There was once a time when console role playing games had an uphill battle against the slicker, more action-oriented fare that dominated home gaming systems. They had less impressive graphics, required more reading than most juvenile novels and had nearly incomprehensible character statistics that were never properly explained in any instruction material. These days, RPGs are painfully pretty digital fireworks complete with voice acting and massive budgets, though they've gotten a bit too mechanically simplistic for most old school fans of the genre. In the 1990's when 16 bit consoles dominated at-home gaming, it was the golden age of role playing games, especially for those who owned the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. There are countless lists online and in magazines that mention the best RPGs of that era, but why exactly were those games so impressive?

The first game typically mentioned when discussing 16 bit RPGs is Final Fantasy III (or VI for players in Japan). All things considered, FF III is the quintessential JRPG. None of its mechanics were all that innovative when the game came out in 1994, but everything about the game was so well-executed that no title in the Final Fantasy series (or outside it, for that matter) has really hit the sweet spot that FF III achieved. Its hand-drawn character design made it the most visually impressive RPG of its time and Nobuo Uemetsu's soundtrack garnered attention from professional symphonies years after its MIDI-drenched premiere. FF III's story isn't so much a divergence from the old "rag tag heroes save the world" trope as it is a remarkably compelling rendition of the same. Challenging but not cruel, long but not too long, Final Fantasy III (VI) is the pinnacle of the classic turn-based RPG.

In 1993, Japanese game developer Quest gave Stateside gamers a limited release of what would become one of its most highly acclaimed titles, Ogre Battle. With only 25,000 copies reaching American shores, the revolutionary tactics RPG became a rare gem in the SNES enthusiast community. It would be four more years before publisher Atlus would re-release the game for the next-gen 32 bit consoles. Ogre Battle's claim to fame is its unique battle system that augments traditional turn-based combat with a strategy "board" for mid-battle maneuvering and the careful construction of a player's army prior to the fight. Instead of relying on super-powered characters to tackle hordes of monsters, Ogre Battle required players to use their wits and manage their resources, meaning that no amount of grinding could save a player from a poor battle plan.

One of the most beloved RPGs of the 16 bit era is Square's Chrono Trigger. It broke the mold in more than one way, eschewing the usual swords and sorcery of traditional JRPGs for a hodgepodge of time-hopping technology and adding an extra layer of fine-tuning to turn-based combat by allowing players to launch combo attacks involving multiple characters. The real star of Chrono Trigger is the non-linear thinking required to solve its time travel puzzles, asking players to go back and forth through various ages to alter events and change the outcome of pivotal moments in history. Combined with slick graphics and a memorable soundtrack, Chrono Trigger remains one of the most entertaining role playing games in history.