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Drown me in 16-bit style RPG glory
MundaneSoul
fight fighterDaehan MingukRegistered User regular
fight fighterDaehan MingukRegistered User regular
So I've been playing Chrono Trigger DS and Barkley Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden lately and rediscovering that I love me the hell out of some old school crazy awesome 16-bit ruhpuhguhs. I crave more. If there is any other crazy indie shit out there like Barkley, please drop it on me. Otherwise, help me fill this empty hole inside of me with the best 16-bit style role-playing madness that this world has to offer.
Extra credit for DS games, any strange/innovative mechanics, crazy character customization, and wacky humor.
Anything off the beaten trail, underrated, or overlooked wins extra EXTRA credit.
Games I've played or plan to play:
Earthbound
Mother 3
Final Fantasy VI
Chrono Trigger
Barkley Shut Up and Jam Gaiden
Wu-Tang Clan and the Sewer Goblet
Etrian Odyssey
Dark Spire
Secret of Mana
Soulblazer
Illusion of Gaia
Terranigma
Phantasy Star(s)
Rocket Slime
Breath of Fire(s)
Lufia(s)
Arcana
Secret of Evermore
Contact
Seiken Densetsu 3
Bahamut Lagoon
Lunar(s)
Golden Sun
Shadowrun
Robotrek
Ys (?)
Paladin's Quest (?)
Secret of the Stars (?)
Black Sigil (?)
Extra credit for DS games, any strange/innovative mechanics, crazy character customization, and wacky humor.
Anything off the beaten trail, underrated, or overlooked wins extra EXTRA credit.
Games I've played or plan to play:
Earthbound
Mother 3
Final Fantasy VI
Chrono Trigger
Barkley Shut Up and Jam Gaiden
Wu-Tang Clan and the Sewer Goblet
Etrian Odyssey
Dark Spire
Secret of Mana
Soulblazer
Illusion of Gaia
Terranigma
Phantasy Star(s)
Rocket Slime
Breath of Fire(s)
Lufia(s)
Arcana
Secret of Evermore
Contact
Seiken Densetsu 3
Bahamut Lagoon
Lunar(s)
Golden Sun
Shadowrun
Robotrek
Ys (?)
Paladin's Quest (?)
Secret of the Stars (?)
Black Sigil (?)
MundaneSoul on
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Great story, good characters, good combat system.
Very challenging.
Ah yes, I should add EO and Dark Spire. I have both.
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
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Try Shining Force 2 or Tactics Ogre for some SRPG (or whatever the cool kids call it these days) awesomeness.
Go with Ogre Battle for some, eh, realtime RPG (I guess?) awesomeness.
FFV is pretty cool too, as is IV, but VI is really as good as it gets, as you may have discovered already.
..
Not a lot of madness there so.. Try Dink Smallwood, maybe?
http://www.rtsoft.com/dink/download.htm
Oh yeah, the Genesis Collection would be fantastic—it's also got Phantasy Star II, III and IV, along with Sword of Vermilion and probably a few other RPGs.
EDIT: Slow typing, woo.
Illusion of Gaia
If you have a Wii, Secret of Mana is downloadable on the Virtual Console for 8 bucks. One of the best games Square ever did next to Chrono Trigger.
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
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Oh yeah, I've played that to completion! Love that game.
And oh shit, Spike McFang!
Some posters here might hold up Super Mario RPG as the holy grail of computer games, but they must be blinded by nostalgia or something, because I certainly didn't find it so exciting playing it for the first time on the VC.
Black Sigil is great. It has a solid story and looks fantastic on the DS. At the same time, it has some design choices which may be a deal breaker for some people. Encounters are random, which at times can make the combat frequency seem really high. Characters cannot move through other characters in combat, and in narrow maps this can get really frustrating unless two of your 3 party members are the ranged fighters. The manual also does not tell you that you need to hold B to run from combat, so going through high encounter rate areas thinking I needed to finish every fight was depressing.
There are a few glitches that made it into the final product. Some of them are script-based, which can prevent you from getting some armor/dual skills near the end of the game. There is also an occasional freeze bug. GameFAQs had people complaining about it occurring often, but I saw it twice in the 45 or so hours I put into the game. Making sure you save often makes it fairly painless.
Despite its flaws, I really enjoyed playing it.
Shadowrun SNES - Real time rpg. Good story despite the amnesia hook. Felt like a really awesome blend of adventure, Action RPG.
Well made games, nothing earth shattering by today's standards:
Tales Of Phantasia - More actiony like the rest of the Tales series
Super Mario RPG - The start
Breath of Fire - Pretty standard JRPG now but was great when it was released.
Lufia - See above
Illusion of Gaia - More Zeldaish in gameplay
*edit* Beaten by less then 20 seconds on this one.
I would still say Breath of fire is pretty great still though. There are some pretty funny moments in that one. I would still have to say waking bleu up is the best.
bahamut lagoon (japan only strat RPG)
Lunar
Just to clarify, the PS3/360 version of the Genesis Collection does not have Sword of Vermillion, which most people hate anyway.
It does however have all the Shining Games released on Genesis (Shining Force, SFII, Shining in the Darkness) and all four Phantasy Star games (the original is an unlockable).
I never finished SoM in my teenage years, so I picked it up on VC. I convinced my wife to play through it with me - it was a blast. So much fun, in fact, we're now playing Seiken Densetsu 3 together.
Translated or un... I've still got my SD3 cart.
Bahamut lagoon falls into "other square games that never came here but are great" I wish they'd remake it.
Shattered Lands -traditional turn based RPG
The Genie's Curse -Zelda-ish action RPG
Those two are the best of the early 90s D&D games, there's some mediocre ones, like the Eye of the Beholder series, and whatnot, if you're bored. Eye of the Beholder also had an SNES port.
And if you're in the mood for a really hard strategy RPG, check out Ogre Battle on the SNES.
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
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My old school console RPGs consisted of DQ, FF, Shinning and this game. Over and Over.
(If you can't hear the voice say that then you've not played enough Ogre Battle.)
Character customization? Not really, but each game does entail recruiting 108 characters to your team. You also get a castle which grows in size and features as more people join forces with you.
Underrated? I'd say so. Games like FF6 and Chrono Trigger get the respect they deserve, but Suikoden II doesn't seem to be as well-known, which is a shame since it's on my list along with the former two as one of the finest RPGs I've ever played.
Since you said 16-bit games specifically, I feel I should also mention that Suikoden II really pays great attention to detail with its sprite animations.
If you have a PS3 then you can get Suikoden I off the PSN for six bucks, the second will be harder to come buy, (like, expect to pay upwards of $100 for it) but the price is well worth it.
Ogre Battle can be really easy, or really hard, depending on how you play.
Back when I was younger, it was really hard. I'd struggle to take and hold towns, risk losing them, and ocassionally have a unit bite off more than they could chew. Back and forth wars occurred, and it was good.
Later, I picked it up again, started fresh, and tried a new tactic. One ripped straight from history.
Blitzkrieg.
Instead, rush your entire force into an arc that traps the enemies as they try to get to your base and shoves them back, finally closing in to circle the enemy base. An enemy squad will try to leave, get to one of your units, fight, hopefully lose, get knocked back into another unit, who will either kill it or weaken it further so that another unit can get the kill, etc. Should they lose, another unit is often only a few pixels away from engaging the enemy anyway.
No longer do you need to fear for your towns, you merely become a circle of death, annihilating enemy forces one after the other, until only the boss remains. Often your biggest concern could well be shifting the units around a little, so you don't get one or two groups gaining ALL the experience.
Then send a fast, Good unit around to capture the towns for cards, items and new army members, perhaps let a day or two pass if you need the cash (I believe the "winning really quickly" bonus is enough to offset the need to do this) and bam, you've won the map and the hearts of the people.
I don't believe I ever finished OB, but this tactic saw me into level 30+ as I recall. I think I found one of the secret levels, got utterly trashed in trying it, and gave up for a while, which became somewhat permanent, to my chagrin.
But until I did that, Blitzkrieg warfare was nigh unstoppable. Ogre Battle just isn't built to compensate for someone outright ignoring the secondary objectives/towns.
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
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16 bit! It's even in the thread title!
Also: Secret of Evermore.
That is a fantastic suggestion, Monsty. Not only had I completely forgotten about this game, but it fits a lot of the bonus criteria and it will be a perfect follow-up to Dark Spire. Thanks!
Yeah, early era polygonal graphics (despite how amazing I thought they were at the time) now make me want to die, so that's right out, sorry.
Oh dude, SoE! I love you. Thank you for reminding me.