But if you let these small flaws stop you, you would be missing one of the most charming stories from a classic JRPG title. Like most RPGs it has some great gameplay mechanics, like the ability to negotiate with demons in battle. The slow turn-based battle system does feel dated, but everything else is on a whole other level. Making Persona 2: Eternal Punishment a much better game, in some regards, than the rest of the series.

Front Mission 3 is a massive tactical role-playing game featuring an intricate, political-focused story set in the near future. You can easily customize them with different parts and weaponry, and unleash hell on your enemies at every turn.

These mechs may not shoot missiles from their fingers or laser beams from their eyes. But they are still a force to be reckoned with. While certainly not iconic as Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross is an excellent role-playing game that does not deserve to be as underappreciated as it is.

But the main cast is memorable. And the story expands the universe introduced in Chrono Trigger in some very interesting ways, all without falling into the usual trappings of inconsistent time traveling.

With a unique growth system and experimental turn-based combat, Chrono Cross has every right to be considered as a worthy successor to Chrono Trigger. Oh, how wrong you are. Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together tackles some the most mature themes ever seen in a tactical role-playing game.

And it develops them in the best possible way : if you have to deal with warring kingdoms that use ethnic cleansing as an excuse, you have no choice but to do things right. These choices not only influence the story moving forward, but they also challenge your convictions.

This is the gaming equivalent of a real page-turner. Vagrant Story almost feels like a Metal Gear Solid game with a fantasy setting. The city is the haven of dragons, undead, and a plethora of dangerous creatures that you have to fight in a highly strategic way.

And with the combat system this will become second nature. You can even stop time to target specific body parts! Vagrant Story is not exactly an accessible game. Star Ocean: The Second Story moved the series forward considerably with more outer space travel and underdeveloped planets action.

Not to mention an improved battle system where characters are controlled in real-time to unleash special attacks and spells. We think so. While the shadowy assassins had never been short of videogame representation, they had typically appeared in action games. By requiring the player to exercise caution and stealthily assassinate targets, Tenchu really re-examined what ninja games should be, and played a part in the growing stealth-action genre.

The game offered a great deal of freedom in terms of carrying out your objectives, but was not for the impatient — observation was key as you tried to identify the perfect time to strike. Getting it right is still a thrilling experience. Player expectations had changed by the late Nineties though, so Namco shifted its approach to the series to match. Where the original was a loud, colorful game that you played for a good time, not a long time, Ridge Racer Type 4 offered a relaxing contrast with pastel-colored skies and a more relaxed soundtrack.

The excellent drift-heavy racing remained though, and the game had some fun stories, plus more cars and tracks to play with than any of its predecessors. This one dispenses with the high budget 3D spectacle and sci-fi leanings of mainline PlayStation counterparts like Final Fantasy VII and VIII, instead offering up more complex battles featuring 2D characters on isometric 3D stages, with job classes that call back to the more traditional fantasy roots of the series. As well as these more complex and expansive arenas, the second game in the series introduced some iconic vehicles such as Axel and Mr Slam, as well as a co-op mode that allowed players to tackle the tournament together.

Going back to your favorite game over a decade later can be tough. You realize that the graphics that you once thought were the most gorgeous to grace your screen are not only unimpressive, but downright ugly.

You begin to see the evolution of how far games have come, which can not only be eye-opening, but also mystifying. But every so often, certain classics break through the barrier of age. Although no game ages perfectly, plenty of titles are still fun to play today, offering a great walk down memory lane. As an RPG fan, I often get asked what classics still hold up. The adventures of Zidane and company nod back to the roots of the Final Fantasy series while providing plenty of modern tweaks to the battle system and overworld.

Everything from the tortured villain to the idiosyncratic characters to the classic environments still shine. Focusing on countering your opponents is a must; if you attack them with certain abilities just as they begin to strike, their turns are delayed significantly. It may have blatantly stolen its main character design from a certain Star Wars bounty hunter, but the gameplay is great. Developed by Origin Systems, the game mixes shooting and puzzles within a rich and detailed world.

As the crimson-clad hero, the Silencer, you have to infiltrate various facilities, bypassing security systems, hacking computers, and taking out guards to achieve your ends. To do this you have a range of weapons and abilities, and you can destroy a lot of the objects in the world. The controls are a little clunky and take some getting used to, but the slower-paced combat and flexible approach to completing your objectives are great.

Like Gunstar Heroes , the game features different ammo types, including a flame thrower and homing shot, and characters also have a grappling hook to help them navigate the six levels. In fact, it was originally planned as a Street of Rage title, but was later re-branded.

It features four different characters, with their own strengths and weaknesses, and alongside the usual melee combat, players can utilize weapons, guns, and the environment. Different paths through the game can also be chosen. The game arrived to fairly average reviews on release, limiting its potential, and despite a sequel on the Dreamcast which was fairly poor , it quickly vanished.

The story takes place 20 years after the film, and sees NORAD doing battle with the WOPR forces, which, like its digital buddy, Skynet, wants to eradicate mankind why do computers need to be so bloody evil all the time? An action strategy title, players control various units on the battlefield directly, able to jump from one to another at will.

Units not under player control can be given basic orders, including forming up on the player vehicle, and the two sides have vastly different forces, with NORAD having traditional tanks and aircraft, and WOPR sporting sci-fi mechs and advanced vehicles. Of course, the game also taunts you if you lose, asking if you prefer a nice game of chess. A simple, but devilishly challenging puzzler. Kurushi sees you trying to stay alive by destroying blocks that are continuously rolling towards you.

You do this by highlighting areas of the floor to detonate, and timing the blast to hit the cubes as they roll over them. It sounds simple, but this is an addictive and tough title. Playing a larger-than-life selection of martial artists with over-the-top special moves who can transform into animals, of course! Where else can you pit a mole against a tiger and have a good, balanced fight? The Myst series as a franchise is far from underappreciated, but on the PlayStation it hardly made a splash.

Both Myst and Riven appeared on the PlayStation, and for those looking for a truly challenging brain bender, this is a good choice. The mysterious island and the worlds that follow all contain some of the most bizarre landscapes around, dotted with tough puzzles.

Solving the game requires all of your grey matter, and this changed little on the PlayStation. Riven was, and still is, the hardest of the series, and ups the ante when it comes to mental callisthenics, and is every bit as absorbing as the debut title, Myst. This is a shame as, although short, MDK was a great third-person shooter, packed with humor and unique features for the time. As heroic janitor Kurt Hectic, you have to save the earth from invading aliens, and you use the powerful coil suit to do so.

It spawned a sequel, but many fans still say the first is the best of the two. The protagonist, Levant, is a Cocoon Master who is able to capture and tame Minions. These creatures can be used to fight for Levant, and can be fused together with other Minions to create more powerful beings that inherit the skills of the paired creatures. Battles mainly consist of plentiful use of elemental powers, with the various abilities having strengths and weaknesses against others. Fire attacks beat wind, for example.

Minions possess these elemental powers, with more powerful, new generations of creatures having more than one. The graphics are good, the audio design great, and the game world is expansive, making for a unique, well-rounded RPG.

It features full voice acting some of which is unintentionally humorous , and simple, but enjoyable hack-and-slash world-roaming and dungeon-crawling. Part of the Mega Man Legends series, The Misadventures of Tron Bonne casts players as the titular anti-heroine, and features various gameplay styles, including 3D action, puzzles, and strategy. Using her robotics and army of Servbots, Tron is on a mission to raise money to pay off a family debt, which means making money in any way possible, usually by stealing.

Galerians is one of the more interesting Resident Evil clones, and focuses not on traditional, scour-the-area-for-every-single-bullet play, but instead features the use of mind powers. As protagonist Rion Steiner, a boy who wakes up with no memory, players explore the hospital he wakes up in. By using special drugs, he can utilize his psychic powers to combat foes. If Rion takes too much damage, he can unleash a powerful, but uncontrollable assault, killing foes instantly.

Still satisfying the survival horror mechanic, Rion needs vials of drugs to fuel his powers, of which there is a limited amount, so conservation is still needed while navigating the world and solving puzzles. Galerians was originally lost in the fever surrounding Resident Evil and Silent Hill , but genre fans should certainly check it out. It might not have the mainstream appeal of Tekken and its ilk, but the core fighting engine of Tobal 2 is one of the best of the generation, and the combo system is fast and fluid, all running at an impressive 60 fps.

Tempest X 3 is basically the same game, but for the PlayStation. Created by Insomniac, the team responsible for the Resistance series, Disruptor is a great early example of a non-N64 console FPS title that worked well, with decent controls and steady challenge. Disruptor is a traditional corridor shooter at heart, with a range of decent weapons and psi powers accompanying the bullet-slinging. Unlike Shining Force , Vandal Hearts is an isometric game with much better visuals. Players take turns moving their units around the grid-based battlefields, which feature varying heights and terrain types.

Units can attack and use abilities, and when all have had a turn, the enemy units have their go. This makes Vandal Hearts a very different RPG experience to the majority of similar titles on the PlayStation, and one that should be very welcome to players looking for a more mental role-playing challenge.

Want to play Zelda on your PlayStation? Ehrgeiz is a dream game for many PlayStation owners. Not only is it a cross between Tekken and Powerstone , but it features Final Fantasy characters battling it out in full 3D.

This boasts a long dungeon crawl-style of play, complete with item looting and a hunger status.