Worst RPG ever

[Newbie Newtype]

FF1's party system was awesome. The party you select can drastically change the playstyle of your game. There was nothing wrong with the party selection method, because of the added replayability.

The blame is in class balance, which is a flaw that would affect any party system, not just FF1's. My own game uses FF1's party system, except the characters are (as far as I know) balanced to the point where it's actually easier to play the game with a balanced party than "lol four fighterz".

As for the MP system. Suikoden III does an awesome take on FF1's MP system that, to me, fixed some of the flaws that the FF1 MP system did have, while still retaining the advantages the FF1 MP system had.

[camdog]

DW1 is probably something that would hold no interest for me today, but I remember loving it as a kid, mostly because of its emphasis on exploration. The FF series is always so linear (complete task A, open area B), but the DW1 world is pretty much open from the beginning; you just have to be strong enough to deal with the monsters in whatever new area you venture to. I remember the difficult areas being so tantalizing, and I the adrenaline was always pumping during ill-advised journeys to the south-eastern continent.

This is a lesser known game, but I remember Palandin's Quest for the SNES to be absolutely loathsome. Admittedly, I couldn't get through very much of it, but the dialog was wooden, the gameplay totally bland, and the graphics placed a strong emphasis on neon-purple. Yuck.

I also totally hated Phantasy Star 1, which I know many people think of as a classic. This may just be because I have absolutely no patience to grind nowadays, and I may have loved this if I has played it during the same time I enjoyed DW1.

Oh yeah, and I couldn't complete FFX-2. Everything about it other than the battle system was heinous. The opening sequence made me embarrassed to play it.

[Bob the Hamster]

I've always had a special loathing for Legend of Dragoon. ....

My old roommate used to play that one all the time. The voice effects for the timed attacks never failed to crack me up. For those of you who haven't played it, you can extend your attach into a long chain by hitting buttons at the right time, but each stage of the chain has the same voice effect each time.

Also, When I said "Hylide" before, I guess I actually meant "Hydlide"> If you have never heard of it, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYVRNr59wKY (BEWARE! Brutally annoying music!)... Actually, I guess it could be argued that Hydlide is a roguelike rather than an RPG, but back when I first played it I remember feeling strongly that it was an RPG where the programmers had just gotten too lazy to finish the battle system.

[Newbie Newtype]

I'm pretty sure Hydlide is supposed to be action/RPG. I think the problem is that Hydlide is natively an MSX RPG, and it had sequels on MSX/MSX 2 that are better, so I don't bash the game due to having much better circumstances in Japan than here in America.

[The Wobbler]

I also totally hated Phantasy Star 1, which I know many people think of as a classic. This may just be because I have absolutely no patience to grind nowadays, and I may have loved this if I has played it during the same time I enjoyed DW1.

Phantasy Star 1 requires way more grinding than DW1. The first couple encounters can kill you EASILY, where I don't recall ever dying to slimes in DW1. The dungeons were also boring as hell and way, way too long. I played them when they were both relatively new and I loathed PS1.

[Nathan Karr]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and nominate Aydin Chronicles for the '64. Basically, none of the weapons you can use can actually HIT anything. That, and all spells use up expensive component items.

Adding injury to insult, the story was as bad as the graphics.

[Momoka]

Final Fantasy X-2 was mentioned, but it bears repeating. Passible gameplay, but the plot, pacing, characters, and world were atrocious. And I *loved* X. I also sometimes was unable to see what my attacks did, because of camera issues. That should simply not happen.

Suikoden IV was just bland and boring all around, with an RPG maker battle system, and bland characters. Suikoden II was my favorite RPG ever, so I was doubly disappointed.

Nightmare of Druaga is a game I think I'm the only one ever to play, but god damn, was it terrible. Everything that's bad in a Rougelike, and nothing that was good.

[Bob the Hamster]

Final Fantasy X-2 was mentioned, but it bears repeating. Passible gameplay, but the plot, pacing, characters, and world were atrocious. And I *loved* X. I also sometimes was unable to see what my attacks did, because of camera issues. That should simply not happen.

I haven't played it, but from what I have seen I was under the impression that Final Fantasy X-2 is a glorified dress-up-doll game that they decided to implement using the game engine from Final Fantasy X.

Hardly efficient :)

[JSH357]

It doesn't use FFX's battle system at all, but it does rehash lots of graphics.

Actually, they probably added just as much new stuff--it has a job system and art for all three characters in each job, not to mention new characters, settings, etc.

Too bad it's a crappy game.

[The Wobbler]

I had a hell of a lot more fun with FFX-2 than I did with FF12, but maybe I'm crazy. FFX-2 was stupid as hell as far as story goes, but I feel that at least some of that had to have been intentional, and the battle system worked nicely.

What I played of FF12 (admittedly, not very much) bored me faster than any post-NES FF3 Final Fantasy did.

Suikoden IV was just bland and boring all around, with an RPG maker battle system, and bland characters. Suikoden II was my favorite RPG ever, so I was doubly disappointed.

Nightmare of Druaga is a game I think I'm the only one ever to play, but god damn, was it terrible. Everything that's bad in a Rougelike, and nothing that was good.

I agree about Suikoden 4. There was nothing interesting there at all, and it took the series in a very boring direction. 5 was surprisingly solid, though. I still haven't tried Tactics, but I've heard it redeems some of the garbage parts of 4.

I haven't played Nightmare of Druaga, but I have played the original, terrible Tower of Druaga. It's some of the least fun I ever had with an arcade game, so I'm not surprised to hear its sequel is awful.

[Nathan Karr]

I think that Dungeon Lords by D.W.Bradley is the worst professional RPG ever. In so many words, it forces you to swim through the sewers and only goes downhill from there.

There are about eight races, only two of which have females(they have human M/F, elf M/F, dwarf M, big hairy thing M, small hairy thing M, ugly wolf thing M, and lizard M). This makes the town populated entirely by beast-men especially creepy seeming(it is also the only location with no random battles, including the human town and the elf town). There are four identical classes to play from at the start, each one of which can advance to one of three identical specialties later.

The game routinely spews out-and-out lies at you, such as "Intelligence makes it easier to learn new spells" when spells are items bought in stores and dropped by monsters, not learnable skills.

There are exactly three dwarf NPCs in the game:
* A monk who starts "dying" when you encounter him, and still stands around "dying" no matter how far you get through the game.
* Lord Barrowgrim, the main villain(but not the secret villain behind everything).
* The human town's weapon shop keeper.

Okatta is a traitor
Vartugg made a deal with the devil, and YOU must do his dirty work
Eryldorn isn't really dead

[Meatballsub]

Secret of the Stars takes the cake for me. I seriously tried to get through that game, but... ugh.

I want to say Saga Frontier is runner-up, but I don't know if I have any right saying so. Perhaps I'm just really terrible, but every time I try to play anyone's story, I get creamed at whatever boss I try to fight first. And, it's not like I'm just choosing bad commands; the boss has the first turn, performs some massive move that takes about two times all of my characters' HP, and it's Game Over. Saga Frontier II, however, is a great game.

And, my secret favorites that are likely to end up on this list: Unlimited Saga and Ephemeral Phantasia.

I actually liked SaGa Frontier, but it did have some severe issue; such as the steep difficulty curve you mentioned previously.

With that being said, I absolutely loved the Combo system. I thought it was killer, even though at times it seemed a bit random.

[Rue]

For me, it's a tie between Secret of the Stars and Paladin's Quest.

The only reason Paladin's quest grinds my gears more than SotS is because people think I ripped my nick off of the main character, Chezni.

DW1 is alright for its time, I guess. And nobody better dare say Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest. :|

[Bob the Hamster]

Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest. :|

I really enjoyed Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. I think people were just put off by comparing it to Final Fantasy 4 and 6.

FFMQ has a lot more in common with Romancing Saga 1 than it does with any Final Fantasy. Also, the battle system is extremely close to what appeared in the Gameboy Romancing Saga games (rebranded Final Fantasy Legend in the US)

[Delfino]

How no one has mentioned Blue Dragon yet is beyond me...

For the first few hours, the game was a real mixed bag. Pathetic dialogue, dull characters and a laughable villain named Nene, as in the sound a horse makes twice ("Why am I doing this? To hear you scream!"). The game's... unique style was also troublesome. Where other games have Slimes or Goblins or Pidgeys and Ratattas, Blue Dragon has Poo Snakes. Poo Snakes are snakes made out of poop, if you hadn't guessed.

On the other hand, the game promised a lot of customization, with each character leveling up their many classes to gain new abilities.

Then, a third of the way through disc one of three, a fourth character joined the party, and the Poo Snakes hit the fan. This fourth character was named Marumaro, and he spoke all his dialogue in a squeaky, high pitched whiny and loud voice.

Just before the end of disc one, the party arrives at the world's largest city, Jibral. One of Jibral's many npcs is a fellow who calls himself the Nothing Man, and he offers to count my nothings. You see, while you are walking around a dungeon or a town in Blue Dragon, you can opt to madly mash the A button, and doing so will occasionally give you a reward. Press A next to the potted plant and you'll recieve 10 gold. Press it by that boulder and you'll be rewarded with a potion. Occasionally a message will pop up, saying 'You didn't find anything' and occasionally the word 'nothing' will pop up out of the object.

Well apparently a Nothing is actually a valuable item, and if you have enough Nothings, the Nothing man will give you powerful items. After that punch in the crotch I quit playing the game for quite a while. I still haven't beaten it, but I think I'm getting close.

I feel so bad for me.