Who remembers great JPRG's from the 80's and 90's? (maybe some 00's to)

[Forge]

I started back around '84-85 with some Rouge game using ASCII-art on an Apple II that my high school science teacher would let the kids with the good grades play during lunch hour.
FF1 on my friends NES.
I ended up buying a sega when I saved enough money from work. So I played a lot of Phantasy Star games, and I really enjoyed a few of the Shining Force games as well. Kinda fell out of games for several years because I moved around a lot and never really had time.
Think the last game I really got into on a console was Legend of Dragoon on the playstation. Another fun title. A 1999 game, but technically it didn't reach the United States until around 2001. Border-line qualifies.

[SRMiller]

The closest thing I played to an RPG/JRPG growing up was the Legend of Zelda series. A friend down the street wanted to trade his PSX for my N64 w/ OoT. I was probably 13 or so back then.




That PlayStation included a copy of (memory might be failing me) PlayStation magazine demo disc that had a demo of FFVII, trailer to FFT & a demo for Cool Borders 3.




Holy shit, that trailer to FFT blew my fucking mind. The music, the atmosphere & the designs looked incredible! Playing the demo for FFVII was amazing as well. By the time I was finished, I was on the hunt for either game and found FFVII, oddly enough, at our local pawn shop. $10 later I was kicking ass all through Midgar.




VII introduced me to the FF series & Squaresoft in general. Eventually, I made my way into the remaining FF’s on the PS1 and the all time greatest JRPG ever, Xenogears. I also tackled Breath of Fire 3, attempted (and failed) SaGa Frontier, Legend of Legia, Wild Arms 3, Secret of Mana & Chrono Trigger (bundled with FFIV).




The PlayStation was probably the best console for JRPG’s back in the day. IMO.

[Doublecoolbeans]

Unfortunately I never was afforded to many opportunities to play jrps growing up, and Final Fantasy has intimidated me due to being out of the loop with the overall story arch.

that and I dont even know what are good picks as far as the current generation of consoles are concerned. I've heard great things about FF7 and they have the original remaster in the psn store, but not sure if I should play the first 6 before that one.

[SRMiller]

Unfortunately I never was afforded to many opportunities to play jrps growing up, and Final Fantasy has intimidated me due to being out of the loop with the overall story arch.

that and I dont even know what are good picks as far as the current generation of consoles are concerned. I've heard great things about FF7 and they have the original remaster in the psn store, but not sure if I should play the first 6 before that one.

It’s your lucky day dude, there is NO overall story arch in the FF series. Of all the main games in the numbered series, they are all individual stories set in their own respective “universes”. 1 has nothing to do with 2, 5 has nothing to do with 10, etc etc. I would strongly suggest starting the series with 4 (my personal favorite) or 9.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 9 are all high fantasy games.

7, 8, 10 & 13 are more sci-fi-ish.

6 & 12 is kind of a mix of the two.

So is 15, but fuck that game.

[drmrboyc]

Yes start with FFIV! That got me hooked on gaming back when I was a wee lad xD

[SRMiller]

IV does have the best story, but I also forgot to mention, do NOT, under any circumstance, play the sequels to the numbered games. X-2, XIII-2 & 3. They ruin the original game.

[Ruinic]

All right now lets see... it may not be my first RPG i played growing up but it was the one that made me fall in love with the genre. and thats the one..... the only....Earthbound. while i play many games before this one grab my attention and lead me down a path of RPGs, This game and FF6 are to this day some of my favorites, special mentions to dragon warrior/quest too but i didn't find them till later un life.

[aileron]

If they haven't already been mentioned, Xenosaga & Final Fantasy VII

[Tapkoh]

JPRGs were my life growing up. Started on the SNES and played FF 4 & 6, Mystic Quest, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Lufia, Breath of Fire... I was really disappointed that the N64 didn't have a lot in this regard, but Ogre Battle 64 was great. Then I moved on to the playstation and picked up FF 7-9, Suikoden, SaGa Frontier, Wild ARMs, more Breath of Fire, Star Ocean, Lunar, Legaia, Chrono Cross, Dragoon, Koudelka, among others. I missed this stuff so much in college that I played older games with fan translations (before some of them saw official English releases) like the first Star Ocean, Dragon Quest V, Tales of Phantasia, and Romancing SaGa 3.

[Forge]

I prefer JRPGs, but does liking Daggerfall and Diablo (I) make me inherently a traitor?

[Arrowny]

I like to tell people that 90s JRPGs taught me to read. I played every one I could find for the SNES.

[Aidy]

Never really had access to JRPGs when growing up, but the first RPG I got really hooked on was 85's The Bard's Tale. Then later Eye of the Beholder. I didn't really play many RPGs until I got a Dreamcast and played Record of Lodoss War (never completed it, the game glitched on me ), Skies of Arcadia, Shenmue etc. Then with the XBOX there were hardly any decent RPGs, and now with the latest XBOX there are loads of RPGs but now they're all action based.

[Forge]

Never really had access to JRPGs when growing up, but the first RPG I got really hooked on was 85's The Bard's Tale. Then later Eye of the Beholder. I didn't really play many RPGs until I got a Dreamcast and played Record of Lodoss War (never completed it, the game glitched on me ), Skies of Arcadia, Shenmue etc. Then with the XBOX there were hardly any decent RPGs, and now with the latest XBOX there are loads of RPGs but now they're all action based.

Bard's Tale. I kinda remember playing that, getting lost in the wilderness, and giving up. I wasn't in charge of the keyboard, so I take no responsibility.

Think I still have the 2 disc AD&D gold collection somewhere. Has about a dozen of those games on it. iirc Eye of the Beholder III was probably the best one.
On a tangent, I also liked The Summoning by Event Horizon & SSI.

[CPT. Chrome Dome]

Some great games mentioned already but since most of the classics have been spoken for I'm going to go for one you guys might have missed.



Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean I thought was an underrated gem when it released in 2003 on the Gamecube. The game was incredible looking at the time and story was engaging. I remember the plot twist about mid-game threw me for a loop and it was kind of what brought me back into JRPG's after I had fallen away from them after the classics of the SNES and NES era. It definitely had it's faults (the voice acting was downright painful for one, fortunately you could turn it off) but it pushed me back towards enjoying more modern JRPGs. I might have missed out on a lot if it wasn't for this game reigniting my interest.

Great music, beautifully crafted world and a good story layered on top of a fairly original card based battle system. Can't ask much more of a 60+ hour experience.

[Eldarion]

The original Wild Arms has my favorite story ever in a game period. I've been looking forward to playing it again on PS Classic.

[Zalachai]

The first time I played it, the scene where adelhyde is attacked and the sky cracks open and skeletons drop down blew my mind.

[Drann]

Ever play Alter Code F? It's a PS2 remake of Wild Arms with some changes and improvements, absolutely worth a play through if you're a fan of the first game. It isn't perfect but it offers enough to present a somewhat refreshing experience for fans of the first game.

[Spect3r]

Am i the only one who enjoyed Shining Force? Or am i the only one old enough to remember it? lol
Of course, Chrono Trigger is amazing but that goes without saying

[Forge]

No. I mentioned Shining Force as well, but it's kind of hard to read everything mentioned in all the posts when the thread starts getting past a page or two.
I like the top-down games, but not a huge fan of the 1st-person dungeon-crawlers. Those were a bit too generic and grindy.

[Zalachai]

I grew up on mostly "bad" jrpgs like mystic quest and Quest 64. I did get to play the original dragon warrior at my grandparents and over time I got a huge collection of rpgs. All of ff, dq, bof, wild arms, etc. Had some nice semi rares like Ephemeral fantasia. Sadly, has to sell most of my collection during the hard financial Times I had. Now I'm slowly rebuilding.

[Dndan]

I loved Quest 64 XD I thought the way you gained power by finding tiny crystals in the world relating to certain elements was cool, and you could argue that it's combat system inspired the semi-dynamic combat later seen in more modern Final Fantasies. While it may be "bad" by some standard, I really liked it.

[Zalachai]

I really would love to see a sequel. In the original planning phase, they intended there to be 3 playable characters and a lot more story. Then they ran out of funding.