/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.9591929]

What are the most non-linear retro games on consoles? I guess early Pokemon comes to mind, also Mother 1, not sure about others.

[Anonymous No.9591943]

Metal Max, SaGa series.

[Anonymous No.9591946]

>>9591929
Might as well mention the elephant in the room if we're talking about Pokemon and Mother. Dragon Quest has a high degree of freedom, since it emphasizes the open world approach created by Ultima.

[Anonymous No.9591964]

>>9591946
You mean DQ1? Then yeah, maybe. I don't recall DQ3 onwards being very non-linear, and DQ5 felt incredibly linear

[Anonymous No.9592207]

>>9591929
super metroid ?

[Anonymous No.9592338]

>>9592207
Technically possible to beat bosses in reverse order, but if you aren't an autistic speedrunner you likely will go through areas in one given order anyway.

[Anonymous No.9592369]

>>9591929
- Simon's quest
- Clash at demonhead

[Anonymous No.9592372]

>>9592369
And I completely forgot about zelda 1...

[Anonymous No.9592381]

Uncharted Waters, Inindo, Shadowrun (Genesis)

[Anonymous No.9592425]

Civilization, Animal Crossing, Taboo: The Sixth Sense, Mario Paint

[Anonymous No.9592479]

Mega Man is the only true example, and it's only non-linear to a point.
Any game with a difficulty curve isn't linear. You're always intended to hit the easier areas first and the harder areas last. Especially in RPGs, where the numbers game makes it literally impossible to pass certain sections without passing an arbitrary experience check.

[Anonymous No.9592483]

>>9592479
>Any game with a difficulty curve isn't linear.
Fuck my 6 AM brain faculties. I meant *IS* linear.
Any game with a difficulty curve is linear.
Mega Man is not linear, because you can choose the first eight levels in any order. The last four (or so) levels are linear.

[Anonymous No.9592485]

>>9591929
Mother 1 is linear. If you try to go to the wrong parts to early there will just be guys blocking the bridges.

[Anonymous No.9592486]

>>9591964
DQ1 and 2 both have Ultima-inspired quests where you need to locate certain trinkets from around the game world, with the game giving you a lot of freedom to do this in whatever order you want.

[Anonymous No.9592495]

>>9592479
>You're always intended to hit the easier areas first and the harder areas last
It's literally the same in Mega Man. You can fight lynels with the wooden sword and 3 hearts in Zelda 1 too, it's just hard

[Anonymous No.9592513]

>>9592495
Never in a Mega Man game did I think that any level was so hard, it was intended to be done later. They're all pretty well-balanced and equally challenging to do with just your regular arm cannon.
The only time ever might be Mega Man X, where you're more or less expected to hit up Chill Penguin first, because going the rest of the game without the dash is unimaginable.

[Anonymous No.9592519]

>>9592513
I haven't played the later ones yet but
>Ice Man's stage in MM1 is impossible without Magnet Beam
>Heat Man's stage in MM2 is impossible without Item 2

[Anonymous No.9592527]

>>9592519
>Ice Man's stage in MM1 is impossible without Magnet Beam
Sure, Ice Man's stage is very difficult without the magnet beam because of the eyeball platforms, but it's not impossible. It can be done if practiced. The first game is the first game anyway. You'd probably expect that one to be the roughest around the edges in terms of balance, right?
>Heat Man's stage in MM2 is impossible without Item 2
Anon... don't tell me you can't follow a few block patterns.
Item 2 is nice because it means you don't have to bother with the blocks, but anyone who's halfway decent at games can do without.

[Anonymous No.9593601]

>>9592479
You can also just savescum your way through areas with dangerous random encounters,

[Anonymous No.9593628]

>>9592485
If you're willing to grind you can go through the tunnel without taking the train and skip a bunch of stuff. Also you can skip stuff to keep Teddy in the party.

[Anonymous No.9593646]

>>9591929
Chrono Trigger, Star Fox 1 on SNES, Phantasy Star 3.

[Anonymous No.9593708]

One of the most unlinear JRPG I've played must be Kaijuu Monogatari (Shell Monsters Story)

Here is some of what I wrote about the game

Surprisingly good DQ(2) clone from 88.
The game shines with its exploration and its characters system. There are 4 characters, each starts the game on a different side of the world map. You can start with anyone, switch to any character at any point.
The world is your playground with a LOT of unlinearility and exploration. You could probably replay the game 5 times and do things in a different order, or differently, every time.
The priority at first is to gather the 4 characters together, but once that's done you're free to split the team any way you like any time. This also becomes mandatory after a while due to treasure hunting at sea as the boat only carries two people.
The battle system is DQ2-like, but looks very dynamic: you can see your characters on the screen, and each enemy changes to a "wounded" variant when about to die.

While that unlinearility is the game's strength, it is also its weakness: it is hard to balance a game in which the player is allowed to go to many places in any order. At the very beginning difficulty is brutal, but after a while you're guaranteed to play 1 or 2 areas in which enemies won't be able to make a scratch anymore, although it is still possible to walk into a later area by chance and suddenly stumble on much stronger enemies (like in Final Fantasy 2), although area limitations are clearly marked for the most part. Also the entire late-end game spices thing up properly.

[Anonymous No.9594763]

>>9593708
very nice find, thanks anon.
why does the cast of the game remind me of Ufouria so much?

[Anonymous No.9595176]

There are The Sims games on consoles and people are still talking about JRPGs and stuff?? The most non-linear game is not going to be a standard-format action game or any kind of JRPG...

[Anonymous No.9595236]

>>9593646
Chrono Trigger is linear as fuck for 80% of the game