Classic NES/SNES RPGs

[Edmond Dantes]

For the NES I'd go mainly with Dragon Warrior III and IV. I didn't get to play too many RPGs for the NES era, but a lot of people are suggesting the Ultima ports for the NES. In a way those are nicer than the PC originals since they have better graphics but due to the interface I'd still suggest playing them on the PC if you ever try an Ultima game. And they are worth trying, especially Ultima IV, VI, and VII (I know you can get VI on the SNES and I think you can get the first part of VII on the SNES but I'm not sure about that one).

Ultima III for NES is pretty much the only one that's an unambiguous improvement over the original. More dialogue, better graphics and some rebalancing, while still being essentially the same game underneath. All the other Ultima ports for NES and SNES made drastic revisions to the gameplay, often for the worse. The SNES ones were all basically turned into Zelda clones and there was a lot of censorship involved (so instead of investigating a murder in Ultima VII, its a kidnapping... although since this was a lazy rewrite, you never actually find the guy).

I actually was at a local game shop recently and someone sold the owner DQ V and VI, cart-only. I was there when the sale was made. Grab or no grab?

[Nathander]

Ultima III for NES is pretty much the only one that's an unambiguous improvement over the original. More dialogue, better graphics and some rebalancing, while still being essentially the same game underneath. All the other Ultima ports for NES and SNES made drastic revisions to the gameplay, often for the worse. The SNES ones were all basically turned into Zelda clones and there was a lot of censorship involved (so instead of investigating a murder in Ultima VII, its a kidnapping... although since this was a lazy rewrite, you never actually find the guy).

I actually was at a local game shop recently and someone sold the owner DQ V and VI, cart-only. I was there when the sale was made. Grab or no grab?

The only one I played extensively was the SNES version of Ultima VI and I didn't think it was that bad. Then again it's a game I played fifteen years ago so exactly how great a port it was is up for debate.

If you can read Japanese/have a translation guide DQ V is worth it for sure. DQ VI I'm more unsure about. It's a fun game and uses the class system like DQ III and VII did and it's an interesting system to play around with but I kind of think it's one of the weakest of the series. The difference here is if you're talking about the original Super Famicom carts and not the DS remakes. If you're talking the DS remakes go ahead and get both I say, but put emphasis on V because it's actually the hardest to find of the Zenithian trilogy remake (IV-V-VI). If it's the Super Famicom carts? Just DQ V. If it's a game you've never played it's something you should experience.

[Zing]

There's a reason Earthbound is ridiculous high.

Yes, and it has little to do with the quality of the game.