Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo

There are so many ones to choose from! Perhaps this topic will introduce everyone to some great titles they've never played before. Here are mine:

1. Skies of Arcadia/Legends Dreamcast and Gamecube: No game has ever captured the spirit of exploration and discovery like this game, (and it's from Rieko Kodama, one of the PS creators.) There are so many facets to this game that I never manage to tire of it. An amazing soundtrack, (especially on the DC) monster battles, ship battles, crew, discoveries, many side quests, and most importantly, the positivity of the philosophy of the main characters of a goal-driven life in the pursuit of happiness makes this one my all-time favorite.

2. PSIV: Not much to say here; you all know why I love it! Replay value, character development, and the climax of the series!

3. Star Control 2: the best space adventure game out there! It's now Freeware thanks to the Urquan Masters Project with more options, internet melee play, (though Super Melee never gets old even without the internet,) and the single player game is still timeless, difficult, loads of fun, and utterly hilarious!

4. PSII: The game that introduced me to the series. I was riveted from beginning to end, and the party selection has given me endless replay value. I can still think of a dozen new ways to play through it!

5. Madden 2004, XBox: the last great football game before EA cannibalized the rating system to compensate for online play. The Franchise mode was great as it rewarded a player with long-term vision.

There are so many other great ones that barely missed the cut, (Starcraft, Fire Emblem 7,) but I've got to stop someplace or I'll be rattling on all night!

1. Skies of Arcadia/Legends. I.. wholeheartedly agree with everything you said Komrade.. I just.. love this game so much. I love the battle style, the Airships.. he air battles.. the spell system .. I can't think of a single bad point of this game..This is why it's my all time, favourite game.

2. Phantasy Star IV. This... was my very first RPG experience.. I was.. young.. and remember it vividly.. the game sucked me in from the get go... and when it was done, I played it again...finding new items I missed, leveling more.. and the new macros..
One thing I liked even more, was that I had a PAL version, you see.. I liked that all the music was a little slower.. .. it all just seems far too fast in the American and Japanese versions.. >< but meh..
Especially Laughter.. The build up at the beginning is so much more sinister when it's played slower.. really built up a sense of fear in me.. haha.. but it was Zio so I was already fearful.

3. Shadow of the Colossus. What can I say? This game.. was just so inspirational.. and oh so mystical. Climbing up the backs of Colossi, stabbing their weak points and watching them crumble. The Colossi themselves were brilliantly done, each totally unique .. all breathtaking.. and some right difficult to defeat. I also enjoyed the time trials, getting the extra items and such.. And the horse riding was just so.. breathtaking.. as you traversed the expansive lands..

4. Star Ocean: Till The End Of Time. An RPG I have easily spent well over 200 hours on. Getting trophies.. leveling.. and with a max level of 255, you can be sure there was a lot of battles. All the weapon making.. and cooking.. ooooooh.. >W< I'm so tempted to boot up my PS2 and play it again..

5. Legend of the Dragoon. Ah... this game... so wonderful. The music moves me to tears at times. So well done. And the battle system, I love the attacks. I can even now hear "Blazing Dynamo!" and the magic system.. the Dragoons.. and of course, this is where my user name came from. The Divine Dragon with seven Divine eyes, flying upon Seven Divine wings.

There are of course, others that were close, FE7, like Komrade again.. but this isn't favourite six games.. xD

Wow! Our gaming tastes are very similar! No wonder you like the patch so much! I haven't played your 3-5, but I did play one Star Ocean game for the Playstation that had a ton of replay value!

Yes, I also noticed that. :3 Good stuff.

Yes, Star Ocean 2 I think that one was.. I'm sure the first one was for the Snes anyway.

These are my current top favorites. Like both of you, I also had to leave a few out that almost made it into the top.

1. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past[br]A classic that never gets old, no matter how many times I play it. I've replayed this from start to finish more than any other game.
2. Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess[br]This has pretty much everything that was good about every Zelda game all rolled up into one. It's really pretty easy, a little too easy, but it's a great romp.
3. Skies of Arcadia.[br]The opening post pretty much sums up my thoughts on this, too. It's one of the best implemented exploration concepts in any game.
4. Dark Cloud 2[br]This combined the Zelda play style with building stuff (houses, etc). With two of my favorite things put together so well, I had a hard time putting this one down.
5. Grandia[br]It reminds me of Skies of Arcadia. It doesn't have the same depth, but it has a similar attitude. It's very upbeat, just like Skies.

Aaah, brilliant games.
Twilight Princess would have definitely been in my top five if it had only been more difficult.. but I did oh so love the double clawshots, Dragon boss and ... the Spinner and all it's puzzles and involvement in the boss.

Yeah, the double clawshots were great. That's the best item upgrade I've seen yet. The spinner too, I loved that boss. It really invoked some nostalgia in the last part of the fight. TP could have definitely benefited a higher difficulty setting, but it's got a great world to explore.

Another, brilliant aspect, was the learning of moves, being taught by an old master, and also I loved wandering Hyrule in Wolf form.. aaah.. the pouding of the paws~

Yeah, the attention to detail was amazing. It's the first game I ever played where I could actually read some of the signs in the game without examining them to open a text box. The old master was a real treat for me, too. I'm a big fan of the timeline aspects of the Zelda series, and his connection to that made him really interesting for me.

Oh, Thoul, which version of TP did you play?

I guess by now it's pretty well know.. but one "problem" with the Wii version is that Link has switched hands... .. It's certainly no biggy for me considering I myself am right handed, but for a die-hard fan like my friend Laura, she just out-right refuses to play the Wii version xDD