Top 10 Lists : The Top 10 Best RPGs.

This game's title is actually Fire Emblem: The Blazing Sword if you translate it from Japanese to English, but thanks to the first _six games_ of the series never making to America the designers felt that we didn't know enough about the series to give this title a full name once one of them finally made it over here. But the splash that this game made was enough to force Nintendo into keeping it here. The Blazing Sword is a unique RPG in that it is a strategy RPG with a great story and amazing characters, something that few RPG designers within this particular category ever find the time to give a proper balance to. You will follow the intertwining stories of Lyn, Eliwood and Hector, all of whom are of noble descent and all of whom have to go through their various trials as a direct result of evil roaming freely throughout their lands. The story is an excellent one, and everything else backs it up quite nicely. The gameplay is superb, as every battle plays out from a top-down view in which you must go through every battle with meticulous care to keep all of your soldiers alive. Think of a giant chessboard, but with various topography features on it that the player must take into account when fighting. Fire Emblem also does something that is a rare sight in today's world of gaming: it offers an actual challenge. All it takes is one mistake to see a character die, especially in the harder difficulty settings, and the result is having to start an entire battle over again if you want to keep the character alive. Fire Emblem's unique style of "one strike and you're out" offers a challenging and intense gameplay experience that few other games offer, and trying out this game is an absolute must. Since Fire Emblem's initial success in the RPG market, Nintendo has since released two other Fire Emblem games here in the states: The Sacred Stones and Path of Radiance. Clearly the Fire Emblem series is here to say, and we have The Blazing Sword to thank for it.

No RPG list is complete without a mention of Final Fantasy 6, the smash hit for the SNES. For its time, FF6 had it all: good story, a good cast of characters, an insane villain that you couldn't wait to kill, unexpected plot twists, good gameplay and a killer soundtrack. But what sets FF6 apart from other RPGs of the time is that it popularized the idea of having a lot of party members. Before Final Fantasy 6, it was unheard of to be in control of more party members than who you were actually bringing into battle. Since then, it's unheard of for an RPG to only be at the bare minimum. You can thank FF6 for that, and the best part of all is that despite having almost 15 characters in total nearly all of them are given equal attention in terms of screen time and character development. You begin the game trying to save a young girl's memory, but you'll eventually take control of a king, a thief, a war general, a samurai, a ninja, and even a moogle. As for the game's main villain, he's one of most insane villains of all time, as well as a rare case in that he's a villain that actually manages to succeed in some of his goals. FF6 has an engrossing story that is just complicated enough to remain interesting, but just simply enough so as not to be confusing. The same goes for the gameplay, which only helps to make FF6 that much more enjoyable. The gameplay is good, but not overly deep so as to be intimidating. FF6 is solid all around, and it is so landmark in the genre that one could argue that an RPG fan cannot call himself an RPG fan without having played this game.

Some RPGs are influential. Others are simply fun. Others are so landmark that they'll last forever. Well in EarthBound's case, you have an RPG that decides to take everything that was trendy about RPGs of the time period and completely trash it. But in a funny way. By the time EarthBound came along, there were so many RPGs out there that the same plot devices and gameplay features had been done to death. EarthBound saw all of this, gave it the proverbial middle finger and made fun of every last one of them. There are inside jokes and rib-snapping humor all over the place in EarthBound, which is the main selling point of the game. However what is often lost in the shuffle of what EarthBound's initial purpose was is that there is an unbelievable cast of characters in the game, a solid storyline and some excellent messages that can be drawn from playing the game. Few RPG leads are as good as Ness is, because while nearly every RPG lead you see these days is a handsome demigod male in his twenties, Ness is... human. He's being forced to play out a destiny that he wants no part of, but goes on his adventure because he knows that he and his friends are the only ones who have the ability necessary to save the world from its fate. EarthBound may be hilarious for most of the game, but there is an amazing tale waiting in the wings as well; in fact, EarthBound may be the best example of writing one may ever see in ANY RPG in terms of completeness, a dynamic nature and depth. And this is saying a lot given how many RPGs exist. The one bad side of EarthBound is less than stellar gameplay, but the game is good enough to be one of the best RPGs out there regardless.

Of all the games on this list, there are only two that are on current generation systems. And why, you ask? Because RPGs are currently mainstream, and like all things mainstream you must wade through a TON of things that can only be described as average before you find the proverbial diamond in the rough. Tales of Symphonia is that diamond, but at the same time it's so much more. Given how long RPGs have existed, it's difficult for one to do anything new. But with the battle system seen in Tales, you have something that could very well do to RPGs of the future what random battles did for Dragon Warrior's influence. Not only is the battle system in Tales live-action, but you have the ability to control absolutely everything that's going on. You have party mates that can either be controlled by the AI or by friends, which makes TOS one of the rare examples of an RPG that is friendly for multiplayer. As for the characters, the detail put into their various setups and skills is flat-out cyclopean, yet doesn't take much time to learn or to set up once you know what you're doing. The things that the TOS gameplay are capable of is quite insane. But it doesn't stop there. On top of having one of the best gameplay formulas you'll ever see, you'll also find yourself wrapped up in one of the best stories ever told, to the point of nearly everything in the storyline being worthy of a spoiler tag. TOS does the best job of character development across an entire party since Final Fantasy 6, and on top of that the voice acting and plot twists in the game are absolutely out of this world. TOS throws one thing after another at you, and by the time you're able to recover from the storyline metaphorical of getting hit by a ton of bricks, along comes even MORE -- all the way until the bitter end. We may not currently be able to see the legacy of TOS as it hasn't had enough time to influence everything else, but we will. And on top of all this, Tales of Symphonia's success likely means that like Fire Emblem, the Tales series may no longer be restricted solely to Japan. Tales of Legendia has already been announced, and Tales of Eternia may be on the way as well.

Disgaea is easily the most obscure game on this list, though it shouldn't be given how insanely good it is. Every RPG gives the player something to do once the main necessities are out of the way; most gamers refer to this as the aftergame. What's unique about Disgaea is that despite how good the story is, the main selling point of the game is the aftergame itself. This is a true accomplishment in the world of RPGs, because the characters in Disgaea aren't exactly anything to sneeze at. You play the role of Laharl, the prince of the Netherworld whose father has recently passed away. It's Laharl's right to be the new Overlord, but thanks to his lazy butt being asleep for a few years chaos has reigned supreme among the Netherworld with all of the demons fighting for the throne. It's up to you to guide Laharl to his rightful position, but you'll soon discover that Disgaea has anything but a serious storyline behind it. Welcome to a world that is completely upside down; the angels are the bad guys, the demons are the good guys, there are talking penguins with a DOOD obsession, an angel assassin who sounds like a three year old girl with a love complex and of course completely clueless humans who have no idea what in the world they're doing. The story is hilarious, and the cast and voice actors do an excellent job of bringing it all together. Yet despite this, the storyline isn't actually the main reason to play Disgaea. Be very careful if you turn this game on, because you may not find yourself playing anything else. You will simply NEVER run out of things to do. For example, the maximum level that any character in the game can reach is 9999. Not 99, or even 1000. Nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine. And if that sounds insane to you, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are weapon masteries, weapon levels, skill levels, magic levels, item levels, stats-within-the-item levels, and a whole heck of a lot of other things that one could literally spend a lifetime working on without ever coming close to what every hardcore RPG gamer loves to see: a master file. One could call a master file in Disgaea impossible to achieve, especially given that any one character in the game needs to store 185,000 levels just to max out their default base stats. And even if you're not into the powerleveling aspect of the game, the base gameplay line is more than worth the price of admission and is worth playing the game for in and of itself.

Pokemon. The very mention of the word is going to draw feelings from everyone around you should you be willing to mention it in public, because virtually everyone either knows someone who was once obsessed with (or still _is_ obsessed with) Pokemon or was into it themselves once upon a time. This cute-little-idea-turned-smash-hit all began with the Red/Blue/Yellow games. In the beginning you're Ash, a young boy who wants to be a Pokemon trainer. To be a trainer, you need Pokemon. To get Pokemon you..... Gotta Catch 'Em All! Laugh at the phrase all you want, but this little phrase is known the world over. Pokemon was unique in that the same game was sold in two different cartridges, with a third version of the same game sold soon after. There were 150 Pokemon total, but to get them all you had to catch and trade like crazy among your friends; either that or have both versions of the game and two Game Boys, because the only way to do it all yourself was to actually link two Game Boys together. Naturally, a wonderful multiplayer system was also there in which budding trainers could unleash hell upon each other by having their little pets fight until unconsciousness. This was a massive selling point for the game, and Red/Blue/Yellow certainly wasn't the end of the multiplayer. It eventually moved on to a Magic the Gathering spinoff card game as well. Pokemon was the first game in which the main focus was the aftergame, and even today no other game has ever come close to doing it as well as the Pokemon titles. Sure Pokemon is a rather well-done, detailed RPG, but how many people consider this when buying the game? Everyone just wants to catch all of the Pokemon, level them all to 100 and give them all the best skillsets. Many people, including even Hideo Kojima of Metal Gear Solid fame have gotten caught up in the craze. Say what you will about the Pokemon explosion that soon followed the release of R/B/Y, but no one can deny this game's impact on the gaming world. Really, any game from this serious could be mentioned on a list of best RPGs, but R/B/Y gets the mention for being the set that started an insanely addictive series that has managed to break 100 million in sales. One thing that most people don't realize however is that it was Dragon Warrior 5, not Pokemon, that invented this formula. In DW5 you were able to catch every monster in the game and level them to 99. Sound familiar? :)

The original Final Fantasy may have been popular enough to keep Square from going bankrupt, but it was Final Fantasy 4 that put Square on the map as a contender in the world of RPGs. It didn't take much longer after the release of FF4 for Square to overtake Enix as #1 in the genre, a blow that Enix would not recover from until after the turn of the millennium. As for how FF4 helped make Square famous, it's because the game is a masterpiece; there's really no other way to say it. Of all the games in the Final Fantasy series, one could make a good argument for FF4 being the most influential out of any of them. Before FF4, a party member being killed off was absolutely unheard of. Yet not only will you have to deal with one major spoiler in FF4, you'll be dealing with... more than one, to say the least. Square would tone it down in later installments within the Final Fantasy series, but FF4 granted Square the luxury of experimentation; because of FF4's success, the company grew popular enough to try new things without a massive fear of going bankrupt should a few games fail like they had done in the past. This led to Square's games becoming well-known for always being ahead of their time, which is a trend that continues even today. In FF4 you begin as a troubled dark knight named Cecil; while Cecil may be a dark knight, he isn't blind to the corruption facing his kingdom and knows he must do something. Cecil is eventually forced to forsake his duty to fight for the side of good, and it doesn't take long for the long string of insane plot twists to get going. You must guide Cecil to not only getting over his darker self, but to be proud of the man that he is. It all sets up a story that is good to the point of you the player possibly not even realizing you're playing a masterpiece until after you've finished and replayed the game a couple of times to get a handle on everything going on. The one flaw in FF4 would be some of the gameplay elements, most notably the fact that many of the character abilities did not make the trip from the Japanese version onto the US FF2 version of the game. But that's why Final Fantasy Chronicles exists. Square too has since realized how good FF4 is, because their tribute Final Fantasy title -- Final Fantasy 9, respectively -- was essentially a clone of FF4. The next time you play an RPG with a plot twist that sucks the air out of you, remember what game began that particular trend in the first place.

Dragon Warrior is what started the console RPG genre. It's that simple. Back before the complex plots we know of today, we were a young warrior going off to rescue a kidnapped princess. How many times do you hear this story in a video game? Countless times, of course. How many times did you hear this story in a video game, specifically an RPG, before 1986? The answer would be zero. You will run into many great RPGs in this day and age, but all of them in some small way are influenced by Dragon Warrior. Ever walk through an overworld forest that was not even the height of the lead character? Dragon Warrior started the trend. Ever had mountains right in the middle of your path when it would have been much easier if they weren't there? Yep, you can blame Dragon Warrior for that. It was a whole different experience for the time. You were the hero. You saved the princess. You bought the copper sword to slay red slimes in a single blow! Without Dragon Warrior, Squaresoft might have collapsed. Without Dragon Warrior, RPGs may have never taken off. Without Dragon Warrior, there is no Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy 6 or Chrono Trigger. There is no Tales of Symphonia, Shadow Hearts: Covenant or even Star Ocean. All of the RPGs whose beauty we take for granted today had their paths paved by the original Dragon Warrior, and though it may not be the greatest game out there its influence alone warrants a test run from any RPG fan. Perhaps most importantly, it invented random battles in video games, going so far as to leave the overmap to do so. Leaving the overmap to do battle might sound familiar, as you see it in almost every turn-based RPG to this day. Check off one more feature that exists because of Dragon Warrior. But within its own right it was a good game, even away from its standard setting presence. It was fun to play, and that's what is most important to any game. You get to buy some equipment with some gold pieces, slay some dragons and wind up a hero -- the video game version of Once Upon A Time, if you will. If you love RPGs you should always give credit to this game that not only began the genre, but inspired most of its future.

Anyone who has ever spent more than six seconds of their time on GameFAQs knows what the site's favorite game is. For many, Final Fantasy 7 was their first trip into the world of RPGs; in fact, Final Fantasy 7 is oftentimes given credit for RPGs going from niche to mainstream status, though some would argue that the genre grew mainstream during the SNES days. And though FF7 is given some discredit among a few anti-fans, it is discredit undeserved. Final Fantasy 7 is the rare example of a video game that transcends gaming itself. FF7 is like your favorite album in that you're not simply listening to music; you're _in_ in the music. It's difficult to pin down exactly why FF7 is what it is. Perhaps FF7's popularity comes from the game doing everything well, rather than having one strength that carries everything else along. It has a varied, dynamic cast of characters that almost any player can relate to in one way or another. Be it Red XIII's family issues, Cloud's hiding from the past to look like a better, stronger man through conspicuous appearances or Tifa's inner struggle between hurting herself by hiding the truth or hurting others by telling it, there is something within at least one character in FF7 that we have all seen in our own lives. And what these characters do in coming together and going through their story is a sight to behold; FF7 is different from RPGs released before it in that you're not simply playing a game. You're in a movie, a movie that spans across dozens of hours and simply sucks you in from start to finish. Some would argue that this began a bad trend that has caused future RPGs to suffer, but blaming FF7 for other games not being as good as it in their copycat efforts is foolish. And the compelling storyline is far from the only good thing about FF7, either. The gameplay, specifically the battle system was wonderfully crafted and easy to learn. This made FF7 very newbie-friendly, which may be the biggest reason for FF7 bringing RPGs to the mainstream in the first place. It was also the RPG that popularized the 3D RPG, as well as the RPG that popularized in-game movie scenes. In almost every RPG released after FF7, you'll probably find something influenced by FF7. FF7 is a great stand-alone title, but it's also being the 3D RPG era's Dragon Warrior is no accident. As a final note about FF7, look at the site we're on: GameFAQs. The administrator of GameFAQs has publically stated that GameFAQs may never have grown to what we see today without a certain walkthrough written by the late Kao Megura. The game and the guide that caused GameFAQs to be famous, you ask? Final Fantasy 7. Know your roots.

There will probably only be one game that I will call my favorite for the rest of my life, and that one game is Final Fantasy Tactics. Very few games manage to define and lead a genre almost ten years after the initial release, but even today Final Fantasy Tactics is easily the best strategy RPG out there, and possibly even the best RPG outright. It only has one flaw: the translation, which anyone can notice after playing the game for all of five minutes. Yet Final Fantasy 4 has a bad translation and is considered to be a masterpiece. Why can't FFT have a bad translation and still be a 10/10 title? It does, and it is. Simple as that. FFT does three things absolutely perfectly: story, gameplay and soundtrack. You find any game that is perfect in these three categories and you've found yourself a 10/10 RPG, because those three items are what's most important to the success of any RPG. FFT's soundtrack speaks for itself, but the story and gameplay are just something else entirely. In fact FFT's story is so complex that you may have to play through the game SEVERAL times before you understand it all, and even then there is so much left open to interpretation that you might mull over the game's events and symbolism regardless of how many times you go through the game. In FFT, you are Ramza Beoulve, a descendant of the royal Beoulve family and a boy who is thrust right into the middle of a holy war that has ripped apart the kingdom of Ivalice. This may sound like the introduction to something quite noble, but don't get your hopes up. FFT is told as if it were a historical documentary, for all of the events that you are about to witness have already been seen by history. The catch is that history has recognized the wrong man as the hero of The Lion War; you as Ramza will view The Lion War through the eyes of the true hero of the tale, and will see exactly why Ramza is viewed as a criminal by history. Sounds deep, doesn't it? And that's just the beginning? There are dozens and dozens of characters and stories in FFT, all of which are different, yet in the middle of the same holy war. Some are good, and some are evil. Some will be allies, and others will be enemies. Some will be seen, and others unseen. What you the player see is up to no one but yourself; what you learn about FFT is directly proportional to how far you're willing to dig. Oddly enough, the same can be said of the gameplay of FFT. It was well ahead of its time in terms of how detailed it was, to the point that FFT would still be ahead of its time if released today. FFT is the single most detailed strategy RPG out there, and no SPRG has since even come close. Your characters all follow a job class system; the more time you put into a job, the more job classes you unlock. The more job classes you unlock, the more abilities you can learn. And in FFT, you can go absolutely insane with character customization. But to learn all of this stuff you have to enter battles, and within these battles lies a world in which absolutely every factor imaginable is accounted for. Topography, weather, equipment, attack percentages and their variables based upon that equipment and direction of attack, magic, charge times... you name it, and FFT probably has it somewhere in its battle system. It's a true reward to see all of that time put into your characters come to life on the field of battle, and many a human being have been sucked into how wonderfully the game is put together. It's an engrossing experience through and through, and for awhile it will even be a challenging one. There is very little that FFT does that isn't absolutely perfect, and no must-have RPG list is complete without it.

Though this is my personal list of the ten best RPGs ever made, it is like I said before far from being a complete list. Notable exemptions from the list include Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG, Final Fantasy X, Kingdom Hearts and all of the Zelda titles. These games are all good, but weren't quite good enough to me to make the final cut. As for there being no Zelda games, I don't personally consider them to be RPGs. By extension this caused Crystalis, which is probably the best game you've never heard of, to be snubbed as well. In the end I felt that this turned out to be a fairly balanced list with a little something for everyone contained herein, and I hope you the reader enjoyed it.

List by UltimaterializerX (01/09/2006)

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