Recommend me a fantasy RPG like this please?

[Bruma Hobo]

Not exactly an open world game, but Frayed Knights: The Skull of S'makh-Daon might interest you.

 

[newtmonkey]

The Lurking series by oklabsoft fits most of your qualifications (it looks grim dark, but it's just your standard "save the world from an evil guy" type of fantasy story). It plays a lot like the Ultima games, sort of like Ultima III party creation but in the Ultima V world. Nice large world to explore.

https://oklabsoft.itch.io/lurking

People have also mentioned the Spiderweb Software games, and I agree 100%. Great exploration, decent writing, acceptable combat.

 

[samuraigaiden]

and whether Krondor would fit this

I wouldn't call Betrayal at Krondor a blobber (although technically you do move in first-person while controlling a party) and it didn't have many memorable puzzles - there are these chests with riddles you solve to unlock but not much else. However, it is light hearted, has a nice open-world to explore and the writing is fantastic. So while it isn't exactly what you are describing, going by the games you mentioned I think you would enjoy it.

 

[PapaPetro]

I'm looking for an RPG that's open world, or partially open-world like the old blobber games, where you go on adventures and have fun quests to complete, and quality writing like in old RPGs (Infinity Engine, Krondor, Might and Magic etc.), at least dialogue-wise - I don't mind what the plot is like, as long as the dialogues feel atmospheric, like in older RPGs.

Something like Realms of Arkania and Might and Magic 6-8, but I don't mind if it's a blobber or an isometric game, ARPGs are okay too.

I love puzzles and traps in games, is there anything out there besides the MM games and RoA that has that?

I don't want anything that's got a sad, depressing or grimdark world though, just a normal, fun world like MM or other classic RPGs would be great. Games with grey morality like the Witcher are also not what I'm looking for, and I don't want anything that's got horrible monsters as its prevalent type of enemies, the like brain/weird monsters in Dungeon of the Dragon Knight (the traps lookedbrilliant though!).

(I'd also prefer if the game doesn't contain much sexism, I'm fine when games have the typical save the damsel stuff, but I hate it when NPCs are sexist towards the party/other people and you can't do anything about it (like fight them or verbally hit them back, like in Arcanum).)

I'd love something where the NPCs are like in Baldur's Gate 1, MM or JRPGs, so they're not like the randomized NPCs in Daggerfall, but they're custom placed like in most RPGs, even if they have just a one line, so the world feels real and not randomly generated (Fate: Gates of Dawn seemed similar to this, from an LP and a review I saw).

I love older games and I loved Eye of the Beholder, Might and Magic 6-8 and Realms of Arkania 3, as well as BG 1.

And games with complex systems/lots of skills, perks and spells to choose from are great.

I love old RPGs, so older RPGs are preferable to newer ones, but I like finding out about new, fun RPGs too! I know about Wizadry8, so no need to recommend me that game, though. Feel free to recommend other games I haven't mentioned - and whether Krondor would fit this, since I've only seen bits of it.

Speaking of which, would the Ishtar series fit this? The first game seems like it doesn't have as much story and NPCs/quests like MM 6-7 has, but I've seen only bits of an LP. But the review I read made it seems like it's more story dense, was it perhaps for a later game in the series?

I know not many games have traps and puzzles, so I'm good if a game features only some, or not many, but otherwise it's a great RPG that feels like MM/ROA/BG1, or something that's perhaps more linear but still dialogue-dense enough with nice writing.

Exile III: Ruined World
or
Avernum 3: Ruined World (the reboot to Exile III)

 

[Darth Canoli]

I thought you liked bloat. Weren't you the one butthurt that CRPGAddict rated character system in MM3 too low?

First, play both games thoroughly and then we'll talk about it, looks like you have no idea what you're talking about.

Late game in Xulima higher difficulties against demons is a slog, it's not even dangerous if you don't get there too early but it takes a long time spamming stunning attacks.
You would use some magic at first but the mana cost is so high you'd spend all your gold buy potions so you save it for difficult combats.

In M&M III a few enemies like dragons or the huge lizard in one dungeon have a lot of HP, but there is a reason for it and it makes some fights quite interesting, because most fights are quite fast in M&M 3, unlike in Xulima.
Aside from late game encounters but you deal with them quite fast, there's a speedrun in less than 5 minutes i believe and they don't skip these encounters.
In Xulima, a single demon encounter is 5-10 minutes and there's a shitload of it.

Don't get me wrong, i find Xulima mostly good but there is too many flaws, with twice the budget and some inspiration, it could have been a masterpiece but it's just a flawed average/good game.
Some examples:

• Chain stun are too powerful (probably the reason HP bloat exist)
• HP bloat late game (demons) while it's ok for titans/giants
• Copy/pasted cities
• Copy/pasted quests
• Too many princes
• Terrible fighting skills (stun, powerful strike, bleeding strike, poison)
• Terrible weapons stats (bleed, stun, wound)
  
• Too high magic cost
• The main character has a shittier character building than everyone else
• the bleed, wound, poison system is just a pain to manage, it's just two too many debuffs
• animated enemies during combat, probably the most retarded feature, they're just dancing around and because of that, you get 2 loading screen per battle (in and out)

Some great features like the hell hounds chasing you, except they're not a threat for long, missed opportunity here.
Witches fights are probably the best part of the game
Statues puzzle in the desert

Clearing an area in M&M 3 was way smarter (destroying enemies lairs) than in Xulima, for example where you just have to grind jrpg style.

Basically, Xulima doesn't miss a single opportunity to waste your time...

 

[ghostdog]

The Dark Heart of Uukrul doesn't really have an open world (it takes place in a dungeon), but has some of the best puzzles/riddles in any RPG.