OT: a nice RPG-ish game?

[Lex]

Planescape: Torment is definitly my favorite game of all too.. I've been thinking about playing it over a second time recently.. also found this: http://www.wischik.com/lu/senses/pst-book.html

its all the dialogue from the game put into Novel format. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but it seems like a brilliant idea!

[deccan]

I agree that Planescape: Torment is a great game. But surely it's more adventure and less RPG?

[Cainehill]

More adventure and less RPG? Methinks you think of another game.

Planescape is the one where you wake up dead, and the first member of your party is an obnoxious ... skull. Very much an RPG of the first water.

[Kel]

character development, loot, semi tactical fighting, lots of NPCs with interesting personalities, heck even based on a pen and paper rpg...

- Kel

[Stormbinder]

deccan said:
I agree that Planescape: Torment is a great game. But surely it's more adventure and less RPG?

Not at all. In fact it is the Mother of all RPGs in my opinion. After all, we sometimes forgot that RPG stands for Role Playing Game. And the quality and quantity of roleplaying in PS:T is unsurpassed by any other computer RPG up to date, IMHO.

In addition PS:T has all "standard" computer RPG's "wheels and whisles" that you could possible ask for, and it is based upon AD&D pen and paper RPG system. But unlike so many of its computer brethen it actually has the story to tell, which happened to rival best of adventure games (and most of good fantasy books) out there, and it allows you to change and shape this story as you go. But that doesn't make the game "adventure" by any means. It is pure RPG, amd much more so than many mainstream one.


(Sorry if I sound a bit like preaching, but as you can tell I really love this game )

Regards,
Stormbinder

[Alneyan]

I must say my view is closer to Deccan. Torment is based on dialogue, its universe (which is borrowed from the pen and pencil RPG of the same name), but has little else to its name. At least, I get quite bored when doing battles and the like, and only the dialogues kept my interest alive in this game (they are good enough to make me love the game, however).

I would definitively not put Torment on the same level as, say, Darklands or Daggerfall, or others. So a Category should be created for this one; what about "rattling box RPG"? A game such as Albion would be much closer to the gameplay I had with Torment, or even Omkiron for this matter . These are games I did not play for their RPG side, but for their ambiance and background. On the other hand, my description quite looks like some of the Ultimas (namely Ultima VII and VIII; I did not play Ultima IX), so perhaps I am just splitting hair.

[Beorne]

I understand that someone palyng DomII games is more PC oriented then console oriented, but no-one has considered anj jap like RPG!

If one loves freedom of movement (some one remembers 'Fairy tales' (or something like) on Amiga?), unique char deploying, balanced difficulty, the JRPG are not so good. But on the other hands, if one likes the storytelling aspect, they are the top.
I started playing Bard's Tale, Ultima IV, V, VI, then I approached Diablo. I remember the pure Hack&Slash of Diablo, and I didn't liked it. If I go for H&S and dont' bother the story I want a very deep system, like Dom2 or ADOM or NH. The JRPG dont' have a very balnced system, often are easy and sometimes frustrating. But some have the finest world and story (ancd characters) ever built.

Some titles i have in mind:
Chrono Trigger (SNES)
Final Fantasy VII, IX (PS, PS2)
Xenogears, (PS)
Vagrant Story (not really an RPG but beautiful) (PS)
Suikoden, (PS)
Final Fantasy Tactic (PS)
Front mission III (PS)
these Last two are 'strategic' JRPG, some worsd to indicate tactical party combat game with RPG elements.

[Cainehill]

Beorne said:
I started playing Bard's Tale, Ultima IV, V, VI, then I approached Diablo. I remember the pure Hack&Slash of Diablo, and I didn't liked it. If I go for H&S and dont' bother the story I want a very deep system

I didn't care for the original Diablo myself - ugly and tedious and shallow. The sequel, especially after the expansion, has been a different matter - I know I've gotten at least a couple thousand hours out of it.

Vagrant Story (not really an RPG but beautiful) (PS)

Vagrant Story was amazing. The atmosphere and attitude they managed to put into a game on the original playstation was ... incredible. The intro and cut scenes were great, and gameplay was very good and deep too. I still remember some of the bits of spoken dialogue though: "Reinforcements? I _am_ the reinforcements."

Final Fantasy Tactic (PS)

Another great one - definately not an RPG, but quite the turn based tactical battle game, with a tiny bit of RPG flavor mixed in.

Some of the others (Final Fantasy I-XXVI ) and Xenosaga, Xenogears, were quite good - FF too often had lame mechanics though, but nice storylines. Hmm - you didn't mention the Vandal Hearts games, or Ogre Battle/Ogre Tactics, which are rather like FFTactics or Suikoden. Brigandine was another fun turn-based fantasy army game.

And other good console RPGs included the Wild Arms series, and Skies of Arcadia (Dreamcast, but later ported I think), and a ... hybrid, Valkyrie Profile.

All of those have stayed in my collection, even as I moved across the country in a UHaul (sold about 50 console games though).



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[Beorne]

Some of the others (Final Fantasy I-XXVI ) and Xenosaga, Xenogears, were quite good - FF too often had lame mechanics though, but nice storylines. Hmm - you didn't mention the Vandal Hearts games, or Ogre Battle/Ogre Tactics, which are rather like FFTactics or Suikoden. Brigandine was another fun turn-based fantasy army game.

And other good console RPGs included the Wild Arms series, and Skies of Arcadia (Dreamcast, but later ported I think), and a ... hybrid, Valkyrie Profile.

All of those have stayed in my collection, even as I moved across the country in a UHaul (sold about 50 console games though).



[/quote]

[/quote]

Vandal hearts 1 vas simple but very good, the second disappointed me.
The FF serie has hights and lows: IV, VI, VII, IX are beautiful (the story, the mechanic is a bit boring), the V is horrible, VII and X are controversial (but have beautiful graphics).
The Ogre games are very good, and I've never played Brigandine.
I liked very much Wid Arms 1 too, but Wild arms 2 has been ruinded by the text fonts (how one can ruin a game with the fonts???).
And Valkyrie profile ... perhaps the mastrepiece of PS with Vagrant Story, a beautiful and sad poem.
If you like these I advice you on Disgaea (for PS2).
But the SNES-PS era is almost gone.

[Alneyan]

Beorne said:
If one loves freedom of movement (some one remembers 'Fairy tales' (or something like) on Amiga?)

Fairy Tale seems to ring a bell for me, but I have never played that game (I had my Amiga in 1993 or so, and Fairy Tale came before I think). Out of idle curiosity, how was this game? Or is my memory wrong on this one?