Console games that should have been CRPGs

[Damned Registrations]

I was just thinking about an old favourite of mine on the SNES, Ogre Battle, and how it had more CRPG elements than most games on consoles. (For anyone who's enver heard of it, it's a combination of real time field mvoement with turn based combat strategy game with multiple endings based on various choices in game and reputation and alignment systems.) It's like some sort of prototype game that never got into mass production. Excellent concepts that never got repeated (properly anyways) after then SNES/Genesis era.

Another example is Shadowrun. I've only played through the genesis one, but I've heard the SNES one is good too. Shadowrun had multiple non combat skills like fast talking, negotiation, lockpicking, and although the main story was a rail road, you could fool around with joining gangs and making contacts and such.

I'd love to see computer versions of these. They're both simple enough that it'd actually be quite feasible to do a clone of either as an indie game too. Ogre Battle was just begging to have a mouse interface.

 

[larpingdude14]

Super Mario RPG

 

[Murk]

the snes version of shadowrun was a pain to play because of the controls, the genesis version had a zelda-esque control scheme but was supposedly a vastly inferior game

can't actually comment on those

ogre battle is indeed very awesome, and to this day i'm in love with tactics ogre (which probably explains why FFT was my favourite ps1 game, it was made by the same people who worked on tactics ogre)

the ogre battle games (the two on snes/ps1 anyway) were WAY ahead of their time, and i think a proper remake of them would be solid hell ass gold

 

[DiverNB]

the snes version of shadowrun was a pain to play because of the controls, the genesis version had a zelda-esque control scheme but was supposedly a vastly inferior game

can't actually comment on those

ogre battle is indeed very awesome, and to this day i'm in love with tactics ogre (which probably explains why FFT was my favourite ps1 game, it was made by the same people who worked on tactics ogre)

the ogre battle games (the two on snes/ps1 anyway) were WAY ahead of their time, and i think a proper remake of them would be solid hell ass gold

Actually, it is the Genesis version of Shadowrun that was better. Lots of freedom. Decent game imo.

 

[Murk]

Possibly so, i do remember it being fun, but the games were... very different to say the least. the genesis version was definitely newer, had better graphics and was probably better built, but old reviews i read said the snes version was "the legit money shot" or some such shit.

truth be, i'm sure it was mostly nostalgia influencing such a review. I do remember the genesis game being fun and having neat cyberpunk tones.

 

[ushdugery]

genesis game let you do heaps of shadowruns when the nintendo one was all alot more storylike anyway if you like em but hated the control scheme get an emulator much better controls.

 

[WalterKinde]

Yep the Genesis version was the better version, you could move around different areas of the city etc, random quests generated.
When i heard Shadowrun was finally coming to the PC that was what i foolishly envisioned it would be something along the genesis version but much more expanded then they released the news it would be a FPS game and not only that but be Vista only.
Thats when i knew Shadowrun was doomed to be a nostalgia console rpg game and not move beyond the console to the pc.

 

[Murk]

...you know of its roots as a pen-and-paper tabletop game right?

 

[WalterKinde]

Yes i do, i even collected the source books and novelisations but that was years ago.