Final Fantasy has nothing on the MegaTen series, IMO. Not saying all FF games are bad, but Shin Megami Tensei (and all of its spin-offs, including Persona and Devil Survivor) has the stronger concept/theme of the two franchises.

The darker the better, IMO.

I don't think i have to explain it.

I'd probably have to say Earthbound. Or I guess the entire series but I've only played one so that doesn't really count. The battle mechanics are relatively normal, except for the rolling HP meter thing, but overall I mainly enjoyed the game because of how funny and weird it was. Not to mention managing equipment and stuff is fairly easy (because the main challenge is trying to store all your Peanut Cheese Bars in your limited space) so it was one of the few RPGs I could actually finish.

Why in the world would you only play the second Xenosaga? I can understand most of the others, since they're more or less standalone titles, but Xenosaga's parts all tie into each other.

And arguably the worst one too (actually, aside from the gameplay, the drastically different character designs, and goofy pop tunes, it wasn't too bad)

Why in the world would you only play the second Xenosaga? I can understand most of the others, since they're more or less standalone titles, but Xenosaga's parts all tie into each other.

One thing I found kind of interesting about the first one was its complete lack of music during most of the overworld exploration. I still haven't finished the second one though. I need to, just so I can get to the third.

Xenosaga 2 is the only one in the series to have a PAL release.

It's part of a tightly wound trilogy. You'll understand the second one a lot better if you've played the first one prior.

Does it connect to the first game in any way? Because if it does that seems like a completely stupid desicion.

It might, but I think SMT is getting a bit stale in how it portrays each portion. Demons and Lucifer/Satan are EVULZ and the Angels are, well, also evil, but in a different way. I know that SMT II had Lucifer actually appear more like a good-intended guy, who was trying to save humanity from the fucked up Angels, can't we have more grayscales than that?
At least DeSu 2 had gray scales for the Egalitarian and Meritocracy worlds.

Besides, you know what happens if things go too dark? You get The White.

C-A

Earthbound is pretty fun. I haven't played Mother 3 a whole lot, but the idea of getting more hits, if you press the A button in tune with the beats of the background music, it's a neat idea. (can be really annoying, though, if you are playing on mute or low volume)

As for my best RPG series... I honestly can't say. Out of the Zelda games I've played, I only like 2 and I don't think I can say Zelda would be best then. I enjoy SMT for its darker atmosphere or gray shades, at times, but it also is a little too black-and-white at times... sounds contrary, but it makes it boring when Lucifer = EVULZ and Angels = GUDZ, though if you look at the angels for a little too long, you realize they are just as fucked up.

I might call Persona a separate series on its own, but in that case, I'd say the stories tend to be good, but I feel like P3 was such a huge disappointment for me, that it would influence my judgement too much. (We'll see with P5, up to now it looks neat) And Final Fantasy... same with Zelda, I played majority of them and I only like 4 of them.

Tales... maybe, but same problem there. They have nice ideas, but I sometimes feel like they don't go all out with it.

I just... probably can't honestly say "this is 'best'".

C-A

Trails?

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky,
Trails to Zero/Azure, Trails of Cold Steel, etc.