I rented a Sega CD for a weekend, and proceeded to play the crap out of the outstanding Terminator game. No regerts. I probably should have played an RPG, but I didn't know any better, and I still had fun.
I got one on sale pretty late. Like the Saturn was out and closing up shop. So I only had a handful of games for it. None of the RPGs, despite trying. EDIT: Unless you want to get real technical, in which case I had a third of the Shining Force game.
Cursed enough to have a Sega-CD? My dude, my best gamer moment is renting a Sega CD from Blockbuster along with Lunar, and managing to beat Lunar within the 3 days rental period. It was epic. My butt was sore, and Luna's 'La La La' will be forever etched in my memory.
damn this is almost like how I got into RPGs. Rented FF2 on SNES because I recognized the name from FFA on the game boy. Rented it 3 completely separate times, somehow always got the same cart and my save file intact. Got to the final boss, and didn't beat it. But then I got my own copy and went through the whole thing again to beat it this time.
We got a Sega CD for Christmas of 96. My brother's best friend was a rich kid. So he gave us his old Sega CD console since in 96 he had a PS1, N64 and I think a Saturn. This guy had tons of stuff. He even had a subscription to Sega Channel. Dude was streaming games onto his Genesis before that was even considered a thing most people were familiar with. We didn't get a whole lot of games because he didn't have that many. But he did have Lunar Silver Star and Eternal Blue. That was all I needed because those two RPGs are some of the best of the 90s.
Sega Channel. That's something I haven't heard from in a while? Did he have Mega Man: The Wiley Wars on it? I know here in the US that was a Sega Channel exclusive
@@patrickstrahm05 I think so. Granted, this was like 30 years ago so I don't remember every game on it. I do remember Home Alone 2 and it sucking though. Saved me a rental.
@@magacop5180 He was...16? Maybe a bit younger. But, teenager. And this was gifted to us on Christmas of 96, so the dude already had a Saturn, PS1 and N64. Only child and parents were wealthy so he probably didn't care about it at all. Dude even had Sega Channel. This was like streaming but just for Genesis games and it came with your cable. It was expensive, definitely only for high-end customers.
Fun fact, Wolf Team (the one developing the Arcus games) would later lay the foundation of the two most well-loved and niche Action JRPG series. I'm of course referring to the Tales and Star Ocean series respectively.
I rented the PlayStation version of Lunar: The Silver Star from Blockbuster for a weekend back in the 90's, but I never finished it. I played both Snatcher & Shining Force CD at my cousin's house in the Summer of '91 & both games were amazing.
While the PS remake was a better RPG overall, there is something very unique and special about the Sega CD version. For both of them really. However one thing I think is indisputable is the dungeons are so much better on the Sega CD versions. They just felt like they were missing something about them on the remakes. Much simpler, shorter, less memorable. The dungeons in the originals were HARD. I mean, the actual random battles probably didn't help, but they tended to involve a lot of searching and backtracking and you would often be at the end barely hanging on to any remaining mp and scraping by just to finish a boss
the sega CD shadowrun game has needed an english patch for decades, its been started and stoped so many times ive given up hope of it ever happening...
Hopefully through the magic of large language models such a project will be made infinitely easier, to where a lone individual working by themselves would be able to complete it during a week off from work.
The gold and experience in Vay along with everything else was perfect i thought. What a super fun game to clear while the music keeps your grind motivated 🎉🎉🎉
Great list! As much as I love The Terminator and Blade Runner, I have no idea why I have never played Snatcher. I'm a big Kojima fan too. I have no excuse. I understand the hate of Working Designs, but they also gave us Elemental Gearbolt, a game that combined a sci-fi fantasy setting, RPG elements, amazing animated sequences with voice acting, and set it all on a rail shooter. The soundtrack was revolutionary for the time as well. I don't know how good your marksmanship is, but it pretty much screams "Play me, Richard!" It's so sad that some of these games will never have an English patch. I still think the worst is that the original SMT: Devil Summoner, despite being on multiple systems, has no English patch after all these decades. Which do you think is the game most deserving of an English patch at this point? Sorry about your hard drive, dude, but you've landed on your feet like a cat. Well done. 🐈
Still watching the video but I just got to the Eye of the Beholder part of the video and a lil hint about the movement, if you hit (or maybe hold, I can't remember) START on your controller, it lets you use the D-pad to move instead of having to manually click the arrow buttons, making navigation infinitely easier and actually a joy to play on the console.
Wow, so many highlights from my childhood. I owned all 6 of these games. Had to use a guide to beat D&D it was so clunky and unfun. Only played it once. Vay I beat a few times, and I love the title screen cinematic. I just about memorized it and it still pops in my head today. But it was so hard, you had to play it about perfectly to survive. (And grind a lot). Dark Wizard I beat a couple times. It's a really long game, 100 hours per playthrough. Shining Force CD was just two prior Shining Force games combined with one new scenario. I played through it once and felt like I'd wasted my money since I already had the other Shining Force games. I LOVED the Lunar games. Here's how I would rank them. 1. Lunar: Silver Star Story 2. Lunar: Eternal Blue 3. Dark Wizard 4. Vay 5. Shining Force CD 6. D&D Great video!
Back in the late 90's and early 2000's, I had a Sega Genesis CD-X, the compact both in one system and had Lunar I and II, Popful Mail, Vay, Shining Force CD, Dark Wizard, and Eye of the Beholder.
Thank you. I had not a Sega CD while growing, but had a Mega Drive/Genesis. I love Phantasy Star, and now I bought a Sega CD to play those RPG forgotten in time. Because I dont like playing on emulators, and I want to feel how the original game was when released. Lunar SS and EB are my next games to finish
i never had a sega cd. thank you for the insight into the gems on the system. i love your videos, temperament, and presentation. also thanks for not giving up when you lost that drive, it had to be hard!
@@magacop5180 it’s extra power was kind of situational…it could definitely have been better utilized for super scaler ports and whatnot. At least we have the masterpiece that is Shining Force 3, and the other shining games for the Saturn. Holy Ark happens to be a fantastic game.
Would have been nice to get a phantasy star iv on scd but, oh well. Played a few hours of shining force CD and it was a definite step up presentation wise from Shining Force 1 and 2. Nice to see that Camelot got to make the game they wanted to make without the limitations of 2 MB of ROM
Good video. That's really interesting. If someone asked me if the Sega CD had good rpgs I would have said sure, I would have named the 6 games you reviewed and I would have said and surely there's a bunch more I don't know about. Funny to realize, nope, that's the whole list. I will add in I feel that Eternal Blue is not only the best rpg on the Sega CD but to me it's the best rpg of the 16 bit generation. I know others would prefer Crono Trigger or FFVI and I like those games too but my order is Eternal Blue, Phantasy Star IV, Earthbound and then Crono Trigger and FFVI.
Eternal Blue was extremely hard and frustrating on the Sega CD with the random encounters, I had to switch to the PlayStation version to beat it. Also I dont get the hate for Working Designs, its because of them we got Lunar to begin with and the translation was miles ahead of what competitors (like square) were doing at the time. Id also thank them for that badass intro song to Silver Star which they completely reworked that really helped sell that game from the moment you turned it on.
I don’t get the Working Designs hate here either. Playing their games in the 90s it was great having some life breathed into dialogue when there was very little personality outside of typical anime tropes. Looking in hindsight the humor is really dated but it still felt unique to play through at the time.
If you don't like random encounters I don't get why you even play RPGS. You should stick to visual novel type stuff. Like Snatcher would be perfect for you. Random encounters make it dangerous to travel. Getting around is supposed to be difficult and dangerous. You need to be tough enough to overcome it. RPGs should do a better job of making each battle interesting with enemy patterns and weaknesses, etc.. not just hitting attack over and over, but that's the core gameplay of an RPG. You explore while fearing for the life of your party. If you lose you lose a lot of gold and/or time, or in older games like Wizardry you might just permanently lose your entire freaking party, so you need to be really damn careful.
I find I'm always opposite to most opinions. I love Lunar way more than Eternal Blue. Maybe it's because I never knew it had a sequel till I saw lunar complete and they announced they was also doing its sequel. I played lunar and Vay way back when they came out. They was my first rpgs so made working designs stand out to me so i dont fully understand your hate for them. This is my first video of yours so maybe it gets explained at some point. Either way I'm thankful for your video and emulation because I can not afford any lunar today and this video reminded me of the awesome dark wizard lol
What is your problem with working designs? You are the first person I've ever heard malign them. I loved the translation of lunar and lunar 2 on the psx.
@@909crime all I've ever heard is praise of their translations of both Lunar games. I haven't played them in awhile but I remember laughing a lot to the jokes and liking them
Personally, I like them. But Working Designs hate goes way back, my friend. If you took part in the online gaming community back in the late nineties you heard the hate for sure. "Wrecking Designs" was the favored nickname.
Lunar 2 is my absolute favorite game ever made. There's nothing that quite struck me the way it did. IYKYK. Ronfar is still my favorite take on that kind of character. The broken holy man who cares, but only just enough, because his heart has just been through so much. I love the fact that he's a gambler and too horny for his own good, but he's also the guy keeping us alive through some absolute brutally difficult bosses. He truly is a great guy. Making a deal with Lucia, gambling his soul for a chance to save her mind. That's still my favorite scene in all of gaming. That's how hard it hit me when I first played it.
that's what I was thinking. I remember having to buy the sega mouse for the genesis and hint book for Dungeon Master 2 to even be playable. Also played 4 player Dungeon Explorer all the time with buddies which is basically Gauntlet with RPG elements. Never could figure out Heimdall and gave up on it. I remember having a great time on my sega cd. I had all those RPGs (NA Released) and stuff like Soul Star, Third World War, Eternal Champions, and Thunderstrike.
Vay was and is one of my all time favorite games. I still have it. My son LOVES the music for it and has watched the game play. I wish they would release it (not the way they did with all the renames and bad voice acting on the iPhone) but REALLY remake it. They could really make it amazing and do so much more with it.
Bought my Sega cd from a classmate In either 93 or 94 I was a freshman/sophomore in HS. Me and my brother rented dark wizard and lunar. Our minds were blown at how awesome they were. Great memories
Yeah, I was thinking about those as well. He's missing quite a few Japanese releases from this "all" list. 3x3 Eyes, After Armageddon, Alshark, Burai, Cosmic Fantasy Stories, Death Bringer, Illusion City, Record of Lodoss War, Shin Megami Tensei... There are some BIG (by 90s standards) releases missing here.
Woah a big list of games I've never played nor will ever have time to play! If that Shadowrun game ever gets translated that's a drop everything and immediate play though
Revengers of Vengeance actually reminds me of another game: on the N64 there is a fighting game called "Flying Dragon", it actually is two games in one, and the SD (Super Deformed / Chibi) fighting game actually has RPG Mechanics. You level up your weapons/armor, can bring 2 items into a fight, and visit a shop that has a .... friendly/hostile shopkeeper (based on whether you buy something every time you visit or not). You also get scrolls to unlock more special skills and...... basically, it's funny because once you get super high level (save on your controller pak) if you fight your friends, you'll probably curb stomp a player that has no save file. How's that for competitive fighting? LOL
The Aisle Lord joke is one of the funniest things I've heard in a long time, because as a Black guy in nyc I've had to deal with this for a long time, lol
People put down the Sega cd for being expensive and having “few games” but this list provides hundreds of hours of entertainment. Per hour, the dollar amount would be $1-2. Certainly worth the investment I say!
Some good choices. I really liked Rise of the Dragon and remember trying to struggle through Heimdal. I didn't really have time for RPGs, I was so busy playing Sewer Shark.
I never owned a Sega CD till like, super late when you could find the things for like 50 bucks. My friend did though. He was the sega console guy and I had the Nintendos. So he played FF games at my house and I got to play both lunar games. You gushed over Eternal Blue and I still don't think it does it justice. I am extremely biased though, because the slow playthrough I had to do only when I could visit his house long enough to get some time in, created some of the most lasting memories of my life. I can look at individual pictures and scenes from that game and instantly go back to my childhood. Its powerful, but I mean, its also an amazing experience on its own. The attention to detail on the characters personalities and dialogue (WD translation or not) was absolutely multiple generations ahead of its time. Around a time when even having characters with some character specific dialogue was rare. These guys would have more lines talking to people in a single town than almost any other RPG, FF games included, might have in a whole game. And all their convos just felt natural. Party member banter is like a staple requirement for a good story for me because of this game.
Eye of the Beholder wasn't technically part of the Gold Box series. While it was a licensed D&D game published by SSI during the early '90s, it didn't come in a gold box and didn't use the Gold Box engine that the other games did. Instead it uses the AESOP engine. The similar package design has led to some people referring to it as the origin of a Black Box series
De niño tuve la Mega Drive, pero me quedé con las ganas de tener un Mega CD. Fue muchos años más tarde que conseguí hacerme con dos unidades. Mis juegos favoritos de Mega CD son los siguientes: - POPFUL MAIL - EARTHWORM JIM: SPECIAL EDITION - LUNAR: ETERNAL BLUE - LUNAR: THE SILVER STAR - MUSHA ALESTE - VAY - BARI ARMS - SNATCHER - LORDS OF THUNDER - MICKEY MANIA CD - KEIO FLYING SQUADRON - SHINING FORCE CD - BATMAN CD - SONIC CD - FINAL FIGHT CD
This was a great video! I only got my Mega CD (yes I'm in PAL territory 😛) a couple of years ago and a lot of the games you mentioned are ones I want to play. The problem is that the Lunar series, Vay and Popful Mail were never released in PAL! So I've spent the last two years figuring out how to alter Eternal Blue's music to play at the slower 50Hz speed of PAL systems. I finally released it a month ago along with PAL conversion of the first Lunar game and also Rise of the Dragon. Popful Mail is next on my list but I've been adding in the Un-Working Designs patches for their Sega CD games. I can't be dealing with paying to heal in Eternal Blue! I would have included Rise of the Dragon in your recommendations along with Snatcher 😜
Here's a tip don't buy pal 50hz was and is terrible I'm also in the pal region I buy Japanese systems and mod them with 230v PSUs and go down the flash cart route so for the mega drive you want the mega everdrive pro flash cart it can play every game for the system including mega/sega CD games without needing an actual CD attachment, also can play 32X games but you will need that attachment for it to work I'm all for collecting but unfortunately the PAL regions got shafted until the 7th gen of consoles
You can move around in Eye of the Beholder with the d-pad you simply have to hold Start I think (check the manual of the game). Other great RPGs that are stuck in Japan are Illusion City and Shin Megami Tensei. There is also an interesting game called Armageddon something.
Great video! I would love to try one or two from that list! Hey RPG fort, what is the most similar game to shinning force 2 you know? Tactical RPG with overworld, I'm dying to play something like that again!
I just figured that I had all the Sega Cd RPGs back in the days... I should have gotten a SNES, they had much more of these games that I loved so much!
I wonder if the Sega Mouse is compatible with Eye of the Beholder? If so it would be a worthwhile accessory purchase. I believe it's also compatible with Snatcher!
So, Micronet did a different fighter? That's 3 now I know of. Heavy Nova (played it to death cart), Black Hole Assault, and Revengers Of Vengeance? Good to know.
I have to disagree with the Lunar games and would switch their places in my own personal list. I really enjoyed magic in the first more where Alex just becomes an absolute beast in melee and spells. It made the character feel, in my opinion, "worthy" of his job protecting the goddess.....but I fully admit that this is heavily tinged with nostalgia for me as I rented the game dozens of time from the local video store back in the day.
Alshark is another Japan exclusive RPG on the Sega CD that always looked interesting to me. Wiah i could speak Japanese, for that and for the other games on the standard Genesis that remain untranslated.
Great list, except I would have put Dark Wizard at the top. Game still has a cult following all these years later. Its got its flaws, sure. But if any game deserves a revival from the Sega CD, its this one. But then, its really a gem for those who love games like Fire Emblem, Ogre Battle, Shining Force, and other "control a massive army that promotes and evolves" games. Very few, if any of these types of games lets you make your OWN army size (up to 100 active characters at once) and then have the AI match you, so that you tailor the difficulty by your desire for epic scale conflicts, or more "skirmish" battles. Its by no means perfect (The AI is dumb as a rock, and generally just makes a beeline for your ruler) but making custom characters, promotions with different class choices, monsters that evolve and get bigger- This one one of the first to do these things in an SRPG. And the music is just phenomenal. Not to mention people were still uncovering secrets 10 or more years after it was released. If someone "modernized" this game via remake or spiritual successor, it would be a massive hit in todays more SRPG friendly communities.
Lunar was my first rpg. Never played shining force cd. I thought it was going to be bad because of the square map. And i had just come off of... A year of my life to dark wizard. And it shining force was $35!! Most cd games were in the clearance bin for $10!! I am not made of that kind of cash.
Sega CD was NOT a bad system! I grew up with it and really enjoyed the selection of RPGs, adventure games, and FMV games on it! Also how could you have Eye of the Beholder on the list without also talking about Dungeon Master II: Skullkeep?
Sega CD was an awful money grab of a system. Sega did not even TRY with the console. This is why it only lasted a year. 😂 And what selection of RPGs? This whole list is garbage and I’m a serious Shining Force fan.
@@magacop5180 - All of the Working Designs games, Dark Wizard, Eye of the Beholder, Dungeon Master 2, it wasn't JUST Shining Force CD (and there was so much content in that game that you REALLY got your money's worth)...
THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE AISLE LORD! Sadly the downsized since they installed self checkouts. Poor lords. Also yay! Some of these I'm very familiar with. Even if the controls for Eye of the Beholder are awful with that controller scheme, I wish I could get the saturn's graphics on my PC copy xD
I had a Sega CD. Both Dark Wizard and Eye of the Beholder were a massive part of my childhood. (These were the second and third console RPGs that I ever played, with Phantasy Star III being the first. Good times...)
Neither of the Lunar titles came to Europe... the only time one of these did was on the PSP so only the remake of the first. But yea, i would have liked if more of these would have been on the Mega Drive Mini 2... Till then i have a JP Mega Drive Mini 2 to play the Lunars and Popful Mail... as well as the PS1 Versions that i bought way after the fact to have a way to play them at all.
OMG, you triggered a repressed memory of Revengers of Vengeance. I remember a horrible fighting game from my youth that tricked me into thinking it was an RPG.
You forgot Dungeon Master 2! Its a great classic dungon crawler. I cant belive you didnt mentation this RPG-gem. The Sega CD didt got many RPGs but you forgot one of the best for this system…🙄
Why did you not mention dungeon master 2 skullkeep which is a much better game than eye of the beholder and also there was Heimdall, a very interesting Viking rpg with cool minigames like axe throwing while being drunk in game lol
The Mega cd is great...not a curse at all. I have a lot of games for it. Many of these rpg -ish games have not released in Europe. Would like Popful Mail...which was not released either in this part of "the West". N64 moment? Pure disappointment? But Shining Force cd is great... Eye of the Beholder supporte the Mega Mouse, so...ehm, try that if you don't like the controller in the game.
See I dunno, I never found Vay to be egregious or difficult. I beat it without any trouble at all. Are you sure youre not just bad at RPG's? If Working Designs made it tougher then I say good! Cus I didn't notice anything overly tough about it, & I certainly wouldnt have wanted it to be any easier than it already was.
Did you have a Sega CD while growing up? Did you have any of these games?
I rented a Sega CD for a weekend, and proceeded to play the crap out of the outstanding Terminator game. No regerts. I probably should have played an RPG, but I didn't know any better, and I still had fun.
He's an absolute dip sh** lol. I am the same age him. He is obv having issues in his life
I did actually, but I pretty much only rented games. I played Lunar, Vay, Shining Force Cd and Dark Wizard.
I got one on sale pretty late. Like the Saturn was out and closing up shop. So I only had a handful of games for it. None of the RPGs, despite trying.
EDIT: Unless you want to get real technical, in which case I had a third of the Shining Force game.
What game is that in the first 30 seconds in the background?
Cursed enough to have a Sega-CD? My dude, my best gamer moment is renting a Sega CD from Blockbuster along with Lunar, and managing to beat Lunar within the 3 days rental period. It was epic. My butt was sore, and Luna's 'La La La' will be forever etched in my memory.
Thats Epic. I rented Phantasy Star 2 back then, but the battery was busted, couldn't finish it.
damn this is almost like how I got into RPGs. Rented FF2 on SNES because I recognized the name from FFA on the game boy. Rented it 3 completely separate times, somehow always got the same cart and my save file intact. Got to the final boss, and didn't beat it. But then I got my own copy and went through the whole thing again to beat it this time.
You re cursed if youre dad isnt rich and you stuck with sega cd, and didnt get a snes or a ps1 instead.
Try to beat Lufia 2 rpg in 3 days 🎉🎉🎉
Cursed is having a CD-i or a 3DO.
We got a Sega CD for Christmas of 96. My brother's best friend was a rich kid. So he gave us his old Sega CD console since in 96 he had a PS1, N64 and I think a Saturn. This guy had tons of stuff. He even had a subscription to Sega Channel. Dude was streaming games onto his Genesis before that was even considered a thing most people were familiar with.
We didn't get a whole lot of games because he didn't have that many. But he did have Lunar Silver Star and Eternal Blue. That was all I needed because those two RPGs are some of the best of the 90s.
Sega Channel. That's something I haven't heard from in a while? Did he have Mega Man: The Wiley Wars on it? I know here in the US that was a Sega Channel exclusive
@@patrickstrahm05
I think so. Granted, this was like 30 years ago so I don't remember every game on it. I do remember Home Alone 2 and it sucking though. Saved me a rental.
Another child gave you a Sega CD for Christmas?
@@magacop5180
He was...16? Maybe a bit younger. But, teenager. And this was gifted to us on Christmas of 96, so the dude already had a Saturn, PS1 and N64. Only child and parents were wealthy so he probably didn't care about it at all.
Dude even had Sega Channel. This was like streaming but just for Genesis games and it came with your cable. It was expensive, definitely only for high-end customers.
@@magacop5180 That's the magic of capitalism.
Fun fact, Wolf Team (the one developing the Arcus games) would later lay the foundation of the two most well-loved and niche Action JRPG series. I'm of course referring to the Tales and Star Ocean series respectively.
Tales & Star Ocean are in no way Niche. They are pretty dang mainstream. Just saying.
I rented the PlayStation version of Lunar: The Silver Star from Blockbuster for a weekend back in the 90's, but I never finished it.
I played both Snatcher & Shining Force CD at my cousin's house in the Summer of '91 & both games were amazing.
While the PS remake was a better RPG overall, there is something very unique and special about the Sega CD version. For both of them really.
However one thing I think is indisputable is the dungeons are so much better on the Sega CD versions. They just felt like they were missing something about them on the remakes. Much simpler, shorter, less memorable. The dungeons in the originals were HARD. I mean, the actual random battles probably didn't help, but they tended to involve a lot of searching and backtracking and you would often be at the end barely hanging on to any remaining mp and scraping by just to finish a boss
the sega CD shadowrun game has needed an english patch for decades, its been started and stoped so many times ive given up hope of it ever happening...
Hopefully through the magic of large language models such a project will be made infinitely easier, to where a lone individual working by themselves would be able to complete it during a week off from work.
The gold and experience in Vay along with everything else was perfect i thought. What a super fun game to clear while the music keeps your grind motivated 🎉🎉🎉
Great list! As much as I love The Terminator and Blade Runner, I have no idea why I have never played Snatcher. I'm a big Kojima fan too. I have no excuse.
I understand the hate of Working Designs, but they also gave us Elemental Gearbolt, a game that combined a sci-fi fantasy setting, RPG elements, amazing animated sequences with voice acting, and set it all on a rail shooter. The soundtrack was revolutionary for the time as well. I don't know how good your marksmanship is, but it pretty much screams "Play me, Richard!"
It's so sad that some of these games will never have an English patch. I still think the worst is that the original SMT: Devil Summoner, despite being on multiple systems, has no English patch after all these decades. Which do you think is the game most deserving of an English patch at this point?
Sorry about your hard drive, dude, but you've landed on your feet like a cat. Well done. 🐈
Lunar 2 is my top favorite Sega CD RPG game of all time and one of my favorite games of all time.
Still watching the video but I just got to the Eye of the Beholder part of the video and a lil hint about the movement, if you hit (or maybe hold, I can't remember) START on your controller, it lets you use the D-pad to move instead of having to manually click the arrow buttons, making navigation infinitely easier and actually a joy to play on the console.
Arcus I+II+III is amazing if you can get into it, and it has cool boss music. It's like Phantasy Star III where the story starts over twice.
Wow, so many highlights from my childhood. I owned all 6 of these games. Had to use a guide to beat D&D it was so clunky and unfun. Only played it once. Vay I beat a few times, and I love the title screen cinematic. I just about memorized it and it still pops in my head today. But it was so hard, you had to play it about perfectly to survive. (And grind a lot). Dark Wizard I beat a couple times. It's a really long game, 100 hours per playthrough. Shining Force CD was just two prior Shining Force games combined with one new scenario. I played through it once and felt like I'd wasted my money since I already had the other Shining Force games. I LOVED the Lunar games. Here's how I would rank them.
1. Lunar: Silver Star Story
2. Lunar: Eternal Blue
3. Dark Wizard
4. Vay
5. Shining Force CD
6. D&D
Great video!
Back in the late 90's and early 2000's, I had a Sega Genesis CD-X, the compact both in one system and had Lunar I and II, Popful Mail, Vay, Shining Force CD, Dark Wizard, and Eye of the Beholder.
Thank you.
I had not a Sega CD while growing, but had a Mega Drive/Genesis.
I love Phantasy Star, and now I bought a Sega CD to play those RPG forgotten in time. Because I dont like playing on emulators, and I want to feel how the original game was when released.
Lunar SS and EB are my next games to finish
I was in my 30s when I realized that a Lodoss Wars RPG for the Sega CD in the style of Shining Force.
And surprise, it sucks.
i never had a sega cd. thank you for the insight into the gems on the system. i love your videos, temperament, and presentation. also thanks for not giving up when you lost that drive, it had to be hard!
Thank you my friend.
Shining Force 1 and 2 are great and part of my childhood. You convinced me, I'm gonna play Shining Force CD
It’s not 1 or 2 great but it is worth a playthrough! Best way to play it now is with the Genesis Mini 2!
It is indeed a pretty amazing & much needed game for the Sega CD library!
@@skipduffee9453pretty sad once you realize the Sega CD was more powerful than Genesis.
Sega really fumbled the Shining Force series.
@@magacop5180 it’s extra power was kind of situational…it could definitely have been better utilized for super scaler ports and whatnot.
At least we have the masterpiece that is Shining Force 3, and the other shining games for the Saturn. Holy Ark happens to be a fantastic game.
What about Dungeon Master II? It plays very similar to Eye of the Beholder. It’s one of my childhood favorites.
I was waiting too it's a really fun hard dunegon crawl. Also these games play so much better with the sega mega mouse.
Also forgot about Heimdall...
Richard loses all of his shit and comes back with an absolute BARNBURNER of a video
Thanks for keeping this all going, as always. Always a highlight of the week when you upload.
Dark wizard had better be on this list.... But that's more strategy isn't it.
Would have been nice to get a phantasy star iv on scd but, oh well.
Played a few hours of shining force CD and it was a definite step up presentation wise from Shining Force 1 and 2. Nice to see that Camelot got to make the game they wanted to make without the limitations of 2 MB of ROM
Good video. That's really interesting. If someone asked me if the Sega CD had good rpgs I would have said sure, I would have named the 6 games you reviewed and I would have said and surely there's a bunch more I don't know about. Funny to realize, nope, that's the whole list.
I will add in I feel that Eternal Blue is not only the best rpg on the Sega CD but to me it's the best rpg of the 16 bit generation. I know others would prefer Crono Trigger or FFVI and I like those games too but my order is Eternal Blue, Phantasy Star IV, Earthbound and then Crono Trigger and FFVI.
I'm just listening to the music from Lunar. What else is there to say. Lunar. Lunar. Lunar.
Eternal Blue was extremely hard and frustrating on the Sega CD with the random encounters, I had to switch to the PlayStation version to beat it. Also I dont get the hate for Working Designs, its because of them we got Lunar to begin with and the translation was miles ahead of what competitors (like square) were doing at the time. Id also thank them for that badass intro song to Silver Star which they completely reworked that really helped sell that game from the moment you turned it on.
I don’t get the Working Designs hate here either. Playing their games in the 90s it was great having some life breathed into dialogue when there was very little personality outside of typical anime tropes. Looking in hindsight the humor is really dated but it still felt unique to play through at the time.
If you don't like random encounters I don't get why you even play RPGS. You should stick to visual novel type stuff. Like Snatcher would be perfect for you.
Random encounters make it dangerous to travel. Getting around is supposed to be difficult and dangerous. You need to be tough enough to overcome it.
RPGs should do a better job of making each battle interesting with enemy patterns and weaknesses, etc.. not just hitting attack over and over, but that's the core gameplay of an RPG. You explore while fearing for the life of your party. If you lose you lose a lot of gold and/or time, or in older games like Wizardry you might just permanently lose your entire freaking party, so you need to be really damn careful.
So much retro goodness here! Nice vid mate. Shining force is timeless
I thought Shining Force CD were a Genesis Shining force compilation. That means now I have even more game finish
Dark Wizard was awesome.
I find I'm always opposite to most opinions. I love Lunar way more than Eternal Blue. Maybe it's because I never knew it had a sequel till I saw lunar complete and they announced they was also doing its sequel. I played lunar and Vay way back when they came out. They was my first rpgs so made working designs stand out to me so i dont fully understand your hate for them. This is my first video of yours so maybe it gets explained at some point. Either way I'm thankful for your video and emulation because I can not afford any lunar today and this video reminded me of the awesome dark wizard lol
What is your problem with working designs? You are the first person I've ever heard malign them. I loved the translation of lunar and lunar 2 on the psx.
A lot of people think they ruin the translations of games but i usually don't have a problem with their stuffs.
@@909crime all I've ever heard is praise of their translations of both Lunar games. I haven't played them in awhile but I remember laughing a lot to the jokes and liking them
@@toolman4745 iv plated a few of their saturn games. I liked the jokes as well
Personally, I like them. But Working Designs hate goes way back, my friend. If you took part in the online gaming community back in the late nineties you heard the hate for sure. "Wrecking Designs" was the favored nickname.
they also made some of their games harder for no reason at all. translate whatever but leave the gameplay alone
Lunar 2 is my absolute favorite game ever made. There's nothing that quite struck me the way it did. IYKYK.
Ronfar is still my favorite take on that kind of character. The broken holy man who cares, but only just enough, because his heart has just been through so much. I love the fact that he's a gambler and too horny for his own good, but he's also the guy keeping us alive through some absolute brutally difficult bosses. He truly is a great guy. Making a deal with Lucia, gambling his soul for a chance to save her mind. That's still my favorite scene in all of gaming. That's how hard it hit me when I first played it.
So did you just forget about Heimdall, Dungeon Master II: Skullkeep & Dungeon Explorer?? Nice video overall tho.
that's what I was thinking. I remember having to buy the sega mouse for the genesis and hint book for Dungeon Master 2 to even be playable. Also played 4 player Dungeon Explorer all the time with buddies which is basically Gauntlet with RPG elements. Never could figure out Heimdall and gave up on it. I remember having a great time on my sega cd. I had all those RPGs (NA Released) and stuff like Soul Star, Third World War, Eternal Champions, and Thunderstrike.
Vay was and is one of my all time favorite games. I still have it. My son LOVES the music for it and has watched the game play. I wish they would release it (not the way they did with all the renames and bad voice acting on the iPhone) but REALLY remake it. They could really make it amazing and do so much more with it.
Person: Tell me you're old without telling me you're old
Me: *watches video about Sega CD game rankings*
Lmfao so true
I was born in '96, so I'm not _that_ old.
Bought my Sega cd from a classmate In either 93 or 94 I was a freshman/sophomore in HS. Me and my brother rented dark wizard and lunar. Our minds were blown at how awesome they were. Great memories
Two games off the top of my head that you didn't include are Alshark and Burai. Those are definitely both RPG's by any definition of the word.
Yeah, I was thinking about those as well. He's missing quite a few Japanese releases from this "all" list. 3x3 Eyes, After Armageddon, Alshark, Burai, Cosmic Fantasy Stories, Death Bringer, Illusion City, Record of Lodoss War, Shin Megami Tensei...
There are some BIG (by 90s standards) releases missing here.
Woah a big list of games I've never played nor will ever have time to play! If that Shadowrun game ever gets translated that's a drop everything and immediate play though
Aisle Lord reminds me of Sword of Vermillion.
Some real winners here. Already a Shining Force fan but am yet to play the Mega CD version and now I want to play all of the top 6 featured here.
Never heard someone crap talk working design so much. What did they do to you? 😂
Revengers of Vengeance actually reminds me of another game: on the N64 there is a fighting game called "Flying Dragon", it actually is two games in one, and the SD (Super Deformed / Chibi) fighting game actually has RPG Mechanics. You level up your weapons/armor, can bring 2 items into a fight, and visit a shop that has a .... friendly/hostile shopkeeper (based on whether you buy something every time you visit or not). You also get scrolls to unlock more special skills and...... basically, it's funny because once you get super high level (save on your controller pak) if you fight your friends, you'll probably curb stomp a player that has no save file. How's that for competitive fighting? LOL
The Aisle Lord joke is one of the funniest things I've heard in a long time, because as a Black guy in nyc I've had to deal with this for a long time, lol
Hate Working Design's game decisions all you like, but their CD images and manuals are fire.
Vay was a favorite as a kid. Despite what working designs did to make it less enjoyable, it still captured my heart.
People put down the Sega cd for being expensive and having “few games” but this list provides hundreds of hours of entertainment. Per hour, the dollar amount would be $1-2. Certainly worth the investment I say!
thanks great video looking forward to watching more stuff here for sure
Some good choices. I really liked Rise of the Dragon and remember trying to struggle through Heimdal. I didn't really have time for RPGs, I was so busy playing Sewer Shark.
I never owned a Sega CD till like, super late when you could find the things for like 50 bucks. My friend did though. He was the sega console guy and I had the Nintendos. So he played FF games at my house and I got to play both lunar games.
You gushed over Eternal Blue and I still don't think it does it justice. I am extremely biased though, because the slow playthrough I had to do only when I could visit his house long enough to get some time in, created some of the most lasting memories of my life. I can look at individual pictures and scenes from that game and instantly go back to my childhood. Its powerful, but I mean, its also an amazing experience on its own. The attention to detail on the characters personalities and dialogue (WD translation or not) was absolutely multiple generations ahead of its time. Around a time when even having characters with some character specific dialogue was rare. These guys would have more lines talking to people in a single town than almost any other RPG, FF games included, might have in a whole game. And all their convos just felt natural. Party member banter is like a staple requirement for a good story for me because of this game.
Shining Force CD might be good but the problem is that it is only battles. There are no exploration, like other titles have, such as Shining Force 2.
these aren't all the RPGs on the Sega CD... where is Dungeon Master II?
Eye of the Beholder wasn't technically part of the Gold Box series. While it was a licensed D&D game published by SSI during the early '90s, it didn't come in a gold box and didn't use the Gold Box engine that the other games did. Instead it uses the AESOP engine. The similar package design has led to some people referring to it as the origin of a Black Box series
Dungeon master 2?? Didn’t see it.
De niño tuve la Mega Drive, pero me quedé con las ganas de tener un Mega CD. Fue muchos años más tarde que conseguí hacerme con dos unidades. Mis juegos favoritos de Mega CD son los siguientes:
- POPFUL MAIL
- EARTHWORM JIM: SPECIAL EDITION
- LUNAR: ETERNAL BLUE
- LUNAR: THE SILVER STAR
- MUSHA ALESTE
- VAY
- BARI ARMS
- SNATCHER
- LORDS OF THUNDER
- MICKEY MANIA CD
- KEIO FLYING SQUADRON
- SHINING FORCE CD
- BATMAN CD
- SONIC CD
- FINAL FIGHT CD
Dark Wizard was my favourite, im actually playing it right now on an emulator.
Very cool video, thanks!
I absolutely love Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete and Eternal Blue for the PSX. I wish I had been able to play the OG games on Sega CD though.
Your opinion instantly ceased to matter when you insulted Working Designs.
Native English speakers who translate a text heavy game like an rpg, and leave the dialog as ALL CAPS already get a big stink eye from me.
😮
I do love the list though. Dark Wizard May be my favorite on the list. The music alone is worth it.
Agreed 100%
Especially Armer IX's March. That's great battle music.
@@johntracy72 Man, now I want to listen to the soundtrack while I work, but it is going to make me want to replay the game haha.
This was a great video! I only got my Mega CD (yes I'm in PAL territory 😛) a couple of years ago and a lot of the games you mentioned are ones I want to play. The problem is that the Lunar series, Vay and Popful Mail were never released in PAL! So I've spent the last two years figuring out how to alter Eternal Blue's music to play at the slower 50Hz speed of PAL systems. I finally released it a month ago along with PAL conversion of the first Lunar game and also Rise of the Dragon. Popful Mail is next on my list but I've been adding in the Un-Working Designs patches for their Sega CD games. I can't be dealing with paying to heal in Eternal Blue! I would have included Rise of the Dragon in your recommendations along with Snatcher 😜
Here's a tip don't buy pal 50hz was and is terrible I'm also in the pal region I buy Japanese systems and mod them with 230v PSUs and go down the flash cart route so for the mega drive you want the mega everdrive pro flash cart it can play every game for the system including mega/sega CD games without needing an actual CD attachment, also can play 32X games but you will need that attachment for it to work
I'm all for collecting but unfortunately the PAL regions got shafted until the 7th gen of consoles
@@HollowRick we got so so shafted!
You can move around in Eye of the Beholder with the d-pad you simply have to hold Start I think (check the manual of the game).
Other great RPGs that are stuck in Japan are Illusion City and Shin Megami Tensei. There is also an interesting game called Armageddon something.
Great video! I would love to try one or two from that list! Hey RPG fort, what is the most similar game to shinning force 2 you know? Tactical RPG with overworld, I'm dying to play something like that again!
I just figured that I had all the Sega Cd RPGs back in the days... I should have gotten a SNES, they had much more of these games that I loved so much!
It's no Snatcher, but with Shadowrun (JP) and Snatcher mentioned, I was surprised not to see Rise of the Dragon also mentioned.
I wonder if the Sega Mouse is compatible with Eye of the Beholder? If so it would be a worthwhile accessory purchase. I believe it's also compatible with Snatcher!
So, Micronet did a different fighter? That's 3 now I know of. Heavy Nova (played it to death cart), Black Hole Assault, and Revengers Of Vengeance? Good to know.
If only wolfteam translated the others.
I wish I played sega cd I had the first sega an others systems I played lunar on ps1 I think it been forever born 1983
Eye of the Beholder has mouse support but I imagine it doesn't let you 'duel wield'.
I REALLY hope these Sega CD games get translated at some point! We NEED more playable Sega CD RPG's in English!
I got a Sega CD for my 14th birthday. I got Lunar with it. I didn't know you had to format the memory otherwise the final boss will freeze everytime.
I have to disagree with the Lunar games and would switch their places in my own personal list. I really enjoyed magic in the first more where Alex just becomes an absolute beast in melee and spells. It made the character feel, in my opinion, "worthy" of his job protecting the goddess.....but I fully admit that this is heavily tinged with nostalgia for me as I rented the game dozens of time from the local video store back in the day.
Arcus 1,2 and 3 wolud have sold very well in the west. Shame they is so many RPGs that we missed out on
Alshark is another Japan exclusive RPG on the Sega CD that always looked interesting to me. Wiah i could speak Japanese, for that and for the other games on the standard Genesis that remain untranslated.
Great list, except I would have put Dark Wizard at the top. Game still has a cult following all these years later. Its got its flaws, sure. But if any game deserves a revival from the Sega CD, its this one. But then, its really a gem for those who love games like Fire Emblem, Ogre Battle, Shining Force, and other "control a massive army that promotes and evolves" games. Very few, if any of these types of games lets you make your OWN army size (up to 100 active characters at once) and then have the AI match you, so that you tailor the difficulty by your desire for epic scale conflicts, or more "skirmish" battles. Its by no means perfect (The AI is dumb as a rock, and generally just makes a beeline for your ruler) but making custom characters, promotions with different class choices, monsters that evolve and get bigger- This one one of the first to do these things in an SRPG.
And the music is just phenomenal. Not to mention people were still uncovering secrets 10 or more years after it was released.
If someone "modernized" this game via remake or spiritual successor, it would be a massive hit in todays more SRPG friendly communities.
a little nitpick: Eye of the Beholder is NOT a goldbox games, those were way before this one and a series on their own engine - the Gold Box engine
Great list
Big fan of Falcom thank you for Popful Mail
Shining Force CD is #1 for me. I wish they also included the Final Conflict story into it for the completion.
Dark Wizard is one of the greatest games ever made.
Vay has a fan patch that reduces the amount of random battles. There is also an unworking designs hack that fixes the changes. Why not mention these?
I assumed Arcus would be like Arcus Odyssey. Maybe that was a side game or some such
Lunar was my first rpg.
Never played shining force cd. I thought it was going to be bad because of the square map. And i had just come off of... A year of my life to dark wizard. And it shining force was $35!! Most cd games were in the clearance bin for $10!! I am not made of that kind of cash.
You missed record of lodoss war. A japanese exclusive rpg for sega cd that closely follows the story of the anime.
Youre from rhe east coast of canada, arent you?
Sega CD was NOT a bad system! I grew up with it and really enjoyed the selection of RPGs, adventure games, and FMV games on it! Also how could you have Eye of the Beholder on the list without also talking about Dungeon Master II: Skullkeep?
Sega CD was an awful money grab of a system.
Sega did not even TRY with the console.
This is why it only lasted a year.
😂
And what selection of RPGs?
This whole list is garbage and I’m a serious Shining Force fan.
@@magacop5180 - All of the Working Designs games, Dark Wizard, Eye of the Beholder, Dungeon Master 2, it wasn't JUST Shining Force CD (and there was so much content in that game that you REALLY got your money's worth)...
THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE AISLE LORD! Sadly the downsized since they installed self checkouts. Poor lords.
Also yay! Some of these I'm very familiar with. Even if the controls for Eye of the Beholder are awful with that controller scheme, I wish I could get the saturn's graphics on my PC copy xD
I had a Sega CD. Both Dark Wizard and Eye of the Beholder were a massive part of my childhood. (These were the second and third console RPGs that I ever played, with Phantasy Star III being the first. Good times...)
Neither of the Lunar titles came to Europe... the only time one of these did was on the PSP so only the remake of the first.
But yea, i would have liked if more of these would have been on the Mega Drive Mini 2...
Till then i have a JP Mega Drive Mini 2 to play the Lunars and Popful Mail... as well as the PS1 Versions that i bought way after the fact to have a way to play them at all.
You forgot about (Heimdall)...
Popful Mail is probably the best game on the system!
Interesting Micronet produced Revengers of Vengeance - they also made one of the most ubderrated strategy games ever Warrior of Rome 2.
Where's Dungeon Explorer? You mention Revenge of Vengeance and Dungeon Explorer is not RPG enough?
OMG, you triggered a repressed memory of Revengers of Vengeance. I remember a horrible fighting game from my youth that tricked me into thinking it was an RPG.
But I'm allergic to cats....
Are you Canadian?
You forgot Dungeon Master 2! Its a great classic dungon crawler. I cant belive you didnt mentation this RPG-gem. The Sega CD didt got many RPGs but you forgot one of the best for this system…🙄
Why did you not mention dungeon master 2 skullkeep which is a much better game than eye of the beholder and also there was Heimdall, a very interesting Viking rpg with cool minigames like axe throwing while being drunk in game lol
wait, where are SMT? lol
No love for Heimdall 😢
The Mega cd is great...not a curse at all. I have a lot of games for it. Many of these rpg -ish games have not released in Europe. Would like Popful Mail...which was not released either in this part of "the West".
N64 moment? Pure disappointment? But Shining Force cd is great...
Eye of the Beholder supporte the Mega Mouse, so...ehm, try that if you don't like the controller in the game.
thanks working designs ?
See I dunno, I never found Vay to be egregious or difficult. I beat it without any trouble at all. Are you sure youre not just bad at RPG's?
If Working Designs made it tougher then I say good! Cus I didn't notice anything overly tough about it, & I certainly wouldnt have wanted it to be any easier than it already was.