Got my new retro handheld emulator. It’s an Anbernic Arc-D. Just got 50 GB of roms loaded from my personal currated collection and I kind of think I wanna jump into some jrpgs I can play on the couch when I wanna decompress. Right now I’m looking at starting with GBA titles since I missed that whole era but I’m mainly looking for any suggestions up to PS1 era. I’ve played all the main ones like Chrono Trigger and FFVI but open to anything.
My current line up is looking like Mario RPG, Mother 2 And 3, and Golden Sun.
What are some other bangers I should definitely check out?
Also the Arc-D is dope as fuck. Stock firmware isn’t even that bad.
E: thanks all for the suggestions! Gonna currate a list this morning and probably start with Golden Sun before diving into the rest. A lot of gems I recall missing out on when I was a kids too that I’m eager to jump into.
Mario RPG along with those two Mother games are great stuff.
I’d recommend some Dragon Quest games from that era as well. DQ4 is one of my personal favorite games, but it definitely shows its age a bit as a NES game. DQ5 is considered one of the best JRPGs ever made and I tend to agree. Don’t know if you’re including those in the main ones you’ve played, since DQ5 didn’t get US release until much later.
Agree with @LaGG_3 about Ogre Battle 64, if you’ve enjoyed the resurgence of auto battlers lately, it’s a game that did roughly about 20 years ago.
Fire Emblem had two great GBA games that I’d recommend. Blazing Blade was a little bit better in terms of story, but The Sacred Stones has an updated engine and better quality of life.
Lastly, Phantasy Star IV is a fantastic look at that 16-bit JRPG game design style. And might be a good change of pace from the high fantasy settings I’ve listed off so far with its more Sci-Fi thing it has going on. It also has those sort of unique anime cut scenes, similar to Ninja Gaiden, during the big story bits that’s kind of unique for the genre.
Phantasy Star IV, you say? Never heard of it.
Edit: Eh, this was a dumb joke. I just finished my yearly replay of Phantasy Star IV, though, this time using a fan retranslation. I highly recommend it, I think they did an excellent job: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4171/
Interesting! I actually had not heard the translation was bad, but I suppose during that time they were all pretty bad in their own ways haha Will have to remember this the next time I feel like playing it.
I love Zone of the Enders GBA, it is top tier like Golden Sun 1/2 for me. After that Dragon Quest 3 and Breath of Fire series took so much of my time growing up.
Just checked and I have Zone of the Enders so I added it to the list. Glad I’m not wanting to tackle all these this next year because this list is getting hella long. My IRL friend even suggested some Zelda games which I’ve always considered JRPG adjacent.
