** This post is kind of long and rambly, so if you’re looking for me to cut to the chase, click here. **

I had a conversation with a friend the other day about beating video games in which I divulged that I can pretty much count the RPGs that I’ve played to completion on my fingers (on one hand, depending on your definition). He was, of course, appalled by this revelation, and when pressed for a reason, I came back with what tends to be my problem with games in general.

The thing is, I have some real OCD behaviors when it comes to gaming. It’s not that I need to min/max my stats for ideal efficiency or that I need 100% completion before I’ll consider a game done. Rather, my compulsion is that I need to feel like I own 100% of whatever accomplishments I achieve. This makes sharing a controller difficult, because even if someone else plays through 30 seconds of a Mario game while I’m taking a piss, when the controller finds its way back into my hands, it feels like my playthrough has been tainted somehow. Odd, but true.

This tendency gets exacerbated when RPGs enter into the mix, because as I’ve gotten older, I’ve lost the ability to play games for more than a couple of hours at a time unless I’m really into it, and as this can stretch a 40+ hour game into multi-month territory, I almost always find myself playing something else at some point. This would be all well and good, but once I return to an RPG after a significant enough amount of time has passed, I invariably feel lost. I don’t remember what I was doing or what plans I had made for my equipment, skills, et cetera. Even when I turn to an FAQ or walkthrough for a refresher, I still feel like I’ve picked up somebody else’s save and am taking control from where they left off. This of course leaves me at an impasse and I end up starting games over from the beginning countless times — see previous paragraph.

I’ve started to slowly ease myself out of this mode of thought, but it’s still a work in progress. I was able to play Pokemon Platinum and Dragon Age: Origins to completion, both of which I’d put down for a while somewhere in the middle. As it stands, however, the list I was able to come up with when pressed in that conversation was:

• Chrono Trigger
• Final Fantasy III/VI (SNES)
• Final Fantasy IV DS
• Final Fantasy X
• Kingdom Hearts
• Pokemon Leaf Green & Diamond
• Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

Yeah, that’s pretty much it. I’ve beaten a couple of 2D Zeldas (LttP and LA, if you’re wondering), but nothing else springs immediately to mind.

Now, I love RPGs — they’re probably my favorite genre — so I want to broaden my horizons somewhat. I came up with the idea the other day that I’d ask the same friend for a list of 10 RPGs to kind of serve as a cleansing of the palette, and I’d see if I couldn’t use that as a jumping off point. Here’s what I got back:

In no particular order:

Final Fantasy V (SFC). Do not play the buggy and slow PS1 version. Do not play the GBA remake with the screwy extra job classes. Get the original. I waded my way through this with a faq and rudimentary kana ability – the story is a throwaway anyway! – and had a blast.

Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne (PS2). It’s not the hardest RPG ever created – well, unless you go for the best ending anyway – but it will try your patience in ways Persona games never will.

Dragon Quest VIII (PS2). I was initially going to put DQV here – I’ve played about a third of it on the SFC and love it to death – but I haven’t played the DS version yet. DQVIII gets the nod for having probably the best localization I’ve ever seen blended in with comfortable DQ gameplay. Shame about the new menus, though.

Final Fantasy III (FC). The prototype for Final Fantasy V, and easily the best of the FC games. I’ve played this to completion on actual hardware, and it was the most soul-crushing gaming experience of my life (the last dungeon, with no save points, takes well over an hour to get through – and that’s if you know where you’re going). Naturally, you should use an emulator if you value your sanity.

The Bard’s Tale III – Thief of Fate (PC, Apple //, C64, etc.) Not the first first-person dungeon crawl I’ve played, but one of the best. Also, automapping.

Demon’s Souls (PS3) – It’s an action game. No, it’s a RPG. No, it’s a dungeon crawler. Whatever. I was on the edge of my seat for fifty hours with this game. It’s frustrating as hell, but every little bit of progress is so, so satisfying.

Front Mission 3 (PS1) – it’s like Armored Core and Final Fantasy Tactics had a baby, but without the shitty controls and nonsense localization.

Quote:
Originally Posted by nick
but…but… that’s only seven! your counting skills need work!

Well, yeah. I could have stretched it out to ten, or even twenty, but I would at that point have to start getting into games that I liked, but I don’t necessarily think someone else should play.

I guess if I did have to make an honorable mentions list, it would go something like this!

-Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga (1 and 2, although I haven’t finished the latter)
-RoboTrek
-Faxanadu (not really an RPG!)
-Fallout 3
-Wasteland

This is a great jumping off point, but he was quick to remind me that his own scope is fairly limited and recommended I open the forum to a larger group, which is what I aim to do now. Here’s what I’d like y’all to do for me, if you can spare a moment:

Recommend an RPG to me. It can be from any system or console generation, and I’ll sort out the details of how to play it, if in fact I choose to do so. I’d like you also to include a brief description of why you feel that this particular game is worthy of recommendation (feel free to recommend multiple titles). Japanese-only titles are more than welcome (I’m rusty, but I shouldn’t have any problem with ‘em), and if there’s a particular version you think needs to be played, I’m all ears. I tend to favor story over mechanics, but the right unique quirk can absorb me for quite some time.

Once I take a look through the list, I’m going to try and pick a few that interest me the most, and attempt to play them from start to finish. While I’m doing so, I’ll try and chronicle my progress in an amusing fashion of some sort (I haven’t really given it much thought, but I’m thinking more thorough than a brief summary, but not quite as OCD as a Let’s Play). Until that point, I leave myself in your capable hands, internet. Do me proud.