10 Essential PS1 RPGs (That Aren't Final Fantasy)

Another fine example of quality over quantity, Star Ocean: The Second Story may not be the prettiest entry in this list, but it delivers a story large enough to rival any Final Fantasy.

Main protagonist Claude, son of Ronyx Kenny of the first Star Ocean, is transported to a mysterious world, where he meets Rena and a cast of enigmatic support characters. One of whom, Ashton, is cursed with having two dragon heads attached to his head, that bicker and talk over him. Can't get more original or tragic than that, can you?

Storytelling does initially suffer from standard tropes: progress through towns and dungeons, discover more about puppet masters and the ultimate big bad force, but what separated SO: TSS from other games at the time is its ending.

Well, endings. All 87 of them.

Some are minor changes, ranging from discovering the identity of one of the bosses, or if you paid attention to certain conversations throughout the game. But it added a new scope than the standard A-B progression system.

Its battle system made all this exciting, too. Doing away with being time-based and staying constantly active, it made a welcome change over sifting through menu prompts.

It may not have aged as gracefully as others on this list, with its lacklustre voice acting and presentation, but it's still a worthy time sink of an RPG.