Blobber Recs

[TheDiceMustRoll]

Guys I've seen the SsethTzeentach video, please stop trying to trick me

 

[Reality]

For me personally the "Wizardry 8 is too slow" only really applied in like a few situations - A: Any fight with "allies" such as Higardi patrols and Tyrnnies B: Anything involving Rapax or Ascension Peak

I rolled with the mild annoyance in my 1st playthrough, and for early replays... I just develop parties instinctively toward having multiple sources of instant death to deal with the HP bloat of lategame areas (which really is only 2 1/2 full areas)... I feel like the speedpatch actually doesn't even help that much in the two worst situations, which contributes to why I like the older Wizardry games more.

Definitely still an early favorite of mine though. -- Also an overlooked thing but in MOST wizardry games (1,2,3,*4,6,8) you don't really need to level up that much and can finish the game within 2 levels after first getting full spell acess (This is drastically different for Wiz 5/7 and most of the Jap Wizardies) (* 4 technically has fixed level ups so you can't grind even if you want too, that said the difference between bad ending and good ending is mostly an extended fetch quest through old areas)

As far as Starcrawlers...

Should reach your shorter playtime goal - Technically it's one of those games with the Diablo style NG+ thing, but that's on you - The fun of the main game is so-so It's mostly about finding the nice parts of a level up skill tree and working with it - doesn't really have too much typical Dungeon Crawler resource management , since consumable resources (healing mainyl) aren't really needed until the higher loop difficulties, and the main skill tree abilities are on a "per indiividual battle cooldown" system that lets you use almost everything in every battle. Game is held back once the randomly generated level design and limited enemy variety gets to you. Also has a bunch of systems that are optional that you can do but don't interact much with the main game loop (the hacking minigame having its own seperate turn based battle system), and kind of the faction system since most of the bonuses for ranking up are super small and the game doesn't care if you just take missions at random and don't gain favor with anyone at all.

 

[TheDiceMustRoll]

For me personally the "Wizardry 8 is too slow" only really applied in like a few situations - A: Any fight with "allies" such as Higardi patrols and Tyrnnies B: Anything involving Rapax or Ascension Peak

I rolled with the mild annoyance in my 1st playthrough, and for early replays... I just develop parties instinctively toward having multiple sources of instant death to deal with the HP bloat of lategame areas (which really is only 2 1/2 full areas)... I feel like the speedpatch actually doesn't even help that much in the two worst situations, which contributes to why I like the older Wizardry games more.

Definitely still an early favorite of mine though. -- Also an overlooked thing but in MOST wizardry games (1,2,3,*4,6,8) you don't really need to level up that much and can finish the game within 2 levels after first getting full spell acess (This is drastically different for Wiz 5/7 and most of the Jap Wizardies) (* 4 technically has fixed level ups so you can't grind even if you want too, that said the difference between bad ending and good ending is mostly an extended fetch quest through old areas)

As far as Starcrawlers...

Should reach your shorter playtime goal - Technically it's one of those games with the Diablo style NG+ thing, but that's on you - The fun of the main game is so-so It's mostly about finding the nice parts of a level up skill tree and working with it - doesn't really have too much typical Dungeon Crawler resource management , since consumable resources (healing mainyl) aren't really needed until the higher loop difficulties, and the main skill tree abilities are on a "per indiividual battle cooldown" system that lets you use almost everything in every battle. Game is held back once the randomly generated level design and limited enemy variety gets to you. Also has a bunch of systems that are optional that you can do but don't interact much with the main game loop (the hacking minigame having its own seperate turn based battle system), and kind of the faction system since most of the bonuses for ranking up are super small and the game doesn't care if you just take missions at random and don't gain favor with anyone at all.

Thanks man, I think I'll pick up Starcrawlers and Amberland and go from there.

 

[DemonKing]

Top tier for me would be M&M X and Grimrock from the last decade, earlier than that I'd go for Lands of Lore or Eye of the Beholder 2 (Wizardry 6 if you want to go turn based).

Wizardry 7/8 are good but they mix way too much sci fi and fantasy together for my taste.

 

[TheDiceMustRoll]

Whoever suggested Amberland: based. I have 100 or so minutes in it and it's felt like 15. I love smashing up dungeons, stealing people's shit, etc. Thank you!

 

[Bruma Hobo]

Yeah, Amberland might be too streamlined and easy, but it's also very well made and has some really cool little innovations. If that's your thing, then you could try Isles of Terra or World of Xeen next, or maybe even Lands of Lore. And if you really want to play modern blobbers only, Aeon of Sands might interest you (I haven't played it yet, but it looks like another good little streamlined bloobler).

These are not serious blob experiences though, but some cool little time wasters. More complex or challenging crawlers tend to have a very different feel.

 

[TheDiceMustRoll]

Yeah, Amberland might be too streamlined and easy, but it's also very well made and has some really cool little innovations. If that's your thing, then you could try Isles of Terra or World of Xeen next, or maybe even Lands of Lore. And if you really want to play modern blobbers only, Aeon of Sands might interest you (I haven't played it yet, but it looks like another good little streamlined bloobler).

These are not serious blob experiences though, but some cool little time wasters. More complex or challenging crawlers tend to have a very different feel.

I tried to play LoL, but annoyingly enough, the entire game for the three hours I played was wandering around killing hordes of annoying shitty respawning enemies and then longresting back to full HP. It felt like I was either doing something wrong or I dunno. I didn't hate it, I just didn't like that it was so repetitive.

I guess I don't like
- random encounters
- non-limited enemy amounts

 

[TheDiceMustRoll]

felipepepe You play shnitloads of blobbers, got anything to contribute here? pwease? I'm enjoy the shnit out of Amberland

 

[Darth Canoli]

Whoever suggested Amberland: based. I have 100 or so minutes in it and it's felt like 15. I love smashing up dungeons, stealing people's shit, etc. Thank you!

If you like Amberland (and you should), Might & Magic III : Isles of Terra should be on your list (and then later Worlds of Xeen).
Isles of Terra is better than cocaine.

Amongst 3D Might & Magic, you should wtart with VII rather from VI, everything is massive in VI, it's arguably better but can be overwhelming while VII is a more focused experience.

Wizardry savant's trilogy is also great and I agree with Reality, that's why, when playing Wizardry 8, besides installing fastanim and wizfast you try to avoid to fight anything you can't finish off quickly when friendly patrols are close enough to intervene.

The Quest, while not being technically a blobber is also quite good, it has everything but a party (which is very sad but they're fixing it for the second opus) and it's fun even if you hate solo "RPG" as much as i do.

 

[felipepepe]

felipepepe You play shnitloads of blobbers, got anything to contribute here? pwease? I'm enjoy the shnit out of Amberland

I don't have much to add, you already got the best suggestions. As Canoli pointed out above, Amberland is basically a Might & Magic clone, you should try Isles of Terra and then knock yourself out playing Worlds of Xeen.

For more hardcore stuff, try Wizardry 6-8, Grimoire or Realms of Arkania II: Star Trail. If you wanna go REALLY hardcore, then Elminage. If you would like to explore a fully 3D world, try Might & Magic 7 or Wizards & Warriors. If you like Disgaea, try Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk.

Also, those are all turn-based blobbers. There's also the real-time ones, which are more friendly and usually focus more on exploration & puzzle-solving than combat. Legend of Grimrock II is a great starting point, but the classics remain excellent: Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder and Lands of Lore. Finally, if you like Danganronpa, try Zanki Zero: Last Beginning.

 

[TheDiceMustRoll]

felipepepe You play shnitloads of blobbers, got anything to contribute here? pwease? I'm enjoy the shnit out of Amberland

I don't have much to add, you already got the best suggestions. As Canoli pointed out above, Amberland is basically a Might & Magic clone, you should try Isles of Terra and then knock yourself out playing Worlds of Xeen.

For more hardcore stuff, try Wizardry 6-8, Grimoire or Realms of Arkania II: Star Trail. If you wanna go REALLY hardcore, then Elminage. If you would like to explore a fully 3D world, try Might & Magic 7 or Wizards & Warriors. If you like Disgaea, try Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk.

Also, those are all turn-based blobbers. There's also the real-time ones, which are more friendly and usually focus more on exploration & puzzle-solving than combat. Legend of Grimrock II is a great starting point, but the classics remain excellent: Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder and Lands of Lore. Finally, if you like Danganronpa, try Zanki Zero: Last Beginning.

I thought Grimoire was not a good game?

 

[Butter]

Felipepepe's negative review notwithstanding, Grimoire is incredible.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

I thought Grimoire was not a good game?

Grimoire contains two rideable giant turtles, placing it in an exalted realm of incline above nearly every other CRPG ever created.

 

[V_K]

But can you also fly a swan? Or at least a griffin?

 

[felipepepe]

Felipepepe's negative review notwithstanding, Grimoire is incredible.

The truth is that there's a great game behind all the flaws I mentioned. Properly balanced, documented and polished, Grimoire could be a gem that rivals Wizardry VII and its peers - a crown jewel of the blobber / DRPG / Dungeon-crawler genre.

People seem to have never actually read the review, and ignore the fact that Cleve spent over a year fixing the game after that review. Grimoire is today a different game from what I played on release.

 

[TheDiceMustRoll]

Felipepepe's negative review notwithstanding, Grimoire is incredible.

The truth is that there's a great game behind all the flaws I mentioned. Properly balanced, documented and polished, Grimoire could be a gem that rivals Wizardry VII and its peers - a crown jewel of the blobber / DRPG / Dungeon-crawler genre.

People seem to have never actually read the review, and ignore the fact that Cleve spent over a year fixing the game after that review. Grimoire is today a different game from what I played on release.

So you cant break it with bards anymore or whatever?

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

But can you also fly a swan? Or at least a griffin?

The only game I know of in which the player can ride a giant swan is Faery Tale Adventure (1986):

The closest to riding a griffin that I can think is Dragon's Dogma (2012), though griffins exist solely as adversaries, and the purpose of climbing on a griffin is to bring it down when it tries to fly:

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Not new but I always enjoyed a romp through Anvil of Dawn for that SP blobbing.

 

[Lady_Error]

Felipepepe's negative review notwithstanding, Grimoire is incredible.

The truth is that there's a great game behind all the flaws I mentioned. Properly balanced, documented and polished, Grimoire could be a gem that rivals Wizardry VII and its peers - a crown jewel of the blobber / DRPG / Dungeon-crawler genre.

People seem to have never actually read the review, and ignore the fact that Cleve spent over a year fixing the game after that review. Grimoire is today a different game from what I played on release.

So you cant break it with bards anymore or whatever?

Yes, it is more balanced now.

Though if you are new to blobbers, it'd be better to get some experience with Wizardry 6/7/8 or even something like Elminage or Dark Spire. Grimoire has very similar systems to those and is really the spiritual sequel to Wizardry 7. You can also turn off random encounters.

 

[V_K]

But can you also fly a swan? Or at least a griffin?

The only game I know of in which the player can ride a giant swan is Faery Tale Adventure (1986):

Yes, it was supposed to be a joke about FTA, since you also can ride a turtle in that game. Swan+turtle >>> just turtle.
With griffin, I had a senior moment. I was referring to Amberstar - another great semi-blobber btw - that lets you fly an eagle, but for some reason misremembered it as griffin.

 

[Darth Canoli]

The closest to riding a griffin that I can think is Dragon's Dogma (2012), though griffins exist solely as adversaries, and the purpose of climbing on a griffin is to bring it down when it tries to fly:

You can fast travel with a Griffin in Legends of Amberland.

felipepepe What about rewriting your review then? It's Christmas after all.

 

[Efe]

I would be sad if he didn't have anything better to do for Christmas..

 

[TheDiceMustRoll]

I would be sad if he didn't have anything better to do for Christmas..

Especially in Japan. I hear they eat KFC in Japan and the KFC game there is ridiculous

 

[Strange Fellow]

You can fast travel with a Griffin in Legends of Amberland.

felipepepe What about rewriting your review then? It's Christmas after all.

The Real Official Review has already been written.
https://rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=11029

 

[Lacrymas]

I got into blobbers with M&MX.