MRY
Wormwood Studios
Yes. It is possible to come up with either (1) alternative gameplay or (2) ersatz combat / gear (DE for sure has you equip gear, so I'm not sure what you mean on this score) / gold to replicate cRPG gameplay. Once you settle on what that gameplay is, it dictates what kind of setting would work to transform mechanics into atmosphere and narrative. For instance, it's pretty clear to me that Revachol -- with its densely packed factions, lack of central authority, smashed-open layers of history, horror aspects was constructed to wrap around a detective RPG focused on a fractured mind talking to itself. DE's gameplay in the Forgotten Realms would be worse than in Revachol, just as normal RPG gameplay would be worse in Revachol than in FR.
I think an Earthsea nu-adventure game centered around dialogues and minimal puzzle solving would work fine with the setting, though nu-adventures can be dropped into almost any setting, as Telltale Games proved. Probably you could also do a Choice of Games style Earthsea game. But I don't see what about the Earthsea setting would work well with RPG gameplay, no matter how much fake meat you use to replace the RPG beef.
By the way, I think the KOTOR games are good examples here. I really like them a lot, and they had the advantage of an adolescent zoo/theme-park setting centered around WARS and exploration and toys -- exactly what ought to translate well into a cRPG. Yet still neither game feels particularly like a Star Wars story. Star Wars (TFA notwithstanding) isn't really about dungeon diving to get map pieces or minmaxing gear or leveling up. Pushing Star Wars into a Bioware RPG mold distorted the setting in significant ways. Earthsea is much farther from that; translating it to a traditional RPG would break it.
I think an Earthsea nu-adventure game centered around dialogues and minimal puzzle solving would work fine with the setting, though nu-adventures can be dropped into almost any setting, as Telltale Games proved. Probably you could also do a Choice of Games style Earthsea game. But I don't see what about the Earthsea setting would work well with RPG gameplay, no matter how much fake meat you use to replace the RPG beef.
By the way, I think the KOTOR games are good examples here. I really like them a lot, and they had the advantage of an adolescent zoo/theme-park setting centered around WARS and exploration and toys -- exactly what ought to translate well into a cRPG. Yet still neither game feels particularly like a Star Wars story. Star Wars (TFA notwithstanding) isn't really about dungeon diving to get map pieces or minmaxing gear or leveling up. Pushing Star Wars into a Bioware RPG mold distorted the setting in significant ways. Earthsea is much farther from that; translating it to a traditional RPG would break it.