What are some lesser-known 16-bit RPGs and Strategy Games?

[Edmond Dantes]

So we all know the Final Fantasies, the Zeldas, the Earthbounds, the Phantasy Stars....

For some reason fall and spring always kinda make me think of these genres and I kinda wonder what I should go for. The problem is I feel like I've played a lot of what's actually available for both systems (at least insofar as official US releases are concerned). The TurboGrafx would be new ground for me but most of its RPGs are Japan-only. The Genesis, I can't think of any RPGs for it that I don't own. The SNES seems the most likely to have something new.

And yeah I also said "strategy games" because I kinda got to thinking of those again. I used to love Master of Monsters and I wonder if there's any hex-based games for the SNES.

I'm open to fan translated projects, which is something I really haven't explored much.

Anyway, throw something and see what sticks.

[Natty Bumppo]

The only hex grid game for the SNES I can think of was Super Conflict - which was an ok game in its day - didn't offer much challenge though - I suspect it would be rather clunky today.

There was also Warrior of Rome I on the genesis - it used an offset tile system that was a hex grid - just didn't look like it visually. IIRC if wasn't a terribly good game.

The Daisenryaku games from Japan used hex grids (or the offset tiles in some of the early games) but the first one of those didn't make it here until the Saturn game "Iron Storm."

The hex grids didn't really hit until a bit later - we had Dark Wizard for the sega cd (which is an amazing game) and there were some on the PS1 - Brigandine, Allied General, Panzer General, Nectaris , Master of Monsters (which unfortunately blew chunks). There are probably a few others that are escaping me right now.

Some other SNES rpgs worth a look see are:

Inindo
Seventh Saga (people seem to either really like or hate this game - I liked it a lot).
Brain Lord
Equinox
LUfia I & II
Brandish
Robotrek
Big Sky Trooper
Shadowrun
Paladin's Quest (not for all tastes - it has more than a few flaws)
Twisted Tales of Spike McFang
Addams Family Values (has a few serious flaws but overall a fun game)

Legend of the mystical ninja is a quirky beat em up/action adventure/rpg mixture which might work for you.

These are just off the top of my head - there are more I am spacing

[FoxNtd]

PS1 - Brigandine

I remember playing that. It's a great game as I recall enjoying it and now I miss it.

Robotrek

For SFC that would be Slapstick, the one I have & played. I liked the creative aspect of it but in the end, I felt it was a weaker title under the Enix name. It was all right. It had funny moments and dialogue and it's pretty easy to get comfortable with the gameplay. I'm not sure if the game truly has characteristics that make it bad necessarily, or if it is simply my opinion of it that makes me say it's just okay. All the Enix stuff in the SFC era is worth a look, because it stands out from what everyone else was doing in the RPG space. Dark Half is another title, but I have yet to play it so no comment about it as of yet.

Digressing slightly from the topic of 16-bit, I want to suggest Just Breed for Famicom, and Wachenröder for Saturn. I love both those games, and they're the reason I became willing to explore the SRPG subgenre, leading to Shining Force 1 & 3 appearing in my library. I like them too, though I prefered the battle system & design in Just Breed more. I would like SF even more if there was a way to disable the damn cutscenes for every - single - attack... Brigandine has such an option, and Just Breed simply doesn't have such scenes at all.

[Aussie2B]

Well, Lufia II is fantastic, but I don't know if that's as "lesser-known" as you want here (certainly was back in the day when I first played it, but then again, I didn't know of anybody who had heard of Chrono Trigger either). Arcana is a nice little first-person dungeon crawler that doesn't get as much attention as I think it deserves.

[Natty Bumppo]

I remember playing that. It's a great game as I recall enjoying it and now I miss it.

Digressing slightly from the topic of 16-bit, I want to suggest Just Breed for Famicom, and Wachenröder for Saturn. I love both those games, and they're the reason I became willing to explore the SRPG subgenre, leading to Shining Force 1 & 3 appearing in my library. I like them too, though I prefered the battle system & design in Just Breed more. I would like SF even more if there was a way to disable the damn cutscenes for every - single - attack... Brigandine has such an option, and Just Breed simply doesn't have such scenes at all.

Brigandine is my second favorite PS1 game after Nectaris (which if you haven't tried you might like it).

I also find cut scenes to be really annoying - at least the ones in the SF games are relatively brief. One game that doesn't have cut scenes but rather really really lengthy dialogue between battles is Vandal Hearts II - fun/interesting the first time, ok the second and just plain painful after that. The game is pretty good (and has some neat mechanics) but has a flawed battle system - between the flawed battle system and lengthy dialogue it makes replays far less enjoyable than they should be.

[kupomogli]

Brigandine is my second favorite PS1 game after Nectaris (which if you haven't tried you might like it).

It was recently announced that Happinet(owner of Hearty Robin/Brigandine is going to be at TGS. I was like "I'd really love a Brigandine/Brigandine Grand Edition Remastered Collection." A few days later Happinet stated they'd have a new Brigandine at TGS. Let's just just hope it's not a mobile game.

//

Similar to Natty Bummp, both Brigandine and the Japanese only remake Brigandine Grand Edition are my two favorite games of all time. Dark Wizard is on the Sega CD and it's a similar game but it's got some pretty massive maps and battles can take a LONG time. It's definitely worth pkaying, but no longer cheap anymore. It's pretty expensive now days.

Tactics Ogre was my favorite game at one point, still my favorite game after Brigandine, but continued playthroughs of Brigandine pushed it above Tactics Ogre. The game isn't quite as story driven and is more gameplay focused, which is why it likely became my favorite. Now, Tactics Ogre is well known among the more hardcore JRPG fans, not to the level of anything Square Enix(or atleast, everything that was SE because it is owned by SE now.)

Ogre Battle as well. This one is kind of like your typical JRPG, but has a more real time style of play to it. Like many, almost all Matsuno games, it's got some game breaking issues that may make it unplayable to most people. It kind of forces you to play a specific way to really get the most out of it.

Lufia 1 was incredibly slow paced trash, but there is one reason to play the first one before playing the amazing second one, and it's for pretty much the same reason as playing Dragon Warrior 1 before Dragon Warrior 3. Unless you already know or you've played the second game first(or third in the case of Dragon Warrior 3) you'll be amazed at what you discover. I'd also say SMT4 is something similar, but confined to a single game, based on the beginning and once you reach around the 10 hour mark. Lufia 2 is an excellent game on its own, a game that I feel is sort of the inspiration to the Wild ARMs series in nearly every single aspect. If you've never played it, it's one of the best JRPGs on the SNES.

Now, yes, Secret of Evermore is a Squaresoft game, but all you hear all the time is Secret of Mana, Secret of Mana that. Secret of Mana isn't a very good game, and despite Secret of Evermore sometimes being crapped on because it was made by Square USA, the game fixes EVERY ISSUE Secret of Mana has. Secret of Mana is broken piece of sh**. Bosses are impossible without spamming magic, enemy evasion is unbelievably high, enemies trigger a state of invincibility whenever attacked more than once within 10-20 seconds, and charging your weapons are worthless when you take 16 minutes to finish your attack and don't even hit the enemy. Secret of Evermore fixes and has none of these issues. It gets a bit broken once you get the spell Energizer but that's literally the very, very, very, very, can't get any further, very end of the game.

I'm listing this one because you've mentioned "strategy games." Romance of the Three Kingdoms Wall of Fire is my favorite game in the series. One thing I like is that the fourth game allows any general to do fine with any type of troop. Months in this game also go by quickly. It's easy to set your characters up to do commands and you even can add a pool of funds to a specific operation and then just put the units there. You don't have to worry about so much busy work in this game as opposed to the later games which all about busy work. 7 and 10 are even more about the busy work but they also allow you to play as any character, whether it's a ruler or a free agent. The 12th game in the series takes away all player control and you don't even get to really play the game. It essentially plays itself in nearly every aspect. The plus side though is that this game can be played in multiplayer, characters can play as multiple rulers, you can even create your own ruler and soldiers and start the game in any of the empty areas. Regardless what way you play, this game is a pretty great game. It's not the best game by any means, but it's enjoyable if you can get into it.

Super Robot Taisen 1 and 2 on the GBA. These games have an excellent story, some of the best in JRPGs, but on top of that they have excellent music, great gameplay, and they are freaking massive games.

[Natty Bumppo]

Similar to Natty Bummp, both Brigandine and the Japanese only remake Brigandine Grand Edition are my two favorite games of all time. Dark Wizard is on the Sega CD and it's a similar game but it's got some pretty massive maps and battles can take a LONG time. It's definitely worth pkaying, but no longer cheap anymore. It's pretty expensive now days.

I made maps for Dark Wizard too!





Who is your favorite ruler? I have to go with Krystal - her wyverns (and wyvern rider) are just plain awesome.

[goldenband]

Warrior of Rome is pretty lousy (and the poorly-translated manual straight up lies to you about some crucial game mechanics), but the sequel Warrior of Rome II is a really cool RTS of sorts. Some people loathe it, and it's admittedly quite slow, but I found it addictive once I got into it.

[gbpxl]

Lagoon SNES. Pretty shitty lesser known RPG

[Astrosmash]

I don't know if it'd be too well known to fit the bill, but since it hasn't been mentioned yet I quite liked Illusion of Gaia on SNES, as far as Zelda-types go. And although it's technically part of the FF series, I always thought Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest was underrated. Easy, for sure, which was the point, but I had a lot of fun with it, and the music is awesome.

As a side note, happy to see all the Brigandine love; that's one of my favorites. (And if not for the early-3D battle cutscenes, which I usually end up turning off anyway, it could probably pass for a 16-bit game, despite being on PS1.)

[Natty Bumppo]

As a side note, happy to see all the Brigandine love; that's one of my favorites. (And if not for the early-3D battle cutscenes, which I usually end up turning off anyway, it could probably pass for a 16-bit game, despite being on PS1.)

I made maps for the Brigandine battlefields on excel:






What can I say - I like game maps a lot!

[Edmond Dantes]

Lagoon SNES. Pretty shitty lesser known RPG

How darest thou besmirch the name of Lagoon!

Ha, actually I kinda understand where critics are coming from, but its weird... something about that game makes me overlook the toothpick-length sword and enjoy it anyway. Its like, I dunno, I feel like I'm travelling into another era when I play it, its not quite SNES but its too colorful to be NES... I think I have to borrow Happy NErd's analogy of it being like the difference between CDs and vinyl records.

@Natty.... what exactly do you not like about Master of Monsters PS1? I haven't played much of it (I've spent more time with the Genesis version) but I haven't seen a lot I'd call wrong with it.

[Natty Bumppo]

@Natty.... what exactly do you not like about Master of Monsters PS1? I haven't played much of it (I've spent more time with the Genesis version) but I haven't seen a lot I'd call wrong with it.

I only played it once (which tells you a lot - I usually play the heck out of strategy games) - anyway unlike the original you can move your master out of the castle. And he is extremely overpowered compared to the monsters - you can pretty much march your master around and defeat anything that gets in your way - levelling up all the time - you don't even really need monsters. It soons gets to be like having the Vandelier in Vandal Hearts - there is no challenge whatsoever. And unlike Vandal Hearts it isn't even fun to get there. Supposedly there are a lot of bugs in the game also - Idon't remember hitting any but then again I only played it once and didnt spend any more time playing than I had to to finish it. Maybe it was just an ok game - but it was such a let down given how good the genesis version was.