Help me find some old RPGs I haven't played that scratch this specific itch

[hunterjwizzard]

My favorite old game is Return to Krondor. I play through it at least once a year. I own two boxed copies(1 complete, 1 missing a disk). I have a framed copy of the Krondorian sewer in my hallway.

A big reason why I like the game so much is as soon as I get control of my character the shop system. As soon as the game starts, I can go to a specific shop, sell all my starting gear, and buy much better gear with the money. After that the game becomes a hunt for rare items, some found in random encounters and some only obtainable through specific quests. Even though I've "found" every single item in the game 100 times by now, I still enjoy the journey.

Another game that tickles this specific fancy is Quest For Glory V, though in a different way - the shop in the main town just happens to have actual good items for sale. If you want, you can grind monsters in the early game and get fairly good equipment before you start the main quest. I like this sort of thing a lot.

And then there's my old standby the Might and Magic series, where you always begin in a town and every new area includes a new town with new shops.

Obviously the best gear in all these games is found through adventuring, but for me the ability to also upgrade my equipment in shops(and to do it early) is a big factor in replayability.

I don't like procedurally-generated, totally pointless to me. I also don't tend to go back and reply games where the only way to get usable loot is adventuring. Its fun and all for the first trip through, but something about the grind/buy/sell cycle really entertains me.


So I'm wondering what other old fantasy RPGs out there meet some of these same things?

 

[bakemono]

In the original Ys you started with no equipment and the obvious thing to do was go buy a short sword so you could start fighting. But there were a couple items that could be found and sold to raise enough money to buy a long sword instead. There were basically 5 grades of equipment in the game, and if you were committed to grinding, you could buy all the grade 3 equipment from the shop before setting foot in the first dungeon. (For me the SEGA Master System is the definitive version of this game, although I did buy the Turbo CD one just for the soundtrack.)

Phantasy Star 3 had one shop in the first generation with wildly overpowered (and expensive) equipment. The other games in the series were more strict about not giving you access to the good shops until the appropriate point in the game.

 

[hunterjwizzard]

Did Phantasy Star 3 ever get a proper PC port?

Obviously not a challenge to emulate, am just curious.

 

[bakemono]

I think it got a Saturn port and a GBA port. Don't know of any others.