride. Character customization, synthesizing, arena, optional bosses, hidden treasure, even a SHMUP minigame - the game had quite a bit of content. The mechanics were easy to grasp but hard to master. The characters were endearing, the plot and themes were simple and clean (a principle its sequels didn't quite follow.) Unfortunately, the camera takes some getting used to.
Valkyria Chronicles - Love the atmosphere and the art style in this, and the idea of controlling your units in third person for a tactical RPG is great. Unfortunately the game is pretty unbalanced, the story is cliché anime silliness, the ranking system is poorly thought out and the UI can be sluggish and unintuitive. I would've also liked if you could see some dialogue between the recruits (a la Path of Radiance for example) or if they appeared in cutscenes too because right now they're pretty much just combat assets. Still, the game was boatloads of fun for me.
Planescape Torment - Hard to top this one when it comes to writing and setting.
Demon's Souls - Excellent atmosphere but the gameplay improvements (better equipment variety and more useful armors, no world tendency, no item burden, fixed amount of heals instead of grass, fixed amount of casts instead of mana, jumping, nerfed regen equipment etc) and the new lore in Dark Souls just make that one my Souls pick for the main list.
Fire Emblem (aka Fire Emblem 7, Rekka no Ken, The Blazing Sword) - The best portable Fire Emblem.
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - I just didn't like the Dawn Brigade at all but the rest of the cast and some of the best missions in the whole franchise make up for it.

There's a sea of other RPGs I liked e.g. Morrowind, The Witcher games, Final Fantasies IV, VI, VII, X, XII; Persona 3 FES and to a lesser extent Persona 4, Alpha Protocol, Tales of Symphonia; Abyss was okay too; Super Robot Wars Z series, especially the PSP entries; Dragon Age: Origins, Gothic 2, the Divinity series, Baldur's Gate 2, the first Mass Effect, Valkyrie Profile 2, KOTOR 2, the rest of the Fire Emblem games and many more. I know I could give three more of these points but I choose not to because while I enjoyed these games, they just didn't have the same kind of quality or personal appeal to me as the ones listed above did. Those are the ones that really stood out.

Reserved. Making a list now.

Edit: Started a new job and have been really busy. Totally forgot about this. If it's not too late..

1) Xenoblade Chronicles - I fell in love with this game. I love the size and scope, I love the artstyle, I love the characters, the battle system. The PHENOMENAL Soundtrack - might just be my favourite game of all time. Played it on Dolphin too so it isn't held back by the Wii's shortcomings in graphics. Pure gaming bliss.

2) Persona 4 (Golden) - I don't think I've ever put 90 hours into a game as quickly as this one. The story had me gripped and I loved the Social Link system. First Persona game I've really given a proper go and I'm glad I did. Will buy a PS4 when P5 hits.

3) The World Ends With You - Despite the above, I don't think I've ever been as immersed in a games story as this one (999 ran it pretty close, though) - it had plot twists I just didn't expect and fantastic characters. (I even liked Neku by the end of it!)

4) Paper Mario: TTYD - I hadn't played the 64 iteration and SMRPG wasn't released in my region yet, so this was my first step into a Mario game in an RPG. By the time I was climbing the ranks at the Glitz Pit, I was hooked until the end. RAAAAAAWK HAAAAAAAAWK!!!!

5) Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga - Shoji Meguro has made an OST so amazing it elevates this game from good to amazing in my books. Well done, Mr Meguro.

6) Tales of Vesperia - The most polished Tales game, had a lot of fun with this game. I remember getting a combo of over 5000 whilst grade farming for an achievement run. It broke the game so damn much

7) Nier - This game give me the same feels as Xenoblade, except it's a lot more flawed. Soundtrack is amazing though. I spent nearly £50 on buying the OSTs for this and Xenoblade combined.

8) Pokemon G/S/C - Massively improved over Gen 1 and although I also really liked Gen 3, it declined from here. I still buy them all, though...

9) Earthbound - The only one on this list I haven't finished. But I loved the style Itoi went for so much that it makes the list anyway. I appreciate they tried something new in markets outside of Japan and now that I have it on VC I'm going to get round to finishing it this year.

10) Tales of Symphonia - If you asked me 8 years ago this'd be right near the top. Whereas FF7 seemed to be many peoples first proper JRPG, this was mine (excluding Pokemon) - and I adored it. 4 Playthroughs and a 100% game-file later and I left very satisfied, as did my friend who co-op'd the entire thing with me. Such good memories, unfortunately a more recent play-through of this game exposed the jagginess and just how clunky it feels by comparison to being spoiled by Graces/Xillia/Xillia 2 in terms of the battle system. Still a fantastic game though, and boasts the best OST of the series imo.

No particular order.

1) Dragon Quest V - I love the way the narrative of this game unfolds. There are probably other games that do the whole bildungsroman thing, possibly even others where the main character is not the legendary hero, but this is the only one like that that I've played and I think it moves amazingly. There are a lot of RPGs from its era that are held up on narrative, but I think Dragon Quest V more than pulls its weight against that competition.

2) Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne - The game is dark and brooding, with an oppressive atmosphere and moody but intense music. What more can you ask for in a game where you are fusing demons to survive the apocalypse? Unlike its successor, Nocturne brings the series into 3D while also maintaining its roots as a dungeon crawler, with some challenging dungeons and all the fun or frustrating mechanics that come with them.

3) Final Fantasy VII - Love it or hate it, this game has made an undeniable impact on JRPGs and their perception in the console space. It may be the beginning of everything that is currently wrong with the genre, but it is still a fun game to play through and I think everyone owes it to themselves to know what camp they're in on this game.

4) Persona 3: FES - The beginning of the SMT waifus. Persona 3 takes the most cliche of all JRPG and anime themes&#8212;the power of friendship&#8212;and somehow makes it interesting again. The power of friendship is tangible and fun and yet the game is challenging and quick to punish mistakes or lack of preparation.

5) Tales of Symphonia - This one may just be personal nostalgia, but it seems to me to be the essential young anime JRPG. It isn't thoughtful or moody or cutesy or creepy and, most importantly, it isn't obnoxious. It's just a group of mostly kids out to save the world and make friends while they run around with naive ideals. It is unabashedly what it is without pretension and pandering.

6) Dragon Quest IX - I love this game. I think everyone should play this game. Get yourself a chest timer and a hoimi table and grind, grind away. Incredibly challenging boss battles. Create your own characters. Unlock characters from the game. Unlock extra classes. Level every character up to 99+ in every single job, grind ultimate armor, and still get destroyed by that DragonLord that you decided to level up to 99 as well. As I'm writing this, it doesn't sound awesome. But it is.

7) Etrian Odyssey III - This is a dungeon crawler. Incredibly challenging but with so many options of party composition. This game will let you build crutches and then it will kick them out from under you. The challenge increases steadily, but fairly, as the dungeons grow larger and more complex. There are too many dungeon crawlers out there that I haven't played for me to make any statement on them, but I feel this is the best one to come to consoles in several years.

8) Diablo 2 - Another staple. There's really not much to say about this. I can't say I would recommend people go back and play it now, so maybe it doesn't belong on this list, but it was a huge part of RPGs for my generation.

9) World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade - World of Warcraft, not at its very best, but at a very consistently great level. This introduced flying mounts, heroic dungeons, and more accessible but still challenging 40-man raiding. Almost everything that followed this expansion was just a nerf until the entire game was a way to pat players on the back without challenging them. Maybe it has improved, but I very much doubt it has ever returned to such a great merge between hardcore and casual elements.

10) Neverwinter Nights (Persistent Worlds) - This isn't for the game proper, but rather the online elements. This game came with world building tools and the framework for people to host their own games for communities to form made up of both players and dungeon masters. Hands down, one of my favorite and most interactive experiences with computer gaming, if you found a good community. Players could actually cooperatively influence the story of the game and the structure of the very world in actually meaningful ways. It was like a pen and paper session where you never had to wait on anyone to remember the rules. Bliss.

Main List:

Pokemon Red - My introduction to RPG's. Remember all those news reports and articles about how kids were obsessed with Pokemon? I was proof of that: the show, the toys, the clothes, and most of all the games were my crack as a little one. Pokemon hits that perfect spot where addictiveness stops just short of being stressful, where grinding out levels for your team is actually fun instead of the chore it is in most games. The monster designs were brilliant, the mechanics sound (except for Psychic being way overpowered), and the music is still etched in my brain more than a decade later. Nostalgia makes this my favorite RPG over some others, but don't sell it short on its own merits.

Persona 4 Golden (3 points) - The game plays well, it has a nice look, the fusions are fun, but really, it's the story and its characters that make it one of my favorites, regardless of genre. After spending 80 hours with the Investigation Team, I can say that I've never seen a more likable bunch of characters in any piece of entertainment. It actually made me sad as I approached the game's end, knowing I would soon be done hanging around people I came to love. There's a weird nostalgic feeling that comes up when I think of P4, even though I only just finished it last year, as strong as what I feel for the games I played as a kid. I guess it's just proof of how engrained in me my love of the game is. Also, Chie is best girl.

Fallout 3 - I spent way more time patrolling the wastes than I should have, but I don't regret any of it. Jank abounds, especially on the PS3 version that I played, but that didn't stop me from blasting heads with the Terrible Shotgun and busting everyone's safe open. The shooting is okay, but it doesn't matter when you're given so much to do in such a big world. I explored every area and tackled every mission I could, and even came back for the DLC. There's a reason we're all so eager for a Fallout 4 announcement, and it's because of how damn fun the last one was.

Final Fantasy VII - Not only my first FF, but my first traditional RPG as well. Equipment, summons, and the like were first shown to me here, and it was mind blowing. Never had I explored a world so large in a game before, nor played one that put as much effort into telling its story. I replayed it about two years back and, graphics aside, it holds up remarkably well. The thing that struck me most of all being a more experienced player was how well managed the difficulty slope is. Not once did I need to stop and grind in order to hold my own against my enemies, making it a nearly frustration-free experience.

Final Fantasy X - The game with my very favorite turn based battle system. Being able to look ahead and see how your actions would affect both your team and your enemies, in addition to things like Haste and Slow, give a ton of depth to such a simple idea. You can switch people mid-battle, fight with just a summon, and teach any skill to any person if you try hard enough. The Sphere Grid can seem daunting at first, but gives plenty of flexibility in terms of how you'd like to build each of your characters. The story and voice acting can seem hammy, but 11 year old me was engaged throughout its entirety. Really, I can't find any glaring flaws in FFX.

Dark Souls - When I first played this game after buying it at launch, I played for about two hours before giving up in frustration in the Undead Berg. That night, while trying to get to sleep, I wondered to myself if I had my a poor purchasing decision and if I should just return the game. The next day, I resolved to give it another chance before doing so, and proceeded on to one of the most rewarding games I've ever encountered. Yes, the game is going to kick your ass over and over, like it did mine, but only to teach you Dark Souls' greatest lesson: patience. Take your time, observe your enemies, strike when there's an opening, and DON'T just run through after a boss kills you for the 8th time. Don't be afraid to look for outside help, as I wouldn't have finished the game without it. Once you find a playstyle that fits you, the frustration that seems to envelop the game will drift away, leaving a playground to have a hell of a time in.

Dark Cloud 2 - I'll admit, I haven't played it in more than a decade, but what I remember was a brilliant mix of simple loot grabbing and crazy world manipulation via time travel . The latter is what blew me away as a kid - the idea that I could deliberately affect the world in the past, then jump ahead to the present to see what I had done. I'll need to revisit it sometime (HD remaster when?), but it's stuck with me as a favorite for this long.

Dragon Quest VIII - Probably the most "traditional" RPG on my list, DQ8 is great because of how well it nails the little things. Instead of throwing in convoluted systems and trying to reinvent the wheel, it scales things back and gives you basic RPG mechanics, a fun cast of characters, and a huge world to explore. On top of that, the game happens to look beautiful, with an art style that still holds up today.

Mass Effect 2 - Sure, cover shooting isn't very RPG-like, but just about everything else in this game is. Leveling a squad, assigning skills, and influencing the story through the choices you make add up to an RPG disguised as something else, though those mechanics still shine through. It helps that the shooting is solid, but the real fun was interacting with everyone I could and digging through their backstory. Bioware made a galaxy full of interesting creatures, most of which mean little to the main narrative being told. I can't remember another game of its kind where I made sure to do every single side quest and extra mission possible. It's final boss may be dumb, but everything else is great.

Dragon's Dogma - It took me a few tries to get into this one, but once I did I was hooked. The combat is smooth, the world massive, the skills tantalizing, the pawn system innovative - so much to love about this game. It has it's flaws - fast travel was a pain until I looked up how it worked, I didn't know what the general story was most of the time, and my pawns just wouldn't shut up - but it overcomes it issues to become one of last gen's best RPG's.

Honorable Mentions:

Diablo 3 - Good thing I jumped in with the console version, because I got an addictive and well-balanced intro to the franchise.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 - I played this after P4, so unfortunately I would compare them to each other constantly, which rarely went in P3's favor. Still, it does hold it's own as a fun RPG with those good ole' Social Links I can't get enough of.

Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim - Once again, the PS3 version of a Bethesda RPG has serious technical issues, but I still found myself sinking a whole lot of time into this one. There's just too much for me to do to keep me from enjoying Skyrim.

Demon's Souls - While it felt a bit easier than Dark Souls for me (probably because of the order I played them in), it's still a damn tough game with the same type of great gameplay I grew to love before. Highlights include finally triumphing over the Maneaters, and the Old Monk battle, where I got to have a fun, even duel with someone else.

Kingdom Hearts 2 - Definitely an improvement over its predecessor as far as combat goes. Though I kind of hated it when I was young, I've come to fondly remember the lengthy prologue playing as Roxas.

Paper Mario - One of the few RPG's us N64 owners got during its lifetime. It's Mario, in an RPG that plays well and can be pretty funny at times. What's not to like?

Final Fantasy IX - Another traditional fantasy-based RPG, stripping everything down to sound mechanics and building an interesting world around them.

Tales of Xilia - My first Tales game, so now I can see why people like them so much. Not quite on the level of the others listed here, but still a solid game nonetheless.

Fable 2 - I'm only so far into the game, as I've been playing it these past few days, but I'm already having a blast with it. The combat is deceptively simple, and there seems to be more stuff to do than I know what to do with.

Pokemon X - My first game in the series since the original Game Boy. There's some mechanics that are new to me, and whole hell of a lot of Pokemon I don't recognize, but the same great gameplay I fell in love with all those years back is still here to enjoy all over again.