I played Lufia and Mystic Quest out of these. Mystic Quest is actually the only SNES game I own complete in the box lol. My cousin was obsessed with that game, and he didn't even like rpgs. It may not be the best FF by any means, but it surely does have some great music. The battle theme is by far my favorite out of all the FF games. It rocks! 
Top 250 RPGs: 160-151
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 On 05/29/2013 at 08:31 PM by SgtDawkins See More From This User » |
I’ve played more RPGs than you. That isn’t an insult; you may consider it a compliment if you wish. I’m not necessarily proud of the fact, honestly. If I could get a girl to talk to me, I wouldn’t tell them I’ve played so many role-playing games. Maybe I would. Is that the kind of thing they like talking about? Anyway, because I’ve played more RPGs than you, I’m in a unique position to tell you which ones are the best, and which ones are 161st best. Hint: there are six games that are the 161st best. But honestly, I like to write about RPGs, so here is a list if you like that sort of thing.
160) Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest (SNES)- NOT the worst console Final Fantasy game. A strange RPG experiment whereby Square decided that Americans were too stupid and impatient to enjoy the longer, more complicated games they were releasing by the boatfull in Japan. As such, there is no true world map, but a series of hotspots where you fight a set number of enemies or enter towns or whatever you might do in a real RPG. Your party consists of the main character and a single story-dictated partner, so battles aren’t exactly strategically complex. The game is simple to the point of being insulting- if you are expecting a full-fledged grown-up RPG. If, however, you go in with the understanding that this is a unique (whatever the reasons) role-playing hybrid that is meant to ease newcomers into the genre, then you should have a pretty good time with it. But then again….. Americans didn’t get Bahamut Lagoon, but we got this. We didn’t get Fire Emblem: Genealogy, but we got this. For god’s sake- we didn’t get Terranigma, but we got this! Fuck you Square.
159) Tales of Phantasia (SNES)- The game that started the series of anime-inspired RPGs that is still going strong today. I consider this series to be analogous to movie Summer blockbusters- you turn your brain off and enjoy the action, because the story and characters are all recycled from more complex titles. That doesn’t make the series bad, just unoriginal. Anyway, Phantasia, I think, was a pretty big deal when it was released- it was a cart with extra memory for all the graphics and stuff. It wedded the RPG format to action-based battles, and topped it off with a generic storyline and generic anime characters. It isn’t much to look at (or play, for that matter) right now, but imagine yourself back in 1995, waiting eight months between Brain Lord and Chrono Trigger. You would’ve played this game- admit it!
158) Shining Force CD (Sega CD)- Ooof, I don’t have much to say about this one. And what I do have to say isn’t very positive. This is a repackaging of the Game Gear Shining Forces, so you can see how inspired it is right there. And a repackaging of Game Gear games happens to be good enough to put it in the top five RPGs on the Sega CD. Were there more than five RPGs on the Sega CD? I can answer that question, and the answer is Lunar, Lunar 2, Vay, Shining Force CD, Dark Wizard, Popful Mail (not really an RPG), Dungeon Explorer (not really an RPG). Unlike its Genesis predecessors, this game lacks any significant exploration, and I miss it. I like exploring. But despite the game’s simplicity, it isn’t a total loss. Games that clock in 158 on this countdown are worth a try once you have played all those other games that you’d rather be playing.
More of the same. Play one of the others instead.
157) Ephemeral Fantasia (PS2)- Introducing an element of time travel into an otherwise mediocre game can make me play said game way longer than I would have otherwise. Case in point here. There is nothing about this one that is particularly noteworthy, save the time loop mechanic, whereby you repeat the same couple of days over and over again, changing things incrementally until you are able to solve the mystery of the awesomely named villain Zelpherpolis. For my money, at least, there is nothing more interesting than figuring out time-based puzzles, using foreknowledge of events to change the future. It’s awesome, and despite a fairly shitty RPG built around it, Ephemeral Fantasia earns its stripes by doing things that few games before it (or after it) have matched.
Forgot to tell you- the main character's weapon is a talking lute.
156) Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits (PS2)- Another one that’s sort of just there. It’s not a bad game by any stretch, though I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’ve cleared out your backlog and you are looking for something competent to occupy your time for a little while. The battle music is weird and good; give it a listen using the link below….. Here’s the thing- I have a countdown of the top 250 (or so) RPGs. By top 250, I mean every single RPG I’ve ever played. The bottom thirty or so are pretty bad. When you get close to 200, they get a little better, but they still aren’t titles I’d recommend. This game is number 156, which means that’s it’s an all right game, nothing wrong with it, it was playable and even a little enjoyable back in the day. But as you’ll see if you’ve read my stuff before, a lot of these middle games are really forgettable. Seriously- did you remember this game even existed? Maybe because it’s Arc the Lad, and for whatever reason, you really dig that series- then maybe this one rings a bell. But it’s like Shining Tears or the Musashi sequels of the Glory of Heracles games…. relics that were out of date and forgotten two years after they were released.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CdNF410qsU
155) Lufia and the Fortress of Doom (SNES)- By the time this game was released, the first vestiges of RPG-fatigue were sweeping across the land. Well, for me anyway. I didn’t blindly accept every single generic RPG that was thrown at me; I started noticing similarities between games and stopped thinking that any title where you gained levels and fought dragons was worth my time. Lufia doesn’t do much beyond give you a role-playing game to play, and if you aren’t playing a role-playing game, then this one will do the trick. Town, mountain pass, town, dark cave, town, tower, town, get a boat, lighthouse, town, ghost ship, etc…….. Lufia doesn’t stray from the formula, but it’s a competently made RPG, and it has its fans. The prequel is superior in every way, so that’s the one you should pick up if you have the time.
154) Golden Sun (GBA)- Camelot made a lot of nice RPGs back in the 16-bit days. Shining in the Darkness, Shining Force, stuff with Shining in the title. Golden Sun is also a nice title, using the same style of graphics that was their calling card years earlier. It is a pretty basic RPG that, again, has a sequel that is so far superior that it almost renders this game moot. The upshot to playing this one, however, is that when you are done, you are given the option to transfer your characters to the more expansive follow-up. The story in Lost Years (the sequel) starts up directly after the ending of this one, making Golden Sun a game worth the meager amount of time necessary to beat it. There’s the main reason this game isn’t ranked any higher- it’s super short.
153) Albert Odyssey (Saturn)- This game brought nothing new to the table. As a Working Designs release, you can expect an anime world with odd characters and an A+ translation. And for Albert Odyssey….. that’s about it. It is, as are many of the games at this point in the countdown, generic to the point of inspiring no loyalty. It’s a JRPG, and you probably like those if you are reading this, but damned if you will remember a thing about it six months after you are done. The Saturn had some nice RPGs, but this is probably the last (or close to the last) of those you should want to check out.
152) Dragon Quest II (NES)- The WORST of the Dragon Quest games. Not a bad game, but the only one I felt didn’t have a true hook. The idea here was that the party was expanded from one to three, and the world is four times the size of the one in the first Dragon Quest. The story is also expanded a bit, but as always, you aren’t playing DQ for the characters or story. I remember when this was first released, I was thrilled to have such an expansive RPG; if I attempted to play this today, I’d be bored out of my skull. Ah, the ravages of time. There’s no reason to play this series in order- this is the last one that should be attempted.
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Fooled you! This is Dragon Quest III! Admit you couldn't tell.
151) Secret of Evermore (SNES)- This game was very confusing to me when it was released. It looked a little bit like Secret of Mana, and it played a bit like Secret of Mana. The title made it seem like a sequel to Secret of Mana. Of course it wasn’t a true sequel at all, but a game running on the same engine that seemed to celebrate, of all things, American pop-culture. Another one of those misunderstood games that never quite lived up to people’s expectations. As for myself, I was never the biggest fan of Secret of Mana, so this game didn’t appeal to me on any of the levels that it should have. It was also rather short, ending just when I thought things were getting good, or okay at least. Not a bad game, but not one that I remember with much fondness.
This is apropos of nothing, of course. I picked an arbitrary (round number) starting point. Feel free to leave opinions. For those of you who have seen my top 100, welcome back! I planned on using this space to lampoon the absurdity of all my countdowns, but then I thought, "I'll write out my countdown instead!" Old habits die hard, I guess.
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