CRPG thread

[seaglass]

Haven't seen a dedicated CRPG thread so I'm making one, but if I'm wrong feel free to point me in the right direction.

I know the definition of a CRPG can get a little messy (not as bad as the immersive sim definition though, lol). I've seen many a heated debate about whether New Vegas counts as one, for instance. So let's keep the definition a little loose here and just say some famous examples pretty much everyone agrees on include Baldur's Gate 1-3, Pillars of Eternity, Planescape: Torment, Fallout 1/2, Wasteland 1-3, Star Wars: KOTOR 1/2, and the mainline Ultima series. My personal favorite CRPGs are Planescape, Disco Elysium, Fallout 2, WH40K: Rogue Trader, Tyranny, and Arcanum: of Steamworks and Magick Obscura.

Anyway, I'd be curious to see if there are any other CRPG nerds in here. I'll kick off by recommending some titles that have come out in the last year or so: Esoteric Ebb, Banquet for Fools, The Necromancer's Tale.

 

[moon200218]

i was knee deep into crpgs a few years ago when i all of a sudden had a lot of free time, trying out pretty much everything that i found interesting, from pillars of eternity to shadowrun to disco elysium, baldur's gate, icewind dale, and star wars KOTOR 2. I was completely lost in pillars of eternity and its lore (in a good way) and even made a custom protrait for an OC to import into the game. I was very invested due to the game having so much player agency

I took a break for other games and just never went back to playing crpgs. They can be challenging to get back into if you dont remember where exactly you left off. I liked all of em but i get so invested they arent good for me right now

 

[seaglass]

i was knee deep into crpgs a few years ago when i all of a sudden had a lot of free time, trying out pretty much everything that i found interesting, from pillars of eternity to shadowrun to disco elysium, baldur's gate, icewind dale, and star wars KOTOR 2. I was completely lost in pillars of eternity and its lore (in a good way) and even made a custom protrait for an OC to import into the game. I was very invested due to the game having so much player agency

I took a break for other games and just never went back to playing crpgs. They can be challenging to get back into if you dont remember where exactly you left off. I liked all of em but i get so invested they arent good for me right now

I feel you on the time commitment. I love this genre, but I only play a few games in it a year because of how damn long they are. If you liked Pillars and are short on time though, I'd definitely recommend you check out Tyranny sometime. It's a much shorter CRPG by the same devs. Can finish it in ~20 hours.

 

[KamakoKamako's icon]

I'm currently playing Zero Parades for Dead Spies. I don't know how the HLTB crowd say it takes ~25-30hrs, it's taken me way longer and I've been trying to blitz it. xD

But yep CRPGS's are excellent and I only wish I'd gotten into them sooner. I was put off a bit when I was younger by some very difficult isometric strategy games with really unintuitive UI's which pulled me away from the genre for many years, but I have since played a good handful, and I think that the best of the genre (i.e. Disco Elysium & Divinity: Original Sin for me), are some of the best games I've ever played.

 

[moon200218]

I feel you on the time commitment. I love this genre, but I only play a few games in it a year because of how damn long they are. If you liked Pillars and are short on time though, I'd definitely recommend you check out Tyranny sometime. It's a much shorter CRPG by the same devs. Can finish it in ~20 hours.

I have heard about Tyranny, but the lore and world seemed a bit complicated. What do you think about that game?

 

[Eduardo2010]

I really like Darkest Dungeon if that counts

 

[seaglass]

I'm currently playing Zero Parades for Dead Spies. I don't know how the HLTB crowd say it takes ~25-30hrs, it's taken me way longer and I've been trying to blitz it. xD

Oh man! I totally forgot to put this in the recent CRPGs list as I haven't played it yet. I really need to try that one out. The other CRPG forums I'm in are very hostile to this game because of all the legal drama surrounding the studio, so I haven't heard much about how Zero Parades is as an actual game. The Steam reviews look pretty positive, which is a little surprising as I was expecting it to get review-bombed. I'll have to pick it up when I'm a bit further through my current backlog.

I have heard about Tyranny, but the lore and world seemed a bit complicated. What do you think about that game?

Honestly I love Tyranny, so I'd always recommend it. I don't think the world is any more complicated than Pillars, it's just more focused on politics than with religion this time. I actually think the very beginning of the game does a good job of setting the scene of the world by having you make some choices that introduce the different factions and the main antagonist.

 

[ArchienineZXAdventArchienineZXAdvent's icon]

Never heard about the concept of CRPG. I take these games as Action RPG

 

[Onicat]

Never heard about the concept of CRPG. I take these games as Action RPG

This is a very old definition of the genre, dating back to the days when they were simply RPGs (not CRPGs), because they existed long before the release of Dragon Quest 1, which brought the genre to consoles and made it accessible to so-called casual gamers. And all of these old rpgs were turn-based. Just like the original source material (Dungeons & Dragons). Action RPG is a different subgenre, with much less “role-playing” and much more “action.” Diablo (especially Diablo 2) is the most famous example of the genre. Although the line is pretty blurry, and if you really try, you could even call Doom an RPG because we play the role of a space marine there.

 

[ArchienineZXAdventArchienineZXAdvent's icon]

This is a very old definition of the genre, dating back to the days when they were simply RPGs (not CRPGs), because they existed long before the release of Dragon Quest 1, which brought the genre to consoles and made it accessible to so-called casual gamers. And all of these old rpgs were turn-based. Just like the original source material (Dungeons & Dragons). Action RPG is a different subgenre, with much less “role-playing” and much more “action.” Diablo (especially Diablo 2) is the most famous example of the genre. Although the line is pretty blurry, and if you really try, you could even call Doom an RPG because we play the role of a space marine there.

C means for casual?

 

[Onicat]

C means for casual?

nah, computer geek

I mean, RPGs back then were pretty tough. Not in the sense that you died often, but because the interfaces were terrible by today’s standards. Without a detailed user's manual (which you were supposed to study) it was almost impossible to play. The control keys were scattered across the keyboard and didn't always make sense. For example, the GIVE action was assigned to the G key. Ok, makes sense. But the STEAL action might have been assigned to the L key because the S, T, E, and A keys were already taken by other actions. And this couldn't be reassigned by user. Even if you take relatively newer games from the ’90s, playing something like Realms of Arcania without a manual is still difficult today. Even if you were around back then and “lived” in that game design. But fortunately, the RoA trilogy (at least the Steam version) comes with a scanned manual describing all the icons, the interface, skills, spells, phobias, possible playable characters etc. Otherwise, your head will explode :) And compare that to, say, Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest from the ’90s, which are more simpler and streamlined and therefore perfectly playable without a huge manual but with small 4...8 button gamepad (instead huge 104-button keyboard).

And it's all thanks to this friendly guy with a sword

And I believe that what he did had a significant impact on the interfaces of the games this thread is about.

 

[ArchienineZXAdventArchienineZXAdvent's icon]

nah, computer geek

I mean, RPGs back then were pretty tough. Not in the sense that you died often, but because the interfaces were terrible by today’s standards. Without a detailed user's manual (which you were supposed to study) it was almost impossible to play. The control keys were scattered across the keyboard and didn't always make sense. For example, the GIVE action was assigned to the G key. Ok, makes sense. But the STEAL action might have been assigned to the L key because the S, T, E, and A keys were already taken by other actions. And this couldn't be reassigned by user. Even if you take relatively newer games from the ’90s, playing something like Realms of Arcania without a manual is still difficult today. Even if you were around back then and “lived” in that game design. But fortunately, the RoA trilogy (at least the Steam version) comes with a scanned manual describing all the icons, the interface, skills, spells, phobias, possible playable characters etc. Otherwise, your head will explode :) And compare that to, say, Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest from the ’90s, which are more simpler and streamlined and therefore perfectly playable without a huge manual but with small 4...8 button gamepad (instead huge 104-button keyboard).

And it's all thanks to this friendly guy with a sword

View attachment 199229And I believe that what he did had a significant impact on the interfaces of the games this thread is about.

Interesting.
That guy is Hayao Miyazaki?

 

[FosforosCopihue]

I loved Citizien Sleeper. It's a nice Cyberpunk/Sci-Fi rpg and it's not very long to complete. I haven't tried the sequel yet