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Well, since I have seen favorite game threads, I figured I would slim it down, since they tend to devolve into lists or flamefests. I will also make it a poll. That being said, what is your favorite RPG ever? For me, it has to be Skies of Arcadia, the game may be full of cliches (and somewhat short by later standards) but I love it. The characters are believable and easy to relate to. Plus the ships...oh I love the Delphinus! Though through maybe 15 playthroughs (I'm surprised the disc hasn't broken yet...), it has become pitifully easy, being as I can get to level 70 and find literally everything in the game in about 40 hours.

So, anyone else want to add to this?

10. Other Baulders Gate/Planescape
Mostly because I love the Planescape setting and it was the only RPG of any note to occur there. Baulders gate because it led to Planescape and it's holds up over the years despite it being not being able to change anything but your character.

Elder Scrolls/The Bethesda Fallout games. The flaws and bugs may be many... very, very many... But I just love the freedom they give you.

(10) Pokemanzzzz!

The convenience of being on the GameBoy meant I could actually finish it (well, except Third gen. Fucking Elites in those games were programmed by assholes). And the concept is almost unique among RPGs. Otherwise, I would have answered FF.

Oh, and Star Ocean III had pretty cool gameplay. Long ass script, though.

Another vote for BG2/Planescape Torment. They just don't make games like that anymore.

Alpha Protocol. Lol!

Demon's Souls. Or Fallout 1 (since the rest of the series has been downhill ever since and there's no way I would vote for it). Or System Shock 2. I just picked other since I can't be bothered to give a shit about most of the games in the series listed.

I'm tied between Planescape Torment and Deus Ex (the first).

Formless wrote:(10) Pokemanzzzz!

this. finally a non-boring rpg.

I'd say Planescape, Alpha Protocol and KOTOR 2 are mine. Then again I've forgotten that the latter isn't actually finished. It's still fascinating and brilliant.

Bethesda's Fallout games. Buggy but I'm still playing them. Very accommodating towards mods, too, like Mothership Zeta Crew.

Stark wrote:Alpha Protocol. Lol!

And Arcanum. Pretty much anything that team has been responsible for. HOLY SHIT ACTUAL CHOICES WITH CONSEQUENCE. CANNOT HAVE THIS! NERDS NEED CODDLING.

Baldur's Gate

Another vote for planescale here.

I'm pleasantly surprised to see Skies of Arcadia get any mention in such a discussion. It's a pity that the content in Legends was as tacked on as it was.

I'm probably going to be alone on this opinion (and probably mocked for it) but... Xenosaga Episode 1.

I'm more than willing to admit, there are a lot of better RPG's out there. But this one remains my favourite. It's the game that first got me into RPG's, and the first one I ever bothered finishing. The Battle system remains one of my favourites. I still enjoy playing this one.

Too bad Episode 2 was shit.

Overall? Planescape: Torment. Honorable mentions to Deus Ex, Alpha Protocol, and Grandia II, which while being utterly forgettable in most respects, had the most fun skill/magic and combat systems of any console RPG I've ever played.

Planescape: Torment. I don't even like the setting that much, but.... it focused on pure character development. All that mattered was the choices you made. Combat was damn near an afterthought. Even if I didn't like all the choices made - I still think Annah was a bit too cliche'd and underdeveloped, and Fall-From-Grace felt like she'd had half her material cut - the idea of this focus wins it the top slot without a doubt. I have no idea why the style isn't more popular with the quisessential "aging adult gamer" demographic that keeps getting screamed about in every debate about piracy/DRM/whatever.

Dragon Age gets a nod too. It's the best of the Bioware RPGs.

Fuck, though, I really need to play Alpha Protocol.

Faqa wrote:Dragon Age gets a nod too. It's the best of the Bioware RPGs.

It so isn't. Just about any other Bioware RPG is better than Dragon Age (I've only played Origins mind you). Really given how much effort they put into it, I'm appalled that DA:O turned out the way that it did.

EDIT I feel like expanding on DA:O. I played it twice, the first time was the main game and the second time was after all the DLC had been released (i.e. a good long time after release). The first play through was played on easy and was just for the story, and I pretty much felt it was unbelievably flat, bland, and uninteresting a story, setting, and filled with characters I ultimately couldn't give a shit about with only a handful of exceptions like Morrigan. The second time I played it for the challenge; I put the difficulty up to hard initially, and then raised it to nightmare about ten hours into it, and did a full playthrough. That time was satisfying, as the added difficulty made the game a challenge and reminded me of Baldur's Gate (which this game was supposedly the spiritual successor of). But the story was and is and will forever remain, poo.

DA2 sounds to me like I would really love the storyline to it, except for the fact that I fucking know what will happen because I've read all the spoilers, but everything else would strike me as lazy or lacking in other areas. I might consider picking it up at some stage, preferably when all the DLC is released and the game is sold in some kind of super ultimate edition with all the expansions in place. But in general I think Dragon Age is about as generic by-the-numbers bland you can be, which considering the development time of Origins (better part of a decade), I just find extraordinary.

Anyway nobody has mentioned it so I'm gonna plug The Witcher. I haven't played the second one though. Also echo Alpha Protocol. Of the ones listed in the poll, Mass Effect. Or KotOR 2 (NOT 1).

WRPG: Vampire: the Masquerade: Bloodlines. I really enjoy the milieu of urban fantasy, and the game is well-written though it lacks polish, like so many of Troika's games, alas.

JRPG: The Shin Megami Tensei series as a whole. Again, I enjoy the urban fantasy milieu and the postapocalyptic approach most of these games have.

EDIT I feel like expanding on DA:O. I played it twice, the first time was the main game and the second time was after all the DLC had been released (i.e. a good long time after release). The first play through was played on easy and was just for the story, and I pretty much felt it was unbelievably flat, bland, and uninteresting a story, setting, and filled with characters I ultimately couldn't give a shit about with only a handful of exceptions like Morrigan. The second time I played it for the challenge; I put the difficulty up to hard initially, and then raised it to nightmare about ten hours into it, and did a full playthrough. That time was satisfying, as the added difficulty made the game a challenge and reminded me of Baldur's Gate (which this game was supposedly the spiritual successor of). But the story was and is and will forever remain, poo.

I really wish I could ever make it through more than the first chapter and a bit of BG2 to see what everyone is so excited about. But the gameplay mechanics are such incredibly annoying shit that this is just not a possibility.

As for the story - how is it hugely different from KOTOR, for example? Most Bioware RPGs have very similar archetypes for characters and parties. I maintain that DA simply fleshed the archetypes out very well, and had the best production values behind them. And the story had a bit more scope and moral ambiguity to it.

DA2 is utter poo. The story might be good, I dunno. The gameplay resembled feces entirely too much to bother with the story.

Bakustra wrote:JRPG: The Shin Megami Tensei series as a whole. Again, I enjoy the urban fantasy milieu and the postapocalyptic approach most of these games have.

So you've played the more obscure SMT stuff and not just Persona? Could you recommend one to start with for someone who has only played P3FES and P4? Game age is irrelevant to me.

Stofsk wrote: EDIT I feel like expanding on DA:O. I played it twice, the first time was the main game and the second time was after all the DLC had been released (i.e. a good long time after release). The first play through was played on easy and was just for the story, and I pretty much felt it was unbelievably flat, bland, and uninteresting a story, setting, and filled with characters I ultimately couldn't give a shit about with only a handful of exceptions like Morrigan. The second time I played it for the challenge; I put the difficulty up to hard initially, and then raised it to nightmare about ten hours into it, and did a full playthrough. That time was satisfying, as the added difficulty made the game a challenge and reminded me of Baldur's Gate (which this game was supposedly the spiritual successor of). But the story was and is and will forever remain, poo.

I have to ask, but what class/race combo did you play it as. Some of the most bets bits were missed if you did anything as silly as play as a Dalish Elf or Human mage. Playing a Dwarf commoner, or human (female) noble or dwarf noble resulted in lots of interesting dialog as you went back "home". While being a mage going to the tower is only a few extra lines of dialog playing a Dwarf resulted in very different conversations while being an elf or human resulted it pretty much identical walkthroughs. Not to say you got to do totally different things being dwarfish but let me tell you going back to Orzammar as either a common or noble was a much different experience (And a very interesting one) because you had history there.

Going to the tower as a mage only a few extra lines, going to the camp as an elf a few extra lines. Being a human noble only pays off end game as far as much different experience but playing a Dwarf interaction wise is much different. And lets face it the only other game that took account of what you were in any way was funny enough another good RPG Vampire:Bloodlines mentioned not to far above this post which had hilarious lines of dialog playing through one of the standard clans (Brujah, Gangrel, Toreador, Ventrue) but playing through as a Nosferatu or Malkavian results into a totally different experience (Malkavian is one long drug trip, Nosferatu turns the game into a giant sneaking mission)

The first playthrough was as a Dalish Elf ranger. The second playthrough was as a Human Noble warrior.

I much preferred the human origin.

I get that different origins will have different dialogue, but it's all meaningless anyway- they're not so different from each other that it feels like a completely different game upon replaying it. I do concede that the dwarf origin - either one - might be the counter to this, but even then it would only apply to Orzammar. The problem is the main metaplot falls flat for me.

I never felt like my choice of origin really mattered in DA:O. It's a few bits of changed dialogue, but the game didn't really change.

I think the problem with Dragon Age's story flow from the structure, because the intention is that each of the areas are agnostic as to what order you do them in (barring one slight interaction between Redcliffe and the circle tower, nothing like being able to call the mages to sort out the demon ever happens again), there doesn't feel like any kind of progression of the plot.