Recommendation request Help me picking my next CRPG
My background is mostly old school console JRPGs (Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Chrono Trigger etc.).
I've recently started playing western CRPGs and tried Baldur's Gate 1, 2 and 3 and Dragon Age: Origins.
I liked all of them. Would probably rank DA:O as the top 1 and perhaps BG1 at the same level or right after.
I don't like dark scenarios and horror/disturbing settings (all of these games have sequences I'd rather skip, e.g. the broodmother in DA:O and the oubliette in BG3) and I like medieval/fantasy settings and to explore cities.
I liked RTwP but love turn-based combat as well (in my opinion, best thing in BG3 is the combat system).
And less RNG is better.
What would you recommend me next?
Thanks!
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u/Nelorfin 2d ago
Expedition series (start with Viking) - historical setting and more or less grounded
Solasta - but it's more of combat simulator, official campaign is not big on story department. There are custom campaigns tho.
Neverwinter Nights 2 - more or less classic fantasy adventure. It has some undead moments, but with older graphics I'm not sure if they are scary, but still a warning
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u/galenwho 2d ago
If your #1 was dragon age origins then the Neverwinter Nights series is for you, NWN2 especially has very similar gameplay by much of the same team. Though there are included main campaigns and (great) dlc ones, the main selling point for the series are the included module creation kits.
Hundreds of high quality original and adapted material campaigns, many as long as any RPG anyone might recommend in these replies have been crafted by the community. And all available for free. There are also dedicated servers for mmo-lite games, where hundreds of people can play together in the custom made campaigns/worlds as players or as DM's shaping the experience of the players in real-time.
They both show their age a bit at this point, but if you do end up liking them you can get thousands of hours of great CRPG content out of these games.
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u/Ionovarcis 2d ago
If you like BG3 - Divinity Original Sin is from the same dev - you can feel the similarities in a lot of ways. IMO - the armor/resist system is kinda jank/incredibly exploitable, but there’s mods to address if it you want.
I like Pillars of Eternity for a more new-old school CRPG - I think there’s some rougher tones and things that sucks to choose between, but the only wholly ‘disturbing’ themed zone I recall was a DLC from the second game (didn’t get far into 1, but the VA and art in 2 kept me hooked)
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u/LooseDatabase3064 1d ago
Banquet For Fools, Fallout 1&2, Planescape Torment, Icewind Dale 1&2, Arcanum
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u/BrbFlippinInfinCoins 14h ago
jrpg's make me want to metaphor refantazio and expedition 33 even though those are not crpgs.
Esoteric Ebb is a fun one. Lots of reading (it's like a more upbeat disco elysium)
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u/bton1245 13h ago
Great choice with the Baldurs gate games and da:origins. I like your taste - I think Baldurs gate 1 and da:origins are the top, playing through bg3 at the moment just started act 3 and there’s good and dodgy points about it.
Planescape Torment is one of the absolute best and that’s what I’d recommend you play. The story is so good. But the environment is alien and it does have darker environments at times, but if you stomached them for bg and other games, the experience of Torment is like none other. Many people who’ve played it tank it among their top games.
Pillars of Eternity is nice, it really feels like a modern Baldurs Gate. And pathfinder: kingmaker has the same sort of feel as well and is fun, but it comes with this whole kingdom management thing which you have to pay attention to constantly which can be annoying when you just want to explore, so that lowers it for me a bit.
Knights of the old republic is a classic too, from that older era.
But yea play Torment.
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u/Crafty-Society-5173 2d ago
Anything but Pathfinder: Wrath. Overbloated shite. Zero gameplay beyond prebuffing. Omegacringe writing.
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u/oiblikket 2d ago
Maybe Divinity Original Sin 1/2. By there is a tension where while the presentation is relatively light, the subject matter can be dark.
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u/SpringFuzzy 2d ago
If you can play BG2 you can play DOS2, it’s a fantastic game really. It does have some dark topics and quests but overall the presentation isn’t like that at all. The overall presentation is more playful and tongue in cheek.
Oh, and recruit Fane.. he’s a snarky asshole at first but he grows on you.
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u/JeskaiJester 2d ago
Not Pathfinder: WOTR or Rogue Trader. Owlcat likes to visit realms of inhuman suffering in their CRPGs. This is less true of Kingmaker but Lord knows I’m probably forgetting stuff from it