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Which console has the best RPGs, SNES or PS1?

kevm3 said:
PSX Rpgs:
Lunar 1, 2
Chrono Chross
Final Fantasy 7, 8, 9
Valkyrie Profile
Suikoden 1 & 2
Breath of Fire 3 and 4
Alundra
Several Tales Games
Star Ocean 2
Wild Arms
Final Fantasy Tactifcs
Xenogears
Vandal Hearts
Vagrant Story
Saga Frontier I & 2
Parasite Eve
Legend of Dragoon
Arc the Lad Collection
Thousand Arms
Front Mission 3

There's several more I can list. You even have the precursor to the Souls series in Kings Field.
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Not sure if you can really count Alundra without also counting LTTP as a JRPG, but sure, that's a good list.
 
PS1
Suikoden 1,2
FFT, FF7,8,9
Vagrant Story
Valkyrie Profile
Legend of Mana
Lunar: Silver Star Story
Brave Fencer Musashi
Tales of Destiny
Saga Frontier
Star Ocean
Legends of Legaia
Xenogrears
Chrono Cross
Legend of Dragoon
Wild Arms
BOF3,4
Parasite Eve
Tactics Ogre (both)
Vandal Hearts 1,2


Nothing can compete with that list, even if there are a fair few great RPGs on SNES. PS1 golden era of console RPGS.
 
DiipuSurotu said:
Tough question. I would say PS1 if only because you can play many SNES RPGs on the PS1 itself. Sure, these ports have load times and in some cases inferior sound, but the PS1's own collection of PS1 RPGs outweights this issue.
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Some Nobody said:
If we're being honest about it, PS1 got several of SNES' best RPGs so PS1 kind of wins by default. But even without that, the PS1 is why I'm sitting in a room eagerly awaiting Sony's next press conference in the next hour instead of doing some real work. It solidified my decision to choose gaming as one of my main hobbies.
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Those ports were garbage though.
 
Don't make me choose...

For the most part, PS1 got a lot of the great ones ported, even if they did have some issues... FF1,4,5,6, Chrono Trigger, Ogre Battle, Tactics Ogre..

Combine that with the massive PS1 RPG library..

If I had to choose one it would be PS1 then, but the SNES RPGs seemed to have more impact and were more memorable during their time.
 
PS1 for the best and biggest hits of RPGs. You can't compete with Final Fantasy VII through IX, Chrono Cross, Vagrant Story, and Xenogears.... and that's just the beginning.....

SNES for the stranger more cult classic RPG hits... Earthbound, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy IV and VI, and Super Mario RPG are the major standouts there.

PS2 for sheer volume and diversity of RPG hits.
 
It really is the case of a few stellar games on the SNES vs like 40+ great games on the PS1. In all honesty I'll give it to the PS1 just because there is so much variety and amazing niche games on the system.
 
red36 said:
PS1
Suikoden 1,2
FFT, FF7,8,9
Vagrant Story
Valkyrie Profile
Legend of Mana
Lunar: Silver Star Story
Brave Fencer Musashi
Tales of Destiny
Saga Frontier
Star Ocean
Legends of Legaia
Xenogrears
Chrono Cross
Legend of Dragoon
Wild Arms
BOF3,4
Parasite Eve
Tactics Ogre (both)
Vandal Hearts 1,2


Nothing can compete with that list, even if there are a fair few great RPGs on SNES. PS1 golden era of console RPGS.
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Yep.
 
I had a big list of titles here, but no one reads stuff like that anyway, so I decided instead to highlight just Earthbound and Fire Emblem Thracia 776. If I had to choose just two titles to take on the entire PS1 library, it would be those two, and I would be fairly confident in their victory.
 
kevm3 said:
PSX Rpgs:
Lunar 1, 2
Chrono Chross
Final Fantasy 7, 8, 9
Valkyrie Profile
Suikoden 1 & 2
Breath of Fire 3 and 4
Alundra
Several Tales Games
Star Ocean 2
Wild Arms
Final Fantasy Tactics
Xenogears
Vandal Hearts
Vagrant Story
Saga Frontier I & 2
Parasite Eve
Legend of Dragoon
Arc the Lad Collection
Thousand Arms
Front Mission 3

There's several more I can list. You even have the precursor to the Souls series in Kings Field.
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This, from what I've played anyways. PS1 was my golden Era of abundance and perfection. You can add Diablo, Darkstone, and the dungeon from Ehrgeiz as well. Wouldn't be surprised if I was missing a couple too.
 
As far as ones I'd actually go back to, SNES, easily.

  • Final Fantasy 4,5,6
  • Secret of Mana 1&2
  • Breath of Fire 1&2
  • Earthbound
  • Bahamut Lagoon
  • Chrono Trigger
  • Mario RPG
  • Lufia 1&2
  • Ogre Battle
  • Tactics Ogre
  • Tales of Phantasia
  • Star Ocean
  • Treasure Hunter G
  • Alcahest
  • Robotrek
  • Treasure of the Rudras

Then there are the more actiony ones like Zelda 3, Illusion of Gaia, and Terranigma. SNES was just the best.
 
SNES:

Chrono Trigger
Final Fantasy IV, V and VI
Super Mario RPG
Earthbound
Terranigma
Seiken Densetsu/Secret of Mana II and III
Lufia II
Shin Megami Tensei II and If...
Tales of Phantasia
Dragon Quest III, V and VI
Live A Live
Rudra no Hihou
Romancing Saga II and III
Illusion of Gaia
Metal Max Returns
Breath of Fire I and II
Benkei Gaiden
Monster Maker III
Soul Blazer
Albert Odyssey II
Aretha II
Brandish II
Star Ocean
Secret of Evermore
Hero Senki
Lennus II
Mystic Ark
Elfaria II
Fire Emblem (Seisen no Keifu, Thracia 776 and Monshou no Nazo)
Energy Breaker
Tactics Ogre and Ogre Battle
Der Langrisser
Chaos Seed
Front Mission
Majin Tensei II
Angelique
Bahamut Lagoon
Little Master
Lord of Darkness
Harvest Moon

PS1 library is great, but overral, SNES is better. Yes, PS1 had SNES ports, but many of them had issues which made them annoying to play (3 seconds to load a pause screen and/or start a battle?) while the SNES version was instantaneous.

While I don't agree with PS1 being better, dismissing it's catalog because "they can't hold up" as a reason, like they were 2015 games, is rather silly.
 
I always jumble around with SNES, PS1, and PS2 as my favourite consoles because of their JRPG libraries, but can never completely decide which one I like most. I guess it's because there are some JRPGs on each I still would like to play and haven't before I decide with certainty. All fantastic consoles, never-the-less.
 
PSX for me, especially given that most of my favorite SNES RPGs didn't even get US releases, and so didn't factor into my enjoyment of the system when it was current.
 
This is tough. I have to say PSX because of just the sheer number of good RPGs. Plus the best from SNES is on PSX anyway. Yes, the versions aren't as good because of loading times but I was never truly bothered by it.
 
I think I prefer the SNES for action RPGs like Secret of Mana and Terranigma, and PS1 for more traditional JRPGs. I am not really much of a fan of the latter DQ-derivative formula, but I have a big big soft spot for Breath of Fire 3 which is on PS1.

I thnk the PS1 loading times are extremly detrimental when you factor them in though. They completely ruin some games with the long gaps between random encounters.
 
PS1 and it's not even close.
I also believe the best of the PS1 beats the best of the SNES. It's not just a matter of quantity.
 
lazygecko said:
I think I prefer the SNES for action RPGs like Secret of Mana and Terranigma, and PS1 for more traditional JRPGs. I am not really much of a fan of the latter DQ-derivative formula, but I have a big big soft spot for Breath of Fire 3 which is on PS1.

I thnk the PS1 loading times are extremly detrimental when you factor them in though. They completely ruin some games with the long gaps between random encounters.
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I've not been able to get into any of the SNES ARPGs, but I will try again at some point, it's just pretty hard to get a hold of them in the EU legally, as they're not on the Wii U Virtual Console, and I'm not even sure most of them came out here when they were originally released, and even the ones that did come out now cost a lot to get a hold of, and you can only really get them from eBay etc
 
Robert at Zeboyd Games said:
If you count Japanese releases, SNES. If you count only official English releases, PS1. PS2 has them both beat though.
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Winner, winner, chicken dinner! (Although I would probably give the PS1 a slight edge over the SNES. Better selection of strategy RPGs, more tri-Ace and Tales Studio games and the introduction of the Persona series to the MegaTen univers,e in addition to remakes of the Shin Megami Tensei games.)
 
SNES. Nothing can compete with chrono trigger, secret of mana, final fantasy 4 - 6, super mario rpg, earthbound and illusion of gaia. If we take into account the super famicom games (bahamut lagoon, tales of phantasia, etc), then snes is the winner (by the narrowest margin possible since the ps1 is amazing).
 
I think PS2 should enter the discussion. Heck, just from the top of my head:
FFX
FFX-2
FFXII
Shadow Hearts
Shadow Hearts Covenant
Shadow Hearts From the New World
Kingdom Hearts
Kingdom Hearts 2
Digital Devil Saga
Digital Devil Saga 2
SMT Nocturne
Dragon Quest V
Dragon Quest VIII
Suikoden 3 and 5
Persona 4

Probably still missed some juggernauts.
 
SNES

Dragon Quest 5
Dragon Quest 6
Chrono Trigger
Tales of Phantasia
Secret of Mana
Secret of Mana 2 (SD3)
Final Fantasy V (my favorite in the series)
Final Fantasy VI
Illusion of Gaia
Terrinigma
Soul Blazer
Mario RPG
Earthbound
Breath of Fire2
Lufia 2

So much quality in the SNES RPG library, pretty much all the RPG's were not just good, but great. I enjoyed the hell out of alot of PS1 RPG, but I feel it's hard to beat that SNES era
 
PS1.

It's really close.

The reason I say PS1 is because a lot of the best SNES JRPGs ended up on PS1 as well (though not the best versions.)

Still, my PS1 was a JRPG machine.

Final Fantasy Origins, Final Fantasy Anthology, Final Fantasy Collection, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy IX, Vagrant Story, Valkyrie Profile, Koudelka, Suikoden, Parasite Eve, Xenogears, Chrono Cross, Legend of Mana, Arc the Lad Collection, Lunar, Legend of the Dragoon...

... Geez, what a run.
 
Considering Breath of Fire 3, Suikoden 2 and Final Fantasy 7 take up 3 of my top 5 games of all time, I'd go with PSone.
 
Tough choice. If we play them on the console it was released, the PS1 has about the same quality and much more quantity; BUT they are mostly unplayable by today's standards; slow ass battle systems, awful polygon models, eternal loading times, disc swapping, etc etc etc make most of those games a chore to play.

Snes RPGs were quick and sweet, so, I would take them any day over the PS1 games.

Now, if we include the abbility to use translation patches and emulators, the weaknesses of PS1 games disappear and the field is leveled, but then there are a ton of GREAT RPGs on the Snes that were never released in the west, so list thread:

Chrono Trigger > Chrono Cross
Tales of Phantasia >> Tales of Eternia > Tales of Destiny
Secret of Mana >> Seiken 3 > Legend >> poop > Secret of Evermore
Final Fantasy VI > FF IX > FF IV > FF V > FFVII >>> poop > FF VIII
DQ 5 > DQ 6 >>> DQ7
Star Ocean > Star Ocean 2
Tactics Ogre > FF Tactics
BOF IV > BOF I > BOF II > BOF III

PS1 had a lot of this games ported, but they generally played like crap. PS1 still has stuff like Wild Arms, which is surprisingly competent and fun, Suikoden, Vagrant Story or Valkyrie Profile, but Snes has Lufia 2, Ogre Battle, Mystic Quest or Robotrek.

Even if you count ARPGs, sure, the PS1 has Alundra or Legaia; but they don't stand a chance against Terranigma or Illusion of Gaia.

And you are still missing the Nintendo stuff, while not a lot, you have Earthbound, Super Mario RPG and four Fire Emblem games (and let's not start with the strategy games.

So yeah, both consoles have great RPGs, but the Snes wins IMO.
 
At the time it was PS1. We had many more localizations and the genre seemed to be hitting it really big after FFVII. It was a great time for jrpgs.

Now though it's easily SNES. It's jrpgs tend to hold up better both visually and pacing wise versus the jankier 3D/fmv/load times of the 32bit era. And now we've also gotten most of what we missed out on though tons of fan translations evening out the field with PS1 in quantity and diversity.
 
When I begin to list my favorite RPGs of all time, the list is dominated by SNES games, so I know that's the answer for me. The PSX does have a fantastic library, too, though.
 
SNES had Super Mario RPG, Earthbound and Chrono Trigger, while the only PlayStation RPG I really liked was Final Fantasy IX. SNES wins with ease.
 
oni-link said:
Tell me more

I thought it only really had a few FF ports and Golden Son
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Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Sword of Mana
Mario & Luigi
2 Fire Emblem
Kingdom Hearts
Riviera
Lufia 4
Lunar Legend
Megaman Battle Network series
Mother 3
Shining Force 2 remake
Tactics Ogre Knight of Lodis
Lord of the Rings 2, 3 and Third Age
Various Pokemon games
Dragon Quest Monsters 3
Magical Vacation
Sigma Star Saga
Tales of Phantasia

All range from good to great.
Some are action RPG, and some mix it up like Sigma Star Saga which is kind of like The Guardian Legend (NES).
 
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