Opinion on these SNES RPGs?

[Sigourn]

Some weeks ago I finished Deus Ex. Whenever I was not playing Deus Ex, I was playing Final Fantasy II (SNES). It was a nice way to pass time whenever I wanted to cool off from Deus Ex a bit. So nice that I decided it would be a good idea to start playing games this way: in pairs, depending on the length of the games.

The SNES is widely considered to be one of the top two JRPG consoles out there, the other is usually between PS1 or PS2. And since it is so easy to emulate, I was hoping to get some recommendations on SNES RPGs (that is, not necessarily Japanese RPGs). One thing I've heard is that pretty much all console versions of PC western RPGs suck, hence I avoid all of them but Wizardry games.

I've read a lot of different threads on the Internet and I know which games are usually the "must play" or "very recommended". These are, in alphabetical order.

Spoiler

- Bahamut Lagoon
- Chrono Trigger
- EarthBound
- Final Fantasy IV
- Final Fantasy V
- Final Fantasy VI
- Front Mission
- Front Mission Series: Gun Hazard
- Illusion of Gaia
- Live A Live
- Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals
- Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen
- Secret of Mana
- Seiken Densetsu 3
- Star Ocean
- Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
- Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together
- Tales of Phantasia
- Terranigma
- Treasure of the Rudras

There are many others that caught my eye and were recommended by different sources.

Spoiler

- Breath of Fire
- Breath of Fire II
- Der Langrisser
- Dragon Quest I & II
- Dragon Quest III
- Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride
- Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation
- Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War
- Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem
- Fire Emblem: Thracia 776
- Gemfire
- Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei
- Lufia & the Fortress of Doom
- Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer
- Romancing SaGa
- Romancing SaGa 2
- Romancing SaGa 3
- Secret of Evermore
- Shadowrun
- Shin Megami Tensei
- Shin Megami Tensei II
- Soul Blazer
- Star Ocean
- Treasure Hunter G
- Uncharted Waters
- Uncharted Waters: New Horizons
- Wizardry Gaiden IV: Throb of the Demon's Heart
- Wizardry I-II-III: Story of Llylgamyn
- Wizardry V: Heart of the Maelstrom
- Ys III: Wanderers from Ys
- Ys IV: Mask of the Sun
- Ys V: Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand
- Dark Law: Meaning of Death
- Inindo: Way of the Ninja
- Mystic Ark
- The 7th Saga

And then there are... these, of which I can't seem to get a consistent opinion of.

Spoiler

- ActRaiser
- Alcahest
- Arcana
- Brain Lord
- Brandish
- Brandish 2: The Planet Buster
- Burning Heroes
- Chaos Seed: Feng Shui Chronicles
- Dark Half
- E.V.O.: Search for Eden
- Emerald Dragon
- Energy Breaker
- Far East of Eden Zero
- Feda: The Emblem of Justice
- Glory of Heracles III: Silence of the Gods
- Glory of Heracles IV: Gift from the Gods
- Gunman’s Proof
- Harvest Moon
- Marvelous: Another Treasure Island
- Metal Max Returns
- Robotrek
- Taloon's Great Adventure
- The Magical Land of Wozz

Anyone has any experience with these last games? At what point is it better to jump ship to another console (and thus better games) instead of playing "obscure game that does just one thing well and everything else wrong"?

 

[Doktor Best]

Well what do you look for in an rpg?

 

[PorkBarrellGuy]

Alright, so, Brain Lord. Pretty basic hack-and-slash Legend-of-Zelda-feeling game at first, quickly turns difficult due to puzzles. Fun, though.
Arcana is basically a blobber. It's alright, fairly basic and unadventurous in what it does. Pretty fun IMO.

 

[Sigourn]

Well what do you look for in an rpg?

Well, that was not really the point of the thread, but more of a "are these games good or just "curious trash"?"

Anyhow, in an RPG I usually look for:

- Good, fun combat. Tactical or action, it doesn't matter.
- Well written characters, at the very least memorable.
- Many options to customize my character, e.g.: Materia system (FFVII), job system (FFT), and the like. Straightforward upgrades bore me to death.
- A good story, be it simple or complex. This is the last of my priorities: if the game is only good because of its story, it better be one of the finest ever written. On the other hand, if it is "good" because it is "weird as fuck", I pass.
- I'm not interested in pure strategy games. It's RPGs first and foremost.

Like I said, I want good games, games that are considered good or an argument can be made about them being good. Of course, if you know something that may be of interest to me based on the above, that would also be great.

 

[PorkBarrellGuy]

- I'm not interested in pure strategy games. It's RPGs first and foremost.

ActRaiser might be a pass for you, as a significant part of the game is strategy (though there's more platforming hack-and-slash stuff). ActRaiser is still a very good game, but this might disqualify it for you.

 

[aweigh]

OP you already have an amazing list of games there to play!

From the stuff I glanced on your lists I noticed you have ININDO there and thats a real unique JRPG that I very much recommend.

Its really hard to tell you which one you should play first as there are tons of gems in your lists.

Anyway about Inindo WAY OF THE NINJA:

- Turn-based combat that incorporates rudimentary positioning and melee/ranged weaponry
- Game has a strict time-limit (similar to Fallout 1) and if you dont accomplish primary goal you will game over
- Purpose of the main quest is to visit the different Daimyo castles and peform quests for them in order to align yourself with them and gain their trust
- Game utilizes a unique way of randomly spawning possible party members in villages and town Inns that you can possibly recruit to your party depending on variables like

* your overall power levels
* which daimyos trust you have gained
* whether you are already traveling with NPCs they admire or hate

Besides visiting dungeons to gain NINJA SPELLS and doing quests for Daimyos the other game play is taken up by:

- Doing top-down view small-scale strategy warfare against enemy Daimyos in turn-based Fire Emblem-like way.

 

[PorkBarrellGuy]

Where Inindo really shines is in the fact that there are military battles where you can help take over most of Japan (except Yamashiro, I think), IMO. Also, the way the final battle changes depending on how much time you spent fucking around is a nice touch. (I usually ended up with Mori Ranmaru alongside Oda)

 

[aweigh]

Darn! Failed mission!

 

[PorkBarrellGuy]

Darn! Failed mission!

Sabotages are fantastic ways to make the next military conquest a cinch, but your ability to consistently pull them off seems to depend on character level. I couldn't pin it down to any one statistic, really.

 

[Karellen]

I'm not sure if you can really categorise SNES RPGs in such a way that you could find an easily defined "tipping point" where it's no longer worth playing any games. Strictly speaking, I don't even like all the games in the must play category, but there's interesting stuff on the last list too - games that aren't so much "good" or "bad" as just plain different. My point is that if you've already played the all time top ten classic SNES RPGs, the next ten on the list would probably be underwhelming, but you might still like playing something different, which is where the stuff on the third list comes in.

So, for example, Dark Half is a game I never finished (possibly because I found the music kind of grating), but it's also almost certainly the most desperately grimdark jRPG ever made where half of the game is playing as the demon lord, complete with murdering innocent townspeople and wearing ridiculous shoulder pauldrons. Robotrek is a cute little game about building robots that fight for you, while Metal Max is the Japanese interpretation of what an open-world post-apocalyptic RPG is, which basically means driving around with tanks and shooting bazookas at people with red mohawks. Admittedly, novelty goes a long way with me, but even if those games aren't total hits, I'd say the fact that they stray quite a bit from the basic jRPG formula makes them worth a look.

 

[Alkarl]

You might like E.V.O., but it's a strange game. It's an arpg based on evolution with plenty of customization, but its broken into different periods, or ages, and every time you clear an age you get reset back to a basic bitch and have to grind your way up again. For instance, starting out as a fish and grinding up points for horns or teeth, but then you make it onto land and all of a sudden all your points and evolutions are gone. It's frustrating as hell too, but the evo aspect has a bit of strategy and the bosses are decently challenging.

Dark Half, if I'm thinking of the right one, (get it confused alot with Dark Law, another agtp translation) is another strangely enjoyable game. You play as both the hero and the villian through different chapters. I can't say too much more, other than it has turn-based combat. I've been meaning to play more of this one sometime. Give it a try and see what you think.

 

[aweigh]

EVO The Search for Eden was a SNES game I played tons as a kid!

And Dark Half is most definitely unique...



Village Girl: Stop... Why me...
Player: Just pray.

cold as ice! now thats some edge lording right there haha

 

[Hyperion]

Brain Lord is fun. Sorta like Zelda. Nice weapon selection with differing mechanics. I found Boomerangs OP as fuck. The range more than made up for the lack of damage. I recall the final boss being much harder than anything Zelda throws at you.

Brandish was an interesting beast - sort of like an RPG / Rogue-like, with a weapon system akin to Fire Emblem, to simplify the explanation. Some unique levels, challenging bosses. Final boss is practically unbeatable if you don't level Magic Defense early on, he'll likely one shot you. Could be frustrating since a lot of floors have pits that would send you back a floor so you gotta walk through all over again. Resting system made healing easy. Just don't get hit while sleeping, you have 0 defense while doing so.

Breath of Fire was excellent until you got the transformation spells for Ryu and Karn. Bosses got a Second Wind that made some of them stronger and more aggressive. Once Ryu turned into a Dragon, and Karn combined with Bow, Gobi, and Ox, they spammed attack, Nina healed, 4th was a wild card. Rinse repeat. Sequel tried to fix things by making Dragons a single nuke, but they were incredibly powerful. Really marred by one of the worst translations I've ever seen from a major game company. GBA port didn't change a fucking thing. Capcom you lazy bastards.

Gemfire is an absolute...Gem...based on The War of the Roses. It is however, a Strategy game, with turn-based combat. Back when Koei branched outside of Asian history. Replay value is off the charts. Think there are 5 different scenarios, each of which can be played using 6 different Lords, all of whom have a different set of Vassals?

Uncharted Waters 1 and 2 were an excellent mix of JRPG goodness + Sid Meier's Pirates! with fun turn-based combat. New Horizons had 6 different scenarios to start, each totally different in their approach. Joao, was the 'main' story and allowed a berth of options. The Englishman was a Privateer, Catalina the Spaniard, a straight Pirate, a Cartographer, a Merchant, and an Explorer. More from Koei's monocled past.

Secret of Evermore is a funky, a tongue-in-cheek, short romp in the vein of Secret of Mana. Jeremy Soule's first game, and probably his best work alongside IWD. Lots of ambient sounds mixed with dark industrial / orchestras, instead of your usual JRPG fare.

Speaking of tongue-in-cheek, Earthbound is a modern take on Dragon Warrior, but with a rolling HP system that allows you to survive mortal hits if you finish the battle quickly. Seems like it's easy, but allowed the devs to create hard hitting monsters you wanna strategically kill, such as exploding trees in Happy Happy Valley. Great to pass the time and have a few laughs at the same time.

Ogre Battle and Tactics Ogre...look at my Avatar and that's all you need to know. The most prestigious games on the list, and it isn't close. Listen to Queen's Queen II to get the full complement of references by Yazmat. I believe Teo Torriate (Let us Cling Together) was a single they released only in Japan, shortly after A Night at the Opera, though.

SNES Dragon Warrior 3 is incredible, with full party customization, and a 'personality' system that affects your stats. Only downside is an all Female party with the Sexy personality is the best all around.

 

[aweigh]

OP I recommend you drop everything and play Earthbound.

 

[Sigourn]

Thanks for your replies people. I loaded up some games in RetroArch, and to be honest decided to play it simple and safe and got rid of around 20 titles (between "the retranslations are incomplete"/"the game looks retarded"/"it's not something I find fun" and the like).

So I'm sticking with these as SNES RPGs I would like to play.

Spoiler

Alcahest
Bahamut Lagoon
Brandish
Brandish 2: The Planet Buster
Breath of Fire
Breath of Fire II
Chaos Seed: Feng Shui Chronicles
Chrono Trigger
Dark Half
Dark Law: Meaning of Death
Der Langrisser
Dragon Quest I & II
Dragon Quest III
Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride
Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation
EarthBound
Energy Breaker
Far East of Eden Zero
Final Fantasy IV
Final Fantasy V
Final Fantasy VI
Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem
Front Mission
Front Mission Series: Gun Hazard
Illusion of Gaia
Inindo: Way of the Ninja
Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei
Live A Live
Lufia & the Fortress of Doom
Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals
Metal Max Returns
Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer
Mystic Ark
Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen
Romancing SaGa
Romancing SaGa 3
Secret of Evermore
Secret of Mana
Seiken Densetsu 3
Shadowrun
Shin Megami Tensei
Shin Megami Tensei II
Soul Blazer
Star Ocean
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together
Tales of Phantasia
Terranigma
The 7th Saga
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Treasure Hunter G
Treasure of the Rudras
Uncharted Waters
Uncharted Waters: New Horizons
Wizardry Gaiden IV: Throb of the Demon's Heart
Wizardry I-II-III: Story of Llylgamyn
Wizardry V: Heart of the Maelstrom
Ys III: Wanderers from Ys
Ys IV: Mask of the Sun
Ys V: Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand

Would anyone be interested in a Let's Play of one of these, as long as it isn't Wizardry? (I predict they will be the longest games and I just don't have that much spare time at the moment)

 

[Okagron]

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Kind of odd for this to be in a list of RPGs. I've always considered it an action adventure game, not so much a traditional RPG (game has no leveling of any kind). But by all means, try it, it's easily one of my favorites in the series.

 

[Viata]

And then there are... these, of which I can't seem to get a consistent opinion of.

- Harvest Moon

 

[Sigourn]

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Kind of odd for this to be in a list of RPGs. I've always considered it an action adventure game, not so much a traditional RPG (game has no leveling of any kind). But by all means, try it, it's easily one of my favorites in the series.

Yeah, I was actually supposed to remove it from that list but I forgot about it. It's just that people suck Zelda dick so much that I thought I may as well play it.

 

[Viata]

ActRaiser

Great game. Both 1 and 2 are amazing, but this is not an rpg. This is a platformer.

Alcahest

Another great game. But this is as much rpg as Zelda is.

Arcana

This one is a great first person RPG made by the same dev as Alcahest(and Earthbound). It's a must play if you are into wizardry-like games.

Brain Lord

This is a simple and short game, if I recall there is like 5 dungeons and 2 towns. Only play it if you have nothing else to play.

Brandish 1 and 2

This is made by Nihon, the same one from Ys. This is one weird game. The camera rotation is confuse as fuck, but still, it's a good game. But again, only play it if you love Nihon or have nothing else to play.

Burning Heroes

It's a good jrpg from Enix. It has the same charm as the original Dragon Quest. Don't expect too much from the plot.

Chaos Seed: Feng Shui Chronicles

I played the Sega Saturn version. Really good(but I may be saying this because of Saturn's lack of good jrpg). It's action-rpg, though. The game has lots of scenarios, multiple endings for each. This is really a hard game to play and given my weak Japanese at the time, that was really a true suffering. I recommend it, anyway. Really fun and unique for its time.

Emerald Dragon

Didn't like this game when I played it some years ago. But a lot of people recommends it.

Energy Breaker

It's tactics rpg. I dislike japanes tactics game, so I gave up on this game after 1 hour or so.

Far East of Eden Zero

Weird game that requires you to search for masters to teach you skills instead of learning them by level up. It takes place in a feudal Japan, has a boring story, but overall, it's cool for its setting.

Feda: The Emblem of Justice

It's tactics rpg. Read my opinion on Energy Breaker.

Glory of Heracles 3 and 4

It's an rpg that takes place in Greece. In 3, you are a boy that learns he is immortal and must seek the great god because shit just happened. 4 is better, as you have many tales of greek mythology in the game like the pandora's box. Really good games.

Gunman’s Proof

Fun game. But it's more like a Zelda game than jrpg.

Harvest Moon

See my post above.

Taloon's Great Adventure

This is a Dragon Quest IV spin-off of a guy that goes to a dungeon to get items to sell.

 

[Dorarnae]

I haven't played Wizardry gaiden on snes, but the one on ps1(dimguil) and prisoners of the battle(ps2/pc) are excellent wizardry, I have no doubt the one on snes is good too.

 

[Vorark]

So I'm sticking with these as SNES RPGs I would like to play.

Just a couple of observations...

DQVI - As far as I know, the SNES version was never fully translated. While it's playable and you can beat it, end game text was left in a gibberish state. A shame because the visuals are fantastic, even better than the DS remake.

Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem - DS remake is top notch. I'd skip SNES version and go for this one instead.

Brandish - It's on PSP too (Brandish The Dark Revenant), but I didn't play long enough to form an opinion. Might be worth a look.

Everything else seems good enough.

 

[Sigourn]

So I'm sticking with these as SNES RPGs I would like to play.

Just a couple of observations...

DQVI - As far as I know, the SNES version was never fully translated. While it's playable and you can beat it, end game text was left in a gibberish state. A shame because the visuals are fantastic, even better than the DS remake.

Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem - DS remake is top notch. I'd skip SNES version and go for this one instead.

Brandish - It's on PSP too (Brandish The Dark Revenant), but I didn't play long enough to form an opinion. Might be worth a look.

Everything else seems good enough.

Fug. D: Well, I shall see when the time comes. I'm a native Spanish speaker so I don't know whether to bother with the Romancing SaGa 3 Spanish translation, apparently it's 100% complete. I just don't like Spanish in my vydia.

 

[Vorark]

Yeah, if you want to give it a go, use this patch. It's very late game when the text turns into strings and symbols, though.

 

[Gunnar]

7th saga has a group of PCs to pick from when you start the game, you can have one as an ally and the rest turn into your rivals that you have to fight as the game progresses. It's open world-ish in the middle part and instead of random encounters it has a minimap 'orb ' that lets you see monsters as moving dots.

I just finished a playthrough of Inindo and can confirm it is very solid. The time limit is very long and there isn't really any danger of failing the game this way. I did find the combat lacked any sort of depth despite being turn based with grid movement, with most spells being useless and entire classes obsoleted by certain equipment finds. There are very few bosses in the game as well. Fun for the class experimentation with your 2 NPC slots and exploration. Strategy layer is very cool as well, though it's as basic as it gets.

Currently playing Earthbound for the first time and liking it a lot so far (At Threed!).

 

[Ninjerk]

I remember Bahamut Lagoon being very pretty when I played it, but I know it never managed to capture my interest for very long, either.

Ogre Battle and Tactics Ogre are R E A L L Y cool games, although Tactics Ogre has some really strong deficiencies when it comes to characters of different levels interacting. There's a thread around here somewhere where someone critiques that aspect. The gameplay for them are really different but quite cool and Tactics Ogre is IIRC basically a fantasy take on the disintegration of Yugoslavia.