Humorous/comedy RPGs?

[Gapporin]

I don't know about you, but everytime I hear that a new expansive epoch of an RPG has been announced, I simply shrug and yawn. This "fantasy" setting for most RPGs has been run into the ground and there's not much difference to me between "Final Fantasy xx" and "Infinite Undiscovery" and "Star Ocean x". They all have that lofty, overbearing, serious feel to them.

Now, Earthbound, there was an RPG I could get behind. Definitely quirky, with funny little in-jokes, bizarre dialogue, and an unconventional art style. It wasn't serious, it wasn't "deep fantasy". It was also one of the few RPGs I've actually played start to finish.

Shadow Madness is another RPG I highly enjoy. In this game, cities are ruined, monsters roam freely, disease is plentiful. Only one man and his group of friends can save the world and find out what's behind all this evil. Sound familiar? This game, however, turns the genre on its head by not keeping itself very seriously, poking fun at the game and the genre and its cliches. Graphics aren't the best, but then again, were Final Fantasy VII's?

The Lunar series is another good series. Purists complained about the mishandling of the translations at the hands of Working Designs, but in my opinion, it was a step up. It kept me interesting and broke free from the usual flat, dry script.

By now you get the point. Besides the examples listed above, there seems to be a serious dearth of humor in RPGs. Are there any other RPGs where comedy is a major factor within a game. I've heard that Contact (DS) is supposed to be the spiritual successor to Earthbound, is that so? What other examples are there?

(Even though this topic is in Classic Gaming, feel free to mention any game, regardless of system or era.)

[boatofcar]

Though it's more of an adventure game, I thought Rocket Slime Adventures was pretty cute.

[Tommy]

Oh so true Gapporin, but those lengthy, over dramatic games cater to a certain crowd. I find them fun but at the same time like overly repetitive.

[sisko]

Disgaea.

Completely off the wall humor and great voice acting. Aside from that, the game mechanics are incredible...strategy gaming at its best.

[j_factor]

Albert Odyssey.

[RadiantSvgun]

Try the Alchemy Series. Mana Khemia, Ar Tonelico, Atelier iris.

[slackur]

"The Bard's Tale" for PS2/Xbox is an absolutely hilarious hack'n'slash rpg in the same vein as the console versions of Balbur's gate. Awesomeness.

Also, Okage (not to be confused with the also awesome Okami) is a nifty, funny little PS2 rpg that I highly recommend. If the fact that Evil King Stan has invaded and resides in your shadow ala Blue Dragon doesn't make you smile, well, we can't help you ;)

I give my vote for Contact. Kinda similar to Earthbound, somewhat slow paced and easily mistaken for a level grind if played incorrectly. Fourth wall breaks and tongue-in-cheek humor a-plenty.

Also, try the Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga/Brothers in Time games, as they both feature al lot of goofy, self-referential humor that often makes fun of Mario games in general.

The Evolution/2/Worlds games for Dreamcast/GameCube were lighthearted rogue-like games that I found a bit boring but some liked. That same description could go for Izuna for DS, though I did stick with that one a little longer.

Sisko mentioned Disgaea, which I heartily agree with, but most of the NIS PS2 strat games (Disgaea 2, Makai Kingdom, La Pucelle Tactics, Phantom Brave) feature the same Japanese goofiness about them and are often sadly overlooked.

[Rob2600]

Yes, EarthBound was great.

While not a true RPG, Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon (N64) was a funny, silly action RPG/adventure game.


EDIT: How about Magic Knight Rayearth for the Saturn? I can't remember if it was humorous or not.

[Jorpho]

I've heard that Contact (DS) is supposed to be the spiritual successor to Earthbound, is that so? What other examples are there?

I did not like Contact; despite its very occasional moments of brilliance, the humor elements are entirely subsumed by the endless, pointless grinding that is necessary to see most of the game's extra content. Perhaps you'd like to buy my copy? :D

The infamous hentai RPG Knights of Xentar (aka Dragon Knight III, released for DOS in North America) may fit the bill. Consider this review at Mobygames (http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/knights-of-xentar/reviews/reviewerId,6226/), if you will.

Another fine DOS game is Superhero League of Hoboken. It's actually a point-and-click adventure game with random encounters neatly squeezed in on the side. I must confess I did not quite find this as funny as I did the first time around, but then I found it pretty darn funny that first time. As the name implies, the game consists of you guiding a party of superheroes (with powers such as Put Animals to Sleep and Raise Choleterhol Levels) around post-apocalyptic New York. It is available in both a floppy version and as a CD talkie, but the speech doesn't add much to the game. (I might like to sell you that one too. Put that DOS laptop of yours to use. :D )

And lastly I must mention once again the largely-forgotten PC gem that is Anachronox. Actually the game is generally rather serious, but the script is suffused with liberal amounts of very nicely written humor.

For that matter, some people find Star Control 2 quite humorous, and in that vein you might also include Escape Velocity. But then, those aren't quite RPGs anymore.

[Haoie]

Man, I couldn't agree with you more on the Lunar games. Frankly, those games had some of the best dialogue I've ever seen, anywhere.

Similar to Lunar's style is Grandia, also a product of Game Arts. It's also got a very light hearted, carefree feel.

And is hilarious to boot.

[Damaramu]

Thousand Arms on the PSone was pretty amusing.

[Drixxel]

Paper Mario and Paper Mario 2: The Thousand Year Door are definitely up there as far as comedy RPGs go. Hilarious dialogue and tone. Paper Mario 2 is most definitely one of my favourite games from last gen.

[mnbren05]

I liked FFVII (anyone remember the cross dressing etc) plus Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars was fairly interesting in its own way.

[boatofcar]

I liked FFVII

Did you read the OP? FF games embody most of the traits that my man Gapp is trying to avoid.

Gapp, let us know which ones from this list you end up playing.

[Quintracker]

If no one has said it yet, Robotrek for the SNES would probably be a good choice to try out. It's been forever since I played it so maybe someone else will chime in on it. :)

[carlcarlson]

I haven't played it, but The World Ends With You for the DS seems to try a lot of new things. It's a Square game, but it doesn't seem to be their normal epic fare.

I'll agree on Disgaea, though if you are looking for a game that you can play through without much trouble you should probably avoid it. It's probably the deepest game I've ever played.

[Cryomancer]

Off the top of my head, I may recall more later:
Robotrek and Secret of Evermore are MOSTLY kinda serious games but have a good chunk of humor to them as well.

There's a superfami game called Love Quest that seems quite amusing but no one has translated it unfortunetly.

Mother/Earthbound Zero has some comedy to it as well but overall seems more serious than Earthbound. However if you like Earthbound it's worth playing at least once, it'll blow your mind how similar they are, yet so different.

Summon Knight games are supposed to be fairly humorous as well. If you want to stretch the definition of RPG very thin you could say Popful Mail. Disgaea was mentioned, most of the games of that series are also quite humorous (I enjoy Makai Kingdom's humor probably the best personally).

[Xian042]

The Diskworld games on PS1?
Lots of humor to be found there, but I guess they are more point and click adventure than RPG.

[Hwj_Chim]

It is more of an action adventure game but go with Popful mail. It is a good Sega CD game with tons of humor.

[exit]

The infamous hentai RPG Knights of Xentar (aka Dragon Knight III, released for DOS in North America) may fit the bill. Consider this review at Mobygames (http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/knights-of-xentar/reviews/reviewerId,6226/), if you will.

I'll second that one, I remember playing that game back in 99/00 and thought it was great. Don't let the word hentai fool you, aside from the constant jokes at our hero's expense, the game play is actually pretty damn good. I remember I got a good ways through it and then stopped playing for whatever reason.

[Daria]

Wow. How did I miss this thread? First let me start off by saying I LOVED Shadow Madness, at first glance I thought I was in for a terrible game, but the humor and characters turned it into an instant favorite for me.

That said the funniest RPG I've ever played was indeed Bard's Tale. The didn't write too many songs for the game, but "The Beer Song" and "The Tale of the Nuckelavee" are priceless. You can download the soundtrack from InXile's website: http://www.thebardstale.com/music.htm

As mentioned, NIS games are generally translated with a fair amount of humor. Making Disgaea, Phantom Brave, Atlelier Iris, or Mana Khemia a decent choice. All games are almost zany in their over the top "cute" Japanese settings though. I would also mention that I thought Rhapsody was cute/funny also. Which incidently, is coming out on DS.

Knights of Xentar, despite being a Hentai game (although apparently there's a 13+ version) reminded me very much of Lunar. A comparison I once made to Zach Meston, he was flattered I think. :P The sexual situations are simply ridiculous and the main character is ragged on the entire game.

Paper Mario is also a very humorous RPG, most of it pokes at the Mario series it's self. But there's also a lot of references to stereotypes and videogames genres in general. It's the main reason I like the series better than Square's take on Mario RPG.

Obviously, anything Working Designs has a ton of humor, which you'd probably enjoy since you mentioned Lunar. Magic Knight Rayearth, Albert Odyessy, Arc the Lad, Alundra (both depressing and funny!).

Thousand Arms is another good suggestion. This game's famous for being part dating sim, the male lead however is a total chauvinistic pig. And bounces from girl to girl with a single goal. It's been a long time since I played it, but I remember the villains were awesome too.

Mentioning villains, I'm going to suggest Rhapsody again. Once you get past the stomach-wrenching cutesy-girlishness of the game you hit that NIS humor. The baddies totally steal the show. And even the girl rescue prince plot pokes fun at an over-used RPG cliche. Gameplay wise, Rhapsody blows. A fault I'm hoping the DS version will remedy. But it remains one of my favorite games every solely based on the story and characters.

Bioware's games are a good choice too. They combine humorous situations and conversations with an otherwise quite serious and epic package. There's always some hilarious little easter egg waiting to be found. Just overall great games.

[courtesi96]

I liked the first Lunar game on the Sega CD but for some reason the PSX version (from what I remember) had so much bitching between the characters that I didn't even want to continue playing it after I beat it. I must have said shut the fuck up a few dozen times towards the end.

[mailman187666]

I'll second Okage: Shadow King for PS2 as it has humor but it is a bit simplistic for an rpg. I liked it and it ever so slightly reminded me of earthbound. Don't play it expecting Earthbound though. Also Shadow Hearts: From the New World had a hell of a lot more humor in it than the first two Shadow Hearts games. Other than that, I can't think of them off of the top of my head. I like almost all RPGs but as far as humorous goes, I can't think of them right now.

[Damaramu]

If you haven't heard of it/played by now and if you don't mind the "homebrew" scene, there's always Tales of Game's Presents Chef Boyardee's Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa.

You can find info on it HERE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barkley,_Shut_Up_and_Jam:_Gaiden).

And you can download it (don't worry, it's freeware), HERE. (http://www.gamingw.net/forums/index.php?topic=68488.0)

LOL, Chaos Dunk indeed.

[Press_Start]

From imports, Ranma 1/2: Hidden Treasure of the Crimson Cats. I remember playing this on an emulator years back. It's a traditional RPG with sorta RTS-combat system that does incorporate lots of the martial arts-style fighting and humor from the show. Would have been glad to finish it, if it didn't kept freezing on me every so often.

[rkotm]

earthbound is hard to follow when youre looking for something interesting and zany and different, ive tried dozens of rpgs on the snes afterward, but none got me in like EB. Well you could wait for the Mother 3 translation to be done in mid september or october. to me the paper mario games are dry as cardboard. the humor/writing is...stale. contact bored me with its leveling-- i want to try lunar as well and disgaea. and rocket slime was good too, actually funny.

[skaar]

I thought Dragon Quest 8 had an excellent balance of gameplay and fun characters - I enjoyed the progression very much and grew quite fond of most of the group fairly quickly.

That's something I find missing in a lot of RPGs - a connection to the characters. FF8 is the best example where I can think of really not giving a crap about what's going on or happening to the characters in the game. I need to have some sort of level of caring to enjoy the game.

... which is why I can't reallly do MMOs. What's the point in saving the village if they just get buttfucked by evil 10 minutes later? Yes I have a shiny new sword but they're still screwed.

It's like being a Belmont, I suppose ;)

[Nirvana]

That Persona 3 game for the Ps2 is pretty funny at times. Lunar 2 was also pretty humorous.

[CMA Death Adder]

When I edited/rewrote the script of Beggar Prince (http://www.beggarprince.com/), one of the most important things to me besides keeping the story intact and improving the character development was to insert humorous dialogue, situations, references and the like. The choice seems to have gone over quite well, as many of the public reviews that have been printed highlight this feature of the localization.

Aside from my own work - I quite enjoyed Robotrek for the Super Nintendo, despite its sometimes confusingly translated script (a case of the Engrish), as its point was to basically be a comedy RPG (in fact the original Japanese name of this title, Slapstick embodies this fact). Its storyline and characters, and even enemies/bosses are all primed to induce a good laugh.

Sadly, nothing beats Earthbound... yet.

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

Rent-a-Hero No.1 is something like Sega's answer to Earthbound, I've always thought. Unfortunately, it's never come out in English. There's a good fan translation available for the Mega Drive version and I think there might be a prototype of the localized Xbox version floating aorund, but I'm not sure of that. I played it on the Dreamcast with a FAQ/Walkthrough and it was a great game, but obviously I missed a lot of the humor. I keep meaning to jump into the Mega Drive translated version, but never get around to it (RPGs are a once in a blue moon thing for me even if they *ARE* funny and different).


...word is bondage...

[Poofta!]

i was just about to say Contact before i got to the end of your post. but yeah, i enjoyed that game. it was kinda cool and made me smirk

[FrakAttack]

Some of the Working Designs translations were pretty funny, especially Popful Mail for Sega CD.

[Gapporin]

Wow, thanks for all the suggestions, guys! I'll be sure to keep an eye out for some of the titles mentioned in this thread.

I actually own The Bard's Tale for PC, and I played the first part of the game, but some reason stopped and quit it. I'll have to reinstall it and play it some more now.


Did you read the OP? FF games embody most of the traits that my man Gapp is trying to avoid.

Full disclosure: I think that Final Fantasy III/VI is one of the finest RPGs ever created and maybe in the realm of video games in general. It's just that its plot does little to separate itself from its ilk; I guess I'm just looking for something a bit different.

Robotrek! Why didn't I think of that? Another RPG I really, really liked. Although I've still yet to beat it, I thought the concept and battle system were really intuitive, and we've not yet seen anything like that again since. One of the most underrated SNES games in my opinion.

Secret Of Evermore...I don't know if it was because I was expecting something along the lines of its precessor Mana, or because it was an American made RPG or whatever, but I really couldn't get into it at all. In fact, I thought it was pretty awful. Sorry.

Rent-A-Hero No. 1 is something I've always wanted to try ever since I read about the XBox remake that was announced to come out. If there's a English patch available for the Mega Drive version, I might try that out. To me, the concept sounded very interesting. And on that same note, when are we going to get our translation for SeGaGaGa? I was so disappointed when I realized that that game was never going to come out in America that I even briefly flirted with the idea of importing it while the Japanese version was still in print.

Anyways, thanks again, everybody!

[Tron 2.0]

Grandia
La Pucelle Tactics
Dragon Slayer (Just because the dubbing is so bad it's funny)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMkaAsmB_Ts

[Jorpho]

Dragon Slayer (Just because the dubbing is so bad it's funny)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMkaAsmB_Ts

Yup, that's pretty bad dubbing. Nice anime intro, though - must have been really impressive back in the day.

What exactly was the game called in Japan? It surely wasn't part of Falcom's "Dragon Slayer" series (http://www.hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/dragonslayer/dragonslayer.htm), was it?

[Daria]

Yup, that's pretty bad dubbing. Nice anime intro, though - must have been really impressive back in the day.

What exactly was the game called in Japan? It surely wasn't part of Falcom's "Dragon Slayer" series (http://www.hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/dragonslayer/dragonslayer.htm), was it?

Yeah it is.

[Cryomancer]

If there is a copy of the xbox rent-a-hero on the internet, someone please confirm it. I've never seen it, and have often said that I would gladly donate a substantial chunk for procuring it if it would hit the internet by doing so. (if i was employed at the time, that is)

I'm not asking for a torrent link or something, but if it's out there, I want to know. I'd rather not spend hours fruitlessly looking for it...again.

[Daria]

I don't know about an xbox version but there is no translation for the genesis games. There's a patch floating around that translates the opening "skit" of the game. But nothing else. It is certainly not playable.

[Nick Goracke]

Shadow Madness is another RPG I highly enjoy... Graphics aren't the best, but then again, were Final Fantasy VII's?


Actually, yes, they were.

...

...

Anyways, 2 games off the top of my head:

Brave Fencer Musashi (PSX): Fits your description perfectly. Action-RPG that's pleasant to play

Jade Cacoon 2 (PS2): Mostly ignored because of the rather boring/uninspired prequel, but this is easily one of the top RPGs from last generation. Not exactly laugh-out-loud funny, but cute and quirky. Definately worth playing.

[Wraith Storm]

I can't believe noone mentioned NOX!!! It was a game by Westwood Studios and was an incredibly good Diablo style game. It had a TON of humor! I used to boot it up just to watch the intro.

Here (http://youtube.com/watch?v=nScE6uIERo8)is the intro. You have to turn up the volume really loud to hear it though, but it's hilarious.

I love it! The evil sorceress is casting a spell and her candle fizzles out and she starts griping. "What kind of halfbaked operation do they think i'm running here?"

And then on the airship... "Can you take me home? Tina made bacon tonight." "Bacon bound we go, Imp!"

[Cryomancer]

Oh well if we're gonna do that, Fallout!