Should there have been more Action-RPG’s for the Sega Genesis?

When we think about popular action role-playing games from the 90’s titles such as Secret Of Mana, Seiken Densetsu 3, Chrono Trigger and many others instantly come to mind. However, its common know that the most memorable 16-bit action role-playing games from the 90’s appear mainly on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Square Enix did a majority of their business with Nintendo prior to ’97 and afterwards they began producing video games for Sony’s PS1 console. There are many people who would argue that doing business with Nintendo opposed to Sega was better in the long run seeing how popular the SNES was compared to the Sega Genesis. Square Enix had been producing games for Nintendo since the 80’s during the NES era where popular titles such as the original Final Fantasy made their mark. Some believe that one of the reasons why the SNES sold more than the Genesis was because of the variety of action role playing games featured on that console. While Mario, Link and Donkey Kong had become household names by the early 90’s the only primary figure that Sega had during the time was Sonic the Hedgehog.

While there were other memorable titles for the Sega Genesis such as: GunStar Heroes, Ristar, and the Phantasy Star series; they did not have the level of appeal as some of the top video games released for the SNES between ’91-’96. It would have definitely been interesting to see some of Square Enix’s greatest 16-bit RPG titles for the Sega Genesis. While there were hardly any high profile action role-playing games for the Genesis back then; there were traditional RPG’s that were uniquely creative when it came down to their battle systems. Phantasy Star II would present battles from a third person perspective while Phantasy Star III would take place in first person. The some of the gameplay format seen in the Phantasy Star games were obviously not used in Square Enix’s turn based Final Fantasy RPG titles from the early 90’s. But if there were more action role-playing games for the Genesis console back in the day its questionable on how popular they could of been. Also, it would of been interesting to see how design of action-role-playing games for the Genesis console would have been in comparison to the SNES. The idea of isometric action role-playing games for the Genesis console would have turned heads back in the early 90’s.