Robio's All-New, All-Different, Top 100 of All Time
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#60 - Magic Sword
Generic name, horrible artwork, amazing game.
Seriously, is that not fucking hideous?
God-awful promotional artwork aside, this was probably my favorite 90's arcade game before fighting games completely took over the scene. It was a typical 2-player hack and slash combat wise, but what made it special was all the companion characters you could rescue and join you in your quest up the tower.
You started as the typical warrior/barbarian who forgot to put on his shirt before he began his quest. From there, you can rescue a variety of side characters who are helpful at particular tasks (and awful in most other situations), good all around, or just flat out awesome. There's an archer, thief, priest, wizard, ninja, neanderthal ape dude with an axe, a flying lizard man, and a towards the end of the a lancer who pretty much renders the rest of the characters obsolete.
Basically it was every sword and sorcery/ fantasy trope you could think of in one game. All the heroes, all the monsters, they're all here. Pretty much everything I loved. Unfortunately this was very long for an arcade game (the tower you climb is 50 floors), and it ate a ton of quarters. So you either had to be rich or go for the downgraded SNES version. But either through home loan or lowering standards, this was one of the great fantasy games of all time.
Generic name, horrible artwork, amazing game.
Seriously, is that not fucking hideous?
God-awful promotional artwork aside, this was probably my favorite 90's arcade game before fighting games completely took over the scene. It was a typical 2-player hack and slash combat wise, but what made it special was all the companion characters you could rescue and join you in your quest up the tower.
You started as the typical warrior/barbarian who forgot to put on his shirt before he began his quest. From there, you can rescue a variety of side characters who are helpful at particular tasks (and awful in most other situations), good all around, or just flat out awesome. There's an archer, thief, priest, wizard, ninja, neanderthal ape dude with an axe, a flying lizard man, and a towards the end of the a lancer who pretty much renders the rest of the characters obsolete.
Basically it was every sword and sorcery/ fantasy trope you could think of in one game. All the heroes, all the monsters, they're all here. Pretty much everything I loved. Unfortunately this was very long for an arcade game (the tower you climb is 50 floors), and it ate a ton of quarters. So you either had to be rich or go for the downgraded SNES version. But either through home loan or lowering standards, this was one of the great fantasy games of all time.
Very fun game indeed. That promotional art is quite hideous. 
The name sounds familiar but I can't recall if I've ever played it.
#59 - Breath of Fire 2
In the Golden age of console jrpgs, there really wasn't a competitor to Square/Squaresoft. No one cranked out as many of them, at the level of quality they did. A few publishers wanted in on the market though, and if you looked around you could find a few of high quality. Capcom's Breath of Fire was one of the more notable ones, and the second in the franchise was by far my favorite.
The game's story was as good as any other jrpg out there. It basically involved a corrupt Church winning over followers and favor in the world, while quietly attempting to The world. It actually had a lot of similarities with Final Fantasy tactics, in that regard. It also had a really unique feature where you would meet shaman scattered across the world who would merge with your teammates and transform them into these overpowered badasses. And of course, in one of the series trademarks, it featured a really interesting variety of animal/human hybrid characters, which set them apart from most of the other RPGs around which typically featured your standard humans.
One of my favorite things about the series was it was all contained in the same world, but each game was set hundreds or even thousands of years apart from one another. So it was always interesting to see how the world evolved In that time. Some cities grew, while others disappeared entirely. Notable races in one game would be nearly extinct in others. That kind of in-game evolution made exploring every corner of the game worthwhile, because Easter eggs referencing older games would be scattered all over the place. Breath of Fire 2 had one of the coolest ones, because you could actually find an old character from the first one who was quietly hibernating, waiting to be awoken.
There was a little too much grinding, but that's a tough complaint to make about games of that era since most of them had the same problem. Really, the only thing you can hold against the game was a pretty god-awful translation.
Case in point, they couldn't even figure out zzzz.. is the standard noise for sleeping.
Still, even the awful translation has some value as it's so bad that it provides some unintentional humor. So you have a good game, a good story, and even a few laughs. Definitely a formula for success.
In the Golden age of console jrpgs, there really wasn't a competitor to Square/Squaresoft. No one cranked out as many of them, at the level of quality they did. A few publishers wanted in on the market though, and if you looked around you could find a few of high quality. Capcom's Breath of Fire was one of the more notable ones, and the second in the franchise was by far my favorite.
The game's story was as good as any other jrpg out there. It basically involved a corrupt Church winning over followers and favor in the world, while quietly attempting to The world. It actually had a lot of similarities with Final Fantasy tactics, in that regard. It also had a really unique feature where you would meet shaman scattered across the world who would merge with your teammates and transform them into these overpowered badasses. And of course, in one of the series trademarks, it featured a really interesting variety of animal/human hybrid characters, which set them apart from most of the other RPGs around which typically featured your standard humans.
One of my favorite things about the series was it was all contained in the same world, but each game was set hundreds or even thousands of years apart from one another. So it was always interesting to see how the world evolved In that time. Some cities grew, while others disappeared entirely. Notable races in one game would be nearly extinct in others. That kind of in-game evolution made exploring every corner of the game worthwhile, because Easter eggs referencing older games would be scattered all over the place. Breath of Fire 2 had one of the coolest ones, because you could actually find an old character from the first one who was quietly hibernating, waiting to be awoken.
There was a little too much grinding, but that's a tough complaint to make about games of that era since most of them had the same problem. Really, the only thing you can hold against the game was a pretty god-awful translation.
Case in point, they couldn't even figure out zzzz.. is the standard noise for sleeping.
Still, even the awful translation has some value as it's so bad that it provides some unintentional humor. So you have a good game, a good story, and even a few laughs. Definitely a formula for success.
Loved the Breath of Fire up until the fifth one, Dragon Quarter. That was a heartbreaking game. Would love for Capcom to return to that franchise someday.
Archangel3371 said:Loved the Breath of Fire up until the fifth one, Dragon Quarter. That was a heartbreaking game. Would love for Capcom to return to that franchise someday.
They actually did, but unfortunately the return was a mobile game that they only released in Japan. Not only that, but it wasn't even reviewed well for a mobile game. It was just crap all the way around.
robio said:
They actually did, but unfortunately the return was a mobile game that they only released in Japan. Not only that, but it wasn't even reviewed well for a mobile game. It was just crap all the way around.
Ah, that’s right. Totally forgot about that.
Archangel3371 said:Ah, that’s right. Totally forgot about that.
it's really not worth remembering, and I should probably apologize to you for even bringing it up.
#58 - Crystalis
Thanks to The Legend of Zelda, the second half of the NES's lifespan had a number of adventure/action RPGs. Aside from StarTropics, which transcends all forms of art, I think Crystalis ended up being probably the best of them. It took a lot ideas for Zelda, and then added a stronger narrative, NPCs, and a world that was just a little bit more interesting.
Crystalis was another one of those games that Nintendo power completely sold me on. And they gave it a really strong feature and just looking at the number of items, magic spells, and NPCs you'd come across in the adventure made it seem like a game that had everything. And on that note, thank God for Nintendo Power. This game would not have been easy to figure out on my own. Even with a lunchroom Round table meeting of the minds, I'm pretty sure there would have been a few tricks involving some of the magic spells I would never have quite figured out on my own.
Interestingly enough, there's also not a definitive version of this game. A Game Boy color version was released, that had a significantly better translation and provided a little bit more detail on the story. However, due to the screen restrictions, the combat ended up being pretty wonky. So who knows if we're ever going to get a pixel remaster of this with the controls of the NES version and that fleshed out story from the GBC. Probably never going to happen, but it would definitely be cool to see.
Thanks to The Legend of Zelda, the second half of the NES's lifespan had a number of adventure/action RPGs. Aside from StarTropics, which transcends all forms of art, I think Crystalis ended up being probably the best of them. It took a lot ideas for Zelda, and then added a stronger narrative, NPCs, and a world that was just a little bit more interesting.
Crystalis was another one of those games that Nintendo power completely sold me on. And they gave it a really strong feature and just looking at the number of items, magic spells, and NPCs you'd come across in the adventure made it seem like a game that had everything. And on that note, thank God for Nintendo Power. This game would not have been easy to figure out on my own. Even with a lunchroom Round table meeting of the minds, I'm pretty sure there would have been a few tricks involving some of the magic spells I would never have quite figured out on my own.
Interestingly enough, there's also not a definitive version of this game. A Game Boy color version was released, that had a significantly better translation and provided a little bit more detail on the story. However, due to the screen restrictions, the combat ended up being pretty wonky. So who knows if we're ever going to get a pixel remaster of this with the controls of the NES version and that fleshed out story from the GBC. Probably never going to happen, but it would definitely be cool to see.
I keep hearing about Crystalis but I've never played it. I believe it's on an SNK collection on Switch too, which I've been meaning to get.
robio said:
Interestingly enough, there's also not a definitive version of this game. A Game Boy color version was released, that had a significantly better translation and provided a little bit more detail on the story. However, due to the screen restrictions, the combat ended up being pretty wonky. So who knows if we're ever going to get a pixel remaster of this with the controls of the NES version and that fleshed out story from the GBC. Probably never going to happen, but it would definitely be cool to see.
Sounds like something the fan commuity would do.
Ravenprose said:Sounds like something the fan commuity would do.
Now that you say that, it's very possible it's out there. It's always interesting to see just how many fan translations are out there, even for games that have already had a translation, and someone just wants to fix even a few minor details.
Oh, and it is part of that SNK collection. It's definitely worth a go one weekend. Though I would recommend having some sort of guide to play along with. Makes the experience a little more fair.
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robio (7m)
The SaGa series has always been a bit of a black sheep in the Squaresoft and Square-Enix catalog. And if you go by the games that were originally released in the west under the actual SaGa name, it makes sense. They're non-linear games, with weird leveling up, a little difficult to figure out, and some of them just straight up suck. So when Scarlet Grace came out I looked at the ass ugly art style I assumed it was another suck ass game and skipped it
I was wrong.
Scarlet Grace does kind of look like ass. I wasn't wrong about that. It was originally a mobile game so there was only so much horsepower they could put behind it. Plus, they artwork Tomomi Kobayashi, whose gorgeous watercolor drawings have been used as concept art for characters and settings, sadly don't quite translate well into 3D. But aesthetics aside, the game is excellent.
All the things that have been great about the series in the past are present in this game. There's an epic story, dozens of characters, and side quests up the wazoo. Plus they've added one of the most satisfying turn-based RPG combat systems I've ever played. It's a classic simple to learn difficult to master setup. Basically you try to attack in a manner that interrupts your enemies, and allow you to chain your teammates moves together. The game took me about 60 hours to finish and it wasn't until hour 50 that I really felt like I was out-thinking the enemies.
The game was just a great surprise all the way around. I picked it up because it was cheap and I had a little history with the series. Turned out, it was the second best in the series. That said, you'll find out what the best in the series is later on.