SFC

It is finally-finally done,
every SNES RPG available in English, official and fan-translated are beaten!
I expected to be done with this a few years ago but we have gotten much
more new interesting games in the last few years than I ever could have
dreamed off! With this my biggest goal is done, SNES-PS1-PS2, the three
best RPG homes all beaten. I will keep coming back to them whenever new
fan-translations pop up but for now we celebrate in the usual way,
with a long long list!
My worst and messiest list yet and a lot of things could jump around
depending on day and mood, not as absolute as I would like…
The fact that the games are beaten over a 33 year period makes it hard to
compare and rank them now and you will see a chunk in the middle where I
got lazy and can’t really rank them correctly.
The top 3 are the only ones that never change!

While PS1 and PS2 was played on original hardware SNES was mixed,
fan-translations where played on emulator and I will admit that some
of them would either never be beaten or take a few more years without
savestates, haha.

It is actually split into a few different lists as you will notice further down.

Don’t worry if your favorite is ranked low or didn’t get much text,
I still love all of them to some extent, enough to actual play them after all!

Enjoy and thank you SNES!
I might as well thank everyone who have followed this long journey
and kept me inspired too including a few streamers with similar or
even identical goals!

Beaten and ranked:

#1 Chrono Trigger

It would be pretty rare to not see it as number one!
I said it before but this is where my love for the genre
truly got cemented and I spent so much time just playing it
over and over, seeing new scenarios thanks to party combinations
and being a little bit better at English each time!

#2 Tales of Phantasia

A technical marvel on all fronts and a great story as a
bonus, still my favorite in the series!

#3 Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinistrals

This game has it all, everything from music to humor
and monster design just speaks to me! Add the cool puzzles,
amazing ending and the infinite joy of the ancient cave.
One of the best RPGs ever with the best rogue-like as a bonus!

#4 Terranigma

As a kid I kept confusing this and Chrono Trigger,
which one had that cool stained glass?
Maybe with good reason, the quality and especially set pieces
are of the same caliber!
the balance of levels/stats is quite broken and I always wish
there was even more to do on the world map but what we got
is a true and unique masterpiece!

#5 Final Fantasy VI

Aside from the obvious music and well known qualities of the game
the second half is always my reference point for how sidequests and
open worlds should be done!

#6 Secret of Mana

Ah, the one and only three player co-op RPG!
It has brought me so much joy over the years and it is almost
tradition that any new friend to the family has to play it with us, haha.

#7 Illusion of Time/Gaia

A big dose of nostalgia combined with also liking the themes and
settings even more over TIME.

#8 Super Mario RPG

The first turn based RPG I ever beat even if I had tried Chrono Trigger
before. Also my first time seeing the letter combination
RPG, the rest is history.

#9 Rudra no Hihou

I really want to replay this and after Live a Live I hope we have a chance
for a good remake! Basically FFVI-2 or SNES FFVII,
play it if you like FFVI!

#10 Star Ocean

Another technical marvel, even more so than Phantasia but a bit
weaker in everything else.

#11 Seiken Densetsu 3

Why no official 3 player co-op!!
Japan explain!

#12 Soulblazer

The first real RPG I ever beat and while nostalgia is strong it
is also a really fun simple game to play and the way you restore towns
still feels unique! It was also the first game that showed me that death
could be sad and have meaning in games. Until this, life was just a
resource you could farm, haha.

#13 Secret of Evermore

Ah, the Black sheep of Square! While the humor and story is mostly silly
the unique world and contents truly stands out, the marketplace is still
one of my favorite places in any game.

#14 Breath of Fire 2

This game still fills me with dread and I often
hum the final boss song.

#15 Live A Live

The remake is actually the better choice to play now
but a great game in every version!

#16 Lufia and the Fortress of Doom

While a bit primitive especially compared to the second game
it really speaks to me and is the pure essence of RPG!

#17 Energy Breaker

One of the true gems that still seems to be mostly hidden!
From the creators of Lufia comes a strategy RPG hybrid where
you still get to explore dungeons unlike most in the sub genre.

#18 Lagoon

The soundtrack and nostalgia goes a long way!
I didn’t know it until much later but it really is a Ys clone,
the original X68000 version even has the bump combat which
explains the lack of range when they added the attack button
on SNES, haha.

#19 Earthbound

I spent years disliking this based on the setting and first hour.
Glad I finally played the whole game and can join the fandom!

#20 Dragon Quest V

I rank it third in the series after XI and VIII, mostly for story reasons.

#21 Final Fantasy IV

Aside from all the fake deaths a great game,
I love fighting the optional bosses so much!

#22 Final Fantasy V

Greater than IV in a lot of ways but I prefer my
simple level systems, haha.

#23 Heracles no Eiko 4

Another of the true gems! This game has so much
greatness going on including the fact that you can shape
shift into different NPCs! Give it a try!

#24 Lennus II

An upgrade from Paladins quest in every way,
so much strangeness going on.

#25 Daikaijyuu Monogatari

This might be the one biggest surprise in the whole library for
me, looking at the box and the characters it seemed like a silly
kids game but in the end it mostly reminds me of Lufia for some reason
and I liked it so much that I went on to beat the second game too
before it even had a translation!

#26 Daikaijyuu Monogatari 2

I played it with a guide before the fan translation was available
but it more or less improves everything from the first and it
might get a higher rating if I replay it.

#27 Chaos Seed

My 1000th beaten game and I wrote a long text about it on the site!

#28 Breath of Fire

Another game of pure RPG essence, the second game improved
everything but this was a solid start for sure.

#29 Mystic Ark

This game can only be described as playing a dream or
maybe playing a piece of art, I love it!

#30 Heracles no Eiko 3

This is more or less identical to the fourth game,
just less polished in every aspect, haha.

#31 Tenshi no Uta: Shiroki Tsubasa no Inori

A lovely love story from the makers of Phantasia!

#32 Dragon Quest 3

This is where they really found the formula and
what the series would become and be, very solid.

#33 G.O.D

The first hours was a lot stronger than the later
but be sure to play those first ones at least!

#34 Laplace no Ma

I really want to place this high and love it but
I will admit that I remember very few details outside the
amazing setting and RPG horror combo…

#35 Der Langrisser

Very solid strategy RPG, music and artstyle are fantastic.

#36 Ys V: Ushinawareta Sunano Miyako Kefin

The black Ys sheep, still not available in English officially,
when I played the fan translation wasn’t done either…
One of the very few games to simulate 3D with heights etc.

#37 Metal Max Returns

All of the metal max games are more or less the same,
hunt monsters while riding silly vehicles in an open world.
It is great.

#38 Emerald Dragon

I want to place this high but looking back
I’m not sure why it would rank higher than the
great middle lump.

#39 Far East of Eden Zero Tengai Makyou

One of the holy translation grails,
with its built in real time clock it did it before
Animal Crossing! In the end it almost adds nothing
but a great RPG too even without the gimmick.

#40 Super Robot Taisen Aiden Lord of Elementals

By far the best of all the robot games and I could
finally see how and why Xenogears got inspired by them!

#41 Dragon View

I can’t believe this got a modern release on Steam,
a great combo of 3D world map, sideview beat em up combat
with levels and gear, not to mention the music!

#42 Ys IV: Mask of the Sun

Bump-bump!

#43 Dual Orb 2

Another above average but still standard RPG,
The battle sprites are so good!

#44 Wozz

I remember it as great but it was also ages ago.

#45 Arabian Nights: Sabaku no Seirei Ou

A bit short but great while it lasts!

#46 Eien no Filena

Another above average but still standard RPG.

#47 Treasure Hunter G

Such an odd graphic style and decent battles,
I remember almost zero of the story though.

#48 Paladins Quest

I always hated the odd sci-fi environments in this and never got past
the first town but after playing the whole game I would say
the oddness is the strength of the game!

#49 Front Mission

A great start to a great series!

#50 Dark Half

Such a cool concept to play both the hero and villain party
and being able to kill NPCs and destroy towns to make the journey
harder for the good party, love it!

#51 Bahamut Lagoon

A visual spectacle with cool dragons everywhere!

#52 Horai Gakuen no Bouken! The Adventure of Hourai High School

Long before the school setting got old!

#53 Burning Heroes

The original Octopath with 8 characters/scenarios by Enix.
It gets very repetitive if you do them all but there is a
cool story to piece together if you have the patience.

#54 Last Bible 3

It might be my favorite “SMT” game, haha.
More of a standard RPG but still with a lot of the
familiar elements from the series.

#55 Shin Megami Tensei

I never expected to one day play more or less the whole series,
the monster parties and first person dungeons always scared me
away and while they still aren’t my favorites I am happy to
have made the long journey and killed god over and over.
Not sure how I would rank them, in a lump for now…

#56 Shin Megami Tensei II

Probably better than the first, the final dungeon still
haunts me!

#57 Shin Megami Tensei If…

The Persona prototype!

#58 Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei 1

I split this into two entries
since it is a remake of the two NES games
and the very start of the series.

#59 Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei 2

#60 Majin Tensei

SMT but in strategy format! It works much
better than I expected.

#61 Majin Tensei II Spiral Nemesis

I think the first game was better?

#62 Fire Emblem: Thracia 776

I planned to play this as the last game since it released last
and since I heard it was very hard. I changed the order a bit
and compared to the holy war this was a walk in the park,
mostly thanks to better inventory management and the way you can
level up in coliseums. I love how it connects and expands the story
of the holy war!

#63 Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War

This was by far my longest game and probably greatest struggle
on the whole list! I hate the permanent deaths so much and
the amount of reloading I did removed any fun there might have been.
The story and following the characters through the generations
are great though!

#64 Ys III: Wanderers from Ys

One of the very shortest games on the list
and oddly enough a platform/sideview perspective.
Hearing the music always puts me in a good mood!

#65 Romancing Saga 3

Surprisingly low placement maybe but I can
never be friends with the SaGa systems and
every battle is a struggle for me.

#66 Dark Law: Meaning of Death

As one of the coolest and hardest games to find and being
released late in 1997 I probably wanted it to be better than it is, haha.
Also, I failed to make a party at the start of the game making it
extremely hard…

#67 Albert Odyssey

I wish more strategy games worked like this,
you explore the world map pretty freely with
enemies roaming around instead of the usual stage based combat.