Inspired by Anand's 'choose your top 5' roundtable, I am curious to find out your opinion on another topic dear to my heart: what are your top 5 non-Square Enix RPGs on Nintendo systems? I decided to make it non-Square Enix to avoid the Chrono Triggers, Final Fantasies, and Dragon Quests that will surely pop up on many lists.

I'm still thinking about my list. It definitely has Xenoblade, Earthbound, perhaps Breath of Fire II. Maybe Last Story? I'm going to need a Pokemon game on there too (and a Mario RPG, for sure). There's also Tales of Symphonia, Baten Kaitos, Skies of Arcadia Legends...

Note: I'm considering strategy RPGs a different genre, so Fire Emblem won't be on my list.

I'll give it some thought; in the mean time, what about you?

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Hmm, can't put Xenoblade or The Last Story in there (haven't played them yet), so I have to think...

1. EarthBound
2. MOTHER 3
3. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
4. Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean
5. Tales of Symphonia

That sounds about right. I'm sure there are some games I'm just not thinking of, but...these games resonated most with me outside of the Square-Enix realm.

I went and made my list and suddenly realized that you never said no Nintendo, just no Squarenix, so now I made it again.

Also I'm not going to include SRPGs because those are basically a different genre.

5. Golden Sun
4. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
3. Skies of Arcadia Legends
2. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
1. Lufia and the Fortress of Doom

The thing is, Xenoblade is almost definitely going to be in this list. Just not sure where yet.

So many options!! Can we make it a top 10?

5) Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
4) Baten Kaitos Origins
3) Radiant Historia
2) Skies of Arcadia Legends
1) Pokemon Silver

1. Mother 3
2. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
3. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
4. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
5. Golden Sun

I don't play many RPGs, so removing FFVI and Chrono Trigger from the list limits my options.

This is TOUGH!
Hmmm...

1. Mother 3
2. Earthbound
3. Skies of Arcadia Legends
4. Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga
5. All of the Pokemonzzzzz

Same as Zero, I'm sure Xenoblade fits in here but I stopped playing it for some reason. It's a GREAT game though.

I only stopped for Shocktoberfest. I'm like 30-40? hours into it and definitely not tired of it. I do sometimes get a bit tired of it but that is usually when I'm spending lots and lots of time running all over the damn place instead of doing what I'm supposed to. At those points I just say to myself "ok you're getting a bit worn down here... GET BACK ON TRACK!" and then it gets fun again.

Runners-up: Pokemon R/B, Pokemon G/S, Lufia 2, M&L: Superstar Saga, M&L: Bowser's Inside Story, Tales of Symphonia, maybe Xenoblade when I'm done.

5. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
4. Paper Mario
3. Skies of Arcadia Legends
2. Mother 3
1. EarthBound

Wow, 4/5 are Nintendo games. Who says Nintendo can't do RPGs? And that's not even counting Pokemon and Fire Emblem.

Zero! Golden Sun above Lufia 2?

1. EarthBound
2. Xenoblade Chronicles
3. Skies of Arcadia Legends
4. Tales of Symphonia
5. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door

So your question is basically "What are your top 5 RPGs besides all the good ones?"! Can I not even pick Super Mario RPG?!

Earthbound
Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga
Tales of Symphonia
Xenoblade Chronicles

This is all that even comes to mind, I can't even think of a fifth one!

Man, it was not easy thinking of five...

Just out of curiosity would Breath of Fire count or not? Yes it was published here by Square but it is a Capcom game.

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
Paper Mario
EarthBound
Illusion of Gaia
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World

Mop it up said:

Can I not even pick Super Mario RPG?!

Let's call that one a Nintendo game, so your list should hit five.

@chrisbg99

I call the first BoF a Capcom game, so feel free to use it!

@chrisbg99

You can reference the GBA re-release. It was published by Capcom.

@Mop it up There are tons of good non Squeenix RPGs! And a decent amount of them on Nintendo platforms. Just check out well... the other posts in this thread.

5
4
3
2
1

A lot of games mentioned from you people are ones I have yet to play... This was harder then I thought it would be.

S

Hmm. According to my NW ranks (strategy RPGs OUT):

1. Tales of Symphonia
2. Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
3. Breath of Fire II
4. Skies of Arcadia Legends
5. Tecmo Secret of the Stars?? (huhhhhh?)


Unless I missed something.. Ogre Battles got blocked along with Fire Emblems. Haven't finished Xenoblade or started Last Story. Yet to play Illusion of Gaia (saw it here, but isn't that Square, too?). Didn't count Puzzle Quest or Muramasa yet I consider both of them to be RPGs of sorts. Very challenging. EDIT- I should also note that I love the Paper Mario games and Mario RPG, but I don't technically own them (Nikki does; she wanted them, and we weren't going to buy two copies) so I never rated them at all. Hmm.

I loooove Tales of Symphonia.

Well, I think this is my list.
Stache, I also used my NW ratings to help guide my ranking!

5) Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
4) Xenoblade
3) Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
2) Pokemon White
1) Earthbound

--The Last Story was awesome but ranks a little bit below these others.
--Too bad I can't include The World Ends With You: it's quite a departure from Square's other games!
--Some of my close calls were Breath of Fire II, Skies of Arcadia Legends, Tales of Symphonia, and Baten Kaitos.
--I have yet to play Tales of the Abyss or Radiant Historia!
--There wasn't as much Lufia on everyone's list as I had expected (except for @Zero of course, and @TriforceBun's runner-up.

Mr_Mustache said:

5. Tecmo Secret of the Stars?? (huhhhhh?)

I barely even remember hearing about that game!

Mr_Mustache said:

Yet to play Illusion of Gaia (saw it here, but isn't that Square, too?).

Illusion of Gaia is an Enix game (Quintet), though I could see it being fair game since it was published by Nintendo outside of Japan. Hhmmm....

Not really a big RPG-er, but Pokemon, Paper Mario, Golden Sun in no particular order.