ZeyerGTR

The "Gold Box" D&D games were always at the top of my list. I started replaying Pool of Radiance on my Amiga last year and it was as good as I remember... until my memory expansion card fried and I could no longer run it. I didn't have time to really play it through, anyways, but it was a blast to revisit for a week or two I was able to.

Spent a lot of time on the original Might & Magic on Apple 2, and the Bard's Tale games on c64.

Moving on, I liked Phantasy Star on the Master System, and Dragon Warrior on the NES, and finished both.

On the SNES, I played through Final Fantasy III and loved it. It was pretty refreshing coming from CRPGs to actually gain levels quickly, and not start in single digit hit points. The pacing was very accessible, and the pre-defined characters were entertaining (for a little while).

Didn't play many RPGs again until FF X on PS2, which I enjoyed. Didn't like the characters a lot, but the combat system was great.

I got a little tired of the JRPG design style, and got back into some CRPGs on PC. IceWind Dale was great, and Morrowind is in my top 5 games of all time. Loved, loved, LOVED Morrowind. No game ever had that amazing sense of exploration and discovery. The world was so well-done. Dug Fallout 3 on 360 for a while, but I Gamefly'd it and never finished. Just started running out of time to play RPGs.

While I still don't have any time for RPGs these days, I have downloaded a TON of classic RPGs from gog.com - all the original Ultimas are available, I picked up Might & Magic 1-6 for $4.99. Temple of Elemental Evil for $3.99. Great deals abound there. I started Temple of Elemental Evil, and I recently started World of Xeen - my problem is I don't have any time to play them, so I end up making my party, playing for a week or so and then move on to other things... oh well, it's still fun to try them out...

For me, it's about turn-based, strategic combat and a classic fantasy setting.

LoathsomePete

For the CRPG players, is anyone else looking forward to Wasteland 2 and the new Shadowrun with release dates this year? I'm really hoping they can match the expectations and can prove that crowd funding is a legitimate way to fund video games.

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101 Albums That May Not Change Your Life, But I Really Like And You Might Too

mr dave

Your darn tootin I'm looking forward to those, especially Shadowrun. I really wish I had been in the financial situation I'm in at the moment a year ago, I'd be seriously considering the $1000 pitch to get my own npc in Shadowrun (or maybe that was the $2500 contribution in which case I'd probably not go ahead with things). Either way Dr. Dave's Discount Doc Wagon would have been epic, especially if I could have convinced the devs to offer an even bigger bonus to players who named their character Dave hahaha

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midnight rain

Was anyone else a fan of the old Ultima games?

Chrysalis

I'll just get these unpopular opinions out of the way:
-I have an odd relationship with the Final Fantasy series. I don't understand why people love the games so much (VI is a damn good game, though), and yet I own five of them.
-I also never really understood why people love the Elder Scrolls series so much. Yes, there's a lot to do and the world is huge, but I find Bethesda's Fallout games to be a lot more interesting (I've also played the first two Fallout games, and they're pretty good).

Are there any fans of Shin Megami Tensei on here? I love Persona 4, and Persona 3 and Nocturne are pretty damn great as well. Outside of that series and Pokemon, I'm not a huge RPG fan, although I've been playing Dark Souls, Grandia, and Chrono Trigger recently.

Also, I have never played D&D, although I'm interested in it. Sadly, I don't know anyone IRL that plays it.

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duga

I absolutely love the Final Fantasy series. I've played all of them except XI (for obvious reasons). In fact, I'll go ahead and rank them here:

VI > X > XIII > VII > IX > V > VIII > III > XII > IV > II > I > X-2 > XIII-2

The last 4 in the list I didn't finish. The Final Fantasy series walks a fine line of being wayy too Japanese for me...XIII-2 crossed that line and I couldn't get over it. It's a shame, too, because the time travel aspect is pretty cool. Usually you can dilute the cheesiness with extra characters (as long as there is a badass like Auron around), but XIII-2 had 2 characters - the most annoying minor character from XIII and some dude that was as far from badass as you could get in this series. And now they are making a XIII-3...come on! Let's get the X remake out already.

I guess what I love about the series is the story. It's never short of epic...the world always almost ends (or it actually does) and you always get attached to the characters. That's what was amazing about VI...there were so many but you liked every single one of them. Just the fact that you need so many characters in these games helps make it feel like you really are saving the world from some epic evil. Plus, even the shortest one ranks in at around 40 hours of gameplay. That's a lot of story.

As for Elder Scrolls...either you like it or you don't, I guess. I'm surprised you don't like them if you like Fallout 3, though. I am actually flipped...I love Elder Scrolls, but I'm not a big fan of Fallout.

Other RPGs I like:

The Diablo Series, Chrono Trigger/Cross, Dungeon Siege, Deus Ex

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midnight rain

Ugh. FF XIII is WAAAAY too high on your list, game did not deliver

Anyone else hear about that new game that came out for the PS3, NI no Kuni? Looks and sounds pretty awesome I wish I had a PS3

Black Francis

No way, they're remaking Shadowrun?

i used to luv that game on the SNES & Genesis, the Genesis ver was hard as hell and just weird..
Nocturne is the best Rpg ever made..

The Shin megami tensei games are putting the FF Games to shame, they are doing more with less, in fact Atlus is putting SquareEnix to Shame when it comes to Rpg games

i used to be loyal to the brand SquareEnix..
their SNES and PS1 rpgs were the best.. From mystique Quest to FF10 and Star Ocean

but in comparison to let's say Persona, the gameplay isn't as great..

The FF games have become like this epic big budget adventures.. it has lost the essence of traditional rpgs, it looks amazing but the gameplay sucks

duga

I thought it was fun as hell. It's also absolutely gorgeous. In what way did it not deliver for you?

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ZeyerGTR

I can only speak for Morrowind, because that's the only one I've put any time into, but what's so great is giving you that feeling of being in a world. I remember walking down a path going from one city to another, and I thought "I wonder what's over that hill?" I walked over the hill and saw a little cave. I went in, and there were some zombie-looking guys standing around an altar doing something... unpleasant. I killed them and got a really good battle hammer. I had no idea the cave was there, it wasn't part of the plot, it wasn't on a map. Another time I was walking around and saw something in the water. I dove in, swam down, and found a sunken ship with treasure in it. The game is filled with stuff like that. That sense of being able to explore and find cool, unexpected stuff is just great.

The writing in Morrowind is also pretty cool - there are tons of books and letters you can pick up that give you a good sense of the history of the world. It's fairly well fleshed out.

I also liked that you can really tailor your character to how you want to play - the character creation system is unique and fun, and your skills improve based on how much you use them.

It's the only game I can think of that I enjoyed soooo much without ever actually finishing it. I spent so much time wandering around doing neat things I kind of abandoned the main quest, although at some point maybe I'll pick it up again and finish.