Gamasutra.com have given a brief history of how Japanese RPGs became mainstream and the 20 "essential" Japanese RPGs that all RPG fans need to play ...
go to source for full list and article
The Japanese role-playing game is a surprisingly important genre for developers to study - both in terms of gameplay and storytelling, and Gamasutra presents an 'Essential 20' explaining and chronicling the top JRPGs of all-time.
Valkyrie Profile: In most RPGs, it's your job to stop the end of the world. In Valkyrie Profile, it's your job to start it.
The battle system is a strange beast, with actions for each of the four party members assigned to a face button. Each character has a number of attacks, each with unique speed and strength -- timing the button presses to create combos and juggle enemies is the key to executing impressive special attacks and overpowering foes.
Final Fantasy IV, VI, and VII: And then there's Final Fantasy VII, beloved for its interesting characters and cool cutscenes, hated mostly for being a huge success -- and thus the effect it had on JRPG design. And yet, FFVII rides heavily on the coattails of its predecessor -- a group of rebels banding together to face an oppressive evil, another young girl with ancient, mysterious powers -- but goes so over-the-top that it stands out from the crowd.
Xenogears: In PR-speak, the word "epic" means "really, really long." That term seems a bit misused, especially when the "60+ hours of gameplay!" can tend to be monotonous grinding and empty wandering. Not so with Xenogears, a sci-fi story it's one of the few JRPGs that could actually qualify as being an epic, just for the astounding amount of detail that's been written into the game world.
Shadow Hearts: Covenant: Shadow Hearts is a game of contrasts. On one hand, you have an immensely violent and brooding hero, fighting in a world filled with hellish demons. On the other hand, you have flamboyantly gay shopkeepers, even stranger cast of supporting characters and a real world setting that grossly misinterprets historical figures and events to its whims. The games consist of moments of tragedy intermingled with moments of total ludicrousness.
Earthbound: Few games have such a rabid cult fan base as Earthbound, known as Mother 2 in Japan. The first game in the series, released for the Famicom, almost left Japan, but made it. Its sequel, this game, is regarded as one of the greatest RPGs on the SNES.
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It is like #2 or something like that >_>
Shadow Hearts: Covenant sounds interesting....
Ditto with Shin Megami Tensei....
Error in the article...FF VIII is NOT a PS2 title
Been wanting to check out Grandia III (Grandia I is mentioned in the article)...I might just wait for IV to come out (On the PS3 I assume)
Never finished XII myself -_- I'm bad about finishing long games *sighs*
FFX was one of the first games I got on the PS2...I got it soon after Jak and Daxter: The Precursors Legacy (My first PS2 game, which was an awesome looking game, to me at least, in it's day)
Chrono Cross....Another game (which I really liked for that matter) I never finished -_-
Nice list...Pity I never played (or never finished in several cases) most of these games -_-
Grandia one was awesome but 2 was pretty crap.I never even bothered playing a Grandia game after the 2nd one.
The majority of them feel like work.
The point is, just because it came before others doesn't always mean it's automatically better, it usually is, but FF7 is one of those cases where there's hardly one thing about it that really separates itself from the rest of the series aside from being the first FF of it's 3d kind.
And FFVIII/FFIX may not have even been so popular if it wasn't for FFVII. FFVIII became the fastest selling FF game due to FFVII's popularity, though I hate to admit that. FFVIII has more flaws...like the characters backstories...an orphanage? Come on.
As Storm said, the other FF games became popular because of FFVII. As much as people seem to hate to admit it, FFVII did alot for the genre.
And who said anything about FFVII being the best? That's all personal opinion. If someone thinks it's the best, then that's their opinion. There's no "right or wrong" here.
But that has nothing to do with the article. The article is talking about the top 20 RPGs you need to play. So naturally, the game that popularized RPGs in the West needs to be up there.
Also, lack of the other Phantasy Stars, Super Mario RPG, Vagrant Story. Star Ocean 2 is debatable.
As Akira mentioned, some games on being on that list is debatable, but eh, a decent list I'd say. I've yet to play Shin Megami Tensei and FFV, and rarely got to FFIII and FFII...but the rest I've played a fair amount of.
Yeah, I don't think there is a real definitive list. But the more titles they allow on their list of best games (20 is a good number), the better chance there is of pleasing everyone to some degree....
Hopefully someday I will.