Quest for Glory: simple combat but complex story and "greyish" characters. Awesome for its' time and it also had time-restricted quests which made it a bit more realistic as opposed to a world where you can wander around for years.

And it had a lot of player freedom. Plus, it also had puzzles which were a load of fun as they were quite practical. I also enjoyed being able to flee from a battle instead of being locked into it. My most fav. characters were Katrina, Erana, Tanya and also Tommy. QFG4 was absolutely brilliant in setting a grim and "sublimal" but believable world.

'Cos this was likely the first ever RPG series to have a huge impact on me, I started to measure many RPG games against the traits I enjoyed. I do think there were likely a few other RPG games I'd encountered before this but meh... they likely didn't interest me enough.

Fallout 1: okay, never completed this but these are my opinions. The characterisation wasn't a lot but it was well-done via dialogue and graphics and voice-acting. The battles were absolutely buggy though a load of fun. Also, I typically enjoyed that at least 1 or a number of the quests were a bit time-restricted. And the player freedom! And the turn battles were great. Plus, the "atmosphere" was very believable and everything was written and implemented with care. Oh and I loved Tandi.

Divine Divinity. I enjoyed the puzzles as very few RPG games I've encountered ever implemented them and they were fun. Plus, in DD, you could "retreat" from an area or battle whereas in many games, you're somehow forced to wade through tons of battles in an area or locked into a battle.

Besides, this was one of the few games which somehow also had an old-school "adventure game" feel as I felt like I was really experiencing an adventure as opposed to some epic but very boring game. Oh and I enjoyed the vibrant graphics 'cos I get bored by over-realistic 3d graphics easily. In fact, I felt that it employed colours to great use as opposed to very flashy or realistic colour schemes.

Ooh and the books! Somehow, I really loved them. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> And oh, the humour and dialogues too. ^_^ They didn't feel contrived but instead, natural like everyone was really going on about their own business as opposed to "acting out" a role.