Re: old school rpgs
 

Baulders Gate II for the PC was the best RPG I ever played. I also really enjoyed the Knights of the Old Republic star wars games on the Xbox. The Elder Scroll series games are also awesome.

Enjoy! BB

Re: old school rpgs
 

Breath of Fire, FF 3 , Chrono

Chrono is very unique, and very fun.

the first time i beat that game as a kid i actually killed magus with the frog lol

Re: old school rpgs
 

[ QUOTE ]
xhad, yes i played CT for maybe 10 hours (snes version) but lost my saves (it was emulated). i dont know if its worth playing through what i've already beaten. if it is a unanimous agreement i'd suck it up though.

i agree that i'm not going to bother with the nes, its just too ancient-looking. i think i could survive with ff7 but the 2d games preserve really well and may keep my attention longer.

[/ QUOTE ]

on a side note you should make a bunch of save states because there are multiple different endings you can see...

Re: old school rpgs
 

Phantasy Star IV - the emperor of 16-bit RPGs! You can get it on the PS2 Genesis Collection disc. For $20 you also get Phantasy Star II, Phantasy Star III, the Sonics, Comix Zone, the Golden Axe games, Decap Attack, etc, plus a lot of bonus features like interviews with the designers.

No disrespect to FF3, Chrono Trigger, Mother, etc

Re: old school rpgs
 

FF1, FF4 (2 us), FF6 (3 us)
Chrono Trigger
Earthbound
Super Mario RPG
Dragon Warrior 1,2,3,4 (NES games)

Skip FF7, takes way longer than 35 hours. Also I consider it a "new" style RPG anyway.

If you want even older school check out King's Quest 1-4 (runs on DOS)

Re: old school rpgs
 

I recently redownloaded an SNES emulator for the sole purpose of playing Chrono Trigger, it is prob my favorite game of all time. I remember it taking longer than 35 hrs but I'm sure you could run through it once in less time than that. A lot of people also really like Secret of Mana but I don't remember that one enough.

Since we are talking about old RPGs, did anyone actually play the real FF2 from Japan? I had an English (maybe partly) version for an NES emulator and it was pretty awesome, a little different than all the other FFs. However I don't think it qualifies because I remember it being ridiculously hard.

Re: old school rpgs
 

FF1 and FF2j were both rereleased on a system called the WonderSwan color, a handheld system that never made it outside of Japan. Then both were released as Final Fantasy Origins on the PS1, then again as Final Fantasy: Dawn of Souls for the GBA. Any of those is better than the originals.

Re: old school rpgs
 

Mario RPG is very fun if you're familiar with the Mario series, and it will take less than 35 hours. If I had a chance to play an RPG again for the first time, I would choose Mario RPG.

And then there's always Shining Force II for the Genesis. Fun, and definitely beatable in under 35 hours. The battle system is similar to Final Fantasy Tactics. Plus, if you play and like it, I won't have to be "that guy" who recommends SFII in RPG threads anymore.

Re: old school rpgs
 

Yes if you can play the Ultima 7 series you're set. Pure awesomeness, nothing has come close in my view. If you want to go real hard core just load up Nethack.

Re: old school rpgs
 

Talk about an escape back to the past... I think I've played and beaten just about every game mentioned.

I would say that by far the most enjoyable for me of all of those mentioned was the Final Fantasy series. However, my enjoyment of the series I think has gone down a lot (I'm a perfectionist by nature, and unfortunetly when the games started including more "mini games" I started to concentrate too much on them, therefore, bringing my total hours playing the game up a billion-fold. I believe that distracted from the actual gameplay of the game).

By far and away the most enjoyment I ever had from any single game was the FFIII for the SNES. This is the first game and still one of the only RPGs (hell, any game not Super Techmo Bowl) that I was able to play through multiple times and still not get tired of playing it. I think that I have beaten it over 10 times, and I could just as easily do it again today. I must have rented it 20 some times at the store, and then still went out and bought it. I still remember once when I rented it, the guy that had it before me had progressed far enough into the game to be at that castle that has sick status changes (can't remember the name of it, but the mobs in there cast zombie a lot). Unfortunetly he ran out of curing items, and he was pretty much stuck halfway through it, with no hope of getting out and no other saved game point. Kinda laughed at that one, although I did feel bad cause I knew the kid who's saved game was on there.

FF3 is my choice to play, although FFXII was good, but I think it would take too long to beat. CT was also good and I liked SoM but by far, FF3 is the best.