RPG For My Younger Sister

[Wayward Son]

You're underestimating a kid's resilience. It's busy, tired adults who need things dumbed down.

That's more true than most here understand.

 

[gestalt11]

Do none of you idiots remember what being a child was like/have no direct experience with children? Tbh most western crpgs can't really be enjoyed until your early teenage years.

I remember just fine and I was reading and had the monster manual Ad&d by memory when i was 8 years old. Was playing Wizardry 1 with a neighborhood friend and M&M1 by myself and we were both eventualy beating the game. But as far as I can tell now, either kids are raised to be less able to concentrate/less facinated or we were different kids or modern day adults have low expectations. Either way things seem to be different, its not that I don't remember.

My parents also let me run around for miles alone at that age. Nowadats my brother won't let his kids roam very far alone since there is a registered sex offender 10 house down the street. So I dunno.

 

[gestalt11]

They're children's books.

The Hobbit

• Grades / Interest Level 7 - 12
• Reading Level 8 (Flesch-Kincaid)

On second thought that may not have been the best example. However, In the 2nd grade, just about every kid and I loved the Scary Stories trilogy with all those gruesome pictures by Stephen Gammell (image search to check 'em out). Shadowrun Returns is certainly less gruesome than those are.

Incidentally, I checked out the google app rating for SR and Dragonfall and of course they're rated Teen (for some reason HBS never bothered with the ESRB). If the 8 year old is allowed to watch PG-13 movies, she can play it just fine.

It's not just a matter of content. It's also about what a child can even understand and engage with. The whole mood of cynicism and rebellion, the sense of progress and technology having come to rot, the strange mixture of the punk and noir aesthetic that you find in cyberpunk--this isn't in my mind really appreciable by children (nevermind if it's appropriate). Sure they can watch movies with these kinds of settings, but mostly because they're pretty to look at and the action is exciting. But reading a book or playing an rpg in this sort of setting? Cmon. Also horror is a complete non-sequitor. Those sorts of primal fears I think are universally communicable (again, nevermind if it's appropriate).

Maybe something like Baldur's gate could work for a child, but even then you'd have to handhold and turn down the difficulty to the point where they may as well not be playing it.

I understood this fine when I was 8 years old. But I grew up in the 80s so things like Bladerunner and cyberpunk were common. I had a number of asshole older brothers who would try to fuck with me, my two oldest used to tell one of my brothers sand was candy and trick him into eating it when he was 3 years old. The cynicism seemed perfectly obvious to me.

A child can understand and engage with it just fine. Most people just raise their kids to be rubes until they get to adolescence and then slowly introduce the real state of the world. But children with a different upbringing are very very capable of understanding this just fine, believe me.

 

[Glaucon]

You haven't rly responded to what I'm saying. Steampunk isn't cyberpunk. And even ignoring that, I don't think you fully understand what I mean by tone and mood, or else you wouldn't bother to make the comparison between any conventional jrpg and something like shadowrun.

I agree that final fantasy VI, or any of the decent ones, would be a good introduction for a kid.

 

[Glaucon]

I understood this fine when I was 8 years old.

No, you didn't. I doubt you do now.

 

[gestalt11]

I understood this fine when I was 8 years old.

No, you didn't. I doubt you do now.

Cool, nice discussion, glad its over.

 

[Roguey]

You haven't rly responded to what I'm saying. Steampunk isn't cyberpunk.

It's 'punk (that is, the elements that specifically define the cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction), just with a different kind of technology.

And even ignoring that, I don't think you fully understand what I mean by tone and mood, or else you wouldn't bother to make the comparison between any conventional jrpg and something like shadowrun.

I wouldn't call FF6 conventional, at least for its time.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Legend of Mana. My gf loves this game, so clearly it has an appeal to women. Plus, you can play together with her as the game allows two players.

Alright, you seduced me. The pixel art is fucking gorgeous.

Any other good 2D RPGs on the PSX? I know Saturn is better for this kind of games.

 

[made]

RapeLay

 

[AbounI]

Do none of you idiots remember what being a child was like/have no direct experience with children? Tbh most western crpgs can't really be enjoyed until your early teenage years.

My first cRPG experience was Mandragore on a C64. I only watched my cousin playing this game, but it was a direct blow for me. So I was 11 or perhaps 12, I can't remember exactly

 

[Doktor Best]

Zelda is the best gateway drug to rpgs for kids imho. Very light character progression, beautiful artstyle, interesting gamemechanics with great enviroment puzzles, great exploration within a gameworld that opens up with each new found tool you get hold of during the game.

 

[Erikolaiz]

This, being the #1 search result for rpg sister, must be exactly ideal.

 

[CryptRat]

Any other good 2D RPGs on the PSX?

Saga Frontier 2

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

My niece seems to like Invisible Inc and SteamWorld Heist.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

online

Don't rot your kid's brains with MMO trash people.

 

[Perkel]

She's turning 8. The only game she has significant playtime in is Minecraft.

She is lost to normal gaming already.
From my personal experience with cousins.

If kid starts to play minecraft he will play nothing more or will start to follow general modern gaming style of lets watch twitch and try to play for 15 minutes some game and watch twitch again. Then he moves to CSO with teamspeak and couple of friends and then he gets back to "normal" gaming after 5-7 years when he/she grows up and finds that minecraft is boring. Then he ends up playing GTA or modern warfare.

Problem here isn't games but people around. Even if you would delete minecraft she would still play it or see it in her friend houses or in school. So kid will follow what his pears play. So if his pears play minecraft they will all play minecraft etc.

Imo best way to cure kid from minecraft retardation is just to cut short those 5-7 years and get him straight into GTA. Once kid get used to GTA he won't play minecraft anymore. Personally tested it and it works.

From that point you can actually show kid actual good games and there is chance he/she will like it.

 

[Joni Odin von Hassenstein]

Iznaliu! How dare you disagree with me? How dare you???

 

[HoboForEternity]

King's bounty armores princess.

It has a nice female protagonist, and my 9 years old cousin can play itn in lower difficulty it wont be too hard tbh

 

[YES!]

online

Don't rot your kid's brains with MMO trash people.

I find it crazy that people still have the raiding mindset when they think of mmorpgs. I play them as single player games solo. When my kids actually play a game instead of watching other people play games online they always play with people regardless if it is a single player or multiplayer game. They are always talking on that fucking headset. When I play an mmorpg I ignore everyone and never talk. When I played mmorpgs with my oldest daughter I turn the chat box off and she only plays with me and communicates by talking to me. The only time this was every an issue was in Tera since 90% of the community seems to be dressed as whore children. Little girls dressed as prostitutes. It is weird. But in most mmos I can trn all the communications off so if she plays alone no one can communicate with her. She will never see them speak or hear them.

A ton of mmorpgs are fun if played as a single player game. And most of those are now free to play now.

 

[Iznaliu]

Iznaliu! How dare you disagree with me? How dare you???

Disagreement is the first step to enlightenment.

 

[Invictus]

I remember that the old Sierra/Lucasarts games were pretty popular with girls and something like Quest for Glory would fit the bill perfectly, there are even free VGA remakes of the first Sierra Games too

Heroes of Might and Magic is pretty basic but with colorful graphics and great art it still hold up

Zelda is definetly a great option too and coming out of Minecraft it might make it easier to pick up and enjoy

A JRPG like Final Fantasy 4 is fun for kinds too, I used to play that with my nephew watching and eventually he would pick up the game and play on his own

 

[udm]

Lots of good suggestions ITT, many shit ones too, but Wayward Son if you really want something to kickstart your baby sister's RPG career, start here: https://www.projectaon.org/
Android version: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.GDVGames.LoneWolfBiblio&hl=en
Dead tree version a.k.a. best version: https://www.ebay.com/sch/Books/267/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=lone+wolf

I mean, it's turn-based, simple, doesn't require hand-eye coordination, and you get to do brotherly reading time with her. Don't be one of those shitty plebeian brothers/parents that gets their siblings/kids games, only to walk away to go do their own thang.

EDIT:
Although come to think about it, by the end of Book 1 when she gets the

Spoiler

Sommerswerd

you can actually walk away to do your own thang. Win win situation.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

online

Don't rot your kid's brains with MMO trash people.

I find it crazy that people still have the raiding mindset when they think of mmorpgs. I play them as single player games solo. When my kids actually play a game instead of watching other people play games online they always play with people regardless if it is a single player or multiplayer game. They are always talking on that fucking headset. When I play an mmorpg I ignore everyone and never talk. When I played mmorpgs with my oldest daughter I turn the chat box off and she only plays with me and communicates by talking to me. The only time this was every an issue was in Tera since 90% of the community seems to be dressed as whore children. Little girls dressed as prostitutes. It is weird. But in most mmos I can trn all the communications off so if she plays alone no one can communicate with her. She will never see them speak or hear them.

A ton of mmorpgs are fun if played as a single player game. And most of those are now free to play now.

 

[ilitarist]

King's bounty armores princess.

It has a nice female protagonist, and my 9 years old cousin can play itn in lower difficulty it wont be too hard tbh

I'd agree with that but I think even on a lower difficulty it may be too much for 8 year old. It's a kind of game where you can make irreversible bad decision like getting wrong skills or locking yourself in an unwinnable situation or depleting troops. I'd say you need some game that either doesn't allow you make a wrong choice or instantly kills you for it.

First category is probably all those story adventure games like Telltale's Walking Dead or Life is Strange. But even if you're not an overprotecting prude you have to admit that those games mostly deal with murder, rape, undead and other things you wouldn't want to show to a little girl. By the way, strange that you see those things in games that are most suitable for little girls gameplay-wise. Anyway, I think there's King's Quest (new one) which is OK in this regard. Not an RPG, of course.

In the latter you have... JRPGs. Like Final Fantasy 9 (or 6, as others have suggested, I just think that 9 is probably more suitable for a modern children with its timeless Pixar look). If you're having any troubles you can always grind and it has no autoleveling so you can't screw up. Or if you don't like JRPGs there are ARPGs like Torchlight. It's bright, it's not very serious and, again, you can grind. If you don't care about optimal builds you can always get equipment with highest number. No story but a fun grinding.

 

[Joni Odin von Hassenstein]

It has a nice female protagonist