Needing a list of good NES RPG's.

[dj2times]

lookin to play some of the old rpg's. besides FF, nothin's really coming to mind... any suggestions?

What you've suggested so far:
Guardian Legend
Just Breed
Sweet Home
Chronicle of Radia War
Star Tropics
StarTropics II
Faria
Crystalis
Legacy of the Wizard
River City Ransom
Simon's Quest
Goonies II
Faxanadu
Heroes of the Lance
Destiny of an Emperor
willow
kingsquest
Ultimas
Magic of Scherherazade
Princess Tomato
Dragon Warrior 1-4
Ghost Lion
Bard's Tale
Hydlide
Wizardry 1 and 2
Bandit Kings in Ancient China
Might & Magic
Nobunaga Ambition I & II
Tombs & Treasures
Times of Lore
Dungeon Magic
Swords & Serpants
Poker III 5 in 1
Tecmo Cup Soccer (no, seriously it is a RPG)

[Mezmoron]

Dragon Warrior 1-4 (All great)
Destiny of an Emperor (Awesome)
Ghost Lion (Terrible)
Bard's Tale (Decent)
Crystalis (Action Adventure RPG - Great game)
Hydlide (Beatable in 1 hour)
Star Tropics 1 and 2 (Action Adv. RPG - Decent)
Wizardry 1 and 2 (Decent)

Hope that helps a tad.

Ken

[jajaja]

Dont forget Zelda :)

[Austin]

Dragon Warrior III, IV are both top-notch.

[dj2times]

zelda... i hate that game.
sike. no need to state the obvious. :D
next time im in the game shops ill see what they have available. thanks for the lists.

[Daria]

See now I really liked Ghost Lion. And Star Tropics I found hard as balls. The game defeated my NES finishing streak. Although still a good game.

For great games you really need to try however don't miss out on the NES Ultimas, Magic of Scherherazade, and Princess Tomato.

Scherherazade is a great mix of action RPG with traditional menu battles. You play a cursed Wizard whoes returned to his own time in order to save his princess girlfriend. Puzzles are based around the ability to warp through time, which I'm a sucker for that kind of Chrono Trigger type gimmick. For example part of the story has you planting a tree seed 50 years in the past and warping back to find it fully grown. I also love the Arabian theme and it sports a great cast of unique supporting party members.

Princess Tomato is more a text adventure with RPG dungeons then a true RPG, but however you classify it it's a truely great game. The game's about a world of vegtable people and filled with really bad yet appropriate veggie puns. Battles are handled in a to the death rock paper scissors grudge match. And the artwork perfectly fits in with it's stylisticly crude jagged edges. More an experience then a game.

NES Ultimas, many will tell you that these ports suck in comparison to their PC counterparts, however as NES games go I'm really very fond of them. In Exodus, I really enjoy the ability to custom create my own party in an 8-bit title. Not a whole lot of non-dungeon crawlers let you do that. Actually I can't think of any. The battle system's also quite unique, battles appear in a grind and you're given the tactical ability to move a set number of squares each turn and attack. I also love thew way the game elimenates random battles by showing your enemys on screen. Sometimes it may be impossible to outrun them, but at least you're not blind sided by the assault.

[jajaja]

zelda... i hate that game.
sike. no need to state the obvious. :D
next time im in the game shops ill see what they have available. thanks for the lists.

Well.. u said only FF came to your mind hehe.

[bazariah]

willow and kingsquest are pretty swish

[Haoie]

Do you know about Sweet Home? It's 1 of the earliest horror games. I'd note this has some very strong RPG elements, like Zelda style exploration, and battle screens.

[roushimsx]

Destiny of an Emperor can't possibly get enough love. That game is sweet as can be.

River City Ransom is a pretty sweet RPG, too. A little too easy to max out your levels and it's reasonably short, but it is co op and highly replayable.

edit - VVV God yes, Faxanadu was great despite the awesomely illegible password system (who can forget having to write down two or three seperate passwords in the hopes that at least one of them would work?). With emulation (read: decent video output) it's not as much of an issue anymore, but god damn was it weak back then...and yet the game still ruled hard enough to have me wildly obsess over it.

If you've never played it before, think of Ys III, but better. Oh so much better.

In a similar vein, Castlevania II was a lot of fun, but hasn't aged all that well. It's a bit more actiony than Faxanadu, but if you're willing to think of Zelda as an RPG then you may as well call Castlevania II one as well :)

[bangtango]

I always greatly enjoyed Faxanadu. Not a true rpg, more of a side scrolling adventure game. But you earn gold, build up levels, use magic and potions, talk to kings, visit shops and fight cheesy looking monsters. It has all the hallmarks of most top-view rpg's. Worth a look. The only game I ever decided not to bring back to the rental store and eat the 20 dollar cost for them to replace it. Aside from the password thing, this is real fun IMO. The land of mists has pretty cool music, neat scenery though it gets really old if you longer around too long.

[Kuros]

Heroes of the Lance!

:angel:

[bangtango]

Hey, slick edit of that post to make it look like you mentioned Faxanadu before me, ha ha :D Just kidding. Good to see someone else enjoys that game, very underrated gem in the NES library.

I would say that River City Ransom, Simon's Quest and Goonies II were right up there, as far as aggravating passwords along with Faxanadu. On the other hand, I do understand it. After all, they had to keep precise track of your experience points, gold, levels. Just 50 more gold coins or dollars and viola, a totally new password. Think of all the variables that go into it and it is maddening. I used to write all my NES passwords in the back of my "How to Win At Nintendo" game books, the Jeff Rovin ones. I remember they always had like 8-10 blank pages at the back, probably for passwords. Remember when manuals used to have room in the back for scores and passwords?

But yes, two votes for Faxanadu. So in my biased opinion, it is a good one to start with.

[Leroy]

Double Dragon
Metroid
Gun.Smoke
NES Open Tournament Golf
Super Mario Bros. 3

Just a few off the top of my head.

[adaml]

Faria is probably the most underrated, least-known NES Adventure/RPG out there. It is more like a Zelda game than it is an RPG though.

[Iron Draggon]

I was always partial to Legacy of the Wizard, but it's more of an action puzzle game than a true RPG. Still worth a look though.

[InsaneDavid]

What's with all the subpar StarTropics comments? That's my favorite NES game and second favorite video game - period. I will agree though that the last three stages (after Dr. J. is found) of the game are very difficult. (especially the first of them) StarTropics II spread the challenge out a bit more.

[vintagegamecrazy]

Startropics are decent, but sloppy control make them tough on inexperienced RPG gamers.

I recommend Faria and Crystalis.

Final Fantasy II and Earthbound have been ported from Famicom to NES on cart format and are top notch. More that are great but probably available via emulation unless you know Japanese are Chronicles of Radia War, Sted, Doraemon RPG, Bloody Warriors and a few more.

[Mason P.]

Dragon Warrior

[Geddon_jt]

I remember when I was a kid, I had this codebook (I still have it). Back when I was playing through games like Kid Icarus, Metroid and Simons Quest I was maybe 8 or 9 years old. My handwriting sucked and I would forget to differentiate zeros and "O"s when I wrote down passwords. Very frustrating!

[Daria]

What's with all the subpar StarTropics comments?

Don't get me wrong, I still love Star Tropics. But it is hard, I couldn't even defeat the graveyard which if memory serves appeared right after I barely scraped out from another dungeon with no town inbetween.

If you're unopposed to emulation or reproduction carts I'd also suggest the following:

Chronicle of Radia War: Plays a lot like an NES rendition of Star Ocean. Every battle is played out on a field and you're free to move and attack in real time. One thing I also like about the game and is that you have to do a lot of backtracking and revisting the same towns again and again to trigger new events in the storyline. Too many NES games and RPG are guilty of creating disposble citys that you visit once and never see again.

Sweet Home: Based on a Japanese horror movie, sweet home mixes traditional RPG gameplay with the puzzle solving aspects of say Goonies II. You're given six characters to form a party of three (numbers may be off here) each of whom have a special problem solving skill. One character carrys a candle for lighting up darkened rooms and another a vacuum to pick up hazardous obsticles suchs as broken glass. Each character is needed so you'll have to toggle back and forth between two parties in order to advance in the mansion. The monsters are well detailed ghosts and zombie fare attributing to the horror theme of the game.

Just Breed: Think Shining Force for NES. Just Breed is a Tactical RPG with town exploration inbetween every battle. Which is something I really like because it breaks up the monotony of endless battle. In battle your general is the only character with a free rangle of movement everyone else must stay a certain distance around him. Of course you gain more then one general with their own armies so you can in effect split up your forces. Kinda like Warsong. Just a really great game that plays more like something that should have been on the SNES rather then the NES.

If you like Destiny of an Emperor, Destiny of an Emperor is also available.

I want to say 100 World Story is also a good game, but for the life of me can't remember why or even what it was about.

[starsoldier1]

I liked the game Guardian Legend which is mostly a action title but it then have a few RPG elements too.

[dj2times]

anything else to add to the list?

[starsoldier1]

Sure,

Bandit Kings in Ancient China
Might & Magic
Nobunaga Ambition I & II
Tombs & Treasures
Times of Lore
Dungeon Magic
Swords & Serpants
Poker III 5 in 1
Tecmo Cup Soccer (no, seriously it is a RPG)

[Daria]

Bandit Kings in Ancient China
Nobunaga Ambition I & II


KOEI Strategy not RPG.



Times of Lore


Great game!



Might & Magic
Dungeon Magic
Swords & Serpants


Dungeon Crawlers. Not that it's a bad thing but they're kind of an aquired taste.



Poker III 5 in 1
Tecmo Cup Soccer (no, seriously it is a RPG)

God dammit. I was hoping those were a joke. Now I have to get them to along with "Pinball Quest". :/

[bangtango]

A fun game that is different from the norm would be "Pirates", also known as "Pirates Gold" on Genesis or computer. You play a pirate captain who goes around conquering towns and padding your stats (gold totals, owning land, etc.). Your character leads a ship of ruffians and gets to talk to women, governors, etc. You are an ally of some countries and a mortal enemy of others. You're able to attack towns from sea (by boat) or land (swordfighting). Fun stuff and addictive if you manage to get into it.

Not for everyone, though. The scenes where you sail from town to town, especially if most of them are far away can get tedious. It is easy to get lost without a map, too. But this is a very open-ended game meaning you don't have any missions or major tasks you are forced to do. You do what you want when you want.

[adaml]

Hit the Ice.

http://www.lostlevels.org/200405/200405-hti.shtml

Again, a game that is only possible to play due to the greedy, power-hungry, hoarding folks at lostlevels.org

Uhhh, wait a minute, I got that bakcwards or something.