Let's see, the very first RPG I played, like most kids nowadays, is obviously Pokémon on the Game Boy, haha. Unlike lucky children nowadays who get to start with a Game Boy Advance SP and Pokémon Fire Red, I started with a Game Boy Light and Pokémon Yellow. Not bad already, I suppose.
My first exposure to the Pokémon games was at Genting, about eight or nine years ago. I was there for a holiday with Dave, and then addicted to WWE (then still called WWF), pulled a few wrestling attacks on me. In revenge, when he lent me his Pokémon Yellow to play (I lent him another one of my cartridge), I saved quite a few times (despite him stressing me not to save my new game), and lying that the sound effect from the saving of game comes from when I access the computer in the Pokémon Center. When he later plays his game and finds not his level 68 Pikachu and level 72 Charizard, but a Level 6 Pikachu and a Level 3 Rattata, he was so furious he chucked my cartridge out of the hotel room and slammed the door shut. XD
Yup, my first game was Pokémon Yellow. Like most Yellow players, my team consists of Raichu (Dave and I traded our Pikachu to each other to evolve them), Charizard, Blastoise, Venusaur, Mewtwo, and the last one I forgot. XD Dave and I also traded and fought with each other using a game link cable, and I remember his ace is Exeggcutor, with its annoying Double Team attack meant that my Mewtwo is not any better than a Raticate. XD Admittedly, the game would have suck if you play it now (especially after playing the third generation Pokémon games), it was quite good back then when I first got it.
Then I got Red and Blue, and began trading exclusive Pokémon to Dave's Yellow, for him to complete his Pokédex. I remembered starting with Charmander, Squirtle and Bulbasaur (get a starter, trade to another cartridge, restart, pick a second starter, trade to another cartridge, restart, take the last starter and take back the other two starters). Well, Yellow was no doubt better than Red or Blue (especially since you can get all three starters alone, and Charizard can actually learn Fly), but you can't complete the Pokédex without either Red or Blue. XD Anyway, Dave completed the Pokédex (he had Mew in his Pokédex, which his friend traded him to and traded back, so even without Jolteon, he was able to get the diploma).
Okay, this is getting less of a review and more of a personal recount. Anyway, next I got Pokémon Silver (I first started with a pirated Gold version, where the language they use pure sucks). I remembered trading the three starters of Kanto to Silver, and when playing outside in public, some guy came to me, looked at my game for a while and went "Wow! How did you get Charizard, Blastoise and Venusaur?". If I was not that young back then, I'd have replied with a sarcastic "Oh, I stole them from Professor Oak when he gave me the Pokédex, that old toad." Well, the graphics were not bad then, with multi-colour for everything and a more interesting plotline than RBY, but if you played third-generation games like RSE, you'd have think the game sucks too. XD
After that, I played Ruby as a ROM on my computer. The plotline was not bad, though it tends to get boring after defeating the Elite Four. The graphics are excellent, can't really find a fault in it, and the double-battle idea is really interesting. The music suits the terrain you are in (then again, the music of every game does so) and hardly get boring (unlike in RBY when you are stuck with that stupid cycling song as long as your foot is on the pedal), and having a custom sprite for each Pokémon (I'm talking about the small ones you see when you access "Pokémon" after pressing the Start button and see their arms wiggling) was really great, though I can imagine the hard work they put in for this, lol. I don't really like the concept of Pokéblocks though, and thus could hardly bother doing Contests.
Next, I played Emerald. I can definitely see an improvement over Ruby and Sapphire. Battle Frontier was a great concept (except the fact that you MUST EV-train to be able to beat it, not just win one or two rounds by luck, and the fact that you gain absolutely no experience whatsoever). Its weaknesses thus made it very boring, and I see only hardcore Pokémon trainers willing to try and beat the Battle Frontier (I mean, look at me, I EV-trained my Mudkip to a level 19 Marshtomp and gave up). The whole concept of mixing the evil plots of Teams Magma and Aqua together (instead of having one team good and one team bad like its predecessor ganes) and being able to capture Groudon, Kyogre and Rayquaza in one single game was excellent too (though some players dislike the fact that they can only be captured after defeating the Elite Four).
After that was Fire Red. It was definitely a great improvement from Red. In Red, Psychic-types were overpowered (Mewtwo and Alakazam, for example, had overwhelmingly high status), and the only attacks strong against them that can do damage, Lick (Ghost) and Drain Life (Bug), only has 20 Power. In Fire Red, a lot of the type inbalance was fixed. Also, with Charmander learning Metal Claw and being able to defeat Brock with a strong attack, most people would actually stop discriminating the Fire Pokémon. A good addition is the Sevii Islands, though without any good plot, but just a "explore the islands yourself, and see what they have to offer", it fails. Less like a RPG, more like an adventure game.
Enough about the Pokémon games, let's go for some "true" RPGs, haha.
The first RPG I played on my PlayStation was Chrono Cross, recommended to me by Dave. As I was young back then, the confusing and conplex storyline made completely no sense to me (I still get confused now when I go and check its plot in its Wikipedia article). Sometimes, having complex and unpredictable storylines are good, especially if they twist and create surprise for gamers, but if your gamers are unable to understand your damned storyline, you have basically done an overkilled. Graphics was surprisingly good for a PlayStation game (both the normal 3D graphics and the FMV were much better than FFIX's in my opinions, and FFIX is the last Final Fantasy game for the PlayStation), and the music suits the theme as well. The battle system was great as well, though the concept of "Elemental Field" can take a while to master (I didn't even care about it in the past when I was young. Just hack-and-slash and the monsters will soon die. XD) The game has forty-five playable characters, thus leaving very little space for character development, especially since the PS game only has two discs (compared to FFIX and FFVIII's four each and FFVII's three). In other words, most characters don't even get "the spotlight" much, and when players choose the three characters they want (most already had theirs early in the game) to use throughout the game, the rest of the characters were mostly abandoned and forgot about. Still, it is a good game, with an interesting storyline (at least it can hardly be predicted, making it boring), good graphics, gameplay and battle system. The first RPG that I had reached "The End", it has definitely set me up for more RPGs. XD
The first Final Fantasy I played was FFIX. Mark brought it to grandfather's house to play, and I liked it, deciding to buy it. Of course, the character design seems childish (I mean, out of eight of your party members, you have a monkey, a rat, and the rest are just downright weird), and the battle system gives little time for thinking and strategy, leading to the simpler hacking-and-slashing method. The minigames were good relief from the main plot, but they can get repetitive over time, especially when you had to dig in a small area repeatedly looking for items to unlock the next area in which you dig. Good storyline, with necessary twists here and there, but not to much as to confuse the player. I just don't like how Trance can be so overkilling, and how annoying it is to accidentally activate Trance when your opponent is just one hit away from death. It is the second RPG I reached "The End".
Then there is FFX. One of my personal favorites. Great graphics, great music, great storyline. Having voices is a plus, especially during the time when it is released, when hardly any game uses voices. Battle system is very good as well, turn-based and allows time for strategizing. The world map was omitted too, instead linking up the locations to each other; another plus. Don't really like the Grid Sphere system though, prefer the old way of leveling up with experience and status and skills are gained automatically. Third RPG to reach "The End" I believe.
With Final Fantasy X being one of my favorite games, naturally I look forward to its sequel when I heard of it online. Sad to say, I was quite disappointed. The music in FFX-2 is not really that good when you compare it to music from other FF games (though they can still be considered good, lol), especially replacing the victory fanfare (which had been around in most of the previous FF games, making it sort of a 'staple' for FF games). The availability of only three characters make the game quite boring, and of course, making all three female is pure sexism (well, the dirty, horny and drooling old men aside). The Dresspheres were a good idea, but the Garment Grids effectively limit the usages of Dresspheres, leading players to only use one or two better ones. Rather than training two level 94 Charizards then five hundred and forty-eight Level 2 Weedles, I suppose. Storyline was good, as can be expected from a FF game, and I really love the good ending. Damn, just 0.8% away from the perfect ending, but I still can't figure out what I missed. T_T Next!
Final Fantasy VIII. Ah. Storyline was decent (though you suddenly transform from a lonely and anti-social orphan, into a mercenary fighting for whoever pays you money, and then into a hero fighting to save the world. Weird.) Music was decent, though hardly any leaves an impression. Character buildup is great as well, though having everyone except for Rinoa being childhood friends is a bit... *blinks*. Had to say the battle system sucks though. Junction system means that no one will ever use the more powerful magic junctioned, and if your GF does not allow you to junction a certain status, it will suck like hell. Drawing magic is especially boring, and is a complete and meaningless waste of time. Most RPG players, when faced with a boss they could not defeat, would train to increase their levels, but in FFVIII, this does not work, because the boss level up with Squall (main character)! O.O If the battle system is like FFX, then I'd at least bother to try and complete the game.
Final Fantasy VII. I have trouble wondering why people give it high ratings. Graphics sucks for a 3D game (yes, yes, I know the game is very old), but 2D graphics can be much nicer. Instead they have to go for 3D, and what happens? They screw up. Materia system is very, very complicated, but is almost nothing compared to the storyline, which completely screws something you call logic up. Don't get the game just because it is a FF, it's an utter waste of time.
Digimon World. Good storyline which gets screwed up by other factors. As the gameplay is partially modeled by the Digimon keychain, the Digimon that follow you needs to eat, needs to shit (which is very troublesome) and will die as well (which is very frustrating). Imagine you training your Digimon to a powerhouse, and then it dies. Frustrating, frustrating, frustrating. Problem is, when you get another Digimon, you have to train it again. Yes, train. Repetitively doing a boring task is what they call training. Utter waste of time, but very crucial if you want to even defeat a puny Kunemon. Death and training combined make the game a huge pain in the ass. Kudos to anyone who beat the game.
Digimon World 2 has a good storyline, too bad the dungeons are long and hard to navigate, and you have limited movement. One very annoying fact is that your Digimon has a maximum level, and you have to DNA Digivolve two high level Digimon into a low level Digimon to raise its maximum level, making the game very very annoying, especially when the difficulty raises as the game proceeds. Kudos to anyone who beat the game as well.
Digimon World 3 has a weak storyline. Basically, you are here to enjoy a virtual reality game, yet you are forced to save the world from total destruction against an evil villain group. And your main objective (similar to Pokémon), to defeat four strong players and earn their 'badges' (forgot what they are called), then become the Grand Champion of Digimon Online (*cough* Pokémon Master ripoff *cough*). But guess what? Saving the world takes priority, and unlike Pokémon, which has you earning badges while screwing up the works of the evil organizations, you forgot about earning the 'badges'. Not only that, but the long ways between two 'badges' are so long that the player is more likely to forget about it too. And referring to the ending of the strategy guide, apparently the RPG ends when you saved the world. Yup, your four 'badges', in the end, are useless. Completely useless. Not to forget that the difficulty of battles is set extremely high, so you waste a lot of time circling an area with weaker Digimon and fighting like no tomorrow. Very very boring. Again, I salute anyone capable of beating this game.
Alright, time for some seriously good but relatively unknown RPGs. Arc the Lad Collection is said to be one of the earliest PlayStation games, but as the English translators take their own sweet time, it came out when the better games are already in circulation, thus not many people know about the game. It actually consists of three games, Arc the Lad, Arc the Lad II and Arc the Lad III. The storyline was simply awesome, and the battle system is very well done as well. Of course, not much to complain about the 2D graphics, seeing that it is one of the earliest PlayStation Games. AtL is really short, and it took me only one day to beat it. AtL2 has a higher difficulty, with difficult monsters swarming at you left, right and center, battling can get very boring. AtL3 was really great, just that people don't like how you are forced to go on a side-plot between the exciting main plots (I don't mind that though). If only I can replay AtL2, I will. XD (I borrowed the games from Dave.)
Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits was a sequel of Arc the Lad III, only ten thousand years later. Thus, the storyline shifted a lot, though we still get the "Save the world from total destruction" crap like in almost every AtL game. Great storyline, great graphics, great music, just too little voices. Battle system was a great improvement from AtL3, an upgrade from 2D to 3D though still with the same concept. You get to control two main characters, and the game shifts from one to another continously, which is a plus (except one team is a lot weaker than the other). I just don't like how much the storyline shift from AtL3.
Arc the Lad: End of Darkness was a sequel of Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits, and solved the questions occurring at the end of AtL:TotS, though it added way more questions. Again, the storyline shifted a lot, but some concepts are still forced to abide with TotS, making the storyline rather weak. Battle system is real-time, a break away from the standard turn-based battle system in the four previous games, and although it is done to make the game playable online, I still don't like it. Battle system, truthfully, sucks. Storyline sucks as well. A disappointment to the Arc the Lad series.
Come to think of it, I don't really play too many RPGs, huh? XD
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