RPG Codex's Best RPGs - 2019 - RESULTS ARE OUT!

[stony3k]

mediocre gameplay, ok RPG, good writing?

This describes Planescape: Torment too

 

[Zed]

I'm glad everybody are making their own interpretations of the list so that every game is a winner

 

[cvv]

Why are the results buried deep in the page 40 I can't even.

Results largely expected. Btw Kingmaker as the second best game of the last five years? Really? 'k.

which ones are better

I'm not saying I'm just saying. Haven't played it as it looks like a parody on generic but 'k. Maybe it really is a Top 15 RPGs f All Times material, what do I know.

 

[Zed]

Why are the results buried deep in the page 40 I can't even.

Results largely expected. Btw Kingmaker as the second best game of the last five years? Really? 'k.

which ones are better

I'm not saying I'm just saying. Haven't played it as it looks like a parody on generic but 'k. Maybe it really is a Top 15 RPGs f All Times material, what do I know.

That's not what you initially reacted to. You wrote 2nd best last 5 years. It very well could be.
Top 15 all time? tbh, probably that too, but it's a little more debatable.

 

[Maculo]

I am not surprised to see newer games on the list (Witcher 3, Kingmaker, Pillars, DOS, etc.), but I am surprised how high up the list some are, aside from perhaps AoD.

 

[DalekFlay]

This poll really makes me feel like I need to play AoD and Kingmaker as soon as I can. Might give up my love/hate with Dark Souls going on right now and dive in.

 

[felipepepe]

This poll really makes me feel like I need to play AoD and Kingmaker as soon as I can.

Yeah, one thing this poll definitely settled is that the Codex likes Kingmaker WAAAAAAY more than Pillars. Even PoE 1 + PoE 2 combined have less than 2/3 of the points that Kingmaker got.

 

[pomenitul]

Pathfinder: Kingmaker, a game that's been out for less than a year, whose third DLC is still in the works, whose bugs haven't even been thoroughly quashed yet, is the 13th greatest CRPG of all time.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

What these results are telling me is that there's a pretty heavy late-1990s bias here.

It's not bias if it is true.

 

[laclongquan]

What these results are telling me is that there's a pretty heavy late-1990s bias here.

here's an alternative: CRPGs peaked during a very small window of time and the results reflect this

No, computer games in general peaked around 2000.
But for CRPGs it was just a renaissance.

Agreed, there's clearly a giant leap in quality in the 1987-1992 era, and a renaissance in the 1997-2002 era.

Then death and despair for almost a decade.

I still think we are in an "Age of Incline" since 2012, with more developers and interesting games being released, but it's like music: full of fragmented niche stuff. I wonder if we'll get a big, new name in the Top 10.

Maybe Cyberpunk 2077, if they make it more RPG-like... then again, the new Deus Ex games flopped pretty hard on this poll....much more than I expected.

Niche is the trend nowadays. You might do popular stuffs for money, but to make fame you need to do niche.

 

[GloomFrost]

Pathfinder: Kingmaker, a game that's been out for less than a year, whose third DLC is still in the works, whose bugs haven't even been thoroughly quashed yet, is the 13th greatest CRPG of all time.

Yep correct. What is your point? Do we need to wait for 10 years and make some community restoration patch before voting for it??

 

[fantadomat]

Why are the results buried deep in the page 40 I can't even.

It's on page 15 now. Added a link to the OP.

Week one patch includes a objective compass. When is the roadmap coming to this community?

 

[Vlajdermen]

So, here are the Top 50 games, as voted by 361 codexers:

Spoiler

Arcanum is in the top 5, there's plenty of Slavic RPGs with Underrail being particularly high up, ELEX got its due recognition and that autistic robot game is nowhere to be seen. I knew you wouldn't let me down, Codex.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Perhaps the fact they're not RPG's had something to do with it?

If the original DX is considered an RPG I don't see how DXHR and DXMD aren't.

Because in HR/MD:

1. you don't need any of the upgrades to complete the game;
2. specialization doesn't exist and is even discouraged;
   
3. the upgrades for the most part feel kinda useless and unnecessary.

None of this happens in Deus Ex.

 

[Zed]

Pathfinder: Kingmaker, a game that's been out for less than a year, whose third DLC is still in the works, whose bugs haven't even been thoroughly quashed yet, is the 13th greatest CRPG of all time.

fallout, pst, bloodlines etc are such buggless, flawless masterpieces

 

[Delterius]

Pathfinder: Kingmaker, a game that's been out for less than a year, whose third DLC is still in the works, whose bugs haven't even been thoroughly quashed yet, is the 13th greatest CRPG of all time.

i like being a king

 

[unfairlight]

you don't need any of the upgrades to complete the game;

I don't recall that you do in the original Deus Ex either.

specialization doesn't exist and is even discouraged;

That's very debatable. While it's true that HR and MD are more lax with the amount of upgrade points you get, specializing with the way you play is still going to be a more effective approach from the start.

the upgrades for the most part feel kinda useless and unnecessary.

Do they? They open up new paths in the level, allow you to engage in combat more effectively or use your consumables more efficiently. This is exactly how it was in the original.

 

[Efe]

I deleted it because I was posting it as the thread was getting split and it ended up in the old one. Infinitron did nothing wrong.

so its still infinitrons fault for splitting threads when theres no need for it?

 

[Delterius]

I deleted it because I was posting it as the thread was getting split and it ended up in the old one. Infinitron did nothing wrong.

so its still infinitrons fault for splitting threads when theres no need for it?

splitting threads is fine

 

[Humanophage]

Pathfinder: Kingmaker, a game that's been out for less than a year, whose third DLC is still in the works, whose bugs haven't even been thoroughly quashed yet, is the 13th greatest CRPG of all time.

1. If you consider it on its own merits and disregard innovation as a factor, it is very good and has some significant advantages over major games. For example, compared to IE games which have fairly similar gameplay, it has significantly better character progression and better exploration.
2. It was dragged through the mud by people who can't wait a few months for bugs to get fixed and who bizarrely don't care about the underlying gameplay. Someone has to bring back justice.
3. It has a correct and rare philosophy behind it, which is a somewhat faithful attempt to imitate P&P warts and all instead of "optimising" it for a primitive audience. This makes it unusually close in spirit to older games.
4. It would be boring to have the same old top as always, so I had a quota for exceptional newer games.

 

[pomenitul]

I've already discussed its pros and cons elsewhere with utmost Sawyerian balance and have no wish to do so again. Tl;dr: it's a decent game, just undeserving of the mad praise being lavished upon it. One of the top 40 CRPGs of all time would be more like it.

 

[Delterius]

I've already discussed its pros and cons elsewhere with utmost Sawyerian balance and have no wish to do so again. Tl;dr: it's a decent game, just undeserving of the mad praise being lavished upon it. One of the top 40 CRPGs of all time would be more like it.

wrong

 

[~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸-AIN'T]

Codex likes a game slightly more than I do so it's a bad list

 

[pomenitul]

I actually said that it's a decent list, all things considered (kind of like PF:KM itself). Get your facts straight, buddy.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Even more pointless lists, anyone? I thought it would be fun to compare the biggest old-school CRPG series:

Spoiler

I know Gold Box isn't a single series but I don't care. The formatting sucks. I also don't care.
I only counted main entries, so no jap Wiz, Ultima Underworld or Dark Messiah.

From highest- to lowest-scoring:
1. Wizardry:

No points for II and III, unsurprisingly. IV plummeted, while I and V climbed slightly. I'm surprised that Proving Grounds earned twice as many points as VI. Who are these mysterious retro-gamers? Turning to the only non-retro game of the series, 8 dropping ten places is a bloody travesty, and I am much disappoint.
As a series, Wizardry dropped 73 places since the previous poll.
Points total: 283
Total # of votes: 107
Series average: 2.6

2. Might and Magic:

No votes for IX, not even meme ones. Only one, and a single-pointer at that, to VIII, courtesy of laclongquan. Slight improvements for I and II, which is a bit surprising to me, but doesn't really tells us anything while they're both so low on the list. The big change is III, dropping a whopping 85 positions from just inside the top 50 to outside the top 100. And only 2 votes, too. Maybe new voters have only played Xeen?
As a series, M&M dropped 172 places since the previous poll.
Points total: 206
Total # of votes: 90
Series average: 2.3

3. Ultima:

Not surprisingly, voters mostly went for the big four, with no votes for I, III, VIII or IX. Very surprisingly, II got a single five-pointer, from some new guy named Irata. Is he genuine? Who knows, he might be the only person on this forum who's played it. Ultima II the only game to make its debut on this year's list apart from MMX, which wasn't available last time. Also of note is the huge 61-place jump for VI, which sounds impressive if you ignore the fact that it only got six votes. Seems not many people go for VI, now or in the previous poll. I assume the points for VII include both Black Gate and Serpent Isle. Naturally, it's where most of the points went.
One huge piece of incline related to the Ultima series: unlike last time, Worlds of Ultima: Martian Dreams got a point! Pyreen, whoever you are, you're the man.
As a series, Ultima climbed ‭27‬ places since the previous poll, owing to the meteoric rise of VI.
Points total: ‭146‬
Total # of votes: 64
Series average: 2.3

4. Gold Box:

Terrible poll for Gold Box. Five pointless games, and three with only one vote each. Voters seem to have consolidated around Pool of Radiance, which attains a very respectable 26th place in the poll. Meanwhile, DQoK suffers the biggest plunge of any game on this list, dropping 101 places. Its single vote, and point, was awarded to it by the ever vigilant octavius. Dreadful business, dreadful.
As a series, the Gold Box games dropped 255‬ places since the previous poll. In fact, it probably dropped more than that, since these results don't account for games which dropped out of the list entirely, but I'm too lazy to check.
Points total: ‭111
Total # of votes: 41
Series average: 2.7

Some more hot facts:
Most popular game: Wizardry 8, with 119 points from 45 voters. For reference, that's more points and more votes than for all the Gold Box games combined.
Highest averaging game: Ultima II, with an average of 5.0 points.
Highest averaging game with more than 5 votes: Might and Magic II, with an average of 3.4 points.
Highest averaging series: Gold Box, with an average of 2.7 points. Considering the number of votes, however, Wizardry's 2.6 is probably the more impressive result.

In conclusion: they all did terribly, and we all suck.