Board 8 > Which RPGs trapped on the PS1 are worth getting?

(+) Yeah! (+)

With the PS3 shutting down its digital store in July, there's a bunch of old games stuck on the PS1 that will only be available at exorbitant physical prices. I'd like to get the good ones before that happens, and the console is famous for its RPGs so I thought I'd ask here which ones still hold up. I got the list from here: https://www.rpgsite.net/news/10902-all-the-exclusive-rpgs-available-on-playstation-network-for-ps1-ps2-ps3-psp-and-vita (also includes PS2/3/P/Vita)

Alundra
Arc the Lad
Arc the Lad II
Arc the Lad III
Battle Hunter
Breath of Fire IV
Chrono Cross
Final Fantasy Origins: Final Fantasy I & II (Pretty sure these are on GBA but they're listed so I'll include them)
Final Fantasy Tactics (I've played this but leaving it on the list in case others haven't)
Front Mission 3
Legend of Dragoon
Mega Man Legends
Mega Man Legends 2
Oz no Mahoutsukai ~Another World~ RungRung
Parasite Eve
Parasite Eve II
Persona 2: Eternal Punishment
Saiyuki: Journey West
Suikoden
Suikoden II
Threads of Fate
Vagrant Story
Wild Arms
Wild Arms 2
Xenogears

Xenogears and Chrono Cross jump out at me but IDK if they hold up, or if the others do too. Also open to any non-RPG suggestions if they're worth it. Thanks in advance!

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This topic is/will be helpful, thank you.

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All the PS1 ports of old Final Fantasy games (and CT) have terrible load times so skip'em

Breath of Fire III (adding this because only other place it's on is PSP and not a console)
Breath of Fire IV
Chrono Cross
Mega Man Legends
Mega Man Legends 2
Parasite Eve
Persona 2: Innocent Sin (through a fan translation or just getting the PSP version I guess)
Persona 2: Eternal Punishment
Suikoden
Suikoden II (Probably the best game on this list)
Wild Arms
Wild Arms 2
Xenogears

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Parasite Eve and I'll add Brave Fencer Musashi

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Vagrant Story and Chrono Cross are my favs on that list.

Shame there's no Valkyrie Profile.
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I've only played Xenogears, but can confirm it holds up

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Parasite Eve is a great game. the second one is also worth playing.

Front Mission 3 is also really good

Also Chrono Cross is a terrible game

Suikoden II is absolutely essential

FF Origins versions are balanced differently than on GBA, that PS1 version is better for FF1 but worse for FF2 imo

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Alundra
Legend of Dragoon
Parasite Eve
Parasite Eve II
Persona 2: Eternal Punishment
Wild Arms
Wild Arms 2

Parasite Eve II is more in the survival horror direction though BTW.

Some other games possibly worth looking at:
Crash Bandicoot
Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
Crash Bandicoot: Warped
Crash Team Racing
MediEvil
Silent Hill
Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!
Spyro the Dragon
Spyro: Year of the Dragon
Syphon Filter
Syphon Filter 2
Tecmo's Deception: Invitation to Darkness

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Oh boy I didn't expect so many different games to be brought up! I'll definitely look into Suikoden II and Parasite Eve given the responses. Might have to get the lot of them at this rate!

Snake5555555555 posted...

Some other games possibly worth looking at:
Crash Bandicoot
Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
Crash Bandicoot: Warped
Crash Team Racing
MediEvil
Silent Hill
Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!
Spyro the Dragon
Spyro: Year of the Dragon
Syphon Filter
Syphon Filter 2
Tecmo's Deception: Invitation to Darkness

I've played Crash and Spyro (and they have remakes these days for other folks!) but the others weren't on my radar so I'll look them up, thanks! I loved Silent Hill 2 and thought 3 was OK but haven't played the original.

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Alundra
Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu
Saiyuki: Journey West

edit, oh hey, i didn't read. apparently 2 of my suggestions are there.

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Isn't only one of the two Persona 2 games available on PS3, or has that changed in the many years since I tried to purchase it? I don't own a PSP so maybe that's involved.

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ZaziGuado posted...

Isn't only one of the two Persona 2 games available on PS3, or has that changed in the many years since I tried to purchase it? I don't own a PSP so maybe that's involved.

Innocent Sin is the first Persona 2 game. The PS1 version was never localized, but the PSP remaster was, so it's only available digitally on the PSP and Vita.

Eternal Punishment is the second Persona 2 game, and its available digitally on PS3, PSP, and Vita.
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You can try Azure Dreams. It's pretty fuckin' weird but I liked it.

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Suikoden II is a good call to get just because of its rarity in physical form. Even if you have a working PS1 or BC system to play it on, the actual disc is like $9000.

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Alundra: 6/10
An enjoyable enough Zelda/Landstalker hybrid. Frustratingly difficult. Decent characters and world building. A subdued Working Designs localization (by their standards).

Breath of Fire IV 8/10
Absolutely worth a playthrough and graphics still hold up in 2021. My favorite BOF game, it has a uniquely "Eastern" aesthetic to its graphics and music that makes it a bit special. It's still a BOF game, so you know the combat's going to be boring though.

Chrono Cross 8/10
The dictionary definition of "flawed masterpiece." Legendary soundtrack and excellent graphics. The story could be good, but it's bogged down by the poor decision to do away with a traditional "character party" and instead include 40+ abominable wastes of air. Works better if you think of it as its own thing and not a sequel to Chrono Trigger.

Final Fantasy Origins: Final Fantasy I & II 6/10
Like all the original final fantasy ports, they're better played on the GBA.

Final Fantasy Tactics 9/10
Still pretty much perfect, in spite of the story/gameplay falling apart in the last act.

Legend of Dragoon 5/10
Overrated - dictionary definition of mediocre. Now "Legend of Legaia" on the other hand... that game has some interesting stuff to it.

Mega Man Legends
Mega Man Legends 2 8/10
Both these games are a lot of fun. Are they really "rpg's?" Eh.

Parasite Eve 7/10
I can barely remember this game, so that's not quite a good sign. I remember it being fun though. (Not fun enough for me to play its sequels).

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment 7/10
Is it better than P3 onward? No. It just isn't. But it's fun enough.

Suikoden
Suikoden II (10/10)
Suikoden 2 is a top 5 jrpg by any standard. Suikoden 1 kind of sucks, but it gets you to Suikoden 2, so you gotta play it.

Threads of Fate 5/10
Not my thing

Vagrant Story 7/10
Slightly overrated. Aesthetic is great, gameplay is only okay.

Wild Arms 9/10
Excellent rpg. Fun characters, fun world. Top tier music. Battle graphics are horrible.Absolutely worth getting.

Wild Arms 2 7/10
An improvement in most ways from the first one except marred by a terrible translation/localization. Still worth getting I think.

Xenogears 9/10
Disc 2 sucks. Add a few more dungeons/world map to it and it becomes maybe the best jrpg of all time.


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Parasite Eve deserves a modern remake or remaster. So damn good.

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Specifically from that list, I could recommend Front Mission 3 and the Suikoden games.

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Chrono Cross is the best game on the ps1

Also FFO is the best version of FF1 and maybe FF2

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Brayze_II posted...

You can try Azure Dreams. It's pretty fuckin' weird but I liked it.

I loved that game but yeah it's pretty wacky and the difficulty curve is very questionable.

Is the original Brigandine on PSN? It's not an RPG, it's turn based strategy like FFT kinda. If it is, I'd highly recommend that.

Brigandine's only on the Japanese store, unfortunately.

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redrocket posted...

Suikoden II is a good call to get just because of its rarity in physical form. Even if you have a working PS1 or BC system to play it on, the actual disc is like $9000.

I wish
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pjbasis posted...

Chrono Cross is the best game on the ps1

wow

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arc the lad trilogy is superb but especially 2 and 3 are amazingly excellent and well ahead of their time.

xenogears is a classic and the story is the top of the top tier imo

chrono cross is excellent and well worth playing

both suikoden games are top tier and suikoden ii is a top 10 rpg of all time imo

final fantasy tactics is a phenomenal game. below the arc the lad games for srpgs in my book but still very much an excellent game

legend of dragoon is great. while it doesn't do anything revolutionary it does succeed in being a very solid rpg in its own right and well worth playing

both the first two wild arms games are solid games and while dated they still manage to be enjoyable and have a unique spin of their own

front mission 3 is unlike many other games available either then or now and it is a very fun srpg with different elements than those you normally see

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also if you can play star ocean 2 on ps1 it is one of the very best games of all time imo. everything about the game is fun and it offers great replay value with an insanely addictive customization system and even the little things are masterpieces. probably the best ps1 game in my opinion

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not a rpg but money idol exchanger is fun (and sitting over $100 otherwise)

edit: oops i forgot it was also on other platforms tho

Hoo boy that's a lot of recommendations, thanks everyone. I don't think I can feasibly play all of these! Everything I've checked so far is indeed selling for a fairly ridiculous amount physically, so I'm gonna have to start prioritising. Suikoden II (and I guess 1 if it's an ongoing story) seems to be the consensus top pick and Xenogears will probably be my kind of thing if it's anything like Xenoblade (a bad disc 2 is a worry, but then I am used to JRPGs falling off at the end). But then there's Front Mission 3, Wild Arms, Parasite Eve, Breath of Fire IV, Alundra, the simultaneously loved+hated Chrono Cross, and several more that have gotten love here. I'm gonna have to do some research!

I didn't know there were two Persona 2 games before this topic, even.

Jakyl25 posted...

I wish

A used copy of Suikoden II is currently past $500 on ebay with 3 days of bidding left, 9k might be overstating it but they're definitely going for a lot!

andel posted...

also if you can play star ocean 2 on ps1 it is one of the very best games of all time imo. everything about the game is fun and it offers great replay value with an insanely addictive customization system and even the little things are masterpieces. probably the best ps1 game in my opinion

I wasn't really a fan of Star Ocean 4 (gameplay was decent but those characters...) but if 2 is entirely different that might be worth a look. Though they did recently rerelease the first Star Ocean on Switch right, so a remaster of 2 could theoretically be coming!

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Star Ocean 2's characters are way, WAY better than 4's.

I mean, they aren't especially great, but they don't really have to be.

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I wouldn't really call Xenogears like Xenoblade. It's a pretty standard RPG for the era, so the gameplay is relatively linear and the battle system is exactly what you'd expect in a PS1 RPG. The thing is it just has great writing so it's timeless in that way

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oh yeah also chulip (ps2) is... interesting and costs way too much

Castlevania Chronicles is the second best Classicvania game behind Rondo of Blood, get that imo

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Actually this reminds me; do we have a precedent yet for an online download shop closing down not just purchases, but downloads of owned games? (Maybe the Wii?) I figure theyll do this eventually, but I dont know if the expectation is another year or another 10 years.

Im kinda hesitant to buy anything else if I dont have enough storage on my PS3 for everything and Im not planning on playing the games imminently.

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LordoftheMorons posted...

Actually this reminds me; do we have a precedent yet for an online download shop closing down not just purchases, but downloads of owned games? (Maybe the Wii?) I figure theyll do this eventually, but I dont know if the expectation is another year or another 10 years.

Im kinda hesitant to buy anything else if I dont have enough storage on my PS3 for everything and Im not planning on playing the games imminently.

DSi is the only one I can think of, and you can still buy those games on a 3DS, just not the original DSi. Wii is still downloadable if you own it.
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Ah, got it thanks

I do remember that that when DS WiFi shut down I couldnt get my DS to connect to my apartments network. I went back home for Christmas on the last day it was available and literally downloaded the rest of the DQ IX DLC on IHOPs WiFi after my dad picked me up from the airport.

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ps1 emulation is really good now you should just do that

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All of the games you listed are worth playing, but these are all-timers:

Breath of Fire III
Breath of Fire IV
Chrono Cross
Final Fantasy Tactics
Parasite Eve
Suikoden
Suikoden II
Vagrant Story
Wild Arms
Xenogears
Star Ocean: The Second Story

NeatoAnAccount posted...

ps1 emulation is really good now you should just do that

I was under the impression that PS1 emulation is in a worse place than PS2 emulation.
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Alundra's one of the few zelda like games that can actually hold up to zelda pretty well. It's more plot oriented and darker themed though. Don't try to collect all the Gilded Falcons though, you'll probably enjoy it more.

Arc the Lad series is a strategy rpg, but you can walk around outside of battle and explore dungeons (at least in 2; never got to 3) like in Shining Force. Also you can transfer your save file with character levels/items forward between 1-2 and back and forth between 2 and Arc Arena (there's data transfer from 2 to 3 as well, but it's more of a minor bonus I think). The issue is the pacing in Arc 2. Arc 1 and 2 are basically one big 70-80+ hour game... with Arc 1 being the first 10 or so hours of that (and that's even counting preparing to transfer your save file over by doing the bonus dungeon and grinding to the level cap). The main story in Arc 2 is pretty long, and on top of that you've got some side quests like bounty side quest battles and stuff like having to repeat fights in dungeons when you leave and re-enter a room. I think I got sidetracked on playing 2 with probably about a third to go at least. Arc 3 isn't quite as connected though but I never got around to it.

Breath of Fire 4 has some pacing problems and the cast is a bit weak, but it has some really neat story moments as well as the concept of having short segments where you play as the villain to get his backstory.

The Wild Arms series' most notable feature is the tools you can use on the field map to solve puzzles, and they have many optional dungeons and superbosses.Though despite appearances it's not actually very western in plot/themes, it's more of a fantasy/scifi series where everyone just happened to decide to simultaneously dress up as cowboys. WA1 is on the PS Classic, and WA2 has a really bad translation though.

I'll continue this later. probably.

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Mac Arrowny posted...

I was under the impression that PS1 emulation is in a worse place than PS2 emulation.

On a laptop, I was able to play Spyro 2 and FF7 with no problems that I could see. PS2 games don't run at 60fps so I can't play them. YMMV of course

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Arc the Lad 2: Twilight Spirits for Ps2 is lowkey a very fun and underated PS2 rpg. It's a unique and interesting story.

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I was emulating Chrono Cross and FFT just fine on a laptop literally a decade ago.

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honestly i haven't played most of these but i entered this topic to stan for vagrant story and so that i shall do

one of the coolest, most complex RPGs ever, you might hate it but you have to give it a try

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Suikoden 1 and 2 are just fantastic...

oh I forgot to say about Arc the Lad 2. The character count bloats way up (particularly since one of the characters is a monster tamer, hence having a monster arena spinoff that you can transfer data to), but the character participation count is just 5 characters and characters not participating don't get any experience so you would have to go out of your way to grind if you want to use them. Also despite having a large number of possible options, only a few of them are really viable for the endgame because they're clearly stronger than the rest and the final boss is way harder than anything else in the game and you'd probably have to grind a bunch anyway so it's like why use all those other characters to begin with?

(also I looked at a faq, and I guess I was only about halfway through Arc 2 before quitting *shrug*)

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I have the Arc the Lad Collection and barely touched it. Maybe I should give it a go one day. Also apparently it's worth like $120? I think I bought it for $20 LOL.

That character thing does sound annoying, but I could go for an SRPG, hmm... Thanks for the info, Crispy!

Looked through the PSN store to check and most of these games are going for $5.99 (I had to make a US account for Tactics), with a handful going for 10 bucks (Suikoden II, Xenogears, Chrono Cross, Mega Man Legends).

Also I've started scanning the early parts of youtube playthroughs (no plot stuff) of the more popular answers to try and get a feel for the games, most of them just look like you'd expect any JRPG to but Xenogears' combat looks a bit diff (though it could just be aesthetic) and Parasite Eve's looks really interesting. Getting kinda Resident Evil vibes from that one plus FF8 style camera angles.

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it is just aesthetic for xenogears, the positioning on the field doesn't mean anything and the combo button inputs just hide the traditional menu structure. its a normal FF-esque system

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andylt posted...

Also I've started scanning the early parts of youtube playthroughs (no plot stuff) of the more popular answers to try and get a feel for the games, most of them just look like you'd expect any JRPG to but Xenogears' combat looks a bit diff (though it could just be aesthetic) and Parasite Eve's looks really interesting. Getting kinda Resident Evil vibes from that one plus FF8 style camera angles.

Parasite Eve is definitely the furthest from a traditional RPG (you only have one character in your party and movement factors into combat more). But it's one of the most atmospheric games of its day.

Xenogears and Chrono Cross are more traditionally turn-based than they might seem.

Just coming in here to hype up Xenogears, FFT and Chrono Cross. Fantastic music and story... maybe CC is the weakest of the 3 but I still have very fond memories of it.

Still have physical versions of all 3 of them but now wondering if I should buy digital copies just in case as a backup, geez...

Also here to hype Vagrant Story which I've never played but also have a physical copy of it that I bought used at a flea market like... a gajillion years ago. Was on my "to play" list at some point this year though maybe it'll get put off again. May also buy a digital copy of it just in case...