This was one of the all-time biggest fan requests Nintendo ever fielded, so they could win a lot of friends by choosing to include this uniquely charming journey through a surreal version of America to their mini-console lineup.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest RPGs of all time, and for good reason: Chrono Trigger saw the creative leads of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest teaming up to create a game that, improbably, combined all the best traits of each series.Ī Super NES sequel to a Game Boy game? Yes, and this follow-up to Gargoyle's Quest took full advantage of the improved hardware, giving players a dark, brooding realm full of demons to conquer with nonlinear metroidvania-style play. For that you can thank its cast of furry heroes, its unique navigation skills for each party leader, and - oh yes - its ability to turn the hero into a dragon.Ī bigger, more elaborate rendition of the previous game's concepts, which adds into the mix a more grandiose scale, a town-building simulation, and a barely coherent English translation. Dizzying, but there was a solid adventure in there.Ĭapcom didn't produce a great many role-playing games in their time, but as Breath of Fire demonstrates, the ones they did create were pretty memorable. HAL's first-person dungeon crawler, as its title suggests, revolved around the use of Tarot cards - and the game's commitment to that conceit helped elevate it from average to excellent.ĭeveloped by the folks behind 7th Saga, Brain Lord is one of the lesser-known action RPGs for Super NES, in the Ys and Zelda vein - and it's still pretty darned playable even today.Ī real love it or hate it kind of prospect, Brandish's top-down dungeon crawling literally revolved around the player, with the world (not the hero) rotating 90 degrees with every turn. Neither aspect of the game was best in its class, but together they add up to something wonderful.

One of the first games to truly hint at the creative potential of 16-bit games, ActRaiser combines hard-as-nails platforming (a la Rastan Saga) with world-building sim (a la Populous). This RPG isn't one of the Super NES's most fondly remembered entries in the genre, but it featured a surprising amount of ambition and some innovations that make it feel in some ways a few years ahead of its time. The 30 games listed here represent about 1,000 hours of play time and about twice as many dollars if you were to buy the actual carts, so this little device would be a heck of a deal. Jump to: Super NES RPG Editionĭid you notice a lack of RPGs on the first Super NES Classic Edition proposal? That's because there were so many RPGs on Super NES they should stand alone in their own device.

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