PS1 RPGs

[Champloo]

Give Xenogears a go first of all. There's a lot of great RPGs on the PS1, but it's fair enough to say that a lot feel a bit dated these days. Xenogears still holds up - its got a solid battle system and a good story.

Otherwise:

- Arc the Lad 1 and 2. I haven't played 3 but it got a bad rep. Easily the best games WD translated on the PS1.

- The Persona games. I didn't get very far with the first - 2 is easier to get into.

I liked both SaGa Frontier 2 (avoid the first) and Legend of Mana, both of which also got a bad rep. Saga Frontier 2 is quite a grind, but its got a great battle system.

I do find that the loading times you get with the PS1 can make a lot of these games a chore these days. It put me off both Chrono Cross and Saga Frontier 2 when I went back to them recently. Solid games, but the constant short loading times can be a bit jarring. You can speed things up playing through an emulator, however.

[toythatkills]

Xenogears (disk one), Alundra, and Grandia are three of the greatest RPGs ever, and massively different games too which is nice. Believe the people that suggested these.

Dragon Warrior/Quest VII too.

[prinnysquad]

Are they all turn based?

[JP]

The Dragon Quest games are fantastic and to me they were better than the FF games. If you've not played any of them before you may find them a little or old school when compared to the far more polished FF games though.

Vagrant Story is one of my favourites but very different in play style to the games you've listed.

Xenogears was really good too but as toythatkills suggests, it really went downhill on the second disk.

Some more I'd recommend are Tales of Destiny & Rhapsody. I'm not sure if you're interested but it was possible to pick up the earlier FFs on the PS1 also.

[fuse]

Xenogears is still probably my favourite RPG of all time, even though I never actually finished it due to a painful lost memory card situation

It got a lot of stick for not being Chrono Trigger, and also for the way that whenever you enter a village half its population joins your party, but still, I did enjoy Chrono Cross a lot too. Great music and visuals if nothing else.

Breath of Fire 3 is top too, much better than 4 IMO.

Never played Suikoden 1/2 but from what I understand they should really be up there at the top of your 'to play' list too.

Think the PS1 is second only to the SNES in terms of RPGs to me.

[Adam]

Breath Of Fire 3 has an awesome style about it, love the music and visuals. Best one of the series IMO.

Vagrant Story never sat well with me for some reason, maybe it was too complicated for me back then. Saying that, I love my games to be as complex as possible these days so might be worth a replay.

Highly recommend Xenogears like the other say. Excellent plot if you can get your head around it.

Suikoden 2 is one of my favourite games, follows up from the first Suikoden really well so wouldn't hurt to play that one first, although it was like one of the first games out on PS1 so it isn't as polished

May want to look into others like Brave Fencer Musashi, the LUNAR games, Parasite Eve 1 and 2, Front Mission 3, Vandal Hearts 1 and 2, Legaia, Legend Of Mana, FF Tactics, Tales Of Destiny, Valkyrie Profile.

[Champloo]

The Dragon Quest games are fantastic and to me they were better than the FF games. If you've not played any of them before you may find them a little or old school when compared to the far more polished FF games though.

Vagrant Story is one of my favourites but very different in play style to the games you've listed.

Xenogears was really good too but as toythatkills suggests, it really went downhill on the second disk.

Some more I'd recommend are Tales of Destiny & Rhapsody. I'm not sure if you're interested but it was possible to pick up the earlier FFs on the PS1 also.

The loading times are a real killer with these though. Loading times before each battle, when opening a menu, when changing room etc etc. Go for the GBA versions or the originals.

[Darwock]

Suikoden 1 is pretty good but the controls are really laborious (no diagonal movement means walking around is a real chore)... Suikoden 2 improves on that and has some fantastic mini games but the story is the worst piece of made-up-on-the-spot nonsensical trash I've ever seen in a game. That includes FF8s "we all went to the same orphanage and forgot about it" twist. I hope it's down to poor translation... you should also be aware that either the US or UK version was literally unfinished - some dialogue boxes were left untranslated and some of the music was left out of the game (important music - one of thje characters is a singer and when she sings you get treated to 2 minutes of silence. I don't remember which but it was the one I played... I think the US version?

I wouldn't class Vagrant Story as an RPG, it's more like an action adventure.

[Vince]

Suikoden 1 is pretty good but the controls are really laborious

I really enjoyed Suikoden, it was one of those games that when i started i just couldn't stop, i guess the 'collecting' of all the characters made it a interesting game.

[Ady]

The PS1 was to me what the SNES was to many when it came to RPGs. Pretty much all the games I'd recommend have already been suggested by others, but I'd add Kartia, the Persona games and Legend of Legaia to the list also. The latter isn't the prettiest game in the world by any stretch, but it is decent.

Yeah, and Xenogears is one of my all-time favourite games ever. Ever.

[briareos_kerensky]

The loading times are a real killer with these though. Loading times before each battle, when opening a menu, when changing room etc etc. Go for the GBA versions or the originals.

Rhapsody will soon have a DS remake in Japan, I think NISA will port it over the US.

[fallenangle]

May want to look into others like Brave Fencer Musashi, the LUNAR games, Parasite Eve 1 and 2, Front Mission 3, Vandal Hearts 1 and 2, Legaia, Legend Of Mana, FF Tactics, Tales Of Destiny, Valkyrie Profile.

Front Mission 3, Vandal Hearts etc are tactical RPGs and IMHO a compoletely different kettle of fish. Parasite Eve 1 & 2 are more action/adventure/survival horror than RPG although Parasite Eve 1 has a very interesting and enjoyable RPG style RT weapon/combat system.

It's actually not a million miles away from that used in Vagrant Story, the only RPG I've started and not given up on after a couple of hours of ghastly dialogue and endless random battles. It's the one RPG I know that I want to come back too and give a it a real go.

[JP]

Rhapsody will soon have a DS remake in Japan, I think NISA will port it over the US.

Rhapsody was enjoyable too even if it did seem to have been designed for kids. Worth getting though if you're a Nippon Ichi fan and it came with the soundtrack CD in the US.

[idfei]

I highly recommend Racing Lagoon (High Speed Racing/RPG) as well... one of the underrated Square game on PS1.. but unforturely only came out in Japan.

[Magnakai]

If you liked FF7, you'll love Xenogears. It's got a very similar sort of feel to it.