Iffermoon

Iffermoon is in some ways the opposite of many of the games we point to -- graphically polished, conventional gameplay, and long-playing. It's a 2D sidescrolling RPG, but with backgrounds and characters rendered in 3D, with a generally pastel, cute look. Most of the game is played in sidescroller mode -- you move about, collecting coins of different colors and 'talking' with other characters by moving atop them. However, when you enter battle, you cut to a battle screen, ala Final Fantasy; also ala Final Fantasy your single character in sidescrolling mode actually represents your party, four of whom you may use during a battle. Unlike FF, combat is real-time, except that each character gradually "charges up," and when charged, you can click trigger a special attack or action by the character.

Characters can improve in stats and gain new abilities, and new characters can be recruited over time. And there is, of course, a fairly goofy story. There are also a number of minigames, including one that's a sort of RPG-within-the-RPG.

Nicely polished, if nothing too original, really.