This was the hardest of the three lists for me, there were a lot of games that could've taken spots 9 and 10. Also, 2000 was a pretty damn good year.

10. Shadow Hearts: Covenant
Shadow Hearts was a great series, and Covenant (the second entry) was the best one. Set in our world (except with supernatural stuff going on) with a cast of interesting characters and a fun and unique battle system.

9. Chrono Cross
I will always maintain that I like this game more than Chrono Trigger. Plus, that soundtrack.

8. Final Fantasy XI
I got into this pretty late, but it was great regardless.

7. Lost Odyssey
I'm largely unimpressed by Sakaguchi's post-Square works, but I'll give him this one. An excellent JRPG that should have been on a platform where it would have had a better audience.

6. Suikoden V
My favorite Suikoden game. Good stuff all around.

5. Final Fantasy IX
Self-explanitory, right?

4. Deus Ex
This game was mind-blowing to me when I first played it. All the choices, both in gameplay and in the narrative, while keeping up the quality of said narrative. An all-time classic if you ask me.

3. Ar Tonelico
One of my favorite franchises, and although I like its sequels more than the first game, the first is still really great. It hits all the sweet spots for me with its characters, story, world and music.

2. World of Warcraft
This is a bit of a weird one because currently I don't consider it one of my favorites. However, due to the nature of MMORPGs, that's not really a fair evaluation. Times change, I've changed, the game's changed. Back then, WoW was a big part of my life. I loved the game, I met many friends in it and I had many great times in it. Therefore it's only fair I give it a pretty high spot on this list.

1. Ar Tonelico 2
Combine my favorite soundtrack with a great story, a fun battle system and possibly my favorite game romance (they even sing a duet, which by the way is a great song), and what do you get? This, one of my favorite RPGs ever, definitely my favorite in the franchise. Pretty much an improvement upon the first game in every way. Sadly, after this one the series started to overindulge in fanservice. This game has some of it and innuendos, but nothing too gratuitous.