The SNES has remained one of the most prominent consoles when talking about old school RPGs. Its vast library does help in that regard, but the real reason it remains talked about is due to the sheer quality of some titles. It’s the excellent blend of quantity and quality that helps the SNES’ RPG line up stand out even decades later.
Some qualities that will help a game rank on this list are engaging storylines, unique gameplay, and quality of life features. This list will be ranking the 10 best SNES RPGs, starting with 10th place and ending with 1st.
Earthbound
Ranking in at tenth place is the second game in the Mother series. It is a game that is well known for its charming atmosphere and quirky world. Those factors combined with some unique gameplay mechanics such as the HP bar only gradually moving helps Earthbound stand out from the crowd.
Earthbound’s party members; Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo.
One other fantastic feature it has is monsters roaming the overworld instead of random encounters. This game inspired a plethora of modern indie games like Undertale and Omori despite only selling a modest amount of copies at release. As a result, there’s no doubt that it’s Nintendo’s most influential RPG from the SNES era.
Fire Emblem Genealogy of the Holy War
Seliph from Fire Emblem 4.
Fire Emblem 4 did age a bit in terms of unbalanced gameplay mechanics, but it remains the best tactical RPG available on the console regardless. It is where the series truly started focusing on storytelling. There’s actual depth to the conflict and lore this time around. Additionally, the cast is much more interesting than those seen in the original NES trilogy.
Even in terms of gameplay it has much better quality of life features than those titles. FE4 may not have been as inspirational as Earthbound or later games on this list were, but the writing is exceptionally good for a tactical RPG from this era.
Final Fantasy 5
FF5‘s story is a little more straightforward than other Final Fantasy games on the SNES, but it makes up for that in its world design. The game takes place in two separate worlds that eventually overlap in a really cool way. There’s no real notable flaws in this title, but the fact it can somewhat blend into the crowd does prevent it from ranking any higher on this list.
Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes 2
The original Dragon Slayer: Legend of Heroes was one of the very first RPGs to feature enemies in the overworld, but the sequel is where the story really picks up. DS:TLoH2 takes the somewhat straightforward narrative the first game has, and then twists in the complete opposite direction. It introduces a load of sci-fi plot twists that were only vaguely foreshadowed in the first game. Not many retro RPG sequels were able to enhance the narrative of their predecessors the same way this game did. This series would eventually evolve into the slightly less obscure Trails franchise over time.
Legend of Heroes 2 box art.
Final Fantasy 6
FF6 remains a fan favorite title in its franchise due to the massive cast of playable characters, an entertaining villain named Kefka, and due to it being the first Final Fantasy game to truly deviate from the original story formula. The first five games focused heavily on crystals, but this game decided to do its own thing entirely.
Final Fantasy 6’s iconic intro cutscene.
Dragon Quest 5
The Dragon Quest series has always been one of the most influential RPG franchises in Japan, and DQ5 is one of the lead factors in that being the case. It popularized monster taming. Many massive series like Pokémon would not exist without this game.
Dragon Quest 5 hero and father art.
The narrative of DQ5 covers the entire life of the protagonist from young childhood all the way to late adulthood. He overcomes many struggles like the murder of his family members, being enslaved by monsters, and much more. It’s a tragic tale, but one that also contains charm and hope. It finds a great balance between serious and light hearted moments, unlike most previously mentioned games on this list which tend to stay very serious.
Chrono Trigger
Chrono Trigger is a special game because it was created by the dream team. Many big names in the industry from other RPG projects worked on this title. Most notably devs of the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest franchises. This title came out before his own works, but even the creator of the Xeno series helped develop this title. With so many incredible devs working together, it’s no surprise that Chrono Trigger became a masterpiece.
Chrono Trigger party members.
Chrono Trigger contains a lot of features that even Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest hadn’t attempted yet. Some easy examples are monsters in the overworld and New Game+. In fact, New Game+ is a term that Chrono Trigger created. The time travel themed story remains a beloved classic all around the world, although it is not the first time travel oriented RPG on the SNES.
Dragon Quest 6
DQ6 is another SNES RPG that focuses on exploring two separate worlds. This time it focuses on a real world and a dream world. The dream world is filled with a lot of quirky things like an island you can drive around. DQ6 also revamps the class change system that was seen originally in DQ3 on NES. Now classes are no longer locked behind levels, and instead classes have a star system. This erases the need to grind low level enemies every time you want to class change. DQ6 often doesn’t get enough credit for this change which was quite revolutionary for the time.
Dragon Quest 6 cliffside.
This title is also surprisingly dark despite how goofy the dream world can be. One of the most iconic scenes is blood flowing down a river, and one of the optional party members can die if you pick the wrong option. Just like DQ5, this title manages to blend charm with seriousness exceptionally well.
Final Fantasy 4
FF6 may be the most popular SNES trilogy title in the west, and FF5 may be the most popular in Japan, but the title ranking highest on this list is FF4. It’s the first Final Fantasy game to have an interesting protagonist, great character development, and thrilling plot twists.
Final Fantasy 4 cutscene.
It’s a title that truly represents the quality jump between the NES era and SNES era of RPGs. Very few older RPGs had storylines that could parallel seeing the protagonist grow from an evil henchman to a paladin that saves the world from a mysterious entity on the second moon.
Live A Live
The original time travel RPG has eight chapters that all focus on different eras before they all connect together. Every chapter is incredibly distinct, which means there’s practically something for everyone. You can save a desert town from bandits in the Wild West chapter, attempt a pacifist or genocide ninja mission in the Edo Japan era, attempt to pass a martial arts style down to pupils in the Imperial China chapter, and so on. There’s even some storylines that take place in the future.
Live A Live Near Future chapter art.
While all chapters do play somewhat akin to a small-scale tactical RPG, each chapter somewhat parodies a different genre. The Modern Day chapter parodies fighting games, while the Distant Future era is a light horror where you run away from an alien monster on the map.
Live A Live is full of unique concepts and charm at every corner. It’s even one of the first RPGs to let you play as the villain. There are a few different endings, with one of them giving you the chance to kill nearly every previous protagonist while you take control of the main antagonist. LAL unfortunately took a while to get released outside of Japan, so many may not even realize to what extent its influence goes. Extremely beloved games like Chrono Trigger and Undertale were directly inspired by this title.
