I am starting with one that is fairly well known as far as fan translated games go, but future entries may be a bit more obscure (or they might not be, depends what I’m feeling). Otherwise, there are a fuck ton of NES era JRPGs that were never originally released outside of Japan that are now available to English speaking audiences, and this series is meant to introduce you to them. There were some cult hits such as Faxanadu, Crystalis, Ys, and Willow, but the rest seem to have been largely forgotten by all but the most dedicated JRPG fans (meaning that I could name them of course).ĭue to this, our pool of 8 bit era JRPGs is pretty limited, or at least it is if you don’t count fan translated games. I could go into detail, but I’ll just put it this way can you even name an NES era JRPG that was released outside of Japan at the time aside from Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Zelda II, or Phantasy Star? Sure, I can, but that’s because I have actively looked for them. Oh, and if you were in Europe then you likely never got ANY of these games.Ĭompared to the prior generation however, JRPGs were practically thriving in the 16 bit era. The fact that games like Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy IV & VI, and Super Mario RPG had such strong scripts regardless really shows a testament to his ability, which allows me to cut him some slack for how bad Breath of Fire’s was (and also because Capcom themselves did a much worse with Breath of Fire II). A majority of games localized by Ted Woolsey, for instance, were handled within a month and had to cut several sentences down. JRPGs retailed for up to $80 at the time without adjusting for inflation, and publishers often could not afford quality localization teams. Until Final Fantasy VII popularized the genre with its cinematic CG cutscenes and enormous marketing budget (not that the game had no merits in story or gameplay, but plenty of other games did to), even the most popular JRPGs in Japan were a niche attraction in the west. Hell, you may not even know of many DURING the 16 bit era either. If you live outside of Japan, you likely don’t know of many JRPGs prior to the 16 bit era.
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