Old, old RPG games - Sega Genasis

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Ok, so i never got rid of my old Sega Genesis system from childhood. It has lasted thru 3 states and 20+ yrs of existence. And it still works! I dusted it off and busted out some old school rpgs from way back. I have 3 that still work.

Warsong, Shining Force I and Shing Force II. It's been so long since i played them, i didn't remember much about them. I completed Warsong in one day though, rather short, 20 scenario game, but lots of fun. Shining Force is another matter. Long battles, a ton of characters to choose from, man my thumbs hurt from the old style gamepads!

Anybody still play the old game systems and rpgs?

 

Game systems? No, I never had any of them until our first PC (I was 8 at the time so it was a while ago) and so never got into any of the old RPGs. When you visit a friend with a NES or Megadrive, you're going to play Mario and Sonic, not a long and involved RPG.

Old RPGs on the PC? You bet! I've played and finished all the early Ultima (1-5), Might and Magic (entire series...), the Gold Box games (all of them except the Buck Rogers ones), Eye of the Beholder, and probably quite a few more that I can't remember. Then there's all the ones I played but never finished... Telengard, Akalabeth, Dark Crypt, Dungeon Master. All these I played in the 2000s, most (all except Might and Magic in fact) post-2005. I play new games but I'm very much a retro-gamer at heart. especially when it comes to RPG. I find it interesting to play a 25 years old game that I have never seen before and still find some interesting and unique features.

 

When it comes to old school PC rpg games, i remember playing the Infocom games, Planetfall/Spacefall, The Hitchhiker's Guide, Wishbringer and there was a 3 game trilogy from them about wizards, i forget the name though. These were text only, talk about old. But these games are what got me loving the rpg genre. Then i moved to the SSI AD&D games, which were so much fun.

The 7th Saga was pretty good on Super Nintendo as well.

 

I believe the trilogy you're referring to is Enchanter, Sorcerer and Spellbreaker. Haven't played any of these myself though they're supposed to be very good. I can't remember if they take place in the Great Underground Empire itself but they take place in the same universe as Zork and they fit into that continuity.

I'm not sure I would consider any of Infocom's games, or any "Interactive Fiction" game, to be an RPG. They have no character growth, no stats, no combat (or if there's combat it's "kill orc" or something to that effect) and they lean much more heavily towards text and puzzle-solving than any of the RPGs at the time. Though if they do count then I can also add I played Trinity last year. Didn't manage to finish it (that game is hard and I didn't want to look at hints or a walkthrough) but the writing in it is excellent, like almost all Infocom's games.

 

Enchanter series, that's it! It's been a long time. You can download alot of the old game-system games to the PC. I have several Shining Force games on my old pc still. Very nice to revisit. Also, I have Final Fantasy Tactics as well on PC. That was a good one, with lot's of options for your characters.

 

Old RPG and Sega Genesis? Surprised no one mentioned Warriors of The Eternal Sun. Kickass game, even though it's slow-paced and will devour your time.

The game has some kickass music which adds a depth of atmosphere to the game. There are huge dungeons/caves to explore, which lead to another part of the map, such as the Swamp and the Aztec Jungle. Both maps are part of the main quest, and they provide ample loot and XP... and trust me, seeing as how ridiculously expensive +3 equipment (the best in the game), treasure every gold piece. I usually equip all my party with +1, go dragon huntin', and skip straight to +3.

This game is a challenge to find, but if a copy pops up, get it.

Another game that deserves a mention is Sword of Vermillion. The combat system is in 3rd person, and you have full control over the character. Fights are like minimaps (you encounter a monster, there's a minimap fight, then back to world map and so on) with a variable number of monsters, anywhere from 1 to 8. Another time-consuming classic, definitively worth checking out.

Of course, let's not forget the Phantasy Star series. PS1 was good, if extremely confusing -- trial and error sum this one up. PS2 was meh, PSIII was pretty damn good, and I liked the generation system. Three different quests in one game, sounds good to me

Spoiler

though the 3rd generation quests tie the endgame, they are all the same

PS4, the final game, wraps the series pretty well. I admit I felt proud upon completing PS4 -- beaten all 4 of 'em.

 

The Phantasy Star series was pretty awesome, i forgot about that one. It's another with so many characters to add to the team. The Warriors of the Eternal Sun was superb, at the time. I own a copy, but it only works every once in a while, so if i start a game, i have to play thru non-stop to conclusion or it might not restart.

 

LMAO...Do you have the CD drive? My brother actually purchased the TG16 with the built in CD drive. He had a RPG where you walked around and used your sword. I believe the game was call Y or something like that. It was a blast.

As for Gensis I definitely recommend D&D: Enternal Sun. I loved that game. It uses D&D Core rules from the 70's when an Elf was a class. Definitely a classic D&D RPG game.

 

Wow, you guys are bringing back some find memories! Warriors of the Eternal Sun consumed my life for, well, I don't even know how long. Shining Force and Shining Force II I still play from time to time, along with several of the Phantasy Star, Final Fantasy, and Breath of Fire games (last two on SNES, all on ROMs now). Dragon Crystal on the Sega Game Gear was great, though no save feature meant it was really best for road-trips. The randomly generated maps meant TONS of replay, though. Sword of Vermillion was another awesome RPG, though the real-time side-scrolling battles were a bit different. Of course, who can forget Dragon Warrior III for the Game Boy, or Inindo for NES, or Nobunga's Ambition, Ogre Battle, Lunar, ... Wow, those were good times.

Oh, and Warsong is a cheaper version (not sure if it's meant to be a prequel or sequel) of Der Langrisser which, dispite the name, was a Japanese game. Never officially translated into English, but you can get an unofficial (but very good) translation for roms. THAT was an awesome game, and you finally have a real use for the Serpent Lord class!

 

On a related note. It was just a couple of days ago that my son who is 13 was going through my computer closet. He took out a CD, looked at it and got all misty eyed. I asked him what it was and he showed me it was Might and Magic VI. I asked him why he was upset and he told me that this was the first computer game we ever played together. He was three years old and he would sit between my legs and he was in charge of the A (for attack) and S (for spell) button. While I was in charge of everything else, he would love when we got in combat because he knew he was in charge and he loved watching the faces change as things would happen. Now he is trying to convince to me we should play it again.

 

Wow, TGS, that's a great memory there. Unfortunately, both my parents were a little before the gaming age, but I'll make sure to raise my children firmly in the RP tradition.

 

Tal can't hope for anything more

It does make me wonder if we have any second generation members here at SP?

 

On the Sega Genesis, you might try Phantasy Star II, Phantasy Star III, and the best of the series, Phantasy Star IV. Another good RPG on the Genesis is Crusader of Centy and a personal favorite of mine, Shadowrun. Other games to look into would be The Story of Thor and Swords of Vermillon, but I'm not too familiar with those titles.

I still fire up the old SNES to play Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy III, Breath of Fire, Breath of Fire II, Tecmo's Secret of the Stars, Super Mario RPG (some people really like this one, but not me) and Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

Alot of these games have rereleased in series or alone on the Playstation, Playstation2, Nintendo Gameboy Advance, and the Nintendo DS. Those are easier to get ahold of (and cheaper) than the original cartridges.

 

There was a game i played on SNES, "The Seventh Saga". You picked your starting character out of a cast of characters. There was an all around human who looked like an armoured fighter, an Elf Mage, a Dwarf defensive warrior, a Human Cleric, a Demon Fighter/Mage like character, a big Alien named Wilme who used fire and a Robot name Lux who used electricity. As you went along, trying to find ?Mana crystals? or something like that. You could pick up another party member from the cast. If you encountered any of the other ones in the game, it was fight time, as they wanted your ?crystals? I really enjoyed that one....

 

Sword of Vermillion was wonderful fun, but very different gameplay from most of the other games listed here. It was sort of an early action-RPG. You don't get a party, just the main character. He's got stats and equipment just like any RPG, and battles are random, but when you enter a battle, you're on a sort of side-view battlefield. You can move up and down and side to side, and so can the enemies, and you can swing your sword (and I think cast a few spells, don't really remember, though), but it's all real-time. Moving around the map is done from a first-person maze-like perspective, but there's a handy (and large) minimap. One thing I really liked was that caves and such are pitch black (map too) until you light a candle or lantern (or cast a spell later on I think). The candle only lasts a certain time, but the lantern lasts as long as you're in there. It was very fun, and rather long as well.

I vaguely remember playing 7th Saga on a rom a while back. It was interesting, but didn't really captivate me.