Final Fantasy III for the NES used the identical system as V, only with a few less classes. It is probably the most underrated FF, since it didn’t come out in the U.S.
I vote the same as I always vote. Planescape: Torment
Actually, FFV is packaged with FFVI as Final Fantasy Anthology for Playstation.
Anyway, I agree that FFV was interesting. The job system does allow for interesting skill combinations. However, I have yet to beat it as I got stuck in the final massive level-up part before the last world of the game and have yet to go back to it. Actually, I think it’s been two or three years now. I really should finish it. Oh well, it can wait until I beat FFIV.
Tribes
And speaking of Looking Glass games: Terra Nova. It was simply criminal that it wasn’t a runaway success when released. Terrific first-person squad-level shooter centering around folks in Starship Troopers-esque powered combat armor–what wasn’t to love? Would happily kill for a singleplayer-focused sequel with graphics brought up to modern specs.
Dark Reign and Dark Reign II were, I believe, he pinnacle of the real time strategy genre. Unfortunately, each was released as another big RTS game hit the shelves. The first was passed over when everyone was wowed by the 10 million units and 3d graphics of Total Annihilation, while the second was overshadowed by Ground Control, and, to a lesser extent, Homeworld. I did play each of those three games, and they each provided many hours of entertainment, but nothing can quite match up to the strategy gaming-goodness that was the Dark Reign series.
Skyblazer.You control a little guy who acts like goku.
Gogo Ackman:same thing, but he looks more cartoony, it’s funnier and he looks like trunks.
Sinistron: Like gradius…
Biometal, also like gradius.
Starship hector:Top and sidescrolling shooter
Dragon’s curse.
I’ll second Grand Prix Legends, the best racing game I’ve ever played, and extremely chanllenging. There are a tremendous amount of community patches and add-ons like new cars and graphic enhancements that still keep it graphically on par with anything available today.
On the dreamcast, Soul Calibur is still the finest fighting game ever made.
Getting even older, on the Sega system, Shining Force 1 and 2 were the perfect cutesy-anime roleplaying games. I enjoyed them far more than the Final Fantasy series.
Terranigma, Earthbound, The Longest Journey, and FF Tactics again.
don’t have anything to say but still recommend: Super Mario RPG. Secret of Mana 2. Breath of Fire 2. Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinistrals. Star Control 1/2 (http://www.sc2.sourceforge.net The original producers are re-working SC2 to be usable on newer computers, free. It’s in Beta .23something, but stable, playable, and pretty much everything but the opening/ending movies and the credits, all things to miss, is present). The whole Phantasy Star series. Cossacks, esp the expansions.
Onto things I could rave over for hours:
Live a Live. Fairly sure it’s Square, was SNES and very fun to play, and rather refreshing after level-treadmill RPGs, as I level-built a grand total of five battles throughout the whole game, and none of them felt repetitive or boring. There was only one battle in one of the chapters (the rest of which had me scared shitless after the first hour or so), three in another, seven in a third, and less than twenty in all but a select few, all being fun and relatively unique. Decent writing/fun characters w/an average storyline, and it’s abandonware, to boot.
And because I say this at any mention of Video Games: Popful Mail, the single least appreciated game of all time. Being on the doomed-from-the-start Sega CD, I doubt it sold in the triple digits, even, a shame such a beautiful system had to die. If you ignore how infuriating some of the jumping puzzles are, this is the absolute greatest action/adventure RPG I have ever played. You can legally download it somewhere, I’m sure, but it’s about 700 Megs, so I’m happily using the disk on my computer after spending about 4 hours to get the emulator to work, now that my system’s dead.
Shadowrun, for the Sega Genesis. Yeah, the SNES, computer, and pen-and-paper versions are still gems, but when you start to use your laptop computer to do ghoul-runs in class while you’re handwriting notes lefthanded without looking at your paper, you know the game’s gold. The simple joy of blasting through Renraku guards with an SMG (or, better yet, Spurs on the back of your hands. Silent.) and a nervous system that’s classified as an illegal chemical weapon and lets you dodge bullets gives a nice warm feeling in my chest when I realize that I can do this while forwarding a story I’m interested in. With a nine foot tall, 600 pound orc named after a Roman diety shooting the same person I eventually end up punching 28 bullets/second, and hitting me only slightly more often than the guard does. And usually a mage that worships a sewer rat melting anyone that gets past this while turning my skin into steel for the occasions when I do get shot. Plus five or six Frag Grendes lobbed behind the fray any time someone tries to run or help arrives. (Of course I never make money off of a Renraku run. I just discourage young people from joining up with an evil organization just because they give you armor that makes this a fair fight. And knock off about a third of the employed population of Downtown Seattle)
Europa Universalis/EUII: Yeah, a few magazines gave these games critical acclaim, but I never heard anyone shout their names from the rooftops. Fifteenth-Eighteenth Century Europe, any section you like. I can’t wait for a Crimean War Expansion, just to see Todelbon’s Siege Statistic.
I’d have to say that Thief: The Dark Project didn’t get what it deserved. It was moderately popular, and well reviewed, but was continually overshadowed by other games when it came out. In my opinion, it’s one of the most innovative, exciting, well-planned games in history.
It did do well enough to spawn 2 sequels, though…and I anxiously await Thief III at the end of this year!
I’d have to say that Thief: The Dark Project didn’t get what it deserved. It was moderately popular, and well reviewed, but was continually overshadowed by other games when it came out. In my opinion, it’s one of the most innovative, exciting, well-planned games in history.
It did do well enough to spawn 2 sequels, though…and I anxiously await Thief III at the end of this year!
(I apologize if this double posts)
I’d have to say that Thief: The Dark Project didn’t get what it deserved. It was moderately popular, and well reviewed, but was continually overshadowed by other games when it came out. In my opinion, it’s one of the most innovative, exciting, well-planned games in history.
It did do well enough to spawn 2 sequels, though…and I anxiously await Thief III at the end of this year!
(I apologize if this double posts)
I’ve been playing the original Thief lately, and while the game came heavily recommended by many gamers I know, I have to say I agree that’s it’s pretty amazing. I love the idea of a game that looks, at first glance, like an FPS game, but once you start playing you realize that you do better in the game when you’re not killing enemies. In fact, at the Expert level it’s a requirement not to kill anyone. What a concept! It completely changes the way you have to play the game.
The use of light and sound is also great… it’s a thinking person’s FPS. Awesome stuff.
I also have to agree with GargoyleWB the the Dreamcast’s Soul Calibur is a stunning piece of work. I loved it.
Eternal Darkness
BIG TIME!!!
Not identical. In V, you can keep class abilities even after you’ve switched out of the class (presuming you got enough AP while using the class). In III, you couldn’t.
In III, it cost CP (Capacity Points) to change class, and as you advance in different classes, certain other classes become more expensive to change into - in V, it takes no such thing.
Doh! How did I miss that one? Good catch, that game kicks ass.
NES:
Crystalis(yes, I’ve played it. Great game!)
Faxanadu
Szaherazade
SNES:
Earthbound
Playstation:
Shadow Madness
Star Ocean 2
I agree with Jurhael, Star Ocean:The Second Story for Playstations is AWESOME!!! There are 80 possible endings based on your end party composition, and various “emotional” decsisions you make during the game. Example: The secondary character/love interest at one point asks if you like the night sky as I recall, you get to choose from 3 or 4 different answers, and this affects the plot line. Plus the game interface is quite easy to master, very smooth to use during battles IMO. The spells, and items you can buy and craft are really cool too. 
Errr… FF Tactics sold well enough that one cannot find an original copy except on eBay and it was rereleased because there was still demand. Demand may have been slower, but the game steadily was in production.
NOLF sold fairly well; enough to justify a well-developed sequal.
PS: Torment has not had its figures released, but Mr. Urguheart did say it sold beter than most people think.
I would have liked Dark Reign more if I’d been able to tell how high the terrain was. I never did master that and all I wanted was a freakin meter on my HUD that said what the altitude was! Although, granted, I really sucked at that game.
Yeah, the graphics were weak, and yeah, it’s an OLD-SCHOOL NES game,probably doesn’t hold a candle to these ones you’ve mentioned, but one of my personal all-time favorites:
Bionic Commando: I LOVED jumping off of buildings, shooting out that hook and swinging around. I did that for HOURS. It was one of the great ancestors to Spiderman’s web-swinging, but harder because you didn’t know if you’d catch onto something or not. I miss that game…
Startopia was an superb game. Sold hardly anything. buy it if you can find it.