To you what makes a great RPG?

Obviously Story or you won't want to bother playing 30 hours of random battles and level Grinding. You need a good battle system, and Great music.

But what else?

For me the Best RPGs ever made are Chrono Trigger, Xenogears and the Shin Megami Tensei Games.

The Thing I hate the most and Xenogears is very guilty of this is too many battles, in Xenogears I'm just trying to get from point A to Point B and it takes me 15 minutes to do this because every other step I take is...A BATTLE. But the Worst offender in this is Wild Arms 5 which not only has too many battles, but it's crazy ass honeycomb grid based battle system drags those things on forever. At least in Xenogears the battle system is simple fast paced and the battle music is awesome.

 

Ones that don't have the words final or fantasy in the title, after the abortion that was ff13 the series is now officially dead to me.

 

Well, aside from the story, a good RPG must have a fun battle system. I think FF12 ,Fallout (original), and Deus Ex (original) have some of the best battle systems available for RPGs. It didnt even feel like a chore grinding away in FF12 or Fallout.

Hell, I think those three RPGs are the only ones I have played through multiple times.

 

While I think Final Fantasy is an overrated series i don't think XIII Is horrible.
VII is overrated granted I started playing VII in 2007 10 years after it came out

 

Personally I genuinely enjoy turn based combat
Also experience based levelling up, like I detested the levelling up stuff on final fantasy 10, sphere grid? The hell is that??? Although FF13 was vile, I had a fondness for the way levelling up was approached, except for preventing you from levelling past a particular point, I will over-level if I damnwell want to!
I'm gonna go ahead and be the dreamcast nerd
Skies of Arcadia
That is all

 

Granida or Skies that is the question. Or Evolution or EGG...ARRRRRGH
Dreamcast didn't have many RPGs but it had alot of good ones

 

I think XIII is horrible. Characters suck (Sazh is not bad. Everyone else however...), story sucks, and the combat sucks (how this is considered the one of the best parts of XIII confuses me even to this day). The music is pretty good even though it doesn't sound like Final Fantasy music, and the graphics are great. With that said, the music and graphics aren't enough to save it from being one of the worst RPGs I've played this gen (not THE worst, but definitely one of them).

As for VII, I believe that is a game that gets both more praise and more hate than it deserves. It isn't the greatest game ever like some dorks would have you believe, but it was definitely a good game for it's time. It's just unfortunate how Square-Enix milked it to death and turned Cloud and Sephiroth into the jokes they are now.

 

Well indeed
Unfortunately, I'm yet to get my hands on EGG.
Wel I own a copy, but it has been ruined by disc rot, won't even boot :/
I'd say I like Skies best, followed closely by Grandia and Evolution though. Despite all the evolution hate, I thoroughly enjoy it, the random dungeon floors and such kept it varied enough for me, I consider it dungeon crawling done right.
The only dreamcast RPG I find abhorrent is Timestalkers. Made me want to cut off my hands and use them to gouge my own eyes out.

 

My Friend's Boyfriend told him no INSISTED that he play FF7 and I insisted back that instead he play FF9, which instantly is more enjoyable than 7 IMO of course the consensus is it doesn't get better than 6.

Now me personally story, gameplay, atmosphere, music, and likeability and depth of characters it doesn't get any better than the Shin Megami Tensei games. Given Atlus and it's new multiplatform anything stance I'm getting very anxious for Persona 5

 

I've played every offline Final Fantasy, and have beaten 4,5,6,7,8,10, and 12 (very close to beating 3 and 9). Out of the bunch, I still believe that 6 is the best one and is the most deserving of a remake or a prequel/sequel/anime/etc. But if 7 is any indication, I guess I should be thankful that 6 is ignored by Square-Enix. The last thing I want is an anime sequel that turns Locke into a brooding anti-hero.

I haven't played very many Shin Megami Tensei games, but I really liked Nocturne. The satanic music mixed with the apocalyptic setting and the Pokemon-esque demon capturing system made it a very unique RPG.

Persona is kind of a mixed bag for me. The dark, somewhat depressing setting in 3 and the foggy, mysterious setting in 4 were both great and added a lot to the atmosphere. The characters are also great, have an interesting back story, and are very likeable, or at least most of them are (That annoying little shit Ken can burn in hell for all I care). I hated most of the music in 3 (If have to hear that ear-raping dorm theme one more time...). The boss themes were cool though, and the music in 4 was a lot more bearable, no pun intended.

The main thing that annoys me about persona 3+4 is the writing. I beat both back when I was in high school and it didn't bother me much back then, but now I find it almost painful to sit through. Before I heard about Persona 4: The Golden, I replayed 4 along with The Answer from 3, and couldn't believe how corny the dialog was. There are so many awkward pauses, especially when someone is giving an lame speech about something.
Guy: ...and that's why I'm fighting for her...
Girl: Guy...
I notice this happens in a lot of anime, and I find it embarrassing to sit through. Maybe it's just me. :shrug:

And I understand they're in Japan and Japanese people speak Japanese, but why do I have to constantly hear Japanese honorifics while they speak English? (Senpai...) It's like hearing someone speak Spanish with a little bit of Chinese thrown in. I'd prefer if it was dubbed in English, but if they're going to use Japanese honorifics, then why not just have them speak Japanese? There was also a scene somewhere in 4 where Rise complains about having to learn English, something like "Ugh, I hate English. Why do I need to learn it? If I need to use English, I'll just hire a translator". Nothing wrong with that, except for the fact that she IS speaking fluent English. I know they're technically speaking Japanese and we hear it in English, but that doesn't make it sound any less stupid.

With all that said, I will always have fond memories of Persona 3+4. In the case of 3, I sporadically played it throughout an entire school year so ironically the game progressed as I did in real life (of course the months were off, but you know what I mean). Anyway, I too am looking forward to Persona 5.

Well damn, think I wrote enough? :lol:

 

they could cut so many RPG budgets in half if they JUST SUBTITLED

 

It would be cheaper sure, but would it be profitable? There is definitely a market for subbed games, no doubt. But by axing the English dub, they cut more from their profits since the majority of buyers do not want to hear "moonspeak".

With Persona, it's not that I want it subbed, it's that the English translation has Japanese injected into it. I know they do that to make the dialog match the Japanese atmosphere of the game, but wouldn't keeping the original dub do a better job of that?

Personally, I prefer English dubs in my games and anime. Part of what makes RPGs so great is the people/characters that inhabit the in-game world. Awhile back I played a few skirmishes in Valkyria Chronicles in Japanese, and it just didn't feel the same. There are certain quirks in the way the characters speak that's hard to hear or understand in a foreign language. I'm not saying Japanese dubs are inferior or anything, just that as an English speaking American, I find it easier to relate to and grow accustomed to characters I can actually understand.

 

mmh story, memorable characters, lots of equip and customization, lots of freedoom...

in the years my favorite games are (in random order) Romancing SaGa 1, SaGa Frontier, Final Fantasy VI, dragon Quest VII, Rudra No hino, final fantasy 1.

Of those i loved SaGa frontier battles, customization, different races and variety the most.
The best story ties FFVI and DQVII,
Rudra was a great surprise and a novelty in concept, story and music.
Romancing saga 1 and Final fantasy 1 have thet inexplicable oldschool feeling that i just love!

 

The dialog in pretty much every JRPG is awful anyway. Persona 3 was great, the only JRPG I've ever liked enough to finish (twice). Part of this was probably due to the lack of random encounters, they need to go die already.

 

I can't stand most JRPGs, the random fights are killing the fun for me. My favorite RPG of all times is Gothic 2 + The Night of the Raven, as can be seen by my nick and avatar lol.
Open world, good dialogues, awesome music, interesting quests, cool and tough monsters, great replay value (3 factions with 3 stories) etc. pp..
So these things are rather important for me and unfortunately most games nowadays just can't compete with the classics in these regards.
God i wish a real Gothic 4 would come, not the shit that Arcania was (different developer).

 

Most RPG players are Weeaboos so of course it would be profitable. Apprently the people who dubbed Persona 3 and 4...were also weeabos.

Xenogears has great dialog I've yet to read anything corny (since there's no voice acting)

Aside from the annoying random battles everytime I try to do something Xenogears is pretty much the perfect JRPG. Great Battle system story that grabs you by the balls, great characters, unpredictability, Amazing music (Since it's the same guy that did Chrono Trigger) and a top notch battle system they even coded a competent fighting game engine into one of the Mini games.

 

Thes ones i play and liked to the point i can recommend

- Chrono Trigger
- Wild Arms
- Kingdom Hearts / Kingdom Hearts 2
- Grandia / Grandia II

 

Monkey!

 

I just thought of a non- dreamcast RPG that I love
Eternal Sonata!!!! Loved it from start to finish. Has it all, fun battles, interesting story, good customisation and don't even get me started on the music, I could listen to chopin alll day.

 

Bad voice acting is why I still haven't even started FFX.

the worst is TEACH US HOW TO BLITZ. At least XIII had half way decent Voice acting. Fang and Vanllie had sexy as hell voices. (I love aussie accents)

AH Tales of Chopin. I have it but it has yet to fully grace my 360. Until I beat Chrono Trigger and Xenogears I am not even going to LOOK at another RPG.