well i was in the mood to show some love to less recognized games
Live-A-Live this got fantranslated a looooooooooooong time ago but around a year back it got another translation by the same author done in a better style,basicaly the idea is that there isn't a single scenario but instead there is a collection of them each done in a different time-line,scenario includes
- a caveman,pretty standard stuff if not for the fact that in your party you have a gorilla which attack by throwing poo at the enemies and the fact that you can smell random encounter
- a ninja,one of the most interessing scenario since you can actualy reach the end of it by following different paths,encounters are visible and you can hide in the shadows to avoid them,the game also makes a tally of how many people you kill and even gives you a reward if you reach the end without killing anybody (of course since you do need to level up to fight the final boss you can still fight against ghost and it doesn't count as killing people)
- a cowboy,the cowboy scenario is probably the most coolest one but it's also very short,a town is going to be under assault by a bandit and as such you have to scavenge the town for item you can use to set traps for him and his goons,there is only one battle and it's against the final boss,the more trap you set down,the less goons you have to fight when he arrives
- a kung-fu master,the master recruit three people,a fat guy,a little kid and a girl,you have to decide which one succeds the master and learns all of his cool kung-fu attacks
- a fighter,there is no story on this one,only fights... you pick your opponent in a screen done in street fighter style and each time you beat someone you learn his special attack,also another short scenario
- a boy with pyschic power,this one is also fantastic and pays homage to super robo anime,you can read people minds,you get a robo turtle in your party,the music is really kickass and you get to pilot a giant robot in the end
- a robot in the future,this scenario like the cowboy one features no fight barring an optional arcade game aptly named "CAPTAIN SQUARE" and the final boss,an alien got inside the ship and he's out for your blood (or i guess it would be more correct to say oil)
after finishing all of the scenario you unlock an 8th scenario where you play a knight,the usual demon kidnaps the usual princess and well it's pretty much your average dragon quest plot except the ending is way more twisted
after finishing this 8th scenario too you unlock a 9th scenario which would be somewhat spoilerish to describe so i'll leave it to that,the graphics resemble final fantasy v (in fact butz sprite even get used in the equipment inventory and i think there is a similiar piano joke in the pyschic chapter) the music rocks
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(the boss theme)
it's a pretty original spin on the usual rpg formula and all you need to do to play it is a search on google and a snes emulator so get some work done
Metal Max i got to known this trough the ps2 sequel known as "metal saga" but actualy the original got fan translated too and it's pretty much the same thing with snes graphics,metal max setting is a post apocalyptic one but instead of a serious post apocalyptic world like fallout it's a crazy one featuring tanks with legs who wear fishnet stocking,killer tomatoes,a gorilla mafia (with a samurai baboon who protects the don) and a cults of cultist that try to kill you with the shockwaves they cause by flexing their muscle... the ps2 one starts asking if you want to become an adventurer and if you reply no it just ends abruptly and then tells you about all the awesome adventure you didn't had for being a wussy
unlike other rpg this one doesn't follow up any specific story,you are free to go anywhere you want as long as you don't get murdered by the random encounter (which usualy doesn't happen as long as you don't stray too far away without powering up) of course you do need a general objective,this objective comes in the form of bounty,each city has a number of big baddies for you to hunt and kill and much of the game is spent going around finding baddies and blasting them with your tanks
that's right,while you do occasionaly fight on foot most of the time is spent inside tanks which coupled with the lack of restriction give the game a sort of "outlandish travel" feeling,while in town you can give better gear to your character or alternatively buy new cannons and stuff
sadly the combat sucks,in the ps2 one the character can't use any skill while on board of the tank and even in that rare occasion when you are on foot most of them aren't worth the use,in the snes one you don't even have any skill to begin with! so usualy you just end up attacking until you are dead or your opponent is dead,in battle tanks have an armor value and when your armor goes down to 0 every attack you receive will damage a part of your tank,if a cannon gets damaged you can't shot with it anymore,if the engine gets damaged you can still fight but after the fight you will be forced to tow the tank with your other one
luckily enough the ps2 one features a handy option which skips all the combat frame and make combats very short,a feature that should be like in every single rpg ever done
this game won't win over anyone who likes to get his ass kicked in combat but by all mean if you think you need a jrpg that feels different give this one a spin,while the ps2 one might be hard to find you don't really need to do much to get the snes one
fantranslation for both games can be found here
http://agtp.romhack.net/