Dragon Quest (Super Famicom, 1993)

 

Time for the original Dragon Quest. Wait, didn't I cover this game already? Yes, but I covered the English NES version, Dragon Warrior. This is the Super Famicom remake that came along later. It's awesome.

Lufia: The Legend Returns (Game Boy Color, 2001)

Five years after Lufia 2, we finally got the third installment in this series. Originally, this was supposed to be a Playstation 1 game. One can only imagine the possibilities there. It would have likely been much more like the previous games, and perhaps we would have found out what the deal was with Arek. Instead, for various reasons we got a portable Lufia 3 for the Game Boy Color, and... it isn't very good. It certainly isn't at the level of the previous games, though it gets decent enough to be considered passable for a portable RPG.

The system downgrade may have had a negative effect on the design team's inspiration, as the design of this game seems like it was meant for a series gaiden rather than the next numbered installment; the developers even avoided putting a "3" in the official title.

This game takes place a hundred years after Lufia 1, and two hundred years after Lufia 2. Let's get to it.

Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals (Super NES, 1996)

Time for the Aliens of this series. Lufia II is AWESOME. While the original is a perfectly acceptable RPG, this game still holds up today as being on the top tier of 16-bit RPGs. It came along pretty late in the life of the SNES and as a result it didn't do as well as it should have, but it has a strong cult following nonetheless. This is, of course, the prequel to the original game, so we know how it ends. Still, the journey to get there is a fun one.

Lufia and the Fortress of Doom (Super NES, 1993)

Time for an old Super Nintendo classic. And judging from this title screen, the first openly gay RPG. Cue up Ace of Base and we'll party like it's 1993! Massive spoilers abound, so read at your own risk.

Suikogaiden: Vol. 2 - Duel at Crystal Valley (Playstation, 2000)

A little over a year ago, I covered Suikogaiden Vol. 1. Just seemed like a good time to check out the sequel. So far so good, this is one of the nicest title screens I've seen in a long time.

Breath of Fire (Super NES, 1993)

The first in a fairly popular series of RPGs from Capcom. I'm just doing one post for this game; played it in the past and don't want to go through it again. Taking a look at the first hour or two of the game should be fun, though.

This is a game that has a bit of history with me. This, 7th Saga, and Secret of Mana were three RPGs that I rented and attempted to play through before I really liked RPGs. I didn't get too far with any of them (maybe 5% of the way through the other two, about a quarter of the way through this one) before hitting roadblocks. In 7th Saga it was the Red Pison fight. In Secret of Mana it was the Fire Gigas fight. In this game, I got to a part where you need to acquire a gold bar to proceed. They cost 65000 G and I legitimately thought you needed to farm that much gold, which would take hours upon hours of battles, so I quit. Turns out you can get a gold bar in a nearby dungeon (but if you sell it for 32500 G, then you'll have to farm the rest of the 65000 after all). What a weird idea for a quest.

In any case, once the inarguably-awesome Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI made me really like RPGs, I revisited this one and finished the game. It's a good one. Taking a quick look at it today. No series, just one quick look.

Ultima: Quest of the Avatar (NES, 1990)

The best Ultima game on the NES... or any console, really. While it's an adaptation of Ultima IV, It's completely different than the PC version, much like Exodus. Unlike Exodus, this game is infinitely more playable. Let's get on with it.

Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall (PC, 1996)

IT BEGINS. The second game in the series, which might well be the largest videogame ever made in landmass, scope, and amount of content. No joke. Hard to believe they released this two years after Arena, given the five+ year development time on every game since. Join me as I do tons of character creation, and a minor amount of actual playing!

In other news, I decided that for the month of July, I'm going to try to do a post every single day and set an unbreakable post record of 31 for the month. I've gotten up around 20 once or twice, but this will be a first. I'll be covering a few games and bouncing around more than a WWE Diva going for a jog.

Elder Scrolls: Arena (PC, 1994)

I begin my long-awaited (by me) excursion into the highly-acclaimed Elder Scrolls saga. The saga begins with a bang... a 1994 MS-DOS poorly-lit, poorly-rendered bang. That said, this game is pretty sweet.

Dragonball Z Gaiden: Saiya-jin Zetsumetsu Keikaku (Famicom, 1993)

Dragonball Z Month ends with a bang, as I bring you a mega-post on the last Famicom DBZ RPG. This one follows the events of Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans.

Dragonball Z: Ressen Jinzouningen (Famicom, 1992)

 The next game covers the Android Saga. The title is, literally, "Violent Battle Against the Androids". It isn't as good as the previous game, as much as I wanted it to be. The thing is, the Freeza Saga is pretty much MADE to be an RPG. It has an overworld, townspeople, item-collecting, lots of fodder minions, and a real party. The Android Saga, on the other hand, is a lot like the Saiyan Saga. It's all either building-up/training or one-on-one fights. Not a whole lot else happens in-between. This doesn't make for a very good RPG.

Dragonball Z: Gekishin Freeza (Famicom, 1991)

THIS is the best Dragonball Z RPG out there for a retro system. It's better than the other Famicom games, it's better than the Super Famicom games... the newer ones on DS and whatnot likely have it beat, but if you want to play a retro DBZ game look no further than this one. It's seriously really good, you guys.

Dragon Ball Z: Kyoushuu Saiya-Jin (Famicom, 1990)

The first Dragonball Z RPG is INSANELY BAD. I can't even begin to express just how bad this game is. I think it got a DS remake that was highly-acclaimed, but this game is just.... ehhhhhhh. I mean, yikes. Roughly translated, it's called Assault of the Saiyans.

Final Fantasy: All The Bravest (iOS/Android, 2013)

This is the worst thing Square-Enix has ever done.

Dragon Warrior II (NES, 1990)

 This time... there are more than one of them. This game should have been called Dragon Warriors. You know, like Aliens.

Ultima: Exodus (NES, 1989)

To celebrate St. Paddy's Day, I'm looking at a game that has nothing to do with drinking but has a lot of the color green.

This is the third game in the Ultima series; the first to get an NES version.

Dragon Warrior (NES, 1989)

The Dragon Warrior series (Dragon Quest in Japan) is one of my favorite RPG franchises. While it lacks the fanfare of Final Fantasy, these games tend to be less linear and more about character-building than melodramatic plots.

This is a game that I've played a few times in the distant past. This time around I'm going to try something new: A Tool-Assisted Asskicking. It's like a tool-assisted speedrun, except with excessive 'sploiting of states and luck. I plowed through the whole game in one morning. And here... is the story.

Romancing SaGa III #1 - Ringwraith Avenue

Romancing SaGa is a venerable series in Japan, brought to us by Squaresoft. For the most part, it hasn't fared too well outside of Japan; in the U.S., the portable entries were renamed to become the Final Fantasy Legend trilogy, the Super NES trilogy wasn't even released, and we didn't really get an  unchanged SaGa game until 1998's SaGa Frontier.

Out of the three Super NES installments, Romancing SaGa III is the best... and, to my knowledge, the only one to get a full English translation at this point in time.

Valkyria Chronicles (Playstation 3, 2008)

Today I'm going to take a quick look at a fairly underrated PS3 game from Sega. It's a strategy RPG that transpires on three-dimensional maps. The story runs during an alternate version of the early-to-mid 20th century. It's incredibly unique, and I haven't seen anything else quite like it. THIS... is the Chronic- (What?) cles of Valkyria! I said the Chronic (What?) cles of Valkyria!

Mystic Ark, Part 1 - Reincarnation

Time for a classic Super Famicom RPG that never made it over here, like many great RPGs of the mid-90s. This is the game that would have been known as The 7th Saga II, had it gotten a North American release. It fixes many of the problems of the original game, and lets you have a three (!!!) person party.

Legend says that this was one of Enix's better efforts of the 90's. Thanks to the folks at Dynamic Designs (formerly Magic Destiny), we eventually got a fan translation of the game. If Lennus 2 was any indication, it'll be a great translation. Hell yeah, I'm excited for this.