The games are Baldur's Gate 3, The Witcher 3, Dark Souls 3, Elden Ring, Bloodborne, Sekiro, Chrono Trigger, Breath of the Wild, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Path of Exile 2 (early access).

A game staying fun on subsequent replays is a really cool element of most RPGs. For example, with mods, Skyrim is a practically infinitely replayable RPG you can easily sink thousands upon thousands of hours into. Likewise for some games in other genres like Minecraft as well as lot of strategy games.

Now, they don't need to be as replayable as Skyrim, but I'm wondering if any of these other games also provide thousands of hours of replayability for most people? And which probably don't? Not easily any way. I'm on PC, so you can factor in mods.

If you've played any of them, can you weigh in? To make it simple, you can categorize the games you've played as: "Easily Thousands," "Possibly/Probably Thousands," and "Probably Not Thousands," and "Definitely Not Thousands." Or your own way of categorizing them. That would really help give me the right idea.

It's a simple request so I don't know what more to add. I basically want an RPG where your main character (preferably if you can customize them/ make one from scratch) can be something other than a humanoid creature, so I'm also excluding orcs, elves, dwarves, and most other fantasy races. Yes, that also goes for humanoid looking cats and lizards (looking at you Argonians and you sneaky sneaky Khajit)

Simple request, but I myself haven't found anything like this, so I'm beginning to wonder if it even exists. Maybe I just haven't dug deep enough.

Various preliminaries info. I usually don't buy games at full price... but for once I've decided to treat myself and I want a game to play from now until the end of the year. Time-wise I usually get a couple of hours on weekday evenings (work permitting) and longer sessions on weekends. I've added a bit of context for each game. Platform-wise I'm on PS5, since my old gaming computer is kaput and my current PC is a working laptop with no graphics card. Taste-wise I lean toward single player (mostly RPGs, action RPGs and soulslikes, but I'm happy with a bit of everything).

BG3. I had this on PC too and completed about 3/4 of it. Then I lost my saves 😭 I really want to finish it, but the thought of starting over from scratch is a bit demoralizing.

Elden Ring + DLC. Also had this on PC, but right now I can't play it decently anymore. And lately I'd been getting the itch to do a nice full run.

Armored Core. The only FromSoftware game I've never touched. Giant robots appeal to me a lot (childhood Gundam influence) but I have doubts about the game's structure.

Kazan. I heard some content creators speak very highly of its combat, and that's mainly what draws me to it.

Dragon's Dogma 2. I tried the first one years ago but the combat didn't win me over. I've always wanted to give it a chance, and the second one has a decent reputation. Plus the DLC is coming out now, so I'd go straight for base game + DLC.

Starfield + DLC. I know it has all its limitations... but I love space exploration. And I grew up in elementary school on a steady diet of Oblivion. With all its flaws, I like the Bethesda formula. But I've heard it runs poorly on PS5 and various people told me it's not worth the price.

Crimson Desert. I've seen all the hype and I'm aware of its limitations... but I find it fascinating, and I like the sense of spectacle and freedom the trailers give off. Plus they're about to push out the update now.

System Shock (Remake). Prey is one of my favorite games. I guess this is more immersive sim than rpg.

(Other games I'd like to play but not strictly rpg : Astrobot, black myth wukong, Stalker 2)

Games I'd avoid

MH Wilds. I really liked MH World and I've thought several times about getting Wilds, but at this point I'd wait for the DLC (I know it's more a multiplayer game but I play it usually as a single player rpg)

Gothic Remake. I really appreciated Gothic 3 back in the day, and later Risen and Elex. Especially the "roughness" and the sense of progression. But for the remake I can wait for a price drop.

Hell is us, Lord of Fallens. I already have them through PS Plus

Also if you have any other suggestions I'm happy to hear them.

Thanks for all your suggestions

P.s. a short (incomplete) list of games I already played. Nier Automata, factorio all From Software games, TBOI, Kotor 1 and 2, mewgenics, all the borderlands games except the 4, all modern fallout, Hollow Knight and Hollow Knight Silksong, all piranha bytes games, GOW, GOW ragnrock, Last of Us 1 and 2, Dyson Sphere Program, XCOM and XCOM 2 (the modern one), Morrowind, Skyrim, Oblivion (and the remake), Cyberpunk, all the witecher games, Divinity Original Sin 2

in the game "tale of legends" (2017, by Gemini Stars Games), i noticed that sometimes i enter the maze and the chests are already open.

AI say it's a bug but I'm not sure..

and i also notice that some levels have events

so my questions are:

1. is it a bug?

2. how do i make sure i didn't missed any event when upgrading the town?

Does anyone else feel like the random loot makes your characters overpowered without you even noticing it? I don't mean only looting dead enemies but rather the random containers/crates. For example, going through a world where every random crate has a certain amount of gold coins, a special item, it may feel nice in the first few hours but quickly takes away the sense of achievement while also giving you easy ways to equip your characters and earn money. I recently replayed PoE 1 and 2 and, although I think they are great games, the endgame encounters quickly became trivial, not only because of my characters levels but also because I had too much money (due to selling random loot) which enabled me to buy everything. And I was playing Deadfire with some challenges turned on, like weapons needing repair and food spoiling. I imagine it would have been even easier if food and equipment was not a concern. I mention PoE but there are other games that fall into the same trap (for example, I started a playthrough on DOS2 and pretty much every container has either gold or an item, sometines scrolls and so on. In DOS2 this problem is mitigated by the encumberance limit (which does not exist in PoE where you have a stash), nevertheless, I find the random loot OP in the long term. Anyone else?

Generally speaking, what makes a good NPC and side character? Their personality traits, quests or items they can give, if you can romance them, befriend them or add them to your party? How about their influence on the world in game, interactions with them deciding future paths?
Currently trying to build my own story game RPG, and am curious what other gamers think.
Thanks in advance!

How big is the difference in replayability between these games? Looking for a game I can play for thousands of hours, without burning out anyway. I'm on PC, so you can factor in mods. Also, are either of these games as replayable as Diablo or Path of Exile, or even close?

I am currently playing Dawnwalker. It is a perfectly adequate open world action RPG, but in one area it has failed to meet my expectations.

I've played a lot of fantasy RPGs, including all the three main Witcher games, but over the years, I have developed an interest in history. Kingdom Come, Pentiment and Pillars of the Earth really made me excited about historical fiction in video games.

Dawnwalker is set only half a century before Kingdom Come and not that far away, so I guess I went into it expecting Kingdom Come with vampires and Witcher-style gameplay. It may have been an unrealistic expectation. It certainly wasn't met.

Kingdom Come (and Pentiment and Pillars) does an excellent job of creating a sense of place. You really feel like a tourist to the past. You hear about political turmoil, meet real people, travel to recreations of real places, and see people doing normal medieval shit. You talk to charcoal burners, inspect mines, work at a vineyard and hold a sermon.

In Kingdom Come, you go to the monasteries in Sassau and Sedlec to solve mysteries, forcing you to familiarize yourself with its inhabitants in true Umberto Eco fashion. In Dawnwalker, you go to a monastery for some zombie hack and slash. It's basically Diablo.

Dawnwalker feels like a Witcher game with a less grumpy protagonist and only one sword. You could easily play it without realizing that it is not set in a fantasy world. You go into a church, and there is a vampire St. George, vampire Jesus and vampire Mary. There's no normalcy. There are quests, monsters, caves, dungeons, loot and vampires.

There's none of the "fluff" from Kingdom Come. We're here to kill monsters, level up, talk about how unfair life is and how much it sucks to be a vampire, gather some loot and maybe have a sex scene at some point.

It sounds like I'm really shitting on this game. I actually like it well enough. There is a lot to enjoy if you love narrative open world games. It just isn't a history game in the way I hoped it would be.

This is one of my biggest pet peeves in just about every jrpg (especially square Enix it seems like) where you have to enter a 3-4 round tournament battle to unlock the next story element.

Light spoiler ahead: I've been playing Digimon Time Stranger and you have to do it not 1x but 2x!

Do you go to battle arenas during your main run? As bonus post-game content, or like me, you avoid them at all cost?

I recently made my way through the entire Fromsoftware catalogue and found myself wowed by the depth of storytelling in their games. I'm now getting into classic CRPGs and I think I made a mistake by starting with the unbelievably excellent Planescape: Torment.

I tried to start the original Baldur's Gate today and quickly got extremely bored with its initial setting and story, especially its neverending expository dialogue. It certainly doesn't help that I tend to be easily bored by generic high fantasy settings. Is it worth pushing through this moderate tedium to reach the rest of the game? Should I try its sequel instead, perhaps?

Beyond that, I'm planning to give Fallout 1 & 2 a shot, as I'm a long-time fan of the modern Fallout games, and now that I'm primed for something a touch older and more tactical, I think they'll be perfect. Other similar games/series on my radar are Deus Ex, Divinity, Pathfinder, and Shadowrun. Should any of these be next on my list to play?

I'm specifically looking for something that will really make me think while also managing to have fun moments. For example, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, Fallout New Vegas, and Disco Elysium. Comparable but not quite as good are games such as BG3, RDR2, PREY (2017), Hades, Papers Please, Cyberpunk 2077, Mouthwashing, Slay the Princess, and plenty of others.

So, are there any other RPGs that are written quite as well as Planescape: Torment, Fallout New Vegas, or Disco Elysium? Or are there games in other genres you'd recommend instead? I am open to playing games from any era, of any genre, for any platform, so hit me with recommendations as well-known or as niche as you please. Thanks!

So growing up I loved Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and was fascinated by the Bridgekeeper (I wanted that in video game form).

I was awestruck when I realized the Fallout series (New Vegas) captured something similar. I played Fallout 3 first (liked it), then New Vegas and loved it. It even improved my real-life conversation skills as a 12 year old!

But the “freedom” of dialogue in these games has never sat right with me. Playing New Vegas (and KCD2 for the first time now), 17 years older, the dialogue feels HORRIBLE. You pick one option and what your character actually says comes out completely different.

Then I saw a Skyrim mod where you talk to NPCs via mic and actually interact with them and that’s when I realized what’s missing is REAL conversation with NPCs where I can CHOOSE how much I want to ask and limit test properly.

One gripe I have with hardcore mode in New Vegas and KCD2 is directions. They’ll say “take the road southwest and keep going.” Okay, but what’s between here and there? Good loot? Transport options? Preparation? Do you wanna come with me?

Another is if I want quest clarification and the NPC won’t give it, why can’t I harass them at night, demand more pay for the info, and stealth-takedown them if they refuse?

It’s these small dialogue details that satisfy my curiosity and make interactions interesting, not an option that shows “I’d love to help” and then has my character say “I’d love to help a piece of shit like you. How about I smear your remains in a toilet and pee in it.”

That’s LITERALLY what some KCD2 dialogue feels like, and it makes me want to jump into my monitor and punch Henry myself.

Thoughts?

Also fine if each character falls under an Element that actually has an effect on gameplay (For Skylanders, their Elements were just to encourage you to switch characters and to buy more Figures), if the game encouraged you to switch characters occasionally or often, as well as each playable character having their own distinct personalities (In Skylanders, the only time you'll see the personalities of most of the characters you play as in detail aren't even in the games; just novels, comics, and the very last game in the series before it died, lmao).

Preferably, these games should also be on the Nintendo Switch 1, can't afford a Switch 2, right now, lol.

(No 2D games as well; just 3D ones).

hello again everyone some three days ago I asked this sub if blood of dawnwalker has good enough roleplaying opportunities and the majority of responses were positive however from a technical point of view it was not yet ready for my barley above average PC even at the lowest settings to run . so I had it sitting in my backlog until it gets patched naturally but even then it sparked my itch for that nice blend of action combat combined with choice and consequences and roleplaying and reactivity and all that jazz that are super common in the old scool crpgs but are exclusive to former crpg devs like good ole bioware (old in a literal sense in this case) and obsidian in the arpg scene.

now I've played the heavy hitters from these two studios (obsidian and bioware) and I was looking for more so I went looking for them and found these but im unsure if they fit:

witcher 1 : I really dont think roleplaying in witcher 2 and 3 fit the crpg or biowarean structure of defining your personality but I've heard some people say that this particular title actually has the best roleplaying in the series (a series otherwise famous for choice and consequences part of rpgs not the roleplaying part) but im not so sure as it doesn't seem to be a rather popular talking point regarding this game (well this game is not that popular tbf)

game of thrones : not to be confused by the telltale one I've read that people praise the writing and story but are rather unclear about how it handles choice and consequences (it handles dialogue roleplaying as post mass effect 2 bioware ) two protagonist seems to be an interesting choice not sure how it affects roleplaying

spiders studios whole catalog of games : which include games like two greedfalls and bound by flame supposely the former (as they went under) masters of creating 7/10 rpg games which always receive lukewarm reception from players im especially interested in bound by flame but reviews aren't clear and rather to talk about the jank and wierd combat.

as mentioned in the title im open to games I haven't looked into

I’ve been watching a lot of videos about fear and hunger lately. The game feels very interesting, with a lore heavy story, interesting mechanics and an hardcore difficulty.

How do you personally explain the popularity of this game? Are these the only reasons it is this popular?
Are there any other rpg games which are currently as popular as it or more?

Basically zero RPG experience, only real thing I’ve touched is messing with RDR at a friend’s house a few times. But I’m super into ASOIAF and First Law, love that morally grey, nobody’s-really-the-good-guy kind of fantasy. Still want magic in it though, and I care a lot about character arcs and the game actually looking beautiful — landscapes, art direction, all that. Everyone keeps telling me it’s between BG3, Elden Ring, and Witcher 3. From what I can tell BG3 has the best character/companion writing, Elden Ring has the craziest scenery but harder combat, and Witcher 3 is kind of the middle ground. As a first RPG ever, which one should I actually start with? Is Elden Ring gonna be too rough to learn on or is it fine for a beginner?

Not looking for any of that witcher 3 or cyberpunk stuff. Nah, give me some of you criminally underrated or overlooked indie or AA games with a fun world to get engrossed in.

All that being said, I do love the Witcher, ac Odyssey and stuff like that. Preferably something fantasy themed but I won't be picky

Examples of games I really enjoy:

Basically all bioware and Bethesda

Kingdoms of amalur

Grim dawn

Drova forsaken kin

I want a PC game. So let me make it clear why I don't want story. I am preparing for an examination and I get very little time to play, like once every 4 to 5 days and I love story games. But Because of the delayed game time I keep getting out of touch from story and this happened to me on Detroit Become Human and RDR2. And I don't have a lot of time so I hope it has RPG mechanics like Baldur's Gate where you complete tasks and quests and go on adventures (the gameplay does not have to be same, just the concept, and BTW I liked BG1 gameplay so one with that kind of gameplay will do good to).

I played BG1 last year, The thing about it is that it was non grindy and every quest would bring you to huge exploration. In BG1 I had to guide myself on my own and completing quests was the best way of leveling, but I got soft locked by a quest during like 30ish hour mark but I played on a phone and pirated it so I will play it again in my college days. I still just can't figure out what made it more special than normal RPGs. So that game is my gold standard and benchmark for RPG.

I don't know what kind of RPG gamer I am, beginner, intermediate or veteran, but I absolutely loved games like Dark Souls, and BG1 and I think Witcher 3 might also be one that I would love. so I am kind of intermediate.

And when I say the story should not be part of the game, I mean that the story should be absolute SHIT. And the devs add the story just for the sake of it. That way I can enjoy the gameplay more. I had heard that WoW has not much grindy mechanics and low focus on story but I have heard people getting soaked and bathed into it, but in BG1 I could barely play a 1.5 hr session and feel happier than any man could ever be.

And when i come back after 4 days I should be able to pick up the game after a small revision. But if the story is important than the revision won't bring the emotional depth back no matter what, that is the biggest reason for why I could not completely FEEL the story RDR2 and Detroit Become Human.

I know that this game probably does not exist but if it does then please help me out.

Maybe it was released at the same time as another game. Maybe a popular streamer gave it a bad review. Maybe they didn't spend enough on advertising. There are many reasons a game can slide under the radar. Fortunately, with the awesome power of the internet, we can bring these games to light. I'm not talking about hidden gems.....

We're talking flops

Dear gamers,

I've just published an alpha demo of my first video game on itch.io: Sogni d'Oro (https://gianbabbeo.itch.io/sogni-doro).

It's a JRPG with old-school turn-based combat.

Tommaso could not sleep so nonna Mela tells him a story: when she couldn't sleep as a child, she had to climb the Tower to finally find rest. Everyone must climb the Tower sooner or later and Mela's story helps us to find out how to do it.

I've been writing stories for various media professionally for many years and this is my first attempt at a video game. I used to be a decent programmer, so it seemed like an interesting idea.

It's been a challenge: I used MonoGame as a foundation and built my own engine on top of it. The game is an eight-year-old boy's real-time account of events, so everything is drawn and written as if he were the one telling the story.

I'd be curious to hear your thoughts, technically and otherwise. I'd love to know whether everything works correctly, what you liked, what you didn't, and what you'd want to see in the next beta demo.

Sincerely,

Gianbabbeo.

Time in RPGs finally means something again.
I have been reading up on reviews for Blood of Dawnwalker and I am very likely to buy it within the next couple weeks.

One of the central mechanics of the game, the fact that you have a time limit for the main quest and certain actions, character development and ability training progressing that time, is a feature I didn't know I was missing, but I do!

I have noticed recently, how used to video game logic I have become.

We all know the Witcher III meme of "my daughter is missing. I have to find her! NOW!... Anyway, who's up for some Gwent?", but thats just the tip of the iceberg.

It is so second nature to me that, when I encounter any quest in any game that has a sense of urgency baked into the story, I know that it doesn't actually matter. I can go an do something else and come back later and the situation will not have changed, even though literal ingame days have elapsed.

So imagine my surprise when I recently started playing Baldur's Gate 3 and one of my quests actually "solved itself". Limited spoilers: There was a cave-in in Act I and my mark was stuck. There was also deadly poison involved. I didn't want to rescue my mark without first clearing the room of hostiles in front of the cave-in, but I was too weak to beat them.So I though, lets just do some side-quests and level up and come back later. Well - turns out, BG3 actually wasn't lying when it set the time limit, because when I returned 2 Level-ups later, I found the poison gas did my job for me and all the hostiles had vacated the area. I was able to collect my loot from my mark and hand in my quest.

On the one hand I was kinda mad I didn't get to do that fight, but on the other I was so glad to finally have consequences to my actions.

I hope this new time mechanic from BoDW is going to be adopted widely.
It sounds like exactly the shot in the arm the genre needs to feel less like a crude simulation.

What do you guys think?

I'd like to introduce 'PE-MAN', project for a versatile savegame editor for the legacy space-RPG Planet's Edge (PE) and basis for similar work.

As a seasoned legacy (DOS) gamer, as well as a long-term Linux user, developer and fan of PE in specific, I felt the (non-free/binary) options available for 'tuning' binary savegames and even improving gameplay, were unsatisfactory. Based on some early PE reverse-engineering notes I made years ago, I decided to turn that knowledge and new findings into an (easy-to-use) code base.

PE-MAN is capable of mitigating some of the game's shortcomings and pains with character cloning/stats, backpack items management, resource scarcity and more - instant star-system jumps and planetary blockade bypassing are in the making.

The Bash 'dialog' script is released open-source under AGPL, currently supporting game and OS locales EN and DE.

The main intent of PE-MAN was to create the basis for a freely available and extensible savegame editor, with minimal dependencies, efficient enough to run fast even on RasPI4, while still providing the most simplified, fast and comfortable UX possible for Linux (also tested with Cygwin in Win11).

It demonstrates accessing and manipulating savegame binary files at byte level in Bash; significant effort was put into a DRY implementation, with refactored (common) functions, for most 'dialog' menus, as well as for all separate PE-MAN features, also handling lots of potential error situations.

Most of the UI localization and color profiles for the 'dialog' menus have been extracted into dedicated files, making modifications and extensions relatively easy.

PE-MAN even runs standalone, without original game files in test mode, to try out all implemented dialog features and observe the resulting modifications in the (also shipped) mock binaries.

You can also digest the results of my reverse-engineering efforts and findings in the provided docs, the code and its comments, about the inner workings of PE - what's being stored in which address (ranges) in savegames or game files.

The code also should provide many examples, on how to use Bash and dialog (ncurses), for intuitive and quick navigation in more complex and advanced menus.

The project should therefore be very handy for e. g. educational purposes, or as a basis for similar work in other implementations, be it for PE, or for any other legacy (DOS) game, which uses savegames with a static structure.

----------------------------------------------

PE-MAN features and screenshots

It can edit (within the specific property value boundaries):

• crew member stats and skills
• crew member backpacks
  • in-team items transfer (BP2BP)
  • long-range items transfer (WH2BP)
  • backpack item sorting modes
• moonbase tech. level (un-/locking)
• ship plans level (un-/locking)
• moonbase warehouse/workshop
  • build unlocked equipment items
  • build unlocked ship components
  • build unlocked ship types
  • create any mission item
• moonbase resources
  • stock up on any (even undiscovered) required material
• shipyard bay
  • create or remove any of up to 3 additional (unlocked) vessels
• heal or revive any crew member + armor
• (soon: instantaneous jumps to any stellar system POI)
• (soon: bypass or eliminate any planetary scan blockers)

Of course, PE-MAN can be used as a classic, full-blown 'cheater', creating resources, items and ships at will and maxing-out crew stats and skills.

But it can also just help with decent inventory / items management, sparing the ususal mess, when cluttering planetary surfaces as temporary/permanent object caches. Instead, simply save, transfer stuff you don't need to the moonbase and re-load.

Likewise, save, sort your backpack by dictionary or items type and re-load, to have your stuff intuitively ordered in the backpacks, instead of the ugly and painful default LILO stacking.

No more painful iterations of search, drop and pick for each and every item you want to swap in your team: save, swap multiple items between crew backpacks, re-load - done.

It's even possible to set up custom scenarios, by e. g. using pre-defined crew stats and/or moonbase tech/resources, or just starting with a decent ship or equipment.

Defuse the risk of permanent crew stats loss upon crew member deaths and sore re-cloning attempts - now simply resurrect any body, or heal the critically wounded in dire situations, as long as you are still able to save with one character alive and re-load.

A side-effect of raising moonbase tech. level to 2: you get rid of the annoying security question that appears, when returning with the first discovered tech. or ship plans to the moonbase.

It’s really such a shame to me that most video games copy fallout/skyrim instead of oblivion, it isn’t a terrible minigame but it feels like a chore compared to oblivion

It’s simple enough that anyone could learn it but challenging enough to remain fun