Yer RPG picks, broken down by console:

ive played the ds version which i didnt really love but tbh a lot of the late 80s rpg classix bore the shit out of me. basically the combat was too finnick-y and tedious & there wasnt enough depth to the game to keep me interested.

but i mean i gave up on the o.g. dragon warrior when i tried playing it earlier this year in disgust so

decided to waste a summer afternoon tryna do a top three for every console from 3rd to 6th gen.

NES:

crystalis
dragon warrior iv
final fantasy

SEGA (8-bit)

phantasy star
ultima iv
---

SNES:

chrono trigger
final fantasy vi
secret of mana

GENESIS:

shining force 2
phantasy star iv
shadowrun

SEGA CD/SATURN:

lunar silver star story
shining force iii
dragon force

PSX:
final fantasy tactics
valkyrie profile
xenogears

N64:
ogre battle 64
paper mario
---

DREAMCAST:
grandia 2
skies of arcadia
record of lodoss war

PS2:

persona 3: fes
dragon quest 8
suikoden iii

GC:

fire emblem
tales of symphonia
paper mario 1000 year door

XBOX:

star wars kotr
fable
morrowind (should really be ---)

The Turbografx-CD version of Ys 1&2 is available on Wii VC. It's fun.

the Ys remakes on PSP are great

lol/sigh at folding together sega cd and saturn

SEGA (8-bit)

phantasy star
ultima iv
---

man, that ultima iv conversion was fantastic. i had it as a kid, a parent bought it on sale somewhere and for some reason all the extra materials were in french. this was kind of a problem in terms of working out how all the spells worked and so forth. i never really got past that enough to actually get anywhere in terms of finishing the game: just wandered around finding people and putting stats up until it got to the point where the wandering monsters were too much to survive encounters with. i spent so much time playing it that eventually the contacts on the cart got dirty and random squares of the environments kept being replaced with menacing purple blobs

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n45/jamescostello/ultima4set.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIMT9otk-G0

man i feel like my snes picks would be soooooo challopsy compared to lamp's list

some deserving games that haven't been mentioned in this thread yet

SNES: Dragon Quest V
GCN: Baten Kaitos Origins
DS: Dragon Quest IX

can't believe jordan repped for sword of vermillion upthread! that game was awful

on the other hand i had it on some family chalet holiday with a megadrive and nothing to do, and no other games i hadn't played, and i was sick, flu-ey, headache and wanting to vomit all the time, so i can't think of playing it without thinking of playing it in a semi-trance state (it is a very repetitive game), half-conscious, nauseous

like looking at the screen shots made me feel, briefly, like i wanted to yak

the Ys remakes on PSP are great

yeah, I've been slowly playing through these and they are v. fun. definitely into the stripped-down feel of ys 1. (about 3 towns! just 5 pieces of armor!) basically a perfect diversion for a long plane ride.

first two games def have too much backtracking tho.

my SNES picks: earthbound, final fantasy 6, chrono trigger, lufia 2

talked a bit about lufia 2 in the retro thread. very streamlined mechanics for its time.

lol/sigh at folding together sega cd and saturn

yeah that was a total cheat.

http://dorando.emuverse.com/images/ys-ancient-ys-vanished-omen.jp3.png

i got in trouble with my big brother, because there was a bit at the back of the instruction booklet to 'write down hints and tips you obtained from the townspeople', and i had copied a bunch of random villager dialogue into these pages in terrible six-year-old cursive

ys was great!!

i feel like those last three posts were posted in reverse order

so dragon crystal (the fourth game shown in that youtube upthread (and the first i have not played (i have now watched that clip seven times (oh god)))) turns out to be a master system roguelike, which is making me glad i kept that sms emulator around once i got bored with phantasy star

I wouldn't claim to know much about any other platform but the Genesis/Mega Drive answer is Rings Of Power imo.

PC PC PC PC

Sorry for the trolling, just feeling a bit left out and don't understand why it has to be this way /sadface

Rings of Power gotta be top 3 Megadrive yeah. Wd try to make a case for Crusader of Centy aka Soleil too.

lol repeating myself every couple of years

Sword of Vermillion on the Megadrive was fantastic. Shining In The Darkness, too.

I have Phantasy Star II / III / IV and Shining Force / Shining Force 2 on a Megadrive collection for the Xbox 360. It's sad that i'll never get the chance to play them when i can't find the time to complete Dragon Age.

Hylics series looks fascinating
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yo8I1-kZ6U

Can't recall the last time I saw such a well developed look for a game.

that is nuts. wow.

hylics is cool, didnt know there was a 2 coming but i guess its out today?

yeah man that looks fucking sweet

v. interesting

reminds me of Undertale a little

Dread Delusion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH3M_lCZZWA

that is definitely an aesthetic

looks like a king's field tribute/spiritual successor. wonder if they'll keep the vintage control scheme