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Good Non-Spiderweb RPGS?


Juan Carlo

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So I'm sure this topic has been covered before, but I'm wondering what are some of the favorite non-spiderweb RPGS amongst spiderweb fans?

 

It could be your favorite ever, the ones you think are underrated, or just the last one you played that you liked tolerably well.

 

I'm just curious where peoples' tastes fall and perhaps hoping to get some tips on some "must plays" that I haven't touched yet.

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Heh, yep yep, I know there have been similar topics, but they're fun! smile

 

RPGs I especially like / recommend:

 

Most recently played: Pokemon Conquest

 

For PC: Morrowind; KOTOR

 

For various Nintendo Systems: Pokemon (various incarnations, though I think FireRed and SoulSilver are my favorites); Chrono Trigger (SO good! I played the DS port); Fire Emblem (the game titled just "Fire Emblem" for GameBoy Advance); Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga (for GBA - hilarious game!); Magi Nation (GameBoy Color - buggy, but quite funny and had some excellent features).

 

I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff, but those are a few that come to mind at the moment.

 

Edit: oh, I left off Legend of Zelda games (though I know some dispute whether they are RPGs). LoZ games are generally excellent!

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Bioware and Black Isle are a good starting point, and Jeff will wholeheartedly support this. Planescape: Torment, Fallout, Baldur's Gate are the giants of yesteryear. KotOR in the middle past, and Mass Effect and Dragon Age more recently. And, for a change of pace, the slightly more action-based Witcher series is pretty good.

 

If you patch it, and then get the fan patches, and still put up with bugginess and unevenness, especially towards the end, Vampire: the Masquerade: Bloodlines is also a very strong game. Oh, you also need a high colons in title tolerance.

 

—Alorael, who feels odd about his preferences running so heavily for a very small set of RPGs by just a few companies. On the other hand, he knows his own tastes, and it keeps his game budget relatively trim.

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I'd say anything that Bioware makes. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is a great game. They are also the creators of the Mass Effect trilogy, which truly has been the only game in history to make me care so much about my companions/teammates. I'd say the only thing that doesn't work is the actual ending scene, but don't get me started on that. I can fill page after page with my analysis on why that has gone wrong.

 

A more recent Bioware title that is unlike Mass Effect cand goes back to the way KOTOR used to work, is Dragon Age: Origins. I'm playing that right now and find it tremendous fun!

 

Finally, I can recommend the Elder Scrolls series of RPGs by Bethesda. I have only played the two most recent ones, being Oblivion and Skyrim (playing the latter for the first time right now). They are both very enjoyable, but I have to say that the attraction to these games comes from the enormous, dynamic world that you can explore, while Dragon Age: Origins' attraction comes from the really great story, the great writing and the very good voice acting/personalisation of your companions.

 

Also from Bethesda is Fallout. I found fallout 3 fun, but it got boring because the story really didn't interest me all that much. For that reason, I found Fallout: New Vegas a lot more satisfying because the story revolves around the fate for the Mojave, "New" Las Vegas, and everybody living inside of it, versus a more personal story in Fallout 3. But, that's just my preference.

 

I can heartily recommend all these mentioned games, although I can assure you there are many more I haven't played yet. As Alorael mentioned, there is The Witcher too. I haven't played The Witcher myself yet, but I do intend to play it at some point. Apparently it's very good.

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The title will never exist in my mind...

Anyway, some good (I said good! Not excellent) that I can recommend is:

Pokemon series in VBA

Dungeons and Dragons: Eberron Unlimited (Fps Rpg) <--- (Best one in this list)

Aqworlds

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Steam Search tab

Free Realms

I can't remember...

--------------

-A

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If Spiderweb is king of party based games then Eschalon Series Book 1 and 2 is the king of single character rpgs. Im serious, these games are really awesome. Excellent stat and skill system that allows for ultimate freedom when making your character. The specialization that is allowed for your character is very much like the specialization in all of jeff's earlier games that allowed for it.

 

These are the only games other than jeff's that I play and replay over again.

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Originally Posted By: BMA
Fable is good, but it's a big-sized first-person RPG.


They're not *that* big, though, I didn't think. I managed to finish Fable 2 and its DLC, fairly quickly, and Fable 3 felt much shorter than that. In fact,
Click to reveal..
by the time you actually reach the throne of Albion, something I assumed would've happened halfway in, you're left with maybe 3 or 4 shortish quests and that's it.


Of course, I would recommend them - Fable 2 in particular impressed me enough to reach for my wallet for both DLC missions.
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Originally Posted By: Death Knight
If Spiderweb is king of party based games then Eschalon Series Book 1 and 2 is the king of single character rpgs. Im serious, these games are really awesome. Excellent stat and skill system that allows for ultimate freedom when making your character. The specialization that is allowed for your character is very much like the specialization in all of jeff's earlier games that allowed for it.

These are the only games other than jeff's that I play and replay over again.


yea Eschalons allow freedom as player can make pure fighter, archer (not useful as arrows cost money and its not given that much) or cleric or mage but on some situations melee is needed too (it takes a while until caster can get that high that he/she can cast spells on enemy next to him/her) and as fighter needs to add points to light and heavy armors and weapons and still some spells are needed (healing for example) so character won't be excatly pure fighter/caster unless uses long road to get to goal or will be willing to spend fortunes on potions etc.

I tried to play Eschalon 2 but 1st "big" mission (killing those bats (whatever) and their nest) was just dumb and difficult due apparently shooting fireballs to nest didn't do damage so player would need to go to find powder kegs somewhere (since no1 at least in starting town sells those, not a surprise) so player can get frustrated even on 1st (3rd) mission.

Maybe I'm used to party rpgs and 1 char rpgs aren't my thing but still.

Besides Eschalon 2 is pretty much same game as Eschalon 1 only with new graphics and new missions and few others.
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The entire Dragon Quest series, 1 through 8.

Scenario writer and game designer: Horii Yuuji, an author turned game writer.

Music: Sugiyama Koichi, a classical composer.

Character design: Toriyama Akira, the name behind Dragon Ball.

 

As a side note, Horii Yuuji and Toriyama both worked on Chrono Trigger alongside Sakaguchi Hironobu. Without them there would be no CT.

 

DQ is either love it or hate it, but if you want open world exploration, properly balanced combat, and great characters and stories without being overly serious, there is none greater.

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Originally Posted By: tekkamansoul
DQ is either love it or hate it, but if you want open world exploration, properly balanced combat, and great characters and stories without being overly serious, there is none greater.


Since Slarty isn't here to second you, I'll step up. DQ is definitely worth at least an hour of your time, trying it out.
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Originally Posted By: Andraste
I've played Dragon Quest IX. It was pretty fun, but dang grindy.


it's not so bad if you just stick to the main plot, stay with one job and weapon type per character and don't try too hard to complete sidequests or get achievements. that does kind of miss half the point of the game but it helps you avoid burnout at least
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9 and 10 stray too far from the original formula to be enjoyable for me, and I consider myself a hardcore fan (I've played and beaten every iteration except for those a multitude of times).

 

All of them are good, but I agree the NES ones are primitive. I don't play those anymore, because there are remakes available. The I-II remake for SNES is fantastic, as is the SNES remake of III. They have fan translations, but are also on Gameboy Color. IV, V, and VI are available on DS. V and VI were on SNES originally, and V has a full 3d PS2 port, which also has a fan translation. The remake of IV was on PSX in the same style as 7 (and is basically identical to the DS port) but is only in Japanese.

 

7 and 8 have fine translations, though beware if you are playing 8 in English, they altered a lot. It no longer has the classic, streamlined menu system, it is totally graphical, they changed the dialogue display to be, well, ugly, among other unnecessary alterations, such as the main character's graphics changing to look like a super saiyan when in max tension mode; I assume because the only way they could sell DQ to the West is to turn it into an advertisement for DBZ. They also sold it with an FF12 demo, which many people will attest is the only reason they bought it in the first place.

 

Something to note is that 8 was nearing completion of development by the time of the Square-Enix merger. The localization was begun after the merger, which is why the English version resembles crappy "modern" console RPGs, and is to blame for the overdone shoddiness of it. 9 and 10 were by the whole produced by Square, and you can note in credits that Yuji Horii played a less active role. 9 breaks a lot of conventions of the series, including the addition of horrible multipayer, and resembles a turn-based monster hunter more than a DQ game. 10 is simply an MMO and is basically a failure.

 

/rant

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Lots of good suggestions, most of which I've played. If anyone hasn't played Fallout 2, Planescape, KOTOR, Vampire Bloodlines, then you should probably get on that as you have lots of fun in store.

 

Some I like that no one's mentioned:

 

Gothic 2: I just played this for the first time and it's pretty awesome. I've played other games from Pirahnna Bytes and liked them in varying degrees (including the original Gothic and Risen), but this is probably their best by a mile. It's massive and it's all hand generated (unlike Elder Scrolls) so the world is really interesting. Plus, the prison setting is pretty unique.

 

"Drakensang" and "Drakensang: River of Time": The writing in these isn't awesome (it's kind of "charming" in an oldschool fairtale sort of way, but also a bit trite), but the stat system (based on the Dark Eye table top game from Germany) and combat are awesome. All actions are determined by a formula involving three main attributes as well as a skill score, so given that attributes always do more than one thing there is lots of room for hybrid builds (I played a rogue/mage/archer, for example). Plus, magic is super nerfed, which I like. It's important, but strictly as support, never as artillery. I was suprised by how much I loved these, in fact, so I recommend them to anyone that likes party based RPGs.

 

Witcher 1 and 2: I loved these as well and I think they have the best writing of any RPGs on the market right now and do choice and consequences better than most as well. You are stuck playing one guy (so little chance for "role" play in the traditional sense) and combat isn't their strong points, but they are top notch when it comes to constructing a real, "lived in" seeming, interesting world to get lost in for 40-50 hours.

 

 

As to Eschalon, I tried book 1 and mean to go back to it at some point (I really do), but it didn't wow me on first impression. It's a lot like a spiderweb game, only it's lacking what makes spiderweb games so great (i.e. interesting world design, combat, and good writing). I did like its very large skill system, though, and the game is much prettier than your average spiderweb game so I guess that's a plus.

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Baldur's Gate I+II, the Icewind Dale series, Neverwinter Nights, and Planescape Torment are all great rpgs especially if you like d&d games. Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, the Fallout series, and Jagged Alliance (I have only played the second one) are also good, although I would only call Jagged Alliance an rpg in the loosest sense of the word.

 

I have not played a lot of 'jrpgs', so I can't really speak from experience, but one series that I did enjoy was the Breath of Fire series, particulalry the two games for the PS1.

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From the older ones: baldur's gate, IWD, fallout and planescape (every title) are a "not miss", especially planescape: torment, that have a unique atmosphere in music, graphics and selection of rpg things.

For the middle age i've played Oblivion and Morrowind, that are pretty good, especially morrowind that have a real free world, even if it have a better play experience if you download some mods; Neverwinter Nights 1 with expansions was one of the best, NWN 2 it's kind of crap for the world system, and the plot ideas were the same from 1 (HOTU expansion, in wich u have to get an army) to 2, to Dragon Age 1 and 2, so, at the second game that have the same, identical plot, you get bored enough.

 

Indie games have some good points for play them. Excep our hero Jeff, i've played eschalon 1, ad get bored rapidly because of the skill point system that does not give you a real variety of choices, and the damn speed at wich you travel, that takes you HOURS to get from one point to another. I strongly suggest Legend of Grimrock, that is a Eye of the beholder style dungeon, and have really a lot of atmosphere, many new things that rarely we can see in a rpg game ( from races, to skills, to monsters...some of wich scared me really, and other beated the s*** out of my characters..).

 

Now i can return to my substantial invisibility

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One of the games I just received, Im a little reluctant to try. Its called Inquisitor, a dark fantasy rpg with some party based combat. I initially pre-ordered the game 2 years ago and just got in contact with the company and they sent me the game from good old games for not receiving it years ago. They get props for that.

 

Im reluctant to try the game as I don't really like real time rpgs anymore. Ive kind of played them to tears and turn based combat is much more fun to me.

 

However I would say this-after reading up on the game, if you want a game like baldurs gate that is fairly challenging in early game with nice visuals, you might be interested in this game.

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Originally Posted By: Lanrue
Sacred 1 is a good RPG. And the first good (in my opinion) RPG i've ever played was Final Fantasy 7. It was so huge and overwhelming. Just WOW!!!

And the Gothic Series (but not the add on and the 4th part) wink


i recognise your avatar and approve
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Originally Posted By: Sylaena Kyle
As do I - my Master System came with it built-in, though I sadly never managed to finish it. frown

I should probably try to get hold of it again and play it through.


i've won it a couple of times but i don't know if i ever did it without using the infinite-lives cheat. there's this one bit near the end where you have to swim through some spikes with nearly pixel-perfect precision and i always die a million times there
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Originally Posted By: Sylaena Kyle


As do I - my Master System came with it built-in, though I sadly never managed to finish it. frown

I should probably try to get hold of it again and play it through.


My Master System too. I played it last week, i think i played Alex Kidd a hundred of times. It took just one hour. It's very easy.........today crazy

by the way...
the Master System and the Genesis (Mega Drive) had also a lot of good RPG's.
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www.lairware.com has a legit version of Ultima III that works on Macs with mordern OS & chips. It isn't free, but it's very modest in price. I don't know if the other Ultimas are available for more modern OSes. I've been pretty busy cussing my incompetence in Avernum 5 & Avadon, lately, so I haven't been looking around much, even in hayfever season.

Parakeet

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Originally Posted By: Lanrue
Shame on me, i have never played Ultima. But is there a open source project for free...somewhere?


http://xu4.sourceforge.net/

there's also a sega master system version of ultima iv that you could find and emulate, which is a very faithful port with prettier graphics and a surprisingly good interface
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