The best of famous Japanese RPGs...

[Shinova]

The best famous Japanese console RPG (such as the FF series, Chrono Trigger/Cross, Secret of Mana etc, etc)in these categories:


- Best Characters and character development
- Best main character/protagonist
- Best main heroine
- Best villain
- Best gameplay
- Best story/plot
- Best setting
- Best art and design (not the best graphics, but the actual art and design itself)
- Best boss battle(s)
- Best music
- Best death of a major character
- Best/coolest weapons, artifacts, and spells


So, take your picks!



EDITED: I decided to change the OP slightly cause otherwise we're leaving out a lot of good material to choose from.

[Nephtys]

Edit Time! (added other stuff)

The best FF game in these categories:

- Best Characters and character development : FF8
- Best main character/protagonist : FF8 Laguna Loire!
- Best main heroine : FFX Lulu/Etna
- Best villain : FF6 Kefka
- Best gameplay : FFX-2
- Best story/plot : FF8
- Best setting : FF8/Front Mission
- Best art design and (not the best graphics, but the actual art and design itself) FFX-2/Disgaea
- Best boss battle(s) : FFX
- Best music: FF8
- Best death of a major character: FF... 7.... (Cait Sith's Death)
- Best/coolest weapons, artifacts, and spells: FFX (Mmmm, Aeons!)/Front Mission (Mmm, Wanzers!)

So, take your picks! You can use any Final Fantasy game.

[Mr Bean]

The best FF game in these categories:


- Best Characters and character development
Hmmm...

- Best main character/protagonist
Sir Auron, give it up for the dead guy.
- Best main heroine
Yuna played a good sad little confused girl in FFX
- Best villain
Big tall and scary with a giant Katana... Or the nut with the Laugh..... Yes Kefka!
- Best gameplay
FFX. I disliked FF X-2's garmet grid crap
- Best story/plot
FFVI aka FFIII Japan.... Bad guys win? Oh hell yes, At best it's a tie, good does not win and people die along the way.
- Best setting
FFVI Guns, Magictek and Giant Mechs? Yes please
- Best art design and (not the best graphics, but the actual art and design itself)
Dunno
- Best boss battle(s)
thinking.
- Best music
To many to list
- Best death of a major character
A givin. Die poor little flower girl die
- Best/coolest weapons, artifacts, and spells
U l t i m a. KA-NUKE! Or of course a certian Blackmage spell could be just as good.

[Dalton]

Out of those that I have played...

- Best Characters and character development

Final Fantasy 6

- Best main character/protagonist

Skies of Arcadia: Vyse

- Best main heroine

FF6: Terra

- Best villain

FF6: Kefka

- Best gameplay

Chrono Trigger

- Best story/plot

Chrono Trigger

- Best setting

Skies of Arcadia: Legends

- Best art and design (not the best graphics, but the actual art and design itself)

Chrono Trigger

- Best boss battle(s)

FF4: Zeromus

- Best music

Chrono Trigger

- Best death of a major character

Chrono Trigger: Crono

- Best/coolest weapons, artifacts, and spells

FF6: Espers

[Exonerate]

The best famous Japanese console RPG (such as the FF series, Chrono Trigger/Cross, Secret of Mana etc, etc)in these categories:


- Best Characters and character development: FF6
- Best main character/protagonist: FF9
- Best main heroine: FF6
- Best villain: Sephiroth. Kefka was great for poisoning the water, but I hate his laugh, and Sephiroth gets points for finishing Aeris personally.
- Best gameplay: Chrono Trigger
- Best story/plot: Tales of Phantasia
- Best setting: Tales of Phantasia
- Best art and design (not the best graphics, but the actual art and design itself): FF9
- Best boss battle(s): CT
- Best music: FF6
- Best death of a major character: FF7.
- Best/coolest weapons, artifacts, and spells: Tales of Phantasia


So, take your picks!



EDITED: I decided to change the OP slightly cause otherwise we're leaving out a lot of good material to choose from.

And Nephyts is clearly on crack for listing FF8 so many times.

[Mr Bean]

Note, Kefka gets points for the water?

Lets run down his lists of evil deeds

Kefka
Poisons the water supply of a castle killing prehaps a hundred people just missing Cyan.
Genocide aginst the Espers
Ordered several towns put to the torch.
Killed a legal head of state... acutaly killed several dozen of them.(Re:Emperor)
Murdered General Leo(You bastard!)
Nuked the entire FREKEN WORLD(And acutaly did it) to gain power. Countless thousands died and more would die from the aftereffects.

The key diffrence between Kefka and Sephiroth is that Kefka acutal did his evil deeds instead of being stopped in them(Minus one) his "become the planet" idea never panned out.

[Nephtys]

Note, Kefka gets points for the water?

Lets run down his lists of evil deeds

Kefka
Poisons the water supply of a castle killing prehaps a hundred people just missing Cyan.
Genocide aginst the Espers
Ordered several towns put to the torch.
Killed a legal head of state... acutaly killed several dozen of them.(Re:Emperor)
Murdered General Leo(You bastard!)
Nuked the entire FREKEN WORLD(And acutaly did it) to gain power. Countless thousands died and more would die from the aftereffects.

The key diffrence between Kefka and Sephiroth is that Kefka acutal did his evil deeds instead of being stopped in them(Minus one) his "become the planet" idea never panned out.

Kefka was also an evil maniac. Sephiroth was an angsty livejournaler with compensation issues.

And hey. I liked FF8.

[Darth Raptor]

Everyone who knows me also knows that I like every FF game ever made, almost equally. In fact, I usually lump the entire series into "one big game" in order to avoid playing favorites. There will be no such copout this day. Heroes, heroines and villains: There are a box of tissues on the table. Since there are far too many of you, feelings are bound to be hurt.

Best Characters and character development

I am afraid this must go to FFVIII. Many accuse this installment's cast of being whiny, angsty, bratty teenagers. But that's just it, they are! Every one of them is a ridiculously young boarding school mercenary. Despite all of their skills, they're still just kids. They seemed a little more human than the more epic heroes of other installments. Many condemned Irvine for not taking that shot, or Squall being such an apathetic robot. But guess what? They overcame those flaws.

Best main character/protagonist

Cecil Harvey, FFIV. What. A. Badass.

Best main heroine

Terra Branford, FFVI. Magic incarnate.

Best villain

This was the toughest choice. After much deliberation, I have to say Kuja. I am partial to magic users. For all of his early assholishness, he had very clear, very rational goals and objectives. Very understandable emotional reactions to certain... revelations and a very believable reformation. As for his wardrobe; get over it, people. Men can be pretty too.

Best gameplay

This goes to FFIX. This actually wasn't even close. Four characters, EXP-centric, static jobs. It's like they read my friggin' mind!

Best story/plot

I must say FFVII, although it took more than a little effort to understand. Actually, I still don't understand it.

Best setting

FFVII, again. Most interesting and indepth world by far. Perfect blending of magic and technology.

Best art and design

FFIX, again. This game is just beautiful.

Best boss battle(s)

FFX. The lack of ATB meant you weren't penalized when you had to just stare slack-jawed at how awesome it was.

Best music

Another almost impossible choice. I must reluctantly say FF: Crystal Chronicles- for no other reason than the entire soundtrack seemed in-universe. And I like Eastern bagpipes muchly.

Best death of a major character

Aeris, FFVII. Not her death, that was awesome. It was her funeral. I cried. I was also twelve. Give me a break.

Best/coolest weapons, artifacts, and spells

FFX. I am shallow and easily swayed by pretty graphics. Sue me.

[Arthur_Tuxedo]

- Best Characters and character development: FF4
- Best main character/protagonist: Cecil, FF4
- Best main heroine: Terra, FF6
- Best villain: Lavos, Chrono Trigger. Less is more, folks. No speaking lines + mysterious = win. Kefka was just too over-the-top for me, even at age 12.
- Best gameplay: Chrono Trigger. Nothing else even comes close for me.
- Best story/plot: Chrono Trigger.
- Best setting: Chrono Trigger.
- Best art and design (not the best graphics, but the actual art and design itself): FF7. I'm not a fan of the post-SNES FF games in general, but this game's art was just breath-taking.
- Best boss battle(s): Fight against Zeremus, FF4.
- Best music: FF4.
- Best death of a major character: Don't know about best, but the most memorable was the dragon, Secret of Mana. That just tore me up inside to kill my loyal friend.
- Best/coolest weapons, artifacts, and spells: No opinion, so I'll just say Chrono Trigger because it's the best Japanese RPG of all time.

[Manus Celer Dei]

- Best Characters and character development

FF8

- Best main character/protagonist

Squall, FF8

- Best main heroine

Yuna, FFX

- Best villain

Either Weigraf in FFT or Sephiroth in FF7

- Best gameplay

FFT

- Best story/plot

Ooooh, I dunno. Either FF8 or FFT.

- Best setting

FF8, definately.

- Best art and design (not the best graphics, but the actual art and design itself)

FFX. The detail was incredible.

- Best boss battle(s)

Safer Sephiroth in FFVII.

- Best music

Hmm. Dunno bout dat.

- Best death of a major character

Does Auron in FFX count?

- Best/coolest weapons, artifacts, and spells

FF8 or FFX.

[Civil War Man]

Haven't played many, but I'll contribute my limited experience.

- Best Characters and character development: FFVI
- Best main character/protagonist: Hiro, from Lunar 2. (And on that note, Ruby from Lunar 2 wins for most annoying character)
- Best main heroine: Terra, FFVI
- Best villain: Kefka, FFVI
- Best gameplay: Chrono Trigger, though FFV gets an honorable mention for having multiclassing
- Best story/plot: Chrono Trigger
- Best setting: Lunar 2
- Best art and design: Chrono Trigger
- Best boss battle(s): Final Lavos fight, hands down.
- Best music: FFVI wins out in the end. Barely edges out Chrono Trigger
- Best death of a major character: Shadow from FFVI. "I'm not running anymore."
- Best/coolest weapons, artifacts, and spells: Techniques in Chrono Trigger. I thought it was great that you could actually have multiple characters team up in a single attack.

[Ghost Rider]

- Best Characters and character development:

Final Fantasy 3/6

- Best main character/protagonist:

Auron. A actual character even though the rest were to me only sort of there.

- Best main heroine:

Celes...liked her more then Terra, and really from the list damn slim pickins.

- Best villain:

Kuja. He edges out Kefka, because as much as I love Kefka, his insanity became too much of crutch for him just to go "I kill people!!!"

- Best gameplay:

FF3/6

- Best story/plot:

FF3/6

- Best setting:

Skies of Arcadia. The whole in the air bit was damn imaginative.

- Best art and design (not the best graphics, but the actual art and design itself):

Lunar: Silver Star Story.

- Best boss battle(s):

Zophar or Borgan: Lunar Eternal Blue(not complete, where they pussified both of them because people are whiny ass bitches)

- Best music:

Chrono Trigger.

- Best death of a major character:

Tidus....though he got better, truly my only dislike of FFX-2 in many ways. So I'll say Auron.

- Best/coolest weapons, artifacts, and spell:

Weapon: FFX

Spells: FF3/6

[Anarchist Bunny]

- Best Characters and character development
Final Fantasy 6, Final Fantasy Perfection

- Best main character/protagonist
Sabin. All the powerful attacks of a mage, none of the mana drawbacks.

- Best main heroine
Terra, I guess. Mainly cause I can't think of another heroine that I didn't hate.

- Best villain
Kefka. Kefka! KEFKA!

- Best gameplay
I really like how the Job system was doen in FFV, better than the Tactics.

- Best story/plot
Final Fantasy 6, with Chrono Trigger close runner up.

- Best setting
Chrono Trigger.

- Best art and design (not the best graphics, but the actual art and design itself)
Final Fantasy 6 gets this one too, they did so with what they had to work with.

- Best boss battle(s)
Lufia 2, just because I love that they took the "boss your not powerful enough to beat yet" fight cliche, and made it so that it is possible to win(though more effort than its worth) and you get a powerful weapon out of it to boot.

Though credit is due to the final FF6 battle. 4 Bosses in succesion in the same battle window, with all of your characters being able to replace one of the active 4 if they fall in battle.

- Best music
Pass.

- Best death of a major character
Shadow, at the end of FF6. I'm still angry at that fucker for just giving up now that the world was saved. Take care of Realm you fucking deadbeat.

- Best/coolest weapons, artifacts, and spells
Final Fantasy V(iirc) for the multitude of abilities you get from the job system(ah Doom lv5, sure vanish/X-zone is more powerful, but atleast you're balanced), as well as the 12 optional high end weapons you can unlock one by one before moving on to the final segment of the game.

Oh and we can end all of this 2/4, 3/6 bullshit, their releasing(released in the cast of I, II and IV) all of the first six with their correct numbering.

[Vendetta]

- Best Characters and character development
Skies of Arcadia. Gets the cast list just right. Although the principals can see their usual stereotypes without a telescope, only Fina is really sitting in the middle of hers. The limited cast of extras makes sure that each of them, Gilder, Drachma, and Enrique all get a reasonable level of personal development, especially Drachma's extended riff on Captain Ahab.

- Best main character/protagonist
Vyse, Skies of Arcadia. Because he's the exact opposite of a whiny twat, his first instinct when people are captured is to break into the biggest, baddest fortress in the world and rescue them, and no puny sack of minions is going to stop him, dammit! (See FFX wedding-crashers). And he's a pirate. Also every single woman in the game, even the evil ones who are trying to kill him, wants to get into his pants. If Kirk were a pirate, he still wouldn't be as good as Vyse.

- Best main heroine
Millenia, Grandia II Millenia was fun, and naughty. And whilst she might have appeared to be evil at first, she became more endearing as her vulnerabilities opened up, and was in the end one of the best rounded characters in the game.

- Best villain
Fou-Lu, Breath of Fire IV. There are many pantomime villains in RPGs, especially in the FF games. The only acceptable reaction to Kefka's appearance is a rounsing chorus of boos and hisses. It's far more interesting to have a villain you can sympathise with. Someone with real ideals, who has seen them crushed by people who have twisted something he created out of all recognition. Fou-Lu was a poor doomed bastard from the moment he was summoned, destined never to be able to do all that the people wanted of him. And the final scene that breaks him and causes him to resolve to destroy all life and let the world start again is a real knife-twister. He's the best villain because we've seen all the things that make him what he is, and we've seen more ordinary evil perpetrated by the people he wants to exterminate. He is only a villain from a certain point of view. And the fact that the game lets you side with him and exterminate your party in the final battle if you so choose is great too.

- Best gameplay
Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. Because anything is preferable to yet another menu driven turn based "line up and take turns" battle system. Anything.

- Best story/plot
Breath of Fire III. A real exception among RPGs in that you do not, in fact, save the world. Nor does it appear to need saving. The final blow you strike is not for great justice, but for freedom and self determination against an overbearing god who really actually does care and want to make everyone happy, but chooses to do so by artificially limiting the population and keeping people ignorant of things they might use to hurt themselves.

- Best setting
Skies of Arcadia. Islands. In the sky. Flying sailing ships. Battleships. Pirates. Arrr!

- Best art and design (not the best graphics, but the actual art and design itself)
Wild Arms 3. It took until the third game, but Wild Arms' Fantasy Western setting really took off with this one. And there ain't enough decent westerns in computer game land, despite their obvious potential.

- Best boss battle(s)
Lavos, Crono Trigger. Because of the number of ways you could trigger it, and the fact that first time out it really is quite challenging. Also the constant scene shifts make it visually exciting, which the standard fight in space that these things tend to end with isn't. At all.

- Best music
Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete. Quite a hard category, but Lunar wins by sounding distinctive and characterful. Very few of its tunes feel like filler, which can be a terrible problem in a 50+ hour game.

- Best death of a major character
Aeris. Because she didn't make a scene about it, she didn't fuss, whine, or try and be badass, she just knew she had to get into the Lifestream to be able to release Holy, and she went and did it.

- Best/coolest weapons, artifacts, and spells
The Delphinius, Skies of Arcadia. It's a big silver flying sky battleship. And it's got a huge fucking gun on the front, the firing of which absolutely never gets old. You can also do Time-on-target firing with it's many conventional weapons, leaving enemies smoking and hurt.

You might be guessing this, but Skies of Arcadia is the overall winner. Go out and buy it today!.

[General Zod]

Hmm. . .may as well take a stab at it.

- Best Characters and character development - FF6, hands down

- Best main character/protagonist - Ramza, Final Fantasy Tactics. It's nice having a hero who isn't some angsty teenage emo bitch.

- Best main heroine - Aya Brea, from Parasite Eve.

- Best villain - Kefka takes it, though it was a toss up between him and Grahf from Xenogears.

- Best gameplay - Chrono Trigger had an excellent balance of gameplay mechanics.

- Best story/plot - Xenogears. It completely rocked and dared to tread on territory that most videogames wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole.

- Best setting - This one's a toughie. Though I'm going to have to give it to Chrono Trigger again, simply due to

- Best art and design (not the best graphics, but the actual art and design itself) - Chrono Cross. While not as good as a game as the original, it had some fantastic designs and artwork in it.

- Best boss battle(s) - Going up against Magus for the first time in Chrono Trigger, which was plain coolness.

- Best music - Another tough one, but I've got to give it to Chrono Cross. While the original had some fantastic music, this one took elements from the original and improved on the soundtrack ten fold.

- Best death of a major character - Aeris in FF7, since I can't really think of any others offhand.

- Best/coolest weapons, artifacts, and spells - Another tough one, but I've got to give it to FFIV. It simply had some of the more interesting and original spells in the series.

[Acidburns]

- Best Characters and character development

Skies of Arcadia, for reason as Vendetta stated

- Best main character/protagonist

Vyse, Skies of Arcadia mainly because he isn't the usual whiney crybaby

- Best main heroine

Yuna, FFX.

- Best villain

Melfice, Grandia 2. Pretty unknown character. His voice actor was pretty sweet too, gotta love the laugh.

- Best gameplay

Grandia 2. Loved the combat system, one of the few battle systems where I went outta my way to get into a fight. FFX's sphere grid rocks too.

- Best story/plot

Hmm..... gonna have to think about this one

- Best setting

Skies of Arcadia! Sky pirates forever!

- Best art and design

FFX

- Best boss battle(s)

Dunno. The ship battles in Skies of Arcadia well cool

- Best music

Way to hard to pick. Final Fantasy has been consistantly good however.

- Best death of a major character

Maybe it's not technically a death, but Tidus from FFX

- Best/coolest weapons, artifacts, and spells

Again, Skies of Arcadia was had plenty of cool skyships. Also, the elemental thing going on with the weapons was great. Best spells maybe goes to Grandia 2 because of the different areas of effect they had. Of course finally fantasy has is various styles of summoning. Xenogears had it's mechs and sand going submarine!

[Joe]

Best Characters and character development

FF6, for ecleticism and strong interplay.

Best main character/protagonist

Cloud. Why he gets the rep as being so angsty baffles me; it's clear that the angst was just a layer of his character, not who he actually was. It was effectively gone by the end of the game. He's somewhat cold and detached, but he cares about his friends and he has a sincere desire to help people.

Best main heroine

Terra from FFVI - one of the few who isn't just a generic male hero with tits. Always struck me as being believable. I'd go so far as to say she should have been the true main character of the game.

Best villain

I want to give it to Kefka, but I'm going to make an odd choice; Luc, from Suikoden III. His arc is probably the most interesting because it ties directly into the first two games of the series. He was the ally of the main character in both games, and he saw both the leaders of both the Liberation Army and Dunan make decisions that sacrificed the lives of thousands of people - for the perceived greater good. Having had these experiences, he takes this reasoning to its logical extreme in Suikoden III when he appears as the primary villain, and really he's not wrong; in the long run, the very long run, his actions would undoubtedly save millions of lives and free humanity from the yoke of a tyrannical pantheon. But that's just one aspect of his character; does he really believe in any of what he's doing at all? Does he care? Or is he just trying to perform the most grandiose suicide in the world? Does he even expect to succeed? You never really get a clear answer, and that's what makes him such a great villain, and one that is usually glossed over.


Best gameplay

FFX-2. Beneath the really gay-looking dresspheres lies the best, most streamlined, and most fun utilization of the fantastic job system yet, and the fast-paced combat system proves that turn-based combat still can evolve while retaining the control and strategy traditionally associated with it.

Best story/plot

Suikoden II. One of the few RPGs to really break out of the black-and-white "save the world" mold, and the player is left with the distinct impression that victory for Dunan might not necessarily be any better than a Highland victory. Somewhat marred by mute main character syndrome, unfortunately.

Best setting

FFIX. Not my favorite game of the series but it's hard to not be sucked in by the world.

Best art and design (not the best graphics, but the actual art and design itself)

FFVII absolutely was on the bleeding edge of design when it came out. The backgrounds still look fantastic, and if there ever was a game to be remade with modern graphics it's this one.

Best boss battle(s)

FFX. Pretty to look at and often highly strategic.

Best music

Chrono Trigger, every tune is worth whistling!

Best death of a major character

Aerith.

Best/coolest weapons, artifacts, and spells

FFX.

[Vendetta]

FFX-2. Beneath the really gay-looking dresspheres lies the best, most streamlined, and most fun utilization of the fantastic job system yet, and the fast-paced combat system proves that turn-based combat still can evolve while retaining the control and strategy traditionally associated with it..

I kinda liked FFX-2's implementation of the job system, but I think it was hampered by having too much redundancy and too many guff classes. The White and Black mage DSPs, for instance, are nearly useless. The Black Mage never does enough damage to be worth spending MP on their moves, and the White Mage is outclassed as a healer by the Alchemist.

The Black Mage thing is a problem with all Japanese RPGs with the single exception of possibly Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter. Magic attacks, even if they do the same damage as a standard attack of another character, are inherently less valuable because they have a cost associated which the other class does not have.

Unless magic is significantly more powerful than a standard attack (as it was for much of FFIV), has a special effect (affecting all enemies usually in FF), or it's cost is removed (Economiser, etc), there is little incentive to use it beyond the shininess of the animation.

(Dragon Quarter uses an AP system very much like the old X-Com games, magic attacks and standard attacks all have exactly the same AP cost, as a representation of the time/effort to use them).

Edit: Also, yes. FFX-2 generally is so camp that it begins to resemble an explosion in a tent factory. It is, however, fun in all the ways that FFX was not. And Yuna has bigger balls than Tidus.

[McNum]

Sounds kind of fun. I'll take a shot at this.

Here be spoilers!

- Best Characters and character development
Tales of Symphonia.
The cast is well balanced, both skill-wise and personality wise, and some of these characters go through some pretty drastic changes during the game. Kratos in particular with Zelos as a close runner up.

- Best main character/protagonist
Vyse - Skies of Arcadia
Vyse is an odd one. I can't put my finger on what exactly it is that makes him good, but I find him to be... charming, I guess. Bold and reckless when he needs to, but he still has time to be nice to his friends and crew. And there's something to be said about his relentless optimism. He is such a refreshing main character after playing three Final Fantasies.

- Best main heroine
Yuna - Final Fanatsy X-2
Ok, I'll admit it. I never finished the game. The new Yuna has a lot of the same qualities as Vyse does. She's a lot more cheerful than the FFX Yuna, which is understandable considering the events of FFX. She has courage and a determination to find out just what that sphere of "him" is actually about and no revolutions, wars, or giant robots are going to try and stop her.

- Best villain
Seymour - Final Fantasy X
While not the main villain, I'm including Seymour, anyway. While overall there's nothing new about the type of villain he is, it's the execution of it that makes him good. Yes, he is the sleezy villain bent on world domination and/or destruction. Adding to his character is that he doesn't stay down. It was disappointing to have to kill him early in the game... until I realized that he might be dead, but he's not done yet. And finally he had some of the cooler boss fights along the way. Especially the Seymour Flux battle.

- Best gameplay
Tales of Symphonia
This barely edges out Final Fantasy X, but the line battle system with the party members on AI is surprisingly good. While playing as only one character out of four in battle sounds strange, the AI for the other party members is pretty good. Antoher bonus is that magic is not useless in ToS. The mages have some seriously potent spells later in the game such as Indignation, Revitalize, Meteor Storm and Judgement. ToS can also be played as a four player multiplayer where each player controls a partymember.

- Best story/plot
Final Fantasy 6
Although a lot of the newer RPGs have decent stories, this one had a very surprising plot twist. "And then the world was destroyed". Add memorable scenes like a certain opera, a suicide attempt, the Phoenix sidequest, and some of Kefka's memorable lines and we have a clear winner.

- Best setting
Skies of Arcadia
I'm gonna echo the sentiments in this thread. Air Pirates, flying islands, ancient doomsday devices, and battleships. You name it, Skies of Arcadia has it.

- Best art and design (not the best graphics, but the actual art and design itself)
Final Fantasy 8
Balamb Garden in itself is beautiful, and the design around the world is pretty good, too. That and the Gunblade.

- Best boss battle(s)
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy X's battle system really lent itself to highly tactical battles, which spawned some great boss fights. Highlights include timing a full Aeon Overdrive strike against Seymour Flux so he wouldn't use Total Annihiltion, fighting Yunalesca with Zombie status on to avoid Mega-Death, the battle on the airship against the serpent, and the battle against "Overdrive Sin" on the arship where you have 13 turns to kill the boss or you die.

- Best music
Final Fantasy VII
Yeah... I'm a sucker for "One Winged Angel" and "Still More Fighting".

- Best death of a major character
I have two half deaths for this one.

Crono - Chrono Trigger
Crono going up against Lavos and getting vaporized. Didn't see that one coming. Of course, through the magic of time travel he never really died... if you choose that ending.

Sora - Kingdom Hearts
Surprised to see this one? So was I when I saw Sora stab himself in the chest with the dark Keyblade! I'm not sure if becoming a Heartless counts as dying, though. That and he got better, in Kairi's arms no less. Did he make a full recovery? I'm not sure, I'm waiting for KH2 for that.

- Best/coolest weapons, artifacts, and spells
Weapon:
The Keyblade, Kingdom Key - Kingdom Hearts
I know it's silly. It's a giant key, and it's not even sharp. Somehow it's still a pretty good weapon and it makes sense in the Kingdom Hearts universe.

Artifact:
The Delphinus - Skies of Arcadia.
Three words: "Moonstone cannon, FIRE!" That never gets old.

Spell:
Indignation - Tales of Symphonia
"I call upon thee in the land of the dead to unleash thy fury of thunder. Indignation!" - Genis
And then a giant sword shaped lightning strikes the enemy and a big explosion follows. The best part? It has a secret upgrade called Indignation Judgement which is even more powerful! Good spell, and Genis has a way with words.

[Gaidin]

- Best Characters and character development
Chrono Cross: Serge, Kid/Schala clone, Lynx, and the Time Devourer/Lavos(merged with Schala)
- Best main character/protagonist
Chrono Trigger: Chrono - sure, there's Tidus or Squall, but they don't beat our friend 'Silent and gullible'
- Best main heroine
Celes: Disenchanted general turned rebel...always a cool life.
- Best villain
Kefka: One of the few SNES bad guys with a laugh, and he actually did shit to.
- Best gameplay
Chrono Trigger: Dual and Triple techs rock. CC had these, but they fucked up the magic arrangement system.
- Best story/plot
Chrono Trigger/Chrono Cross: When I sat down and read the timeline after playing the game, it was a mindfuck. In a good way.
- Best setting
Final Fantasy VI: World of Ruin.
- Best art and design (not the best graphics, but the actual art and design itself)
Chrono Trigger: The same world across millenia, with changes that made sense.
- Best boss battle(s)
Fighting the Time Devourer at the end of Chrono Cross
- Best music
Chrono Trigger: Main Theme, Robo Gang Johnny, Magus, Corridors of Time, and the list goes on.
- Best death of a major character
Chrono Cross: Lynx - Instead of a "we're fucked" feeling...you get a "we fucked up" feeling.
- Best/coolest weapons, artifacts, and spells
Chrono Cross: I'm learning guitar...how can I not go with Niki and the fact that he breaks his guitar over people's heads

[Trogdor]

- Best Characters and character development: Chrono Trigger, no question. There was a very colorful cast of characters who were all fleshed out pretty well (well, except Crono, I guess). The back stories for Frog and Magus were just plain fantastic.

- Best main character/protagonist: This one's a bit tougher. Certainly there was nothing to complain about with Crono, and he practically embodied the old saying that actions speak louder than words (he never said a thing, but it was obvious how devoted he was to his friends like when he died to save them from Lavos). FF3/6 had some great protagonists, too. Edgar was just pimp, and Locke was just badass. Cloud gets honorable mention for starting the main quest for revenge. He gives a damn, but for easy to believe reasons, unlike Squall and Zidane.

- Best main heroine: FF3/6's Terra, hands down.

- Best villain: Everybody's saying Kefka here, and I find myself having to agree. Magus is close second, though. It's perfectly understandable that he's so evil and messed up, but hard though he's had it, he doesn't angst that much. After his plans to kill Lavos fail (miserably) and he confronts Frog, he doesn't bitch, he just tells his old nemesis that it's time to finish their feud.

- Best gameplay: CT, followed by FF6/3 and FF7. Little or no level grind, and nice and simple. No complex junctioning, item synthing, or any of the other craziness that came later.

- Best story/plot: Again, CT. Not nearly as complex and convoluted as some other RPGs I could name, it had a very engaging story that made you really care about the characters with numerous endings. FF3/6 comes in a close second, due to its tragic ending and relatively simple and coherent plot (compared to most other FF games).

- Best setting: If Kingdom Hearts counts, I'd say that one. There were a few annoying worlds *cough*Atlantis*cough* but overall the game was truly excellent in this regard. If it doesn't, I'll go with FF2/4. It had a nice, old school feeling to it (probably because it was old school ). I'd say CT again, but with the exception of the Zeal Kingdom, the settings weren't really very original.


- Best art and design (not the best graphics, but the actual art and design itself): I don't really view design art very much...I'd say CT again out of loyalty, but I know that the guy who did the art for it was the same guy who does the art for Dragon Ball and he's not that great...

- Best boss battle(s): CT again. Both fights with Magus were quite intense and when you're supposed to be totally overwhelmed by Lavos, you actually are (in the first play through, anyway). Honorable mentions to FF2/4 for Cecil fighting himself and FF9 for the Black Waltz No. 3.

- Best music: CT's victory music is very catchy (cha da da da da da da da da da...) and so is CC's by extension, I guess. But overall, I'd give it to FF7. The music always seemed to fit the mood, the battle music was good, and Sephiroth's music at the end screamed "Epic battle!" in ways that only a few other pieces of music I know of can.

- Best death of a major character: CT once again. Crono. The death of General Leo in FF3/6 was also very good.

- Best/coolest weapons, artifacts, and spells: Ultima, magic spell of DOOM! from FF3/6. Knights of the Round from FF7. The Masamune (but NOT the Mastermune) and the Rainbow sword from CT.

Edit: fixed small error.

[Joe]

I kinda liked FFX-2's implementation of the job system, but I think it was hampered by having too much redundancy and too many guff classes. The White and Black mage DSPs, for instance, are nearly useless. The Black Mage never does enough damage to be worth spending MP on their moves, and the White Mage is outclassed as a healer by the Alchemist.

Redundancy? I'm not sure I agree with that...some classes were a lot less useful than others, but as far as I recall each dresssphere had its own unique set of abilities that you could only get from that particular dresssphere. The White Mage dresssphere did indeed get increasingly less useful as the game progressed, but I still specifically remember having a few effective party combinations that simply would not have worked without a white mage. There's also the fact that the White Mage does not need to use rare items to cast the most powerful healing spells, which is an advantage for players like myself who are very stingy with item consumption. As for guff classes, well yeah, but X-2 is hardly unique in that regard amongst FFs that use the job system (Geomancer, anyone?).

Edit: Also, yes. FFX-2 generally is so camp that it begins to resemble an explosion in a tent factory. It is, however, fun in all the ways that FFX was not. And Yuna has bigger balls than Tidus.

I liked the camp. Very tongue-in-cheek for a genre that has a tendency to take itself far too seriously. X-2 and Shadow Hearts were a breath of fresh air in that regard.

[Cyborg Stan]

- Best Characters and character development
- Best main character/protagonist
- Best main heroine
- Best villain

Can't think of anything much unique here at the moment.

- Best gameplay

Grandia II. It's not just line up and fight. And while the battles weren't hard, you actually had to think in order to get the best outcome. Having a good sense of timing and positioning helps.

Other mentions :

Romancing Saga 3 - It's not like Chrono Trigger is the only one with multi-techs. Not only multi-techs, but different formations and techniques which are sponatenously learned in battle. There's an actual sense of accomplishment on getting the better techs, since you actually have to put the party in danger in order to get them.

Treasure of the Rudras - Pretty conventional, although the Mantra system kicks major amounts of ass. If I was designing a magic system for a game it would something like that. (On another note, TotR also had one of my most hated characters ever. Or perhaps two.)

FF5 - Yay job system.

- Best story/plot

Dunno. Probably Xenogears. Although Disc 2... ack. Still, Disc 1...

- Best setting

Out of the ones I can think of, FF7.

- Best art and design (not the best graphics, but the actual art and design itself)
- Best boss battle(s)

Hmmmm.....

Lufia 2 gets a mention for it's Sinistral Fight Theme.
Seiken Densetsu 3 gets a mention for the fact there were actually a good number of boss themes.
Romancing Saga 3 is notable for it's Abyss Gate Guardian Themes.
Seiken Densetsu 3 gets a mention for a final boss theme that ISN'T operatic.

- Best music

Far, far too many to list.

- Best death of a major character

Maxim and Selan at the end of Lufia 2. Convincing Iris to help him and expending his spirit to steer the floating island away to save an entire city and his child.

- Best/coolest weapons, artifacts, and spells

Weapons

Masamune from Chrono Trigger. It's links to Frog, Glenn, the Brothers, etc etc. It actually had a history, unlike the Rainbow Sword.
Ragnarok from FF6. Not too notable, but the fact it was forged was sorta cool. Wondering why the hell there's an even more powerful sword that's randomly in the Arena though.
Squall's Gunblade from FF8. While perhaps not as (in)famous as Cloud's Buster Sword, it had a certain kind of class and an entirely different kind of impracticality to it. (The Buster Sword just seems frightening generic after seeing alot of other designs.)
Excalibur from FF4. Forged from Legend and some Mirthil, which sorta goes in with the theme. Like my FF6 complaint, why the heck do you find an even better Crystal on the Moon?

Spells

Meteo from FF4. Tellah died to be able to use this spell. Also, Ultima from FF2, for similar reasons.
Merton(sp?) from FF6. Why the hell are most of these uberspells things that somehow never hit your own party? At least with this spell we can understand the risk the Emperor was taking when he was trying to counterattack Kefka.
Shadow Servant from Romancing Saga 3 - Rather vurnerable, but it automatically doubles any attack or spell used. Which actually helps in really tough battles, as your characters don't seem drastically overpowered at the end.
Dragon God Descent also from RS3 - Cool name, and cool effect. More or less invurnability AND infinite MP/TP. Cost? Every hit - even a little one drains away your life points, and you can die permentantly from overusing this.
Bolt X (Breath of Fire 2) - Ouch.

Techniques

Continuing Shot from Romancing Saga 3. There's just something amusing about seeing a character pull out a bow and fire a stream of arrows
Great Wheel from RS3 - A spear tech that hits all enemies? It's just very amusing looking to see the enemies bounce across the screen while this is in use. Come to think of it, most of the high-level techniques were fun to see.
Omnislash - This is actually fun to see... a few times. Although it does make sense at the very end of FF7. (Cloud needs to get some agression out...)
Chop (Breath of Fire 2) - Bloody amusing to see something that actually chops the actual background in half as well. Makes up for Jean's eariler suckiness.
Jump (notably in FF4) - Fear the spear.

Big Giant Robot

Whatever the hell Fei's Gear was called in Xenogears, and it's Id form. I didn't like the look of the later forms so much. I also liked the look of Heimdal, but not Fenris.

[SylasGaunt]

- Best Characters and character development
Super Robot Wars @3. The grand culmination of the Alpha series, many of the old favorites are back and you've got the likes of Touma and Zengar present.

- Best main character/protagonist
Touma. The steep climb of his badassery throughout the game is well.. bitchin'. And nothing says rocking like trashing 100 enemy machines all on your lonesome.

- Best main heroine
Flon from Disgaea. Even if she does feel like she should be sending me into diabetic shock.

- Best villain
Kefka.. the laugh, the laugh!

- Best gameplay
Shadow Hearts- Because i love that fucking ring system.

- Best story/plot
Super Robot Wars @3. It's so.. damn.. epic!

- Best setting
Disgaea: Hour of Darkness- Almost the whole thing takes place in hell.. a hell that has little undead penguins in it.. and power rangers knockoffs.

- Best art and design (not the best graphics, but the actual art and design itself)

- Best boss battle(s)
The final battle with Kaiser Efes (I just know I spelled that wrong) in SRW: Alpha 3. Dead heroes and villains lend their support,

- Best music
Baran Doban's theme music from Alpha 3.. god I love that song.

- Best death of a major character

- Best/coolest weapons, artifacts, and spells

A tie between SRW:Alpha 3 and Disgaea- Alpha 3 has some of my favorite mecha attacks of all time (both old favorites like the Gunbuster's Super Inazuma Kick and Shin Getter's Stoner Sunshine and new ones like the Doban Impact and Dairaioh's Jinrai attack). Disgaea's got some great ones though like the Dimension Slash or Laharl's Meteor Impact (hey nothing says awesome like the hero riding a meteor down onto the enemy while laughing maniacally).

[Erik von Nein]

- Best Characters and character development

Ah, well, I always liked the characters from Tactics Ogre: LUCT. Especially the unfortunantly named Aloser, since she was death incarnate with a bow.

Though, for this I'd think I'd have to go with Skies of Arcadia. While quite a few of the characters may be clichè or such, they were fun and engaging and weren't prone to fits of angst or needless drama. Drachma was an excellent pirate/captain Ahab, Vyse was a leader who, even when seperated from his friends, was usually desicive and not apt to curl up into the fetal position and cry. The bad guys were fun or funny, and some even had good reasons for supporting their kingdom, even if it was a bad idea.

- Best main character/protagonist

Toughie. I usually don't end up liking the main as much as the other characters, and they tend to slip under my notice or blur together with the others. Quite a few good ones have been mentioned so far, so I'll go with someone different but who I still really like; Darc from Twilight of the Spirits.

Sure, most of the human characters in that game were fuggin' annoying or just plain idiotic, but the Deimos characters were, by and large, interesting or funny and Darc ended up being a far more believable and sympathetic character than his human counterpart ever even hoped to become.

- Best main heroine

Aya Brea in Parasite Eve. While she had some stumbling blocks she was still a New York cop, damnit.

While not a main heroine I love Sierra from Suikoden 2 to death. Who couldn't love a 1,000s of years old vampire woman who acts like a flirty teenager to get her way with easily fluster men? Besides, she's hot!

- Best villain

I'd say Fou Lou, but I have my doubts as to if he was really the villian, or, at least, the main villian. He started out as something of a hero (well, protaganist) and, after discovering the cruelities of the world he came into, decided on a different course of action than Ryu (well, sort of, depending on your last choice). Since he had the power to do so, he believed destroying the world he was in and starting again was a better idea than trying to make the current one right. He was really a victum of his circumstances. Maybe if he had the same support Ryu had with friends he could have turned out more like Ryu. Then, again, maybe not. But this is why I like Fou Lou so much.

Okay, I'm going with Fou Lou.

- Best gameplay

Much as I despised the story, Final Fantasy X-2 had some of the best gameplay of any of that series had. It was fast, frenetic and also had a fair bit of strategy involved. It had a version of the class systems from FF Tactics and 5 that I really liked. The quick gameplay forced me to keep on my feet, etc. etc.

- Best story/plot

Parasite Eve's story was always fun, and the best part is, it taught me things about biology that later helped me out a couple times in a few biology classes. It taking place in the real world (well, minus all the freaky, magic-esque stuff that takes place) in New York is just a big bonus to an already great story.

- Best setting

Skies of Arcadia had a really great setting, most because of the ship designs and the whole living-on-a-gas-giant world that the game took place on.

- Best art and design (not the best graphics, but the actual art and design itself)

I liked the art design of Suikoden 2. The sprite models for all the 108 recruits, the character portraits and the various full character drawings are all really great.

- Best boss battle(s)

Hehe. Suikoden 2. When you finally get to confront Luca Blight and your arches surprise-attack his group and promptly kill all his escorts, his horse and pump a few arrows into him. Then three groups of your best fighters take him on, one group at a time. Still he keeps on going. After again getting pumped full of arrows he challanges your main character to a one-on-one duel where he still has half a life bar. Once you deliver the much-deserved smackdown he starts lecturing you a bit before finally biting the dust.

Then there's the final battle against Neclord. While not exactly on the challanging side it was a nice (and halarious) end for Viktor's revenge story. Oh, and Viktor's taunting of Neclord to distract him was just plain awesome.

- Best music

Parasite Eve. Any game which compells me to buy the soundtrack, find the sheet music to the opening song so my sister who plays the piano can play it has to have some of the best music in a game.

- Best death of a major character

Galuf's death from FF4 is badass merely for the fact that he kept on fighting even after he had zero HP left. Who else can lay claim to that?

- Best/coolest weapons, artifacts, and spells

Some of the best weapons ever were the weapons you'd find in both Suikoden and Suikoden 2. Woks, gardening tools, books, darts, etc. Hell, you name it, it was probably a weapon in the Suikoden series. I always thought it was cool that the main character from 2 weilded tanfas instead of the stereotypical sword. Unfortunantly, they changed the uniqueness of the main's weapons for 3 and 4. Swords, swords and more swords.

I always liked Barrets weapons from Final Fantasy 7. You've got the Atomic Scissors, the Cannonball, the Rocket Punch, mini-gun o' doom, etc. Plus his limits rocked. Sattalite Beam? Who else can call in a giant, space-based laser to open up a can of kick-ass on his enemies?

Parasite Eve's MP5 look-alike was totally awesome, especially if you poured all your bonus points, attack modifiers and paramaters from other weapons into the best one you could find. Then it became an (albiet some-what short ranged) impliment of speedy death. The rate of fire on that thing was insanity. When I had the atributes which made it put out fifteen rounds per turn I'd sit back and enjoy the shooty death, especially when it was combined with the 3 actions per round atribute. Suck it, Eve!

I though the Bahamut ZERO summon from FF7 was just kick-ass. Sure, KOTR was better for damage, but it was boring and took forever. Bahamut ZERO, though, was a giant, space-bourne dragon who shot a massive blast of hot death down upon your enemies. Plus ZERO's design was pretty spiffy.

The Chicken ability of Beowolf's from FF Tactics was always horribly amusing. Think you're the baddest thing on the block? How about if I reduce your Brave to zero? BWA, HAHAHA! Dance, chciken-boy, dance!