Your favorite RPGS

[108 Stars]

Hehe, I love it that you said yourself they are action-adventures. I am used to English-language forums where especially people from NA have the tendency to mix everything from top-down or isometric perspective and with dialogue as RPGs.

I´m a bit of a genre-Nazi, so I just had to post.^^

BTW, Landstalker is my fav MD game of all time.

And Shenmue... yeah, it is hard to describe. I guess it is mostly an adventure, but with occasional fights. So maybe an action-adventure with heavy emphasis on adventure.

Whatever it is, it is a great experience, especially part 2. Probably the best ting Sega did in the last 20 years.

Exciting, big, and a technical showcase for its time.

[silverf0x0]

Yeah, is difficult to say to which genre Shenmue belong to...
Yu Suzuki define it FREE (Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment, if I'm not wrong...), maybe we should respect his great master will...

[silverf0x0]

Now that I'm thinking about it, no one has put Pier Solar in the favorite list...
Maybe it's just a bit early as many people haven't received their copy yet...

[Thorium]

Now that I'm thinking about it, no one has put Pier Solar in the favorite list...
Maybe it's just a bit early as many people haven't received their copy yet...

Thats not true, i did. Look at page 1.

[Radchek]

Though not a favourite game I did get a certain amount of enjoyment from Shining Wisdom. But what I have just found out is that Working Designs did the translation for the US and Camelot did the translation for UK. Camelot did a direct translation from the Japanese version for Europe while Working Designs re-worked the script and did bug fixes and made general improvements on the whole game for the US. Basically the US got a superior version from the rest of the world. Why couldn't we get the Working Designs version? I feel I have to buy this game again just to see what the differences are. Dilemma!

[108 Stars]

I believe the US-version has a major flaw too:
Characters reappearing from previous Shining games were all renamed so that you wouldn´t know it´s the same guys.
This was because the names used in the earlier Shining-translations were copyrighted by Sega and WD had no permisson to use them.

Great idea from Sega, huh?

I do not know how Camelot handled it; but Camelot Software Planning was the original team behind the Shining-series, so maybe the names were accurate.

[Radchek]

As far as I can remember all the names from previous games were correct in the Camelot version. Sega really should have let WD to use the original names, they really didn't do themselves any favours during the Saturn days.

[reaperman]

@reaperman

Now THAT´S interesting.

You mention a Suikoden game, yet the only one is Suikoden IV, whichis usually regarded as the worst entry in the series. I´m surprised to see someone have it in his favorites-list.

It's not that interesting--I like ships, but can't get into castles.
It's a theme thing, pirates are the only group of 'ye olde' sword-carriers I can stand.
This means that Suikoden IV is the only one I got very far into.

I didn't get very far into the also-piratey Suikoden Tactics though. I couldn't take it.

[Mr. Neil]

As far as I can remember all the names from previous games were correct in the Camelot version. Sega really should have let WD to use the original names, they really didn't do themselves any favours during the Saturn days.

Yeah, I think the US version was only superior in so far as it had a polished translation. The European version had some minor grammatical errors, but the US version got the Working Designs treatment, so that not a single punctuation mark was out of place. Literally, they had it so that the game would know how to apply an apostrophe at the end of a character's name, depending on whether or not the name ended in "S".

The property rights over character names was just dumb. There's no reason to license out a game to be localized and not include the character names as part of the deal, but that's late 90s Sega for ya. Kalinske was probably gone by that point. I can't see him letting something happen as stupid as that.

[silverf0x0]

Now that I'm thinking about it, no one has put Pier Solar in the favorite list...
Maybe it's just a bit early as many people haven't received their copy yet...

Thats not true, i did. Look at page 1.

Sorry Thorium, I didn't notice...

[Armoured Priest]

As far as I can remember all the names from previous games were correct in the Camelot version. Sega really should have let WD to use the original names, they really didn't do themselves any favours during the Saturn days.

Yeah, I think the US version was only superior in so far as it had a polished translation. The European version had some minor grammatical errors, but the US version got the Working Designs treatment, so that not a single punctuation mark was out of place. Literally, they had it so that the game would know how to apply an apostrophe at the end of a character's name, depending on whether or not the name ended in "S".

The property rights over character names was just dumb. There's no reason to license out a game to be localized and not include the character names as part of the deal, but that's late 90s Sega for ya. Kalinske was probably gone by that point. I can't see him letting something happen as stupid as that.

Yeah, Kalinske was gone at that point. Our good "friend," Mr. Stolar was in charge at that point.

Let's see, some of my favorites:

Love the original Phantasy Star

I know its not a really good game, but I'm a sucker for Sword of Vermillion. I know its a grind, and really clunky, but it feels like a classic fairy tale to me (research on fairy tales and folk tales from various cultures is a bit of a hobby of mine)

Shining Force 1 and 2: Shining Force was the first Strategy RPG I'd ever played. Made me love the sub-genre. Just an al around solid game that truly supported multiple play styles. SF 2 managed to be the rare sequel that truly improved upon the original in every way.

Wild Arms. Love the American Western flavor added to the frame of a JRPG. I honestly enjoyed Wild Arms more then Final Fantasy 7. I still tear up every time I hear that opening theme song.

Final Fantasy Tactics: Evolution of the SRPG format, with an interesting story to boot (horrendous translation notwithstanding). Armoured Priest's vote for best game of 1998 (which was a truly phenomenal year for gaming in general).

Panzer Dragoon Saga: What can I say, there really isn't much else like it, and it was a masterful game.

Dragon Quest 7 and 8. DQ7 stands as the console game I've put the most time into, that counts for something as I usually play through a game and move on. DQ8 is definately a "better" game then Sword of Vermillion was, but I liked it for similar reasons.

Lunar 1 & 2: Loved them on the Sega CD, loved the remakes on the PS1.

Skies of Arcadia: A number of former team Andromeda members, getting by the tragedies that occurred during development of PD Saga, getting transferred to Overworks and helping that team to create a game on the opposite end of the emotional spectrum as PDS. Seriously, try playing Panzer Dragoon Saga and Skies of Arcadia back to back. It s an emotional rollercoster. (for the same effect try watching Requiem for a Dream, and Ponyo back to back)

Atelier Iris: Just the first one, but I really enjoyed that game. Not even entirely sure why (had really good secondary characters which is unusual for an RPG like this)

Ys series: Ever since playing Ys 1 & 2 on the Turbo CD, I was hooked. I've been a Ys fanboy for years.

Not generally fond of PC gaming, but I have to give a shout out to Temple of Elemental Evil. Easily the best adaptation of the D&D 3rd/3.5 rules set...even with all the bugs, and kudos to the Circle of 8 who are still releasing patches for that game 7 years after the fact.

[MLowther]

Fire Emblem (the first GBA one was my game of the decade)
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (people hated it because of the law system but i liked it, made me deploy different strategies depending on the days laws)
Disgaea series
Golden Sun 1-3
Final Fantasy 6-9

i like my strategy RPGs

[Mr. Neil]

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (people hated it because of the law system but i liked it, made me deploy different strategies depending on the days laws)

Yeah, that game gets so much hatred, and it deserves none of it. That's a good game, and it's on the Gameboy Advance, which is the best thing Nintendo ever made. (...which explains perfectly why they discontinued it amidst runaway success.)

[MLowther]

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (people hated it because of the law system but i liked it, made me deploy different strategies depending on the days laws)

Yeah, that game gets so much hatred, and it deserves none of it. That's a good game, and it's on the Gameboy Advance, which is the best thing Nintendo ever made. (...which explains perfectly why they discontinued it amidst runaway success.)

agreed, so many great games on the GBA and tactics advance is my favourite game in the FF series.
completely forgot to add a game though.
Zone of the Enders: Fist of Mars (GBA tactical RPG, was a great game IMO, i loved the fact that attacks/crits weren't random, you aimed yourself, a larger radius for a hit and a small target, usually the cockpit, for crits. and you had to dodge attacks when you were being attacked. also, you had a huge 15 save slots :O)

[smurdd]

some of my favorite rpgs. no order.

mother 3 (that beginning was so sad)
super mario rpg (I love pretty much everything about this game, especially the timed attacks and jumping)
chrono trigger (really good story and lots of fun)
secret of mana (can't really remember, its been too long)
earthbound (not as good as people make it out to be, but pretty good. the story was silly, and that final boss was so awesome)
lunar 2 (never got very far in it, something was wrong with saving. but I really liked its style)

I thought I had more, but I can't think of any others right now.