The defining RPG for every Era

[Wolf Kanno]

Course "era" is entirely subjective and likely based on what you were gaming on at the time. Regardless, which RPGs do you feel defined the genre in each time based arc of the genres history? Did FFVII define the late 90s or was it Baldur's Gate? How about Tales of Symphonia for the GC/PS2/X-Box or was it KOTOR? Which game, for you, defined the genre in each era?

[FFNut]

Era one: Dragon Quest. With the success of Dragon Quest it convinced Square to launch Final Fantasy. It was about to get scraped when that came out n

Era Two: Chrono Trigger. The game is a complete masterpiece inside and out. This beat out FFVI for me slightly.

Era Three: Final Fantasy VII. No game brought people to the genere then this game did. It was the block that took RPG's from the small group in the corner to the room is filled with people talking about it.

Era 4: MorrowWind. This brought a new look to games and opened up the sandbox genre to the world

Era 5: Dragon Age. It brought in choices and relationships to the RPG genre.

Era 6: Final Fantasy XV. This is the first real new RPG. Wether it stays at the top or not is up developers topping it!

[Sephiroth]

NES: Final Fantasy, even with being inspired by Dragon Quest it nonetheless was a huge milestone for RPGs
SNES: A Link to the Past; by now people should already know I see Zelda as not just Adventure but Adventure RPG
PS1: Final Fantasy VII
PS2: Final Fantasy X or Kingdom Hearts
PS3: Probably the Souls games? They gained a lot of popularity
PS4: Final Fantasy XV

For ME:

NES: FF1
SNES: FFVI
PS1: FFVII
PS2: FFX/KH
PS3: Nier Gestalt
PS4: Nier 2 Automata

GC: Twilight Princess, WiiU: Breath of the Wild as I won't count TP again, PSP: Crisis Core, etc.

[Colonel Angus]

8-bit: Final Fantasy
16-bit: Final Fantasy III/VI
32-bit: Final Fantasy VII
64-bit: FFXII
128-bit: ?
256-bit: World of Final Fantasy

[Skyblade]

Era 5: Dragon Age. It brought in choices and relationships to the RPG genre.

I hate to break it to you, but games like Persona 3 had been doing that several years earlier.

[FFNut]

I had never played the Persona games so had no clue about them doing it first. My first one was Dragon age, or you could argue Fable.

[Vyk]

I get the impression Persona 5 may be the defining JRPG this generation. Final Fantasy XV has gotten a lot of praise, but I feel like people enjoying it were going to play it anyway. I've heard more than a few people say that Persona 5 got them back into JRPGs. Not a lot of games can say that. That's kind of a Bravely Default thing

For me, I think Dragon Quest may have paved the way, but Final Fantasy certainly engrossed me a lot more. It was a bigger world with a lot more going on, and having a diverse team made it more interesting to me. And I found the music to be a lot less irritating lol

The next generation was a bit odd for me. I got a Genesis/MegaDrive when it first released, and didn't get an SNES until after the PS1 launch. The Shining series (Force/Darkness) definitely kept my attention more-so through the 16-bit generation. I think they were blown out of the water once FFVI came along. Outclassing Phantasy Star IV, Secret of Mana, and Chrono Trigger. It had the most diverse and likable cast I'd ever come across, and a much more compelling and well-realized plot than any of the others

For PS1/Saturn era, it depends on the day and my mood whether I would choose FFVII or Xenogears as the defining game for me. I feel like FFVII was more enthralling, while Xenogears was more impactful. I've played VII multiple times. But there was absolutely nothing like Xenogears on the landscape at the time. It may not hold up as well today, but the groundbreaking peek into the human psyche, the corruption of religion, and super badass mech combat was on a whole other level to everything else I was playing at the time

PS2/GC/XBox was definitely KotOR for me. In fact it was probably KotOR 2 that was the more groundbreaking experience for me. While KotOR felt like a grand adventure akin to the original movies. KotOR 2 felt like a very personal experience. The dialog was punched up and felt a lot more real and impactful, the character motivations were deep and complex. And the plot had a lot of darkness and growth to it. Much like Xenogears, I think I needed the more mature themes at the time

PS3/360 was easily defined by the Mass Effect experience for me. Looking back at all the plethora of games I have for both consoles (and even the Wii), while some games are arguably better, I don't think anything was as impactful or meaningful

And then the current generation, where I don't have enough space left on my console to install Mass Effect or Nier, and have yet to acquire Final Fantasy XV, and I'm struggling to stay interested in Persona 5. I'd almost have to say Hyper Light Drifter has been the most meaningful RPG'ish experience I've had this generation. Possibly Bloodborne.. The only Souls game I don't find to be ridiculously cheap and copy/pasted in its design philosophies

[LunarWeaver]

Some Dragon Quest, some Final Fantasy, some Diablo, maybe Skyrim. Probably the Witcher 3 at this point. I suck at pinpointing the times.

[Fynn]

Era 5: Dragon Age. It brought in choices and relationships to the RPG genre.

I hate to break it to you, but games like Persona 3 had been doing that several years earlier.

And Baldur's Gate II did it years before that

[Vyk]

Which was built off the original Fallouts. Seems like Black Isle and BioWare pioneered the "your choices matter" thing to a whole new level. Text adventure games were probably the only other real competition at the time

[maybee]

1970s : Dungeons and Dragons. I mean it started it all and gave inspiration for future titles. It basically gave birth to the whole genre. I mean, it's a roll the dice game, but it's still an RPG.

1980s : Dragon Quest. Was the BIG RPG game and is still a giant series today and gave inspiration for Final Fantasy games and more.

1990s : Final Fantasy VII . Final Fantasy VII basically brought consoles and said that RPG games can be cool and fun, and not = 30-year-old man sitting in his mum's basement.

2000s : War Of Warcraft ( if counts ? ) This game was MASSIVE.

2010s : Persona 5. This game is for sure one of the best RPG games in years.

[Depression Moon]

What about The Witcher III?

[Scruffington]

Era 6: Final Fantasy XV. This is the first real new RPG. Wether it stays at the top or not is up developers topping it!

What do you mean by "this is the first real new RPG" ? What does this game have that any developer would want to 'top' ?

The defining RPG for this 'era' is most likely Witcher 3. It has had massive success both critically and commercially, and served as the inspiration for future RPGs that came after it (Final Fantasy XV).

You could also make the argument that Persona 5 is another defining RPG of this era. It's effectively considered one of the greatest JRPGs of all time, and has the best critical reception that the industry has seen since the release of Final Fantasy IX back in 2000.

FFXV is an afterthought when you compare it to the other, better RPGs of this era.

[Vyk]

I need to get The Witcher 3. Sadly I burn out real quick on single protagonist stories, and I haven't seen many instances of having a tag-along for quests that would keep things interesting. I've played enough Fallout, Skyrim, Horizon, etc. to know how it would end for me. Especially with it being 300+ hours of content

[Wolf Kanno]

NES/8-bit era - Dragon Quest III, while we can talk about the merits of the original DQ and even games like Final Fantasy, Phantasy Star and Wizandry, I feel the DQIII is when console RPGs finally came into their own as a medium and not some watered down experience compared to what was available on PC.

SNES/Genesis Era - Chrono Trigger, again, other games may have built up the medium but to me Chrono Trigger is the final accumulation of what the genre had to offer and I still consider it to be a nearly flawless experience. To this day I still consider CT to be the Gold Standard all other RPGs should be.

PS1 Era - Xenogears, okay so controversial choice since most will go with one of the FFs of this era, but to me, Xenogears was the game that helped define what separated this era from previous ones by creating a more mature and complex story of human drama that even games like FFVII and Tactics were still skirting around. While it is love it or hate gameplay experience, I feel it shows best the strong merits of an era that ushered in a more story and character driven experience that defined the era for me.

PS2 Era - Persona 3, after the story boom of last gen, the genre found itself in a weird place trying to evolve the gameplay side of the genre while retaining the Hollywood blockbuster design philosophy promoted by SE. Action-RPGs began to gain traction on both sides of the ocean, major brands experimented with the formula to mixed results and some series just decided to push for the genre to be a story driven film format first with varying results. Persona 3, in my humble opinion is the rare case of experimenting with formula that actually worked while also finding a way to move away from the Hollywood design philosophy of Square-Enix and bringing the genre back to its more "a hero is you" RPG roots. Creating a game that still feels quintessentially like a JRPG but avoiding many of the stagnating tropes that entails. To this day, I still feel the design philosophy of this game will most likely be the key to saving the JRPG.

PS3/360 Era - Mass Effect, a game that embodies the philosophy I feel Persona 3 brought to JRPGs, Mass Effect is a bit of a streamlined experience into what the CRPG/WRPG genre had been cooking up for awhile but I give it props over previous BioWare titles for being on of their first mass appeal titles not linked to an already popular established property. While I may feel the trilogy got a little worse with each installment, I feel ME1 is an excellent combination of world building, well rounded complex characters, and finding a means to give the player agency within the plot while avoiding the silent protagonist trope that drives so many RPG players crazy. This was the hardest for me to choose because I honestly felt this was one of the weaker generations for the genre.

Current era - still undecided. I only recently jumped into the current era and while I've played several RPGs, it's hard to say what will count as a defining entry for me. I expect it will be Persona 5 when I get there. Of what I've played, I may say Bloodborne but I am hard pressed to call it an RPG as I feel the game at it's core is more of an action game and the RPG elements are just there for balance and flavor. FFXV seems like an obvious choice, but I can't help feel like the game was simply SE jumping on the open world bandwagon popularized in the last generation, and technically XII did all of this better and before open world was a thing. This simply leaves me with Fallout 4, Type-0 and I am Setsuna. One is a throwback title, another is a port of a handheld game from last gen and Fallout 4 is well a Bethesda title and if you've played one, you have a good idea of what to expect. So this era still has some room to grow.

[Del Murder]

8-bit era (mid to late 80s): Probably Dragon Quest. It came free to many people who subscribed to Nintendo Power and was the first RPG for many people. It was also the inspiration for both its own series as well as FF and many others.

16-bit era (late 80s to early 90s): Chrono Trigger. I'm not sure how much it influenced the genre but it's arguably the best RPG ever made in any era.

PS1 era (mid 90s): Final Fantasy VII. I don't think this one needs explanation.

PS2 era (early 2000s): World of Warcraft. Not even a PS2 game but that's just how I describe the era. Anyway, clearly the most popular MMORPG of all time and a clear influence on both MMOs and single player games released after.

PS3 era (late 2000s): Mass Effect. I think this was the biggest influence on the western action/RPG/shooter hybrid which now most popular RPGs fall under this category. Also built on character interaction and story choice that was pioneered in other games but really popularized in this series.

PS4 era (2010s): At this point I would have to say Breath of the Wild. I mean, at what point are we going to consider Zelda an RPG? I could see a finer line in the past when action and RPG were more distinct but it's really blurred now. BotW seems to be the magnum opus of this series that finally takes it to the next level. However Witcher III and Persona 5 (return of the JRPG?) are strong contenders.

I'm sure there is an Elder Scrolls or Fallout game that goes in there somewhere but I could never get into those.

[Spuuky]

I get the lack of appreciation of the impact of games like Ultima and even Baldur's Gate, because they're really old and a lot of people both haven't played them and weren't around to understand the concept of the time they came out in. I have a harder time understanding people who leave out (based on sheer impact on the industry) FF7, WoW, and Oblivion. The question really is just where you place the dividing lines on eras.

[Wolf Kanno]

I get the lack of appreciation of the impact of games like Ultima and even Baldur's Gate, because they're really old and a lot of people both haven't played them and weren't around to understand the concept of the time they came out in. I have a harder time understanding people who leave out (based on sheer impact on the industry) FF7, WoW, and Oblivion. The question really is just where you place the dividing lines on eras.

I did say "which game for you defined the generation". So this is entirely subjective. I can agree that VII was a a watershed moment in popularizing the medium but I honestly didn't care for the game, even at the time of release, so it's difficult for me to subjectively say it defined the era for me because it was just a 16-bit era game with better graphics and budget. Xenogears was a game that made me feel "this is the new era".

If you want to make the list feel more historically objective, that is perfectly fine, but you're also more than welcome to define it by your own subjective tastes which will likely ignore the more obvious answers. ;)

[Scotty_ffgamer]

Nes era: Final Fantasy II if I could have played it back then in English probably. Didn't really play rpgs until the ps1 outside of Pokémon though.

Snes era: would Pokémon count in this era? I'd say Pokémon Crystal if so. Otherwise, Chrono Trigger.

Ps1 era: Final fantasy viii. It was my first final fantasy and first rpg besides Pokémon. Got me into the genre.

PS2: Xenosaga

PS3 era: Xenoblade Chronicles

[Sephiroth]

Snes era: would Pokémon count in this era? I'd say Pokémon Crystal if so. Otherwise, Chrono Trigger.


Pokémon Crystal came out way later except you just mean because of the graphic style.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

I honestly cant remember when Crystal came out in terms of other systems. I thought Gameboy Color was during Snes era but I guess even Pokémon Red came out after the PS1. That's what happens when I try to do this just based on memory.

[Wolf Kanno]

Honestly, era is pretty subjective. I went with standard console generation, but even that doesn't fit neatly into handhelds or PC.

[Sephiroth]

Pokémon Crystal came out in Japan in 2000 and in the West in 2001.

[Laddy]

NES Era - JRPG: Final Fantasy / WRPG: Ultima IV
SNES Era - JRPG: Chrono Trigger / WRPG: Might & Magic: World of Xeen
PS1 Era - JRPG: Final Fantasy VII / WRPG: Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall
PS2 Era - JRPG: Persona 4/ WRPG: Baldur's Gate II (these games are 8 years apart lol)
PS3 Era - JRPG: Xenoblade Chronicles / WRPG: Fallout: New Vegas
PS4 Era - JRPG: Breath of the Wild / WRPG: Bloodborne

[Ffamran mied Bunansa]

For me personally?

3rd Gen - Final Fantasy
4th Gen - Breath of Fire II or Phantasy Star IV
5th Gen - Final Fantasy VII
6th Gen - Dark Cloud or Phantasy Star Online
7th Gen - Xenoblade Chronicles
8th Gen - TBA

[Skyblade]

Y'know, I want to shift things up a bit, by looking at the handheld eras.

GameBoy: Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue. No real competition here.

GameBoy Advance: Golden Sun. One of the best (and most underrated) games of all time.

Nintendo DS: The World Ends With You. While the mechanics were incredibly overcomplicated for my taste, the game itself is brilliant, and a fantastic RPG that many remember very fondly.

Nintendo 3DS: Bravely Default. Oh my gosh, Square remembered how to make traditional RPGs. YAY!

[Depression Moon]

I still want to play Bravely Default.

[Wolf Kanno]

Y'know, I want to shift things up a bit, by looking at the handheld eras.

GameBoy: Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue. No real competition here.

GameBoy Advance: Golden Sun. One of the best (and most underrated) games of all time.

Nintendo DS: The World Ends With You. While the mechanics were incredibly overcomplicated for my taste, the game itself is brilliant, and a fantastic RPG that many remember very fondly.

Nintendo 3DS: Bravely Default. Oh my gosh, Square remembered how to make traditional RPGs. YAY!

While I don't feel as strongly about Golden Sun, I could honestly go with this list.

[Del Murder]

I think Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is the defining RPG for the GBA since it showed that that subgenre could really work well on handheld.