RPGs

[Spark Of Spirit]

What are some of your favorites? Least favorites? Which ones have you actually beat? Let's discuss this time sink of a genre.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

As for JRPGs, I've honestly never been able to get too into that genre, but the only 2 games that I completed more than half of within that genre are Final Fantasy IX and Chrono Trigger, and of those 2 I only ever managed to get close to the end of the latter.

As for WRPGs, I used to be big on the genre but after playing the overly-praised Oblivion I started to realize how long, tedious, and repetitive a lot RPGs were starting to feel to me. That said, there are some exceptions to the rule, and I'll honestly say that BioWare's KOTOR games are brilliant. The Star Wars license is irrelevant to their overall quality, as they simply just well-made adventure games with some RPG elements thrown in there (which is a good thing for me since I often feel like I'm playing and adventure game more than an RPG). I also really liked Jade Empire for what it was, and similarly to KOTOR if felt more like a good action and adventure game with the right amount of RPG elements thrown in there. I will say that I did indeed enjoy Mass Effect, but I also felt that it had a habit of being really dragged out at certain portions, and the side-quests were pretty boring for me. Also, I feel that people really overrated the game's story, as it didn't really get interesting at all until towards the end of the game. Still, it was a well-made experience for what it was. I still need to play Mass Effect 2, and I'm kind of interested in Borderlands now that it has probably come down in price.

[Foggle]

Never been much of a JRPG man, really. Persona 2 and 3 (especially 2) are ace, though. Same with Valkyria Chronicles 1 and 2, Final Fantasy 4 and 6, and the Ys series. The Yakuza games are also fucking badass if you count those as RPGs.

On the other hand, I love my WRPGs. Deus Ex (first one is amazing, second one is eh, third one looks epic), Baldur's Gate series (the PC games AND the PS2 games), Diablo 1 and 2, Borderlands, The Witcher, Mass Effect 1 and 2, KOTOR 1 and 2, Fallout 2 and New Vegas (not a big fan of the other two), the Elder Scrolls series (never played Arena, though), the list goes on. Two Worlds 2 actually looks like it'll be pretty cool, surprisingly enough. I know a lot of people say it sucked, but I really want to play Alpha Protocol.

I pretty much hate all MMORPGs. Vindictus held my attention for all of 2 weeks: the longest I've ever been interested in a single MMO.

Still, it was a well-made experience for what it was. I still need to play Mass Effect 2, and I'm kind of interested in Borderlands now that it has probably come down in price.

Borderlands GOTY Edition (which contains all the DLCs on the disc except for the newest one, which is a download voucher) is $30 new last time I checked. I, personally, love the single-player, but I know a lot of people don't (and co-op IS better). If you have a friend to play it with, pick it up for sure (it supports both online and split-screen).

[Spark Of Spirit]

You know, while I have never been big on WRPGs, I fucking LOVE loot whore games. PSO, Diablo, Borderlands... Especially if it has randomized levels and multiplayer. I'm not quite sure why, but dungeon crawling while getting cool loot and also doing it with some friends is just awesome.

There really aren't enough of those games out there.

[Foggle]

There really aren't. Loot whore RPGs are the best kind, IMO.

[Avaitor]

I enjoy pretty much anything by Bioware that I've ever played. One of the many reasons I envy you 360 people is that you get Mass Effect and Wii don't.

I'm also partial to Chrono Trigger and a couple of older Final Fantasys.

[Daxdiv]

I'm more of a fan of Pokémon, & Dragon Quest series. Persona 4 is growing on me, whenever I get the chance to play it. The only Final Fantasy game I seem to care about is Final Fantasy 9.

Mass Effect is like the only WRPG that I enjoy. I tried to enjoy FallOut 3, but I got bored so freaking fast, it wasn't funny. Dragon Age felt like a chore to play, so I didn't finish that.

I did hear that Steam has this neat little RPG called Rececttear: An Item Shop's Tale, and I did put it on my wishlist recently.

[Foggle]

Dragon Age felt like a chore to play, so I didn't finish that.

I hated Dragon Age. The combat was incredibly boring, the story was hardly engaging, it was keyboard-smashingly frustrating to play unless you made the main character a Mage or set it to Easy mode, and the world was fairly barren in terms of interesting things to do. And let's not forget the NPC that tells you to quest to the Warden's Keep, even if you don't have the DLC installed, prompting you to then buy additional content that was purposefully cut out of the game so that they could sell it later for extra $$$. Oh, and the awesome memory leak that they never fucking fixed.

I love BioWare and all, but godDAMN.

[gunswordfist]

My favorite turn based RPG is Final Fantasy VIII.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I thought I'd just copy and paste my post from the RPG topic on TZ over here since its relevant to this thread:

There was once a time when I was into WRPGs, what with all of the customization and long campaigns and whatnot, but honestly, sometime in the middle of playing Oblivion and realizing how boring and padded out and repetitive it felt after a while, I quickly and steadily started to lose my interest in the genre. First of all, I have never been able to get into MMOs, so my experiences with the genre are mostly from single-player experience. Honestly, the only WRGPs that I still ever find myself enjoying are BioWare games. Personally I had a lot of fun with the KOTOR games, Jade Empire, and while I think the first Mass Effect is considerably overrated (I "liked" the game, BTW, but felt it was far from perfect as so many people made it out to be; the 2nd one looks like a huge improvement over the 1st in that regard) I still had more fun with it than most other WRPGs. I never bothered trying Dragon Age, though, as even though its a BioWare game it always looked to me like the type of RPG that I wouldn't enjoy playing, personally.

That said, I have never been into JRPGs, myself. I know a ton of people love it, but to me its one of the most boring genres in gaming ever. I just don't get where any of the fun comes from. Most of them get really repetitive in about an hour, and I don't like how so many of them center around turn-based combat systems. The Pokemon games are among the only few games in which I actually kind of enjoy that sort of combat system. Personally, I have never been able to finish a single Final Fantasy game without dropping it out of boredom, and to me it seems that the JRPGs have to rely a lot more on telling a good story to keep a player interested, which is fine, but the problem is that when it comes to story, most games in general fail to impress me all that much in that regard, and JRPGs don't exactly strike me as that much of a better effort from most that I have seen. I will say that the only JRPG that I have ever almost fully completed all of the way through, and enjoyed relatively well, is Chrono Trigger (the SNES version, since I don't know of the PS1 or DS versions have any differences between them). I also managed to make it to disc 3 of Final Fantasy IX before dropping that game, so I at least found it a tad bit interesting to keep playing up until that point.

Overall, though, you could say that I don't really care for most RPGs in general, whether they are from the West or from Japan. I used to be big into the genre, but honestly now I'm more of an action gamer, and of course I also love the attention that 2D platformers are getting these days. My favorite sub-genre of action games is probably hack n' slash and beat-em-up games. While many might not view games like Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, God Hand, and various other games as being nearly worth as much as the expansive world of an RPG, those shorter (but IMO, sweeter) experiences have always appealed to me far more and are usually more replayable to me than any RPGs that I have ever played.

That's just the way that I personally feel about the genre, though. I don't necessarily think its a bad genre, but rather a genre that I have never been fully able to get the appeal of (well, I understand the appeal, to be more precise, but very few games have actually appealed to me in the intended way that an RPG would to most people, honestly).

[Foggle]

Yeah, give me a good beat 'em up, stealth action game, or FPS over any kind of RPG any day. I think that's one of the reasons why I love Deus Ex and Mass Effect, since I opt to play the former as a stealth game and the latter as a shooter. Obviously, games like Yakuza and Borderlands have more in common with these aforementioned categories than they do with traditional RPGs, thus furthering my enjoyment of them.

The problem with games like Oblivion is that you have to make your own fun. That doesn't really effect me, since I love running around murdering
shopkeepers and stealing their stuff, but if you want to follow the main quest line/plot, it becomes dreadfully boring. That said, the Dark Brotherhood quests were fucking awesome.

The Witcher actually has a really cool and engaging story, though, if you ever get a chance to try that one out.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Well, that's partially why I enjoy Action RPGs like Ys or Brave Fencer Musashi more than normal RPGs. It still has the leveling and stat building aspect, but the combat is more hands on and more fun. That's also why I like Valkyria Chronicles and the Mario RPG battle systems, because you have more options. The same with hybrids like Yakuza or River City Ransom.

Fallout 3 bored the piss out of me because there was nothing of interest going on.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

If there were a game that could incorporate the customization level of an RPG in terms of leveling up and whatnot with the combat system of the 3D Ninja Gaiden games (specifically NG2's combat system) and the enemy AI from those games as well (specifically NGB's enemy AI), then it would be the best game ever. I'm dead serious.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I think Yakuza is as close to what you're thinking of (and Ys in more of a traditional sense) though their combat is more simple in execution.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'll give both games a try if I ever get the systems to play them on. I don't mind simplistic combat as long as its still fun to execute (the perfect example of a game using this type of combat would be Batman: Arkham Asylum).