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Best RPGs by categories (story/exploration/C&C...)

Lord_Potato

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Nov 24, 2017
Messages
9,835
Location
Free City of Warsaw
1) story/narrative;

Knights of the Old Republic 2 (even with its unfinished, rushed and anticlimatic ending; have to play restored content mod one day!)

2) exploration and overral ambience;

Witcher 3. No other game until Fallout: New Vegas (which I played a year later) gave me so much joy when checking what is around the hill, on the top of the mountain or in the valley. The great visuals and art design did help too!

3) choice and consequence system;

That's a tough one. Witcher 1 or Fallout 2. I'll go with Witcher 1, because it had an interesting way of presenting the consequences.

4) strategic battles;

Baldur's Gate 2. Mind you, I did not play Temple of Elemental Evil yet.

5) character creation/progression.

Arcanum or Fallout 2. Ok, Arcanum for the two paths (Magic and Technology) plus dozens of abilities.
 

Gregz

Arcane
Joined
Jul 31, 2011
Messages
8,510
Location
The Desert Wasteland
1) story/narrative; (not planescape torment)

Diablo I (Story should be told by combining gameplay, music, ambiance, memorable characters and brief VA...not with endless text and narratives)

2) exploration and overall ambience;

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines

3) choice and consequence system;

The Witcher 3. In particular that quest with the kids in the swamp and those 3 witches was masterful.

4) strategic battles;

Jagged Alliance 2

5) character creation/progression.

Diablo II. Best itemization in the history of cRPGs, advanced synergistic skill tree system. A single class might have 20 viable builds.
 
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Cross

Arcane
Joined
Oct 14, 2017
Messages
2,983
1) story/narrative; (not planescape torment)

Diablo I (Story should be told by combining gameplay, music, ambiance, and brief VA...not with endless text and narratives)
hqdefault.jpg


Diablo I's story is delivered entirely through non-interactive exposition dumps from its NPC's. Atmospheric and well-voiced, but non-interactive exposition dumps nonetheless.
 
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haraw

Educated
Joined
Nov 13, 2008
Messages
95
1. Story: Meh.

2. Exploration: Realms of Arkania 2

3. C&C: Age of Decadence

4. Combat: Jagged Alliance 2

5. Character creation : Wizardry 7
 

Gregz

Arcane
Joined
Jul 31, 2011
Messages
8,510
Location
The Desert Wasteland
1) story/narrative; (not planescape torment)

Diablo I (Story should be told by combining gameplay, music, ambiance, and brief VA...not with endless text and narratives)
hqdefault.jpg


Diablo I's story is told entirely through non-interactive exposition dumps from NPC's. Atmospheric and well-voiced ones. but non-interactive exposition dumps nonetheless.

Yes, but you're literally quoting 3 sentences. Thoughtfully presented in large readable text, by well VA'd and memorable characters.

Brevity is the soul of wit. It's a game, not a book or CYOA.
 

Iznaliu

Arbiter
Joined
Apr 28, 2016
Messages
3,686
Knights of the Old Republic 2 (even with its unfinished, rushed and anticlimatic ending; have to play restored content mod one day!)

The Restored Content Mod changes the end section for the better by quite a bit; you'll definitely notice the improvement.
 

Deleted member 7219

Guest

Sigourn

uooh afficionado
Joined
Feb 6, 2016
Messages
5,623
1) story/narrative; (not planescape torment)

Vagrant Story. Quite possibly the best story I experienced in a videogame, told very very well. Everything in this fucking game contributes to the story, really, that's what makes it so good.

2) exploration and overral ambience;

Dark Souls. Fantastic atmosphere, fantastic sense of exploration that makes a lot with so little. In case it doesn't count for the "exploration" award, then I suppose it goes to Gothic II. What little I played was very fun when it comes to looking for hidden stuff.

3) choice and consequence system;

Fallout: New Vegas. No contest.

4) strategic battles;

Baldur's Gate. I presume BG2 is even better. Admittedly I haven't played many RPGs with strategic battles.

5) character creation/progression.

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. Advancing felt extremely satisfying. I'd say it's even with Gothic, but while Gothic has that raw power, Arcanum has variety in spades.
 
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deama

Prophet
Joined
May 13, 2013
Messages
4,352
Location
UK
Here's my one:

1) story/narrative; (not planescape torment) -
Ideally I would say legacy of kain series, but I'm not sure if that counts cause they don't have many RPG mechanics? In that case I'd pick: Kotor 2 or maybe mask of betrayer

2) exploration and overral ambience; -
Arx fatalis

3) choice and consequence system;
Alpha protocol

4) strategic battles; -
Divinity original sin

5) character creation/progression.
- I'd go with arcanum for creation but gothic 1/2 for progression.
 
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Deleted member 7219

Guest
You're obviously being sarcastic, but what a fucking shitty post this is.
Not being sarcastic. Tho its pretty obvious i just put the worst ones there instead of the best.
Why so much butthurt tho?

You decided to to take the piss out of my post instead of giving your own opinions.

Doesn't matter now, I've edited my post to trim out the shit you decided to pick on.
 

Falksi

Arcane
Joined
Feb 14, 2017
Messages
10,537
Location
Nottingham
1) story/narrative; (not planescape torment) - Deus Ex. Fucking frighteningly in tune with reality, and prob more relevant today than it was then.

2) exploration and overral ambience - Morrowind, by a country mile.

3) choice and consequence system - Witcher 2. An entirely different POV availble for the 2nd chapter, and loads more layers of choices heaped upon each POV after that? Mint stuff.

4) strategic battles; - Original X-COM. Not the most technical or advanced, but just a ton of constant variety & tension.

5) character creation/progression. - Deus Ex again. Every single choice felt significant, and the fact you couldn't even shoot straight without making an effort to concentrate on those skills was mint.
 

Lhynn

Arcane
Joined
Aug 28, 2013
Messages
9,823
3) choice and consequence system - Witcher 2. An entirely different POV availble for the 2nd chapter, and loads more layers of choices heaped upon each POV after that? Mint stuff.
These are all good picks. Tho witcher 2 wasnt the first game to do this. Id say there are far more impressive achievements when it comes to C&C, like alpha brotocol, age of decadence, fallout 1,2 and NV, etc.
 
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mushaden

Scholar
Joined
Aug 12, 2015
Messages
334
1) story/narrative - Xenogears (sue me, you know pretentious weeb shit appealed to most of you when you were younger)
2) exploration and overall ambience - Arx Fatalis
3) choice and consequence system - Age of Decadence or Fallout depending on your tolerance for indie games
4) strategic battles - Knights of the Chalice
5) character creation/progression - Baldur's Gate 2 (as lame as it is and as much as people criticize the game for this, it does make you feel like your characters are becoming legendary)

my opinion comes with a heavy dose of nostalgia
 

Jason Liang

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2014
Messages
8,335
Location
Crait
1. Final Fantasy VIII ... Phantasy Star IV; Sengoku Rance; Star Control 2; Shadowrun Returns: Dragonfall DC
2. Vampire: Bloodlines ... Baldur's Gate 2: EE; Star Control 2
3. Star Control 2 / Sengoku Rance (choosing between the two is impossible) ... Kichikou Rance
4. Temple of Elemental Evil ... Shadowrun Returns: Dragonfall DC
5. Temple of Elemental Evil ... Neverwinter Nights: EE; Age of Decadence; Darklands

Some notes:
1: Story is usually the primary focus of jrpgs, and jrpgs do story really well. It was really difficult to choose 1 BEST here, and what made FFVIII stand out is how eccentric the story is. The others have well developed but conventional narratives, whereas FFVIII has a story that still confuses, baffles and promotes discussion, debate and controversy. Which parts of the game are real, and which are a dream? What is this story really about? Why are the characters in the game also in the game within the game? FFVIII is the David Lynch/ Nolan movie of jrpgs.
2: Exploration is dependent on letting characters develop non-combat skills such as stealth, rogue skills, talk skills, craft skills
3: This is the bread and butter of strategic RPGs like SC2 and Sengoku Rance, where time is a significant limited resource (i.e. you're on a clock)
4: This has to be turn-based; being real time automatically kills true strategy. Chess is not a real time game.
5: 3E is an extremely well developed character system, as is AoD's character system. Both are genre paradigms

I discounted JA 2 from rpg. It's more squad-based tactics and that would muddle things if we have to consider Shogun Tactics, Invisible Inc., X-Com, etc... but then, JA 2 and Shadowrun Returns are a breath away from each other so where to draw that line is a conundrum. But in any case, I would still take ToEE ahead of JA 2. Probably. Probably since ToEE uses a class system, unlike JA2. JA2 does A LOT of other things better than ToEE, obviously.
 
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luj1

You're all shills
Vatnik
Joined
Jan 2, 2016
Messages
12,869
Location
Eastern block
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Neanderthal

Arcane
Joined
Jul 7, 2015
Messages
3,626
Location
Granbretan
1. Story / Narrative: Betrayal at Krondor. Though I honestly can't see a valid reason for excluding Torment i'll bite and name BaK as amongst my favourite narratives, not only because of the quality of the prose, but because that prose is seamlessly integrated into every aspect of the game. Its pointless having a good story if its a country mile from the game itself, then its just a sideshow, or worse yet an exposition dump or hyperlink.

2. Exploration and overall ambience: Ultima VII holds the title here in my opinion. A huge world of settlements that function on their own, a wilderness full of danger, mystery and interesting areas to explore, and an ambience that can range from genuinely disturbing and horrifying to a dreamlike fairytale.

3. Choice and consequence system: Arcanum, vast swathes of the game can be missed depending on your playthrough style, alignment, choices, skills and even random conversations. When the game doesn't allow its usual swathe of choices, for instance in the Black Mountains, it really stands out as egregious because you've become used to finding another way.

4. Strategic battles: Hard to say because most crpgs focus far more on tactics than strategy, but i'll go with ToEE for its excellent and fun implementation of 3rd edition.

5. Character creation / Progression: Arcanum again, a massive amount of builds that really do affect gameplay: Technologist and tinkerer of some stripe, whether of guns, explosives, Tesla powered gadgetry or more esoteric disciplines. A wizard of frightening power and usefulness, able to teleport acrooss the continent, summon demons, speak with the dead and destroy on a whim. A pure warrior smashing through all opponents and caring nothing for technology or magic. A thief avoiding all dangers in the shadows, and only strking when the kill is assured. A bowman or caster strking down his foe foe from a great distance. Or a mix of any of the above or more. Mix this with races and backgrounds that matter and you've got an extremely potent system.

6. (My addition) Thematic excellence: The Witcher. I could have nominated one of the early Ultimas here, perhaps Warriors of Destiny with its focus on moral absolutism, but I think as a fairly modern game the Witcher excels at asking the player to look at the central theme of, "What is a monster?" It provides no easy answers, it does not lecture us, it does not give us a moronic simplistic villain, all it does is warn us against certainty and self righteousness. Doubt everything, question everything.
 

Neanderthal

Arcane
Joined
Jul 7, 2015
Messages
3,626
Location
Granbretan
far more on tactics than strategy
What does this even mean?

Short term, usually in battle is tactical, flank, feign retreat, form a shield wall etc. Strategic is long term, usually pre battle, conserve hp and resources, rest and recuperate your soldiers, secure your lines of supply, set up fallback positions, choose what enemies to face or flee, yadda yadda.

My interpretation anyway, we're getting a lot less of the latter.
 

Cael

Arcane
Joined
Nov 1, 2017
Messages
20,279
Strategy is high level. Neanderthal is correct. Logistics, movement of entire armies, choosing battlefields, getting into the minds of the enemy, that kind of thing. In real life, those are usually handled by generals.

Tactics is local and is mainly concerned with winning a battle. Unit A move to Z to flank the enemy while Unit B tied them down. That kind of thing. Depending on the size of units involved, tactical combat in real life can be commanded by anyone up to Colonels. It is rare that Generals get involved, although there are exceptions (and more likely in the old days than the modern day).

There isn't a lot of strategic level computer games out there. Most are tactical.
 

Atlet

Arcane
Vatnik
Joined
Nov 11, 2017
Messages
1,568
Yeah, you are right. I meant to say tactical combats.
 
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Lurker47

Savant
Joined
Jul 30, 2017
Messages
721
Location
Texas
far more on tactics than strategy
What does this even mean?

Short term, usually in battle is tactical, flank, feign retreat, form a shield wall etc. Strategic is long term, usually pre battle, conserve hp and resources, rest and recuperate your soldiers, secure your lines of supply, set up fallback positions, choose what enemies to face or flee, yadda yadda.

My interpretation anyway, we're getting a lot less of the latter.
Strategy is high level. Neanderthal is correct. Logistics, movement of entire armies, choosing battlefields, getting into the minds of the enemy, that kind of thing. In real life, those are usually handled by generals.

Tactics is local and is mainly concerned with winning a battle. Unit A move to Z to flank the enemy while Unit B tied them down. That kind of thing. Depending on the size of units involved, tactical combat in real life can be commanded by anyone up to Colonels. It is rare that Generals get involved, although there are exceptions (and more likely in the old days than the modern day).

There isn't a lot of strategic level computer games out there. Most are tactical.
Interesting. I've never heard of these sort of semantics. Guess I just was never in the right environment for it.
 

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