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Original settings in RPG game

Ol' Willy

Arcane
Zionist Agent Vatnik
Joined
May 3, 2020
Messages
24,568
Location
Reichskommissariat Russland ᛋᛋ
The Precursors is an FPS with RPG elements where you explore several sci-fi planets, some of which are pretty exotic.
What a game, man. Although, if anyone wants to check it out be warned: it's literally unfinished, in the best traditions of shoestring budget Russian game development. There's literally no actual ending to this game, it ends on cliffhanger.

Xenus 2 was made on the same engine, and it's as much rpg as Fallout 4 is.
 

Goromorg

Savant
Joined
Aug 23, 2015
Messages
278
Dark Souls? Eerie setting, almost everyone you meet is either undead or some sort of demon, and the game has unique enemy, armor and weapon design.
 
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Joined
Oct 7, 2015
Messages
637
Location
Kangaroo Island
Caves of Qud

From Steam:
Caves of Qud is a science fantasy roguelike epic steeped in retrofuturism, deep simulation, and swathes of sentient plants. Come inhabit an exotic world and chisel through layers of thousand-year-old civilizations. Decide: is it a dying earth, or is it on the verge of rebirth?
Who are you?
Play the role of a mutant indigenous to the salt-spangled dunes and jungles of Qud, or play a pure-strain descendant from one of the few remaining eco-domes—the toxic arboreta of Ekuemekiyye, the Holy City; the ice-sheathed arcology of Ibul; or the crustal mortars of Yawningmoon.

You arrive at the oasis-hamlet of Joppa, along the far rim of Moghra'yi, the Great Salt Desert. All around you, moisture farmers tend to groves of viridian watervine. There are huts wrought from rock salt and brinestalk. On the horizon, Qud's jungles strangle chrome steeples and rusted archways to the earth. Further and beyond, the fabled Spindle rises above the fray and pierces the cloud-ribboned sky.

You clutch your rifle, or your vibroblade, or your tattered scroll, or your poisonous stinger, or your hypnotized goat. You approach a watervine farmer—he lifts the brim of his straw hat and says, "Live and drink, friend."

Funnily enough if you disable permadeath in the options, CoQ can be played as a normal CRPG instead of a Roguelike and it's actually pretty good at it.

The locations are all interesting, and the setting absolutely menaces with atmosphere. It has a pretty fun main quest, a few good side quests, and the random generated ones aren't that bad because the content they send you into is at least randomly generated itself. Even if you turn permadeath off, the game is still pretty damn hard and you still need to actually know how to build characters in it to be able to finish the game without some extreme save scumming.

It's just a pity that the devs all have soy milk in their coffee.
 

GloomFrost

Arcane
Joined
Dec 9, 2014
Messages
993
Location
Northern wastes
Inquisitor. Playing as a religious fanatic or a manipulative/corrupted inquisitor in a low, dark post-ap fantasy world. I highly recommend to at least check it out.
 

Darth Roxor

Royal Dongsmith
Staff Member
Joined
May 29, 2008
Messages
1,878,404
Location
Djibouti
It's a tragic bromance!
Not a bromance if the other dude is a rat. Not all that tragic if you get to kill him.
You got something against rats, bitchboy?
Sure I do. A baseball bat, Heavy boots and rat poison.
Darth Roxor

AssassinMarkGibbons.jpg


don't tread on me
 

Cat Dude

Savant
Joined
Nov 5, 2018
Messages
497
Western style rpg in general have generic settings as far as I remember. Only very few of them are originals.
 

vazha

Arcane
Joined
Aug 24, 2013
Messages
2,063
If action games with RPG-lite element count, The Cursed Crusade is set during the IVth Crusade (yep, THAT ONE) and you get to assault Contantinople, among other things. Everything else is cliche, including the demon-possession plot etc, but I dont remember than many games that had Byzantines and the Varangian Guard in it.
 

ValeVelKal

Arcane
Joined
Aug 24, 2011
Messages
1,604
Almost everything by Spiders:
- Mars: War Logs
- Technomancer
- Bound by Flame
- Greedfall

Especially the first two.
Bound by flame is typical fantasy, and not really good.

Another vote for Albion, since it was mentionned and ignored. Starts on a spaceship but does not stay there.

Else, Cyberpunk (so the three Shadowrun, Dragonfall being the best by a landslide, but also Dex for a platform RPG of adequate quality)

If you are not rebutted by old games, then Dark Sun and the Ultima Travels on Mars and in the Jungle.

I am currently playing AP but it feels more action with strong RPG element than anything else.

For prison colony feel : Gothic I and Dungeon Rats. I could not get into Age of Decadence though.
 

CryptRat

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
3,548
In Superhero League of Hoboken you control some super hero losers in a post-apocalyptic world. I love the game but you must at least not hate classic adventure games because it's both a classic party-based RPG and a classic adventure game with a lot of puzzles.
Jewel of Arabia: Dreamers uses an Arabian nights settings. It's good.
Silk is based on the silk road, unfortunately I can't say RPG systems or systems at all are any deep. Note that at least I didn't think the game was easy (increasingly hard objectives, with a time limit, quickly become hard to fulfill), only that it was simple.
Theseus: Journey to Athens takes place in ancient Greece. Turn-based combat and branching story.
Pioneers takes place in an exploration era setting. It's promising and you can get some fun by playing it now but it is also unfortunately on hold.
Necken uses a folk setting, it's a bit of a rogue-like but with real-time exploration (combat is turn-based but not like classic rogue-likes).
Laplace No Ma is a horror/investigation dungeon crawler. It is a SNES JRPG but is actually quite western-inspired (P&P like system with low numbers and progression ...). It's good. The translation used to be broken but it was fixed recently.
Hollow is a horror/investigation game clearly inspired by Laplace No Ma.
Robinson is a roguelike which, like its names suggest, tries to be Robinson Crusoë, it's very down-to-earth with down-to-earth survival.
 
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Bruma Hobo

Lurker
Joined
Dec 29, 2011
Messages
2,409
Sword of the Samurai, a very enjoyable (and sadly forgotten) RPG/strategy/arcade hybrid, and a must play game if you're into historical pseudo-simulationist games like Pirates! and Darklands.
 

Technomancer

Liturgist
Joined
Dec 24, 2018
Messages
1,417
Both shadowrun and Bloodlines settings are pretty rare. One is fantasy cyberpunk, with orcs and magic shit living alongside megacorps and cybernetics, all set in a dystopian future. It doesn't even look ridiculous somehow. VTM Bloodlines is set in a modern world vampire setting. The settings are detailed and well-done thanks to the tabletop roots.

Risen maybe? It's pretty generic overall, but it is set in the early modern age on a tropical island.

Seriously try Alpha Protocol, small budget but good story and fun characters. Choices you make can actually influence stuff, very intricate.

Expedition Vikings qualify. Middle ages but not fantasy. Historical RPG's are extremely uncommon.

You could also try Exanima, it is generic fantasy on the surface but it gets bizarre fast the deeper you go.
 
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Marat

Arcane
Wumao
Joined
Jan 6, 2017
Messages
2,585
Isn't anyone going to mention Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader? Medieval Spain preparing to invade England in a world where magic returned to the world during the crusades. And the mongols are goblins now.
 

ValeVelKal

Arcane
Joined
Aug 24, 2011
Messages
1,604
Isn't anyone going to mention Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader? Medieval Spain preparing to invade England in a world where magic returned to the world during the crusades. And the mongols are goblins now.
Yeah but the game was terrible once you leave Lisboa so I can’t recommand it to anyone.
 

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