Generally these aren't in order, except the top 2 and if you were to ask me on a different day allot of my other picks could be switched around or replaced but I did spend allot of time thinking about this.
01) HIGHLIGHT VOTE Valkyrie Profile - There was a moment when I was playing Valkyrie Profile that I realized that all the planets had to have aligned to make this game. Maybe it was a happy accident, maybe it's true brilliance. Tri-ace has a penchant for experimenting on new IPs and they have a... spotty track record, but nearly everything in this game works.
As a representative of Odin, lord of the gods and Valhalla, you are set to task collecting worthy heroic souls from Midgard for Ragnarok and purifying the land of disruptive forces up to no good on it. The first thing this game does right is, after the tutorial stage, letting you do everything at your own pace. Want to go collect a soul now? Go ahead. Want to dungeon dive? Have at it. And it does all of these things well.
The very first vignette I read was told with a sad beauty and subtlety rarely found in the genre (often told to a wonderful track literally titled "Epic Poem to Sacred Death"), and I loved it. The dungeons and combat are on the opposite end of the tonal spectrum, with balls to the walls rock blaring as you dash and leap through levels and fight enemies in a turn-based but fast-paced timed button press-combination battle system (that I'm sure only tri-ace would come up with), and somehow the game suffers from no tonal whiplash.
Did I mention that this game is beautiful? It is. The character portrait work is absolutely without peer for any game I've ever played, and the sprite work is no slouch either. Every image of the protagonist Lenneth is simple beauty in motion. Motoi Sakuraba, more commonly known for mixedly received Tales of games soundtrack contributions, operates fully in his element here and at the peak of his ability. Sakuraba generally does a couple things really well: Anything with an ominous undertone, and heart-thomping action, and he's a perfect match with what tri-ace produced here. I can think of a handful of a scant tracks that aren't great.
There are a few flaws to the game, or at least things that might turn some off. The game practically requires a strategy guide from the beginning to get the true ending although oddly I didn't mind using one even a bit here - Likely because of how the chapters in the game are divided up. One dungeon in hard mode of the final chapter has an obnoxious gimmick of expelling you back to the world map if you miss a platform or are knocked into the void by an exploding chest. The dubbing, although largely very good (particularly for Lenneth), is also performed by the same cast that acted in Slayers and the old Pokemon anime, which if you've seen those shows sometimes results in their performances here feeling a bit... disorienting. Finally I'd note that while the main story progression (just the short stories, in other words) are 10/10 material for me, the actual main plot and the conclusion of in particular is just 'good'. Feint criticism but I judge this game by the highest standards because it really is this damn fantastic so I feel obliged to mention everything I can.
02) Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne - After this, the order starts getting muddy, but Nocturne is without a doubt my #2 pick. Most people will talk about the incredible artistry and amazing atmosphere this game produces, but I think the best summation of what Nocturne is is a title that begins and remains intensely interesting. Much of the surreal atmosphere and the desperate combat at the start becomes more normal and easier (respectively) as your options open up - And the early third or so is my favorite part of the game - But the game somewhat compensates for this by continuing to throw new ideas and different sights at you and forces you to adapt in combat by leveling up your demon teammates at a slow rate, forcing you to fuse them into higher-leveled, different demons whose chemistry with your current team and compatibility for the dangers ahead is an unknown.
Nocturne is not an easy or forgiving game (although relatively speaking to other SMT games, it is!), but it's the most rewarding. Most of the other titles in the series fall on a flat law-chaos alignment system. Or they aren't as visually interesting. Or they have an awful UI (I'm looking at you SMT4). Nocturne has some flaws, particularly related to character specing (although I believe that systematically randomizing fused demon abilities like in Nocturne is better than in later SMT and Persona titles), but what it accomplishes is something unlike anything else I've seen in the genre.
03) The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - I'm generally not a fan of large, open-world western RPGs (this is the only one on my list!). I tried, hated Fallout 3. The Witcher was a slog. A contrast with the former I think is more illustrative of why I love Skyrim. Fallout is flat, barren, brown, and quiet. Skyrim is bursting with life, color, and sound at every turn. It's a world that the first time you step out of the starting town invites you to run in *every* direction at once... or just stop to look around where you are now and listen to whatever wonderful tune is playing.
*Sure*, allot of the dungeons are samey, and combat's not particularly elegant, but there's so much around every corner. Any NPC you feel could give you another quest that just gives you an excuse to go out, wander more, maybe pick up some loot, fight a dragon, or get some cool spell. It's just relaxing to play.
04) Xenogears - The one and only. I think it's impossible to discuss Xenogears with anyone who's heard the name and doesn't know it's famous for its story. Xenogears is a massive undertaking (for the player and the developers), an ambitious title I often believe that for its scope we'll never quite see the likes of again. Yes, Xenogears is famous for its story. It's long, it's demanding. And it's good.
Other details are largely superfluous but worth mention. The combat is generally just serviceable but at least is visually interesting. Platforming in certain sections has bothered people but I think in general the amount of freedom in movement the games gives you in exploring is net positive. Disc 2's style is very contentious but without spoiling, after thinking on this for a while, I think the game is better for it (PM me if you want to talk about it). Also the Mitsuda soundtrack is really good although you'll probably notice is a little... limited. For the time, Xenogears has a very low track count, but almost all of them being great largely makes up for it. I also think people sell the cinematography short in this game - It really helps sell the story.
05) Grandia - In my mind, Game Arts as a company is most memorable for making light-hearted adventure games focused on telling coming of age stories where inevitably the hero must conquer some evil. And with some romance elements in there for good measure. Very basic stuff, but they are very, *very* good at it. Better than anyone else I'd argue, and this point may be contentious among Game Arts fans (I legit don't know - how many of you are out there?) but I think Grandia is where they peaked, where their form and technique they'd nurtured from developing Lunar for years had matured the most and technology allowed them to do as much as they wanted but before they either lost talent, technology left them behind, or costs became prohibitively expensive (Grandia II is their last good title imo).
Grandia is a title that earns its name, and I think the spirit of the game is best captured in its theme song, one of my favorites of all time:
From excitement for the adventure ahead, to apprehension, to wonder, to somber appreciation, to sadness, to tears, to geting up and journeying on. Grandia wears its tone on its sleeve.
Plenty of others have talked about the game's really fun and cool combat system. Everything about that from its implementation to character skill development is really fantastic and not really replicated anywhere. ... Unfortunately it's also let down by the game being kinda easy. It's still a big draw for the game but generally light difficulty is a notable asterisk.
06) Final Fantasy XII - I'm simultaneously excited and apprehensive every time I recommend Final Fantasy XII. On one hand, it is without a doubt one of the most intoxicating gaming experiences I've ever had. When I was still in school I once binged it... for 36 hours straight. Then I slept for around 10 hours, got up at 9:30 PM, prepared breakfast, and sat down right back in front of the TV to eat and play. Progression in quests and hunts, exploring, and macro-managing combat in its still unparalleled Gambit system always keep enticing you back to do one more thing, fight one more battle, explore one more area. Unfortunately it also takes a long time to get there. By which I mean to say it takes a long time to 'get good', an ominous sign in any such discussion. In particular, I'd say Final Fantasy XII takes *20 hours* to get there, which is so much just to find out if you'd enjoy it. But I really can't in good faith still not recommend it, to anyone willing to take the deep dive. I ended up putting in a grand total 150 hours into the game, and that beginning slog was easily worth the difference.
And there are the typical beats - This is a Matsuno game (largely, mostly) so much of the storytelling is fantastic, if not quite as good as Final Fantasy Tactics. The English localization is wonderful, if the audio itself is a bit muddled. And Sakimoto is in form for the soundtrack.
07) Final Fantasy X - Fight me, but after replaying this one recently, I think Final Fantasy X might be the title I'd most recommend newbies to the series to play first for 'the Final Fantasy experience', by which I mean a title most like something I can see Sakaguchi making and why people love these games. Even after having played so many of them though I'm having trouble describing what exactly that is. Instead I'll just leave it at that and describe exactly what I like about this one in particular.
Final Fantasy X has a fantastically realized world, probably the best in the series. Ephemerality is weaved into nigh-everything in this world, from the architecture, lifestyles, religion, and customs of the land, all consistently contrasted well against its foreign protagonist. The NPCs you encounter and re-encounter along the long road go a long way in building on what you see and putting together a picture of Spira.
I'd also forgotten that this game is... kinda hard! Far more than any of the Playstation 1 outings at least. The game really puts you to task for getting the most of every member of your team particularly in boss battles (in its well-organized and straightforward battle system, by the way!), especially if you experiment in character builds in expert mode.
08) Radiant Historia - Promotional materials for this game put it forward as a successor to Chrono Trigger. I'm not entirely sure I agree. You skip around in time in Radiant Historia in much smaller intervals than Chrono Trigger, cutting down the variety of different environments to explore, but the scope and intent of these jumps is much different. They're largely investigative and reflective of many, smaller choices that could be made to avoid The Bad End. It's a smarter game, with a smarter protagonist (Stocke is one of my favorites). If a high flying adventure is what you want, play Chrono Trigger, but I found myself more attracted to this one. I enjoyed its slow progression, I loved the oh so fitting Shimomura soundtrack, and I think the grid, push-based combat system is a straight up improvement over Chrono Trigger's.
09) Resonance of Fate - Another tri-ace game! (The only other one on my list, unfortunately) Tri-ace is an experimental developer, but this one can be listed in the win column. You're put in control of a group of three mercenaries from various backgrounds as they take odd jobs in the... somewhat strange, tower world they inhabit. The strength of the storytelling here is in the character interactions on the jobs and solid performances from the dubbing, particularly from Nolan North on 'daddy' Vashyron. The main scenario itself is unfortunately Japanese tripe that not even the dubbing can save but thankfully the good stuff composes the vast majority of the game's cutscenes and is almost completely isolated from the main story.
Combat is turn-based on a large field, most closely resembling Valkyria Chronicles I suppose (if you're familiar with that title), featuring... high-flying, acrobatic gunplay. Listen, it works, ok? And weapon customization whose endgame is physically impossible firearms. ... Resonance of Fate is a weird game. It's intensely focused on style. There are hundreds of outfits and cosmetics you can change on any of your characters on a whim. And the combat system, though complicated, once figured out doesn't offer that much more depth. It just looks really cool. As a game, it has some problems - A brutally difficult beginning, seemingly random and massive difficulty spikes, and a recovery system for mistakes that's so unforgiving it might as well be a game over most of the time. It's also one of the most different RPGs I've played, and I recommend it in a heartbeat to anyone looking for something off the beaten path.
10) Persona 4: Golden - I won't repeat what many have almost certainly already said for one of the most popular RPGs out there. I'll just explain why I listed this title over other series' titles I've played, Persona 3 and Persona Q.
Persona 3 is less evenly paced. It's strongest at the beginning and end where the experience is most personal imo (and indeed, last month Persona 3 is better than anything Persona 4 has to offer I think). Most of Persona 3 feels like... a business exchange. Your teammates are just that - teammates - not friends, and the insidiousness of some of the 'correct' choices for the Social Links, the NPC character interactions, disengaged me. Some of these elements are intentional but not as engaging. Persona 4 is clearly designed, from beginning to end, to be as personal as possible, and it succeeds seemingly effortlessly.
Persona Q I didn't pick because... you need to have played Personas 3 and 4! I think Persona Q is the best of the lot, fixing the poor dungeon design that's been a sore spot for the mainline games and expanding on the character customization and combat to something a little more interesting, but the barrier to entry is way too high for an 'essentials RPG' list, so I leave it as a footnote here.