H4run
Deity
But I have to say that I hate that I never really played any console RPGs.
Seems I've missed a lot in these regards.
Don't worry The_J you don't miss that much

But I have to say that I hate that I never really played any console RPGs.
Seems I've missed a lot in these regards.
(I will say, Skyrim's exploration is certainly better than TW2 (...) but that's not really an important component of an RPG.)
I wouldn't put Skyrim in the top 5 RPGs of all time, but I disagree with this statement. I mean it's a matter of taste, but I'll often put exploration and world detail above storyline depending on the game. Skyrim happens to be an example of a game where the world itself sort of made me forget about the more than average storyline. It was a bit of a stereotypical setting, but at least it was strongly thematic and not all over the place, it managed to have a lot of interesting areas within one theme.
Don't worry The_J you don't miss that muchthe peak of console RPGs was start from Snes, and reached its peak on playstation, but after playstation 1 things go down pretty bad from there.
5 - Jade Empire - Bioware's hidden gem.
What Skyrim really needs IMO is a semi-sequel in the manner of Fallout: New Vegas which combines Bethesda's world building with someone else's (Obsidian in that case) storytelling, as it worked brilliantly and massively improved over the original FO3.
My problem with Bethesda games is that they inevitably create this amazing world, but then fail to put anything particularly interesting to do in it other than wander around - which is, admittedly, pretty interesting for a while. The charcaters are bland, the quests boring, combat so-so at best. What Skyrim really needs IMO is a semi-sequel in the manner of Fallout: New Vegas which combines Bethesda's world building with someone else's (Obsidian in that case) storytelling, as it worked brilliantly and massively improved over the original FO3.
Not saying Skyrim is bad as such, I did have fun playing it, just that it's not close to being "best RPG ever", and could be so much better (made worse by the fact that all Bethesda games have the same flaws. For God's sake, hire a decent writer...)
If I had a choice between improving storytelling, or making exploration discoveries actually matter, I'd pick the exploration discovery effort. It really hurts the game that there is so little equipment in the game that matters, and it's not very varied, and it also hurts that the skill choices are kind of boring and feel like they don't have much impact on anything. So whenever you discover a cool place or a treasure or anything, the result in terms of gameplay or feeling of progress and reward is always underwhelming. But then I'm the kind of guy that, had a better experience playing Fallout 3 than FNV (while recognizing the latter is a better game), but that discussion was had in another thread. Exploration and powerful addictive gameplay and game mechanics are unique to gaming. Awesome stories I can get from books and movies anyway.
Anyway, it's a false dichotomy and they might as well do both.
No one in here Diablo 2 Medial XL mod ?
TWO, not the latest one ...
Valkyrie Profile
Suikoden 2
I completely forgot about these two gems, it should be in my top 5 list replacing thousand arm and ff7. And it quite unusual seen legend of mana to be number 1 in the top 5 list, legend of mana is really really a good game that highly underrated. Play that game several time and never finished it, it is kind of hard to finish legend of mana without walkthrough, and I play most of my games without walkthrough (until recently because I really don't have time to wondering around clueless).
This! You really speak loudly what I have inside me, I think you are the first person whom I see in the internet speaking like this, even though I don't agree with you regarding the battle system of course it is nicer than Oblivion and Morrowind, but I really agree with the rest of the point.
And yes Skyrim is so boring, the character is easily forgettable, the environment are so repetitive (everywhere look the same). As an Elderscroll appreciator I try so hard (years ago) to appreciate Skyrim and to convince myself that this game is enjoyable, but I can't, I even start to question myself "maybe I'm too old to play a game? maybe I should reconsider myself to stop playing game?" Because seeing how peoples celebrating Skyrim and how they praise and endorse this game even praise it over Morrowind and Oblivion, so it must be not the game who wrong here, but it is me.
I think the reason we don't find any review that try to review Skyrim as the way it is is because criticizing Skyrim become some kind like gaming community taboo just like praising Final Fantasy 7, it anger many gamers.
I don't understand why Oblivion was so popular. I guess if you just like to kill stuff it's kind of fun. But I need story to keep me interested.