GBA RPGs

I need some recommendations on some stellar GBA RPGs, stat!

My girlfriend's birthday's coming up, and she likes RPGs (stereotypical female gamer :hmm: ) and has a GBA, so I thought it'd be a good idea to get her a GBA game for her birthday.

Ever since I misplaced my own GBA (:bummed: ), I haven't been keeping up with the handheld much, so... does anyone have any recommendations for GBA RPGs?

There were some moments when Golden Sun didn't bore me.

Oh yeah, and by the by, how's FF Tactics? I think she'd like that.

Weltall: You're a big help. :hmm: Actually, I <i>could</i> give her my copy... so wait, you actually DID help. No sarcasm that time.

Golden Sun is good! And there's always Mario & Luigi... the GBA has a lot of RPGs... Breath of Fire, Lunar, Pokemon, Megaman Battle Network, Lufia...

FFTA is more strategy than RPG. Different enough that even casuals see a stark difference in genre.

FFTA is strategy, yes. Same as Tactics Ogre... fun games though if you like tactical strategy games... :)

If she likes strategy/RPGs like FFTA get her Fire Emblem, which I think is much better than FFTA. As for RPGs I think Mario & Luigi and the Golden Sun games are the best, but I've recently been playing Sword of Mana and it's a pretty good game, just not as good as the others.

I love Sword of Mana... but I've described that here before. But I loved it and don't think many of the complaints hold water... my only complaint really is that compared to FFA especially it's far too linear and railed... you can't explore much at all. Still a great game. But it's an action-RPG closer partway between a normal console RPG and Zelda, not a RPG...

FFTA is more strategy than RPG. Different enough that even casuals see a stark difference in genre.

Yeah, I realize that. She's into Magic: the Gathering, though, so I think a tactical RPG would be up her ally.

Hmm... I'm thinking Fire Emblem is the way to go on this. Any other suggestions are welcome, though.

Fire Emblem isn't really tactical strategy though, that's FFTA... FE is a TBS...

I don't have any real suggestions... but you certainly have a rare girlfriend, you lucky dog you.

Forget RPGs! Get her Boktai! The sun is in you hand!!

i hear that girls who aren't even really into videogames like Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga...so i think that's a worthy consideration.

Mario & Luigi is the best straight RPG for the system, and Fire Emblem is the best strategy-RPG.

Probably, yeah... with Golden Sun being second most likely. Though a bit short... the second one's better that way I think. :)

Golden Sun didn't interest me enough to finish it all.

It was good though... and unlike many GB RPGs actually new...

Yeah it had lots going for it. Everything but an interesting story and a deep combat system.

The combat system is pretty par for the course, I'd say... and as for story it's hardly rare for console RPGs to have merely okay stories. Oh sure story is important, but it does have one... it does a better job than some SNES ones, I'd say. :D

Right. Golden Sun was pretty. And it had nice music. The maps were well-designed. The only problem was that the combat system was ancient and poorly-implemented. Plus, monsters had too much HP! Few of the monsters were actually a threat to you, but it sometimes took three or four rounds to knock out a smallfry! It's there just to draw out the battles, and I hate that.

Yeah, the story's crap too. If you're going to make a silent main character, don't ask his opinion on things every seven seconds, especially when it has no effect on the story.

"Isn't that a good idea, Isaac?"
"The grass sure is green today, isn't it, Isaac?"
"We might have to cross the river to get to the other side, right, Isaac?"

Bah. It was the pretty graphics that kept me going for awhile, but I gave up eventually.

But people talk to Link all the time... :)

No, that's not what I mean. In Golden Sun, your fellow partymembers ask you your opinion on matters almost constantly, in the form of Yes/No questions, and what you say doesn't make a bit of difference to the storyline. It's there, I guess, to offer an illusion of a choice, or of nonlinearity, but it's annoying as hell because it's so frequent.

You know, I hate false choice like that. Yes, even in Zelda. It's great when games give you choices like those, but only if they have some effect, even if it's a small one, on how things progress. FF games for instance typically use them to determine small path selections or perhaps how you'll have to deal with some dungeon, or if you get some special item. However, in OOT and GS, it's all just an illusion. OOT is actually worse because you can't even really MAKE the "wrong" choice. You are just posed the same question repeatedly until you give the correct answer. Don't get me wrong, the game is awesome, and the way the question pops up with Zelda is truly hilarious *she stares at you with hopeful eyes* "Do you have the green glowing stone? Yes/No.", but really they should either toss out the questions like those entirely or actually have those answers affect something.

That would be good if it leads to choices, but silly if it's irrelevant and it's still completely linear...

Answers in KOTOR make a big difference.

Yes they do and that's one of the things that made it so cool.

It does sound like more than most... but what I don't like is how everyone acts like the gameplay was revolutionary when it was most certainly not. It's not the most nonlinear RPGs (those would likely be Elder Scrolls...), and it uses a tried and true combat engine... the only thing it does is have real multiple endings affected by how you play the game. And plenty of games have done that to some extent before...

To some extent, but definitely not as far as KOTOR does it.

Who said KOTOR's revolutionary? It's BG meets SW in 3D.

I like KOTOR since you can decide between two endings.I think you should be abled to decide how the story will end.

Console gamers keep saying that it seems... wow KOTOR is so cool and unlike previous RPGs etc... stupid...

On the topic of the GBA... http://www.gamespot.com/all/news/news_6089235.html

Before this topic gets completely derailed, I just wanted to show off my whore to etiquette by thanking everyone for their input. I've decided on Fire Emblem. Hopefully, she'll like it... :carrot:

Console gamers keep saying that it seems... wow KOTOR is so cool and unlike previous RPGs etc... stupid...

I've never heard anyone say that...

All I said was that KOTOR was smamfabulous.

Yeah, I don't really hear people say KOTOR was incredibly innovative. They just say it was a great game.

When you think about it though, it IS unlike most previous console RPGs.

Irrelevant. That would be like saying that becuase Super Smash Brothers Melee is unlike other Gamecube fighting games, it is unlike previous fighting games... console and PC really aren't THAT different.

And anyway there HAVE been PC-style RPGs on consoles before not quite this type it is true, but PC RPGs... see Morrowind, or if you look older the (admittedly quite different) Wizardry games (some of them, I think... maybe... or maybe they are console-specific, I'm not sure. I've heard that some of the console games are a completely different series from PC Wizardry anyway), or Ultima...

Really? Female gamers like RPGs? Most females I've known hate or don't care too much for RPGs. Of course, most of them weren't really gamers. I did recently get my girlfriend (a hardcore gamer) into a few RPGs, namely Final Fantasy VII and VIII. She was mostly a Nintendo and Sega gamer before she met me, so she didn't experience those two in the late 90's like most of the rest of us. :)

I'd think of female gamers liking ... hmm, puzzle games, adventure games, sims (simcity/sims style, not military... :) )...

And Barbie games! Barbie games with ponies, especially!! Just ask our resident female gamer, Dark Jaguar.

:p

Seriously though, that's just a stereotype. I know plenty of girls that like fighting games and shooters, the so-called "manly-man games".

Just about all female gamers I've met have been RPG freaks... it seems like you don't meet many who are into shooters or platformers. They seem like they're less into mindless fun and more into puzzles/strategy/stuff that involves thinking.

If it's a stereotype that female gamers like puzzle games, adventure games (graphic adventures), and sims then it's an accurate one... and I would also expect RPGs and strategy games to be more popular than shooters or platformers... yes, more thinking and less mindless action.

What kinds of games does DJ like? The same games we do, for the most part. My female friends are the same.

Atypical...

Seriously now, just how many girl gamers do you personally know?

Umm... :) Not many...

Oh, also far fewer girls play games than guys... sure there are hardcore female gamers, of course, but not nearly as many as there are guys... I'd call most girls who play games more softcore gamers... note how The Sims is super-popular with the female audience.

Yeah. Give me a number.

Why? I mean I was mostly talking about in general, not from specific examples of people...

In my family for instance my parents have played some games... mostly adventure games. Iplayed several adventure games with my mom (that genre benefits from working together on the puzzles...)... Oh, and my mom liked SimCity. My sister played some games, hasn't in years now... adventure, rpg (Baldur's Gate), and puzzle and platformers on the GB...

What, did you read some study conducted by NYU or something? Or are you stating these "facts" based off of a few conversations with people on message boards?

You can't deny far more guys play games. :)

Guys are the general target audience of video game companies, and often girls find this sexist, so the theory that more girls would play games if they were aimed towards them more often comes up.

I remember one girl complaining because her little brother wouldn't let her play Game Boy, saying it's for boys only, which is why it's called Game Boy. I believe I read that in Nintendo Power years ago. (Back when I actually subscribed to that piece of crap.)

You can't deny far more guys play games. :)

:erm:

What does that have to do with what kinds of games girls like?

And of the girls that do play games I am sure that the numbers that like action games are in the minority.

Right, and you know this based off of all the girl gamers that you know. :rolleyes:

More based on what I hear on the net really...

And we all know how reliable video game dorks on message boards are. :whatever:

"Man, Halo kicks ass! Dude, chicks don't like Halo! They like Tetris and shit."

Uh, do you seriously think that female gamers like action games just as much as male ones, or are you just being annoying?

Well there's no way to get an exact number, but I've yet to meet a gamer girl who doesn't like action games.

Such an accurate way to judge it! :D

Oh but your "ask a bunch of message board people" method is so much better. :rolleyes:

I wasn't just talking about message board people!

I have yet to meet a girl gamer in real life. I think that's why I don't commit to girls for too long. I want a girl who will do all the things past girlfriends have done and then settle down for a nice game of Double Dash. :)

Late last year I convinced my friend Natalie to buy a Gamecube. She likes sports and action games mostly. All of my other female friends pretty much like the same genres I do.

I wasn't just talking about message board people!

Then who else? You told me your life is pretty much just online...

I meant like articles from websites and stuff.

:rolleyes: