I'm looking for an RPG that will kick my ass.

On the GBA, SNES or PS1. One of those three, because, obviously, I intend to legitimately buy the games. Har har.

What's a really tough RPG? I want to be motivated to farm that god damned Pink Tail. Also, are there any good 'Tactics' games aside from FFT and the Ogre series?

I suggest Bahamuts Lagoon on SNES. Buyable? If youre lucky.

When I played it, I h34r:'d it... Naughty me. Its a tactics game, but a very good one. Very smooth graphics and animation.

I can provide links for it, because its a JP only game... And a translation is needed to play it if you cant read it. Its really worth h34r:'ing

There's a full English translation available for Bahamut's Lagoon.

If you want some more difficult RPGs, try -

The 7th Saga (SNES) [very steep leveling ramp, and fights tend to be pretty unfair]
Lufia (SNES) [strangely glitch battle system, steep ramp]
Tales of Phantasia (SNES) [some extremely tough and/or cheap bosses]
Secret of Evermore (SNES) [convoluted dungeons, a few surprisingly difficult boss battles]
Final Fantasy V (SNES) [probably the all-around toughest RPG I've ever played]
The Paladin's Quest (SNES) [very steep leveling ramp, fairly taxing dungeons, limited resources, mercenaries don't gain exp, extremely difficult last boss if you don't prepare properly]

a few off the top of my head.

If you're looking for tactics RPGs, I'd heartily suggest anything by Nippon Ichi. Disgaea 1 & 2, LaPucelle, Phantom Brave, Grim Grimoire, etc.

Those are all on PS2 though.
I'd suggest the normals, Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, FF4-6, Xenogears, Vagrant Story, Valkyrie Profile are all good choices.

needs moar Lunar, and Breath of Fire games. Classic PS1 rpgs

should you find the urge to add PS2 games a good HARD RPG is "Shin Megami Tensei nocturne(sp)" and I'm told the rest of the series is very good as well.

Chrono Cross.
I swear, the only RPG I've owned that I never beat.

I beat Chorono Cross 2 times and got halfway throught the 3rd time before i said fuck it this game aint worth it it ;_;

replay value isnt as good as Chrono Trigger

Lenneth said:

should you find the urge to add PS2 games a good HARD RPG is "Shin Megami Tensei nocturne(sp)" and I'm told the rest of the series is very good as well.

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Aye. Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2 will whip your ass if you let them, along with Nocturne. Persona 3 is coming up as well, you can almost bet that'll be at the very least, some-what difficult.

Clocian said:

needs moar Lunar, and Breath of Fire games. Classic PS1 rpgs

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Damn that stupid Desert of Immortality or whatever and the end of BoF3! The only BoF I haven't beat and it's because of that *STUPID* desert!

Vagrant Story

Claudhert said:

I beat Chorono Cross 2 times and got halfway throught the 3rd time before i said fuck it this game aint worth it it ;_;

replay value isnt as good as Chrono Trigger

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I was too used to FF's style of leveling up at the time, the way they did it in CC made me afraid and confused.
I got stuck on miguel, I think.

Haha, thanks for all the suggestions. I guess I'll be busy for a while.

Someone listed a lot of tactics games I didn't know existed. I want to play Disgaea, but I came across a Tales of Destiny ISO and I jumped at that download. I loved Phantasia and Symphonia. Anyone know anything about ToD?

Koudelka for the PS1 was fairly obnoxious.

Battle Moon Wars (PC) is a great strategy RPG, but not available in English...

Lufia and the Fortress of Doom has a rather steep leveling curve, the sequel (Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals) is considerably easier and more forgiving.

Super Mario RPG can be easy unless you do the "no equipment challenge" some people do, in which it can be an amazingly difficult game to get through unless you use certain characters for certain fights (Yaridovich and past is near-impossible without Geno Boost...)

I personally loved Saga Frontier, and it comes with a battle setup that prevents you from hitting a certain level of strength (because once you do, the game levels up monsters as well, as a means of saying "You've had enough, move along now") - everyone seems to either love or hate this game, not too sure what you'd think, but it has a very long playtime as well as good difficulty. I HIGHLY, HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend never, ever, ever touching any of it's sequels, however.


The Shining Force series (the first chapter has been rereleased for GBA) is a good strategy game with some nifty features and hiddens characters, but it the remake comes with some corny SFX/BGM as well as some "character adjustments" that leave many of the best characters (Khris, Xylo) rather useless in comparison to how good they were in the Sega Genesis version. Personal favorite of mine, though I'm unsure which version you'd like more - the GBA version has greater difficulty but many characters are nerfed so badly that you may as well just send the main character in to do all the work. In the Sega version, the hero was actually one of the weaker characters, whereas in the GBA one he's by far the strongest.

Front Mission 1-3 are good ones and extremely long to beat... i spent over 100+ hours not getting everything in FM3 and barely won the final fight...

The Growlancer series is fun too Orginally on genesis they rereleased 2 and 3 together in a bundle on the PS2. It's a fun strategy RPG w/o the grid system if that makes sense :O

Just becareful the first time you play part 2 through.... and for the love of god don't forget the SAND!! Am I right, Mish? XD

I was digging through some of my old games and found Legend of Dragoon, which was pretty good, different battle style. Legend of Legia was enjoyable. Suikoden, imo, was a great series. The first two, for the PS1, were the best. Star Ocean took a bit of effort, if you go through all the side quests and bonus dungeons. Brigandine (sp?) Was a nice change on the tatics genre. It reminded me a lot of Dark Wizard for the Sega CD.

Anoki said:

I was digging through some of my old games and found Legend of Dragoon, which was pretty good, different battle style. Legend of Legia was enjoyable. Suikoden, imo, was a great series. The first two, for the PS1, were the best. Star Ocean took a bit of effort, if you go through all the side quests and bonus dungeons. Brigandine (sp?) Was a nice change on the tatics genre. It reminded me a lot of Dark Wizard for the Sega CD.

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Legend of Dragoon is AWESOME. Seriously, I love that game to death like it was a child.

Its one of the few games that took the combo system and made it great... I kind of wish others would do that. It makes the battles more intense/interactive.

Also another thing I noticed... FF9's story is very similar to LoD's lol

If you want length:
Xenogears
StarOcean
Legend of Legia

If you want difficulty:
Front Mission 1-3
Disgaea 1/2 (i don't know about anyone else, but i had a hard time)

If you want omg insanly hard:

Front Mission 4