good action rpg's for Genesis

Pshooter · Post by **Pshooter** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 8:06 pm

what were some good action rpg's for the Genesis? (one's that have leveling up and stat building like Diablo). I've heard Faery Tale Adventure and Beyond Oasis are good?

StealthNinjaScyther · Wed Jan 04, 2006 10:23 pm

There's Landstalker, but that's more of a platforming game, though it has RPG elements and basic structure. Then there's King Colossus, which is Japanese only, though an english patch was recently released.

E. Randy Dupre · Post by **E. Randy Dupre** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 10:47 pm

Story of Thor was good fun. Or was it Legend of Thor? One of them was for the Megadrive, the other the Sat. Can't remember which was which. No levelling or stat building, mind - very much in the Zelda style of RPGing, only with a Streets of Rage scrolling beat 'em up flavour to the combat.

<edit>

Actually, I think Beyond Oasis is what the US version of Thor was called, yeah?

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 11:50 pm

E. Randy Dupre wrote: Actually, I think Beyond Oasis is what the US version of Thor was called, yeah?

Yeah. Fantastic, but not much stat building.

Fatal Labyrinth is a brutal stat building dungeon crawler. Kind of annoying and plain.

Andi · Post by **Andi** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 11:53 pm

Beyond Oasis doesn't have much RPG to it at all - no complicated stats or anything like that. It's more like Zelda.

Exile is an okay side-scroller with stats and a level up system. Sword of Vermillion plays like a very old school RPG but has overhead arcade style battles. It's quite fun but sometimes can get repetitive. I would recommend both if you are really into the genre.

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 11:59 pm

E. Randy Dupre wrote: Actually, I think Beyond Oasis is what the US version of Thor was called, yeah?

Yes.

And yeah, Beyond Oasis is pretty much the best ARPG although Landstalker got quite some fame in its heyday (although I find it mediocre myself). Light Crusader is also available as Treasure's weak entry/departure into RPGs (but it is like Diablo in the sense that the whole game essentially takes place in a dungeon). Exile, Sorcerian, and Ys III are decent but very short sidescrolling ARPGs yet both feel awful compared to their PCE incarnations. Then you have Crusader of Centy, which is an uninspiring Zelda clone. Avoid Super Hydlide...

Basically, IMO, Beyond Oasis is definitely worth a play, Landstalker is definitely worth a look, and everything else can sorta be skipped over.

theevilfunkster · Post by **theevilfunkster** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 12:10 am

Story of Thor is a really damn fine ass game. You should look out for Soleil too, that one also rocks quite hard.

it290 · Post by **it290** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 12:22 am

I'm a big Arcus Odyssey fan myself. It's more of an action game as well, but has some RPG elements like hit points, character classes, magic and so forth.

Also, Gauntlet IV for the Genesis is basically like Gauntlet II (and can be played in arcade mode which is just like Gauntlet II), but also features an RPG mode where you can power up your character and have to complete a quest.

Neo Rasa · Post by **Neo Rasa** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 3:59 am

Story of Thor is good stuff.

The title always makes me think of Storm Lord.

Also how can people not mention Ys III: Wanderers from Ys?

Not fantasy if that's what you're looking for, but definitely check out Shadowrun.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 4:04 am

How was Thor on SS? The press here was less than enthusiast about it back then.

landshark · Post by **landshark** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 4:23 am

Sword of Vermillion is 'sorta' an action RPG. You have to fight every battle manually.

I remember some people liking Super Hylide as well - though I got stuck in it.

TVG · Post by **TVG** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 4:36 am

landstalker is very good, quite a bitch, but we're on a shmup forum, so that's a good thing.

TWITCHDOCTOR · Post by **TWITCHDOCTOR** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 6:46 am

Andi wrote:Beyond Oasis doesn't have much RPG to it at all - no complicated stats or anything like that. It's more like Zelda.

Exile is an okay side-scroller with stats and a level up system. Sword of Vermillion plays like a very old school RPG but has overhead arcade style battles. It's quite fun but sometimes can get repetitive. I would recommend both if you are really into the genre.

I ws going to say Sword of Vermillion...but, I guess you beat me to it. Oh well, one extra vote.

Damocles · Post by **Damocles** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 6:52 am

Surprising that no one's mentioned Cadash. It's a pretty bad version compared to the arcade original but I found it oddly entertaining.

*shrug*

Neo Rasa · Post by **Neo Rasa** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 7:28 am

I'm surprised more people aren't mentioning Shadowrun.

it290 · Post by **it290** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 9:46 am

Thumbs up on both Cadash and Shadowrun. Ditto most of the others mentioned. Being a huge Cadash fan, I actually quite like the Genesis version... it looks a whole lot better than the Turbo version, and although there are two characters missing, the rest of the game is faithful. I always found the Ninja to be near worthless (although he looks cool) and the Priest to be overpowered, so I guess I don't mind just having the Fighter and the Wizard since they're my favorites anyway.

How was Thor on SS? The press here was less than enthusiast about it back then.

It's pretty good. The gameplay is quite well done, with a couple of enhancements over the Gen/MD game, but it feels less cohesive somehow. The graphics I don't like as much, they're nice overall but a lot of scaled sprites are used and it has lost the clean cartoony look that Beyond Oasis had. Overall I'd say BO is definitely superior, but it's still well worth playing if you like Zelda style games. Definitely better than other Saturn ARPGs I've played, such as Shining Wisdom and Dark Savior.

E. Randy Dupre · Post by **E. Randy Dupre** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 6:04 pm

Ganelon wrote:Light Crusader is also available as Treasure's weak entry/departure into RPGs

I got a lot out of Light Crusader - I honestly don't think it's anywhere near to being as bad as a lot of people make out. The ending sequence is one of the biggest anti-climaxes ever, but everything running up to that point is a good laugh. Very reminiscent of some of the games from Rare's 8bit days as Ultimate: Play the Game - Alien8 especially.

Pshooter · Post by **Pshooter** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 7:02 pm

Damocles wrote:Surprising that no one's mentioned Cadash. It's a pretty bad version compared to the arcade original but I found it oddly entertaining.

*shrug*

Can you save your character's progress and stats in Cadash?

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 10:19 pm

Pshooter wrote: Can you save your character's progress and stats in Cadash?

No. Then again, you couldn't in any version.

As for Shadowrun, definitely a hot pick. I totally forgot about it...

Sword of Vermilion sucks. It's AM2's test entry into RPGs and while innovative in many respects, fails horribly in execution with grating sound, jerky controls, forgetful plot, and boring gameplay. It's a shame though since the first-person world, top-down towns, real-time battles, and sidescrolling bosses make for nice touches.

Andi wrote:Beyond Oasis doesn't have much RPG to it at all - no complicated stats or anything like that. It's more like Zelda.

More like Zelda except that Zelda doesn't even have stat increases based on exp. (itself based on battles), making it debatable whether it's an RPG or not (a debate we WON'T be having here of course).

Andi · Post by **Andi** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 12:17 am

Ganelon wrote:As for Shadowrun, definitely a hot pick. I totally forgot about it...

Shit, I forgot too. Shadowrun has a really nice non-linear plot and a great sense of freedom. The character advancement system has some great aspects of customization too and the ability to hire whomever you want into your party is nice. Plus, the Shadowrun world is great and pretty well developed in this title.

Ganelon wrote:Sword of Vermilion sucks. It's AM2's test entry into RPGs and while innovative in many respects, fails horribly in execution with grating sound, jerky controls, forgetful plot, and boring gameplay. It's a shame though since the first-person world, top-down towns, real-time battles, and sidescrolling bosses make for nice touches.

I think that's a little unfair. It certainly seems primitive in terms of graphics and game play but there is fun to be had if you really like exploring mazes and battling creatures. Again, I can only recommend it for genre fans though.

I think Light Crusader falls into the action/adventure category with Beyond Oasis. Although it's a fine game, it the lacks detailed statistics that would make it an RPG.

scrilla4rella · Post by **scrilla4rella** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 5:03 pm

Shadowrun is the games that got me into RPGs back when it came out for Genesis. Too bad, I never found another RPG like it again.

Awsome game, I just love running up in the big corporate buildings and blasting up the security.

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 6:50 pm

Andi wrote: I think that's a little unfair. It certainly seems primitive in terms of graphics and game play but there is fun to be had if you really like exploring mazes and battling creatures. Again, I can only recommend it for genre fans though.

Well, yeah, the interactive real-time battles are innovative, perhaps even predecessors to stuff like the Tales and Star Ocean games. But the hit detection is so inaccurate that there's just no fun in them. The encounter rate is so high though that battling becomes tedious. And the boss battles are great, like Legend of Xanadu, but the controls kill it for me there.

Actual mazes (like the towns) wouldn't be bad but a block maze is just tiring IMO (as is the block-based world map). And there's no one-button presses to do hardly anything...

It was made in 1989 or so I respect its age but PSII was a hell of a lot better in nearly every way except innovation. And to have the gall to inform players how to record the awful in-game music...

gameoverDude · Post by **gameoverDude** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 2:58 am

Damocles wrote:Surprising that no one's mentioned Cadash. It's a pretty bad version compared to the arcade original but I found it oddly entertaining.

*shrug*

The only bad thing about it IMO is the absence of the Priestess and the Ninja. The Ninja is my favorite character in the arcade version especially after you power up his weapon a few times.

Thankfully the game does have graphics and sound that are truer to the original than the TG-16 one. Taito should've gone with a 6 Meg cart to make sure all the characters stayed in.