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Shining Force: Resurrection Of The Dark Dragon (GBA)
This welcome remake of the Mega Drive classic may not have the depth or difficulty of Fire Emblem, Tactics Ogre, or indeed a range of other SRPGs available for the GBA, but in many ways, that’s all part of the game’s charm. This is a game you play for the pleasantly chunky and deeply colourful pixel art, for the sake of seeing Max and his titular Shining Force overcome the evil machinations of Darksol. Tactical thinking is still necessary if you want to succeed, but copious resetting due to an unlucky crit is not.
Summon Night: Swordcraft Story (GBA)
Well worth the three-year wait between the Japanese and Atlus-handled US release, this thrilling mix of world-saving, father-honouring adventure with dungeon exploring, weapon crafting, and a battle system that looks and plays more like a side-scrolling action game is a true highlight in the genre that stands out from the crowd no matter how many other GBA RPGs are already weighing down your shelves. The sequel is also worthy of investigation.
Dragon Quest Characters: Torneko no Daibouken 2 Advance (GBA)
Who could resist Dragon Quest’s timeless charm combined with the irresistible gameplay of the Shiren the Wanderer series? It may not reinvent the roguelike wheel, but when the gameplay’s already this good it doesn’t need to; everyone going in already knows to tread carefully, use items wisely, and hope they don’t wander into a deadly Monster House along the way – and if they don’t this is as good a place to start as any. There is sadly no fan translation of this Japanese exclusive portable version currently available, although the PlayStation version of the same game did receive a US release under the title Torneko: The Last Hope.
Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation (GBA)
The unworkable tangle of multi-series licenses prevented previous entries in this popular line of SRPGs from leaving Japan, forcing fans of hot-blooded tactical mech action to procure games on import or silently appreciate from afar – until the 2006 release of this original-units-only GBA title finally made the game available in English. As well-designed as capably plotted as any other Super Robot Taisen featuring a more famous selection of mechs, this customisable multi-plot adventure is a must-play for any fan of any part of this polished package.
Black Matrix Zero (GBA)
The GBA may not seem to be short of isometric SRPGs, but as far as problems go, it’s one we wish more formats had. This Japanese exclusive tactical clash of the winged and the wingless naturally results in even more religiously-charged plot than the mighty Final Fantasy Tactics, and the engaging multi-height battles are sure to keep anyone staring into their GBA’s screen until the battery fades away. A partial English translation is available, enabling users to at least navigate some of the menus.
Tales of Phantasia (GBA)
A practical blend of the SNES original with some of the later tweaks present in the (Japan only) PlayStation remake, the international release of Phantasia in 2006 finally allowed international fans the chance to play through Cress’ adventure and experience where this popular series began. With the action-based Linear Motion Battle System present and correct, portable gamers could enjoy the game’s fantastically energetic brawls for themselves as they marvelled at the big and beautiful sprites within.
Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen (GBA)
Notable for being the first "enhanced remakes" of previous entries in the Pokémon series, FireRed and LeafGreen take the Game Boy originals and transform them into something truly spectacular. While the monochrome titles always felt like they were limited by the hardware, these GBA updates allow the artistic vision to shine through via some eye-catching hand-drawn graphics and catchy music. If you're a total newcomer to the franchise and are looking for an "old school" entry point but aren't keen on slumming it with the black and white originals, we'd argue that these titles serve as the perfect introduction to the world of Pocket Monsters.
Zone Of The Enders: The Fist Of Mars (GBA)
Hideo Kojima’s PlayStation 2 sci-fi mech action series was always the perfect setting for some quality dialogue-heavy SRPGing, and The Fist of Mars' tactical take on Orbital Frame action proves it. The IAS – Interactive Action System – is an innovative nod to the game’s real-time, slash ‘n’ shoot roots, enabling pilots to line up their own shots or avoid incoming enemy fire for themselves rather than rely on dry statistics to keep them safe.
Yggdra Union: We'll Never Fight Alone (GBA)
If there’s one thing you can expect Sting to do, it’s the unexpected, and Yggdra Union is no exception to that rule. Notable for its strong visual style, unusual battle mechanics, and general difficulty, there’s really little like this tale of a sword-wielding princess out to reclaim her kingdom other than the game’s own remakes – even it’s own DS spinoff, Yggdra Unison, plays differently to Union’s thrilling multi-unit battles.
Riviera: The Promised Land (GBA)
Riviera, Sting’s first entry in the Dept. Heaven series, first released on the WonderSwan Color in 2002 and there it would have likely remained if Nintendo’s GBA hadn’t the graphical muscle to handle the game’s gorgeous sprites and striking redrawn character portraits. A range of limitations force players to carefully consider their battle team as well as which items to bring along with them, and multiple endings ensure this is well worth playing through more than once.
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Comments 58
Tactics Ogre was included. I don't hate you.
Okay okay. I've got to say this. A british Nintendosite using american box art in their articles!!! BLASPHEMY! 👈😁😉
I was almost hoping, seeing Kimimi was handling the list, that it was going to be only the remaining untranslated titles.
I have tried multiple times over the years to get into (and understand) Super Robot Taisen for the GBA, but that game is super dense in information both story and mechanics that I have zero clue what's going on in the game. I even have the booklet and read over it and everything. It's a shame because it's giant robots and strategy. What's not to love about that?!
great list! had the GBA bug in a big way recently so this will only add fuel to the fire
Why does the picture above show Primal Groudon instead of the regular one considering Primal Groudon only exists since the remakes, not the originals?
Love, love, LOVE the GBA Fire Emblem games. I find they have the most enjoyable stories, art, and animations of all the Fire Emblem games I've played. Sacred Stones is my favorite.
Yggdra Union on the thumbnail gave me good-bad shivers. Such a beautiful punishing game. Never managed to finish it
Glad Riviera made it on this list even if it wasn't on the survey!
So happy Lunar made the list. I still own the game but the battery is dead I absolutely LOVED IT. One of my favourite jrpgs of all time! Not only on gba.
@mariomaster96 I don't know what you could possibly mean...
Please take me back to these days
Also tales of phantasia gba sucks. Don't play that version
Really enjoying these RPG round-ups of all the consoles. Cheers NL
been collecting gba games and so far the rpgs i have:
final fantasy i&ii dawn of souls
final fantasy v advance
final fantasy vi advance
final fantasy tactics advance
golden sun
golden sun the lost age
pokémon leafgreen
pokémon emerald
lunar legend
phantasy star collection
sword of mana
breath of fire
The ability to play a number of these games on my TV is the top reason I'm excited for the Pocket Analogue, which will never be in my pocket, but only in the dock. Gonna go to town on Golden Sun. And Summon Night. And Riviera. And...
I was a youngster when the GBA was new so the only RPGs I’ve played were the Pokémon titles. Regardless, Emerald (or Ruby or Sapphire, doesn’t matter too much which version) is one of my favorite games of all time. I also loved Leaf Green.
Honorable mention to the Mario sports titles for having RPG modes. I didn’t have the GBA versions growing up but I heard they’re great fun so I’ll definitely be nabbing them soon, and specially because I’m such a big fan of Mario Golf!
Surprisingly good picks here, especially Robot Wars OG and Shining Soul 2.
@JJ_Brum You're very welcome!
@Radbot42 As it's been added for this piece, you should be able to vote for it in the survey now!
Really happy to see both Riviera and Yggdra Union on the list. They are as awesome as they are strange.
I agree Mother 3 is an amazing achievement for the GBA, but I'd much rather prefer seeing games with official English translations being there. I would've had Medabots Metabee/Rokusho on the list, not because it's better than Mother 3, but it is in English and is a fine and unique game with great audio quality for the GBA. Heck you can even find it on the Wii U eShop last I checked.
Also apart from Kingdom Hearts and Shining Soul we don't see as many Action-RPGs on the list as we saw on the DS list. If action RPGs are allowed I'm suprised Boktai isn't there instead of, again, some Japan-only titles.
Currently playing Mother 3 on my modded 3ds. Amazing game. Highly recommend you play the fan translation as its NEVER coming to the rest if the world
Wow, seeing Lunar Legend here is kind of interesting. Granted, I absolutely loved Silver Star in nearly all of its incarnations (never played the PSP version), but Legend was like a Cliff's Notes version of the story; it just felt too pared back in comparison, but I could see how it might stand on its own without that frame of reference handy. It also had this great glitch/oversight/whatever where you could save, turn off, turn back on, and restore your game, and your party's HP and MP would be completely recovered. Challenge, BEGONE.
I recently replayed both Golden Sun titles as I do every year, really can't stress enough how great those games are.
Great list. This makes me want to sit down and play all of these right now!
Mmm, so many good memories. I cherish Golden Sun to this day, and Superstar Saga, Fire Emblem, and Pokémon Sapphire were all terrific. It's unfortunate that the later installments often don't match those heights (the other Mario & Luigis were never quite as good, the third Golden Sun was all over the place and not very visually pleasing, and while I still adore the Fire Emblem series I think the storylines have been pretty downhill since the Wii era... though, to be fair, I still need to return to Three Houses.)
The games on this list are what cemented GBA as one of my favorite all time systems. I think it had a much better selection of RPGs than future Nintendo consoles, just a huge number of classics. Golden Sun, Tactics Ogre, Mario and Luigi, Fire Emblem...I even remember playing Riviera. Other games like ZOIDS Legacy and Car Battler Joe even gave me hours of fun.
"and played a part in securing the now-expected translated releases of all the Fire Emblems that came afterwards"
Too bad that didn't extend to Heroes of Light & Shadow, but it would thankfully become available in English anyway.
And props for featuring one of my personal favourites on the respective platform this time - Summon Night Swordcraft Story dilogy (third one isn't even unofficially patched to date, alas) is damn BRILLIANT. The battle system goes beyond the article's oddly vague description (suffice to say, it plays a lot like a linear 2D Tales one but with one character, not counting the summon beast's support moves), and the first game put quite an emphasis on the endurance meter to the point where it was possible to tactically outlast and break every boss's signature weapon - meaning an expected victory PLUS a respective blueprint to craft! And I hear games get bonus points for same gender relationship options these days? Pratty and Sugar are pretty much canon, good luck finding another such example back in GBA days.😄
Overall, despite some quite classic and franchise-kickstarting examples in the two previous portable generations (Color even had a Star Ocean game crammed in, as well as a less known but peculiar Metal Walker that blends Pokemonesque monster collecting with a battle system that plays like StreetSmash with billiards mechanics), IMHO it's Advance that started the age of portable consoles being RPG treasure troves. So much awesome stuff.
Golden Sun 1 and 2 are still some of my all-time favourite RPGs. I wish the series would be revisited or re-made for Switch. The DS 3rd game was ok but wasn't as great as the GBA originals.
Got the majority of the English ones except FFVI, Lufia and the PKMN games. Looking forward to my Analogue Pocket’s arrival so I can give them a bash.
Although will stick to playing Lunar on the Vita.
Erm what exactly is controversial about the "CGI characters" in Golden Sun? That's literally the first time I've ever heard that.
@Schizor88 Not only that, many of these games were never released in PAL regions as far as I know...
Still, I did play a great deal of the games listed, and it's a good list.
Still waiting for a worthy sequel to Golden Sun 1 & 2.
A worthy one. I was really put off by the points of no return and knowing I saw a djinn before that but not knowing I wouldn't be able to go back.
@Schizor88 I'm British and American, so
NINJA APPROVED
Golden Sun 😍 God those games are so good, I really should go back and replay them sometime
Golden Sun 1 and 2 are by far my favourites. Loved Pokémon Sapphire too, even though I thought I was fed up with Pokémon at the time.
Couldn't put down Final Fantasy Tactics either.
Golden Sun and its sequel are two great Dragon Quest clones. Nintendo did well to take advantage of the fact that Square wasn't interested in releasing Dragon Quest games outside of Japan. Capcom also capitalized on this with their first two Breath of Fire games. But those are better on the SNES than on the GBA.
Shining Soul and its sequel are two Diablo-likes that are quite fun.
And of course, Zelda: The Minish Cap is an awesome action RPG.
Stay away from the remakes of Final Fantasy V and VI. Play those on the SNES. And the best way to play the Phantasy Star games is on their original hardware.
I remember sitting in the corner behind the sofa, the non-backlit GBA angled at 45 degrees to catch some light from the corner lamp, going through AA batteries at a furious rate. Yet probably the most fun I've ever had as a gamer. Emerald, FFTA, FFIV-VI, FE, etc. great RPGS. Wish I'd kept all my games. Really want to fire up the above plus Mario World, Zelda, Advance Wars, etc.
I added the following to my GBA wishlist...
Golden Sun
Golden Sun 2
Super Robot Taisen
Super Robot Taisen 2
Sword of Mana
Summon Night
Summon Night 2
I'll play Tales of Phantasia on SNES.
@tankymctankus Same here. After adding an HDMI adapter to my Gamecube, logically I also need to go back and play some GBA games. Also looking forward to the Analog Pocket sometime this year that I was lucky enough to grab last year.
They forgot to add Zelda in this list
Zelda: a link to the past is the best Action-Adventure-Exploration feat. RPG for Gameboy Advance.
This is a really great list. Anyone reading this would think the GBA was a better RPG handheld than the DS - but I’m not sure that’s true. For all the great GBA titles here that were JPN only - and there are more than a few - there were probably three times as many DS titles we never got to see. Metal Max, SaGa, Xenosaga... Sigh...
But this list is a good reminder of why I would much prefer to see GBA titles come to Switch online over N64. Golden Sun, Fire Emblem, FF Tactics Advance - yes please!
@TheWingedAvenger Okay, but why exactly do you think the original versions of those Final Fantasy games are better?
In any case, I can't play FFV on SNES.
SMT: DemiKids. Light and Dark versions. Has some heavy difficulty spikes per every SMT game but it's a little simpler than others. It's like if a Pokemon trainer was isekai'd to literal hell. Has branching evolution paths for your starter monster and all the usual SMT things; compendium, fusions, bargaining. I love it and still have a copy of Dark version.
No Metroid Fusion or Zero mission? For shame
pulls out GBA player let’s do this!
@Nico07 oh damn! i'd need the patience of a saint to wait for something i'd paid for last year! the analogue pocket is a very beautiful looking handheld though
@BulbasaurusRex
There are two huge drawbacks to the GBA versions of FFV and FFVI: screen crunch and worse music. The SNES versions are the only way to go. They work well on the mini consoles, such as the NES Classic Edition. Just emulate them. Or play them on the PSP with headphones.
I think it's criminal that Battle Network or Boktai weren't included.
@SnackBox The Battle Network games aren't really RPGs. They're more straight-forward action games with some minor RPG elements like random encounters and arsenal management. Plus, there's only one playable character respectively in both the human and net worlds, so it breaks the "role playing" part of the definition.
@TheWingedAvenger Neither of those things are deal breakers, so they're still close in quality when you consider the additions and enhancements that were made. Besides, it's still the only legal way to play FFV in English in the West, and I'm not about to pay multiple times the price for an SNES copy of FFVI (or III as it's known on that system) or to get an SNES Classic just because of those issues. Maybe I would've gotten the SNES version on the Wii VC, but that's no longer an option.
@BulbasaurusRex They are more of an RPG than Zelda which is contested as to whether it is or not and fairly sure that having a limited pool of characters to play as is the be-all and end-all otherwise you'd exclude a lot of games.
@SnackBox Not many people consider Zelda games to be RPGs, either. Those arguing as such are a small minority. Obviously, NL doesn't think so, otherwise "Minish Cap" would be on this list.
Really? Maybe there are a few exceptions, but what RPGs can you name with only a single playable character (keeping in mind that games like "Pokémon" still have you actually battle with many different creatures)?
@TheWingedAvenger I've never heard anyone claim Golden Sun was a Dragon Quest clone. How is it possibly a Dragon Quest clone? The puzzle elements, the djinn system, the art style, battle perspective, plot direction, even the battle system.. none of them are even remotely like Dragon Quest, at least not any more so than simply both being turn based JRPGs. And I'm not saying it would be an insult. I really like Golden Sun and I'm also a huge Dragon Quest fan. I'm always up for more games like Dragon Quest. But.. clone? I am also aware that two of the producers of Golden Sun worked on some of the earlier Dragon Quest games, but that doesn't make them clones.
@Deltath
The graphics, setting, focus on exploration and overall upbeat atmoshpere make the Golden Sun games Dragon Quest clones in my book. They added small things, because of course they had to add something. Dragon Quest had been absent on Nintendo systems since 1990, and some developers noticed and capitalized on it. Capcom made Breath of Fire I and II for the SNES because they saw money in making Dragon Quest games that would have no competition on the SNES in America. Camelot/Nintendo realized that was a good strategy, and since Square was releasing Dragon Quest on Playstation, they released a couple of clones on the GBA. If I were wrong about this, the Golden Sun series would still exist. Dragon Quest is back on Nintendo, and I suppose Nintendo doesn't think the games can compete with the real thing.
@TheWingedAvenger Many Nintendo franchises don't currently have entries being made and it's not because a stand-in exists. There are countless reasons for lack of Golden Sun other than just you being right. As for the reasons you stated for it being a clone... The graphics are not even remotely a clone of Dragon Quest and neither is the setting. I'll admit the setting is somewhat similar, but that isn't what being a clone is. And exploration is a common element in a majority of JRPGs, as is the fantasy setting for that matter. Genre trends aren't the same as being a clone. In gaming terms, it's being virtually identical in every way. Not just being in the same genre. Even if Golden Sun was made to fulfill a void left by Dragon Quest, which isn't a fact, it doesn't make it a clone. Sega made Sonic to fill the market desires for games similar to Mario, but it isn't a Mario clone. Same with Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, which still isn't a clone of Dragon Quest even though it shares more in common with it than Golden Sun.
@Deltath
There were two types of turn-based RPGs until about 20 years ago. On one hand, the sci-fi ones, which were usually darker and had a gothic atmosphere. On the other hand we had the medieval ones, which were usually bright and upbeat. Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest were really opposites in that sense. There were very few games in those two categories. The ones that fell into the second category were so similar to DQ that it's hard for me to call them anything other than clones. A lot of RPGs don't have overworld exploration, so when I see one that does, and has lots of other DQ characteristics, I call it a DQ clone. The similarities between Golden Sun and Dragon Quest are as numerous as those between Breath of Fire and Dragon Quest. Why do you see Golden Sun as its own thing?
@BulbasaurusRex Didn't NL do a talking point very recently? The poll results showed it wasn't that small that do think so. But even the general definitions of RPG don't restrict the amount of playable characters.
What immediately comes to mind is pretty much any of the Soulsborne games, Kingdom Hearts, Bethesda RPGs and the Divinity games.
BN has a quest, character growth and build choice (via styles/ deck, navicust etc.), fantasy/ scifi questline and side quests to boot, it might not be a conventional RPG but got the base there.
Hey I need help I'm finding the game I played decades ago it's about a book of chronicles rpg,military,fantasy game.Pls help me I want to play it again i forgotten the title
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