Best Console RPGs?

[pcypert]

This is why I don't consider Zelda TP to be a RPG. It's so linear and non of the rupees, experience, or anything else amounts to anything. Can do the whole game without ever focusing on any of that.

To me an RPG has you controlling development of your character and free roaming if you want.

 

[7on]

This is why I don't consider Zelda TP to be a RPG. It's so linear and non of the rupees, experience, or anything else amounts to anything. Can do the whole game without ever focusing on any of that.

To me an RPG has you controlling development of your character and free roaming if you want.

Too bad Zelda was the first RPG

I love the Zelda style RPGs, When I get frustrated with FFIII and all the invisible monsters and menu battles, I bust out Phantom Hourglass for some good ole' monster whoopin'

 

[danny_w]

Great choice!

My favourite RPG is 'Skies of Arcadia' on the Dreamcast; it was responsible for many a late night and tired morning back in the summer of 2001.

My favorite RPG of all time! The Dreamcast really had a good thing going, and was ahead of its time.

 

[0098386]

This is why I don't consider Zelda TP to be a RPG.

lul

Too bad Zelda was the first RPG

I love the Zelda style RPGs, When I get frustrated with FFIII and all the invisible monsters and menu battles, I bust out Phantom Hourglass for some good ole' monster whoopin'

Zelda is the most traditional of RPGs, the genre has split into sandbox RPG's (Oblivion), turn based RPG's (FF), action RPG's (Zelda, Tales of). An RPG is simply a player taking control of 1 character (1 role) and playing out a sequential series of events in a non-level based design. It's just interactive storytelling.
In the mid-90's all the newcomers thought that turn based, EXP gathering games were RPGs when they're just another flavour of RPG.

I kind of like the random battles of early FF games which is probably why I'm not too keen on these newer JRPG games.

 

[yrsonicdeath]

Chrono Trigger
Breath of Fire 1 & 2
Final Fantasy IV
Earthbound
Entire Zelda series excluding Zelda II (I haven't played Wind Waker either)

 

[fiercetiger224]

Zelda is the most traditional of RPGs, the genre has split into sandbox RPG's (Oblivion), turn based RPG's (FF), action RPG's (Zelda, Tales of). An RPG is simply a player taking control of 1 character (1 role) and playing out a sequential series of events in a non-level based design. It's just interactive storytelling.
In the mid-90's all the newcomers thought that turn based, EXP gathering games were RPGs when they're just another flavour of RPG.

I kind of like the random battles of early FF games which is probably why I'm not too keen on these newer JRPG games.

I prefer to call games like Zelda "Action-Adventure RPGs". But that's just me.

And I agree about random battles. I don't like walking around, and just trying to battle a group of enemies, etc (example FFXII). You might as well make it into something like Zelda, since the actual concept is something similar to that, but it's executed a hell of a lot better.

Anyway I like the idea of jumping into a random battle, and that's what you're focused on. That way, you're kind of "forced" to battle, but you can still run away, or do battle. Actually, Valkyrie Profile 2 has a battle system that works well, since it doesn't have random battles, but if you run into that enemy, you're still "forced" into a battle. The battles are free-roaming as well, and it works really well. A game that nobody really talks about...

 

[danny_w]

Too bad Zelda was the first RPG

I love the Zelda style RPGs, When I get frustrated with FFIII and all the invisible monsters and menu battles, I bust out Phantom Hourglass for some good ole' monster whoopin'

I know you're kidding, but console rpg's were around LONG before Zelda.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Console_role-playing_game

History
Final Fantasy VII is one of the biggest-selling RPGs to date and remains very popular among RPG fans.

The earliest console RPG was Dragonstomper (1982) on the Atari 2600.[1] Later, in 1986, Chunsoft made the NES title Dragon Quest (called Dragon Warrior in North America (the series would retain that name until the 8th game in the series)). This was followed shortly by ports of the computer RPGs Wizardry and Ultima III, as well as a number of Japanese RPGs, such as Phantasy Star (1987) from Sega, and Final Fantasy (1987) from Squaresoft. These games proved popular and spawned their own series of sequels. (The Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series remain popular today, Final Fantasy more so in the West, and Dragon Quest in Japan.)

The original Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy both borrowed heavily from Ultima. For example, leveling up and saving must be done by speaking to the king in Dragon Quest. In order to rest and get healed, the characters must visit the king (Dragon Quest) or stay the night at an inn (Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy). The games are played in a top-down perspective, much like the Ultima games. The combat style in Dragon Quest was borrowed from the Wizardry series of computer role-playing games, and Dragon Quest's medieval setting is also remarkably reminiscent of Ultima.

Dragon Quest did not reach North America until 1989, when it was released as Dragon Warrior, the first NES RPG, and, thus, one of the major influences on early CRPG development. Many early console RPGs were essentially clones of Ultima and various other PC RPGs until the genre came into its own in the following years.

The original Legend of Zelda game was not released until 1987.

 

[smwatson]

Elder Scrolls. Havn't played Oblivion (I know right? How would it run on my Macbook in Bootcamp?) but Morrowind is unbelievable. Sunk so many hours into that game.

Golden Sun I&II on GBA, both great fun.

FFVII on PS1 was really good for it's time, but when I revisit it it always feels slightly aged.

Star Wars KOTOR I&II were very linear, but alot of fun.

 

[capoeirista]

Entire Zelda series excluding Zelda II (I haven't played Wind Waker either)

Including the CD-i ones?

In all seriousness I'm going to go....

FF VI
FF VII
FF VIII

I can't think of any more. I guess these are the ones that stick out as I played them lots when I was a student and had a lot of free time...

EDIT: Oh and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening on original Gameboy. Man I loved that game. My brother got all the seashells, but I never did...

 

[stainlessliquid]

Zelda is the most traditional of RPGs

More like the most untraditional? Traditional RPGs are turn based. They started out using paper and dice, then the first ones on computers were nothing but text with the computer handling the "rolling", they rely heavily on odds. Action games like Zelda are a major deviation from traditional RPGs.

I dont consider Zelda an RPG either because it lacks so many features that a traditional RPG has, if you can call it an RPG then you can also call GTA an RPG, which just seems wrong.

 

[danny_w]

More like the most untraditional? Traditional RPGs are turn based. They started out using paper and dice, then the first ones on computers were nothing but text with the computer handling the "rolling", they rely heavily on odds. Action games like Zelda are a major deviation from traditional RPGs.

I dont consider Zelda an RPG either because it lacks so many features that a traditional RPG has, if you can call it an RPG then you can also call GTA an RPG, which just seems wrong.

Exactly. Zelda is much more or an adventure game with some action and rpg elements thrown in, but it is certainly NOT a traditional rpg, nor even a traditional crpg. See my post above for more traditional (and earlier) crpg titles.

 

[0098386]

By assuming the role of a character who then gets support throughout the game in a fictional, non-linear world. Regardless of fighting system (hell I suppose that means Popolocrois is a SRPG or Tales of games and Shenmue are fighting games, amirite?) or whatever you consider an RPG is... Zelda is a console role playing game. But to get technically it's an action-JRPG because it doesn't specifically fall on what the US calls a traditional RPG.

Your arguments would have more ground if you weren't the usual anti-Nintendo crowd. Zelda is an RPG. It was one of the first mainstream console RPGs. It's quite common now for games to share RPG elements (levelling up, EXP, non-linear) like GTA, Monster Hunter but it does not make them RPGs.
Pour example... In GTA:SA the characters movements and plot progression are adjusted by their stats. Technically it is an RPG. Since "sandbox" isn't a genre (just a method of progression), it doesn't really fall into any specific category, though driving and RPG would be the most glaring.

 

[Huntn]

I would say a good indication of an RRG with depth and openness would be that if you get bored of advancing the story for a bit (which theoretically should not happen for this type of game) you can still find great in-game ways to occupy yourself in a useful way. WoW is the best example of this.

Not to sound argumentative, but I never felt like I was advancing a story in WoW. However I played it for over a year so it meets my standard of a good game although looking back on it, all the quests were very repetitive, kill and collect, gather, very infrequent escort. I really did enjoy some of the Instances like Dead Mines, Zul'Farreck, Black Fathom Deeps, Stormwind Stockade, The Scarlet Monestary.

 

[Huntn]

Elder Scrolls. Havn't played Oblivion (I know right? How would it run on my Macbook in Bootcamp?) but Morrowind is unbelievable. Sunk so many hours into that game.

I need to take another look at Morrowind if I can get by the aged graphics. Oblivion plays fine on a MBP, I assume it would do ok on a new MacBook. I don't know if Shaders 2 is an issue in that game (for older MacBooks that don't have Shader 2 support).

 

[munson]

Not to sound argumentative, but I never felt like I was advancing a story in WoW. However I played it for over a year so it meets my standard of a good game although looking back on it, all the quests were very repetitive, kill and collect, gather, very infrequent escort. I really did enjoy some of the Instances like Dead Mines, Zul'Farreck, Black Fathom Deeps, Stormwind Stockade, The Scarlet Monestary.

I agree. I never did either, but with MMORPG's it's more like you get to do seemingly more important missions/quests and do cooler stuff. There really is little to know story to be had, but you get to do more stuff the further you advance, similarly to advancing the storyline in a 1P RPG.

But, then again, the WoW argument is irrelevant here in the CONSOLE RPG thread, so, can we just compromise on the fact that it's irrelevant?

 

[smwatson]

I need to take another look at Morrowind if I can get by the aged graphics. Oblivion plays fine on a MBP, I assume it would do ok on a new MacBook. I don't know if Shaders 2 is an issue in that game (for older MacBooks that don't have Shader 2 support).

Despite the graphical appearance, there are some beautiful locations. It's hugely varied and MASSIVE. Incredible game. Probably my favourite game ever made. Probably.

 

[Huntn]

Despite the graphical appearance, there are some beautiful locations. It's hugely varied and MASSIVE. Incredible game. Probably my favourite game ever made. Probably.

Just installed the game. Now lets see...

Is anyone enjoying Infinite Undiscovery?
Thanks!

 

[Afini]

The Baldur's Gate series from start to finish. I throughly enjoyed it and have played it again now and then throughout the years, has immense replayability with storyline variations and all the class and party combinations.

Has a great mod community for expanding the game as well, or did, I haven't followed the community for the last couple years.





P.S. I know its not a console game, but I felt obligated to throw it out there.

I really enjoyed Secret of Evermore, an old SNES game.

 

[Huntn]

I agree. I never did either, but with MMORPG's it's more like you get to do seemingly more important missions/quests and do cooler stuff. There really is little to know story to be had, but you get to do more stuff the further you advance, similarly to advancing the storyline in a 1P RPG.

But, then again, the WoW argument is irrelevant here in the CONSOLE RPG thread, so, can we just compromise on the fact that it's irrelevant?

Oh ok. However I will say in solo RPGs the story usually does tend to advance except in Oblivion where you can totally ignore the main quest and there is no consequence (if you can believe that) to the Province of Cyrodiil!

 

[Afini]

I've been playing WoW for years, and I have to agree that sometimes you don't feel like the story is advancing at all because of the format of it being an MMORPG.

However, reading Warcraft lore straight up can be much more rewarding, it has a rather rich backround, and summaries of WoW events and updates on the game lore read after the fact can be fun.

I've spent hours on WoWWiki reading random tidbits about the origin of this or that. When it comes to actually playing WoW, I take interest in the lore, but many quests it can be lacking. Some were fun, like the finally of the AQ opening, some of the Naxx introductions, even some longer quests like the Onyxia chain (walking through stormwind to see a huge dragon pop up in the throne room was fun, even though in the early days she wasn't the dragon model, just a wyrmkin O_O).

All in all, some kind of single player RPG style summary of everything Warcraft related could be a very fun, different spin on the series, and a good console game. Maybe be a good way for Blizzard to bust into the console scene, since Ghost didn't seem to work out.

 

[Huntn]

All in all, some kind of single player RPG style summary of everything Warcraft related could be a very fun, different spin on the series, and a good console game. Maybe be a good way for Blizzard to bust into the console scene, since Ghost didn't seem to work out.

Yes, a fleshed out single player WoW RPG experience with coop would be outstanding! However would Blizzard think this is in their best interests? Well if they could pick up those who are bailing on WoW the MMORPG, maybe!

 

[munson]

Oh ok. However I will say in solo RPGs the story usually does tend to advance except in Oblivion where you can totally ignore the main quest and there is no consequence (if you can believe that) to the Province of Cyrodiil!

Yeah, Oblivion is really weird like that. It's pretty much heresy to say this, but I HATE the Elder Scrolls games. I just couldn't get into them.

 

[0098386]

It's pretty much heresy to say this, but I HATE the Elder Scrolls games. I just couldn't get into them.

You're new-ish, should have seen the burnage I got for not liking it

 

[Huntn]

Yeah, Oblivion is really weird like that. It's pretty much heresy to say this, but I HATE the Elder Scrolls games. I just couldn't get into them.

HUNT THAT MAN DOWN!! To each his own. It's got the kind of level openness I crave in a RPG but I'm the first to admit it is far from perfect.

 

[calintz]

the DDS series was my recent faves


am enjoying the xbox 360 jrpgs as of late - really surprised me with the quality on the system...