Good PS1 Action RPG's??...

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Mon May 09, 2005 5:40 pm

The only one's I know of are Alundra and The Legend of Mana. The first one is highly praised, but a lot of people seem to dislike The Legend of Mana.

Are there any others worth checking out? Alundra 2 doesn't seem to get much love either.

serge · Post by **serge** » Mon May 09, 2005 5:50 pm

How about Vagrant Story?

UnscathedFlyingObject · Mon May 09, 2005 7:33 pm

The Legend of Mana is a really pretty game. Sadly, that's all it's got. The couple of hours I doze off on it ('tis the cure of insomnia) were a total waste. It's pretty much a button masher and the long loading times didn't help. If you take into account that back then I was a RPG fan, I'm seriously overrating it now.

Castlevania Symphony of the Night goes highly recommended.

@serge: If you want to be grammatically correct, your sig should read "Detrás de tí imbécil!".

serge · Post by **serge** » Mon May 09, 2005 8:01 pm

Thanks UFO, fixed! I know how to write it, but never remember how to enter those symbols on a standard en-us keyboard (alt+code). So I just copy-pasted it from you post.

Zach Keene · Post by **Zach Keene** » Mon May 09, 2005 9:17 pm

Legend of Mana seems to be a love-it-or-hate-it kind of game. Put me in the "love it" camp. Unfortunately it isn't much of a challenge, which sort of makes the weapon tempering/pet raising/golem building all kind of pointless unless you find the process fun in and of itself.

(After beating the game you get a difficulty select, but all it really does is up the HP and attack of the monsters; if you weren't getting hit much before all that'll happen is that the monsters will just take longer to kill.)

It's got one of my all time favourite soundtracks though, which I'm listening to as I write this.

roushimsx · Post by **roushimsx** » Mon May 09, 2005 10:24 pm

I don't hear Castlevania Symphony of the Night called an action RPG often, but man, that's exactally what it is. Awesome awesome awesome awesome game.

Alundra was a disappointment. It's also one of the few times that Working Designs actually IMPROVED a game in the translation process...the bosses were only half as tedious as they were in the japanese version (thank fucking god).

LoneSage · Post by **LoneSage** » Mon May 09, 2005 11:11 pm

It's not a PS1 game, but Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim is pretty awesome. You should check it out.

landshark · Post by **landshark** » Tue May 10, 2005 12:47 am

LoneSage wrote:It's not a PS1 game, but Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim is pretty awesome. You should check it out.

I saw that 2 weekends ago at Fry's... I wasn't sure what type of game it was. Might pick it up now.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Tue May 10, 2005 1:48 am

The main problem with Legend of Mana is that the enemy AI is almost non-existant. On the higher difficulty levels, the enemies' experience levels increase, but the AI stays the same. You have to get good weapons to beat them quickly, but avoiding attacks is much easier and beating bosses is more of a test of endurance than a test of skill. The weapon and armor creation is very deep, but it's designed around a game with terrible enemy AI.

benstylus · Post by **benstylus** » Tue May 10, 2005 2:04 am

Brave Fencer Musashi is my favorite PS1 game.

And it just so happens to fall into the category you're looking for.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Tue May 10, 2005 2:24 am

Thanks for the input guys!

Yeah, I'm mainly concerned with the PS1 Action RPG's listed on this site:

http://www.square-enix.com/na/game/ps/

Any comments on any of the other action RPGS on this site, aside from Legend of Mana and Brave Fencer Musashi?

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Tue May 10, 2005 3:31 am

LoneSage wrote:It's not a PS1 game, but Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim is pretty awesome. You should check it out.

Oh yes, I intend to get both that game and PS2 Shining Tears, once they both drop in price.

I'd also LOVE to try out Virtua Quest. Some people say that it sucks, but I personally have a pretty hard time believing that ANY game Yu Suzuki was involved with sucks.

benstylus · Post by **benstylus** » Tue May 10, 2005 3:38 am

dave4shmups wrote:Thanks for the input guys!

Yeah, I'm mainly concerned with the PS1 Action RPG's listed on this site:

http://www.square-enix.com/na/game/ps/

Any comments on any of the other action RPGS on this site, aside from Legend of Mana and Brave Fencer Musashi?

I also like Threads of Fate. It's another one of those really good games that nobody ever played. The two different storylines are a nice touch too because both characters have completely play mechanics. Plus it's got all the story and charm you'd expect from a great Square game.

I found Ehrgeiz to be a mediocre fighting game with a mediocre RPG attached to it. The graphics were right nice though.

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Tue May 10, 2005 3:47 am

The JP ones like Brave Prove suck. Blaze & Blade is esp. crap. You're not missing anything from Japan.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Tue May 10, 2005 4:05 am

Thanks again for the input.

Any opinions on Virtua Quest?

roushimsx · Post by **roushimsx** » Tue May 10, 2005 4:26 am

benstylus wrote:I found Ehrgeiz to be a mediocre fighting game with a mediocre RPG attached to it. The graphics were right nice though.

I never much got into the Playstation version because of the over abundunce of Final Fantasy crap thrown in to sell copies, but I played the piss out of it in the arcades. I loved it when kiddies would come up and find out that Cloud was unlocked and automatically pick him because he had his huge ass retarded sword... poor kids never knew what hit them once I broke Ionba out on their asses.

Even before the FFVII characters were unlocked, I was owning Yoko kiddies with Inoba. Awesome awesome character that no one ever played. Meh.

then again, I really like Dream Factory's fighters (Tobal, Tobal 2, Ehrgeiz, UFC 1 and 2... etc) *shrug*

shariar07 · Post by **shariar07** » Tue May 10, 2005 5:51 am

Dude Valkyrie Profile is the best Action Rpg game for PSX, and Xenogears is another gem, you must play both of these very cool battle mechanics its turned based but you dish out the combos and create your own super combos, trust VP and Xenogears are the top 1 and 2 Action Rpg games for PSX Period!

UnscathedFlyingObject · Fri May 13, 2005 8:02 am

I wouldn't say Valkyrie is the greatest thing since slice bread, but it is a damn fine game. It's original, somewhat challenging, and has some awesome characters. Imo it is the pinnacle of Tri-Ace's RPGs. Nevermind the tediousness at times, small towns, and not enough character development for all the characters.

This week I bought YS: The Ark of Napishtim (thanks to the people who bought the stuff I was selling). I hate the backtracking but it is another "damn fine game(tm)." It's very playable and there's tons of dialogue, most which is optional (yahhoooooo!!!). I heard it is short, though I don't care; I like my games short and sweet, and in the four or so hours I've been playing, I've met two awesome bosses which kicked my ass several times (I'm playing hard here with no ridiculous leveling up).

After playing some YS, I want to play Brave Fencer Musashi again. That game was cool, though it was easy-ish. I really liked some of BFM's features: level limit per section of the game, stealing enemy abilities, and some good bosses.

FatCobra · Post by **FatCobra** » Fri May 13, 2005 2:37 pm

I know it's a PS2 Action RPG, but has anyone played Shining Tears yet? I thought that game looked like fun to play.

umi · Post by **umi** » Sun May 15, 2005 2:33 am

You HAVE to get Alundra 1... you must... one of the coolest rpg's ever :P

dementia · Post by **dementia** » Sun May 15, 2005 5:16 am

Although it's been mentioned already, Brave Fencer Musashi is amazing

Davey · Post by **Davey** » Sun May 15, 2005 8:13 pm

Can anybody recommend good side-scrolling Action RPGs? This genre seems to be dominated by overhead and isometric games. Not that those viewpoints are inherently flawed, but they usually lead to less action-oriented gameplay (or less skilled swordsmanship, anyway).

Call me insane, but I still think Zelda 2 is the best Action RPG ever. The only other one I've liked nearly as much is Wonder Boy in Monster World, which is really light on the RPG elements. It seems the closest thing to these games is the Castlevania series, which I could never get into.

I've tried some of the supposed greats (Landstalker, Alundra, Brave Fencer Musashi), but they never hold my attention long enough to actually finish them.