The Legend of Zelda (video game)
"The Legend of Zelda" is considered a spiritual forerunner of the modern role-playing video game (RPG) genre. Though it is often not considered part of the genre since it lacked key RPG mechanics such as experience points, it had many features in common with RPGs and served as the template for the action role-playing game genre. The game's fantasy setting, musical style and action-adventure gameplay were adopted by many RPGs. Its commercial success helped lay the groundwork for involved, non-linear games in fantasy settings, such as those found in successful RPGs, including "Crystalis", "Soul Blazer", Square's "Seiken Densetsu" series, "Alundra", and "Brave Fencer Musashi". The popularity of the game also spawned several clones trying to emulate the game.
Faria: A World of Mystery and Danger!
Faria is an action role-playing game in which the player controls a sword-wielding hero, with a number of similarities to The Legend of Zelda. As with many RPGs, the game is broken into towns, an overworld, and dungeons. Activities in town include talking to non-player characters to gather information and items, traversing the overworld involves combat that takes place on a separate battle screen, while dungeons consist of combat in the same window used to navigate and puzzling through increasingly complex mazes. Combat consists of moving the player character's sprite around the screen while swinging its equipped sword or using a handful of items including bombs and a bow & arrows.