What was the first you ever played? What have you played the most? What are you playing right now?

First one that I can remember was Shining Force on the Megadrive. Classic grid system turn based combat. Quite like FF Tactics.
I honestly dont know where I find the time to play them to be honest. I can honestly say that I've spent easily 2 weeks of my life playing them.
Faves:
ff7 (obviously)
Any other FF (Tactics especially)
Shing Force (Anyone else finished the 3rd one only to find out that they wern't releasing the other parts?)
Front Mission 3
Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2
Saga Frontier 2 (has anyone managed to finish it?)
Pokemon

I think I should stop now before I list them all.

Not playing them anymore BUT, without further ado...

Secret Of Mana
An amazing game that introduced me to the first bittersweet ending in a RPG and consumed hours of my life as me and bro tried to get to Level 100

Shemue
Like some pedestrian anime cartoon that, in the second game, got going and made you realise the story was going to go somehwere grand (ancient dragons and floating swords anyone?!).
Sort of like the Lord Of The Rings, except about a Japanese Sixth Former.

Zelda: A Link To The Past
Brilliant Light and Dark concept that, for a kid, made you feel great as you worked out how to phase in and out of both worlds to get around that damn boulder!

Final fantasy 7 was and probably still is my favourite game ever (probably partially due to hit catching me at the right age, but it was fantastic). I tend to enjoy the final fantasies after initially thinking each new one looks stupid.

Did try the more bookish RPGs like Neverwinter Nights for a while, but I just never really got into them, if I have no real feeling for the main characters I find I get bored of an RPG very quickly.

Agreed.
Forgot Shen Mu. Lets all pray for number 3.

Somewhat unfortunately, they're going ahead with a 3rd...

My reason for distancing myself from what otherwise seems to be great news is the way Sega desrcibed it.

It won't have Yu Suzuki on it, though it will still use his story.

I also see, in a compromise for those who never played the first 2 games, that it will have the events from those 2 compressed down in a sort of "edit".

They'll then continue the story (though there's no word on if it's the other 12(?) chapters or a condensed version).

Of course I can imagine this'll change the pace of the game a lot. No more "boring" (read: Interesting and "unique") pieces of the game like, you know, walking around and exploring/talking. It'll be souped up and fly through the story (unless they want 5 DVDs to hold everything on and a game that pushes 100 hours to complete).

So these are my reasons for discontent on hearing the news. I'll always be curious how it finishes but I doubt I'd be getting an Xbox 360 just to (possibly) sully my memory of this great series

X-Men Legends? Does that count? It's basically Diablo with the X-men?

Now diablo, there was a hack'and'slash legend of a game, I loved both diablos.

I'm still knee-deep in World of Warcraft but haven't had the time to play it for the last week or so. May have a stab at it again on Saturday.

I really enjoyed World of Warcraft, although I did get bored once reaching the level cap. Was some really nicely done quests and plot lines to help you gain levels but once your lvl 60 you really only need equipment, which is best obtained by grinding dungeons for a few hours.

Very good game though and definately held my interest for a good few months.

I've been playing it since May and I have to say my enthuisam for it is now starting to wain (my main characters just got up to level 45).

I may have a go at playing a Horde character, may make a change!

There's an extension out in the new year as well . . .

I'm more of the Lucas arts and early Sierra-Online type RPG player meself!

Dungeon Master was good too though!

-m0r

Much as I love such titles as Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 6, I will never accept them as role-playing games. Yes, they have statistics and you deal numerically-quantifiable damage, but there is no opportunity for character development outside of what's written into the story.

How am I supposed to "role-play" a character when I have absolutely no control over them beyond 'go here, go there, attack, cast spell, open that crate..?' They're too constricting and linear!

That said, my favourite computer RPGs of all time are as follows:

- The Elder Scrolls - Chapter 2: Daggerfall
- Fallout
- Fallout 2

But neither of them compare to sitting down with a group of friends, ordering a couple pizzas, and rolling dice into the wee hours...

Is there anyone on here playing Travian?

Yeah, shame really. Same with another Saturn RPG classic, Dragon Force.

Others I like, which haven't already been mentioned;

Skies of Arcadia
Grandia II
Wild Arms
Deus Ex
Dragon Warrior Monsters

While not 100% an RPG (although far more so than it's inferior but still brilliant sequel), Deus Ex remains the best game ever made in my opinion.

For more traditional RPGs though, there's none that come even close to The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind. Not yet anyway, I've got my eye on Oblivion...

Bah! Daggerfall owns Morrowind! But, yes, Oblivion looks set to rock. Even moreso with Patrick Stewart, Terrence Stamp, and Sean Bean lending their voices to the project.

I was almost in Morrowind, myself, at least visually, but when they reassigned the lead art position, a lot of the old material was scrapped, including my cameo... Dang.

The Best RPG ever mde in my opinion is Final Fantasy 9, which is also the first RPG i ever played. The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is good too but not really a RPG.

Are you going for the Xbox 360 or PC version of Oblivion? Personally I'm going for the PC version. I've not stressed my 6800 ultra enough yet .

PC. I'd rather rely on my trusty ol' Radeon 9600 a bit longer, and then pick up a new video card somewhere down the line, than drop $400 on a 360.

Speaking of Oblivion, those dang Bethesda guys still haven't sent me my tshirt from that Photoshop contest...

Chrono Trigger was a great game too.

I love the Shining Force games! They were so much fun to play and had such interesting plots and characters. When you say third one, do you mean the game they made on the Mega CD? That was a pretty decent game but you couldn't explore anymore, it was just fights broken up by cutscenes and buying stuff in towns.

Number 2 was definitely my favourite. It was pretty big compared to the first and was really just a splendid game to play.

I've never really like Final Fantasy games, I thought 7 was alright.

When I say third on, I mean the one on the Saturn. This MegaCD version has passed me by it seems.
Thank you for reminding me about Dragon Force. Truely overlooked classic. Sort of like Gemfire meets Kessen.
So Shen Mu 3 is on the works then? Its been on and off for years now. My main fear is that the story is going to drift into mystical elements. I love the "reality" of the game but the ending of part 2 with the floating sword worried me.

Is it? Is it?? Can it be taht I haven't waited all this time for nothing?? Will i actually get to find out what happens next to Ryu?? Will it actually end the series, i remember there was going to be tons of these games, each on like a chapter, which it really is: Shenmue/Chapter 1, get a ticket on a boat to china. Shenmue/Chapter 2, meet mystical girl, Shenmue/chapter 3, have picnic lunch...

Oddly enough, Shen Mu isnt the first time Sega tried to make a multi-part rpg. Shining Force 3 was due to be a 3 part epic which you could carry your save files across on. Only the first part was translated to English language. Nightmare.