Great SNES RPGs that are Fun from the Start

To say that the SNES era of video games was a golden age for RPGs would be a true understatement. It felt like you couldn’t even blink without a cavalcade of brand-new RPG experiences vying for your attention. And sadly, these weren’t the types of games you could rent from your local Blockbuster and beat over a weekend.

Nope, RPGs have never been the kind of game you just take home for a casual weekend. They required save game slots and dozens of hours of play time in order to see everything they had to offer. That usually meant you were going to have to purchase your own copy if you wanted to really sink your teeth into an RPG.

Games really had to make themselves stick out through unique and ambitious gameplay elements to get your time and your money. Unfortunately, for wallets everywhere, there were too many good RPGs out there setting new standards for the 16-bit console era.

8 Actraiser

A Different World

The combination of side-scrolling action and overworld management made Actraiser a very one-of-a-kind RPG experience that’s never really been replicated since. Players would fight through various locations on the game’s world map in order to rid it of monsters and build up their city. As the city’s population would grow and evolve, so would the player’s levels, tying your progress to your people’s prosperity.

Actraiser was a unique and interesting blend of two gaming styles that you wouldn’t necessarily expect to work together. Regardless, it ended up being a cult hit that’s still heralded for its originality and gameplay quality.

7 Drakkhen

A New Perspective

An early example of an immersive fantasy RPG, Drakkhen was one of the first games of its type to employ a first-person perspective when traveling through its world. The game is also known for employing the text windows that are commonplace in RPG games. It was also a game where you could go off the beaten path and just adventure for adventure’s sake, which could be seen as an early example of open-world gaming.

While Drakkhen did have a number of technical hiccups, the sheer level of ambition is clear in every facet of the game’s design. From its massive bestiary to its many explorable castles, Drakkhen’s willingness to try new things helped the RPG genre grow.

6 E.V.O.: Search for Eden

Children of the Evolution

One of the more unique RPG experiences on this list, E.V.O.: Search for Eden, was a game that gave you room to grow, literally. Players would start off as a tiny little fish that would then have to be evolved by killing and eating other creatures. As the game progressed, players would go through specific historical periods and have to evolve new, more complex creatures.

E.V.O.: Search for Eden took some daring leaps with its evolutionary concepts that mixed sim-style games with RPG elements. Fortunately, it was the kind of gameplay that offered up a different experience every time as you experimented with various evolutionary traits.

5 Front Mission

Real Steel

While I’m not sure calling the giant mechas in Front Mission “wanzers” was the best decision, the rest of the game makes up for it by being a solid tactical RPG experience. The game has players tweak their wanzers parts for optimal combat before heading out to the field for turn-based combat. Its combination of squad tactics and a compelling story made Front Mission a popular choice among RPG fans when it came out.

While games like XCOM are commonplace nowadays, there really weren’t a lot of games doing tactical RPGs back in the SNES days. Front Mission was ambitious for trying something different at a time when traditional JRPGs were gaining momentum in the US market.

4 Shadowrun

Running the Net

Before becoming a cult classic SNES RPG, Shadowrun existed as a table-top RPG that mixed elements of fantasy and sci-fi to create its unique game world. It’s a place where elves can be cyber hackers and orcs can get fitted with guns and mech implants to make themselves more deadly. The SNES version of the game really went for it. It was dark, it had a deep and detailed story, and it let people point and click freely around the game world.

Shadowrun has gone on to spawn a number of other video game iterations, but this SNES classic still stands out as ahead of its time. If you’re a fan of the current series, you may find it worth a playthrough or two.

3 Harvest Moon

Milking It

Before there were games like Stardew Valley, there was Harvest Moon. This is the OG farm sim RPG. It had you repairing your farm and getting it into working shape before planting seeds, raising livestock, and making friends with the locals. If that all sounds familiar, it’s because this is the place that this sort of cozy slice of life RPG genre got its start.

The Harvest Moon series is still going to this day. While it has been overshadowed by other franchises the last few years, it doesn’t make it any less enjoyable. If you’ve never played the original version, and you love farm sim RPGs, you owe it to yourself to check it out.

2 Ultima 6

Rule Brittania

One of the most iconic classic RPG series ever, Ultima 6 brought players back to the world of Britannia for another intriguing adventure. The Ultima series was always ahead of its time and had honed and refined its open-ended gameplay style by its 6th iteration. For an SNES game, it showed a lot of promise and was actually fairly close to playing the game on a PC and had a lot of open-world gameplay.

While the Ultima franchise hasn’t been in the limelight for a number of years, it was an essential and influential piece of RPG history that showed that there were countless gamers out there looking for an in-depth experience. It’s an intricately detailed game that every RPG fan should check out.

1 Wizardry 5

Casting Spells

The long-running RPG series made a lot of changes for Wizardy 5. For starters, it was a visual upgrade from previous entries that took advantage of the 16-bit landscape of the SNES. It also packed a ton of classic dungeon crawling action into a small cart. This is the kind of game that fans of table-top D&D would dive into head first, crafting parties and taking on all sorts of mythical creatures in pursuit of adventure and treasure.

Wizardy 5 is another example of a successful early RPG franchise with high replay value that has gone silent over the years. But it still packs a lot of fun if you enjoy retro-styled adventures that hearken back to the console wars heyday.