25 Best PS1 RPGs of All Time

Imagine attending an opera, and halfway through the show all the audience around you bursts and explode into flame.

This is what happens to Aya Brea, NYPD officer.

This event triggered Aya’s curiosity and led her down the rabbit hole.

The game mechanic is suitable for a newcomer to RPG genre, the combat and level progression is straightforward yet classy.

Graphically, the game is hailed as cinematic RPG experience, every cutscene is well detailed and the background art of New York City has never been more appealing.

Overall, Parasite Eve is a well balanced game, not spectacular but is enough to appeal most gamer, especially RPG newbie, thanks to the simplistic gameplay.

The dark acolytes going rampant claiming every town and village in its vicinity.

Play as Meis Triumph, the legendary spirit blacksmith.

When his ancestral town being attacked, he must fleet to the capital and while doing so fulfilled his fate of being mentored by master spirit blacksmith.

What makes Thousand Arms unique is how most game use blacksmith as NPC, but now you’re a blacksmith forging arsenal for your party.

The graphic draws lots of inspiration from anime style, and definitely attractive.

Player interaction and conversation felt real and not forced, allows you to immerse yourself to the game.

Thousand Arms offers a unique theme on RPG game and is recommended for anyone who likes RPG with a mixture of social interaction and dating.

The Legend of Dragoon is a classic RPG set in the time of magic and dragon.

A war between human capable of controlling dragon and magician wanted to enslave human has triggered our hero, Dart, on an adventure to avenge the death of his parent.

The game proposes lengthy gameplay with rich storyline and lore to keep you engaged with the content.

Battle mechanic introduces combo attack features so the game doesn’t feel like a turn based at all.

Overall, The Legend of Dragoon is a nice addition to your game library, although the storyline feels quite linear despite the engaging narrative and huge storyline spread across hours upon hours of gameplay.

Legend of Legaia is a tale of betrayal, tear, and destruction.

A mysterious mist has shrouded the world of Legaia.

Forced to live in the outskirt, people of Legaia must face another terrifying creature.

Join Vahn on his adventure to restore balance to Legaia.

Unlike any RPG, Legend of Legaia doesn’t need to have elaborate UI to display available move for each turn, instead, you control what’s your character next move straight using your joystick.

The graphic is okay and attention to detail is amazing, each upgrade brings you different looks on your weapon.

Legend of Legaia is an example of don’t fix what is not broken, the game present classic RPG with a bit of twist to upgrade the quality of life.

Three years after the event in the first game, Aya Brea is now an FBI and human mutation is a past thing.

To keep the mutation spread globally, Aya has been delegated to a secret division tasked to hunt down any remaining monster.

Diving deep into the underground, Aya realized the whole thing is a complex conspiracy to eliminate mankind.

Parasite Eve II upgrades the combat system, the game now delivers a real time combat mechanic allowing for fluid gameplay.

Huge range of weapon choice is a big point, especially for RPG games.

Parasite Eve II is a refreshment in the sea of turn based RPG, with its perfectly placed between gameplay and cinematic experience, this game can be considered as a mass appealing game.

Inspired by Norse mythology world design, Tales of Destiny II tells a story about two distinctive worlds.

Inferia is the artistic and culturized world where Celestia is the uncivilized world.

The story progress in Eternia, a place where both of the worlds somewhat connected and a mysterious girl with an important message for both worlds.

The main plot isn’t as appealing, but what makes this game good is the character development and connection with each other.

Heart touching and life lesson are spread across your journey, embedded in the character conversation.

Tales of Destiny II is a memorable game that’ll leave you empty after you finished the game, your typical JRPG.

Star Ocean: The Second Story takes place in the year 2452, you’ll play as either Rena or Claude as their fate intertwined.

Recklessly teleported to a less developed planet, Claude is mistaken as their saviour and must save the planet from impending doom.

For a sci-fi themed RPG, the game does a good job on the sound and voice acting.

Exploration in this game is in a whole different level than other game, each place feels distinctive and leaves a mark soon after you visit.

Star Ocean: The Second Story takes you on approximately fifty hours of a marvellous journey and it is up there with Suikoden and the like.

Three brave warriors answer the call of guardian, the legendary guardian of Filgaia, a once was a prosperous world, before Metal Demon siege.

Now, our three warriors must traverse what’s remain of Filgaia on a mission to find the relic to bring back Filgaia to its former glory.

Each character has their prologue, allowing you to relate more with each character.

For an RPG game, Wild Arms sure feels like a puzzle game at times, due to the sheer amount of puzzle to solve.

Lengthy gameplay with side quest to keep you busy for eighty plus hours.

Wild Arms is a right mix for anyone who loves both puzzle and RPG games, perfect level design and dungeon with the perfect western style soundtrack you keep you company.

Our hero Musashi is summoned once again to stop the kingdom from fallen and rescue the princess.

Brave Fencer Musashi is a deceptively deep game despite the shallow story on the surface.

One of the main reason to play this game is the boss fight, it is challenging yet not frustrating unlike a lot of game focusing on boss battle.

Overall, Brave Fencer Musashi is a great game, simple yet intriguing story, enjoyable combat, and plenty of things to do inside the game, basically a game for everyone.

Our trio of mischievous heroes is on a space continuum adventure.

Having comfort in their homeland without much of a hassle, it all changes when they transported back in time to the lost continent.

Can they solve the continent mystery to save the continent from its destruction?

Spanning over 100 hours of gameplay, you would expect the game to be full of cutscenes, but it is not the case as the majority of those 100 hours is spend to actually playing the game.

Huge selection of character building, boasting over 50 classes to try.

Dragon Warrior VII is an amazing game due to the amount of content it provides, buys this game if you’re really looking to actually play a game.

Suikoden II takes place several years after the devastating first event, the evil Highland empire is terrorizing the city-state of Jowston.

The conflict sparks some anger in our hero as it killer our loved ones.

Fueled by anger, you hop into a medieval-style bar, and soon the adventure begins.

Three possible endings and more than 100 characters to obtain is why Suikoden II offers much more depth than its predecessor.

Following the success of the first game, Suikoden II is one of those rare game where it already a perfect game, you hardly need any upgrade for its sequel.

Overall, Suikoden II is perfectly mixed electronic art, the music, art and graphic combine together within the story to create one of the most joyful gaming experience.

Breath of Fire IV story revolves around dragon people, peace and evil within.

Princess Elena has been kidnapped during a visit to a war thorn kingdom and his sister has a vow to retrieve her kidnapped sister.

Each new town you visit has some sort of side quest and mini games if you need to step out from the main quest.

Soundtrack and sound effect perfectly recreating the mood for boss fight or dungeon.

Breath of Fire IV does what the sequel must do, take what’s good from the previous entry while upgrading multiple aspects of the game.

The soul eater has come to the surface and its bearer has been hunted as the traitor of the nation.

The rune bearer then forced to flee and must fulfil his destiny to gather the destiny-bounded 108 individuals.

Although there is multiple choice along the way, it all leads to the same path, a false sense of sandbox experience.

The graphic is decent and the def seems focused more on the fight mode.

Suikoden is a JRPG classic, maximizing what makes RPG genre great with its selection of character and concise storyline.

Lunar 2: Eternal Blue takes you to Lunar an enchanting world where the magic happens.

A thousand year after the event in the first game, some dark forces are trying to revive the menacing Zophar.

Play as Hiro and his companion, unlock the secret of Lunar and stop the imminent doom.

For anyone who likes the storytelling aspect of the game, Lunar 2 offers hours upon hours of detailed animation.

The story is lighthearted and doesn’t take itself seriously.

Lunar 2: Eternal Blue is an overlooked gem on PS1 with a unique battle system and cute anime style graphic full of heartwarming moments.

The game rent its theme from Norse mythology.

Play as a valkyrie, a demigod whose job is to carry the souls of the fallen to Valhalla for Odin to recruit in aid for his war in Ragnarok.

It is your job to make them battle-ready before brought to Odin.

Character is rendered in 3D while the environment in 2D creating a lively graphic.

The steep learning curve might make gamer gives up before even reaching the best part.

Valkyrie Profile is an enjoyable game that does a great job illustrating and telling the story from Norse mythology.

Sumaru City has a weird way of bringing urban myth to real life.

It is believed that if you call your own number, an assassin with the name Joker will call the person of your choice.

This whole fiasco led Maya, our main character into an intense hide and seek game with the Joker.

The haunting and eerie soundtrack collection perfectly fits the game theme.

Unlike any other RPG, this game allows you to alter the story with your choice.

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment is a unique game whose successfully stray from the stereotype of RPG and does it brilliantly.

Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete presents the classic RPG story.

A homeboy whose aspiring to become a hero soon will meet his own fate.

Follow the story of Alex on his journey to become a dragon master and adulthood.

The character is loveable each with their own quirks and characteristic.

The combat mechanic is quite complex and took micromanage to a different level.

Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete is a charming game with a basic yet funny storyline.

There is nothing good ever come out of pandora’s box.

With this premise, General Baal threatens to unleash what’s within pandora’s box into the world and take advantage amidst the chaos and it is our job to stop him.

For a game with a dark theme, the graphic sure is kinda cute and quirky.

For a PlayStation One game, Grandia definitely surprises me with the graphic quality.

Grandia is a pleasant game to play thanks to the entertaining story premise and a decent character development.

In a world where technology and magic exist side by side, an evil powerful magician corrupt the whole system and threatening to take control of not only the world but space and time as well.

Final Fantasy VIII still to this day regarded as the game with a storyline so good you could take half of it and it still superb.

Overall, Final Fantasy VIII is the epitome of RPG game with a character that is perfectly developed and as well as fabulous graphical effect.

In the far future, where energy is scarce and he who controls energy gains the power, two-nation constantly on edge of their seat duelling for the source of energy.

Xenogears has a unique battle system and draws resemblance with DND as you’re not limited to one action per turn.

Although it has its flaws, Xenogears is an original game that offers a fresh concept in an intriguing storyline with a complex character and challenging the Final Fantasy series.

In the kingdom of Valendia, an elite agent known as Riskbreaker is being accused of the murder of the duke.

Follow Ashley Riot as we recall what happened one week prior to the murder.

Battle system is unique, as timing play a significant role during your moves.

Perfectly seamless gameplay cut to the cinematic story.

Vagrant Story takes you for a ride in the beginning and hooks you with unique battle and intriguing story.

In the world where alternate reality exists side by side, a boy named Serge must face the ugly truth that he is dead in the parallel universe.

Chrono Cross removes traditional magic point system, to a more free flow battle system.

Eye candy graphic with vibrant colour perfectly suits the game mood.

Chrono Cross is a wonderful game with excellent character depth and fascinating story theme to explore.

Final Fantasy VII story revolves around Cloud and the group of resistance, Avalanche.

Avalanche mission is to take down mega evil corp and stop the world from collapsing.

Movie sequence is perfectly placed and animated within the storyline.

It’s also equipped with special battle system and intense, powerful graphic.

Final Fantasy VII imaginative game world enabling the dev to create an engaging and intriguing storyline with rich and loveable character producing one of the best JRPG of all time.

Gaia has been peaceful for such a long time, and now darkness has shrouding Gaia, bringing four separate nations into war with each other.

Even villain in this game is great and you’ll feel empathetic with the villain.

Tons of things to do besides the main quest, thanks to the optional boss and side quest.

Final Fantasy IX is one of the best gaming experience you ever had, especially if you love FF series, good luck finding that reference to the previous title.

Play as the dracula as you learn the story behind your ancestor and bloodline while stopping the terror surrounding your mysterious dark castle.

Exploration in this game is super fun, and backtracking to the same place never been boring.

Perfect level design accompanied by goth themed graphic is really immersive.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is a game that is so good its inspired other game to follow the mapping system and creating a whole new genre for it.