RPG Ranks: Up to 170

I am back and doing this again. Mostly cause I have the time to do it, but because I have already played 10 RPGs so therefore I want to go back to this ranking system I did for a post that is almost a year old by now. My gosh. Since summer is in session I do have the free time to play some games, and now with that out of the way I'll use the same ranking system I did for the 160 post.

 If you want to see some blurbs for all of them, start from here. I think in the event I reach 200, I will return to this formula once again, but this will include all the RPGs I played in list format, along with blurbs and images for all the new ones. So here it goes.

170. Deep Dungeon 3 (#114)
169. Golvellius: Valley of Doom (#21)
168. Hydlide: (#53)
167. Deep Dungeon (#112)
166. Startropics (#12)
165. The Guardian Legend (#15)
164. Deep Dungeon 2 (#113)
163. Minelvaton Saga: Ragon no Fukkatsu (#118)
162. Shining Wisdom (#52)
161. Popful Mail (#103)
160. Deep Dungeon 4 (#124)
159. Ys. (#96)
158. Secret of the Stars (#107)
157. Dragon Quest (#76)
156. Dual Orb II (#86)
155. Ys. III (#123)
154. Ys II (#102)
153. Wizardry IV: The Return of Werdna (#144)
152. Majin Eiyuuden Wataru Gaiden (#19)
151. Dragon Quest II (#79)
150. Crusader of Centy (#8)
149. Orphen: Scion of Sorcery (#131) 
148. Magic Knight Rayearth (#48)
147. The 7th Saga (#77)
146. Final Fantasy Legend II (#46)
145. Final Fantasy Legend III (#54)
144. Faria: A World of Mystery and Danger! (#17)
143. Ranma 1/2: Treasure of the Red Cat Gang (#121)
142. Grandia III (#133)
141. Final Fantasy (#2)
140. Final Fantasy Legend (#43)
139. Wizardry III: Legacy of Llylgamyn (#143)
138. Wizardry II: The Knight of Diamonds (#142)
137. Lunar: Walking School (#44)
136. Silva Saga (#119)
135. Great Greed (#47)
134. Tenchi Muyo! Game Hen (#93)
133. Phantasy Star II (#16)
132. Silva Saga II (#122)
131. Lufia & The Fortress of Doom (#6)
130. Robotrek (#101)
129. Final Fantasy Adventure (#105)
128. Warsong (#56)
127. Final Fantasy II (#135)
126. Dragon Quest IV (#94)
125. Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya (#129)
124. Shining Force (#106)
123. Shining in the Darkness (#82)
122. Wizardry V: Heart of the Maelstrom: (#146)
121. Wild ARMs 4 (#136)
120. Phantasy Star III (#71)
119. Romancing SaGa (#61)
118. Dragon Quest III (#89)
117. Princess Crown (#126)
116. Might and Magic Book One: The Secret of the Inner Sanctum (#153)
115. Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge (#147)
114. Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World (#154)
113. Breath of Fire (#9)
112. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (#75)
111. Wizardry: Proving Grounds for the Mad Overlord (#141)
110. Might and Magic III: Isles of Terra (#157)
109. Might and Magic IV: Clouds of Xeen (#158)
108. Might and Magic V: Darkside of Xeen (#159)
107. Phantasy Star (#3)
106. Dragon Quest V (#104)
105. Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure (#84)
104. Earthbound ZERO (#88)
103. Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny (#161)

Man, look at all those gridlines. This PC RPG is kind of on the ridiculous side with its tactical battles, and while you can automate it, sometimes that's not recommended. In any case, I think of Realms of Arkania as a tactical version of Might & Magic or Wizardry, and for the most part I am okay with this kind of thing, well, most of the time. Difficulty is quite high and there's a ton of statistics to worry about.

102. Realms of Arkania: Star Trail (#164)

It makes a few improvements, and I especially love the final battle against Arkandor in the screenshot which is quite nicely done for something in a tactical RPG. Other than that, the same as the first game. It certainly still has its difficulty, and events can screw you over at times, but it all remains quite fun. And it's hard to believe that a Doom 2 WAD got me into this game because of the music that was taken from it. Yeah, this is a thing with some of the games I played here.

101. Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon (#145)
100. Chocobo's Dungeon 2 (#165)

Yet another case of me being lazy and putting a sequel game immediately after its predecessor on the ranking. But then again, what can you do if they kept the core mechanics of the sequel the same as the first game? Not a lot, that's what. Still, Chocobo's Dungeon 2 has a better overall feel to it (and better translation) and was a lot more fun. And hey, randomized dungeons can be fun AT TIMES.

99. Jade Cocoon (#58)
98. Koudelka (#163)

This is a good example of a story-driven RPG. The predecessor to the Shadow Hearts franchise definitely has the spooky feel that Resident Evil and Silent Hill fans can appreciate, combined with a turn-based, grid-based RPG style. Problem I have is the gameplay is too damn slow. It takes a while to get to enemies, and then to defeat some bosses it takes awhile. There's a lot of backtracking and man I hated it when I broke some weapons that I wanted to keep. The storyline ultimately saves this from being bad at least, plus the different endings.

97. Vandal Hearts II (#162)

If you're a fan of medieval, war-like storylines, then this is a game for you. Yes, you'll be witnessing politics in the grand scheme of many, many cutscenes, how rulers are trying to usurp one another, how men die valiantly for their country, oh wait, what about the gameplay this one had? Needless to say, the sequel tried something that ended up poorly executed. Great idea, have BOTH an enemy and player character move at the same time. This led to a lot of frustrating moments. And then there's remembering to make the right choices so you get the best ending possible. A lot to take in, and if it wasn't for the storyline this would be a lot lower.

96. Wild ARMs (#22)
95. Star Ocean: Blue Sphere (#109)
94. SaGa Frontier 2 (#132)

93. Dragon Quest VI (#116)
92. Sailor Moon: Another Story (#37)

91. Star Ocean (#67)
90. Final Fantasy III (#55)

89. Tales of Eternia (#136)

88. Xenogears (#30)

87. Odin Sphere (#34)

86. Spectrobes (#152)

85. Illusion of Gaia (#51)

84. Langrisser II (#73)

83. The Legend of Dragoon (#60)

82. Final Fantasy IV (#4)

81. Kartia: The Word of Fate (#63)

80. Lufia: The Ruins of Lore (#139)

79. Final Fantasy V (#65)

78. Romancing SaGa 3 (#83)

77. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (#140)

76. Mystic Ark (#137)

75. Dragon Quest VII (#127)

74. Wild ARMs 2 (#24)

73. Vandal Hearts (#160)

72. Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land (#156)

71. Dragon Quest VIII (#138)

70. Thousand Arms (#69) 

69. La Pucelle: Tactics (#117)
68. Threads of Fate (#1)

67. Tales of Destiny (#39)
66. Suikoden IV (#66)
65. Wild ARMs: Alter Code F (#29)
64. Sword of Mana (#14)
63. Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time (#62)
62. Legend of Legaia (#80)
61. Lufia: The Legend Returns (#36)
60. Star Ocean: The Second Story (#98)

59. Secret of Evermore (#10)
58. Secret of Mana (#110)
57. Seiken Densetsu 3 (#120)
56. Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant (#148)
55. Soul Blazer (#42)

54. Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete (#7)
53. Tales of Phantasia (#18)
52. Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete (#26)
51. Breath of Fire III (#13)

50. Brave Fencer Musashi (#59)
49. Breath of Fire IV (#28)

48. Paper Mario (#64)

47. Growlanser III: The Dual Darkness (#74)

46. Suikoden Tactics (#81)

45. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (#31)

44. Romancing SaGa 2 (#78)

43. Suikoden III (#38)

42. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (#128)

41. Suikoden V (#108)

40. Grandia (#32)

39. Growlanser II: The Sense of Justice (#57)

38. SaGa Frontier (#97)

37. Might and Magic IX: The Writ of Fate (#169)

Snazzier graphics did not necessarily make this entry in the M&M series the best. Well, gameplay is like the other three before it in the series (which I'll explain later, they come after this one!), so that means that I like the free-moving real-time battles that they offer. But I don't like how the plot was like "Hey, fight this warlord guy because destiny says so. Oh wait! It turns out you both were tricked by what is essentially Loki! Hahaha!" Sometimes a plot can break an RPG on me. Shame too, it was somehow quite good until the plot twist.

36. Wizardry 8 (#149)

35. Pokemon Yellow (#151)

34. Pokemon Red/Blue (#150)

33. Might and Magic VIII: Day of the Destroyer (#168)

Another thing that can ruin things for the Might & Magic series in my opinion, the strange continuity. In other words, to get all the full backstories, you need to play the Heroes of Might and Magic spinoff series to understand a few more things. M&M8 isn't too bad though, the same mechanics as the previous two games exist here, and they try to make things improvable as much as possible. Dragon recruits! Elemental gateways! Crazy crystals! It's all here and is fun.

32. Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven (#166)

By the time M&M6 rolled around we saw them do what they did with Wizardry 8, and arguably better. Still got tons of character customization to boot, but the developers knew they needed to make their series a bit more appealing than the last few games which were difficult in many ways. M&M6 is a direct sequel to the fifth game, and at this point the continuity kind of snarls in between the HOM&M series which again I need to play, but the advancements in gameplay are what make this a good game in the series.

31. Might and Magic VII: For Blood and Honor (#167)

I'm gonna argue and say this is the best of the M&M core games though, and it's mostly because its plot was the most interesting (the gameplay here is more or less the same as M&M6). A major character returns from the previous game, there's a fun scavenger hunt, and your party actually becomes rulers of your own castle. Granted, with the rule of a castle you have the politics that go with it, the results being having to ally with a light or dark side, or worrying about invasion, these things happen around the midpoint which I think is perfect for such decisions in-game.

30. Crystalis (#5)

29. Final Fantasy VIII (#85)

28. Final Fantasy IX (#115)

27. Earthbound (#99)

26. Skies of Arcadia (#90)

25. Treasure of the Rudras (#87)

24. Phantasy Star IV (#92)

23. Chrono Cross (#40)

22. Final Fantasy VII (#50)

21. Terranigma (#68)

20. Grandia II (#41)

19. Makai Kingdom (#170)

I've said enough about how Makai Kingdom essentially combines Disgaea and Phantom Brave, and if you can foreshadow, you'll realize those games are ahead of this one. Maybe I should've played Makai Kingdom before them and it would be much higher, but the magic is lost cause I played those first. Regardless, a fun tactical RPG with LOADS of customization will earn you really high points. And you get to utilize facilities and mechs too. Lots of overlord magic to be had.

18. Final Fantasy X (#155)

17. Vagrant Story (#70)

16. Final Fantasy Tactics (#95)

15. Suikoden (#27)

14. Suikoden II (#33)

13. Breath of Fire II (#11) 

12. Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (#130)

11. Bahamut Lagoon (#125)

10. MOTHER 3 (#111)

9. Live-A-Live (#49)

8. Wild ARMs 3 (#35)

7. Final Fantasy VI (#45)

6. Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals (#23)

5. Phantom Brave (#91)

4. The World Ends With You (#100)

3. Chrono Trigger (#20)

2. Valkyrie Profile (#25)

1. Soul Nomad & The World Eaters (#72)

And with that, I have officially ranked all of my RPGs accordingly, yet again. I will continue to play more as time goes on, the new ones will probably not show up on this list anytime soon until I hit a target number. Regardless, peace out as I continue my gaming escapades. 

A look back at: Makai Kingdom

 

Huh, 350 posts in this semi-inactive blog. So what do you get when you cross Phantom Brave and Disgaea together. Well, it's Makai Kingdom. And it was certainly fun, combining the main core aspects of free-range movement Phantom Brave had, the devilish overlords of Disgaea, the two turns of Disgaea, and some bits and pieces of drama here and there. And then you add the vehicles, the buildings, and I am not 100% certain on this but Nippon Ichi probably decided to take these adopted mechanics in Makai Kingdom and use them for future games.

Sure enough, the magic is fun, but I feel some of it was lost because I already played Phantom Brave and Disgaea. Therefore, when I started Makai Kingdom, there were things I already expected, namely the above mechanics. So it just felt like a continuation for both of those games (and in actuality, Makai Kingdom is a spinoff of Disgaea). No need to be too harsh though, as character customization and randomized dungeons, plus randomized bonuses offer a TON of replay. As does the bonus content which involves superbosses and such. So there's a ton of positives.

The one real negative for me personally was the score system. You combine this with the random dungeons you go to, and then you realize the points some targets have on them. A certain score must be reached, but what if you destroyed everything there in the entire map and you're under the score? You're stuck, more or less. Not to mention anything attacking Zetta causes the score bonuses to disappear, and not having any summoned units is a game over. Arguably, the grinding and reincarnating can be a low point too but I'm already used to it. All in all though, fans of Disgaea and Phantom Brave will enjoy Makai Kingdom, and if you somehow played this game before either of those, you'd probably actually like it more than those games if you go to those second. Must be a strange effect some games have.

A look back at: Might and Magic IX: The Writ of Fate

Too much Might and Magic for me right now, I think I put so much focus over it during the extent of my working hours and it's obviously time for a break from this franchise. Well, Heroes of Might and Magic will have to wait quite a while. During the summer, I got quite a few franchises that I want to explore soon enough.

So Might and Magic IX puts a new paintbrush on the previous games in the series and makes it look snazzier, but doesn't really change the core gameplay. It's somewhat appreciative, just putting on the new graphics may be all that's needed. I played through the series in such an order that rivals that of the Wizardry series and watched it evolve into what it is at the moment, active-time, freeform navigation, plenty of sidequests and interesting story areas, and all that. Each game I felt like doing something different each time but even then it all feels the same. And overall, Might and Magic's later games do get easier, which is something I don't have a problem with.

So since gameplay is the same and character customization is as always a high point for the series, especially with all the class changes possible, it really boils down to how this game's plot goes. Imagine if you will, a plotline that goes off the rails because some random guy was basically deciding not just your destiny, but the destiny of your supposed opponent. Because that's exactly what happens in this game. Axeoth, the region of the game, is brand new, there's barely any mention of this place at all in previous games (apparently this takes place after Heroes of Might and Magic IV, which I will of course have to play in the long run). Then you have warring clans that you want to unite against foreign invaders and some crazed barbarian of sorts. You also have this Writ of Fate stating "you must defeat this guy". Except the guy also has a Writ of Fate stating "you must defeat the player character's party". So with all the intrigue and subterfuge going on, we do some Norse mythology stuff, or at least a knock-off of it in name (but I'm sure we can agree that Hallenhalt is Valhalla, Krohn is Odin, Njam is Loki, Fre is Freya, Hanndl is Heimdall, etc. No Thor if you ever wanted him though). So yeah, Krohn is the benevolent king of the gods, and realizes that yes, you and your supposed enemy are being trolled by the mischief god Njam the whole time. Well, so much for this whole war. All because one guy just wants things to himself (this includes Krohn's wife Fre, yeah, he wants to go there). And Krohn's his main obstacle, so he'll allow both sides of the conflict to work together to defeat Njam for the end. And that's essentially what happens and in all honesty, I'm not amused by this. Maybe cause I figured out that if we have anyone based on Loki as a main villain, it's going to be one of THOSE plotlines and needs to be done amazingly right, which this one doesn't really hit the stride as much as hoped.

Oh well, at least I can take a break from this tiring franchise for a while.