It's a pity they don't have Secret of Mana on the 3DS Virtual Console, otherwise I could be in for that too! 
I haven't played Suikoden fully (just dabbled when I bought it on PSN originally). But it's meant to be a solid but short JRPG. Meanwhile, Suikoden II is meant to fulfil the promise of the first game (I've have played through SII several times, it's awesome).
It's a pity they don't have Secret of Mana on the 3DS Virtual Console, otherwise I could be in for that too! :(
Square Enix seemed to be very supportive of the VC at first, and then by the time the Wii U came out, it seemed that they changed their mind completely. Which is a shame, really. Final Fantasy II/IV and III/VI, Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger on 3DS VC sounds like a machine to print money. Ogre Battle would be awesome too.
Is Secret of Mana going to be too difficult for people to play? My other candidates was EarthBound, and I passed on it because of availability concerns.
Alas, no Suikoden the first for me... I'm pretty sure I have Secret of Mana lying around somewhere, but not sure I really want to get into that right now so I may pass on the Gaiden thread this quarter as well.
For Suikoden, I generally think what's recommended is going blind the first time and then having a guide assisted playthrough thereafter so you can get all that you missed the first time around. They're short enough, and good enough (though I'm not that big a fan of the first) to warrant it.
EDIT: Also, be warned that Suikoden and Suikoden II have no New Game Plus features, which is probably my biggest gripe about them, seeing as their mechanics and structure practically beg for such a feature in a post-Chrono Trigger world.
Suikoden is $6 on PSN and can be played on PSP, Vita, PS3 or PS4. You could also try to get a physical copy to play on PS1 or PS2 but it's not worth the price gouging you're likely to face I reckon.
I was browsing the 3DS VC and, while they have some of the big early SNES releases, there is still plenty more obvious candidates they could add. Hopefully in the future.
For Suikoden, I generally think what's recommended is going blind the first time and then having a guide assisted playthrough thereafter so you can get all that you missed the first time around. They're short enough, and good enough (though I'm not that big a fan of the first) to warrant it.
I prefer this way. It's not as though the game isn't still satisfying otherwise. I didn't get all the stars on my first Suikoden 2 playthrough.
Square Enix seemed to be very supportive of the VC at first, and then by the time the Wii U came out, it seemed that they changed their mind completely. Which is a shame, really. Final Fantasy II/IV and III/VI, Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger on 3DS VC sounds like a machine to print money. Ogre Battle would be awesome too.
S-E has been fairly supportive of the WIi U VC.... in Japan where you'll see plenty of SNES games from the Square side of the company. The Enix side has never really had a presence on any of the VC incarnations. There have been a few additions for the Wii U VC here but it's less beloved titles like Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. My guess is that S-E NA doesn't want to go through the trouble of certifying everything that's already available on the Wii when the Wii U hasn't really been as big a seller here.
Is Secret of Mana going to be too difficult for people to play? My other candidates was EarthBound, and I passed on it because of availability concerns.
I think SoM is fine and it's on more platforms than Earthbound. Save Earthbound for when we eventually do a Dragon Quest, you know for comparison purposes or something.
I was browsing the 3DS VC and, while they have some of the big early SNES releases, there is still plenty more obvious candidates they could add. Hopefully in the future.
I think the only 3rd party titles on 3DS VC right now are from Capcom and Konami who were also among the earlier adopters of the Wii U VC. I'd expect S-E to jump on board eventually since they have a number of NES titles available through the 3DS VC in Japan as well.
I haven't seen a dedicated thread for the Gaiden yet, but fired up SNES9x since I was at my PC tonight and didn't feel like fishing out the SNES. A few thoughts:
1) It's really weird going back to 16-bit JRPGs and finding how quickly they were to get you on your quest*. I think I only played for an hour tonight, I've got two party members, three weapon types and I've been given the basic marching orders: go power up the sword and seek out the 8 mana seeds. Oh, and there's some stuff about a witch nearby. And zombies, because of course there are.
(* I feel like JRPGs didn't significantly start increasing in scope and length until the PS1 arrived. Something about CDs being cheaper to print than ROM chips and you could just keep adding more discs instead of being forced to work within the limits of 48 megabits (6 megabytes) caused a metric ton of bloat for a genre where most games were in the 20-30 hour range previously)
2) Combat feels less stiff than I remember it being. It's still pretty easy to stunlock the enemies but so far I'm having a much better time.
3) The 8 seeds thing seems like a direct riff on Zelda's 8 dungeons. If I recall correctly, this is a lot more guided than Zelda is but I feel like SoM is where the franchise starts to move away from the Zelda influence that permeated Final Fantasy Adventure.
4) I'm not sure if this is the emulator, but I noticed some of the music channels cut out briefly when certain sound effects play. I know this is something the NES would do with Super Mario Bros. but I've never seen this before with a SNES game.
Suikoden is $6 on PSN and can be played on PSP, Vita, PS3 or PS4. You could also try to get a physical copy to play on PS1 or PS2 but it's not worth the price gouging you're likely to face I reckon.
I was browsing the 3DS VC and, while they have some of the big early SNES releases, there is still plenty more obvious candidates they could add. Hopefully in the future.
Wait what? How is it playable on PS4?
My bad. False assumption on my part. I don't actually own a PS4.
Is Secret of Mana going to be too difficult for people to play? My other candidates was EarthBound, and I passed on it because of availability concerns.
I noticed this is available on iOS/Android but I think I'm better off just hanging onto my $8 for if and when it comes to VC. Still, if anyone really wants to get on it and has an iOS/Android device lying around...
i am currently playing a million games but kind of want in on this. i will look into it when i get home tonight!
*party*
My votes for the next quarter, taken from my backlog, restricted to games that are relatively short (< 30 hours) and for the most part readily available for purchase (except for NieR):
- Earthbound (SNES/Wii U VC/N3DS VC)
- Phantasy Star IV (Genesis/Mega Drive/PC, possibly more?)
- NieR (PS3/360, though not strictly an RPG...)
- Child of Light (anything almost? Not exactly JRPG, but close enough)
- Cthulhu Saves the World (360/PC/Mac, not exactly JRPG either, but close, and pretty short)
Edit: Thinking about this further, would it be interesting to do a quarter of three super short games? (This may have come up in the past in this very thread, actually.) Child of Light and Cthulhu Saves the World are both super short (around 10 hours each). I don't have anything short in my backlog, but there are possibilities (Mega Man Legends 1 is around 10 hours long, if I remember correctly).
Megaman legends and Cthulhu Saves the world have both been sitting in my backlog for awhile. Phantasy Star IV would be neat as well, I keep starting it and stopping. Might try getting in on this if you guys do them.
I'm also still waiting for you guys to do Tales of Zestiria or Symphonia I know they are longer then 30hrs I just need an excuse to start them.
Oh yeah, we *should* probably start looking to pick this back up, huh?
Alright, let's start the vote tallying! (I'm including Phantasy Star 1-4 because I know some folks may want to start at 1). I'm putting my votes of Nier, Dark Cloud 2, Suikoden 2, and FF9 here as well.
Nier (2)
Dark Cloud 2 (2)
Phantasy Star I/II/III/IV (2)
Cthulhu Saves the World (2)
Secret of Mana
Mega Man Legends
Earthbound
Child of Light
Suikoden 2
Final Fantasy IX
Rave, are those your votes? Just wanted to make sure before I threw them in. Also, bobbywatson, I think we should go for 2 shorter ones instead of one long one, if the pick ends up being a short one. So what I think we could do is get a list of everything people want to play, shorter RPGs included, and then if the pick ends up being one of those, we can grab one of the other ones.
If we are doing shorter games then those are my votes. I also have copies of both FF9 and Dark Cloud 2 that I could use motivation in starting up. My JRPG backlog is insane at this point and I want to start making a concerted effort on finishing some of my games. So any of these I'd be happy with.
Okay, I put votes in for MML, Phantasy Star, and Cthulu for you. If you wanna spend your 4th vote on something else, let me know and I'll update it.
4th vote for me would be Darkcloud 2. I want to love that game and it sits perpetually installed on my PS4 waiting for attention.
I don't think I'm voting this time because I expect next quarter to be taken up with new JRPGs like Final Fantasy XV, which aren't eligible. They aren't eligible right?
I think I'd say so, yeah. Defeats the purpose of the 'backlog' 
But it was in development for so long! Surely that contributes to it's backlog status?
I mean I enter things into my "backlog" as soon as I start them. There really isn't a date cutoff. I get that other people arrange their piles differently 
I mean I enter things into my "backlog" as soon as I start them. There really isn't a date cutoff. I get that other people arrange their piles differently :)
Yup I'm the same ff15 is already sitting in mine.
Woof. I mean.... sigh. I dunno. It literally just came out. How do other people feel about this? I probably won't end up playing it if it gets voted for, but I don't want to speak for everyone.
We could stick to the same rules Hemidal has for the monthly pile thread: game has to be three months old at the beginning of the quarter. In that sense, FF XV would not be eligible until the second quarter.
Just my 2 cents.
We didn't really end up doing Secret of Mana this quarter, so I nominate that for next quarter.
I mean I enter things into my "backlog" as soon as I start them. There really isn't a date cutoff. I get that other people arrange their piles differently :)
On the other hand if this is meant to facilitate discussion on a game that isn't being widely played at the moment, picking something like FFXV defeats the purpose.
Yes, I just disagreed with myself.
We didn't really end up doing Secret of Mana this quarter, so I nominate that for next quarter.
Hey, I started it. Even patched up the ROM with a variable width font so it doesn't look like a hot mess now. Didn't get too far because no one else was playing and gaming ADD kicked in.
Adding SoM for clock, then.
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