Welcome to the inaugural version of Resetera's Essential RPGs List! We are currently in the voting phase of this list and depend on ERA community support to deliver as strong an end-product as possible.
The Purpose of the Essential RPG Thread:
Ultimately, the Essential RPG thread is meant to be a tool to help people find great games that they might not have heard of previously, and to remind people of the classics they never got around to playing. It's not a secret that review aggregates like Metacritic or Opencritic do a poor job at assessing roleplaying games, ans mainstream review scores (and overall coverage) often correlate heavily with marketing budgets that most RPGs lack. Word of mouth consensus from Era and similar comunities can be better, but you have to do more digging, and most discussion tends to be about the big franchises. These voting threads are a great place to collect a diverse array of opinions from a large number of ERA members. From those who dabble in the genre, to those who have completed hundreds of titles in the past.
Format of the Essential RPG Thread:
PART 1 - The Vote: This thread will began with a voting phase where people will list and discuss the RPGs that they personally consider to be essential plays. You can check out the individual lists that were submitted for voting tomorrow. If you are have played dozens of RPGs and are looking for some hidden gems, the individual recommendations may be the most useful part of this thread!
PART 2 - The Aggregate List: Each of the top 100 games by voting points will receive a banner providing some basic information about the game, including its length, ballpark cost, and playstyle. In addition to the banner, we will include some information about key staff members, OST highlights, trivia, and some Era member quotes from the individual voting lists, explaining why you should play the title.
Explaining the 2018 Game Banner Components:
Aside from the title, rank, and artwork for each game, there are two major sections of the game banner:
- The Information Box (including the 4 game mechanic icons): This box gives you extended information for each title at a glance.
- The System Icons: These icons list every platform that the title has been available for. No distinction is made between ports and remakes, so you will have to do some research. Some additional notes: Systems supporting an officially emulated version of a classic game (PS Classics, Virtual Console, etc) are included in the platform list. Unofficial emulation is not. Ditto for backwards compatibility for physical games. For PC, I have Steam and GOG icons for titles that can be purchased on those systems. Icons are generally listed in the order of release.
MORE ABOUT THE INFORMATION BOX AND GAME MECHANICS ICONS
The info box is broken into two different components: 1) The Game Mechanics icons, and 2) The General Information panel. The Game Mechanics icons are meant to give you a rough idea of how each game plays. By referring to the icon legends below, you will be about to tell if a game is real-time or turn-based and how party control works. You will also get a rough idea of how much choice is present in each title.
Most of the information on the General Information panel is pretty straight-forward. However, since I am lumping together late ports, remasters, remakes, and expansion packs with the original version of a title, I thought that it would be useful to give some notes on how the title bar information was gathered/determined.
Developer/Publisher: The original developer and publisher are listed for each title. The current publisher may differ (as is the case for the Interplay titles). Ports, remakes, and remasters are also often handled by different companies than the original developer.
Release Date: The year that the game was first published in. Japanese titles with delayed western localizations are listed with their original Japanese release year. So Trails in the Sky FC is listed as a 2004 release (the year that the original PC version debuted), even though it first arrived in the west on PSP in 2011.
Cost: This gives you a rough idea of how much the cheapest (US when available) version of the game can be purchased for currently. In many cases, the cheapest version is a legacy digital release on Virtual Console, PSN, or GOG/Steam. However, I went with the typical Ebay price in the US for games that have never been released digitally. Newer games are listed under their digital/retail price or their used game price. Whichever was cheapest. Used prices were gathered from Gamestop and Amazon. In all cases, regular, non-sale prices are listed.
The 5 cost ratings are as follows:
Code:
1 Square $19.99 USD or less
2 Squares $20.00 - $39.99 USD
3 Squares $40.00 - $59.99 USD
4 Squares $60.00 - $79.99 USD
5 Squares $80.00 USD or more
Please note that original physical versions of many of the older titles are quite expensive. While you can play Earthbound on Wii U for about $10, a cart version on SNES is closer to $200.
Completion Time: This is meant to give you a rough idea of the time investment each title requires. Times are based on typical completion times as listed on howlongtobeat.com. The upper end is NOT indicative of the time to 100% or Platinum a title. The lower end is NOT indicative of speed runs or a rushed playthrough. It is possible for you to take more or less time on a title than advertized!
Difficulty: Some people requested a measure of how hard each title is. Difficulty is a bit subjective, so I'm basing these values on reviews from enthusiast sites like RPGamer.com. Generally, titles are classified as Easy, Moderate (or medium if I run out of room!), or Hard. Games that let the user pick a difficulty are listed as User Defined. At least one title will give you the option of making boss fights less difficult if you die a few times. I listed those titles as Adaptable.
Resetera's Top 101 Essential RPGs
This year, participants cast over 7200 nomination votes for 663 individual titles. Below are the 101 titles that received the most points, according to the rules presented in the voting stage. If you are curious why we have 101 games instead of 100, we had three games with 31 points a piece from 99-101, and it felt like a shame to leave one off! With two exceptions, all of these titles had at least 20 recommendations, with the top game netting 175 recommendations.
101 - Parasite Eve
Key Staff Members - Takashi Tokita (D), Hironobu Sakaguchi (P), Tetsuya Nomura (A)
OST Composers - Yoko Shimomura
OST Highlights - Waiting for Something Awakens, Arise Within, Theme of Aya
Trivia: Nomura was designing another female character at the time he was working on Aya. Her final design was the result of him becoming confused and making a synthesis of the two designs.
Why Luminaire thinks that you should play this game: https://www.resetera.com/posts/10399095/
With a haunting story, an intense and strategic battle system, and a chilling soundtrack backed against the hail of bullets and monstrous screams, Parasite Eve buries its way into your heart and spreads. Dodging fireballs and tentacles while emptying your clip into a flesh-rendered aberrant is an exciting and tense affair. Between touching stories that remind you of the importance of family and the fiendish creatures that wish to consume all you know, Parasite Eve blends two genres I never thought could work so well together.
100 - Dragon Quest IV
Key Staff Members - Koichi Nakamura (D), Yuji Horii (De), Akira Toriyama (A), Yukinobu Chiba (P)
OST Composers - Koichi Sugiyama
OST Highlights - Homeland, In a Town (Night), Gypsy's Dance
Trivia: In the original NES version, AI controlled the party members and Kiryl was infamous for casting instant death spells ineffectively, outside the player's control.
Why Beary thinks that you should play this game: https://www.resetera.com/posts/10241313/
This game is a cozy warm blanket of a game. You play short stories that lead to a bigger picture in the end. So you start on a single continent of the world and play through your story and then you change your character and play through a different story before everyone meets up in the end. It's a great way to get to know your party members and to have a reference point for every part of the world. It's just a jolly adventure.
099 - Suikoden
Key Staff Members - Yoshitaka Murayama (D), Kazumi Kitsue (P), Junko Kawano (De)
OST Composers - Miki Higashino, Tappy Iwase, Hiroshi Tamawari, Hirofumi Taniguchi, Mayuko Kageshita
OST Highlights - Main Theme, Distant Mountain, Theme of a Moonlit Night
Trivia: Suikoden received a Japan-exclusive port to the Sega Saturn, which featured new content such as the ability to adopt and raise a cat who stays in Tir's room. Unfortunately, this content is still exclusive to the Saturn version and was not included in later re-releases or compilations.
Why Meowster thinks that you should play this game: https://www.resetera.com/posts/10499080/
The one-on-one duels and the war battles are great and unique additions that really help make this game stand out. While it is a short game, it is interestingly endlessly replayable thanks to a safe but good script, fun and varied character designs, and beautiful sprite work.
098 - Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey
Key Staff Members - Eiji Ishida (D), Kazuma Kaneko (P), Shogo Isogai (W), Tatsuya Watanabe (W), Kazuyuki Yamai (W)
OST Composers - Shoji Meguro
OST Highlights - In the Master's Name, A Land Controlling Roads, The Tyrannical Hero
Trivia: Although often thought to have been originally conceived as Shin Megami Tensei IV before being made a spinoff, it was revealed in a recent interview with Retronauts to have been originally intended as a spinoff but judged to be worthy of being a mainline title as it came along in development. Despite this, the team decided not to make it a numbered entry.
Why Sp1 thinks that you should play this game: https://www.resetera.com/posts/10204451/
This might be the most mature SMT game and a pinnacle hardcore dungeon crawler. Stranded in another dimension, in which human sin manifests, the series' dungeon crawling aspects receive a unique survival touch. The gameplay is as good as ever when it comes to advancing through giant mazes with your team of subordinated demons. SJ has a slightly altered battle system, which makes micro managing your party even more important for survival - which feels great and rewarding.
097 - Pillars of Eternity
Key Staff Members - Josh Sawyer (D), Brandon Adler (P), Bobby Null (De), Eric Fenstermaker (W), Carrie Patel (W), Olivia Veras (W)
OST Composers - Justin Bell
OST Highlights - Title Theme, Twin Elms, Combat D
Trivia: The "Disposition" system developed for Pillars of Eternity is based on the reputation system that would've been implemented in Baldur's Gate 3: The Black Hound - had the game not been canceled.
Why Tension Mask thinks that you should play this game: https://www.resetera.com/posts/10656888/
The best modern CRPG. It remembers what was good about the old CRPGs but isn't afraid to modernize where appropriate as well. It's a great looking game with an interface that is a pleasure to use. The ambitious storyline is what really sets it apart from its contemporaries - even its own sequel!
096 - Mass Effect 3
Key Staff Members - Casey Hudson (D), Jesse Houston (P), Preston Watamaniuk (De)
OST Composers - Sascha Dikiciyan, Sam Hulick, Chris Lennertz, Clint Mansell, Cris Velasco
OST Highlights - An End Once and For All, I Was Lost Without You, Creation
Trivia: After an infamous Bioware forum thread debating what Tali's "sweat would smell like," the developers incorporated an answer into Tali's drunken dialogue. Her response? "It just smells like sweat! Why would you even ask that?"
Why Quinton thinks that you should play this game: https://www.resetera.com/posts/10206692/
It's the culmination of the kind of space epic I'm always, always craving, with moments of gripping melancholy interlaced across a perilous fight for survival. Seeing the series' fan favorite races coming together in a united front after setting aside differences is almost as fun as helping to shape the climaxes of those respective differences, and watching Mass Effect's award-winning cast treat each and every conversation like it could be their last is heartrending in all the best ways.
095 - Shadowrun: Dragonfall
Key Staff Members - Jordan Weisman (De), Mike McCain (D), Rebecca Mayfield (P)
OST Composers - Jon Everist
OST Highlights - Dragonfall, Glory's Theme, Greed Zenith
Trivia: Microsoft owns the Shadowrun intellectual property. Jordan Weisman was able to negotiate use of the license for the Shadowrun Returns games; however, this use only extends to mobile devices and PCs, and thus it is legally impossible for Dragonfall - or any other Shadowrun Returns game - to receive a console port.
Why QFNS thinks that you should play this game: https://www.resetera.com/posts/10153975/
Harebrained Schemes brings a cyberpunk world to life in this game. It is a turn based combat game with many different skill sets at play. You can be a hacker, a street samurai, a mage or something in-between and use your powers to save yourself and your crew on a wonderfully strange set of missions.
094 - Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald/Alpha Sapphire/Omega Ruby
Key Staff Members - Junichi Masuda (D), Ken Sugimori (A), Toshinobu Matsumiya (W)
OST Composers - Go Ichinose, Morizaku Aoki, Junichi Masuda
OST Highlights - Verdanturf Town, Vs. Elite Four, Route 113
Trivia: The population of Hoenn in 2002 was 598; in 2014 694.
Why Thores thinks that you should play this game: https://www.resetera.com/posts/10617387/
Hoenn is my favorite region; I could be a trainer there forever. ORAS updated everything phenomenally, and did one of the greatest things in the franchise to date: Online Secret Bases. I make my own house, share it with my friends across the country, and have them fight my Pokemon team? If they had brought Battle Frontier back, and made the postgame as robust as Emerald's was, ORAS would have been the definitive game.
093 - Divinity: Original Sin
Key Staff Members - Swen Vincke (D), David Walgrave (P), Farhang Namdar (De)
OST Composers - Kirill Pokrovsky
OST Highlights - Original Sin, Dance of Death, Desert of Illusion
Trivia: The language of Nadia and Sebi's homeland is Esperanto, a real-world language created in 1887 that was intended to be a universal language shared between all humans (needless to say, it didn't pan out that way).
Why TheSaddestSort thinks that you should play this game: https://www.resetera.com/posts/10660366/
The combat is great fun and makes excellent use of good positioning and the different elements. [...] Combat isn't all there is to Original Sin however. While the story is a bit goofy, the writing is solid enough ... to carry it. Most quests can be solved in different ways and out-of-the-box thinking is always encouraged.
092 - Dark Souls II
Key Staff Members - Tomohiro Shibuya (D), Yui Tanimura (D), Masanori Takeuchi (P), Naotoshi Zin (De)
OST Composers - Yuka Kitamura, Motoi Sakuraba
OST Highlights - Majula, Sir Alonne, Executioner's Chariot
Trivia: Dark Souls II suffered from a troubled development, and many elements of the original plot were cut. This included using a special pendulum to travel through time and speak with a child version of the Emerald Herald. The player would collect feathers for her, explaining the significance of the Aged Feather she gives the player later in the game.
Why bauzz thinks that you should play this game: https://www.resetera.com/posts/10660774/
The more Coop-oriented nature of Dark Souls II, the presence of Bonfire Ascetics [to re-challenge bosses], and the ability to dual wield power stance weapons allowed this game to have its own unique merits and highlights among the esteemed Souls series. It is certainly a game worth experiencing for any Souls or Action RPG fan.
091 - Fallout
Key Staff Members - Feargus Urquhart (D), Timothy Cain (P), Leonard Boyarsky (A), Christopher Taylor (De)
OST Composers - Mark Morgan
OST Highlights - City of Lost Angels, Acolytes of a New God, Vats of Goo
Trivia: Originally intended to use GURPS, the game got the name Fallout when the GURPS license was lost.
Why neon_dream thinks that you should play this game: https://www.resetera.com/posts/10667745/
From character creation to freedom of choice, Fallout is arguably still the best. Create a character with 1 intelligence and see how far you can talk your way through the world. But that's ok because you can just smash things. Or make a character with all the intelligence, charisma, and speech skills and never fight anything because that's how smooth you are. Or hell with it, just put a grenade in that guy's pocket and run away. Boom.
090 - Grandia
Key Staff Members - Yoichi Miyaji (P), Takeshi Miyaji (D)
OST Composers - Noriyuki Iwadare
OST Highlights - Theme of Grandia, Leen's Love Theme, Battle 3
Trivia: The title "Grandia" comes from a Formula One race car, and was chosen by the developers to reflect their focus on building a game that felt like a well-oiled machine with new and unique ideas that all meshed together into a cohesive whole.
Why sir_crocodile thinks that you should play this game: https://www.resetera.com/posts/10143797/
Has an innovative battle system that actually had me looking forward to encounters, where you can interrupt enemy attacks. The feeling of judging turn order well and totally shutting out the enemy with well-timed counters is very fun. Overall story is a very fun tale of derring-do adventure with very likeable protagonists.
089 – Yakuza 0
Key Staff Members - Kazuki Hosokawa (D), Mitsuhiro Shimano (P), Masayoshi Yokoyama (W), Koji Yoshida (De)
OST Composers - Hidenori Shoji, Hideki Sakamoto
OST Highlights - Reign, Judgement, Two Dragons
Trivia: Recognizing new players wanted to revisit the previous games, Sega of America ordered a limited reprint of the first four games that could be ordered online. The "Yakuza Experience" website was also launched, which includes a digital comic, timeline and character database which will eventually bring players up to speed with the entire series.
Why galv thinks that you should play this game: https://www.resetera.com/posts/10210902/
Yakuza 0 is an enjoyable ride from start to finish, packed solid with so much content, it could span several games. [...] Pure and simple, Yakuza 0 is a beat-em-up, set in ..an open-world that you'll start to love and remember, as each building becomes slowly memorable and lived in. And frankly speaking, comparing Yakuza 0 to any other game does it a disservice. There is nothing on the market that comes close.
088 - Bravely Default
Key Staff Members - Kensuke Nakahara (D), Tomoyo Asano (P)
OST Composers - Revo
OST Highlights - Prelude Moving Towards Hope, Beneath the Hollow Moon, That Person's Name Is
Trivia: The original version of Bravely Default was never localized outside Japan. Rather, the version of the game that western regions received was an updated re-release entitled Bravely Default: For the Sequel, which featured various enhancements that would be incorporated into Bravely Second.
Why flohen95 thinks that you should play this game: https://www.resetera.com/posts/10158845/
In battle, you can use up turns in advance to dish out a lot of damage at once, making the character unable to act for a while, or you can accumulate turns beforehand to reduce the risk. It's always important to think about which character should wait or which should attack in advance, and it makes for interesting strategies.
087 – Shadow Hearts: Covenant
Key Staff Members - Matsuzo Machida (D/W), Takehiro Ishida (De), Miyako Kato (A), Takamasa Ohsawa (A)
OST Composers - Yoshitaka Hirota, Yasunori Mitsuda, Kenji Ito
OST Highlights - European Town ~ Town of Twilight, Impatiently Mood, Icaro
Trivia: The protagonist of the original Shadow Hearts, Yuri, was not intended to be the main character of the sequel. Original footage showed Covenant's antagonist, Nicolai, as the main character. Like Yuri, he was a harmonixer.
Why Cardinal Copia thinks that you should play this game: https://www.resetera.com/posts/10600884/
The story takes place in Europe during World War I, following protagonist Yuri who is able to transform into various demons. Shadow Hearts borrows from Lovecraftian lore, and its mix of horror and bizarre comedy makes for a very interesting atmosphere. The best way to describe it would be to say it's unorthodox – but somehow this crazy mix just... works. [...] It's an experience you won't get anywhere else, that's for sure.
086 – Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor
Key Staff Members - Shinjiro Takata (D), Akiko Kotoh (De), Yoh Haduki (W)
OST Composers - Takami Asano
OST Highlights - Sunset, Deep Night, Pinch Battle
Trivia: All of the unseen competing bidders are characters from Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers and Digital Devil Story.
Why Eridani thinks that you should play this game: https://www.resetera.com/posts/10458867/
It's essentially both one of the best SRPGs out there, while also not only being true to its SMT roots but improving them in some key aspects. The game manages to merge the SMT style press turn battles and demon fusion with SRPG gameplay incredibly well and have some of the best atmosphere in the SMT franchise.
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