Anime Suggest some rpgs for a storyfag who hasn't been playing much

[Maculo]

Hey, I actually enjoyed that one quite a bit a few years back. I haven't bothered playing 2 and 3 because of all the claims they are popamole and hardly count as an rpg. I remember watching videos and the sequels were really different from the first game. Should I give them a try?

I think the Witcher 2 and 3 are worth a try. Combat-wise the games are popamole-ish (roll spam, etc), but I think the stories makes up for the crap combat. Witcher 2 has nice branching in the story paths (Act 2 can be completely different), whereas I think the Witcher 3 has great quests/characters. Of the three, I think Witcher 2 was my favorite (still fresh in my head). Witcher 3 starts off slow in my opinion, but once I reached a certain point I enjoyed the main story. I know the combat was disappointing for many, but I still think it has a lot of positives. Similar to Planescape Torment, I was able to overlook the flaws in the combat.

If you play Witcher 2, look up alchemy builds. Alchemy can be glanced over, but by Act 2 you can be an invincible murder machine.

Otherwise, I would suggest New Vegas with all the DLCs.

 

[MRY]

My favorite rpgs: Torment and Bloodlines. Kotor II gets an honorable mention, if just for the characters and story. I love Darklands and King of Dragon Pass but I know there are few if any games like them available. I enjoyed the Baldur's Gate series and the old Fallouts as well.

Mask of the Betrayer is totally where you should go next. I had an almost identical set of likes, and a similar hiatus, and when I came back, I found it quite hard to get into New Vegas, The Witcher, or Anachronox, despite my best efforts. (I did not try Alpha Protocol.) MotB, by contrast, pulled me in immediately. It's a reasonable length for a busy person.

A few suggestions, though. (1) There's some console command that lets you carry an extra party member. I would use it. My own feeling is that while I totally appreciate the value of replaying to make different choices, I don't really see much point in having to replay to see a different party composition. (2) Try as much as possible not to let yourself get bogged down in the shit combat and loot that NWN2 entails. For example, you can pick one of those ultra build sequences (I think I did one called Dragonmaster Negotiator or something, which makes you ludicrously OP). I did not use any cheats (beyond adding an extra party member), but to be honest, the looting/fighting is so terrible I think using cheats to bypass fights would not be unreasonable except insofar as you would break the Spirit Eater mechanic by never needing to rest. (3) Do not play the OC. It's not the worst game ever, but it's really bad, and long, and stands a reasonable likelihood of keeping you from MotB, which is great.

Beside MotB, the only game I'd recommend is Age of Decadence. I've written a lot about it elsewhere, but basically it takes out a lot of the boring crap in most RPGs and has amazing reactivity.

If you get through those two, there are other things to contemplate, but that should occupy you for a while.

I think once TTON is out, it might be worth your time, but who knows?

 

[Morality Games]

Witcher 2 was the best. Witcher 3 slipped into the unfortunate contradiction of hiking sim and heavy cinematics (ride your horse 10 minutes to the next cut scene). Can't say its ruined because most people seem to enjoy it, but gosh, it just doesn't feel good that good to me.

If you are seriously pressed for time and want to go ultimate story fag then there are always the Telltale "adventure" games.

 

[belowmecoldhands]

I'm surprised a storyfag would like Darklands. Darklands seems to me much more about the openness and simulation and character generation. It's way more complicated than it needs to be to tell a story and that's the main reason story-driven RPGs cut away unnecessary bits. I guess the lesson is Darklands is built so well even some storyfags like it.

You don't even need to play the main quest in Darklands. It's character generation is deep, its world big and it has many dynamic quests and events. Its lore is even mildly historical, based I think on 14th or 15th century germany. The main quest elevates it from good to great. Of course, I'm more of a combat and explore fag.

It's one of the few games I'd take with me if I was isolated on a remote island. I'd also take Realms of Arkania 1/2. There're few other RPGs which can awe me as much as they. If I could manage, I'd take the Exile and Megatraveller series too. Other than RPGs, I'd take Dwarf Fortress. Nothing beats DF, especially if you mod it.

Still I can't recommend stuff like this to a storyfag, unless they come out as being a system or explore fag.

And OP: I played Anachronox. It's an ok game, but seeing as I usually am not drawn to linear games, it must be great. Great games can do that. So you'd be stupid to not try it. It's cheap as dirt. I'll also add I liked the soundtrack. I periodically search it on youtube to listen. The game has an epic feel to it which I still can't shake off.

It has some frustrating (technical?) moments, but I didn't let those stop me from finishing. Ultimately, it's like bad mouthing a movie because a couple scenes are painful, even as the rest is immaculately delivered.

EDIT: It's $1.49 on GoG right now:
https://af.gog.com/game/anachronox?as=1649904300

 

[Barbarian]

Dunno man, I'm usually not a big fan of sandbox games but I loved Darklands. One of my favorites actually. The game oozes atmosphere and is a gem in all regards. Too bad there are so few historical games. I will certainly try out Expeditions: Conquistador.

You know I'm not so burned out on time as I might have sounded. I still play 3 or 4 games to the end every year, though lately they have been mostly adventure games with 15 to 20 hrs playtime to the end(my last rpg besides PoE was a Torment replay which stopped in Carceri). So far I have a pretty decent list of rpgs to play in the future(in order):

MOTB
Shadowrun: Dragonfall DC
Witcher 2
Expeditions: Conquistador
Anachronox

That and any good adventure that might get released should keep my sparse gaming habit occupied for the next 1 and a half years or so. Thanks guys.

 

[Barbarian]

Oh, and I'm not sure about New Vegas. Is it worthwhile? I thought Fallout 3 in general was utter shit, but I can see the appeal if it gets the fallout setting right and has good story and characters. I can easily ignore shitty combat if the roleplaying and story are there to make up for it.

 

[DeepOcean]

Oh, and I'm not sure about New Vegas. Is it worthwhile? I thought Fallout 3 in general was utter shit, but I can see the appeal if it gets the fallout setting right and has good story and characters. I can easily ignore shitty combat if the roleplaying and story are there to make up for it.

New Vegas is decent as it is much more RPGish than Fallout 3, on Fallout 3, the world is filled with bandits and mutants to kill for no reason than filler. On New Vegas, there is an effort to create locations that have stories and backgrounds that make sense and quite a few quests offer skill checks and choices, even some gangrape bandit gangs have stories on New Vegas, the world makes much more sense. The DLC for New Vegas too are much better than the ones for Fallout 3 and instead of just more trash mobs to kill, you get some unique gameplay and places to visit on each one of them and as most were written by God Emperor Avellone, they have pretty good writing, at least the first one, the third one, the second and the last one are the weakest but still worthy playing.

Just a warning, New Vegas is good in the sense of being more of an RPG and having decent lore and background for what is happening but don't expect decent shooting as the game uses the same terrible engine as Fallout 3 and the shooting is as crappy as on Fallout 3, the major advantage of New Vegas is that there is less of it. New Vegas isn't your typical big but full of Ctrl C and Ctrl V sandbox.

Daggerfall and Morrowind are two sandbox action RPGs, both can work for a story fag, I recomend them as they were similar on a way to New Vegas (there is an attention to detail to the world tha Bethesda just lost afterwards.) and were made before Bethesda suffered some kind of mass aneurysm and had their IQs collectively dropped to sub 70 after the Xbox was released.

 

[Barbarian]

You know, I have been itching to replay morrowind for quite a whie now, since it was sort of a teenagehood classic for me. Not sure if I should though, it is the kind of very time-consuming game where you end up wondering around and exploring without aim. If I don't get bored by it it will end up eating away time I could use to play more objective games.

I remember it as quite the fun game, though eventually you were larping your character and there wasn't much in the way of roleplaying or brilliant quest design at all. Not really a storyfag game, unless you call reading up on all the lore storyfaggotry.

 

[Jrpgfan]

Age of Decadence.

 

[Barbarian]

Maybe I will try AoD eventually, for some reason I never got much interest in that one.

How about the Gothic series? Strange thing but I never tried it. Is it a walking simulator similar to TES series?

 

[DeepOcean]

Maybe I will try AoD eventually, for some reason I never got much interest in that one.

How about the Gothic series? Strange thing but I never tried it. Is it a walking simulator similar to TES series?

Nope, it isn't an walking simulator, it isn't much of a storyfag game too. Gothic strenghs were on exploration and character progression, you start as a whimp that manages to be even more worthless than on your usual RPGs and get your ass kicked even by the regular NPCs until you slowly become the motherfucker of the galaxy, it is a very rewarding RPG but don't expect a ton of storyfagotry, the quest for the most part are simple and straightfoward. The world is pretty well done and unique, especialy on Gothic 1 but it is more interested on murdering you on multiple ways than talking with you.

 

[makiavelli747]

if you like king of dragon pass, you should probably try academagia the making of mages

 

[ArchAngel]

Don't listen to people recommending Witcher 2, half of that game is basically Dark Souls lite

 

[Maculo]

Don't listen to people recommending Witcher 2, half of that game is basically Dark Souls lite

Dark Souls lite? It isn't even Dark Souls lite lol. I do not know why you would compare those two games (roll spam?). Wither 2 has a decent story/quests, but no one in this thread has spoken positively about its combat. The OP wanted storyfag games, and I think the suggestions in this thread have been good so far.

if you like king of dragon pass, you should probably try academagia the making of mages

I looked up this game, and the official "art" looks like Harry Potter ripoff. Otherwise, it looks like there is a lot to do.

Against my better judgment, I looked at the forums.

Spoiler

Why am I not surprised.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Try Summoner.

 

[janior]

Well to be honest I would not recommend playing W2 cause it's mehest of bitchers, go with W3 instead, but if you don't have 200h+ to play a gaem then
'Hearts of Stone' will do.

 

[ArchAngel]

Don't listen to people recommending Witcher 2, half of that game is basically Dark Souls lite

Dark Souls lite? It isn't even Dark Souls lite lol. I do not know why you would compare those two games (roll spam?). Wither 2 has a decent story/quests, but no one in this thread has spoken positively about its combat. The OP wanted storyfag games, and I think the suggestions in this thread have been good so far.

It has rolls and you get killed in few hits. That is Dark Souls lite. Or a boring irritating action game that depends more on your twitch reflexes than on rpg stats.

And it has way too much of that in TW2 to be recommended to a storyfag. Storyfag wants less combat or combat that is short and easier. TW2 also has kill X quests and shit like that.

 

[Maculo]

Don't listen to people recommending Witcher 2, half of that game is basically Dark Souls lite

Dark Souls lite? It isn't even Dark Souls lite lol. I do not know why you would compare those two games (roll spam?). Wither 2 has a decent story/quests, but no one in this thread has spoken positively about its combat. The OP wanted storyfag games, and I think the suggestions in this thread have been good so far.

It has rolls and you get killed in few hits. That is Dark Souls lite. Or a boring irritating action game that depends more on your twitch reflexes than on rpg stats.

And it has way too much of that in TW2 to be recommended to a storyfag. Storyfag wants less combat or combat that is short and easier. TW2 also has kill X quests and shit like that.

Outside of Dark mode, I do not remember anything hitting that hard. Even then, the game gives you so many traps that you can cheese most enemies. Plus, magic and alchemy make most things autowin. Seriously, alchemy starts slow, but you become a near invincible tank that can one shot creatures, even in Dark mode (someone thought having multiple damage modifiers stacking was a good idea). With max alchemy, you can one to two shot the final boss, and this does not even include bombs, which you can spam as well.

Witcher 2 has terrible combat, and the skills trees turn the combat into even more of a joke.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

As if "getting killed in few hits" is exclusive to Dark Souls.
I'm pretty sure dumbfucks like ArchAngel never heard of King's Field.

 

[ArchAngel]

Don't listen to people recommending Witcher 2, half of that game is basically Dark Souls lite

Dark Souls lite? It isn't even Dark Souls lite lol. I do not know why you would compare those two games (roll spam?). Wither 2 has a decent story/quests, but no one in this thread has spoken positively about its combat. The OP wanted storyfag games, and I think the suggestions in this thread have been good so far.

It has rolls and you get killed in few hits. That is Dark Souls lite. Or a boring irritating action game that depends more on your twitch reflexes than on rpg stats.

And it has way too much of that in TW2 to be recommended to a storyfag. Storyfag wants less combat or combat that is short and easier. TW2 also has kill X quests and shit like that.

Outside of Dark mode, I do not remember anything hitting that hard. Even then, the game gives you so many traps that you can cheese most enemies. Plus, magic and alchemy make most things autowin. Seriously, alchemy starts slow, but you become a near invincible tank that can one shot creatures, even in Dark mode (someone thought having multiple damage modifiers stacking was a good idea). With max alchemy, you can one to two shot the final boss, and this does not even include bombs, which you can spam as well.

Witcher 2 has terrible combat, and the skills trees turn the combat into even more of a joke.

People that are irritated by this combat will not get to point where anything is OP. I quit it half way through Chapter 2 when this awful combat was becoming more numerous. I agree it would be a nice storyfag game if they had a more cRPG combat.

 

[makiavelli747]

I looked up this game, and the official "art" looks like Harry Potter ripoff.

sure it does, but actually this game is a lot more mature than average rpg

 

[himmy]

How about the Gothic series? Strange thing but I never tried it. Is it a walking simulator similar to TES series?

I think the best way to describe Gothic is though the fact that it manages to create a believable, coherent world by using as few words as possible. In many ways, it's quite the opposite of PoE. So if you're not exclusively committed to the PS:T-style storyfaggotry, I would highly recommend the Gothic series. Same goes for Morrowind. It also has a very different way of building up the story and the world and if you're cool with that, you're going to love it.

 

[Carrion]

In terms of story TW2 is the best game in the series, but in terms of storytelling it's the worst. The pacing is almost too tight at times, with the game throwing exposition and new characters at you from every angle, which can be either a good or a bad thing depending on how fond of loredumps you are. The combat system isn't good, but most encounters are over quickly, and there aren't any huge dungeons or anything like that, so I doubt it's going to be an issue. It is very different from the first game as a whole, but the writing still has all the same good qualities as the first game did, aside from being a big improvement in other areas, like having a much more consistent tone. It also has the best C&C in the series, and not just the one big choice but also several others that come to play near the very end. All in all, it's the weakest game of the three, sometimes wanting to be too cinematic for its own good and making other clear missteps like having a few QTEs, but from a purely storyfag perspective it might actually be the best one in the series.

Oh, and I'm not sure about New Vegas. Is it worthwhile? I thought Fallout 3 in general was utter shit, but I can see the appeal if it gets the fallout setting right and has good story and characters. I can easily ignore shitty combat if the roleplaying and story are there to make up for it.

I'd suggest you forget about FO3 completely, kind of in the same way that you should forget about the NWN2 OC if you're going to play Mask of the Betrayer. New Vegas is an improvement on FO3 in literally every way, having infinitely better writing, worldbuilding, C&C, game mechanics and roleplaying options aside from actually being a Fallout game in terms of lore. It does suffer from the same engine, and the combat is still poor despite some notable improvements (iron sights and damage threshold, for instance), but the quest design is top notch, there are plenty of opportunities for different builds (playing a pacifist is very much possible for the whole main quest and a good chunk of the side quests), and the story is very flexible with its faction mechanics, allowing you to side with different factions or just backstab everyone if you wish to do so. The story itself isn't necessarily the most amazing one out there, but the way it is told and the way you can shape it makes it very enjoyable, and I think everyone should at least give the game a try.

 

[Maculo]

sure it does, but actually this game is a lot more mature than average rpg

I don't doubt that, the game does seem to have a lot to do. It's not my cup of tea, but I can see why people would like it.

 

[makiavelli747]

but I can see why people would like it

you mean because it has gay people in it?