Beginners JRPGs on SNES

The Last Bandit

Would like to get stuck into a few JRPGs on the SNES. It's a genre I've never paid much attention to before so no idea where to start.

So, what a good game to start with ? Storyline would be very important, I bored easily so an engaging storyline is a must if I'm to stay focused at all.

Dr Bob

The Last Bandit wrote: »

Would like to get stuck into a few JRPGs on the SNES. It's a genre I've never paid much attention to before so no idea where toart.

So, what a good game to start with ? Storyline would be very important, I bored easily so an engaging storyline is a must if I'm to stay focused at all.

If youve an everdrive or ntsc snes chronotrigger is good. ..er im not one for jrpgs though (feerck you square!) I still prefer Shadowrun to any other rpgs on the snes.

The Last Bandit

Ya will be using an everdrive alright. Briefly played Chrono Trigger last night alright, looks promising just trying to figure out if this is the best place to start.

Shadowrun looks interesting too, hopefully it'll piss rain all weekend so I can swap the lawnmower for a controller !!

Retr0gamer

Shadowrun is a superb game but it's definitely not a JRPG. It's a western one developed in Australia.

Best two games to start with on the SNES are FFVI or Chrono Trigger and out of them I'd say Chrono Trigger. From there you can graduate to FFIV, FFV, Front Mission, Breath of Fire 2 (but only with a fan translation!), Tales of Phantasia, Star Ocean, Lufia 1 and 2. Also if you have someone to play with Secret of Mana and Seiken Densetsu 3 are great in co-op, also great in single player.

a5y

Semi-relevant:

In the upcoming Shadowrun Returns the story arcs of both the MD and SNES Shadowrun games are connected.

"In 2012, Harebrained Schemes announced that they would be producing a new Shadowrun title, Shadowrun Returns, to be funded through Kickstarter. As a result of the Kickstarter appeal reaching a 1.5 million dollar target, creator Jordan Weisman announced that the game would now feature an additional storyline tying in the new game with both the SNES and the Sega Genesis versions of the game. This extra content will initially be available only to backers, with general availability some time after release.[24]"

From WP.

Also: the composers for those games are collaborating for the music on Shadowrun Returns too.

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Back on topic

JRPGs I'd recommend (Both Playstation era games):

Vagrant Story. Not a "everyone has to play this" game, but when you play it well its immensely satisfying. Definitely worth bookmarking the GameFAQs pages for it though, upgrading equipment is not intuitive and without understanding the weapon statistics at least one boss is hellishly slow paced ordeal that almost made me quit altogether.

Oh, no party groups. Just Ashley. Sort of an action JRPG. The fighting mechanics involve mastering timed input of combos which borders on Quick Time Event Awful until you get the hang of it however.

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Front Mission 3. Giant robots! (WANZERS!) With scaled up giant shotguns! And awful, awful rifles. Environmentally friendly weapons of mass destruction! And the single most easy to overlook fork in the storyline in game history.

You get *one* consequential storyline choice, and at the time it seems almost like:

• /run out to the shops to buy milk
• /wait for a few minutes first, it looks like rain

Its unbelievable how much hinges on that choice, who is trying to kill you and who is trying to keep you alive.

This one does allow party selection and is a kinda tile based tactical RPG.

My favourite memory is of learning a skill that abuses enemy pilots ejector seats, and having a teammate reduce the poor sod to strawberry jam using a giant robot machine gun. The barely damaged robot was then added to my parts list, good times!

Retr0gamer

Vagrant Story is definitely not a beginners RPG! The weapon upgrading system is complicated and pretty much a requirement to know.

Front Mission however is superb and a great introduction to strategy RPG games. One thing I have to point out is that when buying new part for your 'wanzers' it you have upgraded the old parts then every piece of equipment will tell you it is worse than the one currently equipped and you might think it's better to stay with the current gear but in truth the new parts will be better when you upgrade them. Also new abilities are learnt from different parts so it's to your advantage to keep swapping them out.

Other than that it's a simple and hugely enjoyable game. Great value for money with two stories to get through, one with multiple branching parts.

o1s1n

It's gotta be Chrono Trigger. Very easily accessible, great storyline, art and lovable characters.

Plus there are multiple endings, so if you're ever tempted to give it another bash you can.

a5y

I was going to edit my post, but considering I

A] ignored the word "beginners"
B] ignored the word SNES

I think it may be beyond salvaging.

...

D'oh.

The Last Bandit

Thanks for the info, looks like Chrono Trigger is the best place to start though.

Think the first RPG I played was KOTOR so this is going to be quite different

Retr0gamer

Western RPGs and Japanese ones are very different. Western ones are still very much in the mould of Dungeons and Dragons, using similar battle systems and placing great emphasis on choice and dialogue trees. The combat is usually awful but the level of choice more than makes for it.

Japanese RPGs tend to be more linear and streamlined than Western ones with a greater emphasis on battle systems and sometimes terrible haircuts. They are very different games although some like the Shin Megami Tensei series straddle the line.

Myrddin

Retr0gamer wrote: »

and sometimes terrible haircuts.

Sometimes? Every single character is a Japmerican with an impossible spiked haircut

Retr0gamer

EnterNow wrote: »

Sometimes? Every single character is a Japmerican with an impossible spiked haircut

You don't know what you are on about, so much wrong in this...



I'll get my coat.

a5y

The Last Bandit wrote: »

Thanks for the info, looks like Chrono Trigger is the best place to start though.

Think the first RPG I played was KOTOR so this is going to be quite different

I love KOTOR. It was the first RPG that convinced me voice acting could add to an RPG's immersion instead of... well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H47ow4_Cmk0

Yeah.

I also love that I did not see it coming when Darth Malak decided it was time to let the cat out the bag. My jaw dropped.

If you played it on PC instead of Xbox you may be interested to know that Kotor 2's version 1.8 restoration mod was released in late July this year, and nice things have been said about it.

Retr0gamer

Funnily enough that laughing scene is even worse in the japanese release.

Hank Scorpio

Super Mario RPG is a good one to start with for beginners(? dno if thats the right word), after that I'd say Chrono Trigger, FFVI, Secret of Mana, Secret of Evermore(this one is american but an excellent game imo), Illusion of Gaia, Terranigma, the last 4 being action RPGS. The others are turn based

Chrono Trigger has the best story line out of those games I suppose

Haven't played the Lufia games, hopefully will change that soon if I come across a decent price online

I prefer action RPGS but turn based is also fun, alot of strategy involved

Retr0gamer

Good call on Super Mario RPG and the Quintet games, very good places to start.

chopperbyrne

Illusion of Time/Gaia is pretty good too.

Also Secret of Evermore is a fantastic introduction to JRPGs.

The Last Bandit

Thanks for all the suggestion. I'm tackling Chronic Trigger at the moment

Dr Bob

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Shadowrun is a superb game but it's definitely not a JRPG. .

...which may explain why I like it so much