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Retro rpgs: old jrpgs that have aged well


Clephas

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One thing with retro-gaming... most old games just didn't age well, either visually or in terms of narrative.  A lot of this is, of course, the limitations of the systems involved... but in some cases, it is just a difference in overall charm and quality.  So, I thought I'd write you guys out a retro-rpg-gamer list, for those who are interested.  All the games and series on this list are pre-PS3/360/wii era games.  For now, I won't bother listing them by console, as I don't have time for that, lol.

 

List of Games/Series

 

Suikoden I, II, III, and V (Suikoden IV was the original cause of the series decay... the series as a whole is not a 'world-saver' type, but rather a political, military, and personal story)

Grandia I-II (best turn-based battle system... the original has a great story but suffers from somewhat overly goofy-looking main characters... the second is just overall awesome)

Chrono Trigger (obviously, this game still holds all its charm almost two decades later... even newbies can't help but love it)

Chrono Cross (while it suffers in overall comparison to its predecessor, its musical score is timeless and the story is excellent)

SMT: Digital Devil Saga (the best SMT story, period, so far... and still beautiful visually today)

SMT: P3-P4 (obviously fan favorites, having been reproduced dozens of times)

SMT: Nocturne (one of only two main-series games to come to the US, it is a dungeon crawler+demonic Pokemon, with a side of post-Armageddon)

FFVI, IX (these two suffered the least from age and have the strongest long-term appeal, though some might argue to include X in there)

Tactics Ogre (the game that FFT stole ALL of its major ideas from... has an even more brutal story, as well as letting you choose the outcome and path to it in detail)

Dragon Force (My first intro to the Sega Saturn...an immensely addictive conquest strategy-rpg)

Panzer Dragoon Saga (perhaps the weirdest of all the games I played from the Saturn/PSX era... and one of the best)

Lunar Silver Star, Eternal Blue (Lunar is rpg junk food at its best, with a wacky Working Designs localization)

Growlanser Generations (contains II-III from the series... these games have aged very well, and the way your actions in battle allow you to alter the ending is very nice)

Tales of Destiny I-II (My intro into the Tales series... storytelling is almost identical to more modern entries into the series, in general atmosphere... perhaps a bit more traditional-rpg)

Legend of Dragoon (yes, it suffers visually... but in terms of sound and overall style, it is hard to match even today)

Arc the Lad 2 (The best entry in the series as a whole... a truly excellent game with a unique approach to the 'save the world' theme)

Shadow Hearts I-II (interesting gothic fantasy rpg set in the early twentieth century... visuals do suffer but overall game is still high quality)

Ar Tonelico I-II (junk food for fans of Gust... Gust at its best)

Atelier Iris 2 (best game in the entire Atelier series, even now... or at least it seems so for people who aren't interested in endless fetch and gather quests)

Skies of Arcadia (one of the most unique turn-based rpgs I've ever encountered... exploration is unbelievable, for obvious reasons)

Dragon Quest VIII

Star Ocean II

Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth

Xenogears

Xenosaga

Dark Cloud 1 and 2(tbh, I never went back to these after I beat them, so I don't know if they aged well)

Breath of Fire 3 (IV suffers from being too short, and it has a horrible localization)

Radiata Stories (unique game, overall... glad I repurchased it after accidentally trading it in way back when)

Disgaea: Hour of Darkness

Lufia 2 (nice to see someone besides me remembers this... though that action-rpg remake sucked donkey balls)

Wild Arms I-II (3 and later all suffered from various major issues that made them difficult to enjoy overall... mostly going too far down the western path - or choosing really weird story themes - and losing some of the charm of the originals - not to mention Filgaia should have died long ago, considering how devastated it was in the first two games)

SaGa Frontier

Romancing SaGa (duh, this game was awesome... showed the SaGa series potential)

Alundra (Zelda knockoff in terms of basic game concept, though the story is far less surreal in some ways)

Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits (despite the fact that I really enjoyed this game, I still can't help but see it as the graveyard of the series, considering what came after)

Zelda Ocarina of time (Zelda before a series of annoying sequels and Windwaker ruined everything)

 

 

 

 

These will do for a start.  If you ask me for my reasons for excluding a particular entry (FFVII, for instance) it is probably either because I forgot it, or because it aged horribly enough that playing it now could only be an unpleasant experience for a younger gamer. 

 

Edit: FFVII has still aged horribly, and until I see a complete remake, I can't recommend it for newbie retrogamers.  Vandal Hearts has great gameplay (use of environment elements, such as bridges, dams, and the like to kill enemies in groups, etc.).  However, its aesthetic is... aged even as psx games go.  Vanguard Bandits suffers from an excess of stat customization without the ability to reset them, an easy cheat in the battle save, and way too many endings for a game with no new game + stat carryovers.  Baten Kaitos' card battle system is its best game-killer and the reason I avoided card battle systems like the plague for years after.  Persona 2 IS I haven't gotten around to playing (I have it on my psp), but I did play the original, as well as Eternal Punishment.  Tbh, while the two of the originals I played have a lot to recommend to them in terms of story, the first-person viewpoint during dungeon exploration was annoying as hell, and the encounter rate in the first one was way too high considering how few 'safe' areas there were...  Though, I did overall enjoy the plot of both.  Fire Emblem is a bit too harsh for the average modern gamer... especially considering most people fail utterly at thinking strategically on their own and become reliant on the battle walkthroughs (I wanted to puke when I saw my friend pulling that crap). 

Edited by Clephas
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Very nice list. With your permission Clephas here are some suggestions of the era PS2 / GC / XBOX.

 

Dragon Quest the journey of the cursed king:  A very rewarding game, turn based and hard!! xD

Baten Kaitos: A very "unique game", card system combat very fun to play.

Valkyrie profile silmeria/lenneth: Just play it, i love those games.

Tales of symphonia: wath to say here? a master piece.

Dark chronicle: the sequel of dark cloud. This game is "UNIQUE", a great system for weapons devolpment.

Star Ocean till the end of time: a wonderfull game with a lots of endings.

Wild arms 3: Bad graphics but... magic and western? awesome

 

I'll add some more later, i'll be thinking in add a few action rpgs but not sure if that's what you want so i dont do it. Again a very cool list... nice times those... xD

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Xenogears - one of the best rpgs of all time. With a masterfully told epic story unlike any other rpg before or since then. With great gameplay to back it up.

 

Xenosaga - the spiritual successor to Xenogears. Another amazing story. Each game in the series has a different core gameplay but overall they are very similar and a lot of fun to play.

 

Final Fantasy VII - all the 'cool' kids on the nets unfairly bash it, but the reality is that this is still an amazing game. The story is best story is better than most rpgs out there. The game is great with a system that's easy to learn but hard to master.

 

Glory of Heracles 3 - GoH 1&2 don't hold today but GoH 3 is very original and even a mind screw in a way. Hopefully we'll get GoH4 translation.

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Ah Tactics Ogre how nostalgic, it's a game that made me like JRPGs back in a day of PSX and the very first JRPG that I played, true I wouldn't know anything about a story back then my English was just good enough to understand an interface.

 

Interesting to find out that it seems to have an PSP remake later on, I might pick it up again when I find a time.

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I would add the Kingdom Hearts series to this list.    Great games, all of them. 

 

Also, for as old as it was, Persona 2: IS had a great story.  I haven't had the chance to play EP yet but I'll get to it soon enough. 

 

 

Also, I'll be the outlier here; I hated Chrono Trigger, thought it was one of the worst games I've ever played and never saw any appeal to it.  

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Always love seeing Shadow Hearts get some love. That battle ring system is just a blast. Can't think of amny games where I enjoyed grinding, but I loved it in Shadow Hearts II. 

The Atelier Iris games are fantastic (at least the first one is so far, still havent begun the second). I do hear the third was not so great. Chrono games of course are good, but Cross is a little bleh. Suikoden V is fantastic. Just about everything you listed is great. I might even ignore your jab at the newer Atelier Waifu games. 

Fantastic list Clephas. I know who I'm hanging out with one day. 

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I'd like to mention some old rpgs I thought were good and weren't mentioned yet.

 

- Arc The Lad: Twilight of the Spirits (PS2)

- Radiata Stories (PS2)

- Breath of Fire 3, 4 (PS1)

- Saga Frontier (PS1)

- Wild Arms 2 (PS1)

- Vanguard Bandits (PS1)

- Vandal Hearts 1, 2 (PS1)

- Fire Emblem: Sword of Seals (GBA)

- Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64)

- Tales of Phantasia (SNES)

- Lufia 2 (SNES)

- Alundra (PS1)

- Dark Cloud (PS2)

- ICO (PS1)

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I've been playing rpgs since the early nineties (to be specific, 1991), and I had to take a step back and really consider which games I'd played would actually appeal to someone interested in retro-games.  Ironically, with the introduction of the smartphone and its accompanying apps, people's graphical standards are actually lower than they were at the beginning of the last generation, so there are more young retrogamers than there used to be, by far.  To be honest, I'm still not sure about adding Dark Cloud and its sequel to that list above, because I never really considered them in the first place (both games having been fairly forgettable, at least for me).  I crossed out Thousand Arms, which I loved at the time, because everything about it has aged horribly, and VN-players generally don't get along with dating-sim/rpg hybrids, lol.

 

I really and seriously considered not including P4 simply because I hate Teddy with a passion... but I had to admit the game itself was high-quality, even though P3 was twice as good.

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To be honest, I'm still not sure about adding Dark Cloud and its sequel to that list above, because I never really considered them in the first place (both games having been fairly forgettable, at least for me).  I crossed out Thousand Arms, which I loved at the time, because everything about it has aged horribly, and VN-players generally don't get along with dating-sim/rpg hybrids, lol.

Yeah, I don't really remember anything significantly amazing about Dark Cloud in regards to story and such either... the only reason I mentioned it was because of the fun/unique gameplay it had at the time (maybe even now still) ^^  I enjoyed collecting items and creating the town to progress the story.

 

Aw, Thousand was a favorite of mine too. It was the game that got me into dating-sims/VNs. xD

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Technically, Thousand Arms could be considered my first dating sim... but it is also the reason why I don't like dating sims.  The way they are built feels even more contrived than the average rpg... and because the stats don't really make all that much sense, it is even worse.  I'm actually glad that sub-genre is dead as a doornail...

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Wild arms on Ps 1. Cute sprites. Easy RPG to get into. Great music. Ugly ps1 polygons during fights.

Final fantasy 9. Such an undrated game. Story was way better than 8 and was on par with 7. Great MC. Last FF Game that has that classic Final Fantasy magic to it.

Breath of fire 1-3. Classic capcom RPG series about dragons. Gameplay based around dragon transformations. BoF 3 uses all sprites including battles.

Secret of mana on snes. Another squaresoft classic. 3 player RPG with the best real time rpg coop battle of its time. Similar graphics to chrono trigger i guess.

Download an snes emulator and just look up rpgs. Theres too many to list.

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Final Fantasy Tactics - Despite it's poor Engrish translation and variety of exploitable bugs on the original PS1 release, it is still great. The sprites haved aged a bit but it's the story and gameplay that make this great. Sure, it's been updated and released as War of the Lions, but the original still holds a great part in my gaming memory.

 

Another game that isn't your traditional JRPG but has still aged well is Earthbound.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'd add Seiken Densetsu 3 to that list. It still looks good, and it plays quite well. The story is quite good, with branching paths depending on which characters you choose, and while it's not deep at all, it keeps you entertained. Personally, I think it's better than Secret of Mana, which gets mentioned pretty often.

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GENESIS

____________

Shining force

Shining force 2

Phantasy Star II

Phantasy Star IV

be warned that phantasy star is one of the most unforgiving video games of all time.

SNES

______________

Super Mario RPG

PS2

_______________

.hack//INFECTION

.hack//MUTATION

.hack//OUTBREAK

.hack//QUARANTINE

.hack//G.U. Vol. 1: Rebirth

.hack//G.U. Vol. 2: Reminisce

.hack//G.U. Vol. 3: Redemption

Wild Arms 5

 Tales of Legendia

Tales of the abyss

PS

_______________

Parasite Eve

Parasite Eve II

Jade Cocoon

 

 

Gameboy and all the variations

____________________

Pokemon

summon night, swordcraft story

Kingdom Heart:chain of memories

 

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Whoa whoa whoa! Are we calling PS2 games retro, now? My heart can't take this.

 

I think Dark Cloud 2 aged decently, but 1 did not. 2 has the characteristic Level-5 cel shading art that looks rather nice, and it doesn't play all that badly, either. A lot of the side stuff was really fun. I liked building villages and everything related. That golf minigame, though...

 

About your hate of Teddy in P4, is that with the Japanese dub or English dub? I'm not sure I like his Japanese voice as much as the English one. Actually, Atlus did a pretty great job of the dub overall, although Rise can be a bit sketchy sometimes. I'm very fond of P3 and P4 games, though. They're probably my favorite JRPGs of the 3D era, actually. Enough to beat P4 twice and watch Giant Bomb's endurance run twice (if you haven't seen that, it's basically an LP made by professional journalists, but are funny as hell and often dumb as a brick). I think they can continue to hold up over time. I also think Atlus will continue to remake and milk the hell out of them. Can't wait for P5, I'll have to finally get a PS3 for it. Edit: Also, figures you'd like P3 so much more. It has a much bigger chuuni vibe to it. :P

 

I loved the hell out of Grandia 2 when I first played it on the Dreamcast. The battle system enraptured me. It was very tactical and engaging, while being fast paced with a standard JRPG interface. The only problem was that it was too easy. They built this fantastic battle system but had very few interesting encounters. Grandia 3 upped the difficulty at least a little bit, enough to make the battles much more fun on average, in my opinion. But holy balls, did the story and dialog take a nosedive. I think G2 can hold up.

 

Since you're counting the Wii, can we add in Xenoblade? It almost feels like cheating though, it's just a few years old in the US. Still, I enjoyed it the most out of any of the Xeno games. I never got into the stupid pseudo-philosophical and religious masturbatory nonsense they served the player, and I felt like Xenoblade actually touched on some of those subjects in a more level-headed manner. One of the few JRPGs with a battle between two age-old rival races that actually handled the subject matter in at least a somewhat interesting way.

 

Skies of Arcadia - Phenomenal, I loved it to death. Exploration was a joy, and I loved kitting out my kicking rad airship with new gear and a custom crew. And I always like base building systems when present. That said, I actually didn't like the ship battles too much. They just kind of felt like mediocre puzzle games, and they weren't dynamic at all. Once you found a solution for a fight, you just stuck to it and it would never fail.

 

Going back a generation, Front Mission 3: I haven't actually played any of the other FM games. I'd like to some day, but FM1 and 2 are suuuper dated, I just can't go back to it, and people tell me they're necessary for understanding 4 and 5. FM3 is a really great SRPG, though. I liked the focus on ranged battles, the customizable mechs, the different health values for different parts, etc. Very interesting strategic experience that felt like it had more depth than most SRPGs.

 

Suikoden 2 - it's a (hidden?) classic. Tells an interesting war story with a main villain you love to hate. 

 

Star Ocean 2 - The PS1 JRPG I sunk the most time into. I'm typically not a huge action RPG fan but this one really pulled me in. I'm not even sure why, looking back on it, it's not terribly special. But I really liked exploring the world, leveling up all the oddball skills, replaying it to recruit alternate characters, and breaking the game in the secret dungeon.

 

And back even another generation, Super Mario RPG - I didn't have a SNES when growing up, only a Genesis, and played no JRPGs until FF7 on the PS1. So it took a while for me until I got into emulation before discovering it. But when I did, I loved it. Very fun battle system, an interesting way to incorporate Mario elements in an isometric JRPG, and a plot that was surprisingly decent. May be my favorite SNES RPG.

 

 

RIP JRPGs, the genre was good while it lasted. Sucks that it's practically dead, now.

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As for Phantasy Star 2, this thing will bitch slap you and make you lick its shoes. Abandon all hope ye who enter without a walkthrough.

 

Very true. I tried getting into Phantasy Star 2 in the early 2000s, and didn't have much success. The first three mazes were lengthy, full of increasingly tough foes, and not easy to navigate. A couple years later, I tried the first Phantasy Star game, and thought it was much, much more difficult -- including first person mazes and tough foes in the first few minutes!

 

Other games I've (re)played in the recent past:

 

* Dragon Quest 4. Even back in 1992, I understood that it had frustrating aspects, but I kinda liked it. Still enjoy the NES version, and I had some positive things to say about the DS version. DQ4 is four short stories that segue into a longer story. I got more enjoyment out of the first four parts, even though they have some annoying sections such as having to earn huge amounts of money as a merchant. It's a game I still enjoy every now and then in modest amounts.

 

* Dragon Quest 7. I wanted to like it, but there were too many problems. The first couple hours just had a maze, and it took some guessing in order to figure out who to talk to nex. The story keeps becoming melancholy, and I'm not sure why. Progressing through the game requires finding a huge number of MacGuffins, and most of them are hidden in strange places. Only a few of the playable or relevant characters are interesting.

 

* Chrono Cross. Back in the day, I thought this game was enjoyable early on, but that it lost steam due to a bunch of useless characters, and plot twists that just seemed to add to the time requirement. Replaying it recently, I remembered how the seven point battle system was interesting, and why I liked the elemental fields. However, I was annoyed by the camera tricks in every insignificant battle.

 

* Suikoden 5. I devoted a bunch of hours to this game in the mid-2000s. Story buildup takes several hours, during which it can be a long time before there's any exploration or combat. Replaying it about a year ago, I was struggling with the loading times in towns. Combat was also much slower than the two original Playstation games.

 

* Final Fantasy 4. When I first played the SNES version, I had been young enough that every plot twist seemed unexpected and enjoyable. I liked its modest level of challenge. More recently, I have played a couple of the 2D remakes. They make it easier to follow the story, make the characters' dialogue seem less garbled, and usually increase the challenge. So while I can't complain, I didn't like the PS1 remake all that much, and I'm not enjoying the PSP remake much either. The story just isn't a big deal now.

 

* Lunar 1. The Playstation version was a personal favorite. Its gameplay was not much different from FF4. It mostly just carried the story, which I thought was a decent adventure tale with just enough humor, shipping, and cuteness. Some years later, I tried the GBA and PSP remakes. The former was okay, and I thought the latter had some merit. But again, I didn't have the patience or the interest to go through the story one more time.

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