The SNES and PS1 generations were the golden age of gaming for me. So many JRPG masterpieces (and plenty of incredible games of other genres) condensed in a 10 year period.
As someone who went crazy on Translated ROMs between 1998 and 2004, I loveeee seeing you and others mention some of the JP only games that were translated.
I actually fell off of fan translations back in the late 90s. Zophar's Domain was the place I went to for all my news back in the day and I am surprised it is still around, I am going to have to check out some of the translations I missed.
@@Crenust Literally named after the bad guy from the JRPG that defined them since it's release. Lunar has had a MASSIVE impact on the entire genre and industry ever since it dropped and it's the main reason I actually cried when we got Dragon Song.
The summer of 2002 before freshman year of high school was when I discovered emulation. So many games I’d never heard of, or only seen in old magazines.
The difference between the NES and SNES is just monumental. I been playing alot of NES games lately well they are charming and probably one of my favorite games of all time being Cystalis, it actually lacked the memory to actually tell stories so for the SNES to actually tell a full epic plot with deep characterization and even allow text strings to be larger in the code so you can have full words as opposed to abreviations, is a testament to just how much of an evolutionary leap the SNES was from the previous hardware. I mean if you think about it, games like FF VI and Chrono Trigger hold uptoday for some of the most ground breaking and inventive rpg stories and they were only on that 16-bit hardware.
To be true, Lagrange Point, Jubei Quest or Madara were some nes games which tried pretty hard to tell a more or less convoluted story (they obviously didn't manage to reach the level of depth of some snes rpgs, but the effort was laudable).
@@akualung Yep, I have Jubei quest on my channel, havn't gotten to Lagrange point yet but I have played some of it. Though that game was late in the NES life cycle so they had the added capability of a graphics chip to enhance the graphics. Even though, when you compare NES to SNES. The Super Famicom was really your first foray into representing rpgs as a visual story telling medium almost in a cinamatic way, even before we had cinamatics, the ability to express writing and to tell an epic akin to like films and regular tv through the use of 16-bit pixels was just amazing and took alot of imagination and creativity. These things were just not possible on the NES and when you think about the history of gaming, that is quite the significant leap. I used to think that the PS1 was the Peak of story telling and scale in jrpgs, well that maybe true to some extent, the NES to the next generation was by far the largest innovation of story telling in video games.
@@deatho0ne587 In the nes era you really had to kind of conceptualize a story through a summary and ending and a few little excerpts of writing in between to get get the gist of the plot as you go on this sprawling adventure, well that is interesting and does give you an idea about the theme and plot of the game, it wasn't until the SNES gen where we could actually expand upon it, use exposition and tell a narative by using certain set pieces and scenes in a game which of course felt far more expressive and cinematic in a way. Don't get me wrong though, I am in no way criticizing the nes, it has its achievements along the evolution of gaming. Probably more notable for introducing actual worlds to the gaming tapestry, before that, everything derived from arcade cabinets so the NES is equally as important to ushering in gamers to playing through gorgeous life like worlds and levels, but specifically of the RPG genre, the SNES really evolved the genre far beyond anything anyone could imagine and that is probably why it’s one of the most groundbreaking console generations in alot of rpg fans eyes.
@4:10 while chrono trigger took out random battles and enemies are on the field it is by no means the first to do it. They took all this inspiration from Final Fantasy Mystic Quest which came out a good 2 years earlier.
One underrated SNES rpg I would consider a 10/10 is SMT 2, I think it really is the culmination of the early megaten games and takes everything that made the first game great and expands and refines it.
I think I love Chrono trigger so much for its pacing. JRPGs somethings can get too convoluted. Simple story with a few twist but always pushed you into more details
We missed a lot of other hidden gems like Bahamut Lagoon, Dragon Quest, Live A Live, Romancing Saga 1 thru 3, Seiken Densetsu III, Star Ocean, Tactics Ogre, and Tales of Phantasia just to name a few.
FF4 forever and always. It's my favorite game of all-time. Excellent combat, great cast of characters, epic story, perfect music. Plus you go to the freakin' moon!
I especially love the PSP version, it took a decent game and made it even better with how much extra polish was added. If anyone's gonna play FF4, play the PSP version, it's the definitive experience. Even has all the extra content and sequels in one package, so you can experience everything the FF4 saga had to offer in one playthrough. The SNES one isn't the best one to play anymore, since it cut features that were restored in later versions (starting from the PS1 version), like Cecil's Darkness ability and more.
I think Breath of Fire should be on this list,i love that game,i can remember my 1st playthrough and by the time i figured out i had to change to the fox to go through the wood's i was so overpowered lol it's really a masterpiece imo.
@@jaydeebow6431 hahaha yeah. There were a few parts in that game that I remember being like welp, guess that’s that. Such good rpgs, illusion of Gaia another one left off the list, albeit a bit less traditional.
Same for me! Knew something was preventing my progress and when I switched to Bo I was so relived to see he could walk through forests. Makes me wonder if this ability was mentioned in the manual... which, of course, were ALWAYS lost when you rented them! So if it was... you pretty much only found out by random chance and desperation. Surprised that not a single NPC or even BO HIMSELF hint at this ability lol.
The more I watch channels like this, the more I realize I’ve barely scratched the surface of JRPGs. A lot of these games I’ve never heard of but sound awesome.
Give the pc-engine games a look, they're really good, particularly the second one, Manjimaru (the largest and more expensive rpg made at the time of its release, a real AAA of its time) and Fuun Kabuki Den, which has a lot of humour and the combat reminds me a little of the Lunar series. And the Saturn installment, The Fourth Apocalypse, is one of the most bizarre and unhinged rpgs ever made. Sadly, none of them are translated yet.
Thanks for this list! I've been playing SNES game and fan translations for the last 20+years, and i can't believe there was THREE game from your list i never tried or heard before. - Magical Land of Wozz - Far East of Eden Zero - G.O.D. I definitely need to try theses games now! Glad to see Treasure of the Rudras here too. Not my favorite RPG but... what a GREAT game! I loved the sountrack where each characters has their own music theme which is rearranged for battles/boss fight/overworld. Loved the magic creation system too, sad i know no other game that use a similar mechanics. Thanks for your video!!
1. Dragon Quest V 2. Final Fantasy VI 3. Earthbound 4. Chrono Trigger 5. The Magical Land of Woz 6. Far East of Eden Zero 7. Treasure of the Rudras 8. Lufia 2 9. Super Mario RPG 10. G.O.D.
This is a perfect list. I think Breath of Fire 2 MIGHT have made the cut if it had gotten a legible translation...I was always more intrigued by that game than I was actively ENGAGED, if that makes sense. But you've put a couple of games on my radar with this, so thank you!
Not for nothing, Mallow IS the best party member for some grinding. His lightning hits all enemies and eventually gets pretty strong. You can clear a monster party of 4-5 with one attack. He was my go-to for level building 😊
Solid list! Final Fantasy V has slowly become my favorite SNES turn-based RPG. The replay value is so high due to the job system and I like the silliness of the story. Great video! Off-topic- are you still teaching?
Most of those games never released in the states would be wonderful additions to the switch snes library. I mean the fans have done most of the work by translating them.
the fascinating thing with many of these games is that they reveal a lot of "forgotten" truths about our world and _true_ history. Remember kids - truth is indeed stranger than fiction! Thanks for the awesome list, David!
It’s always the videos like this that make me sad that we were a Sega household growing up lol. I have half of this list in my backlog now but it’s always good to see that 10/10 - I know I’m in for a treat!! 😊
Happy Sunday David! I played TONS of rpgs on SNES back in the day. I didn't get into the DQ series until DQ8, but I would love to go back and play the older ones on the SNES/PS1. (I have no idea why/how DQ eluded me for so long. Maybe I was too deep into FF.) Anyway, thanks for another banger David, and have a blessed day everyone.
Honestly, if you're going to go back and play older DQ games, I have to humbly recommend adding DQIV to your list (even though all versions of it have their own... issues... it remains a phenomenal game, and for it's time, was leaps and bounds ahead of the curve).
I kind of go back and forth on this. I think this and others like it (Star Ocean namely) are more or less still turn based, just an evolution of the active time system. You're still time limited in the amount of actions you can take. What's more is there is not a lot of room for technical skill to improve your play imo. In essence, it's an effective trick to take typically JRPG battles and remove the "stops" so to speak, but you're still taking turns.
@@reasonablebeef5885 There are some games like Tales of Phantasia on the system that aren't fully turn based that are cool as heck like Emerald Dragon or Star Ocean, the snes is a powerhouse of the genre.
I thought for sure I would know exactly what was going to be on this list. Then you come and show me 3 games I'd never heard of! Wozz, eden, rudra.... I MUST FIND AND PLAY THESE! Awesome video my man. Thanks for bringing these gems to light.
There are tons of amazing snes rpgs: Mystic Ark, Tenshi no Uta, Glory of Heracles 3 and 4, Lennus 2, Dual Orb 2, Silva saga 2, Villgust, Burning Heroes.....
Out of my top 5 RPGs, the top 4 are for the SNES; this console was an absolute BEAST for the genre. My list in no particular order would be: Earthbound Final Fantasy 4 Final Fantasy 5 Final Fantasy 6 Lennus 2 Live-A-Live Lufia 2 Mystic Ark (even wrote a walkthrough for this) Rudra no Hihou Shin Megami Tensei 2 Super Mario RPG Also, if anyone's willing to help me out, I'd love to know what I'm missing with Wozz, because I really wanted to like it, but the very first area ends with a boss that has an insane amount of HP, and the only way to do significant damage was to have Chun use Telekinesis and just hope it comes out as Rock Toss, leaving the other party members useless, and even he's a roll of the dice. I don't remember how far I got, but it seemed like most boss fights were like that. Is there some obvious trick or strategy that I missed?
Tresure of Rudra was such an amazing experience. Also maybe not a 10/10 but more of a 9/10 is Romancing Saga 3 for me. An 'open world' turned based Jrpg with a lot of content. Also i would like to hear your opinion on best action rpg on the snes
I had a blast with Romancing Saga 3. Bought the snes 8bitdo controller for it and was blown away that it's a SNES game. Sadly I couldn't beat the end boss aha..IL have to play it again
I’ve been watching a lot of your videos and we share the same tastes in rpgs. Grew up during the golden age of rpgs and I totally agree with you when it comes to your picks in this video. First rpg I played was Final Fantasy II for the snes and I couldn’t put it down. Love your videos 😄
Dragon warrior 3 is the best one. I’m still trying to figure out what the final fantasy series brought to the genre that the dragon warrior series didn’t do a year before them
Great list David! And thanks for reminding me that I still haven't finished G.O.D. or started on Treasure of the Rudras, those have in my backlog for aaaages
This list is perfect. 100% agree. I haven’t actually played G.O.D. yet. And yes, Lufia 2 is the best sequel to a game I didn’t really like. I still don’t get when people say Lufia is better xD
Are there any hidden gems on the Genesis that I should be aware of? The only JRPGs I remember playing on the Genesis were the Phantasy Star series and any game released by Working Designs for the Sega CD; Lunar, Vay, and Popful Mail.
Amazing compilation, David! As for Mallow, I'll join you in that fight to defend the marshmallow friend as he doesn't get enough love. Lots of random encounters are over before you know it because thunderbolt destroys all. Facing Culex? Clear everything with Star Rain! Keep up the amazing content, sir!
I really need to play the non-Square japanese only games. Hearing you talk about Woz so often makes me want to play it everytime. Just need to remember to "find" the game somewhere.
Great video David! My godparents got me an SNES on my fourth birthday in 1992! Its plastic is terribly yellowed now and it has an original Super Mario World holographic sticker on it and I love it so much lol. Thanks for taking me back there :)
That sounds quite wholesome. 😊 I dunno why all the tech from around that time that happens to be that bog-standard greyscale common to the 90s wound up turning nicotine yellow over the years since, but it’s weirdly nostalgic to me whenever I watch somebody like LGR showing off his newly restored 90s budget PC or whatever has caught his fancy for that week’s video only to see that weird yellowing take hold of the entire PC tower minus a few installable drive bays or whatever that somehow has remained grey.
I've only played DQV, and that was on the DS, amazing game. You've got me interested in The Magical Land Of Wozz now, I'll have to watch your video about it
this is my list, its small but honest work,without talking about the mainstream ones metal max returns (english patch) robotrek secret of the stars and monstania
I'd never heard of Far East of Eden Zero until now. Thank you SOOOO much for recommending it!!! I had a bit of trouble patching it, but it was worth the time. It's so much fun, and I can't wait to take my time playing it! :)
You covered most of what I would consider the top tier but I wanted to mention how you felt about FF6. There's a rom hack or mod called FF3 Brave New World that tries to address that issue where certain party members can learn certain spells and abilities instead of all of them. I haven't played it but it might be worth checking out
Thanks for the list of fantastic games to try out. I didn’t know about any jrpgs until I got a GBC and Pokemon Gold for Christmas 2000, and some of these SNES jrpgs are ones that I’ve always wanted to go back and play. I’ve also been interested in Bahamut Lagoon that I think you’ve mentioned on the channel before. I think I’m going to try Mario RPG first so that I can get to it before the remake releases, since I’m not sure if the remake will be 1:1 or if it will have some changes in translation like I’ve heard about Final Fantasy Tactics, or even bigger changes. As for 10/10 jrpgs, I really loved Dragon Warrior 3(I had the GBC version) and Golden Sun.
On ps3 eshop, there are so many ps1 and ps2 classics not available elsewhere. I'm just saying, haha. I personally just play my switch to play older jrpgs. I'm glad for the ports. I'm glad there is a new release of grandia and Chrono Cross, but if you want the og experience, ps3 eshop is where it's at.
Nice list,glad you mentioned lufia 2 but you didn't mention my favorite part of it which is the old cave dungeon which was a roguelike randomized dungeon. I replayed lufia 2 a few times just yo redo the old cave experience. Another snes game I'd rate 10/10 would be robotrek. Some hilarious spots and good rpg action I especially loved that xp is measured in megabytes
Chrono trigger still needs a PS4 PS5 Switch port the LAST Console version the DS remake of it is still a little over 20 years old and still didn't get ported over to the PS4 Switch PS5.
Personally I'd put breath of fire 2 on here but i understand that some people dont think its that good. One of the biggest problems was the translation for two games that had a few reason's why that was. I know you said traditional turn based but i have to bring but ogre battle 5 march if the black queen as a 10/10 game. For sll the remakes they made for tactics ogre they need to remake the ogre battle games.
I think FF Tactics is up next for a remake.. It would def make sense because then we’ll have the SE holy grail trinity of SRPGs on modern platforms.. I never played the other Ogre titles but I’d think a compilation of them would be nice so those uninitiated can dip our feet into them.. As far as Breath of Fire I’m a little torn in which of the first four to focus on first.. Should I start from the beginning or go in reverse? I’m on vacation now and i have a little more spare time to try out stuff I’m not as familiar with hahaha
I never grow tired of watching videos about snes rpgs despite having played almost all there is to it on that system. It must have been hard to choose only ten as there are many more that also deserve to be mentioned, such as the Super Shell Monsters Story duology, Last Bible 3 or the two Glory of Heracles games. And there's also a few more among the still untranslated ones that look promising, like Verne World, Gokinjo Boukentai or Shin Momotaro Densetsu. I hope someone takes up the task and translates them someday.
Personally I'd add Romancing SaGa 3 to the list. It took everything from the previous Romancing SaGa games and refined them to perfection. It's hard to learn but once you understand how things work, you have a lot of freedom to do as you wish. What quests you take on, what characters you recruit and what weapons/skills/spells you give them is all up to you. Check the fan translation out if you have some free time, and maybe get yourself the remaster if you enjoyed it.
I tend to think negatively about this sort of game today, but I'm not being fair. Games like these carried me through middle school and part of high school. In college, I discovered some gems that weren't translated to English. Who would I be if I'd never played the Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior, Chrono Trigger, and all the rest?
I have personally found that the best jrpg's are from the late 80s to the early 2000's. With spiritual successors to the genera coming 10 or so years later, like Octopath Traveler and Sea of Stars.
1:50 I’m the total opposite. I loved FF6 the first time I played it and wasn’t overly impressed with FF4. When I found out the USA SNES version was dumbed down and I bought a PSP just so I could play FF4 complete, the game grew on me. I even enjoyed The After Years. Conversely, FF6 to me is just so depressing now that I never feel like going back to it. The system where each character has some weird way to play them (like type in button combos) seems interesting, but in practice it is frustrating and not fun at all. The game is full of bugs and stuff that doesn’t work right too, which I rarely ever see mentioned anywhere. I personally can’t say it’s a 10/10 game.
_Chrono Trigger_ got me through a very dark time in my life, _Earthbound_ is just plain fun, and even though _FF6_ looks like a whole lot of gameplay that would be right down my alley, I _still_ haven't mamaged to get past that darned opera sequence...!!
4:32 ..first time hearing of this rpg..it does look fantastic, i'm quite intirgue..there really are tons of hidden gems on the snes..will check my fave romsite..tnx for the reco 🎮
Man FFVI would be my favorite, Super Mario Rpg: Legend of the Seven Stars is hands down the best super marior rpg. Ive replayed both so so many times. Greatest games of all time. Definitely the goats of the genre and in my top ten rpgs of all time.
![[#2024MAMA] ROSÉ (로제), Bruno Mars - APT. | Mnet 241122 방송](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dgGqD28J6aQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Follow me on Twitter! twitter.com/TheDavidVinc
Watch me stream! www.twitch.tv/davidvincstreams
Have you ever heard of Gunman's Proof?
Robo trek beats all this list 😂😂😂 hands down
How do you put graphics in the TH-cam comment Algorithm 😮?!?
@@kabiebebe2332SoulBlazer beats RoboTrek tho 😜
@@jedcauffield1858 brainlord beats soulblazer
The SNES and PS1 generations were the golden age of gaming for me. So many JRPG masterpieces (and plenty of incredible games of other genres) condensed in a 10 year period.
Did you ever play Kardia world of fate for psx?
Gaming is in a golden age right now
It’s a fact. That was the golden age of gaming.
@@Smithylfc9999lmao no it’s not
@@bigguccitrent603 when has it ever been better
As someone who went crazy on Translated ROMs between 1998 and 2004, I loveeee seeing you and others mention some of the JP only games that were translated.
I actually fell off of fan translations back in the late 90s. Zophar's Domain was the place I went to for all my news back in the day and I am surprised it is still around, I am going to have to check out some of the translations I missed.
Good old Zophars
One of the best jrp that never went 100 translated is the Arabian nights
@@Crenust Literally named after the bad guy from the JRPG that defined them since it's release. Lunar has had a MASSIVE impact on the entire genre and industry ever since it dropped and it's the main reason I actually cried when we got Dragon Song.
The summer of 2002 before freshman year of high school was when I discovered emulation. So many games I’d never heard of, or only seen in old magazines.
Bless the fan translation scene! Though I would love to see some of these get the Live A Live treatment for modern platforms
PC gaming can't stop winning
Chrono Trigger will forever be my favorite RPG. It came out around the same time I went from middle school to high school just like you David.
The difference between the NES and SNES is just monumental. I been playing alot of NES games lately well they are charming and probably one of my favorite games of all time being Cystalis, it actually lacked the memory to actually tell stories so for the SNES to actually tell a full epic plot with deep characterization and even allow text strings to be larger in the code so you can have full words as opposed to abreviations, is a testament to just how much of an evolutionary leap the SNES was from the previous hardware. I mean if you think about it, games like FF VI and Chrono Trigger hold uptoday for some of the most ground breaking and inventive rpg stories and they were only on that 16-bit hardware.
Well said 👏
To be true, Lagrange Point, Jubei Quest or Madara were some nes games which tried pretty hard to tell a more or less convoluted story (they obviously didn't manage to reach the level of depth of some snes rpgs, but the effort was laudable).
I would argue that DQ 3 and 4 had some decent stories.
@@akualung Yep, I have Jubei quest on my channel, havn't gotten to Lagrange point yet but I have played some of it. Though that game was late in the NES life cycle so they had the added capability of a graphics chip to enhance the graphics. Even though, when you compare NES to SNES. The Super Famicom was really your first foray into representing rpgs as a visual story telling medium almost in a cinamatic way, even before we had cinamatics, the ability to express writing and to tell an epic akin to like films and regular tv through the use of 16-bit pixels was just amazing and took alot of imagination and creativity. These things were just not possible on the NES and when you think about the history of gaming, that is quite the significant leap. I used to think that the PS1 was the Peak of story telling and scale in jrpgs, well that maybe true to some extent, the NES to the next generation was by far the largest innovation of story telling in video games.
@@deatho0ne587 In the nes era you really had to kind of conceptualize a story through a summary and ending and a few little excerpts of writing in between to get get the gist of the plot as you go on this sprawling adventure, well that is interesting and does give you an idea about the theme and plot of the game, it wasn't until the SNES gen where we could actually expand upon it, use exposition and tell a narative by using certain set pieces and scenes in a game which of course felt far more expressive and cinematic in a way. Don't get me wrong though, I am in no way criticizing the nes, it has its achievements along the evolution of gaming. Probably more notable for introducing actual worlds to the gaming tapestry, before that, everything derived from arcade cabinets so the NES is equally as important to ushering in gamers to playing through gorgeous life like worlds and levels, but specifically of the RPG genre, the SNES really evolved the genre far beyond anything anyone could imagine and that is probably why it’s one of the most groundbreaking console generations in alot of rpg fans eyes.
@4:10 while chrono trigger took out random battles and enemies are on the field it is by no means the first to do it. They took all this inspiration from Final Fantasy Mystic Quest which came out a good 2 years earlier.
One underrated SNES rpg I would consider a 10/10 is SMT 2, I think it really is the culmination of the early megaten games and takes everything that made the first game great and expands and refines it.
I went to the comments to say this lol.
Smt is mid
Agree 110%. I actually own a physical cartridge of SMT2.
Is the GBA version worth playing? As I got the ROM for it
Based SMT enjoyer.
Also LMFAO @ butthurt baddie unironically using the term "mid". Zoomers don't like being challenged, what a shocking revelation!
I think I love Chrono trigger so much for its pacing. JRPGs somethings can get too convoluted. Simple story with a few twist but always pushed you into more details
We missed a lot of other hidden gems like Bahamut Lagoon, Dragon Quest, Live A Live, Romancing Saga 1 thru 3, Seiken Densetsu III, Star Ocean, Tactics Ogre, and Tales of Phantasia just to name a few.
Great list, these should never be forgotten for sure.
FF4 forever and always. It's my favorite game of all-time. Excellent combat, great cast of characters, epic story, perfect music. Plus you go to the freakin' moon!
FF4 is my fave game of all time
This. 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
Best soundtrack in the whole series. It’s the game I think of the most when someone says Final Fantasy❤
I especially love the PSP version, it took a decent game and made it even better with how much extra polish was added. If anyone's gonna play FF4, play the PSP version, it's the definitive experience. Even has all the extra content and sequels in one package, so you can experience everything the FF4 saga had to offer in one playthrough. The SNES one isn't the best one to play anymore, since it cut features that were restored in later versions (starting from the PS1 version), like Cecil's Darkness ability and more.
Couldn't agree more . . . except it's not FF4. It's FF2.
I think Breath of Fire should be on this list,i love that game,i can remember my 1st playthrough and by the time i figured out i had to change to the fox to go through the wood's i was so overpowered lol it's really a masterpiece imo.
Lmaooo. In your defense that game doesn’t hold your hand much at all
@@phillicus yea and remember back in those day's we had no google or TH-cam lol
@@jaydeebow6431 hahaha yeah. There were a few parts in that game that I remember being like welp, guess that’s that. Such good rpgs, illusion of Gaia another one left off the list, albeit a bit less traditional.
Same for me! Knew something was preventing my progress and when I switched to Bo I was so relived to see he could walk through forests. Makes me wonder if this ability was mentioned in the manual... which, of course, were ALWAYS lost when you rented them! So if it was... you pretty much only found out by random chance and desperation. Surprised that not a single NPC or even BO HIMSELF hint at this ability lol.
I’m surprised to find games I haven’t heard of. When you think you’ve seen all of the snes, glad there is still something to look forward to there
same! I had never heard of G.O.D. or Magical land of WOZZ
Thank you for giving Lufia 2 some love, such a wonderful title.
The more I watch channels like this, the more I realize I’ve barely scratched the surface of JRPGs. A lot of these games I’ve never heard of but sound awesome.
There's even more Squaresoft SNES RPGs that have been fan translated that aren't mentioned.
Far East of Eden Zero looks so good!! Crazy I never heard of it until now, thank you spreading the word
Give the pc-engine games a look, they're really good, particularly the second one, Manjimaru (the largest and more expensive rpg made at the time of its release, a real AAA of its time) and Fuun Kabuki Den, which has a lot of humour and the combat reminds me a little of the Lunar series.
And the Saturn installment, The Fourth Apocalypse, is one of the most bizarre and unhinged rpgs ever made.
Sadly, none of them are translated yet.
Thanks for this list! I've been playing SNES game and fan translations for the last 20+years, and i can't believe there was THREE game from your list i never tried or heard before.
- Magical Land of Wozz
- Far East of Eden Zero
- G.O.D.
I definitely need to try theses games now! Glad to see Treasure of the Rudras here too. Not my favorite RPG but... what a GREAT game! I loved the sountrack where each characters has their own music theme which is rearranged for battles/boss fight/overworld. Loved the magic creation system too, sad i know no other game that use a similar mechanics.
Thanks for your video!!
1. Dragon Quest V
2. Final Fantasy VI
3. Earthbound
4. Chrono Trigger
5. The Magical Land of Woz
6. Far East of Eden Zero
7. Treasure of the Rudras
8. Lufia 2
9. Super Mario RPG
10. G.O.D.
Dragon Quest V is SO good!! Also my favorite in the series. Absolutely love the SNES and PS1 eras, so many amazing JRPGs.
How is a rpg man so physically fit?? It's trippy
Ha! Thank you :)
@@davidvinccheers! 🍻
This is a perfect list. I think Breath of Fire 2 MIGHT have made the cut if it had gotten a legible translation...I was always more intrigued by that game than I was actively ENGAGED, if that makes sense. But you've put a couple of games on my radar with this, so thank you!
Breath of Fire 2 has a nice REtranslation patch that makes the game shine as the gem is really is, truly one of the best rpgs ever.
@@feiwong3634 I downloaded that! I'm eager to try it out
Not for nothing, Mallow IS the best party member for some grinding. His lightning hits all enemies and eventually gets pretty strong. You can clear a monster party of 4-5 with one attack. He was my go-to for level building 😊
Solid list! Final Fantasy V has slowly become my favorite SNES turn-based RPG. The replay value is so high due to the job system and I like the silliness of the story. Great video! Off-topic- are you still teaching?
Starting off with dq5 definitely a great start to the vid 👌 ☺️
Most of those games never released in the states would be wonderful additions to the switch snes library. I mean the fans have done most of the work by translating them.
the fascinating thing with many of these games is that they reveal a lot of "forgotten" truths about our world and _true_ history. Remember kids - truth is indeed stranger than fiction! Thanks for the awesome list, David!
thank you for this list david, i expected dq5 ff6 and chrono trigger but pleasantly surprised to be introduced to these other ones
It’s always the videos like this that make me sad that we were a Sega household growing up lol. I have half of this list in my backlog now but it’s always good to see that 10/10 - I know I’m in for a treat!! 😊
Glad you enjoyed it!!
Wow David in a t-shirt the world has gone mad 😂😂😂😂
Your channel is the best I've ever accidently stumbled upon. Never knew I needed so much jrpg info all the time.
Happy Sunday David! I played TONS of rpgs on SNES back in the day. I didn't get into the DQ series until DQ8, but I would love to go back and play the older ones on the SNES/PS1.
(I have no idea why/how DQ eluded me for so long. Maybe I was too deep into FF.) Anyway, thanks for another banger David, and have a blessed day everyone.
Honestly, if you're going to go back and play older DQ games, I have to humbly recommend adding DQIV to your list (even though all versions of it have their own... issues... it remains a phenomenal game, and for it's time, was leaps and bounds ahead of the curve).
Great list! It's also a good reminder of the games I still need to play.
7th Saga was a great game that my uncle and I used to bond over. Loved that one as well
Tales of Phantasia was a fantastic one too, but wasn't technically turn-based.
I kind of go back and forth on this. I think this and others like it (Star Ocean namely) are more or less still turn based, just an evolution of the active time system.
You're still time limited in the amount of actions you can take. What's more is there is not a lot of room for technical skill to improve your play imo.
In essence, it's an effective trick to take typically JRPG battles and remove the "stops" so to speak, but you're still taking turns.
@@reasonablebeef5885 There are some games like Tales of Phantasia on the system that aren't fully turn based that are cool as heck like Emerald Dragon or Star Ocean, the snes is a powerhouse of the genre.
I thought for sure I would know exactly what was going to be on this list. Then you come and show me 3 games I'd never heard of!
Wozz, eden, rudra.... I MUST FIND AND PLAY THESE!
Awesome video my man. Thanks for bringing these gems to light.
Glad I could help!
There are tons of amazing snes rpgs: Mystic Ark, Tenshi no Uta, Glory of Heracles 3 and 4, Lennus 2, Dual Orb 2, Silva saga 2, Villgust, Burning Heroes.....
@@feiwong3634 appreciate the recommendations. Thanks dude
Out of my top 5 RPGs, the top 4 are for the SNES; this console was an absolute BEAST for the genre. My list in no particular order would be:
Earthbound
Final Fantasy 4
Final Fantasy 5
Final Fantasy 6
Lennus 2
Live-A-Live
Lufia 2
Mystic Ark (even wrote a walkthrough for this)
Rudra no Hihou
Shin Megami Tensei 2
Super Mario RPG
Also, if anyone's willing to help me out, I'd love to know what I'm missing with Wozz, because I really wanted to like it, but the very first area ends with a boss that has an insane amount of HP, and the only way to do significant damage was to have Chun use Telekinesis and just hope it comes out as Rock Toss, leaving the other party members useless, and even he's a roll of the dice. I don't remember how far I got, but it seemed like most boss fights were like that. Is there some obvious trick or strategy that I missed?
As a younger gamer i hadn't heard of some of these games, definitely gonna try some of them out in the future.
Tresure of Rudra was such an amazing experience.
Also maybe not a 10/10 but more of a 9/10 is Romancing Saga 3 for me. An 'open world' turned based Jrpg with a lot of content.
Also i would like to hear your opinion on best action rpg on the snes
I had a blast with Romancing Saga 3. Bought the snes 8bitdo controller for it and was blown away that it's a SNES game. Sadly I couldn't beat the end boss aha..IL have to play it again
Really glad to see lufia 2 on the list! such underated gem imo.
Theres a few here that look pretty good that I've never even heard of, gonna try to find them. Thanks David
I have this crazy nostalgia for Earthbound, despite only playing through the home town and quitting about a dozen times.
I’ve been watching a lot of your videos and we share the same tastes in rpgs. Grew up during the golden age of rpgs and I totally agree with you when it comes to your picks in this video. First rpg I played was Final Fantasy II for the snes and I couldn’t put it down. Love your videos 😄
Dragon warrior 3 is the best one. I’m still trying to figure out what the final fantasy series brought to the genre that the dragon warrior series didn’t do a year before them
I would add Seiken Densetsu 3 and Tales of Phantasia to the list.
Great list David! And thanks for reminding me that I still haven't finished G.O.D. or started on Treasure of the Rudras, those have in my backlog for aaaages
This list is perfect. 100% agree. I haven’t actually played G.O.D. yet.
And yes, Lufia 2 is the best sequel to a game I didn’t really like. I still don’t get when people say Lufia is better xD
Great list and new sub! You have some that I dont ever see on other snes lists so that was very refreshing!
Are there any hidden gems on the Genesis that I should be aware of? The only JRPGs I remember playing on the Genesis were the Phantasy Star series and any game released by Working Designs for the Sega CD; Lunar, Vay, and Popful Mail.
Awesome list! Very happy to see Earthbound and Super Mario RPG on there. Masterpieces!
Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed it!!
Amazing compilation, David! As for Mallow, I'll join you in that fight to defend the marshmallow friend as he doesn't get enough love. Lots of random encounters are over before you know it because thunderbolt destroys all. Facing Culex? Clear everything with Star Rain!
Keep up the amazing content, sir!
I really need to play the non-Square japanese only games. Hearing you talk about Woz so often makes me want to play it everytime. Just need to remember to "find" the game somewhere.
I will always love and remember my Gold Fox "Ninetales" in Lufia II.
Great video David! My godparents got me an SNES on my fourth birthday in 1992! Its plastic is terribly yellowed now and it has an original Super Mario World holographic sticker on it and I love it so much lol. Thanks for taking me back there :)
That sounds quite wholesome. 😊
I dunno why all the tech from around that time that happens to be that bog-standard greyscale common to the 90s wound up turning nicotine yellow over the years since, but it’s weirdly nostalgic to me whenever I watch somebody like LGR showing off his newly restored 90s budget PC or whatever has caught his fancy for that week’s video only to see that weird yellowing take hold of the entire PC tower minus a few installable drive bays or whatever that somehow has remained grey.
I've only played DQV, and that was on the DS, amazing game. You've got me interested in The Magical Land Of Wozz now, I'll have to watch your video about it
That magical land of wozz battle screen looks like the inspiration for the first couple suikoden games battle screens lol.
this is my list, its small but honest work,without talking about the mainstream ones
metal max returns (english patch)
robotrek
secret of the stars and monstania
Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 6 and Earthbound are my favorites, glad to have them on here.
Dragon Warrior 7 will always be my favorite game of all time - I love it sooooo much 😊❤
I'd never heard of Far East of Eden Zero until now. Thank you SOOOO much for recommending it!!! I had a bit of trouble patching it, but it was worth the time. It's so much fun, and I can't wait to take my time playing it! :)
it's so nice of you to include an 11/10 game in this video (Chrono Trigger)
Hahaha! I do what I can :)
The video was so nice, I listened twice. 😊 Thank you, as always, for adding to my backlog.
You are so welcome!
The Secret of Evermore is my all-time favorite and part of the reason his the beautiful music.
FFVI is my favorite because the soundtrack lifts the story and art into the stratosphere. I just love the soundtrack to that game best soundtrack ever
I can never get enough EarthBound! Such a solid choice on this list, David ❤️
You covered most of what I would consider the top tier but I wanted to mention how you felt about FF6. There's a rom hack or mod called FF3 Brave New World that tries to address that issue where certain party members can learn certain spells and abilities instead of all of them. I haven't played it but it might be worth checking out
Saving this for later as I have Trails into Reverie, and soon BG3 to keep me occupied
Thanks for the list of fantastic games to try out. I didn’t know about any jrpgs until I got a GBC and Pokemon Gold for Christmas 2000, and some of these SNES jrpgs are ones that I’ve always wanted to go back and play. I’ve also been interested in Bahamut Lagoon that I think you’ve mentioned on the channel before. I think I’m going to try Mario RPG first so that I can get to it before the remake releases, since I’m not sure if the remake will be 1:1 or if it will have some changes in translation like I’ve heard about Final Fantasy Tactics, or even bigger changes.
As for 10/10 jrpgs, I really loved Dragon Warrior 3(I had the GBC version) and Golden Sun.
Dude! Killer collection you have there in the background!
On ps3 eshop, there are so many ps1 and ps2 classics not available elsewhere. I'm just saying, haha. I personally just play my switch to play older jrpgs. I'm glad for the ports.
I'm glad there is a new release of grandia and Chrono Cross, but if you want the og experience, ps3 eshop is where it's at.
There are so many timeless classics on the SNES.
SMRPG is my favorite game of all time. It's what got me into RPGs a nd gaming. Can't wait for the remake on the Switch.
Nice list,glad you mentioned lufia 2 but you didn't mention my favorite part of it which is the old cave dungeon which was a roguelike randomized dungeon. I replayed lufia 2 a few times just yo redo the old cave experience. Another snes game I'd rate 10/10 would be robotrek. Some hilarious spots and good rpg action I especially loved that xp is measured in megabytes
this reminded me of your old videos, david
great one
No love for FFIV or BoF2?! 😱
Bof2 is horrible.
Only other RPGs I can think of weren't really turn-based. And even among them Tales of Phantasia was the only 10 I can think of.
Nice list, there are tons of amazing obscure rpgs on the snes.
Yes there are!
I keep coming back to this marvelous list, @davidvinc. It's unique, and so good.
Chrono trigger still needs a PS4 PS5 Switch port the LAST Console version the DS remake of it is still a little over 20 years old and still didn't get ported over to the PS4 Switch PS5.
Credit goes to these translators that put a ton of their time into these projects so we can enjoy these games
Great list. A couple I havent played, and if they are along with the rest...for sure Ill try them!
Personally I'd put breath of fire 2 on here but i understand that some people dont think its that good. One of the biggest problems was the translation for two games that had a few reason's why that was. I know you said traditional turn based but i have to bring but ogre battle 5 march if the black queen as a 10/10 game. For sll the remakes they made for tactics ogre they need to remake the ogre battle games.
I think FF Tactics is up next for a remake.. It would def make sense because then we’ll have the SE holy grail trinity of SRPGs on modern platforms.. I never played the other Ogre titles but I’d think a compilation of them would be nice so those uninitiated can dip our feet into them..
As far as Breath of Fire I’m a little torn in which of the first four to focus on first.. Should I start from the beginning or go in reverse? I’m on vacation now and i have a little more spare time to try out stuff I’m not as familiar with hahaha
I never grow tired of watching videos about snes rpgs despite having played almost all there is to it on that system. It must have been hard to choose only ten as there are many more that also deserve to be mentioned, such as the Super Shell Monsters Story duology, Last Bible 3 or the two Glory of Heracles games. And there's also a few more among the still untranslated ones that look promising, like Verne World, Gokinjo Boukentai or Shin Momotaro Densetsu. I hope someone takes up the task and translates them someday.
Personally I'd add Romancing SaGa 3 to the list. It took everything from the previous Romancing SaGa games and refined them to perfection. It's hard to learn but once you understand how things work, you have a lot of freedom to do as you wish. What quests you take on, what characters you recruit and what weapons/skills/spells you give them is all up to you. Check the fan translation out if you have some free time, and maybe get yourself the remaster if you enjoyed it.
I loved the SNES and PS1 era and I too think Kefka is the best villain in all of Final Fantasy.
Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI gives me a smile.
Ff5 my man! That class system and music
I grew up with PS1 but the SNES was deep. Sad the one we had was dead when I was old enough to play games.
I would put DQ6 at 9/10 even though it's panned. Best OST, monster designs and mysterious energy.
Well I'm glad you mentioned the magical land of wozz again. I missed it somehow even though I've been watching this channel for years 😅
10:10 That game probably would have made the news back then for all of the wrong reasons.
I tend to think negatively about this sort of game today, but I'm not being fair. Games like these carried me through middle school and part of high school. In college, I discovered some gems that weren't translated to English.
Who would I be if I'd never played the Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior, Chrono Trigger, and all the rest?
As far as 10/10 Snes RPGs, this is a very accurate list. Makyio Zero was fantastic
Glad you think so!
I have personally found that the best jrpg's are from the late 80s to the early 2000's. With spiritual successors to the genera coming 10 or so years later, like Octopath Traveler and Sea of Stars.
1:50 I’m the total opposite. I loved FF6 the first time I played it and wasn’t overly impressed with FF4. When I found out the USA SNES version was dumbed down and I bought a PSP just so I could play FF4 complete, the game grew on me. I even enjoyed The After Years.
Conversely, FF6 to me is just so depressing now that I never feel like going back to it. The system where each character has some weird way to play them (like type in button combos) seems interesting, but in practice it is frustrating and not fun at all. The game is full of bugs and stuff that doesn’t work right too, which I rarely ever see mentioned anywhere. I personally can’t say it’s a 10/10 game.
Dragon Quest 5 is my favorite DQ too! Some games I think should also be on the list are Final Fantasy 4 and Breath of Fire 2!
_Chrono Trigger_ got me through a very dark time in my life, _Earthbound_ is just plain fun, and even though _FF6_ looks like a whole lot of gameplay that would be right down my alley, I _still_ haven't mamaged to get past that darned opera sequence...!!
Honestly love all the success you're seeing. 100% Deserved!
4:32 ..first time hearing of this rpg..it does look fantastic, i'm quite intirgue..there really are tons of hidden gems on the snes..will check my fave romsite..tnx for the reco 🎮
Man FFVI would be my favorite, Super Mario Rpg: Legend of the Seven Stars is hands down the best super marior rpg. Ive replayed both so so many times. Greatest games of all time. Definitely the goats of the genre and in my top ten rpgs of all time.
I'll be busy for quite a while yet I just wanted to say your not forgotten