Every RPG I played, and their pros/cons

I'm on a quest to beat as many remotely interesting RPG's as possible after 15+ years of mostly ignoring the genre, and I'll be using this list as a way to track'em. Albeit I write full reviews for each RPG, the notes found in this list are a more succinct version of the positives and negatives I took out of each game, and whether I can recommend it to anyone else. +'s mean positive things, -'s mean negative things, and ='s mean things I'm mixed on.

Now Playing: Vay (Sega CD, October 22nd, 1993)
Up Next: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Switch, May 23rd, 2024)

40 Games

Display

Sort by

Dragon Warrior

Dragon Warrior II

Final Fantasy

Finished (April 24th, 2024)

The original NES release of Final Fantasy. I've already played the Pixel Remaster version of the game and enjoyed it, but I decided I wanted to mark the original off my bucket list as well. Though, I'm aware I'm walking into a game I most likely won't enjoy in its pure form, so I'll be using the "Hasted" romhack, which speeds up various actions and animations throughout the game, alongside the "Antigrind" patch to increase EXP and gold gains. Otherwise, I'm playing with all the original bugs in-tact, and the romhack's optional autotargeting feature disabled.

+ You gotta admit, the title drop was pretty iconic for its time
+ The choice of which classes you want to play the game with lends to a respectable amount of experimentation and replay value
+ The exploratory loop is pretty nice, enhances the feeling of adventure and makes you feel like you're getting things done
+ Built-in map feature shows your current position, highlights mountains to indicate where you can't go, and marks points of interest. That's surprisingly more forward-thinking than some of the other things in this game
+ A surprisingly competent localization, makes your objectives pretty clear as long as you're paying attention
= Though this is not a problem for me since I'm using the Hasted romhack, the game's default battle speed can feel really sluggish to get through
= Without a guide, good luck figuring out what half the items and spells do, or what equipment is good or who is it for. I used guides.gamercorner.net, which has some very nicely structured breakdowns of all the items, and their short-term/long-term worth
+ The manual is also pretty fun to follow along
- Can only buy 1 item at a time, making stocking up on potions and other items too time-consuming
- Certain spells and mechanics (such as the Intelligence stat) just straight up don't work due to a number of oversights and bugs that plagues the NES version.

Recommended: In its pure original form, I would only recommend it if you're historically curious. Simple as it may be, exploring the world is not a bad time, but most of this game is the combat, and the combat is slow, tedious, grindy, frustratingly difficult, and buggy as shit on top of all that. It's really not a well polished experience, and you'd be better off trying one of the later ports instead.

However, with the "Hasted" romhack in place, the game's pacing definitely improves and turns the game into a bit of a cozier time. I'd strongly recommend using it if you're planning to play the NES version. My only wish is that I hadn't used the "Antigrind" patch, as the sheer amount of EXP it gave me turned out to have tipped the difficulty way too much in my favor, and the game actually became too easy. Sometime in the future, I hope to revisit this hack without the "Antigrind" patch in place, but for the time being, I'm satisfied with this and will be checking out other Final Fantasy ports in the future.

Dragon Warrior III

Mother

The Final Fantasy Legend

Ys: Book I & II

Dragon Warrior IV

Finished (2023)

AKA Dragon Quest 4 for the NES. Played some of the DS version a handful of years ago, but this is the first version I've beaten.

+ Chapter-based structure, similar to MOTHER 3. You switch between multiple characters, until Chapter 5, when your goal becomes to gather all of them together for the ultimate showdown.
+ In a unique change of roles, you spend one part of the game as a shopkeeper, selling things to other would-be heroes
+ Working the counter at a shop, earning lots of gold, but my boss only giving me less than 10% of the earnings reminded me of the current state of the game industry, and unlocked feelings of revolt that I don't think I ever could've articulated before
+ Perfectly balanced difficulty, which is a miracle for an NES title
+ Once you amass all party members, you will have lots of inventory space to go around, more than enough for your needs
+ Sex < Defeating your first Metal Slime King
+ In spite of the composer being a shithead, battle theme was actually pretty good in this one
= Tactics system removes a certain degree of control you have over your party members, in favor of strategies that they may or may not do. Not a big deal, but I would've preferred to keep control over them
= Weapons/armor do a somewhat better job at showing you the stat differences now, but shops still don't disclose these differences until you buy them
= Somewhat bigger focus on story, but not enough for it to feel satisfyingly developed

Recommended: Yes. You'll still want an overworld map, and some mild usage of save states and the DQ wiki while checking out what items and weapon/armor does. But of the 4 NES Dragon Quests, this is by far the most balanced and fun one to play. There was never a point where I felt something was too much or too unfair, pretty much everything felt right, as right as it could for the day it was released in. There are likely more definitive versions of DQ4, but if you're looking for a pure experience, you can rest assured that playing the game in its original form is still a pretty good time if you're a fan of classic turn-based combat.

Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II

Finished (December 21st, 2023)

This is the NES version of the second Megami Tensei game, perhaps known better as the franchise that spawned the Persona series. I skipped the first Megami Tensei, as it seems few people can vouch for that thing being any fun. I have some concerns about the fun-itude of this sequel myself, but figured it'd be worthwhile to see how Megami Tensei will eventually evolve into Persona via a quick look, at least. First time playing.

+ Unique setting and themes for an RPG, Nintendo didn't want this in the west cuz it was way too cool for them
+ Game uses a special chip to enhance the quality of the music, and it pays off, some really good tracks here
+ Demons (the enemies) can be recruited as party members by talking to them, but they don't earn EXP. Instead, you gotta fuse two recruited demons in order to create stronger variants. It's a pretty interesting spin on the formula, and alleviates having to worry about individually leveling up every recruit you obtain.
= Game could've really used a better map (such as one that doesn't take MP to use), but for what it's worth, the one that is there does help in making the game more navigatable for the most part. Worst case scenario, there's a site with maps out there
= For each level up, stats have to be manually distributed by you. Cool as far as customizability goes, but not all stats are useful for all party members, and the game makes no point of telling you about that, potentially leading to you wasting level ups
= Horrifically punishing difficulty. Depending on your tolerance for RPG's that kick your ass, your mileage on this may vary.
= Feels like the game's designed around running away from specific enemy encounters, which would be fine if the Run mechanic wasn't dependent on luck
= In order to use demons as party members, you need "MAG," a currency that drains the more you walk around in a dungeon with demons. I'm not really sure I see the point of making demons limited use, frankly.
- The actual process to recruit demons feels like a complete crapshoot. The choices you make while talking to them may work, or they may not, it all seems dependent on luck, and may just lead you to take unnecessary damage instead. Maybe I'm not using the "moon phase" system correctly for this, but I haven't been able to fully grasp the fun in the randomness of this mechanic.
- Sometimes, you can really end up screwing yourself by not bringing the exact demons into a dungeon that the game wants you to, making the dungeon itself a hair-pulling chore to go through, while leaving you stumped on what exactly did the game want out of you here.
- Inconvenient heal points are one thing, extremely infrequent save points are another
- Obtuse progression, heavy usage of guide was required to figure out things I wouldn't have thought of in a million years
- These encounter rates are unforgivable

Recommended: This is a type of RPG that will only work for the most hardcore of retro dungeon crawler fans. For anyone else, Megami Tensei II is just plain cruel, and it depends on that cruelty to pad its game length out into potentially 50 or more hours. While there's a lot to appreciate about its visuals and soundtrack, the game itself is not only unfun, but seemingly purposeful in its intent to make your journey as frustrating and confusing as possible. If any of that isn't making you go "oh hell yeah", then I would heavily advise just listening to the soundtrack and trying out one of the later games in the series instead.

Final Fantasy Legend II

Exile

Cosmic Fantasy 2

Final Fantasy Adventure

Final Fantasy II

Final Fantasy Legend III

Romancing SaGa

Finished (August 30th, 2023)

The first of the SNES Romancing SaGa trilogy. This version of the game was never released outside Japan, which is why I'm using a fan translation to play. Although it did receive a PS2 remake about a decade and some change later, which did get localized, then later ported to PC. For now however, I'm checking out the original SNES version. First time playing.

+ 8 characters to choose from at the start of the game. Each character starts at a different part of the world, and generally gets a couple of their own unique quests alongside it
+ First Squaresoft open world RPG. There is no linear progression or main quest to follow, you can go pretty much anywhere, and tackle quests in any order.
+ The high degree of freedom can be dizzyingly overwhelming, but is definitely part of the intent
+ Progression is dictated by meeting kill quotas. As you defeat more monsters, more quests unlock, while early beginner quests get locked off. With enough monsters killed, the final dungeon is unlocked.
+ Overworld traversal is simplified via a literal map where you select where to go. I much prefer it to standard RPG overworlds of this time, as navigating them can be unnecessarily confusing.
+ Introduces assigning characters to front, middle, or back rows, adding further strategy on how to best take advantage of each character
+ Weapons can be leveled, and have unique skills attached to them, some of which are delightfully overpowered
+ Weapon durability is still gone even with Kawazu back in the directing helm, and I thank god everyday for it
+ No permadeath unlike previous Legend games, and an added bonus of characters automatically reviving after a battle is over
= The fact that certain quests get locked off by killing too many monsters could be a deal breaker for some . This isn't a game where you're meant to see everything, it wants to drive replay value that way.
= Romancing attempts to address the random encounter issue by making all enemies visually appear in the dungeons. Promising idea, but execution is incredibly poor. Reasons below.
= Enemies touching you from the side or back screws up your party formation. Could've been fine, but this happens far more often than you'd think.
- Damage-dealing spells have the Final Fantasy II problem of being next to worthless
- Some of the worst dungeons I've ever had to play in an RPG. The amount of enemies present in them is ridiculous. Constant instances of up to 15-20 unavoidable battles within the span of 1 second of each other.
- Enemies tend to be either faster than you, or placed in spots that make it impossible to go around them, effectively eliminating the entire point of making these enemies appear visually in the dungeons, and only making things worse for it.
- The quests sound exciting, until you realize all they amount to is sending you into these awful, awful dungeons. No interesting storytelling or worldbuilding is ever given.
- Game is straight up unfinished. Biggest example includes the game teasing you with 10 legendary "Fatestones" scattered around the world, only to turn out 3 of them are unobtainable because the developers reportedly ran out of time.
- The final boss just sucks ass
- Insanely repetitive soundtrack, and ludicrous lack of music variety considering the 30-hour length.

Recommended: A strong and firm no. While the concept of an open world RPG on consoles was very ahead of its time, the way dungeons and enemies are handled make it absolutely horrible to play. It's too repetitive, and too long for the amount of content it is capable of offering.

I had a really bad time with this one, and can only hope that the remake fixes things up, let alone the other SNES Romancing SaGa games that are ahead of me, which I'm now dreading after playing this.

Lunar: The Silver Star

Exile: Wicked Phenomenon

Finished (October 11th, 2023)

The sequel to Exile (also released on the PC-Engine), and the final entry in the whole series, retaining its real-time combat gameplay. First time playing, using a romhack that restores difficulty back to the japanse original.

+ Attempts to address an issue from the previous game by allowing you to play as your protagonist's companions, each with their own strengths.
+ Visuals are alright
+ Really scraping the bottom of the barrel to find positive things to say here, so let's just say the western cover art looks pretty cool
= Even shorter than the previous Exile, about 2 hours long if you don't die often. Short length isn't usually a valid criticism, but here, it feels really rushed and incomplete
- More than half of the playable characters are virtually useless, and the game does nothing to incentivize switching between them
- Camera only scrolls if you push your character against the very edge of the screen. Leads to frequent cheap shots, with enemies running in before you can react
- Enemies come in overwhelming amounts from the very start, no sense of difficulty balance
- Very poor and inconsistent hitboxes, including projectiles you think you can duck under but you can't, and enemies dealing contact damage even if you're a notable distance away from them.
- If you're not using the japanese difficulty romhack, this game is known for being nigh unplayable, enemy stats cranked up so high most of everything will kill you in seconds
- Might be a romhack problem, but talking to NPC's would frequently glitch the hell out of the game
- The interesting aspects of the previous Exile's story have been totally stripped away here, and replaced with a generic "good guy stops the embodiment of evil" romp. The potential this world has continues to be completely wasted

Recommended: No. Somehow, it's even worse than the previous Exile. Gameplay feels bad in just about every aspect, and the story has been simplified enough that it has basically nothing to say. What a shame...

Dragon Quest V: Tenkuu no Hanayome

Finished (October 31st, 2023)

The SNES version of Dragon Quest 5. Dabbled in the DS version a few years back, but only for an hour or two. Might as well be my first time playing.

= Noooot super different from the NES games, but I was kinda expecting that. Dragon Quest is not a franchise known for change like Final Fantasy is.
+ Tactics system is back, but now as an option instead of forced on you. It's basically a more advanced version of an auto-battle command, I like using it here and there
+ Whoooa, you can actually see the stat differences for armor/weapons in shops. Now there's an advancement!
+ Any medal collectibles you find no longer take up space in your inventory
+ The game's first real dungeon is a haunted castle, and it does a pretty good job at selling you on the fact that the developers can do more creative things with the SNES hardware
+ The first couple hours do a really nice job playing around with the conventions of an RPG
+ A couple pretty wild twists and turns throughout the story
+ If I'm not mistaken, first instance of post-game content? Here, it comes in the form of an extra boss.
= While not super broken, fan translation I'm using has frequent typo's and missing words
= We're back to the DQ2 rule of only being allowed to use 3 characters in a battle. Not sure how I feel about that yet
= The ability to recruit monsters as party members is cool, but wildly inconsistent. Only some monsters can be recruited, and it's difficult to tell which since it's all random chance. There's no way you can tell unless you're using a guide. I eventually learned it's better to just let luck dictate which monsters you get rather than grinding for all of them
= Even so, it is very clear that some monsters are far more useless to recruit compared to others
= I kinda miss the previous games letting me choose my protagonist's gender. It makes me feel disconnected from the roleplaying element of this game, as it keeps emphasizing how much of a strong man I gotta be, meanwhile my name in the game is "Maxine". I understand that this is to serve a specific narrative purpose though, in which case I suppose I wish they made him more talkative, to indicate he is his own character
= Buying stuff from shops is still pretty slow, especially if you wanna buy several of the same items. They should just cut those bits of dialogue out, they ain't necessary.
= Beating the game unlocks a post-game secret boss, but doesn't save any of the equipment or levels you gained since the last save. Considering that the boss is meant to be hard, not losing all my shit from the final dungeon could've really helped.
= This has been a thing for most DQ's so far, but I'm starting to get kinda tired of consumable items not stacking together in your inventory. Even allowing to stack 9 consumables would've been nice
- Similarly to the above point, I really can't wait until they add a run button or something, 'cuz navigating towns has been a serious drag since the beginning of the series.
- Those encounter rates definitely didn't get any less forgiving with the jump to SNES
- I'm either very unlucky, or the casino is a total waste of time
- An annoying quirk past a certain point, where human party members get automatically prioritized over monster party members while entering towns. This forces you to frequently reorganize your team if you want recruited monsters to be part of it

Recommended: Hmm, I dunno. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for this one as much as the others, but I've honestly found this one kinda annoying to play. With 5 of these games under my belt, it's getting tiring to see how little QoL they still have. Most improvements being incrementally drip fed throughout the series, with no effort to really make some big changes to improve the player experience, even though the game has had an extra year of development than usual.

The major addition of the monster recruitment system felt pretty all over the place. The encounter rates are a major problem, and while the story is definitely the strongest it's been yet, it still feels like it's missing an interesting villain to tie it together. I started to lose interest about 70% through the game. I'm glad I played it, but I think this'll be the only time I touch the original version. Looking forward to seeing what the remakes improve.

Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest

Finished (November 20th, 2023)

A spinoff title designed to appeal to younger audiences, and those unfamiliar with RPG's. Heard middling things, but... let's just get it over with. First time playing.

+ Despite being made by the Final Fantasy Legend III team, battles are appreciatively faster than that game
= Only two people can be in a party at the same time, huh... well, I suppose the point is to make the game simple to play. For better or for worse.
+ I like that spells are just things you find by exploring the overworld, instead of them being at shops. Feels more rewarding that way
+ Overworld traversal is closer to something like Mario World, where the character walks from one important location to another with just one button press. Again, not huge on early RPG maps, so this is a welcome simplification.
+ "Battlefield" spots on the map are bite-sized grinding sessions in disguise, allowing you to do 10 battles to obtain a reward at the end, such as a piece of armor, or extra EXP. I like doing these just to see what it rewards me with
= If you game over, you can restart from the beginning of the fight you died in. Technically convenient, but kinda removes any stakes out of the game
+ Some nice enemy spritework, including unique sprites for when enemies are at low health
+ Yeah, music's pretty good
= The game doesn't keep track of which chests you opened, so you can cheese things by repeteadly re-entering a room to keep obtaining your desired chest's contents. It becomes way too easy to stock up on potions as a result.
- Story is a dramatic stepdown from the ambitions of FF4, or even this studio's previous game, Final Fantasy Legend 3. There's basically nothing to get out of this, no memorable moments or stakes or anything. Aside from maybe like, one kinda funny joke near the beginning of the game.
- Dungeons eventually start getting insufferably long and repetitive
- Enemies love to inflict status effects frequently, and with there only being two characters you can bring into battle, this can easily mean you getting instantly wiped out because of poor luck.
- While the lack of random encounters and respawnable enemies seems like a strength at first, you realize just how limiting this makes the game's replayability. You can only be as powerful as the game allows at that time, thus meaning every playthrough of the game is going to feel exactly the same.
- On a related note, Square needs to learn that if you're gonna remove random encounters, it won't make the game any better if you're just gonna jack up the amount of enemies present to compensate for it. You're doing a one step forward, one step back kind of thing, so why bother doing it at all? It's not fun to fight the same enemy a hundred times, you fucks.
- The fact that you obtain the Excalibur and it makes absolutely no difference in the amount of turns it takes to defeat en enemy goes to show just how dumb this game's balancing is

Recommended: No. This is not just an RPG for amateurs, it was also made by them as well. Plays to absolutely zero strengths of this genre, it's baffling that any of this was thought as fun. If you really want a beginner's RPG with some decent depth to it, you should just go for Paper Mario. As for this, give the soundtrack a listen, and move on to other RPG's from there.

Final Fantasy V

Finished (January 16th, 2024)

Used a fan translation of the SNES original + the "Final Fantasy V Tweaks" romhack, which doesn't alter the experience drastically beyond a few QoL changes. Game is known for bringing back the FF3 Job system, and generally being more centered around that than story.

+ Options on how to tackle combat get ridiculously and overwhelmingly open, there are many different ways to play this game
+ Job system is overall a major improvement over FF3, I've found over 19 of the 22 available classes equally useful.
+ Instead of a cap of level 99, Jobs only need to be leveled about 3 to 7 times, and each Job level grants you a new ability to toy around with
+ Unlocked abilities can be combined with other Jobs to create even more diverse combinations of builds, leading to insane amounts of replayability
+ Tons of different bosses and nice spritework to look at
+ Some solid tunes, highlights include "Battle on the Big Bridge" and the credits theme
+ Improved character animations which help to give the game a better sense of charm
+ Gilgamesh is so cool
+ Boco inspires me to do better in real life
= Some battles go by a bit too slow for my liking
= ATB system conflicts with the more strategical nature of the game, rarely giving me time to think over my move. However, problem can be subverted through the pause button.
= Feels like there could've been better methods to unlock the really strong abilities beyond just "Grind 999 AP", it's a rather boring way of handling it.
= While story is charming, overall characterization is still not doing enough to make me get emotionally invested

Recommended: Yes, for RPG players who are looking for some depth in their gameplay, and a wide variety of customizable options. Newcomers to the genre might wanna put this one off until they get experience with some more laidback titles, as this one does not pull punches if you don't know what you're doing. With that being said, learning through failure is part of the experience, and experimenting with different Job builds is snappy, relatively convenient, and a joy to find that one build that really clicks for you. There may not be much to the story, but damn is it fun to play.

Breath of Fire

Finished (February 25th, 2024)

Capcom's giving their own RPG franchise a shot. My question is, why did it never grow as big as something like Final Fantasy did, and was instead sent off to mobile hell in today's age? Starting off with this first entry, I intend to slowly unravel the answer.

+ Most party members have a unique ability that opens up more activities in the overworld. One lets you hunt animals for additional resources, the other allows you to fish (don't expect anything complex though), another lets you lockpick doors...
+ Some of the music's pretty good, including multiple versions of the overworld & battle theme that helps with variety
+ A good variety of towns with unique identities for most of them
= Certain characters can transform/fuse into more powerful creatures. Interesting in theory, but encourages mashing attack button as strategy to win nearly every boss
= Progression gets pretty obtuse, especially towards the 2nd half
= Most bosses get a "second wind" upon death. This is maybe the one unique thing the game's combat system does, but ultimately it feels more like smoke and mirrors than anything actually game-changing.
- The lack of a run button, combined with heavy reliance on backtracking for optional collectibles & the encounter rates made exploration a significant drag
- I really, really have to stress just how egregious the backtracking in this game gets, it is hellbent on constantly wasting your time
- The story is rather terse, oftentimes dedicating few lines of dialog towards important moments, while oddly enough spending more time on the occasional bit of humor.
= A story about dragons? Really? We couldn't have come up with something to stick out from the competition?

Recommended: No. A very middling start to the series. Production values are admittingly pretty alright, but it's lacking in any inspired story or gameplay depth, and filled to the brim with padded length and backtracking sequences. Feels like there were some half-hearted attempts at doing something unique, but none of it is enough to erase the feeling that Capcom is just copying everybody else's homework, while unable to replicate what made other RPG's interesting. I very much hope the later entries get better.

Lufia & the Fortress of Doom

Secret of Mana

Finished (May 9th, 2024)

The sequel to Gameboy's "Final Fantasy Adventure", now properly branded as part of the Mana series. Very striking cover art, by the way. First time playing. Due to Secret of Mana's support for co-op, this is gonna be a unique case of me playing the game with a friend, who also hasn't played it before.

+ Some cues were taken from the SaGa titles by bringing in weapon and magic leveling. There are only 8 weapons in the game, but each can be upgraded 8 times by exploring the world to find upgrade components, then taking them to a blacksmith.
+ Impressive co-op features for its time
+ Detailed spritework that surpasses previous Squaresoft titles by a lot. Puts it closer to Chrono Trigger's art style.
+ Great use of Mode7. The first time you ride Flammie the Dragon around the map is a very iconic moment.
+ Some very relaxing and memorable pieces of music
= ... Some songs are more grating on the ears, though. The Dwarf Cave, or the boss theme for example.
= Presumably due to a large chunk of the script requiring to be cut from the English localization, the game's story rarely lands, and is at times incomprehensible
= Screen only scrolls when you're close to the camera's edge, but it's not as bad as I remember it being
= If you care about efficient menu navigation, the Ring Menu system is not good for that. Repeatedly tripped up on choosing things I didn't want, from beginning to end
- Combat is a one step forward, two steps back situation. Hitting enemies feels somewhat better than previous game, but your attacks frequently fail to connect without a clear discernable reason. Gets difficult to tell whether it's a hitbox problem, or attacks intentionally missing.
- These boss fights are a total mess. On top of nonsensical hitbox shenanigans, the way they constantly wrestle control away from you via undodgable attacks & stunlocks gets really annoying.
- Regular enemies are even worse to fight, especially when they frequently multiply themselves and utilize stunlocking attacks that may instantly kill you.
- Even if you focused on leveling a select few types of spells, you are likely never gonna see them even halfway maxed out unless you spam them in one spot, and repeatedly rest at an Inn for multiple hours.
- A problem exclusive to co-op: Opening the menu freezes the game. And once you start relying on magic a lot, your friend might as well get used to not playing at all.
- There are several different styles of text boxes you can use, and they all equally make reading the text an eyesore, how did they fuck it up like this

Recommended: Personally, no. It's a uniquely innovative game for its time, but the feel of the combat is all sorts of wrong after having played later RPG's with better real-time combat. My friend who was playing with me thought it was good in the 1st half, but it goes downhill after that. By the time I learned that magic was the best way to defeat enemies, my friend was sitting on the phone throughout boss fights. We had fun until the end. But half that fun began to stem from our criticisms towards it. The truth is, the gameplay was exhausting us, and the story had us bored.

Looking at it more positively, there are definitely things to appreciate about its visuals and soundtrack. And who knows, maybe if you've got a fondness for retro RPG's, then you should probably give Secret of Mana a shot. It is touted as one of the greatest games of all time, so it's at least worth giving a look to see what do people find interesting about it. I can see glimmers of what exactly that is. But it's buried underneath heaps of clunky game feel, that I don't think I'll want to come back to in its original form ever again.

Vay

Dragon Quest I.II

Finished (May 12th, 2024)

A remake of the first two Dragon Quest games, released in 1993 exclusively for Japan's Super Famicom. Later received two fan translations, one being less buggy than the other. Unless you count the MSX & MSX2 ports as remakes (a lot of room for debate on that), this release marks the first of many Dragon Quest remakes that would follow.

+ Was able to comfortably beat DQ1 in only 5 hours, so clearly something was rebalanced
= DQ2 on the other hand, still demands an extreme amount of grinding out of you, and its overall balancing just doesn't make for a very fun game. Equipment's too expensive, and you always feel like you're pushing through dungeons by the skin of your teeth
+ Music has been extended, tracks are now longer and more varied
+ Pots and drawers that may hide useful items have been brought over from later entries
= Most improvements from DQ5 have been brought over, but the remaining inconveniences of DQ5 (Can't buy stuff in bulk, no run button, NPC's blocking your way) weren't fixed at all
= Fan translation contains several typos
- The DQ2 portion of the fan translation also had some visual glitches and bugs, including one that softlocked me
- No fast travel support. DQ5 had it, so not carrying it over here is a pretty big disappointment, especially when getting around the DQ2 world takes forever.

Recommended: Kind of. It's definitely better than playing the NES originals. Everything is in tact, and the extra QoL and details are appreciated. However, there's still some crucial QoL missing that makes DQ2 nearly as much of a drag as its NES counterpart. Furthermore, the fan translation contains unpredictable bugs that may screw you over. In these cases, save states are recommended as emergency backups.

You also have to remember that these games are very basic for today's standards, so you should keep your expectations in check. The SNES remake certainly makes them easier to get into, but you should still prepare for a lot of patience and grinding if you wanna dive this early into the series. This remake feels less antiquated. But it's still antiquated.

EarthBound

Finished (2016)

AKA MOTHER 2. One of the few RPG's I actually have prior experience with, having beaten it at least 2 other times before my most recent runthrough.

+ Cuts down on most of the backtracking MOTHER 1 had
+ Impressive variety of locales, feels like an all-around-the-world adventure
+ Built-in map feature. No need to consult online maps
+ First strike system is not dependent on luck, but rather from which direction you touch the enemy, adding a nice bit of strategy
+ The game skips battles against enemies that are weaker than you, but still gives you EXP for encountering them
+ Your mileage may vary, but the combat is still about as simple as the previous MOTHER game. For me, I enjoy this sort of classic feel.
+ Inclusion of the "HP Roll" mechanic in combat, where even if your character was dealt a killing hit, you can still save them from dying if you restore their HP before it rolls down to 0. Adds a frantic element, and forces you to think quickly during combat in fun ways
+ Getting critical hits on enemies feels very good
+ "Your strength went up by 6!" has more impact as a sentence than "I love you" does
+ Each party member has a very distinct set of strengths and weaknesses that make them unique to use
+ Psychedelic battle backgrounds, a huge identifying feature of EarthBound's presentation
+ Pleasant and colorful art style, simple by design
+ Well-made and charming localization of the script. You can tell they had fun writing this
+ I guess I'm just one of those weirdos that enjoyed the inventory managment quite a bit, at least once you get more party members
+ Possibly one of the greatest final bosses ever devised
+ Not only is there good music, there's also a ridiculous amount of it
= Man, why does the map have to take up an inventory slot? And the ATM card, and the Sound Stone?
= Is the bike supposed to be a joke item? Seems like it should be more useful than it really is
= When I played this game for my first time a couple years ago, I was just coming off Undertale. That was a mistake, seeing as my expectations for EarthBound's story were higher than it delivered. On retrospective playthroughs, EarthBound's story is actually a very fun one, but you'll have to lower your expectations, because fun is all it wants to have.
- First couple hours before you obtain party members can sour first impressions, due to luck-based difficulty and lack of inventory space

Recommended: Highly. As mentioned above, the game starts off pretty rough, but picks up and ultimately rounds out as a very memorable and fun classic RPG. It's important not to expect this to be the best RPG ever made, because it'll never live up to that. But with the right expectations, I'm sure it'll find a way into your heart the more you think about it.

Suikoden

Finished (2022)

Konami's Final Fantasy competitor. Tried playing this one a couple times over the years, but my first real cleared playthrough of it took place in 2021. Since then, Suikoden taught me a lot about why people enjoy RPG's, and how not to get overwhelmed by having a ton of options. It is a big reason why I undertook the quest to beat as many of them as possible. You could say this is technically the first game of this list.

+ Gives you a decent amount of breathing room before it throws the more complex stuff at you
+ The goal is to find and recruit "Stars of Destiny", characters that either serve as party members, or play roles that expand the size of your castle and give you new mechanics to make use of. There are 108 of them in total, and they are impressively varied.
+ Suikoden has a shit ton of recruitable party members that allow a great sense of customizability. What's important is to not feel like you have to see what every party member does, and instead, just choose who you like most.
+ Rune system allows you to equip each party member with a special skill or set of magic abilities. Combining the right runes with the right party member to make use of them is an important factor.
+ Combat system is hugely dependent on row formations, alongside weapons of varying range that you have to equip on party members who specialize in them.
+ There are some insanely broken ways to earn money in this game, and if I could find them, you can too
+ Some people are not gonna like the inventory managment here, but if you accepted how EarthBound did it, you'll accept this too.
+ Story is basic, but had a couple memorable moments that elevated it
+ Odessa was a pretty cool character, and I wish she had more time to shine
+ Other cool characters include pretty much anyone who's smart, calculated, and knows how to execute a plan. This includes Matei, and Viktor to some extent.
+ Enjoyable and atmospheric music. A standout is when you recruit more than half of the party members, your castle's theme changes to a more upbeat and lively version.
= Slow battle encounters. Fast forward is recommended
= Graphics are okay, but it feels like they could've taken better advantage of the PS1.
= Questionable translation, including typo's, characters referring in 3rd person instead of 1st, and just straight up developer notes being left in the script for everyone to see. Amusing to read, but kinda ruins the vibe.
- Run button is a rune ability that requires you to waste one of your precious six rune slots on to use. Guys, c'mon. Cut me some slack.
- Please don't make my mistake and give the item that enables fast travel to one of your party members, because the story can and will suddenly remove them from your party.
- The game will occasionally put a "Yes/No" choice before you, but will force you to select Yes no matter what. The "tea scene" is the most egregious example of this, where despite you clearly being seconds away from being drugged, you are forced to say "Yes" to drinking the tea.
- Anti-climatic and seemingly rushed ending. You don't even get to face off against the main villain.
- The "true ending" obtained by recruiting all 108 Stars of Destiny is only slightly different, and a tremendous waste of time to be pursuing.

Recommended: Yes. In spite of the poor localization, several antiquated elements, and the ending being an anticlimax... There was something about the epilogue and the music during it that made me think about just how inspirational Suikoden's story is as a whole. That when banded together, under one banner, it's possible to overcome corruption and pave the way for a better world. The entire game is one long exhausting war... and when it's finally over, and the game tells you where everyone ended up afterwards, I was overcome with this feeling of relief and happiness. And the hope that we might someday reach this feeling of peace in real life as well.

Suikoden has a subtle relevance in today's world. Pushing through its flaws to see it is worth it, in my opinion. Just don't feel like you have to see the true ending, or recruit everyone, because as someone with completionism OCD, I can tell you it's not worth it. Just go with the flow.

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

Finished (2021)

Played the game a couple times before, but it's not until around 2021 that I beat it for my first time.

+ Accessible for beginners, thanks to the forgiving difficulty and short length
+ World map is neat, very akin to 2D Mario world maps
+ Action commands can be timed to increase the damage you deal or decrease the amount you receive. Fits the reflex-based design of Mario
+ Defeating enemies has a random chance of restoring your HP, or being allowed an extra turn. This kind of luck-based element is an encouraging one, as even if you lose one time, there's a chance luck may be on your side the next time.
+ Fun sense of humor. Everybody's very expressive and animated for the SNES.
+ Booster Tower was probably my favorite part of the game
+ First of many Mario games in which it turned out that Bowser is very lovable
+ Yoko Shimomura's on the soundtrack, so you bet your ass it's gonna be good
+ Flowers can be collected to increase your maximum FP, adding some fun collect-a-thon aspects into the mix
= Certain special skills have hidden action commands that increase their effects, but it's not easy to figure out the timing for them
= With all the party members you get, it gets hard to tell what stats you should be leveling up to keep them balanced. Had to write down notes regarding that
= I don't think the pre-rendered environments aged as well as something like Donkey Kong Country. Half the time, it looks dull here.
- Some enemies have lengthy attack animations that become a hinderance to the game's pacing
- Eventually, it gets too easy. Especially as soon as you realize the one strategy required to win every single battle in the game, as the game rarely incentivizes you to switch tactics.

Recommended: Yes, with some caveats. It's a charming and funny classic that everybody should experience at least once, but the lack of difficulty leads to the gameplay getting a bit mind-numbing after a while. I get the feeling the difficulty is meant to be dictated by the equipment you choose to wear on yourself, but I'm taught to always wear the best in RPG's, lest I get my ass kicked, so it was weird to think about doing that here.

Paper Mario

Finished (2009)

Technically a sequel to Super Mario RPG, albeit with none of the same team, or directional intent. Played this one a shit load as a kid, but I come back to it every now and then nowadays as well.

+ The ultimate beginner-friendly RPG, with many simplified elements. You won't find damage numbers going up to thousands here. In fact, you'll be amazed to be dealing more than 10 damage by the end of the game
+ Action commands from Mario RPG are back (including dealing more damage and receiving less with timed button presses) along with some visual prompts to help time attacks better
+ Party members (AKA partners) don't need to be leveled up. Instead, game heavily incentivizes switching between them mid-battle and making use of their unique skills for specific situations
+ No run button, but a spin move that you tap rhythmically in order to keep your speed going. Little gimmicky, but satisfying to pull off
+ A ton of visual variety, including distinct and memorable dungeons at the end of each of the game's 8 chapters
+ Does a great job at making you feel weak at the beginning, but incredibly powerful by the time you reach the final area, especially through its use of the "you're back where it all started" trope.
+ Merlee is underrated as hell. Her spell is cheap, can last up to 3 chapters, and when you get that random chance of her doubling your EXP or offense, it feels great.
+ I enjoyed the little intermission chapters where you play as Peach. I probably hated the cooking minigame as a kid, but it's iconic to me nowadays
+ Paper Mario looks more like cardboard cutouts than it looks like paper, but whatever you wanna call it, the aesthetic paid off. Game still holds up very nicely to this day
+ Possibly the first instance of Luigi being portrayed as a tortured soul
+ Soundtrack is certainly not like Mario RPG, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's worse. There's still a bunch of great stuff in here, most especially during boss fights, among a couple more pleasantly atmospheric tracks
= Badge system where you equip badges that give you unique abilities is a mixed bag. You're heavily limited to equipping only a small handful of them, which means you're unlikely to ever use the unconventional ones, in favor of the useful but boring badges.
= The writing, while not bad, is a clear stepdown from Super Mario RPG. The lack of humor and comedy only highlights the flaws of the story, which can be boiled down to "mario wins at everything."
- Much of the game's side content are fetch quests. The amount I had to keep track of by the end gave me a headache

Recommended: Yes. It's a fun 15-20 hour adventure which despite its simplicity, still does a good job at switching things up and keeping you engaged. It's not all that impressive from a writing standpoint, but it's worth playing for the aesthetic of it, which it has in absolute spades. A very tightly polished RPG that anybody could get into, children and adults alike.

Mega Man Battle Network

Kingdom Hearts Final Mix

Finished (August 5th, 2023)

Played the PC port of the game, AKA the Final Mix version that received additional content. Saw full playthroughs of it in the past, but this was my first time beating it, with the intent to get both Secret Endings and defeat all optional bosses.

+ A unique and refined action RPG combat system, translating various aspects of turn-based combat into real-time.
+ The feel of the combat took some adjusting to, but I realized in hindsight it's deliberately stiff in order to encourage more strategical attacks, rather than just spamming the button
+ Magic is very fun and can be assigned to shortcuts to use on the fly. Rewards taking advantage of weaknesses
+ Choices at start of the game influence your stat growth and the type of abilities you'll earn, encouraging replayability
+ Lots of abilities to earn through leveling up, and plenty cool ones to experiment with and see what works for you
+ There is a ridiculous amount of optional content, including lots of secret enemies, secret bosses, and hidden minigames. Going after all of it turns Kingdom Hearts into a whole other game, and one built for experienced players
+ Again, took some warming up to, but I love all of the secret bosses
+ Kind of metroidvania-ish, abilities can be used to access optional new parts of previous worlds
+ Graphics were so good that they literally reused them for over 10 years and they still haven't aged
+ The overall structure of traveling to various Disney worlds guarantees that there is lots of mechanical and visual variety. Shit just feels expensive all across the board
+ This was back before the lore went way too nuts, so the story's actually fairly simple to follow
+ Oh my godddd the soundtraaaaackkk
= Camera can get pretty wonky at times
= Occasionally obtuse, doesn't make it clear where you have to go to progress
= Writing gets pretty awkward, though it's still a lot more sincere here than in the other games
- PC port can frequently crash in-between loading screens. Only saving grace was that I had a mod installed that had autosaves on

Recommended: Absolutely. Even if you're not necessarily a Disney fan, it doesn't matter if the game itself is fun as hell, and packed with unique content. For its time, it was probably one of the most lavishly produced video games made, just leaking money everywhere you look, and polished to the nth degree. If possible, play the PS4/PS5 version with 60fps on, and maybe don't touch the PC port, 'cuz last time I played, the crashes were pretty out of control.

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Finished (2017-2018)

A sequel to the N64 Paper Mario, and what turned out to be Mario's last traditional RPG for a while. Already saw numerous playthroughs of this game in the past, alongside beating it at least once, so this one ain't new to me.

+ As with the previous Mario RPG's, very accessible to genre newcomers
+ All battles take place on a stage, with an audience watching. You can perform Stylish Moves during each attack to appease the audience, who may either help you (by tossing recovery items) or hinder you (by dropping stage props on your head to deal damage), depending on your performance.
+ Similarly to Super Mario RPG, defeating enemies grants a chance of restoring stuff like HP or FP in the form of a roulette wheel
+ Aside from blocking attacks, you can now also counter-attack enemies, which completely negates any damage you take while dealing damage back. However, counter-attacks have much stricter timing, thus it's a risky mechanic that rewards practice and skill
+ Area and dungeon variety remains strong throughout
= The Pit of 100 Trials, an optional 100-floor arena, extremely solid in concept and offers some great rewards, but the actual process of going through it can be really slow and boring
+ A satisfying finale, in terms of difficulty, action and story.
+ Writing's a big step-up from the previous Paper Mario, carries over the humor from the Mario & Luigi series and generally takes more unconventional risks via its setting and cast of characters
+ Music has a distinctive style that you can't find in any other game, plus a lot of it is pretty great too
= I miss the spin move from the first game. Now, the only way to get around areas faster is locked behind a party member, which feels more cumbersome than having such a move just be part of Mario's default moveset
- Trouble Center Sidequests have exacerbated the worst problems from the first Paper Mario's sidequests. On top of doubling down on the fetch quest structure and the amount of backtracking, you can only tackle one of them at a time, significantly increasing the amount of back-and-forth walking between the same places.
- I feel like a particular problem with this game's backtracking is the self-aware cheekiness of it, like "haha isn't it funny that we're wasting your time" and i'm just like "no"

Recommended: Yes, with caveats. Much like the first Paper Mario, a perfect game for RPG beginners, brimming with charm and a unique sense of identity that you can't find in any other Mario title. However, as with prior Mario RPG's, difficulty can be broken so easily, that you have to start self-imposing rules to keep it from becoming stale. There's also the sidequests, the tedium and padding of which severely drag down the experience, and I'd honestly recommend staying away from them, as they muddled my feelings on the game.

Despite this however, the main campaign is definitely worth experiencing for the setpieces, writing, and soundtrack. The game certainly has its flaws, but the things that ARE good about it carry it hard, rounding it out into something that everyone should play at least once. I hope that the Switch remake provides a little more QoL to make this an even better game for the people curious about giving it a try.

Undertale

Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy II

Final Fantasy III

Final Fantasy IV

Undertale Yellow

Finished (January 28th, 2024)

An Undertale fangame, noteworthy for being a full-length release that came out in 2023, after a whopping 7 year development cycle. Other than that, don't know what to expect. First time playing.

+ Combat system feels identical to Undertale, alongside some minor mechanical additions for boss fights
+ Impressively detailed animations
+ Memorable character designs
+ Pretty good music
+ Starlo's my favorite character
= Pacifist route has some interestingly written stuff, but the pacing is a bit too "go-go-go" for me to get invested. Martlet's absent for a good chunk of the route, you get thrown into Ceroba's backstory a bit too suddenly, and Dalv is just... there. No hangouts and very few moments where you can learn more mundane details of these characters makes them pretty lacking.
= Considerably higher difficulty than original Undertale, even on a Pacifist route, with highly busy bullet pattern designs, ones that are difficult to react to your first time, and some that last too long for their own good
= Geno route especially feels like a clusterfuck of everything being thrown at you at once
= Text formatting is rather rough in places, with text clipping out of the box, and strange pauses when parenthesis are used. While ultimately not a big deal, some errors are so obvious to find, I'm surprised they weren't fixed during playtesting.

Recommended: Only for huge Undertale fans. While Yellow is by all means an effort worthy of praise from a general perspective, and one that could thereotically be enjoyed even without playing Undertale... I think it's also a mixed bag of unevenly spaced out story priorities, and a messy difficulty spike that could've been reigned in to keep with Undertale's rule of being accessible for everyone.

While I can respect wanting to do your own thing and have your own design mentality, setting yourself up as a prequel to Undertale about the previous fallen human gave me different expectations than the ones that Yellow provides. It makes me think, if Yellow just wanted to tell the story of Ceroba, it might've been better off by making the protagonist either her, or Starlo instead, cutting out the fallen human altogether. As it stands, Yellow feels like a story that changed direction halfway through, progressively diminishing my involvement within it, in favor of something that should've been there from the very start.