- Joined
- Jul 13, 2021
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I tried searching the forum and didn't find a similarly titled thread, but if one already exists then I apologize. I detailed a lengthy background first as is my usual insufferable habit, so if you want to just skip to where I come to the title subject it begins with the third to last paragraph.
For most of my adult life I've been focused primarily on Western RPGs and computers, having missed so many of them while growing up due to the prohibitive cost of computers. Games that were only ever released on computers like the Amiga or Atari ST, which formerly only existed for me as big boxes on store shelves, the occasional opportunity to see them being played at friends houses, or within the frames of small screenshots inside magazines that I would spend hours looking at and studying every detail, imagining that I was actually playing them. Today they are easily accessible to a point of triviality, but thirty and more years ago each one was a priceless artifact. My family did eventually get a PC but it was a gift from a neighbor who was replacing his and couldn't play any of the games that were new at that time, and then as a teenager we finally got one that could play brand new games and this coincided with the release of enduring classics like Baldur's Gate, Fallout, Planescape Torment &c. Most of them were copied for me by my cousin, but I still remember buying Arcanum brand new at the store, having no idea what it was.
So consequently I mostly grew up on arcade and console games, and even of these latter I wouldn't own any until I was 12 years old, up to which point I would religiously watch my friends play on their Nintendo and Super Nintendo (my first console) or Sega systems. Mostly it was fighting games or the popular platformers, but occasionally somebody would have games that I found far more interesting, like Sim City or A Link to the Past. When I eventually became aware of RPGs as a genre, they totally consumed my life as I'm sure is the case for most people here, and this also happened around the same time that I became aware of anime through shows like Sailor Moon. Most of the games I played from then on were JRPGs and I was absolutely blown away by them, games like Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Earthbound, Final Fantasy etc. Later on as a teenager I got a PlayStation and spent entire summers and every free moment that I wasn't outside playing games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Suikoden, Lunar Silver Star Story etc. There were some handhelds in between and I only recently realized that I actually played Wizardry V on the Super Nintendo when I was about 8 years old, while for Game Boy and the later versions of it I was hooked on what was released in North America as the Final Fantasy Legend series, and I also didn't realize until very much later that a game I was crazy about called Revelations: Demon Slayer was actually a Last Bible game.
All this to give some background on where I'm coming from and to say that in recent weeks I've noticed that my interest in JRPs has suddenly returned. Having grown up on so many incredible games, at some point I just lost my passion for them (anime as well), they all started to blur together in my mind and feel like generally the same exact game with different skins, and I stopped playing them many years ago. There were only a few exceptions; Tactics Ogre, Persona 3, the first Disgaea and Valkyrie Profile for PSP absorbed much of my time shortly after my daughter was born, but in general I'd moved away from these sorts of games and anime as well. Lately however, I've been noticing just how many Famicom games, PC-88 and PC-98 games etc there are that look amazing, and I discovered the wealth of available English translation patches along with the software used to patch the games. I've been adding every translated patch file to my library that I can find, and now have hundreds of games that are in various stages of translated completion available to play.
The first game I decided to try was the first Shin Megami Tensei for the Super Famicom, and the first few minutes of this game blew my fucking mind. The music of the intro alone, and the party creation sequence, were so remarkable that I instinctively knew I was in the presence of a masterpiece and needed to pay close attention because we may only experience a work of art for the first time once. This led me into an interest in the MegaTen series as a whole which I'd long been peripherally familiar with, having played the one Last Bible game and Persona 3 Portable (plus my wife and daughter have played all of the newer Persona games as they release), but I am now determined to try the original Digital Devil Story games for the Famicom and the MSX and PC-88 versions, as well as look into the anime and I already started to read the fan translation of the first novel. That is a rabbit hole unto itself and I digress, but this got me realizing that there must be other post-apocalyptic JRPGs and I find this particular setting fascinating, so I am reaching out in the hopes that perhaps some of you might share your favorites? And even if there are games that you ended up disliking, I'd like to just get an idea of what has been made and which games ought not to be missed.
I don't know how many games with this sort of setting there are, really the only other multi-game series that I'm somewhat familiar with is Metal Max. I know there are games based on anime or manga that feature post-apocalyptic or even apocalyptic settings, like Akira, Appleseed, Devilman etc but I don't know how many are actually JRPGs. I've made a few posts in the main emulation thread about how I've been trying to get the PC-98 version of Last Armageddon to run properly, and this is precisely the ideal kind of game I'm interested in. I know that the Famicom version is the only one with a fan translation, but I find the whole thing just incredibly appealing to the point I don't even mind not being able to read what is happening; I already know the general plot of that game, and for me it is enough to just look at the graphics. The art style is so awesome and the different versions each feature significant differences in design and presentation with some even foregoing the first-person blobber perspective entirely. I thoroughly enjoy watching the introductory cutscenes and looking at the characters and inventory menus, the same way I could spend hours looking at screenshots in magazines as a kid.
Mostly my interest is contained to the earliest period of JRPGs up to about the late 90s or early 00s, as once games became predominantly 3d the magic is basically lost on me, though there are exceptions. But I am curious to learn what games might be out there from any year and for any system, I really just want to establish a comprehensive list of games that fit this criteria. So if there are any hidden gems out there I would be very grateful for anybody who can share their knowledge with me. I don't know if games like Xenogears or Chrono Trigger necessarily quality in this capacity, but if so then I would be interested in similar games to these as well. Thank you very much for reading, and please take care.
For most of my adult life I've been focused primarily on Western RPGs and computers, having missed so many of them while growing up due to the prohibitive cost of computers. Games that were only ever released on computers like the Amiga or Atari ST, which formerly only existed for me as big boxes on store shelves, the occasional opportunity to see them being played at friends houses, or within the frames of small screenshots inside magazines that I would spend hours looking at and studying every detail, imagining that I was actually playing them. Today they are easily accessible to a point of triviality, but thirty and more years ago each one was a priceless artifact. My family did eventually get a PC but it was a gift from a neighbor who was replacing his and couldn't play any of the games that were new at that time, and then as a teenager we finally got one that could play brand new games and this coincided with the release of enduring classics like Baldur's Gate, Fallout, Planescape Torment &c. Most of them were copied for me by my cousin, but I still remember buying Arcanum brand new at the store, having no idea what it was.
So consequently I mostly grew up on arcade and console games, and even of these latter I wouldn't own any until I was 12 years old, up to which point I would religiously watch my friends play on their Nintendo and Super Nintendo (my first console) or Sega systems. Mostly it was fighting games or the popular platformers, but occasionally somebody would have games that I found far more interesting, like Sim City or A Link to the Past. When I eventually became aware of RPGs as a genre, they totally consumed my life as I'm sure is the case for most people here, and this also happened around the same time that I became aware of anime through shows like Sailor Moon. Most of the games I played from then on were JRPGs and I was absolutely blown away by them, games like Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Earthbound, Final Fantasy etc. Later on as a teenager I got a PlayStation and spent entire summers and every free moment that I wasn't outside playing games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Suikoden, Lunar Silver Star Story etc. There were some handhelds in between and I only recently realized that I actually played Wizardry V on the Super Nintendo when I was about 8 years old, while for Game Boy and the later versions of it I was hooked on what was released in North America as the Final Fantasy Legend series, and I also didn't realize until very much later that a game I was crazy about called Revelations: Demon Slayer was actually a Last Bible game.
All this to give some background on where I'm coming from and to say that in recent weeks I've noticed that my interest in JRPs has suddenly returned. Having grown up on so many incredible games, at some point I just lost my passion for them (anime as well), they all started to blur together in my mind and feel like generally the same exact game with different skins, and I stopped playing them many years ago. There were only a few exceptions; Tactics Ogre, Persona 3, the first Disgaea and Valkyrie Profile for PSP absorbed much of my time shortly after my daughter was born, but in general I'd moved away from these sorts of games and anime as well. Lately however, I've been noticing just how many Famicom games, PC-88 and PC-98 games etc there are that look amazing, and I discovered the wealth of available English translation patches along with the software used to patch the games. I've been adding every translated patch file to my library that I can find, and now have hundreds of games that are in various stages of translated completion available to play.
The first game I decided to try was the first Shin Megami Tensei for the Super Famicom, and the first few minutes of this game blew my fucking mind. The music of the intro alone, and the party creation sequence, were so remarkable that I instinctively knew I was in the presence of a masterpiece and needed to pay close attention because we may only experience a work of art for the first time once. This led me into an interest in the MegaTen series as a whole which I'd long been peripherally familiar with, having played the one Last Bible game and Persona 3 Portable (plus my wife and daughter have played all of the newer Persona games as they release), but I am now determined to try the original Digital Devil Story games for the Famicom and the MSX and PC-88 versions, as well as look into the anime and I already started to read the fan translation of the first novel. That is a rabbit hole unto itself and I digress, but this got me realizing that there must be other post-apocalyptic JRPGs and I find this particular setting fascinating, so I am reaching out in the hopes that perhaps some of you might share your favorites? And even if there are games that you ended up disliking, I'd like to just get an idea of what has been made and which games ought not to be missed.
I don't know how many games with this sort of setting there are, really the only other multi-game series that I'm somewhat familiar with is Metal Max. I know there are games based on anime or manga that feature post-apocalyptic or even apocalyptic settings, like Akira, Appleseed, Devilman etc but I don't know how many are actually JRPGs. I've made a few posts in the main emulation thread about how I've been trying to get the PC-98 version of Last Armageddon to run properly, and this is precisely the ideal kind of game I'm interested in. I know that the Famicom version is the only one with a fan translation, but I find the whole thing just incredibly appealing to the point I don't even mind not being able to read what is happening; I already know the general plot of that game, and for me it is enough to just look at the graphics. The art style is so awesome and the different versions each feature significant differences in design and presentation with some even foregoing the first-person blobber perspective entirely. I thoroughly enjoy watching the introductory cutscenes and looking at the characters and inventory menus, the same way I could spend hours looking at screenshots in magazines as a kid.
Mostly my interest is contained to the earliest period of JRPGs up to about the late 90s or early 00s, as once games became predominantly 3d the magic is basically lost on me, though there are exceptions. But I am curious to learn what games might be out there from any year and for any system, I really just want to establish a comprehensive list of games that fit this criteria. So if there are any hidden gems out there I would be very grateful for anybody who can share their knowledge with me. I don't know if games like Xenogears or Chrono Trigger necessarily quality in this capacity, but if so then I would be interested in similar games to these as well. Thank you very much for reading, and please take care.
