We chat about videogames and videogame accessories.

New Borderlands Game!

In addition to pissing Supes off, this installment also lets me play as Claptrap which I never knew I wanted to do until now!

yeah i uh

don't really know what's going on with that game it'll be as disappointing as monsters u except without any pixar to hold a standard to

Honest question: what is a good prequel. Has there ever been a prequel that is good.

I mean, video games-wise, people really like Yoshi's Island? aesthetic is good but the gameplay is garbage btw

does snake eater count

given what ive heard about ground zeroes kojima is lifting all of the worst bits of hollywood too lmao

yeah most of why video game prequels doesnt work is the whole "but they learned x in this game" and "why doesnt he have y in the first game then" so unless it involves different characters you will always be limited in some sense? see also: giant mess god of war

the legend of zelda the minish cap

e: How in god's name did I never hear about LA-MULANA 2

oh man i forgot that they funded the monster guide, too bad they didnt get to the hell stages although im sure they'll still end up stuffing something similar in

Prequels tend to work best when they're less "this is an earlier part of whatever story" and more "this is an earlier story set in the same world".

For example, Suikoden 5 is set some years before the first game in the series, in a different part of the world. There are definite connections to the other games, but it also works as a self-contained story, although obviously there are things you'll pick up on if you've played the other games. The plot does have some significant flaws, but they don't really have anything to do with the fact that it comes earlier than the other games.

Another alternative is focusing on familiar characters, but making it more about how they met, or at least how their relationship to each other was different earlier on. That said, off the top of my head it's not obvious how to make this a significantly better choice than starting with the earlier-in-time story and having the other one follow it up.

Rayman Origins?

Your requirements for prequels is a little vague. Does "side story" mean it has to star the main character from the rest of the series?

Kingdom Heart: Birth By Sleep
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Resident Evil Zero
Ace Combat Zero
Halo Reach
Skyward Sword
Caprica
Wicked(ish)
The Magician's Nephew(ish)

Do you care at all about stuff that fills in gaps between bigger installations cuz then I could go on and on.

Oh also probably some Castlevania stuff I've never played and Escape From Butcher Bay.

A lot of Castlevania games do that i think. Lords of Shadow is like the first one or whatever, then again, it's terrible and i guess it has the same problem as Zelda. What about Shadow of the Colossus?

I'm a little late but i've made up my mind about Oh8's art. I never really paid much attention to it because it was borderline kink-ish to me, but it is indeed fucked up.

Yoshi's Island is fun, you are indeed the absolute worst, Guy.

I want that Samus illustration as a poster, it's fucking bad-ass.

Stop posting so fast, my posts will consist of short thoughts about previous replies.

The biggest reason that Skyward Sword is a bad prequel is that Link has a hat several centuries too early
also because it's not really an excellent game

it's like they don't even recognize the canon of picori hiding collectible garbage in grass and bushes for you

Other M is such a joke, that's so uncharacteristic of Samus; I quite like her myself though, i like to believe that whoever kept the sexist things in the games was someone else slightly disconnected to the games, like some sort of asshole producer or something.



Now i want to play Minish Cap...

other m contradicts every other game in the series its hilarious

i wish that they continued on from fusion because its like
samus is in a fucked up biosuit thats made out of a parasitic creature that copies others, clones itself, AND the biosuit she had before!

its like, in a sequel to fusion, you dont need to have powerups anywhere, samus could theoretically just absorb the dna from bosses to get new powerups it would be neat but NOPE

its like, in a sequel to fusion, you dont need to have powerups anywhere, samus could theoretically just absorb the dna from bosses to get new powerups it would be neat but NOPE

what if Nintendo buys the rights to Megaman and then retroactively makes Metroid into a set of prequels for Megaman

okay, first of all,

Yoshi's Island is fun, you are indeed the absolute worst, Guy.

The stage design is by and large bland and really damn slow, and getting 100% on a level always felt like more like a slog than an entertaining scavenger hunt to me. The vehicle segments were absolute garbage, too. Especially the helicopter and the skis.

One thing I will give the subseries, though: great bosses. Especially Raphael Raven and that huge Goonie in the DS one.

I didn't think you still read this thread, Fogel. Do you like Atelier Iris?

On the whole, I've enjoyed the series. Overall, it's not strong on plot, and being a heavily anime-style series, it's prone to some of the more problematic anime cliches. (first game - totally naive young catgirl, complete with an "I want to sleep in your bed" joke; Atelier Iris 2 has a scene where a 13-year old girl is running around in her underwear; and 3 just has outright ridiculous costume designs on several female characters.)

The first game is fun because you get to run around converting various objects into elemental energy, though it's a bit unbalanced because Klein is your main healer and especially reviver, and as a mage he's a bit fragile. So a lot of battles boil down to "hope Klein doesn't die, or that you can hold on long enough once he does".
Also, Shop Synthesis, though more limited in some ways than later versions, is pretty fun because you get a conversation with the shopkeeper every time you make a new item. Plus you often get to buy a few more of the item in addition to the one you get through creation.

Second game is pretty different, and actually really easy. As opposed to MP, you get a gauge that fills up and special attacks (including healing) cost full gauges. On top of that, alchemy items can be used by anyone, and since you can make them with just elemental energy, it's pretty easy to get tons. As a result, there's really not a lot of times when there are resource issues. So it's pretty easy on the whole. Also, the basic setup is "there's a boy and a girl, the boy gets thrust into an adventure while the girl stays home and makes items for him".
Yeah.
(Thankfully, the girl does become a full party member later. And it's honestly pretty cool when she does, though she's still pretty much a stereotype.)

Third game... honestly, I would have to say this is the worst in the series. It was the first one I played and the gameplay isn't bad, per se; but the plot progression consists of "do a bunch of quests until the next story mission opens up, then do that, then do more quests, repeat". I played through and I got really sick of the missions before long, I remember I skipped a bunch once the last dungeon opened up because I was just tired of it all. Probably the main issue is that there are only five dungeons (not counting the final) and you keep going back to them over and over. They do have new areas opening up, but that's not enough to keep them fresh over EIGHT FREAKING CHAPTERS.
That said, the alchemy system is actually pretty neat! You examine things and get "ideas" that inspire new recipes, but you need to raise your alchemy level by making things in order to make new ideas available. The system's fairly typical for the series aside from that, though.

Then we come to Mana Khemia. This isn't part of Atelier Iris, per se, but it is part of the broader Atelier series. It's apparent right away if you've played Atelier Iris 3, because it borrows a lot from that gameplay-wise.
And this game does some amazing things. Let's start with the big one: you can switch party members in during combat. That's not exactly a new innovation, but here's the twist: you can switch a party member in immediately after making an attack, and they do a follow-up attack! You can also switch in right before an enemy attack. Even better, later in the game you can get skills that give characters an extra effect when switched in that way - one skill if switched in after an attack, another if switched in after defending.
Also fun: One of the characters has moves that mess directly with the turn system, because it's run on cards and cards are his thing. It's pretty cool.
On top of that, the game makes alchemy really important. There's a Sphere Grid-like system called the Grow Book, where every item you create unlocks a spot on the grid and you can then purchase stat boosts and abilities. I thought it was neat, but then I like that sort of thing.
My main complaint is the plot progression - the game is in a magic academy, so the way it works is you take "classes" which usually entail "go to a dungeon and get a tutorial on some generally minor new feature", and then after a certain number of classes you get a plot mission. I felt it was a bit of a slog after a while. Loved the gameplay, but the progression was awkward, and considering I played through it immediately after the already-a-slog that was Atelier Iris 3, yeah.
I also really liked the cast, and the game has a number of sidequests related to the other party members. Generally I found these really well done. My only complaint is that you can only do one character's final quest per playthrough, and there isn't even a strong reason for that - your choice affects one scene and the final post-credits scene and that's it. (Although making a choice at all is essential for getting the good ending, I thought that was a neat touch.)

Finally, we come to Mana Khemia 2, and I just didn't like it as much as the first game and never got that far in it. I think it was because the characters were way less interesting, and maybe because it was too similar to the first game so it didn't feel as novel, on top of having a bunch of interface differences that just made it feel uncomfortably different for no particular reason. I might finish it eventually, seeing as I slogged through Atelier Iris 3.

Short version: first game's pretty good on the whole, second game's good but has a fair amount of stuff that will make you roll your eyes at a minimum, third game is entirely skippable, Mana Khemia is wonderful but the plot progression gets in the way of the wonderful things, Mana Khemia 2 is mostly a less interesting version of Mana Khemia and probably not worth trying.

If you only try one game in the series, make it Mana Khemia.

Has anyone else played Nuclear Throne? It's a spiritual successor of sorts to Super Crate Box - it's equally hectic, but is top down and has some Diablo-like RPG progression tacked on. Even in alpha it's a lot of fun. I like the character designs too.

Final Fantasy Tactics is one of my favorite games of all the evers

Tactics Advance not so much, it lost so much of the aesthetic I loved as well as the gameplay mechanics that made it so complex and rewarding.

Helpful And In-Depth Opinions™

I just realized I didn't mention the music in the Atelier games; it's great. I'm not sure offhand if there's a single composer or a sound team, I meant to look into that but couldn't find the information easily. I guess I could beat one of the games again and look at the credits carefully.

Anyways, I'll take a crack at this list. If I don't mention something, I haven't played it.

Arc The Lad Collection

I played through the first game and started on the second. The first game is short but fun (but would be super-disappointing if the sequel wasn't packed right in), nothing amazing though.

Second game's also good from what I played of it. Opinions from a friend of mine who's played more of it than I have: the battles are lacking in variety, and most attacks on both sides either miss or get guarded and do about 10% of expected damage.

Also it's super-breakable with the help of the included Arc Arena disc, which basically lets you transfer items from one save to another... or from one save to a copy of the same save.

Star Ocean: Second Story

This hasn't aged particularly well. It's most notable for being the first game to be released outside of Japan with an extensive item creation system, which is now pretty much a staple of RPGs. But the system isn't very exciting; basically you use a skill and you can get an item, but in general what item you get is random. (Not to the point of complete unpredictability, but it just doesn't work out well in general.)

Also notable for the fact that you can get any two characters together in an ending, though as I recall only male-female pairings had any actual romantic elements.

Tales Of Symphonia

I have this weird pattern with Tales games where I play them for a while and then stop and never get to the ending. The only one I've beaten is Phantasia, which I've actually done twice, even though I don't care for that particular game once. I think it has to do with the fact that the ones I played never seemed to have a good guide focused on getting as much as possible in one playthrough - not that I wanted to go for that in my first playthrough, but rather that it's something I'd like to have for replays. Maybe that's just me.
Anyways, I liked what I played of this, but the story wasn't particularly good - from what I saw it looked like a worse, less subtle version of FF10. I was kind of interested in seeing how it would end up differing, but I just ended up putting the game down after a while.

Final Fantasy Tactics

This was my all-time favorite game for years. I played through it more times than I can remember. The class system is incredibly flexible, the battles are challenging if you don't grind, but if you do feel like powergaming it's not too tough to do so. There's a lot of freedom to play the game the way you want to play it, and a lot you can do. I once did a run where I stole every item from every possible boss enemy, and it was a blast.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

I didn't play this as much. Thought it was fun, but not as good as the original. I think I felt intimidated by how much trouble it was to get everything and that was a bit of a turnoff. Also, much easier to break than the original (which already had lots of overpowered stuff if you knew what it was).

Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire Of The Rift

I liked this better than Tactics Advance, probably because the laws didn't feel as intrusive. They were basically an extra challenge; if you followed them, you'd get a bonus applied to your party, while if you disobeyed them, you wouldn't be able to revive characters.
Still didn't finish it, but I did like what I played. Again, pretty easy on the whole.

Riviera: The Promised Land

I only played this briefly. I had some fun working out how to S-Rank each battle to get the maximum points for navigating the maps, but found it kind of awkward in general. Might have enjoyed it if I got into it.

Yggdra Union: We'll Never Fight Alone

I tried the first few battles on this and mostly found it confusing. This was a while ago, so I don't remember much more than that.

The Shining Force series

I played the first game and a little of the second, and the GBA remake.
I like it! It's like a more polished Fire Emblem, without breakable weapons and with goofier classes. (There's an armadillo guy in a steamsuit, an old man in a wingsuit, and a flying squid, among others.) You can also explore towns and other areas outside of battles, which is pretty rare as strategy-RPGs go.

Nippon Ichi

This is interesting because it gets into something about strategy-RPGs as a genre. In theory, I like them, but they tend to fall into one of two categories:
-Really generic (Fire Emblem, various clones, Shining Force kind of but I like the flavor enough to go with it)
-Really weird gameplay systems (which is mainly Nippon Ichi, but also some niche stuff published by Atlus)
I'm not saying I wouldn't enjoy either of those, but I tend to find it hard to get into them and so I don't usually have an opinion. This applies to most Nippon Ichi stuff I played. I finished Disgaea, of course, and made it to the last battle of 2, but I've only briefly tried out their other games.

Knights in the Nightmare

Played the intro battle on this. Falls into the "really weird gameplay system" side of things I mentioned above, so I didn't play far enough to get an opinion beyond that.

Radiant Historia

I love this game.

The concept of jumping between the timelines (or going back in time to replay a section) is great, though they could have done more with it. A lot of the branches are just bad endings, and I feel like they could have done more with those in general (though I still liked the process of tracking them down). Still, lots of really good stuff and I enjoyed the story a lot.

Gameplay is solid, too. You have a three-by-three grid for the enemies, and they can move around on it; your characters also have lots of moves for pushing the enemies around on the grid (or into each other so your next attack can hit two or three or even more at once).

Plus you can mess with the turn order. You can switch with another party member, or you can switch with an enemy, giving them an immediate turn but giving you a chance to set up for a big combo. Switching lowers that character's defense until they next take a turn, though. And you get a move that lets you remove an enemy from the turn order entirely.

If you don't grind, the game's challenging but generally fair. Really well-done overall and I highly recommend it.

Breath Of Fire III

Another game I played through a lot back in the day.

This is a pretty straightforward RPG as far as basic gameplay goes. But skill-hunting and the dragon transformation system are pretty fun, and there's quite a bit to do with the Fairy Village. I also liked the various tasks the Masters ask you to do in order to apprentice under them - they teach you skills and affect your stat growths on level up.

There's also some neat stuff where using certain attacks on enemies can make them use different skills (some of which are learnable) or drop different items, or give more Exp. That was expanded on in Breath of Fire 4, and the general gameplay was improved, but the overall atmosphere of the game felt weaker. Plus they took out the most fun parts of dragon transformation. If you only play one of the two, I'd recommend 3.

Threads Of Fate

This was a really fun little game, I really liked it. This and Brave Fencer Musashi are actually sort-of precursors to the first Kingdom Hearts, gameplay-wise; they're less similar to that game than they are to each other, but there are some subtler elements that are still present in KH.

The high point of this game is Mint, the female protagonist. She's a spoiled princess who was exiled by her sister, and her motivation for her quest is that she wants to take over the world. There are some particularly funny moments in her quest. Rue, the shapeshifting male protagonist, has a more generic quest and is much more boring on the whole. (Though turning into monsters is still pretty fun, if sadly limited - he can only hold transformations from the last four monsters he killed, as opposed to Mint who keeps all the magic she earns permanently, and even carries it over on a New Game+.)

Valkyrie Profile

I played the introductory scenario on the PSP version. Not long enough to form a strong opinion on it. I'm only mentioning this because I've played it at all.

Hexyz Force

I only played this a little, it felt pretty generic. Can't remember any unusual twists to the gameplay, although maybe I just didn't get far enough to. I wasn't particularly impressed by what I saw of the story, either. Well, okay, I kind of wanted to know what was up with the king on one character's quest, but I figured it was probably going to just be mind control.

That's about it; I have Gungnir lying around and could actually try that out, as well as maybe refresh my memory on some of the others that I barely remember.

While I'm at it, I may as well note some other RPGs I feel are noteworthy.

Tactics Ogre

Also of note is Tactics Ogre, the precursor to Final Fantasy Tactics (and the sequel to the game I got my nickname from). There are two versions: the original Super Famicom one (ported to PSX and translated by Atlus) and the more recent PSP/Playstation Network one, which is basically a total overhaul - story's mostly the same (there are new aspects to it, though!) and gameplay's had some significant changes, though the basics of actual battles aren't that different.

The original version is a lot like Final Fantasy Tactics, but without customization to the class system. You can change classes, but you can't really transfer anything between them other than stat gains on level-up. Worth noting, there are no equipment restrictions on classes; but some classes do better with certain weapons. I should note that, the last I checked, the PSX version was fairly rare and expensive; I was lucky enough to buy it when it came out.

The PSP remake is a little odd. You level up classes individually, and any character who you change into that class will be at that level. But they also have individual stats, which tend to matter more (at least later on). It also has a skill system, making characters more customizable than in the original - though there are now equipment restrictions on the classes, and you need to be at a high enough level to wear equipment, or use spells or skills.

The game has a branching story, and the PSP version lets you go back to replay the different branches once you've beaten the game, which is a neat feature. I find both versions to be good in different ways, but on the whole the PSP version is better.

Legend of Legaia

I don't know if this would be your kind of game specifically, but I thought it did a great job with the overall atmosphere of the setting. The basic plot: Humans rely on magical creatures called Seru. About ten years before the game began, a mist descended upon the world and it turned the Seru against humans.

The end result is a very bleak world, and there are some creepy moments later on. But there's also a lot of optimism in the towns that you free from the mist. (There's also a fairly wide variety of ways that towns deal with the mist, which is cool.) I replayed it a few years ago and was struck by just how depressing it is even at the beginning.

Graphics aren't that impressive, they're pretty blocky both in and out of battle. Still pretty stylistic within that framework, though. Also, the in-battle models actually change based on what armor you equip - which they managed by not having that much armor in the game.

The battles are turn-based but with a gimmick that you enter Up, Left, Right, Down for your attacks, and certain combinations produce special attacks. You also have a chance to gain spells by defeating Seru in random battles, though this is a bit annoying because all the spells are summon-style. (And this was before skipping animations became the norm.)

I thought you might at least be interested in the storytelling and atmosphere side of it, whatever you think of the other aspects. Maybe look at some early videos and see what you think.

Wow, that was a long post. Well, hopefully you (and other people) found it interesting and informative.

Monster Rancher is fun, but all the installments I've played are either very easy or ludicrously hard.

Also the whole "spawn monsters by scanning in XYZ form of media!" is a nice concept until you realize that not a single goddamn DVD in your entire house has the monster you want on it, and you just wasted a day doing effectively nothing.

With fusions and unlockable in-game stuff, it's mostly possible to get all of the non-unique-to-a-particular-disc monsters. Very fun games in general, but the characters are usually pretty... anime.

Monster Rancher 4 is my favorite of the ones I've played (2, 3, and 4) because it lets you stable multiple monsters at the same time and especially because of the unique-to-it dungeon system, which lets you bring three of your monsters and go on ADVENTURES. Plus also you can ride your dragon, how cool is that? I genuinely don't remember hardly anything about the stories because they were never the reason to play; earlier games were pretty much "We gon' make the strongest monster to win the tournaments", while 4 develops an actual plot with consequences. It's also just fun to spend an afternoon going through your library and finding out what all monsters are chillin' in your games.

Secret of Evermore is pretty fun, and more challenging than Secret of Mana (which is the most similar game to it in terms of gameplay); the alchemy system is a clever and interesting alternative to magic, right up until getting reagents turns into a huge slog and you end up hoarding your spells for boss fights, which means they don't level up and are underpowered. Nice concept, but hard to implement well, and especially frustrating for the kind of gamer who wants to 100% it because it means hoooours of grinding for rare reagents and casting the same spells over and over.

If I'm not mistaken, you have to actively sabotage your relationship with the male characters to get a girl-girl ending in SO:SS, otherwise your relationship points or whatever won't be high enough. IMPLICATIONS. It's kinda funny though.

I never actively went for endings, so I wouldn't know. Preventing a relationship isn't hard, though; there are books you can write on Disc 2 that immediately set friendship or relationship points to 8 regardless of what they were before, and that's not high enough for an ending.
(Yes, there are two separate sets of points. I don't remember why.) So you just use them before the final boss fight.

The first time I saw FFT, my friend was grinding to level 99 in the first area of the game because "the bosses don't scale". But mechanically it looks pretty solid. I guess I should play this one first.

Yeah, you can easily destroy the game through grinding if you want (and grinding is actually somewhat fun because you get Exp and JP for every action, so it boils down to "render the last enemy helpless while using Accumulate or attacking your own teammates or something") but you can also avoid grinding and just try to push your way through the game. Really good for varied playthroughs of trying different strategies.

Sting's games tend to have unusual mechanics, but that's what I like about them. On review I decided that Evolution is not actually a bad game. I like equipment-based RPGs that let you change your attacks and playstyle à la Paper Mario's badge system.

Yeah, I just rarely manage to get through the unusual mechanics long enough to really get into the game. That's not to say I'll never play through it, I've played and enjoyed some games that felt awkward mechanically at first, but it's not something I've done often.

I find it surprising that someone who is so into RPGs isn't big on Fire Emblem. I never got what the big deal was and I thought it was just me. There really isn't anything interesting going on in those games from what I can see.

There's some appeal for me, but it mostly boils down to the similarity to Advance Wars. (As I'm sure I've mentioned here before, I absolutely love that series.) I played a fair way into Fire Emblem 7 (the one that's just Fire Emblem here) and it wasn't bad, but wasn't amazing either.

I'm still kind of on the fence on Radiant Historia. I have been burned by too many games everyone I know liked in the past couple of years, especially considering I'm basically 0 for 3 on DS games I actually enjoyed so far. Those among you who are not superdorks may not be aware that the game initially sold out very quickly, and is still the victim of internet price hiking even after Atlus pressed another run, so it's not exactly a budget buy or something I want to get if there's a decent chance I won't like it. I mean, I guess there's a decent chance I won't like TWEWY either despite being interested in the mechanics, but that's just my luck. RPGs are the genre I am least confident in judging my potential enjoyment of based on videos online or even trying them out for a few minutes. DF is An RPG Man and he knows what he is talking about.

I

I actually forgot to ask about Tactics Ogre. It may well be a great game, but there aren't many games I'm willing to drop $100 on. The only game in the series that isn't super expensive seems to be Ogre Battle 64. Is it any good?

I haven't managed to play OB64, sadly. I understand it's mechanically similar to the original Ogre Battle, which I enjoyed a lot (says the guy who named himself after an obscure side character in it). The PSP remake of Tactics Ogre probably won't be as expensive,

I don't think I've seen Legend of Legaia before. The setting is interesting, and the idea behind the mechanics is interesting, but the battle menu looks pretty convoluted. I'm not sure how fun I'd actually find it. Kind of reminds me of Vagrant Story in that way. It looks like the novelty might wear off several hundred battles in. SUPER ARTS!!

You get used to the battle menu quickly, you can set it up to just redo the same attack sequence you used last turn.
I liked it but I'm big on turn-based in general and I know you aren't, so it might not be your thing. I mainly mentioned it because it's really good on atmosphere and that struck me as something that might interest you.

I've already bought it and not started it yet, but I'd be interested to know what your take on Legend Of Mana is while I have your attention, since you seem willing to waste a great deal of time on me.

Legend of Mana is hilariously easy. There are these complex systems for "create a golem", "raise a monster", "craft weapons and armor" - and there's absolutely no need to do anything with them because you just breeze through every battle. I found it fun but not especially deep because of that.
There are higher difficulty levels you can access after beating the game, but those have the opposite problem - they make the enemies so strong that every fight becomes a slog. I don't know what it's like if you've sorted through the intricacies of equipment crafting, maybe that's actually a reasonable balance.
Also it requires a ton of advance planning if you want to get every quest in one run through the game. I wouldn't recommend being too concerned with that on a first run,

I doubt you've played it, but Foto Showdown? It's one of a very small number of DSi-exclusive titles and is basically Barcode Battler/Monster Rancher but with a camera and is based on color balance or something. It's not that great a game, but it's such a great gimmicky concept ...

Yeah, haven't heard of it.

Parasite Eve? I really like the combination of real time RPG combat and survival horror. Looking forward to playing that ...

I played through it once and found it pretty neat, but that was quite a few years ago so I don't remember a lot of details.

Odin Sphere? I have Some Issues with Vanillaware's character designs (everyone who lost their shit over Dragon's Crown didn't know Muramasa existed, I guess), but their earlier actiony games look pretty cool, and the animation is gorgeous/weird.

I have it but never got very far in it and don't remember anything about it, so I can't give a particular opinion. The one Vanillaware game I've played extensively is GrimGrimoire, which is essentially a side-view RTS that I found pretty fun. (The maps have stairways for ground units to climb.)

3D Dot Game Heroes?? This is basically one of the only original games on the PS3 that looks anything close to good.

Half-Minute Hero?

Haven't tried either of these, so I don't have a comment.

Secret Of Evermore?

I really enjoyed this and played through it several times, it's not as grindy as Secret of Mana because weapons only go up to Level 3 (and are constantly replaced with stronger weapons) and keeping magic levels as high as possible isn't as important. Also it doesn't devolve into "spam magic on the bosses and win in about three seconds".

I really want to play Moon Remix RPG Adventure but considering the fanlation is still in the works I assume you haven't played it either

A correct assumption! I haven't even heard of it before.

And I haven't played Monster Rancher either.