Gaming suggestions for a girl who loves RPGs?
- Thread starter KitKatAttack
- Start date
I second the suggestions for Dark Souls and the Persona series. If you ever get a 3DS Fire Emblem Awakening is a must buy. Also Fallout New Vegas is one of the best RPGs I've ever played. A massive world with tons of characters, a three way conflict between three unique and interesting factions, and you get to decide you comes out on top. Dues Ex Human Revolution is also awesome.
My main two are Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines and The Witcher series, mostly the first one.
Vampire the Masquerade is one of the few games I've played that actually feels like an RPG. You have a selection from about seven clans of vampires, each giving you a different starting set of skills and abilities. You then get to level up your character. You have humanity, which you can raise or lower, as well as masquerade violations, which if you get three of ends in a game over. I would really suggest playing this. If you purchase from Steam and have a new OS you may have to download a fan-patch.
The first Witcher is very RPG like. The combat relies heavily on skill, equipment, and resource management. The later games rely a little more on skill.
Some honorable mentions would be The Elder Scrolls from Morrowind and beyond, the Fallout series from three and beyond, and lastly State of Decay. Which is a action-RPG, survival game.
Vampire the Masquerade is one of the few games I've played that actually feels like an RPG. You have a selection from about seven clans of vampires, each giving you a different starting set of skills and abilities. You then get to level up your character. You have humanity, which you can raise or lower, as well as masquerade violations, which if you get three of ends in a game over. I would really suggest playing this. If you purchase from Steam and have a new OS you may have to download a fan-patch.
The first Witcher is very RPG like. The combat relies heavily on skill, equipment, and resource management. The later games rely a little more on skill.
Some honorable mentions would be The Elder Scrolls from Morrowind and beyond, the Fallout series from three and beyond, and lastly State of Decay. Which is a action-RPG, survival game.
Really? As far as I know, that game has been on the best-ten-of lists ever since its debut. Its immediate successor, Deus Ex: Invisible War, was actually kind of bad; the more recent prequel, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, is pretty good, but not the revolution (har har I made a funny) in storytelling and game mechanics as the original was.KitKatAttack said:
Deus Ex is old, and it is ugly---but the developers spent the money they could have spent on graphics and voice talent on its writers and level designers, and in that fashion it has never been equalled, let alone surpassed.
How comfortable are you with old school games? Games with obviously lesser graphical quality (but good for its time) and little to no hand-holding? If you're okay with that, I'd heavily recommend Fallout 1 & 2. Those games pretty much made me fall in love with the old late 90's/early 00's style of cRPG. They're very open, and very RP'ish. If you have a character who isn't much of a fighter, that's perfectly fine. You can get through them very well with a diplomatic/talk-your-way-out-of-it character if you so desire. There are always several ways of getting through a situation, and the writing is pretty good too. Also, the first one in particular, has an amazing atmosphere and the best post-apocalyptic feel I've yet seen in any media.
Also, a modern one I just recently played: Expeditions: Conquistador. You take the role of a Spanish Conquistador exploring the Caribbean and Mexico, but what kind is up to you. You could play an aggressive conqueror like in history, or a peaceful diplomat. Great setting, fantastic writing and an enjoyable turn-based combat system.
If you don't like the old school stuff, then I'm a bit limited in what I can recommend that hasn't already been said. I'm a massive fan of the Gothic/Risen series, but there isn't much in the way of plot or story in those games, so I'm not sure how they'd hold up to your tastes. That's not to say there isn't a story, there is, but it's never been the focus of those games. If they still peak your interest though, I'd recommend Gothic II and the first Risen (on PC) out of them. They're the best in the franchise.
Also, a modern one I just recently played: Expeditions: Conquistador. You take the role of a Spanish Conquistador exploring the Caribbean and Mexico, but what kind is up to you. You could play an aggressive conqueror like in history, or a peaceful diplomat. Great setting, fantastic writing and an enjoyable turn-based combat system.
If you don't like the old school stuff, then I'm a bit limited in what I can recommend that hasn't already been said. I'm a massive fan of the Gothic/Risen series, but there isn't much in the way of plot or story in those games, so I'm not sure how they'd hold up to your tastes. That's not to say there isn't a story, there is, but it's never been the focus of those games. If they still peak your interest though, I'd recommend Gothic II and the first Risen (on PC) out of them. They're the best in the franchise.
Planescape: Torment
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
System Shock 2
Most of these can be extensively modded with visual improvements, and I highly recommend you do so. The atmosphere and scope of all these games are amazing to behold.
It may be heresy, but I believe Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a superior game to the original.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
System Shock 2
Most of these can be extensively modded with visual improvements, and I highly recommend you do so. The atmosphere and scope of all these games are amazing to behold.
It may be heresy, but I believe Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a superior game to the original.
My only suggestion would be Final Fantasy: Tactics. My personal favorite RPG of all time. Very different from all the other Final Fantasy games but I love it. War of the Lions is the re-make, mostly a re-translation (much much better) and a few tweaks, extra peoples to find and multiplayer, but unless you get the iPhone version there is massive slowdown on all the skills. If you havn't played the normal version before you may not notice too much, but it is very jarring for me.
Someone said Fable 1, and I'd agree. Didn't like fable 2 nearly as much, never put fable 3 in the Xbox. but fable 1 was tons of fun without being too hard.
Someone said Fable 1, and I'd agree. Didn't like fable 2 nearly as much, never put fable 3 in the Xbox. but fable 1 was tons of fun without being too hard.
Since Planescape, Dues Ex: HR and VTM:B have been suggested... NWN2? the main campaign is nothing special plot wise but MOTB is much better and it has fan content to. It has some funny gems. You can have lute battle with NPC, get one of your companions to provide pyrotechnics and set your own lute on fire as part of your performance. Ah if only they actually showed you with an on fire lute. Missed opportunities...
Kingdoms of Amular is a decent ARPG. Has active combat, controls smoothly, classes are not set though you do get bonus an altered skills from Destinies which require X amount points in a type. I don't know how good the main plot is since I never finished it (comp died, can't be bothered restarting) but at the point I was up to it was mostly just evil dude and evil god. However I find the fateless in a world where fate is inescapable and everyone is aware of that thing and the fae interesting...but then I have a thing for against fate plots and fae (of the ancient race often with blue/orange morality variety) in general even if the fae in this look fucking ridiculous.
The truth about Syndrome revealed?
One of the main criticism for the game is an empty boring world so maybe I'm alone in that. They certainly could have done much more with it. Its unfortunate that they didn't give you much choice or branching paths with a plot about being fateless.
Kingdoms of Amular is a decent ARPG. Has active combat, controls smoothly, classes are not set though you do get bonus an altered skills from Destinies which require X amount points in a type. I don't know how good the main plot is since I never finished it (comp died, can't be bothered restarting) but at the point I was up to it was mostly just evil dude and evil god. However I find the fateless in a world where fate is inescapable and everyone is aware of that thing and the fae interesting...but then I have a thing for against fate plots and fae (of the ancient race often with blue/orange morality variety) in general even if the fae in this look fucking ridiculous.
The truth about Syndrome revealed?
If you are into retro JRPGs:
Parasite Eve
Valkyrie Profile
Secret of Mana
Brave Fencer Mushashi (After all, who doesn't want a huge toy collection?)
Xenogears (Be warned! There is a lot of dialogue and cutscenes so you need a lot of patience)
Legend of Dragoon (I fell asleep on it, but overall it is good. Again, massive cutscenes and dialogue)
Tales of Vesperia
Tales of Symphonia (and its sequel, Dawn of the New World)
Star Ocean: The Second Story
Earthbound
Super Mario RPG
Chrono Trigger
Chrono Cross
Parasite Eve
Valkyrie Profile
Secret of Mana
Brave Fencer Mushashi (After all, who doesn't want a huge toy collection?)
Xenogears (Be warned! There is a lot of dialogue and cutscenes so you need a lot of patience)
Legend of Dragoon (I fell asleep on it, but overall it is good. Again, massive cutscenes and dialogue)
Tales of Vesperia
Tales of Symphonia (and its sequel, Dawn of the New World)
Star Ocean: The Second Story
Earthbound
Super Mario RPG
Chrono Trigger
Chrono Cross
If you don't already have it I would suggest getting Divinity: Original Sin. It just came out recently and it's an old-school, isometric, turn-based RPG. It's got a classless system so you can mix whichever skills you want that you have at your disposal.
Best of all is that the game doesn't hold your hand while you play it. During a quest the game will tell you your destination and what direction it's in but you're expected to go there and fend for yourself.
Best of all is that the game doesn't hold your hand while you play it. During a quest the game will tell you your destination and what direction it's in but you're expected to go there and fend for yourself.
Well, I love FFX, FFVI, Rogue Legacy, Kingdom Hearts, Wild Arms, Kingdoms of Amalur. If you don't mind FPS, try Borderlands as well :3.
Can't think of any others. Oh, avoid FFXIII and all its sequels like the goddamned plague
Can't think of any others. Oh, avoid FFXIII and all its sequels like the goddamned plague
Well there are already suggestions for New Vegas, NWN2, Jade Empire, Deus Ex and Human Revolution so I'll go with the first Neverwinter Nights. The main campaign is a slog of a tech demo, but Shadows of Unrentide and Hordes of the Underdark show off some pretty good early Bioware flair.
A less RPG but still story focused would be Telltales The Walking Dead, and there is a reason why sections of the community rave about Spec Ops: The Line (hint, it isn't for the gunplay).
A less RPG but still story focused would be Telltales The Walking Dead, and there is a reason why sections of the community rave about Spec Ops: The Line (hint, it isn't for the gunplay).
The Witcher 2 is an amazing action-RPG with great gameplay, well-written characters, and a story where your actions actually have deep implications and consequences (unlike the illusion of such in a lot of BioWare RPGs). If you can get around the objectifying attitudes towards women, the first game is great as well (fortunately you can deny every sexual encounter in the game, so it's not too hard to just ignore that part).
Try going for classics:KitKatAttack said:Hi Escapists,
I'm in a gaming rut, I don't know what I should try next. I'd really appreciate some suggestions, in your opinion are there any essential games I'm missing out on? I really love RPGs, I don't mind games with a lot of violence as long as it has a compelling story line. I love the Dragon Age series, Mass Effect trilogy, L.A. Noire, KOTOR, GTA: IV and GTA: V. I've played a couple of CODs and have enjoyed some of the stories, just shooter games aren't my go-to for de-stressing and enjoyment. Since my childhood The Sims franchise has been my favorite game, but since EA sucks, I can barely play TS3 without crashing or freezing.
Thanks for taking the time to read and have a great day!
Baldur's Gate 1,2
Planescape: Torment
Arcanum
Fallout 1,2
Icewind Dale
Divine Divinity
TES III: Morrowind
System Shock 2
Deus EX
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
Of more recent:
Fallout New Vegas (F3 is entirely skippable)
Tes IV: Oblivion
Tes V: Skyrim
Arx Fatalis
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Of a 'doubtable' category:
NWN
NWN2
Divinity 2
If you have a Ps3 I would definitely give Valkyria Chronicles a try. Good mix of tactics, action and story.
Otherwise what everybody else said. i.e. Persona 4.
Also somebody mentioned borderlands. Try that for a mix of shooter, RPG and pure loot hunting crack.
Otherwise what everybody else said. i.e. Persona 4.
Also somebody mentioned borderlands. Try that for a mix of shooter, RPG and pure loot hunting crack.
Here are some of my recommendations:
Final Fantasy IX (PS1)
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne (PS2)
Persona 3 and 4 (PS2) (If you have a VITA, you can get the Golden version of the latter)
Fallout 1, 2, and New Vegas (PC only for the first two. PC and most consoles for the third)
Xenoblade Chronicles: (Wii)
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey (DS)
Demon's Souls (PS3)
Dark Souls (PS3, 360, PC)
Chrono Trigger (SNES, DS)
And some other games I can't really think of at the moment.
Final Fantasy IX (PS1)
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne (PS2)
Persona 3 and 4 (PS2) (If you have a VITA, you can get the Golden version of the latter)
Fallout 1, 2, and New Vegas (PC only for the first two. PC and most consoles for the third)
Xenoblade Chronicles: (Wii)
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey (DS)
Demon's Souls (PS3)
Dark Souls (PS3, 360, PC)
Chrono Trigger (SNES, DS)
And some other games I can't really think of at the moment.
Quoted for reminding me - The Walking Dead is good but far too dull in my opinion. The characters are all boring, the setting is a bit too dreary (well, obviously), and I found that the story just kind of grated and stressed me out a bit. The Wolf Among Us, however, uses the exact same mechanics but I find the characters far more colourful, the world more interesting and I actually got invested in the story.Ed130 The Vanguard said:
Plus the protagonist has a really cool haircut.
Since everyone else said everything else worth playing I'll say Divinity: Original Sin. I don't know where to even begin explaining what you can do in that game, so just look it up. I'm currently playing it and it's awesome.
The Elder Scrolls series seems like it'd be up your ally; huge open-world RPGs with plenty of interesting quests, characters and dungeons to explore. My favourite by far is Oblivion. It's kept me busy for hundreds of hours over the last few years and even now I like to go back to it every once in awhile. Get the Shivering Isles DLC with it as well. Shivering Isles adds a great amount of content with a whole new flavour to it and is really just an all-around excellent addition to the game, especially after you're done with all the main and guild quests and find yourself wanting more. Some people like Skyrim...I'm not one of those people, so I'm not going to recommend it, though it might tickle your fancy more than Oblivion, depending on your tastes. Morrowind is also great, but it shows its age and mods are pretty much required to gain much enjoyment from the experience these days, in my humble opinion, unless you have a great deal of patience.
I love JRPGs, so naturally I'm going to give another recommendation for Persona 3 and 4, especially 3. I'm in the minority with that opinion, but while I really enjoyed my time with P4G, Persona 3 is my one true love. I liked the characters, story, setting and overall vibe of the game a lot better. Both are grindy games, but it never felt like a chore to me in P3. Either way, if you have any interest at all in playing both eventually, it would be wisest to start with Persona 3, as it could feel like a step backwards gameplay-wise after the improvements Persona 4 made and could make it harder to enjoy for what it is.
It sounds like you haven't played any Final Fantasy games yet either. The Final Fantasy series is among my favourites overall, so I would encourage you to give a few of them a try. They're all quite different from each other, so it really depends on what you want most from a game, but it seems like you really enjoy a good narrative, so I'm going to give my recommendation for VI and X (though I'd probably recommend them regardless, since they're my two favourites, with VII following a few steps behind). VI was originally a SNES game (there are also PS1, GameBoy Advance and even iOS versions available, though the iOS remake took away a lot of its visual charm with the new character models), so it's pretty "retro," but I only played it about a year ago and found that the 16-bit graphics are still beautiful even to this day. The characters and story are very compelling and the battle system, while simplistic, is satisfying. If you're open to older JRPGs, chances are you'll love VI.
Final Fantasy X is more modern. As an early PS2 game, it's also been remastered recently for the PS3 and Vita and it looks simply gorgeous with new coat of HD paint. While more linear than previous Final Fantasy games, it also places the heaviest emphasis on its story and you really feel like you're on a journey with the characters. Its battle system is also a little different from its predecessors; the active-time battle system came about in Final Fantasy III (I think) and had been implemented in the main series ever since, up until X, which went back to a fully turn-based system. But my god, it's such a beautifully crafted, intricate, strategic piece of work. I can't really say whether it's better or worse than the ATB system, but going back to X a little while ago after playing a lot of the older Final Fantasies, I really appreciated the change.
Even just one decent RPG should be enough to keep you busy for quite some time, but I'm going to recommend just a few more games, just because they're awesome and you'll probably enjoy them: BioShock, The Walking Dead and Sly 2: Band of Thieves. BioShock, while first and foremost a FPS, also has some RPG elements that I found to be rather fun. I don't normally like playing straight-up first-person shooters, but BioShock brought enough to the table to make the gameplay interesting for me, not to mention the setting of Rapture and the game's storyline is reason alone for a lot of people. If you decide to try it and really enjoy the gameplay like I did, BioShock 2 is worth checking out, as well as its DLC Minerva's Den. As for Infinite...see my earlier comments on Skyrim, basically. Plenty of people like it, but it lacked the major reason I liked the original BioShock so much in the first place. Now The Walking Dead has a fantastic narrative, though be warned that it's a little light on traditional gameplay. What you'll mostly be doing in the game is interacting with the other characters, QTEs (don't be scared though, I normally hate QTEs but thought TWD handled them really well) and solving some puzzles. It's really all about you and the story though. And lastly, I don't know if you're into platformers, but Sly 2: Band of Thieves is one of my all-time favourite games. In fact it's one of the main reasons I got so into video games. It was originally a PS2 title but has also gotten the HD treatment, along with Sly 1 and 3, for the PS3. You can download it on its own or get the whole collection. Either way you wouldn't go wrong; they're all pretty fun games in their own ways.
Anyway, I hope you find something you like. In general my advice to you when it comes to getting out of a gaming rut would simply be to have an open mind. There are so many different kinds of games out there with so much to explore. If you have a chance to try something, even if you don't think you'll like it, it's usually worth a fair shot. Sometimes you'll be surprised.
I love JRPGs, so naturally I'm going to give another recommendation for Persona 3 and 4, especially 3. I'm in the minority with that opinion, but while I really enjoyed my time with P4G, Persona 3 is my one true love. I liked the characters, story, setting and overall vibe of the game a lot better. Both are grindy games, but it never felt like a chore to me in P3. Either way, if you have any interest at all in playing both eventually, it would be wisest to start with Persona 3, as it could feel like a step backwards gameplay-wise after the improvements Persona 4 made and could make it harder to enjoy for what it is.
It sounds like you haven't played any Final Fantasy games yet either. The Final Fantasy series is among my favourites overall, so I would encourage you to give a few of them a try. They're all quite different from each other, so it really depends on what you want most from a game, but it seems like you really enjoy a good narrative, so I'm going to give my recommendation for VI and X (though I'd probably recommend them regardless, since they're my two favourites, with VII following a few steps behind
). VI was originally a SNES game (there are also PS1, GameBoy Advance and even iOS versions available, though the iOS remake took away a lot of its visual charm with the new character models), so it's pretty "retro," but I only played it about a year ago and found that the 16-bit graphics are still beautiful even to this day. The characters and story are very compelling and the battle system, while simplistic, is satisfying. If you're open to older JRPGs, chances are you'll love VI.Final Fantasy X is more modern. As an early PS2 game, it's also been remastered recently for the PS3 and Vita and it looks simply gorgeous with new coat of HD paint. While more linear than previous Final Fantasy games, it also places the heaviest emphasis on its story and you really feel like you're on a journey with the characters. Its battle system is also a little different from its predecessors; the active-time battle system came about in Final Fantasy III (I think) and had been implemented in the main series ever since, up until X, which went back to a fully turn-based system. But my god, it's such a beautifully crafted, intricate, strategic piece of work. I can't really say whether it's better or worse than the ATB system, but going back to X a little while ago after playing a lot of the older Final Fantasies, I really appreciated the change.
Even just one decent RPG should be enough to keep you busy for quite some time, but I'm going to recommend just a few more games, just because they're awesome and you'll probably enjoy them: BioShock, The Walking Dead and Sly 2: Band of Thieves. BioShock, while first and foremost a FPS, also has some RPG elements that I found to be rather fun. I don't normally like playing straight-up first-person shooters, but BioShock brought enough to the table to make the gameplay interesting for me, not to mention the setting of Rapture and the game's storyline is reason alone for a lot of people. If you decide to try it and really enjoy the gameplay like I did, BioShock 2 is worth checking out, as well as its DLC Minerva's Den. As for Infinite...see my earlier comments on Skyrim, basically. Plenty of people like it, but it lacked the major reason I liked the original BioShock so much in the first place. Now The Walking Dead has a fantastic narrative, though be warned that it's a little light on traditional gameplay. What you'll mostly be doing in the game is interacting with the other characters, QTEs (don't be scared though, I normally hate QTEs but thought TWD handled them really well) and solving some puzzles. It's really all about you and the story though. And lastly, I don't know if you're into platformers, but Sly 2: Band of Thieves is one of my all-time favourite games. In fact it's one of the main reasons I got so into video games. It was originally a PS2 title but has also gotten the HD treatment, along with Sly 1 and 3, for the PS3. You can download it on its own or get the whole collection. Either way you wouldn't go wrong; they're all pretty fun games in their own ways.
Anyway, I hope you find something you like. In general my advice to you when it comes to getting out of a gaming rut would simply be to have an open mind. There are so many different kinds of games out there with so much to explore. If you have a chance to try something, even if you don't think you'll like it, it's usually worth a fair shot. Sometimes you'll be surprised.
I found New Vegas' setting unique in that it was post-apocalyptic but also more civilized than the norm. A major theme of the Fallout games is progressing and rebuilding after the fall, not merely surviving.KitKatAttack said: