Shadow Brain is a fun NES FPRPG where you have cyberspace on the side. I'm
sketchy on the plot details, but you start out in Harmony Town where you have to rescue a futuristic place from the clutches of something very shadowy and very braining. Improving your character isn't hard against the motley assortment of experience fodder, and people pop up to say all sorts of things. Puzzles are of the "you must know person A to know B" type and with crazy stuff like pipelines and such, it's a fun experience with mapping,
combat and some really great backgrounds. You don't need to know Japanese to be scared by it--in fact, it may help.