I did an informal survey of at least 2 whole posts before skipping immediately ahead and replying because you heathens have missed the most important awesome game ever.

Earthbound.

Good god. It’s the ultimate RPG, and brings something along with it’s core architecture that I wish had caught on, that I wish would have become the standard: the auto victory. The combat initiative stuff and enemies on the overworld was all well and good, but honestly. This game requires, as do all RPGs, a bit of a grind to toughen up and tackle the big evil forces in the world. However, as you get more powerful, it eliminates the GODDAMN TEDIUM OF THE GRIND. Sure, you might have to kill 91758976086 things to get to the next level, but all you have to do is be able to find them. The game knows you can kick their bum without question, so it doesn’t waste your time and immediately commences the fellating/victory music/what-have-you, and you can instantaneously move on.

Hint hint, nudge nudge, ET, hint hint, nudge nudge. Replay value skyrockets when the game doesn’t make you want to gouge your eyes out just to overcome some arbitrary and tedious endpoint (hopefully a sentiment that won’t apply for long to FW after Ep2, but who knows).

The other game I -did- see mentioned that requires all the reiteration it can muster:

Chrono Trigger.

New game+, multiple endings, -and- your super emo silent archetypal main character gets his bum blown up and doesn’t necessarily ever have to be revived? Awesome. New game+ was one of the coolest concepts due to the things it freed you up to try on the second go through, and I think that while other games have tried to experiment with that kind of functionality, it is difficult to do so well.