What's your favorite series, outside of PS?

Excluding Phantasy Star, what's everyone's favorite series of video games? Mine is Dragon Quest. I just finished Dragon Quest 8 again recently. I really like that game, I think the makers struck the perfect balance between new 3D techniques and the classic 2D Dragon Quest feel.

For me, it has to be Legend of Zelda. It's the one series where I've gone out of my way to try to get even some of the more obscure games. I used to try to collect all kinds of merchandise based on Zelda, too, but I don't do much of that any more.

I never really liked Dragon Quest all that much. I mean, it was fun, but not something I would want to play again. There was too much repetitive level grinding, which is something I don't enjoy. I'm mainly speaking of the NES games, though. I didn't play DQ V - VII, or any of the spin offs, so I can't speak of them. DQVIII was pretty good, though at the end it started falling into the grinding trap.

There was a lot of leveling against the same monsters and constantly fighting the same battles in early games, but it's not so bad now. In games like Dragon Quest, I usually try to gain a few extra levels early on. That eliminates the need for grinding in most games.

Hm, I may have to try that myself, the next time I play a game like that. There are a few games, like Final Fantasy VII, that I never finished because I got to a point where I needed to spend hours leveling to proceed... that's not my idea of fun.

It may be a bit outdated, but my favorite series of games was the Mario ones with Mario I, II, 3, and Super Mario World. It's been awhile since I played any of them but they were fun.

Yep, Mario is great. They've remade Mario I, II, and III several times with new graphics or on new systems. I think the last one was on GameBoy Advance.

Although, they might be available on the new Wii console, too. Nintendo put a lot of games out that can be downloaded to that over the internet. I don't know much of the specifics, but I'm sure the Mario games are on it.

Suikoden, hands down. The second one is a toss up between 4 and 5, with leanings toward 5.

I always wanted to play Suikoden, but I missed out on most of that series. One of my old friends was into it back in the day and made it sound interesting. Is 5 the latest one?

Yup, 5 came out last year. It's pretty good, and it's a precursor of a sort to 2. I'd definately recommend renting 5 if you ever get the chance.