Alright kids, weigh in. What is the best RPG yet made?

[Scorekeeper]

Strategy: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
Turn-based: Knights of the Old Republic
Action: Mass Effect
Adventure: Dragon Age: Origins
Sandbox: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

 

[Rzepik]

Baldur's Gate II: SoA - Mage battles, plot & freedom balance, overall quality. Though I never liked ToB.

 

[MNRA]

Vampire the masquerade - Bloodlines.

So. Damn. Good.

 

[CATB320]

Dragon Age: Origins had me the most immersed, I think. Although what first came to mind was Mass Effect 2, for some reason.

 

[Athinira]

You know what i meant. BG would of been better if it was FULLY TURN BASED. Ok ?

I want to see and know everything that's going on while it happens in the battles and be able to enjoy everyone's actions as they happen. Not have to pause and scroll back in the battlelog to see wtf just happened. Also RtwP becomes a total clusterfuck at times.

Yes, i know what you meant. And I'm sorry, but I can pretty much guarantee you that close to 100% of anyone who ever played Baldur's Gate would have hated that. We have other games (notably the Final Fantasy series) for that.

The problem with fully turnbased games is that the combat of those games is completely inflexible and lacks depth. Baldur's Gate on the contrary allows you to pull alternative tricks, including LoS abuse, kiting etc. Those are things you'll never see in a fully turnbased game. Like i said, we have plenty of fully turnbased games, we don't need anymore of those, and we certainly don't need to replace the combat system in one of the most unique game series there is. Most of us finds them boring anyway (although the interesting universe of games like FF can make up for it quite for the stretch). An uninteresting combat system is the last thing those games need.

Baldur's Gate actually had a very sophisticated auto-pause system for people who preferred the game that way. You could make the game auto-pause based on certain conditions, including making it auto-pause once every round (6 seconds of combat at 30 FPS) was over, which made the action easier to follow and a lot closer to the fully turnbased experience.

 

[floppylobster]

Chronotrigger and Panzer Dragoon Saga. But what do the kids these days know.

 

[Mugen]

I've got to go with FFX. For me it's a bit of a personal thing; I practically grew up with that game, and practically worshiped it for periods of time. It may not necessarily be the best RPG of all time, but since this is all subjective anyway, it is certainly the best one to me.

well put, sir. i like the way you phrased that.

but for ME, i would have to say FFVIII. god, the hours i spent in that game....those blessed, joyful hours!

 

[zehydra]

For me so far, Fallout 3. Skyrim is close to beating that for me

 

[zehydra]

Chronotrigger and Panzer Dragoon Saga. But what do the kids these days know.

haha, I played Chronotrigger for a while, couldn't get through it. I should try playing it again. Everyone says its amazing.

 

[floppylobster]

Chronotrigger and Panzer Dragoon Saga. But what do the kids these days know.

haha, I played Chronotrigger for a while, couldn't get through it. I should try playing it again. Everyone says its amazing.

If you're not hooked in by the time you've met the robot then you'll probably never like it.

It's probably the best of the old style RPGs (not like modern RPGs like Mass Effect or Oblivion). Its appeal relies on a real engagement from the player in the characters (something brilliantly established by the trial - that's wen you realize the game is really engaging with you). But if you don't care for the characters then no RPG is going to be very engaging. Chronotrigger is clever and memorable in some of it's scenarios but I guess it's hard to get attached to non-speaking 16-bit character sprites for people these days. Especially when you have beautifully rendered characters voiced by Hollywood actors in modern games (though no doubt those will look dated in future too).

Panzer Dragoon sucked me in with a rich world (that wasn't over-explained) and some ambiguous moral characters who were in real conflict. I've since realized how much they ripped off Miyazaki's Nausicaa but the game and story benefited greatly from stealing from that source. I still love it. But I'm biased because I love the art direction and fictional language they created. I'm also interested in the World War II parallels they included from the Japanese perspective. It's also definitely recommended, but if you're not drawn in by the opening cinematic you probably won't want to continue (watching the opening cinematics of Panzer 1 and Zwei are recommended if you want to get the most out of the story).

 

[Mbellosg]

I'm putting my vote in for Morrowind. Nothing has ever felt as real and immersive as that game. I don't think it'll ever be surpassed. Any thoughts?[/quote

Agreed. This is the game that basically got me into gaming. But, I played Kotor 1/2 at the same time i played morrowind so i rate them a close second.

Ps. Skyrim is amazing, i'm yet to complete it so i can not say if it is the best.

 

[Swny Nerdgasm]

I'm voting for anything made by BioWare, with the exception of Jade Empire

 

[Slash Joel]

I'm just going to say Bioware you can fill in the blank from there.

 

[Odysseous2]

My personal favorite would be Dark Souls. Best seamless integration of a linear story and an open world I've ever seen. Frustrating, but never enough for the game to stop being fun. The atmosphere is done perfectly, the world is so incredibly immersive... I could go on. Anyway, I haven't played every RPG ever made, but Dark Souls gets my vote in terms of which, of those I've played, I enjoyed the most.

 

[Robert Ewing]

I'm gonna say either Skyrim or Baldur's gate: Shadow of amn.

Both games are definitely up there, no matter what your opinion.

 

[Axyun]

Xenosaga series gets my vote.

I loved Baldur's Gate, KotOR 1, ME 1 + 2 and several others. But there is something about Xenosaga that makes me want to revisit the trilogy every so often.