RPG Recommendations

Gwydden

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Hello, all. Longtime lurker, brand new poster. I finally created an account because, after getting burned one too many times with ill advised purchases, I wanted to hear some informed opinions. I tried looking for a thread along these lines but couldn't find anything recent. I'm sure there'll be egg on my face soon enough, so I offer apologies in advance. The short of it is, I'd like to hear some RPG recommendations, or even learn of upcoming games to keep an eye on.

For background, I got into RPGs around 2010 with Dragon Age: Origins. My gaming event horizon goes back to about the late 90s, however, so I've played older RPGs. Favorites include the Divinity: Original Sin games (for combat as well as level and quest design), Shadowrun: Dragonfall (for efficient, tightly wound mechanics), Sunless Sea (for best writing and open-endedness), and, depending on how flexible your definition of RPG is, Crusader Kings 2 (for its success as a story generator).

Disappointments include Pillars of Eternity (bloat of meaningless customization, bad and pompous writing, repetitive combat and exploration), Expeditions: Viking (interesting at first, but boring level design), Darkest Dungeon (grindy and repetitive), and the Infinity Engine games (don't like the combat). Favorite genre is fantasy that is NOT high fantasy or urban fantasy. Generally not a fan of modern-day settings or post-apocalyptic.

I look forward to hearing from you, and thank you in advance.
 
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Saying what you liked AND why you liked them! If there's egg on your face, you might want to scrape it off into a bowl for a snack, because it's pretty high quality. ;)

Looks like turn based and real time with pause - actually, it looks like both the good and the bad are in that class! Have you tried the more "actiony" stuff like the Witcher games or Dragon's Dogma?

The ones in the positive are the games with (IMHO) better stories.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is an obvious choice. Final Fantasy 7 or 10 (7 has the better story but 10 is less, well, ancient) could work well. Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter games if the oldness doesn't bug you. Or maybe Wizardry 8? The South Park games are reasonably good RPGs if you like that brand of humor. Or perhaps Valkyria Chronicles.

Ever play something like XCOM or BattleTech? They don't have as much story but the combat is a lot more interesting.
 
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Some more recently made games that I'd recommend to you based on your likes would be:

Blackguards - it even uses voice actors from the Dragon Age series. The combat is a similar turn based system to Original Sin and even has some object manipulation during combats. It's medieval fantasy but more in the lower style you're requiring.

Banner Saga - some ex-Bioware developers made this very interesting series that combines strong story focus with interesting chess-like combat. Again, great voice acting. And, again, more in the lower style of medieval fantasy, well even older than medieval to be fully accurate, more the late dark age.

Lords of Xulima - Might be too high fantasy for you, but has a wonderful gameplay loop of exploration, levelling, combat and puzzling, made unique by it's combination of isometric exploration combined with first person team based turn based combat. A lovely colourful game if your eyes need a break from too much grimdark greys and browns.

For something older, I'd recommend Divine Divinity. If you liked Original Sin then having a peek at the game that made the Divinity name renown is no bad choice. The only real differences you'll notice are that it's a single character game rather than a team and it's real time action, but all the quirky and amusing NPCs are all present as are the monster types and general plot direction. This is the game where The Pyramid originated from. Just be aware that the starter undead dungeon does end and the world really does open up and is well worth the wait.
 
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So you liked DAO, DOS and a few phonegames...
For phonegames I can't recommend anything.
For DAO and DOS there is another alike title: buy and play Drakensang (two singleplayer games, don't play online scam of the same name).
 
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Please excuse the joxerisms. At first, he may appear retarded but eventually you'll realise he's just... ummm...

Anyway, there's not a lot of turn based RPG around but if you haven't played Temple of Elemental Evil with the community patch that's probably the best place to start.
 
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Have you tried Kingmaker? I enjoyed the combat in Kingmaker more than the Baldur's Gate games. I'm more of a turn base fan but Kingmaker was a fantastic game. May want to give it a try.

I also would recommend Lords of Xulima.

May not be your favorite setting but Wasteland 2 and Underrail were top notch.
 
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I second Hastar, but the games you mention have sequels. Play them :)
 
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Not Drakensang 2 ? ;)
 
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Well, it's been 60 hours since the guy made the request and they haven't come back, so we could all be wasting our time anyway. Maybe they were in the process of buying a game in the sales and wanted a quick reply and have since forgotten they even posted. For all we know it could be the latest advancement in AI spam.
 
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Looks like turn based and real time with pause - actually, it looks like both the good and the bad are in that class! Have you tried the more "actiony" stuff like the Witcher games or Dragon's Dogma?

The ones in the positive are the games with (IMHO) better stories.

Yes, I prefer games that are at least somewhat story-driven. Games that are otherwise good are enjoyable for a while, but can't keep my attention for long. I'd also say I'm more into TB, but RTwP can be fine — see DA:O or even PoE, where my problem wasn't so much the combat mechanics as the overabundance of trash mobs.

I've played TW games and liked them a lot, though I think they're better than the sum of their parts. No Dragon's Dogma, though. I'm not entirely sure what that game's like even after looking it up. As for XCOM and the like, it very much seems to fall in the Darkest Dungeon category for me: it looks fun, but like it'll get old fast.


Some more recently made games that I'd recommend to you based on your likes would be:

Blackguards
Banner Saga
Lords of Xulima
For something older, I'd recommend Divine Divinity.
"High fantasy" was probably the wrong term. As a matter of fact, settings bursting with strange magic are exactly my cup of tea i.e. Sunless Sea. What I had in mind, and what I'm not so much into, is Tolkien and D&D derivative stuff, which is all over. I'll still play it, however, because it's not like there are a lot of alternatives.

I enjoyed Divine Divinity a fair bit. Actually, it was the only one of the older Divinity games I can say that about. The others I hadn't heard much about. I'll be checking them out.

So you liked DAO, DOS and a few phonegames…
For phonegames I can't recommend anything.
For DAO and DOS there is another alike title: buy and play Drakensang (two singleplayer games, don't play online scam of the same name).
I only play on PC, and don't really bother over whether games are available in other platforms or not.

Thanks for the recommendation.

Anyway, there's not a lot of turn based RPG around but if you haven't played Temple of Elemental Evil with the community patch that's probably the best place to start.
I've heard good things about it. Is it the sort of RPG where you have to make your entire party? Not really into that. One PC is more than enough, and I prefer preset NPCs anyway.

Have you tried Kingmaker? I enjoyed the combat in Kingmaker more than the Baldur's Gate games. I'm more of a turn base fan but Kingmaker was a fantastic game. May want to give it a try.
I've been going back and forth on that one since it came out. You could say I'm anxious about a repeat of PoE, a game I really wanted to like but which ended up feeling bland. Or Expeditions: Viking, which seemed cool until camping and boring maps you still had to comb through because of camping ruined it. Would you say my worries are unfounded?

Not Drakensang 2 ? ;)

Seven: The Days Long Gone seems worth checking out. Isometric game with verticality and interesting mission design.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/471010/Seven_Enhanced_Edition/
Will look further into it, thanks!

Well, it's been 60 hours since the guy made the request and they haven't come back, so we could all be wasting our time anyway. Maybe they were in the process of buying a game in the sales and wanted a quick reply and have since forgotten they even posted. For all we know it could be the latest advancement in AI spam.
Me, a robot? Perish the thought.

I apologize for the delay. I figured that I'd wait a few days for more responses; I'd say it's paid off. Thank you, all!
 
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Welcome Back! That's an interesting perspective and can go either way. You could have come back to 2 pages of people debating the merits of Divine Divinity over Divinity 2 and visa versa or 2 pages of various Witcher discussions, all completely irrelevant because they turned out to be two games you've already done.

I agree though, you've had a good fill of options that should keep you busy and happy for a while looking into, it seems we've managed to contain ourselves so far.
 
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I've enjoyed Risen and Elex. I found Kingmaker similar to PoE, beautifully put together games but the combat system at times felt messy. Perhaps I had the difficulty turned too easy which made some of the spell systems meaningless.
 
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I did not like PoE but loved Kingmaker. Camping is decent in Kingmaker and is easy to deal with. Though you do have to camp a good amount in Kingmaker.

I enjoyed Expedition Vikings a lot and that camping system did not bother me. Played straight thru it and finished the game.

On PoE, I wanted to like it because I gave the Kickstarter so much damn money. One of my biggest gaming disappointments.
 
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Dragon's Dogma is very much action. It's got a rather odd story.

There's quite a few action'y RPGs, hybrids, and immersive sims with good stories so I'm wondering how they would work with you.

Yakuza 0 has an excellent story plus weird side quests but the combat is more like fighting game. It's a bit like Jade Empire, only with vastly more mini-games. The Batman games fit in there, too.

The turn-based JRPGs should fit well, I would think.
 
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The camping and random encounters are getting annoying to myself and i'm only in chapter 2. I don't mind the concept of either but they are way too frequent.

I did not like PoE but loved Kingmaker. Camping is decent in Kingmaker and is easy to deal with. Though you do have to camp a good amount in Kingmaker.

I enjoyed Expedition Vikings a lot and that camping system did not bother me. Played straight thru it and finished the game.

On PoE, I wanted to like it because I gave the Kickstarter so much damn money. One of my biggest gaming disappointments.
 
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The camping and random encounters are getting annoying to myself and i'm only in chapter 2. I don't mind the concept of either but they are way too frequent.

The random encounters in Pathfinder is a definite weak point. That would be one time I would not mind lvl scaling and a larger random encounter table.
 
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I don't recall the random encounters as being too annoying, but then again I benched the game quite some time ago, so my memory might be askew. Once all the content is available and fully patched, I do plan on getting back and finishing the thing!
 
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But all of the content is now fully available and only time will tell if it is fully patched.

I don't recall the random encounters as being too annoying, but then again I benched the game quite some time ago, so my memory might be askew. Once all the content is available and fully patched, I do plan on getting back and finishing the thing!
 
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