Classic RPGs that can't be played today

RPGs are one of the oldest gaming genres with a rich history that includes countless epic franchises dating back to the very beginning of the industry. Video games these days look very different to how they did all those years ago, both visually and mechanically, and while some have managed to age gracefully, others have struggled to stand the test of time, looking more like historical artifacts than enjoyable experiences.

This can be due to a number of reasons, the biggest of which is gameplay, where older games often feel clunky and unresponsive compared to more advanced modern control schemes. The difficulty was also significantly higher back then, with more punishing mechanics and fewer glitches, which can make even well-polished titles nearly impossible to play, in some cases literally, because they're unfair and borderline unwinnable.

7

Might and Magic Book One: The Secret of the Inner Sanctum

Brutal Design

Details:

• Extremely outdated interface

• Minimal feedback and guidance

Power and Magic I represents how early RPG ambitions often collided with severe mechanical limitations. Its open-ended structure was groundbreaking, but the interface and pacing are pretty poor by modern standards, and it often takes hours to even grasp the basics. The procedure is quite difficult, with little guidance on where to go or how the systems actually work.

Combat relies heavily on trial and error rather than strategy, while dungeon navigation is slow and tedious, turning even short sessions into a demanding mental battle. What was once considered prescient is now reprehensible and obtuse, and while it remains an important note in the genre's history, it's probably best left in the past.

6

Ultima: The First Age of Darkness

Basic but almost impossible to get into

Details:

• Unintuitive controls

• Limited entry

original Ultima it laid the groundwork for open-world RPGs and gave players a huge area to explore in any way they wanted. Mechanically, however, the game feels frozen in another era, with unintuitive controls, unclear progression, and basic interactions that mostly require memorization. Even navigating the interface can be a chore, creating a constant sense of frustration that only exists in contrast to modern games.

There's also a distinct lack of tactical depth in combat, and little satisfaction that comes from defeating an enemy or exploring a new area, due to the lack of feedback that makes those moments rewarding. Modern gamers accustomed to clarity and responsiveness will struggle to find any sort of satisfaction in the game, and as important as it was to push the genre in a new direction, the entertainment value has definitely diminished.

5

Before the Crisis: Final Fantasy 7

Lost to another time

Details:

• Discontinued on mobile platform

• He was expanding the universe in meaningful ways

Before the Crisis: Final Fantasy 7 it is unplayable in the most literal sense of the word. Originally released exclusively for Japanese mobile phones, it was never properly preserved or officially re-released on another platform, leaving the game stuck on a select few devices that are now completely obsolete. The game has expanded Final Fantasy 7's universe in a meaningful way, focusing on the Turks and Midgar's underworld, so it was definitely a worthwhile experience for fans of the series to get their hands on.

Mechanically it was fairly simple but still functional for its platform as it had a basic set of controls that were as responsive as they could be given the hardware the game was on. Today, however, access is almost impossible outside of unfinished reconstructions of the ventilators, which are still far from the finished product. These kind of platform restrictions are among the biggest frustrations for players, because no matter how big a fan they may be, sometimes there's no way to play through the more obscure and restrictive titles in the franchise.

4

Fantasy star

Innovation hidden under friction

Details:

• Mandatory grinding

• Disorienting dungeon design

Fantasy star it was technologically impressive for its time, featuring 3D dungeons and sci-fi environments that set it apart from many other space games. Unfortunately, those same innovations now feel cumbersome and exhausting to navigate, and rather than the sense of charm that allows modern players to still enjoy it, the game is tedious at best and borderline impossible at worst.

Dungeon traversal is slow and disorienting, awkward fights are repetitive, and grinding is mandatory, which basically means replaying frustrating sections and areas over and over again. The game also requires constant input and management from the player in areas that are now completely automatic, such as map mapping, which in turn makes exploration a tedious activity that can spoil the entire experience.

3

Xenogears

A brilliant story trapped in a flawed shell

Details:

• Repetitive combat systems

• Severe pacing problems

Xenogears delivers one of the most ambitious stories ever attempted in an RPG, blending psychology, philosophy, and theology into one cohesive narrative that still holds up today. But like many iconic games from this era, a good story can only be played out so far, and now the gameplay is trying to carry that ambition with the respect and care it deserves.

Combat simply doesn't offer much outside of repetition, and the combat loop itself isn't engaging enough for players to enjoy for more than a few encounters at best. The dungeon designs are also pretty bland, lacking a lot of variety and feeling more like copy and paste locations than fully fleshed out explorable zones. In the second half, these woes only worsen as sections begin to feel unfinished, destroying any sense of pace the game had up to that point. As powerful as the story is, it has not matched the unstoppable power of time and the innovations that have come with it.

2

Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord

Punishment as progression

Details:

• Severe penalties for failure

• Extremely resistant mechanics

Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord he helped create many of the core systems for dungeon crawling RPGs, but his design philosophy is openly hostile to players in the modern era. For starters, dungeon progression is painfully slow, but the biggest problem comes from the frequent and sudden deaths that wipe out all of the player's progress without warning. This means that in an instant an entire party can be wiped out by bad luck rather than poor decision making, forcing players to sit through hours of repetitive gameplay with little variation.

Furthermore, the game offers minimal explanation of its mechanics and expects players to learn through failure and constant repetition rather than simply giving them a head start. Even basic things like using magic and navigation have to be learned and memorized, making the whole experience feel like a complex test with no end in sight. Because it relies so heavily on punishment, experimenting and trying new things is more of a failure than a viable option, forcing players to stick to one particular path they'd otherwise prefer to avoid. Without any modern quality-of-life features, the game is now joyless and a reminder of how far the industry has come in the last few decades.

A masterpiece destroyed by progress

Details:

• Rough controls

• Long, punishing dungeon settings

The Elder Scrolls: Arena is where one of the most important RPG franchises began, introducing a scale and freedom almost unimaginable at the time. Its procedurally generated world and level of ambition remain stunning decades later, and conceptually the game represents virtually every ideal an RPG should strive for, both then and now.

But when we go back now, the game feels brutally inaccessible. It's not a broken mess full of bugs, aside from a few technical instability issues, but every aspect, from controls to combat, feels awkward and unintuitive, with no modern improvements that address many of these issues. When it comes to exploration, navigating the world can be quite confusing, due to the minimal direction quests provide and a distinct lack of explanation that can make it hard to even know where to start. It might not be nearly as playable or fun as later games in the franchise, but no matter what TES and many other great RPGs just didn't exist.