The Best Game Boy RPGs Still Worth Playing | Wealth of Geeks

The original Game Boy doesn’t offer the most glamorous graphics, especially compared to every handheld after it, but it makes up for that with ground-breaking gameplay across genres like even RPGs. The role-playing genre might offer complex experiences, but Nintendo’s first dedicated handheld gaming console still has plenty of RPGs. 

The best Game Boy RPGs come from some of the most influential and prolific franchises in all of gaming, such as Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. In fact, the Game Boy even launched some of the most popular RPG series ever, such as Pokémon. These best Game Boy RPGs offer the finest entries in the genre on the handheld, from gameplay to worlds to characters and even stories. 

1. Pokémon Yellow

The special Pikachu version of the original Generation 1 Pokémon games took a bizarre but welcome approach as the definitive turn-based RPG on the Game Boy. It has the usual monster-collecting of the first games but also a story based around the anime with excellent features like Jessie, James, Meowth, and Pikachu following the player. 

2. The Legend Of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

Though not a traditional RPG, this open-world-like action-adventure game features many of the elements from the genre, like exploration, puzzles, and intense action combat. Link’s first foray onto the handheld remains one of his best, with a strong set of characters and dungeons on Koholint Island. 

3. Final Fantasy Adventure

This spin-off of the core Final Fantasy series became so successful it branched off into its own series known as Mana. It removes the turn-based action of the usual mainline games in favor of a more action-packed story with fantastic dungeons, NPCs, and towns. 

4. Final Fantasy Legend II

This second game in the SaGa series dives further into the unique character recruitment and exploration featured in the first game. It takes place in a compelling sci-fi setting with many different worlds to explore. It included great quality-of-life features like saving anywhere and a lore-driven game-over feature. 

5. Gargoyle’s Quest

This action platformer game looks like the usual side-scrolling action adventure, but it employs some fascinating RPG elements in its gameplay to great success. Players take on the role of the gargoyle Firebrand, with the ability to explore towns in between side-scrolling dungeon adventures. It also has a compelling progression system in which the player upgrades their hit points and projectiles. 

6. Pokémon Red

One-half of the first Pokémon games offered the most critical RPG release on the original Game Boy. While most games on the system offered short bursts of gameplay with light lengths, this title gave players an entire region of Kanto to explore with 150 Pokémon to capture and battle with across dozens of hours of incredible turn-based gameplay. 

7. Final Fantasy Legend III

This third game in this series of Game Boy RPGs pushed the boundaries of storytelling and gameplay on the handheld. Players embarked on a journey to defeat a deity across time periods using surprising time travel mechanics. It also allowed for solid character class customization, as players could use items to change a human into a robot or cyborg and more.

8. Harvest Moon GB

This farming simulation series released its first entry on the Game Boy and provided players with an almost limitless amount of fun. Players receive an abandoned farm and learn to grow crops, raise animals, and please their grandfather to obtain further upgrades. Its slow, relaxing gameplay feel stands out in the RPG crowd. 

9. The Sword Of Hope II

This second first-person dungeon-crawling RPG offers a simplistic version of the complicated viewpoint and genre. Its immense storytelling with constant text about the player’s actions keeps it feeling fresh and engaging amongst the otherwise breezy difficulty. 

10. Cave Noire

This unique turn-based dungeon RPG features one of four quest types for each run the player goes on: eliminating monsters, saving fairies, collecting gold, or finding orbs. Each quest has varying difficulty and a randomly generated dungeon, which makes each playthrough of this RPG exciting and surprising. 

11. Game Boy Wars Turbo

This complex turn-based strategy war game has a depth not seen elsewhere on the platform. Players take on the role of one country and battle across various locations, conquering towns and buildings to claim victory. This enhanced version for the Game Boy comes with 50 new maps and swifter battles. 

12. Great Greed

This weird food-themed RPG carries the first-person solo party turn-based battles of other similar games at the time. It makes up for this straightforward, copycat nature with solid enemy pixel designs and a wild, player-driven ending. Players choose one of 10 possible candidates to marry at the end, including breaking up the king and queen if they want. 

13. Rolan’s Curse 2

This traditional fantasy RPG features a band of heroes who go out on a journey to stop the evil King Barius from conquering the world. It features basic action gameplay, with the twist that each of the eight characters has their own particular skill. In addition, players level up stats by finding power-ups in chests. 

14. The Sword Of Hope

This early Game Boy RPG came out in 1989 in Japan, the same year as the handheld system’s initial release. Despite this early nature, it offered impressive first-person dungeon-crawling with detailed pixel art and thoughtful boss battles. 

15. The Final Fantasy Legend

This bizarre, experimental spin-off game created an entire series known as SaGa later on. The game features the usual turn-based battles of the early Final Fantasy games, but it switches up gameplay with its impressive depth in character creation. Players pick between three races, which offer branching paths of further customization. 

16. Dragon Quest Monsters

This is a spin-off of the classic Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior back in the day) series but with a Pokémon twist. Players command and capture various monsters from across the series, such as slimes and the like, to battle it out in strategic turn-based combat. 

17. Pokémon Blue

This game came out in Japan as Pokémon Green but released as Blue in the West. It features the same general turn-based gameplay as its Red counterpart but with some changes to the exclusive Pokémon players could find. This emphasized trading with others using the Game Boy Link Cable, which not enough games made such great use of. 

18. Legend of the River King

This unique fishing RPG takes what other games may consider a minigame feature and expands it into a full-fledged RPG experience. Players catch fish to sell for better upgrades, find rarer fish and complete side quests. It has a beautiful gameplay loop if players don’t mind a slower experience.

19. Pokémon Trading Card Game

This spin-off RPG takes the trading card game from the franchise and makes it into an interactive video game. Players travel worldwide and challenge various leaders, similar to the core games, but with card-based battles. The intense amount of customization in getting new cards, editing the deck, and figuring out the right synergy and strategy takes time. 

20. Pokémon Gold

Generation 2 of Pokémon took the foundation from the original games and built upon it in a fantastic way. Players had 100 more Pokémon to capture, plus a new region in Johto to explore. Though this game features the Game Boy Color moniker on boxes, players could play it on the original Game Boy hardware as well. 

21. Pokémon Silver

Silver stands together with Gold as the second half of Pokémon’s second generation. It emphasizes the glorious Lugia as the legendary Pokémon for players to chase after. Even after beating the game, though, players have more to explore with the entire region of Kanto from the first generation’s games available to them.