8 of the Greatest RPG Franchises of All Time

[Vendor-Lazarus]

Methinks this should have been broken up into different takes.
One should take care not to mix ones WRPG's with JRPG's and Action RPG's with Hack('n'/&)Slash.
One CRPG is not comparative with another as the term RPG is soooooo broad as to render it almost meaningless. ,)

My favorite (broad) RPG Franchises?
Diablo (up to 2)
Dungeon Siege (up to 2)
Fallout (up to 2)
KotOR (2 was ok)
Torchlight (2 was better!!)
TES (up to Morrowind)
Gothic
Baldur's Gate.

Honorable singles:
Harbinger
Titan Quest
Arcanum
Deus Ex


I'll end this by saying "pokemon? really?"

 

[Mechamorph]

I have to agree with the general tone of discussion thus far. While these franchises are solid picks, I would not rate many of them as among the "best" RPG franchises. For example both Mass Effect and KOTOR are great games but their follow ups had serious ups and downs. I found ME1 to be pretty good, ME2 to be rather disappointing as it was more of a shooter than RPG and ME3 was only so-so. KOTOR 2 was patently unfinished while the MMO is apparently floundering. If you needed to represent Bioware why not the Dragon Age franchise? Both the first and third games are excellent while the middle child is pretty solid if not to the same standards as the other entries.

I think Wizardry is the most egregious absentee. Together with Ultima, it was one of the most influential RPG series of its time. Might and Magic too deserves an honorable mention. My personal appeal would be the Gold Box SSI games. Although not formally a franchise, you could carry over your characters from adventure to adventure and they were all set in Ed Greenwood's Forgotten Realms so they are technically more of a "franchise" than say, Final Fantasy. The omission of the Witcher is baffling to me as well for its one of the best modern series with three excellent games and one of the best licensed RPG game series.

The mixing of cRPGs and JRPGs on the same list is generally rather contentious as they are not quite the same genre. I can understand that Final Fantasy has the brand recognition even if the past few games were disappointing compared to their more illustrious predecessors. Still either Disgaea and Persona could represent the Shin Megami Tensei series if not the original games themselves. Legend of Mana, Legend of Heroes and especially the Chrono series certainly are worthy of high rank. I have to ask, if you had to rate one of the best RPGs of all time would most gamers choose Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross or the Pokemon series? My personal bias also calls for the Tales and Dragon Quest series to have some recognition as well.