THE LIBRARY

Twenty games that made one console the home of the RPG: Final Fantasy VII to IX and Tactics, Xenogears, Chrono Cross, Vagrant Story, Parasite Eve, Valkyrie Profile, Suikoden, Persona, Grandia, and Lunar.

The Final Fantasy VII proposal that was too dark: Episode V of a six part saga, Perfect Works, 1.19 million copies, and no European release.

The budget cut legend, and director Tetsuya Takahashi's own account from 2017, labeled apart: a young team, a two year rule, and a choice.

Kato and Mitsuda return without the Dream Team: parallel worlds, 45 heroes, a perfect 10 from GameSpot, and the sequel argument that never ended.

A 94 on Metacritic against a fan argument about what a sequel owes: the critics judged the game, the fans judged the sequel.

Matsuno's one man dungeon: Famitsu's perfect 40, the Tactics team in full 3D, and the most admired Square game of its year, overshadowed by its own stablemates.

Square adapts Hideaki Sena's horror novel, builds its first M rated game with a mostly American team in Los Angeles, and invents the cinematic RPG.

Almost every word: the complete retranslation, Algus renamed Argath, two new jobs, Balthier and Luso, voiced cutscenes, and the slowdown that came with them.

Murayama and Kawano build Konami's 108 Stars RPG: Water Margin's outlaws, three kinds of battle, and the split verdict: America's RPG of the Year against Famitsu's series-low 26.

Two friends, two halves of one rune, and a limited Western print run: the 1999 record (Japan hit, EGM 7) and the canon lists that reversed it.

No reprint after a tepid Western start, a decade of best-ever lists, PSN in 2014: the dated stages of an afterlife, separated from the nostalgia.

The Saturn original in full: 344,554 Japanese copies, a cloth map limited edition, and import fame, then the 1999 PlayStation port that carried it West.

Sega of America said no, the petition failed, the European talks failed: how an acclaimed Saturn game reached the West only by changing machines.

The West's first Megami Tensei RPG: Jung, Twin Peaks, demon negotiation, and a 1996 edition that cut an entire second campaign, restored on PSP in 2009.

Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment as the pair they are: rumors that become real, one story from two viewpoints, and a first half the West waited twelve years for.

Not a ban: a documented debate, real content concerns, and the reason Atlus staff gave as the main one: the team was already localizing the sequel.

Sony's $16 million in-house answer to Final Fantasy: the Additions system, a Metacritic 74, over a million copies mostly in America, and a sequel cancelled in pre-production.

Ryu grows from lost child to adult across one game: masters, dragon genes, a fairy village, and the jazz soundtrack reviewers fought over.

Two leads, Private Actions, 86 endings: the first Star Ocean the West received sold 1.094 million and is still called the series' best.

A spaghetti-western RPG from a ten-person team: among the first 3D battle systems on PlayStation, and 1997's runner-up to Final Fantasy VII in award after award.

Talking swords and real-time 2D battles: over a million copies, a localization bet documented by its own producer, and the sequel naming trap, flagged.

The Silver Star rebuilt: 50 minutes of animation, a villain rewritten into sympathy, and Working Designs' $60 collector's box that sold out its entire run.

Mitsuda's 1998 Celtic arrangement of his own score: five vocal tracks, one sung in Gaelic, recorded with his band Millennial Fair.

A hundred hours, a 35 person team, the 64DD defection, 4.06 million Japanese copies, and the last Dragon Warrior.