Best cities and settlements in RPGs

[Tavernking]

What are some of the coolest cities and sexiest settlements you've come across in your RPG career? And why is it cool/sexy?

 

[Butter]

Megaton. It's built around an unexploded bomb!

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/fave-rpg-hubs.104268/

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

Tarant. Tarant is perfection.

 

[Gregz]

Tristram from Diablo I is the perfect generic fantasy hamlet.

 

[ADL]

Everything in Daggerfall
Also Rattay in KCD was comfy

 

[Ol' Willy]

Cities and settlements in:
Fallout 1
Fallout 2
Arcanum
Age of Decadence
Underrail

 

[oldmanpaco]

I still like Baldur's Gate best. You can go into every building, there are a decent amount of people around, the city has a continuous logical layout (like 10 maps with taverns in all of them!), and there is a bunch to do. Athkatla isn't bad but it changes zone to zone.

Sigil, New Reno, and that city in Witcher 1 are also good.

Also U6 Britannia was a fucking revelation in 1990.

And the Starport was also pretty cool.

 

[curds]

Santa Monica in VtMB.

Khorinis in Gothic 2.

Old Camp in Gothic 1.

Didn’t mind Denerim from Dragon Age: Origins in spite of excessive random encounters.

Phlan from Pool of Radiance.

Tarant from Arcanum of course, but I think Shrouded Hills is actually great too.

Oh and Calimport from the Swordflight Saga.

 

[Sinatar]

Menu towns.

Just let me sell my shit and get back to the fun stuff please.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Ald'ruhn from Morrowind, for its aesthetics as a Redoran-style settlement in the Ashlands:

 

[Lord_Potato]

Wyzima
Novigrad
Beauclair

Brimming with content, beautiful (for their age, sure Wyzima will not impress everone nowadays), atmospheric. Seem like real cities, not just a hub for quest-givers.

 

[Alienman]

Recent, Goliet city in ELEX. Looked unique and pretty, and I got a really comfy feeling there.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[The Jester]

Baldur's Gate
Sigil
New Reno
Tarant

 

[luj1]

Morrowind by far

 

[Kalin]

NWN2 starting village (because it's cozy and home especially love the tutorial)

Hommlet (it just works, I often pretend I live there and never actually venture forth)

Goodsprings, New Vegas (love hanging out there cool and good looking a little too big tho)

Fallout 2 Temple of the Trial (still gotta beat it im taking it slow savoring every step)

 

[fantadomat]

Far too many really.
Witcher 3 has maybe the best level design till this day,most of their cities are gorgeous.
Bathesda's cities always feel alive and have secrets and shit. Especially morrowind
Tarant is one of the most interesting cities in an rpg.
Gothic3 have the best cities of BP games,they really felt realistic.
Free haven in MM6.
Sigil was great fun to explore,it really felt alien and strange.
Also Athkatla ,huge and filled with all kind of content. Really loved exploring every single part of it when i first played it. Was really surprised when found the Twisted Rune on a replay .

 

[V_K]

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/fave-rpg-hubs.104268/

Also: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/what-makes-a-good-rpg-city.126338/

I'm trying to think of the good cities in recent years, but I don't think I've ever seen anything that would rival Durwich from Dark Disciples 2:

It's huge, filled with content and just makes sense toplogically - unlike most other RPG cities.

 

[luj1]

Fallout 1

 

[Maxie]

Defiant Bay, the only city with game factions you can join by doin some noob quest in the entry zone without even knowing that there are factions in the game

 

[mondblut]

Daggerfall is the only game with actual cities.

 

[Funposter]

Balmora is great/comfy, and if we're including mods, I love Old Ebonheart from Tamriel Rebuilt - looking forward to Almalexia in all of its glory. I wish I could say Port Telvannis, but it's a pain in the arse to navigate.
Daggerfall (the city) has a really nice layout with the main avenue leading up to the palace and that plaza of shops sitting just to the west, but it's so primitive in terms of elevation etc. that it's hard to compare to modern games.
Sasau and Rattay in Kingdom Come are very cool.
Always thought Santa Monica in VTMB was a great hub, Detroit in Deus Ex: Human Revolution is very nice too. I love powergaming as much EXP as possible in order to explore all of it on the first visit.
Chorrol in Oblivion is super comfy IMO with great surroundings.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

Everyone else said the ones I'd go with so to be fresh I always liked Downtown Seattle/Penumbra District in the Genesis Shadowrun. You have to set the scene of playing on an old television at midnight, finally roaming the sprawling metropolis after being stuck in that Halloweener hellhole called Redmond for 3 hours doing ghoul and courier runs until your eye sockets bled and having this BANGER hit the mono:



Oh yeah, baby! My Street Samurai Joshua and his pint-sized pal Ricky the Rat Shaman roaming the bustling streets, properly laid asphalt clattering beneath your purposeful steps, headbanging to this 16-bit bliss and prepared to tell that COCKSUCKA Donny in your class on Monday just what the Genesis soundchip was capable of! 3,000 nuyen, feeling cute might pick up Freya the best mage in the game later! Oh yeah... hm, a sudden disturbance up ahead? Probably some geek taking my picture or gangs going pro. Oh you want me to help your master? Buddy, I put twenty ghouls back in the ground for 30 nuyen a pop but I'm feeling charitable so show me where this in-over-his-head boomer is and I'll help.

I get bullet-mauled to death by an Eye Fiver ambush. Ricky's dead. I lost a huge chunk of cash. I'm in some hospital I've never seen before, what the fuck is going on. I wander outside for a second to get my bearings and not fifteen seconds pass before a goddamn VAMPIRE and a HELLHOUND emerge from the edges of my flickering screen and proceed to send me back to the morgue. I've now lost most of my money, Ricky is pissed and wants a bigger cut if I'm going to sign him on again, and now the shady dealer in the alleyway turned out to be Lone Star undercover.

That's cyberpunk, niggas.

 

[Mexi]

Baldur's Gate is probably GoAT. Just so big and vast with so many NPCs that it feels overcrowded. You're overwhelmed when you first enter it, and it's a good thing. So many quests, characters, etc. I don't think any other game comes close here off the top of my head.

They dropped the ball with Athkatla in comparison, which IIRC, isn't it supposed to be much larger and busier than BG? It just felt so hollow in comparison to that overcrowded mess, BG.

Koorong in Saga Frontier is also a really fucking good city. Honestly, that game was full of great cities/settlements. Junktown was also badass.

Queen Fury in Legend of the Dragoon only because it had a fucking amazing soundtrack for the castle and the rest of the city.