I don't want to just list my favourite JRPGs, so beware. INCOMING WALLS OF TEXT
For the most part, it depends what I'm in the mood for. Sometimes I want an RPG with a higher emphasis on story. Sometimes I like a more action-based RPG or an RPG with lots of customization.
Story-Based
If I'm looking for an RPG with an epic storyline, I'd have to go with Final Fantasy X or the Xenosaga Trilogy (you can watch Xenosaga II's cutscenes on youtube if you can't stand it's...interesting battle system). These two game's resonated me the most with their storylines, and they serve as great inspiration for creating epic plots. I was so immersed in Xenosaga's storyline, that when one of the last cutscenes led to the final boss fight, I was annoyed. I didn't want to fight anything! The story was soooo captivating, and this gigantic plot that spanned 3 whole games was finally reaching its dramatic conclusion, where all of your long-asked questions were being answered. Fortunately, I had previously completed a side quest that got me that overpowered spell that deals max damage. I chose to "skip" the final boss using this cheap spell so that I could get back to the cutscenes as soon as possible. Its the equivalent to be glued to the pages when reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
I also want to at least mention Suikoden III because although its story didn't affect me to the extent that FFX or Xenosaga did, it's story is amazing in its own right. I loved the Trinity system, and I loved how mature the story was compared to how "kiddish" other RPGs can be (KH, Tales, Star Ocean). And it had a Duck Clan.
Fun-Factor/Addictiveness
Sometimes I feel like playing an RPG that has a more straight up fun gameplay experience. I find that the Disgaea series and the first Kingdom Hearts were a ton of fun. Disgaea because the battle system is fun in its own right, the characters are often humorous (it's gotten worse as the series goes on though, IMO), but mostly because the endless customization completely absorbs me when I play. Tons of classes to create your custom characters for your army, and you can level up items and insert Innocents into your items to give them the exact stats that you want. It's amazingly addictive.
Kingdom Hearts simply has the most fun battle system for an RPG I've played. I love the action-based combat, I love that I can jump, glide, dodge roll, block, and even deflect attacks. There is so many ways to get around the battle, and since there are no "battle transitions" where you leave the map to enter a battle, the environment can be used to make every fight more interesting. Enemies come with a variety of behaviours, and bosses provide interesting challenges where you're more inclined to learn how they move, attack, react to your own attacks, etc. I will always remember the utter terror I felt when trying to fight Sephiroth in the arena. I will always remember the epic fight against Cloud, Squall, and Yuffie all at the same time. The Phantom had a gimmick that made me feel very pressured during the fight (when I was 13 and playing it, at least). And I feel that both Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 did a good job with their final boss fights.
I have extremely fond memories of Chocobo's Dungeon 2. I've always thought that if I was ever to really sit down and try and think which games compose my Top 5 Games Ever list, this one would almost certainly be somewhere on that list. I don't generally play dungeon crawling rogue-likes, but I absolutely fell in love with this game. I loved the music, I loved the graphical style. I loved exploring the dungeons and fighting enemies. It's not a game you'd play for a great story, but you're playing the wrong game if you're looking for an RPG with story-emphasis. For me, this is just a plain ol' FUN game. Collecting feathers, filling out the monster bestiary (they appear as statues in a house), upgrading your claws and saddles to create the ULTIMATE equipment. I would replay this game if I didn't have 20+ games in my drawer that I haven't played yet.
Going back to Suikoden III, this game had battle mechanics that I fell in love with and I really wish other RPGs used them. The "skill" system in Suikoden III. Characters could have various skills and you could upgrade the rank of the skills to improve their effectiveness. Characters with a shield might have the Shield Protect skill. The higher the rank of the skill, the higher chance the character can completely 100% block the damage from an attack. There were more simple skills like Accuracy that does just as its name implies. But the skill that I adored the most in the game, was the Swing skill. I went ballistic over this skill. Swing allows your characters to hit multiple times per attack. Essentially making them do a combo instead of a single hit. And the max amount of hits that could be achieved varied from character to character. Some could only ever hit once, no matter what. Others could potentially hit 6-8 times (Emily, Juan, Nei)! This created a whole new level of addictiveness to the game for me. I became obsessed with needing to increase the amount of hits my characters could do. It was such a cool mechanic that I couldn't stop myself from revolving my entire playstyle around it. Hugo was easily my favourite of the three main characters specifically because he was a speed-based character over the tanky Chris or the mage-warrior hybrid that was Geddoe. The Swing skill wasn't the only factor that determined how many hits a character could perform in their attack string. The SPD stat was another factor, and then the amount of distance the character had to travel in that turn to reach their target was another factor. It was just really cool to have someone level up, and suddenly you notice them hitting twice instead of just once (because that level up brought their SPD over the requirement for that second hit). This is one of my favourite mechanics in all RPGs I've played.
Overall Enjoyment
Despite all the praise I've given for Xenosaga, Kingdom Hearts, or Chocobo's Dungeon 2, I still think that I enjoyed Dragon Warrior VII the most. This was a game that may not have been the best in any one department, but I loved the entire setup for the game. The game had you obtaining shards, and using those shards to unlock new worlds. The core storyline was massive because there were something like 20 worlds to explore in DISC ONE alone. Then you have Disc Two where you've now visited and saved all 20-something worlds and you need to resolve the ultimate evil that made all those worlds require saving in the first place.
One of my fondest memories was finding that last shard to unlock the next world. Each new world I unlocked, I was sooooo excited to see what that new world would have in store for me. How large is the island? How many towns? What happened to the town? Every new world I visited generated these powerful feelings from me, and I strongly feel that the game could have added 10 more worlds to this already enormous game and I would still be craving for more.
Then there was the class system. Sure, it had it's flaws (for instance, needing to fight 60+ battles minimum to "master" a single class), but it was also incredibly indepth. There were secret skills you could learn by progressing through one class half way, then immediately switching to a different class and progressing through that class half way. The balance between the skills wasn't particularly good (Sword Dance is really all you need for every boss fight once you get it), but I was addicted to learning every spell and skill and mastering all of the classes. This was the game I went back to when I had beaten every game I owned, and couldn't go out and get a new game. I'd boot up Dragon Warrior VII again, and just fight battles over and over again to master more and more classes. I was only a teenager at the time, so I wasn't as strapped for time as I am now. And yeah, my praise for this game probably stems from nostalgia more than the previously mentioned games do (I willingly overlook some of the game's glaring flaws because they simply didn't detract from my enjoyment from it when I played it).
I loved the music, I loved the graphics (yes, others will say it doesn't deserve to be a PSX game with its SNES-quality graphics), I loved the cute attack animations that every monster had. I even have fond memories of HATING certain monsters because their attack animations seemed offputting to me. How I can have a fond memory of hating something, I don't know, but it's something I chuckle about when I look back on how I would always target and kill those monsters before anything else in a fight.
So now you know what my fondest gaming memories are.
