[16/1000] Final Fantasy 2 Pixel Remaster

 

Platform: Switch, Xbox, PC, PS4, Mobile

Release date: July 28, 2021

Developer: Square Enix

Publisher: Square Enix

Genre: RPG

Battle System: Turn Based

Difficulty: Normal

Setting: Fantasy

 

How do people usually start talking about FF2? Oh yeah, "Final Fantasy 2 is a 'black sheep' of the series and all of that, ending with saying that this game isn't good or not the best ff". Personally I really like this game. Story here is about evil empire wanting to conquer all world and heroes are a rebel group opposing it. This story will became a stable in later ff games even referencing "Wild Rose". FF2 was also first game to introduce chocobos, Cid, Ultima magic and dragoons all of which appears in every ff game after this one. Also comparing to other rpgs of it's time ff2 was the first to have a polished dramatic story with twists and actual characters with their personalities and traits.

[15/1000] Daikaiju Monogatari

 

Platform: SNES

Release date: December 22, 1994

Developer: Birthday

Publisher: Hudson Soft

Genre: RPG

Battle System: Turn Based

Difficulty: Normal

Setting: Fantasy

 

Daikaiju Monogatari looks like another DQ-clone but it's actually a very good game. Story-wise there's isn't much to tell: evil Demon King Fat Badger (yes it's really his name) wants to take over world of Shelldorado and it's inhabitants call for a hero from another world (aka player). And now hero travels through Shelldorado in order to defeat Fat Badger, eventually finding out about existence of a much more dangerous enemy from outer space! 

[14/1000] Eien no Filena

Platform: SNES

Release date: February 25, 1995

Developer:  Tokuma Shoten Intermedia

Publisher: Tokuma Shoten

Genre: RPG

Battle System: ATB

Difficulty: Normal

Setting: Fantasy

Eien no Filena is a game based on a light nover series with the same name. The story here follows Filena, a girl whose home was destroyed by Devis Empire and she was a lone survivor. Filena was raised as a boy by her stepfather and was forced to fight on arena as a battler in gladiator-like battles for amusement of empire's people. Before her first fight she met Lila, one of slaves who empire forced to sleep with battlers before fights in order to increase their morale. Filena teams up with Lila to escape arena and start their fight against Devis Empire. 

[13/1000] Nekketsu Tairiku: Burning Heroes

Platform: SNES

Release date: March 17, 1995

Developer:  J-Force

Publisher: Enix

Genre: RPG

Battle System: Turn-based

Difficulty: Depends on scenario but mostly easy

Setting: Fantasy

 

Burning Heroes isn't a good game. While it may look and sound like one, it's actually not. 

When you start the game you're given a choice of eight scenarios. Four are unlocked at the beginning and four more will unlock later. I like games like this, when you can see the story from different perspectives or play as different protagonists but here all stories have almost no connection between them. All eight scenarios start differently but starting from midpoint they're all become exactly similar. Unlockable scenarios even have same events order as initially available ones, only differences are main character and dialogs! Since all scenarios share same world that means all dungeons are same and you have to go through each one four times minimum if you beating game with all eight characters, set of final dungeons same for everyone so you'll play through same content eight times. So in the end all differences in scenarios are player character, text and order of dungeons.

[12/1000] Lennus II: Fuuin no Shito

 

Platform: SNES

Release date: July 26, 1996

Developer: Copya System

Publisher: Asmik Corporation

Genre: RPG

Battle System: Turn-based

Difficulty: Normal

Setting: Otherworldy

 

A direct sequel to Paladin's Quest, this game retains all the features of the first game along with some QoL changes. This time, the game takes place on Eltz, the second moon of the planet Raiga. You play as Farus, a supposedly god-like being who awakens from a deep sleep and is tasked with finding four gems in order to trigger the Great Unification. 

[11/1000] Paladin's Quest (Lennus: Kodai Kikai no Kioku)

 

Platform: SNES

Release date: November 13, 1992

Developer: Copya System

Publisher: Asmik Corporation (Enix in US)

Genre: RPG

Battle System: Turn-based

Difficulty: Normal

Setting: Otherworldy

 

Paladin's Quest is strange. It's got strange world, strange characters, strange gameplay. The game takes place on Lennus, one of the moons of planet Raiga. Having this alien setting means everything is going to look otherworldy. There's even a lot of different races which are completely original and not your default orcs and elves! 

 

[10/1000] Secret of the Stars (Aqutallion)

 

Platform: SNES

Release date: November 5, 1993

Developer: Tecmo

Publisher: Tecmo

Genre: RPG

Battle System: Turn-based

Difficulty: Easy

Setting: Fantasy

 

I heard A LOT of hate for this game and after playing it for myself... it's fine. It's definitely not a masterpiece but I don't think it deserves all hate. Secret of the Stars is an average DQ clone, there was tons of them back then. 

[9/1000] Phantasy Star 2

Platform: Sega Mega Drive/Genesis

Release date: March 21, 1989

Developer: Sega

Publisher: Sega

Genre: RPG

Battle System: Turn-based

Difficulty: Hard

Setting: Sci-Fi

 

What comes after Final Fantasy 1? Right - 2! Phantasy Star 2! But seriously, I just have a bunch of already beaten games so I want to add them here. This game is special to me, it's the first jrpg I ever played and one that got me in genre. I still have cartridge from my childhood and it's very hilarious. It was almost impossible to find original mega drive games in my country so I and all other kids had bootlegs back then. My bootleg cart has Phantasy Star Online boxart, screenshots on back of the box were taken from PS1, description is from PS3, sticker on cart itself is screenshot of PS4 title screen and the game inside is PS2. This HAS to be intentional. Of course since it's a bootleg cart, there is no battery and thus no saving, because of that I haven't got far and now I finally completed it.

[8/1000] Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster

• Platform: Switch, Xbox, PC, PS4, Mobile
• Release date: July 28, 2021
• Developer: Square Enix
• Publisher: Square Enix
• Genre: RPG
• Battle System: Turn-based
• Difficulty: Normal 
• Setting: Fantasy 

 

 With my blog's name this should've been first game I play through lol. FF1 is a classic and Pixel Remaster is a new version of it based on original NES version. And since it based on oldest version it means that there's no new content from psp remake which is a shame. Instead you can modify exp and gil gain as well as option to disable encounters.

[7/1000] Fuga: Melodies of Steel

Platform: Switch, Xbox, PC, PS4, PS5, Mobile

Release date: July 29, 2021

Developer: CyberConnect2

Publisher: CyberConnect2 

Genre: RPG

Battle System: Turn-based

                                                                                 Difficulty: Easy 

I heard a lot of good things about this game and I finally played it myself. I liked setting and story here: you play as bunch of kids whose village get attacked by Berman Empire. Empire forces kidnapped all adults from village while kids managed to hide during attack and, with guidance of mysterious voice from radio, found a giant tank Taranis. So now with the help of Taranis children are fighting empire in order to free their parents. 

[6/1000] Labyrinth of Zangetsu

     Taking a break from Dragon Quest, I went with Labyrinth of Zangetsu on switch. Usually I like Wizardry-like drpgs and this one was decent but very short and too easy. Gameplay wise is just as other drpg: you create your party, explore dungeons in first person and get into turn based fights. There's not much of a story but it was there. I like character and monster design here, some enemies here are pure nightmare fuel. Option to speed up battle is also a good thing to have. Money is mostly useless after the first dungeon, their only purpose is to remove corruption from a character (status aliment which lowers max hp). There's only four dungeons and only third one can be considered a "real" one: a tower with an 8 or so floors. Other dungeons are short and easy, without providing a decent challenge which you would expect for a Wizardry-like. Final boss on the other hand can be very challenging, constantly heavily decreasing characters hp, and it could've be very hard, especially since it has two forms, but after you defeat it's first form you can cast evacuate or use scroll with the same effect to return to town, heal and take on second form fully recovered. 

Final stats:

 

Game playtime: 12h 13m

Total playtime: 3d 11h 53m

 

[5/1000] Dragon Quest 5

     DQ5 is the first 16bit game in series and usually considered to be one of best dq games alongside with 8 and 11. This game has much better story then previous games and you can again give direct orders to your characters in battle while also leaving an option to use tactics. This is also first dq game which features monster recruiting and different story routes (decided who you marry midgame). Only problem for me was 3 member party, at least in sfc version (in remakes you have 4 party members), and it made final boss quite difficult. 

Final stats:

 Defeated final boss with mc, son and daughter; Estark was beaten with son, Golem and King Healer.

Game playtime: 23h 29m

Total playtime:  2d 23h 40m

[4/1000] Dragon Quest (Warrior) 4

     This DQ is quite different from previous games. Instead of having a single storyline this one has 5 chapters each one focused on different characters until they gather together in last fifth one. And in this last chapter also occurs a slight change in battle system: now you can't directly control anyone other than main character, instead you choose tactics which your party members follow. Their ai can be really stupid sometimes, for example: final boss has 7 forms and each one counts as different enemy, meaning Cristo will always try his insta kill spell and will always fail each time boss changes form. Other than that it might be the best rpg on nes. And I really like this episodic story. Still can't decide which nes dq one I like more: 3 or 4.

Final stats:

 Game playtime: 17h 35m

Total playtime:  2d 0h 11m

[3/1000] Dragon Quest 3

     Ok here it is. The one of the greatest rpgs of all time: Dragon Quest 3. This game in which Dragon Quest series really started to shine. It has huge world map (two actually), ability to create your own party at tavern, freely change their vocations and much more. This game is what I seek in rpgs - adventure. DQ3 provides you with an awesome adventure and it's also highly replayable too, due to having different vocations and thus different party combinations! This time I played through Japanese version of this game since I got myself a original famicom cart... But I still played on emulator because in this cart is someone else's savedata and I don't want to overwrite it.

Final stats:

Game playtime: 16h 01m

Total playtime: 30h 36m

 

[2/1000] Dragon Quest (Warrior) 2

     Immediately after the first game I played through other NES DQs. Second game is famous for having very brutal difficulty. Especially cave to Rhone. Otherwise it's first DQ (and maybe first jrpg) which has party instead of a solo main character. You get mc who is purely physical fighter, Princess of Moonbrooke who is magic user and Prince of Cannock who is something in between. Last one tends to be mostly useless towards the end because there's no good equipment choices for him but he still have some useful spells. Oh and I managed to get all retroachivements on this and other dq games on NES.

Final stats:

 Game playtime: 09h 01m

Total playtime 14h 35m

[1/1000] Dragon Quest (Warrior)

    Dragon Quest is a great way to start challenge like this! This game was the first console rpg which was foundation of the genre. Gameplay is as basic as it gets: explore world, grind levels, save princess, defeat Dragonlord (which sounds way cooler than Dragon King imo). I choose NES version just because it was the only version I have never beaten and HD-2D remake feels like a completly different game because of huge number of additions. Also I defeated Dragonlord with princess in hands :)

Final stats: 

 

 

Game playtime: 05h 34m