While the genre was pretty well established before the console came out, you could argue that the SNES was when RPGs really began to establish creative standards that some modern RPGs just struggle to match. From heavy-handed Queen references to at least a handful of dragons to the greatest video game frog ever, I’m Jimmy for Cultured Vultures, and these are the best SNES RPGs ever, limiting things to just one entry per franchise.
10. Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinistrals
Developer: Neverland
Publisher: Natsume
As Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinistrals is a prequel to Lufia and the Fortress of Doom, following the story of an ancestor of the previous game’s protagonist, you don’t need 30 hours of experience to immediately click with this one. Unfortunately though, Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinistrals tends to fall under the radar a bit compared to the more well-known RPGs for the console. If you haven’t played it before, you’re in for one of the most underrated gems on the Super Nintendo.
Besides offering a pretty good story that shows the origins of the previous game’s antagonists, Lufia 2 has an excellent monster summon system. A range of creatures can be summoned to help you in battle, and this adds a nice touch of depth to a deep, involving quest. Lufia 2 is also notable, some might say notorious, for placing a particularly strong emphasis on puzzle-solving in dungeons. You won’t have to worry about random battles, so it’s easy enough to focus on what needs to be done in these situations.
Lufia 2 succeeds in immersing you in its world pretty well, even if it got nowhere near succeeding commercially, hence these wild prices. Rise of the Prices, am I right?
9. Terranigma
Developer: Quintet
Publisher: Enix
One of the most eye-catching action RPGs ever made for the SNES, we’re always going to be here to champion Terranigma, even if its creator is never going to be around to properly port it, apparently.
You play as the young boy Ark who soon finds himself caught in the middle of a cosmic war, one of the least chill kinds of wars. There’s a rich, meaty story for RPG fans to enjoy here, with Ark embarking on a quest to save his underground village, while restoring life itself to the surface world in the aftermath of a vicious calamity.
Terranigma is one of those great action RPGs that benefit from being easy to pick up and highly intuitive. Ark uses a spear to do the most physical damage, but the game also has a series of rings you can collect to imbue your hero with magical spells. You’ll sometimes need to make dramatic adjustments to defeat the fantastically designed, very difficult bosses that populate the game.
A late release for the SNES, Terranigma, the third and final game in the Gaia Trilogy, is a graphically gorgeous adventure with an evocative, memorable soundtrack on top of the kind of eco-conscious storyline that a certain spiky boy would bring into the mainstream two years later.
8. Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen
Developer: Quest Corporation
Publisher: Enix
A real-time tactical RPG with far more depth than some might suspect the SNES was even capable of, The March of the Black Queen is all about revolution. Hold the Dance Dance.
After starting your character from pretty much a blank canvas, you’re determined to bring down the Zeteginean Empire, and you’re going to need the most powerful army in the land to be successful. You can even affect your reputation with a nation based on the different decisions you make.
Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen is set in a world in which humans live side-by-side with monsters like werewolves, vampires, and of course the titular ogres. A worthwhile army is going to cover a variety of different creatures with different abilities, as well as human soldiers of various ranks and classes. There’s a lot of potential for building an ideal group, so micro-managers will find something to latch onto here, but there’s also a lot of work involved in carefully managing your resources in sprawling battles with the empire, especially if there’s a particular ending you’re gunning for.
Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen was a perfect introduction to real-time strategy RPG fans in 1993, and not much has changed since then. If you like Shin Megami Tensei, Final Fantasy Tactics, and, um, Mercenaries, you might get a real kick out of this one.
7. Breath of Fire 2
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
If you’ve played and enjoyed the PS1 Breath of Fire games, you really need to go back and play the first two games. Both were released for the Super Nintendo, and it’s the 1994 sequel Breath of Fire 2 that stands as the better of the two. There’s simply more polish to a game that is much more grounded in what it wants to say and do, and how it wants to distinguish itself from the other RPGs of this era.
Breath of Fire 2 has a stunning, 16-bit world to explore, with rich pixelated detail to the towns, roads, castles, dungeons, and more of them rascal monsters you’ll encounter along your travels. Some of the monster designs in particular are as unique as they are memorable, especially the guy called Chorking, and there’s also some excellent spell animations to wrap the whole presentation in a style that helped define JRPGs at this point in history.
Breath of Fire 2 is a game loaded with charm and aesthetics, balanced with good gameplay and varied characters. The addictive town-building feature will also show you just how versatile and fun this game can get, long before Dark Cloud made its way to PS2.
6. Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride
Developer: Chunsoft Co
Publisher: Enix
Covering a span of more than 30 years in the life of our hero, Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride was the first in the franchise to be released for the Super Famicom, but it wouldn’t get a western release for quite some time. That was a shame for early 90s SNES fans, as developer Chunsoft took full advantage of Nintendo’s 16-bit powerhouse to firmly establish Dragon Quest as an RPG mainstay.
This is a large-scale epic adventure that spans decades and boasts a massive cast of characters. The soundtrack alone is one of the best for the system, pulling you further into a world rich with vast landscapes, challenging dungeons, and my wife. She’s my wife. Please stop marrying her.
While the game may dabble a little in kingdoms and gods, Dragon Quest V: Hands of the Heavenly is ultimately a grandiose coming of age adventure with first-person battles, truly evil villains, and even the opportunity to recruit monsters to aid you in your quest for the first time in the series.
This is a game with dark, personal stakes for our characters as the story goes in some pretty surprising directions. You need to play Dragon Quest V simply to experience one of the best narratives of its generation, or ever. We might end up saying that a lot.
5. Secret of Mana
Developer: Square
Publisher: Square
Three young heroes face off against a sinister kingdom trying to occupy and use an ancient flying fortress to take over the world. Kingdoms, heroes, flying things — while the basic summary of Secret of Mana may sound familiar, even at the time of its 1993 release, everything about this action RPG was boldly different from anything Square had attempted. The inventiveness is not just in the real-time action combat that might remind you at least of Zelda.
This creativity in Secret of Mana runs through everything from the almost overwhelmingly vibrant world in which the game is set, to the item management “ring” system, and even in terms of allowing you to bring and up to two other players for the ride in drop-in, drop-out co-op — pretty wild for the time and rarely seen today.
But how does it play? Well, the combat is addictive to say the least, especially when it comes to figuring out your party composition and how to best make use of the power bar. Though the fact that you can basically fast travel by getting shot out of a cannon is all you need to hear.
Secret of Mana is the sort of game that almost anyone will enjoy, so it’s a shame so few people seemed to like Visions of Mana, the most recent and most probably final Mana game.
4. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
Developer: Square
Publisher: Nintendo
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars is widely regarded as one of the best RPGs of all time, but everything from this point onwards could viably claim to be the best game of all time.
The last Mario game made for the SNES saw the beloved plumber stepping into a game that was truly unlike anything he had done before, though we all fondly remember fighting Bahamut in the final boss of Mario Paint.
From the game combining approachable RPG mechanics with a 3D isometric Mario platformer, to character depth beyond simply their high jump records, every aspect of Legend of the Seven Stars was impressively outside of the comfort zone for everyone involved, and it gave the SNES a brilliant last dose relevance in its final months.
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars even creates an all-new threat in Smithy, forcing Bowser to join forces with Mario in a bid to reclaim what is still one of the most unique Mario worlds ever created. Loaded with original characters like Mallow and Geno, the story here is a welcomed dive into something a little meatier for Mario and company. There’s also a super charming sense of humor here, mixing beautifully with graphical depictions that still look pretty darn good almost thirty years later.
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars stands with the best of the Super Nintendo and Super Mario for developing something truly one of a kind on the foundation upon which all great RPGs begin.
3. EarthBound
Developer: HAL Laboratory
Publisher: Nintendo
Despite strong sales in Japan, and a big, splashy ad campaign and release for the game in North America, EarthBound languished in relative obscurity with a very dedicated fanbase for a number of years. It wasn’t shifting Mario or Zelda numbers, but it was definitely a few rungs above something like, I dunno, Codename Steam. It wasn’t until the game’s protagonist Ness became an integral part of the Smash Bros. franchise that Mother 2, as it’s known in Japan, started to get some more deserved attention from both players and the press.
Today, this oddball JRPG set in a town evocative of suburban Americana is considered one of the best of its genre on any system. At this point, the mythos surrounding EarthBound as one of the ultimate cult classics for the Super Nintendo is such that you might be expecting the greatest video game ever made that will also do your taxes and walk your dog.
Your mileage will vary, and this story of a young boy named Ness who must work with his friends to destroy a terrifying cosmic force known as Giygas isn’t without frustrations, like a sometimes annoying inventory system, but odds are you’ll see why this game has captured so much attention and affection.
First-person battles with bizarre cultists and angry old drunk men, hallucinations, the Blues Brothers (sort of), a huge world of misfits and eccentric flashes of humor, and one of the most bonkers endings in video game history all contribute to EarthBound being the kind of game that makes you love the medium to begin with.
2. Final Fantasy III/VI
Developer: Square
Publisher: Square
Final Fantasy VI, released in the west as Final Fantasy III because it was only the third game in the series to see a release outside of Japan, routinely makes lists of the best JRPGs, and best games, of all time. A massive story of magic and destiny set in a blend of steampunk and high fantasy, Final Fantasy VI was a true epic at the time of its release over thirty years ago. That sense of playing a story that can still absolutely shock you today hasn’t lost its shine either.
With the legendary villain and madman Kefka as its center, Final Fantasy VI travels great distances and has you spending time with a variety of characters, including the mysterious Terra, the former general Celes, Cyan the loyal knight, a moggle named Mog, and quite a few others that could all lay claim to being the best Final Fantasy has ever produced. Fourteen permanent characters are available to recruit in Final Fantasy VI, and all of those characters are special or interesting in some way. Shout to my guy Strago, who I spiritually become more and more like every day.
When you layer these beloved names with a deep, compelling story that I won’t spoil just in case you’ve somehow missed that moment for 30 years, and add some of the best 16-bit graphics and sound to the whole thing, you have a game that was a classic almost from the first stomp in the snow. That prestige has only increased with time, and Final Fantasy VI deserves every bit of it. But we couldn’t quite pull the trigger on placing it #1 here.
1. Chrono Trigger
Developer: Square
Publisher: Square
A one-of-a-kind video game that takes you on a journey across thousands and thousands of years, Chrono Trigger was a late release in the lifespan of the SNES but proved that the console still had plenty of value to offer as the 32-bit generation began to fully emerge. It’s another Super Nintendo game whose acclaim at this point almost feels hyperbolic. Does it live up to the hype? Is Chrono Trigger the best SNES RPG the system ever saw, to say nothing of its place as one of the best SNES games ever period? Or best RPGs, for that matter? Or just best games?
With ample humor in a story that takes surprising dramatic turns at times, and some of the most likable, most snu snu protagonists in the entire genre, Chrono Trigger pulls you in with beautiful 16-bit worlds, a fun time traveling plot, and a phenomenal soundtrack almost immediately. The combat system offers both real-time and turn-based options, and when you’re deep in the ATB system while trying to figure out how Tech combinations work, then you begin to realise what all the fuss was about.
With a team that included Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii, Dragon Ball master Akira Toriyama, and Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, Chrono Trigger was all but guaranteed to at least be great. As decades of positive reviews from fans and critics alike might suggest, it could just be the greatest. Chrono Trigger is a perfect game to introduce someone to the genre, and just is really a perfect game. Also, Frog.
READ NEXT: 50 Best PS1 Games of All Time
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