Ten 1990s RPGs worth playing today
Ten picks from the catalogue, and why each one still plays today
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Chrono Trigger 1995
In this role playing game, a group of adventurers travels through time to prevent a global catastrophe, with characters drawn by Akira Toriyama and music by Yasunori Mitsuda and Nobuo Uematsu.
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Final Fantasy VII 1997
A band of fighters takes on Shinra, a megacorporation draining the planet's Lifestream for energy, with Materia to reshape each of them between fights. The first Final Fantasy in 3D, it helped take Japanese role playing games worldwide.
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Fallout 2 1998
Seven SPECIAL stats, 18 skills, traits and perks build your character for a wasteland in 2241, and combat is turn based on action points. Many quests can be solved by talking, fighting or sneaking.
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EarthBound 1994
In the second Mother game, a meteorite crashes near Ness's neighborhood, and he sets out with Paula, Jeff and Poo to gather eight melodies from sanctuaries around the world.
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Planescape: Torment 1999
The Nameless One, an immortal with no memory who cannot die for good, wanders Sigil with up to five companions. Many encounters are settled by talking rather than fighting, in a script of about 800,000 words.
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Pokémon Silver Version 1999
A trainer sets out across Johto to beat the Elite Four and Lance and fill a Pokédex of 251 creatures, a hundred of them new, and once Johto is done Kanto opens up as a second region.
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Suikoden II 1998
In this role playing game with strategy, a silent hero gathers the 108 Stars of Destiny from more than a hundred characters who can be recruited, each with a place in the war or in the castle.
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Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars 1996
Mario sets out on his first role playing adventure, in isometric 3D, where enemies wait in plain view and a well timed press on an attack, a block or an item makes it count for more.
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Baldur's Gate 1998
In BioWare's role playing game on Dungeons and Dragons rules, a character of your own making crosses the Sword Coast with a party of companions. It is credited with reviving computer role playing games.
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Diablo 1996
A lone hero goes down beneath the town of Tristram, through sixteen levels generated anew each time, to reach Hell itself and rid the world of Diablo, the Lord of Terror.
