1997 wrap-up

1997 was not a good year for SRPGs overall, at least for ones I like. I only gave A ratings to four games: Final Fantasy Tactics, Atelier Marie, TILK, and Shining Force III-1. Atelier Marie isn’t an SRPG and TILK got an A- because of how much I loved the story and atmosphere even though the gameplay was a total disaster. So that basically just leaves two games for the GotY choice.

And it has to be Final Fantasy Tactics. Not just because of the general importance and popularity of the game, but it remains one of my favorite SRPGs and was my introduction to the genre. Despite its flaws, I still think it’s great.

• 1990: Fire Emblem
• 1991: Langrisser
• 1992: Just Breed
• 1993: Super Robot Taisen 3 
• 1994: Langrisser II
• 1995: Riglord Saga
• 1996: Energy Breaker
• 1997: Final Fantasy Tactics

Still by coincidence (or is it?) all eight of the GotY are available in English.

1998 preview/list of games

As with 1997, this list is all Playstation and Saturn games. It’s interesting that the Game Boy is completely silent; the last game was March 1995 and it won’t be back until Puyo Puyo Gaiden in August 1999. The list includes some games that I suspect may not turn out to qualify under my rules.

1. Back Gainer Awakening (PS1) — this is another anime movie game made by the same people as Harukaze Sentai V-Force. I didn’t realize they had tried again.
2. Farland Saga (SAT) — Hopefully this is better than the previous Farland games.
3. REBUS (i.e. Kartia: World of Fate) (PS1)
4. Brigandine (PS1) — I think this is going to be disqualified like Dragon Force but I will try it (in the Grand Edition) and see if I like it.
5. Sakura Taisen 2 (SAT)
6. Shining Force III Scenario 2 (SAT)
7. Tokyo Majin Gakuen: Kenpucho (PS1)
8. Langrisser 5 — not sure if I will play the Saturn or PS version.
9. Back Gainer Flight (PS1) — The second of the Back Gainer games; there were supposed to be three but the third one never came out so the story is incomplete.
10. Masumon KIDS (PS1)
11. Seirei Shokan: Princess of Darkness (PS1)
12. Bounty Sword Double Edge (PS1) — Sequel to the SFC original.
13. Epica Stella (i.e. Vanguard Bandits) (PS1)
14. Gojin Senki (PS1)
15. Valhallian (SAT)
16. Wachenroder (SAT)
17. Black Matrix (SAT) – Flight Plan’s first SRPG; I love Summon Night but have never tried this. There are several ports; the Dreamcast version seems to be the one that has the best reputation so I may play that.
18. Houshin Engi (PS1)
19. Oda Nobunaga-Den (PS1) — The fourth of the Eiketsuden games and the last one to be released on consoles.
20. Shining Force III Scenario 3 (SAT) – This is the final Saturn game I will be playing.
21. Guardian Recall (PS1)
22. Farland Saga 2 (PS1)
23. Atelier Elie (PS1)
24. Robot Senki Brave Saga (PS1)
25. The Doll Princess of Marl Kingdom (i.e. Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure) (PS1) – This does not qualify as an SRPG under my rules but I may play it anyway because it looks interesting.

Rejected games:

• Monster Seed – I’m having a hard time understanding what kind of game this is; it doesn’t look like it qualifies for me despite being listed as a TRPG on Wikipedia. Let me know what you think.
• SRPG Tskuuru – Just a construction kit.
• Hyper Fishing – This has grid-based battles but it’s not an SRPG.
• SD Gundam G Generation – I think I said this in an earlier preview but I am only going to play the SDGGG games that are SRW-style “mix the series together in one plot”.
• Dragon Force 2 – I stopped Dragon Force for not qualifying as an SRPG so I’ll skip the second entry as well.

As I said in an earlier post, progress will be slow for a while. I’m going to focus on Super Famicom games to finally finish up that project, although I do intend to play an occasional SRPG.