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RPG that features multi-generation characters.

Dark_Castle

Dark_Castle

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,147
One of the things I really liked about Saga Frontier 2 is that the story unfolds through a cast that ages, spawn their descendants and then the story follows those characters in a continuous timeline. This plot device is really cool IMO but fairly underutilized. Other games that featured this element includes Dragon Quest V and some Fire Emblem titles.

What are some other examples you could think of?
 
Fairy Godmother

Fairy Godmother

Backward compatible
Moderator
Oct 27, 2017
3,289
Oreshika is probably what you're looking for. The family is cursed to have short life span so you gotta marry deities and create children.
 

Deleted member 42637

Banned
Apr 25, 2018
269
The Suikoden series had this, across the games you play as the same characters in different stages of their lives, and sometimes as the children of characters from previous games
 
Catsygreen

Catsygreen

Member
Nov 1, 2017
1,362
Phantasy Star has always fascinated me for the multi-generational aspect of the characters.
So well done for the time.
 

ThLunarian

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,547
Xenogears could count here. You don't play as the ancestors but you learn all about them.

The Breath of Fire series

The Zelda series

Final Fantasy X
 
Hours Left

Hours Left

Member
Oct 26, 2017
18,407
The concept is ripe with potential, but is usually a huge bummer for gamers, like myself, who want to see more gay content in games.

Mostly we're ignored entirely in that respect, as if gay people don't also have families, or if we are given a scrap of inclusion, the player is punished for pursing it. (ex. Fire Emblem Fates.)

I'm all for using family lineage as plot point and game mechanic, but developers need to remember that there are many types of families.
 
Ferrs

Ferrs

Avenger
Oct 26, 2017
18,829
Phantasy Star III even has different descendants depending on your choices. It goes through 3 generations.
 

Deleted member 35895

user requested account closure
Banned
Dec 11, 2017
162
Nobody mentioned Dragon Valor for the PS1?



The story spans through several generations - cool thing is based on some choice throughout the game you can end up marrying different people and spawn separate lineages which lead to different levels and ending.

The game is old-school action RPG as it can get, very arcade feel to it, no grinding or backtracking - just you, a nice set of moves and some powerups / spells hidden in the stages. I think it still plays nice today.

Plus it has some kickass music, as you have might noticed from the intro:

 
HotHamBoy

HotHamBoy

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
16,423
Dragon Quest V

268104-dragon-quest-v-tenku-no-hanayome-snes-front-cover.jpg
 
Kresnik

Kresnik

Member
Oct 26, 2017
2,972
Oreshika is most definitely what you're looking for. Just buy a cheap PSTV to play it if you're interested.
 
Strings

Strings

Member
Oct 27, 2017
31,413
Kresnik said:
Oreshika is most definitely what you're looking for. Just buy a cheap PSTV to play it if you're interested.
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Yep, severely underplayed game.

Because I'm playing it atm, I'll bring up Sol Trigger. It's an Imagepoch PSP RPG that was never brought over, and written by Nojima (FF7, FF8, FF10, Kingdom Hearts, etc). A lot of it is pretty fun, but it bungles the generation thing soooooooo badly.

You lose the 'final battle' a fair while into the game, and then 19 year timeskip where you pick up with the kid of the main character. But they present it as basically the start of a game narrative-wise, and not the second half of an already in-progress one, which leads to a lot of repeated information that is completely pointless and murders the pace.
Dark_Castle said:
I've seen it on Steam and always wanted to check it out. Maybe I should.

Edit: Oreshika also looks cool, but I'm not keen on buying a Vita or the setup box just for it.
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Agarest is pretty terrible. Even as an SRPG superfan, I couldn't stomach all the typical Compile Heart and Idea Factory shit (bad execution, worse characters).
 
Fisico

Fisico

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,106
Paris
I can't think of a game that has a family spanning generations as a gameplay mechanic better than Oreshika Tainted Bloodlines, it even included a very good online mode to cross over your families with friends or others players online, the game story litterally lasts somewhere between 8-15 generations depending on how you play it.
It's also fun to see some facial/character feature from an ancestor suddenly appear once again in his/her descendant a few generations later, you also really build up a lot of things through every character that get passed on to the next generation until the point you're able to overcome the next challenge in-game.

Not mentionned yet but I think Romancing Saga 2 did that to some degree as well?
 
Xenor

Xenor

Member
Jun 1, 2018
105
Dark_Castle said:
One of the things I really liked about Saga Frontier 2 is that the story unfolds through a cast that ages, spawn their descendants and then the story follows those characters in a continuous timeline. This plot device is really cool IMO but fairly underutilized. Other games that featured this element includes Dragon Quest V and some Fire Emblem titles.

What are some other examples you could think of?
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I love Saga Frontier 2 because of this.
I enjow how it shows the ages of characters too. I searched for a similar game forever. but the only one I know is Dragon Valor :(
 
theotherMittens

theotherMittens

Member
Jul 20, 2018
2,684
ThLunarian said:
The whole series is all about the cyclical nature of the world of Hyrule, and how every generation or every few generations, the same general conflict between Link, Zelda, and Ganon manifests itself over and over again
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I think the OP is asking for games where you see the characters age, have children, etc. all in one game.

Ocarina of Time kind of does it.
 

ThLunarian

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,547
theotherMittens said:
I think the OP is asking for games where you see the characters age, have children, etc. all in one game.

Ocarina of Time kind of does it.
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Lufia 2 counts. The main character starts with one girlfriend, finds another, marries the new girl, and they have a kid together. And that all happens about a third of the way through the game
 
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