Hephador (who I have to resist referring to as “The Hef“) recently asked about my favorite RPGs, but I had never really given much consideration as to ranking my favorites MAL-style. After a prolonged period of deep thought, during which I resembled a constipated old man squatting upon the porcelain throne, I concluded that my favorites coincide with those of the critical community. The exception is Ogre Battle, which faced mediocre reviews when it first came out on SNES in 1995 (NA release), but at least it was eventually vindicated in retro reviews once critics outgrew their primordial ways of thinking. There’s nothing surprising about most folks’ absolute favorite RPGs, unlike in the movie realm, where critics and commoners can and will disagree about virtually everything.
This really should come as no surprise, because the mass media actually does a fair job when it comes to reviewing the best games. Some mediocre games may be overrated, but the true cream of the crop will almost never be grossly underrated. Niche titles or flawed gems may suffer from grave reviewer injustices, but typically I wouldn’t rank them as the “best” in a particular genre anyways, unless they were the only title in a sparsely populated category (i.e. Culdcept being the best RPG/Monopoly game EVAR). Am I overlooking some glaring exceptions?
To be fair, it’s pretty hard to underrate anything halfway decent when your scoring system effectively ranges from 6-10 on a 10-point scale. But at least when looking at the typical “Best Of” lists (whether general or genre-specific), you won’t find any truly life-shattering games missing. Which is why I feel this is a fairly predictable topic – everyone pretty much nods and says, “Yup. That game was awesome too.”
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Heh. My experience has been somewhat different than your own. It has gotten to the point where I can usually tell when someone began playing RPGs just by what is and isn’t on their ‘best of’ list.
Case in point, when I see FF7 on a list, FF6 and below are usually missing. When FF6 is there, FF7 disapears and things like terranigma show up.
And then some ass decides to show his indie cred/age and throw out Zork.
Fair enough. I’m just always curious to see if there’s a game people like to champion that they feel doesn’t get enough written about it or might have flown under the radar.
And a buddy of mine from college would agree with you. He brings up Ogre Battle whenever RPG’s come up in conversation…and often when they don’t.
Onion – the indie-cred thing drives me *insane*! Argghh, I’m starting to steam up just thinking about it. Thanks for mentioning Terranigma; that’s one of those gravely underexposed games that I forgot about.
Heph – I *think* I know of some underrated gems, but in the aniblogosphere, it seems everyone’s played all the underdogs. I’d like to be surprised though – recommend something to me that you think I should play!
Oh yeah, your buddy reminds me of one of my buddies as well. We break into spontaneous Ogre Battle geeking that leaves everyone else at the table scratching their heads:) Perhaps we have a mutual friend!
Xenogears. The game with the best story that is never mentioned in “games with best story” lists UNTIL someone points it out and then everyone concurs it should be there.
Despite being extremely well-reviewed, I get the feeling that Xenogears came out at a bad time (in the shadow of FFVII’s polygonal glory).
Xenogears also has the #1 tragically unfulfilled destiny because the creator had a second chance, and still screwed up.
And I thought no one remembers Xenogears.
Portal, Psychonauts, Sam and Max…
Incidentally I haven’t played a ton of the classics.
And i still have yet to figure out how to play the battle mode in XCOM:UFO Defense.
I’ll say onr thing though: FF7 is overly overly overrated. And I hope Aeris (OH SNAP. Her name’s Aerith now.) does not come back to life. Or undeath. Or as something else.
Xenogears gets remembered for the awesome battle system, the storyline, and the game-play tragedy that was disc 2.
Ender, ever play Threads of Fate/Dewprism? It’s an adventure game with RPG elements. I love the heck out of that game, but few people I talk with have even heard of it.
I remember when Earthbound was underground. >_>
Ooh, Crystalis! Can’t forget Crystalis. NES goodness. The only problem I had with the game was how often you had to switch weapons.
Xenogears is one of the best RPGs to have ever swept across mankind. Period.
Its a pity why FF7 was more commercialised at the expense of Xenogears as both were released at the same time. This resulted in the rushed Disc 2, as most of the story was narrated rather than played.
I never played Threads of Fate, though I do remember it being released with little fanfare. I still have the NES cartridge for Crystalis though. That game was very forward-thinking for its time, but I doubt it would be very fun to play now.
Funny how everyone loves Xenogears, but still regards it as some kind of obscure treasure. It’s certainly gotten its fair share of fame and glory in the gamer world; does the lack of mainstream acceptance irk Xenofans?
Perhaps the ‘hey, widespread acceptance is not needed to affirm that they are indeed in my top list’ approach will help to ease the pain.
Since the list is personal, I do not need the opinion of others in order to love games like Xenogears, Terranigma and Bahamut Lagoon.
So… anybody here plays Septerra Core? It’s in my Top10 list of CRPGs, but I usually get blank stares whenever I mention it. ^^;
Cheers.
I remember when it came out, and thinking that it looked like a JRPGish affair. What did you find particularly appealing about it?
Septerra Core a.k.a. “How many time can I get stuck in a wall before I decide to break the disc”?
~ To Onion,
? Never had that problem before, but I have read about it in the patch readme. ^^; It pays to patch your games before you play them.
~ To Ender,
It really helps to bring out the life of the gameworld.
One of the first few things that stuck me as unique about Septerra Core was that it was one of the “mythical” few CRPGs of its time where every single NPC is voiced in full. No silent text for this game.
Another thing I liked about Septerra Core is that the main protagonist is not some “overpowered” chosen one. Well yes, she is still the “Chosen One”, but how she brings about salvation is not through brute force, but enlightenment.
The game world itself is also pretty unique. Very outlandish and fantastical, yet workable within the rules of the game’s lore. I still get a thrill watching and listening to the opening video of the game.
I could go on and on about what I like about Septerra Core, but this post will become tl:dr status, so I will summarise it as a game that manages to click with me in almost every way. The humour (got to love the parts where Maya reacts indignantly at bandits who try to “pick her up” by replying with lead), the voice-acting, the storyline (humans being humans), etc…
Cheers.
Oh, and trivia. When the music scorer of Septerra Core was asked to score Halo, he was the one who suggested that one of the voice actors from Septerra Core (Gunnar) to become Master Chief’s voice. So Halo fans can thank Septerra Core giving them Master Chief. ^^;
Natch.