Got my new retro handheld emulator. It's an Anbernic Arc-D. Just got 50 GB of roms loaded from my personal currated collection and I kind of think I wanna jump into some jrpgs I can play on the couch when I wanna decompress. Right now I'm looking at starting with GBA titles since I missed that whole era but I'm mainly looking for any suggestions up to PS1 era. I've played all the main ones like Chrono Trigger and FFVI but open to anything.

My current line up is looking like Mario RPG, Mother 2 And 3, and Golden Sun.

What are some other bangers I should definitely check out?

Also the Arc-D is dope as fuck. Stock firmware isn't even that bad.

E: thanks all for the suggestions! Gonna currate a list this morning and probably start with Golden Sun before diving into the rest. A lot of gems I recall missing out on when I was a kids too that I'm eager to jump into.

  • nemmybun [she/her]
    ·
    6 months ago

    I rarely play JRPGs these days but I played a ton back then. Listing ones I haven't seen mentioned yet:

    SNES

    Lufia 2

    Breath of Fire 2 (find a retranslation patch)

    PS1

    Suikoden 2

    Saga Frontier

    Star Ocean 2

    Breath of Fire 3 & 4

    Grandia

    Valkyrie Profile

    Lunar

    Xenogears

    Koudelka (didn't play this one but I had a friend that loved it)

    If you like tactical RPGs, Front Mission 3 and Vandal Hearts.

    • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
      ·
      6 months ago

      Koudelka is a masterpiece just because there's nothing else quite like it. It's an attempt at making a survival horror RPG.

      Parasite Eve maybe, that's also in the same vein. God I love these games

    • roux [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      6 months ago

      My copy of BoF2 is the USA version so I think it's already a translation? I don't know if I ever actually booted it up so I need to check that out.

      The PS1 titles are hitting me right in the nostalgia so I need to grab those and redo my .m3u files for my PS1 folder.

      • nemmybun [she/her]
        ·
        6 months ago

        There's an official translation, but it is notoriously bad and possibly the worst on the SNES. It's a great game tho so it's worth patching with a fan translation

        • roux [he/him, comrade/them]
          ·
          6 months ago

          I think I'll need to dust off my patching chops. There is an online tool for patching that I used a while back that I think I have saved somewhere.

            • roux [he/him, comrade/them]
              ·
              6 months ago

              Dang lol wish I would have seen this comment like 10 mins ago before I manually patched BoF2 lol! I'm saving this archive tho because this is awesome. Thanks!

      • TheLepidopterists [he/him]
        ·
        6 months ago

        Just gonna throw out that if you like SaGa Frontier, and also like more traditional fantasy settings (vs the weird modern-scifi-urban fantasy gonzo kitchen sink of SF1) then SaGa Frontier 2 is, in my opinion, an even better game.