I grew up playing Dark Cloud and Dark Cloud 2, I remember having a folder packed to the brim with printed out Game FAQ guides for building weapons, finding inspiration picture locations, item farming areas, and guides to the golfing mini game. God seeing it on your list has made me so nostalgic for the game.
I remember the late 90s when so many people were dissing games that chose to keep 2D visuals, even refusing to play games that chose that style. Their loss for missing out on such wonderful classics...I kept going "yeah, love that one" as you went down the list.
I specifically sought out games with 2d graphics. They got rarer and rarer. I use to get Gamepro magazine, would go right to the rpg section and look at the little thumb nail sized pictures. Think the last one I got from that method was Tales of Destiny. I’m 38 now. Just cleaned my ps2 laser and booted up ToD using an hdmi converter.
The fact Dark Cloud never had a #3 still hurts my heart. The weapon leveling system was golden. Exploring all possible paths for every weapon was addictive. The amount of stuff to do in #2 was crazy! Finny Frenzy was great, and the Golf mode was stupid fun and challenging to 100%.
I'm glad to see Shining Force at the top of the list. I'm currently making a shining force style tactics game, so it always makes me happy when I see people still have a love for those games
I remember Xenogear. It was my childhood days where walkthroughs were actually sold in the form of books. My bro and I didn't have the attention span of listening to stories. That or we simply didn't care. And after playing it again on the emulator, I found it to be very deep. The combat of that game was phenomenal. Combos, and mechs with their fuel intake? It was a match made in heaven. They tried to combine the Xenogear and Saga Frontier into a brainchild called Xenosaga. And while the game did win some points for me in the 1st and 2nd game, the story and characters suddenly twisted on the 3rd. As for Dark Cloud 2, I remember that when I was still in high school. The good old days when games had their charm.
I think it was that twist in the 3rd game that made me love the trilogy. Xeno 3 is my 3rd best JRPG of all time for me. That 3rd game was amazing! What didn’t you like about it?
I love that you mentioned Kartia. It has been one of my favorite JRPG for 20 years! The characters are so well developed in this game, and the story is really complex with mature themes. It's definitely worth playing today.
Whoah! You just hit me hard with the nostalgia! I totally forgot about Soleil (Crusader of Centy). I played that game to death as a kid and seeing you post it gave me crazy flashbacks to playing it. I remember having to walk over the flowers correctly to push them all down. Wild! I need to go back and play that game again! Thank you!
Can't recall the first list but one JRPG I think aged well is the original Valkyrie Profile. And your definitely right about cel-shading and the 2.5 D graphics. The latter is also the reason why Yoshi's Story is one of the best looking N64 games nowadays.
@@AntwaineHorton It's quite unique in its mechanics. Exploration is done in a side-scrolling view. The battles take place on a separate screen where your party shares a gauge for every possible action. So it's neither a traditional turn-based RPG (where everyone acts after another) nor a SRPG/TRPG with a grid. Just look at some gameplay videos to see it yourself because it's really hard to explain. (Btw. there's a second game on the PS2 as well but that wouldn't have fit the list because it's from 2007)
@@AntwaineHorton Now that's nice to know. I guess you'll have fun with it. It might just take a bit to get fully comfortable with the battle system. It's easy to understand but not so easy to master.
I remember never finishing Dark Cloud 2 because I got sidetracked with playing golf. It's no the only time a mini-game sucked me in, but I remember that there were so many things to distract you while playing that game. I wouldn't mind revisiting it.
What about Golden Sun and Golden Sun the Lost Age from the GBA? It has very good graphics and classic turn based battle system it is spiced up with the djinn system, small special creatures that can be traded between the characters changing class, stats and powers.
I was doing a recent play through of this game and something I think gets forgotten about is how GREAT it feels to solve the puzzles in this game. It just feels great to figure out all the different ways to use psyenergy, mind reading every NPC in the game(seriously, every NPC has double the dialogue pretty much), revealing hidden paths and chests, etc. Golden Sun holds up better than most games in this list actually.
@@kodama883 Exactly. Having all those ways to use you abilities outside of battle as well, practical real applications like it would be if that was real life where people had powers... it was great. All this stuff we have in modern games... especially with so many being open world with rpg elements... I thought we'd see more of that kind of thing in games than we do. Golden Sun's felt more interactable than the worlds of most games today to me. That game in some ways was ahead of games even today.
Golden Sun doesn't have good graphics, at least for characters, who are the most important to me. The rest is good but it doesn't deserve to be here. There are many better looking GBA RPGs. GS's graphics actually represent precisely the experimental 2.5d mindset that was notorious over the mid to late 90s probably in order to show the "next level" of 2d graphics. But never managed to surpass plain sprite 2d graphics when its well done. That was a 90s drama but that was revived in the GBA because it was pretty capable for those graphics. And sadly it ended up getting filled up with games with those type of graphics.
That was a great list of games! Many of my favorites are here: Kartia, Growlanser 3 (my personal favorite of that series), Shining Force 1 and 2, and others. Eric is definitely correct about the way that 16 bit rpg graphics have stood the test of time.
Didn't find time to mention that Dark Cloud 2 also has a golf minigame and a fishing SUBgame that involves catching, breeding, training, and racing fish. Or that you not only get to drive that robot, but you upgrade it. As a small part of a GIGANTIC INVENTIONS SYSTEM that is in the game.
I really love Tales of eternia. And about the dub, doesn't the psp version have the option to change to the japanese dub? I recall playing it with japanese audio, but I could be mistaken.
Great video ermano! Have considered doing honorable mentions in your top 10s/20s there so much more PS1 JRPGs that aged well like BoF 3 and 4 Rapsody a musical adventure or Atilier Iris. I'm actually surprised you didn't bring up any of the Suikoden as I know how much love you have for the series. Keep em coming!
I got paranoid a bit because I was just playing Dark Cloud 2 again on my PS2 and I'm sure my PS2 is not connected to the internet but this video was suggested to me. But yeah, I've never grown tired of the game, this and Final fantasy XII
I love these videos because they highlight older games that I can go back to confidently. Putting so much time into a JRPG makes me hesitate, but it’s nice to know which ones are worth trying, even if there aren’t dozens of reviews for them. Thank you.
Totally agree with Shining Force 1 & 2. Those games are so nostalgic for me, as I used to watch my dad play them. But they are amazing games with amazing replay ability as well. Great list! Thank you!
Sadly, many different games didnt reach my country (spain) and as a consequence most of these good old rpgs werent playable back then... but at least I could play Alundra, Legend of Legaia, FF's / Tactics ones and a few other great rpgs.
Oh man, the dark cloud games were my jam back in the day. Even if the first game hasn't aged well, it still has a special place in my heart. It was the first PS2 game that my late grandpa bought for me.
I dear friend of mine recently showed me Dark Cloud 2, their fave RPG, and God what a beautiful game it is! The music, love Maximilian and Monica, the scenarios, the creative invention system and so on. Great game and now I get why the few times I watched it mentioned inf videogames magazines years ago the reviews were full of love for the game.
Was unexpected Legends of Mana to be animated in anime series. So far I love it! Don't why I felt nostalgic even it never being animated as anime series before.
Dark cloud 2 I believe, is criminally under rated. I actually haven't heard anyone talk about Kartia even when it was new and I owned it lol Good stuff tho!
your channel was a great discovery of mine, just what i needed... and what was that snes game in the start, i never even heard about that! and im pretty much i reviewed (written reviews) almost all Western games for SNES AND a goog deal of the best J-RPGs never localized for the Super Famicom... this though escaped entirely my radar!
Growlanser 3!!! Man, I even bought a guidebook just so I could complete the main casts questlines and get their ultimate upgrades. I even finished it countless times too, though not as much as Radiata Stories. Funnily enough, my brother who bought the game actually intended to buy Growlanser 5 as per the disk's cover, but we got Growlanser 3 instead. Since we were just snot-nosed brats back then, we didn't think too much of it and holy moly, the game is way absolutely fantastic!
@@westonmeyer3110 ah, I lived in a 3rd world shithole, so you can say it was a copy that has been plundered from the Seven Seas. Hence why its disk cover was for Growlanser 5 but the content was Growlanser 3 lol
I think Square never brought Treasure of the Rudras over because of the sheer PAIN involved in converting the mantra system... I have great respect for the fans that dealt with that monstrosity:D
TLDW list: - Dark Cloud 2 (aka. Dark Chronicle. 2002.) - Trials of Mana (1995) - Legend of Mana (1999) - Paper Mario (2000) - Crusader of Centy (1994) - Treasure of the Rudras (1996) - Kartia: The Word of Fate (aka. Legend of Kartia, Rebus. 1998.) - Growlanser III: The Dual Darkness (2001) - Tales of Eternia (2000. PS1 release. Not the same as PS2 Tales of Destiny 2 (2002).) - Shining Force 1: The Legacy of Great Intention & II (Two games. 1992 & 1993.) Honourable Mentions: - Lost Kingdoms (aka. Rune. 2002.) - Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis (2001. SRPG.) --- Notes: Kartia, Growlanser III and two Shining Force titles are SRPGs. Erick wants both Growlanser III and Tales of Eternia to get remakes with proper voice acting. Eternia had a PSP remaster but no new voice acting. At #1 spot, he also recommends Shining Force CD (1994 Sega CD). It's a remake of Shining Force Gaiden 1 (1992) and II: (1993).
Legend of Mana is sooooooo nostalgic for me. One of the three games I owned on the PS1 growing up (the other two being Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy 9). I still play the game when I get the chance, and recently began to collect achievements in the Steam version of the Remaster.
@RAYHAN REHEMA PUTRA Played FF7 and FF8 when I was in my 20's, so never grew up with them. Didn't enjoy FF7 all that much, and I stopped playing FF8 around disc 2 or 3 cause I couldn't push myself any further. But I have many fond memories of FF9. Was a whole lot of fun, in my opinion. Later on, I would notice a trend that I enjoyed FF games that were heavy on the fantasy elements, and didn't like the ones taking place in modern/sci-fi looking settings like FF7 and FF8. As it stands, my top five FF games are Tactics, 5, 9, 11, and 14. If i had to only pick the numbered FF games, 3 would replace Tactics.
@RAYHAN REHEMA PUTRA Oh, I love Fallout, I've played them all. I even regularly play 76. My whole thing with FF games is because my firs two games in the series (9 and Tactics) were more fantasy than scifi. So playing an FF game where it's more modern or scifi feels strange to me is all.
Seiken Densetsu 3 was an absolute gem, I LOVED it! Secret of Mana will always be better in my mind but I have fond memories of playing its successor even if I had to wait for an english patch for the japanese rom way back. They both have their good points.
@@Game_Daddy Was wondering what the4 game was myself, cause it looked cool. Was able to find it, cause some names showed on the screen for a couple of second and google found them. Sadly found out that it;s Xenogears, sadly, cause the game is heavily unfinished. On the good side Xenoblade Chronicles is it's modernt successor, but it's not a 2D game.
Yes. Square Enix, please give Treasure of the Rudra the Live A Live treatment. Tinker the encounter rate and the Mantra creation, which are the only things you need to improve to make this game a GOAT. Story, music, WORLD MAP (give me back my world maps, please!!), it is a true jewel and I can't thank Aeon Genesis enough for having made that stellar fan translation. And Growlancer games and Tales of Eternia are some of the best games out there. And yes, I do agree too with the dubs. Was fortunate enough to find undub ROM versions, and what a difference that was! Wished Wild Arms 3 were on this list, since that is another game that has aged really well. Same can be said of Alter Code F (WA1's remaster). Wish whoever has the IP for Wild Arms 2 remasters that game. For it is arguably THE best Wild Arms. It's just the graphics the one thing that did not aged well, but even so, for that particular game of the series, I'm willing to overlook it.
5:43 years ago i randomly selected forgive but at that time i didn't know what forgive meant in portuguese(my native language),only a few hours later that day i found out what it means in portuguese
I must have beat the original fan translated Trials of Mana on emulator some 12 times, trying combination over combination, but algo because the story, music and battles were awesome... then the remake came out... I did it all again :D.
Someone noticed Eternia. Still waiting for a Director's cut remake of it for years now. This is the most ambitious Tales game in terms of world building and content.
@@kleberson777 Eternia is the most expanded world there is in a tales game, nothing can top it. Two planets TWO PLANETS! Lmao that includes sky and underwater exploration and the outer ring area on both planets perspective. Also if you visit the voice options you'll notice that there's an unused skill name of Reid that never use in the game, if memory serves me right it's "dragon spiral hammer/swarm".
No need of a remake, just a new port. Only TOD needed one because it aged badly compared to the others. TOP PS1 was made after TOD and was more advanced.
@@carlosaugusto9821 It can benefit on the director's cut direction tho. Even demon souls didn't need a remake but they did as well as Shadow of thr colossus. Also i already have the PSP port of it and a digital version on my PS vita and PS4 PS1 classic.
Fantastic list, tasteful and full of games I've never heard of. Also doesn't beg for subscribers at the beginning, before the video has even proven itself
A few games that aged "just ok but are worth the play"; White Knight Chronicles, Last Remnant, Parasite Eve, and MS Saga A New Dawn. Xenogears is also always on my playlist every year.
I’m playing FF13 for kind of the first time because I dropped it after a few hours I think it’s great now and holds uo incredibly well…I would even say it feels like a modern game
It's crazy how good cel shaded games from the PS2 era still look on a CRT tv. And cel shaded games from the PS3 era still look great today even on big 4k OLED tvs.
I bought Legend of Mana when it released. The original PS1 disc has significant bugs. They have released this in other formats now. Have they fixed the bugs? Example: take the cat girl(I forget her name, a monk type fighter I think) to the stage that looks like the great wall and fight the stage boss. if you die(lose the fight) she dissapears. But what also happens is the story and code will not advance. No matter where you go, there is no one to talk to, no new missions, nothing you can do to advance anymore. Puts a damper on playing the original release, because this type of thing could also simply happen randomly and corrupt the memory file. If they have this stuff fixed in more recent releases I will buy it again.
Yeah, I think the late gen 16-bit and 32-bit 2D games have definitely aged a lot better, in general, than the early 3D games with blurry textures and low res graphics. Sprites are still lower in resolution than modern 2D, but stylization, art direction, and a little imagination can overcome this a lot more easily than looking at a clumsily animated pile of 3D triangles. Yoshi's Island is another game that springs to mind for aging extremely well. Not to say modern 2D hasn't advanced - It is cool to see what modern 2D games can do with things like dynamically lit sprites, live 2D, and HD resolutions.
And 16 bits is a generation that has very decent and satisfying audio quality. Just below 32 bits of course... but good enough, and more importantly a big progression from 8 bits audio. The good composers managed to do a lot of good stuff in it, that genuinely aged very well. Not speaking from nostalgia here. So that's also a great reinforcement to the timeless status of some those games that aged nicely.
I made a part 3 of this. 10 more JRPGs that aged well: th-cam.com/video/aNJnHko3Q_c/w-d-xo.html
I grew up playing Dark Cloud and Dark Cloud 2, I remember having a folder packed to the brim with printed out Game FAQ guides for building weapons, finding inspiration picture locations, item farming areas, and guides to the golfing mini game. God seeing it on your list has made me so nostalgic for the game.
One of my favorite series of all time.
Ha! Cheater! Jk! Im still hoping for a third one
I played Dark Cloud 1 till it went out of style.
Dude, same. I remember getting detention in school for getting caught printing a DC 2 guide lol. Good times. 👍
They need to port it to the Switch!
I remember the late 90s when so many people were dissing games that chose to keep 2D visuals, even refusing to play games that chose that style. Their loss for missing out on such wonderful classics...I kept going "yeah, love that one" as you went down the list.
You’re old man 👴🏼
I know exactly what you mean, there is a certain charm to them that the others dont have
It's a severe case of graphicwhorism, and I'm saddened by the fact that one of my homie is diagnosed with it.
Exactly bro! Try playing jade coccoon today! Chrono trigger holds up so much better.
I specifically sought out games with 2d graphics. They got rarer and rarer. I use to get Gamepro magazine, would go right to the rpg section and look at the little thumb nail sized pictures. Think the last one I got from that method was Tales of Destiny. I’m 38 now. Just cleaned my ps2 laser and booted up ToD using an hdmi converter.
The fact Dark Cloud never had a #3 still hurts my heart. The weapon leveling system was golden. Exploring all possible paths for every weapon was addictive. The amount of stuff to do in #2 was crazy! Finny Frenzy was great, and the Golf mode was stupid fun and challenging to 100%.
I'm glad to see Shining Force at the top of the list. I'm currently making a shining force style tactics game, so it always makes me happy when I see people still have a love for those games
an enduring classic, i got a port to my iphone
Please update u
I remember Xenogear. It was my childhood days where walkthroughs were actually sold in the form of books.
My bro and I didn't have the attention span of listening to stories. That or we simply didn't care. And after playing it again on the emulator, I found it to be very deep.
The combat of that game was phenomenal. Combos, and mechs with their fuel intake? It was a match made in heaven.
They tried to combine the Xenogear and Saga Frontier into a brainchild called Xenosaga.
And while the game did win some points for me in the 1st and 2nd game, the story and characters suddenly twisted on the 3rd.
As for Dark Cloud 2, I remember that when I was still in high school. The good old days when games had their charm.
I think it was that twist in the 3rd game that made me love the trilogy. Xeno 3 is my 3rd best JRPG of all time for me. That 3rd game was amazing! What didn’t you like about it?
Cel-shade and pixel art will never get old.
When I see 2D games made by indie developers now vs how retro 2D games made then. It shows how meaningful time was for jrpgs like Chrono Trigger
I love that you mentioned Kartia. It has been one of my favorite JRPG for 20 years! The characters are so well developed in this game, and the story is really complex with mature themes. It's definitely worth playing today.
Kartia is amazing.
Great story, great art, and the card system was just so unique.
Grow Lanser: Oh My! That is a 'cultured' artstyle.
Whoah! You just hit me hard with the nostalgia! I totally forgot about Soleil (Crusader of Centy). I played that game to death as a kid and seeing you post it gave me crazy flashbacks to playing it. I remember having to walk over the flowers correctly to push them all down. Wild! I need to go back and play that game again! Thank you!
Man i'm impressed someone still remember Dark Cloud 2, pure RPG gem.
Can't recall the first list but one JRPG I think aged well is the original Valkyrie Profile.
And your definitely right about cel-shading and the 2.5 D graphics. The latter is also the reason why Yoshi's Story is one of the best looking N64 games nowadays.
I've been thinking about emulating it, is it a TRPG or a standard RPG?
@@AntwaineHorton
It's quite unique in its mechanics. Exploration is done in a side-scrolling view. The battles take place on a separate screen where your party shares a gauge for every possible action. So it's neither a traditional turn-based RPG (where everyone acts after another) nor a SRPG/TRPG with a grid. Just look at some gameplay videos to see it yourself because it's really hard to explain. (Btw. there's a second game on the PS2 as well but that wouldn't have fit the list because it's from 2007)
@@BlackFantasy470 you had me at unique battle system
@@AntwaineHorton
Now that's nice to know. I guess you'll have fun with it. It might just take a bit to get fully comfortable with the battle system. It's easy to understand but not so easy to master.
@@BlackFantasy470 I quite enjoyed the game but got stuck quite early on and gave up on a mission where you had to destroy a tank.
Loved Tales of Destiny 2 as a kid, and finally beat it last year as an adult. one of my all time favorite games these days
I remember never finishing Dark Cloud 2 because I got sidetracked with playing golf. It's no the only time a mini-game sucked me in, but I remember that there were so many things to distract you while playing that game. I wouldn't mind revisiting it.
What about Golden Sun and Golden Sun the Lost Age from the GBA? It has very good graphics and classic turn based battle system it is spiced up with the djinn system, small special creatures that can be traded between the characters changing class, stats and powers.
I agree with this. Those games are like hidden gems as well.
I was doing a recent play through of this game and something I think gets forgotten about is how GREAT it feels to solve the puzzles in this game. It just feels great to figure out all the different ways to use psyenergy, mind reading every NPC in the game(seriously, every NPC has double the dialogue pretty much), revealing hidden paths and chests, etc. Golden Sun holds up better than most games in this list actually.
@@kodama883 Exactly. Having all those ways to use you abilities outside of battle as well, practical real applications like it would be if that was real life where people had powers... it was great. All this stuff we have in modern games... especially with so many being open world with rpg elements... I thought we'd see more of that kind of thing in games than we do. Golden Sun's felt more interactable than the worlds of most games today to me. That game in some ways was ahead of games even today.
Golden Sun doesn't have good graphics, at least for characters, who are the most important to me. The rest is good but it doesn't deserve to be here. There are many better looking GBA RPGs.
GS's graphics actually represent precisely the experimental 2.5d mindset that was notorious over the mid to late 90s probably in order to show the "next level" of 2d graphics. But never managed to surpass plain sprite 2d graphics when its well done. That was a 90s drama but that was revived in the GBA because it was pretty capable for those graphics. And sadly it ended up getting filled up with games with those type of graphics.
Lufia 2 and chrono trigger both aged very well. Lufia 2 is a very rare game. so a lot of people have not played or heard of it.
Great picks. Gotta say, a few of time are already on my back log list and for a few others it reminded me which ones to prioritize now.
That was a great list of games! Many of my favorites are here: Kartia, Growlanser 3 (my personal favorite of that series), Shining Force 1 and 2, and others. Eric is definitely correct about the way that 16 bit rpg graphics have stood the test of time.
Dark Chronicles (Dark Cloud 2) is one of my favorites games. Is so much fun!
Wish there was something like it. I would be happy with build your Mech RPG,
I have some hope that Towers of Aghasba will scratch my dark could itch
Didn't find time to mention that Dark Cloud 2 also has a golf minigame and a fishing SUBgame that involves catching, breeding, training, and racing fish. Or that you not only get to drive that robot, but you upgrade it. As a small part of a GIGANTIC INVENTIONS SYSTEM that is in the game.
Appreciate you, man... Thank you for all of this that you create!
I still play Chrono Trigger such a great game and the combos you can do with team mates was first of its kind for rpgs I think.
I really love Tales of eternia. And about the dub, doesn't the psp version have the option to change to the japanese dub? I recall playing it with japanese audio, but I could be mistaken.
I had no complaints about Growlancer Dual Darkness's english voicing at all personally lol
golden sun series on gba pretty good too! and the djinn system..i love it
Great video ermano! Have considered doing honorable mentions in your top 10s/20s there so much more PS1 JRPGs that aged well like BoF 3 and 4 Rapsody a musical adventure or Atilier Iris. I'm actually surprised you didn't bring up any of the Suikoden as I know how much love you have for the series. Keep em coming!
I got paranoid a bit because I was just playing Dark Cloud 2 again on my PS2 and I'm sure my PS2 is not connected to the internet but this video was suggested to me. But yeah, I've never grown tired of the game, this and Final fantasy XII
I love these videos because they highlight older games that I can go back to confidently. Putting so much time into a JRPG makes me hesitate, but it’s nice to know which ones are worth trying, even if there aren’t dozens of reviews for them. Thank you.
Got shining force 1 for Christmas when it came out. Didn't even know it existed. Still have my genesis copy on the shelf behind me.
0:13 Which is this one, Landon? Seems like a spiritual prequel to The Bouncer.
Xenogears
Love the SO2 shout-out
Totally agree with Shining Force 1 & 2. Those games are so nostalgic for me, as I used to watch my dad play them. But they are amazing games with amazing replay ability as well. Great list! Thank you!
Dark cloud 1,2 and Rogue galaxy are all awesome. But I like the original dark cloud way more
Nice video Erick. Always enjoyed your stuff.
Glad to see someone else appreciate Kartia. Great vid.
Thank you so much for reviewing dark cloud 2 it is by far an amazing game I play it all the time
Glad to see Dark Cloud 1 & 2 aged really well, they're my favorite games.
Thanks for this video, I haven't heard of most of these. I'll add these to my backlog of classics I Need to play.
Shout out to the GBA Shining Force. The card system was an interesting feature. Getting two turns per round for your favorite character was amazing.
The major changes to the pixel art/coloring and extreme sound compression was a big turnoff for me though
Kartia looks awesome. Thanks for reminding of a game with one of my favourite video game artists.
Sadly, many different games didnt reach my country (spain) and as a consequence most of these good old rpgs werent playable back then... but at least I could play Alundra, Legend of Legaia, FF's / Tactics ones and a few other great rpgs.
Love watching your videos man. 👌🏽
Oh man, the dark cloud games were my jam back in the day. Even if the first game hasn't aged well, it still has a special place in my heart. It was the first PS2 game that my late grandpa bought for me.
Star Ocean 2 baby. love that game
I dear friend of mine recently showed me Dark Cloud 2, their fave RPG, and God what a beautiful game it is! The music, love Maximilian and Monica, the scenarios, the creative invention system and so on. Great game and now I get why the few times I watched it mentioned inf videogames magazines years ago the reviews were full of love for the game.
Was unexpected Legends of Mana to be animated in anime series. So far I love it! Don't why I felt nostalgic even it never being animated as anime series before.
Dark cloud 2 I believe, is criminally under rated. I actually haven't heard anyone talk about Kartia even when it was new and I owned it lol Good stuff tho!
FF IX aged amazingly imo
your channel was a great discovery of mine, just what i needed... and what was that snes game in the start, i never even heard about that! and im pretty much i reviewed (written reviews) almost all Western games for SNES AND a goog deal of the best J-RPGs never localized for the Super Famicom... this though escaped entirely my radar!
Kartia is actually available on the Japanese psn store (for ps3 and vita) under the name "Rebus"
My fav one would be
SteamBot Chronicles,lot of thing you can do in the game
Secret of mana 2 was my childhood, such a gem
Legend of Mana had a huge impact on the way I think about game design and world building
I've binge on SO2 way back playing Claude and Rena's story
Growlanser 3!!! Man, I even bought a guidebook just so I could complete the main casts questlines and get their ultimate upgrades. I even finished it countless times too, though not as much as Radiata Stories.
Funnily enough, my brother who bought the game actually intended to buy Growlanser 5 as per the disk's cover, but we got Growlanser 3 instead. Since we were just snot-nosed brats back then, we didn't think too much of it and holy moly, the game is way absolutely fantastic!
Growlanser 3 wasn’t sold separately outside of Japan. It came with Growlanser 2
@@westonmeyer3110 ah, I lived in a 3rd world shithole, so you can say it was a copy that has been plundered from the Seven Seas. Hence why its disk cover was for Growlanser 5 but the content was Growlanser 3 lol
Good video! Does somebody know what game is shown in the intro at 0:04 right after star ocean second story?
don't forget saga frontier 2... as gorgeous as ever! great video overall man!
I think Square never brought Treasure of the Rudras over because of the sheer PAIN involved in converting the mantra system... I have great respect for the fans that dealt with that monstrosity:D
TLDW list:
- Dark Cloud 2 (aka. Dark Chronicle. 2002.)
- Trials of Mana (1995)
- Legend of Mana (1999)
- Paper Mario (2000)
- Crusader of Centy (1994)
- Treasure of the Rudras (1996)
- Kartia: The Word of Fate (aka. Legend of Kartia, Rebus. 1998.)
- Growlanser III: The Dual Darkness (2001)
- Tales of Eternia (2000. PS1 release. Not the same as PS2 Tales of Destiny 2 (2002).)
- Shining Force 1: The Legacy of Great Intention & II (Two games. 1992 & 1993.)
Honourable Mentions:
- Lost Kingdoms (aka. Rune. 2002.)
- Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis (2001. SRPG.)
---
Notes:
Kartia, Growlanser III and two Shining Force titles are SRPGs.
Erick wants both Growlanser III and Tales of Eternia to get remakes with proper voice acting. Eternia had a PSP remaster but no new voice acting.
At #1 spot, he also recommends Shining Force CD (1994 Sega CD). It's a remake of Shining Force Gaiden 1 (1992) and II: (1993).
Link to previous episode of same topic 4 months before.
th-cam.com/video/I6BxWkmRmc4/w-d-xo.html
Hopefully this link can stay here.
That Shining Force 2 music is so recognizable.
omg i enjoyed Kartia sooo muchhhhh, i already have forgotten it, thanks for reminding me again
I had forgotten about Kartia. What about Arc the Lad? Especially 2 & 3. The original Valkyrie Profile was really good too
Just played Dark Cloud 2 again on ps5 amazing game
Star ocean really made my childhood days..... Aside from digimon world,GT, FF, suikoden, etc
Legend of Mana is sooooooo nostalgic for me. One of the three games I owned on the PS1 growing up (the other two being Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy 9). I still play the game when I get the chance, and recently began to collect achievements in the Steam version of the Remaster.
@RAYHAN REHEMA PUTRA Played FF7 and FF8 when I was in my 20's, so never grew up with them. Didn't enjoy FF7 all that much, and I stopped playing FF8 around disc 2 or 3 cause I couldn't push myself any further.
But I have many fond memories of FF9. Was a whole lot of fun, in my opinion. Later on, I would notice a trend that I enjoyed FF games that were heavy on the fantasy elements, and didn't like the ones taking place in modern/sci-fi looking settings like FF7 and FF8.
As it stands, my top five FF games are Tactics, 5, 9, 11, and 14. If i had to only pick the numbered FF games, 3 would replace Tactics.
@RAYHAN REHEMA PUTRA Oh, I love Fallout, I've played them all. I even regularly play 76. My whole thing with FF games is because my firs two games in the series (9 and Tactics) were more fantasy than scifi. So playing an FF game where it's more modern or scifi feels strange to me is all.
Still remembering Meredy action voice "Inferia.... Celestia.... BOOOM" till this day.
first game that has certain voice actor in JRPG ive played
thanks to this list i remembered the game that my neighbor always plays when i was a kid. its Dark Cloud! now i gotta try the game myself
What about Legend of the Dragoon
Seiken Densetsu 3 was an absolute gem, I LOVED it! Secret of Mana will always be better in my mind but I have fond memories of playing its successor even if I had to wait for an english patch for the japanese rom way back. They both have their good points.
Man, when that Legend of Mana theme starts up...
0:12 game title?
Xenogears
@@AceKuper whoa tnx
@@Game_Daddy Was wondering what the4 game was myself, cause it looked cool. Was able to find it, cause some names showed on the screen for a couple of second and google found them.
Sadly found out that it;s Xenogears, sadly, cause the game is heavily unfinished. On the good side Xenoblade Chronicles is it's modernt successor, but it's not a 2D game.
Terranigma age so damn well. The controls are amazing and graphic wise its timeless
Great list! Do wish the video had some kind of time stamps though
Yes. Square Enix, please give Treasure of the Rudra the Live A Live treatment. Tinker the encounter rate and the Mantra creation, which are the only things you need to improve to make this game a GOAT. Story, music, WORLD MAP (give me back my world maps, please!!), it is a true jewel and I can't thank Aeon Genesis enough for having made that stellar fan translation.
And Growlancer games and Tales of Eternia are some of the best games out there. And yes, I do agree too with the dubs. Was fortunate enough to find undub ROM versions, and what a difference that was!
Wished Wild Arms 3 were on this list, since that is another game that has aged really well. Same can be said of Alter Code F (WA1's remaster). Wish whoever has the IP for Wild Arms 2 remasters that game. For it is arguably THE best Wild Arms. It's just the graphics the one thing that did not aged well, but even so, for that particular game of the series, I'm willing to overlook it.
5:43 years ago i randomly selected forgive but at that time i didn't know what forgive meant in portuguese(my native language),only a few hours later that day i found out what it means in portuguese
Nice video!
Totally agree :D
My favorite ps1 is and always will be Legend of legaia :D personally I think it has aged really well, it is still fun to play
Ikr my favorite as well
I must have beat the original fan translated Trials of Mana on emulator some 12 times, trying combination over combination, but algo because the story, music and battles were awesome... then the remake came out... I did it all again :D.
Someone noticed Eternia.
Still waiting for a Director's cut remake of it for years now.
This is the most ambitious Tales game in terms of world building and content.
+1 as well as this bring much memories in my life
Tales of Eternia is one of the game where you feel the world is really big, exploring the world and city feel so satisfying
@@kleberson777
Eternia is the most expanded world there is in a tales game, nothing can top it. Two planets TWO PLANETS! Lmao that includes sky and underwater exploration and the outer ring area on both planets perspective.
Also if you visit the voice options you'll notice that there's an unused skill name of Reid that never use in the game, if memory serves me right it's "dragon spiral hammer/swarm".
No need of a remake, just a new port. Only TOD needed one because it aged badly compared to the others. TOP PS1 was made after TOD and was more advanced.
@@carlosaugusto9821
It can benefit on the director's cut direction tho. Even demon souls didn't need a remake but they did as well as Shadow of thr colossus. Also i already have the PSP port of it and a digital version on my PS vita and PS4 PS1 classic.
Fantastic list, tasteful and full of games I've never heard of. Also doesn't beg for subscribers at the beginning, before the video has even proven itself
Huh, I'd never heard of Centi, will have to check it out, cheers Erick!
Dude your channel is great but you need to separate by chapters. Keep up the good work!
0:00 Does anyone know what this game is called?
I just started replaying skies of Arcadia and think its held up nicely maybe deserves an HD remake even
Too bad Sega is allergic to money
Evolution World Of Sacred devices is nice as well
Legend of Mana was one of my favourite games on the PSX
Minstrel saga still in my rotation for my PS2 🔥
Some excellent picks here. But in general 2D has aged much better than 3D.
ah, dark chronicles / dark cloud 2 always have a special place in my heart
what is the name of the game at 0:05 of the video it looks amazing.
A few games that aged "just ok but are worth the play"; White Knight Chronicles, Last Remnant, Parasite Eve, and MS Saga A New Dawn. Xenogears is also always on my playlist every year.
I got a platinum for dark cloud 2 on ps4 getting the trophy for spheda the golf mini game was a huge pain.
What's the game shown at 0:05 ?
I’m playing FF13 for kind of the first time because I dropped it after a few hours
I think it’s great now and holds uo incredibly well…I would even say it feels like a modern game
Aidyn Chronicles for the N64. Very underrated
Your point about cel shaded games is spot on. It's why I think games like eternal sonata look incredible, even by modern standards.
It's crazy how good cel shaded games from the PS2 era still look on a CRT tv. And cel shaded games from the PS3 era still look great today even on big 4k OLED tvs.
Realism in graphics is way overrated and really just makes them feel dated quickly.
I bought Legend of Mana when it released. The original PS1 disc has significant bugs.
They have released this in other formats now. Have they fixed the bugs?
Example: take the cat girl(I forget her name, a monk type fighter I think) to the stage that looks like the great wall and fight the stage boss. if you die(lose the fight) she dissapears. But what also happens is the story and code will not advance. No matter where you go, there is no one to talk to, no new missions, nothing you can do to advance anymore. Puts a damper on playing the original release, because this type of thing could also simply happen randomly and corrupt the memory file.
If they have this stuff fixed in more recent releases I will buy it again.
Yeah, I think the late gen 16-bit and 32-bit 2D games have definitely aged a lot better, in general, than the early 3D games with blurry textures and low res graphics. Sprites are still lower in resolution than modern 2D, but stylization, art direction, and a little imagination can overcome this a lot more easily than looking at a clumsily animated pile of 3D triangles. Yoshi's Island is another game that springs to mind for aging extremely well. Not to say modern 2D hasn't advanced - It is cool to see what modern 2D games can do with things like dynamically lit sprites, live 2D, and HD resolutions.
And 16 bits is a generation that has very decent and satisfying audio quality. Just below 32 bits of course... but good enough, and more importantly a big progression from 8 bits audio. The good composers managed to do a lot of good stuff in it, that genuinely aged very well. Not speaking from nostalgia here. So that's also a great reinforcement to the timeless status of some those games that aged nicely.
Legend of Mana is one of my top 3 favorite video games and I'm still bitter that Secret and Trials got a remake but LOM got a remaster instead.
What is the second game in the video, before the list starts?