My name is Deadaghram. I have been playing video games since Christmas of 1995, when my aunt and uncle bought me a Super Nintendo Entertainment System. My family was living with them between homes after something happened with our previous landlord. I didn't notice anything at the time, but I hated having to wake up super early for school. I also didn't have a room and slept on a foldout bed under the dining table. Again, I didn't think anything of it. But that SNES came bundled with Donkey Kong Country. I played the HFIL out of that on an eight inch, black and white TV with no sound. We only had one room in the house, and my parents wanted their shows to be heard. They missed out.
But over the next few months and years, I would get to rent games from our local rental place. It was only for one night, but I cherished those new experiences. I can't remember many of them, but one in particular sank its teeth into me. I would say Final Fantasy "III," but I couldn't beat Whelk for various reasons a six-year-old couldn't comprehend. But there was another. Earthbound.
Earthbound enticed me in ways that blew my six-year-old mind. You play as a kid who's "just like me." Too young to be reliable, can barely read, and uses real world items. No randomly spawned TNT barrels or rhinos here! I doubt I realized any of that in 1996, but I was hooked. I rented the game multiple times, and I even got the cartridge with my save file three straight times. I had to know what happened! It took me until 2023, twenty seven years later, to learn that secret, and I was underwhelmed, but I did! And that's a story of perseverance!
Some time later, my new neighbor, Richie, was also a gamer with a SNES. One of his games was Final Fantasy "II," which also triggered the feel good neurons in my brain. I knew from a young age I liked high fantasy, I guess. I was allowed to borrow it and played that until I had to buy my own copy for the PlayStation One. Put a pin in that... I could never beat FFIV back then, and that took me until 2015. And I had to use the Steam 3D version, after farming for Adamant Armor, to do so.
Rich also owned Final Fantasy VII. Earthbound was my gateway. FFIV showed me the door. And it was FFVII that locked it behind me. The characters, the story, the Sephiroth, and the music all moulded into my very being. They replaced my spleen, which I wasn't using anyway, to force RPGs to be the basis for my personality. I'm glad they let professional wrestling have my uvula. I had to play more. More Final Fantasy! More stuff from Square Enix! More games from Japan! The West has fallen! There is only Pokémon now! Star Ocean, Xenogears, Kingdom Hearts! I dabbled in other genres, of course. Need for Speed was fun. Mario Kart and Star Fox were great summer adventures in their own right. I even bought SoulCalibur II.
And then one day in high school, I got bored. I had played every game I already owned. Sorta... The retro ones were never conquered, so I reached for one I only sorta cared about. I had played it enough to know a good amount about it and even beat its sequel. But I never finished it. So I beat that. And then I beat it again afterwards. I got every ending. That game was Chrono Trigger. This is what true art is. This is what all JRPGs should strive for. The narrative, the characters, the battle system, the music. It was the greatest thing I had ever experienced. I hadn't kissed a girl yet, you see. But the disease was inside me, and I couldn't treat it regardless of how much money I spent on musical instruments and women. Ignore my previous statement about my lips...
I was also an avid reader during school. I hated reading what my teachers told me to read, but I had no problem opening a book, when I wanted to, and getting lost in it. Those were also fantasy of some degree. Artemis Fowl, Harry Potter, A Squire's Tale. Don't ask me what happened in any of them, but I enjoyed them! I loved characters dealing with magic problems, be they from other people or something of their own accord. My mom loved Jerry Springer and horror. Even at a young age, I realized how stupid those are. And yet, I liked Attitude Era wrestling, so the apple might have been rotten all along. And JRPGs are just fantasy novels with better graphics and a more hands on engagement system. Can you imagine if every random battle was detailed in The Lord of the Rings? As much as I hate to admit, it was the graphics that set games atop books for me. Cool character outfits, stunning worlds and dungeons, and Tifa's ample bosom just spoke to me. The ability to see leaves falling across the screen, butterflies fluttering about, and steam rising from the cold ground are all things I never would have thought to mentally visualize. And then there are sound effects. Birds singing, insects chirping, and soft footsteps on fresh snow. It puts you in a place to better experience the world without needing to specifically tell you and detour the story like it would in a book. They can also be longer and more detailed without feeling longer. A sixty hour JRPG doesn't feel like a sixty hour novel. And then there's replayability... Show me a good world, let me hang out with a cool NPC, and empathize with these people I've spent the last six months with.
It's something JRPGs do that other genres don't. Most racing games have you as a formless being trapped forever in your car. You have no personality, no reason to exist, and no goal except to go fast. Fighting games have a small blurb that's meaningless. You, the character, exist to punch. Side scrollers are just cute gameplay experiences. But an RPG... These characters have backstories that take place before you, the player, show up. It's as though this world was here before you and will exist after you've forgotten about it. It's that deep connection that drags me in. I want to know these people, become friends with them, and let them shape me as a person. I recognize this is parasocial as hell and probably not healthy, but it's too late now! To live vicariously through them in their strange world, doing superhuman things, with their friends, finding romance, and finding themselves. That's what I've always wanted to do. I often fantasized about flying through the air like in Dragon Ball, or cozying up to my special someone like in Final Fantasy IX. But I've never done them. I physically can't fly, and I don't deserve love. So I seek out video games and deep, character driven experiences set in a giant world that feels alive. Sometimes too much alive, but I'll let Dragon Quest VII off the hook this time.
And it needs to have a good soundtrack. I don't know how big the Mario 64 OST was, but I know Chrono Trigger had four disks. And each song can take you back to the first moment you heard it, the emotions, and the IRL setting. I'll always remember where I was and what I thought at the end of FFVII's disk one largely because of three simple notes.
And there was my past, written in far too much redundancy, but what about my future and/or present? Why did I decide to play sixty five SNES games? To that I'll respond... that's a good goddamn question.
The most obvious reason is because I'm an otaku nerd boi. If it's from Japan, I instantly think it's better than anything else. My ikigai is Japanese dominance. JRPGs are better than WRPGs, and that's a fact. Or is it!? That's an essay for another day! But being a virgin makes me feel like anything from Japan has this sorta mysticism about it. It makes me wonder why this thing was forbidden from coming out west. There are a handful of reasons why a game never left Japan, and none of them are related to the dark arts, but I'll get to that later. But there's still this unique aura about them, especially if they're so good that their legend carried across the sea. The Dragon Quest games, Final Fantasy III, and any game that didn't have a worldwide release (anything before the PS3/360) all had us kids daydreaming about playing them and being the cool kid who got to own an imported game.
Another is because I'm a dragon hunter. The dragon I chase is called Chrono Trigger. I've already beaten Chrono Trigger; the high isn't there anymore. But there has to be something else like it, right? I've played all the officially localized games, and they didn't do it for me. So there has to be something back home that can! That was my hypothesis. We'll see what my findings reveal later.
Lastly, they can't all be up to Chrono Trigger's level, but there's probably some damn fine games in the bunch anyway. A "hidden gem" is what AI slop YouTubers call them. I want to play the best, and that means I have to play all of them! Damn it... But a top ten game in America might only be a top thirty worldwide. I have to find the best.
Lastly, I just like RPGs and want to play them. Ideally, I have a good time with all of them, but the hope of a Chrono Trigger keeps me going. If you've been following along with this blog, you'll quickly remember I ran out of fun towards the end (and middle), so all this had flaws. But what's done is done!
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"But, Dradaghram, my lord, how do you categorize all these games?" you ask. "I already have a review scale, so I'll just use that," I respond. Buuutt... It has its flaws. It's too narrow in scope. It's too open to personal biases and lacks objectivity. Which is why I've come up with a new scale! Rather than blanket yeses and nos, with some wiggle room, I've constructed something I feel allows for more depth.
Characters and villains are still judged by the same qualities. I've done some additional multiplication to their scores so they add to ten instead of three. It's just easier. Story also has the same standards, but I'm allowing bonus points. Before, if only one thing happened to get me to tick the box, you got the points regardless of how many times I could. So now your amazing story can shine. Multiple games got bonuses, which really made my initial review look dumb. But if I cried multiple times, you got multiple boosts. I respect extra credit.
Gameplay is largely the same, but I've changed the names and sometimes smooshed two previous rows together. Gameplay is now judged by how good, deep, and tactical your battle system is. Bonus points if it has unique mechanics that should have been stolen for other games. Dungeon design is also judged on depth, uniqueness, and gimmicks. If every dungeon is a cave or tower filled with palette swaps, it ain't looking good. Exploration is important, but less so. Is there a reason to go off the beaten path, and are there minigames? Lastly, I ask, "Is it rewarding?" Did I have fun? Did combat grow? Was there story integration? Was it unique and recommendable? Was the random encounter rate good? As an example, Final Fantasy VII would get all the points. The materia system is so moldable, and rocks get stronger as you do. It's also explained how they form. Gameplay has a max of fifty points, but multiple games got more. Several set the bar at fifty four.
Music is always subjective; there's no getting around that. It's why there is no set limit, floor, or max score. There are also only three categories. Does it sound good quality wise? Is it tinny like the NES or GBA? Is there variety? Girls dig massive OSTs! I'm also granting you points for having a unique sound font. There's also a dual category for bangers and songs that should be muted. Those are more along the lines of bonus points and are graded on a curve. If a large portion of your soundtrack should be on my playlists, you're gonna get some boosts. With the way I have it tallied, you're aiming for five points, but the most anyone got was nine.
Visuals have a similar base. Quality and variety are obvious. Do I get a headache looking at your game? Do I get bored looking at your game? How good are your animations? I'm also judging by how unique you feel compared to other games. If I see a screenshot and instantly know your sprite work, enjoy your higher floor. Lastly, does this game look like everything is from the same game? Art direction is important.
Finally, we get to atmosphere. How cool is your world and your NPCs? Does your music fit the vibe? What about replayability? Are your writers any good? Is the pacing sensible? This is the biggest category with sixty total points.
Add all the scores, and you reach 200 points. Optionally, you can divide to keep it at 100. Seems less messy that way. It's also worth noting that, in addition to bonus points, you can go in the red. Spooky clouds loom for some of these games. Generally speaking, most games fell pretty close in my two review systems, but it's not universal. Some look way better in one than the other. I'm not sure which reflects the proper properties of a game better, and neither follows my personal preferences either. The final sheet has all three of them, so what if I averaged them together!? That's a story for another day...
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And that's the rubric, so what have I found? The greatest JRPG on the Super Nintendo is, to the surprise of no one, Chrono Trigger. Out of a maximum of 200 points, CT managed to scrape out 231.61 of them. Its story was just so amazing that all the nonsense with time travel didn't matter. It set the bar in multiple categories, making damn sure it soared above all else.
Twenty nine points beneath CT is the second best game, Energy Breaker. I was kinda middling on EB when I first played it, but I redid a runthrough last year, and everything spoke to me that time. I understood the element system better and didn't hoard items (as much), so I let myself get wrapped in the story. And, oh goodness, was that a good story.
The third best game, another game that shouldn't come as a shock, is Final Fantasy VI. I may not be down with FFVI, but I can't lie that it's an amazing experience. Story, OST, Kefka; it all shines. It got 196/200, meaning it's the closest without going over, if anyone cares.
Final Fantasy V, Treasure of Rudra, Live a Live, Mario RPG, Growth or Devolution, FFIV, and Tengai Makyō Zero round out the top ten. The scores were from 183 to 157. Mario RPG, 170, is another game most people rave over, but I didn't like it. Despite my hateration, it's a top seven game on the console. But every other game on that list, even extending down a few, all have something that's wholly unique to them. Weird gameplay mechanics, story settings, and graphics are all important. But only two of the ten got everything right. Perfection is hard to reach, it turns out.
But at least they tried, unlike the bottom ten. With a high score of 76.17, (Tecmo) Secret of the Stars is the best of the worst. It's also the lowest rated game that I actually managed to finish. I still don't think it was THIS bad. It handily beats out Lagoon, 72, a game with nothing going for it, and Front Mission, 67, a game that might be good despite me not liking it. But the worst game is, surprisingly, not Fire Emblem IV with 41. That was second worst! By eleven points, if you can believe it. It beats out Jutei Senki, 30, a game so bad I don't think I even talked about it. JS has nothing going for it. There is no story or characters, and the gameplay is repetitive. It has thirty six guys named Bobby, if that's your thing. Between Front Mission and Fire Emblem are Aretha, Brandish, Nekketsu Tairiku, Lufia, and Iniudo. Yeah, I found three games worse than Lufia! Remember when that was my bugaboo?
The most average game is the title that came closest (without going over) to the average of all combined scores. The average score is 120.87. With a score of 120.83, the true mid is Warriors: Legend of the Blue Dragon. Above and below it are Brainlord (rank 32) and Soul Blazer (34). The whole middle nine are Ancient Magic: Bazoo, Terranigma, Silvia Saga II, Brainlord, Warriors, Soul Blazer, Ys V, Cyber Knight, and Dragon Quest VI. I hated DQVI, but a part of me is glad it's only kinda mid and not deeper down.
Some of the odd things that stick out to me are the ones that are radically different from my, supposed, more personal ratings. I didn't enjoy Mario RPG, but it's the seventh best game when you remove biases. I see why. The charm, the battle system, the dungeons: it's a well made, polished game. For whatever reason, though, it didn't appeal to me. Final Fantasy VI is another such "meh" game to me. But it's top three, and even the highest (without going over) on the chart. The bonus story points really set it up for success, and it's easy to see why. Treasure of Rudra is a game I actually dropped when I first played it. But I tried a new run later, and here it is at number five. It makes me wonder if I played any of the bottom games wrong too. The game that's largely responsible for my interest in the genre, Earthbound, sits at seventeen. Final Fantasy IV is at ten. The highest game I think might actually be a bad game is ranked at twenty one, Adventure of Hourai High. It beat out Lufia II by two ranks and 1.2 points! The lowest game I recommended is Shadowrun. I'm still not sure if I enjoyed that game or not, but it's down at fourty nine, between Wizardry and Secret of Evermore. There were a number of games I praised, despite not liking them, for being unique enough to be must plays. There's no trend that those games follow, but they lie between twenty and fifty. I figured they'd be lumped together in a nice, easily spotted box, but nope. Dragon View with 144 points, and Wizardry with 93. I could spend 2000 words going into more random observations, but it's easier to just post the link and let you, my nonexistent readers, rip it apart.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DepgDHCYFja3MLZYj2iI1p4RI9r-vWvNbFLnd6D7nm0/edit?usp=drivesdk
But let's talk about which games do something better than any other game. This is the all-time/Emmy for the console section. Chrono Trigger is, obviously, the best in show. Nothing comes close to it as a total package, but it leads with the best villains. It wasn't perfect, but I gave it an extra point for being the best. CT also got 40/10 in story, tied with music (9/5), and got max points (60) in atmosphere. It also tied in terms of gameplay (54/50) with Final Fantasy V and VI. Its visuals are in an eight way tie for second. Which means it didn't win that.
Tengai Makyō Zero is the prettiest game on the console. It needed two booster chips, but they paid off. There are no palette swaps in TMZ, and all the sprites are gorgeous. Animations are crisp too.
Chrono Trigger was also fourth in terms of best playable cast. Both Terranigma and Trials of Mana aced this section. It turns out having a small cast and giving them all personality, moments of growth, and cool scenes is a good decision. If you're not including "everyone's the MC" casts...
Energy Breaker would win best cast. At 9.35, it just missed out. Myra, the main character, lacked relevancy until the end, and Dorothy didn't feel right either. But that doesn't mean they're awful. It just means they missed perfection by two points. Or an ensemble cast is cheating.
The second best villains are a three way tie between Dragon View, Energy Breaker, and Final Fantasy V. Dragon View's small cast gives it the edge to hang here, and X-Death feels like what a final boss should feel like. As with the playable cast, Energy Breaker's enemies had reasons to be evil, ties to everyone, and did cool things. Except the final boss. He was a tad disappointing.
One more accolade to be laid upon Energy Breaker is, while it merely tied Chrono Trigger in terms of music score, it did set the curve for bonus banger points. A full forty percent of the soundtrack is a certified Deadaghram banger (tm)!
With 27/10 points, Final Fantasy VI has the second best story. Kefka is just that dude, but Celes and Terra hold their own. It would be higher, but Setzer exists. I also ignored Locke's grave digging.
I mentioned the three way tie for gameplay, but Mario RPG also got bonus points for its engaging battle mechanics.
Rather than list every game that has a banging soundtrack, here are the top twelve OSTs: Energy Breaker, FFVI, CT, FFIV, 7th Saga/Elnard, Emerald Dragon, Brainlord, Star Ocean, Metal Max Returns, Actraiser, Bahamut's Lagoon, and Glory of Heracles IV. I hated Actraiser, so it's kinda cool it's up here.
Other games that got bonus points to put them over the max for various reasons are: Dragon Quest V, Final Fantasy V, Energy Breaker, Final Fantasy IV, Breath of Fire II, Dual Orb II, Emerald Dragon, Eternal Filena, Glory of Heracles IV, Liva a Live, Trials of Mana, Treasure of Rudra, Ancient Magic: Bazoo, Growth or Devolution, and Ogre Battle. There are a few more that have a banging soundtrack, but it's not worth to list every game. The SNES was where good tunes lived.
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I always wondered why America didn't get certain games when I was growing up. We got Star Ocean 2, but where was Star Ocean 1? FFVII is in my PS1, but aren't there three missing? Why were we snubbed?
There are articles and forum posts detailing all of this throughout popular areas of the web. And there have been for decades. Some are true, while some are pure speculation or heresy. The easiest explanation is the developer didn't think the game would sell well enough to justify translation costs. These tend to follow with long and wordy RPGs, especially. As much as I love this genre, I have to admit it's niche, especially in the 90s. The gameplay can get repetitive, and reading wasn't cool back then. Not edgy enough. There weren't enough readerz to guarantee that translating 60000 words would pay off. Small studios can't risk that.
It's also one of the reasons why some translations are bad. I've read that Secret of the Stars is a lot different in Japan. The characters have some personality, and the NPCs aren't just clues to follow to advance the plot. Or at least more human like. Breath of Fire got a similar treatment with item names. I'm still not sure what half the items do. Even Squaresoft wasn't immune to skimping out. Ask anyone who's played FFIV on the SNES. And when they did give us a game, it needed to be rushed. Ted Woosley has talked many times about only having a month to work on FFVI. The main script of FFVI is 18000 words long, not including NPC interactions. And I say noho about character limits in block text.
There was also a sort of anti American sentiment going on. Japan believed Americans would get mad at certain aspects of a proper translation, specifically when it came to religious references. So many times you'd walk into a building that looked like a church, an ethereal organ would play in the background, and there'd be a guy standing before pews at a podium. It's called a sanctuary in America, but it's a church/教会 (Kyōkai) in Japan. Religious iconography was removed, which is why I think Terranigma never came out in America. The town in Spain was too much. Anime had a weird censorship around it as well, which makes me think it was a Japan thing. The Ocean dub of Dragon Ball Z is famous for HFIL and the time Piccolo didn't die; rather, he "fazed into another dimension."
Of course, a lot of the games I played came out late in the system's life. You add all the above with the fact that the Nintendo 64 was on the horizon, and I understand why Bahamut Lagoon, Front Mission: Gun Hazard, or Star Ocean never got a release. And Tengai Makyō had two booster chips. Those chips ballooned the cost, mandating the game had to be bigger than Final Fantasy to make money. Or just don't risk it?
There's always the exception, though. Breath of Fire II is ripe with anti religious stories. With the exception of Chrono's element, there's no difference between Chrono Triggers. Lufia II got a US release in 1996. Capcom did BoF, and they were riding high with Street Fighter, so maybe Nintendo felt like releasing a premier company's game, as is, was more important than censorship. Square eventually learned to give their translators time. Lufia II was a legacy title.
There's also an idea that combines some of the above differences together to explain why the US got a dumber version of the original. We got what would be called Final Fantasy IV: Easy type. Mystic Quest was made for an American audience because it is so simple. We also got the 7th Saga, which was significantly more difficult for us than in the homeland. Someone had a bad weekend during production.
But I do think that might be a reason some games never got translated. Treasure of Rudra allows players to make their own spells. On my first go through, I didn't understand how to properly do that. The rotating MC system also wasn't very fun for me. I'm proof it was wise to keep that away from us. Live a Live isn't remotely traditional. The Cyber Knight games have little to do with other games in the genre. But even then, we got Tactics Ogre and all the malarkey that came with that. But most studios aren't gonna release a complicated game to a bunch of dummies.
And then there are the super niche games like Fire Emblem. That was a legacy title, but did it sell well? There are also games that are more well known on other systems. Emerald Dragon and Tenchi no Uta were big on the PC-88. No console diehard had ever heard of them, especially in a region that never got a PC-88. We did get Ys III and Lagoon...
And poor Bahamut's Lagoon is an imperfect storm of everything. Huge game, weird mechanics, late release, and a niche of a niche.
But there's no one reason why a game never got a translation. Some, like FFV, even did, but then Square decided to just not release it for whatever reason. So there's even the occasional baffling decision by old men to throw on the BBQ of import mystique.
But the gameplay differences are quite important in this. Maybe... I've noticed that there were some trends each region got (or we got, I should say). The games that remained in Japan tended to be Dragon Quest clones. A lot of the story was regional and was about whatever problems the local city was dealing with. Battles had first person point of views, with only enemies on screen. This allowed for enemy sprite art to be highly detailed and pretty. As plain as Secret of the Stars was, bosses were a joy to see. Especially the leggy one. SotS is also more of a Phantasy Star battle system, but that's a different console. Tenchi no Uta, Glory of Heracles, Growth or Devolution, Silva Saga, Dual Orb, Shin Seikoku, Hourai High, and Aretha fit this mold, at least by combat standards. Magical World of Wozz and Nekketsu Tairiku are the only games that jump out to me as Americanized. We did get Earthbound, at least.
American audiences got the Final Fantasy style, with character narratives and an everyone's-on -screen presentation. With twenty five US releases, only Paladin's Quest could be called a Dragon Quest clone. Metal Max stayed east, though.
Japan kept the more experimental games to themselves as well. Games with more action and "harder to understand" systems didn't travel. Perhaps this harkens back to them thinking we're dumb. Live a Live, Treasure of Rudra, Star Ocean, Ys V's bump combat, and Tales of Phantasia's 2D action aren't what we know from Cecil's party. Even the Cyber Knights games had some depth to them. Legend of the Blue Dragon was beyond me, and I'm thirty six, so that might have been a good choice. It's also worth noting that we didn't get any strategy RPGs. All the Fire Emblems, Treasure Hunters, Energy Breakers, Missions, and Bahamuts remained region locked. Ironically, Emerald Dragon could also fit here. Ogre Battle and EVO came over here, and they were weird, so it isn't an exact science.
A little more digging, and I see Phantasy Star was a bigger inspiration than I thought. There's no rhyme or reason for what happened to those, but Americans got 7th Saga, Lufias, SotS, and Inindo. Japan hoarded Tengai Makyō and Mystic Ark. Sega had a finger on their competitors in rather sneaky ways.
Basic action games ported well, it seemed. Brainlord, Secret of Evermore, Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia, Dragonview, Secret of Mana, and Brandish, along with Terranigma, got to see the world. Only Trials of Mana remained, but that came out late.
Oddly enough, I noticed a lot of games with auto battles never came to the so called idiots. How odd...
It's hard to tell based on what I played, but Japan also kept their weirder games home. There are two games about a shellfish saving the world I didn't play. A fiery strategy game, various horror themed ones, and a game about scantily clad women are out there titles that may not have worked here. I don't want to play them, so it may have been correct. And what we did get aren't great. Paladin's Quest is a bad acid trip, and Earthbound didn't sell well. That may be why...
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So I played sixty five JRPGs for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. There's been a number of questions I've been asking myself since I began this journey in earnest late last year.
What did I learn from this? Nothing. I didn't grow as a person, and my future employers won't care.
But am I glad I did this? Absolutely. I had a lot of fun playing all these games. I feel I can get a deeper appreciation for when I play other games. And it's just playing video games. There are worse ways to spend nine months, many of which were on a weak computer.
Would I recommend others do this? Yes. It's always nice to see where the genre came from, the building blocks, games that exploded so Final Fantasy VII, Persona, and Yakuza could do sick parkour over their corpses. I also want others to suffer with me. That being said, you might have a better experience with many of these than I did. There's a handful of games I loathed, despised, abhorred, and want to shoot into the sun, hoping they become lost media. But they also have good reviews. I'm just a hater; prove me wrong.
Will I be doing this exact same thing with the PlayStation? Obviously, duh. There are also the Sega systems, and maybe I'll even peek further back in time before pushing my computer with the PS2. I'm still in love with the genre, and can't wait to dig in some more.
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Now, let's take a step back from the whys, the hows, and the ohs. This journey of playing sixty five JRPGs for the SNES began even before I decided to play (almost) every genre on the console.
Last summer, I realized that North American audiences only got about fifteen games. As much as people fondly recall the memories of the era, that nostalgia isn't as broad as we want to believe. It's simply carried by a handful of GOATs. And that goes for me, as well. I only played four NA games. At that moment of clarity, I dug in and played everything I could. I wasn't particularly wowed.
I began with Breath of Fire. It did some neat things, but the lack of characterization and understandable item names threw me off. I didn't think it was a bad game, but I did find it boring and wondered why there were so few of those cool manga style cutscenes.
I next played the sequel, BoFII. I declared it the best one on the system I hadn't played until then. That declaration was assumed true for the future too. It wound up not being true, but it was still really fun. It, too, could have done with a better translation.
Next up was the 7th Saga, but not really. I played enough of the NA release as a kid thanks to Ritchie and knew how difficult it was. I played Elnard, the Japanese version that's actually playable. I, again, had a lot of fun. Turns out, I just don't like Dark Souls... The characters, the music, and the way the story can unfold depending on who's in your party and who betrays you was a crazy concept back then. Why hasn't it been stolen recently?
Lufia 1 followed, and the less said about it, the better.
Lufia II was the opposite of that. If a fellow old head told me Lufia II was their favorite game, I would understand and not argue.
I played Robo Trek and Arcana around this time. I couldn't get into either of them. I don't think they're bad games, but they're not games for me. And that's a good lesson to learn.
I then ended this pit stop with some slop. Paladin's Quest looked neat, but lacked substance and engagement.
Secret of the Stars was the opposite of that. But that engagement was odd... I don't think it deserves the hate.
Finally, there was Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. I got offended. I shouldn't have, because the game isn't for me, but I have a genetic predisposition for rage.
At the end of summer 2025, I told everyone who reads my Facebook page that I don't think I missed much from skipping all those titles. Sure, the sequels were solid, but were they up there with the four or five games everyone raves about? No. But what about the other Squaresoft games people do talk about? What makes them so special? Was there some special sauce that Japan only let us have occasionally?
I had already played quite a few fan translated games by the start of this year. I even played more before deciding on this endeavor. Emerald Dragon hit my totally legitimate SNES shortly after, and I loved it. Atruschan and Tamryun's romance kept me in. But Hathram and Pharyna were what I wanted to see. And I want every game to let me turn into a dragon! It was Emerald Dragon that really got me wondering if Japan was keeping their best at home.
Ys IV was a Ys game I played eight years ago but forgot everything about. It's also a callback to my summer plans of 24. I played the remake during that time but not the original. Like all Ys games, this was a fun time until the end, which drags on through a boring dungeon.
It was then I started doing research. How many Japan only games have I already played, and how many do I still need to play? The answer was a lot. I started narrowing it down, removing what I knew I wouldn't like, and seeing what's even out there. I would frequently add and remove games from the list, even in the middle of the journey, but I settled on finishing at sixty five for now. Thirty five of them, specifically, for this year. I wound up ordering them by how cool I thought the box art was.
The one exception was Live a Live. It was a Squaresoft title, so it got top billing. Playing through LaL cemented the conspiracy to keep the best games away from us. All those little stories, their gameplay specifics, and unique music and art scores kept me on the edge of my seat. Not all of them; Akira kinda annoyed me, but I began this journey on a massive high note. Live A Live would end up being a top ten game on the console. Even a top two, depending on the scoring system.
And then reality hit. Front Mission was not good. I played Front Mission 3 a few years back and found it middling. All of the problems I had with FM3 were also in the first game in the franchise. Maybe it gets better, but I, sadly, dropped it. I had a long trek ahead of me and didn't want to get bogged down early.
Good thing, too, because my third game was Tenchi No Uta: Shiroki Tsubasa no Inori, or TnU3. When I beat TnU3, I had it as my tenth favorite game on the system. In fact, I still do. I love a good romance, and the alternative combat scenario was amazing! Hearing early songs from Motoi Sakuraba was the icing on the cake. What a good January I had (video game wise).
Illusion of Gaia was where it started to come undone. The first ninety five percent of the game has some of the greatest gameplay on the console. Some location scenarios were... strange, but I was having fun and willing to overlook them. I was thrilled walking through gimmicky dungeons, fighting with some solid combat mechanics, and enjoying the good enough soundtrack. And then the last five percent might be the worst I played all year. Collecting gems is a trap!
Mystic Ark gave me the same feeling. The quasi sequel to the 7th Saga certainly made me remember that game. But the combat was less engaging, and, while cute and novel, the little mini stories told throughout the game didn't make up for the lack of characterization and lack of a rewarding main plot.
The previous two games made me realize I should take breaks. Between the next three games, I played Pokémon FireRed; getting all 151 mons for the first time, Goof Troop; a game from my childhood I never beat, and Animaniacs; a game that doesn't hold up.
Between them was Growth or Devolution, an edgier Earthbound. It lasted a tad too long, and my biggest takeaway from it is that awful plot twist about Michael. Solid enough game, though.
Tengai Makyō Zero was one I was excited to play. The graphics drew me in, the music was fun (but not memorable), and the gameplay had its moments. But it's also shallow and filled with plot holes. A lot of Cherenkov's Guns never get fired.
Actraiser wore on me the more I played it. And this might be my fault. It was a launch title, so I shouldn't have expected some deep, involved thing. It's a surface level city building game, with a top down shooter wrapped within to showcase the 2D platforming sections. Those needed more polish. I raved about the shallowness of F-Zero, but why did I hate Actraiser?
The same thing can be said for EVO - Search for Eden. Maybe tone back on the grind, though. Rad concept!
EVO kicked off an accidental mini series I would come to call "game that might suck, but I think everyone should play." These are games that have something really interesting going on, but they're surrounded by nonsense, boredom, or weird gimmicks.
Eternal Filenia's combat and lesbian romance were let down by having a dog as a party member and confusing plots about a naked baby... I also got the flu towards the end of this one, so maybe it was a fever dream.
Dual Orb II was pretty traditional, but it ran long and had a massive difficulty spike. I think it was the first game I cheat coded to finish. I almost lost anyway. Shout out to Lagnus, the Lavitz of the SNES. It was almost an amazing game.
Metal Max Returns excited me in ways I can't understand. Despite how many times I've lamented the lack of characterization and deep plot in this section, I love that Metal Max had none of that. It throws all of the traditional RPG affair into the bin and says, "Here's an open world, post apocalyptic bounty hunter game. You do you." It fills the void in my heart that Fallout did. It might be too open world, though, and it comes off as shallow, with sudden bursts of difficulty along the way.
Magical Land of Wozz doesn't fit the subsection. It was a fun, traditional RPG with ikekai elements and fun characters. Should have toned down the encounter rate.
Fire Emblem IV has zero redeeming qualities.
Ogre Battle kinda sucks because it removes most control that a player wants. Battle commands, easy movement, and even stats. And the stat thing might be worse, as several story beats and class progression are blocked behind them. But I kinda liked it. It's a passive game, more of an RTS, and I wish I liked it more.
Arabian Nights was a game I wanted to like. It has a unique setting, the MC is a girl, an interesting card...thingy, and a cool way of getting magic. But the encounter rate drove me mad. It's the worst in the genre. And the story isn't particularly developed either.
Shadowrun probably shouldn't have been here. It was made in America, for one thing. Secondly, it's not an RPG. It's more of an adventure game about finding the right item and bringing it to the correct location. Even the combat is more akin to aiming with a mouse, requiring you to point and click. I played it hoping to use it as a comparison piece between East and West. You can't do a proper comparison with one data entry, though. But it falls into the "so unique you have to play it even though it kinda sucks" category. I enjoyed it... eventually.
I was knee deep in muddy, what I hope was, water at this point. After coming off wars with the worst game I've ever played, awful encounter rates, questionable mechanics, and middling stories, I had my hardest tests before me. Second hardest if you include remedial math...
First up was Jutei Senki. This was called a strategy RPG, but there was no story or characters. It was boring, and I dropped it after two battles. I'd say it won the battle, but it's eating paste in the corner, so it doesn't even know it fought.
Then came Nekketsu Taikariko. I played this game. I 100 percented this game. Eight stories! I hoped this game was going to be a traditional Live A Live. Nope. It's eight interchangeable and contradictory stories about nothing. Never game out of spite!
Cyber Knight is another unique-but-sucks game I keep recommending. Space travel and stealing your enemies' body parts is cool. But it's tedious...
I needed a diversion and played Kingdom Hearts II. I hated Kingdom Hearts II...
Brainlord was my savior! When I needed something to pick me up, along came Remear and his new friends to hack and slash and jump through dungeons with. The unofficial ending to the 7th Saga Trilogy is nothing like the other games, and is better off for it.
Iniudo hurt me because it's bad. It might be the worst game ever made because of that fact. Fire Emblem frustrated and bored me, but it never gave me a headache with awful graphics and worse sound quality.
Some games I feel bad for disliking. Super Metroid, Golden Sun, and Castlevania come to mind. Warriors: Legend of the Blue Dragon is another one. The gameplay is so much fun when I'm overpowered, but that's rarely the case, as it should be. I just can't get my head around the combat. But the story seems really neat, and the characters are adorable. It's better than what I thought.
Lagoon is worse than I thought. If you must play Lagoon in some fashion, emulate the PC-88 original.
Shin Seikoku: La Wares is a quarter of a game. It's a concept more than anything, but it's never fleshed out, which would be a much needed additional quarter. Half the game is grinding. I dropped it halfway through after a difficulty spike and watched the rest on YouTube. It's sixteen hours, but most of that is the guy walking around. You don't need money, just absorbent amounts of EXP. The story isn't worth it.
Silva Saga II is a perfectly great regular Nintendo Entertainment System game. Cool ideas, but it's lacking some modern polish.
I probably could have used Secret of Evermore as a second western game (or third, maybe), but I dropped it before I started hating it. It was so boring, and I think I needed to grind even more before that boss. Nah.
Another cool game dragged down by random encounters was Ancient Magic: Bazoo. The story was fun, and the storytelling was better. Living as a kid going to magic school, growing his power, learning the world, and having different backgrounds is a crazy idea to have on the SNES. And then it sorta plays with itself in the epilogue where a lot happens offscreen. Should have been a tad shorter, too.
Adventures of Hourai High is a wacky slice-of-life anime in video game form. Once you find the groove, it's pretty solid. Figure out how to lower the encounter rate.
Brandish is notoriously bad. Unlike Secret of the Stars, it deserves this distinction.
Aretha is one that showed up at a bad time. Had I played it earlier, I might have tried to get through it. But after the parade of ass that the last few months were, I couldn't do it. Something might be there; it seems cute, but there's a darkness somewhere. I might come back to this.
I love making my wife in video games. I love making my friends and I go on dungeoneering together! And I could do all of that in Wizardry. But I still didn't like it. First person dungeon crawls aren't my thing. Nor is a need to grind. I knew I wasn't going to enjoy it, but I had never played a precursor game to JRPGs. Not an Ultima, Might & Magic, or Wizardry. If I want to be a proper historian, then I should have done this sooner.
Cyber Knights II is a direct sequel to CKI. It felt better, but it is pretty much the same. There was just enough in the first game to get me interested in a sequel, but if there's a secret third game out there, I don't care to play it.
Glory of Heracles IV was a surprise hit. I added it as a lark to reach sixty five. I disliked the more basic parts of it but found myself looking forward to playing it every night. I had to know where it went. I had to hear the music!
From my biggest surprise to deepest disappointment. I knew I wanted to end here, hoping the word of mouth was correct. Sadly, between the bosses, flubbing the city building, and the grind, I grew upset with Terranigma. I almost dropped it, then I cheated to finish. It's a solid game, but not deserving of the praise.
If I wanted to categorize all of these games for others desiring to play them, I'd lump them into the following.
Must play:
Chrono Trigger, Dragon Quest V, Final Fantasy IV, Energy Breaker, Final Fantasy V, Star Ocean 1, Live a Live, Final Fantasy VI, Emerald Dragon, Tenshi No Uta: Shiroki Tsubasa no Inori
Good, but lower your expectations:
Bahamut's Lagoon, Magical World of Wozz, Breath of Fire II, Earthbound, Brain Lord, Front Mission: Gun Hazard, Ys V, Glory of Heracles IV, Tengai Makyō Zero, Lufia II, Treasure of Rudra, Growth or Devolution, Soul Blazer, Dragon View, Elnard*, Super Mario RPG, Eternal Filena, Silva Saga II, Treasure Hunter G
Sucks, but you're gonna want to play them:
Metal Max Returns, Shadowrun, Ancient Magic: Bazoo! Mahou Sekai, Adventures of Hourai High, Terranigma, Dual Orb II, Ys IV: Mask of the Sun, Cyber Knight II, Cyber Knight, Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen, E.V.O. - Search for Eden
Bsd, but maybe for you:
Trials of Mana, Secret of Mana, Dragon Quest VI, Tales of Phantasia, Illusion of Gaia, Warriors: Legend of the Blue Dragon, Secret of the Stars, Arabian Nights: Sabaku no Seirei-ō, Breath of Fire, Mystic Ark, FF Mystic Quest, Actraiser, 7th Saga*, Wizardry I, Paladin's Quest, Secret of Evermore, Aretha
Pelligro!;
Shin Seikoku: La Wares, Lufia, Nekketsu Tairiku Burning Heroes, Inindo: Way of the Ninja, Front Mission, Jutei Senki, Lagoon, Brandish, Fire Emblem: Genealogy of The Holy War
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Ultimately, I did all this because I like RPGs. I enjoy the slow paced gameplay, deep story, romance, character arcs, and music. Am I a modern day reader of [insert old writer here]? I dunno. Am I a visual guy? I don't care. I just like them, and I think they're neat. I'm gonna keep playing them until something else comes along to fill the void they're filling. Whatever that may be, or whenever that comes. Maybe it'll be more books? Perhaps it's a woman? It could even be ... no. No; it's not that. Regardless, I promise to sover romanticize them all. Now on to the Sony!
