What do you say about RPG in GBA?
 

Well? GBA is either blessed or cursed with hell amount RPG, but in my opinion, most of them are just so "typical" and not really worth of your time. Some titles such as Rockman EXE, Riviera, Fire Emblem, Yggdra Union may stand out on their own, but most other RPGs dont offer something new.

That's what I thought about common RPG titles in GBA, how do you feel about the games? Do you play lot of RPG in GBA what do you say about the quality? Feel free to recommend me one, I have too much time to kill at the moment.;)

The same can really be said of any console that gets a lot of RPG titles, not just the GBA. Some will stand out while others are mediocre or flat-out dull. That doesn't really say anything about the system itself.

A lot of the GBA's games are updated ports of old stuff too, which isn't really a bad thing. Games like Tales of Phantasia, FF IV-VI, and Sword of Mana are suited perfectly for rerelease on the GBA, and it's just a matter of opinion on how "typical" they are. Honestly, I tend to prefer more traditional styles most of the time. RPGs that are quirky and different like Riviera are great, but there's a reason why the typical gameplay became so common in the first place.

Only GBA games I really liked were the Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation games. Just about everything ranged from suck (most of them being here) to decent (like Mario & Luigi and what little I played of Yggdra Union).

Granted, the OG series pretty much brought me out of the "omg GBA RPGs are stupid" mentality. OG2 is actually in my top 3 RPGs of all time, so I guess that says something.

The GBA is a fine machine for RPGs. They don't generally feel as serious as a lot of the non-handheld games, but I don't care because I don't need that in my handheld RPGs.

Tritoch really hit it well when he said the pattern is a lot like any other system. It'll have its hits, misses, and so-sos. Also, the GBA ports of FFV and FFIV (especially 4, if you ask me) are the definitive ways to play the game now. That's saying a lot.

May as well make a love and hate list while I'm here.
Love: Yddgra Union, Super Robot Taisen 2, Fire Emblem (both), FFIVa, FF I&II Dawn of Souls, Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga (well, it was good, at least).
Hate: Onimusha Tactics, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Sword of Mana, Lunar Legend (though hate is a strong word. Maybe I should have had some middle ground. Too late!).

There's actually a lot of good GBA RPG titles if you're able to sift through all the Disney and other pocketraping titles meant for little children to whine over.

Just remember to stay as far away from Lufia: Ruins of Lore as you can, and give everything else a go. Most of the big time names have already been mentioned, but since you can play GBA games in your DS there's really no excuse to not try out a few of them if you can find them.

I think the GBA had a lot of potential as an RPG handhold, a potential that largely wasn't realized. Still, we got the FF ports, FFTA, both Golden Suns and the wonderfully fun Mario and Luigi.

I didn't care for either Kingdom hearts or Sword of Mana.

The GBA's the glock of the handhelds. Very durable but ugly as hell.

Golden Sun, Summon Night 1/2, Tactics Ogre and other non-RPGs on the GBA like Kurukuru Kurururin, Aria of Sorrow and Super Puzzle Fighter were all great fun. But there's a lot (out of the 2500 or so GBA games currently) of titles which suck. You'd be surprised just how many of them are based off movies or look like homebrew garbage. Like.. Dutch Idol.

I've yet to play Riviera but it's by Atlus, I think. (unless they just published another game, which is likely) Is it good?

I only had one qualm about Tales of Phantasia GBA, and that's the major slowdowns. Maybe it's just my cart, but whenever I got into a battle, the GBA/DS chugged along, trying to keep the framerate up. Anyone else experience this?

I don't get it. People are specifically trying to point out that some GBA RPGs aren't trying anything new? Doesn't this apply with pretty much every RPG anyway? The only "new" things RPGs have tried as of late are taking control mechanics from non-RPG genres.

The same goes for "a lot of GBA games suck". Whoah holy shit. And a lot of PS1 and PS2 games don't, apparently. This is relevant information.

As was said, the GBA is a fine platform for RPGs, even though it's a shame to see many of the good ones not being released over here in Europe (I wouldn't mind seeing Tactics Ogre, but hey). A bigger shame is how many of the exclusive GBA RPGs turn out to be needlessly simplified. It's one thing to game a game accessible, especially for a handheld system, but easy to start and learn doesn't have to mean "press one button to auto-fight".

Playing Golden Sun was a revelation, till then I didn't think a more or less traditional RPG would work on a portable console, but the save system made sure of it.

I suppose despite a range of excellent titles, the GBA is still overlooked by a lot of self-named RPG gamers. Anyone who skips on Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga is missing out, though.

The system and limitation made this game is very unique. The leveling system is also unusual (using certain item in practice to get stat boots?), this game also has nuance of love simulation with multiple endings. I would recommend you to play this one.

But one thing to be noted, dont think all of rpgs published by Atlus are great. That's what I thought after I trying to play Shin megami tensei demikids, both Light and Dark version. Both are pokemonized version of the occult rpg Shin Megami Tensei (which is amazingly very hard game in the original SNES). D:

About Golden Sun, everybody say it greats, but to be honest I havent had any clue where the excitement is. I will to continue the game after I finish Riviera.

It's a lousy port. The battles CRAWL on the GBA version.

A lot of them do though. It's rare to see RPGs on handhelds.. how many are there worthwhile for the PSP and DS exactly? Contact for DS comes to mind but that's only because I favor it a lot. The GBA has a large amount of RPGs in comparison, and some of them pull it off pretty well.

What I'm saying is.. comparing it to the PS1's RPGs is kinda dumb when the systems aren't up to equal standards.

Oh that reminds me, Boktai used the sun to change the daytime in the game or something, didn't it? I never touched those games myself but I thought that was pretty neat.

Yeah I recently played Rule of Rose and it bored me to hell. It visually looks great but there's just no purpose or goal in the game.

Developed by Sting, published by Atlus USA.

I enjoyed it for a while, but hated it at times. The item management was ridiculous and parts of it felt like the game was being different only for the sake of being different, not for the sake of being awesome. Great art, graphics, story, and characters, though. Battles were so-so--good concept but just felt poorly executed.

I've always liked the GBA, however I don't like the games which come out for it anymore. RPGs have never been the handheld's strength, even with titles like Golden Sun, MegaMan Battle Network (I don't care what people say, I really like this game for some reason, even if it is repetitive) and the Pokemon games. For me, the strongest games on the GBA are Kuru Kuru Kururin (Elixer, you're the only other person I know who really likes this game), Advance Wars, Sonic Advance(s), Kirby (^_^), Boktai(s) and WarioWare.

In other words I think the GBA has been rather weak with RPGs, namely poor ports such as ToP and Final Fantasy IV. But overall it was a good system in its day.

I dunno man, the DS RPG library is getting quite a hook up. There's:

Contact
Magical Starsign
Children of Mana
Mario and Luigi: Partners in time
Final Fantasy 3

which are all worth a shot IMO. There are others, but they either stink or I haven't tried them out yet. The PSP has a few gems too. Give them some more time, and i'm sure the list will build up quite a bit. No reason to jump the gun here.

How was Final Fantasy IV Advance a "poor" port? It's the best way to play the game.

Final Fantasy 4 was a nice port with some nice, added, bonuses. Only sad part was that it made people expect similar bonuses in FF5 and FF6 with relation to characters.

Mario and Luigi was a great game.

Don't forget about Minish Cap. Classic Zelda action with some new twists making a wonderful and well-made game. The puzzles were easy to medium, with one or two difficult ones but fun overall.

I'm seriously like one of the only people on earth who enjoy Contact. I mean come on, it's like an MMORPG with your stylus. But Children of Mana definitely isn't for everyone, since it's just a dungeon crawler.

I won't comment on FF3, or Starsign's art. D:

I'm just voicing my personal opinion; maybe I was a bit harsh, too: I thought it was a mediocre port. Let me just make it clear that my post did not intend to represent all people who have played RPGs on the GBA.

I didn't like the port of FFIV...The timing on everything felt completely off, the slowdown and music was pretty badly ported and the slowdown was insane with just two characters in my party. I hear the European version got cleaned up a bit though. The extras sound nice, but I'm not sure I want to go through the game as I've played it.

I'm afraid to try FFVI after seeing how FFIV turned out.

My favorite GBA RPG by far was the first Fire Emblem. I'm actually pretty pissed at Nintendo for not giving us this series for so many years after seeing how good it was. A lot of RPG's would be a lot more fun (or at least interesting) if deaths were permanent.

Eh, I actually like GBA RPSs, well most. FFIV and V on the GBA I actually enjoyed, I didn't noticed any slowdown or problems with the music.

My favourite GBA RPG by far was Golden Sun, it's close to being one of my favourite RPGs period, it's far up on my list. It had an excellent storyline that was very deep, the battle system was nicely done with great graphics considering it was a GBA and the year it was released. The use of Psynergy to accomplish goals was a great idea and I loved the Djinns.

Hell yes. The Fire Emblem series kicks ass. Challenging, but kicks ass. I haven't played the GBA iterations, but I'm playing Fire Emblem 4: Seisen no Keifu right now and it's amazing.

As far as RPGs go on the GBA, I don't know. I wasn't a fan of RPGs on handheld systems mainly because they usually don't yield as much playtime as consoles and PC games/emulators. RPGs that lack the save anywhere feature are annoying as hell. Currently, the only game I have that is like this is Tales of Phantasia (GBA) and Final Fantasy III (DS).

My current Handheld RPG titles are Final Fantasy III, Tales of Phantasia, and Golden Sun (and it's sequel). Golden Sun is the only one that I can pick up, play for 5 minutes, and be able to put it down. The others, I can't put down until I find a save point. I'm about to get Final Fantasy IV, V, and VI Advance because I'm a Final Fantasy Fanboy.

Since 2D love in gaming seems to be on a sharp decline now a days, I'm quite glad to have RPGs on the GBA. I'd prefer to be able to play 2D games on consoles, but that is sadly becoming obsolete and I'll take what I can get. Thanks to the GBA I've gotten a chance to play Fire Emblem 7 and 8, so I'll always love it for that simple reason. I love those two games, damnit (I need to play 6 sometime, but meh). Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 1 and 2 were also a ton of fun.