| JP FC | Valkyrie no Bouken: Toki no Kagi Densetsu | 1986 | Action | Namco | Minimal text, starring Namco's famous valkyrie |
| JP FC | Chester Field: Ankoku Shin e no Chousen | 1987 | Action | Vic Tokai | Light on text, hilarious walking animation, very platformy |
| JP FC | Mirai Shinwa Jarvas | 1987 | Action | Taito | If it looks like a kusoge, and plays like a kusoge… |
| JP FC | Minelvaton Saga: Ragon no Fukkatsu | 1987 | Action | Random House | First of the Silva Saga series, featuring overhead ARPG combat |
| JP FC | Majou Densetsu II: Dimashikyou Gailous | 1987 | Action | Konami | A sidescrolling ARPG with 2 playable characters, XP gain refills life; life bar can be extended via items |
| NES | Rygar | 1987 | Action-Platform | Tecmo | Difficult Metroid-like sidescrolling ARPG with lots of enemy killing via yo-yo-like shield and experience to gain |
| JP FC | Indra no Hikari | 1987 | Turn-Based | Kemco | Enemies are visible on the overworld, but otherwise appears to be yet another Dragon Warrior clone |
| JP FC | Toujin Makyou Den: Heracles no Eikou | 1987 | Turn-Based | Data East | First in a long Greek-themed series that Nintendo never bothered to localize (except that one time) |
| JP FC | Outlanders | 1987 | Action | Micronics | Kooky sci-fi with wonky ARPG combat |
| JP FC | Hoshi wo Miru Hito | 1987 | Turn-Based | Another/Hot-B | Kusoge of legend, incomplete translation but left up here for lulz |
| JP FC | GeGeGe no Kitarou 2: Youkai Gundan no Chousen | 1987 | Turn-Based | Tose | Based off the spooky anime of the same name |
| JP FC | Zoids: Chuuou Tairiku no Tatakai | 1987 | Action | Microids | Standard non-combat exploration with shooter-style combat and experience gain behind the scenes |
| JP FC | Zombie Hunter | 1987 | Action | Hi-Score Media Work | Not the greatest side-scrolling ARPG, but it does have synthesized voices |
| JP FC | Dragon Scroll: Yomigaerishi Maryuu | 1987 | Action | Konami | *Epilepsy Warning* Otherwise a solid ARPG |
| JP FC | Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei | 1987 | Dungeon Crawler | Atlus | The series had to start somewhere… |
| JP FC | Momotarou Densetsu | 1987 | Turn-Based | Hudson Soft | Standard gameplay, but cute all the same! |
| JP FC | Ys | 1988 | Action | Falcom | Adol bumps into the enemies to slay them |
| NES | Castlevania II: Simon's Quest | 1988 | Action-Platform | Konami | Surprise! Contains a day/night system and XP/leveling |
| JP FC | Cosmo Police Galivan | 1988 | Action-Platform | Nihon Bussan | Platformer ARPG - Metroidvania before metroidvanias were a thing |
| Master System | Wonder Boy in Monster Land | 1988 | Action-Platform | Westone Bit Entertainment/Sega | A side-scrolling ARPG where score serves as XP of sorts and there is purchasable equipment to increase stats |
| JP FC | Sukeban Deka III | 1988 | Action | Shouei | Manga-based ARPG |
| Master System | Golvellius: Valley of Doom | 1988 | Action | Compile | Blends both Zelda I and II gameplay (both overhead and side-view), with items to obtain to increase parameters |
| Master System | Miracle Warriors: Seal of the Dark Lord | 1988 | Dungeon Crawler | Kogado | Extremely sparse story, strange overworld movement |
| Master System | Phantasy Star | 1988 | Turn-Based | Sega | Sci-fi JRPG great-grandpappy |
| JP FC | Kaijuu Monogatari | 1988 | Turn-Based | Birthday | Pretty standard, but also super-hard at the beginning |
| JP FC | Final Fantasy II | 1988 | Turn-Based | Square | Leveling is done via utilizing skills rather than experience- a drastic and much-maligned design choice |
| NES | Zelda II: The Adventure of Link | 1988 | Action | Nintendo | A side-scrolling Zelda game with XP and leveling? Surely this must be (an) Error! |
| JP FC | Elysion | 1988 | Action | NEC Interchannel | A bit bland of an ARPG, but it has multiple playable characters, so that's neat |
| JP FC | Dragon Ball: Dai Maou Fukkatsu | 1988 | Card-Based | D&D Corp/Tose | Plays kinda like a card-based board game |
| JP FC | Deep Dungeon III: Yuushi e no Tabi | 1988 | Dungeon Crawler | Humming Bird Soft | 1st-person dunegon crawl |
| NES | Faxanadu | 1989 | Action-Platform | Hudson Soft | Plays more like a standard Castlevania |
| NES | Dragon Warrior | 1989 | Turn-Based | Chunsoft | Solo questing to save the kingdom! |
| NES | Legacy of the Wizard | 1989 | Action-Platform | Falcom | An early example of a metroidvania with a family element; different family members have different exploration skills |
| NES | The Magic of Scheherazade | 1989 | Action | Culture Brain | Could get pretty oof in cultural stereotypes, a mix of turn-based and ARPG gameplay |
| NES | Willow | 1989 | Action | Capcom | Yes, based off the 80's movie with Warwick Davis and Val Kilmer. Solid ARPG gameplay! |
| Master System | Ys: The Vanished Omens | 1989 | Action | Falcom/Sega | Some dungeon areas are horizontally flipped, but is otherwise generally similar to the original release |
| Master System | Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap | 1989 | Action-Platform | Westone Bit Entertainment | A nonlinear game where transforming into different monster forms (and buying better statted equipment) is key to progression |
| NES | Hydlide | 1989 | Action | T&E Soft | Very grindy, very bad |
| JP FC | Sweet Home | 1989 | Turn-Based/Horror | Capcom | Without this, Resident Evil doesn't exist; a horror turn-based game with character permadeath |
| Master System | SpellCaster | 1989 | Action | Sega | ARPG in combat (plays much like Shinobi), point-and-click-like in towns, story progression increases stats |
| JP PC Engine | Shiryou Sensen: War of the Dead | 1989 | Action | Fun Project | Badass cover art, plays a lot like Zelda II |
| JP PC Engine | Out Live | 1989 | Dungeon Crawler | Sunsoft | First-person dungeon crawler, but in a mech! |
| JP PC Engine | Makai Hakkenden: Shada | 1989 | Action | Data East | Run-of-the-mill Ys clone |
| JP FC | Tao | 1989 | Turn-Based | Pax Softonica | Heavily religious-themed, bizarre af (you ride a dinosaur to Moscow), likely kusoge |
| JP FC | Shinsenden | 1989 | Turn-Based | Tamtex | Another day, another eastern-themed DQ clone |
| JP FC | Mother | 1989 | Turn-Based | Ape/Nintendo | Modern-themed turn-based game starring kids with psychic powers |
| JP FC | Mirai Senshi: Lios | 1989 | Strategy | Pack-In-Video | A mech-based SRPG, equipment upgrades improve units and are earned in battles |
| JP FC | LaSalle Ishii's Childs Quest | 1989 | Turn-Based | Namco | IDOL MANAGER JRPG. ENOUGH SAID. |
| JP FC | Jajamaru Ninpou Chou | 1989 | Turn-Based | Jaleco | Almost came out in the States, but alas… Another DW clone where you can only fight one enemy at a time |
| JP FC | Hydlide 3: Yami Kara no Houmonsha | 1989 | Action | T&E Soft | There is no such thing as a good Hydlide game. |
| JP FC | Heracles no Eikou II: Titan no Metsubo | 1989 | Turn-Based | Data East | Dragon Warrior-styled gameplay with Greek mythological flair |
| JP FC | Famicom Jump: Eiyuu Retsuden | 1989 | Action | Tose | Get isekai'd into a world where heroes and villains from the Jump magazine series converge, XP gain is represented by "effort" |
| TurboGrafx-16 | Dungeon Explorer | 1989 | Dungeon Crawler | Atlus | Co-op top-down dungeon crawl, think Gauntlet |
