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Your top 10 RPGs EXCEPT top 20 Codex titles

Haba

Harbinger of Decline
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Land of Rape & Honey ❤️
Codex 2012 MCA Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2
Myeh. In no particular order. Probably would switch a few games around if I really started to think about it.

Ultima IV
Ultima Underworld
Darklands
Betrayal at Krondor
Dark Sun: Shattered Lands
Pool of Radiance
Divinity: Original Sin (pre-shitpatch version)
Grimoire
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen
Disco Elysium

Games that are not RPGs, but what would otherwise make a "top 20" list.
-Sengoku Rance
-Jagged Alliance
-System Shock 2
 

Angelo85

Arcane
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Deutschland
Probably nostalgia induced warping of reality since I played them way back when they were released, yet these particular titles still linger in my mind even after all this time:

Realms of Arkania: Shadows over Riva
Final Fantasy VII (the original is available on Steam for PC so I suppose it counts?)
Albion (not the MMORPG, the successor to Ambermoon and Amberstar)
Temple of Elemental Evil
Dungeon Siege 1

Dead State
Drakensang: The River of Time
I loathe Jeff Vogel, but I'd put an entry of the Avernum hexalogy in my top 10. If you played one you essentially played them all so doesn't really matter which one.
Troubleshooter
Dragon Age: Origins

Honorable mentions:
The Technomancer
Might & Magic X
Mass Effect 2
Hard West
ELEX
 

Reinhardt

Arcane
Joined
Sep 4, 2015
Messages
29,232
Random order

Icewind Dale
Battle Brothers
System Shock 2
Elminage Gothic
Dragon's Dogma
Ar Tonelico 2
Mana Khemia
ToEE
Atelier series - Dusk trilogy
Legend of Heroes - Trails in the Sky trilogy.
 

Lady Error

█▓▒░ ░▒▓█
Patron
Vatnik
Joined
Jan 21, 2021
Messages
9,215
Strap Yourselves In
  1. Wizardry 7
  2. Grimoire
  3. Divinity: Original Sin
  4. Divinity: Original Sin 2
  5. PoE 2: Deadfire
  6. Wizards & Warriors
  7. Shadowrun: Dragonfall
  8. Realms of Arkania: Star Trail
  9. Tyranny
  10. NEO Scavenger
 

Cyberarmy

Love fool
Patron
Joined
Feb 7, 2013
Messages
8,450
Location
Smyrna - Scalanouva
Divinity: Original Sin 2
In no particular order


-Dark Sun: Shattered Lands
-Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen
-Betrayal at Krondor
-Risen 1
-ELEX
-Sengoku Rance
-Chrono Trigger
-The Witcher 1
-Icewind Dale 1-2
-Death Knights of Krynn
 

Red Hexapus

Learned
Joined
Apr 28, 2019
Messages
320
Location
The Land of Potato
> System Shock 2
> Disco Elysium
> Betrayal at Krondor
> Shadowrun: Dragonfall
> World of Xeen
> Star Wars: KoTOR
> Mass Effect 2
> Quest for Glory 4
> Lands of Lore
> Eye of the Beholder 2
 

RIT_SKUA

Literate
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Jan 3, 2022
Messages
23
Location
USA
Im sorry but its just insane levels of detail for about everything in each new location
Maybe, but how did you even get to care about discovering these things given the piss poor characters, boring plot, overwrought/ham-fisted "social commentary" (what is it with these Sci-Fi games and poorly done segregation analogies? Detroit: Become Human did the exact same thing in almost the same awfully constructed, incredibly shoehorned way. Are writers really this insipid?) and bland environments muddying everything right out of the gate? What's the point of having interesting things to look for in the game if the game is unable to give me the motivation to start exploring for them in the first place?
 

Daedalos

Arcane
The Real Fanboy
Joined
Apr 18, 2007
Messages
5,559
Location
Denmark
Disco Elysium
Pillars of Eternity 1
Divinity Original Sin 2
Wasteland 2
Wasteland 3
KOTOR 1
ATOM
Encased
System Shock 2
Diablo 2
 

Van-d-all

Erudite
Joined
Jan 18, 2017
Messages
1,557
Location
Standin' pretty. In this dust that was a city.
Anachronox
Darklands
Disco Elysium (reeeeeeeeeeee)
Divinity: Original Sin 2 (reeeeeeeeeeee)
Final Fantasy VIII (reeeeeeeeeeee)
Kenshi
Kingdom Come Deliverance
Nier: Automata (reeeeeeeeeeee)
Outward
System Shock 2

I'd put Battle Brothers which I love 10/10, but I don't consider it an RPG as much as tactical game, like XCom.

Probably forgot & missed something in all those ever changing rules of yet another Top10.
 

Van-d-all

Erudite
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Jan 18, 2017
Messages
1,557
Location
Standin' pretty. In this dust that was a city.
I'd put Battle Brothers which I love 10/10, but I don't consider it an RPG
Disco Elysium
:retarded:
What constitutes my "what is an RPG" rules doesn't have to adhere to some bullshit status quo. Brothers in BB are "units" not really "characters", in the long run they are disposable. LARP it all you want, but it's a mercenary company sim, they are there to earn me money or die in the process. I don't roleplay them, I use them. Plus BB gameplay is 90% about tactical combat and 10% management. On the other hand, not counting Disco as RPG on behalf on not having combat is something I couldn't give less of a fuck about. Not having combat in a cop game, if anything, only makes it more reasonable than killing a 1000 shit mobs.
 
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Lord_Potato

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
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Nov 24, 2017
Messages
9,835
Location
Free City of Warsaw
In alphabetical order:

Atom RPG
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Disco Elysium
Dragon Age: Origins
Elex
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Wasteland 3
Witcher 1
Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

Honorable mentions go to:
Prelude to Darkness (unfinished and too buggy to find its way into top 10)
Teudogar and the Alliance with Rome (too little meat on these bones, the game could really use a bit more content)
 

Ryan muller

Educated
Joined
Oct 10, 2021
Messages
162
Im sorry but its just insane levels of detail for about everything in each new location
Maybe, but how did you even get to care about discovering these things given the piss poor characters, boring plot, overwrought/ham-fisted "social commentary" (what is it with these Sci-Fi games and poorly done segregation analogies? Detroit: Become Human did the exact same thing in almost the same awfully constructed, incredibly shoehorned way. Are writers really this insipid?) and bland environments muddying everything right out of the gate? What's the point of having interesting things to look for in the game if the game is unable to give me the motivation to start exploring for them in the first place?

Everytime segregation gets used as a narrative device theres this exact same complain.

Really, why it is poorly written? Because it is an obvious analogy to a problem we all know that happened?

Nah, if not this is one of the major points that makes the setting so strong.

You see the law getting way more rigid as time progresses and every single place you visit has its own way of working, which not only makes the small changes feels dynamic as they happen but also makes the setting incredibly well fleshed out for this kind of game, without needing to appeal to melodramatic levels of tragic shit happening like Detroit (which literally ends up in a Concentration camp with a child getting ready to be exterminated. Sorry, not the same thing AT all.)

And not only this is used to great effect in the whole atmosphere to raise the sense of paranoia in the player as you never know which choice or way of tackling down a quest can actually backfire (which, some of them actually do)

but this is also never the focus of the narrative itself, instead just making for a really neat setting for an rpg in which you feel like people around you are already in a pretty bad shape and because of it, if you screw up, everybody will have to suffer because of your actions.


And i would also raise a point about how this kind of stuff is far from new in rpgs.

Arcanum itself has a very non subtle way of handling shit like half ogres or orcs in which people will adress you like a fucking beast that has no racional thought. They wont talk to you or even directly ask you to move away so they wont need to share the same fucking space as you. In fact, racism and such is a huge part of the whole game

Still, i rarely see anyone aknowledging that as a mistake, even tho its all over the place anywhere in the game.


As for the plot, im more of a worldbuilding guy and i was never pretty fan of any of DE's plots anyways

They all feel very over the top with the whole cyberpunk-esque conspiracy vibe and my suspension of disbelief really dont buy into most of what happens.

I do admit Human revolution has a better progression for the plot structure tho.
 
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RIT_SKUA

Literate
Joined
Jan 3, 2022
Messages
23
Location
USA
Really, why it is poorly written?
Because it's just window dressing: it is presented completely matter-of-factly and lacks depth, so it is never properly examined beyond a surface level "Look at us, aren't we so introspective by creating this progressive, well-researched narrative? Praise us!" There's no way you can tell me it's not gigacringe af to walk around Prague and see "Aug Lives Matter", a phrase almost certainly lazily borrowed from an IRL one that was designed to highlight a specific blind spot that society simply takes for granted. You can't just appropriate a different movement's symbols via copy-paste, ignoring the wider context and rationalizations that brought them about, instead simply changing a few words or adding a few story-relevant pictures, and think that that is all that needs to be done to establish their relevance for your own movement du jour.
There’s no cultural context for the wider usage of these terms, no attempts to glean greater truths about the problems of society and how they could be addressed. They're simply lazily slapped on to give their game more advertising power, so that the narrative can quickly touch upon them before immediately moving along. There's no point to taking these meaning-packed phrases and then just using them as a way to artificially simulate rather than properly create depth. Detroit: Become Human had the same problem. One of the characters can basically choose to become either MLK Jr. or (pre-Mecca) Malcolm X, but then what? There's no attempt to explore the "why" or "how" behind these actions beyond a simple "Peace and love solve all of our problems in the end!" for the former case, or "Guns and explosions are cool and necessary!" for the latter - and that's just one example! Mankind Divided does the same thing. Yeah, it plays at creating a "living ecosystem" by increasing the police numbers as the game goes on or showing people suffering from being unable to obtain IDs, but so what? It never goes beyond this first step to explore WHY this matters, HOW we as a society got to this state and HOW this can actually be addressed, WHERE we as individuals and as a society can go from here in order to prevent something like this from happening again, etc. As the game fails to fundamentally explore these questions beyond the surface-level explanations that are presented in the half-finished, poorly done story, it can be seen as nothing but a half-assed to profit off the stoking the flames of IRL, rather than examining how we can fundamentally resolve and move beyond these problems.

Tl;dr: the game copies content from IRL, but by ignoring its wider context, it falls flat.
 

Ryan muller

Educated
Joined
Oct 10, 2021
Messages
162
HOW we as a society got to this state

>Augmented incident on HR basically igniting the flame for anti aug propaganda

>Shitton of people still angry and in fear because of what just happened

>Nu-poz regulation which started to make some augs act like crazy, esentially painting the image of crazy dangerous drug addicted people

And this on top of the fact that previously, before all of this happened, working demand was changing to benefit augmented people as they had better physical capabilities and not being an aug was literally being inferior.

Its very easy to see how all of this culminated in the events of Mankind divided and the game constantly make sure to remind you of past events such as the aug incident

It hardly fails to properly explain how we got to such state.


I can understand the complain about "aug lives matter" as you can argue it feels completely out of place in Deus ex's universe and basically being more of eidos reflecting they political mindset rather than a cohesive thing.


But again, using arcanum as example

Why nobody complain about the literal analogy to zionism in the game?

If you ended up doing the whole questline about the growth of half ogres in society, you will see that gnomes are literally a rich group of people pulling the strings of society politically and economically, not only by having huge influence in basically everything that happens in arcanum but also being the responsible for introducing half ogres in the world in order to fullfill their agenda.


This is incredibly out of place in every single conceivable way and still, people almost never adress it at all.

Tl;dr game doesnt fail to explain how segregation started, aug lives matter sucks but you guys are overreacting.
 

jackofshadows

Magister
Joined
Oct 21, 2019
Messages
4,488
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen
Legend of Grimrock II
Might and Magic VII
Disco Elysium
Konung
Dex

that's it, even Dex is kind of a stretch, wouldn't want to fill the list up to 10
but - have a feeling that these are going to be included soon enough:

Arx Fatalis (playing currently and like it a lot)
Colony Ship (as soon as I finish the full version)
Kenshi (too curious about it, might play enough before the CSG release)
 

Abu Antar

Turn-based Poster
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Jan 19, 2014
Messages
13,512
Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Here's a list in no particular order, not including any game in the google doc.

-Tale of Wuxia: Pre-Sequel
-Ho Tu Lo Shu: Books of Dragon
-Chronicles of Myrtana: Archolos
-Ambermoon
-Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children
-The Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet Of Chaos
-Knights of the Chalice 2
-Inquisitor
-Summoner
-Salt and Sanctuary
-The Dwarf Run
-Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich
-Game of Thrones

I would probably add Wrath of the Righteous and Trudograd, but they are still in my backlog. Colony Ship has great potential from the combat beta.

I would add some jrpgs, but I am trying to keep it more PC-centric.
 

Outlander

Custom Tags Are For Fags.
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Joined
Nov 18, 2011
Messages
4,479
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Valley of Mines
Divinity: Original Sin Wasteland 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
No particular order:

Chronicles of Myrtana: Archolos
Arx Fatalis
Dark Sun: Shattered Lands
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
World of Xeen
Kenshi
Wizardry 7
Ultima 7
KOTOR
System Shock 2
 

mediocrepoet

Philosoraptor in Residence
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Joined
Sep 30, 2009
Messages
11,468
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Combatfag: Gold box / Pathfinder
Codex 2012 Codex+ Now Streaming! MCA Project: Eternity Divinity: Original Sin 2
In no particular order, based solely on enjoyment and my considerations for true RPGness + released on PC:

Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous
Pool of Radiance
Quest for Glory I
Quest for Glory IV
Dragon's Dogma
Wizardry VI
Pillars of Eternity
Icewind Dale
Icewind Dale 2
Knights of the Chalice

Expected additions/substitutions but either aren't released yet or I haven't played them: Deadfire, Baldur's Gate 3, Knights of the Chalice 2
 
Joined
May 3, 2011
Messages
260
Location
USA, NY
1. Star Control 2
2. FF Tactics/Ogre Tactics Cling Together (w/ mods)
3. Eador Genesis (w/ New Horizons Mod)
4. Temple of Elemental Evil
5. Neverwinter Nights 1 (Swordflight Module is best)
6. Shadowrun Dragonfall
7. Chrono Trigger
8. Pillars of Eternity 1
9. TOME4
10. Battle Brothers
 

perfectslumbers

Arbiter
Joined
Oct 24, 2021
Messages
1,198
Gee this is hard

Undertale
POE 2: Deadfire
Demons Souls
PF: WOTR
Ultima Underworld
Chrono Trigger
Daggerfall
Voya Nui Online Game :)
Icewind Dale
Icewind Dale 2
 

Ysaye

Arbiter
Joined
May 27, 2018
Messages
771
Location
Australia
  • Wizardry 1: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (1980)
  • Ultima 5: Warriors of Destiny (1985)
  • Ultima 7: The Black Gate (1992)
  • Ultima Underworld (1992)
  • Might and Magic 4&5: World of Xeen (1992)
  • Lands of Lore (1993)
  • Realms of Arkania 2: Star Trail (1994)
  • Might and Magic 6: The Mandate of Heaven (1998)
  • Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - The 3rd (2007)
  • Elminage Gothic (2012)

Note: I had both Wizardry 6 (1990) and 7 (1992) in and then took them out for Ultima 5 and Ultima Underworld; tend to think that World of Xeen (although an easier game) is a better implementation of a world based blobber than Wizardry 7. I think those two Ultimas were step changes in the genre. I also wanted to put Magic Candle (1989) on the list, but not enough room. Not enough room for any of the SSI Gold Box games either. Tempted to knock out Lands of Lore because it didn't do anything ground breaking, but what it did it did really well (apart from maybe dragging on a little too much at the end, and also not letting Dawn into your party).

As JRPGs go, I was tempted to put in Suikoden 2 (1998), Fire Emblem 5 (1997) and Phantasy Star 4 (1993) but two of those you can't even play on a PC, the other is only emulated to PC and I think one true JRPG (and one that is more Western style anyway) that can be played on PC and from a developer that really started their games on the PC (and is now back on it) on the list is good enough.

The only game on the main list that would be in my Top 10 would be Dark Souls (2011), and maybe Baldurs Gate 1 (1998).
 

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