Monday, May 3, 2021

RPG Ranks: 50-41

Continued from the previous post.

50. Seiken Densetsu 3 (#120)


Secret of Mana was successful. Seiken Densetsu 3 wasn't. Well they are both cult classics. Regardless, this one wasn't released outside Japan until 2019, offering up similar mechanics, yet different. A lot of the stuff that was in Sword of Mana originated here, class changes, leveling stats, day/night cycle. The individual character stories intertwine well, and there's hints of nonlinearity, but the AI is really quite smart about using their specials when you use yours.

49. Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant (#148)

I've played multiple games that had multiple endings, but never one that had multiple beginnings as well. Anyways, Wizardry decides to go to space, with your primitive parties from the previous game encountering all manners of newer, fouler beasts, as well as the choice of aligning with certain races on an alien planet. These games are still the kinds that chew you up and toss you aside, but it should be clear that Wizardry grows well.

48. Soul Blazer (#42)


An action RPG that feels arcade-y, Soul Blazer delivered well, giving the tasks of killing monsters from lairs and repopulating deserted areas. A nice premise, one that brings things to light, it all works out so well. Definitely one for the replay list.

47. Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete (#7)


This game takes barebones turn-based combat and gives it a tad strategy with where characters are placed. While uninteresting in hindsight for gameplay, looking at it storyline-wise makes it one of the best as far as plot goes. Alex is a determinator to get his girl back, and even fulfills his other dream along the way. It's a perfect grasping of what I like about RPG heroes.

46. Tales of Phantasia (#18)


The second biggest game on the SNES introduces the Linear Motion Battle System, with action being a major highlight of it. Tales of Phantasia has quite a harrowing RPG plot too, along with it time travel and righting wrongs, or so one could think. Alas, the remakes for this game aren't that good either.

45. Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete (#26)


Coming off the heels of a successful storyline comes a sequel that manages to be better. No Dragonmaster antics here, but a hero called Hiro who wants to find his place, and gets it ultimately. With plenty of fanservice with returning characters as well as nice storylines of its own, Eternal Blue manages to be quite the better sequel. Although take note that these are the remakes of these two games.

44. Breath of Fire III (#13)


The jazz soundtrack compliments Breath of Fire 3 rather well. Despite its barebones-ness, the game works out well for its storyline and gameplay, offering new twists to old Breath of Fire mainstays. A good dragon gene system helps in getting the best dragon forms too. Now if only the story didn't really fall flat after the time skip and the mini-games less annoying this would be better off.

43. Brave Fencer Musashi (#59)


Square loves to outline its silliness at times. More food-themed names, but this time for a strict action-RPG style game that was fun to mess with. The samurai you control isn't entirely the best of the bunch, a little rascal, definitely, but he gets numerous ways to mince meat and that's always fun. Gotta remember the gameplay mechanics though, especially sleeping.

42. Breath of Fire IV (#28)


Here we have the most polished of the Breath of Fire series, with yet another good kickstarter and some pretty good characters. More minigames, but they are better. Battles are a little more interesting. Perhaps this is what Capcom did best with the series, gradually giving new stuff while keeping core values. That's always appealing.

41. Paper Mario (#64)


Simple Mario RPG, not as good as the Mario & Luigi ones, but offers a story different from the whole "Bowser kidnaps Peach" thing. Nice chapter lineup, interesting partners, it's made to be easy as well. All pretty nice and dandy as you'd expect from anything Mario-related. It's probably the only decent RPG on the Nintendo 64 though.

Continued in the next post.

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