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Resetera's Top 101 Essential RPGs - Final Update. Top 101 up plus many extras.
- Thread starter kswiston
- Start date
Okay so with the current rankings being some incredible games I wanted to focus on one in particular due to it having an entire series of games that are worth trying. The Dragon Quest series and specifically Dragon Quest VIII. The questions I ask are for people who have played DQVIII. What drew you into playing this game? What appealed to you the most for those who enjoyed it? Was this anyone's first Dragon Quest game and did that push you to try the rest of the series?
For me, It was my first full fledged experience with the series. My first contact was VII but the opening put me off as a kid so I never finished it until years later when the 3DS version fixed that. When I first saw Dragon Quest VIII the vibrant colours and Dragon Ball style characters immediately drew me in much like VII but this time I was in love with everything I was experiencing. The open world with monsters present on the field and the voice acting that at the time was the new addition to many PS2 games and was incredibly well done. Everything from the story to the characters and enemies were charming and fun. The arena system was another aspect I spent hours trying to finish by collecting a monster team that was strong enough and the rewards were incredible. This game meant so much to me when I was younger and solidified my love for the Dragon Quest series.
For me, It was my first full fledged experience with the series. My first contact was VII but the opening put me off as a kid so I never finished it until years later when the 3DS version fixed that. When I first saw Dragon Quest VIII the vibrant colours and Dragon Ball style characters immediately drew me in much like VII but this time I was in love with everything I was experiencing. The open world with monsters present on the field and the voice acting that at the time was the new addition to many PS2 games and was incredibly well done. Everything from the story to the characters and enemies were charming and fun. The arena system was another aspect I spent hours trying to finish by collecting a monster team that was strong enough and the rewards were incredible. This game meant so much to me when I was younger and solidified my love for the Dragon Quest series.
The first two Xenosaga games don't play very well, it took them until the third game to get it right but by then a lot of people gave up on the series. Even back on PS2 I wouldn't say any of the three games would make it into my top 5 PS2 RPGs.
As for 40-36...
Valkyria Chronicles - I'm surprise this made it so high, not that its a bad game but I don't love it like a lot of other people do I guess. I've played a lot better strategy RPG's and frankly the game can just be tedious the play with some of the later battles having extremely high difficulty. Still a really good game but I don't even think it would make my personal top 30.
Skies of Arcadia - An amazing game that I constantly feel like I really need to go back and replay. Theres something really special about this game and its a damn shame it never had a sequel. Getting your own ship and being able to recruit people to join your crew was awesome, felt like Suikoden in that way which I really appreciated.
Kingdom Hearts II - I expected this to be higher tbh, its such an amazing game in so many aspects but the combat in this game is the best of its genre. Playing this game on critical is such a different experience then playing it on the easier difficulties and even gives the Dark Souls games a run for their money in terms of amazing boss fights. Lingering Will is still my favorite boss of any action RPG. If you've played this game and haven't played it on critical you really need to.
The World Ends With You - Man I'm surprised it made it this high and with the remake coming to Switch this year it might end up being a lot higher next year. It's a fun and interesting game with a ton of style and really creative aspects to it but the original game was rather clunky to play on the 3DS. I look forward to the remake and can we get a real release date for it already?
Dragon Quest VIII - This is one of the best DQ games and one of the best RPG's on the PS2. While I didn't vote for it it really can't be denied that the game is an amazing classic and the remake for the 3DS is even better IMO because of all the new content it added, this is not one to miss out on. If you've never played a DQ game this is really the best place to start and hell if you hate random encounters the 3DS version actually got rid of them.
If you are talking about whether Xenosaga III can rank or not, it's chances are a bit crippled due to being the third game in a continuous story. People would need to play the first two games.
I'm guessing this is why TitS:FC ranked higher than SC, despite the later arguably being the better game.
He is one of the Bosses of the story added with the Royal Pack DLC.
(at the moment the last released DLC of the game, also present in the editions of Royal Edition and Windows Edition of Final Fantasy XV)
To describe it in detail I should make some Spoiler of the story and Lore of the game.
So I will call him by his name as King.
The Mystic, the Founding King.
(of Lucis)
The real name of The Mystic is
Somnus Lucis Caelum, and is Ardyn's brother.
It's very cool :)
It's very cool :)
The first thing that caught my eye was the protagonist on the box art in his bright yellow jacket. Yellow is my favourite colour so that was instant draw for me. What probably kept my attention was Toriyama's art style as I was a big fan of Dragon Ball Z growing up. From there it was the great supporting characters and amazing open world that kept me coming back for more despite not really understanding open world J/RPGs until years later.
The story, characters, world music and enemies are what appealed to me the most by far in Dragon Quest VIII. Everything just breathes so much life in this game and it was one of the first video games I ever played where it felt like I was going through an actual world instead of some computer generated trees and pointless NPCs.
This was indeed my first Dragon Quest game and though it took me a while I have gone and played a bit of all the Dragon Quest games except for VII, IX and X (and XI obviously). Out of all those ones I've played (I, II, III, IV, V and VI) V probably ended up being my favourite Dragon Quest game in terms of story and rotates with VIII as my favourite DQ game depending on how I feel about it at the time lol.
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Looks like I agree with you on something for once. Aside from (the appallingly named) Soulsborne games, it's easily one of my favorite action RPGs gameplay-wise.
What drew me to play the game? I got a PS2 pretty late and this game was included for free with the system.
What appealed me the most? The classic JRPG feel of the game, but I didn't like the game that much, I don't even remember if I finished it, because at that time I played lots of JRPGs on the PS2 that I wished to play for years. I liked some of them a lot, but the first Kingdom Hearts, DQ VIII and FF X were not that good to me, so I kind of decided that the "new" SE games were not for me.
And yeah, it was my first DQ game. I'm playing XI in a few days because now I'm more open to turn-based combat and classic stories than I was a few years before.
For me, Suikoden V is one of the rare game that suffer from its technical limitations. Having supposedly grandiose location being baren wastelands ingame kinda took me out of the game.
I guess that's it for Dragon Quest considering that 8 is the most known and popular on the internet. I doubt that 1-3, 6, 7 or 9 will appear now since they're less popular.
Glad to see Kingdom Hearts 2 but surprised to see it so low. Is it going to be surpassed by Birth by Sleep or what? lol
Glad to see Kingdom Hearts 2 but surprised to see it so low. Is it going to be surpassed by Birth by Sleep or what? lol
Part of me really wants it to get the 21st spot now lolThe Obsessed Final Fantasy VIII Haters (OFF8H) showing their blinding hatred, once again. The best Final Fantasy will prevail. It will continue to go far. It will shock. It will surprise.
Thats the trap bro, any spot it gets now is one higher than it ever should have been. Wish for it to be 35.
I really didnt think people would be rallying around it so much, wouldnt it funny if it just didnt rank and the hype train just continues to the end :p
I wrote about my thoughts on Dragon Quest as a whole a couple of pages ago, but I'll also answer this question :).
Dragon Quest VIII was my first Dragon Quest. I was in my lower teens at the time and I got the game as a Christmas present--my brother suggested it to my mother as something I would probably like; it was a surprise for me. I took to the game incredibly well and played it a couple of times in that high school period.
I loved the cast, their stories, and their relatively unique ability profiles. The voice-acting really brings them to life and that is not something I usually say at all :P. I appreciated the character story arcs that played out over the course of the game, tangential but incorporated to the main story. The characters were very fun to use in battle with their unique identities and roles.
I loved the world, its colors, its stories, its feel, its voice. In particular, I liked the church's place in the world and its story. Despite a story of corruption in the church, there was a believable, genuine religiosity among the people and this duality is quite rare in games.
I really loved the "classic" atmosphere of it all and it just felt so comfortable and yet so expertly crafted.
I went on to continue my Dragon Quest experience with the DS releases, and it has been a wonderful adventure that has both reinforced my original impressions of Dragon Quest and challenged them, all for the better.
I mean I love all of them, but I like 5 the most I think as a whole package kind of view, each game has something it does better than the other games imo. Honestly I wouldnt be surprised if 4 won over 5 here, era seems to have more of a fondness for 4 overall probably for various reasons
Can't say I would mind. While it doesn't touch 3 and 4 for me, it looks and plays considerably better than those two.
It's not gonna beat Persona 4, though.
it's also because its a better than those two, if that counts for something
Persona 4 will be the highest ranked, I have no doubt. But I bet Persona 5 will beat 3. I love all three, but 3 is definitely my favorite of them.
I like em all too, i just think Persona 5 never really picked up again after Kamoshida while 3 & 4 just got better & better as the games went on, for me at least.
I love Persona 3, and I actually think is the game that better integrated the Persona formula with its narrative and themes, but one thing I can't see is how the game just got better and better. The beginning is great as well as the ending, but there's such a big slump of nothingness in the middle for me.
I think it had peaks and valleys just like the others, personally I think the pyramid was the best arc in the whole game, the casino and the ship were also really good (although I know some might disagree on the ship), I would place them above the castle. Kamoshida was probably the most standout villain in the game though, but I dont think the other ones were necessarily bad, he was just really good. I think really what it comes down to is the tone you prefer, 3 (while having some pretty long stretches) had the dark tone, 4 had a more intimate feeling, while 5 strikes a kind of grand kind of tone as the exploits of the Phantom Thieves become public. I love all of them to death, but I think 5 had a nice balance between the darker aspects of 3 and the more fun parts of 4 (though it could have done with a lot more hangouts like 4, but maybe in the rerelease we can get that). Personally im just happy that they are all high up there cause I do love all of them
I did play P3 like 10 years ago so im probably biased with nostalgia, but there was just a lot of unforgettable moments in it, don't wanna point em out in case people lurking right now haven't played it, but with P5 i just remember the Kamoshida arc strongly but everything else is kinda a blur.
That's true P5 is a more of a balance between 3 & 4, 3 was very edgy while 4 was Scooby Doo. I hope we get Persona 3 remake (with FeMC option) before Persona 5 "Crimson" or maybe even Golden on PS4 lol.
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Last year, Persona 4 ranked #3 and Persona 5 #7. If Persona 5 didn't manage to beat Persona 4 in its launch year, I don't think it will now either.
Persona 5 is definitely going to beat Persona 3, though.
That's fair enough. It's sorta the opposite for me, though, hahaha. Kamoshida's arc isn't even my favorite in the game.
In other subject, it's funny, I actually prefer 4 to 3, but 4 ranking above 5 upsets me more. I guess I find 3 more unique in its style, while 5 is in many aspects (to me, obviously) a better version of 4.
Where I would have placed the KH games:
KH II - had it as my Highlight Pick, think it should have been top 15 for being --arguably-- the best ajrpg ever (though I'd give that to XC).
BbS - Gameplay (and, in my opinion, production-wise) is ahead of KH 1 but it's not placing unfortunately. 45-55 range for me.
KH I - maybe ten spots higher than it is now. Didn't age well compared to its sequel but remains extremely entertaining, charming, and worth the experience.
KH II - had it as my Highlight Pick, think it should have been top 15 for being --arguably-- the best ajrpg ever (though I'd give that to XC).
BbS - Gameplay (and, in my opinion, production-wise) is ahead of KH 1 but it's not placing unfortunately. 45-55 range for me.
KH I - maybe ten spots higher than it is now. Didn't age well compared to its sequel but remains extremely entertaining, charming, and worth the experience.
I would be surprised if it was more highly rated than 1 and 2. It was initially on the PSp so probably wasn't played as widely as the first two games.
Can't wait for Persona 6 to be out so the absurd narrative that P5 is worse than two notoriously mechanically inferior games can finally die out.
I think only KH fans care about BBS.
I almost voted for it this year and probably will vote for it next year. But yeah, it wouldn't rank above KH1 or KH2.
I would have put Birth By Sleep pretty high a few years ago but replaying it in the HD collections has really made it clear how barren it is, even by KH standards. Where it used to go toe-to-toe with 1 and 2 in my mind I now rank it firmly below them, even if it's combat is solid it doesn't mean much when everything else is kinda dull
Even though Birth by Sleep is available on the PS3 and PS4 now, a lot of people still haven't played it. There are still many who only played KH1 and KH2 back on the PS2 and didn't bother to play the handheld games or the collections. That being said, I don't think it deserves a higher ranking than KH1 or KH2, anyway.
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10 Final Fantasy titles made the top 101. We are down to the top 35, and there are still 7 to go. There's a decent sized group of FF titles that are on a lot of lists.
That said, we will start shedding some with today's update.
Someone above pretty much worked out the rest of the list. I figured that would be the case when we got down to this point. So it will be more a matter of what ends up where than big surprise inclusions on the list as a whole. Everything from now until the end of the list had at least 50 different people including the title on their personal voting ballot. The Top 10 had 95 or more individual recommendations (25% of the voters would be 103 recommendations).
That said, we will start shedding some with today's update.
Someone above pretty much worked out the rest of the list. I figured that would be the case when we got down to this point. So it will be more a matter of what ends up where than big surprise inclusions on the list as a whole. Everything from now until the end of the list had at least 50 different people including the title on their personal voting ballot. The Top 10 had 95 or more individual recommendations (25% of the voters would be 103 recommendations).
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I honestly didn't like it very much but I can see why it would rank so high, so dunno. Now if it somehow ranks above Xb1, I will be salty as hell
jesus christ lol