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Just curious what others think the best RPG ever is...or even what spawned their interest for that genre of gaming. My choice is...
Game: Alternate Reality: The City (PC) (if you count Atari 120XE as a PC)
Released: 1984 (?)
Premise: You are abducted from Earth by aliens and placed in an alien city on another planet. The aliens want to watch how humans interact. (Sound familiar? Ever watched the movie Dark City?)
Pros: AR is a rewarding game that implemented many realistic features unseen in other games for its time. AR has both good and evil (faction based) encounters, a 24-hour day with Inns, Taverns, Smiths, Banks, etc having opened and closed hours, weather, need to wear appropriate clothing or suffer from weather effects, need to sleep, eat, and drink water (you could also get drunk,) and contractable diseases! Your characters were transferable from The City to The Dungeon (the second game in the series.) The music in the Taverns was actually quite impressive with catchy, memorable lyrics (on screen.)
Cons: Extremely difficult. You could die within 5 seconds of starting a character. To make things worse, when you died, your character was erased from the 5.25 floppy he or she was saved on. Getting cash in the game was a chore to start. Damn those prices at the Smithy! The series ended after the second game unfortunately, leaving the additional five games of the series to never see daylight.
The re-make (kind of) for the Atari ST was not as good, but had better graphics and small additions like the ability to work at Taverns for cash. A new version of this game (AR Online or something like that) was in the works back in 1999 I believe, but it never saw daylight either. :(

Personally i think Chrono trigger is as good as it's gotten.

If it were not for that game, i would not still be playing RPG's to replicate that feeling of joy a game could bring. I played almost every SNES rpg and have strived to play high rated and even quirky RPGs just to find a better one, with no results. SW:KotOR get an honorable mention, cause it's the best RPG in the post-FFVII wake.

Sadly, i've heard alot about that game but have yet to play Chrono Trigger...and I'm a big Nintendo buff, so I have no good excuse. I do want to play it though.

Chrono Trigger is a kick ass RPG with 7 endings so u owe it to urself to play it also the whole Final Fantasy Series is one of the best....

final fantasy II (iv) was my favorite, awesome story and characters, how do you go wrong with a name like FuSoYa

Beyond the beyond / PSX.

j/k.

Grandia 2 / Dreamcast (ps2 version kinda sux).

Combat system that's so fun you actually enjoy it + NO RANDOM BATTLES.

Other acceptable answers:

Secret of Mana / SNES
Suikoden (2?) / PSX
Panzer Dragoon Saga /SAT (havent played it)
Vagrant Story / PSX (GH version out yet?)
Final Fantasy / +
Dragon Warrior/Quest / +
Phantasy Star / +
Earthbound / SNES

Secret of Mana / SNES -Great Game
Suikoden (2?) / PSX Own em/Both are great, 3 is lacking
Panzer Dragoon Saga /SAT (havent played it) -Own it/Top 5 all time
Vagrant Story / PSX (GH version out yet?) Own it/I hate it.
Final Fantasy / + Played all the US versions when they were originally released, havent played the ones that came out recently. FFVI is the best, followed by 2, and FF.
Dragon Warrior/Quest / + Played one of them, it was goodish for the nes.
Phantasy Star / + Tried to play on DC, was too bored.
Earthbound / SNES Great game/sucky end boss battle

Chrono Cross and Chrono Trigger. The characters are much more likeable in CT, and the magic system is better; but Chrono Cross was huge, there were a ton more things to do in CC, and the story pulled me in even more than Trigger. As for replay, I think Chrono Trigger is better because you could remember what you did in the previous times you played to get the different endings, Chrono Cross was so huge, I only replayed it once all the way through.

Secret of Mana for SNES - You get a multi-tap and a couple of friends and it was the best thing there was back then. Still hard to beat now-a-days.

Snatcher for the SEGA CD is one of my all time favorites. The story and characters were awesome but what was up with the light gun shooting phase towards the end of the game?

Lunar 2: Eternal Blue for SEGA CD - I remember it took me 60 hours to finish. When you thought you were finished, there was still more to do!

Earthbound SNES - Great game, graphics were only OK even for the time. Still nothing quite like it has come out in the US.

Final Fantasy II & III, esp. III for SNES - I remember being blown away by the intricate story and character dev.

Chrono Trigger for SNES - Originally I was disappointed that it didn't support multi-player a la Mana but once I started playing, couldn't put it down. The being able to continue after you finished the game was interesting.

Shining Force Genesis - Spent all weekend finishing that one.
Phantasy Star IV - Nowhere near the SNES stuff, but still decent.

If we're going really old school, I spent a lot of time playing Bard's Tale on the C64 and Wizardry (original one) on the PC.

The top RPG for me ever (this is showing my age) was the first one I ever played: Ultima III on the C64. It was like $60 but came with a cloth map and three thick manuals. Took me a long time to finish but it was the best back then.

Ultima was a great series until IX (Ascension, was it?) Too bad it looks like they will never make another non-online Ultima though...especially with Lord British gone doing Lineage crap.
Really a shame.

Chrono Cross. The ONLY RPG game I have ever gotten into. The story, characters, and definately the music in the game are top notch.

I'll probably be flamed but Final Fantasy VII ranks as my all time favorite.

Other RPGs that are damn close:
-Earthbound
-FF VI
-Chrono Trigger
-Xenogears
-Suikoden II

PC: Planetscape Torment
8bit console: Phantasy Star
16bit console: Lunar/Eternal Blue
32bit console: Panzer Dragoon Saga
Current gen: FF X

The original Lunar gets my vote. The game is so good, its just like 'magic'. Played the Sega CD one and then the PSX remake. The stories are slightly different and its great fun comparing the two. Some cliched stuff in there but done really well.

Also on the list::
Secret of Mana SNES
Final Fantasy III (US) SNES
Chrono Trigger SNES
*those are like --the big 3--*

Valkyrie Profile (PSX) - highly underrated but excellent RPG with some story twists. Dark, depressing and wonderful.

Dragon Force (Saturn) - killer game. Alot of tactical stuff but its all in the name of love. Each character you play as shows a different side to the same story all interlinking. Super stuff. They should remake it for the next gen consoles.

Star Wars: KOTOR (XBox) - yeah its that good. Not overrated in the slightest. And man, I have played millions of RPGs but this one really sucks the life outta ya.

chrono trigger and chrono cross were amazing, trigger having the advantage imo

but the game that really got me into rpgs and is my favorite: Skies of Arcadia! i loved the characters, the story, and the battles. fabulous

might seem strange to some but my fav's included:

Suikoden
Final Fantasy IX
Breath of Fire II

Dragon Force (Saturn)

Fallout 2 is the greatest game of all time.

Honorable mentions go to:
Planescape Torment (PC)
Baldur's Gate 2 (PC)

And my nostalgia award goes to the original Ultima on NES and Dragon Warrior on NES. Good times.

I agree with TheRaven. My Fav RPG is FFVII. It's the game that actually got me interested in RPGs. I hated RPGs until FFVII with one notable exception, Dragon Force on the Saturn. I was hoping to be the first one to mention DF but WhipSmartBanky beat me to it. Touche Banky!

My favorite, hands down: Fallout 2 for the PC. I still think it has the best intro of any game I've ever played (Though Xenogears is pretty dog gone spiffy.) People you shoot don't stand up and say "thank you for bringing me to my senses, now I will be your friend" (like Wild Arms 3, etc.) Rather, they explode in a cloud of blood and goo.

Other than that, I also vigorously enjoyed Phantasy Star, Dragon Warrior (all of them, but IV, VII, VI, and III especially), Phantasy Star II, Phantasy Star IV, Arcanum, Xenosaga, and Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits/