Jap ARPGs

Make sure you get the 60fps patch for Terranigma unless you know Japanese. It never came to the US unfortunately, only a 50fps Euro version.

Also you should check out Beyond Oasis for the Genesis as well as its sequel on the Saturn.

Just found one pre-patched that also has a fix for the text apparently, thanks for letting me know.

Beyond Oasis looks cool. As for the sequel, I'm playing these games on emulators. I've never tried Saturn emulation, how is it?

From what I've tried with SSF, the emulation itself is good, but it eats up a ton of CPU power. I can't remember if it was Mednafen or RetroArch or whatever, but apparently one of them have experimental Saturn emulation that works great but I've never personally used it.

Don't forget Seiken Densetsu 3 once you're done, if you're not sick of SoM's gameplay. More combat options with some light replayability.

Actually, Final Fantasy Adventure on the Gameboy is where you should start. That is technically Seiken 1 and still a mighty fine game. Not sure about the GBA remake, tho.

Star Ocean 1 and 2, the 2D Tales games(Phantasia, Destiny, and Eternia(AKA Destiny 2)), and the Mana/Seiken Densetsu games are all good.

Definitely give Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia, and Terranigma a try. They were made by one of the original Ys devs.

I'll have to try out the Mednafen core of retroarch. If it works out well for that game I'll have to check out some more Saturn games, I've always wanted to give Panzer Dragoon Saga a try, but that's off-topic.

Anybody have any opinions on the GBA port? Is it butchered or is it pretty good? I'd rather play a newer version if I'm being honest

Thanks, I'll check all of those out. I didn't know one of the original Ys devs worked on them, that's pretty interesting. I also didn't realize that those games had anything to do with Actraiser, that's cool as fuck.

Play Nayuta no Kiseki.

Just figured I'd mention that of the 2D PS1 Tales games, they get more fluid in handling as the release order went (Destiny, Phantasia PS1, Eternia). Destiny can feel a bit clunky, while Phantasia PS1 made an effort to make melee more fluid, though summons and spells (above initial rank) still interrupt the flow of combat. Eternia features fluid, fast paced physical and magic, with summons and "Divine Skills" (Hi-Ougi in Japan, and what would later become known as Mystic Artes as standard terminology for the western releases) keeping the interruption to signify importance. While Destiny came west (for the PS1; the apparently excellent PS2 remake and Director's Cut were left Japan only, but have a fan-translation in the works), Phantasia was left Japan only like the SFC original. It has not one, but two different fan-translation patches for the PS1 version, a serviceable one by Absolute Zero, as well as one by Phantasian Productions that was meant to feel like an actual official quality script (and includes a hacked in Technical Ring, which helps a lot with making the game feel more fun; Semi-Auto combat is shit compared to the full control Manual setting gives). Eternia came to NA on the PS1 as Tales of Destiny II (as another user already stated), and the PSP port came to Europe (I've heard Ubisoft botched one or more prints of it with a game ruining bug). Like most console Tales, barring Phantasia SFC and Legendia, those all allow for co-op combat, though Eternia makes it more readily accessible (compare a quickly found key item granting it, compared to equippable accessories being needed).

Sword of Mana isn't a port. It's reimagining, featuring an alternate plot route if you choose the girl as the protagonist. I liked my time with it, but I might mention I haven't played the Game Boy original, and from what I've seen Sword of Mana has been a bit love it or hate it. There's a more direct remake on the Vita to my knowledge, but since it was based on the mobile version, Square was too lazy to adjust the interface, leaving huge icons cluttering the screen (most likely to be easier to hit with fingers tapping a phone screen). I honestly haven't heard that much about if it's good or not aside from that.

you wouldn't make him play Street Fighter 1 to get into fighting games would you?

Thanks for the info on the Tales games, I definitely wanna give them a shot. Also yeah I fucked up, I meant remake rather than port.

The entire main series (as well as many of the escort titles) for Tales all feature real-time combat, though the 2D ones are left/right scrolling combat while the 3D ones use a 3D field and a line of approach with the targeted enemy (Abyss and later games adding free run to allow for manual movement and repositioning of said line). The early games (up through the PS1 entries, I mean) are probably best either emulated, played via loader/burned discs, or as eboots on a CFW PSP (Eternia again does have a native PSP port). Phantasia of course didn't come out here on that system (and of the two times we got it, as a frankensteined GBA port, and a shekelgrubbing iPort of one of the PSP releases, both were bad), but neither Destiny or Eternia have PSN versions, and physical copies of each are pretty expensive ($75-100 for Destiny where I live, and $90-120 for Eternia).

I might also mention that the most refined version of Phantasia, Tales of Phantasia X, was bundled with a full remake of Narikiri Dungeon (originally a GBC spin off) on the PSP. Absolute Zero has a project to translated both Tales of Phantasia X and Narikiri Dungeon X, but both are on the backburner for now, since Thoroughim has (wisely) opted to wait until they finish with Tales of Destiny DC to continue with them, having decided he doesn't want to just be known as "that guy that translated Phantasia multiple times" if he "got hit by a car and died" or something. Destiny DC also being a high demand fan-translation also provides more reason to stick with that one. As of now though, the PS1 version still remains the most refined version of Phantasia with full English patches (and won't eat your wallet like the iPort, which I actually don't think is available anymore, it was so badly received).

Trails of Heroes of Legends of in the Skies of Cold Steel is pretty good.

Are there any jap ARPGs with the accent on random loot and class building, like in diablo clones?

Only one I can think of and it was a game boy color game I think, whose name currently escapes me. You could break the loot calculator by giving yourself negative luck and get basically maximum luck. That's all I remember. I thought it had randomly generated dungeons and I remember it could be very hard if you wanted it to be.

PSO

fuck off meth addict

How does Shining Soul work as an ARPG? what about Shining Soul 2?

Record of Lodoss War: Advent of Cardice.

I'm not going to make him play anything. I played Seiken 1 and thought it was a good time, therefore I recommended it. We're not talking about the Street Fighter series, nigger. Try to pay attention.

I can't imagine it being very complex game, but still curious about it. Try to remember the title please.

I played some of it, but it's just too damn clunky and ugly. Early 3D games didn't age well. I also didn't find any skills or any other elements of class building in there.

No.

That looks better than PSO but still pretty terrible. Also dreamcast emulation is a huge pain in the ass.

Says you.

I can look past the graphics, but interface and control scheme in such games are usually just too bad to have fun with.
And in PSO in particular combination of janky animations, obtuse controls and a huge hassle that is just launching a mission just make the entire business anti fun.

So King's Field is out then?

Do Alundra, Brave Fencer Musashi, or Vagrant Story count?

First two are zelda clones so no.
Vagrant Story active pause combat so also no. It's more of a CRPG really, but without the party and active pause being mandatory.

Shining Soul 2 on GBA is great.

Soma Bringer is probably something you'd like.

Final Fantasy Adventure is good, has some nice exploration, simple puzzles and the story has its perk. Sword of Mana (the remake) looks way better, of course, and expends on the story and offers two slightly different scenario, but is brain-dead easy once you get the healing spell… either around 5% in the game or as your starting kit, depending on story.
Music is rad in both, however, so there's that!

Are there any hacks for sword of mana? The game had potential, but it's all wasted because it's babby mode

None that I know of, sadly. Or rather, there's one… removing the Level up prompt for Level 1 runs…

Welp, that sucks. Guess I'll stick with the SD3 one

Mana series has garbage gameplay/writing with good music. It's really not very good to be completely honest.
Try the Quintet games instead if you're after some SNES titles.

It's been very good for over a decade. SSF is the best atm (highest accuracy/compatibility and lowest requirements) and there is also Mednafen which is great too.

Outta here with that shit.

Soul Blazer is so damn good. That whole loosely-connected quadrilogy is godlike.