I've now reached the point where FF6 came out. It's amazing to me how far ahead of everything else it was. I knew it would be better than other games but it's almost like Square was on another plane altogether -- what other companies were doing wasn't even coming close.
I've also always considered FF6 a late SNES game but in fact it's rather early; I'm only a bit past the 1/3 mark. I think it's because FF6 is the last SNES game I played new when it came out. After that I was more interested in computer RPGs and didn't play Chrono Trigger until much later on emulator.
Now on to Dark Kingdom.
Ah, the influence of FF6 will be felt in most RPGs coming out for the latter half of the console's lifetime. I'm surprised there are still so many games left to go.
ReplyDeleteThere's hardly many more obscure SNES RPGs than Dark Kingdom. I felt the language barrier held me off appreciating it more than usual and I didn't explore it very far - the story seems to play a large role in this game. Looking forward to your playthrough with much interest.
Seems there are tons of Japan-exclusive RPGs on every single Nintendo console. In fact, I think SNES alone almost certainly has more S/RPGs than all the Sega consoles combined. I was more of a Sega kid back in the day, and I can tell you that I only remember the Phantasy Star series, Shining Force, Shining in the Darkness, Shadowrun and Langrisser as far as the Mega Drive goes, though there were a few Japan exclusives as well, like the recently translated Madou Monogatari. There were some on the Game Gear, like Defenders of the Oasis etc., but they were very minor by comparison. Looking at the lists, there may be up to 100 RPGs on all the Sega consoles until Dreamcast at most (likely fewer than that, maybe 70-80 tops).
DeleteI think the number of translated RPGs also dropped off sharply after this point -- in my raw file of all the potential RPGs (including ones I'm skipping), I have 146 games of which 10 were released in English. That's a very tentative number but it's pretty close. 1995 has only Lufia 2, Chrono Trigger, and Terranigma (in Europe). 1996 has only Super Mario RPG, and that's the last one.
DeletePhew, started reading a month or so ago, now all caught up! Only one question, which you keep making reference to but is impossible to Google: when you say a JRPG has a basic "AMID system", what does that stand for? Attack, Magic, Item, Defend?
ReplyDeleteYeah sorry, I started using that acronym that I made up but I think I've since changed to calling is a "Dragon Quest II" system instead. As you said, it stands for Attack, Magic, Item, Defend, and I use it to refer to a system that is basic, early NES-era. I tend to also use it implying that although you're given four choices, you basically have "attack" as your choice -- magic is too expensive to actually use regularly, items are hard to use because of limited inventory space and cost, and defend is mostly pointless.
DeleteAlso thanks for reading!
DeleteThanks for writing Kurisu! I'm not really a very good commenter but i've really enjoyed reading your writing!
ReplyDeleteHey, I'm just catching up here, but I think it's fair to call 1994 "late SNES" by our standards. I mean, the PS1 launched in the US less than a year after FF6 did (remembering it came out a few months later in the US).
ReplyDeleteIt's just that the SNES/SFC apparently had a back-loaded catalog as far as RPGs go. Also, the SFC had longer legs in Japan, and I don't fully understand this bit of history or cultural difference. In the US, 1994-95 were the best years for SNES, and then it was over almost instantly, with everyone moving to PS1 and/or N64. In Japan, the SFC seemed to have more of a gradual fading away.
Like you, I lived through this but had moved more to PC games by then anyway, so memories of this console transition are fuzzy for me. I think FF6 was the last SNES game I bought, though I do remember renting a few SNES games into 1995.
Yeah I'd be curious to know how the SNES survived so long in Japan. The last SRPG was released in late 1999!
DeleteIn fact, the last game for the SNES was 11/29/2000 -- that's basically at the end of the N64's lifetime and the PS2 had been out for 8 months!