Play Black Onyx, The (Japan) Online

Game Overview

Black Onyx is one of those old-school Game Boy Color RPGs that feels like stumbling onto a piece of forgotten history. It was made by Henk Rogers (yeah, the Tetris guy) and his team in Japan, and honestly, it’s wild how much it influenced stuff we take for granted now—like that health bar that shifts from blue to red as you take damage. Pretty sure this was one of the first games to do that, and now you see it everywhere.

Gameplay’s classic dungeon-crawling with turn-based fights, but there’s something charmingly rough about it—like you can tell it’s figuring out RPG rules as it goes. The menus are clunky by today’s standards, but back then? Probably mind-blowing. If you’re into retro RPGs, this one’s a neat time capsule.