Top 10 RPG Classics

A countdown of 10 of the greatest RPG classics;

A classic for the SNES, produced by the makers of the Final Fantasy Series (Squaresoft) and has a lot of similarities. The art work is fantastic and the storyline is pretty good as well. Fighting is a classic turn based system with Normal attacks, Magic attacks and combo attacks with your other characters

Its gotta be the good old fashioned 150 pokémon games for Game boy. Yellow is the best because you start with Pikachu and hes pretty much badass throughout the whole game. For anyone who doesn't know what Pokémon is and by this logic im also guessing isn't from this planet, then you basically collect animal/monsters and use them to fight other animal/monsters in a turn based system. Some argue it isn't an RPG but you play the role of Ash and it's a game, therefore a Roleplaying game, its has battle modes and a linear storyline.

Grandia 1 inparticular, the game was released on the PS1 and even for a PS1 title the graphics were awful, but if anything this gives the game all the more charm. You really feel like your going on an adventure playing this game, at first its all lala and childhood innocence but then the plot thickens and it gets really good. The main character Justin is a kid who really wants to be an adventurer, so he goes exploring the seas and the world and you discover it with him, The fighting system is a fluid variant of the turn based system and isn't the kind of battle system that becomes tedious and boring as it really keeps you on your toes.

Suikoden V inparticular, It has an epic 100+ characters and a long thrilling storyline, with twists and turns aplenty. The game is typically a turn based game and adopts formations, however when huge armies within the game go to war you control it more of an RTS but this only happens a few times in the whole game but is a nice break from the norm. Its abit slow moving for the first couple of hours but after that you'll be absolutely hooked.

Shadow Hearts 1 for the PS2 inparticular. It is technically the sequel to Koudelka for the PS1, which sadly isn't in this list but believe me it came very close. The fighting system is pretty unique and requires you to stop a moving bar at the right time to have a successful attack, as the game progresses you have to stop the bar multiple times in one sequence to do a combo which really adds a lot of skill to the RPG genre and keeps you on your toes the whole game. The storyline is fantastic and the whole game has a dark eerie feel about it.

Star Ocean Til the end of time inparticular. It uses a fluid battle system which is a cross between hack n slash and turn based. The battle system is really enjoyable and rarely gets boring. The storyline is gripping from the start, really good. The game creates a good mood and tension, i dunno wether its the music or what..

Jade Cocoon 1 inparticular. 2 is very good also so it was a difficult choice but Jade Cocoon 1 feels a little more traditionally RPG. Basically its like Pokémon meets Final Fantasy, the first one is very rare and i haven't really met anyone else who's played it. You catch monsters and fight with them and collect monsters but can also fight using yourself as a character. What really makes this game great and different from Pokémon is that you can merge your monsters and create a new one and its always exciting wondering what will come out of the merge. The games only drawback was that it was too short, typically lasting up to 20 hours.

Front mission 3 for the Ps1 inparticular. From the maker of Final Fantasy (Squaresoft). This is a grid based RPG turn based game. This means that sure its turn based but you best use some strategy otherwise you best book a one way ticket to a save point. The storyline is fantastic, a lot of twists, turns and betrayals. The fighting system is great because instead of you and the enemy have just one HP bar, you have an HP bar for every limb, if your arms get taken out you loose your melee or your gun depending on which arm, if your legs get taken out you can no longer move around the grid very fast and if your main body is destroyed then your pilot can jump out of their robot and try to jump into one the enemy has abandoned, failing this this unit is out for the full fight. Fights can be long and drawn out but not in a bad way. You don't have to wander around towns and world maps, instead you just select the location you want to go to on a map, this is great cos you don't have to get stuck in dungeons for hours and so the game is just raw storyline and fighting.

There never was a sequel to this game, despite constant demands from the cult community. This game was such a find, can't believe i stumbled across it, completely underrated and never got the recognition of RPG's such as Final Fantasy but wholly deserves it. Its a 4 disk epic, oldschool RPG, the graphics arent hollywood but they are just about good enough. The storyline is brilliant and the Music really works with it. The battle system is unique and requires you to press a button every time your character strikes the opposition, if you miss then the attack will end there, if you press the button at the right time each time then you will finish the combo. This keep the game interesting from start to end and never gets boring. Some great twists in the storyline.

Was there ever any doubt, perhaps not the most original choice but Final Fantasy is without doubt the greatest and most successful RPG series there has ever been. Spanning from SNES to PS3/XBOX. The one i will choose is Final Fantasy 7 (FF7), though choosing pains me greatly, like choosing your favorite child. Had i not have grouped The whole series into one tho, the whole top 10 would NEARLY all be Final Fantasy titles with FFX a very close second.

FF7 is the first release for the PS1 and at the time was very good graphics, this was the first title most people played and since doing so most people have then gone on to play the previous titles. FF7 is an epic 3 disk game which took me well over 100 hours to fully 100% it. It begs to played more than once and the storyline has created debate feverishly for years after. It is a classic turn based battle system, admitably nothing spectactular but good clean and simple. The music really makes this game and i can't listen to one of its scores without getting a huge desire to recomplete it.