What's the best Plastation 1 game? Advice needed for a gift

[Kaije]

In FF8 getting Eden really wasnt that hard, died the first time, won the second time-kept all my cards, refused to transform them.

Recommendations no one has mentioned: Star Ocean the Second Story great RPG with lots of replay value. Also, Legend of Legaia. I'd say Parasite Eve but I don't know if you'd consider it scary.

FF Chronicles contains FF4 and C. Trigger and FF Anthology has FF5/6 and FF Origins has FF1/2.

You might try Monster Rancher 2 or RPG Maker as well.

[hyaku1]

Wow! I never thought I would get so many replies. It sounds like we've missed out on some great games. I'm definitely going to type some of these in on ebay and see what the availability is like. I'd like to get one purchased this weekend so it will hopefully have plenty of time to arrive for her birthday (Dec eight).
I'll let you know what I end up with.
Thank you so so so much! And keep replying if anyone else has anything to mention and I'll keep checking back.

Oh, Kaije, RPG Maker? Sounds intriguing.

[Crystal]

I'll second (or third) the recommendations for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Final Fantasy IX, Chrono Cross, Star Ocean, and Xenogears. In my "to be played pile" are Suikoden I & II (I've heard good things), Eternal Eyes, Azure Dreams (know nothing about those two), and Saga Frontier I & II (heard good and bad about those). For tactics based games I liked Kartia (Amano designed it!) and the classic Final Fantasy Tactics. Other worthy RPGs I like are Tales of Destiny, Breath of Fire III & IV, and Legend of Mana.

Actually, the only thing I liked about Final Fantasy VIII was Triple Triad. I wish they had made a stand alone game that could be played on the GBA, or online. I did like the Chocobo mini-game (for which you had to have the Pocketstation) though.

[Kitt]

Xenogears!!! If she likes RPGs she will love it! I've been playing RPGs all my life and it is absolutely my top favorite--I think I was 16-17 when the game came out. Chrono Trigger is also a great game, and it is a little less mature in nature if that is an issue.

Amen to both of these! Chrono Trigger is my favorite game on the SNES system (so I was ecstactic when they brought it over to the Playstation) and Xenogears, despite the weaknesses of the 'rush to the finish' feel of the second disk, is one of my favorites for the PS system. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is simply gorgeous, with amazing music and visuals, and Alucard is just so dreamy!

One that hasn't been mentioned, and, quite honestly, one that appeared to not do too well in the US, is Saga Frontier. It has an amazing number of playable characters (since there are seven main characters and to really conquer the game you must play each one) but that is one of the downsides to some players. You have to play through many of the quests over and over again, if you are trying to beat the game. Other downsides, the music can get repetitive and the visuals are a bit dim (hard to see) and not as resolved as even sister game FFVII (since Saga Frontier is a Squaresoft game).

But, I always liked most of the storylines and characters, and seeing that little lightbulb go off over their heads when they spontaneously learned a new, devastating attack, always makes me smile. One (possible) plus side is that two of the main characters are females, so it's not guy-centered the whole time.

One other suggestion would be FF6 (FF3 for the SNES system - the game with Terra) for the Playstation (they bundled it with an earlier game, so I don't know what the disk set is called). It is a step backwards for the graphics and sound, but still one of the best RPGs of all for story and character. And it's kind of neat to how Shiva and Ifrit and some of the other Summons of FFVII were used, and seeing the Materia system in FFVII developed from the Esper system in this game.

I'm gettin' all nostalgic now...

[ogr81vegeta]

My favorites for ps1 were Spyro and Castlevania. I got so addicted to those.

[Kaije]

A little more info:

Legend of Legaia is a RPG with a unique fighting system where you combine martial arts moves into huge combos as well as use summon Serus to use magic abilities-with lots of minigames as well.

Star Ocean the Second Story-82 possible endings, hidden characters, you can make your own armor/weapon/food/item/etc., spans across 3 (or 4?) planets, and you choose how battles are setup-action/rpg, traditional/rpg, or in between? There's alot more to it then I'll mention.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night-Hundreds of enemies, lots of spells, weapons, armor, accesories, etc. to collect. Different combinations can result in different abilities. The game is huge and is one of the best 2D games to date.

RPG Maker-You basically have alot of tools to create a NES-quality RPG. A lot of premade stuff that you can edit and some confusing manuals to 'help' you. I have a copy if you're interested.

FFVIII/IX-They FF games, they don't need an explanation.

I give my approval for Breath of Fire III too. Just avoid Eternal Eyes-a tactics/strategy game in which you fight along side your magical puppet friends called Mappemon, the anime intro is the only nice thing about the game.

You might try Jade Cocoon too. You might swear you were playing Princess Mononoke.

And Kitt-Final Fantasy Anthology is FF5/FF6 w a FF OST included.

[Sugarflower]

More great RPG's:
Brave Fencer Musashi
Lunar Silver Star Story
Alundra

The Mega Man Legend games were pretty fun too!

[Krafty]

An RPG I enjoyed was VANDAL HEARTS but I don't think it's easy to get hold of, it had a limited run and took me a while to find it second-hand. Good turn-based combat and a decent array of characters.

I think I vaguely remember this game. Was it an RPG with a strategy game style similar to Sakura Wars or FF Tactics?

Forgot to reply to this over the weekend- I was searching for my game to take some scans of the manual but if you want to get an idea of it, visit this page for reviews and screens. However I remember the graphics being better than these screenshots.
I'm afraid I don't know about Sakura Wars/Tactics because they weren't released in the UK, we tend to get completely different games or at least different versions when they finally come out over here.

Crystal mentions Azure Dreams, a game I was addicted to in college. I had a lot of fn with it but it soon got boring after several days because I never got ANYWHERE. The idea is that you progress up a tower, starting at level 1 and working your way up. As you progress throguh the leves, the enemies become tougher and you have to 'level up' your own character and your companion, a little flying familiar.
Sounds great, BUT if you die, you loose all your posessions and have to start form the beginning again. There is no save point within the tower so if you want to save, you have to exit the tower and save in the village. When you re-enter the tower, you will still have your special items but it takes AGES to progress to where you were before and you will still die.

I like 'powering up' but this was rediculous. I consider myself quite good at these games but couldn't get past level 18 (I think) and there were probably 200 levels or something silly. j/k

Sugar's suggestions of Alundra and Lunar Silver Star Story are perfect. They are both games I completed but I think Alundra is one of the best RPGs on the PS1 with a good mix of combat, and easy/hard mental puzzles.
My bro had his Playstation chipped just to play Silver Star Story as he got a massive box-set on import with an audio CD, maps, posters etc. That's a very good game too and I know there have been sequals.

*Meh* I can talk about the games between the mid-80s to late 90s but I'm lost nowadays, LOL