Before Square Enix was, well, Square Enix, they were known as Square. Now, when they published games in the West on the Super Nintendo, they were referred to as Squaresoft. Prior to that though, they were just Square on the NES. Confusing, isn’t it?
All one needs to know is that Squaresoft released some of the greatest RPGs of all time on the SNES. The 90s were a killer era for them. They made a lot that also didn’t come to the West, but instead of ranking the whole catalog, let’s instead focus on what did travel to North America. From Final Fantasy to Secret of Mana, it is time to rank them out.
7 Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest
This is often the forgotten son in the Final Fantasy series. It’s a spinoff that doesn’t like anything from the core games. It actually feels more like a Dragon Quest game than anything else.
That being said, it doesn’t hold a candle next to that series either. The best thing about it is the soundtrack, and otherwise it’s a fairly B-tier RPG.
6 Secret Of Evermore
This was the one game the Square office that was set up in North America made. It has nothing to do with the Mana universe, and instead tried to establish a universe where “Secret” was seemingly going to be the franchise.
Anyway, the combat is very similar to Secret of Mana, although the content is very different. It’s about a boy getting transported to prehistoric times in the beginning of the game. Like the last entry, it is not as good as the main franchise, but still pretty fun for what it was, even if it didn’t become that popular at the time.
5 Final Fantasy II
Even though this entry is about Final Fantasy IV, let’s go ahead and use the Western name of Final Fantasy II to be clearer. And, the version of this game that the West got was not as polished as later ports of the game. Content was cut out, the translation wasn’t perfect, and the difficulty balancing was all over the place.
To go from Final Fantasy on the NES to this was a huge leap. It was praised at the time because of it. Overall Final Fantasy IV is a good entry in the franchise, but again, this version is not the best out there. The Game Boy Advance version or the DS remake are better choices.
4 Secret Of Mana
Secret of Mana is actually the first Mana game released under its name in the West. The first was Final Fantasy Adventure on the Game Boy, which was called Seiken Densetsu in Japan, which is the Mana franchise. That’s why Secret of Evermore tried to capitalize on the “Secret” name as mentioned previously.
History aside, this is a great action RPG for the SNES. It holds up a lot better than the recent PS4 remake. That’s not to say it’s not without some jank, but it remains a classic nonetheless.
3 Final Fantasy III
Final Fantasy III is another skip in the timeline, which is Final Fantasy VI. Unlike Final Fantasy II, it is a much better finalized project. It looks better, plays better, and the script was leagues beyond it’s predecessor in terms of translations. The GBA version may have more content that was cut in the game, like the Kaiser Dragon, but both versions are must plays for RPG fans.
It’s hard to say what the best Final Fantasy game is, as everyone has their preferences. It’s safe to say that this is among the top slots though. However, one thing is for sure. Avoid the phone versions.
2 Super Mario RPG
That’s right, Mario’s RPG debut is better than the best Final Fantasy game. The worst thing about it is the graphics, which were mind boggling at the time. The SNES can produce 3D graphics?
Other than that, the rest of the game is extremely fresh and remains unique today, from the active timed battles to the interactive environments. It managed to blend Square RPG elements with stuff that was iconic to Mario. It seemed impossible, but they did it. Out of all Mario RPGs, in its many spinoff forms, this still remains the best.
1 Chrono Trigger
The crowning achievement for Square in the SNES was Chrono Trigger. It is a culmination of so many legends in the industry coming together for what was essentially a dream project. Creators from other realms came together for this, like Akira Toriyama of Dragon Ball and Dragon Quest fame, not to mention the father of Dragon Quest himself, Yuji Horii.
It was like the merger that would eventually become Square Enix, many years before it happened. The pixel perfect art, stunning music, fast gameplay, time travel scenario, and everything in between make it an ageless classic, even more so than any Final Fantasy, on the SNES. Quite frankly, it’s better than a lot of those games on any platform.
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