Bishoujo RPGs

Visual Novel Community Archive, 2000-2009
#1

Currently playing my third time through Riviera: The Promised Land. For those who aren’t familiar with it, it’s primarily an RPG, but with dialog and relationship elements commonly found in dsims/bgames. Accordingly, whichever [female protagonist] you have the best relationship with, becomes your companion at the end.
I’ve found it to be a very addictive game. Can anyone suggest any similar titles, H or not, preferably for console/handheld systems? PC is all right, too.

[ 03-31-2007, 03:29 AM: Message edited by: CompMan44 ]

#2

Well checkout Brave Soul: it’s an RPG of fine order. Very soon there will be Pretty Soldier Wars A.D. 2048: a tactical RPG like Final Fantasy Tactics and Fire Emblem. Until that gem is released, see Piece of Wonder to hold you over.

All three (Brave Soul, AD 2048, and Piece of Wonder) can be ordered from Peach Princess. Go to www.peachprincess.com and check 'em out. :slight_smile:

If you can read Japanese, I STRONGLY recommend the Sakura Taisen series.
It consists of five games, 1-4 making an interconnecting story that features one of the dorkiest yet badass male love interest in video game history: Oogami Ichiro. #5 in the series is a new chapter, with a new hero, but takes place in grand New York City.

[ 03-31-2007, 09:48 AM: Message edited by: Nargrakhan ]

#3

Games in English:

Growlanser Generations - PS2
This is Growlanser II and III packed togheather.
They are SRPGs with a rather nifty Semi-real-time battle system. Like Every game in the Growlanser series, you can chase the girls (or befriend the guys) by picking options and finding special scenes. II and III are actually the weakest points in the series, but still great games and different (and better) then most SRPGs in the console market. And Satoshi Urushihara’s designs are as beautiful as ever.

Vanguard Bandits - PS1
A solid fantasy with Robots SRPG. There are 3 different story routes and 5 endings. The girl you end up with is determined by which ending you get.

Thousand Arms - PS1
A traditional RPG with a very dull battle system. However you do actually go on dates (fully voiced) with typical B-game choices to choose from. Good dates get her likeing you more. But… I do NOT recommend this game, because there is only ONE ending. And its a crappy cop-out ending that will simply anger you.

Games in Japanese:
There are tons of them so I’ll only list the best.

Langrisser III,IV,V (various systems)
Langrisser was the first series made by Career Soft (developers of Growlanser). L-IV is simply as good as an SRPG can get, everything is perfect. In III-V you can try to woo the Urushihara beauty of your choice. If you whish to invest in this series, the Saturn versions are the best overall.

Growlanser I,IV,V, (VI is comming soon).
Ironically the Growlanser games that didn’t make it to the English market are better then the ones that did. So enjoy Generations, then play these for the real magic :slight_smile:

Black/Matrix I/AD/+(Sat,DC,PS1)
Very dark themed SRPG that is extremely popular. You get to pick your heroine from the start and it changes the game acordingly.

Black/Matrix II (PS2)
Sequal to the above, good game but lack of Voice Acting hurts a lot. Here, their are multiple paths depending on your actions, the path also decides which girl.

Summon Night 3,4 (PS2)
Made by the same team as Black/Matrix but published by Banpresto so a much bigger budget. Here you can talk to characters and if they like you enough, you can get endings for every single one.

There are many more, but the above are my recommendations (except for Thousand Arms, great game until the end ruined the whole thing). If you want games in English, Growlanser Generations is the best your gonna get, unless I’ve forgotten something (quite possible).

If you have questions please ask :slight_smile:

#4

I love Sakura Taisen myself, but the games are not even close to being RPGs. They are love adventures with a few battles and are no closer to being RPGs then Galaxy Angel. However the ST series does have complete text translations for every game over at gamefaqs, so if your patient the language isn’t a problem.

#5

I’ve heard of Brave Soul, but I guess I thought it was just an RPG with none of the E- and T-rated compunctions about sex and nudity. :expressionless:
Tacs… aren’t my cup of tea; I didn’t think much of FFT-- actually, I’m not a huge fan of the FF series, period; FF:CC is the only one I liked enough to buy. Fire Emblem was kind of fun, but I don’t think I ever finished it. And I’m not sure if CIMA counts as a tactical?

Language (English/Japanese) isn’t too much of a problem. At worst it will slow me down a bit while I consult my dictionary. n.n

Satoshi Urushihara? It might be worth it just for that. I’ll try to check it out, thanks a lot. I don’t have a PS2 myself but I may be able to borrow one. By the way, what’s an SRPG? (I’m sure it’s something obvious.)

Interesting… Riviera’s the other way around.

.o Thanks for the warning.

Seems to be the norm, although there are a few gems that have made it across the language barrier: the Tales series, and of course, pretty much anything by Miyamoto-sensei.

Not sure if I like that idea. I think it’s more fun to have the whole game long to influence your ending.

Yeah, like that. But no voice acting? That’s one of my favorite parts of Riviera! (“I’ll show you the power of magic…!” God, Cierra’s so cute. X)

…Wow. You mentioned 3 & 4, are there 1 & 2 also?

Thanks, guys, a lot of these sound like great titles. I’ll see what I can get my greasy fanboy hands on. :stuck_out_tongue:

[ 03-31-2007, 10:58 AM: Message edited by: CompMan44 ]

#6

Oh yes! There’s the Star Ocean series.

It has a GREAT battle engine and character interaction/romance, but the voice acting is HORRIBLE! Lord does it suck. Sucks ultra hard.

Other than that… it’s okay. :stuck_out_tongue:

#7

There’s also the series of simulation/rpgs known as Harvest Moon. My favorite is the SNES version.

#8

SRPG = Strategy RPG

#9

Tales of Symphonia
Tales of Destiny
Tales of Destiny II (aka Eternia) in America
Fire Emblem
Fire Emblem the Sacred Stones
Fire Emblem Path of Radiance

#10

I would recommend Ar Tonelico. Its a more traditional 2D RPG with animated cut scenes and dating sim added on to it. I think there was something like 150 talk topics you can have with the three leads. It has 7 endings; one bad and 2 for each female lead. You can switch the voice between japanese or english, text is english ofcourse. Plus some of the music are pretty good.

[ 04-01-2007, 01:10 AM: Message edited by: Idofgrahf ]

#11

Star Ocean I’ve heard of but not played… actually, I think I started it once, then got sidetracked (happens to me a lot). I guess in the strictest sense Harvest Moon is an RPG…but like FF I’m not too keen on it.

I just knew it would be something easy like that. >.<

RonXE: I’ve been wanting to check out Tales ever since I learned who did the artwork. (I’m a big fan of AMG.) I played the GBA release of Fire Emblem and liked it, but probably not enough to get any more of them for the time being.

What system? (‚³‚ẮA"ñŒ¾Œê‚̃rƒfƒIƒQ[ƒ€‚ª‚·‚²‚¢‚Å‚·‚æ‚ˁH)

#12

Playstation 2. Its pretty recent, feb of 2007 I believe.

Star Ocean is good, but if you don’t have 100-150 hours to spare, stay way from Star Ocean Till the end of time, it takse along time to beat (not because of the story but because you have to spend half the time leveling up)

You might want to check out Tales of the abyss too, (PS2), the story is excellent and the combat system is fun too.

[ 04-01-2007, 01:51 PM: Message edited by: Idofgrahf ]

#13

I was hoping for more handheld titles, but it sounds like I may want to invest in a PS2 of my own; right now all I’ve got is GCN.

Speaking of handheld, I hear that Riviera PSP is slated for release in the U.S. sometime soon. Which to get first…?

#14

ps2 is cheaper than psp and has more games and slightly better grapics, answer your question?

#15

Hehe, yeah, I guess it does. Especially since I found this, so I don’t have to get the game (and system) to get one of the best parts. n_n

Maybe I’ll just find an emulator and play the Japanese version.

#16

If you are into Bishoujo RPGs like me and don’t care if they are in japanese, then the STUDIO EGO! games are a must. They have a lot of 3D rendered Bishojo-RPG games with animated characters and combo systems. (more info HERE) Sometimes they are released as console versions, too. Just to name some of their games:

  1. Izumo 0;
  2. Izumo 1;
  3. Izumo 2;
  4. Men at Work 1;
  5. Men at Work 2;
  6. Men at Work 3;
  7. Men at Work 4 (the special DVD-pack version has all the MaW games, 1 up to 4);
  8. Vagrants;
  9. Izumo 3 (future release);
  10. Castle Fantasia 2 (SLG);
  11. Castle Fantasia 3 (SLG);
  12. Hitogata Ruins;

EDIT: Links for the games above not working. Go to the original WP, check the PRODUCTS PAGE and open the link for each game manually.

Many of these games have a playable demo version in their sites and here, too. Download and give a try.

[ 04-04-2007, 10:14 AM: Message edited by: Peter Gilis ]

#17

No piracy, please.

By the way, I thought the PSP version was just a port, though I vaguely remember a sequel being announced months later…

#18

Turns out there are few sites with PSP roms and almost no emulators anyway, so…

I don’t know about a sequel, but yes, the PSP version is essentially a port, plus about twice as many CG scenes, fully-voiced dialogue, and the obligatory “all-new dungeon” (a la Link’s Awakening DX).

Now that I finally beat Twilight Princess, maybe I’ll go back to Riviera for the last four endings…

(“I get horny just thinking about it. Is there a name for my condition, doctor?”)

EDIT: I’ll just have to do what I did with Wind Waker-- get the game when it comes out, then save up for the system. XD It’s absolute torture but it’ll be worth it.

[ 04-03-2007, 04:08 PM: Message edited by: CompMan44 ]

#19

Oh, so it’s got extra content? That’s probably where my vague recollection of a sequel comes from. I remembered that there was more Riviera on the PSP than just a port, essentially. :slight_smile:

[ 04-03-2007, 08:50 PM: Message edited by: Benoit ]

#20

compman44, i’ll appprecaite it if you do not mention anything about piracy on this bbs in the future as we have zero tolerance on such matters and violators may result on banning. thank you