Conversational RPG's Recommendations.

[Rpgamer]

I'm thinking Dragon Age: Origins without most of the fighting involved; a game where dialogue is its main "mechanics." Conversations and RPG's are usually related because many RPG's have dialogue and the ability to choose an option within said game dialogue, but what about an RPG that heavily emphasizes on dialogue-based decisions? A game not like Fallout where the "Speech Option" is clearly standardized and the only decision that you'll have to make is whether to press that "57% success rate" or not. Those kind of games tends to remove the importance of what you're saying. In the end, you'll only care about the percentages that tell you whether it's a "good or bad decision." A game disimilar to Mass Effect where the only dialogue-choices you'll be making are "paragon","neutral" or "renegade" and where the sentences you'll be choosing from will be short and different from the actual words Shepard will say. Anyways, something close to Origins dialogue-wise. It could also be described as "game with elaborate dialogue system." Anyone know a game like or close to this?

 

[Bobbity]

No, but I'd imagine that a game version of the Game of Thrones would come close.
There are probably some Japanese dating games out there that are like this, but that's not exactly my cup of tea.

Now that you mention it, I really want to see a game like this though...

 

[icyneesan]

a game where dialogue is its main "mechanics."

Visual Novels. I'd recommend Fate/Stay Night, as thats the only one I've played.

 

[thenamelessloser]

Planescape: Torment

Arcanum (but way less conversations than Planescape: Torment)

Both of those games, most of the text isn't voiced so prepare for a lot of reading (especially for the former.)

Also, there's Witcher but that game has alot of combat so far (i'm still in chapter one) but it seems your choices even if they are fewer seem to have a pretty big and morally ambigous effect on how the story will go. (multiple choices you won't see the effects of them for hours later in it)

YOu may also want to look into the first two fallouts.

 

[Defense]

How about 999? It's a text adventure but there's no combat, just reading and puzzle solving. And it has multiple endings as well(although only one is real), so I'm guessing your actions have an effect on the ending.

 

[Rpgamer]

No, but I'd imagine that a game version of the Game of Thrones would come close.
There are probably some Japanese dating games out there that are like this, but that's not exactly my cup of tea.

Now that you mention it, I really want to see a game like this though...

interesting show, it sounds like it touches the political.

a game where dialogue is its main "mechanics."

Visual Novels. I'd recommend Fate/Stay Night, as thats the only one I've played.

how much decision making is there amongst visual novels? From my experience of this genre, you can simply pick any response and manage to finish them half-assedly. You could have one or two responses but isn't the very definition of a "visual novel" a "novel with pictures"? These novels don't seem to have any "game mechanics" at all.

Regardless, I think the main drawback to these visual novels is the often shallow, repetitive scenarios and dialogue. I think the genre could learn from western RPG's like Arcanum.

Planescape: Torment

Arcanum (but way less conversations than Planescape: Torment)

Both of those games, most of the text isn't voiced so prepare for a lot of reading (especially for the former.)

Also, there's Witcher but that game has alot of combat so far (i'm still in chapter one) but it seems your choices even if they are fewer seem to have a pretty big and morally ambigous effect on how the story will go. (multiple choices you won't see the effects of them for hours later in it)

YOu may also want to look into the first two fallouts.

Arcanum was quite nice in terms of conversational depth methinks. Thanks. I'll try the rest.

How about 999? It's a text adventure but there's no combat, just reading and puzzle solving. And it has multiple endings as well(although only one is real), so I'm guessing your actions have an effect on the ending.

How is the dialogue system?

 

[thenamelessloser]

http://www.gog.com/en/frontpage/ has the games I mentioned for 6 to ten dollars.

 

[IBlackKiteI]

Personally I think RPG's should do away with having a blank-ish character and telling the player 'This is you'
I really want to play a game where I am playing a role, not my role.
I want to play a game where you start with a character who is already a character, and by the end of the game see how he or she has changed from who they were before according to my actions.
Wouldn't that be much more immersive than a blank slate your supposed to somehow imagine as yourself?

So, a voiced protagonist for sure. Dialogue options don't add points to the 'Good/Evil' bar but do influence your character and other characters depending on how you use them. The character speaks on his own a lot of the time, and what he says is dependant on his previous actions and the things he has said by way of the player, like if he repeatedly said in the past he hates fairies or something and burnt down an orphanage, the things he will say will be along the lines of a fairy hating madman who burns down orphanages. Every dialogue option chosen by the player has a unique response or action invoked by it which may not be immediately obvious, aside from ones which are just general questions and inquiries.

So basically the conversation system would be like Dragon Age: Origins, with a voiced protagonist, with limitaions depending on how the character is played, and a unique effect for everything the character says.

 

[Rpgamer]

Personally I think RPG's should do away with having a blank-ish character and telling the player 'This is you'
I really want to play a game where I am playing a role, not my role.
I want to play a game where you start with a character who is already a character, and by the end of the game see how he or she has changed from who they were before according to my actions.
Wouldn't that be much more immersive than a blank slate your supposed to somehow imagine as yourself?

So, you want to synthesize the role you're playing and your own decisions (yourself)?

I think the opposite of a "blank slate" character is a character that you simply view without being able to influence him or her---like in a movie. With this in mind, you prefer the middle? To be a character and yet to base that character on yourself?

So, a voiced protagonist for sure. Dialogue options don't add points to the 'Good/Evil' bar but do influence your character and other characters depending on how you use them. The character speaks on his own a lot of the time, and what he says is dependant on his previous actions and the things he has said by way of the player, like if he repeatedly said in the past he hates fairies or something and burnt down an orphanage, the things he will say will be along the lines of a fairy hating madman who burns down orphanages. Every dialogue option chosen by the player has a unique response or action invoked by it which may not be immediately obvious, aside from ones which are just general questions and inquiries.

So basically the conversation system would be like Dragon Age: Origins, with a voiced protagonist, with limitaions depending on how the character is played, and a unique effect for everything the character says.

That sounds interesting. Your(non-roleplaying) decisions in the past is emulated by an in-game portrayal of realism: voice, attitude and possible other "symbols" of the past. This kind of reminds of Fable in terms of the "scars", "halo", beard, weight etc. Though with Fable, you don't really change the deeper aspects of the character you're playing.

 

[Kufaz]

Mother 3!

Oh...I read the whole question after I posted. I thought the thread was a conversation about good rpgs...mother 3 does not have a conversation system

 

[Smooth Operator]

Simple, you are looking for a dating sim, in most of those the actual game is optional, the main part are the bucket loads of text.

 

[IBlackKiteI]

Personally I think RPG's should do away with having a blank-ish character and telling the player 'This is you'
I really want to play a game where I am playing a role, not my role.
I want to play a game where you start with a character who is already a character, and by the end of the game see how he or she has changed from who they were before according to my actions.
Wouldn't that be much more immersive than a blank slate your supposed to somehow imagine as yourself?

So, you want to synthesize the role you're playing and your own decisions (yourself)?

I think the opposite of a "blank slate" character is a character that you simply view without being able to influence him or her---like in a movie. With this in mind, you prefer the middle? To be a character and yet to base that character on yourself?

Pretty much.

So, a voiced protagonist for sure. Dialogue options don't add points to the 'Good/Evil' bar but do influence your character and other characters depending on how you use them. The character speaks on his own a lot of the time, and what he says is dependant on his previous actions and the things he has said by way of the player, like if he repeatedly said in the past he hates fairies or something and burnt down an orphanage, the things he will say will be along the lines of a fairy hating madman who burns down orphanages. Every dialogue option chosen by the player has a unique response or action invoked by it which may not be immediately obvious, aside from ones which are just general questions and inquiries.

So basically the conversation system would be like Dragon Age: Origins, with a voiced protagonist, with limitaions depending on how the character is played, and a unique effect for everything the character says.

That sounds interesting. Your(non-roleplaying) decisions in the past is emulated by an in-game portrayal of realism: voice, attitude and possible other "symbols" of the past. This kind of reminds of Fable in terms of the "scars", "halo", beard, weight etc. Though with Fable, you don't really change the deeper aspects of the character you're playing.

Yeah. Basically the character starts off as the opposite of the blank slate character which you described, but becomes more and more influenced by the player, other characters and the world around them as the game goes on.

By the end of the game the character could be quite the same as they were before, or they could degrade into a complete monster. Would kinda make the player look back on the start of the game and go "Woah"

Like, what would it be like if in the beginning of Mass Effect Commander Shephard is a heroic sorta guy with codes and morals and such by default, but by the end the player might shape him into a reckless drug addict, or a veteran trying trying to cope with PTSD, or maybe hes become even greater a person than he was before or something.

 

[mjcabooseblu]

a game where dialogue is its main "mechanics."

Visual Novels. I'd recommend Fate/Stay Night, as thats the only one I've played.

I recommend Happiness!. It's a pretty good one.

OT: This seems to be a pretty interesting idea, but I doubt it would sell...

 

[Kimarous]

Personally I think RPG's should do away with having a blank-ish character and telling the player 'This is you'
I really want to play a game where I am playing a role, not my role.
I want to play a game where you start with a character who is already a character, and by the end of the game see how he or she has changed from who they were before according to my actions.
Wouldn't that be much more immersive than a blank slate your supposed to somehow imagine as yourself?

Depends on what you consider "immersion". Some players, including myself, like it when the character they play is one of their own devising. I personally don't like playing established characters as it feels less like I'm playing the role and more that I'm being limited by established continuity. Furthermore, there's also the middle-ground option: some established continuity, but otherwise blank enough to mould to your desires. Fallout 3 was good in this regard; a prologue tutorial that sets up the core backstory while leaving enough blank for the player to mould to their whim. When I go "what would my character think?", I want to sit down and think for myself instead of flipping through their three-page psych evaluation from the official game codex.

So, a voiced protagonist for sure. Dialogue options don't add points to the 'Good/Evil' bar but do influence your character and other characters depending on how you use them. The character speaks on his own a lot of the time, and what he says is dependant on his previous actions and the things he has said by way of the player, like if he repeatedly said in the past he hates fairies or something and burnt down an orphanage, the things he will say will be along the lines of a fairy hating madman who burns down orphanages. Every dialogue option chosen by the player has a unique response or action invoked by it which may not be immediately obvious, aside from ones which are just general questions and inquiries.

So basically the conversation system would be like Dragon Age: Origins, with a voiced protagonist, with limitaions depending on how the character is played, and a unique effect for everything the character says.

Okay, buddy, let's face reality. You can either have no voice and lots of options or limited options with a voice. Unless we develop some kind of sophisticated voice-generation program that sounds like actual people, this is not going to happen. No studio is going to shell out for loads upon loads of interchangeable and branching tones for the character to voice-act, unless you are suggesting the "anti-fairy, orphanage-burning" persona is one of very limited options, and when limited options are available, the "insane wacko" tones tend to be cut or, at the very least, the least desirable gameplay-wise (what with lost opportunities through NPCs avoiding you or becoming hostile).

Finally, why is LIMITATION so desirable? I can understand the desire to restrain the player so they stay on course (one of the flaws of the Fallout and Elder Scrolls games is the inability to stay focused on the plot), but neither do I want to be stuck in a corridor (*cough*FFXIII*cough*).

I'm not saying you're wrong in desiring this; just know you're a niche market.

 

[Tallim]

A game like Planescape is great because the fighting can be avoided alot of times , OR NOT, depending on how you want to go about things. (and your character type)

Technically, if I recall correctly, there are only 2 enemies in the whole game you actually have to kill in combat.

 

[Rpgamer]

I'm thinking Dragon Age: Origins without most of the fighting involved; a game where dialogue is its main "mechanics." Conversations and RPG's are usually related because many RPG's have dialogue and the ability to choose an option within said game dialogue, but what about an RPG that heavily emphasizes on dialogue-based decisions? A game not like Fallout where the "Speech Option" is clearly standardized and the only decision that you'll have to make is whether to press that "57% success rate" or not. Those kind of games tends to remove the importance of what you're saying. In the end, you'll only care about the percentages that tell you whether it's a "good or bad decision." A game disimilar to Mass Effect where the only dialogue-choices you'll be making are "paragon","neutral" or "renegade" and where the sentences you'll be choosing from will be short and different from the actual words Shepard will say. Anyways, something close to Origins dialogue-wise. It could also be described as "game with elaborate dialogue system." Anyone know a game like or close to this?

Pass. RPG without fighting. Might as well bore myself to tears playing Second Life.

RPGs are very much about the GAMEPLAY. Story is fine and all, but you may as well watch a movie or read a book (or talk to a live person) if you're ready to play conversational simulators.

I didn't mean the complete absence of action. Also, I think rationally choosing a dialogue option is a part of "gameplay." It's like a puzzle wherein there is always the most optimal "choice of words." And like I said, visual novels or simulators have no sense of urgency and most importantly, are too shallow to even bother playing. There is no sense of "roleplaying atmosphere" such as the ones you get when you play western rpg's.

Simple, you are looking for a dating sim, in most of those the actual game is optional, the main part are the bucket loads of text.

Nope.

Yeah. Basically the character starts off as the opposite of the blank slate character which you described, but becomes more and more influenced by the player, other characters and the world around them as the game goes on.

By the end of the game the character could be quite the same as they were before, or they could degrade into a complete monster. Would kinda make the player look back on the start of the game and go "Woah"

Like, what would it be like if in the beginning of Mass Effect Commander Shephard is a heroic sorta guy with codes and morals and such by default, but by the end the player might shape him into a reckless drug addict, or a veteran trying trying to cope with PTSD, or maybe hes become even greater a person than he was before or something.

But how would you know what kind of character they were originally? What kind of devices would be used to make you, the player, to believe that the character was a "specific type of person"? And how would the character's sudden change make sense? If the character was polite originally and the player starts to choose the "jerk" option, how would the story explain that?

Depends on what you consider "immersion". Some players, including myself, like it when the character they play is one of their own devising. I personally don't like playing established characters as it feels less like I'm playing the role and more that I'm being limited by established continuity. Furthermore, there's also the middle-ground option: some established continuity, but otherwise blank enough to mould to your desires. Fallout 3 was good in this regard; a prologue tutorial that sets up the core backstory while leaving enough blank for the player to mould to their whim. When I go "what would my character think?", I want to sit down and think for myself instead of flipping through their three-page psych evaluation from the official game codex.

I don't think his view is that distant.

but becomes more and more influenced by the player

No studio is going to shell out for loads upon loads of interchangeable and branching tones for the character to voice-act, unless you are suggesting the "anti-fairy, orphanage-burning" persona is one of very limited options, and when limited options are available, the "insane wacko" tones tend to be cut or, at the very least, the least desirable gameplay-wise (what with lost opportunities through NPCs avoiding you or becoming hostile).

Finally, why is LIMITATION so desirable? I can understand the desire to restrain the player so they stay on course (one of the flaws of the Fallout and Elder Scrolls games is the inability to stay focused on the plot), but neither do I want to be stuck in a corridor (*cough*FFXIII*cough*).

I'm not saying you're wrong in desiring this; just know you're a niche market.

"
Good point. Cinematic details limits choice. And limiting choice is like turning an "RPG" into an action game(Final Fantasy Series), or basically creating a definite division between the fighting aspect of the game and the cut-scene part of it. So it's like putting Tetris, a simple game, and Inception, a movie, together. The fact that you gained 2000 points as oppose to 500 points doesn't have any relevance to the cut scene. Choice is either "win" or "game over."