Trying and failing to play Legend of Dragoon has made me want to play a lot of original PlayStation RPGs that I have little memory of playing or may not have played at all. I think I’m going to start with Chrono Cross. I know I played it, I remember being at the point of RPG oversaturation. It blended in with the rest and was probably near the end of when I stopped liking turn based RPGs. I’m definitely going to emulate this one unless the switch version is worth picking up.
My question to you folks is: what psx era RPGs that aren’t final fantasies should I play in this run? My only strong dislike is if the battle system is solely based on using weaknesses and buffs/debuffs in order to win. This is about not thinking, not overthinking Are the Lunar games worth it? I know I at least tried to play them but I have little memory of it.
Ones that will not be included in this run are Star Ocean Second Story, any of the Final Fantasy games (except maybe ix, I barely played it) and Grandia. I love and have played them too many times already. Please recommend any that you can think of and you consider worth while to play even if they don’t stand out as being great
Chrono Cross is fantastic. I haven’t played around with the Radical Dreamers edition yet (so can’t comment on things like the visuals in a direct way), but since it does include Radical Dreamers, that’s the way I intend to revisit the game whenever I get around to Chrono Cross again
That’s probably what I should do since I don’t even know what radical dreamers is. It’s a shame that the PC port is a disaster apparently with a lot of reviews saying that it crashes or freezes reliably. I’ll have to find a console version.
Radical Dreamers is sort of a prequel story that introduces some of the characters / sets up the story of Chrono Cross. We never got it in the west (unless it got a UK release I don’t know about), and it was a focal point of online discussions about the game back in the day because we didn’t have the “full” story
I’ve always wanted to check it out, but I keep forgetting I have it on my PSN account, lol
Also to answer the thrust of your question more generally: there’s always the original Valkyrie Profile, and I have a lot of fondness for Legend of Mana, too
I got the Radical Dreams edition on the Switch the day it launched which is rare for me and loved it. The fast forward option was amazing and the game even with its flaws plays so nicely on the small screen in handheld mode.
I had played Radical Dreamers already with the old ROM patch, this translation was a bit tighter and read easier for me.
I’d say if you see it on sale get it and have a blast to a game that was quite something and then some!
YES! Definitely. I definitely played it but not since it came out and I remember only having to read the word mitochondria about a thousand times. It’s on the list.
@tom OK! I’ll pick it up. There’ll probably be a switch store sale this summer too.
@Death_Strandicoot Yes, Suikoden 1 and 2 are definitely on the list. I never played them. By the time I found out about them mid ps2 era, they were already more than I wanted to spend.
This is a new one for me. I know I played shadow hearts but somehow never even heard of Koudelka. It’s possible I did know about it but back then never ran across a copy and promptly forgot it ever existed.
I think I might start with Koudelka. My recovering goth ass might relapse with this survival horror RPG. I’m going to have to hook my PC up to a CRT for this one unless my mister randomly shows up.
EDIT: thanks everyone for your input. So much that I forgot about or didn’t even know about. Please keep replying if you’re inclined. I’ll try to make sure to check back on this thread when I get back from the LSD easter party.
Koudelka has similar virtues to Parasite Eve in that both are singular, not really like anything else before or since, and are concise and undiluted. Suikoden II is much more of a traditional rpg so best suited to when you’re ready for one of those, though again it’s more concise than many (if not all) peer games. Agree with @Death_Strandicoot that you can skip Suikoden and just start with II given limited time/interest