Well, it's that time again

[ShinMasaki]

I have to say that I loved the Lunar games so much. The story was really good and kept me going. I do admit that Lunar 2 is better overall than Lunar 1, but they are both really important games to me. The Lunar games have nothing outstanding to them besides the story so most people don't consider it a replay type game.

Skies of Arcadia is one of my all time favorites. An excellent, excellent RPG if you can get your hands on it. Again, nothing too spectacular in it besides the story. By the time you get your battleship cruiser thing, ship to ship battles is cake.

Symphony of the Night...I keep going back to that game for the challenges I set. IE punches only, no magic, no equips (can do without the spike breaker), etc etc. For some wtf reason however, I downloaded it for the 360 and I can't get a full 200.6% of map clear. I have gone through every hidden room, collected every item and everything...it's for an achievement that I'm going for the full map percent.

Grandia II is a very good game as well. If you get a chance, play it. Oh, and Millenia FTW 

Finally, one game I failed to mention before that I go back to all the time for the lols of the story and the overall gameplay is Thousand Arms. To those who have never played/heard of Thousand Arms, you play the role of a blacksmith who forges weapons with the help of a female partner. Now to imbue your weapon with different effects, you have to forge your weapon(s) with the aid of a multitude of female characters/teammates you get throughout the game. To get different effects, these characters must be at various affection levels and to raise (or lower) these values, you have to take the girls out on dates. The dating part of the game is lol and is much like a dating sim with choice selection and such finally ending with an up-to-chance roulette wheel that determines your 'pose' that you do with your dating partner for a photo booth picture (that gives a multiplier to the overall date scene you just did). If you ever get the chance to play this game DO SO. It is a DAMN good RPG with a lengthy story (full of lols) and multitude of endings (mostly depending on what girl you are most affectionate with). I am never selling my copy of this game...EVER.

[caiooa]

by what you say it resemble summon night ? I will give a check if it's possible to find a used copy of this game.

[Crosseyes12]

Donkey Kong is an Arcade game, I have not known it to be on any other platform... Which is really a smart business move on Nintendo's part; one installment of $40 or 10,000,000,000 installments of $0.25 and I think... 125... 625... multiply the 2, carry the one... yes, it's a lot more.

[LoliSauce]

You guys (Shin and Loli) have excellent tastes in RPGs and games in general, though I'd hate to admit that I've never actually beaten Grandia II.

I was surprised to see Skies of Arcadia and the Lunar games mentioned. I thoroughly enjoyed them, but I never felt the urge to beat them multiple times.

I've been meaning to replay Growlanser 2&3 for the alternate endings, but I'm usually lazy with that sort of thing.

Thanks.  I try to get around and experience any games that are well renoun.

Growlanser is my shitttt!  I wear the ring weapon that you get from the limited edition on my necklace.  =D  Getting the character specific endings in Growlanser 2 isn't really a big change though.  It's honestly not really worth it unless you plan on importing the characters into 3 (which is pretty lol if you do).  But really, 3 is way to easy since they give you access to the arena so early.  I mass leveled super early and got to a point where I could just spam that fucking...I don't remember the name of it.  Inferno or something?  I dunno, but it was massive AOE and huge damage at the cost of all of your MP, but with max level MP drain (which was learnable through scrolls lol), you refilled it all back up for free anyway.  It was just dumb.  And somehow it could do more than the max damage, even though it didn't display it.  I could one shot the final boss, yet he had more hp than you could deal in a single attack.  That always baffled me.  Anyway, the only really awesome variant endings that are must see are siding with Wolfgang and to a lesser degree siding with Max.  Wolfgang path is surprisingly long and well made.

For me, FF Tactics and SRW games. Awhile ago I would replay Fire Emblem games a lot. But they've kinda died down on me

SRW!  Man, I have to be honest with you guys.  I liked Battle Moon Wars more than any SRW game.  I guess I just love Type Moon way more than anything mecha.

LS - I still have my original Megadrive copies of Golden Axe and Altered Beast, complete with manuals.

FFFFFFFFFFFFucking awesome!  Those were my favorite brawlers from back in the day, no joke.  If I ever end up staying at your place somehow, we're gonna be bootin some midgets for sure.  beepbeep

Which reminds me, Dragon Force. One of the best games for the Saturn ever.

Hardest metal known to man?  Seriously though, the only Saturn game I know of is the Panzer Dragoon rpg.  What's Dragon Force?

• Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Come to think of it, just about any of the "Metroidvanias" I've played and beaten more than once.

• Gunstar Heroes. Still good. So is the GBA remake, although I never really had any trouble except in Black's stage, which was even more sadistic than the original. It had a good joke about how there was a "Save Destroyer" that'd delete your save if it caught you, though. Sadly, this got axed in the US release.
• Tecmo Super Bowl. Back when my hometown team (The Buffalo Bills) didn't completely suck. At least in TSB, they'll always be gods, even if our quarterback is "QB Bills" instead of Jim Kelly.

Yo, am I a blasphemer for loving Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow the most of any Castlevania games?  Also Gunstar Heroes was badass.  Somehow I liked Metal Slug games more though (probably just cuz of the knifing.  Shit's so fun go rambo and knife everything)  Also lol techmo super bowl. 

Let's see...

MMZ3, still attempting to get a 100% playthrough. Got about halfway.

Golden Sun if just to see those awesome graphics again.

Not really much else unless it has multiple endings.

Yo, do it.  MMZ3's ending is GODLIKE.  What a stellar story that series has (except MMZ4.  just....don't play that one).  Also, Golden Sun is another series I've always wanted to play, but I never did because handhelds give me hand cramps.  =\

Grandia II is a very good game as well. If you get a chance, play it. Oh, and Millenia FTW 

Finally, one game I failed to mention before that I go back to all the time for the lols of the story and the overall gameplay is Thousand Arms. 

Millenia has one of the best personalities of any rpg character ever.  What a memorable character.  I've actually heard of and seen Thousand Arms before.  The game seems kind of clunky in some ways, but I can see the appeal behind it.  It was brought up to me by my best friend when all the hype was going on for Ar Tonelico.  He was like "I don't get the hype.  It's not like it's incredibly unique or something.  Does nobody know of Thousand Arms?"

Donkey Kong is an Arcade game, I have not known it to be on any other platform... Which is really a smart business move on Nintendo's part; one installment of $40 or 10,000,000,000 installments of $0.25 and I think... 125... 625... multiply the 2, carry the one... yes, it's a lot more.

Oh, my bad.  I thought it was NES for some reason.  Shows what I know about DK.   

[LivingShadow]

Let's see...

MMZ3, still attempting to get a 100% playthrough. Got about halfway.

Golden Sun if just to see those awesome graphics again.

Not really much else unless it has multiple endings.

Yo, do it.  MMZ3's ending is GODLIKE.  What a stellar story that series has (except MMZ4.  just....don't play that one).  Also, Golden Sun is another series I've always wanted to play, but I never did because handhelds give me hand cramps.  =\

Oh, I've already finished it's story, I mean 100% rank.

[Dark Pulse]

Yo, am I a blasphemer for loving Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow the most of any Castlevania games?  Also Gunstar Heroes was badass.  Somehow I liked Metal Slug games more though (probably just cuz of the knifing.  Shit's so fun go rambo and knife everything)  Also lol techmo super bowl.

Not at all. Those are damn good too and I've beaten them a couple times over as well. Order of Ecclesia I actually not only got Level 255 mode (Requiring you to either own a Wii and use Castlevania: Judgement or to beat the game on Hard Mode Level 1 where you can't Levelup AT ALL) but I actually got Shanoa up to Level 255. It took a good bunch of hours, I'll tell you that... even with some EXP-exploiting tricks. (Namely, stomping Jiang Shi over and over and over and over...)

Symphony's simply the one that got this all started though. I'm proud to have a legit copy of it, even if it's Greatest Hits.

I'd also love to see someone make level editors for these games... it'd be insane amounts of win.

A couple more off the top of my head, now that I'm remembering them:

• Pulseman. Chances are you never heard of this, but if you have, you and I are already friends. A little-known game by, at the time, a little known company, it came out for the Genesis/Megadrive in Japan in 1994. Here's a gameplay video. If things look a bit... familiar, don't be surprised. The developer is a company you've surely heard of by now - Game Freak, and their claim to fame is, of course, Pokemon. Some Pulseman homages abound in Pokemon, with Rotom looking a bit like him and Pikachu's famous "Volt Tackle" being called "Voltteccer" in Japan, the name of Pulseman's special move. And yes, Junichi Masuda did the music for both games, and Ken Sugimori did character designs for both. This is available on Virtual Console if you want to get it, or if not, the ROM isn't too hard to find, but do your own search. You know, legal reasons and stuff.
• Disgaea, and its sequels. How I forgot that with the Prinny smiley you have here is beyond me.
• Garry's Mod... if that counts as a "game." Some would argue it doesn't.
• Grand Theft Auto. I've played it since the original.

[Ice Queen Lotus]

LS - I still have my original Megadrive copies of Golden Axe and Altered Beast, complete with manuals.

FFFFFFFFFFFFucking awesome!  Those were my favorite brawlers from back in the day, no joke.  If I ever end up staying at your place somehow, we're gonna be bootin some midgets for sure.  beepbeep

You should arrange a trip when Motoh does, so we can get some Dokapon in, go to Little Tokyo and sing stupid karaoke, and basically be an all around whacky gathering. :3

[ShinMasaki]

Does nobody know of Thousand Arms?

When I talk to people about my favorite RPGs for the PSX, I always mention Thousand Arms and nobody ever has recognized the title before.

Hell, this is totally a JRPG...when you start up the game, it goes into the song "Depend on You" by Ayumi Hamasaki (sung in Japanese even) which was kinda neat to me when all other RPGs I play that has a theme is done in English due to the market they are trying to sell to.

[mewofforcena]

Yo, am I a blasphemer for loving Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow the most of any Castlevania games?

No, that actually makes you awesome. Although you're a blasphemer for this

Also, Golden Sun is another series I've always wanted to play, but I never did

As for dragon force...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvY1ez8k1_c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-PfzvQGwE8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUplX_KTITk

[Crosseyes12]

Sorry, I didn't mean it was never anywhere else; it was probably ported onto one of those late 80's/early 90's home consoles, but I've never personally seen it outside of an arcade

[darkpanzer]

I like to revisit old school RPGs after awhile. And I also like to go back to RE2 for some reason. I just get the need to play, play it, beat it, if I still have the need to beat it, I beat it three more times for good measure, then I will decide to beat it again and again if i want later on.

[Van_Artic]

Final Fantasy 6 and Sonic3&Knuckles

[Dark Pulse]

Does nobody know of Thousand Arms?

When I talk to people about my favorite RPGs for the PSX, I always mention Thousand Arms and nobody ever has recognized the title before.

Hell, this is totally a JRPG...when you start up the game, it goes into the song "Depend on You" by Ayumi Hamasaki (sung in Japanese even) which was kinda neat to me when all other RPGs I play that has a theme is done in English due to the market they are trying to sell to.

Not only do I remember Thousand Arms, I played it. I never beat it, admittingly, as it wasn't mine, but I played through quite a bit of it.

It wasn't bad, but there's definitely better RPGs out there on PS1. See SaGa Frontier II, or Valkyrie Profile. Or if you count remakes, look at things like either Lunar remake.

[MagnusXL]

I could have saved myself a lot of time if I wrote "anything published by Working Designs".

[TalesofDawn]

For me, it always seems to be jRPGs:
Star Ocean: Till the End of Time is still my favorite game of all time. I'm on my.... 14th? playthrough. Something like that.
Tales of Symphonia.... It's just a really good game. That and Presea is my favorite female character ever. No idea why.
Persona 3 is another one. I'm on my 3rd playthrough for P3, because it's just a really enjoyable game.
Persona 4 is the same as P3.
God Hand. Great game, addicting combat, yeah...
I played the crap out of DMC3. I beat it on every difficulty with both characters. >_<

[Dark Pulse]

I could have saved myself a lot of time if I wrote "anything published by Working Designs".

Probably. It's too bad they're out of business, really, but one must thank them for bringing quite a few RPGs to more mainstream American tastes. They also, in a way, shepherded in the now fairly common practice of offering a version of the game "with extras."

Alas, the only games I have of Working Designs are Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete and Silhouette Mirage. (The latter isn't even an RPG, but it's damn fun.)

[LoliSauce]

You should arrange a trip when Motoh does, so we can get some Dokapon in, go to Little Tokyo and sing stupid karaoke, and basically be an all around whacky gathering. :3

I'm so down for this, you don't even know.  Just need to get my car fixed up so that it'll survive the trip.  lol  We should try and get a fourth person in on it if we're gonna do some Dokapon though.  That and if we get a game started, this gathering will prolly end up lasting all weekend.  That game just sucks away time like no other.

Pulseman.

Pulseman...almost sounds familiar, but looking at the video, I definitely have never seen or played it before.  

As for dragon force...

Oh wow, Dragon Force is a Working Designs game and I didn't recognize it.  Shame on me.  I worship and mourn Working Designs on a daily basis.  I own both Lunar games, the limited ed. Growlanser, and the limited ed. Arc the Lad (though this was stolen from me, unfortunately).  I think I mentioned before that I wear the Growlanser ring on my necklace at all times.

For me, it always seems to be jRPGs:
Star Ocean: Till the End of Time is still my favorite game of all time. I'm on my.... 14th? playthrough. Something like that.
Tales of Symphonia.... It's just a really good game. That and Presea is my favorite female character ever. No idea why.
Persona 3 is another one. I'm on my 3rd playthrough for P3, because it's just a really enjoyable game.
Persona 4 is the same as P3.
God Hand. Great game, addicting combat, yeah...
I played the crap out of DMC3. I beat it on every difficulty with both characters. >_<

This will prolly make people rage, but I actually don't like the Star Ocean games.  I tried 3 times to play through SO2, purely because of how much ridiculous amounts of praise it gets, but the game just isn't for me I guess.  The battle system annoys me to no end.

Also FUCK YEAH GOD HAND!  I'm a big fan of those real crazy action/adventures like God Hand, DMC1/3, and Ninja Gaiden 1/2.  God of War series as well, but somehow I liked it less than the others I've mentioned.  I can't really put my finger on why.  I never played the Prince of Persia games, but they look pretty good too.  Seriously though, nothing compares to God Hand.  It's a paragon of action gaming.

Yo, am I a blasphemer for loving Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow the most of any Castlevania games?

No, that actually makes you awesome.

Not at all. Those are damn good too and I've beaten them a couple times over as well. Order of Ecclesia I actually not only got Level 255 mode (Requiring you to either own a Wii and use Castlevania: Judgement or to beat the game on Hard Mode Level 1 where you can't Levelup AT ALL) but I actually got Shanoa up to Level 255. It took a good bunch of hours, I'll tell you that... even with some EXP-exploiting tricks. (Namely, stomping Jiang Shi over and over and over and over...)

Symphony's simply the one that got this all started though. I'm proud to have a legit copy of it, even if it's Greatest Hits.

Oh, cool.  Most people I talk to are like "SotN is the one true Castlevania!  It's the best ever!  I mean, come on...you beat the castle and then IT FLIPS FUCKING UPSIDE DOWN!"  etc etc.  I figured that was the general consensus of Castlevania fans or something.  Also I was horribly disappointed in Ecclesia.  They had so much shit they could do with rune combos and stuff.  It just really didn't live up to my expectations at all.  Also at one point I was stuck for like a week of intermittent playing trying to figure out why the fuck it wouldn't let me progress any further (needed the support of all the townspeople, and I was missing that one in the ice waterfall place).  Also Dracula's giant undulating bat penis attack is bullshit and I couldn't figure out a way to not die if he does it.  Basically the only strategy for living through Dracula's second form that my buddy and I could figure out was just to kill him before he could do his undulating bat penis thing and rape you.  Were we missing something or was he really just designed that poorly?

[Dark Pulse]

Pulseman...almost sounds familiar, but looking at the video, I definitely have never seen or played it before.

A shame. Go play it, really. Some will look at it and write it off as a Megaman ripoff, but it's a damn good game with great music considering it's going through a YM2612. Just be careful, it can be seizure-riffic in some stages.

Oh, cool.  Most people I talk to are like "SotN is the one true Castlevania!  It's the best ever!  I mean, come on...you beat the castle and then IT FLIPS FUCKING UPSIDE DOWN!"  etc etc.  I figured that was the general consensus of Castlevania fans or something.  Also I was horribly disappointed in Ecclesia.  They had so much shit they could do with rune combos and stuff.  It just really didn't live up to my expectations at all.  Also at one point I was stuck for like a week of intermittent playing trying to figure out why the fuck it wouldn't let me progress any further (needed the support of all the townspeople, and I was missing that one in the ice waterfall place).  Also Dracula's giant undulating bat penis attack is bullshit and I couldn't figure out a way to not die if he does it.  Basically the only strategy for living through Dracula's second form that my buddy and I could figure out was just to kill him before he could do his undulating bat penis thing and rape you.  Were we missing something or was he really just designed that poorly?

Those SOTN fanboys don't have the right to talk that shit, to be honest. I've been playing them since THE original, and CV3 is among my favorites in the series. They're all good, and SOTN was a groundbreaker, definitely, but it's the Castlevania series equivalent of Final Fantasy 7 - landmark, sure, and a great game, but people are a bit deluded into thinking it's somehow "the best ever" when it's really not.

Anyway, as for Drac's second form "Bat penis attack" I assume the one where he unleashes a load of bats everywhere? That one's easy. Stay fairly close to Drac and stick to the ground, and whip out Melio Scutum which will block the attack.

If that's not what you're talking about, clarify it please.

[Ice Queen Lotus]

I'm so down for this, you don't even know.  Just need to get my car fixed up so that it'll survive the trip.  lol  We should try and get a fourth person in on it if we're gonna do some Dokapon though.  That and if we get a game started, this gathering will prolly end up lasting all weekend.  That game just sucks away time like no other.

Sweet. Motoh's classes end on 3/20, so we were looking at some point after that. I just need to know about 2 weeks in advance so I can request the week off work. I have the vacation time saved up already.

[MasterT]

Oh man I love SaGa Frontier 1 and 2. Happy to see other people who have played it.

The games I can think of off the top of my head that I still replay fairly often
Final Fantasy Tactics
Super Mario RPG (lol)
Legend of Legaia
Star Ocean 2

Lolisauce: You should try Front Mission 3/5 since you seem to like SRPGs.

[caiooa]

super mario rpg.....always love that system of timing to critical, timing to defend and timing to make yoshi run =3

[Sima Matty]

 Also Dracula's giant undulating bat penis attack is bullshit and I couldn't figure out a way to not die if he does it.  Basically the only strategy for living through Dracula's second form that my buddy and I could figure out was just to kill him before he could do his undulating bat penis thing and rape you.  Were we missing something or was he really just designed that poorly?

I thought Eccelsia was the best of the DS castlevanias.  Best protagonist (Soma comes close) and it was 100x more challenging than the others.  Anyway, I dunno what attack you're referring to but they're all dodgeable, some less obvious than others.  I know one of them you had to stand near him and crouch, maybe that's the one you're talking about?  In any case, 2nd form Dracula was a bitch.  One hit from most of his attacks meant death in my experience, haha.

Anyway I'll probably get ragged on for bad taste but w/e.  Games I like to replay from time to time are:

-Mario RPG (My favorite game due to the amount of nostalgia I have associated with it.)
-Viewtiful Joe
-Megaman X1
-Secret of Evermore (I'm minority on this but I found this way more enjoyable than the other Mana games.  Also the music is amazing)
-Earthworm Jim (New Junk City is probably my favorite vg song ever, lol)

[Psylocke]

Oh, cool.  Most people I talk to are like "SotN is the one true Castlevania!  It's the best ever!  I mean, come on...you beat the castle and then IT FLIPS FUCKING UPSIDE DOWN!"  etc etc.  I figured that was the general consensus of Castlevania fans or something.  Also I was horribly disappointed in Ecclesia.  They had so much shit they could do with rune combos and stuff.  It just really didn't live up to my expectations at all.  Also at one point I was stuck for like a week of intermittent playing trying to figure out why the fuck it wouldn't let me progress any further (needed the support of all the townspeople, and I was missing that one in the ice waterfall place).  Also Dracula's giant undulating bat penis attack is bullshit and I couldn't figure out a way to not die if he does it.  Basically the only strategy for living through Dracula's second form that my buddy and I could figure out was just to kill him before he could do his undulating bat penis thing and rape you.  Were we missing something or was he really just designed that poorly?

Lol that attack isn't meant to be dodged: there's a sweet spot where you can dodge the bats every time he does the attack, but it's pretty hard to always be in the right position.  Much easier to just crouch anywhere and use Melio Scutum(the shield glyph).

If you get the "normal" ending, the game does show you which townspeople you haven't saved yet.  It was still pretty hard to figure out where the woman was in the ice waterfall though

[Dark Pulse]

If you get the "normal" ending, the game does show you which townspeople you haven't saved yet.  It was still pretty hard to figure out where the woman was in the ice waterfall though

"Normal?" Try "Bad." You find out why if you actually save everyone.

[HRGS|忍]

<3 this thread. I am usually a Sega junkie so I play alot of my old Genesis games. Liiiiiiiiiike...

Shinobi 3 - Return of the Ninja Master

- This game is a classic, instant favorite for anyone who had a Genesis. This game holds a special place in my heart because it was the very first Genesis game I ever beat from start to finish. No codes, no help. All by myself. It is also the best damn game of all time in my w/e top 10 list. Great music, visuals, controls, locales, the whole 9. You go from riding the countryside on a noble steed (you probably used ninjutsu to steal) to surfing outside of evil power plants to running your ass off in a burning forest to HIJACKING THE BATTLESHIP OMG IT HURTS! Great game. If you haven't played it yet, your kids need to be confiscated by ninjas.

So, why do YOU need to play this game: Because its serious business.