Nintendo Power’s Epic Center: a golden age of console role-playing games

In the thick of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System zeitgeist in 1995, noted games magazine and company propaganda machine Nintendo Power started printing a section dedicated to role-playing games called Epic Center. It featured walkthroughs, previews of upcoming RPGs, import coverage, and sometimes even behind the scenes pieces. It was immediately clear that the intent of this new section was to grow interest in the ever-increasing genre’s presence on the SNES, but its appearance was indicative of a growing trend: the Japanese RPG as a subculture unto itself heralded in by the golden age of console RPGs.

Not that the genre was new at that point. The NES already had a respectable stable of RPGs that people loved. But the SNES upped the volume and pumped out classic after classic to the point where people had to pay attention, a strategy Nintendo is trying again very soon. The quality of the games, too, took a drastic leap forward in terms of presentation, narrative, and complexity. After Final Fantasy II (IV in Japan) came out, it was clear that the genre had finally come into its own.