What are your favorite 8-bit era RPGs?

[D.D.D.]

FF Legend 1~3 on GB is about the best I can do.

Didn't care for FF or DQ/W on NES. Even back then they felt unrefined. When the SNES RPGs came about is when I truly got interested.

[alienjesus]

And seeing as the title specifically says '8-bit' and not 'home console':

[AppleQueso]

And seeing as the title specifically says '8-bit' and not 'home console':

Well it specifically says "8-bit era" so I'm assuming that we're talking systems that came out before 1989

[D.D.D.]

And seeing as the title specifically says '8-bit' and not 'home console':

Well it specifically says "8-bit era" so I'm assuming that we're talking systems that came out before 1989

GB is 8-bit and came out in '89. All's fair IMO~ And if you wanna be really picky, shouldn't the TG16 count? 8-bit CPU, 16-bit GPU~

[TheSSNintendo]

Dragon Warrior, which is what got me interested in RPGs. Crystalis is pretty good too.

[Nemoide]

Dragon Warrior III (or Dragon Quest III)

My answer used to be Phantasy Star, it was certainly far ahead of other games released at that point. The story is far beyond Final Fantasy (the series was pretty story-light until FFIV), the graphics were at least better than any RPG that was out at the time, the music is amazing, and the setting was profoundly interesting.

But then I played Dragon Warrior III was blown away by how much FUN it was. I never enjoyed collecting random items to progress the game as much as I did in that game. And when I reached the part with the song "Heavenly Flight" I was convinced that this was a top-tier 8-Bit RPG.
I admit that I've only played the GBC version, which had some enhancements, but I assume the NES version is still awesome.

[Hatta]

The Bard's Tale, Wasteland, Starflight. EA used to be awesome.

[Opa Opa]

I really enjoy the NES version of Ultima III: Exodus.

[Nutty]

My first venture into grinding and I remember it fondly....

[J T]

Like many others, Dragon Warrior was my first foray into RPGs. There was this big promotion where you got a free copy of Dragon Warrior if you subscribed to Nintendo Power magazine. I think that exposed a lot of people to RPGs for the first time, myself included.

Though Dragon Warrior was cool at the time, it hasn't held up very well over time. My favorite RPG back then was Final Fantasy. My friends and I were just blown away by all the options and the size of the world. My impression was that Dragon Warrior set the template, then Final Fantasy did everything better.

Crystalis was fantastic. I'm glad to see others here recognize it.

A few other games really impressed me back then. Magician was a peculiar side scrolling RPG that had some complex spell casting and really excellent graphics for the time. I thought it was really cool back then.

Willow was a really good game and a rare instance of a good NES game based on a movie. It's a bit more Zelda-game than RPG, but whatever. Same with Star Tropics, which I'm also happy to see mentioned here. Great game.

Swords & Serpents was kind of cool, but I had a hard time with first person dungeon crawling maze games back then. They were so easy to get lost in that I would just get frustrated. I could barely stand Wizardy for this reason. I never really connected with this genre until it was improved by 3D modeling technology. I did like Swords & Serpents though.

There was another RPG called Tombs and Treasure. It was really impressive at the time because the graphics stretched what the NES could do. It was largely unknown though and a lot of people missed it.