Best pre-1990 cRPG

[Blood Brain Barrier]

What do you think?

There's lots to choose from. The Ultima series, Wizardry, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy.

I'm going with Pool of Radiance, simply because the exploration is thrilling and the combat exciting.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

It's Ultima IV or Ultima V. And it's not particularly close.

 

[loc978]

Ah man, hard one for me... kind of a tossup between Ultima IV and Dragon Quest III. Both were pretty far ahead of their time... and for me, AD&D didn't translate well into computer format until Baldur's Gate. Narrative structure tended to get tossed out the window with the rest of the features that wouldn't fit on a few floppies.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

I never liked early Ultima besides spending a lot of time trying to. My favorite was Ultima VIII, because of the simplicity and relative lack of spiritual/ascetic/Christian themes which the game forces you to adhere to and endorse.

I thought Baldur's Gate was not one of the better AD&D games, featuring weaker combat than the GOld Box editions. Narrative was better I guess.