Developer: Square
Publisher: Nintendo
Year: 1990
Platform: NES, GBA, Playstation, PS3, Wii, PSP, Smartphones
Square was about to go under when Nintendo decided they might take a chance and see if this whole RPG thing would catch on. We’re all glad they did.
Developer: Square
Publisher: Square
Year: 1993
Platform: Game Boy
The third and final game in this series makes some significant improvements in game mechanics, making the game more user-friendly. It also has a time-travel plot, which should be golden. Unfortunately, a rather dull story weakens an otherwise solid game.
Developer: Square
Publisher: Nintendo
Year: 1996
Platform: SNES, Wii
A rare marriage by Square and Nintendo brought Mario and family to this genre for the first time. Released late in the SNES run, it successfully uses up every ounce of power the SNES has for its graphics, but unfortunately suffers from an aimless and uninspiring plot that eventually bored me into quitting.
Twice.
Continue reading 15. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
Developer: Neverland
Publisher: Taito
Year: 1993
Platform: SNES
The Lufia series was heavily overshadowed by Final Fantasy and Breath of Fire, so much so that I had never heard of it until the internet. I hoped I would find an overlooked gem, but sadly, Lufia’s relatively poor reception was deserved.
Developer: Chunsoft
Publisher: Enix
Year: 1990
Platform: NES, Gameboy Color, SNES (Japanese only)
In 1990, America was still behind on the RPG front as this game took three years to get here from Japan. Final Fantasy took the same amount of the time to cross the pond and was released a few months before this game. That game probably hurt any momentum Enix hoped to gain with the Dragon Quest/Warrior series, especially since graphically Enix seemed to be way behind. Still, this is a solid, if not always memorable game.
Developer: Chunsoft
Publisher: Enix
Year: 1989
Platform: NES, Gameboy Color, SNES (Japanese only)
The first RPG I was ever exposed to, and also one of the first America was exposed to. Considering it took three years for this classic to make it over from Japan, it’s obvious it took this side of the Pacific longer to warm up to gaming that didn’t involve hand-eye coordination. While the game is slow and painful at times by today’s standards, it has so much damn charm that the game can still worth playing today, especially the updated ports (packaged with Dragon Quest II) that fix several of the game’s issues, detailed below.
Developer: Square
Publisher: Square
Year: 1992
Platform: SNES, Wii
Billed as an RPG for beginners, Mystic Quest provides an experience so simple that my cat could win it if you gave her plenty of catnip and a turbo controller.
Developer: Square
Publisher: Square
Year: 1989
Platform: Game Boy
The first game in the SaGa series was the first ever handheld RPG and sold incredibly well, thanks in part to rebranding it as a Final Fantasy game stateside. However, there is really no reason other than nostalgia to play this game, partly due to its difficulty but mostly due to the general ennui the game elicits.
Developer: Square
Publisher: Square
Year: 1988
Platform: Famicom; Wii; GBA, Playstation, Playstation 3, PSP, Android, iPhone
Final Fantasy (and frankly, all RPGs) was hugely popular in Japan but the series didn’t reach the states until the 90’s. While the first game did become a hit over here, Nintendo held off on publishing anymore until the fourth installment. While I’ve heard good things about FF3, I don’t blame Nintendo for bypassing this game.
From approximately 1989 to 2004, I was an ardent fan of role-playing games. I loved the relatively low-stress engine that didn’t require me to mash buttons on my controller, and I also loved entering names of me and my friends in the roles of the heroes (and occasionally, a love interest). I eventually lost interest in modern RPGs, partially due to their size and endless sidequests, but mostly due to getting older and preferring casual games. Now that I have a family, I can’t see myself dedicating the time it takes to win an RPG. So this list may wind up being static.
As mentioned in the title, this list will only include turn-based RPGs. This is opposed to RPGs that require some dexterity with hand-to-hand combat, like Zelda and Secret of Mana.
It looks like I have played 21 of these games, for the NES, SNES, Gameboy, and Playstation. Tomorrow we’ll start with #21.
Death By Troggles 
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