/vr/ - Retro Games

>>4758989
Rogueis my first real love in video games, but hasn't aged the best.

Nethack is what I cut my teeth on and is still fun, but a little long and grindy for my tastes.

If you count it, IVAN is a delight.

Points to Shiren for being really pretty and charming even if it isn't great.

>>2621006
If you like that, and not just for the Chocobos then I highly, highly recommend Shiren the Wanderer. It's basically ChunSoft's precursor to their Mystery Dungeon games and is in my opinion far better than any of them.

The Super Famicom version is the best, but there's a DS port of it that's almost as good. Avoid the Wii one though. It's a different game and nowhere near as good.

>>2602107
Fenrir is the first real boss of the game, it's just getting going at that point. But I can dig that not everything appeals to everyone. I'm used to old ass dungeon crawlers so the speed of the battles never bothered me. It's made up by the fact that if you can't just do attack-attack-attack to get through random battles.

If you like roguelikes though, the Mystery Dungeon one is really good, with much of the same strategy but in a top down format and faster paced.

I regard Shiren the Wanderer as one of the best designed roguelikes of all time. But after that, Chunsoft seemed to totally forget what made it great and the chocobo/torneko/pokemon mystery dungeon games they made were just awful because they're so easy that it ruins the rougelike format. Etrian is the first one that's good again.

>>2418194
>If you return to town to heal when you're in trouble, you end up grinding whether you're actually trying to or not.

Nah, that's not really what I'm talking about. Sure you're technically grinding a little, but that amount usually won't throw you off. I'm talking about just walking back and forth fighting random battles again and again until you're super powerful.

And to be clear, I think it's one of the strengths of the genre that people can play the games that way if they want to. I've done my fair share of it over the years. But I have come to find how much fun RPGs can be when you can just play straight through them.

As for games that work against grinding, the best in my opinion are roguelikes which usually have food clocks or similar mechanics that force you to keep moving forward even though doing so means almost certain death.

>>2407861
Lunar 2 is actually pretty good for this. It throws challenging monsters at you the whole way through and even has late and post game dungeons with regular encounters that can easily rip your party apart if you're not careful.

The people who were suggesting SaGa games is a good suggestion, as is Final Fantasy II. Also Megami Tensi series.

If you want something a little different, try Shiren the Wanderer.

Also, not retro but I'll mention it anyways. Etrian Odyssey sounds like almost exactly what you want. Those games have made almost every other JRPG boring as hell to play because they're so easy and straight forward.

>>2358431
Shiren the Wanderer may be a good one for you. It's a roguelike, so each time you go through an area it's different. It's one of my favorite games of all time. Also has some great music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTCfdTn4HxU&index=5&list=PLS7U3KAZ1dbKwkypUjSrWIn8nED0NiH9X

>>2333019
It's true that Shovel Knight is an homage to old styled platformers and sort of a grab bag of ideas, but more important that that it's just plain a really solid platformer. Great level design with a lot of creative used of your various abilities. I don't really understand people who grew up on or love old platformers but don't like it. However it's entirely possible the genre as a whole isn't for you.

As for roguelikes, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is a terrible one to use as an example. It technically fits into the genre, but misses most of what makes them compelling games.

However, a fantastic one to try and see if you like the genre is another game from the same people, Shiren the Wanderer. It's far less complicated than full on roguelikes but gets the hook of difficulty and exploration quite well. Plus it's gorgeous and charming. It's a great game in it's own right and if you like it then there's a massive genre to explore right on your doorstep.

I recommend the SNES version, for which you'll need to play an patched ROM because it was never officially translated. There was also a DS port a few years back which is almost as good. Steer far clear of any other Shiren games though.

Like the above anon said, Doom RL is also a good one to try, and Stone Soup is a good next stepping stone. Also a game called POWDER which is very much like the first Rogue and is quite sublime.
Overall I would say, ask yourself why you want to play games. What you want to get out of the experience and what you think is fun. From there it will be easy to find things that appeal from almost any era of gaming.

I know it's got fans, but I've never met any of them around here.

Have you played Shiren the Wanderer? It's very similar, but even better.