Classic RPGs

Fallout 1 and 2, I hold these as the baseline standard for any RPG, even today. If you can't kill everyone, if you can't finish the game with several different archetypes, including without a single kill, then it's not a good RPG. Choices need to matter, your builds need to matter, and there needs to be more mechanically than just combat, unless you're openly telling players this is just a dungeon crawler. Not many studios truly replicated this kind of game since unfortunately, Fallout New Vegas and Outer Worlds years later, as well as Arcanum, are some of the only games that fit this criteria I can think of.
 
Chrono Trigger - One of the best JRPGs ever made, even with a silent protagonist, the party members are just so charming and larger than life. Excellent music, battle system, and interesting storytelling.

Shining Force 2 - One of the first RPGs I've ever played, while the writing isn't much to write home about, the music and the general feel of the game kicks so much ass.
 
Fallout 1 and 2, I hold these as the baseline standard for any RPG
You can even kill the kids, are there other games that allowed you to do this?

I understand that you don't want to allow to kill everybody, like important quest givers, but you should make it realistic, like have a tons of guards around that guy so you just die trying it.

I assume making everybody killable can make the development harder, but now with the rise of LLM/AI, you could actually use them to rewrite they story/universe in real-time, which indeed could create a unique play-through for everybody.
 
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For western I'm going to go with Baldur's Gate 2. Sure it old and the D&D 2nd edition system is kind of weird to get used to but it's so much fun. Awesome story, good companions, great combat there's a reason most western rpgs companies have tried to copy it over the years. I really like how it feels like you are just a group of adventures in a large world instead of a huge hero in a world that revolves around you. BG1 is just as good as well I just like the higher level combat plus the more fleshed out companions.

For JRPGs that's a lot harder. In the end I'm going with Persona 3 as I think it has the best writing out of them. The themes about death and dealing with it is really well done and the characters are great as well. I even enjoyed The Answer expansion which is something a lot of people didn't like. Combat is solid but not anything you couldn't find in the other Atlus games. I also quite like FF6, FF12, Wild Arms 1 and Tales of Phantasia.
 
Fallout 1 and 2, I hold these as the baseline standard for any RPG, even today. If you can't kill everyone, if you can't finish the game with several different archetypes, including without a single kill, then it's not a good RPG. Choices need to matter, your builds need to matter, and there needs to be more mechanically than just combat, unless you're openly telling players this is just a dungeon crawler. Not many studios truly replicated this kind of game since unfortunately, Fallout New Vegas and Outer Worlds years later, as well as Arcanum, are some of the only games that fit this criteria I can think of.
I’m still conflicted on those two games. I like them both for different reasons. I like 1 for the story and world, I love 2 for the sandbox and open world. I’m not crazy about 2’s story though because I’m still not sold that a tribal only equipped with a spear and loins can somehow shoot a gun or pick a lock. In 1, you were a vault dweller and that was the most advanced form of society in a post apocalyptic world.
 
For western I'm going to go with Baldur's Gate 2. Sure it old and the D&D 2nd edition system is kind of weird to get used to but it's so much fun. Awesome story, good companions, great combat there's a reason most western rpgs companies have tried to copy it over the years. I really like how it feels like you are just a group of adventures in a large world instead of a huge hero in a world that revolves around you. BG1 is just as good as well I just like the higher level combat plus the more fleshed out companions.
You forgot to add that if you are going to buy the game today, you need to disable or ignore the faggy fanfic DLC that was added in the "remastered" versions of the game. I think GOG just lets you play the original without them.
 
You forgot to add that if you are going to buy the game today, you need to disable or ignore the faggy fanfic DLC that was added in the "remastered" versions of the game. I think GOG just lets you play the original without them.
Yes you have to play the complete version of the game instead of the Enhanced Edition they come together when you buy the Enhanced Edition. It's kind of a little of a problem as there are some mods that only work with the ee. Anyways the Beamdog content feels so out of place. There're also terribly voice acted the audio sounds so much worse then the rest of the game.
 
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Ooh, ooh! Another SNES classic: RoboTrek. It was a Mons-collecting game before Pokemon first came into being, but with Robotrek you design and outfit/upgrade your Mons from scratch. And said Mons are robots.
 
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