Best RPGs on the Game Boy

RPGs are one of the things the Nintendo Game Boy is genuinely for. The ones worth playing start with Pokemon Red and Blue, Final Fantasy Adventure, Pokemon Gold and Silver.

The Game Boy and RPGs

Four shades of grey and ten years of battery life. The Game Boy's constraints produced a library built around short sessions and pure ideas, and one of them ate the world.

This is one of its strengths. Puzzle games and creature collecting. Tetris and Pokemon are not just the best-selling games here, they are the two best fits for what a handheld is.

Filtering to RPG means you want progression — a character to build or a party to grow — layered on top of whatever else you liked.

The RPGs Worth Playing

  1. 1. Pokemon Red and Blue

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  2. 2. Final Fantasy Adventure

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  3. 3. Pokemon Gold and Silver

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  4. 4. Dragon Warrior Monsters

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  5. 5. Pokemon Crystal

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

What Makes a Good RPG Game

A reason to keep going after the novelty wears off. RPGs are the genre that reliably converts hours into feeling more capable.

Immediacy. Almost every RPG asks for a slow first few hours, and the systems that make hour forty good are the same ones that make hour one a menu.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best rpg game on the Game Boy?

Pokemon Red and Blue is the usual first answer, and there are 5 in the library we cover.

Was the Game Boy good at rpg games?

Yes — it is one of the things the machine is known for, and there are 5 in the library we cover.

What is the difference between an RPG and an action game with stats?

Whether the stats are the point. In an RPG the build decides what you can do; in an action game with stats the build only decides how fast you do it.

Do I need to like turn-based combat?

No. The picks below span turn-based, real-time and action RPGs, and each one says which it is.

How is this list put together?

From the games this site covers on the Nintendo Game Boy, matched against hand-mapped gameplay categories rather than a storefront's genre tag. A page only exists where there are at least four, which is why some console and genre combinations have no page at all.

RPGs on Other Consoles

More From the Game Boy

Or browse the whole Nintendo Game Boy library.