Final Fantasy-less title: Panzer Dragoon Saga
Why you should ignore Kefka and play it: You know that decent book, awful movie and sucky game Eragon that everyone was all excited about awhile back? The one where the young boy gets his own pet dragon? Panzer Dragoon Saga is like that, only better in pretty much every way.
The game world is a very cool sort of post-apocalyptic, techno-organic land full of giant, gorgeously bizarre animals, ancient ruins, and airships. The music is fantastic, the art design is otherworldly, and the story - in which you basically dig up a young girl in some ancient ruins and then protect her from the government - appeals to the hero in all of us more than enough to keep you plowing through to the end. The sensation of not only streaking through these creative skies on a dragon, but customizing it on the fly to make it exactly the dragon you want, is one of a kind. There's just no other game like Panzer Dragoon Saga, even in this series.
Panzer Dragoon Saga is also the least obtainable game on this list. It hit US shores when the Sega Saturn was wheezing its death rattle, and very few units of the game (between 6,000 and 30,000) were manufactured. To this day, a copy will run you up to $200 or more on eBay. But amazingly, that may still be your best option. The original code has apparently been lost, so it's unlikely the game will ever appear in any collections, or downloadable on Xbox LIVE Arcade.
