RPG with the best story / dialogue

[Projas]

Realms of Arkania HD

 

[Suicidal]

Mask of the Betrayer is, in my opinion, the 2nd best game after PS:T when it comes to good high fantasy stories involving gods, demons, all-powerful beings, other dimensions and etc. It's an expansion of Neverwinter Nights 2, a game that's quite combat heavy and generally mediocre, but there aren't many story connections between the two, so you can safely skip it and just go straight to MoTB.

Arcanum is fantasy steampunk Fallout with an interesting plot and good quests that offer many ways to complete them by just exploring and talking. The combat is pure dogshit but can be safely disregarded by going mage, picking a single target damage spell, setting the combat to real-time and just clicking your enemies to death - as far as I remember, certain spells could be fired as rapidly as you can click the mouse button.

Pillars of Eternity: White March, which is another expansion. PoE has a mixed reputation on the codex, and while I enjoyed it, I can admit that the main plot was not very interesting and very poorly paced. However I thought the expansion, White March, had some of the best fantasy storyfaggotry in recent memory and felt quite similar to MoTB with all its business involving gods and the weird dealings between them. Also had some very unexpected choices and consequences that were nicely implemented.

 

[Darth Canoli]

ok this game looks good but I've heard a lot of bad things about it, especially the second half.

Can't say, that's probably where i stopped.
Not because of the story / dialogs though, just fighting the same enemies over and over in the old walls or something, the loading time (my computer isn't a warhorse so it might be less of a problem for you).
I don't get through most of the games so it's also a habit.
Forgot to mention the magic system is great (you can compose your spells adding or removing properties to it)
I'd advise to get it on sales, it's worth it.

- human enemies always running away when severely wounded is incredibly annoying
- and people said that Torment: Tides of Numenera was weird for the sake of being weird ... haven't found one remotely normal person in Planescape yet

Combat isn't PS:T strong suit, nobody in his right mind would disagree. Keep in mind its age and engine though, nothing in PS:T can compete with recent games but the settings, story, atmosphere, unique characters and NPC and companions interactions.

They act as they should considering the settings and their background and i can safely say that's the first game i played that made me feel that way, sigil is a living entity and the people living there have adapted to their environment.
Felt like a Jack Vance novel but its name slipped my mind.

Played Numenera for 30-60 minutes and found the writing conceited and the battle system boring, stopped right there.

 

[aeroaeko]

Why is NWN2 not on steam? I could've sworn it was before.

 

[lophiaspis]

MoTB is shit.

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

I am new to rpgs and only started playing recently. I really like well written stories and dialogue but kind of dislike combat and would prefer to avoid it if possible. I can tolerate quite a fair amount of janky gameplay as long as the story and narrative are good. What are some games I should check out?
So far I've played:
Planescape Torment (LOVED this) (is tides of numenera any good)
Fallout 2,3,4 & New Vegas (New Vegas by far my favourite)
KOTOR 1 & 2 (liked 2 a LOT more)
VTMB (liked this a lot)
Alpha Protocol
The Witcher 2 & 3
EYE Divine Cybermancy

Also I would prefer if they were from 1995 or newer. Thanks.

I would say Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark as a game where you can thoroughly enjoy a story without being utterly bombarded by text. Where there are stories within stories and companions, & in particular Deekin and Aribeth but also many others, each offer yet more fascinating stories within the wider narrative without ever feeling like they're dragging down the pacing of the game.

An unfolding mystery leads to an even stranger netherworld which, in it's turn, leads to the very depths of hell itself via the Grim Reaper himself. You'll meet all kinds of strange and bizarre characters, from one of the most unique Mimic encounters ever to Wingless Angels in a peak of cataclysmic depression, and from a man who has vowed to sleep for eternity in patient expectation of the return of his love to an Orc who hates fairies.

The game does come with a lot of combat, but it's often intelligent combat, each with its own basis in narrative & just like PS:T there's even a way to not bother killing the final boss should you not wish to do it anyway just for the pure enjoyment & satisfaction.

However, in tune with your OP request, I'm sure the game's settings allow for heavily biased combat algorithms for people such as yourself who just wish to travel the unfolding adventure with as little game as possible, but, unlike many games so far mentioned, HotU is very heavily puzzle-based, so if you like puzzles alongside your story(including story-puzzles) & it's just the combat you find pacing-breaking, then it should still feel like a game for you. If you also hate puzzles, there's a gazillion walkthroughs for all of them out there.

​

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines for me. Most interesting story with intrigue, great dialogue matched with great facial animation, etc.. I like the writing in Baldur's Gate, too, as it's kind of nerdy but humorous at times. The writing in Kingmaker is also very good. And for a +1 to my Heresy ability I'll say Sword Coast Legends has some great writing, story and also top-notch voice acting. You can see a lot of the budget went to those areas in that game.

 

[luj1]

Fallout, Dark Sun, Geneforge, Escape from the Pit

 

[FreshCorpse]

Sigil is just like "how many over the top weird and insane characters can we fit into those tiny map sections??"

Sounds like you've got about as far as the Smoldering Corpse bar, which has walls of very dry exposition from tangentally relevant NPCs and is not particularly representative of the rest of the game. Press on.

As for RPGs where combat is minimal - an increasing number of games have mods that remove enemies. Maybe if you find something with a story you're interested in (eg, F:NV) you could find a mod somewhere that takes the mobs out. There is also that occasional "story mode" that does the same thing. So look out for that.

 

[Sacred82]

Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines for me.

Bloodlines was cool as the dialogue was consistently well written and atmospheric, no matter if you were talking to a bum, a hooker, a policeman or a businessman. Few RPG's represent different social classes equally well in dialogue.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

Bloodlines was cool as the dialogue was consistently well written and atmospheric, no matter if you were talking to a bum, a hooker, a policeman or a businessman. Few RPG's represent different social classes equally well in dialogue.

And you have well-written characters who are memorable like Chunk, the twin sisters, LaCroix, even the writing to describe The Sheriff is atmospheric and makes him an intimidating figure. Love that game, one of my top 5 games ever.

 

[Martyr]

They act as they should considering the settings and their background and i can safely say that's the first game i played that made me feel that way, sigil is a living entity and the people living there have adapted to their environment.
Felt like a Jack Vance novel but its name slipped my mind.

I must admit that I'm not familiar with the Planescape-PnP-campaign, so maybe the game did a good job in bringing that setting to life. but as far as I've played, it's just not to my liking. I guess I prefer settings that are a bit less crazy.
if you remember the name of that novel, please tell us. always looking for good books.

Sounds like you've got about as far as the Smoldering Corpse bar, which has walls of very dry exposition from tangentally relevant NPCs and is not particularly representative of the rest of the game. Press on.

I will finish the game. like I've said, maybe I'll change my mind and declare Planescape Torment the best game of all time, but so far I'm not impressed. and yup, Smoldering Corpse Bar it is, but I've explored most of Sigil before going there.

As for RPGs where combat is minimal - an increasing number of games have mods that remove enemies. Maybe if you find something with a story you're interested in (eg, F:NV) you could find a mod somewhere that takes the mobs out. There is also that occasional "story mode" that does the same thing. So look out for that.

that's the last thing I want. lots of fighting is exactly what I look for in an RPG, but in order to enjoy that the combat system has to be good. I've got no spells right now, all I can do is left click on enemies, watch the nameless one and Morte fight/miss and chase those enemies across the map, once they're about to die. that's extremely boring, no challenge involved.



also note that games with walls of text usually aren't my thing. but with the new "Top 70 RPGs poll" coming up, I felt the urge to experience the Codex' No 1 RPG before voting.

 

[FreshCorpse]

That last comment was really aimed at OP

 

[Martyr]

That last comment was really aimed at OP

oh :D

 

[aeroaeko]

Felt like a Jack Vance novel but its name slipped my mind

Dying Earth right? PS:T reminded me of Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe as well.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Dying Earth right? PS:T reminded me of Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe as well.

Just checked from the wiki article, seems like it.
I searched for it a couple of times over the years thinking it was a "stand alone" novel but it's probably this collection of short novels, now, i need to find a copy and read it again !
Thanks

Martyr When i doubt, read everything Jack Vance ever wrote.

Spoiler

I could drown you under well known classic and sci-fi writers you already probably know but here's two you probably never heard about : Denis Duclos and Mathieu Gaborit, if they're translated in a language you can read you should try (ancient future cycle from Denis Duclos and everything available from Mathieu Gaborit, but you can start with Abyme )

The first one is probably remotely inspired by Tchaï from Jack Vance, even if there is a lot of differences, this one is really original, probably unique.

As for Abyme it's a weird settings, a hybrid between Ankh Morpork from Terry Pratchett and the short novel i was talking about from Jack Vance.