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IGN's Top 5 Xbox 360 RPGs to Play and Avoid

July 11, 2009 in Top List comments 14

IGN's 360 team has created a "Cheers & Tears" list comprising of 5 RPGs you should check out and 5 of them that your wallet should stay clear of. The Cheers section probably won't be much of a surprise to anyone, featuring Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Fable II, Fallout 3, Mass Effect, and Lost Odyssey. The Tears list is made up of Dark Messiah, Phantasy Star Universe, Two Worlds of Might and Magic, Spectral Force 3, and The Last Remnant.

These are the dog days of summer and as such pickings are slim for new videogames. What better time to look at the Xbox 360's sizable library and find the very best games to play? Over the summer, we're going to take a look at a bevy of gaming genres and determine the five games everyone needs to play. And to complement that, we're giving you five games to avoid (or throw away).

This week we're checking out Xbox 360's role-playing game library. Once this genre was a liability for Microsoft, but that's changed since the launch of Xbox 360. Sony no longer has a stranglehold on great RPGs. In fact, all of the best RPGs are on 360. And there's no greater proof than the fact that we had eight games worthy of being given cheers. But only five can make the cut. Sorry Eternal Sonata lovers, blame the stiff competition. With the good comes the bad and we had no trouble finding five RPGs better off in the trade-in bin than you collection.
McClubbin via xbox360.ign.com »
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  • 1
    Slumpy monkey Jul 12, 09
    Phantasy star universe is actually pretty decent. Its just that there are better MMOs out there tbh.
  • 0
    Drogo Baggins Jul 12, 09
    Man...I think I'm regretting not getting Fallout 3. All I hear are good thing's about it. I also think the game looks similar to, but much better than, Oblivion, which I loved.

    I think I got Gears 2 instead.....
  • 0
    Cruxis Mana Jul 12, 09
    Whilst I'm still whoring it, Tales of Vesperia really should get an honourable mention as it's easily my favourite jRPG's of this generation.
  • 0
    KyLeDaWg Jul 12, 09
    I still don't understand why everyone hates Two Worlds. All they mentioned in the article were the glitches, which were all fixed. When I played it, the only bad thing I encountered was the lag, which they also fixed. I never even encountered a single glitch.

    I honestly liked it better than Oblivion. The main storyline in Oblivion was just closing down the oblivion portals over and over again. Two Worlds actually had a storyline you could really get into.

    Also, Oblivion had hardly any customization, as far as armor and weapons go. There was like... Iron, silver, steel, daedric, then random rare weapons. There's a lot more diversity in Two Worlds.

    It just seems like everyone who says that game is bad, hasn't even played it all the way through. They're jumping on the hatewagon before they even know what it is they're hating.
    • 3
      Red 9 Jul 12, 09
      Or maybe they had valid reasons for hating it. If the hate is as widespread as you say it is, I can hardly believe that everyone who has played it hates it just because they think it's cool.
    • 1
      Slumpy monkey Jul 12, 09
      I played it and I had high expectations. It really did suck. I hated the inventory system, The voice acting sucked and the combat sucked too.

      IMO

      ):
      • 0
        KyLeDaWg Jul 13, 09
        The inventory system seemed fine to me, that's something you could easily adapt to if you give it a chance. Voice acting wasn't that bad in my opinion... Hell, voice acting wasn't even a part of RPGs until this generation really. Morrowind had no voice acting, you had to read essays worth of texts. FFVII had no voice acting either, and both those games are regarded as great. If it really was that bad, you could just read the subtitles. So it's better than nothing. As for the combat system, it was even better IMO. The giant monster you fight at the end required you to do some Gears of War type shit, where you roll around on the ground to dodge and attack. Also, unlike Oblivion, when your person attacks, it actually looks cool, rather than just doing the same vertical slice over and over. It looks more like Devil May Cry or something.

        Another thing I like about it, is that the locations are pretty diverse. There's deserts, dense forests, open green plains, giant hills, mountains, desolate wastelands, etc. The townspeople differ from location to location too. Like one city was just full of Asian people, who all used katanas lol. Outside that city was a bunch of bamboo and stuff. A lot of RPGS just have the same landscape... Morrowind, it was all just a barren wasteland, except on the coasts. Oblivion, it was all green, except in the portals.
        • 0
          Slumpy monkey Jul 13, 09
          Morrowind did have voice acting wtf are you on about and it was way better than Two Worlds. So what, Pac man was a 2d game and that was regarded as great. Does that mean every game today should make crappy 2d games now? The sound effects were stupid too. Also the character creation sucked too, you barely got to customise your character.

          The game sucked IMO. Deal.

          You mean this final boss?

          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT6uJWQqh20
        • 0
          Red 9 Jul 13, 09
          OMG, that VA is terrible...as are the sound effects. And that boss is lame...
        • 0
          KyLeDaWg Jul 13, 09
          quote
          Morrowind did have voice acting wtf are you on about and it was way better than Two Worlds.
          What are you on about? In Morrowind, the only time anyone talks is when you greet them. They'll say "Hello", then they give you like 5,000 words to read. I was just playing it not that long ago, trust me.

          quote
          So what, Pac man was a 2d game and that was regarded as great. Does that mean every game today should make crappy 2d games now?
          Yeah, if it makes the gameplay better. Voice acting doesn't really subtract from the gameplay, it's stupid reason to call a game bad. That's like saying a story is bad just because it's written in a book instead of on a movie.

          quote
          Also the character creation sucked too, you barely got to customise your character.
          Big deal, doesn't take away from the gameplay at all. Especially considering you'll never see your characters face if you're always wearing a helmet. Extensive customization is just another feature gamers have gotten spoiled by.

          quote
          You mean this final boss?

          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT6uJWQqh20
          That guy drank like 100 health potions and used some kind of freezing spell lol. I guess there's different ways to kill him, but my character was like melee-only, so I had to roll around to dodge all his attacks. The thing about RPGs is that any boss is easy if you level your guy enough, which he obviously did.

          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKKVvaylv0k

          Spam the 'R' trigger and take a potion every 15 seconds or so. Yeah, that's a lot better.
        • 1
          Red 9 Jul 13, 09
          Am I the only one who didn't read any of the above...?
        • 0
          KyLeDaWg Jul 13, 09
          Lol okay, it wasn't directed at you anyways .
  • 0
    pyramidreaper Jul 13, 09
    Phantasy Star Universe was okay. certainly not as bad as games like DM of M&M or Last Remnant.

    and they should've swapped Lost Odyssey with Star Ocean 4.
  • 0
    therealNgamer Aug 2, 09
    Ew, not a fan of western RPGs. I would much rather have Tales of Vesperia or Star Ocean 4 any day of the week.

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