If I weren’t currently at work and would have time to think about the answer, I could probably come up with more titles, but those are the top 2 that come to mind, if I ignore cRPGs (at least that’s how I read your “avoiding final fantasy-esque” requirement):
Settlers 2: It’s new enough to still look decent by today’s standards, and has amazing game design. Available at GoG.
Star Control 2: One of the best early open world games. The graphics have definitely aged by today’s standard, but the humour hasn’t. Or maybe it has, but just a bit. Available for free and open source.
My relationship with cRPGs is weird. I adore disco elysium and citizen sleeper, two of my favourite games. I enjoyed the first ~30 hours of Divinity Original Sin 2 before I just got uber fatigued on how much the game got in the way of the characters for me. Final Fantasy (style) games i just get so exhausted by all the faffing around with party composition and stats and junctions and equipment and skills and whatever the fuck else. What I live for in my tabletop experiences is high storytelling and roleplay, where I can do a little fooling around with fun combat builds and whatnot without getting too bogged down, and my videogaming preferences mirror that.
I guess what I’m saying is that a crpg with a greater focus on the RP and less on the G really fits my tastes, so earthbound is a natural fit.
Settlers and star control both look somewhat neat! I’ll have a look, many thanks.
Older JRPGs in particular are definitely a bit of an acquired taste. There are a lot of games that I love dearly but have a hard time recommending to anyone who didn't grow up on that style of game.
That said, Chrono Trigger is the one that really stands the test of time and I think is the best entry point into the classics. Or just try some more modern games, the genre has evolved considerably.
Earthbound is probably the one I'd put next after CT, but it's a bit of a slow burn that's honestly carried by its writing. Mother 3 raises the bar considerably, but you gotta play EB before M3.
Yeah, I’ve had such a love/hate experience with JRPGs. When the game gets out of the way and lets me just explore the world and its characters I fall in love. And then the gameplay comes back and I have to get out my spreadsheets and shit and I just fall asleep. CT comes highly recommended so I’m looking forward to giving that a go alongside EB and M3. I have Sea of Stars on my backlog which is apparently a spiritual successor to CT so that’ll probably follow along nicely.
Mega Man X on the SNES is an amazing trilogy and still holds up. Moving on, X4 and X5 are great to play as well, X6 and beyond can be avoided.
Mega Man Legends 1 and 2 (PSX) are interesting games, a mix of action platforming and light RPG elements, but I have deep nostalgia and still enjoy the games, so you may find them very archaic. Playing the first game, the first thing you should do is change controls so turning around is left/right and L1/R1 strafe.
If you haven’t tried them yet, Donkey Kong Country 1, 2 and 3 are well worth playing, but the games can be unforgiving, especially in later levels. While there’s no coyote time, doing a forward attack off a ledge will allow you to jump once anytime during the fall. It’s very clearly a deliberate feature, as some level skips can only be accessed with that trick.
Castlevania Symphony of the Night on the PSX, if you haven’t played yet, you definitely should. This motherfucker stood the test of time with gold marks.
I know you asked to avoid final fantasy-esque titles, but Final Fantasy Tactics (PSX) is worth checking out. If the battle system, or the party management/job system, don’t pique your interest (things that you should get a feel within the first 20-30 minutes), then it’s not for you, no problem.
Tekken 3 on the PSX is probably the best 3D fighting game on the console. Graphically ancient by today’s standards, but it still has its charm. Later games got better with more characters and everything, but that game has the normal arcade mode, a “volley” mode and a beat-em’ up mode.
Bomberman games are their own category. The SNES ones are some of the best, but playing them all in sequence will get really tiresome, as the formula doesn’t change. Bomberman World on PSX can be completely avoided, it sucks.
I’ve been hesitant of the mega man games for some reason, I’ll check em out!
DKC I have never tried, but it sounds like there could be some fun movement
I definitely need to try castlevania sotn - thanks for the reminder
FFT I’ll give a go just because your other recommendations have been on point :P
Tekken 3 (and Tekken Tag Tournament) was fucking awesome, loved playing that. I spent so much of my pocket money on tekken games at the arcade growing up.
I have played some of the bombermans(bombermen?), it’s a neat concept but it gets stale very fast for me.
I’ve been hesitant of the mega man games for some reason, I’ll check em out!
I can understand that hesitancy for the NES games. If you never played anything like them, they can feel unfair or too hard. A lot of people love Mega Man 2, but my personal favorite of the NES era is 6, which could be a decent entry point if you ever decide to venture that way. X improves everything and the first is my personal favorite as well (it easily has the best music of the 3, too).
It took me a number of attempts before FFTA grew on me. I’m not too fond of race-locked classes there, or the judges, but the progression felt fun.
Worth noting: Ogre Battle (Tactics Ogre) was released for SNES (then re-released more than Skyrim) and is basically FFT’s father. FFTA’s sprites come straight from TO.
Oh, and just in the moment I hit send, I remembered another gem from the olden times:
Unreal World: Basically the survival game. 99% of today’s survival games are just a pale shadow of this. I mean, nowadays there are even “survival” games without hunger mechanics or proper simulation of wounds… No, this is not one of those easy mode survival games. This is Fantasy Finland, and it’s the Fantasy Iron Age. Available for free or, if you want updates faster, also for money on Steam.
Oh neat, I’ll have to check this out. I’m not into the whole Open World Survival Crafting pandemic that has taken root but if this is like the best of the best of survival games then it should be fun!
Friendly reminder Bloons TD 6 is free for Netflix customers. Unsure if that’s all counties or restricted or tier restricted. It’s been pretty fun, but the best aspect is offline play.
Oh yeah, there’s actually a fair bit of good games on Netflix if you have a subscription. Unfortunately, they’re online-only even if they’re singleplayer… I hate subscriptions…
Sonic Mania, Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon, Into the Breach, and Wonderputt are pretty fun. I haven’t tried anything else.
If you happen to be based in the UK (or can get it delivered to a UK address) then I’ve had good success with droix. They appear to ship to other countries but I have no idea what the cost is like.
Not gonna lie only game I play on mobile is clash of clans. I don’t play mobile often and don’t spend money on it either. Been playing since middle school though off and on.
Forgot that came out, I should play it. Had a lot of fun with 1 and 2.
This week I played around 12 hours of Bravely Default 2, but dropped it because the boss mechanics (counters) feel anti-fun and like they want a specific party composition, and it feels a bit too grindy for my taste.
Continuing the Trails series with 3rd: it seems interesting, but I’m not sure I like how it’s structured, the gameplay feels too disconnected from the story.
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