Points Received/List Appearances: 288;22
Developer: Capcom Production Studio 4
System: Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, PC, Wii, Mobile phone, iPhone, iPad, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Genre(s): Third-person shooter, survival horror
Previous Rank: 9th (List 8)
For quite a while this game was actually #1 and fought for it for a while before finally settling for #3.
The highest non-JRPG on this list, Resident Evil 4 is one of the few games on board 8 that gets lots of love with very very little hate.
Resident Evil 4 is a bit of a departure from the previous games to make the game more palletable for people usually not into typical survival horrors.
Although the "survival horror" part is still there, an over-the-shoulder third person perspective has been added which is one of the most praised aspects of the game and carried onto into future installments. Each game has a laser pointer and shooting enemies at specific parts of the body affects their reaction and how much faster they die. Speaking of enemies, there are no more 'zombies' but instead Ganados that can actually permanently die.
While the main character Leon Kennedy isn't a new character into the series, he is much more mature than from RE2 and his snarky comments make a very well-liked protagonist.
2.Persona 4
Points Received/List Appearances: 340;21
Developer: Atlus
System: Playstation 2, Vita (coming soon)
Genre(s): JRPG
Previous Rank: 2nd (List 8)
A former winner on these lists and came really close to doing it again.
Persona 4 takes the popular concept and elements of Persona 3 and changes/adds many things.
The battle system allows you to control all party members (not just the main character), dungeons have less floors than Tartarus and aren't as predetermined, and dating multiple girls does not hamper your relationships with any of them.
The overall tone is a bit more light-hearted than Persona 3 overall but there are still a bunch of serious and emotional moments.
Persona 4 has gotten so popular that it's gotten a pretty good anime adaption, a Vita port, and in a few months a FIGHTING GAME.
1.Chrono Trigger
Points Received/List Appearances: 368;26
Developer: Squaresoft
System: Super Nintendo, PlayStation, Nintendo DS, Virtual Console, PlayStation Network, iOS
Genre(s): JRPG
Previous Rank: 8th (List 8)
I'll be honest, I'm surprised this game has never once gotten #1 on these lists. It has more universal love (on board 8) and less hate than FF7.
What's interesting about Chrono Trigger in that besides its time travel plot, it really isn't overall too unique compared to other JRPGs. However people agree that in that pretty much everything it does, it does quite well with very little flaws.
The characters are all pretty likable, the soundtrack is popular, there are no random battles, each character has their own special moveset, there a lot of small events you change early on in the game, there are multiple endings, and a bunch of cool plot twists.
If for some reason you are on board 8, like JRPGs and haven't played this game yet many people (and this list) should and will convince you to play at least once in your lifetime.
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