I am a big fan of RPG games. I have played through a few of them.

I have done the FF series (except 3 and 11)
Breath of fire 2,3
Chrono Trigger
Chrono Cross
Secret of mana (which i though was a little drab)
Seiken densetsu 3 aka Secret of Mana 2 (great game recomend to all)
Xenogears
Legend of dragoon
Jade empire
Star ocean
Tales of phantasia
Super Mario RPG

I am possibly forgetting a few that i have played though i just want to know.

What is a must to play through?

Also what system is the game on?

Thank you

Edit: added some games which i forgot first time round

Games from the systems they were released first on:

Genesis
- Phantasy Star IV

SNES
- Chrono Trigger
- Final Fantasy IV
- Final Fantasy VI
- Lufia II
- Romancing of the Saga 3
- Secret of Mana
- Super Mario RPG
- Tales of Phantasia

PSX
- Grandia
- Star Ocean: The Second Story
- Suikoden I & II
- Xenogears

Dreamcast
- Skies of Arcadia

Playstation 2
- Disgaea

---

I think that would be all. Of course, there are games that I like but people won't like.

What is a must to play through?


List your favorites and what you like about them and it'll be easier to make recommendations.

FF IX - Great story, graphics, batttle system, and bloody everything
Crono Trigger - Great game, but a tad confusing at times
FF IV - Great story, best on GBA IMO
FF V - Awesome job system and battle system, I only found the story to be so-so though

Speaking a bit out of Final Fantasy context, Chrono Trigger is another must-play. As I've stated before, my only RPGs are FF, but Chrono Trigger is a close counterpart that I keep forgetting to mention, so I'm to blame there. CT is one of my favorites, and I'm working on the DS port right now as I never owned the original on SNES. Amazing game!

FF IX - Great story, graphics, batttle system, and bloody everything
Crono Trigger - Great game, but a tad confusing at times
FF IV - Great story, best on GBA IMO
FF V - Awesome job system and battle system, I only found the story to be so-so though

In cheema201's original post, mentions has already played FF series (except 3 and 11) and Chrono Trigger.

I recommend the following (I have played them and owned them at one point.):

PlayStation
Shadow Madness
Legend of Dragoon
Xenogears
Suikoden I and II
Vandal Hearts I and II
Legend of Legaia
Koudelka
Breath of Fire IV
Lunar Silver Star Story Complete
Lunar Eternal Blue

PlayStation 2
Shadow Hearts
Shadow Hearts Covenant
Suikoden IV
Suikoden Tactics
Suikoden V
Star Ocean Til the End of Time

Sega Dreamcast
Skies of Arcadia
Shenmue
Shenmue II
Record of Lodoss War (Diablo style RPG)

Xbox
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
Jade Empire

Xbox 360
Mass Effect
Dragon Age: Origins
Lost Odyssey
Infinite Undiscovery
The Last Remnant

Nintendo Gamecube
Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean
Tales of Symphonia
Skies of Arcadia Legends (Extra content than the Dreamcast version)
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance

Those are the ones I have in my collection, which I recommend.


@ Eshvoide: Grandia was originally released on the Sega Saturn.

The only RPG that is a must is FFVIII.

Yes, I went there.

List your favorites and what you like about them and it'll be easier to make recommendations.

My favourites are.

1. Seiken densetsu 3
2. Chrono Trigger
3. FF7

These were my favourites to play through as the music was good, the characters were good and they all seemed to be similar but still add something different.



In cheema201's original post, mentions has already played FF series (except 3 and 11) and Chrono Trigger.

I recommend the following (I have played them and owned them at one point.):

PlayStation
Shadow Madness
Legend of Dragoon
Xenogears
Suikoden I and II
Vandal Hearts I and II
Legend of Legaia
Koudelka
Breath of Fire IV
Lunar Silver Star Story Complete
Lunar Eternal Blue

PlayStation 2
Shadow Hearts
Shadow Hearts Covenant
Suikoden IV
Suikoden Tactics
Suikoden V
Star Ocean Til the End of Time

Sega Dreamcast
Skies of Arcadia
Shenmue
Shenmue II
Record of Lodoss War (Diablo style RPG)

Xbox
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
Jade Empire

Xbox 360
Mass Effect
Dragon Age: Origins
Lost Odyssey
Infinite Undiscovery
The Last Remnant

Nintendo Gamecube
Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean
Tales of Symphonia
Skies of Arcadia Legends (Extra content than the Dreamcast version)
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance

Those are the ones I have in my collection, which I recommend.


@ Eshvoide: Grandia was originally released on the Sega Saturn.

I have also played through xenogears which i failed to mention, and i am part way through legend of dragoon.

Suikoden is a series i have heard much about. I have never played them though..

Are they as good as everyone says?

Xiahou Dun = My bad, I was in a hurry to do that post. Hmm, I never played Shadow Madness or even heard of it. Koudelka is a great game but the loading is insanely bad. :/ I found a bug in Legend of Legaia, but I think my disc was scratched. Noa just did this infinite loop of attacking to an enemy that was guarding and it just went on and on, went on for like 2 minutes before I knew something was wrong.

---

I'll just provided what to expect from the game. I love the music and story from the following games:

Genesis
- Phantasy Star IV: The 4th game of the series before it turn into the world of MMORPG with Phantasy Star Online. It's a turn based RPG where you view it from behind your 4 member party. Melee attacks will show an enemy doing an animation at the enemy while magic and long ranged attacks became close to the screen. Depending on the order of certain attack, you can dish out combination moves where two or more people attack resulting in devastating damage.

SNES
- Lufia II: Even if it is the 2nd game of the series, it really predates "Lufia" storywise. Multiple puzzles within dungeons, early dungeons starting easy to painstakingly difficult later on. One of the few RPGs were there was a challenge dungeon. You would have to traverse a certain amount of floors to get some REALLY good equipment and the catch is, you start at level 1. It's another 4 member party turn based system with a 5th member which includes a monster and depending on what you feed it, tells you how it's going to attack.
- Romancing of the Saga 3 (JP): 5 member turned based party, that is kinda quite different from most RPGs. You have multiple things that you need to be wary of. HP is HP, LP is Life Points (when HP depletes to 0, your character will be unconscious and if your LP depletes when attacked, being brought down to 0 can make that character disappear from your party forever), SP skill points (weapons), MP magic points. Huge amounts of combinational attacks that can involve both magic and skill points. All characters can equip any weapon or any magic.
- Tales of Phantasia: 4 party member, side scrolling action RPG, one button for regular attacks and another button for special attacks, depending on the direction your character will attack differently, up and regular attack will make your character do an upward attack (good for flying opponents), but you can assign a huge amount of special moves that sometimes need to be unlocked to whatever direction you want with the special attack button, in later versions of tales game, your friends can actually join in a control a character.

PSX
- Grandia: 4 member party, active time battle with both terrain and positioning elements. In the corner of the screen, you see some kind of action circle (wait, ready action, attack phase). If you view the enemy you can actually see what it's going to do and who they attacking.
- Star Ocean: The Second Story: three-fourths view, active time battle, 4 member party. You get to move your characters using the directions, have them either attack or use magic. One of the few games that actually brings on a skill system where characters can learn various things such as a cooking, replicating weapons, etc...
- Suikoden I & II: 6 member party and turn based, based of 108 stars of destiny. three types of weapons: Short range, mid range, and long range. Depending on where they are placed in the formation, characters can either attack enemy front and back rows. Character can learn rune magic just by attaching it to them while others come with runes on their own. Certain characters can do combination attacks with each other. The second part of the game is the WAR scenario where you actually participate. (rock paper scissors was in the Suikoden I). Assigning one to three characters to a unit, you were go engage in a strategic type attack in Suikoden II. Losing a character in this scenario is costly.

Dreamcast
- Skies of Arcadia: 3 member party, turn based system. Your team shares a common attack bar. Each attack does some number while special attacks (special moves, magic) do another number. The bar increases to a certain point where you can be comfortable with just doing special attacks. The second part of the battle system is the ship battle while is, hmm how do you describe it... you pick certain orders on what you want to do (depending on what NPCs you picked up to help you on your ship determines your attack).

Playstation 2
- Disgaea: Strategy turn based game. Each special attack gives you certain amount of movement that must be done, what spaces need to be empty for the special move to be done and sometimes where it will place the enemy. Unfortunately you can't really plan certain strategies because most of them depends on the monster's initial position, but if you include that initial position with say a 3x3 magic attack, you're all good.

I'm surprised a Persona or MegaTen proper hasn't rated a mention yet.

Some recent stuff...

PS2
Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne - The main attraction is negotiation with your enemies. You can talk to them during battle... Convince or bribe them to join your party... There are hundreds of potential demons to employ Pokemon style (you still have to fight too) and you can mix and match them to create an army of new insane super demons. Also starring Dante from Devil May Cry.

Persona 3 and/or 4 - It's part sim. While you will basically fill the role of a demon-thrashing schoolboy, game time is a measurable concept in Persona. You will be expected to actually attend high school, pass tests, make friends, and woo girlfriends in order to become powerful enough to defeat your enemies. Time management is as much your enemy as the demon hordes so spend it wisely.

SNES:

Earthbound.

PSX:

Star Ocean 2.

PS2:

Dragon Quest VIII.

Anything made by Bioware.

I actually played through earthbound and was a massive fan! The battle system was nothing to be desired, but the story and the characters were classic haha... I understand that mother 3 (earthbound 2) has come out now. i have been meaning to get around to playing it.

Star ocean is another that i had a go at. great battle system.

Dragon quest i haven't tried. I'll jump on ebay and see if i can nab a copy.

Thanx for the suggestions so far.. I have a few games to get through now

Genesis
- Phantasy Star IV: The 4th game of the series before it turn into the world of MMORPG with Phantasy Star Online. It's a turn based RPG where you view it from behind your 4 member party. Melee attacks will show an enemy doing an animation at the enemy while magic and long ranged attacks became close to the screen. Depending on the order of certain attack, you can dish out combination moves where two or more people attack resulting in devastating damage.

This. <3

Phantasy Star IV is one of the very few Sci-Fi-RPGs to actually pull the Sci-Fi off properly. The story is very well done, and the characters are deep and fleshed out (with very few exceptions, I'm looking at YOU, Hahn. >:| ). The gameplay is fantastic, and although I'm not much of an RPG-fan, I still occasionally play through Phantasy Star IV for its greatness.
It's, unfortunately, severely underrated, and very little people know about it because most seem to think that Phantasy Star Online was the first game in the Phantasy Star-series. :V

The only RPG that is a must is FFVIII.

Yes, I went there.

You are a brave man. That's why you're our Secretary of Defense.

My favourites are.

1. Seiken densetsu 3
2. Chrono Trigger
3. FF7




I just completed it, but going by your first two Terranigma might be good. It's a late SNES action RPG. If you like it you could also try out the other games by the developer on the system: Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia and Robotrek. Actually since Terranigma is the last game they put on the system you could try those other ones first.

Terranigma is a good game.. i did not complete it because i got lost at a certain point haha. but the action battle system was fun, and the fact that you are one character is something that i enjoyed.

I'll give illusion of gaia a go next. I tried robo trek and was not a fan.

Thanx for the suggestions..

But one that i am really interested in is this suikoden game. What makes it great?

If you have the time, try Terranigma again if you like it since the ending is extremely good. Did you get stuck in the zombie city?

I stopped playing Suikoden at part 3 because I gave away my PS2, but it's my favorite series. It avoids the small group of heroes saving the world trope and tends to be about warring nations and the politics behind it so the enemies can be sympathetic; you build an army, get a base and missions consist of events like "storm the castle", with a simplistic army battle mode preceding it. The scenarios are well designed, especially with part 2, so that when you visit a city you stay there for a few days as the story develops instead of stopping by to buy items and trigger the next event flag before running to another dungeon.

Besides the main scenario, there are over 100 people you can find to join your army, they fill out the base you make where they can comment on the game's events as they develop, create mini games, run shops, perform plays, sing, go through a full iron chef style cooking battle, over 60(?) can join your party to fight and though they aren't numerous they come with a few team up techniques and more importantly they all have unique dialog for story scenes as well as a few triggering special dialog depending on which events you have them with or characters you take them to see so you can mix things up a little on repeat play throughs. The castle building is kind of like the city development in Terranigma only much better, if you made it that far.

Obviously with that many characters many of them don't do much of anything after you find them, but the ones that are used are used very well. Part 1 is rough but 2 is much better on all fronts; I think it's the best RPG that came out here on the playstation. It's also a direct sequel to 1 and data from the first game can be loaded into it(3 takes data from part 2). I heard 4 sucked so maybe it's good that I never got around to playing it.

The only RPG that is a must is FFVIII.

I stopped playing Suikoden at part 3 because I gave away my PS2, but it's my favorite series. It avoids the small group of heroes saving the world trope and tends to be about warring nations and the politics behind it so the enemies can be sympathetic; you build an army, get a base and missions consist of events like "storm the castle", with a simplistic army battle mode preceding it. The scenarios are well designed, especially with part 2, so that when you visit a city you stay there for a few days as the story develops instead of stopping by to buy items and trigger the next event flag before running to another dungeon.

Besides the main scenario, there are over 100 people you can find to join your army, they fill out the base you make where they can comment on the game's events as they develop, create mini games, run shops, perform plays, sing, go through a full iron chef style cooking battle, over 60(?) can join your party to fight and though they aren't numerous they come with a few team up techniques and more importantly they all have unique dialog for story scenes as well as a few triggering special dialog depending on which events you have them with or characters you take them to see so you can mix things up a little on repeat play throughs. The castle building is kind of like the city development in Terranigma only much better, if you made it that far.

Obviously with that many characters many of them don't do much of anything after you find them, but the ones that are used are used very well. Part 1 is rough but 2 is much better on all fronts; I think it's the best RPG that came out here on the playstation. It's also a direct sequel to 1 and data from the first game can be loaded into it(3 takes data from part 2). I heard 4 sucked so maybe it's good that I never got around to playing it.

I've always wanted to play Suikoden III, but Australia only got I, II, IV, Tactics and V...

If you have the time, try Terranigma again if you like it since the ending is extremely good. Did you get stuck in the zombie city?


Zombie City did destroy my life for a while haha.. Until i finally found the door that you had to walk through, which was hidden at the back of a house!! I only found it by mistake aswell haha..

But it was after there where i got lost. I didn't know how to continue when i got a little more freedom lol. i found a city that was sort of like a new age tokyo or something. and then gave it up.

I'll give it another go through to see if i can find where i went wrong...

Also I think i'll go for suikoden 2 if it is the favourite, if i am impressed i'll try the others.

Thanx again

One of many RPGs that is a must is FFVIII.

Yes, I went there.

Fixed that for ya ;)

I did like Suikoden III. How each of the stories intertwine with one another. I find the manga that was released for Suikoden III was pretty good if you don't have time to play it.

Parasite Eve: Short, striaight & direct. The game has one of the greatest storylines involving biology, mitochondria, it's based on a novel of the same name, the gameplay is somewhat experimental based on it's release date, it tries to fusion Survival Horror with RPG. It's for the PSX & here you can have the Intro, you can appreciate how well-crafted were the FMV's of this game, greatly directed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-Tcl6qvfy4

I have seen parasite eve around, i think i may have even owned it ages ago.. but have never played it through.. it kinda looks like resident evil meets ff9

Disgaea.

Xbox
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords


These.

That is all. ;)

Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn.

Challenging tactical gameplay. Deeply immersive environments that still look pretty today given hand-drawn/painted backgrounds, unforgettable characters (Yes, I'm talking about you, Minsc and Jon Irenicus), and an impressively gripping story with a massive variety of environments, sidequests, spells, classes, and phat loot.

You seriously can't go wrong with this one, although the learning curve for the group combat (up to 6 player controlled characters in sizeable squad battles) can be a little bit daunting at first.

What systems are these games on??

Baldur's Gate II - Shadows of Amn is on the PC.

Any operating system should be able to play it easily except Vista, which requires a hotfix or two. If you choose to play it then feel free to ask me about it and I can quickly reference you to the hotfixes in question (assuming you use Vista).

Not a real fan of vista.. it sucks for playing games in my opinion. older games anyways..

I'm on xp, so im sure it'll work fine, if not then there has to be patches for it

It works for XP no problem. If you are interested in buying it, you can get a boxset of the first Baldur's Gate (and its expansion) along with Baldur's Gate II (and its expansion) for just $19.99 on Amazon.com. Being cheap always makes a game attractive ;)

Yeh i'll grab onto it for sure.. I have never played an RPG on the computer so it will be a first.

Do i need any sorta graphics card and shit?

coz my computer is not really up to playing most games. I think Duke 3D is the highest quality game i have

I'm the first to mention the 'Shin Megami Tensei' series?

Shame on this entire thread.

I'm surprised a Persona or MegaTen proper hasn't rated a mention yet.

Some recent stuff...

PS2
Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne - The main attraction is negotiation with your enemies. You can talk to them during battle... Convince or bribe them to join your party... There are hundreds of potential demons to employ Pokemon style (you still have to fight too) and you can mix and match them to create an army of new insane super demons. Also starring Dante from Devil May Cry.

Persona 3 and/or 4 - It's part sim. While you will basically fill the role of a demon-thrashing schoolboy, game time is a measurable concept in Persona. You will be expected to actually attend high school, pass tests, make friends, and woo girlfriends in order to become powerful enough to defeat your enemies. Time management is as much your enemy as the demon hordes so spend it wisely.

any Star Ocean or Dragon Quest game.

I'm certainly no expert on graphics cards or what a computer can handle, but I would be rather surprised if your computer couldn't handle it when it can handle a first person shooter like Duke Nukem 3D.

By the way, Baldur's Gate II is old enough so it isn't on this list, but I always found this website useful when trying to figure out if my computer can run a game. You might find it appealing if you are thinking about getting any other more recent game that is a computer game.

http://cyri.systemrequirementslab.com/srtest/

EDIT: Also, here is a review posted about the game at ign.com. It gives more details about it and also has a number of images so you can assess for yourself whether it can run on your computer or not and whether you'd be interested in it or not.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/163/163437p1.html

Shadow Hearts I
Shadow Hearts II

Arc Rise Fantasia (http://www.youtube.com/user/hamasakiEU#p/u/20/GgKIWBXWZAs)

Gens�Suikoden 3. (after playing the 1 and 2 is better...)
A long and excellent experience.

Well, these are my favourite RPGs (in no order of merit). I would consider all these to be well worth a go.

1) Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifer's Call (Nocturne is some regions) - PS2.
2) Dragon Age: Origins -PC/360.
3) Final Fantasy 7 - PS1.
4) Final Fantasy 8 -PS1.
5) Final Fantasy 12 -PS2.
6) Star Ocean: Til the End of Time -PS2.
7) Knights of the Old Republic - XBOX.
8) Knights of the Old Republic 2 - XBOX.
9) Mass Effect - 360.
10) Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga - PS2.


Eternal Sonata, Final Fantasy X-2 and Tales of Vesperia all come close, as they are very entertaining, with great characters, dialogue etc and are all thoroughly enjoyable experiences.

But they are at the end of day, quite lightweight. Their main plots in particular are not up to the excellent standard of the characters and party interaction. So they don't make the cut.

Not all the games mentioned are exactly perfect. KOTOR 2 is infamous for its bugs and half finished status, but is still my favourite of the Bioware/Obsidian games.

Dragon Age could also have been much better, but despite some sections of the game being lamentable, it's actually a much stronger game than it first seems.

*Dusts off FFIX and holds it up* This!! This RPG is a must!!

(Shrugs) Meh, was never a fan of 9, myself. Some decent banter between a mostly likeable bunch of characters, but the main story is weak.

The first disc and a bit is okay, but after you leave the Mist Continent, the good locations and situations dry right up IMO.

But hey, each to their own, right?

(Shrugs) Meh, was never a fan of 9, myself. Some decent banter between a mostly likeable bunch of characters, but the main story is weak.


Yeah I agree, but didn't you find 8 storyline also weak? I'm asking you because I found it weak & it's one of your fauvorite RPG's.

I liked 8 precisely because it was style over substance and it didn't give a damn. One of the best instances where style actually becomes substance, in fact.

Pound for pound, it was the 'biggest' feeling game, in terms of its spectacular set piece action sequences (Deling City assassination attempt, Battle of the Gardens etc).

I mean, right from the off, it was showing it was going to be an all singing, all dancing, 'chuck it all at the screen and see what sticks' kind of game.

FINAL (flash of lightning) FANTASY (Hand grabs a sword, 8!

An intro with characters dueling, choirs singing, Rinoa looking dreamily at a evil older woman (got to love the Japs and their young girl/older woman thing - every damn time...)

There was running along high speed trains, out of body experiences, Squall driving his car to the showdown, Dragon shaped Spaceships, invisible, futuristic continents... and a flying last dungeon with Castlevania decor and music...

It had Schoolteachers with whips, gunning down Giant Spidertron things, characters getting tortured, dodging of missiles by making your building fly... and Odin dies!

They just didn't even care if it made sense - they just wanted it to be big and exciting and that's fine with me. I like more realistic games like FF12 as well, but every now and again, a game like this is really, really satisfying.

My only concern is that after the first 2 discs, it becomes the Squall and Rinoa show. If you like them and the idea of them being together, that's fine. If you don't... then you might be in trouble.

Because honestly, what do Irvine, Quistis, Zell and Selphie do after the Battle of the Gardens, really?

I see your point, what makes me sick about 8 besides the story is that the characters were...I don't know how to put this, let me give you an example, Squall CD1(whatever...)
SquallCD2(I'm thinking to much, I don't know what to do, bla bla bla, teenage bla bla...)
SquallCD3(RINOAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!)....
IrvineCD1(I'm just to cool), IrvineCD2(I used to know you guys, I just didn say anything, because..........?)
I can go through this a lot, but this are the prime examples of what makes even the characters disgusting to me.

Three Tactical RPG's that are a must, Final Fantasy Tactics & Vandal Hearts I & II

Yes, well like I said, FF8 was less about characters and more about 'Hey, we haven't had anything going really fast, blowing up, jumping off a cliff or swinging a sword on screen for... ooh, 10 minutes now - better get it sorted...'

At which point, they probably do all of the above at once - in slow motion, with giant robots... in space.

On the characters front, I can't argue that they weren't the greatest bunch, but I liked them well enough.

And Fujin is one of my all time favourite characters.

I liked 8 precisely because it was style over substance and it didn't give a damn. One of the best instances where style actually becomes substance, in fact.

Pound for pound, it was the 'biggest' feeling game, in terms of its spectacular set piece action sequences (Deling City assassination attempt, Battle of the Gardens etc).

I mean, right from the off, it was showing it was going to be an all singing, all dancing, 'chuck it all at the screen and see what sticks' kind of game.

FINAL (flash of lightning) FANTASY (Hand grabs a sword, 8!

An intro with characters dueling, choirs singing, Rinoa looking dreamily at a evil older woman (got to love the Japs and their young girl/older woman thing - every damn time...)

There was running along high speed trains, out of body experiences, Squall driving his car to the showdown, Dragon shaped Spaceships, invisible, futuristic continents... and a flying last dungeon with Castlevania decor and music...

It had Schoolteachers with whips, gunning down Giant Spidertron things, characters getting tortured, dodging of missiles by making your building fly... and Odin dies!

They just didn't even care if it made sense - they just wanted it to be big and exciting and that's fine with me. I like more realistic games like FF12 as well, but every now and again, a game like this is really, really satisfying.

My only concern is that after the first 2 discs, it becomes the Squall and Rinoa show. If you like them and the idea of them being together, that's fine. If you don't... then you might be in trouble.

Because honestly, what do Irvine, Quistis, Zell and Selphie do after the Battle of the Gardens, really?

I agree, and very good points. The only thing that got me was the plot development that placed all the characters as orphans in the same orphanage during their childhoods. Okay, I realize sometimes life throws us these weird sort of coincidences, but come on. I mean . . . come on. And like you said, Irvine, Quistis, Zell and Selphie (my least-favorite FF character ever) are completely useless after Disc 2 or so. I mean, story-wise anyway. Sure they've got some okay lines thrown in here and there, but their contribution to the overall plot ends early on.

Yes, well like I said, FF8 was less about characters and more about
And Fujin is one of my all time favourite characters.

I think you're wrong here, I think FFVIII was more about characters because all was centered in love stories & it did fail at that too, because of the Examples I showed you before.
Don't know what you found appealing about Fujin, way too hollow and thank god it wasn't a playable xD.

@Cent3rCor3, You know, the plot Development didn't kept me hooked, what kept me hooked was it's gameplay, it was the 2nd FF game that I was playing & the battle system, though broke might it be, it's a lot of fun and the side quests have some nice rewards.

Veredict: FFVIII is a must RPG, not by it's storyline if you ask me, but because it's has a fun & addicting gameplay, nice graphics & FMV's and it's a fun experience, because you can see other people rant the game, make jokes about it and have some laughs, at least to me, that maked a great experience about this game XD.
For those who want to have some laughs about FFVIII, check this out, probably you already seen it. http://spoonyexperiment.com/category/final-fantasy-viii/

When the focus on character centres so utterly on just 1 or 2 characters, you're putting all your eggs in one basket.

Squall and Rinoa get the lion's share of things to say and do, but like I said, if you just aren't into those characters, then the game is going to feel a bit lean on the charater side of things.

Because after the odd scene here and there with the other characters (Quisitis in the date scene at the start, Irvine at the assasination etc), it's all about the Squinoa love story. Zell and Selphie don't really get any major scenes.

(Zell's for example, is probably his role in Battle of the Gardens, which is still overshadowed by Squall's fight with the jetpack soldier).

Even Seifer fades utterly in importance after the Battle of the Gardens, appearing only once more in the main story, if I remember (not counting his cameo in the ending).

I wasn't massively against Squall and Rinoa (I quite like them individually, and am fine, but not super hyped, over their romance). So I could put up with the focus on them in the final two discs, at least.

But following the main story is often somewhat difficult. I thought it was okay, but the final 2 discs lose any sense of discipline when telling the story, which is unfortunate.

The game is best enjoyed for its sheer spectacle in my opinion, therefore. It's the biggest thrill ride in FF. Unless you're really into the romance, it doesn't hit as hard emotionally as 7 etc, but it's a great adventure experience.

And whilst it's tempting to just put 'RAGE!' as an answer to your comments on Fujin, I won't. She doesn't do much, but you know how it is. If a character appeals to you, then you just know straghtaway.

I like this guy.

Me too, he knows his games, xD.

Aww, what touching words...

These are the kinds of words that would almost give me pause before trying to bludgeon you to death with a rusty pipe for your ADAM...

We're talkin' reeeeaal friendship here, pals. Or my name ain't Fraaank Fonnntaaaaaainnnne...

(Was playing it today - class!)

Cheers. Just don't ask me about driving or sport games, or that great knowledge of games will be exposed very swiftly!