RPGs with less combat than the typical RPG

"SIM's Medieval" is the odd man out. Nobody plays it. Why ? Because there is almost no combat at all !

Yes, there is a bit combat, but you actually gain experience points throught SOCIAL QUESTS. No killing. Almost none.

No-one plays it, because it stands diatremal against the macho/patriarch view of "a man has to become powerful". Just look at how much people listen to Gangsta Rap these days.

Growing into power is what a macho culture of manliness requires from men - especially of young men. The culture of manilness requires men to be competitive (that's wha MOBA, Battle Royal [which I call "Kingly Battle] and PvP are so much favourites among young men.

Domination is another theme in the culture of manliness. And you DEFINITIVELY dominate adsversaries through slaughtering them. Blizzard made this into an extreme in their Action-RPGs.

And that's why no-one plays "SIM's Medieval" : It doesn't give young men the possibility to enlive the culture of manliness.

Social behaviour isn't manly.
Social interaction isn't many, except the "bro culture" in which the patriarch system membery of the manliness culture support each other to enlive manliness.

Diplomacy isn't manly.
Helping others isn't many - except for "bro culture" again.

And that's why nobody plays "SIM's Medieval". Young men (the industry's target audience) see it only as an unmanly game.

I took a quick look through the posts and I didn't see anyone mention Stardew Valley. Did anyone mention Stardew Valley? It's definitely a nontraditional RPG. The combat is entirely optional. There are some items you can only get if you go into dangerous areas, such as the mine, and there's plenty of combat to be found in there. But if you want to do stuff that isn't combat, you can grow crops, go fishing, expand your farm, rebuild the community center, befriend the townsfolk, craft better gear, and more.

Alrik Fassbauer said:

"SIM's Medieval"
...
No-one plays it, because it stands diatremal against the macho/patriarch view of "a man has to become powerful". Just look at how much people listen to Gangsta Rap these days.

Click to expand...

Seriously?
Everything you said there is absolutely wrong. Starting from "noone plays it". I'm not noone.

The reason I didn't suggest it is it's painful repetitiveness after a while. The game had a fantastic idea to Stardew Valleyize other Sims games into medieval setting, but it removed house construction which was a fail.
Then it expected from you to repeat a quest over and over and over for whatever irrelevant unlock.
For some reason it usually wasn't on Steam sale but had a superlow price on Origin.
That's not the only EA sin - they decided not to properly expand it but added one DLC that brought nothing really new.

Thiraury said:

I bought Kingdom Come: Deliverance on the steam summer sale and have played it for about 15 hours. It seems quite varied in gameplay elements and ways to go about things, so far. Have been in a few fights but not as many as in the elder scrolls games or other first person rpgs.

Could be worth checking out.

Click to expand...

Sounds promising, thanks

Nathaniel3W said:

I took a quick look through the posts and I didn't see anyone mention Stardew Valley. Did anyone mention Stardew Valley? It's definitely a nontraditional RPG. The combat is entirely optional. There are some items you can only get if you go into dangerous areas, such as the mine, and there's plenty of combat to be found in there. But if you want to do stuff that isn't combat, you can grow crops, go fishing, expand your farm, rebuild the community center, befriend the townsfolk, craft better gear, and more.

Click to expand...

I've played it for about 15 hours and quite like it.
Haven't played the newest content update, though.

I played Stardew Valley for some time and I LOVED it. It seemed to contain everything I ever longed for ...