Recommend a turn based, isometric/overhead, full party RPG for me

[Tyranicon]

Which makes me feel like I should shill my party-based isometric turn-based game.

Don't you have two of those?

Depends what you're talking about.

Singularity: Tactics Arena isn't true isometric, it's just top down.
Vampire Syndicate and That Which Rises are still in development.
Baldr's Squid Isekai is about to be released, but it's also top down.

 

[raeven]

Knights of the Chalice 1
Temple of Elemental Evil
Baldur's Gate 2

Hey remember when you were a D:OS fan ten years ago??

 

[Gregz]

Knights of the Chalice 1
Temple of Elemental Evil
Baldur's Gate 2

Hey remember when you were a D:OS fan ten years ago??

Early D:OS1 was OK, but inferior to the games I listed.

 

[Strange Fellow]

D:OS 1 and Knights of the Chalice are both very good.

 

[Yosharian]

Have you considered some tactics-style games? Kingsvein which just released is very good IMO, and Triangle Strategy is also pretty good if you like those sort of games.

- Pathfinder: wrath of the righteous - seems like it's more polished than Kingmaker, plus it was designed from the get-go with a turn based mode. Maybe that doesn't matter, idk. It's more recent and reviews seem to say it's a big improvement over the original in terms of polish and such.

I would highly recommend Kingmaker over Wrath, at least initially. Wrath has... issues, and the complexity of building characters is much higher than Kingmaker.

I have a Kingmaker modlist that makes it a much more enjoyable game in my opinion.

 

[CHEMS]

With a small tweaking in sFall you can transform Fallout 2 in a squad based turn game, if anyone's interested in that

Makes the game a little bit too easy, but well...

 

[raeven]

Have you considered some tactics-style games? Kingsvein which just released is very good IMO, and Triangle Strategy is also pretty good if you like those sort of games.

- Pathfinder: wrath of the righteous - seems like it's more polished than Kingmaker, plus it was designed from the get-go with a turn based mode. Maybe that doesn't matter, idk. It's more recent and reviews seem to say it's a big improvement over the original in terms of polish and such.

I would highly recommend Kingmaker over Wrath, at least initially. Wrath has... issues, and the complexity of building characters is much higher than Kingmaker.

I have a Kingmaker modlist that makes it a much more enjoyable game in my opinion.

Interesting. How's the turn based mode in Kingmaker?

Funny enough, Kingmaker is actually the only TTRPG module I've played. Could be fun to revisit it.

I'd love to hear your modlist. I do like to keep things pretty vanilla for a first playthrough though, play the game as intended an all. QoL stuff and bugfixes are great, though.

 

[raeven]

I like tactics games generally, not my focus at the moment though. XCOM-likes are a favorite of mine.

 

[Yosharian]

I like tactics games generally, not my focus at the moment though. XCOM-likes are a favorite of mine.

Fair enough

 

[Yosharian]

Have you considered some tactics-style games? Kingsvein which just released is very good IMO, and Triangle Strategy is also pretty good if you like those sort of games.

- Pathfinder: wrath of the righteous - seems like it's more polished than Kingmaker, plus it was designed from the get-go with a turn based mode. Maybe that doesn't matter, idk. It's more recent and reviews seem to say it's a big improvement over the original in terms of polish and such.

I would highly recommend Kingmaker over Wrath, at least initially. Wrath has... issues, and the complexity of building characters is much higher than Kingmaker.

I have a Kingmaker modlist that makes it a much more enjoyable game in my opinion.

Interesting. How's the turn based mode in Kingmaker?

Funny enough, Kingmaker is actually the only TTRPG module I've played. Could be fun to revisit it.

I'd love to hear your modlist. I do like to keep things pretty vanilla for a first playthrough though, play the game as intended an all. QoL stuff and bugfixes are great, though.

This is my steam page https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1528413526 it's all in there

I would highly recommend not bothering with vanilla but it's your choice

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Expeditions: Vikings is actually very good.

D:OS1 picked up for me once I found skill vendors around town. I think it's more enjoyable than the second game, but it's shorter and easier too.

Solasta is very linear, it's more of a straight set of battles than a full RPG like BG3. Some people liked it though.

Wrath of the Righteous is slow. 85 hours and I'm not even out of Chapter 3, but I don't feel like I played 85 hours of actual gameplay. The game just bogs you down with so much tedium.

Knights of the Chalice 1 I didn't care for because it only had 3 classes.

 

[Dorateen]

Did anyone mention Dark Sun?

Consider both Shattered Lands, and Wake of the Ravager. They fit all the requirements of a classic party-based, turn-based cRPG in addition to utilizing a unique AD&D setting.

 

[Butter]

Did anyone mention Dark Sun?

Consider both Shattered Lands, and Wake of the Ravager. They fit all the requirements of a classic party-based, turn-based cRPG in addition to utilizing a unique AD&D setting.

The first one is great (haven't played the second), but they don't fit the OP's criteria of post-1995.

 

[Dorateen]

Did anyone mention Dark Sun?

Consider both Shattered Lands, and Wake of the Ravager. They fit all the requirements of a classic party-based, turn-based cRPG in addition to utilizing a unique AD&D setting.

The first one is great (haven't played the second), but they don't fit the OP's criteria of post-1995.

I must have missed that.

 

[raeven]

Did anyone mention Dark Sun?

Consider both Shattered Lands, and Wake of the Ravager. They fit all the requirements of a classic party-based, turn-based cRPG in addition to utilizing a unique AD&D setting.

The first one is great (haven't played the second), but they don't fit the OP's criteria of post-1995.

Dark sun is outside of the time boundaries I set.

It is my partners favorite setting though and one of her favorite games, so maybe I should try it. She'd love it if I did haha

 

[RPK]

Did anyone mention Dark Sun?

Consider both Shattered Lands, and Wake of the Ravager. They fit all the requirements of a classic party-based, turn-based cRPG in addition to utilizing a unique AD&D setting.

The first one is great (haven't played the second), but they don't fit the OP's criteria of post-1995.

Dark sun is outside of the time boundaries I set.

It is my partners favorite setting though and one of her favorite games, so maybe I should try it. She'd love it if I did haha

you should, it's a great game

 

[vitellus]

I like tactics games generally, not my focus at the moment though. XCOM-likes are a favorite of mine.

kotc1 & 2 are combatfag games, through and through. they are great, but they're black coffee. you'll grow to like it or think it's shit.

i like my tactics 'rpg' games too.

fell seal

dungeon rats

invisible inc

phantom doctrine

 

[Cyberarmy]

Did anyone mention Dark Sun?

Consider both Shattered Lands, and Wake of the Ravager. They fit all the requirements of a classic party-based, turn-based cRPG in addition to utilizing a unique AD&D setting.

The first one is great (haven't played the second), but they don't fit the OP's criteria of post-1995.

Dark sun is outside of the time boundaries I set.

It is my partners favorite setting though and one of her favorite games, so maybe I should try it. She'd love it if I did haha

you should, it's a great game

Yeah, Dark Sun is one of the best.

 

[DarkandGloomyName]

Someone already mentioned it, but Temple of Elemental Evil is your best bet. Peak D&D'ing on the PC. Granted, it was a mess at launch, but if you grab the Temple + mod/frontend, you'll have a great time of it. It's combat heavy - as a proper D&D CRPG should be - and it has plenty of game breaking crafting exploits as well. Only drawback is that some of the larger battles in the game can drag on for unreasonably long times (Final moathouse battle will be your first test of patience)

There's also Archaelund, which is in early access still. I bought it, tried it out, and somehow found myself playing for 5 hours straight and forgetting I was sitting there that long. So easy to get lost in. Great simple TB combat and some gorgeous dungeon/world design. Shows real promise. Combines first person dungeon crawling with isometric turn based combat. Easily my favorite RPG so far this year.

All of the Spiderweb software games by Jeff Vogel are also a safe bet. If you don't mind those old graphics, it wouldn't hurt to play the SSI Goldbox games I cut my own teeth on. Another good game, although having a more wizardry style combat, is Lords of Xulima

 

[CryptRat]

I like tactics games generally, not my focus at the moment though. XCOM-likes are a favorite of mine.

kotc1 & 2 are combatfag games, through and through. they are great, but they're black coffee. you'll grow to like it or think it's shit.

i like my tactics 'rpg' games too.

fell seal

dungeon rats

invisible inc

phantom doctrine

KOTC and Dungeon Rats are traditional RPGs. To me tactic games are different and I've much less interest in tactic games. Free walking is important but some of the tactic games feature some free walking and it's not exclusively about free walking, regarding how exploration works, the scale of the campaign and party, how party is built and how party management works (sure Dungeon Rats is not the best example of stat but full party creation at the beginning of the game is rarely a tactic game thing), the stat system, dialogs, stat checks and probably many other things I can't think of you'll always find some parts which are not done the way a traditional RPG would do it, which is why the really borderline ones such as Blackguards are not legion. Opinions may differ.

To OP I'm sure you're going to enjoy the games you listed as well as the other ones listed in the thread. A bit off-topic since combat is different but in case you have not you might also consider playing Wasteland Remastered as you enjoyed 2 and 3 so much.

 

[Jvegi]

Knights of the Chalice 1 is the best with very little jank present in kotc 2 or ToEE.

 

[Grunker]

Knights of the Chalice 1 is the best with very little jank present in kotc 2 or ToEE.

I'm not a huge ToEE fan, but what's the jank/bugs people are talking about? I finished the game last like 4 years ago and in its current state it felt quite smooth.

 

[Jvegi]

I mean the quality fluctuations in encounter design, itemization, levels, story, every fucking thing. The game is irritating in how much it fails to deliver an enjoyable experience, despite the fundamentals being gold.

KotC is much tighter, quicker and not really simpler. The only gripe I have is with late game combat and over reliance on crafting, but this comes up in the endgame, whereas ToEE is infuriating from the very beginning.

 

[Grunker]

Agreed.

 

[Yosharian]

Yeah KOTC is a must-play.