Best SNES Rpgs

[Ack]

Oh yeah, I totally forgot to add my suggestion.

Live-A-Live. I figure if I keep hyping this little gem, people will eventually notice how awesome it is.

[Expervert]

Some of the recent translated SNES RPGS:
Mystic Ark
Tactics Ogre - Let Us Cling Together
Slayers RPG
FEDA - Emblem of Justice

[Ack]

Some of the recent translated SNES RPGS:
Mystic Ark
Tactics Ogre - Let Us Cling Together
Slayers RPG
FEDA - Emblem of Justice

That reminds me, I really enjoyed the Magic Knights Rayearth RPG on the Super Nintendo. It's pretty easy though. I didn't feel challenged until the final dungeon, when creatures finally started becoming a threat.

[AmishSamurai]

Going to hype Live-A-Live alongside Ack. Also, Earthbound.

[pelham123]

I recently played through Terranigma, really great stuff, definitely recommend it. I remember being pretty underwhelmed the first time I gave it a look via emulator maybe 10 years ago. I think that was due to the inconsistency in the graphics. On the one hand you've got some truly inspired dungeon layouts, and not just your bog-standard underground caverns, some dungeons take place on cliff-faces, sewers, castles, woods, etc. On the other hand, the villages, towns and cities are pretty damn ugly. Cookie-cut interior decor, same bland colour pallet through-out. And the story takes a while to get going... But, when it does - it's pretty magical, really took me by surprise. I can't think of a better RPG narrative on the SNES. I'm thinking about giving The Granstream Saga a go next, anyone else played it?

[Expervert]

Haven't played The Granstream Saga (though I intend to) but I did play Illusion of Gaia and Soul Blazer. Both games are excellent and have good stories, similar to Terranigma. If you haven't already, you should give them a try.

[Bloodandbourbon]

earthbound by far is my fav

[MrPopo]

I've been playing a fair amount of Romancing SaGa 3 recently, and it's been pretty fun. It is much more free-form than most JRPGs. You pick your protagonist from among 8 choices and start an introductory chapter. This sets up the game world and the mechanics for the player is a controlled setting. Once the introduction is over you get thrust into the game proper, where you can basically go wherever you want. You open up new areas on the world map by hearing about them from NPCs or travelling to them on ships. Once you've travelled once you can reaccess them any time by going to the map (instant travel). The overarching story is pretty basic; there's a big evil about to come to the world and you need to stop it. However, you obviously aren't strong enough at the start, nor do you have any companions. There are 20ish NPCs available to join you (including the other 7 from the start) but some require more work than others. Depending on your choices (including choice of protagonist) you will find some NPCs who are unable to join your party. Many NPCs require you to go through a sidequest first before you can get them.

Because of this open-ended nature the narrative is a little weaker (plus the best translation isn't a polished one, so while it's perfectly understandable you'll see many artifacts of an unedited translation). The other thing is that there is no clear order to go through the various quests. The best walkthrough I've seen groups it by approximate HP totals (more on that in a second). So if your HP is between 100 and 250 you should be strong enough to do quest set A, and between 250 and 500 you can do quest set B. Higher level quests are usually locked off to prevent you from going places that will kill you, but there are still several areas you have access to where the common monsters are just below boss level.

The character advancement system is like most of the other SaGa games. After combat you can have one of four stats rise: HP, MP, TP (MP for weapon skills) or a weapon/magic level. This last one corresponds directly to damage, as your normal parameters of str, agi, etc do not increase at all. They're set at the beginning and only a few items can boost them (and only while the items are equipped). You get four slots for armor and four slots for equipment, which includes shields, weapons, and items. Heal magic is important on boss fights because of the lack of item slots among your party. Your HP is healed between fights, which makes dungeon traversal easier. The limiting factor becomes your TP/MP.

Magic is learned by purchasing it, while weapon skills are learned mid-combat. Whenever you select attack (or certain weapon skills) you have a chance of having a lightbulb flash above your head and you instead let loose with a new weapon skill. This skill is immediately equipped on your character and you can continue to use it throughout the battle, though subsequent uses require you to spend TP. You will keep the skill even if you run, so one strategy for learning is to engage with a strong stationary monster and fight and run away until you learn the skills you're looking for (stronger monsters = higher chance for skills and stronger skills). However, you only get 8 slots for skills. If you want to learn more you need to free up slots on your character. Which leads to the second part of the skill system; mastery. Once you use a specific skill long enough you will master it. This adds it to your global skill list and lets everyone eqip it. If you remove a skill before it is mastered it is gone until you relearn it through combat. Once it is mastered you can safely remove it. In addition to weapon skills there are also Dodge skills, which trigger on certain enemy attacks. Once you have a dodge skill it makes you completely immune to whatever the skill dodges. For example, I have the dodge skill Hypnosis, which means I auto dodge any Hypnosis attack from enemies. This can be very valuable for any of the status-effect skills enemies use. These skills do take up your skill slots though, so be careful.

The combat system is also interesting. There are two modes depending on the number of people in your party and your formation. You can have six people in the party but only five can fight. If you have five or less members (or six and your protagonist is on the field) then combat is your standard turn-based fare. You choose your actions and then both sides act according to their speed values. There are different formations you can choose (you start with a few and more are gained when you have specific NPCs join, even if you later kick them out) which will affect your member stats and enemy targeting probabililties. If you have six party members and you put your protagonist off the field, though, you go into Commander mode. In this mode you select general strategies for your party and they select their specific actions accordingly. This also unlocks combined attacks, which is when two or more members will do some kind of joint attack, like Chrono Triggers' dual techs. These have fairly specific requirements. For example, one attack requires you to have two people up front both wielding swords. If you have this setup they'll do an X-Strike. Another is three magic users in a line to do a big attack.

There are other interesting tidbits in the game. A couple of the protagonists have specific minigames they can partake in, including one which has its own largish FAQ.

[vxbinaca]

Chrono Trigger and Zelda 3.

[baschlives]

Secret of Evermore