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Retro What are some of the best, less talked about Sega Saturn games?

BotenAnna

BotenAnna

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Long story short, I go through periods where I like to binge through older games to look for things that are doing something neat/different/interesting/influential. I've got a pretty good grasp on the parts of old game catalogs I'm interested in, but I have one glaring blindspot staring at me. I've never really explored the library of the Sega Saturn very well, so I think I'm going to build up a list of those titles to bang through for the rest of 2023/2024 when the mood strikes me.

So, that being said I'm looking for suggestions for what to throw on the list. It's pretty easy to find the big, popular heavy hitters that NA audiences really loved, so most of those should already be covered. I'm looking more for some of the deeper cuts or things that are discussed a bit less these days. I also have a strong preference for action games and RPGs, and I'm a bit less likely to check out things like racing or puzzle games at the moment (but not unwilling if something seems sick). Larger arcade ports in general I'd like to avoid, not because I dislike them, but I've been blessed to have insane access to arcade hardware in my life so I've played a lot of the big ones already.

That criteria isn't strict, and if you have something you just love on this system that you wanna share go for it. Also if something wasn't localized but has a good fan translation, I'm 200% on board with that as well. That should about cover it, so does anybody have some suggestions?
 
I've only recently began dipping my toes into the Saturn library myself. I'm mostly interested in the Saturn's racing games, honestly - Sega Rally and Daytona are outstanding racers, plus there's a great version of Virtua Racing. And there's plenty of slightly more obscure, non-Sega racing games as well. Stuff like High Velocity Mountain Racing Challenge, Manx TT, Impact Racing, and versions of the original Need for Speed and WipeOut. I know racing games aren't what you asked for, but hey, it's what I like.
 
If you're into "falling block" puzzle games, Saturn has a decent variety. They're generally visually straight forward to play, so localization is less of an issue.

Baku Baku Animal
BreakThru!
Chibi Maruko-Chan No Taisen Puzzle-Dama
Cleopatra Fortune
Coin Puzzle Moujiya
Columns Arcade Collection (Columns, Columns II: The Voyage Through Time, Columns '97 & Stack Columns)
Dero~n Dero Dero (a.k.a. Tecmo Stackers)
Gussun Oyoyo S
Hanagumi Taisen Columns
Heisei Tensai Bakabon: Susume! Bakabons
Joshikousei No Houkago... Pukunpa
Kururin Pa!
Magical Drop
Magical Drop II
Magical Drop III
Monster Slider
Noon: New Type Action Game
Ochige Designer Tsukutte Pon!
Otamajakushi
Pappara Paoon
Pastel Muses
PD Ultraman Link
Pipit Boy 3 on Game-Ware Vol. 3
Popoitto Hebereke
Puyo Puyo Sun
Puyo Puyo Tsuu
Puzzle Bobble 2X (a.k.a. Bust-A-Move 2: Arcade Edition)
Puzzle Bobble 3 (a.k.a. Bust-A-Move 3)
Rox
Shingata Kururin Pa!
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
Tenchi Muyou! Rensa Hitsuyou
Tetris Plus
Tetris S
Tokimeki Memorial Taisen Puzzle-Dama
Tokimeki Memorial Taisen Tokkae-Dama
Tsuukai!! Slot Shooting
Waku Waku Monster
Zoku Gussun Oyoyo
Zoop
 
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I adore SEGA Saturn, and I had a bit of a kick with mine a few years back. Here's what I played and had a good time with

--Radiant Silvergun. Absolute beast of a shmup game. It has a mechanic that basically you get stronger and stronger the more attempts you take, which makes it fun to keep going back to until you finally clear it. I'm not at all a shmup expert but found this one engrossing and highly recommend it. It's totally playable in Japanese as someone who doesn't understand the language.

--Sakura Wars. This has an English fan translation and is 1000000% worth playing. It's such a little gem. It's got 90s anime vibes, a blend of exploration/relationship-building/visual novel/rpg gameplay... It launched a pretty wonderful series and it's amazing that English fans can experience it on original hardware now (I used a satiator). Plus, there's a translation for the sequel in the works!!

--NiGHTS Into Dreams. You may know about this, it's definitely not lesser known... Though I do think it's a bit misunderstood. Once you get the feel for high scoring (you don't clear levels right away, but see how much you can accomplish in each round and go for a good rank) it can start to feel as good as the best Sonic games in terms of building and maintaining momentum. Plus, it's just got such dreamy vibes in the music and atmosphere and visuals. It's probably my favorite Saturn game, closely beating out the above two.

--Panzer Dragoon 1/2 are both really cool 3D rail shooter games. Saga is one of the most interesting RPGs you'll ever play. And if you have an Xbox, orta is a great way to finish off a panzer dragoon journey if you play the other three and enjoy them.

--Burning Rangers is a cool 3D action game where you fight really intense fires. It's a little unwieldy but also a super cool, ambitious title for the time. Plus, the soundtrack is so freaking good.

There's so much good shit on the Saturn, but I've listed out some of my top favorites. I also give Sonic R a genuine recommendation, because it's so stinkin silly that I always have a good time playing it.

Enjoy your Saturn time!
 
Check out Virtual Hydlide. Rides the line between interesting enjoyable game and "so bad its good". Hilarious, interesting, bewildering object from the past.

Sakura Wars is also a fascinating relic. A bad harem anime dating sim welded to a mediocre turned based strategy games, but manages to be endearing anyways.

The Clockwork Knight games are also charming little platforms that always get ignored.
 
Once upon a time, I had a Sega Saturn. Didn’t have a ton of games. The rarest of the bunch was Shining Wisdom. Kind of fun but also really janky. It was developed by Camelot Software.

Fighters Megamix was… a fighting game that existed. It’s main claim to fame was allowing you to fight as a car.

In hindsight, I’m mainly disappointed that I sold my Saturn because of the ODEs on the market now. I’d really like to play Lunar: Magic School, the remake of the Game Gear installment, Lunar: Walking School (no idea why it got a title change). Don’t know much about it other than it’s a Lunar game. It can’t be worse than Dragon Song, right?
 
"Less talked about" may as well be the entire library as far as NA audiences are concerned even if there are some obvious heavier hitters that are "must have." Nmanic's post covers a lot of the core stuff well, especially the Sakura Wars 2 translation that's coming out, and yeah, as Phosphorescent Skeleton says, the Clockwork Knights are cute platformers. Another "core" game is definitely Virtua Fighter 2, since it was basically the system's entire identity, including a ton of weird little CG discs with kareoke songs and 3D renders for every fighter.

Dunno about writing a little blurb about each one, but for my recs of other stuff to at least give a little try:

Albert Odyssey
Alien Trilogy
Astal
Bulk Slash (fun fan translation with full VA released not too long ago!)
Bust a Move 3
Darius Gaiden
Dark Savior
Die Hard Arcade
Dragon Force
Fighters Megamix
Fighting Vipers
Galaxy Fight
Guardian Heroes
Hexen
House of the Dead (if you have a lightgun)
Hyper Reverthion
Last Bronx
Legend of Oasis
Linkle Liver Story (another fan translation that released recently)
Lunacy
Magic Knight Rayearth
Magical Drop
Magical Night Dreams - Cotton 2
Parodius
Powerslave
Princess Crown
Saturn Bomberman
SEGA Rally Championship
Shining Force 3
Shining the Holy Ark (especially if you like Golden Sun and its visuals. You might even recognize a few sprites...)
Silhouette Mirage
SimCity 2000 (definitely more on the "kinda neat" curiosity side as a funky version of an iconic game)
Steep Slope Sliders
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
Thunder Force V
Virtua Cop (again, if you have a lightgun)
Virtual On
Wizardry: Llyglgamyn Saga (another fun example of an unusual port, only released in Japan but has full English text option!)

and probably a bunch of Capcom/SNK fighting games that require a RAM cart if you have one of those.
 
I'll preface by saying that I have not played Sega Saturn's library at all, but I did just read a book on American Sega games in the 90's.

Mr. Bones sounds so cool. Created by the same person who did Ecco the Dolphin, most levels have different styles of gameplay. I wish I could play it!

Bug! is a 2.5d platformer, sounds like the graphics and gameplay are decent. Kind of a forgotten game, but annoying voice acting. The Saturn has a dual CPU, which the programmers thought was too labor-intensive to use so they put it all on one CPU and disabled the other one on startup.
 
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Battle Garegga
Blast Wind
Batsugun

I mean, pick ANY STG game on Saturn and there's a good chance it's an insanely good game.
 
Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers is a very solid dungeon crawler with some of the best atmosphere in any game, and maybe one of the best releases by Atlus from that era. While it never got an English translation for Saturn, it got an English-translated 3DS port 10+ years ago.
 
I’ve just recently been digging into the world of Saturn fan translations, and I would definitely recommend Bulk Slash and Shining Force 3. Both excellent translations, with Bulk Slash being particularly impressive since it adds high quality English voice acting to the game.

Bulk Slash is a mech action game. It’s fairly straightforward and can be beaten in about an hour, but it has multiple unlockable endings to add replay value and feels quite good to control with the twin stick setup. It has some of the nicest visuals I’ve seen on the Saturn too.

Shining Force 3 is 3 interconnected games, with only the first one having received an official localization, but it’s really incomplete without the other two parts. Together they add up to a really unique and ambitious set of strategy RPG’s, with save files transferred across all three so your units remain consistent and actions taken have an impact across the entire story.
 
A new fan translation for Saturn Soul Hackers got started back in March, a conversion of the 3DS script. I know they have to do font and line break fixes, and implement additional text boxes, so it may be a while yet before we see a patch.

I find it's hard recommending deep cuts for Saturn because so much of what used to be obscure is now well-known, but here goes.

International releases:
  • Die Hard Arcade/Dynamite Deka
  • Dragon Force
  • PowerSlave
  • Shining the Holy Ark
Japan-only:
  • Assault Suits Leynos 2
  • Dragon Force II (fan translated)
  • Grandia (fan conversion of the PlayStation script)
  • Linkle Liver Story (fan translated)
  • Princess Crown
  • Nanatsu Kaze no Shima Monogatari/Tale of Seven Winds Island
 
If you want to play something very weird with a Kafka atmosphere in the Adventure game genre (Myst like) - I highly recommend Torico / Lunacy.



Baroque is such a vibe, perfect nihilistic, intense and horror gaming in the dungeon crawl/rogue-like genres, the twist being you're in a way supposed to die to see more of the story and expected to as well, definitely one you have to be in the mood for though. There's an English fan translation for the Saturn version now as well (previously just the PS1 version):



www.romhacking.net

Baroque

BAROQUE is a dungeon-crawler RPG with rogue-like elements developed by Sting Entertainment. v1.0
www.romhacking.net www.romhacking.net

And one that I haven't played yet myself but going to try out sometime around Halloween, since it looks like a decent Resident Evil clone, Deep Fear:

 
Wow, thank you so much to everybody who had something to recommend; this has turned out to be such a great thread! I've gone ahead and made a good list of the ones in here that definitely interest me the most, and those will probably appear in my rotation fairly soon. Some of these that got ported to other consoles (Soul Hackers, Radiant Silvergun, Grandia, Baroque) I've played elsewhere and those rule, but unsure if I'm gonna revisit them on Saturn? Soul Hackers is one of my fave SMTs though so maybe that would be cool to see when it's completed. As far as Puzzle/Shmups go, I've taken a good chunk of those and put them on a different genre specific set of lists since I tend to play those genres in big bursts. Not ignoring them cause some of these suggestions are really good, but they won't show up on this main list of stuff! Here is what's in the "for sure" to check out pile right now:
High Velocity Mountain Racing Challenge
Sakura Wars
Panzer Dragoon Series
Burning Rangers
Virtual Hydlide
Clockwork Knight
Bulk Slash
Dark Savior
Dragon Force
Fighting Vipers (have played this before but worth a revisit)
Guardian Heroes
Hyper Reverthion
Linkle Liver Story
Lunacy
Magic Knight Rayearth
Princess Crown (wish this had a fan TL patch ;w; )
Saturn Bomberman
Shining Series
SimCity 2000
Wizardry: Llyglgamyn Saga
Mr Bones
Deep Fear
Dragon Force II
Nanatsu Kaze no Shima Monogatari/Tale of Seven Winds Island
Assault Suits Leynos 2
Die Hard Arcade
 
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