Fan Favorite PS1 JRPG's?

So this is just a random question that popped into my head. It's no exaggeration or lie to say that, generally, Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger are considered the best SNES JRP Gs with many saying they are the best JRP Gs of all time. I'm not making claims to their actual quality, just stating what I've observed.

But with the PS 1, I've seen much less consensus. What are the fan favorites of the PS 1? FFVII would seem an obvious choice but it has its healthy share of "it's not as good as everyone says." Chrono Cross is another game that got universal love back in the day but now people never stop shitting on it.

Suikoden II kinda seems like FFVI and CT in that I see nothing but undying love for it.

I never liked Chrono Cross but loved FFVII. Was Disgaea on the PS 1?

No, Disgaea was first on the PS 2.

edited 20th Aug '15 1:48:23 AM by Nouct

The PSX FF that gets the least crap from fans nowadays is by and large IX, even though it was the least successful of the three when accounting for sales.

I don't know if it is more likely to meet someone (like me) who thinks that IX is the best entry in the series, but I am pretty sure it is exceedingly rare for someone to quote it as the worst, or even one of the worsts.

So the question is basically just what are popular JRPG's for the PS 1? I could list quite a few off the top of my head since I've played a few and have a bunch on my long backlog of games to play.

If your question is which the most popular and well liked, like the top 3, that's a harder question to answer. Anyway, here's a bunch of at least decently popular PS 1 JRPG's I could think of.

Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, and Final Fantasy IX
Chrono Cross
Xenogears
Dragon Quest VII
Valkyrie Profile
Parasite Eve
Suikoden and Suikoden II
Persona and Persona 2
Breath of Fire III and Breath of Fire IV
The Legend of Dragoon
Legend of Mana
SaGa Frontier and SaGa Frontier 2
Wild ARMs and Wild ARMs 2
Tales of Destiny and Tales of Eternia
Star Ocean: The Second Story

edited 20th Aug '15 2:10:28 AM by KuroBaraHime

I challenge the supposed popularity of a lot of those. Xenogears is more of a cult hit with people who love it - like myself - REALLY loving it. But it has many flaws and many, many haters.

Persona 1 and 2 are just those games that are part of aseries that started with 3 to most everyone. Even people who remember 2 don't like 1 in my experience.

FFVIII is...ehhhh.

I have heard lukewarm to very negative things about DQVII everywhere I go.

And Wild ARMS 2 is just that game with a plot no one understands backed up by what appears to be the mos incomprehensible translation of all time.

I'd say Persona and Wild ARMS are far too obscure to be fan favorites and Xenogears is really niche. I've never found anyone who loves DQVII, let alone considers it the best PS 1 JRPG.

edited 20th Aug '15 2:17:11 AM by Nikkolas

Well JRPG's are kind of a niche genre outside Japan. If we're only talking about games that had mainstream success, then that's pretty much limited to FFVII and maybe a couple other Squaresoft games like Chrono Cross.

edited 20th Aug '15 2:18:26 AM by KuroBaraHime

I can safely say The Legend of Dragoon's fanbase is still kicking around, asking for a sequel/prequel/remake.

So I'd say it qualifies for cult status, at the very least.

edited 20th Aug '15 5:19:13 AM by Alucard

FFVII was absolutely ass-blastingly popular in its day. Aeris' death led to numerous myths and pleas for her to be save-able or resurrectable. It was a phenomenon that every kid with a Play Station had to be in on. However, it hasn't aged particularly well; its graphics hit the Polygon Ceiling kinda badly, everything unique that it brought to the table has since been imitated, and it was so popular in the day that modern gamers tend to hit it with Hype Backlash for not being the legend that it was in days of yore.

Also, it suffers a fair bit from a Fandom Rivalry with FFVI.

Plenty of people still like Brave Fencer Musashi. There's also the Alundra games, but again, those are more cult hits than famous classics.

I'll have to go with the other poster who mentioned it on Final Fantasy IX.

Valkyrie Profile is considered good usually, but the thing is that even in the JRPG fandom not a whole lot of people played it, in no small part because it had a very small initial print and never received anymore, and on top of that the discs were prone to scratching and becoming unreadable. It got a port to PSP which made it much easier to get your hands on it, but not a lot of people played that either.

it's a fantastic game though. extremely flawed but it has my favorite storytelling of any jrpg on the playstation, it had this wonderful melancholy atmosphere that was unforgettable. also it has art by Yoh Yoshinari (formerly studio Gainax animator, now working at Trigger making Little Witch Academia and stuff), which makes it pretty unique.

i haven't played star ocean but a lot of people consider VP 1 to be tri-ace's best game.

Part of the problem is that like VII its localization was a product of the time but doesn't hold up. game honestly needs a revamped port with a better script or something.

edited 28th Aug '15 7:20:32 PM by wehrmacht

Personally, I'd put any of the PSX FF games up as the top, loving the crap out of all three of them.

VP 1 and Persona 1 are the only other games in that list that I've ever even touched, though.

the ff game i've played the longest is ix, but even then i only put in like 10 hours at the most.

i like legend of mana a lot, another super underrated game.

I've been playing PS 1 JRP Gs since they were new, and I've got a lot of the classics. All the PS One era Final Fantasy titles, including Tactics, but excluding VI as that's a remake, goddamnit. Grandia, Wild Arms, Xenogears, Vagrant Story and Legend of Legaia.

I'd kill for a hd remake of most of those, but I'd do just about anything for a finished Xenogears.