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What are the best GBA RPGs?

oni-link

oni-link

tag reference no one gets
Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,002
UK
I feel like the GBA in general has an underrated library

The Wii U VC got a handful of titles that ran and looked great thanks to M2

What would you say are the systems best RPG offerings, and what are it's most underrated RPGs?

Bonus question: Would you want to see the GBA library come to Switch?

The GBA still has the definitive version of FFV so it would be great if this appeared somewhere else at some point

What do you think, ERA?
 
KZXcellent

KZXcellent

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,969
Golden Sun and Golden Sun The Lost Age.

Be prepared though as they are pretty chatty.
 
aerie

aerie

wonky
Administrator
Oct 25, 2017
8,028
I'd say Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga is probably the best original RPG on the system, its really quite fantastic. Its on the Wii U too :). And yes, the GBA library should come to Switch!

Well, i suppose other than Mother 3, but officially release in English
 

Deleted member 3815

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screenshot-ruby-sapphire-emerald.jpg


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I played the hell out of the gen 3 Pokémon games, with Pokémon FireRed being my favorite.
 
Stormkyleis

Stormkyleis

Member
Oct 25, 2017
571
Italy
Superstar Saga, Mother 3 and Pokémon Emerald are fantastic games. I'm still hopeful for Mother 3 on the Switch.

I haven't played Golden Sun 1 and 2 yet.
 
doctorcdcs

doctorcdcs

Member
Oct 25, 2017
433
I really liked Tactics other: knight of lodis. Never beat what I assumed was the last mission, and ended up misplacing the cart!

Had to buy another copy online, but having to trudge through all those missions again made me balk at a second playthrough.
 
zoodoo

zoodoo

Member
Oct 26, 2017
12,727
Montreal
Mario Power Tennis
A rpg game with tennis combat. There is a similar golf game (Mario golf advance tour) but I never tried it
 
Strings

Strings

Member
Oct 27, 2017
31,372
There are a stupid amount of great RPGs on the system. Just a few of them:

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis
Mother 3
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
Fire Emblem (+ Sacred Stones and 6)
Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 1 and 2
Megaman Battle Network 1-4
Golden Sun (+ The Lost Age)
Riviera: The Promised Land
The Legend of Goku games + Buu's Fury

Plus a bunch of other stuff I'm blanking on before we even get to the ports (FFVI blah blah). The GBA, DS, PS1 and PS2 libraries are unreal.
 
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Deleted member 8861

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megaman battle network is good shit

edit: What do you all recommend for GBA games with a good story? mother 3, ffvi, what else?
 
hipsterbodega

hipsterbodega

Member
Oct 30, 2017
603
I'm actually struggling to come up with a solid list of RPGs on the GBA. My favorites off the top of my head are Superstar Saga, Mother 3 and Final Fantasy VI (which isn't the best way to play that game, but it's fine). Definitely Final Fantasy Tactics Advance if that counts. I personally don't care much for Golden Sun games at all.

But even if you included Golden Sun, the good RPG library seems a lot thinner than I would have thought. I'm sure there's more, but RPGs were still thriving on consoles then; handhelds didn't really take up the mantle until the following generation.
 

The FuzzPig

Member
Oct 31, 2017
261
My favourites are probably ether the two Golden Sun's or Mario & Luigi.
In terms of ports there's the first 6 final fantasy games, with 6 being my favourite.
There was the first two breath of fire games, I think both of them had a redone translation?
The worst version of Tales of Phantasia.........I actualy completed this.
I think there was some kind of Phantasy Star collection(Might not have included all 4 games?)
Some lesser known ones were Riviera The promised land originally released on the wonder swan, and two Summon Night games which used a 2d action battle system, kind of like the early Tales games.
 
Tito

Tito

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,030
I see a lot of people mentioning Golden Sun, and only some is sequel. People should know that the first Golden Sun is slightly disappointing, very short and cuts the story in half. To me it is the prologue of the second game.

The second game, Lost Age, is so great that it makes GS1 great in retrospect, it has triple the content and ends the story in a very satisfying way.

Superstar Saga is by far the best Mario RPG game.
Mother 3 is great.
Swordcraft 1 & 2 are very fun.
DBZ LoG 2 and 3 are great (skip 1). There's a DB platformer that's seriously great too, not RPG though.
Castlevania AoS is amazing, definitely better than SotN.
Mario Tennis and Golf are great, but the GBC games are better.
Riviera was great.
Pokémon games are fun, but I feel that the GBC and DS games were better.
 
RionaaM

RionaaM

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,852
Kind of a weird answer: The Sims Bustin' Out and The Urbz: Sims in the City. I found those to be great RPG-lite games, where you control a character directly and complete quests to advance the story. They have tons of humor, several minigames and charming characters. It's a shame they never made more games like those (The Sims 2 on GBA is a bit similar too, but I didn't like that one).
 

Skulldead

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Oct 27, 2017
4,450
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This is actualy a pretty good game. Use a class system like dragon quest combine with pokemon element. Also pretty challenging overall make the experience really fun. One of the hidden gem on GBA IMO.
 

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BabyShams said:
Golden Sun
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ChaosSmurf said:
+ sequel
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Yes
Lord British said:
Superstar Saga.
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YES
hjort said:
Mother 3.
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Sure
Mr-Joker said:
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I played the hell out of the gen 3 Pokémon games, with Pokémon FireRed being my favorite.
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Blah. Whatever.
Glio said:
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
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Yes
 
Tito

Tito

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,030
its_Ditz said:
My favourite games of all time: Golden Sun.

Aaaaannd we´re done. Thanks for stepping by!




IN YOUR OPINION my friend. While Golden Sun 2 is without a doubt the bigger game and offers a conclusion, there are many who prefer the first entry - myself included.
Also, I´m sure that everyone who mentioned the game pretty much is including The Lost Age as it´s less of a sequel, but rather Part II.
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Well, obviously it's my opinion. It's an opinion board...

I don't see any redeeming qualities in the first GS. A nice tech demo, I guess.

I was very disappointed by it, very short, incredibly easy, elementary puzzles, etc. I checked the second one out of curiosity, and then it grabbed me.
 
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