Oh man, this could be a loooooong conversation.

My first computer RPG was Diablo. I played that series obsessively. Diablo 2 and 3 were both a little rough when they first launched, but by the time they got the expansions out and refined things further, they had become the quintessential loot-based action RPGs. It's also one of the few RPGs I like playing with multiplayer since I largely think of RPG video games as single player games.

Next I got Fallout and that was a revelation. I adore the first two Fallout games and I think they're still the best in the series. Fallout 3 came around and was very different and lacking in the humor, wit, and style of the first two, but I still sunk hundreds of hours into it. New Vegas was even better in most respects, but Fallout 4 was a let down for me because I felt that Bethesda had taken away the role playing aspect of the game by forcing you to play their limited character. They trick you by putting in a character creator and then railroad you so hard. I hated the Institute storyline and I felt that synths did not fit into the Fallout universe. Also the focus on base building was not compelling in the least to me and my OCD couldn't stand not being able to align items to a grid. Fallout 76 I won't touch with a ten foot pole.

Morrowind was a neat, original place to explore but I never felt compelled to get very far in the story and I thought the character progression system was awful (jump everywhere to raise your skills!). It was more like a fantasy Grand Theft Auto where you just played the game to dick around. Oblivion I liked more -- especially the Shivering Isles which might be my favorite Elder Scrolls thing ever. Skyrim I liked even more and they finally switched to a more sane character progression system. Overall, I like exploring Bethesda games, but the writing and storytelling have never been very strong, IMO. Also I don't think it's cute that Bethesda leans into their reputation of making buggy games and try to play it off like it's charming. It's not; fix your damn game engine and try giving your games some polish for once.

I really like the Dragon Age series. The first one was great and was a very promising start for a new RPG series in a new setting. I would go back and replay it again if the PC version had controller support because I don't like playing games with keyboard and mouse. (Sorry, Morrigan and Leliana.) I find it unfortunate that DA2 was rushed by EA and that it subsequently has a bad reputation. Despite a lot of content being reused, I think they made the best with what little time they had. Magic in combat felt better than the first game and I really love some of the companions from DA2 like Varric and Isabela. Inquisition was mostly excellent. If they had significantly toned down the resource gathering that made me stop to pick up stuff constantly, then I would like it even more. Otherwise, I've got few complaints other than the Frostbyte engine being so poorly optimized that it requires brute force power to make the game playable at a good frame rate and resolution. Here's to hoping DA4 doesn't suck.

I enjoyed the first three Mass Effect games too (didn't bother with Andromeda). There are lots of areas to improve (inventory management, boring planet traversal in ME1, more interesting skills and powers) but I dug what BioWare was going for and the soundtrack was rad. As far as the controversial ME3, I played it after they released the expanded ending and I think it concluded fine. Not incredible, but I wasn't part of the angry mob against it. Hopefully the rumors of a remastered trilogy are true since the original PC versions kinda suck.

Baldur's Gate was my first introduction to D&D and I ate it up. BG2 improved on everything and is a masterpiece in my eyes. The Icewind Dale games (both very similar, just one uses 2e rules and the other 3e) are very fun combat focused dungeon crawlers. Planescape: Torment is one of the most original games I've ever played and I find the whole conceit of being The Nameless One to be very interesting. Just a fantastic game, that one. If you've got the patience to read, you'll be rewarded greatly.

Neverwinter Nights I thought was a big step down from the Infinity Engine games. The 3D graphics were ugly then and are even uglier now (despite EE improvements to lighting). Movement and exploration was more frustrating because now you had to babysit a camera. I didn't like any of the companions or the limited party space and I did not find the story compelling at all in any of the modules. I've only played a few hours of NWN2 and gave up. I remember the controls and camera being even worse. Still, these games are way better than that "free" to play Neverwinter game that's out now. The game wanted me to pay $60 to play as a Dragonborn and then it plays like some awful combination of EverQuest and Kingdom Hearts. Not worth anyone's time. The D&D license under Atari and Hasbro has just produced garbage video games so far. Will BG3 be the first D&D to game break this cursed chain of failures? We'll see...

I couldn't stand The Witcher 1, put maybe 10 hours into the second one, and then went whole hog on the third. Despite combat being so-so, to me The Witcher 3 is the best RPG of the last generation. The storytelling and voice work are top notch and I love, love, love how the game handles monsters. I've waited for years for a game to make me feel like I was battling Meg Mucklebones from Ridley Scott's Legend. TW3 nails atmosphere and making you feel like you're hunting unique monsters. Then on the other side of things you've got the beautiful countryside in Blood and Wine to play around in as you bring Geralt to the end of his adventures. I'm also still impressed with the way the game makes you feel like you're traveling through a real forest with the way trees bend in the wind and such. Simply marvelous.

The first Pillars of Eternity is a little bland and some of the classes I didn't find interesting, but I enjoyed it and the second game even more. PoE2 felt much fresher with the nautical pirate theme and I felt like I had a better sense of the world of Eora -- or at least its pantheon of gods. Plus, they finally added the ability to play Turn Based combat in addition to Real Time with Pause. That in and of itself deserves praise (especially since the debate between the two systems is so contentious).

Pathfinder: Kingmaker is wonderful. I'm in the sixth and final part of the Adventure Path and I think I have enjoyed this game more than any other that tried to follow in the footsteps of Baldur's Gate. It just does so many things right and brings a bunch of quality of life improvements to the genre while giving you the chance to play something new with the whole kingdom management aspect. I installed some mods to alleviate my anxiety with time-based quests and I still see several areas where the game could use some polish, but for a first time game from a small studio, I am super impressed and gladly went ahead and backed the upcoming Wrath of the Righteous. The alpha has actually been super stable for me so far and I love being able to bring up the bug report tool in the game. Very smart stuff.

I've got maybe 70 hours across the entire Divinity franchise. To me, they were always C level games that were kind of interesting once you had played through all the big A and B level games and were looking for something else. (And seemingly nobody seems to praise or even be aware of the Divinity games before Original Sin?) DOS1 I gave up on because I hated the controls (this was before they added controller support) and the story and setting were not interesting. Plus there's just too much useless crap thrown about everywhere (something the Elder Scrolls is also guilty of). DOS2 I have put the most time into, but I don't like it very much. I felt like the game was trying to punish me the entire time I was playing it by putting surfaces everywhere which would make my characters move slowly or trip and fall. Then every spell seems to leave surfaces too and I found that got old really, really quick. Then the writing was average at best and party movement and inventory management was clunky as hell. I'm sad that I failed to see why people love this game.

I never made it very far in Temple of Elemental Evil because the game is just unfinished and broken, but the TB combat seemed fairly good. Arcanum seemed OK, but I never made it far there either. Tyranny came out at the wrong time for me to want to play an evil character. Torment: Tides of Numenera hasn't seen much play time from me and I couldn't get into Wasteland 2.

For JRPGs, Chrono Trigger, EarthBound, and Final Fantasy (5, 6, 7, 9) are my favorites. I don't enjoy playing JRPGs as much ever since they started introducing voice acting into games. Tea kettle voiced characters and overly naïve innocents (Colette from Tales of Symphonia) get on my nerves like crazy. A benefit of the smaller storage size of the older JRPGs is that they had to edit the script so they couldn't just spew line after line of inconsequential dialogue. With those space limitations removed, JRPGs went overboard with bad story pacing and overly long cutscenes as if nobody had an editor telling them to reel things in. And I guess that's how we get a burning trash heap of a story like Kingdom Hearts. There are still some good JRPGs that come out though. Persona 4 and 5 have good stories with interesting characters even if I think the combat is super boring once you figure out you can get free turns by exploiting elemental weaknesses.

I could go on and on, but I feel I've already written too much.

Last edited by KingNothing69; 06/11/20 01:47 AM.