RPG Ranks: 40-31

Continued from the previous post.

40. Growlanser III: The Dual Darkness (#74)

The most humble of the Growlanser games, III has barebones navigation but active-time strategy battles with many RPG elements. Not to mention dungeons that are completely randomized. A bit rote at times, but there's alliances and pacts to be made within warring nations, plus higher evils that need to be removed ASAP. Certainly enjoyable.

39. Suikoden Tactics (#81)

As I said before, I love the Suikoden series, especially its many plot twists. Tactics is, well, a Final Fantasy Tactics clone with many Suikoden ideals in place, so it plays like a combination of the two. The plot intertwines before and after Suikoden IV, but it's recommended to play that game first to get the best characters. And it's not without its sidequests too. Battles are quite long as any tactics game, but are quite fun still.

38. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (#31)

This is definitely a beginner's RPG. It's got good dodging mechanics, decent uses of the action command, and decides NOT to use the Mushroom Kingdom as the setting but instead the Beanbean Kingdom. Humor is everywhere in this RPG to the point the villains are lovable. Gameplay can get rough with only two brothers, especially given their low overall stats, but it's an enjoyable experience.

37. Romancing SaGa 2 (#78)

Until SaGa Frontier rolled around, I thought this would be the best in the SaGa series, despite poor translation. Control an emperor of any class, do events, but make sure you save up for those seven "heroes" which are really villains. These aspects are very nice and make for a unique experience for a usually barebones RPG series. And of course, make sure to balance the stat gains.

36. Suikoden III (#38)

This was the Suikoden game with the most character interactions and development, intertwining three stories together to ally several warring nations against greater threats. All good stuff, with twists at the very end! They made some questionable gameplay choices, basically pairing up characters front and back, plus some rare enemies that rudely show up, but it's still a good, if long, Suikoden game.

35. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (#128)

The gameplay is better. The characters are better. The plot is better. Pretty much anything the original Paper Mario did, The Thousand-Year Door did it better. Not to piss on that game though, it's still fun, but I had much more fun with the second Paper Mario. More uniqueness in the plot, new villains, partners that don't lose their luster overtime, fun sidequests. I just can't stop describing it. It's still fairly easy to the seasoned RPG player though.

34. Suikoden V (#108)

Finally I got done with the wonderful Suikoden series after having played V. It was a return to form, much needed after IV sort of screwed the form up. Much of the same formulas are around, while giving mostly subtle changes to everything. The war battle system went for real time strategy, a noticeable change, but battles aren't too difficult. Best thing about this game is obviously its excellent plot as well as small tie-ins with others in the series.


33. Grandia (#32)

The simple adventure RPG! A boy goes to see the sights and gets help doing so. It's a fantastical journey. But it gets better. The plot turns far more serious on Disc 2, enemies make themselves known, and Eldritch abominations are the main target. But we also got ourselves a fantastically new battle system here. There was a TON of grinding on my part to get weapon and spell levels up, because those matter most for this game.

32. Growlanser II: The Sense of Justice (#57)

Up to eight characters in a real-time strategy game made in a nice RPG image here is a tough row to hoe. But this game offers more than that, as you explore options that may impact your side in some way, including character relationships as well as where you stand. This game is linear, but it manages well with all the content you'll go through.

31. SaGa Frontier (#97)

Seven stories for seven characters, SaGa Frontier ended up being the best of the SaGa series, and it was worth it to play all seven of these scenarios. Wonderful as things seem, it still has many of the SaGa tropes, and could still be way too hard. But on the plus side there's loads of characters to recruit and customize, and that matters.

Continued in the next post.