Title
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Style
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Description
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Screenshot
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Arcana
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First-Person Dungeon Crawler
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An RPG developed by HAL, creators of Kirby and Super Smash Bros. Arcana is a great little JRPG with a lot of heart. Grab some loot in town and head out into whatever dungeon is next on your list. You explore dungeons from a first-person, Phantasy Star-esque perspective, but this game features a VERY helpful map. Battles are standard turn-based fare with random encounters. Even though monsters and characters are displayed on cards, nothing about the game is really card-based. Other characters will come and go in the story, but you always have one space in your party for different elemental beings that travel and fight alongside you. You collect more of these beings as the game progresses. This game's soundtrack is composed by the guy who scores the Kirby games. Kirby music. In an RPG. This game features a lot of polish and is truly a hidden gem. No Virtual Console release yet, but it's not a hard game to find.
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Breath of Fire
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Traditional Turn-Based
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A JRPG by Capcom. Your hometown's destroyed, your sister's kidnapped, and an evil empire is running amok. What next, a dragon? Unlike other RPGs, You ARE the Dragon! As a dragon-man, you can transform into a dragon to kick some evil ass. Later on, certain party members can fuse together. Despite the setup being rather dull, the story fleshes itself out in very unique and touching ways, with a number of unexpected twists. It also has great music. It was ported to the GBA with a few additions, most notably the 'run' button and added EXP. The GBA version is recommended to make the game less tedious.
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Breath of Fire II
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Traditional Turn-Based
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You are still the dragon, but not the same one, as this takes place centuries later. You can now power up party members with elemental shamans you find, and build/run your own town later on. This game features a pretty twisted story as well. It was also ported to the GBA with a few additions, similar to Breath of Fire I (EXP gain and the run button, mostly). The localization for both is horrendous though, and there's a superior translation patch for this (with a run button!). Also has great music like the first. The series continues on Playstation 1 with BoF III.
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Chrono Trigger
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Active Time Battle
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A classic time-traveling JRPG by Square. Great visuals, fantastic music, an imaginative story, and gameplay that best utilizes the classic ATB system out of any game that has it. Considered to be one of the best RPGs of all time.
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Earthbound
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Traditional Turn-Based
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A quirky, humorous, deep and emotional RPG, parodying the JRPG style with western pop culture. Some may love it for its 'deep' story but even if you don't go for that kinda thing you'll still love the fuck outta this!
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Final Fantasy IV
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Active Time Battle
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A classic by Square. This was one of the first games to have a more complex storyline, and it introduced the ATB system used in many of its successors. Regarded by some as probably the best intro to the series for beginners.
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Final Fantasy VI
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Active Time Battle
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AAnother classic JRPG by Square. It has a large and varied cast of characters that can be customized by equipping Magicite on them. Translation is a lot better than FF2us. Great music, widely contested to be the best in the series. The SNES version is noted for having LOADSAEXPLOITS, many of which can be used by the player to become overpowered, especially Vanish+Doom.
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Illusion of Gaia
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Action RPG
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The second game in Quintet's Heaven and Earth/Soul Blazer series. A young boy with psychic powers named Will beats up monsters with a flute. He also obtains the ability to transform into powerful warriors with their own abilities. This game is noteworthy for having you travel around places that strongly resemble cultural and historical sites in our own reality and also its rather dark, but VERY well done, story and soundtrack.
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Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals
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Traditional Turn-Based Dungeon Crawler
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This game is a through-and-through traditional JRPG. Still, it pulls it off with GREAT music and writing. It also features Zelda-like puzzle dungeons.
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Metal Max Returns
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Traditional Turn-Based
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Although the Style category says otherwise, this game is hardly "traditional" in many ways. Starts out a bit weak with only a few options for equipment and very few places to go. Then you get your first tank (yes, there's more), then you unlock the region gate, and soon you realize there's much more to the world and many dangerous areas and foes await. Thankfully, there's many more weapons and items to find as well, along with new vehicles and equipment to customize said vehicles with. The best part is that the game doesn't hold your hand at all. Good luck! Only released in Japan, but has a fan-translation patch. Has a spiritual successor released in US/English called Metal Saga on PS2.
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Secret of Mana
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Action RPG
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Another widely-loved Action RPG by Square. Up to three people can play simultaneously. It expands on the weapon and magic abilities of Final Fantasy Adventure for Game Boy, the first Mana title. Magic is aligned to various spirits and each has their own sets of spells. This really setup the Mana series and the various mythos, along with elements and characteristics that it is so well known for today: weapon skills, tough bosses, pleasant visuals, great gameplay, and incredible soundtracks.
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Soul Blazer
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Action RPG
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The first game in Quintet's Heaven and Earth/Soul Blazer series. In this spiritual successor to Actraiser, God/The Master sends down a hero to save the world from Deathtoll, the big bad that the stupid king struck a deal with. The music is awesome (and strangely groovy for this sort of world it takes place in), and the game itself is a lot of fun, but kinda hard at times. As an early title, it's a little stiff control-wise, but the later games in the series improved this, so fear not.
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Super Mario RPG
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Traditional Turn-Based
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Timed hits, saving the princess, Geno, Mallow, and one of the most fun RPGs made by Square. Has an awesome soundtrack. As well as incredible characters and bosses with many colorful and awesome environments. Dear god, play this now. Has a spiritual successor in the Paper Mario series, which has a spiritual successor in the Mario and Luigi series.
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Terranigma
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Action RPG
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The third game in Quintet's Heaven and Earth/Soul Blazer series. Ark, a boy from the underworld village of Crysta, is tasked with the creation and resurrection of the overworld. Considered by some as the best non-Ninendo release of the SNES due to its awesome soundtrack and gameplay, complex storyline and mind blowing graphics.
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Uncharted Waters: New Horizons
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Class-based Simulation
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A game about nautical adventures with an awesome soundtrack and good plot. You can choose role of merchant, adventurer, combater by choosing different characters as protagonist.
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