5 Obscure RPG's You Must Play

Today we have a blog post by David Wyatt, a guest contributor. His post is pretty lengthy and comes packed with many screenshots and some videos from the games he recommends. You can read more reviews by David by visiting his website (see link at the bottom of his post.) I'll let David's post do the talking, so check it out after the jump!

5. Mystical Ninja: Starring Goemon

I know this doesn’t really count as an RPG but I believe it has enough RPG elements in it to count as such, plus every list has to have something slightly controversial on it and I believe its place here is justified, while being at the bottom of the list.

Mystical Ninja was an N64 Adventure RPG more akin to the Legend of Zelda games, and possibly the best choice outside of that series for this style of game. Based around the Goemon Japanese franchise, which itself is based off of the Ancient Japanese folklore hero, (think a Japanese Robin Hood of sorts.). Not that any of this matters as the game has no reference to anything else being a standalone tale (like Zelda) and the series itself takes the fokelore history about as serious as a Hollywood true story. For example the main character Goemon is famous for his pipe… in the game this pipe is the size of a steel pipe used to make buildings and even get upgraded to work like a chain sword!

The story of the game is actually completely insane and so hilarious that it’s a must play for that reason alone, your main objective of the game is to stop a gang called the Peach Mountain Shoguns from turning Japan into a fine arts theatre. The plot involves crazy mash up of concepts like kabuki theatre, giant robots and the ‘epic’ adventure; it’s all very Japanese and this is the only game in the series to make it into country, probably released to fill the game of games like the Legend of Zelda. The game follows the general Zelda style of progression as well, adventuring across Japan, fighting I real time against a number of enemies that try to stop you, you gain new weapons, explore dungeons and fight bosses using items found in those dungeons, so just like Zelda, while adding on top being able to switch between a range of characters and the afore mentioned giant robot battles which are first person sections.

It stands out as a game for its style as well, it’s very colourful and humorous, taking itself much less seriously than most other games, not afraid to have fun with its plot and characters which it makes it all the more fun to play. It’s also full of colour, every area and its inhabitants are shown in a rainbow like variety of colours which make the game pure eye candy as well, for the time it was released there was little else like it. While what I’ve said so far makes the game sounds like an action game more than an RPG, and I suppose most people would view it as such given its similarity to the Zelda games but it contains a lot of RPG is elements, even if a basic form, I guess in that respect you could also like it to Onimusha 3, a game that incorporated a few RPG ideas but still was a solid Action horror-esque game as heart. Either way if you can find it, it’s a mush play game, but be warned the camera makes the game awful at some points, shame it couldn’t copy that from Zelda!

4. Star Ocean: Till The End of Time

Star Ocean: Till the End of Time is the third game in the series and a PS2 game released in the second half of the PS2s life. It’s a traditional RPG with real time battles, like all the games in the series have been set many years in the future after Earth has ascended into space. This entry is particular infamous for its plot, which I’ll get into in a bit. But you essentially spend a high proportion of the game based on one planet, which is much less advanced, with people there not having attained space travel yet. However this does eventually lead you back into space and eventually you get the WTF plot point this game is famous for… There is no spoon!, or being more specific you don’t exist, your whole universe is nothing but an AI simulation and the creatures destroying the universe are nothing but programmers deleting your universe from the system because you’ve become too advanced! How’s that for a twist! It does actually follow up on that in a very decent amount of detail with all the controversy that goes with destroying you as you’ve come to be a living life form even though you’ve come from nothing but a computer simulation. It’s a massive contrast to everything that comes before it and is unpopular with series fans because of it but it’s very well told and that is what counts in RPGs.

A video from Star Ocean: Till The End of Time

Following in the tradition of Star Ocean games battles are in real time, unlike many other RPGs of the time. It generally is a mix of what a lot of current RPGs do, you roam around freely and enemies can be seen on the map, attacked or avoided. Once initialled you’re taken to a pre-set battle field where the action takes place. Battles are a mix of heavy sand light attacks while you can perform special attacks by holding buttons and you can switch between characters at any point during that battle (you control one at a time while your team controls the other two). One of the clever things about the game is there’s 2 ways to kill each enemy, HP or MP deaths. You can actually attack their MP bar and this emptying will gain you a kill, though the same applies to your characters it’s a refreshing way to shake up battle tactics. Like Final Fantasy games each game in the series features a new set of characters and story so there’s no reason why you can’t start your Star Ocean experience with this game, though finding the more recent Star Ocean The Last Hope (the 4th game) is probably easier and will look better with it being a next current gen game. I think this is actually the better of them... older games in the series are hard to find but defiantly worth playing as well but start here, I think is has a nice introduction to the universe and a great action RPG that forgoes the slow turn based nature of traditional games into something more accessible to RPG new comers.

3. Chrono Trigger

Ok I can actually here people crying out that this game should not be on the list. This game was popular, and a possible contender for the greatest RPG of all time, and if you’ve played it you know that, that reputation is well justified… However I’m willing to bet that if you think that then you’re probably reading this from the U.S. or Japan, because Europe never got a release of the game until 2009!... This was a SNES game for crying out loud, made by the God of RPGs Hironobu Sakaguchi and scored by Nobuo Uematsu when SquareEnix was still SquareSoft and just on the verge of hitting their peak when it came to RPG creation, so why did it never get a release in Europe? It only made it to the Wii’s Virtual Console last year, but all ranting aside let’s talk about why this game was so amazing for its time! The game is ahead of its time in many ways, creating a fantastic world many times over due to the game revolving on time travel, the world takes on a whole new look as you move throughout history, characters that were very developed and a combat system that was extremely fun and in depth.

The story in this game is nothing short of fantastic; even by today’s standards it still holds up pretty well, the game deals with a range of different stories within each time period as well as an overarching story based around saving the world from a creature destined to destroy the world. You meet all sorts of characters, recruiting them throughout history, even potentially recruiting a main villain if you choose to. It also has one of a rare distinction of a game that kills off its main character but due to the open ended nature of the story weather you choose to revive him or not are up to you. That in itself is one of the brilliant parts of the narrative, up to that point the main character Chrono is the lead, you always have him present and the game follows him, after his death the whole perspective of the game changes as narrative then follows the group as a whole for the rest of the game, even with Chrono’s resurrection.

The battle system its self deserves a special mention, many of the gameplay elements that were in this game have been adapted into current generation games. Examples of what made the game so great stem from combo team attacks between 2 or 3 people and characters moving around the battle field as the time gauges charge in between turns to make the battle seem more active than just people standing in one spot. At the time the fantastic gameplay of this game made it a very unique, there really wasn’t anything else like it.

It wasn’t just playable characters that benefitted from such great storytelling, even the bad guys were more than the average 2 dimensional evil archetypes that populated a lot of RPGs of the time, it’s actually possible to fight the last boss of the game as early as having the ability to choose what time you will travel too, though its near impossible to win the game also has a new game plus option which allows you to beat the game early, and given the time travel nature of the game you can have various ending (in the double digits, I’ve never seen them all!) based on where in the main story there are. Things like this were just not herd of in games of that time! It truly broke new ground in RPGs and gaming in general.

2. Resonance of Fate / End of Eternity

This Tri-Ace RPG breaks the mould in almost every way, if you’ve not herd of it I would not be surprised as its one of the unfortunate games that got lost amongst Final Fantasy 13, then probably covered up as second hand copies got put back on the shelf. But this for me was the traditional RPG of that year for me. It really comes out of the left field in everything it does, allow me to explain...

The story is never the main focus in the game, odd for a RPG but it actually works, though you might want to skip it if you love your big stories as you’ll be 4/5 of the way through before you get some of ­it and you’ll be reading Wikipedia for the rest. It essentially tells the tale of 3 friends who are guns for hire in a giant tower that spans miles into the sky. Humanity has learnt to survive by programming their life spans into quartz crystals, and if the crystal breaks you die so most people spend their lives searching for their quartz. None of this matters however as the story is far more personal for the 3 characters, the game is chapter based and each chapter reveals something about them and the world they live, generally through the most comical way possible.

However this isn’t where the game shines, that would be in the game play or more specifically the battle system. It’s actually a hybrid of traditional and tactics RPGs to start off with, however that all changes when at the push of a button you character starts running across the battlefield in real time shooting like crazy, you can run, jump shoot and even have all 3 characters do this at the same time for mega triple attacks, oh and there’s not a sword in sight! It’s all guns in this game, but tactically done, hand guns can kill but do little damage, machine guns to ‘scratch damage’ that needs to handgun shot after to do convert it into damage and grenades to do power area effect explosions ranging from elemental to poison.

There’s even a world map, but its turned into a grid like system made of hexagons; you’ll need to find hexes to unlock new areas and travel further, and doing so even get you free stuff so your well rewarded for exploring. Last but not least you have to mention the characters themselves; the main 3 are spectacular, the main lead being voiced by Nolan North (Nathan Drake of Uncharted fame) and many other fantastic voice actors. The extended cast for the game are fantastic and clearly enjoy their roles, not to mention you can fully customise your characters from clothing to eye colour, something you don’t see often in RPGs. This is a game that deserves playing, it’s hard... extremely hard but if you learn the battle system and stick with it it’s worth it for the experience of something that truly breaks free of the standard RPG archetypes.

1. Valkyrie Profile

It may or may not be a surprise that this hits the top of the list, again depending on where you’re from. Valkyrie Profile was a Tri Ace Playstation game, receiving high praise and reviews, that sold very well upon release but most of its sales by a long shot were in Japan, America came nowhere near as close despite selling in access of 100,000 copies… and Europe, well once again we hit the short straw and had to wait for a PSP port many years later.

So what’s it about; well you play as the titular Valkyrie; Lenneth. Sent on a mission by Odin to gather fallen warriors from Midgard and prepare them for the coming war of Gods; Ragnarok. Over time of course the story becomes personal to Lenneth as well but I’m not going to expand on the story for this in the hope you play it. Valkyrie Profile is different to most games in that the vast majority of it is played in 2D, towns and dungeons are 2D, feeling a little Metroid like when you traverse dungeons. Battles are a form of turn based but every character in the team shares 1 turn and you can make them attack one at a time or all at once for big combos.

Also unlike a lot of standard RPGs there are well over 20 characters you can recruit in all, while you’ll have to play on the harder settings to get most of them, every character receives a proper story as well, you see how they die, what makes them worthy to fight for Lenneth and Odin.

A video from Valkyrie Profile