RPG Ratings

[superaielman]

DQ5 at 6/10. Solid and nothing else. It alternated between being fun to play and being a chore; the game's nasty habit of not giving you permanent human PC's until gen 3 played a large role in this. Some good story elements as well help pull it up from getting an average score.

[Tonfa]

The Last Remnant added at 9.

[Cmdr_King]

added Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic at 7/10

[Talaysen]

Added Sands of Destruction at 6/10.

[superaielman]

XF added at 7/10

[Bobbin Cranbud]

Might as well do mine...

These are in alphabetical order within their ratings since that seems more useful for others.

10: Games that were literally a life-changing experience, so significant that not just all other games but all other media must be judged in light of them.
Final Fantasy 6

9: Excellent games that either do everything right, or do one thing so superbly that they defy being lowered.  Worth buying a system for.
Brigandine
Dragon Quest 8
Final Fantas 7: Crisis Core
Final Fantasy Tactics
Suikoden 2
Wild ARMs 2
Wild ARMs 3
Wild ARMs 5
Wild ARMs XF
Xenogears

8: Very good games that either aren't as spectacular in one area or have a significant flaw in another rather than just being "ok" in their weak points.  If three or more appear on a system, I'm sold.
Breath of Fire 4
Chrono Cross
Dragon's Dogma
Exit Fate
Final Fantasy 10
Final Fantasy 12
Fire Emblem Path of Radiance
Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn
Grandia
Might and Magic 4&5 World of Xeen
Planescape: Torment
Shining Force 2
Skies of Arcadia
Suikoden 3
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together PSP
Vagrant Story
Valkyria Chronicles
Valkyrie Profile

7: Games that are either solid across the board or very up and down in their good and bad spots, but heavily lean toward the good.  If five or more appear on a system, I'm sold.
Arc the Lad 2
Arc the Lad 4 Twilight of Spirits
Chrono Trigger
Fallout New Vegas
Final Fantasy 8
Lufia 2 Rise of the Sinistrals
Lunar Silver Star Story Complete
Ultima Underworld 2
Valkyria Chronicles 2
Valkyrie Profile 2 Silmeria
Vandal Hearts 2
Wild ARMs Alter Code F

6: Games that are, on the whole, above average in more respects than below, but do not stand out much if at all from the pack.  Or, old good games that haven't aged all that well.  Ten or more might sell me on a system.
Breath of Fire 3
Buck Rogers Matrix Cubed
Curse of the Azure Bonds
Dragon Quest 7
Elder Scrolls V Skyrim
Fallout
Fallout 3
Final Fantasy 7
Final Fantasy 13
Grandia 2
Legaia 2 Duel Saga
Legend of Dragoon
Pools of Darkness
Shadow Hearts
Star Ocean 2 The Second Story
Treasures of the Savage Frontier
Suikoden
Ultima Underworld
Vandal Hearts

5: Thoroughly average games.  Either they don't stand out at all or they're perfectly matched good for bad.  Or they're above average games that aged poorly.
Champions of Krynn
Cthulhu Saves the World
Dark Queen of Krynn
Dark Sun Shattered Lands
Disgaea 2 Cursed Memories
Disgaea 3 Absence of Justice
Eye of the Beholder 2
Final Fantasy 4
Final Fantasy 9
Kartia
Legend of Legaia
Lunar Eternal Blue Complete
Might and Magic 3 Isles of Terra
Might and Magic 6
Ogre Battle 64
Radiata Stories
Secret of Mana
Shining Force
Star Ocean 3 To the End of the World
Tales of Symphonia
Tales of Symphonia 2 Dawn of the New World
Ultima 6
Ultima 4
Wild ARMs 4

4: Below-average games or games that are almost redundant due to age or lack of outstanding features.  Nonetheless, either not aggressively bad or with significant redeeming qualities.
Arc the Lad
Arc the Lad 3
Bard's Tale
Bard's Tale 3
Buck Rogers Countdown to Doomsday
Challenge of the Five Realms
Disgaea Afternoon of Darkness
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Eye of the Beholder
Final Fantasy 5
Gateway to the Savage Frontier
Kingdom Hearts
Might and Magic 7
Ogre Battle March of the Black Queen
Secret of the Silver Blades
Septerra Core
Soul Nomad and the World Eaters
Star Ocean First Departure
Stella Deus
Suikoden 5
Ultima 7

3: Games that suck or I actively dislike, but which aren't unplayably bad or anything.  Some of them were average when they came out and only slipped to this level by dint of practically every game since being strictly better.
Baldur's Gate
Death Knights of Krynn
Diablo
Evolution the World of Sacred Device
Eye of the Beholder 3
Might and Magic
Might and Magic 2
Might and Magic 9
Phantasy Star 3
Resonance of Fate
Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love
Suikoden Tactics
Tales of Destiny
Ultima
Ultima 2
Ultima 5
Ultima 7: Serpent Isle
Vandal Hearts 3 Flames of Judgment

2: Games that actively suck and that I regret playing, assuming I didn't give up due to their sucking.
Evolution 2
Lufia and the Fortress of Doom
Might and Magic 8
Pool of Radiance
Saga Frontier
Shining in the Darkness
Tales of Eternia
Ultima 3
Ultima 8
Ultima 9
Xenosaga Episode 1

1: Games that have worse graphics than games two generations before them, series-worst gameplay in a series not known for strong gameplay, shitty character designs, poor story, a ton of random encounters and no redeeming qualities.  And which are named:
Suikoden 4

[Twilkitri]

Added SD Gundam G Generation Wars at 8/10.

[Bobbin Cranbud]

Added Radiata Stories at 5/10

Ambitious but in many respects unsuccessful, oddly paced.  Probably falls in the middle of the '5's, which makes it almost exactly average despite being very unusual.

Added The Bard's Tale, Bard's Tale 3 and Challenge of the Five Realms at 4/10

Three very, very old games for the win!  Only, not so much for the win, because they're slotted at 4/10.  I'm adding these as I remember them.

Anyway, the two Bard's Tale games probably would have been 7s in their heyday - not nearly as good as, say, Might and Magic games, but still above average.  I'm pretty sure there have been at least fifty similar but better games since.

Challenge of the Five Realms is a much more interesting one.  A non-Gold Box Tactics/RPG from the days when Tactics/RPGs appeared on PCs rather than consoles!  It was actually a lot like Radiata, ambitious but deeply flawed.  The game's main schtick was that you had only a certain amount of months to complete it, because a miasma was creeping over the world, blocking off formerly accessible locations.  If a location got absorbed before you were done with plot events there, you had to load back to a point where you could complete that area.  This was a really interesting idea.  You can probably imagine how wrong it could go.  It might once have been as high as an 8/10 despite its major flaws, but looking back on it, the flaws are the only things that stand out.

[superaielman]

VP:DS at 3/10.

[Meeplelard]

Added FFTA2 at 8/10.  Game I ended up enjoying more than I expected.

Raised FF10 to 10/10.  I reflected on the game and realized that despite its lack of scene skip and other minor flaws...I still managed to do 2 REPLAYS of the game, and enjoyed both a lot.  I also spent over 100 hours on my first file getting everything (Ok, I did that in FF12 as well, but FF12 was more addicting than anything else...that and its a long game!)  So I looked back and tried to figure out why I didn't put it at 10/10.  My reasons were basically...it lacked scene skip...that was really the only flaw I could come up with.  Everything else was superb, and really, when that's the only "big" complaint about a game, it probably deserves to be in 10/10.    The game has awesome gameplay, remotely decent plot, and I'm struggling to think of a character I hate (...based on FF10.  If we were to extend it to its SEQUEL now, that'd be a different story!), where as there were plenty I liked, so I guess by definition that makes it have a good cast!

So yeah, giving it that 10/10 spot it so rightfully deserves.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Added Super Robot Wars K at 7/10. Yet another solid though non-amazing SRW.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Overdue additions!

Mana Khemia 2 gets a 7/10, high up. Some of my favourite comic writing in an RPG ever, and decent on the gameplay front. Needs better time allotment towards the things it is good at but oh well.

Endless Frontier gets a 5/10. Yeah, fun little creative battle system. We all know about the writing. Not happy ignoring that enough to give it a high score.

One-point downgrades this time:
Xenosaga 1: I should be able to finish a replay of a 7/10. Just comparing how easily I replayed SH3 and it's clear they're a full rank apart.
Legend of Mana: Pretty sure I wouldn't enjoy it nearly as much if I played it today, so it can stand to go down.
Suikoden: I dunno, I've played it 4 times but yeah, same's true of FF4, the games have rather a lot in common in some ways. Except S1 is better. Eh, overthinking this now, works for the time being.
Valkyrie Profile 2, and...
Valkyrie Profile DS: Something about those VP sequels just doesn't age well to me. Whenever they come up in discussion it is usually negative.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Downgraded ME1 to 8/10, added ME2 at 9/10.

I never realized how little sense it made for me to be levelling up conventionally and finding better guns off Batarian pirates in the Attican Traverse than are in the private stocks for Spectres on the Citadel, until they tossed out that stuff. The loot-based stuff in ME1 seemed to be there for its own sake, rather than having any real logic to it. Also, levelling makes more sense to me now that you're basically improving abilities and not becoming more badass (because you are already as badass as you can get at level 1, and you are only choosing what TYPES of badass to focus on).

So, having tried to replay ME1, I realized how much of it was in there for the sake of "RPGs have loot" and "RPGs have lots of levels where you are marginally upgraded each time," rather than having it make sense with the game.

[superaielman]

VP:DS down to 2/10 and Valkyria Chronicals up to 9/10.

[Talaysen]

Added Glory of Heracles at a 7/10.
Added Tales of Vesperia at a 9/10.  (Forgot about this apparently.)
Added Mega Man X: Command Mission at a 9/10.  (And this.)
Added Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja at a 2/10.  (This too.)
Added Magical Starsign at a 5/10.  (Yep.)
Added Mazes of Fate DS* at a 1/10.
Added Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume at a 7/10.  (More forgetting.)
Added Growlanser III at a 2/10.  (And this.)
Added Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner - Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army at a 5/10.  (This too.)
Added Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES at a 4/10. [PS2]
Added Dissidia: Final Fantasy at a 4/10.  (Even more forgetting.)
Added Sailor Moon: Another Story at a 5/10.  (Here too.)

Moved Tales of Eternia down 1 (7/10).
Moved Tales of the Abyss up 1 (8/10).
Moved Final Fantasy III DS down 1 (7/10).
Moved The World Ends with You up 1 (7/10).
Moved Dragon Warrior IV up 1 (3/10).
Moved Final Fantasy down 1 (5/10).
Moved Final Fantasy IX down 1 (7/10).
Moved Front Mission 3 up 1 (8/10).
Moved Suikoden down 1 (4/10).
Moved Suikoden II down 1 (5/10).
Moved Kingdom Hearts II down 1 (8/10).
Moved La Pucelle: Tactics down 1 (5/10).
Moved Star Ocean: Til the End of Time down 1 (6/10).
Moved Secret of Mana down 1 (6/10).

[Clear Tranquil]

Wild Arms XF and Mana Khamia in at 9/10

Crisis Core, Dissidia and Dragon Quest VIII in at 8/10

Star Ocean FD, DQIV and Growlanzer V in at 7/10

Final Fantasy and Eternal Sonata in at 6/10

I played some of these ages ago, just forgot to mention them >.>

[Bobbin Cranbud]

Added Wild ARMs 5 at 9/10 to celebrate finishing it.

Weaker at the end than the beginning and it had a few bumps along the road, but I'm still inclined to give it series-best and system-best, the former by a narrow margin over WA2, the latter by a narrow margin over Dragon Quest 8.

I feel like I should drop WA2, 3 and/or XF from the 9s because the series as a whole doesn't feel THAT dominant (as it appears to be from my rankings), but I like them all better than any of the 8 games.  Suffice to say I feel the series is (slightly) weaker than the sum of its parts, despite enjoying all those parts as much as I do.

[Taishyr]

Labyrinth of Touhou added at 8.4, breaking my 5/5 sets for 9 and 8 games.
Persona 4 added at 7.9.
Suikoden Tactics added at 6.7.
Torchlight added at 6.0.
Suikoden IV added at 0.9 (AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA)

Makai Kingdom added, starred, at 6.8.
Wild Arms XF added, starred, at 6.6.

Breath of Fire IV up 1.2 to 7.5. Yeah, understated this game originally.
Shadow Hearts: From the New World up 0.4 to 1.4. Mmm, yeah, still not as good as Sword of Hope but better than Magi-Nation. (...)

DDS2 dropped 2.1 to 6.3. Mmm. Iunno, but... the more I think on it, the more I think the game was above average but not stellar.
Breath of Fire III down 1.2 to 1.8. And the more I think about it, the more I dislike this game. Yeah.
Breath of Fire I down 2 to 2.0. Yeeeep.
MMXCM dropped 1.0 to 5.5. Bosses sell the game, it fails to really impress me otherwise.
Azure Dreams dropped 0.7 to 5.9. Doesn't stand time of trials too well.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Whoops, missed one.

FE: Shadow Dragon at 6/10. It's the worst FE I've played to completion but it still does enough things right for an above average score.

Legaia 2 down to 5/10 to make room! COSMIC BALANCE MUST BE MAINTAINED.

[Cmdr_King]

Added Fire Emblem: Sword of Seals at 7/10.

[Tonfa]

Wild Arms 4 added at 8.

[Cmdr_King]

Added The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road at 7/10.

[Talaysen]

Added Last Rebellion at 5/10.
Added White Knight Chronicles at 4/10.

[Twilkitri]

Added Super Robot Wars K at 7/10. Kind of disturbed that I had missed putting that up for so long.
Added Front Mission at 7/10.

[Hunter Sopko]

Added Dragon Quest 8 at 8/10