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your 5 (6) essential RPGs

Latro

Arcane
Joined
Jun 5, 2013
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Vita umbratilis
Roguelkes are a subgenre of CRPG - right? Let's go:
1. CataclysmDDA - roguelike-ish/rpg-ish. Because it's one of my favourite games ever.
2. DCSS - a build from a few years ago. My first real roguelike, nostalgia + it's good + it's one of the major titles in the genre
3. UnrealWorld - roguelike-ish/rpg-ish. Also survival and historical setting. What's not to like.

How hard are these games to get into? I'm interested in them but it seems like you need to know a million keyboard hot keys and tons of information to play effectively.
they're sandbox open-world games at heart, it's not a type of RL I enjoy
 

Jack Of Owls

Arcane
Joined
May 23, 2014
Messages
4,283
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Massachusettes
Just wanted to revise my original list earlier in this topic and put Pathfinder Kingmaker in there somewhere. In many ways, it's the ultimate cRPG, a huge refinement of many of the systems in all the classic AD&D-based games of the past and introduces many new things as well... at least to me it did.
 

Serus

Arcane
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Small but great planet of Potatohole
Rogelikes are really shitty. They have no content and can get away with it because people play for a few hours and then die and then repeat the first levels over and over. They are also mindlessly repetitive, even compared to RPGs. Tome4 is mostly an exception though, mostly.
You almost certainly haven't played a single actual roguelike past the "repeat first level over and over" except maybe TOME4. What you just wrote is literally complete nonsense and is simply counter-factual. Which can be easily verified by anyone interested in the topic so there is no point in such blatant trolling.
Which of curse doesn't mean that shitty roguelikes or ones with little content don't exist. In fact it is a genre with thousands of small, quickly coded games (stuff like a lot of 7DRL games). They sometimes have interesting gameplay and are creative in some ways but don't have large amount of content. But we are talking here about the big titles with long development history or (semi)-professional projects. Stuff like ADOM or Nethack, other good "major" roguelikes, then a few of the good open world ones, even the mentioned by you TOME4, all have massive amount of unique content. Hell, even some of shitty roguelikes have good amount of content - stuff like SOTS: The Pit which is repetitive in its level design still has massive amounts of unique monsters and items and objects, many classes, etc... possibly more than some highly regarded CRPGs on the Codex.
All this is are simple verifiable facts so you might as well stop making an idiot of yourself in public.
If you want to talk about "repetitive" instead of "no content" perhaps we could have a sensible discussion. Once you play/read about/watch any roguelikes come back, we can talk.


Edit: its not it's. Damn, I keep doing it.
 
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Martyr

Arcane
Joined
Jan 28, 2018
Messages
1,102
Location
Bavaria
I've actually been addicted to roguelikes some 10+ years ago up until Binding of Isaac brought up the rise of the roguelite. haven't touched many roguelikes since.
for me the best ones are
- Nethack (my first roguelike and pretty much my gold standard of what a pure roguelike has to be; played it in ASCII, the one with the blue floor tiles and Vulture's Eye. liked the blue floor one the most, Vulture's Eye is too complicated by being isometric instead of top down, which leads to numerous misclicks)
- Angband and DCSS (more accessible than Nethack, but still the core experience)

and the hybrids
- ADOM (more RPG elements present; I think you can even turn off permadeath in one of the newer versions?)
- UnReal World (this is a roguelike per definition, that's why I include it in here. but as mentioned above I treat it as a randomly generated sanbox RPG by removing permadeath)

out of the ones I mentioned I had and have the most fun with UnReal World and ADOM, which are more RPG than roguelike.
 

anvi

Prophet
Village Idiot
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Kelethin
I think Kingmaker seems great at first until it gets boring and repetitive and you are clearing out endless areas full of trash mobs.
 

anvi

Prophet
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Rogelikes are really shitty. They have no content and can get away with it because people play for a few hours and then die and then repeat the first levels over and over. They are also mindlessly repetitive, even compared to RPGs. Tome4 is mostly an exception though, mostly.
You almost certainly haven't played a single actual roguelike past the "repeat first level over and over" except maybe TOME4. What you just wrote is literally complete nonsense and is simply counter-factual. Which can be easily verified by anyone interested in the topic so there is no point in such blatant trolling.
Bullshit. The genre is full of no budget crap with terrible gameplay for aspies. I tried like 5 or 6 roguelikes and they are all the same. Get some standards.
 
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Cyberarmy

Love fool
Patron
Joined
Feb 7, 2013
Messages
8,452
Location
Smyrna - Scalanouva
Divinity: Original Sin 2
Gothic 1-2 (counts as one!)

Eye of the Beholders (still as one)

Might&Magics (same)

Morrowind (its so alienish for me back then, still love the looks of it)

Fallout (the legend)

On the top of the list are Krynn Series for me. Dragonlance setting made me a RP fan both setting and lorewise then I played Death Knights of the Krynn. I may have licked the screen a few times.


:love::love::love::love::love:
 

CryptRat

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
3,548
I think you can even turn off permadeath in one of the newer versions?
I don't think playing roguelikes without permadeath makes for a good experience. Permadeath is fun but it's also an important feature which leads to a different kind of games, most good roguelikes are single character games with susbtantial randomness. Without permadeath better playing hand-crafted party-based games. I don't like games which can't choose, typically classic RPGs with randomize layouts or not enough crafted encounters. Adding an extra option on the top is one thing, making a game which tries to equally support both options is a bad idea IMHO, as an example I think it's the reason why this recent Slave RPG is boring.
 

Aemar

Arcane
Joined
Aug 18, 2018
Messages
6,055
Ultima VII: The Black Gate - a technical marvel, in the most literal sense. So much complexity and interactivity for a game released way back in 1992.

Might&Magic VI - the fact this game shared the setting with HOMM II, a strategy game, was mind-boggling to me back then. Great pacing, plenty of stuff to discover and various creatures to kill.

Jagged Alliance 2 - unmatched vibe and mechanics, best game of its kind for two decades now.

Fallout 1 - my first non-''Ahoy, matey!'' game. What else can be said about this game that hasn't been already said?

BG2 - a game packed with excellent content. Every aspect of it is solid, even the combat, despite being rtwp.
 

NatureOfMan

Educated
Joined
Jan 27, 2019
Messages
77
Most RPGs I've played and liked would probably be on my "must-play" category but if I am to recommend games to someone who just wants to experience the basics of RPGs I'd select the following games:
- Planescape: For the story
- ToEE: For the combat
- Ultima VII: For the way the world was made to feel alive decades before stuff like Radiant AI surfaced
-NWN: For online play
 

laclongquan

Arcane
Joined
Jan 10, 2007
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Searching for my kidnapped sister
Why you disagree, what roguelike has plenty of content and it is not mindlessly repetitive?

Unreal World

EDIT: you can try combat only, raid, rob, kill. you can try hunting animals, setting traps, chasing preys... you can try grow crops, cooking foods... You can build your wooden houses, or you could try your cavern hideout. In order for activities to become repetitive, you are going to need 40 hours at least.
 
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Open Path

Learned
Joined
Jun 25, 2017
Messages
67
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Hesperides
Is this a thread to acknowledge user agendas?

My list of games to save from apocalypse, those with "/" are for decide by dice rolling at the last minute:

Morrowind with Tamriel Rebuilt

Darklands

Arcanum

Betrayal at Krondor

Ultima VII: Tbg / M&M:WoX / Ultima Underworld: TSA / Daggerfall

Gold Box:
I would try to convince that cruel entity to save 3 other games discarded by dice rolling + Dark Sun: Shattered Lands and Planescape

If not possible, 3 Krynns + Pools of Darkness and I would try to include Dark Sun again as Gold Box.
 
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Martyr

Arcane
Joined
Jan 28, 2018
Messages
1,102
Location
Bavaria
I think you can even turn off permadeath in one of the newer versions?
I don't think playing roguelikes without permadeath makes for a good experience.

yeah, but I wouldn't have played for example UnReal World as much as I did, if I really had to stick with the permadeath.
I like playing that game with the "Runaway Slave" beginning, during which you have to kill a village full of Njerpez slavers to get their equipment (and flesh, before an update some years ago). out of 20 tries to kill the Njerpez you will maybe survive once. and even if you survived that, there could be a bear or something darengous right around the corner which means you have to start from scratch again, which takes time and patience. so if I get lucky and kill the slavers I quit the game, copy the save file and play from that point onwards without having to start over 1 billion times if something goes wrong.

I would try to convince that cruel entity to save 3 other games discarded by dice rolling + Dark Sun: Shattered Lands and Planescape

If not possible, 3 Krynns + Pools of Darkness and I would try to include Dark Sun again as Gold Box.

the cruel but righteous god grants your wish to let Dark Sun, the Krynn trilogy and Pools of Darkness live. no luck with Planescape though.
 

Serus

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jul 16, 2005
Messages
6,681
Location
Small but great planet of Potatohole
Rogelikes are really shitty. They have no content and can get away with it because people play for a few hours and then die and then repeat the first levels over and over. They are also mindlessly repetitive, even compared to RPGs. Tome4 is mostly an exception though, mostly.
You almost certainly haven't played a single actual roguelike past the "repeat first level over and over" except maybe TOME4. What you just wrote is literally complete nonsense and is simply counter-factual. Which can be easily verified by anyone interested in the topic so there is no point in such blatant trolling.
Bullshit. The genre is full of no budget crap with terrible gameplay for aspies. I tried like 5 or 6 roguelikes and they are all the same. Get some standards.
Thank You for supporting every word I said. You must be the nicest and most self-defeating troll on the Internet. :salute:
 
Possibly Retarded The Real Fanboy
Joined
Jul 9, 2014
Messages
1,114
Location
Ancient Aliens Spaceship
Earlier i was very picky [and modding crazy] , but now i have 5 favourite types :
1A. Marriage
1B. DLC Children
2. Work
3. Building and maintenance of house.
4. More Work
5. Every crpg game that i have time to play on PC or XBOX OX:)
 
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anvi

Prophet
Village Idiot
Joined
Oct 12, 2016
Messages
7,530
Location
Kelethin
Rogelikes are really shitty. They have no content and can get away with it because people play for a few hours and then die and then repeat the first levels over and over. They are also mindlessly repetitive, even compared to RPGs. Tome4 is mostly an exception though, mostly.
You almost certainly haven't played a single actual roguelike past the "repeat first level over and over" except maybe TOME4. What you just wrote is literally complete nonsense and is simply counter-factual. Which can be easily verified by anyone interested in the topic so there is no point in such blatant trolling.
Bullshit. The genre is full of no budget crap with terrible gameplay for aspies. I tried like 5 or 6 roguelikes and they are all the same. Get some standards.
Thank You for supporting every word I said. You must be the nicest and most self-defeating troll on the Internet. :salute:
You never played a real RPG? How can you think those games have combat and are not repetitive garbage.
 
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Max Damage

Savant
Joined
Mar 1, 2017
Messages
658
Elona
Dwarf Fortress
Daggerfall
Morrowind
Elminage Gothic
Pool of Radiance

since I can only pick 5 games + 1 Goldbox, I chose ones with most length/replayability/fun. Since I'll have all time in the world, Daggerfall's crashes and Elminage Gothic's dogshit interface won't be as annoying.
 

Mightmagic

Augur
Joined
Oct 29, 2013
Messages
118
Might&Magic series (episodes III, IV&V and X)
Drakkhen PC
Baldur's Gate series (1 and 2)
Ravenloft Strahd's possession
NWN 2 base campaign
Stonekeep PC

The others
The Legacy : realm of terror
Lands of Lore 1
Ultima VII
Wizardry VIII
Divinity original sin
The temple of elemental evil
Morrowind
Dragon age origins
Ishar
Might&magic VII
Daggerfall
Tyranny
Pillars of eternity
Lord of xulima
Legend of grimrock
 

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