The PlayStation RPG Gallery
Twenty games that made one console the home of the RPG.
From 1995 to 2000 the PlayStation ran the deepest RPG bench ever assembled on one machine, and one publisher supplied most of it. This shelf leads with Square's bench: two Final Fantasy sequels and a tactics detour, Xenogears, Chrono Cross, Vagrant Story, and Parasite Eve, beside the era's landmark, Final Fantasy VII, and a cross-door to Valkyrie Profile's own archive. Behind them stands the rest of the era: Suikoden, Persona, Grandia, Lunar, and the games other studios built while Square owned the spotlight.
Where a cover is verified, it stands here. Where it is not, the tile says so, and gives you the verified record instead: a product code, a sales figure, a date. That honesty is the exhibit. Every section doors to the game's history; three of them door to the questions this Library was asked most about this era.
FINAL FANTASY VII
Square · PlayStation 1997 · the era's landmark
FINAL FANTASY VIII
Square · PlayStation 1999 · Kitase
America · 1999
Squall, Rinoa, and Seifer under Edea's gaze. The four dots along the bottom are the four discs. File is small and renders soft, labeled as such.
Japan · 1999 · Cover gap
The Japanese box is not yet verified to this Library's standard, so it is not pictured rather than pictured wrong. What is verified: 2.21 million copies sold in Japan on day one.
FINAL FANTASY IX
Square · PlayStation 2000 · Sakaguchi and Ito
America · 2000
Garnet, Vivi, Steiner, Zidane, and Amarant: the ensemble as the selling point. File is small and renders soft, labeled as such.
Japan · 2000 · Cover gap
The Japanese box is not yet verified to this Library's standard. The verified Japanese record: 2.65 million copies by the end of 2000, the year's second best seller at home.
FINAL FANTASY TACTICS
Square · PlayStation 1997 · Matsuno
America · 1998
Yoshida's party under the arch, with Sony and Squaresoft sharing the corner: Sony published this one in America. Manual code SCUS-94221.
Japan · 1997 · Cover gap
The Japanese box is not yet verified to this Library's standard. Verified instead: over a million copies in Japan in 1997, for a strategy game.
XENOGEARS
Square · PlayStation 1998 · Takahashi
America · 1998
Fei and Elly in front of a Gear and the red X. Kunihiko Tanaka's characters sold a game about Jung and scripture.
Japan · 1998 · No Europe
Xenogears never received a European release in its era, a gap in the era's map this shelf states plainly. The Japanese box is not yet verified to this Library's standard.
The History
The Final Fantasy VII proposal that was too dark, Episode V of six, Perfect Works, and Monolith Soft.
The Question
Why does the second disc tell instead of play? The director's own account, and the legend, labeled apart.
The Music
What is Xenogears: Creid? Mitsuda's Celtic rearrangement of his own score, five tracks sung, the title track in Gaelic.
CHRONO CROSS
Square · PlayStation 1999 · Kato and Mitsuda
America · 2000
Serge and Kid, Lynx looming, the two disc badge in the corner. Yuki's designs, not Toriyama's, and that was the argument in one image.
Japan · 1999 · Cover gap
The Japanese box is not yet verified to this Library's standard. Verified: Japan first, November 18, 1999, and a GameSpot perfect 10 waiting in America.
VAGRANT STORY
Square · PlayStation 2000 · Matsuno
America · 2000
Yoshida's painting of Ashley and Callo. The badge in the corner reads 2 discs: the game, and a Square sampler with a Chrono Cross video on it.
Japan · 2000 · The 496 page book
Japan's companion was the Vagrant Story Ultimania, 496 pages, April 2000, ISBN 4-925075-75-6. The Japanese box is not yet verified to this Library's standard.
PARASITE EVE
Square · PlayStation 1998 · Sakaguchi and TokitaThe cinematic RPG
Square's first M rated game and its first adaptation: a sequel to Hideaki Sena's 1995 horror novel, moved from Tokyo to New York on Sakaguchi's suggestion.
Cover gap, named
Neither regional box is verified to this Library's standard yet, so no image stands here. The identifiers stand instead: SLPS-01230 and 01231 in Japan, SLUS-00662 and 00668 in America, two discs each.
VALKYRIE PROFILE
tri-Ace and Enix · PlayStation 1999 · the cross-door
SUIKODEN
Konami · PlayStation 1995 · MurayamaThe game
108 Stars of Destiny gathered under one banner, from a creator, Yoshitaka Murayama, who built the series on the Chinese classic Water Margin.
Covers · Gap named
Regional covers for this title are not yet verified to this Library's standard, so this section doors to the history rather than picture an unverified box.
SUIKODEN II
Konami · PlayStation 1998 · MurayamaThe game
The sequel the retrospective canon keeps climbing: regularly placed among the greatest RPGs ever made, on a print run the West felt for years.
Covers · Gap named
Regional covers for this title are not yet verified to this Library's standard, so this section doors to the history rather than picture an unverified box.
GRANDIA
Game Arts · Saturn 1997 · PlayStation 1999The game
Born on Saturn in Japan, carried to PlayStation for the West: an adventure story told at a run, with a battle system built on interrupting the enemy.
Covers · Gap named
Regional covers for this title are not yet verified to this Library's standard, so this section doors to the history rather than picture an unverified box.
PERSONA
Atlus · PlayStation 1996 · Revelations: PersonaThe game
The first Persona, sold in America as Revelations: Persona: high schoolers, demons, and a Jungian underworld, years before the series became a phenomenon.
Covers · Gap named
Regional covers for this title are not yet verified to this Library's standard, so this section doors to the history rather than picture an unverified box.
PERSONA 2
Atlus · PlayStation 1999 to 2000 · a duology split by the PacificThe game
Two games, Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment. America received only the second on PlayStation; the first waited until the PSP era to cross officially.
Covers · Gap named
Regional covers for this title are not yet verified to this Library's standard, so this section doors to the history rather than picture an unverified box.
THE LEGEND OF DRAGOON
Sony · PlayStation 1999 · four discsThe game
Sony's own answer to Final Fantasy: four discs, a huge budget, and a 74 on Metacritic that its cult following has spent twenty five years arguing with.
Covers · Gap named
Regional covers for this title are not yet verified to this Library's standard, so this section doors to the history rather than picture an unverified box.
BREATH OF FIRE III
Capcom · PlayStation 1997The game
Ryu grows up on screen, child to adult, in Capcom's dragon series at its most confident: fishing, fairies, and a gene system for building dragons.
Covers · Gap named
Regional covers for this title are not yet verified to this Library's standard, so this section doors to the history rather than picture an unverified box.
STAR OCEAN: THE SECOND STORY
tri-Ace and Enix · PlayStation 1998The game
Two protagonists, a farm boy from space and a girl from a fantasy world, and one story told from either side: private actions, item creation, and eighty endings.
Covers · Gap named
Regional covers for this title are not yet verified to this Library's standard, so this section doors to the history rather than picture an unverified box.
WILD ARMS
Media.Vision and Sony · PlayStation 1996The game
The western RPG, literally: a fantasy frontier of revolvers and ruins, out in Japan before Final Fantasy VII and in America a month after it.
Covers · Gap named
Regional covers for this title are not yet verified to this Library's standard, so this section doors to the history rather than picture an unverified box.
TALES OF DESTINY
Namco · PlayStation 1997The game
Stahn and his talking sword Dymlos: the Tales series' second entry and its first in America, action battles on a side scrolling line.
Covers · Gap named
Regional covers for this title are not yet verified to this Library's standard, so this section doors to the history rather than picture an unverified box.
LUNAR: SILVER STAR STORY COMPLETE
Game Arts and Working Designs · PlayStation 1998The game
The Sega CD classic rebuilt for PlayStation, and in America a Working Designs deluxe package: cloth map, soundtrack, and a making of disc in the box.
Covers · Gap named
Regional covers for this title are not yet verified to this Library's standard, so this section doors to the history rather than picture an unverified box.