Party Based RPGs

Noriym said:

Lol, looks like I summoned the Drakensang Defense Force.

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Yeah, some people have a hard time comprehending that not everyone has the same taste.

Of course it's not for everyone and I wasn't saying that. I just wanted to argue about combat mechanics not being the issue in Drakensang. There is just too many things that are not in the manual like that chaining commands. It actually took me a "while" to know how to remove shortcut from toolbar, it's via middle mouse button but it wasn't documented anywhere.

What are the upcoming party RPG games? I can't recall any just right now...

Ps. Check conclusion in this article http://www.geardiary.com/2010/06/14...ive-5-pc-rpg-games-that-shaped-the-year-2009/

Ergonpandilus said:

What are the upcoming party RPG games? I can't recall any just right now…

Ps. Check conclusion in this article http://www.geardiary.com/2010/06/14...ive-5-pc-rpg-games-that-shaped-the-year-2009/

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Nice article. Hmm, never even heard of Farewell to Dragons which looks party-based, large parties at that, but looks like it wasn't reviewed to well.

Lol, looks like D.W. Bradley was at it again with a new title.

Yeah, Farewell to Dragons seemed like a good game, at first glance, but not after that.

Here's thread that I started about it, if you are interested to see the comments. If you are big fan of Arcanum, you might even like it for a moment, but in my humble opinion, it's full of shit.

I'm definitely in the Drakensang side of the party based RPGs. I played DA:O and liked it, but I loved Drakensang (at least the first 2/3rds of it, the last third not so much). Don't know exactly why, but I felt Drakensang battles were better than DA:Os. I guess because of the 'zoned' style of DA:O it felt like all battlezones were designed for the battle, and you didn't have much say in it. In fact, many times you would fight just as you zone in, so many (of the already few) skills were rendered useless (long casts like summons and storms, or setting traps, etc), while in Drakensang I could use the terrain to my advantage almost all the time. Gave me more tactical options.

Noriym said:

I decided to revisit this old post of mine to reflect on the party based RPGs that have come out recently, least the ones I've encountered.
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Undercroft :

I stumbled onto this old-school turned-based gem for the Iphone and can't believe how many hours I've sank into it. It is essentially an Eye of Beholder clone with better graphics and a fleshed out class/skill system. Great item variety and class/skill balance combined with some large dungeons, I have had a blast with this game. Too bad we haven't seen anything like this in 10 years. For ~$5 I recommend it to any RPG gamer with an Iphone/Ipod Touch.
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Anyone else have some to add/recommend?

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I second your very positive feeling about this game. I'm playing it now on an ipad and it's a very cool CRPG. The graphics on ipad are scaled to 2*2 and are surprisingly good. I suspect some API tricks behind more than brutal scaling. The interface elements including items, portraits and texts are perfect and the game window is ok. The only point would be that interface elements could be smaller to let more place to game window.

For the game itself, there are various good points:

• The items design with a very good balance of items fair, good and great. There isn't an overload of great magical items but quite enough to take you busy polishing items used by each character and even some alternate weapons.
• The classes seem not that complex but still involves classes decision to choose which skill you'll specialize.
• In comparison with most modern CRPG one feature is very noteworthy, the exploration design with a very good balancing between freedom, no large empty area, many little tricks to find or manage.
• The resource management is quite good, there's no rest and you need manage your global money expense.
• If the fights seem a bit basic with a system like Might & Magic series, its good point is related to the global resources management, find how win each fight the faster to save money on restoration. I don't think fights could compare with older A games using a similar system but it's good enough to keep the attention on managing the characters from class to items and skills used during fights.
• The interface is straight forward and mimic standard use of a mouse except than with two hands and the comfort of the ipod (posed somewhere) it's a lot more pleasant and comfortable.
• The story and quests stories are ok, for modern standards it's a bit bellow the average but well done and pleasant anyway.

Overall a very charming game, quite pleasant to play. Probably the best classical RPG on the ipad.

I liked most of the AD&D based party RPGs, but got driven nuts by the last several buggy titles I tried like Wizards and Warriors.Mass Effect is party based...and honestly has some of the best inter-party dialog out there.

Indie game Swords and Sorcery Underworld might we worth a look. I plan to review it shortly (I'm still playing it). While the graphics are (deliberately) primitive, they have been improved lately and after awhile you actually don't notice them. The game becomes quite addictive once you survive past level 3 and I now have my party of 6 up to level 12. There is a free demo available. Here's the URL for the website.

I was so hoping they were talking about an RPG style game designed to accommodate up to four people play simultaneously. Preferably drunk. Something like Super Mario RPG Party.

You can create multiple characters from scratch in JA2 if you are playing using the 1.13 mod, but it really takes a lot of fun out of the game since the character interactions are so well done!

The Avernums are OK too, but the party size is only 4 which means you have fewer options. I would rather see party sizes of 6 and larger battles, but that would mean more development time.

Some old school crpgs...

Not sure how well these will go over but...

Natuk

This is a very OLD school top-down RPG(think a combination of Wizard's Crown and Ultima 5 with 48x48 sized icons instead of 16x16) and very unique. You create and play a party of 8 orcs, half-trolls and ogres(from various classes such as Warrior, Shaman, Assassin, etc.) and embark on a quest for revenge against the Orcish emperor. The combat system is quite good for a small indie game, allowing for dual wielding, aiming at specific body parts, feinting, parrying etc.
Lots of good humor in this one as well.

It's weaknesses?

For starters, there are some logical consistency issues with the system itself. "Strength" as an attribute encompasses both size/physique as well as 'stamina', while "health" is merely 'Hit points'. The problem comes into play with the magic system(which was lifted from Ultima's rune/syllable system) where spell casting drains 'Strength'(kind of like the early GURPS system before they fixed it) which leads to buff mages and dumb warriors who could (theoretically)cast like adepts since they have such high strength/size.
Also raising Intelligence, for all classes, increases the Experience you get from combat encounters and such which would be a good thing except that the way Tom's system works this just leads to every character using his experience points to boost the exact same attributes at the same rates(i.e. all shamans and witch doctors raise Intelligence and Strength first, all warriors, scouts and assassins raise Intelligence first(followed by a combination of Strength and Health and Dex since Health and Dex affect action/movement points), etc.

Also there are some exploits using certain spells(like "Fumble") and the 'Scribing' skill.

But the overall game is VERY enjoyable. I have beat the game on various difficulty levels at least 15 times now.

The game costs 15$ now and comes on a CD(which will need to be patched up to the current version).

Also, Tom's first game 'Nahlakh', is a lot of fun as well. Has some flaws as well and the graphics are Ultima 4 era(8x8 pixel icons) but fun(and hard as Hell!). This one is now freeware(but Tom still accepts donations/registrations from generous folk).

Helherron was another game that would have been great save for some bad design and a shit ton of bugs in the final Windows release(the Linux version had far less bugs I am told) and is now very hard to find the download of the game. Like Nahlakh/Natuk(which heavily inspired this game) you create a party of 8 PCs of various races(humans, lizardmen, orcs, trolls, dwarves, elves, fairies and even Golems!) and classes(Fighters, mages, priests shamans, thieves, bards, monks, etc.).
I did some of the graphics for the last version(2.04).

All of the above are pretty combat heavy and Helherron does not have much 'story' at all(and is written in English by Finnish guys whom did not speak English as a primary language).

Wizardry 8 and Might and Magic 7 are, IMO ultimate party based CRPGs. There is not now and probably never will be another first person party based RPG that compares to them.

Rummaging thru the computer closet I found the old box for Bane of the Cosmic Forge (floppies!) and felt a tingle of interest. Before I start to search in earnest on the abandonware sites for a downloadable version, I figured I'd better ask first, did anyone ever do a mod that at least fixed the 6 hour character creation process on this baby? If not, then I'll find something else to revive.

I don't remember spending 6 hours creating Chars for BotCF, but I'm sure some people did. Can't remember if there is a pre-made party, but I enjoy party creation so I would never even consider using a pre-made one.