Your year in RPGs so far

I'm actually not that far ahead of you, Couchtater, because the games I'm playing are really huge. Pathfinder: Kingmaker looks like it's going to break 200 hours. Assassin's Creed: Odyssey took over 200 hours. I spent 100 hours in Pillars of Eternity 2 and I didn't even like it all that much!

By the way, folks, the "game/level/theme music/hairstyle of the decade" lists are starting to show up. Best start prepping so you can tell those list makers how totally wrong they are! Risen, Borderlands, and Dragon Age: Origins were right toward the end of 2009 so everything since then is going to be on the table.

For the whole decade? Gosh, now that's a tall order for my memory. So I cheated, I looked through each RPGwatch GOTY article to remind myself what came out this decade.

I'll exclude all older games from the 2010s that got enhanced editions or PC ports and I'll add a couple that weren't in the lists. Some games were released in different years to the year they appear in the charts, so not all dates are precisely accurate. I'll put them in order of how I'd rate them in any ranked chart:

Completed and enjoyed either entirely or for the most part:
1. Blackguards (2014)
1. Lords of Xulima (2014)
3. Drakensang: The River of Time (2010)
3. Dragon Age: Origins: Awakenings (2010)
3. Eschalon Book II (2010)
3. Serpents in the Staglands (2015)
7. King's Bounty: Crossworlds (2010)
7. Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition (2014)
9. Paper Sorceror (2013)
10. Path of Exile (2013)

Completed and thought it was OK, generally satisfying:
11. Avadon: The Black Fortress (2011)
12. Shadowrun Returns (2013)
13. Slay The Spire (2018) (not really RPG in any conventional sense, roguelike at most)
14. Avadon 2: The Corruption (2013)
15. Blackguards 2 (2015)
16. Dungeon Rats (2016)
17. The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (2017) (a Choose Your Own Adventure Game)

Was enjoying it but incomplete due to technical difficulties:
18. Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga (2010)

Abandoned because I really didn't like it:
19. Shadowrun: Dragonfall Director's Cut (2014)
20. Legends of Eisenwald (2015)
21. Battle Brothers (2017)
22. Tyranny (2016)
23. Expeditions: Coquistador (2013)

Completed begrudgingly, so bad it was fascinating to see just how bad it got:
24. Theseus: Journey to Athens
25. Dragon Age 2

And I've probably forgotten some other games that sit on the periphery of the genre.

I've also spent a lot of this decade, probably in about equal measure, catching up on a whole raft of RPGs I never got round to playing/finishing from the previous decade. So I basically average about four RPGs per year, 2 of current gen and 2 from previous gen. Or, to put it in more archaic terms, about one RPG per season +1 or, if you're American, one RPG per quarter +1. Averages are terrible liars though, of course.

I've no doubt that my list will not even remotely resemble any lists from any media establishments, forums or even any other individuals

I look forward to spending the next decade catching up on the 2010s and picking out some nice new games as they come along.

So you are saying we need "Your decade in RPGs so far" thread?

Could do

Game of the Year AND a Game of the Decade contest this year. I wonder if there's a way to copy/paste the last half of @felipepepe's book so it comes out as a ton of radio buttons in a web form?

Isn't it amazing, two of my most recent plays were Banner Saga (2014) and Banner Saga 2 (2016), part two just a few months ago, and yet I completely forgot to add them to the list. I'm not entirely sure of their RPG credentials but they're both in the ballpark enough to have not been forgotten.

I'd put the first one in the top 10 category and the second one in the OK category.

But how can you play the first two without playing the conclusion ?

Originally Posted by lackblogger
Isn't it amazing, two of my most recent plays were Banner Saga (2014) and Banner Saga 2 (2016), part two just a few months ago, and yet I completely forgot to add them to the list. I'm not entirely sure of their RPG credentials but they're both in the ballpark enough to have not been forgotten.

I'd put the first one in the top 10 category and the second one in the OK category.

Originally Posted by you
But how can you play the first two without playing the conclusion ?

What a bizarre post.

Old thread but what the heck my year has been great with more good RPG's on the way.

RPGs I played this year

1. Assassin's Creed - Odyssey
2. ATOM RPG Dead City
3. Deus Ex - Mankind Divided
4. Dead State
5. Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen
6. Enderal Forgotten Stories
7. Fallout 4
8. Fallout NV
9. GreedFall
10. Grim Dawn
11. Kingdom Come - Deliverance
12. Mass Effect - Andromeda
13. The Outer Worlds
14. Pathfinder: Kingmaker
15. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
16. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III
17. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
18. Tyranny
19. Wasteland 2 Director's Cut

Most of these might get released in 2020

1. Alaloth - Champions of The Four Kingdoms
2. Assassin's Creed Valhalla
3. Baldur's Gate III
4. Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness
5. Cyberpunk 2077
6. Death Trash
7. Gamedec
8. Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord
9. Realms Beyond: Ashes of the Fallen
10. The Waylanders
11. The Ascent
12. Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2
13. Wasteland 3
14. Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood
15. Yakuza: Like a Dragon

Possible release in 2021

Diablo IV
Dying Light 2
Dragon Age 4
Edge of Eternity
Encased
Path of Exile 2
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
Vagrus - The Riven Realms

Probably missing a whole bunch.

RPGs I've played this year…

Pathfinder: Kingmaker
South Park: Fractured but Whole (almost done with it)

Kinda-RPGs…

Yakuza Kiwami
Kenshi

A hint of RPGness…

BattleTech
XCOM 2: War of the Chosen

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Old thread but what the heck my year has been great with more good RPG's on the way.

RPGs I played this year
---
Probably missing a whole bunch.

Quite the list.
How many did you actually finish of these?

I played 15 Games so far, only 9 of them are RPGs or have RPG elements though:
(All linked Videos are German)

• Insomnia: The Ark [2018](finished): Quite cool game, great world building, although was still buggy [Review]
• Frontiers [2020](not finished): Unfortunately still a horrible mess [Look into the game]
• Seven [2017](finished): Nice world, some interesting ideas, but mechanics didn't match that well [Review]
• Underworld Ascendant [2018](not finished): Same as Frontiers, still a horrible mess [Look into the Game]
• The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics [2020](finished): Nice tactics game, though the character system was deterring from fully enjoying the rest of the game [Review]
• Operencia [2019](finished): Possibly the best Crawler for the last 20 years or so. [Review]
• This Merchant Life [2019](finished): More of a lightweight trading sim. Liked it, but it was quite buggy unfortunately [Review]
• Starcrawlers [2017](not finished): Every level is basically a marathon, with the challenging part at the end. If you are fine or not will only reveal at the end, even if you screwed up early on. Then you need to repeat the whole hour. As I also found the combat to be too tedious I stopped playing the game. [Look into the Game]
• Broken Lines [2020](finished): Great tactics game with different Turnbased Mechanics. Very polished and very good implementation of systems, resulting in an authentic combat experience. Also several choices and endings of the campaign.

I've played:

Knights of the Chalice normal run, completed - love this game

Knights of the Chalice iron man fail… right at the end dammit! I'd killed the main bad guy and then had a total party wipe fighting one of his minions in an adjoining room. It got lucky and stunned all my characters in the opening round… So near, yet so far. I'll try again at some point.

Neverwinter Nights darkness over daggerford completed, enjoyed it. Slow start but got better as it went on.

Star Wars Jedi Knight 2 completed. Not an RPG I know, but a great game. I nearly quit on the penultimate level, glad I stuck it through though

Pool of Radiance completed, great game I'm always happy to replay

Operencia - quit some way in - on paper it's everything I like in a blobber, but I grew to really dislike the party banter and just didn't enjoy it for some reason

Curse of the Azure Bonds completed, again using the Gold Box Companion. I'm going to export my characters into Secret of the Silver Blades at some point.

Disco Elysium I didn't expect to enjoy it, but I ended up loving it. Great experience.

Neverwinter Nights Tyrants of the Moonsea currently playing, have to admit I'm losing interest rapidly though and might not make it to the end.

Rpgs I've finished or abandoned in 2020.

Witcher 3: Blood and Wine
I took a break of over a year after finishing the base game. I actually liked Blood and Wine better than the base game. Its my favourite Witcher story of them all.

Lost Dimension
Sort of a super hero like X-Com with very original mechanics. I also found the story intriguing. Unfortunately the dialogue and characters aren't that great. I finished one run and enjoyed it for the most part.

The Technomancer
I enjoyed it enough to finish it, but its a filler game for me. I had to motivate myself at times to start it up.

Battle Brothers/ with Warriors of the North and Beasts & Exploration DLCS The Dlcs gave some variety to my second playthrough. My beast hunters had a glorious run, before getting completely wiped in the last scenario of the noble houses civil war. I love this game. Looking forward to my next playthrough in a year or two.

Pathfinder:Kingmaker- Beneath the Stolen Lands DLC if you look at this DLC as a labaratory for testing out builds, its fun enough for awhile. As a rogue like dungeon crawler, its flawed. It lacks the variety and unpredicability of good rogue likes and it tries to stretch itself out by making you unlock the final battle by first defeating 4 different bosses in 4 different runs. 1 run was enough for me.

Tales of Wuxia A chinese RPG with very unique ideas and mechanics. Unfortunately the cartoon graphics of the training sequences and the horrible translation greatly detract from a game which would otherwise be easily recommendable.

Atom Rpg I reviewed this one. Liked it a lot.

The Seventh Circle Good mechanics in this dungeon crawler, but you've seen almost everything this games has to offer in 3 hours. I gave it 8, hoping something new was going to happen. Other than a few new monsters, nothing new happened and I quit.

And I am currently replaying Wasteland 2 parallel to playing through Warhammer: Mechanicus, Final Fantasy 6, Fallout 4, and Operation Babel: New Tokyo Legacy.

@Pongo: I have to buy Disco Elysium at some point. The feed back is very positive, but it just doesn't appeal to me for some reason.
@Kordanor: I played Insomnium last year. I agree that the world building was very cool. Unfortunately the rest of the game, from the writing to the combat, to the bugs seemed flawed to me.

I played Operencia shortly after release, and my opinion lies dead between yours. I enjoyed it, but found it only "good." I find it interesting how people's enjoyment of the game varies widely. It has some diehard fans, and others find it unappealing.

RPGs completed this year:
Divinity OS2 (Jan 4th!)
Elex (Feb 7th)
FF XV (Apr 3rd)
Dying Light (May 19th)
I finished 6 other non-RPGs.

Originally Posted by forgottenlor
I played Operencia shortly after release, and my opinion lies dead between yours. I enjoyed it, but found it only "good." I find it interesting how people's enjoyment of the game varies widely. It has some diehard fans, and others find it unappealing.

Yeah, as Pongo mentioned, who didn't like the barter, I think the setting and the not-so-great voiceacting are pretty much the only potential flaws has, besides of maybe not-optimal readability of combats.

However, pretty much all other spects are almost perfectly made.
-The combat works well and is well balanced (not perfectly, but better in all other recent crawlers I can think of)
-There is a lot of diverse riddles
-It offers lots of different mechanics and diversity, like the digging for treasures, or the crating of potions via logical riddles
-has a great balance between combat and riddles
-amount of combats are also perfectly balanced. Not tons of repetitive trash fights
-(besides of some voice acting) the story is well implemented and gives the world it's character, and fills the world with something to explore. Which hasn't been in linear crawlers since maybe Stonkeep.
-Great graphics and music

So yeah, there is really not much not to like. But I get why people might not enjoy it. I am personally also not a fan of the setting (quite abstract, mixing fantasy with steampunk or science fiction aspects), but I see how well implemented and designed it is. But personally I would likely not get to like Anime-RPG, even if everything else was great.

@forgottenlor yeah Operencia is a weird one. I can totally see why some people love it, it's got good production values and an interesting combat system. But for some reason I just didn't find it fun. Not sure why now, but I remember the party banter annoying me - there was a lot of it, and no dialogue options, so I was just space barring through lore dumps and comedy banter that just wasn't working for me.

Edit: Kordanor has reminded me that I didn't like the setting either . I agree withthe positives you've listed, it just didn't work for me.

My year so far has been mostly Legend of Heroes themed; I finished Sky the Third, Zero no Kiseki, Ao no Kiseki and Cold Steel 3. In between, I've been slowly doing a co-op run of Divinity: Original Sin 2 with a friend, and now I'm working to finish up my single-player run as well.

Originally Posted by Kordanor
Quite the list.
How many did you actually finish of these?

About half of them as other games that aren't RPGs pulled me away.

This happens every year that I barely finish most games nowadays.

Hmm my years blend but since its only half gone can remember some of them. I finished all of them (well Skyrim and FO4 aren't really games you finish but with over 3000 hours played in both I would say its close enough).

Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2
Pathfinder Kingmaker
Skyrim LE
Fallout 4
Mass Effect Andromeda
Tyranny