Let's all replay Final Fantasy 7.

[Metaltastic]

I dunno, Tidus grew on me a bit, but more importantly, Auron is just the ultimate wise old badass, and I like the premises of the world and culture of Spira and thought the story was pretty interesting and had some good moments

However, while the ending was pretty sad, I honestly felt kind of annoyingly disconnected from the emotional aspect of it because of how different the characters looked in the prerendered (vs. in-engine rendered) cinematics; specifically, they looked way more Japanese, which was only an issue because I had grown so accustomed to the far more Western looking people in the in-engine stuff, so these people just looked (and also acted mocap-wise) totally different, it was always a bit jarring. Also, some pretty big plot holes, in the form of unexplained motivations for some of the characters introduced later in the game, which can only be addressed by looking at the wikipedia article on the game, with info taken from the official guide, the Ultimania (printed only in Japanese). Overall though, I really liked it!

 

[GarethSE]

Man FF7 was my first final fantasy ever though man, and I've noticed this trend of me deciding that my personal favourite work of any band, artist, game developer, blah blah is always the first i get into properly.

so for nile its annihilation of the wicked, for david lynch it's inland empire, for the FF series it's FF7, and that makes sense to me
FFX just seemed abysmal in comparison to FF7 but I don't think it's the result of any bias or attachment to FF7, I think it was literally just that the characters were so painfully unlikable (at least to me, everyone responds to different personalities differently, we aren't all friends with the same people, etc etc..)

As well as that, FF7 leaves a lot up to the imagination. The text means all the characters have voices of your own creation, rather than horrible dubbing by talentless whiteboiz. The characters being practically constructed out of boxes and sinew (check cloud's arms, it's lolz) somehow adds a fuck load of charm to it while egging you on to flesh out their looks with your own imagination.
That, and you know the music is stupidly good when you prefer the midi version of one winged angel to the one performed by a fucking orchestra.
the music is PERFECTTTTTTT.

especially this track:

dub as fuck, i want to do a cover of this one day.

 

[Williamn]

Oh remember buying this one when it came out years ago.. awesome, awesome game.
Might pick it up for PSP and replay it someday

 

[arv_foh]

I remember quite vividly what Tifa looked like in the cutscenes. Lol.

 

[lolzgreg]

 

[kaomao]

Baldur's gate is the best Rpg ever.... sorry nothing compares to it!

 

[Greatdeceiver]

Baldur's gate is the best Rpg ever.... sorry nothing compares to it!

was going to say that about that and throne of balls... also liked nvn2 original, too bad expansions were shit. I dare to say I even liked nvn2's atmosphere more than BG2

 

[GarethSE]

for shame greg haha

so i turned the playstation on earlier and tried to load my game but it was like
YOU WANNA FORMAT MEMORY CARD? LOL KEKEKEKE ^___^
and i had no choice but to format it. got up to the first save point and im not continuing until im sure i wont have to format it

 

[Metaltastic]

Oh god, please don't tell me your playing it on a PS1

 

[IronMaiden15]

Baldur's gate is the best Rpg ever.... sorry nothing compares to it!

Saying a western rpg is the best rpg in a jrpg related thread isn't very fair. =P

 

[Ermz]

One of the best games ever, no doubt. Even the typical atrocities committed by JRPGs couldn't keep the raw power of the narrative down in this game. The whole thing is just massively epic.

If we're talking about RPGs on a wider scale though, let's get our definitions more clear.

-JRPGs in essence tend to be stat-based adventure type games. They rarely involve any true role-playing, as you just go down a designated linear path, since they're intrinsically so story-centric.

-Action RPGs (like Diablo, Diablo II & Titan Quest) tend to be solely stat/grinding-based hack n slash fairs. They are anything but true RPGs, because there usually is absolutely no role playing to speak of beyond slaughtering countless enemies and assigning your unique skill tree. I LOVE these games myself. Diablo 2 and Titan Quest sucked a substantial portion of my life, and I pee my pants thinking of D3.

-True RPGs are games like Fallout 1 and 2, Baldur's Gate etc. which typically operate on a divergent/convergent mechanic where you have an array of open quests to do in an order of your own choosing, advance the story, then go back to achieving the main goal by doing more quests again. Sometimes the lines blur with games like KOTOR, but I would say that the vastness of dialogue and alignment choice of those titles entitles them to be called RPGs. An RPG is essentially a game that gives you a choice in defining your character, or your moral choices, beyond what implements you use in combat.

It should be noted that in recent memory there are NO games other than the Fallout series which can 'truly' be called RPGs, simply because in Fallout you achieved the quest through your own means. They essentially plonked you down in a big-arse wasteland and said 'go sick'. Even Baldur's Gate has some training wheels on. Oblivion and Fallout 3 attempted the same thing, but being Bethesda, the entire game world just felt vacuous and it becomes more a question of 'do I really have the intestinal integrity to do all 100 of these dungeons, which don't enrich my gameplay experience whatsoever?'. It just becomes a matter of traveling from place to place, taking on the mediocre, characterless quests they've written and advancing your player character until he or she is the demi-god of the wasteland/lotr-esque medieval jerkoff fantasy. Bethesda are completely and utterly incapable of creating compelling RPGs.

So to everyone who hasn't done this, please check out these games, based on their true categorization. These are some of the best games I've ever played and I'd recommend them strongly:

Action RPG:

Diablo 2
Titan Quest

JRPG:

Terranigma
Chrono Trigger
Final Fantasy 7

True RPG:

Fallout 1 & 2
Planescape Torment
Baldur's Gate 1 & 2
KOTOR 1 & 2

All of those games rock balls, and would be wise to check out before wasting any precious time on mediocre crap like Mass Effect or The Witcher. In fact, playing those will illuminate just why every modern RPG since KOTOR has blown ye olde ass.

 

[GarethSE]

oh i was gonna pick up the witcher, it sucks then? D:

and nah marcus im playing on ps2 D:

 

[IronMaiden15]

oh i was gonna pick up the witcher, it sucks then? D:

and nah marcus im playing on ps2 D:

No, The Witcher and Mass Effect are great games. Just don't expect a very hardcore RPG experience from both of them. They are still RPGs but not for the purist but even that is sometimes not the case.

 

[GarethSE]

Mass Effect was cool, but ermz is tutoring me in the way of the awesome RPG's aint that right ermz? aha

ive seen nothing but praise for the witcher, but whatevs. i have enough to be playing at the minute anyway

 

[kaomao]

Mass effect is a movie period!
not really a classic rpg

 

[Ermz]

The Witcher bored me to death all 3 times I tried to play it. The best way I can describe it is a single player MMORPG. The quests are some of the most tedious shit I've ever seen, along with a combat mechanic that apparently appeals to the mentally deficient. Honestly, this is one title where I could never understand the praise.

Mass Effect was mostly just painful. You have all these people praising Bioware for creating this unique sci-fi universe, but all it really is, when you play it, is a take-off of Star Wars but without the Jedi. Take away the quasi turn-based KOTOR combat, write a shitty narrative, take away the only defining feature of that universe, replace its lore with similar but superficially different lore, add in horrid stat based gunplay and there you go. Inferior to KOTOR in just about every conceivable way apart from graphics.... I guess the latter really goes a long way in making a game a 'masterpiece'

 

[Metaltastic]

Chrono Trigger is definitely also on my "to play" list, both because of the reputation of its story and the fact that Akira Toriyama (creator of the Dragon Ball series) did the artwork

 

[IronMaiden15]

The Witcher bored me to death all 3 times I tried to play it. The best way I can describe it is a single player MMORPG. The quests are some of the most tedious shit I've ever seen, along with a combat mechanic that apparently appeals to the mentally deficient. Honestly, this is one title where I could never understand the praise.

Apparently The Witcher doesn't appeal to elitists.

 

[Bekanor]

Chrono Trigger is definitely also on my "to play" list, both because of the reputation of its story and the fact that Akira Toriyama (creator of the Dragon Ball series) did the artwork

And the soundtrack is kick ass!


Nobuo Uematsu FTW!

 

[GarethSE]

Apparently The Witcher doesn't appeal to elitists.

And I see no problem with this.