RPGs with puzzles or minigames

I tend to get a little bored when a RPG is focusing heavily on the typical exploration > combat > dialog cycle, so can someone recommend me some RPGs with a decent amount of puzzles or minigames thrown into the mix? I'm mostly thinking of activities that are integrated with the story or exploration.

For the style of RPGs I'm after - If a game is good, I can play almost everything old or new, indie or AAA. But I once started a topic about dungeon crawlers with puzzles, so please only recommend games that are more broad in scenery etc.

Platforms: PC and most consoles (since I don't mind buying older consoles for a few games and the sell them again later on).

The early might and magic games 1-5 are full of puzzles. These were my first thought. There is an indie game called Legend of Grimrock that has a ton of puzzles and it looks pretty good too. The Eye of the Beholder games had puzzles, as well as the Ultima Underworld games.

Another game that might work for you is Arx Fatalis, not so much for the puzzles but for the unique spell casting system, which had you finding and drawing magical runes to cast spells.

I remember that for Return To Krondor one had to pick locks through some kind of puzzle, but, oh my, it's so long ago since I had played it …

The Drakensang games (both offline games) also have some puzzles.

@crpgnut, Those are all great recommendations that I concur on.

If you like hide and seek type stuff, Jeff Vogel's games are full of hidden areas for the intrepid gamer. No puzzles or riddles per se though.

www.spiderwebgames.com

As for minigames, Alpha Protocol has a few different ones for some of the different actions that you can do.

Thanks for the suggestions.

I knew about most of the games, regarding puzzles and minigames, and have even played a couple of them, but it's nice to get confirmation that the games play as I've heard and read. And I didn't know much about Alpha Protocol and Drakensang, so that's cool as well.

Since I also like games with only the occasional puzzle or minigame, what games can you recommend that still have puzzles or minigames, but maybe just not as often as the other games you've mentioned?

I mean, I like that games like Skyrim and KotOR have a bit of puzzle-solving here and there - it's a nice change of pace and I like variety.

About mini-games, some sugestions are The Witcher series (things like poker dice, fist-fighting and others), KOTOR (card game, racing). Some titles use mini-games for things like hacking, ex: Deus Ex: HR and the first Mass Effect

There are also space rangers, it has several games within game itself, text adventures,RTS battles as quests and star control style combat game in wormholes.

Thanks.

Regarding Space Rangers, I was actually thinking about the series a few days ago, because I'm thinking of playing the HD remake of SR2…

Originally Posted by jaes
because I'm thinking of playing the HD remake of SP2…

Yes, Service Pack 2 is one great game …

You mean, Windows isn't a bit like a puzzle-minigame that could need a remake?

Fixed…

Going all the way: Puzzle Quest. An RPG that has nothing but puzzles and minigames.

Exactly my thought, holeraw.

Nameless offered up a good choice with Space Rangers as well.

Originally Posted by jaes
You mean, Windows isn't a bit like a puzzle-minigame that could need a remake?

Fixed…