So, what's your favorite RPG of all time? Why?

[Atlet]

Didn't saw any thread like this, so, why not, right?

Merry christmas to us all.

 

[KyivAfter12am]

Fallout, because it's short, has a very distinct art style, gets open world exactly right, has characters that talk like real people, was my 2nd RPG ever (after Fallout 2) and also because I haven't played Elex yet.

 

[Sykar]

Planescape:Torment

Great unique setting, characters and story about self and mortality. If only the combat would have been better it would have become my one and only 10/10 game.

Runner ups:

Fallout 2
Deus Ex
System Shock 2
Vampire:Bloodlines
Baldur's Gate 2

 

[Trashos]

Fallout 2. For the simple reason that I have played through it more times than any other RPG.

 

[octavius]

Hard to judge between sub genres, so...

Chaos Strikes Back: Most diabolical dungeon ever, best mapping challenge, only CRPG where you can go dragon hunting using your ears instead of your eyes.

Ultima Underworld: Best exploration. Best "organic" dungeon. The game I used to dream of and which made me ditch my Amiga.

Disciples of Steel: Best DOS era combat system, combined with good encounter design, skill system, and it's open world and area scaled.

Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn - best "main stream" CRPG. Does everything well - story, characters, voice acting, combat and magic system, encounter design, items. And a very dynamic (at least in Chapter 2) and tightly designed game, with very little "filler". Athlatla is the best city in any CRPG I've played.

 

[Andhaira]

Realms of Arkania II: StarTrail

It's a real RPG. And I mean, a real cRPG. Hard fucking core adventure party simulator.

 

[Tito Anic]

Gilfriends boobs, because they are fun!

Runner up: Pork Chops!

 

[Bocian]

Sakura's Dungeon.

It's a real RPG, I mean, a real cRPG. Hard fucking core.

 

[Starwars]

Fallout because it's pretty cool and nostalgia.

 

[Somberlain]

We need to divide this into BI (before incline) and AAI (anno Aureum Infans).

Once the Golden Baby descended upon the earth and shining glory of his radiant wings cast rays of incline beneath the golden skies, the ground trembled with righteous fury as popamolers and Siroteks scattered before the Grand Monument of Incline was rising. Grimwah was unleashed upon the earth and the world RPGs was never the same again.

 

[Lord_Potato]

If I have to choose 1, I choose Fallout 2. With restored content and all the quality additional content made by Czech and Russian modders

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

Hard to say. Probably Daggerfall, because at the time, the sheer scope and ambition of the game filled me with a hope that had not yet been proven false.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Dungeon Master (1987) / Chaos Strikes Back (1989): Best overall exploration, dungeon-crawling specifically, puzzles

Pool of Radiance (1988) / Champions of Krynn (1990): Best tactical combat, conversion of D&D to computer format

Morrowind (2002): Best overland exploration, original setting

 

[circ]

fair warning, any rpg that claims to be an rpg without turnbased combat is not an rpg.

 

[Jaesun]

Pool of Radiance.

 

[Cael]

Different games for different subgenres:

Ultima 4 ranks near the top. No quest markers, no handholding, just an open world where you figured out what needed to be done. Even with the two books that came with it, good luck trying to figure out what you were supposed to DO right from the start.

Fallout 2 simply for the whole post-apoc setting, zany humour, good characters and anything goes story. An exploded whale? Why not? Aliens? Sure. Star Trek? Yep. Monty Python? Bring it on!

Ultima Underworld. Real first person RPG. Not TES walking sims.

Ultima 7 for open world, interactivity with the environment, exploration and sheer amount of things you can do, and yet still has a fairly coherent storyline that you can progress all the way to the end game. Which other game is there were you can blow up a door instead of trying to pick it or find a key for it? OK, there is Fallout, but you lose XP for doing that...

Ultima 5, where they came up with a spell system that is actually useful and made logical sense (the runewords, I mean). The world itself also made a lot of sense (and the corruption of the virtues when it is FORCED on people rather than willing adopted by people; SJWs, take note, bitches!), and like most Ultimas post 4, open world.

 

[ProphetSword]

Pool of Radiance.

Jaesun stole my answer.

Even though I had played other CRPGs prior to Pool of Radiance (most notably, the Bard's Tale and SSI's Phantasie), none of them captured what I wanted from a CRPG in that era, which was a translation of actual AD&D into a computer game.

When I played Pool of Radiance for the first time (on a Commodore 64), my friends and I played it together. We made decisions together where to go, what to do and how to respond to NPCs or enemies when we encountered them. We figured out the puzzles together and tracked the story. In combat, we each had a character and we passed the joystick around so each person could determine what their characters did.

Many people have played the Gold-Box games in single player mode, but you haven't lived until you've played them multiplayer with people who are really into them, especially if they don't know the story in advance. It is like playing AD&D with a computer DM (who can sometimes be an unforgiving bitch, especially if you play with people who have shit tactics...but that only increases the fun).

I have done this with a couple of other people over the years with some of the other Gold-Box games, and they were a lot of fun. But, nothing beats that first time.

 

[groke]

Darkside of Xeen, Betrayal at Krondor, Dark Sun: Shattered Lands.
1993, whattayear!

 

[undecaf]

Fallout 1&2.

They just hit all the right marks in terms of setting and story, and strike the best balance between combat and other content; the interplay of which creating the best RPG experience so far.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Probably Fallout the first (forget the second... it's sado-masochistic shit-on-my-chest then burn-me-with-heated-coat-hangers poop compared to number 1). It's the only computer or console RPG in the entire history of my game-playing - which began with BattleTech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception in 1988 on my old C64 - that I wanted to re-play immediately after finishing it that first time. And I do mean immediately, like, within 5 minutes.

 

[aweigh]

Elminage Gothic because it introduced me to the joys of dungeon crawling while boasting the perfect balance of character and party building and advancement mechanics with flawless turn-based combat.

It showed me that an RPG should put gameplay first, and story second and this way it will be infinitely replayable; for years I had mistakenly thought it was the other way around.

 

[Gregz]

Wasteland

MCA explains why:

 

[ilitarist]

Story and worldwise it's probably Arcanum. Lots of nostalgic quality also. Still I know it has terrible gameplay, none of depth I want from an RPG. In a similar vein Final Fantasy 8 blew my mind when I played it shortly after release.

But in general?.. I like strategy games and appreciate elegant mechanics. RPGs rarely do that, devs always feel the need to throw stuff at the game. You always have to be able to play as warrior or mage, you need a huge world, all that jazz. So I'd gonna say I love Fallout New Vegas but as with Arcanum it's mostly atmosphere and general story, it's bad gameplay wise and writing is very uneven, and the world design outside of DLC is bad. But it's probably an RPG I'd replay once more even though I did play it like 4 times.

I have no intention of replaying Dragon Age Origins once more but I think it would be an RPG I'd save if every RPG in the world would be destroyed. It has reactivity, beautiful art design, well thought-out world and good combat system. It's in my nature to concentrate on flaws and DAO probably has least of them. It doesn't have many exceptional things - nothing about it is really exceptional, but everything it does it does well. Maybe Knights of the Old Republic is there too but its combat system is inferior.

 

[circ]

I didn't actually answer earlier.

Well, as usual, I don't really know.

I have very fond memories of Centauri Alliance. For some reason it never got a PC release. Fun combat, probably? I forget. Interesting take on classes with psionics or something. Interesting world(s). I think Cranford probably holds the rights to it still, but no one seems interested in getting Fargo to remake that.

Magic Candle 1 also. Very unique as rpgs are concerned. No one has really copied any of its innovations, for some reason.

 

[Harry Easter]

Right now: Divinity: Original Sin 2

It makes a lot of things better than the first game and gives me a good story and fun gameplay. And I can share it with others around the world, which may be more important than ever, when you live in a small town and nobody knows what you are babbling about.

A few years ago: Arcanum

Played through it at least six times, but I still find new things. I'm mostly in love with this world. This is a prime example where all the old stuff can still be new, when you just put totally different content together (middle earth and idustrial revolution) and see what happens. It did help that they also put a lot of care in the plot and the little details of the world and gave us a strong story, which could be the best story in video games, if Larian doesn't add more stuff in Act 3 of D:OS2.