Role-playing games gave always been at the forefront of the gaming industry. There is something magical about RPGs that renders players unable to stop playing them. Over the years, the RPG genre has become one of if not the biggest gaming genres out there. From Square Enix's Final Fantasy games to Atlus's Persona franchise, from CD Projekt Red's The Witcher series to FromSoftware's Elden Ring, RPGs have come a long way.
Today there are dozens of franchises that can offer amazing immersive RPG experiences with their enhanced gameplay and visual upgrades. However, something about older RPGs just hits differently. RPGs back in the day were simpler in style and gameplay, but were brimming with charm, and that is what made them so memorable. Looking back at RPGs from a few decades ago not only reminds players of how far the gaming medium has come but also makes them appreciate the classic style of RPG games in all its simplicity. Here are a few great RPGs that are now officially thirty years old, having come out in 1992.
5 Soul Blazer
Soul Blazer was an action RPG developed by Quintet and published by Enix. The game puts the player in the shoes of a divine hero who must destroy monsters that have taken over the world and release the souls of the humans that once inhabited that world. The hero, known as Blazer, then ventures to free a series of towns by slaying monsters via the traditional turn-based fights in the dungeons under the towns.
The gameplay requires the player to defeat the main monster of every dungeon to release the souls of a town's inhabitants. Once the souls are freed, the town is then reconstructed and the player can move on to the next location. The game was received quite well at the time of its release, with many reviewers giving it decent scores. One reviewer gave Soul Blazer a score of 8.75 in the Game Informer Magazine.
4 Fire Emblem Gaiden
Developed by Intelligent Systems, Fire Emblem Gaiden was the second installment in the popular Fire Emblem Series. The game was a tactical RPG released in March 1992 and built upon the turned-based gameplay from its predecessor. It also introduced some new elements like a navigable overworld. Fire Emblem Gaiden sees players take control of two opposing armies in the land of Valentia, which is plagued by political unrest.
Like most RPGs at the time, Fire Emblem Gaiden used a traditional turn-based battle system, where players, NPCs, and enemies each took turns to attack. Players were given a unit of limited but unique characters each serving a special function in the battle. The game was released for the NES but later received a port for the Wii. A remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden, titled Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, was released in 2013 for the Nintendo 3DS, and received a Metacritic score of 81.
3 Shin Megami Tensei
Before Persona, there was Atlus's original demon-catching RPG, Shin Megami Tensei. The game was released in Japan in 1992, but the West would have to wait until 2014 to receive an iOS port of the game. Shin Megami Tensei was the third game in the Megami Tensei series, but the first with the Shin title. The game starts in the city of Tokyo in the 1990s, and then jumps thirty years into the future to a post-apocalyptic version of the city, when an interdimensional rift had caused demons from another world to appear and wreak havoc.
Shin Megami Tensei was a dark fantasy game that used a mix of first-person navigation, dungeon crawling, and turn-based combat. The players could either kill the demons, or negotiate with them to recruit them. Players could also fuse demons to create stronger ones. Shin Megami Tensei was praised for its gameplay and difficulty.
2 Dragon Quest 5
Developed originally by Chunsoft, Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride was the fifth mainline Dragon Quest game and was released in September 1992. It was the only Dragon Quest game to not be released outside of Japan at the time of launch due to programming issues. The game's main storyline spanned three decades of its main character's life, starting from his birth, all the way to his married life. This was the first Dragon Quest game that allowed monsters from random encounters to join the player's party, much like the Megami Tensei series.
Dragon Quest 5 does not do much to change its core turn-based formula, but polishes that formula to near perfection. In the original version of the game, a total of 40 monsters could join the player's party. The story of Dragon Quest 5 is also hailed as a timeless classic and is considered one of the best in the series. What starts off as a journey of a father with his son soon turns into an adventure that transcends generations. The DS-ported version of Dragon Quest 5 retained a score of 84 on Metacritic.
1 Final Fantasy 5
Square Enix's Final Fantasy franchise is regarded as one of the best in the RPG genre, with several FF titles competing for supremacy. Final Fantasy 5 was the fifth mainline entry in the series released in Japan in 1992 for Nintendo's Super Famicom. The game was a traditional JRPG with its turn-based combat and heavy emphasis on plot. Final Fantasy 5 had a medieval fantasy setting and saw a group of characters come together to stop an evil from destroying their world.
Mysterious crystals said to contain an evil power, known as the Void, began to shatter as the antagonist Exadeath prepared to release himself from imprisonment. Four strangers then banded together as Warriors of Light to stand up against Exadeath and his plans to use the power of the void. Final Fantasy 5 expanded upon the Job System introduced in previous entries, and used the Active Time Based system, in which time moved continuously for both the player and their enemies. Final Fantasy 5 is often overshadowed by other FF titles, but is a must-play for fans of the JRPG genre.