Gaming What GBA game would you recommend for someone who plays RPGs?

[ChibiHorsewoman]

[color=darkviolet]I'm getting my husband one of those little hand held game boys, but I have no idea what game to send along with it since the only video games I ever play are Sims and DDR . So that said I'm looking for suggestions.

Anything would help since I'm pretty much clueless in this kind of situation. At least I admit it.

Thanks in advance,
CHW

[FONT=Comic Sans MS]Chibi Horsewoman[/FONT][/color]

[Prince Van]

Well a good RPG/tactical game would be Final Fantasy: tactics advance or the pokemon games, oh and Sword of mana.

They are all high quality RPGs that involve clue solving and everything also the legend of zelda would be a good choice.

can't back my option up that much but I've played all of the aboves and think they are briliant RPGs but that's just my opinion.

[Muad'Dib]

A great RPG for the Game Boy Advance that I've seen my friend play (and played a bit myself) is Golden Sun. It's a lot like a Final Fantasy game, but a bit unique in the way some of teh magic and such works. It's a great game overall and very entertaining in my opinion. It has a sequel now I think.

[Shippou]

Truly one of the best RPGs that you can get for the gameboy is Dragon Warrior 3. It is very under rated in America but it is rediculusly big in Japan.

All of the Other Dragon Warrior games are quite amazing too. Especialy Dandon Warrior 7. But it is for playstation one.


Shippou

[Semjaza]

Dragon Warrior III is hands down the best GameBoy RPG there is, but I don't know how easy of a time you'll have getting it.

Personally, I'd look for Tactics Ogre Advance, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga, Harvest Moon (farming RPG, not for everyone) or Shining Soul 2 (good action RPG, the first is not that great).

I've never liked the Golden Sun titles, but Lost Age is better than the original.

[Charles]

Don't get Dragon Warrior III. It's targeted to a very specific audience. It's hardcore dungeon crawling and combat. Unless he's a veteran of this niche, the experience will be akin to a child attempting to run before it can walk.

Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga or any of the Zelda GameBoy titles would be a step in the right direction though. They're easy to pick up and play; their wonderful learning curves cater to any audience. These are the safest purchases.

[Guest ScirosDarkblade]

I'd agree with Charles. The Golden Sun games are also awesome, but for a newbie they're not quite as easy to pick up as Zelda I think. And, as involving as these other RPGs are, Zelda: A Link to the Past is still a better game overall.

[Semjaza]

I don't even consider the Zelda games RPGs in the normal sense. They're adventure games. I'd strain myself to even consider them action RPGs.

While I'm sure he'd like any Zelda game, I'm not so sure that's the type of game he'd be looking for in this situation.

[Guest CryptoNova]

My opinion would be to purchase the Fire Emblem game. Its the first US released game, the other 6 haven't been ported over. Fire Emblem is an excellent strategy/RPG title, and one of the overall best on the system right now, if I may say so. It has amazing replayability, and I've beaten the game several times, but it has never gotten old (mainly do to trying different characters).

[Zidargh]

I'm going to be different and just say Breath of Fire 2. I feel it will be more helpful to give you a selection to choose from.

Even though the game's not for everyone, it's a nice little RPG which has developed into a series of 5 games (Even though it was recently ported on GBA).

This isn't an RPG but it definitely has some innovation to it. It's more of a stealth/shooter, but not first person. It's a very unique title as it requires you to use [b]actual[/b] sun light to power up your gun. This game's name is [B]Boktai[/B] .

Hope I helped.

[BlueYoshi]

[color=teal]Well, ChibiHorsewoman, you haven't really said how your husband likes his RPGs, so I'll just run down a definitive over view of the best buys to my knowledge.

In terms of compatibility, you'd want to aim for a more mediocre designed type of game like the Breath of Fire series, or Pokemon even. They're simple to play and durable right down to the core. Plus, you'd spending more time actually playing than finding yourself in the menu mode enhancing your magic and stuff. You can get BoF at a pretty hefty price, too, which is always a good place to start.

Action RPGs like LoZ and the Phantasy Star series just feature your character running around and slashing your enemies as you build up your stats, whilst you pursue the objective of the task you?re on. They're simple but fun.

However, if you're looking for slightly more than that, then games that emphasises on both aspects would be Golden Sun, Golden Sun 2, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and Shining Soul. These offer more strategic elements to gameplay, so there will be a lot more planning before hand. The fact that these are games that concentrate more on an aligned and well-based story line means that you'll be dealing with more dialogue than action, so I'd suggest this category of games to the more patient type. FFTA, even if it's a much more narrow version of its predecessor, is most applicable to this spot since most of the time you will find yourself in your clan menu switching jobs, and buying and replacing weapons/armour. It gets really repetitive as you progress.

Finally, there're the adept games that require quite a bit of background knowledge. Obviously, it'll be hard for anyone to get a firm grip on them straight away, as it is for most RPGs, but you might want to avoid them until you're a little more experienced. Primitively, you'll be getting the whole package here on the basis of the genre, so presumably Dragon Warrior III is what you want. It's rare to find these types of games for the Gameboy though, particularly nowadays where it's all about graphics... :rolleyes:

All in all, your best bargain is with the first type that I mentioned, but to be honest, I'd just settle for LoZ: A Link to the Past as most of you will probably agree, heh.[/color]

[JCBaggee]

[QUOTE=ChibiHorsewoman][color=darkviolet]I'm getting my husband one of those little hand held game boys, but I have no idea what game to send along with it since the only video games I ever play are Sims and DDR . So that said I'm looking for suggestions.

Anything would help since I'm pretty much clueless in this kind of situation. At least I admit it.

Thanks in advance,
CHW

[FONT=Comic Sans MS]Chibi Horsewoman[/FONT][/color][/QUOTE]

[color=darkred][size=1]I just got Golden Sun: The Lost Age, and I must say I'm quite pleased with it. The graphics and control are great and the story is wonderful...bit difficult though.

Also, if you hold out a bit more, I believe we just got an official statement that Square-Enix will be re-releasing the remade Final Fantasy I and II on the GBA. I'll try to dig that up when I get the chance.

--Chris[/color][/size]

[Semjaza]

[quote name='JCBaggee][color=darkred][size=1Also, if you hold out a bit more, I believe we just got an official statement that Square-Enix will be re-releasing the remade Final Fantasy I and II on the GBA. I'll try to dig that up when I get the chance.--Chris[/color'][/size][/quote]

We have an old thread on that here. It's still a distance off for Japan, it definitely won't hit the US in time for her to bother buying it.

[ChibiHorsewoman]

[quote name='BlueYoshi][color=teal']Well, ChibiHorsewoman, you haven't really said how your husband likes his RPGs, [/color][/quote]

[color=darkviolet]Really bad oversight on my part.

My hubby's played Vampire the Masquerade, D&D and a few other dice games I can't quite remember the names of. Before 4thID (yes, he's 1stCav, but his gaming buddies from that group were 4thID) got their orders to deploy in April 2003 the group of guys he was playing with were going to try this star wars RPG. But then the army couldn't figure out when to send everyone. So that kind of fell apart.

He did a few online RPGs I think one of them was called Never Winter Nights and another one had to do with the military and doing out of the way recon missions. He also tried to do a LARP but that didn't work out to well.

I guess the best way to describe how Lincoln likes his RPGs is to say he'll try anything once, even if it's a badly orchastrated LARP.

I'm really appreciating all the feed back you guys are giving me. Hopefully I'll have something sorted out by the beginning of July[/color]

[Guest ScirosDarkblade]

Well if he's played Neverwinter Nights (and gotten the hang of it) then you can pretty much throw anything at him and he'll take it (as far as complexity goes). No turn-based game really has any more complexity than Bioware's D&D-based RPGs (which NWN is one of).

But once more I'm going to recommend Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past instead of an RPG, simply because it's better than the others in my opinion.

But if it HAS to be an RPG, then go for Golden Sun (which has a sequel, "Golden Sun: The Lost Age").

[Shinmaru]

[quote name='Yoko_Kurama']I would personally recomend Golden sun, Final Fantasy, .hack, and etc.[/quote]

But [i]why[/i] do you recommend these games? It's not enough to simply list the games - it doesn't really help anyone out at all. All you're doing is naming games, you're not naming the good and bad points of these particular games (and you're just naming game series, actually lol). So, please put a bit more effort into posts next time...if you have any questions whatsoever, feel free to PM me or any of the moderators at any time.

[Semjaza]

.hack isn't even on GBA as it is. Way to read the thread.

Considering his obvious interest in more "hardcore" RPGs due to his PC use, I doubt something as watered down as Golden Sun will provide much entertainment. As far as I'm concerned, the first is downright awful. The "sequel" (which really isn't one, it was all supposed to be one game originally... that's why there is no 2 in the title), is a vast improvement.

Shining Force was recently released for GBA (or will be shortly). At this point I'd recommend that, Fire Emblem and any game with tactics in the title.

[Guest ScirosDarkblade]

[QUOTE=Semjaza Azazel]Considering his obvious interest in more "hardcore" RPGs due to his PC use, I doubt something as watered down as Golden Sun will provide much entertainment. As far as I'm concerned, the first is downright awful. The "sequel" (which really isn't one, it was all supposed to be one game originally... that's why there is no 2 in the title), is a vast improvement.

Shining Force was recently released for GBA (or will be shortly). At this point I'd recommend that, Fire Emblem and any game with tactics in the title.[/QUOTE]

I play those "hardcore" PC RPGs, and I still loved both Golden Sun and GS: The Lost Age. And they're both good; the second one retains all of the first's mechanics and fundamentals. The world is just much larger and the combat system gets deeper about 80% of the way through.

Shining Force from what I hear is slightly disappointing. Which is too bad, because I loved Shining Force II for the Sega Genesis, but this one everyone says doesn't quite measure up. Maybe because at this point better "tile-based" tactical RPGs have been made.

Fire Emblem might be worth getting, though. I haven't played it, but based on what I've seen and heard, it's pretty good (although everyone likes FF Tactics more). ... So go for Final Fantasy Tactics or maybe Fire Emblem for the RPGs. Skip on Shining Force.

[Semjaza]

Eh. Hardcore game playing is all relative, I guess. Not very many people I know are willing to go between some of the more heavily realized PC RPGs to console style ones. Obviously there are exceptions. Both you and I are examples.

[quote name='ScirosDarkblade']Shining Force from what I hear is slightly disappointing. Which is too bad, because I loved Shining Force II for the Sega Genesis, but this one everyone says doesn't quite measure up. Maybe because at this point better "tile-based" tactical RPGs have been made..[/quote]

I don't know where, because quite honestly, everything I've read about it has been very positive. There's always places that review these types of games rather poorly because they simply don't like them... but everything I've read (from official sites and general people) has been positive and has said it's substantially improved over the original title.

[Zidargh]

Meggido, not to play Moderator or anything but you haven't helped a GBA player at all. All you've listed is games formatted onto Sony and (Possibly Gamecube) consoles.

People are going to probably hate me for saying this, even though I am a very big Square Enix fan, but I wouldn't recommend Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. In my humble opinion it lacks pretty much everything except for a nice interface and cute graphics. (Desbreko, nad kick me when I'm not looking.)

But yeah try out the Shining Force series, I'd like to hear what people think of it as I need a good GBA game to add to my collection.

[bishonenNEKO]

Id sen Golden Sun (1 or 2). They both keep your ming going for a long time, and its easy to get hooked. But there fun games, and you cant really get boerd with all the puzzles!! Well thats what i think. ja ne

[Shi no Tenshi]

if it hasnt already been said, legend of zelda. any of them. i thouroughly enjoy those games- not so complicated it'll cause a hernia, and not so simple you can piss on it and win. its got a pretty good storyline too.

[ChibiHorsewoman]

[color=darkviolet]This is helping a lot and I do thank you for the input. Who knows, this post could be helping other members as well...and maybe some day I'll stop being so perky at 2:15 in the morning.

I think I'm going to actually write up a list of the games recommeded and then hopefully we'll get the stuff out to Lincoln and he'll get a nice belated Birthday gift...or, El forbid the Iraqis will bomb another mail truck. They've done that a few times.

Once again, thank you very much, now I think i may actually do something really odd, like go to bed before 3AM[/color]

[Desbreko]

[QUOTE=Zidargh]Meggido, not to play Moderator or anything but you haven't helped a GBA player at all. All you've listed is games formatted onto Sony and (Possibly Gamecube) consoles.

People are going to probably hate me for saying this, even though I am a very big Square Enix fan, but I wouldn't recommend Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. In my humble opinion it lacks pretty much everything except for a nice interface and cute graphics. (Desbreko, nad kick me when I'm not looking.)

But yeah try out the Shining Force series, I'd like to hear what people think of it as I need a good GBA game to add to my collection.[/QUOTE]
[color=indigo]Zidargh is right; if you aren't going to recommend RPGs that are on the Game Boy Advance, don't post. *deletes the post*

About Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, though, I think the only thing it has going for it (besides the cool sprites) is its battle/magic system. It's definitely not for everyone, but for me at least, it was almost obscene how far I got sucked into the game. Even after I had completed every mission, and I was just doing battles for the sake of leveling up my characters to learn every ability I could, I was still having fun. (The fact that enemies get stronger as you level up, which keeps the battles from getting overly easy, helped that). The game's story may be horribly cheesy, but I think the gameplay is great. I've got 182 hours of play time logged on my game, and I still think about picking the game back up and playing a few battles every now and then.

But anyway, if you'd like to read more of my thoughts on FFTA, I've written a review of the game, which can be found [url=http://www.slownerveaction.org/1up/games/gba/ffta.html][u]here[/u][/url].[/color]

[BlueYoshi]

[color=teal]Also, about FFTA, don't even think about going for 100% completion unless you've got a friend or two who have got the game and can lend you a hand in trading rare items and stuff. You'll be stuck far beyond your imagination when you only need that one last mythril weapon to finish your character off.

But if that's not your style then the game is cool. Certainly not a developed story line but the gameplay and dynamics of it make it one of the best for the GBA.[/color]