Best Playstation RPGs...?

[JazzFunk]

^I've had that sitting on my shelf for a few years but have never got round to playing it. What's it like and why's it bad?

[Scarface]

Just out of interest, did anybody play Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter. It has to be the worst game I have ever played.

Well, there's a lot of people saying quite the opposite. At least when talking about rpgs for PS2.

[Profit]

Threads of Fate is brilliant and overlooked. One of the funniest games around and fairly short too.

[Meadows14]

^I've had that sitting on my shelf for a few years but have never got round to playing it. What's it like and why's it bad?

OK, it might not be bad, it is in my opinion that it is, but Scarface seems to think people liked it, so maybe you should give it a whirl.

The reason I didn't like it was because of it's large differences with 3+4. Breath of Fire 3 + 4 were cheerful games (in a way), with bright surrondings and colourful enemies. However, Breath of Fire: DQ was dark and depressing, all set underground (as far as I got in the game). Also, I think if you died a certain number of times you had to start the game again, which i thought was stupid, but I don't know if that was in the game for sure, as I haven't played it in ages.

[JP]

I don't think I noticed at the time as my other consoles probably had more play but thinking back it's quite surprising just how many top quality RPGS appeared on the PS1.

I'm tempted to say that it may well have been the best console for RPGs.

I had a list of about 15 which could have easily gone here but...

1. Chrono Cross - A surprisingly good follow up to Chrono Trigger.
2. XenoGears - A fantastic first half that was let down by a relatively disappointing second disc. As a whole it was still far better than most out there.
   
3. Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure - A game by Nippon Ichi & Atlus...don't really need to say anything else.
4. Wild Arms - A really enjoyable top down RPG. Bought it on my PS3 a couple of weeks back too.
5. Thousand Arms - I don't think this was a popular game but it held my attention for ages. I loved the anime style 2D battles scene!

[FreddyKrueger]

Reading this thread I get the idea that I have missed out on a lot of good RPGs as in the past all I have really had is PAL stuff. Have I missed the boat or can some of these still be picked up cheaply?

[Champloo]

1. XenoGears - A fantastic first half that was let down by a relatively disappointing second disc. As a whole it was still far better than most out there.

The second disc really wasn't that bad at all. Essentially, they ran out of time/budget, so they decided to cut out a few of the later dungeons in order to finish the game and leave the story intact, which was the games selling point afterall. It could have been better, but seeing as the game was still a good 60 hours long, I can't help but feel that cutting a few of the dungeons was possibly a good thing.

[JP]

Which is why it's remained the top of my list!

The main problem with disc 2, or at least the last 50% of disc two wasn't the lack of dungeons it was the fact that it seemed to consist of walking 10 foot and then having to watch a five minute cut-scene. That was repeated until the end of the game!

Whether it was a lack of money or time that caused the problems is irrelevant to the fact that a lack of good planning was what resulted in the drop of quality towards the end of the game.

The high points of the majority of that game almost make that crap at the end excusable and I imagine that the game will remain close to the top of my list of favourite RPGs on any system for a very long time even with all the problems!

EDIT:

Reading this thread I get the idea that I have missed out on a lot of good RPGs as in the past all I have really had is PAL stuff. Have I missed the boat or can some of these still be picked up cheaply?

Some of them are fairly cheap now as they've been reprinted which reduces the value of the originals.

Things like Suikoden I & II still have really high value but that may well drop in value if/when Gensosuikoden gets an English language release.

[nintastic]

PDS !!! Opps that's on the saturn ! Oh well, that games worthy in any thread on rpgs !

[Swaain]

It's appealed to me but ever since Disgaea was released it's price has sky rocketed. The fact that it's apparently very short (10 - 15 hours), very easy and it didn't receive awesome reviews when it was released has put me off spending ?50+ on it. From what I can gather there are much better RPGs out there.

I owned the game for a while, played it to completion and was very disappointed. Presentation is OK-ish, music is fine, but the battle system is broken as hell : in my opinion, grid- and turn-based battles don't mix with random battles. Plus, the game is way too easy and the dungeons extremely repetitive. They all look alike. The game is rare and it's neat to "own" it as it's relatvely rare, but it's really not a good game. Only for Nippon Ichi completists and PSX-collectors!

[gossi the dog]

I owned the game for a while, played it to completion and was very disappointed. Presentation is OK-ish, music is fine, but the battle system is broken as hell : in my opinion, grid- and turn-based battles don't mix with random battles. Plus, the game is way too easy and the dungeons extremely repetitive. They all look alike. The game is rare and it's neat to "own" it as it's relatvely rare, but it's really not a good game. Only for Nippon Ichi completists and PSX-collectors!

I actually own this now. Bought it a couple of years ago following a rerelease which saw the price fall to a realistic price. I must admit to really enjoying it. It is short (less than 15 hours in length) and it is very easy, but it's such a lovely game. I really enjoyed it. There are far better PS1 RPG's but this as something a bit different is very good.

[danholo]

The time I've spent most time with:
Star Ocean: Second Story
Final Fantasy IX
Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy VII
Grandia


I'd say SO2 is the best game battle system wise. I like the junction system in FFVIII and the simplicity and world in FFIX were great.
I'd put Tales of Phantasia on that list if but the PSX version is a remake of the original for the Super Famicom. Chrono Cross also receives a notable mention from me. Xenogears was an amazing game but I never did beat it... for some reason. The "human" battle in it was really cool but the mecha battles so-so. I never got the hang of it. I always found my gears low on health and fuel and there was no easy way to repair them. I still have a save for the last dungeon but it's kind of hard picking up where I left off 2-3 years ago. Also, I missed some item that you can acquire for only a certain period of the game. I guess it allowed better item drops or something...