Real Time RPG's

[Icehearted]

Secret of Mana style?
Terranigma was great.
Sega had one that was pretty okay called Beyond Oasis.
Alundra I think was also pretty popular.
Soul Blazer is another one.
And then there's Illusion of Gaia.
I've heard Y's is a fairly solid series in that category, but I've only played the side scrolling one and it was awful.
Secret of Evermore wasn't bad, but the story was pretty silly. I actually liked that game quite a bit though.

 

[NotAProdigy]

Effing Diablo.

 

[Knight Templar]

Kingdom Hearts, play the first one and then the second and you will be stunned at the combat system

Oh and Star Ocean was a lot of fun too, give them a shot and if you don't like them then there's always the Fallout series

People need to realise, Kingdom Hearts is NOT an RPG, Its an Action Adventure game.

Skill points, levels. Those two things define what an RPG is more than any other, thats why Pokemon is part RPG.

 

[Woem]

There are a ton of 'real time rpg' on the PC, but I'm not quite sure if that's what you're looking for or not. Regardless, one you might enjoy is:

Jade Empire. Not the best of Bioware's games... actually I think it's the worst of theirs. But even the worst game by Bioware is still better than the best from almost any other developer out there, so you can be guaranteed it's high quality stuff. The reason I suggest this first is because it's heavily Asian themed. Taking place is a mythical land that plays like a blend of Japan and China. The combat, while not great, is also a decent twist on the fighting game genre so it's easy to pick up and enjoy. All real time, of course.

Basically it makes for a great intro game to the genre. Easy to get into, fun real-time combat, interesting story and characters, etc. Perfect! It's also available on the Xbox if your PC isn't quite up to the challenge of playing any games.

And if you enjoy that you can move deeper into the library of wrpg's. Mass Effect for example, or The Witcher, or Gothic, Risen, and Vampire: Bloodlines among others. That's not even counting action rpg's like Diablo and Titan Quest and Fate and Sacrifice and who knows how many others...

All of those are real-time.

But for now I'd say start with Jade Empire if you've never played it, good intro game and if ya enjoy it you'll know you're on the path towards a whole library of other games you'll then be sure to enjoy.

This post probably contains every valid answer yet to come, well done!

(Except for Zelda perhaps.)

 

[Gaderael]

Well I won't waste time with the big names as they will no doubt get spammed hard so.
Rogue Galaxy (PS2) Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines (PC)

Yes, definitely VTM: Bloodlines. Just started playing last night, and so far it is awesome.

Also, The Witcher, like I say in every thread like this.

 

[Trivun]

Well I won't waste time with the big names as they will no doubt get spammed hard so.
Rogue Galaxy (PS2) Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines (PC)

I really want to get Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines, trouble is every shop I go into seems to not have it at all (which is odd since when I wasn't trying to find it every game store in the West Midlands seemed to stock it - it seems Fate has a sense of irony and I can't rely on The Lady to help me this time. No quantum butterfly for me...). I found it on ebay but I always get outbid (I don't want to spend more than a tenner on it when most copies I saw beforehand were between £5 - £10 a few years ago) and the Buy It Now copies are all ridiculously priced (at least £20 a time). My point is, it's tough to find, in the UK at least.

Anyway, as for my suggestions, Final Fantasy XII has pretty good real time combat, as does Kingdom Hearts (1 and 2). I heartily recommend both. Plus, Oblivion and Fallout 3, if you fancy a more westernised game. Likewise for Fable and Fable 2 (as long as you ignore the few flaws such as the final boss in Fable 2, they're actually pretty good games).

 

[The Rockerfly]

Kingdom Hearts, play the first one and then the second and you will be stunned at the combat system

Oh and Star Ocean was a lot of fun too, give them a shot and if you don't like them then there's always the Fallout series

all the good fallouts are turn based combat.

that being said dagger fall is surprisingly good considering how fucking old it is right now. free too, but it won't appeal to most people. Morrowind is in most respects better but it's smaller (still pretty huge)

Diablo 2 is a must, star ocean was quite fun, and apparently I could use that list myself as I can't think of anything else.

I actually preferred Fallout 3 and that wasn't turn based. Final fantasy was always my favourite turn based combat game but hey it's your opinion so good luck with it

 

[Xaryn Mar]

I really want to get Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines, trouble is every shop I go into seems to not have it at all (which is odd since when I wasn't trying to find it every game store in the West Midlands seemed to stock it - it seems Fate has a sense of irony and I can't rely on The Lady to help me this time. No quantum butterfly for me...). I found it on ebay but I always get outbid (I don't want to spend more than a tenner on it when most copies I saw beforehand were between £5 - £10 a few years ago) and the Buy It Now copies are all ridiculously priced (at least £20 a time). My point is, it's tough to find, in the UK at least.

I remember seeing it on steam a while ago. You might be lucky there.

 

[A random person]

Action RPGs? The ones that come to mind are Chrono Trigger (I think) and Kingdom Hearts...

Spoiler: Aren't you forgetting something?

Or does going into a separate screen for combat disqualify it?

 

[NeutralDrow]

Action RPGs? The ones that come to mind are Chrono Trigger (I think) and Kingdom Hearts...

Spoiler: Aren't you forgetting something?

Or does going into a separate screen for combat disqualify it?

I assumed it did, since the OP mentioned Secret of Mana as an example. It's an RPG with real-time combat (and visible encounters), but not an Action RPG.

 

[Awexsome]

Action RPGs? The ones that come to mind are Chrono Trigger (I think) and Kingdom Hearts...

Spoiler: Aren't you forgetting something?

Or does going into a separate screen for combat disqualify it?

I assumed it did, since the OP mentioned Secret of Mana as an example. It's an RPG with real-time combat (and visible encounters), but not an Action RPG.

Eh, if it qualifies for the definition we're looking for or not it's still an awesome game.

 

[high_castle]

If you're willing to give Western RPGs a shot, I second the recommendations of anything by BioWare. Now, some of their older games feature turn-based combat, but they've moved away from that recently. If you want an example of a great action/RPG hybrid, I can't recommend Mass Effect highly enough. The combat is definitely shooter style, though with the option to play as a Biotic (magic-in-space) or tech character to change things up a bit. Definitely fast paced, and with the best story I've seen in games in a long time.

You may also be interested in Morrowind, the third game of the Elder Scrolls series and infinitely better (IMO of course) than the latest entry, Oblivion. The story's a bit more engrossing, the characters a bit more fleshed out, and the leveling system actually works. The game is very customizable and flexible, so you can get out as much as you put into it. Today, it's still one of the games I've played the most. And again, all combat is in real time.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

For real time JRPGs...Infinite Undiscovery and Legend of Mana are my recommended choices.

 

[Megidolaon]

Action RPGs? The ones that come to mind are Chrono Trigger (I think) and Kingdom Hearts...

lolwut?
It's ATB, meaning round based battles with a time limit. But it has the one and only version of the ATB system ever that is actually fun.

Rogue Galaxy has really bad battles, they are tedious, the AI sucks bad and the enemies are really annoying. It doesn't help that the game has 10 minutes of piss poor story ever 2 hours of dungeon crawling.

Kingdom Hearts one also has fairly bad gameplay. The controls are quite rough and unresponsive for an action rpg and the camera is one of the worst I ever saw in any game.
One of the first bosses battles is against a huge boss in a tiny room, to prevent clipping the camera does not exit the small room and as a result you only ever see a fifth of the boss, barely see Sora as a whole and can't ever tell just what the **** is going on at the moment.

I would also stay the mother ****ing hell away from Odin Sphere. It has amazing graphics and voicework, but the gameplay and game design is indescribably bad.

Terranigma and Illusion of Gaia are good choices though, two of the best SNES rpgs and great battle systems.

There is Eternal Sonata, but it's a mixed bag. The initial premise of the battle system is hella fun, but the developers seemmingly didn't like the idea of the players having fun, so while you progress through the game, the battle system is forcibly changed. The only way to revert the changes is on the 2nd playthrough in hard mode that is unbeatable unless you grind 20 lvls every single dungeon.
It's a mix between turn based and real time battles. You have 5 seconds to do what you want while the enemy sits till and then the enemy has 5 seconds to do what he wants while you sit still.
This can make for massive ownage from your side with the right party (down to not healing once against a boss in the final dungeon) but also for massive ownage from the enemies (down to a boss wiping out your entire party in 3 seconds and you can't do anything against it other than pray someone survives so you can spam healing items during your own turn).

Other than that I can't really think of any real time rpgs with actually good battle systems, only those where the battles suck.

There are the Kuzunoha Raidou games (the Devil Summoner series actually had some prior installments).
The first one had really bad battle while the 2nd had has a good battle system, but not even single ounce worth of challenge.
Your demons get so absurdly overpowered that every boss battle ends in literally 2 seconds.
On the other hand enemies teleport around every 5-10 seconds, so with only the main character alone the battles are extremely annoying.

 

[Korten12]

Demon's souls if you have a ps3.