Your Favorite RPG(s)?

Kaizer0002

Insider
The Witcher games are easily my favorite RPGs. I was writing more but the list kept growing to ones I enjoyed but couldn't necessarily consider my favorites.
 
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Pantheon

Insider
The Witcher 1 and 2, definitely.
If you don't mind outdated graphics, have a go at Fallout 1 and 2, still two of my favorite games of all time.
 

Tony

Insider
I also consider The Witcher 1 and 2 to be some of the best RPGs for PC. They treat you like an adult, which is refreshing when most RPGs tend to be very simplistic and assume you're a toddler :p
 
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Rob

Moderator
I will also agree that The Witcher 1 and 2 are my favourites. They were also from an indie developer, be it on a larger scale than Bare Mettle.

Witcher 2 was simply awesome, although Witcher 1 set the scene brilliantly, particularly story and atmosphere-wise, and was fantastic for its day.

I've read the first two of Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher books, and they are also fantastic.

My one qualm with Witcher 2 was the shadows... why on earth did they use those horrible pixely grid-like shadows...
 

Essegi

Supporter
I also consider The Witcher 1 and 2 to be some of the best RPGs for PC. They treat you like an adult, which is refreshing when most RPGs tend to be very simplistic and assume you're a toddler :p
The first 2 Fallout are masterpieces!

There are a lot of good rpgs, Baldur's Gate and Torment are must play...
You should check Legend Of Grimrock, great Dungeon Crawler with good graphics.

At the moment i'm looking to the old ones... Currently playing Chaos Strikes Back, defintely hard, but fun too!:D

The Witcher are also great games. And you should be able to rescue it on gog if i am not mistaken.
 

Synalon

Insider
Demon's Souls and Dark Souls are both absolutely fantastic RPGs; many of the elements that make them great seem to be planned for Sui Generis as well (dark and mysterious world, challenging gameplay, consequences for death, etc.)
 

MowLiao

Insider
Morrowind and FF9 - I just loved the charm both of those games had. Morrowind was like the first game I fully dedicated weeks' worth of hours into and The Elder Scrolls lore blew me away. So much love for Morrowind.

Edit: I reaaally need to try Witcher, if so many people here are saying it's their favourite RPG. =O
 

Gusmil

Insider
Tormented Planescape
baldurs gate 1 @ 2
Soulbringer
Final fantasty 7
Fallout 1 @ 2... 3 and new vegas.
Morrowind: The elder scrolls
Witcher 1 @ 2
Dark souls
Neverwinter
Gothic III (not the forsaken gods one)
Icewind dale I, II
Deus Ex
Kings Bounty
Dishonored
Might & Magic Heroes... most of them is good. Or have thier charm.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R All of them.

These I recommend as I have played them all.

And I guess for messaure I'll add...
Skyrim: The Elder scrolls
It was afterall better than the awfull Oblivion
 

Rob

Moderator
Morrowind and FF9 - I just loved the charm both of those games had. Morrowind was like the first game I fully dedicated weeks' worth of hours into and The Elder Scrolls lore blew me away. So much love for Morrowind.

Edit: I reaaally need to try Witcher, if so many people here are saying it's their favourite RPG. =O
Both Witcher and Witcher 2 were great, in their time. Witcher 1 looks dated now, but it's a great start to the universe and will set you up very nicely for Witcher 2, which is just awesome. Both were very innovative and immersive, and the atmospheric environments and storylines were great. Do it!
 

Banhai

Insider
I love the witcher (1 and 2, I think that the first one was specially charming, but maybe it's just nostalgia), I really do, and objectively, both are outstanding RPGs. But there is a special place in my heart for those great, kind of broken, brilliant RPGs that were Vampire the masquerade: Bloodlines and Alpha protocol.
 

Siseris

Insider
Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 are great games (with that its worth looking at www.baldursgate.com as they recently released an enhanced edition of BG1)
The game that will always be at my core would be Gothic 1 and 2. They where the games that got me attracted to the rpg genre.
 

calithlin

Insider
I've separated some titles into somewhat arbitrary grouping. I list each in order from most memorable to least. This could go for the game's story, mechanics, mood or otherwise.

Story Driven Branching Path RPGs:
This category tends to fight with what Sui Generis is going for, but I figure it deserves a mention anyway. Even if it's an overly simplistic way of presenting 'choice' (as so often these kinds of games make choice more an illusion than anything else) they can still serve lessons in how to present plot, character motivation, game mechanics, et cetera.
Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer
Although it's source game and predecessor, Neverwinter Nights 2 & Neverwinter Nights were both well enough, Mask of the Betrayer really hit it home. For a typical branching paths multiple choice game, Mask of the Betrayer allowed a lot of content to be skipped by choices early in the game, and many diverging paths by the end based on a huge handful of choices made throughout. While there are technically only three types of endings, they each varied considerably within themselves based on actions taken throughout the game.
Knights of the Old republic 1 & 2
The KOTOR series is still one of the only RPGs that I felt had its supporting cast of characters evolve along with the player's actions. Friends and allies would become more kind or sadistic, especially in KOTOR II, based on their influence and alignment of the player's actions. While the main plots tended to play out the same no matter what choices were made until the very end, there was a great deal of unique and thought provoking side-quests which spanned over several worlds and gave a feeling that the plot wasn't just separated into chunks like many other RPGs.
Dragon Age 1
Especially on harder difficulties, Dragon Age really required a lot of coordination and tactics before challenging battles. Synergy between rogue and mage character classes became a big help, and allowing new class options to unfold along with choices made during the plot was of great interest at least to myself. While still sectioned-off, even major and minor interactions with NPCs could be exploited or left alone for interesting rewards. While the consequences of choice weren't always felt throughout later parts of the game, the sheer number of divergent choices that had at least some impact down the line made for a great story experience.
Mass Effect series
Mass Effect really won out in its presentation and polish. It was not exactly innovative in any of its mechanics, but the cohesion of its story, believability and reactions of its characters, and consistent reward of the player for any style made it stand out.

MMORPG:
It might seem like this section doesn't really belong in relation to Sui Generis at all, but I think some of the titles I mention actually have more in common than at first glance. What makes a good MMO is at least the illusion of a living, non-static world, which some other RPGs fall back on.
Star Wars: Galaxies
Before the dreaded 'New Game Enhancement,' SWG was revolutionary in my eyes in that you really started from nothing. You were worthless and could hardly fire a blaster straight. You earned every single inch of prowess you had. It really was a Star Wars 'simulator' and brought a level of realism to MMORPGs that isn't often seen. While the NPCs were fairly static, that was made up for by leaps in bounds by the player-driven economy. If you wanted something, chances are someone had to make it, and for them to make it, someone had to mine the materials for it and even then, someone had to build the mining equipment. Everything worked on a schedule as well. If you wanted to travel to another world, you had to wait for a shuttle to actually arrive and buy a ticket (before player ships at least). I could go on about player cities as well, but that's a bit too far outside the scope of Sui Generis.
Everquest
What was amazing to me about Everquest was that you had to literally type every question out to NPCs. No predefined answers, you had to Hail an NPC and based on context clues in their responses, you could type out and ask them about a huge number of topics. It made the experience of getting assignments extremely satisfying (and improved proper typing skills and grammar to boot)! The User Interface was probably one of the most immerse I've come across. Want to give an NPC an item he asked for? You had to literally drag it out of your inventory and hand it to them yourself. And don't even get me started on the maps! I made a role-play adventure out of map-making using the in-game feature with a friend for almost a solid month! It's all these little things that added up to an ultimately basic game, but made it truly immerse and fun.
Everquest 2
The second installment of the series differed radically from its predecessor. Conversation with NPCs had options, but they were arbitrary at best. However, the world had built up a -lot- of lore thanks to its previous incarnation. Because of that, every piece of architecture had history, there were a thousand 'heritage' items with long quest chains that all related to items from the previous game, and the world was under a very cohesive general mood: the apocalypse had already happened and he gods had left. Everything about each new area drew back from that main theme and it kept the world very well grounded no matter the stage the player was at. The plot was never centralized, and you could skip entire areas if you outgrew them too quickly. The game mechanics were still very basic MMO fare, but the narrative of the game was so well grounded in every aspect that you had to try to ignore it. This was also the first MMO I had played where they attempted to give NPCs lives outside of quest giving. All the major quest-givers were still stationary, but secondary ones and non-quest related NPCs would move around from place to place, comment on their day, and participate in different activities which was a real new thing to see in a major MMO in early 2004.

Open World:
Open world or 'sandbox' games are probably closer to Sui Generis' alley. As long as you ignore the main plot, it seems, which tends to be fairly short and tacked on in the end.
Elder Scrolls Morrowind -> Skyrim
One word: Exploration. Morrowind through Skyrim were all just huge treasure troves of places to oggle at. A million things to do, with a million ways to do them. Most people are pretty familiar with these titles, but the major themes, a little mystery, and the hiding of history in in-game books are all great features. Not to mention that as best they could without preventing quests, NPCs were almost all killable. I especially liked in Morrowind where you could choose to kill someone important, but were warned that the plot would not be completable if you went through with it. As with almost all Bethesda games, the Elder Scrolls (and Fallout below) had characters with completely dynamic schedules. They got up, did their daily routine, left the house, etc. It was so lifelike it was hard to think of it as a mechanic at that point because it was just done so well and naturally.
Fallout: New Vegas
Factions, factions, factions. New Vegas was the great Crowd Pleaser. You had to make choices that impacted a huge number of other characters by supporting one faction or another. Half the world might go after you if you couldn't stay neutral, which not only encouraged huge re-playability, but put in great moral dilemmas for supporting your 'side' or the right side, as they often switched from scenario to scenario. The characters were also compelling, and much like Sui Generis, no one's special: if your companion dies, they die for good (granted this is also true for Skyrim, but not every character).

[Continued Below]
 

calithlin

Insider
[Continued from Above]

Other:
Games that I couldn't exactly fit in one category or another. Most didn't have as much choice directly, but rather made their choices indirect.
Dragon's Dogma
One thing that amazed me about Dragon's Dogma was that its total land mass was actually very small, and makes me think about how Sui Generis may play out. There were arguably only two cities, and maybe 7 small camps and fortified areas (most of which you would never see if you only followed the main plot). Yet even with that small area, the game felt huge because you had to walk and hike everywhere you went. There was a teleportation mechanic later in the game, but to find the items for it was very rare so it tended to be used only in emergencies.
The realism in the game was just truly excellent. If you wanted to wear heavy armor, or by God have anything but a wooden shield, you had to walk. Slowly. Everywhere. Night was dark as pitch, and you better hope you had enough oil for your lamp or you were in tough shit, because highwaymen patrolling the major trade routes were going to find you one way or another, and if you had no light you were a dead man (or woman). The same went for dungeons and the monsters inside. One of the more interesting mechanics is almost difficult to realize even exists, but you could actually find a shop and make forgeries of important quest items. It was an incredibly novel idea when I saw it, but it was also realistic in that forgeries of magical items did not have any magical effect, but were just cheap knock-offs. I ended up forging about four or five major quest items and it was a great help in some ways, but characters sometimes found out and you would suffer later on because of your faking.
Physique has been mentioned as a key factor in Sui Generis, and it played a huge and satisfying role in Dragon's Dogma. Size/muscle mass greatly altered your carrying capacity, dexterity, jumping distance, endurance, speed, and even what kind of doors and passages you could crawl into.
The NPC interaction was simple, but intuitive. There was a very hidden 'affection' gage for every NPC, and how much they liked you or not depended on how violent or disruptive you were around them, or how helpful/calm/familiar you were to them.
Demon's Souls & Dark Souls
The Souls franchise really hammered in danger and consequence in great ways. You had to approach every encounter with care, and because death meant a lengthy slashing of your health by half and loss of all your collected experience/currency souls, death was a big deal that you wanted to avoid, without being game breaking. It was the prefect mix where, I would want to prevent death whenever possible because I wanted to improve my character, but if I died I did not lose the progress I already had or items I had already worked hard to get. Likewise,the game rewarded you often only when you proved you did not need it: you only returned to full health once you had beaten one of the main bosses in the game while in a half-health 'undead' state.
The Souls games are probably opposite from many of the others in terms of lore given to you. You know where's a huge tale buried in there somewhere, but every inkling of data regarding the past of the world is all fractions of hearsay pieced together. Nothing is told, all is inferred, and it works. You are violating another world, and it doesn't like guests. Something about that is both chilling to the core, and at the same time exhilarating.
The Witcher 1 & 2
I've covered a lot of small things that makes the Witcher games mechanics nice in other examples above, such as lots of series of impactful multiple choice, immersive and believable environments, and so on. But what really sets the Witcher apart is how it's such a morally ambiguous game in such a great way. In most RPGs with choices in situations, there's usually a good or bad choice. Responsible or irresponsible, kind or greedy. Geralt just isn't that way. There's definitely some wiggle room, but the Withcher makes the choices available morally difficult. No matter what Geralt decides to do, it's always something that fits with the character and can be seen as rational from a certain point of view. People will hate and revile him for some decisions, while others will love and rejoice over them, no matter what he picks. Every side is somewhat corrupted in their own way, end every character has some hidden, ulterior motives somewhere down the line. I see a lot of that moral ambiguity hinted at in some of Sui Generis' suggested narrative.
I think the Witcher games' strategy involving crafting (weapons and armor, at least) is very similar to what Sui Generis is going for. Each smith knows how to make certain armor/weapons/etc, but they need the materials (and sometimes the schematics) to do so, and that is what the player provides. Geralt is no smith, he's a Witcher, so he find the materials and gets the professionals to make his arms and armor for him if he cant find them in his travels.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Human Revolution offered choice in interesting ways... while yes, there were many choices in dialogue and the whole conversation system was very interesting (treating conversations like a 'battle' or 'boss' to win), most of the game's choices actually came from combat. You could go through areas and almost always had the option of doing things stealthily and non-lethally, lethally, with close-quarters or ranged weapons, or hacking computers specifically to aid in all of those methods. I'd love to see Sui Generis with many viable opportunities to use the environment, stealth, dialogue, or other NPCs to help bypass or otherwise get through enemies and obstacles in such a way.

Sorry about the wall, but it just didn't seem right to throw out darts without some of my reasoning.
 
I've given it a LOT of thought...

Divine Divinity is probably my favourite. Honourable mentions; Witcher 1, Dragon Age 1, Final Fantasy 9, NeverWinternights 2...I'm probably forgetting a few though.
 
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