Are there even any good Saturn JRPGs that aren’t Panzer Dragoon RPG and good?

[Claire Delune]

I do not have particularly fond memories of Shining the Holy Ark. Mediocre dungeon crawler with pre rendered graphics that kind of looked like ass at the time.

What I *do* remember liking was that there was some sort of item or equipment that was insanely busted and inverted your odds for a critical attack. I thiiiiink there were two of them, so putting them on your heaviest physical hitters trivialized combat.

 

[Mammoth Jones]

Dragon Force.

Also, I will die on the hill that is Albert Odyssey.

 

[thetrin]

Shining the Holy Ark is awesome.

Or it was when I played it. It probably still stands up.

 

[Finaika]

Shining the Holy Ark!

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Thisss.

Probably still the best Blobber.

 

[Piggychan]

Beautiful pics and thanks for the recommendations. Are the shots from a CRT or scaler?

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Years ago, Panasonic 1080p plasma TV and OSSC upscaler.

there aren't many? Like three or four?

Panzer dragoon rpg is the one everyone recommends but is it even that good? It feels like you need to know the world to understand it and it looks really hard to follow in videos and very political with warring factions

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I find it too short.. Would love it if it was 40-60hr game but can be completed around 12-ish hours going up to around 20+ if you willing to do everything.. Even though it's like 3rd in the Dragoon trilogy the story world iirc sets itself before the other games; Panzer Dragoon, Panzer Zwei..


View: https://i.imgur.com/7SvKgEW.gif


View: https://i.imgur.com/RGJNkR2.gif

UK box ver.

Again the music is really good in this series.

 

[IrishNinja]

^man i was so pleased data discs did OG panzer but saga needs the vinyl treatment already - along with some other saturn bangers, where's my jazzy elevator action returns vinyl already

Dragon Force.

Also, I will die on the hill that is Albert Odyssey.

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this thread now has folks slagging on dragon force and shining the holy ark so weird hills abound!

for real though, i thought albert was perfectly fine, and didn't mind npcs with vic ireland's horniness about - but then, clinton jokes never bothered me half as much as gameplay changes
anyway it was a bit less memorable for me than MKR, but still had a good time with it

 

[Keldroc]

Dragon Force is one of the best games of all time. You can be wrong and disagree, but that's a you problem.

 

[Piggychan]

There is also the Lunar series where the Saturn house a trilogy.

Lunar silver Star Story Complete
Lunar Silver Star Story Complete MPEG - This version I think got a fan translation. This only works with the Saturn MPEG card installed which houses almost full screen 30fps animation.. although personally I thought maybe the contrast was a little off.

You will find graphical and audio differences between the PS1 and Saturn Game Arts games..

View: https://i.imgur.com/Tg49RLy.mp4

PS1 version

View: https://i.imgur.com/xCNboWG.mp4

EDIT
Then there is Magic School Lunar! the last of the Saturn Lunar games and one I think I read had difficulties during development because of financial costs and so cuts were made in the graphics and audio. There is also a small scene that is kinda problematic where one of the team members has a dream about one of the protags 13 years old and is fully undressed..


View: https://i.imgur.com/i7aqzab.mp4

EDIT:

Didn't come out in America but Lunar: Silver Star Story and Lunar 2: Eternal Blue are good.

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Missed your post. I was also playing FFXIV online while replying and gif'ing stuff and that's my excuse >_>'

 

[crpj31]

Vandal Hearts and the Ogre games are said to have better versions than the psx one.

 

[Rahkeesh]

I bought the hd Grandia collection on PlayStation 5™ yesterday so I think I can skip the Saturn version. Is the hd collection based on the psx or Saturn?

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The HD collection is based on PSX. Saturn had more memory to work with so you get more animations and even more environment tiles, plus they actually used its transparency effects properly. I don't think there's any significant differences besides visuals, and the "HD" version already sets on the path with a very different, mega smoothed look compared to either of the low-resolution originals.

 

[Piggychan]

I would say the PS version has better transparency effects in the spell casting and seems to have more consistent frame rate.

At least the Saturn version now has a fan translation.

There is also Grandia Digital Museum that houses a lot of mini games and new dungeons and some very tough boss battles that can't be found anywhere else. It's quite a short game too.


View: https://i.imgur.com/cQCW3Pn.mp4

 

[LordHuffnPuff]

I will not stand for this El Dorodo Gate slander, there were no fewer than seven entries in that franchise alone.

 

[Rygar 8Bit]

I tried this game a few weeks ago but it was terrible.
I hated the slow moving units on the map before battle it sent me to sleep. And then when the battles started it was hard to figure out what was going on. It seemed like I had no control over anything so I dropped it.

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Dragon Force 1&2 are the best games on the system. :(

 

[IrishNinja]

I will not stand for this El Dorodo Gate slander, there were no fewer than seven entries in that franchise alone.

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that's another series i hope to see fan translated one day, if even just the first entry - been curious for years now

 

[Piggychan]

Also some Falcom classics.

Falcom Classics 1
Falcom Classics 2
Legend of Heroes III - White Witch

White Witch is kinda odd in that unlike traditional JRPGs you can encounter random battles and over level up.
Here you only encounter enemies/boss in set moments of the story so I don't think you can actually over level...

The 'old skool' Ys 1 and 2 with the bump bump combat. I believe the pc engine/Turbografx-16 CD version used to be the best but I would say the Saturn version which is split between the two collections has it beat.

View: https://youtu.be/rv_Zs2TYKvs?si=SRYJ2pVfOyLw6xZw

 

[z1ggy]

SMT: Soul hackers is getting translated:

Shin Megami Tensei: Soul Hackers English Translation FIRST LOOK

Back in March of last year, TrekkiesUnite118 created a thread on translating Shin Megami Tensei: Soul Hackers on the SEGA Saturn using the official 3DS translation as a base. One of the biggest hur…

www.segasaturnshiro.com

 

[IrishNinja]

The 'old skool' Ys 1 and 2 with the bump bump combat

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as god intended
i did mean to grab those falcon classics years back when i got the sega ones - how do they handle without translation?

SMT: Soul hackers is getting translated

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honestly, this + SMT 1 on sega-cd + 2 on PSP, classic SMT fans are getting spoiled in recent years

 

[Piggychan]

as god intended
i did mean to grab those falcon classics years back when i got the sega ones - how do they handle without translation?

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Not too difficult if you are familiar with the old Ys.. I did get stuck in .. I think it was Darm Tower and that Mantis boss kept slicing me up over and over.... then I got side tracked with modern stuff and shelved the game.

 

[Laxoon]

+1 for Wachenroder, it's a very grimdark and edgy Final Fantasy Tactics from what I played so far. It's got a neat mechanic based on heat meter, you can choose to pace out your heat or use a lot of heat and hit hard but you need more time to recover after.

The weapons are vapor powered sword-things called Sledges, they're pretty cool imo. It's playable from start to finish afaik.

And OF COURSE the #1 holy grail of all jrpgs; Tengai Makyou/Far East of Eden The 4th Apocalypse

Since I last made reference to this game on era 4 years ago now, we've had the first game, Ziria, and the third game, Zero, fan-translated so it's only Manjimaru and Apocalypse remaining. Some day...

 

[PassiveObserver]

I will not stand for this El Dorodo Gate slander, there were no fewer than seven entries in that franchise alone.

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But that's a Dreamcast series.

 

[Yam's]

Sakura Taisen 1 and 2, Super Robot Taisen F and F Final, and the Langrisser games were the ones I loved the most back then.

 

[runlikehell]

just play golden sun, same devs :V

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This is a horrendous take. SFIII is godlike.

 

[mogster7777]

Also some Falcom classics.

Falcom Classics 1
Falcom Classics 2
Legend of Heroes III - White Witch

White Witch is kinda odd in that unlike traditional JRPGs you can encounter random battles and over level up.
Here you only encounter enemies/boss in set moments of the story so I don't think you can actually over level...

The 'old skool' Ys 1 and 2 with the bump bump combat. I believe the pc engine/Turbografx-16 CD version used to be the best but I would say the Saturn version which is split between the two collections has it beat.

View: https://youtu.be/rv_Zs2TYKvs?si=SRYJ2pVfOyLw6xZw

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White Witch never got a fan translation I guess. I still haven't played the PSP one although I heard the localisation on that is poor

 

[CO_Andy]

Baroque if you like From Software style action-RPGs

 

[Tailzo]

Dragon Force and Dragon Force II
Grandia
Guardian Heroes
Shining the Holy Ark
Magic Knight Rayearth
Shining Force III (3 games)
Linda³ Kanzenban (got patched recently)

Sega Saturn has a lot of unique rpgs. Not always standard turn based like Albert Odyssey.

 

[Nilson]

Edit 2: Huh, Black/Matrix was apparently fully voiced. This is definitely a title I want a fan translation for now.

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Black/Matrix is my holy grail of translations

 

[Piggychan]

I bought the hd Grandia collection on PlayStation 5™ yesterday so I think I can skip the Saturn version. Is the hd collection based on the psx or Saturn?

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HD ver.

PS1

View: https://i.imgur.com/DgdmxCN.gif

Saturn ver.

View: https://i.imgur.com/0TAXmtV.gif

 

[TinTuba47]

I've only played the first scenario of Shining Force III but it's phenomenal, one of the best SRPGs I've ever played. Maybe the best

 

[Unicorn]

Man it's midday Saturday and I'm still thinking about someone thinking Dragon Force is "terrible".

 

[Piggychan]

How to train your DragonForce:

[Guide] Dragon Force Troops Type

Dragon Force's generals are by far the strongest units in the game. However, a general on his own will have difficulty storming a castle. This is where your trusty troops come in.

retroages.com

This old Reddit post might be of some help in beginning DragonForce

https://www.reddit.com/r/SegaSaturn/comments/x3pyy7/dragonforce_what_am_i_missing/

There's a couple more Saturn RPGs I'm gonna drop, these are not strictly JRPGs but strategy turn based, but then... huge barrier of japanese language could get in the way. The others I'm not going to list are puzzle platforming, pet sim, terraforming unless you want something different..

Slayers Royal
Valhollian - this got a eng translation iirc
Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Dungeon
Tactics Ogre - Let us cling together.. I could have sworn I saw a quest referencing this on FFXIV!! Think this too got a fan translation.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSln-T4pYuw&list=PLaNMjMakib1Nmo5waYElIOI3VKZBEsV1n


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIPeNv0xJGI&list=PLUMmN705uZmsuX7Sa4ZEupJ_7HifWhq2c&index=2

 

[Saikyo]

Use the "translation patches" for Grandia and Lunar Silver Star.

Albert Odissey is good, play it.

 

[fiendcode]

Official english releases:

• Albert Odyssey: Legend of Eldean (Working Designs/Sunsoft)
• Blazing Heroes / Mystaria: The Realms of Lore (Sega/Microcabin)
• Dark Savior (Sega/Climax)
• Dragon Force (Working Designs/Sega/J-Force)
• Guardian Heroes (Sega/Treasure)
• Legend of Oasis (Sega/Ancient)
• Magic Knight Rayearth (Working Designs/Sega)
• Panzer Dragoon Saga (Sega)
• Shining Force III (Sega/Camelot)
• Shining the Holy Ark (Sega/Camelot)
• Shining Wisdom (Working Designs/Sega/Camelot)
• Virtual Hydlide (Atlus/T&E Soft)

And english fan patched/translated Japanese releases:

• Baroque (ESP/Sting)
• Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Konami) *multiple translations
• Dragon Force II (Sega/Chime)
• Dungeon Master Nexus (Victor/FTL)
• Falcom Classics (Victor/EXE-Create/Falcom) *Ys I only
• Grandia (ESP/Game Arts)
• Linkle Liver Story (Sega/Nextech)
• Lunar: Silver Star Story / Complete (Kadokawa/JAM/Game Arts)
• Magic Knight Rayearth (Sega) *retranslation
• Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen (Riverhill/Quest)
• Sakura Wars (Sega/Red)
• Sakura Wars 2: Thou Shall not Die (Sega/Red) *demo only
• Shining Force III: Scenario 1 - God Warrior of the Kingdom (Sega/Camelot) *retranslation
• Shining Force III: Scenario 2 - Target: Child of God (Sega/Camelot)
• Shining Force III: Scenario 3 - Bulzome Rising (Sega/Camelot)
• Shining Force III: Premium Disc (Sega/Camelot)
• Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (Riverhill/Quest)
• Vandal Hearts: The Lost Civilization (Konami)
• Zanma Chouougi Valhollian (Datt)

edit: I've never looked into it but do any of the Saturn Wizardry games have english options?

 

[Saikyo]

Grandia. Sometimes I think Lunar was on Saturn and it takes me a sec to remember they were actually on Sega CD.

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Working Design tried but you know Sega of America...

 

[Lindsay]

Albert Odyssey is extremely mid imo. If ya want a regular old jrpg without much going for it good or bad then give it a play. My last playthrough took 16 hrs which means ya won't have lost to much time to it.

 

[Cathode Ray]

Saturn RPG library is insanely underappreciated.

If you take Squaresoft out of the equation (arbitrary handicap, I know), I think I might actually prefer its RPG library to the PS1. I just wish it had gotten Suikoden II too instead of just the first one.

PS1 RPGs may have been pushing more boundaries on the narrative side (mostly Square going really out there with Chrono Cross, Xenogears etc) but on a mechanical/design level there are a few Saturn RPG exclusives that are very interesting or unique. PDS itself, but also Dragon Force I/II, Dark Savior, Guardian Heroes etc.

Even Virtual Hydlide, while quite bad, is very interesting conceptually.

Having the best version of Grandia is no slouch either.

 

[Musubi]

Can we just side bar for a minute. Now I've got Lunar for PS1 and it's two discs (minus the bonus discs) but the Saturn and Sega CD versions are both one disc. Do those versions just not have the video cutscenes?

 

[Piggychan]

Can we just side bar for a minute. Now I've got Lunar for PS1 and it's two discs (minus the bonus discs) but the Saturn and Sega CD versions are both one disc. Do those versions just not have the video cutscenes?

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I know lunar 2 Eternal Blue has a few post game dungeons, bosses and equipment added over the original Saturn port. Not sure if Lunar SSSC has any additional content apart from audio differences.

EDIT

I only have the MPEG version and think these are all the cut scenes from there.. Pretty sure the PS1 version ended up with higher quality cut scenes. Oh and extra Bromides were added.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHEe5GtyK54

This the Saturn version of how Lunar SSSC sounds. I didn't bother with any editing or mixing the audio ie adjust bass, treble etc on these.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwAV22Op6NA


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P554lJqaJjE

 

[LongDongJunon]

Its been mentioned multiple times but I can't stress enough that despite it being ugly as hell, mystaria: Realms of lore, is actually a real enjoyably decent good time.
Nothing mind blowing, but its a nice little tactics game for a weekend play. Its sequel Riglord Saga II was never localized though unfortunately.

 

[Laephis]

.

 

[Silvergun-Blue]

Its been mentioned multiple times but I can't stress enough that despite it being ugly as hell, mystaria: Realms of lore, is actually a real enjoyably decent good time.
Nothing mind blowing, but its a nice little tactics game for a weekend play. Its sequel Riglord Saga II was never localized though unfortunately.

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I tried this back in the day and I really didn't like it. That said, I'd just finished playing Shining Force 3 so my perceptions of it were almost certainly skewed.

So anybody gonna stan for Virtual Hydlide?

 

[Decarbia]

Saturn has the best version of Rayearth, but you can get Rayearth on EVERYTHING of the era if you want lol. There are really good SFC, game boy and even the gd game gear lol.

 

[03-AALIYAH]

Tengai Makyo The 4th Revelation/The Apocalypse 4

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Came here to post this. The FEOE series is a monument of the JRPG genre that get too often ignored outside Japan.

 

[Fukuzatsu]

+1 for Wachenroder, it's a very grimdark and edgy Final Fantasy Tactics from what I played so far. It's got a neat mechanic based on heat meter, you can choose to pace out your heat or use a lot of heat and hit hard but you need more time to recover after.

The weapons are vapor powered sword-things called Sledges, they're pretty cool imo. It's playable from start to finish afaik.

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Came here to mention Wachenröder as well, didn't realise there was an English translation. If memory serves this runs on the same engine as Shining Force 3, which makes sense given Sega handled the production.

I remember the cover standing out to me, it''s an aesthetically very interesting game:

Also of note is a lot of the art (and main character design) being by well-known artist Range Murata, who you may know from the Gouketsuji Ichizoku (Power Instinct) series of games, or his work on several cult anime (The Animatrix, Last Exile).

 

[Jebusman]

Linkle Liver Story is a game I don't think I ever see anyone mention. An action RPG, and from the same developer as Crusader of Centy. It's not perfect by any means, but I feel like it's an underappreciated Saturn exclusive. I doubt it'll ever see an official re-release or localization in my lifetime, but there's an english patch out there making it more than playable.

 

[Synth]

Panzer dragoon rpg is the one everyone recommends but is it even that good? It feels like you need to know the world to understand it and it looks really hard to follow in videos and very political with warring factions

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First off.. yes, it is that good.

Secondly, as a lot of people have already mentioned, it is perfectly playable without playing the prior two Panzer Dragoon games. However, each of those games are literally like 90mins long each and are good/great games in their own right (PD1 good, Zwei great). Unless you're specifically against the idea of playing non-JRPG titles, I would highly recommend giving them a shot. I loved Saga, but it isn't my favorite Panzer Dragoon game. Zwei is.

I find it too short.. Would love it if it was 40-60hr game but can be completed around 12-ish hours going up to around 20+ if you willing to do everything.. Even though it's like 3rd in the Dragoon trilogy the story world iirc sets itself before the other games; Panzer Dragoon, Panzer Zwei..

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I think you're getting mixed up with Zwei, which is set before the original Panzer Dragoon. Saga is absolutely the last of the 3 Saturn games chronologically (with Orta set further in the future).

Also, as someone who's not a heavy JRPG player, Saga being short is one of the things I appreciated most of it. It's so direct and nothing feels like filler or padding to bump up the running time. There's very few RPGs I've played where I've felt similar.

 

[Piggychan]

First off.. yes, it is that good.

Secondly, as a lot of people have already mentioned, it is perfectly playable without playing the prior two Panzer Dragoon games. However, each of those games are literally like 90mins long each and are good/great games in their own right (PD1 good, Zwei great). Unless you're specifically against the idea of playing non-JRPG titles, I would highly recommend giving them a shot. I loved Saga, but it isn't my favorite Panzer Dragoon game. Zwei is.



I think you're getting mixed up with Zwei, which is set before the original Panzer Dragoon. Saga is absolutely the last of the 3 Saturn games chronologically (with Orta set further in the future).

Also, as someone who's not a heavy JRPG player, Saga being short is one of the things I appreciated most of it. It's so direct and nothing feels like filler or padding to bump up the running time. There's very few RPGs I've played where I've felt similar.

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oh thanks for the clarification. it's been like well over a decade since I delved into the saturn games so memory is very hazy at best and again i keep getting distracted with modern games so when i replay the classics I don't always finish. You just reminded me a vague memory long ago discussions of Orta 's parents which I won't bring up here :D

 

[Glimlocker]

Well...I gotta say, that's the first time I've ever seen Dragon Force hated on so hard.

OP, understand (the concept of love) that the Saturn had very few games localized in the West.
Yes, it has a fairly good chunk of RPGs of various subgenres - not necessarily all exclusives, but certainly some decent ones.

No, almost none of them were localized. Like 10-15 of them?
Most of the best ones did make it over, but many of the decent ones were left behind.

Shining Force III trilogy is considered to be near the top of RPGs that were released that generation. We only got one of them.

 

[HylianSeven]

There is an English translation of SMT Devil Summoner for Saturn underway.

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There is? I thought there was only one of the PSP version happening.

 

[werezompire]

I remember the Saturn version of Lunar: EB had a system where dungeons had elemental affinity and you could adjust it with certain abilities. It wasn't in the English localized Playstation version, but I don't know if it was a platform change or just something that got removed in the localization.

 

[ss_lemonade]

Can we just side bar for a minute. Now I've got Lunar for PS1 and it's two discs (minus the bonus discs) but the Saturn and Sega CD versions are both one disc. Do those versions just not have the video cutscenes?

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I believe the full game was on both discs but the higher quality videos required them to split the game into 2 discs for the PS1 port. Sega CD is pretty much a different game, so not comparable. Original Saturn release was one disc with lower quality videos (but they should all be there). Saturn MPEG version was also 1 disc with video quality on par (or slightly better?) than the PS1 version