What's your favorite 16-bit action RPG?

[munchiaz]

Some of my favs are

Alundra
Zelda LTTP
Ys I & II
Exile
Cadash
Dungeon explorer

[esteban]

Faxanadu.

It has more 16-bit, more action, more RPG, more tree metaphors, more mantras, more _____ than all the titles mention thus far.

[Opethian]

I was gonna say Faxanadu but its only 8-bit

id also add Zeliard and Crystalis for exceptional mentions even if its half the bits

[geise]

Ys Book I & II (Turbo)

very close behind is Actraiser.

[TR0N]

Some of my favs are

Alundra
Zelda LTTP
Ys I & II
Exile
Cadash
Dungeon explorer

Eh !? Alundra is PS1 does that count as a 16-bit action rpg ?

[ClodBuster]

Terranigma and Illusion of Time/Gaia.

Why these, well it's mainly the music and the storytelling that got me hooked back in the day. The graphics are also drawn pleasing to my eye. I still feel with the characters when they go through tragedies, joy or heartache.

A Link to the Past has a lot to offer in terms of different weapons, but the lack of leveling and numeric stats usually let me rather put it into the Action-Adventure subgenre, similar to the Metroid series.

[NightWolve]

Terranigma and Illusion of Time/Gaia.

Excellent choices. Rarely have I ever beaten a game with an emulator, seems I mostly wind up using them for browsing the library of the system, but Terranigma was a gem that made me glad the ZSNES emulator was around to play something that got professionally localized to English, BUT, ONLY for the European market and not us given the trouble ENIX was having in the North American market at the time...

[ClodBuster]

I'm glad you liked it. Yes, it's too bad it didn't get an US release. Do you know more about the reasons?

One funny side note on SNES RPGs/ARPGs and Action Adventures released in Germany:
Nintendo of Europe took care to translate most of them in German and publish them themselves. They made it a habit to take some liberties with the translations similar to Working Designs. Today people like to hate on them for that (especially on Claude Moyse who was also head/editor of the German Club Nintendo magazine), but honestly most of those who do weren't even born when the games were originally released. I grew up with NoE's translations, and I still think they are done very well and retain a special charme.

EDIT: Regarding Claude, I once participated in a group interview where he freely spoke about the severe difficulties on console RPG translations back then, both from technical as well as cultural point of views.
Google Translate: https://translate.google.de/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.is%2FRLtJk&edit-text=
Source: https://archive.is/RLtJk

PS: If you want to know what a transparent plastic dildo has to do with Shigeru Miyamoto, you'll find it there.

[pulstar]

So many great ARPGs around that time that I can't really say one is my favourite...small list below.

Ys I & II
Ys IV
Soleil
Story of Thor
Landstalker
Secret of Mana
Xanadu II

Some of my favourites off the top of my head...but's there's plenty more I can't think of right now because I'm having a mental block.

[MNKyDeth]

I am going to have to go with Dungeon Explorer 2. Mostly because of the better colors over the original and I was mostly playing traditional type RPG's at the time.

I would say Neutopia 2 is my second choice and then the original Neutopia. Dungeon Explorer... the first one.... wold be fourth.

Now that I think about it. Not sure if I consider Cadash an action RPG or a platformer like Mario. But that would round out #5.

I think all the games I was playing on my Sega CD and Genesis were traditional RPG so.... TG-16 exclusive 16-bit action RPG'er here.

[seieienbu]

Hmmm....

Ys 1 & 2 on Turbo CD
Seiken Densetsu 3
Dungeon Explorer
Kaze no Densetsu Xanadu 2
Illusion of Gaia

As much as I like Zelda 3 I don't want to include it as I don't really consider it an ARPG...?  Back in the 90s I referred to it as an "adventure game" (mainly due to Nintendo informing me that Zelda 1 and 2 were in the "Adventure Series"). 

[munchiaz]

Some of my favs are

Alundra
Zelda LTTP
Ys I & II
Exile
Cadash
Dungeon explorer

Eh !? Alundra is PS1 does that count as a 16-bit action rpg ?

Had a brain fart when posting my list. Forgot this was 16 bit. regardless. its still an awesome game

[NightWolve]

I'm glad you liked it. Yes, it's too bad it didn't get an US release. Do you know more about the reasons?

Yep, ENIX wasn't doing well and they closed their U.S. subsidiary for a time... It was already closed by the time the translation for Terranigma finished, so yeah, it was only released for Europe and Australia. Based on Wiki, ENIX opened its US branch in 1990, but it closed in 1995 when the parent company decided to no longer release products here due to poor sales... Then they reopened it as "Enix America, Inc." in 1999 until the 2003 merger with Square turned it into Square-Enix, etc. So Terranigma just got caught in that poor sales and ENIX US branch closure period.

[TR0N]

Some of my favs are

Alundra
Zelda LTTP
Ys I & II
Exile
Cadash
Dungeon explorer

Eh !? Alundra is PS1 does that count as a 16-bit action rpg ?

Had a brain fart when posting my list. Forgot this was 16 bit. regardless. its still an awesome game

Yeah it is since the team behind landstalker made alundra.Alundra is a top notch action rpg,solid game play and a really good sound track.

[Gentlegamer]

Neither Zelda III nor the Neutopia games are RPGs.

In an RPG, the primary way of advancing the player character's power is through levels, usually through obtaining experience points.

Zelda and Neutopia are adventure games.