RPG Recommendations

[Manah]

Soul Nomad and the World Eaters is pretty cool. It's a turn-based strategy RPG which is basically alright, but the alternate evil route where everything goes wrong is pretty memorable.

I also tried Fate/Extra on the recommendation of a friend and if you like overdosing on weeb shit you might like it. It's probably one of the most Japanese things I have ever experienced. I don't even know how to describe it beyond that.

LISA: The Joyful and LISA: The Pointless are good if you liked LISA, I'd think. The former is a sequel, and the latter a surprisingly good fangame.

LISA: The Hopeful is another good fan game. I didn't like Joyful much at all, though. It was trying to tell two radically different stories (what's going on that made the world the way it is, and Buddy doing her own thing) that don't really mesh and there's almost a complete lack of humor.

Hopeful is really neat, especially after the final update. It's about a random minor gang off trying to find Buddy, and what even people like them have to go through. There's a whole lot of different endings (4 Joy and Joyless endings, and a secret one), a Pain mode that adds an entirely new story, and some neat mechanics.

I really like LISA in general. It's one of the maybe half dozen games that actually deals with mature content, and doesn't treat that as just being FUCK TITS BLOOD SMASH.

Been wanting to play the Persona series, so thanks for recommending somewhere to start! I've heard lots of good things about it.

The Persona games are interesting in that they kind of all do different things. The first one is forgettable, the third one is fairly somber, the fourth one is very light hearted, and the fifth one is kinda between the third and fourth in tone.

The second, well.

Everyone should play it.

The World Ends with You is something I'd recommend, what with its good characterization fun but Stylus heavy battle system, good if engrishy soundtrack, and great spritework. Fortunately, its getting a switch port soonish, so there's that if you don't want to go searching for a decade old game/ deal with a mobile port

Apparently the Switch version is going to be an updated re-release with new story content, so it's probably worth waiting for if you don't really want to see what the old battle system was like.

 

[Corrugated Daffodils]

Playstation 2 - -
Atelier Iris 1 & 2 - - Crafting RPGs with some great music.
Disgaea 1 & 2 - - Some of my favorite tactical RPGs of all time.
Makai Kingdom - - Grindy to hell, and the item world is bonked, BUT a fantastic lighthearted story. Worth playing at least once.
Phantom Brave - - Kids version of Makai kingdom with some great ass music.
Wild Arms 3 - - great music, just a great game. Last in the series I liked before tuning out completely.

Disgaea 1 and 2 are also on steam.

 

[Bernard Buttfart]

I didn't like Joyful much at all, though. It was trying to tell two radically different stories (what's going on that made the world the way it is, and Buddy doing her own thing) that don't really mesh and there's almost a complete lack of humor.

Hopeful is really neat, especially after the final update. It's about a random minor gang off trying to find Buddy, and what even people like them have to go through. There's a whole lot of different endings (4 Joy and Joyless endings, and a secret one), a Pain mode that adds an entirely new story, and some neat mechanics.

I really like LISA in general. It's one of the maybe half dozen games that actually deals with mature content, and doesn't treat that as just being FUCK TITS BLOOD SMASH.

I didn’t like the Joyful either, to be honest. It was nice to get some closure about some of the events in the Painful that were left unresolved, and I really appreciate the character development we got out of Rando and Buzzo specifically, but the overly serious atmosphere left it kind of wanting. I found myself hating Buddy as a character by the end of it.

(That backstory with Lisa and Buzzo is so good though. I’m really glad that was fleshed out)

 

[It's HK-47]

Yeah, I played it and enjoyed it, but I want more Fallout, you know? I also miss the 2D isometric perspective. It feels very different to a 3D game and that feeling is partly what I'm after. 2D isometric always had much greater detail than was possible with 3D for obvious reasons.

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura​

I'm going to drag your quote over to this thread, since I think it'd be better served over here, but you should take a look at Arcanum sometime, if you haven't already. (Although it's cheaper on GoG, right now, and you'll want to look into the unofficial patches to add things like higher resolutions and widescreen support.)

It's seldom ever really talked about, but it's about as old-school isometric as you're liable to ever see outside of the classics like Fallout. Tim Cain himself even worked on the game, so all of the similarities between Fallout and Arcanum really shouldn't be too much of a surprise. Heck, it even runs off of the VATS-style system for movement and combat, so for its time it was essentially just Fallout, but with an unusual steampunk/magic theme. I mean, you can be an Orc wizard in a tuxedo who blows peoples' heads off with a Tesla shotgun. What else do you want?

The world is significantly larger in Arcanum though, to the point where they incorporated a fast travel system similar to the one from Daggerfall, otherwise it'd clock you in something to the tune of hours just to cross from one side of the map to the other. The sheer freedom that the game allows is ridiculous, too. You could make a hundred different characters built up a hundred different ways, and still be liable to run across dialogue and encounters you'd never seen, before.

If you're looking for a classic, isometric RPG that isn't afraid to tell you to sit down and grab a pen-and-paper if you want to play it, this is a good one to dig into. The GUI is a little rough-looking by modern standards, but it could be worse. It could be 1997's Everquest. It's shocking to think that nothing about that game was aesthetically unappealing to us, at the time. We thought that looked amazing.

 

[Furina]

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura​

I'm going to drag your quote over to this thread, since I think it'd be better served over here, but you should take a look at Arcanum sometime, if you haven't already. (Although it's cheaper on GoG, right now, and you'll want to look into the unofficial patches to add things like higher resolutions and widescreen support.)

It's seldom ever really talked about, but it's about as old-school isometric as you're liable to ever see outside of the classics like Fallout. Tim Cain himself even worked on the game, so all of the similarities between Fallout and Arcanum really shouldn't be too much of a surprise. Heck, it even runs off of the VATS-style system for movement and combat, so for its time it was essentially just Fallout, but with an unusual steampunk/magic theme. I mean, you can be an Orc wizard in a tuxedo who blows peoples' heads off with a Tesla shotgun. What else do you want?

The world is significantly larger in Arcanum though, to the point where they incorporated a fast travel system similar to the one from Daggerfall, otherwise it'd clock you in something to the tune of hours just to cross from one side of the map to the other. The sheer freedom that the game allows is ridiculous, too. You could make a hundred different characters built up a hundred different ways, and still be liable to run across dialogue and encounters you'd never seen, before.

If you're looking for a classic, isometric RPG that isn't afraid to tell you to sit down and grab a pen-and-paper if you want to play it, this is a good one to dig into. The GUI is a little rough-looking by modern standards, but it could be worse. It could be 1997's Everquest. It's shocking to think that nothing about that game was aesthetically unappealing to us, at the time. We thought that looked amazing.

Thanks for the suggestion. I've heard the name before but never looked into it. I think I'll have to now!

 

[Hat]

I didn't like Joyful much at all, though. It was trying to tell two radically different stories (what's going on that made the world the way it is, and Buddy doing her own thing) that don't really mesh and there's almost a complete lack of humor.

I didn’t like the Joyful either, to be honest. It was nice to get some closure about some of the events in the Painful that were left unresolved, and I really appreciate the character development we got out of Rando and Buzzo specifically, but the overly serious atmosphere left it kind of wanting. I found myself hating Buddy as a character by the end of it.

The best way to play Joyful is just to let Gary the Hot Soup kill you, accept this as Buddy's canon death, and then uninstall the game.

 

[Bernard Buttfart]

The best way to play Joyful is just to let Gary the Hot Soup kill you, accept this as Buddy's canon death, and then uninstall the game.

Spoiler: Joyful spoilers

>Rando doesn’t die
>Buzzo doesn’t mutate
>Tooley doesn’t die
Sounds like a good ending to me

 

[c-no]

@Wraith already mentioned it but I may as well reinforce it: Wizardry 8. Beyond the editor, the game offers a variety of races and classes to choose from with their own pros and cons. You can make ninjas out of hobbits and faeries while fighting androids and elementals.

As for some other RPG's:
Might & Magic 8. It's the only Might & Magic game I played that is part of the main series. While it was said to be one of the weaker entries, it's a fun game in its own right. You pretty much go on a quest that leads up to stopping a mage from destroying the world because its turns out, the devil aliens his creators are at war with already got their asses kicked in Might & Magic 6. The game offers up your part of 1-5 against hordes of enemies and you get some party members with some unconventional classes such as vampires and dragons. The soundtrack of the game is memorable and its bound to offer hours of gameplay (Took me two weeks IRL to beat it with most if not all the sidequest). It's also an RPG that has its own card game that you can play against tavern owners.

Morrowind. Third mainline title in the Elder Scrolls. Game departed from the huge world and dungeons Daggerfall had for a smaller but more crafted world. It sets itself apart by having the Dunmer and their land not be Drow ripoffs. The story pretty much sounds straight forward at first until you realize that you could legit not really be the reincarnation of Dark Elf Jesus so much as a simple pawn who managed to work well in a plan that involves using whoever fulfills each step in some prophecies that were a bit vague. Combat is relied upon a dice roll in whether you hit an enemy and attack styles are rendered moot by the "use best attack option". It got two expansion packs, one which brought you to a city in the mainland while the other had you go through a Skyrim island before Skyrim was even a game.

Gothic. It's a crpg Germany dating back to the same early decade as Might & Magic 8, Wizardry 8, and Morrowind. The game doesn't let you customize your protagonist but it allows you to join three different camps with the story slowly converging into one path where you are trying to escape a penal colony that keeps you in via magic barrier. The game has you work your way up the totem pole since you have to start out as weak nobody who has to earn his armor. Combat can be rather unconventional since it's timing your presses on arrow keys to chain attacks but once you get it down along with some decent gear against certain level enemies, it becomes a fun romp.

As for console games:

Shadow Tower. From Software's game that could be mistaken for a King's Field title due to the gameplay. Plays like King's Field but with no music. It's all ambiance and silence throughout your journey in descending a tower to save the souls of a village. The game is difficult due to weapons and armor breaking apart quickly but that's countered best with blacksmiths who heal based on how much health you have. Enemy designs are also varied with some especially disturbing designs such as a floating ball of flesh with mouths and sewn eyelids.

King's Field: The Ancient City. Last King's Field game From Software made. Unlike previous games, TAC had its own universe where you pretty much have to return a cursed idol back to where it came from and you start with nothing on your journey (despite the manual saying you're a prince of a kingdom or empire). It played like the previous games but with nicer graphics and a durability system found in Shadow Tower.

Shadow Tower: Abyss. Somewhat related to Shadow Tower in story somehow though the previous game made use of a crown rather than a spear. This time, you're ascending the tower to escape after some old man led you to the ruins and used you as a sacrifice. The combat is improved in that the right analog stick can determine what direction your attack comes from. Like its predecessor, it's all ambiance and no music. The game also adds in a variety of armors and weapons like its PS1 predecessor but with guns added in to the mix.

Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land. A spin off that came to the PS2. Story has you as a guy visiting a devastated kingdom for a reason you later find out in the game. It plays like the older titles with an added element of allied actions which are affected by how well you are with party members. While you can create party members, its better to use pre-made members since they have their own sayings during cutscenes. The music is memorable and many designs are as well. It got a Japanese only prequel that is much harder.

 

[John Titor]

@Wraith
Wild Arms 3 was my jam. I love how it took a different approach to RPG mechanics that I still haven't seen elsewhere.

 

[Dunsparce]

-Seiken Densetsu 3 for the Super Famicom/SNES

The Mana/Seiken Densetsu series is one of Square Enix's best, but unfortunately while we got the first and second titles(Released in the West as Final Fantasy Adventure and Secret of Mana), we missed out on the 3rd and arguably best game. The only other mana titles we missed out on since were an early cellphone title and a MMO for Vita that flopped hard and was discontinued quickly.

Your choice of the six characters, particularly the first one you pick, shape the plot in some form. There are 3 factions fighting in this game and which one ends up being the main villians is determined by who you chose as your main character(even effects the final dungeon and final boss). Keeping the best aspects of Secret of Mana while adding many new and exciting things, like a simple Class system and IMO the best soundtrack in the franchise.

Why it was never released stateside was the source of many rumors for decades, luckily we got an answer recently in an interview that happened around the very recent release of the Secret of Mana remake. The game took up so much of the cartridge's data it would be impossible to fit an English(Or most other non-Japanese languages) translation on the cart. They even pointed out that the Japanese version had issues related to that, with spontaneously disapearing items due to there not being enough space in the memory to keep track of them all.

In 2000, It was translated by fans for all English speakers to play. So go and play it if you loved secret of mana and want more of that type of game.

Also of note is that while the first and second games were both either remade or ported numerous times over the years, SD3 was skipped over constantly, even on the Japanese Nintendo virtual console. Luckily last year Square Enix Released the Seiken Densetsu Collection for the Nintendo Switch. It contains the original releases of the first three titles. Unfortunately it is highly likely we will never get that, either(though Switch is region-free)

 

[Done]

I will add Skies of Arcadia, great game with a unique setting (Sky Pirates!), and a very nice battle system. Get the Game Cube version, because it has extra content, and I think the Game Cube has better emulators out there than the Dreamcast. I am still waiting for a PC re-release dammit!

Also, Grandia II, because it's battle system is simply brilliant and very addictive.

The Legend of Heroes series.

The Trails in the Sky arc is reminiscent of the classic 16-bit era RPGs, and the Trails of Cold Steel arc are some of the best modern RPGs out there.

I can't really describe why I love these games so much. On their surface, even I admit that they come off generic as fuck. None of them are outstanding in one particular area, but they are the most complete package of lore, battle system, story, characters, and writing on the market. It all comes together so incredibly beautifully that they stand above even the juggernauts of the genre like Final Fantasy.

If you haven't played them yet, you need to.

http://store.steampowered.com/search/?term=the legend of heroes

Start with the Trails in the Sky trilogy. You can technically start with the Trails of Cold Steel arc, but you'll appreciate it more if you play through the Sky arc first. There is also another whole arc of games in the series that hasn't been localized (the Crossbell arc). Fan translations exist, but they have gotten mixed reviews.

All of the games are tied together by taking place on the same continent (Zemuria), with the same group of antagonists, and a handful of shared protagonists. The Sky games take place in the Liberl Kingdom, and the Cold Steel games are set in the neighboring Erebonian Empire.

Be aware that they are pretty long games. If you're doing it right, each of the five games currently released should take you around 70ish hours, and you'll want to play through the Cold Steel games twice for reasons that will become clear when you unlock the New Game+ options.

One thing I will say is that they start pretty slow, especially the first Cold Steel game. It doesn't really pick up until about 20 hours in, but from that point on it's next to impossible to put down until you get through Cold Steel II.

Sorry for rambling, I could go on about this shit for hours. All five games are typically heavily discounted during the Steam sales, so keep an eye out.

You sir, are a gentleman and a scholar.

I have made a thread for the LoH series here. And I am considering a Let's Sperg of one of the games.

 

[OhGoy]

I've got a question about OFF: How scary can it get? I just got to the "World Map(?)," and the whispering gave me major goosebumps. I'm not the best when it comes to horror and the only game in the genre I've beaten was Dead Space 1. This game is obviously no where near as terrifying, but this is the first mildly unsettling game I've played while wearing headphones. So, I'd like to know some of what to expect so I can be prepared.

 

[Bernard Buttfart]

I've got a question about OFF: How scary can it get? I just got to the "World Map(?)," and the whispering gave me major goosebumps. I'm not the best when it comes to horror and the only game in the genre I've beaten was Dead Space 1. This game is obviously no where near as terrifying, but this is the first mildly unsettling game I've played while wearing headphones. So, I'd like to know some of what to expect so I can be prepared.

It’s not that bad until the last few areas, at which it’s more unsettling than scary. There’s some body horror down the road, but nothing super macabre.

 

[ShittyRecolor]

Planescape: Torment is my absolute favorite RPG, but the Super Famicon has some awesome exclusives too:

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura​

I'm going to drag your quote over to this thread, since I think it'd be better served over here, but you should take a look at Arcanum sometime, if you haven't already. (Although it's cheaper on GoG, right now, and you'll want to look into the unofficial patches to add things like higher resolutions and widescreen support.)

It's seldom ever really talked about, but it's about as old-school isometric as you're liable to ever see outside of the classics like Fallout. Tim Cain himself even worked on the game, so all of the similarities between Fallout and Arcanum really shouldn't be too much of a surprise. Heck, it even runs off of the VATS-style system for movement and combat, so for its time it was essentially just Fallout, but with an unusual steampunk/magic theme. I mean, you can be an Orc wizard in a tuxedo who blows peoples' heads off with a Tesla shotgun. What else do you want?

The world is significantly larger in Arcanum though, to the point where they incorporated a fast travel system similar to the one from Daggerfall, otherwise it'd clock you in something to the tune of hours just to cross from one side of the map to the other. The sheer freedom that the game allows is ridiculous, too. You could make a hundred different characters built up a hundred different ways, and still be liable to run across dialogue and encounters you'd never seen, before.

If you're looking for a classic, isometric RPG that isn't afraid to tell you to sit down and grab a pen-and-paper if you want to play it, this is a good one to dig into. The GUI is a little rough-looking by modern standards, but it could be worse. It could be 1997's Everquest. It's shocking to think that nothing about that game was aesthetically unappealing to us, at the time. We thought that looked amazing.

Arcanum's incredible, I really should replay it. I think I still have my original copy at my parents' house...

 

[Overcast]

Final Fantasy IX- An homage to all of the FF games before VI that also stands on its own as well. Fantastic characters, great story, great music, great... well everything. It has just the right mixture of funny and serious and the entire journey was an absolute joy to play through.

Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne- A PS2 JRPG where you play as a boy who becomes a demon and must recruit and fuse other demons (all of which are based off of legends and folklore from various cultures around the world) to fight alongside him. It has a dark and melancholy story and atmosphere that has multiple endings. Pretty challenging, especially at the beginning.

Fallout 1, 2 , and New Vegas: The first two are western RPG's with an isometric perspective. New Vegas is an FPS built on 3's engine, but had some of the people who made the first two games work on it. All three of them are great games with lots of build variety and a fun and interesting world to explore.

 

[Midnight_Gamer190]

Been wanting to play the Persona series, so thanks for recommending somewhere to start! I've heard lots of good things about it.

it depends cause the first two persona games are heavy on grinding as to where 3 4 and 5 are grind heavy and have the real world simulator and are 100 plus hours and the first 2 games are about 30 hours

 

[Monsieur Guillotine]

Since action RPGs count, I have to recommend Terranigma.

It's part of the Soul Blazer trilogy (along with Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia), though it was only released in Japan and EU. It has a soundtrack that rivals all your favorite SNES RPGs and has a unique world-restoring concept that leads to some interesting gameplay and dialogue. Back when Enix was still Enix.

You'll be hard pressed to get your hands on it, but I also recommend Lost Odyssey.

It's made by a bunch of people who left Square, including Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nobuo Uematsu. Very cinematic, great soundtrack, and some really interesting mechanics. Some people consider it the "true FFXIII". Unfortunately, it's a XBOX 360 exclusive, so you either have to have a 360, acquire one, or wait for 360 emulation to become a thing.

 

[Panboys Probation Officer]

The Shining series is pretty fantastic. Shining Force, Shining Wisdom, Shining the Holy Ark, etc. Entries span from Genesis / GameGear, Sega CD, Saturn, Playstation 2 days into the present day on Switch being Shining Resonance Refrain.

If you have an Atari Jaguar or a Jaguar emulator the one RPG on it is pretty awesome too, Towers II: Plight of the Stargazer.

Action RPG wise, Ys series is amazing. I just finished Ys VIII Lacrimosa of Dana. I've enjoyed those games since the Famicom and PC-Engine days and they just keep getting better.

 

[OhGoy]

I tried OFF a few months back and got past the first boss, though I gave up on the game an hour or two later. When I entered a giant blue labrynthian maze with barely any difference between the rooms, I just said, "Fuck it." There might've been a masterpiece of a game further ahead... but I don't have the patience for rooms like that.

Granted, it's not as bad as the Pokemon: Rescue Team games, where everything's a rectangle and the walls and floors are the exact same for multiple floors in a dungeon. OFF is also a free game, so it's not as bad if areas aren't super detailed. ...being a free game is a double-edged sword, though, since you aren't as obligated to finish it as you would be for a game you actually paid for, which probably part of the reason I gave up so easily.

Once again, there could be gold further on in the game, but I'm an impatient cunt.

"Hey, have you beaten OFF?"

i hate myself for taking 3-4 months to get the joke

 

[BeanBidan]

The Ys games. My first one was Ys:Memories of Celceta (it's the 7th installment iirc)
It's really fun and the music is top notch.

Trails in the Sky 1-3
Trails of cold steel 1-2 (not sure if 3 is already out)

Granblue Fantasy browser/mobile game

Super Robot Wars franchise.

Demongaze