IGN - CRPG's Are Back

What's with all of the negativity toward the writer? Yes, it's nothing new for us, but we're not his target audience.

Anyway, what I'd like to see is somebody extrapolate on the trend and try to forecast where we're heading in this market.

Lulz, after blocking everything out to play Eve for a few years I "discovered" NWN1 and Morrowind around 2006 so meh.

As to the future…. I'm hopeful VR will be the next big thing for immersion. I look forward to being in a VR environment, being able to view my tactical battlefield from on high, setup some moves for my party and then zoom down to stand on that field to watch the fireworks. Or playing first person rpgs with a VR headset. I therefore forecast many an angry discussion with my significant other in future due to me being totally disassociated from the real world around me whilst gaming... Either that or my boys laughing at my expense by playing pranks as I'm deaf and blind to their antics.

azarhal said:

We were not starved for RPGs between 2010 and 2012 (Alpha Protocol, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, The Witcher 2, Mass Effect 2/3, DX:HR and more).

2013 was barebone because many games (DAI, Wasteland 2, Divinity Original Sin, etc) were delayed to 2014 which means 2014 would have been very empty because a lot of 2014 games were delayed to 2015…

2006 was a packed year for RPGs (more than 2005): Oblivion, Neverwinter Night 2, Titan Quest, Gothic III, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, Two Worlds, couple of expansions and many console classics (Valkyria Profile, Ys, Disgaea, Monster Hunter sequels/ports to PS2 among many more).

The only thing that changed since 2012-2013 is that party-based, turn-based and isometric are coming back as game features…in Kickstarted games.

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Everyone's welcome to their own opinion, of course, but I think I'll still stick to my original assessment of 2005-2013 being the dark period for RPGs.

Part of the problem (again, just my opinion) with your argument is that most all the games you're listing (2006 and 2010-2012) aren't really real RPGs in my mind but just RPG'ish shooters. And some others (like Oblivion and Two Worlds) just blow chunks. Sure, there are a few games I'd call "real" RPG's in there (like FO:NV, Witcher 2, NWN2, and probably Gothic III although I never played it) but that's not a lot for such a timespan. Prior to 2005, and after 2013, we had/have a lot more "real" RPGs to choose from each year.

LongMuckDong said:

Although not a CRPG, I would argue Skyrim's launch was the start of the incline for RPGs all round.

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Nah, indies and crowdfunding restarted the incline

But Skyrim DID prompt an incline, in that any shit game prompts an equal amount of incline. Its like the law of cause and effect

rjshae said:

What's with all of the negativity toward the writer?

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amateurism?
hipsterism?
uninformed?
accepting money from lobbyists?
known network of paid reviews?
Maybe think ?

Well, on the bright side, a few RPGs that I assume the average gamer hasn't heard of are getting some exposure on a mainstream gaming site… Will it lead many kids who typically play AAA action games on consoles to play and become die-hard cRPG fans? Probably not, but we can only hope.

Finally got round to playing Icewind Dale today. Loving it so far.

Personally I think they mastered the switch from CRPGs to WRPGs with Dragon Age Origins. But if we can't have more of that, then I'd sooner walk the CRPG path than the Dragon Age 2/Inquisition one every day of the week.

Falksi said:

Finally got round to playing Icewind Dale today. Loving it so far.

Personally I think they mastered the switch from CRPGs to WRPGs with Dragon Age Origins. But if we can't have more of that, then I'd sooner walk the CRPG path than the Dragon Age 2/Inquisition one every day of the week.

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I''m a bit confused by your use of the terminology here as I generally don't regard CRPGs and WRPGs as being mutually exclusive; CRPGs are basically a type of WRPG. I'll assume you meant (console-oriented) Western RPGs.

I agree you with that I'd greatly prefer a full fledged CRPG to something like DA: 2 / Inquisition… But D:OS EE and WL2: DC show that it's apparently possible to adapt CRPGs to consoles. Haven't played either on a console and have no idea how they've been selling on them, but I definitely think the problem isn't simply RPGs being sold on consoles. Doesn't really matter which or how many platforms you release a game on, as long as each version takes into account a platform's differences, strengths, and limitations.

The problem is that AAA developers are lazy (or too focused on graphics and production values and not enough on game play and QA) and we CRPG fans have greatly suffered because of it. When they release an RPG that has the exact same UI when you play on Keyboard / Mouse vs. playing on a controller, that's a pretty big problem.

I'm no fan of RPGs being dumbed down / stream-lined for the sake of appealing to a more "casual" audience; i.e., gamers that usually play action games and would likely find that a complex RPG has too many stats to keep track of or too many decisions to make… I think a smart publisher could make significant money off of a CRPG developed by a mid-size developer like Obsidian but despite the success of D:OS, PoE, WL2, etc. we probably won't see many publisher-funded CRPGs because they are perpetually trying to make the mythical Epic Action RPG that appeals to everyone...