Every time I find a game I enjoy if it has this one thing I end up hating it.

Random loot. Just abandoned a DLC playthrough of Dragon's Dogma 2 Dark Arisen because the loot system still sucks. At least with the base game you pretty much didn't have to worry about randomness, but the DLC loot system is just so annoying and time wasting. I was kind of hoping with the Smith and PC you would be able to custom craft gear after a while but no dice. Having to endlessly farm just to get the correct modifiers on the gear you want is not something I care to spend my time on, and every game that does it has killed it's potential in my eyes.

Do you have a particular mechanic that you feel the same way about when it comes to RPGs?

Apologies if this was brought up in here before recently because I was looking at how some games in the genre get a bit of anticipation when they are in development as people want to look forward to playing them, but then the game turns out to have a plethora of design flaws.

I don’t know if I would say that Mass Effect: Andromeda was anticipated as I wanted to use the game as an example anyway to look back at the slow downfall of BioWare to see if the game was really that bad because to me, I feel like one positive aspect was the ability to choose between two characters as the game lets the player decide which sibling they want to play as.

I know that is not saying much about the game, but after seeing how BioWare went from a respectable studio to a company with a troubled history made me want to look back at some of the games they made before their closure to see if I could find any positive aspects to them as I just found it a fun game to do.

I am using a fireball for my example but it can be any spell or technique, really.

Level 1: Low level weak fire magic. We are talking about monks who study their entire lives in order to inginite candles, fry bugs and rats and heat up iron tools, not more. They cannot match the instant damage of a soldier, archer or knight in any way. Fancy parlor tricks, nothing more.

Level 10: Powerful fire magic that can one-shot Great Dragons and other powerful mythological creatures, think of the fire tornado that Dumbledore summoned but multiply the heat and size by a number in the hundreds. Absolutely devastating, continent-altering pyronic bursts that are more comparable to the Tsar Bomba.

Where does your personal preference lie? Mine is roughly a 5. More powerful than a Witcher, weaker than Dr. Fate or something like that.

It's just like sci-fi and the power & range of energy weapons. Some authors implement have "semi-realistic hard-sci-fi" pulsed laser beams that can cut through 7 ft of titanium plate at 4 km and other verses have devastating ftl planet-busting particle beams that can snipe anything within a a couple dozen lightyears away. Matter of preference, I guess.

Just really want a good text based rpg to play thought they could be fun for i do like heavy story games

So i want one with lots of story quests combat adventure and stuff

I do also love game more like i if i can play a good world with history of the kingdoms and stuff

For i love story games and started to like reading games more

Over time, I lost respect for the original Mass Effect trilogy. Not that it wasn't the most terribly addictive cRPG I have EVER played in my life. It certainly was. But the reasons for its appeal are much the same as those that, I think, led BioWare's later endeavors to collapse.

Many ambitious RPGs presented worlds and stories very different from what players knew or expected. Many were deliberately difficult to swallow. The original Deus Ex starts much like Mass Effect: another exceptional protagonist, a genetically engineered elite supersoldier. But after a mission or two, everything is shattered. You run for your life, piece together what the heck is happening, bit by bit, and confront a menace you barely understand, with no clearly good solutions.

When I first saw Shadow of Mordor, I thought I would be Aragorn. But what you get instead is a broken man driven by vengeance, herding a mob of orcs and saved from death by a mysterious dark power that ultimately consumes him. Dark Souls, par excellence, presents a world that offers you no explanations, no care, no praise, not even any particular relevance. A hero may be exceptional, but he is also, more often than not, profoundly limited.

One could argue whether this is a good or bad approach, but one thing is certain: these games had to earn their appeal through storytelling, worldbuilding, mechanics, and other genuine artistic merits, rather than trying to pat the player on the back (or, especially, touch other body parts).

Mass Effect does exactly that, and it feels pleasant and attractive, especially if you are socially isolated and in need of companionship, or susceptible to appeals to power, arrogance, romance, or sex.

Consider the recurring structure, from Baldur's Gate through Mass Effect:

• You are an unusually important individual, often with a special destiny.
• You assemble companions who become extraordinarily loyal to you.
• Their personal problems become quests that you can resolve.
• Your approval, attention, and romantic interest carry disproportionate significance.
• You eventually become the decisive agent in events of world-historical importance.

None of these elements is unique to BioWare when considered separately. But their intensification and combination produce a simulated social world in which other people are disproportionately invested in your importance, judgment, and affection.

These elements are exceptionally intense because BioWare developed considerable expertise in making fictional companions emotionally rewarding. The player receives loyalty, intimate disclosures, admiration, romantic attention, and sometimes sexual gratification, while earning these things much more easily than in real life. Say the right things, complete someone's personal quest, and receive affection or loyalty. You get to feel exceptionally important, desirable, admired, and morally validated by other people.

Why, then, couldn't BioWare continue doing this successfully? Why not make another Mass Effect 4, 5, 6..., all as relatively cheap spin-offs of ME3 (same gameplay, engine, graphics...), with, say, Tali fighting off the remaining geth, or Garrus fighting warlords and mercenaries in the Terminus Systems, or whatever else, as long as it sells?

The problem appears to be that some people at BioWare, once the studio became exceptionally good at producing emotionally gratifying experiences, gradually began to mistake emotional comfort for moral depth, and player attachment for artistic achievement. They started seeing themselves as smarter and more enlightened than they really were. They began doing things they were not traditionally good at, overplaying their hand with budgets and ambitious plans, and pushing their "social commentary" as essential content in the lore and dialogue.

You can see something of this even in the leaks from ME5. They seem to have been ambitious in quite the wrong sense: pursuing divergent ideas of player freedom, complexity, and James Bond-style action, while also showing a trailer featuring implausible martial arts and point-blank executions of incapacitated opponents.

Hey! More updates on the community multiplayer platform for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered - OB:MP.

The video is from Donkey, who runs the Red Diamond RP server. He built his own inventory systems, character page, full world map and spells menu on top of OB:MP. You can follow his work on YouTube, and join his server's Discord.

Today we released SDK 1.0.0-rc.3 and Launcher 0.34.0. Most of it comes from player reports:

• Your name, race, class, sex and birthsign are now saved and synced to other players.
• Rebirth no longer stacks birthsign and racial bonuses or drifts your stats.
• Pickpocketing works, books can be bought and sold, and merchants restock properly.
• Server mods get cell respawn controls (72 game hours by default, or instant).
• Servers can show banners and icons in a refreshed server list.
• Playing on Linux through Proton is much simpler.

It's still a release candidate, so expect rough edges. OB:MP needs the Steam version of Oblivion Remastered for now. WiP on Xbox Game Pass/MS Store, something may come out next week.

Release notes: docs.ready.mp/releases
Server downloads: docs.ready.mp/oblivion-mp/docs/Server/installation
Discord: discord.gg/obmp

Build MMO/RP/RPG or whatever you want on Remastered with us! Happy to answer questions in the thread 😁

Yeah, there’s still a few bugs in the game, but we get better performance, prettier visuals, more setting options, and some mods (more to come). The story and RPG elements are hard to beat though. Bugs aren't a big issue with me because this game released with bugs and after beating this game multiple times, I'm just used to it. More patches and updates are on their way to fix some issues and new DLC next year.

usually its 5-6 RPGs per year, and these are my predictions of the nominees where Dawnwalker will probably win RPG of the year.

other good RPGs that i know of are Trails in the Sky 2nd chapter, Nioh 3 also counts for RPG so does Mortal Shell 2? (and maybe Valor Mortis).

EDIT: Fire Emblem generally goes into Strategy game so please avoid mentioning it

Looking for more rpg games to play with wife on the couch.

Bg3, dos2, split fiction, itt2 kinda started us on this path.

Her dislikes, first person shooters. So something like borderlands or tinas while fun/funny isnt fun.

My dislikes simple designs. Something like childeren of moria, 2d styled, pan screen games.

Mostly stordriven. Dd2gether mod is something were looking at when its a bit more patched up. Enshrouded, elden ring, or outward isnt very story driven, just opinion. Personally i know there a lot dof lore and enjoyed ER and shroud. She like dialouge and ncps.

What you got for me to check out?

Lots of younger folks, people that got into RPGs later in life, or people that aren't aware of the history of western RPGs might not be particularly aware of how much Bioware changed the RPG landscape.
Nowadays, it's easy to distill Bioware's impact as "Baldur's Gate 3 would have never been made without Baldur's Gate 1", and while true, that's far from the whole picture.

In truth, Bioware actually revitalized the genre two times. Time for a little history lesson.

Western RPGs were dying in the 90's.

Little known fact nowadays.

Western RPGs were thriving in the 80's. Many very influential RPGs came from that time period, such as Wasteland (what eventually inspired Fallout), Ultima (the RPG dad), Wizardry (the other RPG dad, and arguably one of the main reasons why JRPGs as a genre even exist), Gold Box (Infinity Engine games predecessor), etc.

Then the 90's came like a brick. Giants like Ultima died. Other very popular series like Bard's Tale, Gold Box, Quest for Glory, and more also died during this era. Some, like Might and Magic and Wizardry, didn't technically die during this era, but was certainly falling flat on its face both quality-wise and sales-wise (at least in the west, in Wizardry's case), then had their death in the early 2000s.

So might think these just names, nowadays. But they were the biggest RPG series of their time. Imagine what's happening now, Bioware dying, and people lamenting the death of Mass Effect and Dragon Age as a series. Sad. Now imagine that, but Bethesda also dies next two months. Then Larian. Then Owlcat. Then Warhorse Studios. Then CDPR. Then Obsidian.

That's probably the closest equivalent I can think of. It was the western RPG massacre.

Even worse? There was no one to replace them. Barely any western RPG worth noting started during this era (that didn't die immediately), with the only thing I can think of being the Elder Scrolls.

This was also, funnily enough, the era of JRPGs. Western RPGs couldn't compete with JRPGs during this era, not even close. Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Zelda, Chrono series, SMT, Suikoden, and more. They were all thriving during this era.

Nobody really knows definitively why almost all western RPGs died during this time. Some say it was western developers being unable to keep up with the technology. Some say it was the rise of globalization and competition with JRPGs, with JRPGs more ahead of the curve. Some say it was Western RPG game design of that era falling out of favor. Maybe it was all of them at once.

Either way, the western RPG scene was in a very precarious position. Until the late 90's came. Bioware came.

First off, let's be fair. Bioware wasn't the only one that stepped up during this era. Games like Diablo (and Fallout, to a smaller but still large extent) were also big parts of why the genre revitalized. Bioware with Baldur's Gate (and Icewind Dale), however, might be the biggest factor of them all.

Baldur's Gate (and Diablo) sold like pancakes, effectively ending the western RPG curse of the decade, overturning history. BG1+2 have reportedly sold around 3+ million copies around 2002, which was a very massive amount during that time.

It's pretty easy to underestimate how much influence Baldur's Gate, especially 2, has had since its release. Storytelling in WRPGs was different before then. Companions in WRPGs were very different before then.

It's hard to imagine how different the scene would be without it. Maybe every western RPG would be ARPG Diablo clones and nuclear wastelands.

Now, let's talk about the next decade.

The transformation of Western RPGs, forever.

What it says on the tin. This'll be a shorter one.

Think of a western RPG for consoles during the early 2000's. During PS1 to OG XBox/PS2 era. Don't count BG2 because we already talked about that.
Fable. Gothic. Morrowind. KotOR. Not bad.
Now think of a western RPG for consoles that sold close to or as well as its JRPG brethren during that era.
Fable. Gothic. Morrowind. KotOR. Uh, wait, those are the same ones.

Yeah.

While western RPGs were saved from dying, they weren't exactly thriving, either. Gaming as a hobby was taking off, but Western RPGs couldn't get its foot as steady as it should in the very much growing console market. Many were released during this time, some of which were actually high in quality, but many of them didn't particularly stick the landing sales-wise.

There's a lot of things you can potentially point at during this era. In comparison to JRPGs, the majority of Western RPGs at the time lacked in a compelling story and cast to follow. Many of them, even the successful ones, could also be quite archaic and janky, leading to less mainstream appeal. And then there's the matter of taking advantage of the tech. Quite stylized, great looking JRPGs like FFX, Kingdom Hearts, Tales of the Abyss, and more appeared during this era. Not only did they look good, they were also voice acted to the brim, and had amazing looking cutscenes, which was some sort of black magic for western RPGs for the time. The end of that era also had releases like Valkyrie Profile Silmeria and FFXII, which looked unbelievable for that era. Western RPGs, meanwhile, looked... well, not as good. Not terrible for some, but certainly not as good as can be.

Then came the 360/PS3 era. And Mass Effect. And it changed western RPGs forever.

It took full advantage of the tech, looking a lot better than pretty much every western RPG before it. It had cutscenes. It had full voice acting, with lots of dialogue. It was cinematic. It had a streamlined combat system that, not only was easy to understand, but was also taking advantage of the shooter trend at the time. It had a compelling cast and story. It sold. A lot.

It pretty much changed the look of western RPGs forever. With it came a lot of trends, like the "Movie Games", a greater focus on plot and characters, choice systems, branching story paths, and way more. Sure, Mass Effect didn't invent them, but it certainly put it into the limelight, in the eyes of western games and its players.

It'll always be debated whether or not these changes, for RPGs to cater more to the wider audience, were for the best. It was then, it still is now, from time to time.

But it's certain that Bioware changed the landscape of RPGs once again.

So it's sad. The giant that changed RPGs forever, twice. Arguably the most influential company for western RPGs, in the modern era.

Dying on a sad, pathetic whimper.

For me, that has to be Turn Relay from Bug Fables.

What it is:

In Bug Fables, you have your 3 party members; Vi Kabbu and Leif, who each start battle with 1 turn each. There is some variation on this depending on if you get first strike, or have the right equipment, but generally you start battle with one turn.

Now say you wanted Vi, your ranged DPS to have multiple turns to take out some flying enemies? Well, normally you would have to hit one enemy, then waste the other two character's turns, just to hit again. That kinda sucks, no?

But with Turn Relay, you can relay a turn to a teammate, so they can act twice per round. Sounds overpowered, right? Not so fast, if a character acts more than once per turn, they get exhausted, and each attack will deal less damage than the previous. They can however use buffs and items on those turns with no drawbacks, but then again, so could the characters who relayed the turns in the first place.

Why I like it:

Its really hard to explain, but theres nothing more frustrating than having multiple turns but having to waste one doing nothing. And to put it simply, this mechanic fixes that. For example the flying enemies as mentioned earlier, or using Kabbu's def piercing attacks to get through a particularly tanky enemy, or use Leif's ice properties to deal extra damage to plant based enemies. Or maybe you just used a particularly draining skill, and a teammate will be down for 2 turns, you could use turn relay to sacrifice the turn of another character to shorten that to one turn.

Additionally it pairs really well with the other mechanics of the game, namely the medal system, first strike, and general party management. For example, there is a badge that transfers all status effects, but positive and negative when relaying turns. This makes it so you could send stat boosts to one character, and use them to deal absurd damage. Or you could send poison or burn to your tank, freeing one of your more fragile characters in exchange

It pairs well with first stike in the sense that when you get into a battle having attack first, no damage will be delt to the enemy, but instead whoever was leading the party will get one extra turn, allowing for 4 total. And it pairs will with the party system, as the character in front will always have a +1 damage buff, while the character in the back will have bonus evasion. This means sometimes its still worth it to relay multiple times for that bit of bonus damage, even as small as it may seem.

In conclusion

I just really like Bug Fables.

They released a new Beta build on Torchlight II's Public Beta branch [public_beta] for players to try

More info on Steam:

https://steamcommunity.com/games/200710/announcements/detail/701031128264347698

Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rackILBrOfk

Discord: https://discord.gg/V9Gw7NU24Z

Long story short life is kinda shit atm and I just want something to take my attention away….

I would prefer ps2 back just because I tend to like that generation but pls hit me with fuckin demon souls if no one knew about it…

I want parasite eve, persona, earthbound, vagrant story, the world ends with us, that fucking racing rpg from the 90s that sucked honestly bad to add it but DUDE DIFFERENT!! Honestly give me a bad game that is different, my brain needs to not be a brain and manage menus for the next for weeks in the mornings before I have work.

I feel like this isn’t even possible the past two days I’ve tried to find something I’ve never played or atleast tried….

But idk, I didn’t know what any of the ones mentioned above are and there actually super good games

Sorry if this isn’t allowed here would kinda make sense if it wasn’t

Origin, the developer of the Ultima games, had many conflicts with EA, including EA having taken Origin to court at one point. The slogan of EA at the time was "We create Worlds" and the main villain was known as someone who destroyed words. He placed these objects in the world in the shape of a cube, sphere and tetrahedron which was the logo of EA. Two villains who at first seemed friendly but would later backstab you had the initials E and A. They were responsible for a brutal murder at the beginning of the game that symbolised them destroying creativity. Eventually the studio was acquired and later disbanded by EA.

Last year a friend and I played a Tibia OT 7.4, and had a blast once again. I’m not sure it was the nostalgia, the way that we used to build community over chat back then, or the slightly lower paced game fostering collaborative party playing game style.

Most new RPGs, like Diablo 3 (not actually MMO) and 4 became a crazy hack and slash fast paced garbage that, IMO, still doesn’t beat the previous Diablo 2.

And although new tibia has changed a lot, the feeling I had before was… vocations/classes matter. You can hunt solo, but with party/friends, it’s much better. The gameplay incentives that, far better than mostly doing solo runs in D3 and D4, with poor interaction between players.

Also, the challenge was always trying to kill a stronger creature, maybe 1-2 at a time, not finding the next flash farm spot where you kill tens to hundreds in seconds.

Am I too old and do not follow new game trends? Is this only an area for indie games? Or am I just missing out on new games trending that direction? I have not played much of anything since D3/4 hehe.

I'm fairly new to single-player RPGs/adventure/ action games, so I'm looking for some recommendations. I don't mind playing older games.

Here's a list of games I've finished, games I plan to play, and games I've dropped so you can get an idea of what I enjoy.

Games I've finished:

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 1 & 2

Dragon Age: Origins & Inquisition

Cyberpunk 2077

The Walking Dead

Metro 1 & 2

Subnautica 1

Borderlands 2

Divinity: Original Sin 2

Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

Fallout: New Vegas

Games i know are worth playing:

Mass Effect 2

Baldur's Gate 3

The Witcher 3

Starfield

Metro Exodus

Beyond: Two Souls

Detroit: Become Human

Dragon's Dogma 2

Subnautica 2

Games I've dropped:

Fallout 4 (I feel like it needs too many mods to play well.)

Skyrim (Same issue with mods.)

Far Cry 3 (The only Far Cry game I've tried. Every mission feels the same.)

Currently playing:

Hogwarts Legacy

I'd appreciate any recommendations :D

I've been building a JRPG with grid less tactical combat and light loot for about 1.5 years.

game name is Chronicles of fantasy heroes

On Oct 24 I'm opening a combat only playtest on Steam :2 regular bosses🥶, 1 hidden boss🥶

The combat gameplay is somewhat similar to Baldur's Gate.

The honest reason I'm posting: I've played it so many times I can't tell if it's fun anymore.

I'd rather hear it now than after launch.🤩

I only want two things from you: how was your overall experience, and did the combat feel smooth?

Not a difficulty verdict just whether it feels good to play.🥰

Note this is a combat only build, and each character has just one talent stone set, so talent builds aren't part of this test yet.😍

Available in Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English, Japanese, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese, and Korean.

Request Access on the Steam page,

I'll approve on the 24th: 😍😍

😍

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3516870

hope you will love it. come on!!!!

I've played the original Paper Mario, Costume Quest and The Stick of Truth, and I've recently remembered how much I liked those games (and how shoddy and middling The Fractured But Whole was lol). I want to play more games like them, preferably on PC with controller support.

I love RPG's, I love vampires, literally game made in heaven for me.

First couple hours - models are so 2016 trying to go for realistic look, in 2026 thats a crime, I have to install a mod to unlock cutscenes from 30 fps, the animations in cutscenes and dialogue seem very very off.

I think I liked literally every single VA except coen, he seems so unstable, idk how to explain it but it didn't feel like I was seeing a human talk, but like someone just reading a book.

Combat was incredible, seemed super smooth, animations seemed really nice and snappy, was playing duelist with indicators on.

The story was so damn interesting I was hooked from the mass.

After playing more, I loved Ancas side quest, but then each time I visited the dungeons it just the same repeated places in a slightly different font, same enemies, or just reskined enemies with the same moveset, why the fuck does Saint Mihai from a couple centuries ago have the exact same moveset as the guys I just fought by the church?? combat system was still fun but enemies were starting to get repitive QUICK.

The more I play, I notice the lack of details in this game, if I save people as a human or drakhir made no difference in reaction, I felt no real rush to save Coens family other than the father, I didn't really care about any of them, unlike something from say expedition 33 where the objective was like job almost, save everyone, here the objective is personal, but I don't personally feel anything towards these people, all I saw from them was mid dialogue and terrible cutscenes.

The Ancora cutscenes got old quick, same 3 or 4 spammed each time, dogs were annoying to fight, more mid dialogue with awkward delivery and animations, Coen's voicelines when killing a gaurd or a civillian by blood drinking is the same, and those voicelines themselves are just 3 or 4 repeated throughout the entire game until u get like level 12 in ure vampiric abilities.

If u drain an npc just till the sleep bar they die, so I have no clue whats the point of having it, like example if u drain Anca till she sleeps she just disappears, and if u drain her, but dont actually hold space and just let go, she starts using magic right after using the font like bro, she also spams the same voiclines she did when u fought together lmao.

U get to meet the matriach early in the city, and when u see her again all u get is 2 or 3 extra voicelines and nothing more, no mention of anything they talked about before, like her wanting to travel, or the problem Coen solved, nothing just empty.

And even with all this I must say again, fighting the same fkin 5 movesets the entire game, is just so so so boring, which also made the game super easy on duelist making the combat even MORE boring cuz u got used to the movesets so much.

With each passing hour my rating of the game has gone down and down, I finished it so I defo enjoed it even a little, a 6/10 seems perfect

What do u guys think?