Tag Archives: Turn-Based

Phantasy Star II, Megadrive/Genesis

Released in 1989 for the Sega Megadrive/Genesis, Phantasy Star II is a pioneering RPG for its time. It’s a sequel, obviously; to the classic Sega Master System release of 1987, Phantasy Star.

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Fallout 3, PC

After a gap of some ten years – between the release of Fallout 2 and “the void” of there being no other Fallout games – came Fallout 3 from Bethesda. Like a bolt from the blue: Fallout was back, and this time it was in 3D.

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Fallout 2, PC

Released in 1998, Fallout 2 is a sequel developed by Black Isle Studios, for Interplay, and using mostly the same post-apocalypse setting, graphical style, and game mechanics, of the first game.

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Fallout, PC

Interplay‘s 1997 release, Fallout, began its existence as a post-apocalyptic Role-Playing Game based on the Steve Jackson “GURPs” ruleset, and also as the ‘spiritual successor’ to the classic 8-bit RPG, Wasteland.

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Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, GameCube

Intelligent Systems and Nintendo released this fantastic follow-up to Paper Mario on the GameCube in 2004.

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Crystals of Arborea, Amiga

Trees, trees, and more trees! That’s what you get when you explore the ancient island kingdom of Arborea. And with a name like that it is no surprise.

Crystals of Arborea is a real-time, first-person, tile-based, party-driven RPG with combat, exploration, and day/night scenes where the colours cycle to give you a nice atmospheric setting.

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Crystals of Arborea, PC

Crystals of Arborea is the predecessor to the Ishar series of games. It’s a first-person, tile-based RPG, with a character-based party system and turn-based combat.

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Final Fantasy VII, PlayStation

Final Fantasy VII is a legendary level-grinding Role-Playing Game, developed by Square and released for the Sony PlayStation in 1997.

While the Final Fantasy series had grown in stature throughout the 1990s, it was this seventh instalment that broke Japanese CRPGs into the mainstream, with its outstanding mix of 3D, polygonal graphics, Full Motion Video, and pre-rendered backgrounds.

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Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin, Intellivision

An early, proto RPG based on the TSR AD&D universe, released for the Intellivision in 1983. It’s actually a sequel to the previous Intellivision AD&D game: Cloudy Mountain.

Treasure of Tarmin is one of my all-time favourite Intellivision games; it’s like an early prototype version of Dungeon Master, with crude graphics and minimal sound. That said: playing Treasure of Tarmin is a great experience if you learn how to play it properly. Reading the manual helps. As does configuring the controls correctly.

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Breath of Fire II, Super Nintendo

Breath of Fire II is a direct sequel to Breath of Fire, first released in Japan in 1994.

Set 500 years after the events of Breath of Fire, you again assume the role of a young boy called Ryu, this time a descendant of the hero of the first game. You initially begin a quest to clear the name of one of your friends, and this snowballs into something epic.

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