SNES RPGs You Can't Play Anywhere Else - ProJared
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 มิ.ย. 2024
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With Live A Live coming out for the Switch soon, I immediately thought of tons of other Super Nintendo RPGs that never made it off the system. There are way more than I realized that never got ported, remastered or put onto the Virtual Console. Enjoy seeing all of these SNES RPGs!
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I wonder if he'll do other consoles with the same premise too. There's several ps1 hidden gems that need more love.
Legend of Dragoon, Vandal Hearts 1 and 2.
@@MALEMization my first thought was Legend of Legaia. Legend of Dragoon is a great one too, though I've never played Vandal Hearts.
@@denverarnold6210 The first VH is awesome, short and sweet! VH2 is worse but it is a collectithon! That's why I enjoy it!
If people dig this kind of video enough, yeah absolutely!
@@projared Well then... *whispers* Proceed...
Here's one that never left Japan, Treasure of the Rudras. Square's finale RPG for the SNES, you play three separate adventures whose stories intersect at points before joining together in a fourth and final one. I also love the magic system which lets you MAKE your own spells! Putting in certain words can make certain effects mostly elemental but adding prefixes and suffixes can make spells stronger, change how enemies or allies it targets, or add status effects. Adding both damage increasing pre and suffixes can create very powerful spells, but they would cost more MP. This magic system is one reason localization was difficult and combined with the fact that RPG were going 3D meant Rudras never left Japan. It was released on virtual counsels in Japan but in the west emulating it with a fan translation patch is the best we ever got. But as one reaction to Live A Live said if they can port that game then we can get Rudras.
That magic system sounds exactly like a Roguelike called "A Magical High School Girl" on steam.
That magick system reminds me of Morrowind too, super interesting
Rudras has a good magic system and it looks gorgeous, but honestly the story is kind of nonsensical. There are a lot of elements that are brought up once and never touched again, as well as holes in the plot. It makes appreciating the game difficult for me, but I can see how others would like it.
The Magick system was literally broken, so they balanced the bosses around it by having bs mechanics.I love it
Just finished playing that last week. Was a pleasant surprise. Not perfect but really enjoyable.
I know by now it feels like a conversation we have every hour, every day on repeat but this video really drives home how important emulation is for game preservation. So many overlooked games and hidden gems that are near impossible to play legitimately these days because they come from defunct developers, are stuck in liscensing hell, or just plain aren't on modern platforms would be basically lost and very few people would get to experience them.
Awesome video though, would definitely like to see you do the same for PS1 RPGs.
If only Nintendo could understand that.
@@AtlasBlizzard I think these days, Nintendo talks a lot about emulation, but they generally leave emulation sites alone *until* they start hosting First-Party Nintendo titles. That's when they get slapped down. There's still emulation sites around that don't host Nintendo's stuff, and most of Nintendo's First-Party Titles are found either on eshop, on the minis, or what-not though you can still sneak a copy of a nintendo game from some smalltime site nobody's heard of here-and-there, or a torrent or something.
I mean, just as legitimate as ROM collections released on consoles... You have a tv and a controller. How much more legitimate do you need? Lol
@@Dhalin nah, tons of ROM sites with up to Wii ISO on them. They don't charge a fee to access them so they're not on Nintendo's radar. It also took them like 15+ years to go after most of the sites they did
@@fillerbunnyninjashark271 Yeah, that too. Charging money for ROMs is a huge no-no if you want to stay alive. Best way to do it is to make your revenue through other things that don't involve ROMs and just host them "on the side" for free otherwise you're gonna get smacked down. Though I still think that hosting first-party software only gives Nintendo more fuel if they do finally notice you. If you have no Nintendo-owned IPs on your site, it's a lot harder for them to do anything. They can't sue you for hosting stuff that isn't theirs.
it legitimately upsets me that Jared doesn't have 1 million subscribers all because of that fiasco. Jared deserves way more.
He's not the only one! Game Sack, Grimbeard and Thor High Heels have all been doing this for years and stand out from the crowd by approaching the games they cover in unique and interesting ways. I hope they all hit 1 million soon, they deserve that and much more.
An TH-cam doesn't reccomend his channel so no one will find him😭 I'm happy i subbed I love his content
He would probably get a million subscribers if hrle actually buttoned up his shirt and stopped trying to cosplay as a sleazy pornstar
What fiasco!?!
There are so many more important things to be upset about in life brother, save your energy for something else.
snes was such a golden era
The library was small, but goddamn, the SNES had gem after gem; easily my favorite videogame era.
An era before graphics were to pricey to enforce only mainstream design choices, so games really experimented, created, and polished a lot of genres.
@@HanDaimond The SNES library was far from small.
@@ego2133 Exactly! There were 1758 games released. 721 were released in the USA.
@@HanDaimond what?
I personally Love Secret of Evermore. I bought my copy for $5 when video stores were clearing their SNES stock.
It's still my favorite RPG on the Super Nintendo.
EVO was/is still one of my favourite SNES sort-of-RPGs. I loved experimenting with different evolutions, just like Jared said, to see what monstrosities I could make.
Oh man. I love Secret of Evermore. That alchemy system, the fact that theres secret formulas you can find. The entire section with trading in the desert city!
The dialogue was definitely weird and hit detection was obnoxious but it was so fun and bosses were big and crazy and FUN to fight.
He's being too harsh on Evermore here; the hit detection and some mechanics like running were improved compared to Secret of Mana, the music is great and I enjoyed the writing as well. It doesn't take itself seriously which kinda gives it a lucasarts adventure game vibe, and it doesn't read like an amateur translation like SoM did.
@Joshua Fischer Having played a retranslation hack and checked out the remake I'd say the script itself is also just not that good.
Secret of Evermore has a lot going for it. Specifically for me, it was the soundtrack and the sound design. For the time it came out, it did a few innovative things in those realms (one of the first soundtracks by Jeremy Soule who is a pretty talented composer, allegations notwithstanding).
I love Evermore as well, probably in my top 5 SNES games, I'd put it above Secret Of Mana personally.
Earthbound, then Terranigma are my two favorite SNES games, then Evermore is in one of the other 3 slots.
Defnitely my favorite SNES game, was the one I replayed more than any other
Wait, this isn’t SNES Drunk
My favorite SNES RPG to this day is still Lufia 2. It was the game the that made me fall in love with JRPGs and video game music. I still love the Sinistral Battle theme and the music that plays right before the final boss.
love the game so much, I loved the puzzle solving so much that I hoped every rpg was like that when it comes to dungeons, I was dissapointed that most rpg's dungeons were just empty spaces with lots of monster and that's all.
All these years later, I will still seek out and jam out to that music while working or just in a random everyday sort of moment. What a work of art. Totally pointless fun fact: I ended up hiding eight "dragon eggs" for my younger brother to find, promising a POWERFUL BOON if he ever found them. Just a testament to how Lufia 2 really just crept into my way of interacting with the real world.
@@VincCachipiruli If you like Lufia you'll probably like Golden Sun. It has the same sort of feel in dungeons with the focus on tools and puzzle solving. You can get the first 3 games on Wii U right now (make sure you get them before the eShop closes!) but if you can't get them in time or don't own a Wii U you can always emulate them or buy them on original hardware. GameBoy Advance SP consoles are VERY cheap these days ($20-$35 at second hand stores) and the cartridges for the first two games are also very common. (about $10-$30 for each) However, the DS game is very rare ($80-$120, $60 at minimum) like all other DS games these days, so you'll probably have to emulate that one or buy it on Wii U.
It was my first RPG and still one of my favorites.
Here in Australia we did not even get the first Lufia, so the 2nd game was just titled Lufia, with no subtitle.
That said, I played Lufia 2 a lot as a kid. Almost as much as pokemon red. I loved the fact that people in the game talked like real people. Also because of the PAL release, it fixed a lot of the bugs in the North American version. For example, the Kingdom of Gratze's name would be gibberish in North America.
I'm actually currently replaying Secret of Evermore and still quite enjoy it
If you're in the right mood/frame of mind, Secret of Evermore is fun and light-hearted. It was one of those things Square did to try and get the West into the genre and, like Nintendo's own Startropics, is criminally underrated.
@@knghtbrd Startropics is WAY up there in my favorite games ever list. I probably wouldn't be half the nerd I am today without that game, specifically. Makes me happy to see anybody mention it because as you say, criminally underrated.
Secret of Evermore will always hold a special place in my heart. I love the quirkiness of it. It definitely takes getting used to, but I think it's well worth the time to play it if that kind of self-referential humor speaks to you.
I love Evermore. When I was a kid it felt like an adventure too big for me. Like it was out of my league lol
Secret of Evermore! Every time I'm reminded of this game, I want to play it again. Maybe it's not as good as I remember as Jared suggested, but I remember loving it as a kid.
The atmosphere of the game is absolutely fantastic
It holds up if you're playing multiplayer, otherwise the cracks begin to show a bit when you're 100% focused on just the game.
It's a little rough in the gameplay department, but it's got so much character. I love how your dog changes shape in each area of the game, how the protagonist is just some dorky kid living out his B-movie fantasies, and how the entire game is basically just 50s-era pulp fiction mad science gone wrong. Delightful.
All the reasons Jared disliked the game are why I liked it. I'm absolutely sick of super serious fantasy games with "End of the World/Universe" or "Rebels vs the evil Empire" stories. Secret of Everworld was, and still is, a breath of fresh air, it was about a relatable small town boy and his dog, on an adventure in another land. I don't understand how he didn't like writing. I found it light-hearted and funny, I loved to the B-movie inspiration. I thought the main character had a lot of personality, which is in sharp contrast to the normally silent protagonist of that era, which I know is so the player can put themselves in the role of the character, but I always found that an excuse for lazy writing. To be honest I think secret of evermore is one of the top five RPGs on the Super Nintendo.
i love it too! its easy in my top 15 games. its really underrated tbh. the atmosphere is so good, the music is very special (made by the same composer from skyrim), i really really like the gameplay and the different worlds. i like it a lot more then secret of mana actually, even tho it doesnt have mulitplayer
Terranigma is one of my favourite games of all time. My brother bought it when we were younger (in the UK, thankfully it was released here). I replay it every few years. Glad to hear you praise it so much. :)
I got this as a Christmas gift without anyone in my family knowing anything about it, because it was one of the few RPGs that got an Australian release. Definitely one of the pest blind purchases we'd ever made.
Secret of Evermore is one of my all time favorite games, happy to see it on any list since it doesnt get talked about much at all. Also didnt know EVO was that valuable, i actually have an original cartridge of the game
I agree with all of your assessments, save one: when I was a kid, I LOVED the art style of Paladin's Quest. The bright pastel colors and wonky world design were new and refreshing for little ten-year-old me, and in retrospect it seems to be inspired by the work of French artist Jean Giraud (better known as Moebius). Granted, yes, the game was a trash fire, but I rented it many times just so I could exist in that strange world.
On the topic of other SNES RPGs that (to my knowledge) haven't been remade or re-released, I'd like to give a shout out to The Twisted Tales of Spike McFang. A very off-beat, super-anime action RPG about a tomato-eating vampire chucking his magic hat at goofy monsters. I remember it being very grindy, and it probably doesn't hold up these days, but I remember being enchanted by the art style (this was back when anime was still called 'Japanimation' at the local video rental store) and the bubbly energy of the whole affair.
It has an Earthbound-type look that is actually a nice change from the norm. The story and gameplay IS boring, though.
I'd recommend playing the game Lennus II, it's the Japan-exclusive sequel to Paladin's Quest that improves upon the game in every aspect, although it tones down the pastel color art style with a more traditionally detailed one instead.
Lufia 2 was my jam. It even was kind of a big thing when it came out in Holland (tv commercials and everything), because it was fully translated to Dutch and came with a strategy guide
7th Saga was named Elnard in japan and from what I gathered they made the game much harder than it originaly was during localization, and like with many snes rpg now there are patches online that fix that.
Also Paladin's Quest (aka Lennus) got a sequel, called Lennus II, but that was never released in english. Again there's a translation patch.
I read that they did the same thing for Streets of Rage 3. In America if you choose easy you're punished for playing the Japanese normal by the game ending 2 stages before the end. The fake final boss even rubs it in harder by saying you play the game like a beginner.
Odd most rpgs during that time were made easier for the American release
7th Saga also has a pseudo-sequel/spiritual successor in the form of Mystic Ark, which reuses the combat system and some graphics from 7th Saga.
Projared’s illusion of Gaia play through is really great. It’s passionate, and a ton of his own experiences mixed in. Highly recommend it
Man watching this brings back some old memories. i have many of these and have played them countless times. Shadowrun, Evo and Secret of Evermore were some of my favorite games on the snes. i might just have to break them out of storage just to play them again now.
I saw Terranigma in the thumbnail and I just had to watch, I love that game so much and I 100% agree that along with the entire Quintet Trilogy it needs to be ported to a bunch of systems. It’s such a forgotten game but it’s really unique and deserves to be played. It has some clunky moments and the translation can be a bit ropey but it’s my favourite SNES RPG. I beat that game earlier this week for the first time ever and it completely blew my mind, it’s so unique and really shocking and I never would’ve expected any of it, and that ending has made me think about the game, the world we live in, and the choices we all make and I can’t stop thinking about it. The incredible soundtrack adds so much to the game.
I would *love* a full review and ProJared Plays series on it, more famous youtubers need to cover that game and there’s so few playthroughs of it made in the last 8 years.
For the record, I believe the semi-recent Shadowrun Dragonfall does feature a fan-made mod that recreates the original SNES campaign for anyone who wants to experience it without shelling out for a SNES cart
That's actually really cool. Thanks for letting more people know about this.
Holy crap, Robotrek and EVO were some of my favorites growing up! Memories freaking unlocked there!
What a fantastic and fun video!
Secret of Evermore was awesome! One of my favorites on the SNES, and also probably the best sound design on the system. Fun fact, sound was by Jeremy Soule of Elder Scrolls fame.
The soundtrack is still one of my favorites, it's just incredible.
Me seeing Jared holding Lufia 2 in thumbnail: "Yo let's fucking go!"
Same, I've never clicked on a notification so fast.
It's been a while, great to have you back with another great video! Thank you!
Terranigma is absolutely amazing, great looks, sounds, and the gameplay just feels right
Actually really loved this video, I’ve gone through all the classic and well known snes rpgs and now I’m very interested in a lot of these ones that I hadn’t heard of before. Thanks a lot Jared!
Arcana, Evermore and Gaia are some of my most-played SNES games. Gonna show my age here, but back in the days of renting games, I'd get Secret of Evermore semi-regularly. It clearly wasn't that popular, because I was usually able to continue my game. I remember naming my dog Hale-Bopp, after the comet, which was hige in the news at the time.
What a great shared generational memory: renting a game and continuing your save. Beautiful
You make fair points man but this video is about games that never got ports to any other system since the SNES era.
@@joehosier6187 they were just sharing their experience.
Hyakutake was better ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Terranigma is my personal favorite RPG, seeing it alongside many other really cool RPGs and being held in such a high regard is very nice, I really recommend everyone to play this gem
Same. I have the actual cart too. I traded it for a copy of donkey kong land when I was a kid.
Same. And my copy was stolen years ago
It's up there with the likes of Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 6 as the best in the system.
terra WHAT
Enix back then tried to tell the exact same story in a number of different ways. Actraiser, Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia, Evo... but Terranigma is when that formula was perfected.
Really great video, I hope you continue with either a part 2 or ones for other consoles, solid job on this one
It's cool you finally talked about some of those games you have behind you on your shelf. I love hearing about lesser known games and your format you used in this video worked very well. Lots of information about a dozen games. It's okay to make more simple videos like this one, we all love seeing you upload and talking about games my guy
Duuuuude, I LOVE Illusion of Gaia! I have so many fond memories of playing it with my older brother and older sister when we were growing up, and I still adore it to this day. Happy to see it getting some more love here!
So many good games on here! I loved Lufia 1-2 , I need to play Soul Blazer and Terranigma more. One rpg I remember being fun/annoying was Lagoon, I miss that game so much
Awesome vid! Love to see content on the stuff I didn’t get to experience as a kid
E.V.O. was my JAM as a kid. So cool to custom design your little dinosaur creature. The level of combinations was really impressive. There were clear "top builds" you get funneled into, but you can play however you want. The story is also a bit interesting. And chilling, at times. Good to see Jared cover it. :)
This is a good list, it's a shame you didn't include Super Famicom RPG's but to be fair that's opening a whole other can of worms, if you make a follow-up to this video I'd love to see you talk about some though.
Just to throw out a few, the two Fire Emblem games on there are some of the best in the series and the two Majin Tensei games on there are flawed yet fun with atmosphere and music unlike anything else on the console. Last Bible 3 is fairly traditional but solid and the stand out from ones I've found is Tengai Makyou Zero, extremely ambitious and also has a super cool Animal Crossing style day-to-day system with seasonal events and the graphics and artstyle are absolutely amazing. I do also really like Shin Megami Tensei I (and to a lesser extent II) but those have a lot of ports so they wouldn't really count.
Two? I think you mean Three. Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem, Fire Emblem Genealogy of the Holy War and Fire Emblem: Thracia 776. I can only imagine him Talking about the good Super Famicon titles in another video/ When he actually plays them.
A bummer, since Fire emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War is my favorite Game of all time and Fire Emblem: New mystery of the Emblem is considered a Masterpiece in Japan. Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 if often overlooked but is a very challenging game that pushes the limits (at the time) of what an SRPG could do.
Majin Tensei 2 my beloved
I went into Soul Blazer ice cold last year and was blown away by how sharp it was on seemingly every front
It’s incredibly addicting, and just when that addiction starts to ware off, the game ends. I’d say it’s easily in my top 5 favorite snes games.
I guess you could say, *you have a burning passion for it.*
so glad to see your channel bouncing back again, best wishes projared
Man, I remember back in the day I used to rent Soul Blazer over and over from a local video renting store in my small town in Sweden. Eventually the cashier who very much knew who I was at the time because he was the owner and the only employee of the store basically just asked me if I wanted to buy the game instead for what equates to about 10 dollars. I declined because I only needed to rent it one more time to finish the game so I just did that. Little did little Voerman know what he missed out on, as I would have had the box, manual and everything for 10 dollars.
Oh well, the man also sold me Vagrant Story, both Vandal Hearts 1 and 2 and then finally one of my favorites - Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, all these games on the PSX for less than 40 dollars because I was the literal only person who rented these games.
Then my family's storage has a break in and I lost all of it along with my playstation. But looking back at it, I had finished all of those games and I cherish them still since I do own the majority of them on my PS3.
I IMMEDIATELY started to scroll to see if he mentioned Secret of Evermore! I have a SNES emulator SPECIFICALLY for that game and have been wanting a port forever
Frickin love Lufia 2, and was hoping you'd mention Robotrek. Got both of em lying around here somewhere, from back when i tried collecting all the SNES RPGs before I got a playstation in the mid 90s
It always makes me really happy whenever one of my inspirations does a video on a topic I just covered. Helps me feel like we’re on the same page a little bit and that I can get on their level one day. Loved the video Jared, as always you killed it! I just did a video on RPG’s myself!!
I know Robotrek isn't groundbreaking or anything but it has a special place in my heart for all the childhood memories it brings. Same with Terranigma and the whole Quintet trilogy. It's really a shame these didn't get a NA realease.
Oh man. This whole video was a massive nostalgia trip for me. I played almost all of these in my younger years and loved almost all of them (even Paladin's Quest, which is objectively terrible, but it captured my little baby brain for some reason). I even managed to pound my young skull repeatedly into 7th Saga until completion, and couldn't for the life of me recreate that feat as an adult. I played Arcana as a Blockbuster rental, and I liked it so much and was so unwilling to return it until I beat it that my dad went and just bought it from them. I could wax poetically nostalgic for ages on all of these, but... damn, man. Cool unexpected video.
Wow Paladin quest... Man you really have a high tolerance to pain lol
I disagree that Paladin Quest is objectively terrible!
Very nostalgic. I was able to buy a lot of them used in the late 90s for a cheap price. Secret of Evermore and EVO were two of my favorite games. I loved trading goods in the market scene to try to get the best items in Secret of Evermore.
What I The think I liked about Paladin Quest was the different character of the NPCs that joined party (Were they mercenaries..?). There seemed to be different races, that were different from every other fantasy game. The environment was also unique. I remember not liking the battle menus though.
@@Frod Yeah the various mercenaries were great; I actually really liked that you couldn't change their gear, so you actually had to think critically about which ones you wanted to hire based on what they had, both gear-wise and ability-wise! I actually rather liked the battle menu, and it feels very prototypical to the menus for Legaia and Xenogears, to me.
Paladin's Quest was one of my favorite games back in the day.
Lufia 2 will always hold a special place in my heart. Back then I couldn't speak any English, and just basically brute-forced my way through games, never being able to read hints in games like Zelda A Link to the Past. Then out of nowhere comes Lufia 2, fully translated to Dutch. Probably one of like 5-6 games total to get a Dutch translation on SNES, and an RPG at that as well!
Really enjoying the advanced tactics you’re using with your production design. The visual countdown for your ad was elegant and clear, yet subtle. The abridged theme song seems like a wise idea, I have to imagine you used to lose some folks (personally I’ve always enjoyed them, but modern attention spans :).
Thanks for all the great work through the years.
Always good to see a new projared video come out.
I miss the SNES RPG days. I can still remember the feeling of playing Final Fantasy 2 (yes. I know. I know. It'll be ok. Forever it will FF2 to me) for the first time. Literal magic that feeling was.
I don't think of it as FF2 anymore, but that was the first major RPG I played as well! I remember being stuck near the very beginning of the game for the longest time because I didn't realize there was a town in the middle of the desert that I had to enter.
Yay new projared vid! Love you keep the content up!
Love watching you Jared, great as always.
I never owned a SNES growing up, so seeing all these unique titles is a lot of fun. I would absolutely love to see more videos like this!
Leave it to my main main to give Lufia II some love, as always you never disappoint, good talk, and good choices.
When I saw the video title, I thought to myself "There's no way he's going to mention Arcana.", but then he mentioned Arcana. That makes me happy. It's not a groundbreaking game or anything, but it is fun and I have nostalgia for it. I do wish he had mentioned that it has a fantastic soundtrack.
I know! I loved Arcana, but almost nobody knows about it! I had rented it from Blockbuster a few times
Seems like people forget the japanese name for it also (Card Master).
I played a bunch of rpgs on the snes back in the day but arcana has a special place in my memories even though I didn't play it for very long, and didn't even finish it. I don't know why.
I’ve never watched your channel but this video popped up. As a British gamer I had access to several of these games as a kid and you have basically given me a massive nostalgia kick. Holy hell. So many classics. I do still have Illusion of Gaia (Illusion of Time over here) for my snes. Anyway thanks for the video. I’m now going down an RPG hole on your channel. 🎉❤
Terranigma is my most favorite game of all time. I grew up with it alongside Illusion of Gaia and I sing its praises as loud as I can with every chance I get. And to see someone with as much reach as Jared talk about it so positively genuinely warms my heart and already made my Sunday morning. Sincerely, thank you!
Hey Jared, would you ever consider giving 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim a look in the future?
Yo, if the Quintet trilogy ever gets the Live-A-Live treatment?
Just imagine Terranigma with those updated 16 bits graphics
Oh fuck...
@@projared I know! The underground with that new style?
I just found out there are randomizers for all 3 games! No idea how they work and only beat Terranigma once but going to try Soul Blazer out soon since I play that like once a year.
Secret of Evermore is the best, my childhood favourite. I've replayed it a few times since then, and I still find it perfectly charming. I'm not sure how long ago you played it, Jared, but my god I could watch you do a full playthrough of it. Maybe you'd come around? The soundtrack alone is worth it.
Love your videos! So happy I found your videos!
He's coming back up to 1 million subscribers again
The internet really gave Jared the shaft. It's sick how quickly the mob will attack someone, and in his case it was based on 1.) Private matters and 2.) Lies.
Hell yeah, Secret of Evermore was my jam back when I was around 9-years-old! =D And yes, the hit detection is particularly brutal, especially early in the game when all of your weapons suck. Grinding for alchemy ingredients was also a bit of a chore, unless you mainly used the early spells, which was pretty doable because they leveled-up the more you used them. I remember Hard Ball and Acid Rain getting a lot of usage, mostly because their ingredients were the cheapest / most common.
If I really wanted to compliment the game though, I'd definitely point out the soundtrack. Secret of Evermore is easily one of my favorite sounding games from back then. From the music to the ambient sounds of the environment, it had that aesthetic nailed great.
Digging the new style of editing, keep doing you Jared!
Good to see more variety on this channel
I’d really love to see “hidden-gem” tactics games like Vandal Hearts on PS1!
Hell yes! Vandal Hearts is hella underrated.
Hell yeah
I missed the SNES (we were a Genesis house) so it's always interesting to me to see what titles I could never have rented from the local store!
I really liked this! It reminded me of your old Top 10 RPGs Not From Square Enix video. You should do more videos like this! Comedy videos are fine and all, but videos where you are serious about something is a nice change of pace as well.
Its great to see you post, Jared! You make alot of good content and ive watched your stuff for years. Keep up the awesome work!
You should do one of these on RPGs that never got released outside of Japan, like Treasure of the Rudras, Bahamut Lagoon, and all of the Japanese only Fire Emblems.
Secret of Evermore was one of my favourite SNES RPGs. I actually prefered it to Secret of Mana, mainly because I enjoyed the mystery and diversity. I mean, the gameplay WAS Secret of Mana in slightly better, the main differences are setting, story and humor which are extremly subjective.
Ohhhhh, and Evo, I remember playing that one. I loved the evolving system.
Omg, you have no idea how happy I am because you mentioned e.v.o. and lufia 2, those are my favorite games from snes including rock and roll race that haven't been ported to a virtual console or anywhere else. And I absolutely love those. Like playing them hours and hours.
god, that dopey EVO music at the end just activating something in my brain from how ingrained it is from all the grinding
It's only the US version of 7th Saga that's super hard... this was some kind of mistake in porting it if memory serves, so you can play a translated Japanese version or probably find a romhack to fix the difficulty of the US version if you want.
Biggest omission for me is Bahamut Lagoon. It's the only hidden gem I can think of that hasn't been ported (at least not as far as I know).
I think he only considered RPGs released here. Not Japan exclusives which host a lot more hidden gems like Bahamut Lagoon, Treasure of the Rudras, Treasure Hunter G, and Eternal Filena.
I was thinking of Bahamut Lagoon too. It's a tactical RPG, but I feel like that's close enough to fit on this list.
I can't believe there's a SHADOWRUN game on the SNES! That's wild! Also, I love the art in 7th Saga, it's horrifying! Out of all these games, I think I've only heard of two or three!
There is a completely different Shadowrun game on the Genesis too!
oh my god ARCANA! I had super vague memories of renting this with my brother and I loved it! I instantly recognized the footage, but i had no idea what it was called, or even where or on what system i had played it on. Awesome. Great vid!
THANK YOU for making this specific type of video! I’m such a huge SNES JRPG fan and am always looking for new ones that I haven’t played. Also I’m a huge Shadowrun fan; so underrated!
Glad to see Secret of Evermore on this list. It's not only lesser known, but also quite underrated, since people tend to compare it unfavorably to Secret of Mana and say it's not really worth playing. I think it's actually way more polished than Mana, and I'd say it's the better game between the two (I don't really like Mana that much to be honest lol) though I also think it's one of the best ARPGs on the SNES or anywhere else. Great list by the way! There are a few games in there that I haven't played, so I'll make a note of them.
Secret of Evermore is still one of my favorite games ever!
I bought a used copy of E.V.O from Blockbuster for $10 as a kid. I specifically remember writing to Nintendo of America for help when I got stuck in the Ice Age (and they actually replied and told me how to get through the Birdman Fortress).
Going through a kind of transition period in my life. Watching these videos and learning about games I never got to play is calming somehow. Great content Jared!
Great to see Lufia 2 getting more love, definitely one of the best JRPGs IMO.
It is amazing. I love the giant randomly generated dungeon that feels like a little game of its own.
@@goober69er the ancient cave is practically the only thing keeping the lufia community alive and i thank it for that
@@TsukiStuffs id give my body away free on the streets for a remaster or something lol.
@@goober69er SO true
NEW PROJARED BAYBEE!!!!
Also Live-A-Live is one of my favorite rpgs!
Thanks for another great video. I play exclusively on my SNES console when I have the time and just finished two of the best RPGs, Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI, a tough act to follow. I have scoured the internet for lists, but trust Jared’s taste in games more. Helpful and fun to watch.
I was literally just thinking of this the other day. With so many remakes of a lot of old games, it's cool to know which ones haven't been ported and are worth playing.
The sequel to Paladin’s Quest, Lennus 2, vastly improves upon its predecessor. Treasure Hunter G is another excellent one.
SNES RPGs are my favourite kinds of games
These RPGs, particularly the SquareSoft developed ones, comprise a very exciting and wonderful chunk of the SNES library that I absolutely love. They often don't get their due, so I'm thankful you took the time to shine a light on many of them and teach me a few things I didn't know! :)
Jared, you are the RPG man, indeed! Many thanks for sharing so much RPG treasures! Now I got psyched to try out a few ones.
SMT II still hits differently after all these years
That game has a PS1 port, though. Now I'd be willing to argue that Digital Devil Story Megami Tensei II should be on the list, as the only thing its gotten outside of the original Famicom release is Kyuuyaku.
@@NEETKitten DDSMTII was pretty good. There is another good exclusive MegaTen game to the SNES called Majin Tensei II.
As a huge 7th Saga fan I’m really glad you mentioned it here. It’s tough as nails and often unfair, but the feeling you get with accomplishment is fantastic. It has a similarly rewarding feeling as Dark Souls does today. It’s far from perfect, but I think it’s Enix most ambitious game that isn’t Dragon Quest.
Edit: omg and also Brain Lord? That game was mid but I enjoyed it
Something to consider. 7th saga wasn't originally that hard in the japanese release. It was intentionally made excessively hard when ported to the USA because of some weird mentality that Americans only enjoyed hard RPGs.
I've played through 7th Saga, love the music. Mystic Ark is good also. Highly suggest to play with the proper patch and not the release version from NA.
@@hondragrid It was to combat rentals. In fact, the common sentiment was we needed easier RPGs, Square constantly dumbed them down and Nintendo felt obligated to include a guide with Earthbound.
Usually times games were made harder here was to combat rentals, which Japan didn't really allow.
@@Vulpas Interesting. This is the first time hearing this and I can see this being the case. Long ago I remember reading about it being made hard because of what I mentioned, which has a high chance of being marketing bullshit. And you are also correct about RPGs also being dumbed down to appeal to the USA audience.
And you know the funny part is. I rented the 7th saga first before buying it. The rental of the game is the main reason I ended up buying the game, so despite Japan's thought process, rentals was the reason they got a sale from me.
It’s funny you mention these various reasons for the difficulty being difficult here in NA, becauseI had heard something different also. I thought that it was actually a localization issue where a specific metric/line of code had been altered by mistake which threw the difficulty balance into a spiral that they couldn’t remedy. I believe it specifically impacted your level affecting your rival’s levels. Either way I have been meaning to play the patched version, but at the same time the difficulty to me is almost the primary charm at this point so I’m not in a rush
it makes me so happy you mentioned so many of my favorites from the snes era. i grew up playing secret of evermore, 7th saga and lufia (the first, boring one lmao) but its also refreshing to hear about some of the other snes games that are so neat and cult classics mixed in as well!
i love your takes and your recommendations & hoping to try soul blazer sometime since that was the only one you mentioned that i hadn't given a shot. c:
I always enjoy a new ProJared video.
I really miss Illusion of Gaia, it impacted my childhood dramatically and it sucks seeing it obscured by Nintendo. Kinda wish someone would pick up the torch and remake it much like what happened to the Secret of Mana HD remake in improving the awesome atmosphere and visuals, if not at least to prevent the soundtrack from fading into oblivion.
Do you emulate games?
@@Delightfully_Bitchy Well, it's been a while. But I mostly emulate N64 and Gameboy games.
@@signas501 Treat yourself to a snes rom sometime. :)
I loved Arcana. Had to track it down years later.
Soul Blazer is certainly one of my favorite games on the SNES, and I play it and Illusions of Gaia at least once every couple of years. I would love a port of E.V.O. It's so fun and unique, with so many different ways to build your character. It is definitely super grindy, but sometimes grinding is fun if you're just in the mood to sit back, relax, and enjoy some relatively non-intense gameplay. It has difficult parts as well, such as the boss fights, when you're ready for more of a challenge.
It's not every day you come across someone who has ever played EVO. It's been one of my favorite SNES games ever. I rented it as a kid. Great game. Thanks for that memory.
I love Lufia 2, so glad you're bringing it to people's attention.
As far as I know, Treasure of the Rudras would qualify for this list and I think the game is worth the playthrough.
It's magic system is a little over hyped but the game delivers
The magic system feels absolutely fascinating and incredible when you first start playing it. Just thinking about all the possibilities, and trying to come up with powerful words while learning various formulas from NPCs here and there. But then you eventually can hit a point where you're not really learning any new spells anymore because you're set with what you have, and don't really need to bother anymore. Making that aspect of the game wind up taking a back seat to everything else. Not to mention the system results in every character having the exact same spells, since it's a collective spell list rather than each individual having their own magic.
@@gurvmlk I think at it's worse, the magic system is just as good as the SNES Final Fantasy titles. It does get to the point where it isn't expanding, but it does add a good deal of flavor/lore to the game and it does carry the mystique of the game while the plot takes it's time to set up.
Overall I find myself an apologist for the system, but know better then to hype it up
@@MixMasterLar Indeed. I'm just saying that it initially seems a lot better than it winds up being, which I imagine is probably part of the problem. I know for years I praised the game for its fascinating magic system because I had never gotten very far into it. But then when I finally got around to actually playing the game all the way through, I found myself still very much enjoying the game, but a lot less because of the magic system specifically than I originally did back when I had mostly just fiddled around with it.
I also remember hearing that the magic system was the main reason why it took a long time for it to be properly translated by fans, which I'm sure has also helped add to the emphasis people put on that aspect, whether or not they realize that's why.
Those were some interesting RPGs on here, and I don't think I've ever heard of any of these, except for "Shadowrun", which I've seen an episode of "Console Wars" on. Great video man.
OMG you put Evo on the list! Bless your heart, love this game as a kid