What are the "must play" Saturn games?

[Exhuminator]

There's been chatter about the board lately concerning getting into Saturn gaming. (I myself have only recently begun exploring what's out there via SSF.) With that in mind, what are the Saturn games you think are the true classics of the platform? I'm talking about the very best stuff, your desert island picks, that kind of thing.

[Sarge]

Panzer Dragoon Saga, for sure. Probably Shining the Holy Ark. Radiant Silvergun. Those are the first three that come to mind.

[Ack]

Well, in case anybody here missed them:

Games that Defined the Sega Saturn
Sega Saturn Hidden Gems

Of course at this point both of those articles are about a decade old, so the info in them might have shifted(hidden gems not being quite so hidden these days and what not). But they're good starting points.

As far as personal favorites, Virtua Fighter 2, Virtua Cop, Cyberbots, X-Men: Children of the Atom, and Street Fighter Alpha 2 all come to mind.

[Exhuminator]

Games that Defined the Sega Saturn
Sega Saturn Hidden Gems

I am aware of these lists, and they are good resources. But I'm more interested in the personal opinions of current forum members.

[the7k]

First two games I got for my Saturn were Vampire Savior and Die Hard Arcade.

Nowadays, I still stand by those games being must haves, but I'd also added Elevator Action Returns and the Cotton series to that.

Plenty of other great games, but they're all icing on the cake compared to those in my opinion. The games I listed are all ones I can just pop in any time I want and play for as long or as short as I want and still have a goofy ass smile on my face.

[SonicTheHedgehog]

If you're emulating, then I'd strongly recommend the Shining Force III trilogy. That was easily one of the most engrossing and enjoyable RPG experiences I've ever had. The whole thing felt grand and riveting.

By the way, if you've never heard the backstory... SF3 was released as 3 games: scenario 1, 2 and 3. Scenario 1 was the only game to get a US release. The second and third games never made it here. About 5 years ago or so, the second and third games were fan-translated. It's easy to patch the JP ISOs to play in English now, and even easier now that Saturn emulation is reasonable decent.

A lot of people are going to recommend Panzar Dragoon Saga, but I thought the game was a big letdown. After hearing endless hype, I tried it out and I found it be quite boring. Random battles feel tedious, it's not very challenging, there's a lot of aimless exploration, and it just generally felt mediocre. It does have very high production values though, I guess the game just didn't resonate with me like it does with most. (By the way, if you do decide to play this, I ran into issues with the latest build of SSF (v12, rev 4 or something). You might have to find an earlier build of the emulator [iirc I used v9 or something] if you try to play.)

[alienjesus]

If I had one pick for must-own on the Sega Saturn, it'd be Guardian Heroes. It's a contender with Streets of Rage 2 for best beat-em-up every for my money, and it's quite different to play from that. It's much more hectic, and over the top and I love it. Really replayable too, with 5 characters and tons of paths through the story.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I've always loved Magic Knight Rayearth. It's a Zelda-ish game with super gorgeous graphics. It seems like too many developers tried to dive into the 3D realm way too soon, I wish more games had been done in this style:

A caveat though: it is rather expensive. If you own it and it's collecting dust on a shelf - play it now! But if you have yet to obtain it, well, you probably don't need it.

Also, the Saturn versions of Ys I & II are essential.

[Exhuminator]

If you're emulating, then I'd strongly recommend the Shining Force III trilogy. That was easily one of the most engrossing and enjoyable RPG experiences I've ever had. The whole thing felt grand and riveting.

So I take it a workaround exists for the final disc? I remember reading there was some sort of emulation freeze issue with the translation, but that was a while back.

It does have very high production values though, I guess the game just didn't resonate with me like it does with most.

I've currently been playing through Panzer Dragoon Saga myself for the first time. I think the RPG has its impressive aspects, but I have not been blown away by it either. Saga seems more style than substance at times.

[SonicTheHedgehog]

So I take it a workaround exists for the final disc? I remember reading there was some sort of emulation freeze issue with the translation, but that was a while back.

I was able to play the game to completion, definitely. There was an issue -- if I remember right, in Scenario 2 -- that caused the game to crash every time I beat a specific battle. This was fixed by using one of the "EZ Config" settings in SSF (I believe there presets like "High" and "Full", and you basically want to select the one furthest down the list).

I think I got in the habit of making periodic save states in battles. Every once in a while the game would crash on me, but generally it was pretty damn stable.

Side rant: I hate how SSF insta-closes when you hit the ESC key. There were so many times when I would instinctively hit ESC and then lose a bunch of progress. Most emulators toggle menu visibility when you hit ESC. I can't believe it doesn't at least prompt you and ask, "hey, are you sure you want to exit?" (I guess it's a cultural thing -- most software in Japan behaves like that, and the SSF dev is Japanese... or that's the way it was explained to me, anyway)