Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Worst RPGs All Time?

RolePlayer

Augur
Joined
Oct 3, 2009
Messages
203
Location
Portland, Oregon
We have a list of the best RPGs all time and update it often -- wondering if a list of the worst RPGs of all time would work ? Seems like a very fitting thing to have here.

It's not the list of absolute shit and not a question about which shovelware is worse. The worst as in the combination of everything wrong and it's impact on the industry and the rpg genre.

EDIT: I found this list from 2012: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/rpg-codex-top-50-worst-rpgs-youve-played-vote-thread.78305/
 
Last edited:

Zlaja

Arcane
Joined
Aug 17, 2006
Messages
5,682
Location
Swedex
wafd1pkj7z421.png
 

Zer0wing

Cipher
Joined
Mar 22, 2017
Messages
2,607
I want to say it's obvious and the answer is Fallout 3 but at least we got New Vegas out of it. So I'll just quantium leap to the future and slam dunk a provocation - Cyberpunk 2077!
Fagout 3 can't be the worst RPG of all time. Fagout 3 is not RPG at all.
Neverwinter Nights 2, for example, is an RPG. Better? I don't think so.
 
Last edited:

Zer0wing

Cipher
Joined
Mar 22, 2017
Messages
2,607
"Most overrated" list would make sense, but a list of the absolute shit? What's the point?
It's not the list of absolute shit and not a question about which shovelware is worse. The worst as in the combination of everything wrong and it's impact on the industry and the rpg genre. So Goldenlands, obscure polish tacticool dungeon brawlers and your hentai VN pet project are out.
 

Zer0wing

Cipher
Joined
Mar 22, 2017
Messages
2,607
Okay, but the OP does not make that distinction.
The OP is a faggit in person is the ultimate hikikomori who lost in touch with other people so much he forgot to write such subtleties down meaning we have to decode it ourselves.
 

Erebus

Arcane
Joined
Jul 12, 2008
Messages
4,763
There's nothing worse than C64 version of Dragons of Flame.
Nothing!

I played the game on my old Amstrad and it was a horrible piece of shit. The slightest fight was a pain in the ass and I gave up on it extremely quickly. Heroes of the Lance looked good by comparison.

Hillsfar was also terrible, but it barely qualifies as a CRPG.
 

Gargaune

Magister
Joined
Mar 12, 2020
Messages
3,136
Pfft. Dragon Age: Inquisition is much worse even if you consider every single design flaw in DA2.
Nah, Inquisition's got its own bag of decline tied around its neck, but there's something uniquely loathsome about the relentless pile of shit that Dragon Age 2 was. The abstract plot premise was good and they put some effort into making the environments look more airy, but the utter lack of agency, the horrible wave-based combat and the consummate, shameless, MMO-style map recycling make it king of the shit hill. On the bright side, it did teach me to never again :d1p:

Then again, I haven't played Underworld Ascendant, so maybe my palate's not quite there yet.
 

Zer0wing

Cipher
Joined
Mar 22, 2017
Messages
2,607
Nah, Inquisition's got its own bag of decline tied around its neck, but there's something uniquely loathsome about the relentless pile of shit that Dragon Age 2 was. The abstract plot premise was good and they put some effort into making the environments look more airy, but the utter lack of agency, the horrible wave-based combat and the consummate, shameless, MMO-style map recycling make it king of the shit hill. On the bright side, it did teach me to never again :d1p:
???
Well, you got your nice fields in DA:I back. That didn't help much.
MMO-style is back in DA:I and turned up to 11 so much that they didn't even bother with fabula and quest design, something that still happened in DA2. Trying to beat World of Warcraft with an offline mmo have lead Bioware and EA to a very "bright" idea of DA4 as always-online game as a service.
 

Reality

Learned
Joined
Dec 6, 2019
Messages
333
The objective worst is going to be some Janky late 80s-early 90s things with faulty Real Time like Menzoberran...

But The Point of threads like this is for personal and emotional least favorites

So I have to go for Fire Emblem 4 : Genealogy of the Holy War

It takes everything wrong with Fire Emblem and double down - player charathers are super soldiers, maps have masses of empty space between objectives and points of interest, The Majority of conflict is on Enemy phase and it's in the player's Interest to ENCOURAGE this and just counterattack "psuedo" mind control the enemy into you. Using your own turn to attack goes from the 40/60 split in normal Fire EMblem (or 70/30 Split in Good ones like FE 11 - FE12 H5 and Reverse Mode) 8- to some obscene ratio like 10/90 --- Even if you want to go out of your way to fight on your own turn, the enemy's move in unholy 3x3 Glued together formations. So if you attack 1, you will have to eat the attacks of the whole brick at the end of your turn anyway. (Not that this matters since your obscenely bulky units absorb damage so easily) This game also has tones of 1-off features that aren't in the rest of the franchises, since as tracking money per individual money... Which seems to have come with the side effect of making sure every unit could easily get it's own money through Arenas, etc... But should Light units and Healer archetypes REALLY be able to run through 10 Rounds rounds of Arena in the first place anyway? --- Even if you avoid the Grindy stuff... you are still punished due to the ever-present Fire Emblem problem of Low-manning breaking the game even harder than grinding because putting experience on only a few people instead of spreading it out is far too good --- Attempting to "play fair" and "non-powergame" by splitting it psuedo evenly.... All the units still have about +15 Base HP and +4 Def (with FE's low caps) among other things more than they really should... I feel like "Myrmidons" should be squishy and not able to Facetank Silver Lance Paladins with their raw bulk, and Accidently leaving a Healer in range of enemies is practically fine (compared to other "easy" games in the FE series) beacuse even the "power" weapons like Axes can still require 3 people wailing on them at once to bring them down.... The game also has all kinds of other silliness... The Boss of the 2nd Level uses a Horse slayer for Double Damage against horses... and the Optimal unit to fight him with is STILL your Main chrather (hint he's on a horse), The Endgame and later parts of the 2nd Generation, try to lure you into seeing difficulty by spamming Magic Enemies, which in Kaga era Fire Emblem Fashion, only about 3-5 of your units are allowed to have a resistance Stat (in contrast to the widespreadness of Physical damage tanks) But this still isn't "HARD" because once you see them coming... you just make sure only those 3-5 guys are in range, and they'll all suicide into them willingly despite probbably OHKO any other of your units -- The AI ONLY cares about what it can do on a single turn basis after all.

The Biggest selling point of the game game according to those who claim it's a cult classic / better than later FE games is it's story and music. But I find it uneven in quality, after the villians of genertaion 1 die off, the generation 2 villians fall flat, and it's hard to seperate gameplay from story when the new generation of charathers is given "experience feeding" maps considerably lower in difficulty to start them off. Gen 2 also feels way too exposition heavy (Lewynn has like half the dialog in the entire script, as opposed to the more conversational approach of Gen 1)
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom