RPG Ranks: 130-121

Continued from the previous post.

130. Crusader of Centy (#8)

This is yet another example of "good game, not really an RPG" for me. It's basically Sega's answer to A Link to the Past, complete for animal lovers and even having a Sonic cameo as shown. But RPG? Not really, it's got stuff that differentiates it spectacularly. But I caress, one of the more enigmatic games I've played, something I remember rather well too. And it's fairly humble, which is quite possibly the best thing about it.

129. Orphen: Scion of Sorcery (#131) 

Orphen is, without a doubt, the most difficult game for me to classify. It's advertised as an RPG, but it has Zelda-like health bars. It is an adventure game, but it has most of the stuff in cutscenes. It's got unique battles, but it's so weird how the characters act in them. It's got an interesting plot, but it seems weird with the Groundhog Day-style looping that occurs. Everything is quite weird about this game. That being said these are some stellar PS2 graphics which give it a slight edge.

128. Magic Knight Rayearth (#48)

Long game right? Not really. This was that RPG I beat in three days, and I even grinded my way through it too. Nothing special, barebones turn-based RPG, this one based off of a girly anime. It's fairly uninteresting overall. Perhaps its saving grace is that it is short.

127. The 7th Saga (#77)

Well, as far as worst RPGs go, this comes up often. It's one of the most grinding games, since it's way too easy to die, some character classes have serious disadvantages, and apprentice battles are always difficult. Not to mention getting a partner since most of the going will be solo. I just had to see it for myself, and its...not entirely as awful as expected (encounter system is well done to be honest), but nowhere near a stellar RPG. The premise of this game is good, but the rest fall flat.

126. Final Fantasy Legend II (#46)

The SaGa series is full of weird games that either hit or miss, and for me FFL2 was a miss. Keeping some of the core aspects from Final Fantasy Legend was fine, but many things were different and gave me headaches. I felt like the way encounters worked was actually fixed in many ways, and that bothered me. Some customization elements save it from being really crap, but it's not something I recommend.

125. Final Fantasy Legend III (#54)

And yet somehow, FFL3 is not that far behind. I used to think this was a better game than both of the previous two FFLs, but the thing is, this game is basically Final Fantasy 3 for the Game Boy. It detracts from SaGa's signature style of random stat gains for something more in line with the barebones RPGs I usually talk about. Because of that, it's not as good as I labelled it before. Had it not been in the SaGa series, or tweaked to be better suited in the SaGa series, it could have been pretty decent for a followup.

124. Faria: A World of Mystery and Danger! (#17)

Many things don't make sense in the world of mystery and danger. This game's heroine is a man? The princess was a fake? What it at least does is utilize Final Fantasy navigation and couple it with Zelda-like battles. If only character hitboxes were done better, I wouldn't fret as much. The game is still hard as nails to push through, and those invisible foes! Argh! Plus you'll need a light for dungeons.

123. Ranma 1/2: Treasure of the Red Cat Gang (#121)

In an attempt at making an RPG, the creators of this anime RPG made something entirely typical. It will likely only please the fans of Ranma 1/2, and even then not by much. It's very slow-paced, battles are easy, and the cursed forms either are disadvantageous or are otherwise don't impact gameplay at all. There was loads of potential at uniqueness, and that's something I want to see in every RPG at any point.

122. Grandia III (#133)

It's truly interesting to see an actual PS2 game so low on the list, especially when you consider the franchise it is in. But make no mistake, this game was way worse than I had come to expect. Sure, the battle system is nice and fun still, but you hit a noticeable difficulty spike and enemies are just way too fast. This also has a plot that sort of confuses itself, with one part of it being the need to fly and the other having to deal with your female lead's evil brother.

121. Final Fantasy (#2)

I can imagine you all are wondering why all the NES games show up near the bottom. It's quite obvious, they're primitive and barebones as far as RPGs are concerned. Along with Dragon Quest, the first Final Fantasy game exemplified that rather well. While much better to play than thou art Dragon Quest the first, it still was subject to some slow-paced turn-based battles, along with the annoyance of defeating enemies only to target empty space. It's quite obvious Square managed to pick up their pace once they made the whole thing into a series.

Continued in the next post.