What was your most pleasantly surprising RPG?

[Falksi]

So, it's the second time I see you mention Bard's Tale 4 in most praising terms and I'm really curious because I remember it got flak on the dex when it was out (but so did Wasteland 3 and W3 is awesome). I might give it a try even though I don't have the same nostalgia for dungeon crawlers.

.

I'm not really a dungeon crawler man myself either. I can enjoy them, but I'm not someone who craves them or choses that genre in particular for any reason.

But Bard's Tale seems to find a brilliant balance of the best old school dungeon crawlers, and newer games and styles (especially as the options allow you to tailor your experience somewhat).

I personally love it because:

• It feels like a genuine adventure
• It's got great turn based combat (my personal preferred class is mage). This is a big part of the draw for me
• The humour is pretty groovy
• The underworld which you explore really has a magical/mysterious vibe to it

Honestly it's probably my favourite modern RPG in a long time. It can get a bit repetitive towards the end, and I wouldn't class it as a top tier game, but compared to the other dross they churn out now it was fantastic. For me a good game after just the 1 playthrough (I only got it before Xmas)

 

[Aemar]

I would say Rogulikes (classic) as a whole genre. I was "raised" believing it's boring and a genre for weirdos and autistic people. Then i started playing: DCSS, TOME4, DOOMRL and more and discovered that i am one of those people. That was a surprise and this genre became one of my favourites.

Same, especially after finding out a lot of these games also employed non-ASCII graphics. Aside from the major roguelike titles, I think Zorbus is an excellent addition to the genre.

 

[GloomFrost]

NWN 2 Mask of the betrayer- An absolute dark-fantasy storyfag masterpiece that came out of nowhere.
Witcher 1- Honestly did anyone actually expected anything half decent from no name poor eastern Europeans and yet here we are.
Risen- One of the best open world games. PB learned their lesson that quantity doesn't mean quality.
Inquisitor- Another underrated low budget gem from unknown developers. Isometric gritty dark fantasy at its best.

 

[HiddenX]

Albion
TROUBLESHOOTER: Abandoned Children
Einlanzer
...

 

[Modron]

Of all the crpgs I've played these were the ones that were better than I expected

• Expeditions Viking
• Mask of the Betrayer
• Prelude to Darkness
  
• The Quest
• The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa
• The River of Time
• Divine Divinity (maybe should include Divinity 2 as well was expecting worse)
  
• Game of Thrones RPG
• Dex
• Sid Meier's Pirates remake
• Summoner
• West of Loathing (was unfamiliar with the series)
  
• Avadon 2 (was a pleasant return to more traditional Vogel design after the hot cup of bland the first game was).
  
• Heroine's Quest
• Vigilantes
  
• I guess I should include Dead State (all the edgelording here about it lowered my expectations but it turned out pretty fun).
• On a similar note, Blood and Gold: Caribbean wasn't awful at the latest version

Probably missing 1 or 2 flawed gems but for the most part in the field of rpgs my expectations were matched or unmet not often exceeded.

 

[luj1]

Wizardry 6, Dark Sun, Wasteland 1

Thought they were gonna be too old for me to get into, but I loved em, superb atmosphere

 

[thesecret1]

Sengoku Rance, no doubt about it. Thought it was gonna be shit because it's a porn game (which tend to not have much effort put into them) and since the writing at the start seemed unreasonable (only because it's the seventh entry in the series, and I haven't played the ones prior at the time). Turned out to have some of the most well-written characters out there, as well as did something that up until then I've considered impossible – it actually made JRPG-style menu combat fun and exciting. In the end, I liked it so much that... well, just look at my goddamn avatar.

I ended up playing through all the (translated) entries in the series and having an absolute blast.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Intergalactic Fishing
Not usually a fishing guy, and the game isn't exactly appealing-looking, but when I played it, it was actually pretty fun. Traveling across the galaxy to figure out what the fish in this lake want is a surprisingly compelling experience. Would have never given it a second glance if someone didn't make a thread on the Codex about it.

Dungeon Encounters
Another title I wouldn't have given a second glance on, since it looked like a cheap JRPG, even though it was produced by a major company. But it had provided a surprisingly solid dungeon crawling experience, even some decent puzzles.

 

[Desiderius]

M&M IX and X

IX obviously unfinished but had some good dungeons and generally fun to play. X much better than advertised, strategic depth, can tell a lot of love went into it.

 

[laclongquan]

F3 is a tactical combat game

Thus the storyfags generally get clobbered in F3 thus they get mad and badmouth it

What, you dont get it? F3 in its full glory is a much harder game than FNV, gameplaywise speaking (lore and writing are other aspect). stat checks, skill checks, ammo type etc... FNV's many advancements is drawing from F3's difficult aspects to lessen them.

Storyfags are bad tactical players. Fact! Or at least, Codex storyfags are bad tactical players. This is proved many times.

Thus when Codex play F3 in PC they generally get clobbered so hard they quittan in tears. Why not console? because console is basic, console cant run F3 in its full glory.

A small example: ammo. Ammo in F3 is the basic normal type. Use it to shoot at F3 hostiles would need from 3 to 10 due to they wear headgear, better armor (DR) and higher HP (much higher than FNV). But use FNV ammo like HP or AP and you can use one (headshot) or 5 (small burst). ammo variant in FNV is a big combat multiplier.

Another example: Console is too weak to run F3 with texture (armor mod) and more spawns. Any F3 game run on PC basically go with several texture mods, from armor to skin to environment. Then more spawns to increase the number of hostiles before player. As such, it double the difficulty at the very least from console level. So a storyfag unknowingly wander from console to PC, jump into a baptism of fire and get killed several times in succession. Therefore: quittan in rage.

 

[Sukhāvatī]

Gothic 3
My first proper open-world game, after the disaster of Oblivion; the ambiance, the sheer size of the world, the seamless transition from biome to biome, all made for a super :comfy: experience, enhanced all the more in contrast to the the flat, dead world of Oblivion. (I also remember its literal 3 minute load times between entering and exiting doors, but I didn't mind.)

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Grimoire, for including not one but two rideable giant turtles:

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Dungeon Siege 2 - first game bored me in like 10 minutes and I never wanted to see it again. I was really surprised by how fun DS2 was and how it was genuinely inclined in many ways.

Risen 3 - I've finished Risen 2 and, when it comes to the bottom line, had fun with it, but it was a yuge decline compared to R1 and then everyone was saying how R3 is total trash. I liked it a lot, finished it with demon hunter and even did advanced, though not completed, playthroughs to check the other factions.

BG2 - kind of a controversial take, but I was never a BG1 fan, could not understand what the fuss is about and thus didn't have any expectations for the sequel. It completely blew me away on the first playthrough.

 

[Nortar]

The Dwarf Run

I did not expect much, and only decided to play it coz it's about dwarves, but was pleasantly surpised.
It's a single indie dev game, so it looks like you'd think it would, but it has

+ Turn-based tactical combat (pretty challenging on the hardest setting)
+ Hand crafted encounters, no proc-gen random shit
+ Exploration with some (not too many) environmental puzzles
+ Perfect pace and length
+ Even story is decent with a couple nice little twists

Screenshots

GGS cameo

 

[PanickedTushkano]

Drakensang - The River of Time:

Now I did know that some on the Codex did hold it in high regard, but I was still surprised how much better than the first game it was in some areas.

For one, it was a bit more considerate of the player's time even though there still were two or three rather pointlessly long combat areas. But they were the exception rather than the rule.

The first game didn't have much dialogue reactivity and only partial voice-acting, so it was odd to see that River goes with full voice-acting and a lot more reactivity as well. The trade-off is that there is barely any choice in party characters, but it's still a good trade-off in my opinion.

Nadoret is smaller than Ferdok - the main town from Drakensang - but I wouldn't be surprised if it had as much or more content as Ferdok.

 

[Modron]

Should probably mention The Dwarf Run for a game that was quite a bit pre cooked assets it was surprisingly decent.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Something called Zanzarah: The Hidden Portal which I played a few years ago. No one recommended it, didn't see any reviews, don't know why I selected that particular title to play but I did and I ended up enjoying it. More of an aRPG/adventure game hybrid IIRC but it was one of the first games I played where it felt like it was a very reasonable length and took note of that fact and showed that RPG-types didn't have to go on & on & on.

 

[mondblut]

Kingmaker. My expectation weren't high, but in the end I enjoyed the experience.

 

[Seigneur Locklear]

Gothic 3
My first proper open-world game, after the disaster of Oblivion; the ambiance, the sheer size of the world, the seamless transition from biome to biome, all made for a super :comfy: experience, enhanced all the more in contrast to the the flat, dead world of Oblivion. (I also remember its literal 3 minute load times between entering and exiting doors, but I didn't mind.)

Gothic 3 is the definition of a diamond in the rough. If only it had spent another year or so in the oven. One of the best OST's ever made as well, right next to Witcher 1.

 

[Zlaja]

Dungeon Siege 2 - first game bored me in like 10 minutes and I never wanted to see it again. I was really surprised by how fun DS2 was and how it was genuinely inclined in many ways.

Totally agree. Didn't expect to play in it for long, but ended up liking it and playing the expansion as well. The game had some nice quotes:

And feels:

I did not expect much, and only decided to play it coz it's about dwarves

Filthy dwarf lover!

 

[Decado]

There's been a few.

I was pleasantly surprised by Underrail, because for the longest time it looked kinda busted. I'm not sure when that perception changed for me, but it had to do with all of the posts on the Codex, I'm sure.

Outward was another pleasant surprise. It's another game that looks kinda janky, and it could still use some polish. But the open world and unforgiving exploration really make it a good time.

Opernecia: The Stolen Sun was a huge surprise, I didn't expect Hungarian pinball devs to make a genuinely good blobber. That fucking blew me away.

 

[SumDrunkGuy]

Witcher 3. I never played the first two games, never read the books so I had no investment in the world or characters. It was a buggy mess back then and I hated the combat (still do). It slowly grew on me though and I enjoyed it enough to play through it a few times.

Oh and I'll second Dragon's Dogma. I certainly wasn't expecting that thing to be as badass as it is. Lol I remember being more hyped for Kingdoms of Amalur at the time. Now that game fuckin sucked.

 

[Humanophage]

Famous games:
Risen. Thought it would be a cheap mediocre Gothic knockoff, but it was an excellent Gothic knockoff and really triggered nostalgia. Probably the biggest gap between expectation and reality.
ELEX. Same as above. Heard it was empty and MMO-like, with many people laughing at it. But it was actually pretty densely packed and inventive.
Disco Elysium. Thought it would be lefty and SJW, but it permitted quite a lot of ideological breadth. I was surprised by how immersive and memorable it was.
Pathfinder: Kingmaker. Came at a time when I was underwhelmed by recent tentative Codex choices like PoE2 and Shadowrun. Thought it would be another PoE. Instead, it turned out to be the first proper heir to BG1.

Less famous games:
Geneforge 4. Thought it would be a bare-bones minimalistic game good for what it is, but it had a great unique setting, impressive branching dialogues, and reasonably nuanced combat.
Football - Tactics and Glory. Seemed like a mobile game, actually an impressive and unique tactics game with some management.
Thea. Seemed like one of those somewhat imperfect but solid games like Knights of Honor or Urtuk. Turned out to be one of the best 4X/RPG hybrids. Very atmospheric and great complex gameplay.

 

[Desiderius]

There's been a few.

I was pleasantly surprised by Underrail, because for the longest time it looked kinda busted. I'm not sure when that perception changed for me, but it had to do with all of the posts on the Codex, I'm sure.

Outward was another pleasant surprise. It's another game that looks kinda janky, and it could still use some polish. But the open world and unforgiving exploration really make it a good time.

Opernecia: The Stolen Sun was a huge surprise, I didn't expect Hungarian pinball devs to make a genuinely good blobber. That fucking blew me away.

Pinball was where it all started.

 

[wishbonetail]

City of Chains. I was expecting less than zero from a RPGmaker game, turned out to be a must have in my collection. Cyberpunk setting, gameplay is mix between jrpg and DeusEx. You're getting experience by exploring and completing objectives. Levels may have several different routes. If combat happens, it can be pretty tactical, No trash combat, no shitty animu drama, interesting plot, some meaningfull choices, multiple endings. If you fancy yourself a cyberpunk connoisseur, you should a try this. If you do not get turned down by generic RPGmaker models and UI that is.