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.
Mario RPG along with those two Mother games are great stuff.
I'd recommend some Dragon Quest games from that era as well. DQ4 is one of my personal favorite games, but it definitely shows its age a bit as a NES game. DQ5 is considered one of the best JRPGs ever made and I tend to agree. Don't know if you're including those in the main ones you've played, since DQ5 didn't get US release until much later.
Agree with @LaGG_3 about Ogre Battle 64, if you've enjoyed the resurgence of auto battlers lately, it's a game that did roughly about 20 years ago.
Fire Emblem had two great GBA games that I'd recommend. Blazing Blade was a little bit better in terms of story, but The Sacred Stones has an updated engine and better quality of life.
Lastly, Phantasy Star IV is a fantastic look at that 16-bit JRPG game design style. And might be a good change of pace from the high fantasy settings I've listed off so far with its more Sci-Fi thing it has going on. It also has those sort of unique anime cut scenes, similar to Ninja Gaiden, during the big story bits that's kind of unique for the genre.
Phantasy Star IV, you say? Never heard of it.
Edit: Eh, this was a dumb joke. I just finished my yearly replay of Phantasy Star IV, though, this time using a fan retranslation. I highly recommend it, I think they did an excellent job: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4171/
Interesting! I actually had not heard the translation was bad, but I suppose during that time they were all pretty bad in their own ways haha Will have to remember this the next time I feel like playing it.
I just grabbed DQ5 and have the earlier ones for NES(Dragon Warrior 1-4).
Also got Ogre Battle 64. I like strategy to some extent and last I played Ogre Battle I think I recall it reminding me a bit of the big battles from Suikoden, so I bet it will be fun.
I also checked and do have both Fire Emblems in my GBA folder, so might need to check them out.
And Phantasy Star IV is also on my radar along with Star Ocean for some more scifi fantasy as opposed to high fantasy.
Great suggestions, thanks!
The other GBA Fire Emblem, Binding Blade, is also pretty good. The other two GBA games are overall better, though.
Just checked and I have all three in my GBA folder. Binding Blade is a English fan translation too so that's cool.
Me finding games I actually already have since I have like 5,000 roms lol...
That's the main problem with those handheld emulators lol. I get awful choice paralysis.
For real. And my personal currated collection is actually only closer to 3,000 games but like that doesn't really make much of a difference. I think my entire rom collection is something like 120 GB which doesn't seem like a lot until you consider how small SNES and Genesis games were.
Those NES Dragon Quest games are really great for pick-up, put down. There's a fair amount of grinding, so you can just sort of zone out or stop whenever you want. DQ4 was, in a lot of ways, ahead of its time. It's the first JRPG I can think of that let you at least customize the gender of your character and the chapters-style story telling is really fun. Enjoy, man. I definitely wish I could experience some of those for the first time again, although maybe I'm just wishing I was a kid again haha
I'm sort of mad that I basically missed out on the Dragon Quest series as a kid since we were all about Final Fantasy for the most part. I think I am gonna start with DQ4 when I get to them. You are def selling me on it.