Grand Theft Auto Series

GTA has been an interesting series that I’ve had a love/hate relationship with for many years. For many, when they say GTA, they’re referring to GTA3, 4, or possibly something along the line of San Andreas or Vice City. To avoid any confusion, I’m looking at the series as a whole and dishing out what I think, for better or worse.

The Tales Series

I was first introduced to the Tales series via Tales of Destiny for the PS1. Much like with the Star Ocean series, I never quite understood why we missed the original, but the series in general has always fascinated me. The best way to think about the Tales series is as though it’s Namco’s version of Final Fantasy…except that there’s quite a bit different and far more interesting about it.

For starters, ever since its inception, the Tales games have NOT been turned based. Far from it as combat is full action with only minor delays in certain attacks which allows for combos and all kinds of special techniques to be cast at a moment’s notice. Effectively the series started as an action RPG that allows for side view combat and is very, very fun.

Sadly, there are still a bunch of Tales games that have never surfaced in America…and some that are really terrible that have. All the same, let’s hit all of them, in order, just like I did with the Megami Tensei series.

Megami Tensei

Before I get started, this is something I’ve been wanting to do for a while, but I have to warn you of two things. One, I am NOT the most widely versed individual in SMT. I’m a huge fan and have been for over a decade, but that’s not saying much considering how long the series has been running. And two, while I will be providing as much information as possible, it’s possible I may miss a few titles here and there or otherwise get stuff wrong as I’m mostly going to be referencing Wikipedia.

That said, again, I am a huge fan of SMT, MegaTen, Persona, and whatever. SMT is ever-changing, but one concept that usually remains the same is that of the occult. In many games you may communicate with demons, form demon contracts, recruit demons, fuse demons together, and all kinds of crazy stuff. At times it feels like Pokemon, but with demons, and other times it can operate more like Eye of the Beholder, but with demons.

Naturally, the key word is demons, but sometimes they’re referred to as persona, shadows, monsters, and whatever else, sometimes to get around the censors and other times because they’re not really demons within the SMT universe. Again, this will ATTEMPT to be a giant, canonical listing of all SMT titles, but it’s possible I may skip a few, so I implore you to investigate on your own time as well.

Before we get started, I will try to be as chronologically correct as possible. However, I will also try to present the original North American release date when possible as well. This may get confusing as games like Innocent Sin, originally released in 1999 on the PS1, but never released until the remake on the PSP far later in North America are always a possibility.

According to Wikipedia, the MegaTen series is the third most popular RPG series in Japan, just barely being inched out by Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. Read on to find out why.

The Simpsons Games

In 2007, the unthinkable happened: a genuinely GOOD Simpsons game was made. Yes, for a cartoon series that has been around for decades they sure did produce a lot of crappy games. And we’ll get to the good Simpsons game in a minute, but for right now, I wanted to highlight the cacophony crapshoot that was an endless series of failures in the Simpsons megaverse.

Why Zelda Is Not An RPG

About 7 years ago, I explained why Zelda was not an RPG on Project Wonderboy, the first site I ever wrote at. It was a fun article that only exists in the old Internet graveyard today, sadly. Even still, it’s a topic I toil and fuss over regularly because, wouldn’t you know, people still think it’s an RPG. These people are what I like to call WRONG. But don’t worry if you’re one of them! I’ll explain why you’re an idiot.

RPG of the Year – 2001

This was another tough year. I mean, REALLY tough. It’s bad when you’ve played half the games on the list and LOVED them. Yeah, THAT bad. Anyway, after some deliberation, I think I’ve come up with something solid. There are 31 games this year, so let’s hop to it!

RPG of the Year – 1998

This was a HUGE year for RPGs, at least if you go off the numbers. There are 30 games! This was not an easy pick, so don’t think I just randomly selected these. I almost wish I’d done a top 10 list for this year because a lot of the RPGs are just plain incredible. Also, with apologies to Bruce here. This is the year of Baldur’s Gate, but you might not like what I have to say about it.

RPG of the Year – 1991

This was actually a tough year for me to choose through games. There were a lot of PC RPGs, naturally, but the problem is a lot of them, yet again, are not very easy to simply pick up and play. Most of them require thorough understanding of the manual or perhaps prior knowledge of the series in general to truly appreciate the experience.

RPG of the Year – 1990

It occurred to me while writing my article way way back about how I’ll remember Final Fantasy that it probably wasn’t fair to leave out so many great RPGs. Then I realized, if I did that, goddamn that would have been a ridiculously long article. Then again, it was already pretty long, so why not figure out which were the BEST. Yes, I realize this would be in my opinion, but at the very least I can highlight them, give a top 5 for the year, and the runner ups.

Sonic the Hedgehog – Is It Too Late?

Growing up, I owned an NES. While the Sega Genesis was a marvelous thing, I still loved my NES. Every so often, we would be treated to renting a Genesis and a few games. My good friend across the street also owned a Genesis. Until I got into emulation, this was the extent of my Genesis knowledge. Sure, I got to play a few things like the oldschool Sonic titles, Golden Axe 2, and even Phantasy Star 4, but for the most part I really missed out when the Genesis was still ongoing.