What was the latest "great RPG" made by an American studio?

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
Wrong.

You know what he meant. We don't have a way to refer to ourselves except as Americans. He could have coined the phrase "United Statesian" but I don't think it'll catch on.

For me personally, Tides of Numenara is/was great. I can see how it would not be for everyone.

Pillars 2 was close to great.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
Wrong.

Canada is still a part of the american continent.

What you do here is an illegal equation which goes like this : USA = America.
This is like hijacking a whole continent's name for a country's name.

So, in your opinion : Canada & Mexico = not America.
Not even to mention Argentinia, Brasil, Chile, Peru etc. …


Edit : EA is a U.S. company, by the way …

You're wrong in a few ways…

1. This thread is about the USA. See the first post for confirmation of that.

2. When we say "America" here in the USA, we almost always mean the USA. If people mean the continents they will usually say "The Americas". See also the Oxford dictionary entry for America, first definition: https://www.lexico.com/definition/america
With the adjective "American" it's an even stronger association with the USA, nobody here would ever call someone an "American" who isn't a citizen/resident of the USA. So, it's possible that wherever you are, people use the word differently, but this is correct usage where I come from.

3. EA might be a US company but I really don't see how that's too relevant. BioWare's single-player RPGs are made in Canada, by Canadians. So I wouldn't consider them American RPGs.

Electronic Arts is an American company in the sense that it was founded and is still headquarered in California, but a company of its size I think transcends being of any one country. They are made up of Bioware (Canadian), DICE and Frostbite (Swedish), Criterion (English), and a whole host of other studios around the world.

Actually BioWare itself is not staffed by just Canadians. It's comprised of a great many American developers who get temporary stay to work there. So yeah subjective again.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Actually BioWare itself is not staffed by just Canadians. So yeah subjective again.

CDPR has a ton of non-Poles working for it now, but I think their games are still Polish. But sure, people can call them whatever they want.

Here is the various studios of BioWare at one point.

BioWare Montreal in Montreal, Quebec; formed in March 2009 to assist the Edmonton studio where necessary. Led the development of DLC for the Mass Effect series as well as Mass Effect: Andromeda.

BioWare Montreal was merged with EA's Motive Studios in August 2017.

BioWare San Francisco in San Francisco, California; founded as EA2D and developed Mirror's Edge 2D and Dragon Age: Legends, became part of BioWare, but was closed in February 2013.

BioWare Mythic in Fairfax, Virginia; formerly known as Mythic Entertainment, until June 2009, re-renamed to Mythic Entertainment in November 2012 and closed completely in 2014.

Victory Games; founded in February 2011 as BioWare Victory to develop the 2013 Command & Conquer, it had since dropped the BioWare label in November 2012 but remained part of the BioWare group. The studio dissolved in October 2013.

Waystone Games; the developer of Dawngate, which was cancelled in November 2014.

BioWare Sacramento in Sacramento, California; founded as KlickNation 2008, acquired and renamed BioWare Sacramento in 2011, and renamed EA Capital Games in 2014.

So whatever subjective again bro I really don't care.

Right, and all their single-player RPGs came from either main BioWare (Edmonton, not on your list) or BioWare Montreal. Both in Canada.

Honestly for the purposes of this thread it doesn't even matter. Pretty sure you'd have to be batshit insane to consider ME:A a "great RPG" and they haven't released anything else in 6 years.

I love Mass Effect Andromeda so I guess I'm batshit insane.

Well that makes things easier, for some reason I always thought EA were Canadian - probably because I have played so many Bioware games!

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
I love Mass Effect Andromeda so I guess I'm batshit insane.

I knew that a long time ago

Originally Posted by Stingray
I knew that a long time ago

You take that back I just love to write random shit and be different.

Remember it's better to be yourself then conform to Society's Standards.

Anyway if BioWare can improve on what was in Andromeda in the sequel which they said last week they are working on a new one it's sure to be a better game.

Fact is not many western developers make story driven cut-scence RPGs anymore.

Hey, thanks everybody for the comments I knew you would know this. OK, is it Pillars of Eternity 2 (released in 2018) then?

That's not that long ago. Haven't played it myself but I believe you saying that it is "great". 88 points on Metacritic isn't a bad score.

I agree that Bioware cannot be considered "an American studio". Regarding Wasteland 3, I guess it's a matter of taste, but I did not even manage to finish the first area. Somehow the game just didn't hit me even though turn-based RPGs are my thing. It probably tells more about me and could still be called a "great RPG".

All this "great RPG" silliness started from a sarcastic comment concerning the sayings of the current American president ("Make American RPGs great again" was what I was referring to), in case someone wondered. In this thread, I tried to define what is "great RPG" because otherwise, this question would have been even more opinionated than it is atm.

So the answer to @Stingray's question is either 2018 or 2020 depending on whether you consider Wasteland 3 "great"?

Well, the last great American rpg was Skyrim and it has probably outsold all of the rest of the games mentioned here; combined. There is a reason Microsoft bought the company that made it. Not to mention Fallout 4 also sold millions of copies and is likely second on this list next to Skyrim; at least in sales. No other criteria really means anything. Money talks; everything else whimpers and cries

Totally agree with almost everything else said though. Since Bethesda makes a game about once every 5 years and F76 was atrocious, there really hasn't been an American (US) blockbuster AAA game that's pure rpg since 2015's F4.

It's a problem for me too, since I typically don't care for non-American games much. I like single-character/single-player games where you're not playing a named character but a blank slate. Didn't care much for playing Nate/Nora as playing the Dragonborn. I'd love to play a Witcher game where I pick the name/skills/looks though.

Originally Posted by crpgnut
Well, the last great American rpg was Skyrim and it has probably outsold all of the rest of the games mentioned here; combined. There is a reason Microsoft bought the company that made it. Not to mention Fallout 4 also sold millions of copies and is likely second on this list next to Skyrim; at least in sales. No other criteria really means anything. Money talks; everything else whimpers and cries

Diablo 3 came out more recently than Skyrim, and sold more copies I believe? Made in America too. We make the greatest RPGs! Bigly.

Anyway to be serious for once.

Honest answer I already said it's all hybrid genre crossovers from most US developers nowadays. Sure we get the occasional RPG but there not the big funded kind of games.

Tis a damn shame but hey shooters with RPG elements sell.

As for wasteland once it goes full 3D open world with all the other jazz then no.

Originally Posted by Stingray
Diablo 3 came out more recently than Skyrim, and sold more copies I believe? Made in America too. We make the greatest RPGs! Bigly.

Nope can't say excuse me while I…

Sorry about that as Blizzard is on my shit list of developers nowadays.

Originally Posted by crpgnut
Well, the last great American rpg was Skyrim and it has probably outsold all of the rest of the games mentioned here; combined. There is a reason Microsoft bought the company that made it. Not to mention Fallout 4 also sold millions of copies and is likely second on this list next to Skyrim; at least in sales. No other criteria really means anything. Money talks; everything else whimpers and cries .

Hey haters gonna hate and all that. I believe Skyrim is the best selling RPG of all time according to Steam sales at least. Quite an accomplishment given how old it actually is.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
As for wasteland once it goes full 3D open world with all the other jazz then no.

You must have forgotten that bjon045 already assured us that's just a conspiracy theory: https://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/show…9&postcount=13

Originally Posted by Stingray
You must have forgotten that bjon045 already assured us that's just a conspiracy theory: https://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/show…9&postcount=13

Doh short attention span my friend but seriously I hope they do. From last I remember their next games are using Unreal Engine 5. So its a high possibility.

Obsidian is also making their huge open world RPG Avowed also with Unreal Engine 5. So we know some good Triple A funded American RPGs are on the horizon in a few years.

Don't forget Bethesda's ambitious new RPG Starfield as well.

There's nothing subjective about release dates. Bethesda hasn't released any games in the last 5 years other than Fallout 76, and I doubt anyone is going to argue that that's great.

Great? Morrowind for me. Baldur's Gate remakes, wasteland, POE, are all same old same old.