Which PS1 classic RPG to play?

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Final Fantasy Tactics has an amazing story, but is quite hard unless you know what you're doing. It also has (imo) one of the best OST's of any game I have ever played.

True, the early to mid game can be 'crush your controller into a fine paste' hard, since you don't have access to many (levelled) jobs and their best abilites yet. Some missions in particular can feel downright unfair your first time through (and not using a guide).

Once past that though, things will ease up once you'll start unlocking certain jobs, abilities, items and characters that'll let you turn your party into a bunch of nigh unstoppable deathmachines. The Calculator/Mathematician job is a particularly powerful example if played smartly, letting you nuke everything on the map, one-shotting a lot of enemies, while healing your own troops.

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

not traditional RPG but i really liked mega man legends

 

[SqueezetheFlab]

Personal 2 is also a great choice, just don't get innocent sin for the psp, those load times are atrocious.

Persona! Sorry, somebody to do it. Plus they basically scream it the entire game. The first couple Persona.. Personae for PS1 were among my favorite RPGs. They were fucking hard, tedious, cryptic, but had a very complex, rich progression system where you had to converse with demons and convince them to join you (you would then get to summon them to do attacks).

 

[Zepherus14]

Legend of Dragoon! Loved that game dearly when I was younger

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Legend of Dragoon. Go, go, run, fly, teleport to it.

 

[Frankster]

Legend of Legaia imo, the combat system in particular was super fun.

Since others have thrown in recommendations here's a few more: breath of fire 3/4, grandia 1/2, Star Ocean 2

Only played Legaia 2 on PS2

Legaia had a sequel Don't know why I never heard of it but damn I need to look into that.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

Final Fantasy Tactics all the way, just make sure to play the PSX version and not War of the Lions.

 

[Wary Wolf]

Never particularly liked Legend of Legaia. Well, I suppose it was Ok on the first play through, but doesn't really add much on further plays. I think it suffers from a bit from repetitive-combat-itis. Plus, I found much of the story/characters to be pretty average, you know?

By all means go for it again if you liked it, but I don't think I ever finished a replay of that one. And I have enjoyed replaying some more trashy RPGs all the way through.

 

[Project_Xii]

PS1? Vagrant Story or FFIX were always fantastic. Grandia?

If you have access to a PS2 or emulator, I can certainly suggested Drakengard 1, however. I only played it for the first time 2 years ago and was blown away by the experience. The graphics were terrible, the gameplay clunky (though Dragon Riding was fun), but the story.... dear god. Never seen anything like it. Nor has a party of companions ever contained such an assortment of freaks. And the multiple endings, where the first is considered the 'best' ending, and all the ones after that are bad, baddest, badderest and "holy crap flying demonic telepathic cannibalistic babies in the sky" level fucked up. You will never see a weirder, more unique game that'll stick forever in your memory and make you want to tell everyone about what you lived through by the end.

 

[Tilly]

Here's a list of semi-obscure gems:

Grandia
Vagrant Story
Chrono Cross
Tales of Destiny 2
Legend of Dragoon
Xenogears

 

[Sonmi]

Breath of Fire IV.

One could say its unique setting and art style make it a BREATH of fresh air! HAHAHAHAHA!

 

[Oroboros]

Breath of Fire III or IV. III is more of a traditional jrpg, but has a little bit more charm than IV IMO. (might be biased-Breath of Fire III is the first jrpg I played). They are both excellent though.

 

[FrozenLaughs]

Yes, Legend of Dragoon! I second that. How did we never get a sequel to that?