What is your favorite kind of RPG?

[poc301]

Speaking in terms of adventure games, what kind of RPG is your favorite?  More realistic graphics like Quest For Glory, or more cartoony like Secret of Mana or Zelda?  More modern setting like Deus Ex, or more fantasy like Elder Scrolls?

Or do you just dislike RPGs?  

-Bill

[ddq]

The Legend of Zelda, excluding Zelda II, is not an RPG. It's not even that cartoony for the most part. Earthbound is a better example. And Earthbound is excellent.

[poc301]

I didn't mean Zelda or Mana as an RPG, I was just referring to their visual styles, which is less realistic and more cartoony or artsy.

Bill

[Anian]

I really kind of don't remember any sf rpg games, except Mass effect (the 2nd one I liked) and Deus Ex (I'm opssesive so I pretty much explored everywhere, which in the end makes the game quite easy and story was overrun with cliches and very anitclimactic).

Realistic graphics (like in Dragon age or Mass effect), even though, especially UDK engine has trouble with making the characters "bendy" as in everybody looks like they're strawmen with wooden bones (best example Deus ex HR and Batman Arkham).

And for the genre - if it's sf or fantasy, I like it to be dark and as many original ideas as possible.

Even though I think some rpg's are fun, when I try to play them (and again it's my OCD acting up) I try to get every mission and see everything and sell all the loot I get...so in the end I don't finish a lot of them, because I get fed up and end up with "I should be making this stuff, not playing it".

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Depends on the setting and tone.  A cutesy game like Secret of Mana 2 just wouldn't work with hardcore serious graphics, while the more serious quest for glory games probably wouldn't feel the same with super deformed characters and sparse 8-bit rendered backgrounds.

It really is all a matter of the story and content as to which approach is best.  Light-hearted, comedic games lend themselves well to 'cartoony' art styles; serious sci-fi or contemporary tends to lend itself well to rough, more realistic designs; fantasy games tend to fall somewhere between the two, and so on.

[qptain Nemo]

My favourite kind of RPG is clever, ironic, evocative. With much space for exploration, experimentation and finding interesting things and people. RPGs that make good use of having vast spaces and lots of characters. RPGs that let really good immersion where you can just completely sink in into the story and/or atmosphere. Primary examples would be Anachronox and Planescape: Torment.
Troika's RPGs (Arcanum, Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines) are quite pleasant too due to being clever and lovingly designed but they're too focused on being RPGs and consisting of quests at the cost of immersion for my liking.
I also appreciated the easy-goingness and consistency of The Witcher very much.

[Technocrat]

The good old Ruchnoy Protivotankovyy Granatomyot 7. Contrary to popular opinion, "RPG" doesn't stand for "Rocket Propelled Grenade", it's just a "Handheld Antitank Grenade".



Oh, the games. Well, I think that it varies depending on the generation. My favourite SNES RPG was Shadowrun, but I think that Deus Ex would have to be my favourite example on the PC. The results of upgrades to JC feel more tangible, whereas RPGs like Baldur's Gate are essentually stats and graphs running behind the scenes.

Oh yeah, also Ultima Underworld. First person is apparently my thing!

[Bogdan]

I'm not sure.
I played a lot of RPGs.

One of my favorite were: Titan Quest, KOTOR 1 and 2, Elder Scrolls series, and  I remember Gothic III was quite cool.
So I am kind'a keen on these sci fi or just fantasy RPGs.

[Igor Hardy]

Spiderweb's games were my first RPGs and they've remained my favorites. Other than that the 2D Fallouts and Planescape Torment. Some of the best games I played. There are still lots of classic ones I haven't checked out, but am planning to.

However, I can't say to be enamored in RPGs in general. My hate list is pretty elaborate too, but I assume it's of no use to anyone, so I'll just hide it in my pocket.

[Khris]

I can't really say which graphics style I'd prefer; I guess a realistic style has to be just that, 3D and very well done. Otherwise it looks cheap and I'd rather have well-made NES graphics than poor 3D graphics (as in every 3D game up until 2007 or so).

When it comes to the setting, I'd rather see something new than Orcs and Elves for the umpteenth time. Mass Effect was great but not really an RPG in the classical sense. An RPG in the Firefly universe would be great. Or go Earthbound, that's a great concept I think.

[Nick O.]

I think that first two Fallouts (those in 2D) and Planescape are amongst the best games ever made (plus maybe some stuff from Troika games, like Arcanum), I don't know if you should consider them pure RPGs, for me it's more like RPG/Adventure games. I remember the first time I played Fallout 2, what an experience that was, so many things to do (in so many ways), so many actions to take and so many consequences to suffer from. Great, brilliant game!
Time to play it again.

[blueskirt]

http://insomnia.ac/commentary/on_role-playing_games/

Found that essay a couple days ago. It perfectly sums my point of view on RPGs.

[Eggie]

What a bitchy little article. "Hey guys, this recent artform you find fun... It's NOTHING like this slightly less recent artform that initially inspired it. DID I BLOW YOUR MIND?"

My favourite RPGs are Fallout (both eras, for different reasons), Planescape Torment and Pokémon. So I guess I'm drawn to unique fantasy settings, exploration, humour and terrifyingly addictive little systems.

And writing! Beautiful writing! Cinematic RPGs are starting to become possible but novelistic ones have been here the whole time and the medium's perfect for it and why aren't there moooore?

I also prefer less realistic graphics, realistic graphics don't look real enough. You never get that complaint with a more stylised vision, I can get a lot more immersed in something that looks like it's own world and not a cheap, stilted (and in FO3's case) weirdly laminated-looking version of mine.

[Ghost]

Planescape really is a unique game- no matter how traditional the ruleset is, there's really something special about the way everything is implemented. And storywise, heck, it's so wickedly twisted that people occasionally are blinded by overexposure to sheer awesomeness.

I remember playing it in tandem with a friend, eventually noticing that all we were doing was reading these tomes in the Sensorium over and over again, or rerunning dungeons just to have Morte doing the Skull summon. The final cutscene was, together with Anvil of Dawn, such a hard-hitting one that I instantly reloaded to see it again.

I wish it'd get a sequel. I want Annah back. And Morte.

[Eggie]

I'm pretty sure I straight-up cried with joy when I was able to

Spoiler

save Annah

[close]

at the end of the game. What a perfect story, and it was all miiiiiine. Me and scavenger were talking about it and it went totally different for him.

Ah man... so wonderful.

[Ghost]

What a perfect story, and it was all miiiiiine. Me and scavenger were talking about it and it went totally different for him.
Ah man... so wonderful.

Have you read the novel? 'cuz that's a tear jearker of... oh, roughly +10!

Funny thing is, when this game was released it was sooo much a failure here in Germany. Superb reviews everywhere, but commercially a flop. I think it is the RPG equivalent of Beyond Good And Evil. And these days? It's still talked about.

[ThreeOhFour]

I kinda agreed with the essay Blueskirt posted up until it started talking about games like Torment. I loaded up Torment the other day to play it, and accidentally spent ~5 hours wandering around enjoying Sigil (well, a tiny, tiny portion of it). About 10 minutes of this total play time was spent "wargaming".

Torment, Baldur's Gate, Fallout, Arcanum. Those are the 4 RPG games/series I love the most.

[Stupot]

I hadn't played an RPG for yonks until a little while ago when I tried Fallout from GOG.  I really loved the idea of it, but I just found it unplayable after a few hours.  Just realised I wasn't enjoying it at all.  I think maybe I've gone off turn-based battle systems.

[blueskirt]

It's bitchy but it's quite true. If you asked me what were my fondest memories of playing table top RPGs, it would be those time where we just ate dinner and talked among ourselves in character, or when we goofed around in quirky shops, or when we Macgyvered plans to get out of sticky situations or defeat enemies that were way too tough for us to defeat in conventional battle, in good old adventure game fashion. And while fighting monsters and rolling the dices can be fun, the main dish in a table top RPG is role playing a character, being an actor rather than a spectator and making crazy tons of decisions, may they be strategic, moral (and not just good or evil but every shade of gray in between) or purely cosmetic, so many decisions that no two campaign will unfold the same way, even if you replayed it with the same players.

I loaded up Torment the other day to play it, and accidentally spent ~5 hours wandering around enjoying Sigil (well, a tiny, tiny portion of it). About 10 minutes of this total play time was spent "wargaming".

And that's great!

Back to the original question, I loved Super Mario RPG, I especially love the humor and how they injected the lore and mechanics of the Mario platformers in the game. And I love the Quest For Glory series, the classes system with different solutions to problems, and how it integrated traditional adventure aspects like conversation and inventory puzzles (actual puzzles, not just fetch quests or key unlocks door), the world changing as the sun rises, the night falls and days go on, asking random strangers about rumors or the weather, using spells to change your environment and solve puzzles, not just incinerate monsters.

I have not yet played Planescape Torment, Baldur's Gates, Bastion or Beyond Good And Evil, but I'll get around to eventually.

And I hope I'll see another game set in the Shadowrun universe before I die. One that's actually a RPG and not a multiplayer shooter. Oh, and a game set in Magic The Gathering's Weatherlight saga, that'd be an awesome setting.

[ThreeOhFour]

Baldur's Gate games are quite focused on combat, but still have a lot of stupid quirkiness that make each area interesting to go and visit. It compels you to explore, because you never know when a group of monsters will give you their autograph or a lady will explode.

Bastion is totally action RPG, all about combat, but it avoids the awful loot collecting nonsense that gets so very tiring and avoids gold altogether. It's also very stylish, both visually with the palette and the way the environment pops up and the music. The constant narration sounded like a really awful idea when I heard about it and made me absolutely love it when I actually played it, it really is a superb and unique flourish.

Beyond Good and Evil is lovely. I own 3 copies of it. Nuff said.