Retro RPG's

c - 13

A question for all of you retro heads. I have had a notion recently that there were too many cracking RPG's that I missed over the course of my life due to either not knowing about them, not having the correct consoles at the time or for other reasons. Basically I want some recommendations as to the best retro RPG's I should go back and have a crack at. Preferably these should be emulator available. I dont mind what console they originally started on, storyline etc.

Also if people could recommend as to what they think the best emulator to play these on would also be greatly appreciated.

Other non emulator suggestions will be welcommed too.

Just to give a hint of what I like here are some of the more memorable RPG's for me -
Phantasy Star 4 (My first proper RPG)
Story of Thor (Megadrive)
Chrono Trigger (played on ZNES recently at Retr0gamers suggestion on many threads)
Alundra (PS1)

I think a final list of about 10 titles would be a good goal to look for.

Thanks in advance all !

Retr0gamer

Don't miss out on FF6. Don't mind what all the idiots say about 7 being the best Final Fantasy VI is by far the best in the series.

There isn't much choice on the Megadrive. Shining Force 1 and 2 are excellent. They don't have the depth of fire emblem but are no less fun. I've heard decent things about Soliel, supposedly a good zelda clone. Gens is the best megadrive emulator

The Snes by far has the best choice of RPGs. Secret of Mana and it's sequel Seiken Denetsu 3 are amazing, SD3 has a brilliant fan made translation. Secret of Evermore is decent but not a patch on the jap developed secret games. Other jap only games with great translations are, Tales of Phantasia, Front Mission, Star Ocean and Bahamut Lagoon, all are highly recommended. Of course there are the 3 final fantasy games, all three are excellent with 6 being exceptional. Don't go near FF Mystic Quest. If you like a more western RPG there's also the shadowrun games on the SNES and MD, both completely different games. If you liked the Paper Mario games then Super Mario RPG is unmissable. ZSNES is your only man for SNES.

If you want to venture into 32-bit territory then you really need to play Panzer Dragoon Saga, it's the pinnacle of JRPGs. Emulators can run it perfect now (don't know any since I use my own saturn) and torrents of the game are easy to find although I'd never tell anyone to use torrents

If you liked Phantasy Star you should try the other Phantasy Star games which are all excellent. You are best advised to use a walkthrough for PS1 and 2 since they are quite non-linear and the translation is also so bad it can send you in the wrong direction.

I've no experience of the older dragon quest games but I thought DQVIII was exceptionally good so the rest of the series is probably just as good.

Tell me if you are interested in 32-bit RPGs since I can give you the names of lots of great ones.

c - 13

If theres an emulator to run it ill play it

I actually had Panzer Dragoon earmarked to play alright.

Some of the ones you mentioned I have played I think, ill take a look through my stuff and see what I have.

Cheers for that retr0gamer, excellent list !

Anything 32-bit is also welcome ! Ill try either get the game or get a working emulator for it.

Thanks again.

super_furry

Terranigma. The best RPG of the 16bit era and probably my favourite game ever.

Retr0gamer

I forgot Earthbound zero on the NES and Earthbound for the SNES.

32-bit we have on the PS1:

Grandia
Suikoden 1 and 2 (especially 2)
Xenogears
Chrono Cross (chrono trigger semi-sequel)
Vagrant Story
Vandal Hearts 1 and 2
Front Mission 2
Final Fantasy Tactics (awesome game) and the FF games in general
Dragon Quest VII
Star Ocean: Second Story

They're all pretty much essential.

Saturn:

Shining Force 3 (episodes 2 and 3 are japanese only but there's a 100% translation of 2 and a 70 % translation of 3 on the net. The episode 3 translation doesn't have submissions but does have the main story)
Wachenrodder (again there's a text translation on gamefaqs)
Princess Crown (again jap only but there is a translation although some of it has been lost)

Stupid Sega had a policy of no RPGs on the Saturn for the West since they don't sell. Nobody told them about FFVII.

hamster

coo... forgot about Shining Force! I played that briefly 10 years ago and forgot all about it. :eek:

Tom Dunne

Would Dungeon Master count as an RPG?

I used to love it on the old Atari ST.

Dr Bob

shadowrun on the SNES , and to a lesser extent Shadowrun on the meg.
Cant say enough good things about these!

hamster

tom dunne wrote:

Would Dungeon Master count as an RPG?

I used to love it on the old Atari ST.

I would swear by Dungeon Master - I had it on the Amiga and had to get the extra 512K to play it for xmas '90 (512K was enough for the ST) - Had to spend IR£80 for the memory upgrade. But it was worth it 5 months of that game. Eating green screamers and Tiger ringworm slices. Remember fighting dark knights much deeper down.
Completed it so many times - but never finished EOB1 once! Someday!

Ruu_Old

Phantasy Star and Phantasy Star II are the only ones I've really gotten into.

hamster

I really ought to whip out that Snes emulator zsnes and get going!!! Chronotrigger.

admiralofthefleet

legend of zelda links awakening and link to the past are classic rpg's although i still think that links awakening (game boy) is the best of all of the zelda games

hamster

c - 13 wrote:

A question for all of you retro heads. I have had a notion recently that there were too many cracking RPG's that I missed over the course of my life...

Sorry c13 - I forgot to answer your question. I didn't have a 16-bit console myself but speaking from the Amiga side of things - there are so many cracking RPGs to talk of. Dungeon Master was mentioned. D&D specific - you can't go wrong with either Eye of the beholder I or II.

I went to the Amiga Hall of Light and queried RPG and got 213 games (turkeys and all) -

Looking at this list now, I can see plenty of classics here:

Abandoned Places - I, II
Amberstar - massive!
Black Crypt - Like Dungeon Master - but made later - impressive
Bloodwych - Multiplayer Dungeon Master
Captive - Robots in Dungeon Master (hmmm... a pattern here methinks )
Chaos Strikes Back - Anyone try this sequel? I don't think its good
HeroQuest - I liked this one - based on the boardgame
Hired Guns - Oh yes forgot this one - Excellent! Modern style - 4 separate characters if so desired
Ishar series - Not sure about this one - but there were 3 games in this one.
Knightmare - Another dungeon master type - wasn't too impressed.
Might and Magic series - not bad
Shadowlands - another good one with a look down perspective
Ultima IV: Quest Of The Avatar - up to VI.

I'm sure there are more.

Retr0gamer

Bah, western RPGs, could never get into them myself.

I forgot to mention Lufia 1 and 2 on the SNES bith of which are fantastic games.

c - 13

Cheers for all the Ideas lads. I've decided to go with panzer Dragoon at the moment. I've just set up the emulator here on my tea break and watched the intro to it - looks bloody good. Looking forward to starting this one.

Ill populate the rest of my list of 10 over the next day or two -
(1) Panzer Dragoon Saga
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
(8)
(9)
(10)

Off to try find a picture of the saturn joypad at the moment to work out hte bast way to configure my joypads.

Retr0gamer

It's the same as a megadrive six button. a b c buttons on bottom row, x y z on the top row. There's also left and right shoulder buttons.

LoGiE

Of all the RPG's I've played I always keep going back to the Zelda series and chrono trigger....

Retr0gamer

You seriously can't class zelda as an RPG. There's no levelling up, just the aquisition of new items and the battle system is well removed from the RPG genre. It's an action adventure game with puzzles and an action game combat system just people happen to lob it into the RPG genre because it's viewed from the top down like RPGs of the day.

Don't let that stop you playing these extremely good games though

Trode

A few more recommendations:
Dragon Quest 3-5: 3 and 4 are on the NES, 5 is on the SNES(you'll need a translation patch), but they're all quite good. A little crude both graphically and mechanically, but with decent characters and fairly compelling plots, particularly 5. I wouldn't bother with the first 2 games though, unless you want some inessential backstory on DQ3.

The Breath of Fire series on the SNES is worth checking out too. The first one is good, but the second is probably one of the best RPGs on the SNES, with depth, sophistication and imagination. The third one in the series is on the PSX, but I didn't really get on with it.

Romancing SaGA 3 is a pretty obscure but excellent RPG. Less linear than practically any JRPG before or since, with a wealth of characters to play or recruit, side-quests and sub-plots to uncover and skills to learc, all in pretty much any order you want(or not at all). Initially confusing and dull-looking, it really is something worth persevering with, although a walkthrough might not be a bad idea to get the most from it

Finally, Live a Live, one of Square's occasional successful experiments with the RPG. 7 seemingly unconnected chapters, each set in a different time period and with different characters, and each with a different and largely original style of play, from the stealth of the Ninja chapter to the Cowboy's realtime countdown to high noon. It's deep, inventive and fast-moving, something that's hard to say for even the best games of the genre.

I've also heard good things about Sweet Home on the NES, and the Shin Megami Tensei games, but I've yet to try those.

Retr0gamer

Wouldn't bother with Breath of Fire 1. Bored the arse off me on the GBA. BoF 2 on the other hand really is a great game.

c - 13

Ok due to some minor problems with some saturn BIOS files, i've put Panzer Dragoon on the back burner for a little while and i'm going to give Terranigma a go instead.

I had forgotten completely about the Breath of Fire games, I've only ever played BoF3 but really enjoyed it !

(1) Panzer Dragoon Saga
(2) Terranigma
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
(8)
(9)
(10)

Crowman

Yeah I'm thinking of getting a Saturn just to play Panzer Dragoon...
I might check out that shop on Talbot street to see if he has any, better than Ebay route i guess...

I just started playing Earthbound on Zsnes, having great fun on that one.....

Max_Damage

Fallout 1 & 2 FTW.

Fallout Tactics was rubbish though in my opinion.

Crowman

Retr0gamer wrote:

If you want to venture into 32-bit territory then you really need to play Panzer Dragoon Saga, it's the pinnacle of JRPGs. Emulators can run it perfect now (don't know any since I use my own saturn) and torrents of the game are easy to find although I'd never tell anyone to use torrents

.

Just curious Retrogamer do you have Chrono Trigger for your snes(I assume you own a Snes!) or do you play it on Zsnes emulator?

Retr0gamer

Played it on Zsnes but also have it on the PS1 as one of the Final Fantasy compilations. Couldn't play it on the PS1 since the loading times were torturous compared to the snes game. That and my first PS2 broke when I was playing this game.

Crowman

Retrogamer:
I have a chance of getting a copy of Shining Force Scenario1 Jap version, would you recommend the Jap version?

I'm thinking I will probably not have a clue whats going on with all the Japanese text...
I'll be playing it on my ahem..modified ahem..Saturn...

Retr0gamer

I wouldn't get it. There's no translation for scenario 1 since it was released in English in Europe and America. You won't have a clue whats going on unless you know japanese.

Crowman

Ok, I'll hold out for a PAL copy...
Thanks.

chopperbyrne

Illusion of Time on the SNES.

There was another game that came out around teh same time as this, you had a dog in it? Can't remember it's name but it was quite good too.

Trode

chopperbyrne wrote:

Illusion of Time on the SNES.

There was another game that came out around teh same time as this, you had a dog in it? Can't remember it's name but it was quite good too.

Could be either Secret of Evermore on SNES(kind of like Secret of Mana, but with grimier graphics and a dog instead of the Sprite and Girl) or Crusader of Centy on MD(a lot like Zelda, but with various animals following you around giving you powers).

chopperbyrne

Think it was Secret of Evermore so.