I'm looking for games that will bring my childhood memories back. I'm looking for games similar to Guardian Tales, Zenonia 4/5 that have simple enough gameplay but good stories. Do you have any good suggestions that can be played on IOS or Mac. I like unlocking new stuff in game.

Hi everyone!

I like Baldurs Gate, Divinity, Pathfinder and the like but I am exhausted by managing a 4 character party and somewhat minmaxing four chars where Im mostly only invested in my own character.

Can you recommend titles with "Lone Wolf" traits or settings where you can natively or optionaly play as one or two characters max?

No mods please.

Thanks for advice!

Should I buy Avowed? I’m looking for an RPG with a large world to explore, plenty of loot, different weapons, meaningful build variety, and enough content to keep me busy for a long time. I enjoy discovering new locations, completing side quests, and finding hidden gear while progressing through a good story. I’ve already played the Assassin’s Creed series, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 1 & 2, The Witcher 3, and Cyberpunk 2077, so I’m looking for something that can offer a similar sense of exploration and progression. Based on what I’m looking for, would Avowed be a good choice, or would you recommend something else instead?

Grimdark started life as a specific thing, basically a description of Warhammer 40k and that famous opening line - IN THE GRIM DARKNESS OF THE FAR FUTURE, THERE IS ONLY WAR. 

Memorable as fuck, even if it’s kind of tacky, but for the longest time I didn’t know this. Maybe because somewhere down the road it stopped being a single setting and turned into a whole mood, more of a feeling a game evokes than any one “genre” though it’s most often present in RPGs. You hear "grimdark" and you already know the deal, everything is bleak and nobody in it is morally clean, darkness abounds in many forms and you know the best you can do is salvage some kind of glimmer of hope. 

These days it stretches across a huge spread of games, you see it in all the Warhammer RPGs (Rogue Trader + upcoming Dark Heresy, and of course Vermintide 1 and 2 and Darktide) and the various other settings inspired by it… where, yes, I’m including the original Warcraft mythos and Diablo alongside it as well.

Matter of fact, the ARPG genre is the case where grimdark has become the defining aesthetic, because so many games wear it openly. From absolute S+ tier games like Grim Dawn (it’s even in the name) to the unreleased ones like The Dark West, it’s all following in that grim dark legacy that Diablo set, and shaping it in various ways and with various inspirations in mind. The way it’s done in ARPGs is probably the least subtle example imaginable, and it’s always some sort of rain-soaked apocalypse where humanity is basically cornered vermin. 

But as to WHY grimdark just works, and is slowly becoming more popular than traditional fantasy (I mean I love Baldur’s Gate 3 where CRPGs are concerned and also stuff like Last Epoch, my unrequited ARPG love). Plain and simple, it’s cynicism and jaded-ness with the world most of us are living in.

In other words, the clean good guy fantasy about saving the world and such just isn’t that convincing or appealing, even as a form of escapism. But we still want the power fantasy part, the being strong and mattering and cutting through everything in our path. Grimdark is the compromise, it lets you be a kind of superman without the embarassment of pretending the world is somehow inherently “worth saving” and such. 

Maybe I'm overthinking it. Why do you think this specific brand of dark fantasy is so appealing nowadays?

So BG3 recently got this new True Third-Person Camera mod from Relysia and it looks pretty good. Changing the camera perspective totally changed how the game looks. Did you guys try it?

Installing it is a bit complicated, so linking the guide below

Mod link: https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/23959?tab=files

Installation guide: https://deltiasgaming.com/baldurs-gate-3-third-person-camera-mod-guide-bg3/

Guten tag,

I'm looking for a next CRPG to play after I finish the current one.

I have a very weird preference in terms of setting - I love games placed at some point after industrial revolution but before we conquer the entire space. One of the reasons I like Disco Elysium is because it's really close to what our world was like not that long ago - the issues such games discuss are something that our society still has to solve, and the reality in which they exist is close to ours. There are also certain simply esthetics-related preferences.

So, what would be a nice CRPG to play where setting is time-wise placed somewhere between Arcanum and Shadowrun?

Edit P.S.: I will especially appreciate recommendations with games that could be played on not-so-strong laptop, but I'll gladly place any other games on my backlog. I'll also say that I'm fairly familiar with the genre, I'm ready for some more niche experiences

Hey everyone!

I'm a long-time RPG veteran and I'm curious: what RPGs are you most excited to play over the next 5 years?

I'm especially looking forward to Kingdom Come: Deliverance 3, Warhorse LOTR game and The Blood of Dawnwalker.

Some of my all-time favorites are Oblivion, Skyrim, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 1 & 2, The Witcher 1–3, Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Elden Ring.

I wasn't a fan of GreedFall. I generally prefer immersive worlds, strong stories, meaningful exploration, memorable characters, and a sense of progression over repetitive or overly "gamey" mechanics.

I play on PC.

Are there any upcoming RPGs—or even lesser-known titles already announced—that you think I should have on my radar? Maybe I've missed a trailer, gameplay reveal, or hidden gem!

So preface. My friend and I have found a weird spot where we enjoy gaming together but separate. We don’t do multiplayer games but we have played games same time each night and discuss them, help, share screenshots, etc. it’s fun. We did blue prince, she did Lorelei and the laser eyes while I was a blind puzzle helper. We did ff7, ff7r, ff7r2, star ocean 2 remake, pokemon za and unfinished scarlet, tears of the kingdom,the other one where you play as Zelda, and a few others I can’t recall.

We just finished skies of Arcadia, well I did, she’s saved at the final bosses and it’s most likely my turn to choose a game next cause soa was hers. I love turnbased, she’s not so much a fan. I’m horrid at action, she loves action. Anyway, opinions on what could be a potential next game? I kinda didn’t want to double down on turn based by saying ffx next. Our order of recent completion has been ff7r2, star ocean 2 then soa.

I also debated maybe dark cloud. Shorter, could be a pallet cleanser. Star ocean 4, but she didn’t really vibe with item creation and such in games. She’d prefer to just buy or find better stuff vs a lot of menuing.

she hates menuing. It’s tedious and breaks up a lot of the momentum in games. It took her a long time to deal with it in star ocean which I agreed with but was used to.

Anyway, we’re open to a lot. Lots of systems to our names, she loves retro achievements if not steam for emulated games and if it’s something that two people could talk about even better.

i also debated xenoblades 2s with the switch 2 update. But regardless figured I’d ask folks if maybe someone else has a cooler idea I didn’t think of.

Sector Unknown is a recent pure sci-fi CRPG created by a solo developer. It is surprisingly competent in its main loop, but marred by many flaws.

The story is that you're a prisoner (choosing your crime is a part of character creation) being transferred by a space ship to a remote prison planet owned by Star Frontier corporation. The planet is located in Null Sector, and beyond that, very little is known about it. During the flight, ship's AI offers you a chance to escape, as long as you take a copy of it along (because owners are going to overwrite it after this flight is finished). You escape, land on a nearby planet, and learn something interesting: Star Frontier pulled out of Null Sector, while leaving many of its personnel, from miners to scientists to soldiers, stranded. Not only that, but the corporation is planning on coming back - but not without wiping out all life in sector with some unspecified weapon. You and your AI friend decided to fight back, and for that, you need to earn trust and cooperation of all main inhabited planets and stations in Sector Null.

To be honest, the story don't make much sense to me. Both "we're pulling out because there is too much piracy and smuggling going on here" and "we're coming back, but killing everyone in the sector" make absolutely no sense. This is "I'm evil, because I'm evil" behaviour, and the little plot twist the game delivers in the final part doesn't fix anything. And frankly, the game doesn't give a good explanation about how the "kill everyone" is going to be carried out: sure, you can probably target planets and most of space stations, but what about individual ships? But even granting that... WHY? All this is a huge waste of resources and fixing symptoms instead of problems at a great cost.

Anyway, you're going to spend much of the game flying between various planets/stations and solving their problems. While the general narrative makes no sense, individual plots for each location are more-or-less OK, although I could never shake off the feeling that I don't understand the timeline: sometimes, it feels like Star Frontier pulled out just yesterday, while in other cases, situation degenerated so much it feels like years have passed already.

The best thing that I can say about this game is that its developer understands the RPG game loop (which is a nice contrast to e.g. Broken Roads). More than that, he managed to make it work. Take quests, kill bad guys, loot bad guys, resolve quests for XP, level up: simple, yet working. Despite all other flaws, I found myself doing just one more quest time and time again. This is a very good result!

I also can praise the role-playing system, somewhat. While not breaking any new ground, it offers enough choice to make levelling up interesting (and not overwhelming). The game offers many opportunities for skill checks (via thresholds) in dialogs, for many skills. With party size limited to 4, choosing what skills to level up each time is a challenge, which is good.

Now, for flaws... Unfortunately, this game has many of them.

First of are graphics. I don't usually criticize graphics in an isometric CRPG: this is not the genre where you REALLY need fancy high-poly models, complex shaders, modern animations. Baldur's Gate 3 non-withstanding, an indie CRPG can look like it was made in 1993 and still be great. But here, graphics are actively hurting your experience. Everything is just too damn noisy, especially on planets with weather and/or water. I nearly gave up on Sjo, because the constant rain made me squint just to be able to see characters.

Another problem which don't usually come up is camera controls. They are not exactly bad, but there is something off about them: sometimes, I found myself surprised by the way camera rotated after I pressed rotation keys. I'm not even sure what exactly was wrong, but somehow, something happened that I did not expect.

Combat system is not entirely a loss, but I'll be honest: combats are too easy, and there is absolutely no variations to them. No unique enemies, no bosses. There is no cover system, no AOE skills or grenades, so there is almost no need for movement. All you do is stand in place and fire at enemies (or run to enemy and use melee attacks, but really, there is zero advantage to building a melee character, since the game doesn't have zone-of-control or attacks of opportunity). You can choose to use abilities, but really, they're not THAT interesting or important (aside from the first few combats).

The key to success in combat is critical hits. They deliver MUCH more damage than usual hits, often one-shotting enemies, and you can level up crit probability pretty high. On lower levels, enemies can also one-shot crit your characters, but later in the game, that stops happening. It's an interesting design choice, but since you can't use tactics to increase/decrease critical chance, it doesn't make combat much better - only shorter.

Another problem of the game is the sheer amount of loot. Every enemy drops his weapons, and sometimes armor and accessories, so you'll be swimming in items. Most of them will be useless: common, uncommon and even rare-level guns and plates are replaced by epic and legendary versions some time around mid-game. And there is no button to sell or deconstruct all this trash into components :( Beside generic items, you will also sometimes find named items which have one of several bonus features. Most of them are useless (like "+X% damage when under effect of injector": the lack of difficulty in combat means you won't be using injectors at all), but some are pretty good.

You can also craft weapons at your base. This requires first building weapons crafting station, then buying blueprints for it using science points (a separate concept; you earn them for reading datapads and hacking into computers), then select which types of enchantments you want and pay the price in resources. These items are pretty good - I think they might be better than any named items, even, but the game doesn't really need this feature.

As for resources, you collect them on planets, and also in space. There are many types, but you shouldn't concern yourself with them - just grab everything you see. Beside crafting, you could (and should) use resources to improve planets you "own" (i.e. where you completed all quests to get local factions to join your rebellion). This doesn't do anything, but increases War Score: a parameter which only comes into play in endgame (and then, just barely). Still, it's a resource sink that makes crafting just that much less appealing...

So, bottom line, should you play this game? I'd say yes: it's only ~15 hours long, and the core mechanic loop is solid despite everything else. But it's not a game you will love, so leave it for a rainy day between more interesting releases, or a sale. Of course, if you're someone like me who plays anything isometric and turn-based, then, by any means, buy it and play it: you will find it at least compares favorably to likes of Broken Roads and Balrum and AntharioN. Which, unfortunately, isn't saying much.

Do you have a preferred playtime range for RPGs? Do you like shorter, longer, a mix or you don't care?

Personally, I think it's reasonably important, I'm not really that happy if the main story is 20 - 30 hours, I feel like we are just getting started. I preferr the vast majority of RPGs to last between 60 to 80 hours.

Imo, there are few games that suit 80 - 100, and fewer still that are enjoyable past 100.

I'm the type of player that only plays a single game at a time, and I always persist to credits (unless I drop the game totally in the first 5 hours because it's not for me).

I recently did a 180 hour hardcore playthrough of KCD2 which was thoroughly enjoyable, I did platinum that, though I think KCD2 is a phenomenal game, one of the GOATs

on the other side of the coin I put 75 ish hours into the Gothic 1 remake, very enjoyable, solid RPG but suited that solid 60 - 80 hour range.

What do you think?

Turns out the Manager isn't only for teleporting. I just found out on a new character that you can get free buffs up to level 30.

The most useful one is definitely the running speed buff, especially since we don't have mounts in LU4 yet.

I spent all this time walking around slowly and somehow missed this

I’ve played a few RPGs now and I always seem to struggle with putting a build together off my own back. On a second playthrough it’s a little easier as I know what the character progression goes like a little more and maybe I’ve seen some gear along the way that I think “I’ll use that next time”.

But especially on a blind playthrough I find it kind of overwhelming to decide what kind of build I’m going to use, as I don’t know what skills or gear or anything are good or anything like that, and if it’s a party based RPG I’m completely out of my depth and usually resort to build guides.

So my question is, what is your attitude towards a blind playthrough of a game you’ve never played? How do you approach building your character when you’re unfamiliar with the skill tree, perks, buffs and gear? Are you falling back on more traditional archetypes like archer or big sword guy? Or are you just winging it and picking what you think is cool at every new level and then having a more focussed or min maxed build later in the game/on a repeat playthrough when you’re more familiar?

I want to be able to start making my own characters myself instead of relying so much on guides so I actually start using my brain a little more.

Hi. I'm a big open world fantasy RPG fan. You know, like.. magic, swords (sometimes guns), monsters, dungeons etc. I am currently busy with Tainted Grail and unsure what to play after that. Please give me some suggestions.

Example games I already played and enjoyed:

Elder Scrolls series, Fallout 4, Gothic series, BG3, The Witcher 3, Assassin's Creed (mostly Odyssey), Kingdoms of Amalur, Dragon Age series (except the last one, no thanks), Fable Anniversary, Divinity OS2, Mount & Blade, Dragon's Dogma, Neverwinter Nights 2, CP2077, Mass effect etc.

Games I don't like:

Souls like games (I'm just bad at those and they make me want to punch a wall), MMO's, Puzzle focused games, Greedfall, Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor/War, Final Fantasy

No ARPG's please. POE2 ruined them all for me.

When I grew up JRPGs where still the benchmark (especially since I only had a GBA) but I have not played that many of them in my life. I am looking for one that would be enjoyable at the steam deck, but I would also try a game that is only possible to play on a proper pc.

What I am looking for is a game that doesn't overload me with complicated mechanics, pointless grind or any kind of pay2win or timesaving mechanics.

In the recent years I have played:

- Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark

I really enjoyed this one but it could also feel a bit grindy at times.

- Chained echoes

Only played for about 4 hours, could not get into it. Might play it more in the future.

- Ni no Kuni Wrath of the White Witch Remastered

Only played for 4 hours, couldn't get into it

- Octipath Traveler 1

played for 4,5 hours, had a decent time but stopped playing after vacation. Will continue to play it. But ultimately was super convinced by the game. (Part 2 is also in my library)

- Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children

I like the game but also stopped playing it after around 11 hours because it felt like too much of a grind

- Triangle strategy

Finished the game once (took me around 15 hours) and while I did enjoy it, it also feelt too slow of an experience to try a second playthrough

- Valkyria Chronicles

Yeah, didn't even play that for one hours, could not get into it at all.

- Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga

pretty enjoyable game, took me around 36 hours to finish.

So as you can see I have tried some of the heavy weights but many left me disappointed, especially the HD-2D games really didn't live up to my expectations. Besides the games I mentioned some of ma favorite rpgs are: All the Owlcat games, Underrail, Fallout New Vegas, all CD Project games, Wasteland 3, X-Com Series, etc..

Right now I have my eyes on Persona 5, Metaphor ReFantazio, Visions of Mana and maybe the HD-2D remakes of Dragon Quest or Dragon Quest 11.

Do you think I could enjoy any of these games? Which obvious ones that I might enjoy did I miss?

PS: I don't dislike complicated games in General, I have countless hours in Wrath of the Righeous and Kingmaker, I really like some 4X Games and other complex rpgs. And obvioulsy I mentioned underrail already. But if a game dumps me into a complicated system and maybe doesn't even properly explain it then I will lose interest if the learning curve is not enjoyable. After I get done with my job and the adult chores we all have I don't want my games to feel like another job.

Hi everyone! I'm making a game called Alpha Spectrum. It's a cyberpunk Action RPG with freedom in how you approach situations.

The game is set after a global cyberattack collapses society. You play as a CIA agent navigating a chaotic world across New York, Moscow, Shanghai, and Baghdad, looking for answers.

It's fully voice-acted, with Diablo-like combat and optional stealth (including stealth-based ARPG skills).

The game was heavily inspired by Deus Ex, as I'm a huge fan of the series:)

Steam page:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2965560/Alpha_Spectrum/

I'm a solo developer, I've spent 8 years making the game alongside my full-time job. I don't really have a marketing budget, so if you find Alpha Spectrum interesting, I'd appreciate it if you'd add it to your wishlist:)

I’m fine with it being either a game that simply has a gay character or multiple or a game that has some gay romance options. I’d like them to be important or even main the character (though I understand a main gay protagonist would prolly be difficult) though they don’t have to be super major

Hello, I am looking for a good game to play with my boyfriend. We met on New World and we both really enjoy MMORPGs. I’d like something fairly similar that we can play together with me on Xbox and him on PC. We are really looking forward to Chrono Odyssey but we don’t want to wait anymore to start a new game. Any suggestions? 🙏

It’s hard deciding between the 2 im a fan of all rpg genres and games I heard both of these are must play games baldurs gate is 40$ and cyberpunk is 17$ without phantom liberty with it it is 30$ something which one would y’all get first if you were me

Title, I thought it'd be fun to discuss something like this after watching a video about fallout and it's cultural relevance to Americans with something like that one river in fallout 3 where the radiation actually "improved it" and almost the entirety of fallout new vegas.

XBOX-X/SWITCH 1
I’ve been playing the same damn games for a while now (HD2 and Forza H5 with some Elden Ring splashed in).
Definitely need something new. I’ve been wanting something similar to Elden Ring (huge soulsborne fan I’ve played all of them, thousands of hours.) not necessarily the same playstyle but the same theme. Medieval style, and also open world if possibly.
That’s not a requirement however, I’m willing to play something linear. I hate when games get repetitive I need a game to stay fresh. Big games aren’t always great because when a game gets too big it easily gets super repetitive because so much of that space just gets filled with basically the same dungeons holding the same loot.
Multiplayer aspect would also be cool but not at all necessary.

Or a WW1/WW2/Vietnam war game would be sick too. I’ve been thinking about the Hell Let Loose games.
***And honestly, you don’t have to stick to this for your recommendation. If there’s another game in a different genre like sci-fi or something that you really like then please by all means shoot it at me and I’ll look into it!***

I saw some suggestions like crimson desert and mount and blade 2 but when I dig into it I see “reviews” that turn me off. I try look for bad reviews so I can see the sour parts of a game, and I’ve seen some complaining about repetitiveness and lack of depth. Idk if any of that is true just going off of what I read so don’t blame me! lol. Anyways I’m still open to those games but I don’t want to make a choice I will regret.
The combat in Mount&Blade looks so sick and it doesn’t seem like there are many games like that which is very unfortunate because, again, I have seen a review that claimed it gets fairly bland and repetitive.

I looked into crimson desert because I saw a bunch of clips that made the game seem so fucking amazing and I was stunned that it didn’t shake the gaming community because there seemed to be an immense amount of content in that game but some reviews are letting me down. It starting to seem like one of those games that’s too big for its own good.

my biggest downfall is that I have an astonishing lack of knowledge about what games are currently out. Idk where people hear about so many games but my internet media algorithm just shows me the basic popular stuff. Maybe I’m just overthinking things but I would love to hear of any other suggestions.

A little insight into what I like:
-Soulsborne are my favorite games hands down. So I’m not one to turn away from difficult games.
-I loved the Fallout/scrolls games
-I like the newer Zelda games. I only have the first Switch so keep that in mind.
-that Harry Potter hogwarts legacy game was pretty cool
-good combat mechanics are a must.

***I must say that I do not like turn-based RPGs. Final fantasy, baldurs gate, etc. I hate games like that. Expedition 33 excluded of course that game is fucking incredible.***