The SNES RPG Gallery
Seventeen games that made the Super Nintendo the role-playing console.
Between 1991 and 1996, the Super Famicom and the Super NES hosted the densest run of role-playing games ever released on one system: Square and Enix at their peak, and around them Capcom, Namco, Quest, Quintet, and Nintendo itself. This gallery shows the era the way this Library shows everything, cover first, Japanese and Western boxes side by side wherever both exist.
Read the absences, too. They are documented, not decorative: several of these games never received a Western Super NES box at all, because the release was cancelled, the publisher's American arm closed, or the game simply stayed in Japan. Where no Western box exists, the tile says so plainly. A later port is not a Super NES box, and none is substituted here.
FINAL FANTASY IV
Square · Super Famicom · 1991
Japan · 1991
The Super Famicom box: the party in Kazuko Shibuya's chibi style, chocobo included, under Amano's logo figure.
America · 1991 · As Final Fantasy II
The American box exists, renumbered Final Fantasy II because the real II and III had never left Japan. A verified scan of it is not yet in this Library's files, so the tile stays text rather than borrow one. The renumbering itself is documented on the history page.
FINAL FANTASY V
Square · Super Famicom · 1992
Japan · 1992
Bartz and his chocobo Boko on the cliff edge, a dragon ghosting through the logo. The whole Super Famicom story of this game is on this one box.
No Western SNES Box
Final Fantasy V was never released on the Super NES outside Japan. Planned American versions, as Final Fantasy III, as a standalone title, and as a PC port, were all cancelled. Its first Western box was a PlayStation compilation in 1999, which is not a Super NES box and is not shown as one.
FINAL FANTASY VI
Square · Super Famicom · 1994
Japan · 1994
Yoshitaka Amano's painting: Terra in Magitek armor above the city. One of the most reproduced box images of the era.
America · 1994 · As Final Fantasy III
America received the game as Final Fantasy III, in a plain presentation far from Amano's painting. A verified scan of the American box is not yet in this Library's files. The localization, Son of a submariner and all, is documented on the history page.
DRAGON QUEST V
Enix · Chunsoft · Super Famicom · 1992
Japan · 1992
Akira Toriyama's box: the hero with the Zenithian sword, Bianca, the great sabrecub, and a slime at their feet. Shown from the small reference file in the Library's records; a larger scan is a standing upgrade.
No Western SNES Box
Dragon Quest V was the first mainline Dragon Quest North America did not receive on its original system. Its first English box was the Nintendo DS remake of 2009, seventeen years later, which is not a Super Famicom box and is not shown as one.
DRAGON QUEST VI
Enix · Heartbeat · Super Famicom · 1995Japan · 1995 · Cover Scan Pending
The Japanese box carries Toriyama's art for Maboroshi no Daichi, the Land of Illusion. The Library's usual cover source for this title was unreachable during this build, so no image is shown rather than an unverified one. The history is complete behind this tile.
No Western SNES Box
Enix America planned a Super NES release as Dragon Warrior V and cancelled it as its North American operation closed. The game's first English box was the Nintendo DS remake of 2011. There is no Western Super Famicom or Super NES box, and there never was.
TALES OF PHANTASIA
Namco · Wolf Team · Super Famicom · 1995
Japan · 1995
Kōsuke Fujishima's cast on horseback under the Namco banner. The box of the only Super Famicom cartridge that sings.
No Western SNES Box
Tales of Phantasia was Japan only on the Super Famicom. Its first Western box was the Game Boy Advance edition of 2006, published by Nintendo, with the sung theme replaced. That is a different system's box and is not shown as this one.
SECRET OF MANA
Square · Super Famicom · 1993
Japan · 1993
Seiken Densetsu 2. Hiroo Isono's Mana Tree forest, scanned from the original box for this Library: the three heroes are tiny at the bottom, which is the point of the painting.
America · 1993
The same Isono painting, reframed for the American box, with the feature list down the right edge: three player capability, player's strategy manual and map. One painting, two boxes, honestly labeled.
CHRONO TRIGGER
Square · Super Famicom · 1995
Japan · 1995
The Super Famicom box, photographed as the physical package: Toriyama's whole party in a row, Crono at the right with the artist's signature. Its Library pages live on the Chrono Trigger shelf.
America · 1995
The American box paints a battle that cannot happen: Marle casting fire she never learns, against Heckran in snow he never sees. The Library has a whole page on why.
EARTHBOUND
Nintendo · Ape · HAL · 1994
BREATH OF FIRE
Capcom · Super Famicom · 1993
BREATH OF FIRE II
Capcom · Super Famicom · 1994
LIVE A LIVE
Square · Super Famicom · 1994
Japan · 1994
Seven heroes from seven eras share one narrow box, each drawn by a different manga artist. For twenty-eight years this was the only box the game ever had.
No Western SNES Box
Live A Live was Japan only on the Super Famicom. The West first received the game in the 2022 remake, on modern systems. There is no Western Super NES box, and the remake's box is not substituted for one.
LUFIA II
Neverland · Super Famicom · 1995Covers · Pending From the Companion Build
Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals reached both Japan (1995, as Estpolis Denki II) and North America (1996). Its cover scans are being prepared by this gallery's companion build and will be set into this section at merge; no unverified image stands in for them.
TACTICS OGRE
Quest · Super Famicom · 1995Japan · 1995 · Covers Pending
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together was Japan only on the Super Famicom; its first Western release was the PlayStation port. Cover scans for this section are being prepared by the companion build and will be set in at merge.
No Western SNES Box
There is no American Super NES box for Tactics Ogre. American players met the game on PlayStation in 1998. The gap is the fact, and the tile keeps it visible.
TERRANIGMA
Quintet · Enix · 1995
SUPER MARIO RPG
Square · Nintendo · Super NES · 1996
BAHAMUT LAGOON
Square · Super Famicom · 1996
Japan · 1996
A dragon over an ocean of cloud, and almost nothing else: the most minimal box in this gallery.
No Western Box At All
Bahamut Lagoon was never released outside Japan in its era, on any system. Western players knew it through a fan translation, a quarter century before any official English edition. The Japanese box is the only original box there is.