Hacker News Reader

Comment by anonymous908213 | Hacker News Reader

A Link to the Past, Super Mario World, Yoshi's Island, Kirby Super Star, Donkey Kong Country 1-3, Super Metroid, Megaman X series, Dragon Quest series, Final Fantasy series, Chrono Trigger, Earthbound... just off the top of my head, are all very much worth playing today.

View on HN

The Dragon Quest series, while beloved, is hardly the epitome of peak SNES gaming. It’s always been (purposefully) extremely conservative and dated in its design.

If you’re gonna go for quality SNES RPGs that show the console shining, you’d be better off with Terranigma, the Final Fantasy series, Tales of Phantasia, Chrono Trigger, etc, etc.

There is indeed a very strong and deep library of JRPGs to recommend, but I strongly disagree that DQ is not among the best. I recently replayed two of them in the past two years and both were still 10/10 experiences for me. They are conservative, sure, but that's not a bad thing. One of the points I was making about limited hardware is that polished simplicity can trump overeager complexity, and I think the DQ games are a shining example of that.

I love DQ. My point wasn’t that they were bad RPGs. Simply that they don’t fit within OP’s point.

Most of them could just as easily be NES/SMS games with slightly tuned down graphics; they don’t push the SNES in any meaningful way. As mentioned, that’s an intentional decision and not intended as a slight.

I get your point, but "slightly tuned down" is a bit hyperbolic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLUDMrmjgjQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoyYtqi5u54

From the context of the conversation, it was clear they were talking about the Super Famicom entries, not saying that DQXI could be demoted to a Famicom game[1]. I don't really agree with them, although I didn't feel like continuing to belabour the point at the time. I think the SFC remakes of the Famicom DQ games (1-3) add an entirely new dimension to them. Despite their influential heritage, I do not think DQ 1-3 on the Famicom stand the test of time, and I don't think they're worth playing other than for the historical value of seeing how the genre developed. Whereas I think DQ 1-3 remakes on the Super Famicom conversely absolutely do hold up as top-notch experiences.

[1] Although notably, they did release a demake of DQXI into a Super Famicom-style game!

Did you just use a Gen 8 (3DS/Switch, PS4, Xbox One) game to make a point about SNES gameplay? Did you intentionally miss the point or are you attempting to obfuscate it?

Obviously a game for modern consoles is going to be far more advanced than an NES game; even while still being quite conservative.

Secret of Mana/Seiken Densetsu 2 11/10.

Seiken Densetsu 3 is good too. Only released in Japan but got translated by fans to be played on emulators. Now part of Collection of Mana for Switch and officially remade in 3D for Switch, PS4, XBox and Windows named Trials of Mana.

As a SoM fan I'd hesitate to give it 11/10, mostly due to how the optimal strat for an action game is how you menu through spells, interrupting combat flow.

Yeah, I had great memories of secret of mana and SD3 (emulated in translation, I think that was Aeon Genesis?) and I replayed them with my partner in 2020. For a few hours. Honestly, kinda miserable.

Single player it was less fun than I remembered, multiplayer it was awful. SD3 is a beautiful game, and very overrated.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com