Your Fave & Least Fave Genny RPG?

[Armoured Priest]

This thread has inspired me to do a re-play of Sword of Vermillion (which has been a few years since I last replayed it.)

I still really like this game, warts and all.

I learned of a better swap technique for Saturn, so I want to play the translations of Shining Force 3 Eps 1-3. That may come next.

[Thief]

This thread has inspired me to do a re-play of Sword of Vermillion (which has been a few years since I last replayed it.)

I still really like this game, warts and all.

I learned of a better swap technique for Saturn, so I want to play the translations of Shining Force 3 Eps 1-3. That may come next.

If you haven't played Shining the Holy Ark already, I recommend you play it first before starting Shining Force 3.

[IrishNinja]

If you haven't played Shining the Holy Ark already, I recommend you play it first before starting Shining Force 3.

^i did just that, and it was awesome! best dungeon crawler i've played in forever

[Armoured Priest]

If you haven't played Shining the Holy Ark already, I recommend you play it first before starting Shining Force 3.

I played it when it came out. I remember that Holy Ark and Albert Odyssey came out within like two weeks of each other, and a bunch of the reviews at the time noted that, and compared them against each other. The general consensus at the time was that Holy Ark was better. I'd agree with that, but I'd still enjoyed Albert Odyssey (Albert Odyssey also had a great, way underrated soundtrack).

...but yes, I have played Holy Ark...its been a looooooong time since I have. Don't know if I'm up for a dungeon crawler right now, and I do remember the general story (The whole Vandal/Innovator plot).

I'd also played through the US version of Shining Force 3 multiple times, having only recently sold off my copies of both Holy Ark and SF3 (realities of needing money).

[Chimaera]

A little late on this thread, but I love this discussion, and I'll throw in my two cents.

My favorite video game of all time hands down is the original Shining Force.

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The first RPG I ever played (strategy RPG, whatever...) A brilliant game in all aspects and one I can still pick up and get into at almost any time. A must-have for Genesis lovers.

But I'd also like to follow up with an unpopular title...

Rings of Power!

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This little cartridge has quite literally an entire world contained within it. Made on a small budget by mostly 2 guys, it's one of the most interesting games I've played on any system. An open-world isometric environment with multiple side-quests, an economy, travel, lore, and a sense of humor! I beat this game for the Beat-Em-All thread, and this is what I had to say about it.

It's absolutely ahead of it's time and just altogether brilliant.

The world is vast and incredibly dense and detailed. There are secrets galore. You are tasked by your master to find the eleven rings of power, which most people believe to be just legends, and return them to your God before the Evil Void finds them. You are free to complete your quests in any order you choose.

It's the little touches that make the game, like different NPCs holding different beliefs about Nexus and Void. Some love them, some hate them, some doubt their existence. Vagrants will chant nonsense code at you. Keef the Thief makes an appearance. You can meet a talking bear that lives in a house in the woods, fight zombies underwater, meet RedBeard the pirate, trade goods, and gamble at the casino. There's so much to do in this game.

Sure, the graphics aren't top-notch. Sure, the music can be brash. Sure, Buc's walking animation is as far from "smooth" as you can get. But I simply don't care. If you're able to look past that, and the initial difficulty, there's a brilliant and deep experience to be had here. A phenomenal, engrossing, strange, comical, and wonderful adventure. There is nothing else like this on the Genesis.

As far as least favorite? I tend to love even the least-inspired RPGs. I still enjoyed it, but Traysia is not among the Genesis' finer efforts in the RPG department. With a little tweaking, it could have been, but the translation was iffy and the controls and battling were a little shoddy.

[paulojr_mam]

My fave Genny RPG is Phantasy Star, action RPG is Crusader of Centy. Wonder Boy in Monster World also is awesome too. I know these last too are controversial when it comes to labelling, but in them you play a role in a different world, you act like you're living there, going to towns, talking to people... so they are RPGs to me.
Hard to find one I can cherrypick as bad.

[Goati]

Gotta second everything Chimaera said about Rings of Power. Beaten it myself some months ago, on my own with zero hints/internet/etc it took me 62 hours. I did get stuck several hours on one thing.
Also there can be more than one way (or npc) to go through to solve a quest/get a ring, so it's really well built around the open world concept. There's seriously 30 or so cities, and every one of those has citizens that think differently.
The humor made me laugh. Music is actually not that bad, everyone has definitely heard much much worse on the Genesis (using the american name on purpose there uhe uhe), my favorite is the one you get when you get on a boat/ship. The game runs at like 2 frames per second and the graphics aren't terrible but the colors look like some old pc game. In fact, it was initially designed (by Naughty Dog, it's an early naughty dog game) to be a pc game, but then EA told them it would sell more on the genesis and so... Yeah.
Later they got a bit bummed that EA decided to reprint madden or something and not rings of power, but the game still sold out (there's an interview on youtube).
Something I regret not being in the game, is more characters to choose from, or maybe just more character interaction, but... you know what, that's not even the game's focus, the combat is even unbalanced and a bit broken, hah, but the game is still amazingly deep, vast and just freaking full of content. If you get into it, you'll get hooked trying to get all the rings of power.

[Raistlin]

And I always thought that I was the only guy in the world who really loved Rings of Power.

[Zebbe]

It seems like I need to buy Rings of Power after reading these recommendations.

[Chimaera]

It seems like I need to buy Rings of Power after reading these recommendations.

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[Psalm Down]

Landstalker for me. Random battle, turnbased traditionals are boring.

[sayewonn]

Phantasy Star 4 is probably my favorite. Just an awesome game with high production values that was nice conclusion to the series for long time fans. Traysia is my least favorite, god what a piece of crap.

[midnightrider]

you play a role in a different world, you act like you're living there, going to towns, talking to people... so they are RPGs to me.

The problem is, that also describes every point 'n click/graphic adventure out there(for a Genesis/MegaDrive example of the genre, play Scooby-Doo Mystery).

RPG's are pretty much more about putting character growth before gaming skills(for lack of a better term). Monster World, Crusader of Centy, Beyond Oasis, LandStalker, Light Crusader, Zelda, Metroid, etc., are just about the opposite of that, which is why they fit the action-adventure classification better.

[SEGA-Jorge]

The problem is, that also describes every point 'n click/graphic adventure out there(for a Genesis/MegaDrive example of the genre, play Scooby-Doo Mystery).

RPG's are pretty much more about putting character growth before gaming skills(for lack of a better term). Monster World, Crusader of Centy, Beyond Oasis, LandStalker, Light Crusader, Zelda, Metroid, etc., are just about the opposite of that, which is why they fit the action-adventure classification better.

All the games you listed technically fall under the Action RPG genre. They have light RPG elements, most notably, complex, in-depth leveling systems/skill trees, random battles/ RNG combat mechanics, and extensive narrative branching. Zelda has always sort of been its own genre, Nintendo always called it an Adventure game, and to a degree, one could argue Beyond Oasis and Crusader of Centy are Adventure games in their own right. Anyway, I've always loved action RPG's, and they are still RPG's to me, albeit, with a lighter tone/learning curve, and more emphasis on core video game skills (reflexes, pattern recognition, strategy, execution, etc.)

[paulojr_mam]

To me there is only a very thin line between an RPG and an adventure game. That said, obviously tabletop RPGs were where RPG gaming came from, and they are all about some choices and stats, and in that sense WRPGs fall more in line with them. Like Shadowrun (that, I think, is a cRPG). Now JRPGs don't have much choices, but they have lots of stats, like Phantasy Star and Shining Force (this being an SRPG). In this light, yes, Zelda and its counterparts are definitely stretches of the genre, the reason they are called "Action RPGs".

Point 'n click is totally besides the point though, it's a genre defined by gameplay and it can be made using any other genre's cliches. If it's about fighting, it doesn't become a fighting game, it's still point 'n click. So even if you in a point 'n click do exactly the same things you'd do in a RPG, still you're doing through point 'n click lenses, thus it's a point 'n click and nothing else.