Help O-chan find more RPGs like Persona, Dragon Age, etc.

[oOoOoOo]

My fleshworld friends are useless for this sort of thing. I'm looking for new games to play. I have the three Playstations (no PSP yet) and a DS. My computer is shit. Feel free to recommend stuff I can't play. (It isn't all about me.) I haven't really been following the game industry closely, so I'm hoping to learn more about what seems to appeal to me.

SUMMARY FOR ILLITERATES:
Since I have no friends in my city who play tabletop RPGs, on my television I want to recreate the fuzzy warm feeling of going on adventures with a party of awesome companions.

Now then...

I don't normally play videogames, but when I do, I play Japanese RPGs. This doesn't mean I won't play Western games, though, but the Japanese seem to get me better. What I love is some combination of atmosphere (music, visuals, setting) and interesting characters where the non-battle elements are given more attention than usual. Fighting is really the least important thing for me. Grinding is a chore.

Final Fantasy was my poison of choice, but I've gotten bored of it. I've really enjoyed Persona 3 and 4, which is basically Final Fantasy with dating sim elements and a kickass J-pop soundtrack, where you spend a lot of time talking to characters, going on dates, and levelling up stats based on conversations and non-combat things. Likewise, I recently really enjoyed Dragon Age by Bioware because of all the conversations, romance, etc. (I played on super easy mode and blew through the fighting.) I like how my relationship with these characters has bearing on how the game plays out. It almost feels like I'm playing tabletop D&D again with a party, accomplishing shit together and growing closer and closer through our epic struggles. Right now I'm playing Sakura Wars (So Long My Love) for the PS2 and although it is a fairly dorky shonen mecha adventure, there is something very satisfying about the focus on character interaction. In fact, I don't think Sakura Wars is even that great of a game, but it seems like there aren't a lot of games like this.

Now, those games I mentioned are big on the "character" side of things, but I'm also interested in purely atmospheric games. I'd say Shadow of the Colossus fills this gap. There's obviously no character interaction, but the setting and visuals were truly something. And fighting wasn't the main point. It was more about puzzles and exploring. I also enjoyed Legend of Mana for the watercolour storybook feel and great music, even though it was basically a dungeon crawl. I did finish Demon's Souls, which had great atmosphere, but I generally avoid stuff like that. I don't know if I'd play it again. Having to focus so much on not dying is kind of stressful and doesn't really allow for much escapism or relaxation. Also, I really care less about fighting hordes of monsters when it is just me running around by myself. Like, Demon's Souls would be the best game ever if they introduced AI companions and dating sim elements somehow, nyaa~

Does this all make sense? ^^; I'm looking for more. I've heard Harvest Moon is up my alley, because there are relationships and marriage and whatnot, but I haven't tried it. Farming seems kind of cute. Like I said, fighting's not a big deal for me.

So, any thoughts? Thanks in advance for humouring me.

[NemZ]

Clearly you need more Fallout in your diet, O-chan!

New Vegas is both visually and especially musically atmospheric, has all kinds of character interaction possibilities including multiple competing factions that each have a different attitude towards you based on your actions, and a combat system that is 1/2 FPS, 1/2 turn-based. Unless you just plain hate 1950's sci-fi tropes there's just about nothing here to complain about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-x-1fm2cq8

Btw, depending on your 'perk' choices your character can be straight, gay, bi or effectively asexual.

[Teague]

Hmm...the .Hack// games might be up your alley. There's seven games, but really its one game split into four and a second game split into three so it's rather expensive. There's also an anime attatched to each 'game arc' (.Hack//Sign and .Hack//Roots), but the games do emphasise character interaction (albeit with minimal influence on your part, mostly consisting of exchanging emails. Although in the .Hack//G.U. games you can choose which ally your character marries after the adventure, there is a gay option) but the atmosphere is good (The general plot is people playing a MMORPG that is becoming too real) and the combat is fun, but not too strenuous for the most part.

Metroid Prime (the first one) on GC/Wii has a brilliant atmosphere of loneliness, danger and exploration with some rather breathtaking scenery with very little downside as long as you can enjoy FPSs.

Knights of The Old Republic sounds like your cup of tea, the first one has a rather generic plot but with brilliant writing and more than a couple things that catch you off guard. The sequel has a great plot, but is buggy as hell so you'll probably want to get the fan patch that restores a lot of the cut content. Both games place a large emphasis on getting close to your allies and influencing the kind of person they become, and the combat is the kind that's simple but can still look nice and flashy.

You may also like Neverwiner Nights 2. A lot of what i said about KoTOR can be applied to NWN2. The main game has a somewhat vanilla plot but great writing, the expansion The Mask of The Betrayer is exponentially greater.

[oOoOoOo]

Fallout? I did play the original two games. My impression of the third was that it was a lot of wandering the wastelands and killing shit. It didn't seem as character-driven as, say, Dragon Age. I wasn't aware there was another Fallout game coming out. The trailer makes it look really ugly, though. Hmm... thanks, I will consider this.

But it's queer-friendly? That was certainly a big plus in Dragon Age, where the romance options involved two straights and two bisexuals (and your character was bisexual by default).

I really know nothing about the Hack games. Sounds more interesting than I anticipated. I just thought it was a slow-paced anime by Bee Train, haaaaaha. And since I was once a bit of a Star Wars geek, Knights of the Old Republic could be fun if I had an Xbox.

Thanks for the recommendations so far everyone! ^_____^ I need to amass a list and then make the recommendations fight for my love.

[NemZ]

It's a bit old now, but have you ever played Vampire: Bloodlines? It's another FPS/RPG game that, aside from a few troublesome sections near the end, can mostly be completed with a minimum of violence if that's your thing. The conversation system changes the available options depending on your skills/disciplines/clan as you go as well, so playing a Malkavian is a noticeably different different experience than a Gangrel or a Toreador, for example.

The original game was kinda buggy, but fan-made patches have fixed that right up.

As for New Vegas, yeah you can wander the wastes killing a bunch of freaky shit, but nobody is really forcing you to do so. It's quite possible to just sneak past most of that stuff or simply not get involved in the first place.

[Xard]

Bloodlines and Planescape Torment

that's all you need.

also, remember to patch the shit out of them

[child of Lilith]

You could try the Xenosaga series or the Shadow Hearts series. Both are great RPGs in my opinion.

[Xeroko]

O-sensei, if you liked Dragon Age, then give Mass Effect 1 and 2 a try, they are story/character driven rpgs with dialogue and relationship options but gameplay wise they are a blend of shooters and rpgs, the first you could try to run on PC, but that could be hard if your comp is bad, and the 2nd one comes to the PS3 in january. There's no grinding and They are among my favorite games of all time.

Also try Sword of Mana, it's a cute little rpg for the GBA with a neat if cliched story and some fun gameplay. Also try the dragon age expansion, Awakenings if you wanna continue with your characters from origins...

[Uriel Septim VII]

As for New Vegas, yeah you can wander the wastes killing a bunch of freaky shit, but nobody is really forcing you to do so. It's quite possible to just sneak past most of that stuff or simply not get involved in the first place.

Plus you can get railed by a protectron sexbot named Fisto.

[The Bastard King]

If it's interesting in any way to you, Thousand Arms is a JRPG where you play as a blacksmith who literally powers up his weapons by being a pervert and dating all the women around him. Also, that's not me rounding up the story in any exagerated form. You literally play as a pervert who tries to date every woman he finds and powers up his swords through the power of love. Also voiced semi-animated cut scenes.

[Synapsid]

Knights of the Old Republic could be fun if I had an Xbox.

Actually, it’s got a PC version ...And I think one of the paths(Involving Juhani) does allow for same-sex romance, but only if your character is a girl.

[scarmullet]

Might I sugest Lunar 1 and 2 on Sega CD? Both are fantastic RPGs. They were ported later to PS1 with Anime Style cutscenes (like Chrono Trigger), but I prefer the Sega CD ones, I think they went more over the top with the anime cutscenes.

Phantasy Star 1 (master system) and its sequels on Genesis are what caused Square to bring Final Fantasy to North America. Phantasy Star 1 is a must play for RPG fans. Its got a great story, awesome dungeons (1st person 3D...on an 8-bit console....the Master System was much more powerful than the NES).

Can you read Japanese? If so, I suggest the Far East of Eden series on the PC-Engine CD, especially the second one. They are set in a Samurai time period in a fictional nation. (I dont know Japanese, I beat it with a translation guide)


Earthbound/Mother on the Famicom, Super Famicom, and Super Nintendo are fantastic RPGs. Mother 2 is the only one of the series to be released on American shores on SNES as Earthbound, but Prototypes of Mother 1 on NES float around, fully translated and playable. If you can read Japanese, mother 3 is also available on gameboy advance.

Eternal Sonata (Xbox 360, PS3)

Etheral Fantasia (PS2) (it has a Guitar hero like mini game, ha)

[BobBQ]

My impression of the third was that it was a lot of wandering the wastelands and killing shit.

It is - but there are mods which make it much more interesting.

[Teague]

Bloodlines and Planescape Torment

I feel shame for forgetting about these two great games. I shall sever my Right Stick in penance.


But yeah, Vampires: The Masquerade: Bloodlines is a brilliant game, but you'll want to patch it. You can get through 3/4ths of the game with next to no combat, just charisma and mindfuckery. it's also queer-friendly, although it lacks a guyxguy matchup as far as I know. (Protip: play a Malkavian on your second playthrough. )

Planescape:Torment is also a masterpiece. There's really not much a can add to that. Play this.


Also, most of these PC games came out about five years ago or more, so there's not too hardware heavy.

[oOoOoOo]

Yay~ I haven't researched all the suggestions yet, but I shall.

Mass Effect for PS3? I've heard good things. I'm not really familiar with older Bioware games (I never really got into Baldur's Gate, too much wandering around killing and collecting and not enough time talking around the camp fire), but the focus on characters in Dragon Age makes me think Mass Effect is right up my alley as well.

I will admit that I'm not too interested in the likes of Lunar or Earthbound or Phantasy Star or Xenosaga, which are pretty similar to Final Fantasy in my mind. Lots of fighting broken up by story sequences that you have no control over. I've essentially played every traditional-style JRPG released for the SNES or Genesis. The heirs of Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, I have devoured them quite thoroughly. ^_~

And old PC games are a possibility. I haven't actually played a videogame on this machine in ages, so who knows how it'll react. ^^;

[ZapX]

I've been playing this game called The Path recently. As far as atmospheric games go it's one of the best I've played in a good while. I don't know what your computer specs are but you may be able to run it on low settings. It's not a heavy or flashy game by any means. It's basically a surrealist version of Little Red Riding Hood set in modern times. Your only goal in the game is to get to grandmother's house and you're told to stay on the path to get there (of course, the best experiences of the game comes from straying from the path and exploring the forest). It doesn't feel like any other games I've played and it's one of the best recent examples of video games as art that I can think of. It's classified as horror but it's more psychological and thought provoking than classic horror games that rely on cheap scares. I'd classify it more as dark surrealism. You can download it for 10 bucks and there's a demo available as well.

Bonus LOLdeep quote from the designers: "We are not story-tellers in the traditional sense of the word. In the sense that we know a story and we want to share it with you. Our work is more about exploring the narrative potential of a situation. We create only the situation. And the actual story emerges from playing, partially in the game, partially in the player’s mind."

I've also recommended Ookami to you before. It's a much more traditional game and feels like the 3D Zeldas so it may not be what you're looking for right now. It is, however, a great atmospheric and artistic game based around Japanese mythology and folklore.

[scarmullet]

Try looking on consoles that...kinda failed. I suggested earlier, the Far East of Eden series on PC-Engine CD [Far East of Eden 1, 2 aka Maru, and Kabuki Den (Kabuki Den being a bomberman style game where you play as Kabuki)], Super Famicom [Zero], Sega Saturn [The Apocalypse, which takes place in a fictional American setting], GBA [Ah No Tengai], PS2 [Far East of Eden 3]

It is a traditional RPG, but what set it apart, especially on the PC-Engine CD and in the Early 90s, they had Voice Acting, TRUE Orchestrated Music, and hand drawn animation in the battles and cutscenes.

The best part is they'll play in American Turbo Graphix 16 CD systems....as long as you have the Japanese super system card [I think].... Also instead of paying a lot of money for the games on PC-Engine, the CD unit has no copy protection, as it came out in 1988, just pirate em and play em.



You can always try the Ys series, which is a zelda clone on TG-16/PC-Engine.

[TehDonutKing]

You can get past most of the fighting in EarthBound and Mother 3. Mother has quite a bit of level grinding, but an easy patch makes all enemies give you double experience. An English patch for 3 is also available; both patches are at starman.net. It's possible to find Earthbound uncensored, but it's difficult. Even if you don't think you'd like it, please give it a chance. It's a very unique series.
No games come to my mind at the moment other than the rest of the MegaTen franchise, though.

[Sailor Star Dust]

I've been playing this game called The Path recently.

Last I heard, Legendary was hooked on that and absolutely loves it.

And good thread. I have to keep in mind some of these choices myself.

[scarmullet]

I cant believe I forgot this one, and its one of my top 5 favorite games of all time

SHENMUE!. Its on Sega Dreamcast, and its kind of an RPG, and yet its not. It is actually part of its own Genre called "FREE (Full reactive eyes entertainment)" ad back in 1999, this game was awesome...it still is.

You play as Ryo Hazuki, a Japanese school boy and martial artist whos father is murdered. You go on a quest to find your fathers killer. It starts out in Japan, then you go to Hong Kong, then Mainland China.

The battle system is related to the game Virtua Fighter (made by the same guy actually), and it was one of the first 3D sandbox games, and the first game (non-FMV) to make use of the QTE system that is used in Resident Evil 4, and the god of War series.

The sequel was canceled on Dreamcast in North America (but you can import it from Europe, thats what I did in 2001), and moved to the Xbox. The Dreamcast version did not bring back the english dub, because they were rushing to get the game out before the dreamcast bit the dust.

Unfortunatly, the Game was doomed to failure (a $70 billion budget didn't help) and it caused sega to nearly go Bankrupt which is why the series is unfinished (a cliff hanger since 2001...never resolved).

I definatly sugest getting your hands on this classic, its starting to get a rise in popularity since its main Character was in the game "Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing" earlier this year.