Which RPGs surprised you that they're actually great?

[Shape]

I gotta say I forced myself to play Dark Souls 1 last week and I was hugely surprised how great the exploration and mystery of the world felt.. All the hype around it made me cringe and not play it for all the years, and for some reason I was convinced that there's some crappy story with shallow lore because of how combat-focused it seemed to be on the cover. Pretty happy to have been wrong on that one. How about y'all?

 

[ProphetSword]

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines.

After having played Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption, I didn't see myself enjoying this one at all. But, folks here on the Codex kept saying it was a good game. I'm currently playing it (probably halfway through, maybe further), and I have to say that it's much, much better than I thought it would be. With a widescreen hack installed, the game plays really well, and I'm surprised how well it's aged.

 

[Sranchammer]

Morrowind left a sour taste in my mouth so I didn't have much expectation for Oblivion when it blew me away.

 

[MilesBeyond]

I feel like most of my answers are cheating.

I was surprised to learn that Oblivion was a huge amount of fun, but only if you play to deliberately break the game as much as you can, rather than playing it as intended.

I was surprised to learn that Neverwinter Nights was a huge amount of fun when you ignore the dev campaigns and play user-made stuff.

Betrayal at Krondor might be my legit answer. Expeceted some lame, cheesy book tie-in. Didn't imagine it'd actually be a solid game.

 

[Neanderthal]

Arcanum. When I first played demo on PC Zone cover disc I weren't impressed, crap graphics an combat I thought I couldn't go beyond that, fucking wrong.

Vast world filled wi stuff that reacts to your build, massive choice o character creation options, loads o content, well simulated world wi day/night cycles, npc schedules etc, interesting an original setting, brilliant plotting, fantastic antagonist, massive amounts of choice and consequence, not afraid to punish player or let him miss content, shit loads o quests an stuff to do. All this an more from a low budget game, where dev dint listen to players asking for less and less, but instead decided to implement more an more stuff an be ambitious.

 

[Daedalos]

WL2, PoE, Underrail, AoD - Especially the last two.

 

[aweigh]

LOL @ dark souls = RPG

 

[KILLER BEAR]

Jagged Alliance 2 & Bloodlines.

Also mildly curious about OP's fascination with Dark Souls story/lore. I though it as fairly typical stuff that gained a certain appeal through the way it was presented (basically the information about the world is scarce and provided indirect to the player, thus creating a sense of "mystery"). Am I wrong on that?

LOL @ dark souls = RPG

That's debatable, but it's a discussion for another thread.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Oblivion. Didn't approach it as an RPG though. More as a massive open world cinematic adventure game with lots to do. It was the first game of its type I played in that category so the novelty of it all was quite enjoyable. With mods it was even better.

 

[Maggot]

inb4 Undertale

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

King of Dragon Pass. I had missed it completely but tried it based on recommendations here. I was surprised by how engaging it was. For a game that has perhaps few RPG elements as compared to more traditional titles, few games have been able to suspend disbelief like this gem.

 

[aweigh]

no it is not debatable. if you're going ot call dark souls an RPG then zelda is an RPG as well and so are those co-op team-up games that feature a top down view and levels and loot.

it is absolutely not debatable and:

1) this thread is in the wrong sub-forum if things like dark souls are going to be mentioned
2) anyone who thinks dark souls is an RPG should not be making posts talking about RPGs

EDIT: some fucker already name dropped Oblivion in an unironic manner so this thread should be sent to Retardo Land

 

[SausageInYourFace]

Come to think of it, I was far more often surprised that some RPG is shity than I was surprised some RPG is great.

I guess one of the great surprises for me was Divinity 2 which I bought used for a few bucks without knowing anthying about it, just cause I wanted to play something RPGish and had some time to kill on a weekend. I didn't know anything about Larian either. The game turned out great, exploration, music, atmosphere .. It made me check up what Larian was and made me more interested in the state of RPGs, indies, lesser known titles and devs- and well, here I am!

 

[Wayward Son]

Edit: Warning- Wall of text incoming

TES:Arena- When I first got this, I was used to Skyrim-style open-world bloom ARPG and over-cinematic "RPG"s like Mass Effect. Then I played into this one and actually kinda disliked it at first, but then tried it again about three to four days later and approached it differently, leading to a long lasting love and appreciation for it.

Fallout: New Vegas- At this point, (pre-Arena, during my PS3 days) I had absolutely zero experience with Fallout. I had heard about how amazing Fallout 3 was from a friend, and was bored after putting a metric shit ton of time into Skyrim. So, I took my allowance down to gamestop to get Fallout 3 and couldn't find a single copy. But, sitting there was New Vegas, a game by some shitty side company. I had heard from multiple sources that Fallout 3 was far more worth the 6.99 USD. But, I decided to get it anyway. And I hated it. Eleven year old me could not grasp the concept that I was under leveled for an area and I kept on getting my ass handed to me. I put it down and vowed to hate this Obsidian corporation forever for ruining the PA setting for me. A week later, I was bored and started a new character and heeded the in-game advice to follow the roads south. Now, it is one of my favorite games of all-time.

Fallout- After New Vegas, Fallout in my mind was supposed to be a FPS action-RPG with good story. So, when I saw on Steam after getting my first PC that Fallout was originally isometric, I was reasonably skeptical. But, I took the gamble and spent 20 USD on the collection on Steam. I hated the isometric Fallouts. They just didn't feel right to my fourteen year old mind. They were too hard. I went back to Morrowind and didn't touch them for a while, thinking I had made a mistake in purchasing them. Then, I looked up something to do with New Vegas and landed on the Codex. A thread here, can't remember which one, led me to look at Fallout 1 differently and I tried it later that night and fell in love. Now, over the past year, I've played Fallout 1 all the way through more than three times.

That's all I can think of right now.

 

[octavius]

I can't think of any major titles, but I'm surprised that some great CRPGs are so obscure:
Dark Heart of Uukrul
The Legacy: Realm of Terror
The Aethra Chronicles
Nahlakh
Aleshar: World of Ice

 

[Grokalibre]

Edit: Warning- Wall of text incoming

More like a fence, made of shit.

 

[aweigh]

octavius

we got people here posting about how Oblivion surprised them with its excellence and another guy praising Dark Souls and another dude saying how after pouring "a metric ton of hours" into Skyrim played FO3 and didn't even know 1 and 2 existed...

do you see where i'm going with this? RPGCodex CRPG Forum is not the place to go for obscure RPG discussion anymore.

EDIT: to make my Codex Kool Cred transparent of your list i've only played Dark Heart of Uukrul because i love turn-based blobbers.

 

[Wayward Son]

played FO3 and didn't even know 1 and 2 existed...

I never said that. I said that I had been recommended Fallout 3, got NV, and was surprised when I learned that 1 and 2 were isometric. Learn to read walls of text.

 

[Sranchammer]

no it is not debatable. if you're going ot call dark souls an RPG then zelda is an RPG as well and so are those co-op team-up games that feature a top down view and levels and loot.

it is absolutely not debatable and:

1) this thread is in the wrong sub-forum if things like dark souls are going to be mentioned
2) anyone who thinks dark souls is an RPG should not be making posts talking about RPGs

EDIT: some fucker already name dropped Oblivion in an unironic manner so this thread should be sent to Retardo Land

This is a safe place for gamers to talk about their favorite RPGs. If someone wants to identify some games as RPGs then you must respect their decision.

Else take your hatred and bigotry out of the Codex!

 

[Excidium II]

no it is not debatable. if you're going ot call dark souls an RPG then zelda is an RPG as well and so are those co-op team-up games that feature a top down view and levels and loot.

it is absolutely not debatable and:

1) this thread is in the wrong sub-forum if things like dark souls are going to be mentioned
2) anyone who thinks dark souls is an RPG should not be making posts talking about RPGs

EDIT: some fucker already name dropped Oblivion in an unironic manner so this thread should be sent to Retardo Land

Video Games are not RPGs if you want to be serious about this. Dark Souls is much closer to Wizardry than Wizardry is to an actual RPG.

 

[aweigh]

an RPG is any game where the numbers drive the gameplay. any action or decision taken by the player's avatar(s) in the game world should preferably resolve through the numbers behind the gameplay systems.

when the game allows real-time manipulation and/or direct input over actions such as avoiding an enemy attack, or attacking the enemy, then it ceases to be an RPG because it is the player's real world reflexes dictating the outcome of the gameplay systems instead of the player playing the role of the character(s).

a basic rule of thumb is: if the real world physical abilities of the player dictate the conflict resolution of the gameplay mechanics then it falls more in line with an action game than with an RPG because playing a role necessitates complete abstraction. Otherwise you can simply call any game an RPG.

RPGs are the direct attempt to translate into computer software the experience of playing table-top wargames and table-top pen & paper games; table-top and pen & paper gaming (and thus all real computer RPGs that emulate them) are all turn-based not because of "preference" but because it leads to the best role playing experience as it takes off the table the player's real world physical abilities.

EDIT: an even better rule of thumb would be: if the player's experience playing Mario or Street Fighter helps them beat an RPG then they are not playing an RPG.

 

[Neki]

Fallout New Negas.
After Fallout 3 the series was dead to me.Took me 3 years to play the game because I couldn't see pass the Retarded engine

 

[Excidium II]

an RPG is any game where the numbers drive the gameplay. any action or decision taken by the player's avatar(s) in the game world should preferably resolve through the numbers behind the gameplay systems.

when the game allows real-time manipulation and/or direct input over actions such as avoiding an enemy attack, or attacking the enemy, then it ceases to be an RPG because it is the player's real world reflexes dictating the outcome of the gameplay systems instead of the player playing the role of the character(s).

a basic rule of thumb is: if the real world physical abilities of the player dictate the conflict resolution of the gameplay mechanics then it falls more in line with an action game than with an RPG because playing a role necessitates complete abstraction. Otherwise you can simply call any game an RPG.

RPGs are the direct attempt to translate into computer software the experience of playing table-top wargames and table-top pen & paper games; table-top and pen & paper gaming (and thus all real computer RPGs that emulate them) are all turn-based not because of "preference" but because it leads to the best role playing experience as it takes off the table the player's real world physical abilities.

EDIT: an even better rule of thumb would be: if the player's experience playing Mario or Street Fighter helps them beat an RPG then they are not playing an RPG.

I don't think so. Video game format just lets you approach stuff in different ways, make use of the strengths of the media to compensate for what it lacks compared to the real deal. RPGs are much less about being limited to non-physical intervention and more about having freedom to do whatever you can come up with within the constraints of the game's world, your circumstances and your abilities. Your description is more familiar to wargames than actual RPGs.

Besides in the end it all boils down to numbers being used as input and resulting into some output.

 

[The Fish]

I have to say, Euro Truck Simulator was better than I expected.

 

[Wayward Son]

aweigh in the basic sense, I agree. However, in the modern age, we have new types of games, one of which is the ARPG, which my definition is the combination of the two, where the character skill influences the outcome to some extent and the player's skill is the other determinant. Does this make sense to you?