I’m going to the game store later today to pick up Dragon Quest IX. I’ve actually never played any of the Dragon Quest games but the high level of character customization in this one has me wanting to try it out.

Everyone who knows me is aware that I am obsessed with MMORPGs but as far as traditional turn-based RPGs go I am pretty picky. My tastes tend to differ from the typical RPG fan. 

I remember my first RPG… Ultima III: Exodus! (the NES version)

At the time I was really too young to play it so I didn’t get very far but I liked making characters and exploring. (I think I was in first or second grade at the time) It probably appealed to me because 4 of the 11 job classes are female so you can have an all-girl party, wooo! 

The graphics were good too! I wouldn’t end up playing the first Zelda until a couple years later.

Of course Richard Garriott is in it too as Lord British…

If I made a game I would probably do what most developers do and hide myself as an NPC somewhere but Garriott makes himself king.

Yeah…typical… (if you know who he is you’ll get the joke, if not, click here)

My all-time favorite RPG is Legend of Legaia. (Playstation) My sister and I put so many hours into that game!!  I love the battle system, I could watch the attack moves thousands of times and never get tired of them. It has a lot of neat mini-games too. If I recall correctly I think the game only got average reviews which seems crazy to me.  Like I said, I guess my tastes aren’t typical. In my humble opinion that game is epic!

I would love to have it ported to a handheld but I seriously doubt that will ever happen. :(

What about Final Fantasy you say? I’m not really a big Final Fantasy fan (BLASPHMEY?!?!)

However I did really like FFVI and FFV is good too. Sorry but I didn’t like VII and VIII and the only one I’ve played after those is XI but that is an MMO so it doesn’t really count.

Another RPG I really liked was Grandia II. The RPGs I hated (I want those hours of my life back!!) include Thousand Arms (and no, I didn’t hate it because of the dating aspect, I like dating simulation games) and Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete (sorry, another “classic”)

Ok, maybe Lunar was worth it to watch Nash spin around and say “check this out”

—credit: some of the unedited pictures in this post came from http://shrines.rpgclassics.com/nes/ultima3/index.shtml I hope they don’t mind that I raped them.