hi lately i am an RPG nerd
FINAL FANTASY TACTICS
Final Fantasy Tactics is great, the story is so much better than all of the other RPGs I have played because it is set in a realistic setting. All of the characters appear to have genuine motives or reasons for doing the things they do, rather than just being inherently evil or vengeful. The story is much more adult, touching on things like war-crime rapes, the idea of the church manipulating its people to gain power, famine, class prejudice... things like that. If Final Fantasy XII is going to be set in the same world, it should be amazing.
Also the gameplay is good, I know strategy RPGs aren't for everyone but Square have really done well applying the Job System to a grid type game. It's hard to get into, but once you do it's easy to lose yourself in it for hours.
Although the story of Final Fantasy Tactics does eventually resort to using a Deus Ex Machina, it is incredibly interesting prior to that point, and the fun of the gameplay carries it off to the end even when the plot has dived into fantasy-land.
If you have been put off by the battle system, then you are really missing out on a great story.
SOUL BLAZER
I have also been playing Soul Blazer. It's a novel twist on the standard RPG formula how the town section gradually appears as you delve deeper into the dungeon section. The action fighting is fun as well and a welcome diversion from turn-based battles. I'm not very far yet, only beaten one boss.
CHRONO TRIGGER
Also Chrono-Trigger, while relying heavily on basic Final Fantasy game mechanics, the plot is cool and I love time travel. The idea of how you act changing history and giving you different endings is awesome and could probably be worked into an amazing game mechanic using todays technology. However the actuality of replaying the game just to see minorly different endings doesn't really appeal to me. Frog is one of the best characters of all Square's games, and the music is top notch. I hate the way the main character doesn't speak.
Final Fantasy Tactics is great, the story is so much better than all of the other RPGs I have played because it is set in a realistic setting. All of the characters appear to have genuine motives or reasons for doing the things they do, rather than just being inherently evil or vengeful. The story is much more adult, touching on things like war-crime rapes, the idea of the church manipulating its people to gain power, famine, class prejudice... things like that. If Final Fantasy XII is going to be set in the same world, it should be amazing.
Also the gameplay is good, I know strategy RPGs aren't for everyone but Square have really done well applying the Job System to a grid type game. It's hard to get into, but once you do it's easy to lose yourself in it for hours.
Although the story of Final Fantasy Tactics does eventually resort to using a Deus Ex Machina, it is incredibly interesting prior to that point, and the fun of the gameplay carries it off to the end even when the plot has dived into fantasy-land.
If you have been put off by the battle system, then you are really missing out on a great story.
SOUL BLAZER
I have also been playing Soul Blazer. It's a novel twist on the standard RPG formula how the town section gradually appears as you delve deeper into the dungeon section. The action fighting is fun as well and a welcome diversion from turn-based battles. I'm not very far yet, only beaten one boss.
CHRONO TRIGGER
Also Chrono-Trigger, while relying heavily on basic Final Fantasy game mechanics, the plot is cool and I love time travel. The idea of how you act changing history and giving you different endings is awesome and could probably be worked into an amazing game mechanic using todays technology. However the actuality of replaying the game just to see minorly different endings doesn't really appeal to me. Frog is one of the best characters of all Square's games, and the music is top notch. I hate the way the main character doesn't speak.