[LeoDraco]

I never really cared for Chrono Trigger. I mean, it was an alright game, and all that, but it never really made me wet my pants. On the other hand, I absolutely love Chrono Cross: it had sexy, pseduo-3d goodness, some realatively sexy characters (those whom were not sexy were, at the very least, interesting), and absolutely beautiful music. Battles also had a somewhat strategic influence, too, as you could only use a particular element once per battle, rather than continuously spam an uber trick.

I'm actually surprised that no one has mentioned them, yet, but how about the tactical RPGs? Two that quickly come to mind are Final Fantasy Tactics and Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. FFT (and, to a lesser extent, FFTA, which is actually quite fun, once you get into it) was simply amazing for its day: the sprites were detailed, the maps beautiful, the music bearable for extended play, the story full of machinations and subterfuge.

Disgaea, on the other hand, is a veritable wet dream come true: the game allows the player to level some 9999 times, with the option to "transmigrate" a unit back to level 1 at any point --- the process raises the base statistics of the unit, allowing for more stats to be gained per level; weapons may also be levelled up via a relatively complex item world, where one may subdue weapon specialists, whom affect weapon stats. The plot is funny, the music decent, and, best of all, it comes with both English and Japanese voice acting. (screenshots)

And how about the Star Ocean series? I've never played the original, but SO: The Second Story was marvelous --- except, perhaps, for the wonky 3d world map graphics; however, as the rest of the game is absolutely beautiful, those can be forgiven --- and SO: Till the End of Time was also well done. The Item Creation system is execellent in both games --- TET's makes more sense than SS's did, but SS's was available at practically any point in the game, which was very nice. Both games feature voice acting, and neither was terrible. Lots of different weapons, large worlds in which to explore, mini-games (usually at a theme park, no less), fun, real-time battle engines, great plots --- they are fantastic plays.

Then, also, there is the Suikoden series; while some actually bemoan the later two games (3 and 4) to be horrible bastardizations of the original two (Genso Suikoden and 2), each and every game is fun and unique. They generally contain good plots, more mini-games than one can shake a stick at, large battles, beautiful art, and great music. Suikoden 2 even had a cooking mini-game, which was quite enjoyable to play.
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"...LeoDraco is a pompus git..." -- Mandrake

[js71]

Personally tactical RPGs don't do much for me. Maybe it's my short attention span, but I usually find them downright boring. Too much...stuff, and most of them seem to be ALL battles with maybe a very linear world map chucked in. I understand lots of people like them, but I don't care for them at all. The only one I didn't really mind was Shining Force II, which I eventually did beat after a few weeks of having nothing else to do.

Star Ocean... Only played the first briefly, wonderful graphics though. Can't remember most of the music, but I do remember it being fairly good as well-- though the plot seemed to be a bit rough, but maybe that was just in the beginning. (OH! A time travel device, let's randomly believe it IS in fact a time machine and safe as well, and jump in and let it take us god knows where! :p)

Tales of Phantasia, from the same dev team (for the most part), had similar graphics and was more...polished in my opinion. I could go on and on and on and on about some other RPGs which I really like, but the ones in my list are the ones I really LOVE. :p

Oh, I guess Zelda 3 should be in there somewhere... though it's more of an adventure/rpg I suppose...?

[Sirocco]

I really loved Tactics Ogre, but hated how it handled leveling and enemy AI. TTF was pretty decent, but it had some seriously unforgivable design flaws, including a one-on-one scenario two thirds of the way through the game which you could easily find unbeatable unless you knew about it beforehand.

My problem with all of the 'tactical' games is that they rely on brute force to give you a challenge. The rock-stupid AI, even in the PS2 entries, is no challenge whatsoever. I want AI strong enough to keep me on my toes when the odds are perfectly balanced; thus far, I haven't seen that.

[js71]

Who knows, I might really like it-- if it's 'quicker' to do things in battle like you say then I may. Of course one of the reasons I didn't mind Shining Force II was because it had a world map and 'standard' RPG-like towns... Made it feel less restricted.

[Xegnma]

I like different games for different reasons, primary among them graphics and gameplay so at the top of my list:

Secret of Mana 3: If for no other reason than the graphics alone. This game, in my mind, represents the height of pixel-art of SNES games. Even by today standards, I think most would find the work most impressive. Sadly, it's one of those games that never saw western shores, at least not by conventional commercial means. Thankfully we have the emulation scene. An english translation patch is available from DeJap, and the rom is practically a staple of any decent emulation site. This rpg marks the end of an era, and by god it shows. Squaresoft's pool of artistic talent sport a level of maturity here unmatched in any other game of it's time. The gameplay was'nt too shabby either, with symbolic circular menus ( a hallmark of the series) and multiple characters to play as. Many a pixel artist (myself included) see this game as THE standard against which one measures oneself.

Final Fantasy VI (released as FFIII in america):This was the first game where the characters were able to move me emotionally (yes, I am serious). The plot was great for its time though somewhat worn by contemporary standards. But the characterization is the big hook in this game. I found myself actually caring about these guys. Each had their own distinct stories, backgrounds and roles and of course (a la squaresoft) craploads of battle techs, magics and what-not. Fond memories.

Chrono-Trigger: Need I say more. The game is just a Classic. Some of the most memorable music tracks you will ever find in a game.

Legend of Zelda-A Link to the Past: There's been some debate as to whether this is a RPG or an adventure game. Me? I think it fits nicely into both categories even if you only play as one character.

Tales of Phantasia: A fine game from Namco. It covers all the basics fairly well (good music, art, etc.) and it has a decent plot and has an innovative real-time platform-based battle system.

Mark Hall's The Spirit Engine: One of the finest indie RPGs ever created!! Not only is it complete but it is a finely crafted work with multiple players to chose from. There are many naysayers who denounce anything made with "generic" game creation software but trust me folks this one will more than give you pause. I won't spoil it for you though download this baby for yourself (it's free) you won't be disappointed.

[XMark]

[Sirocco]

[js71]

Wasn't Seiken Desnsetsu 3 actually Secret of Mana 2? Secret of Mana 1 being Seiken Densetsu 2? Or something like that... Never bothered to keep up with it exactly. :p

[Sirocco]

Here's how it goes:

Secret of Mana 1 = Final Fantasy Adventure (GBA)
Secret of Mana 2 = Secret of Mana (SNES)
Secret of Mana 3 = Didn't leave Japan :(

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[LeoDraco]

There have actually been a few more games in the Seiken Densetsu series. In particular, to those who have not played it, Legend of Mana was not terrible.
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"...LeoDraco is a pompus git..." -- Mandrake

[Sirocco]

[LeoDraco]

I did not think it was bad. While I am not, normally, in to action-oriented RPGs, I thought it performed adequately. I even think that is was better than Secret of Mana.
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"...LeoDraco is a pompus git..." -- Mandrake

[js71]

Anything's better than Secret of Mana for me. That game was just ridiculously difficult and unbalanced. Fairly easy at first, but... I dunno what they were thinking with some of the later bosses.
EDIT: By 'some of the later bosses' I'm talking about that fucking tiger boss. I'm not quite sure what the hell was with that one, maybe the designers and testers were just freaks of nature with god-like gaming skill. Some of the enemies too were royally annoying for when they came in, come to think of it... Most of the game was that brand of 'it's not stupidly hard, it's a "good challenge!" Maybe it's just me though. Maybe it's a very easy game and by some complete fluke of a totally random combination of choices by both me and the AI, I found it far beyond 'ridiculously hard'.

[Sirocco]

Secret of Mana was a wonderful title, but it was a little buggy in the hit detection department, and that often meant that although you could power your weapon up five or six times, you'd either miss with your shot or get hit by an enemy before you could actually use it.

Playing with another person was an absolute blast; indeed... my first time through the game I played as the girl while my roomie worked with the boy. We left the sprite to the AI ;) It was also one of the very few RPGs my wife would play.

The secret to (easily) getting through the first part of the game is to intentionally level up when you have the opportunity. For example, you can easily get to level four or five just fighting rabites immediately after you've drawn the sword. That gives you a jump-start on the game, and even allows you to take out the first boss in just a few hits.

When fighting the bosses, you can interrupt or totally pre-empt their attacks by hitting them with magic. You can also totally avoid their spells by casting a spell of your own, but the timing is important. Also, level up the whip as often as possible -- it's a wonderful weapon with great range and accuracy.

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[js71]

Hmm. Maybe I'll have to give it another try sometime. One of the things I did like about the game was some of the music (not all of it; some was a bit sketchy), specifically the boss tune. Still remember that one almost note for note. :p