I’ve seen dozens of threads about “top 5 games” or “best RPG” etc. So I thought I’d start a thread about what YOU think is the worst RPG you’ve ever played. Basically, this is The Vent for RPG’s, feel free to vent.

For me, it’s FF XII. You may love this game and have already read my reasons for why this game disgusts me, and given, there is probably worse RPG’s, but this one just pissed me off because at this point, when I cough up $100 for Square-Enix’s latest RPG release (a company that based of their size and previous work, should be well versed in the art of story telling through interactive game play by now), I expect more than just pretty graphics. Anyway… I’d like to hear what YOU think is the worst RPG ever!

Please express your opinions in a reasonable and tasteful manner, without insulting others.

I am playing through FFXII right now. I am only at the sandsea, but I like the characters, am intrigued by the story, and the combat is growing on me. I certainly don't see it topping my favorite PS2 RPG's at this point (FFX, Xenosaga I, Suikoden III); but it's hard to say. The game has definitely gotten better for me as I've gotten further into it.

As for worst RPG's I've played, it's tough to say. Is the worst an RPG that I must have liked at the beginning, grew tired of after a while, but still saw to completion(Tales of Legendia) or one that I just couldn't get into after the first couple of hours and didn't ever touch again (Eye of the Beholder III)? I don't know. I can't say there is an RPG that I have played that I vehemently despise, but I also tend to base my purchases on reviews and recommendations and therefore avoid most of the crap.

Maybe not the worst, but certainly in the running.

Ephemeral Fantasia on IGN

As boring as a lot of current RPGs are, the worst ever can't possible be from this generation or the last. These aren't necessarily the worst but they've stood out as being particularly hateful to me:

Secret of the Stars. Tecmo's attempt at making an SNES RPG, and it was even more incompetent than expected. Boring, annoying, pointless, random, faceless.

Xenogears. Man, I just don't get this game. The battle system just plain sucks, the characters are bland at best and irritating at worst, and the story is horribly written and translated. This was that brief time period where everyone in Japan decided it would be really cool to insert meaningless, nonsensical references to Western religion in everything (see also Neon Genesis Evangelion and Final Fantasy Tactics, though the latter was at least saved by incredible gameplay). I've never played Xenosaga, but this game was such a train wreck that'd have to be free or close to it for me to try it. Xenogears is like the Stars of the Lid of videogaming.

Final Fantasy VIII. Another semi-sacred cow, and another neverending, pointless game with a shitty battle system. Just spend an hour drawing at the beginning of the game, do some junctioning, and run away from every random battle. Graphics were somehow even worse than FF7, and the story was...humorous. But not in the intended way. The king of deus ex machina in videogaming.

Chrono Cross. Yeah, Square has disappointed me many times. I don't remember much from this game except that it sucked. Another game where the enemies level with you, I think, and it's obvious why that idea died with the PSX.

These games aren't close to being among the worst ever, except for the first one, but they really pissed me off. A real "worst" list would probably consist entirely of NES, Genesis, and 80s/early 90s PC RPGs.

Did you actually properly finish FF8, get all GF's and beat Ultima Weapon?

Not only was the game hard - and impossible to finish if you ran from every random battle - but the junction was fantasticly in depth, and superior to the FF game's after.

I did finally finish it, years afterward, but I didn't do much if any of the extra stuff. Like Chrono Cross, I believe the enemies leveled with you; I had no problem beating the last boss by repeatedly casting Aura (? I think that's what it was called; the spell that let you do limit breaks as much as you want) on Squall.

The only FF game I played after was 9, which I enjoyed quite a bit, and 11 for a little bit during the beta. Never bothered getting a PS2, I lost interest in console games until the Wii came out. The junction system struck me as very easy to game, since you could just stock up on massive amounts of whatever spells gave the best stat boosts. It also had the same problem as FF7 in that the characters were for the most part completely indistinguishable from each other statistically. I guess you could call me old school in that sense.

But the biggest problem I had with the game was the story and the characters. They were awful. I hated every single character by the end of the game, and I don't think that was Square's intent. And the gameplay was so slow moving - a common problem in modern RPGs - that it was hard for me to get into it. I find that I have less patience for video games as I get older. Tedium was understandable back in the NES days but there's no excuse for it now, especially since I have other things competing for my time.

quote:

Originally posted by odysseyandoracle:

Xenogears. Man, I just don't get this game. The battle system just plain sucks, the characters are bland at best and irritating at worst, and the story is horribly written and translated.

I actually beat Xenogears despite having no idea what was going on in the story. I can remember long monologues in front of frozen clocks and stopwatches. It definitely sucked.

Despite your dislike for Xenogears, I would still recommend that you play the Xenosaga series. The story can be self-indulgent and does have religious themes (and obvious parallels to Christianity), but I found it absolutely enthralling. The combat is more what you would find in a typical JRPG, but has it's own little twists. Episodes 1 and 3 are clearly head and shoulders above 2, but you can't skip two and still have a good understanding of one of the critical story elements. The combat system in two is basically broken against regular enemies, but works great against bosses.

After reading all of that, keep in mind that I really enjoyed Xenogears.

The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar made by Turbine and Midway Games is the first and only Online role playing game based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. After the famous movie trilogy “The Lord of the Rings” you can now enter the fantastic world of Middle Earth yourself and go on adventures in the battle against the dark lord Sauron.
First you'll have to form a character from one of the four races (Man, Hobbit, Elf, Dwarf), one of seven classes (Armorer, Champion, Guardian, Burglar, Captain, Hunter, Minstrel or Lore master) and choose the look of your hero.

Now you are ready for the journey: You explore legendary and never before seen settings, meet known characters like Gandalf, conquer dangers which Frodo and the fellowship have also been through before, fight against deadly opponents like the Nazgûl, gather experience and items which make your hero even stronger, practice farming in the Shire, forge weapons and armor, aquire healing abilities, collect LotrO gold, meet other players to talk to (and use emotes like /happy, surprised, sad etc if you like) or establish a strong fellowship to arm yourself against mighty rivals.

While your character develops you will earn traits. Traits are exchangeable abilities which enable you to modify and specify your character. You get new traits by levelling up your character. New traits are cleared with every completed assignment.

The Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO) has a lot of new surprises in store, but like in every Online Role playing game there are also activities that are less fun and only rob you of your time. This is were Randy Run comes in: He has contacts to the best professional gamers who can level your character to your desired level or can supply you with the game currency LotRO gold.

i am not very fond of FF XII either


-amanda
umgd

I'd have to agree with odyssey, up there. FFVIII was by far one of the worst RPG's I've ever played, mainly due to the characters. Not to mention it contains one of the most laughable love stories in gaming. When my current roommate first moved in, he brought with him a collection of RPG's that I had been wanting to try: Radiata Stories, Tales of Symphonia, etc. Well, I tried about 80% of them before giving up on modern RPGs (with the exception of Nippon Ichi's work, and the Shin Megami Tensei series). The story lines are all the same, as are the characters. The voice acting is piss poor, and the only reason they might be worth playing, is the battle system. But if I'm spending 40+ hours with a game, I'd like for all of it to be good, not just parts of it.

quote:

Originally posted by ProfAmaretto:
I'd have to agree with odyssey, up there. FFVIII was by far one of the worst RPG's I've ever played, mainly due to the characters. Not to mention it contains one of the most laughable love stories in gaming. When my current roommate first moved in, he brought with him a collection of RPG's that I had been wanting to try: Radiata Stories, Tales of Symphonia, etc. Well, I tried about 80% of them before giving up on modern RPGs (with the exception of Nippon Ichi's work, and the Shin Megami Tensei series). The story lines are all the same, as are the characters. The voice acting is piss poor, and the only reason they might be worth playing, is the battle system. But if I'm spending 40+ hours with a game, I'd like for all of it to be good, not just parts of it.

Tales of Symphonia was a great game. The battle system was oh-so-good, and the story (even though there were obvious ties to FFX) was pretty darn good. I liked the characters too, though some of the voice acting could definitely have been better.

Is this topic "Worst RPG ever" or "Worst RPG ever that was popular?"

For worst ever you really do have to scratch the dregs, to find RPGs so bad even die hard Japanophile RPG fans hated them. Paladin's Quest for SNES, 7th Saga for SNES, Beyond the Beyond for PSX.

If the topic is "Worst RPG ever that was reasonably popular", then:

FFVII
FFVIII
FFX
Xenosaga ep 1
Blue Dragon
Tales of Legendia
Suikoden III
Suikoden IV

I like Tales of Symphonia though admit the plot is really, really stupid. For me the battles are fun enough to make up for that.

quote:

Originally posted by JustSomeIdiot:
Is this topic "Worst RPG ever" or "Worst RPG ever that was popular?"

For worst ever you really do have to scratch the dregs, to find RPGs so bad even die hard Japanophile RPG fans hated them. Paladin's Quest for SNES, 7th Saga for SNES, Beyond the Beyond for PSX.

...I liked Paladin's Quest. And the only problem with 7th Saga is how brutally difficult the US version gets. There are definitely way worse games than those, even for the SNES; I mentioned one of them.

From my personal experience Pirates of the Caribbean for xbox was the worst rpg-ish game I ever bought.

quote:

Final Fantasy VIII. Another semi-sacred cow, and another neverending, pointless game with a shitty battle system. Just spend an hour drawing at the beginning of the game, do some junctioning, and run away from every random battle. Graphics were somehow even worse than FF7, and the story was...humorous. But not in the intended way. The king of deus ex machina in videogaming.

I totally agree. What an awful game. But i loved Chrono Cross.

definatly runescape, I played that for three long years, and I recently actually checked back on it today, and its as horrible and stupid as ever, the graphics are bad the plot is almost non-existant and the player community is full of 12 year olds... I just hate it