Suikoden 2, but Xenogears and Final Fantasy 3/6 rank almost as high
The reasons I liked them are the same for all three:
- The combat was simple, effective and fairly short when it wasn't a boss, yet someone keen to learn could figure out how to really make it sing.
- The story was large, even larger than life, and complex, but never became convoluted.
- All three worlds were filled with memorable, realized characters.
- They felt epic without becoming overblown.
There is a set piece in Suikoden 2 that I will never forget where your forces (I won't say party because Suikoden doesn't lend itself to referring to your massive number of playable characters as a 'party') are trying to bring down an insane King wielding nigh-limitless power. There are a dozen pitched battle, one after another, as the King rips through your ranks. At the end of it is the main character, facing off with him in a final duel. All of it, all the blood, lives and pain, was to weaken him _just enough_ that your character stands some whisper of a chance to bring him down, with the fate of a nation hanging in the balance. Better, how well you did up to that point _mattered_.
And then, when you finally win and bring order to the land, the game laughs in your face telling you that that was only Act 2, and ups the stakes again.
Actually, it reminds me of Yahtzee's Duke Nukem review. It starts off fleeing a lost battle as a child brigade, joining a circus to escape capture as deserters, frequent stops to renovate your house and take on Iron Chef challenges, and then, after a while, you're leading Van Helsing and the Vampire Queen against Dracula; all without any noticable change in gameplay.
