Which of these are the best games of the CRPG revival? [Sep 2021 Edition]

[rusty_shackleford]

Disco did something new and inspired a lot of games to follow their example. It was actually a mini revolution

yea but this isn't a poll for visual novels

D:OS2 is also in the poll though.

you mean a party-based, turn-based cRPG?
yes, yes it is.

why do people get so butthurt that a visual novel is in fact a visual novel? do you think every game you like is automatically an rpg no matter what?

 

[Kem0sabe]

I think underrail is vastly superior than any other game on the list, its nowhere near to being a close competition.

I would rate the shadowrun games better if they werent designed for mobile, the stories are interesting as well as the graphics and combat, but too many compromisses were made to cut down the complexity of the games and they suffered for it.

 

[samuraigaiden]

It's a RPG if it has role playing in it

Spoiler

 

[toro]

There was a similar poll a month ago: What is the best RPG of the CRPG Renaissance?

Please learn the difference.

Old poll:

1. The Age of Decadence 57 vote(s) 25.7%
2. Underrail 76 vote(s) 34.2%

New poll:

1. Age of Decadence 20 vote(s) 51.3%
2. UnderRail 17 vote(s) 43.6%

We will vote until the results are correct.

 

[Trashos]

I voted "best" games, not "good". From the ones I have played, of course.
Age of Decadence, Underrail, Pathfinder Kingmaker are truly awesome games. All 3 of them entered EASILY my personal Top10 evah.

 

[Louis_Cypher]

Also, no Blackguards?

Yeah I know... I realized after man, it was too late. I even missed Underworld Ascendant despite mentioning it in the OP. I could have added PC ARPGs too I suppose for autistic completeness.

I'm not a General subforum expert, with a tabulated list of recent and upcoming CRPGs in my head, checking thread updates daily. I'm better informed than most gamers, aware of history and prestige in the genre, but not a Codexian of the highest degree of expertise, with intricate knowledge of the new indie stuff. The poll took about an hour to get into order by release date (grouping franchises together). I knew I'd miss some, and get salty comments. I just wanted to know what main "revival" games I should give another chance, because some didn't capture me. I also get the distinct impression a lot of the New Wave has been empty and lacking verisimilitude; just trying to emulate fantasy they don't understand. Everyone knows polls always miss stuff, unless you spend a lot of effort checking them; it's just a bit of fun, that people can enjoy or ignore it at pleasure.

Top five results so far:

1). Age of Decadence

2). Underrail

3). Shadowrun: Dragonfall

4). Pathfinder: Kingmaker

5). ATOM RPG

UnderRail and Age of Decadence as expected are the two beloved. From what I've heard of them, maybe these Pathfinder games shouldn't be anywhere near the top 5. My personal favorites are Legend of Grimrock. I was asking the other day in another thread whether there was anything inspiring or worthwhile in the Pathfinder games in terms of themes/heroism, since I haven't followed them (they look meh to me), and the consensus was they represented decline in fantasy toward plebeian non-genre tastes. They might even be decent gameplay wise, but people reported in the WOTR thread they just 'turned off' caring partway through the AP. I absolutely got bored beyond words by Pillars of Eternity. So it got me wondering if even a single one of the "isometric" or "infinity engine-style" games in the revival were remotely good in the sense of making people want to finish them, explore them, etc. Judging by poll numbers, it looks like the isometric revival in particular was pretty uninspiring, except Iron Tower's 'Age of Decadence', which is it's own thing. I agree with one of the early comments; most of what I played has barely kept be interested.

 

[Reinhardt]

No Battle Brothers - no vote.

 

[bionicman]

No Redaxium, the true successor to Fallout, no vote!

 

[Trashos]

I was asking the other day in another thread whether there was anything inspiring or worthwhile in the Pathfinder games in terms of themes/heroism

Kingmaker (I am talking about the game, not the campaign it is based on- I only know of the game) has A LOT about forgiveness, mentorship, responsibility, authority etc. Much of it is part of heroism or, in Kingmaker's case, all of it is part of being a King. It was a very good work. But keep in mind that I don't read fantasy, I mostly read classical literature.

Also keep in mind that it is not in your face, and the themes take a while to unfold. I was mostly annoyed at the beginning, before I realized what was going on. I haven't looked at the new one yet.

 

[50726f73706572]

No Redaxium? Illegitimate poll.

No Redaxium, the true successor to Fallout, no vote!

It's only a matter time before all of these games are never heard of again except when one is comparing to Redaxium.

Vote on these while you can, the biggest thing in CRPGs is coming just around the corner.

 

[Humbaba]

Also, no Blackguards?

Yeah I know... I realized after man, it was too late. I even missed Underworld Ascendant despite mentioning it in the OP. I could have added PC ARPGs too I suppose for autistic completeness.

I'm not a General subforum expert, with a tabulated list of recent and upcoming CRPGs in my head, checking thread updates daily. I'm better informed than most gamers, aware of history and prestige in the genre, but not a Codexian of the highest degree of expertise, with intricate knowledge of the new indie stuff. The poll took about an hour to get into order by release date (grouping franchises together). I knew I'd miss some, and get salty comments. I just wanted to know what main "revival" games I should give another chance, because some didn't capture me. I also get the distinct impression a lot of the New Wave has been empty and lacking verisimilitude; just trying to emulate fantasy they don't understand. Everyone knows polls always miss stuff, unless you spend a lot of effort checking them; it's just a bit of fun, that people can enjoy or ignore it at pleasure.

Top five results so far:

1). Age of Decadence

2). Underrail

3). Shadowrun: Dragonfall

4). Pathfinder: Kingmaker

5). ATOM RPG

UnderRail and Age of Decadence as expected are the two beloved. From what I've heard of them, maybe these Pathfinder games shouldn't be anywhere near the top 5. My personal favorites are Legend of Grimrock. I was asking the other day in another thread whether there was anything inspiring or worthwhile in the Pathfinder games in terms of themes/heroism, since I haven't followed them (they look meh to me), and the consensus was they represented decline in fantasy toward plebeian non-genre tastes. They might even be decent gameplay wise, but people reported in the WOTR thread they just 'turned off' caring partway through the AP. I absolutely got bored beyond words by Pillars of Eternity. So it got me wondering if even a single one of the "isometric" or "infinity engine-style" games in the revival were remotely good in the sense of making people want to finish them, explore them, etc. Judging by poll numbers, it looks like the isometric revival in particular was pretty uninspiring, except Iron Tower's 'Age of Decadence', which is it's own thing. I agree with one of the early comments; most of what I played has barely kept be interested.

Good picks so far tbh. Gonna definitely pick up Atom RPG + Trudograd during the next sale, together with Wrathfinder. Is Underrail actually good? I've read several reviews that say that the writing is kinda shit.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Too many games makes an altoholic's head explode. There is no keeping up.

Poll spelling note: Expeditions not expiditions.

These polls don't help my hoarding addiction. Battle Brothers.... did I get that? Seems a lot of DLC as well.

I really enjoy hard setting when there is additional incentive besides personal reasons. Should rewards be greater on Hard settings or less? A truly difficult setting would give less but my mind wants it to give more. Find out decades later goldbox xp is the same? Bleh!

 

[KateMicucci]

Tyranny is underrated. Its much better than PoE1.

 

[Butter]

Good picks so far tbh. Gonna definitely pick up Atom RPG + Trudograd during the next sale, together with Wrathfinder. Is Underrail actually good? I've read several reviews that say that the writing is kinda shit.

You don't play Underrail for the story. It's okay, but the point of the game is exploration, combat, and buildfagging.

 

[cvv]

Non-EE DOS1 was harder than EE tactician.

Normal difficulty in the vanilla harder than Tactician in EE? It's more likely your builds were much more efficient in EE.

I remember OG p. hard in the 1st act but then turning into a total cakewalk. Most RPGs have busted difficulty curve but this was extreme even for the usual standards of the genre. EE felt more balanced but the 2nd half was still p. easy. Don't remember EE bosses having dramatically less HP than in vanilla.

Absolutely seconded the rest of your picks btw - LoG2, Vikings, Dragonfall, Grimoire are the elite. I'd add Witcher 3 and Kingdom Come alongside Elex, to complete the holy trinity of great open-world RPGs of the modern era.

 

[ItsChon]

Good picks so far tbh. Gonna definitely pick up Atom RPG + Trudograd during the next sale, together with Wrathfinder. Is Underrail actually good? I've read several reviews that say that the writing is kinda shit.

Underrail is one of the greatest RPGs of all time. Amazing exploration, combat, build variety, world building, and writing. Underrail has changed a ton since it was first released with the new expansion and the constant content updates it has been receiving, so many old critiques don't really apply or apply much less to Underrail in 2021.

The lore and world building is really some of the best out of any game I've ever played.

 

[blessed king of longing]

Good picks so far tbh. Gonna definitely pick up Atom RPG + Trudograd during the next sale, together with Wrathfinder. Is Underrail actually good? I've read several reviews that say that the writing is kinda shit.

Underrail is more of a shootem up since peaceful options are extremely sparse and in many cases you actually have to invest in several speech/sneaking skills and submit to ball crushing stealth to even unlock non-combat gameplay. The writing is also very much a poor mans imitation of Fallout.

It's basically Fallout with uglier graphics, less writing and more combat. Zoomers love it because they don't have the patience to read and love to see big numbers on the screen.

Underrail is one of the greatest RPGs of all time. Amazing exploration, combat, build variety, world building, and writing. Underrail has changed a ton since it was first released with the new expansion and the constant content updates it has been receiving, so many old critiques don't really apply or apply much less to Underrail in 2021.

The lore and world building is really some of the best out of any game I've ever played.

Coming from someone who pretends to, but hasn't actually bothered to play Fallout - the franchise Underrail takes a lot of elements from - this is hilarious

The "exploration" is hundreds of painfully long loading screens leading to areas filled with hostile mooks and finding scrap items to sell to vendors - but the arbitrary trading restrictions forces you to lug tons of loot and place it on the floor next to traders or in your quarters, or just straight up leave it.
Replay value is low since the game is very linear, basically the only reason to play it more than once is to see big numbers happening with a different gear setup, which gets old quickly.

All in all it's perfect if you have autism and are completely blind to the history of RPG's, but there's a lot left to be desired, like say, an experience where you don't have to kill thousands of enemies Call of Duty style just to play the game.

You are forced into a very narrow experience. And the only way the game has really changed is build nerfs/buffs, I don't know where you're getting this claim from. At least you stopped claiming the graphics are good

The "constant content updates" have been incredibly sparse and the game has been in development since 2009 and still isn't finished.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Did underrail get a construction set like Blades of Avernum or certain other rpgs? I never looked into it. While I have these

I look at this with interest

 

[Trashos]

Replay value is low since the game is very linear

This... is totally false. Underrail has great replay value due to the great variety of builds. It is also open-world, so I have no idea where you pulled the "linear" thing from.
There are several people with thousands of hours in Underrail around here.

The writing is also very much a poor mans imitation of Fallout.

The first priority in Underrail is indeed combat.
That said, the lore is great, and there is a whole philosophical system underneath its world-building. An NPC in the expansion spilled the beans about it. So there are a lot of aspects to like about the game, but yeah, whoever doesn't like its magnificent combat had better stay away. There is a lot of it.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

There are several people with thousands of hours in Underrail around here.

this is just typical buildfag autism

 

[lycanwarrior]

Voted for the games that I played with the exception of Torment Tides of Numenara.

I did ultimately enjoy the game, but unfortunately it is a massive step down from the original Planescape Torment...

 

[ItsChon]

I love dicks in my ass.

Now now, settle down boy. You run from one thread only to shit up another? Silly cuck, always orbiting your bull.

 

[Popiel]

Gothic.

 

[Gregz]

Poll needs

The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk

 

[Trashos]

There are several people with thousands of hours in Underrail around here.

this is just typical buildfag autism

Underrail features heavy buildporn, it is open world where you can do things in different order, there are 4 occasions where you choose between different exclusive factions, there is a lot of subtle narrative (no BS, it is bordering on being too subtle, and I am a sucker for subtle), and there are also secondary ways that your story can unfold (see spoiler). Why do I even have to argue about Underrail's replayability?

Spoiler

For example, if you mutate.