Favourite RPG Series

So we've got a thread for favourite RPG (in this very section of the forum, no less) but let's take a step back and look at a bigger picture. There are lots of big RPG series out there - which one do you prefer?

Ooh, tough one.  FF's gone to the Dark Side since VI, Pokémon had its off-day in Gen. IV (plus those BLOODY TUTORIALS), Xenoblade Chronicles is the only game in the Xeno- series I've played, Paper Mario has gone right down the tube in recent times...  That leaves Mario & Luigi, really, and while solid, I'd be hard-pressed to call them anything more since the original.  

It's got to be Pokémon for me, I think, especially if we're including the Gamecube games.  (Not counting spin-offs, natch.)  RBY, GSC, RSE, Platinum, BW...  They're a bit samey apart from XD, and there's still those wretched tutorials, but it's an incredibly solid series, with only DP really letting the side down. There's always the fun of the new monsters revealed, too, even if they don't behave very differently to the old monsters. Plus, my excitement for discovering X/Y is greater than it has been for any game on the current pair of consoles apart from Smash, which says something!

Easiest answer ever,

Mass Effect all three game's are brilliant. What It did being a set out as trilogy in one generation, where you could continue your story all the way through, making your own decisions, relationships and so on. Only flaw of the series is the ending as someone who played the 1st game 3 times, 2nd twice with all there DLC, so a good 150hrs+ before playing the 3rd it was just a let down.

If you are thinking more J-RPG, has to be Pokemon.

EDIT:

Monster Hunter - yes it is an rpg just with an amazing combo battle system & the usually mince story removed, they just have so much content & so many goals you can set yourself I've never had any other game series I can happily play for years & years.

Hmmm... likely The Elder Scrolls. I haven't played I or II, but the other three are just so massive in scope and immersive, you can lose yourself in those worlds so easily.

Well if we're going down the ES route you can't not mention the far superior Fallout series. I find the worlds and the combat much better and the things you do have more of an impact.

Although everything stops for me when a new Pokémon game comes out, in recent years I've found myself loving the Dragon Quest series. Granted, I've only played four out of the ten games (being IV, V, VI and IX) but V and IX were brilliant titles. IV had a nice structure (you played as the heroes in the final party one at a time before they joined up) and VI was my most played game on the 3DS until Pokémon Black 2.

Really hopeful that the 3DS port of DQVII will have a release date announced in one of those new-fangled Nintendo Directs I hear there is.

Interesting were picking more action RPG's.

I agree with you Jas Monster Hunter is a RPG of the action variety.But I don't know if you can say Xenoblade is a series as there's only one game, I know there's other Xeno games. So do you mean them Jas.

Same as you Jay I've only played morrowind, oblivion and all there DLC, a bit of Skyrim and Shadowkey. All being great examples of the genre. I would like to try online when it comes out but I'm not willing to pay $15 a month though.

Ohh Andy always gives me a good laugh, going for series where only 2 of the 4 games are RPG's with one of them when it was released being a glitchy mess (what i remember reading in reviews) but that was more likely as it was farmed out to Obsidian AKA the studio that makes a sequel of a great game but makes theirs worse. I can understand going for fallout 3 as a fav RPG on it's own but the series as whole I just can't.

I just found DQIX a bit dull, and I think that put me off the series. I like my RPGs to have some good characters in them, and because of the whole "design your own hero" thing, DQIX couldn't really do that.

andyman949 wrote:

Well if we're going down the ES route you can't not mention the far superior Fallout series. I find the worlds and the combat much better and the things you do have more of an impact.

The recent (3/New Vegas) Fallout series, or the original (1/2/Brotherhood of Steel) series?

Quote :

I agree with you Jas Monster Hunter is a RPG of the action variety.But I don't know if you can say Xenoblade is a series as there's only one game, I know there's other Xeno games. So do you mean them Jas.

Oops! I misread the original post so I guess I'll just say Monster Hunter then.

Pokemon is definately my all time favourite. It may lack ambitious changes that some gamers like however I find the little tweaks from generation to generation make for a stable series that I can delve into. Improved connectivity and streetpass should further bolster the series strengths.

I also agree with Jaster that Monster Hunter is amazing. It is such an addictive and challenging series, the focus on co-operation is refreshing in todays online gaming world.

beemoh wrote:

andyman949 wrote:

Well if we're going down the ES route you can't not mention the far superior Fallout series. I find the worlds and the combat much better and the things you do have more of an impact.

The recent (3/New Vegas) Fallout series, or the original (1/2/Brotherhood of Steel) series?

My bad I thought it was obvious as I was comparing to the Elder Scrolls games but yeah I was referring to 3/Vegas. I still haven't played the originals, though the discount on steam was damn tempting.

As for 3 being better than New Vegas that's just not true. Whilst New Vegas may have been worse at release it certainly wasn't too bad when I played it. Then there's the faction system in New Vegas which is brilliant! New Vegas took the brilliant 3 and improved on it in every way other than the music (sorry Mr New Vegas, you are no Three Dog).

andyman949 wrote:

Well if we're going down the ES route you can't not mention the far superior Fallout series. I find the worlds and the combat much better and the things you do have more of an impact.

Says if you are going for the elder scrolls series you can't not mention the far superior Fallout series. Where in your opinion fallout 3 / new vegas might be better then oblivion (there not) but fallout isn't a RPG series there's only two games in the genre. You can't say two games are better then 6 games which are RPGs.

Also Whilst New Vegas may have been worse at release it certainly wasn't too bad when I played it. This could be true but I think this shows what the games industry is like at the moment you can get away with putting out a glitchy game then to fix it with patches. Which fine after launch but what about the people that bought it at launch, same with reviews IGN doesn't go back 3 month's later go let's re-review it.

I still remember playing through one of Fall Out 3's DLCs and it being glitched to hell on launch, to the extent that textures were missing, speech didn't load, and I spent large portions of the first day of that DLC walking across massive floating orange exclamation marks and seemingly endless pits.

If you're saying the other 2 aren't RPGs there's no confusion anyway. Xenoblade has been mentioned too, it doesn't matter how many there are therefore the recent games are an RPG series surely?

I wouldn't say it reflects the state of the industry either. Aside from something by Bethesda and Dead Island I couldn't name other games that are broken on release. A few outliers doesn't mean the whole industry is screwed.

I'd say the newer Fall Out games are RPGs - if the Elder Scrolls games are seen as RPGs then so should the newer Fall Outs.

Andy, Jas edited his post and said in a letter post he missread the question and balla also said he loves xenoblade but not played any other xeno series, so he's going for pokemon.

To me there has to be more and one game to be series, other wise I'm changing from Mass Effect to Jade Empire with it's 1 game.

Yeah Recent Fallout's are a series and RPG's but when you say Fallout I'm thinking all 5 games not just two but I'm the same when people say xbox I'm thinking the original not the 360 or PSX is another thing that bugs me. A people mean PS1 but I'm thinking of this PSX from japan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSX_%28video_game_console%29 . So fallout 3 & Vegas and 4 when it comes out if your talking about them maybe New Fallout should be used.

Balladeer wrote:

I just found DQIX a bit dull, and I think that put me off the series.  I like my RPGs to have some good characters in them, and because of the whole "design your own hero" thing, DQIX couldn't really do that.

DQIX is a funny one. Most of the best story beats do not happen to your character; they happen to the NPC's of the villages that you have to save in order to find out what happened to you and your kind (by this stage, I've lost Just A Minute on repetition of the word 'happen'). By the time you do that, you're still essentially sorting out someone else's troubles. To be honest, that's kind of what I liked about it.

I honestly don't have a favourite rpg series. I've either only dabbled in some (Tales, Final Fantasy, Ys) or don't actually hold the others in a high enough regard to call them my favourite (Pokemon, Final Fantasy). And the rest I could mention were one shots like Xenoblade.