Tag: Rpg
News This Guide To Japanese RPGs Is Amazing, And Also Out Of Stock
For now, at least
If you're a long-time reader of the site then you'll be familiar with the output of UK publisher Bitmap Books, which has produced the likes of Game Boy: The Box Art Collection and The SNES Visual Compendium. You may also be aware of the talents of one Kurt Kalata, who is a contributor to Nintendo Life via
Guide Best Game Boy / Game Boy Color RPGs
Rock and Role
The humble Game Boy was a revolution when it launched at the close of the 1980s. Despite its monochrome visuals, it offered true portable play, and played host to some amazing pint-sized versions of classic hits, as well as all-new experiences which played to the hardware's modest strengths. While the Game Boy (and its successor, the...
Guide Best Game Boy Advance RPGs
Advance to portable adventure
The SNES-like power of Nintendo’s GBA made it the perfect home for a fascinating collection of convenient ports of older favourites as well as enhanced remakes and all-new titles, running the gamut from colourful adventures to carefully woven tales of revenge and war. The list below represents what we think are some...
Dual-screen role-playing
The Nintendo DS is one of the most successful games consoles in the history of the industry, so as you might imagine, it's pretty well-stocked when it comes to RPGs. During its glorious lifespan, this dual-screen wonder played host to some of the best role-playing epics the genre has ever seen – and we've compiled a list...
A quest for the best
The 3DS may have been put out to pasture by Nintendo, but the retirement of a system isn't always a sad occasion – it gives you the perfect chance to look back on its impressively varied library with wonder; along with plenty of standout platformers, life sims, rhythm games, and puzzlers, the 3DS also carved out a particular...
Guide Best SNES / Super Nintendo RPGs
Flame spells at the ready!
The expansive software library of Nintendo’s 16-bit powerhouse wasn’t short of any of the most popular genres of the '90s, and perhaps least of all RPGs. Intense strategy, whimsical adventure, tear-jerking goodbyes to characters you’ve spent months with… the SNES has it all. And that makes compiling a list of ten...
Guide Best Nintendo Switch RPGs
The finest traditional-style Switch RPGs available to humanity
Nintendo Switch has amassed a huge number of quality titles across almost every category since launching back in 2017, and the RPG genre is certainly no exception. Below you'll find our picks for the console's essential role-playing games, in no particular order. This selection will...
Feature Upcoming Nintendo Switch RPGs To Look Out For In 2020
Still plenty more to come
Since launching in 2017, we’ve seen some outstanding games launch on Nintendo Switch, becoming home to many fine RPGs in the process. We’ve previously explored the best Nintendo Switch RPGs and best action-RPGs, but 2020 alone has already been filled with great examples, and all catering to the different sub-genres...
News A Brand New RPG From The Creators Of Pokémon Is Coming To Switch
With the working title of 'Town'
A surprise announcement came during today's Nintendo Direct where Game Freak, world-renowned for their development of the main series Pokémon titles, revealed Town, a new RPG coming to Nintendo Switch in 2019. Set entirely in a small village under rule of a castle, this new RPG explores the aftermath of invading...
Hands On Prepare For the Fight of Your Life in Octopath Traveler
Eight ways to die
JRPGs have been having a bit of a renaissance recently haven’t they? The genre’s been dying for a good bit of mixing up, and we’ve seen a bit of that in games such as Bravely Default, but with Octopath Traveler things have really begun getting refreshed. The same basic mechanics you’d expect from a turn-based JRPG are...
Video Get Ready For The Launch Of Ever Oasis With This Lovely Trailer
Roll with it
To celebrate the release of Ever Oasis on 23rd June for the 3DS, Nintendo has put together a charming overview trailer to get you excited. This new game from Koichi Ishii, the renowned creator of the acclaimed Mana series of RPGs, will bring its own twist to the genre. Below is part of the press release. Ever Oasis is...
News Cat Quest Claws Its Way to Switch eShop Soon
Sounds purrfect for Switch
In a recent Cat Mario video published on Nintendo's Japanese YouTube channel, it was revealed that The Gentlebros Games' Cat Quest would be clawing its way to the Switch eShop in the foreseeable future. For those not in the know, Cat Quest is a 2d Open World RPG set in the fantastic and wonderful world of cats...
Feature Best Nintendo 3DS RPGs
A quest for the best
As the 3DS's sixth year in the world draws to a close, we can already look back on its impressively varied library with wonder; along with plenty of standout platformers, life sims, rhythm games, and puzzlers, it's also carved out a particular niche by delivering an almost non-stop barrage of first class RPGs. Responsible for...
Video Take a Look at Paper Mario: Color Splash in All its Polychromatic Splendour
Infinite coins and an upside down world
Paper Mario: Color Splash may already be available for a few lucky customers in North America, but that doesn't mean there's not plenty to indulge your senses in should you not fall into the aforementioned category. We've been playing through this and have been picking out some fun sections for videos. Below...
Too Burnt To Be Good
Remember when random encounters, grinding for money and to level up characters was a thing in RPGs? ASH sure does. ASH starts with some rather vague storytelling. The game drops players into the Empire of Aghaus with control over two characters, Nicholas and Damien. It's hinted that Nicholas is a former member of Aghaus'...
News 7th Dragon III Code: VFD Arrives in North America on 12th July
Surprisingly, this one's not from Atlus
A couple months ago, SEGA announced 7th Dragon III Code: VFD for Nintendo 3DS in North America. While the game's premise is certainly a bit off the wall – you travel through time to fight dragons, or something like that – it looks like an interesting choice for any fans of the RPG genre. Previously, we...
Review Mario & Luigi: Partners In Time
Fun for all ages
It takes quite a lot of star power to be able to co-star with yourself in something. The upcoming Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam is set to show that our favourite plumbers are not lacking in this department, but it's not the first time developer AlphaDream has pulled a similar gimmick! For that we should look to Mario & Luigi:...
An Ys-y purchase
The RPG genre is still rather popular, with several big-name releases arriving every year. While these are usually grand spectacles, Fairune keeps things quite simple. As with many "retro-esque" games these days, it attempts to emulate the look and feel of a classic '80s game, and that comes with matching game mechanics. Combat is...
Review Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth
Mapping your psyche
Atlus’ Megami Tensei series has been an RPG institution for over two decades, but to Western audiences it’s perhaps best known in connection with a numbered pair of revolutionary PlayStation 2 titles: Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 and Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4. Starring modern Japanese high school students and integrating...
Review Golden Sun: The Lost Age
The Return of the Prodigal Sun
Back in 2001 (2002 in Europe) some players were left feeling short-changed when Golden Sun reached its abrupt ending. Developer Camelot – perhaps better known for the Shining Force series – had to split the game into two parts due to the Game Boy Advance’s hardware limitations. Those who’d already invested in...
It’s a wonderful Life
Fantasy Life, Level-5 and Brownie Brown’s life sim and action RPG, is a game with a long and storied history. Originally announced in Japan for the Nintendo DS/DSi generation of consoles back in 2009, it spent three years in development, seeing a platform upgrade to the Nintendo 3DS, finally releasing in Japan-only on 27th...
Review Inazuma Eleven GO: Light & Shadow
Shiny new kit
In Japan, Level-5 is one of the masters at maximising franchises through games — typically on portable systems — and TV shows or films, continually keeping the storyline going and producing regular content. Yo-kai Watch is the current craze, while Professor Layton had some film content to accompany six main-series games and more...
The trouble with nostalgia
In 2008, Matrix Software and Red Entertainment teamed up to develop a turn-based Role-playing game for the Nintendo DS appropriately titled Nostalgia. Incorporating classic JRPG gameplay and mechanics with modern visuals, this game was designed to tug at the heart strings of ageing gamers while still managing to provide an...
Magic Hands Make Light Work
The more formulaic counterpart to RPG oddball Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Golden Sun expands on proven genre archetypes to deliver an experience that both pays tribute to and refines the classic role-playing adventure. It also gives some Wii U owners, potentially, their first experience of a franchise that has a...
Review Inazuma Eleven 3: Team Ogre Attacks
Extra time
We're no strangers to dual releases in the Inazuma Eleven series, as it apes the money-spinning convention best seen in the Pokémon franchise; yet Inazuma Eleven 3: Team Ogre Attacks adds a third variation at a later release date. For fans of Inazuma Eleven 3 in either of its first two forms this is potentially more of a rather good...
News The Tetris Company's Co-Founder Explains How He Brought The RPG Genre to Japan
A tale of fantasy
RPGs are often considered as a foundation block of the Japanese development industry, with the region's studios still producing a high number of these titles on a yearly basis. Whatever systems you own there are likely to be RPG titles available that were developed in Japan — especially if you have a DS or, increasingly, a 3DS...
A Rune of one's own
The Harvest Moon series has become something of a standby over the last decade or so, so it's easy to forget just how revolutionary it was when it first hit the Super Nintendo back in 1996. An RPG where players progressed not by fighting battles or banishing evil, but by tending gently to the land, caring for animals, and finding...
Review Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl
Don't call it a comeback
When Etrian Odyssey arrived on the DS in 2007, it was something of a revelation. A dungeon-crawler that traded in dusty catacombs for organic, open-air environments and prized cartography and character customization over narrative, it combined the best of pen-and-paper RPGs with Nintendo's new touch-screen hardware to create...
Understandably lacking in freshness
The Super NES was home to what are still considered by many to be a some of the finest RPG experiences ever produced. It's a predictable lineup of big names, and Breath of Fire II doesn't often get a mention. If it was overshadowed in the past it perhaps has an early opportunity to earn new fans on the young Wii U...
News Citizens of Earth Prepares to Invade Wii U eShop
Likened to Earthbound and Little King's Story
Indie developer Eden Industries has announced that its upcoming RPG, Citizens of Earth, will be hitting the Wii U eShop in 2014. The game tasks the player — as Vice President of the World — with rallying the citizens of a small rural town to battle wacky enemies and complete tasks for money and...
News Check Out The First Hour of Pandora's Tower
Enter the Tower
While Nintendo may be gearing up for the big E3 reveal of its Wii successor, the company still has a few aces up its sleeve for its little-white-box-that-could. While the Wii hasn't housed the most robust selection of RPGs over the years, Nintendo has been playing some serious catch up with games like Mistwalker's The Last Story,...
Review Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
Mario + RPG = WIN!
What do you get when one of the best RPG creators in the world decides to build an RPG around one of the most recognizable video game characters in history? What you get is a video game that is considered one of the greatest ever made and an RPG that's not only unique, but extremely playable as well. Many were skeptical when the...
