I love choice in RPGs...but hate "role-playing". *WALL OF TEXT*

[CManator]

Demon's souls. Good versatility with character builds, straight-forward plot, stages are linear but you can do them in any order.

Great challenge and atmosphere. The main draw is playing with character builds, and if you are confident you can use them for pvp.

It's a love it or hate it game, but it gets more love than hate. Probably exactly the type of game you're looking for, TC

 

[banthesun]

I don't know about the portable version, but Persona 3 doesn't really have that much roleplaying in it. Case in point:

Spoiler

The dialogue trees aren't really the role-playing part.

Going to clubs, classes, and managed your schedule are.

Some people find that immersive or some shit.

What you find immersive, I find annoying as fuck.

Huh, I always just considered that to be part of leveling your character. I was actually disapointed by its lack of roleplaying (not that I didn't have fun anyway)

As for your question, the Baldur's Gate series is absolutely dripping with choice. It's also dripping with dialog trees and non-combat quests though, so that mightn't be your thing.

 

[GoWithDAFro]

Might

FF12 fits your requirements, but the plot is rarely moved forward and there's a lot of grinding. You'll either love it or hate it. (guess which I was)

Hate. HATE, right?

No one ever uses "grinding" in a positive context.

I never gave that game a fair shot. Enamored with Oblivion by the time I bought it. Got about 20 hours in. Enjoyed that bit, though.

Well, you might like going back to it, then. And congrats on the guess.

 

[Another]

Go buy Neverwinter Nights off Good old games. Skip the storyline (Its not one of bioware's better ones anyway), and pick your choice of 7 races, 11 classes and 11 extended classes. There's a lot of possible builds in that game.

 

[FalloutJack]

I'm not...entirely certain if this is what you're looking for, but quite possibly Baldur's Gate games? Or if the ones for PC are still too much role-play to your liking, then go for the Dark Alliance console games, which seem more adventuring and making smarmy comments than RPing? It's sort of hard to find what you specifically are looking for.

 

[Erana]

NetHack? The story's basic and you pretty much just go down or up floors, but its community are the people who coined, "The Devs think of everything."
Expect to die a lot, but there's always wizard mode. It may or may not be your thing, though.

 

[MrMixelPixel]

You hate role-playing... T_T

Um... I guess... try Demon's Souls out.

That seems to be what you are looking for.

 

[thedeathscythe]

Most JRPGs don't cut it. The character are often designated with roles. "The Healer". "The Warrior". You know. The main character is rarely offered a choice in his role in the combat.

It sounds like you should try FF7. I remember in that thread you made about which game to get, one of the choices was one of the FF games, and 7's Materia system allows for COMPLETE customization as far as combat abilities.

If you haven't already played it, that is.

Yeah. But each character is clearly suited to certain things, still.

Except with Red XIII. Red XIII could basically do anything.

I love Red XIII.

He was THE MAN. Beast...thing...

That's why you choose your favorite characters and the ones you want for their skills. Do you want each character completely malleable? That sounds pretty boring to me, but maybe try Dragon Age Origins, it sort of allows more flexibility with the lesser characters, and it has tons of choices yet has a linear path you can follow (or side quests if you get adventurous).

This one's for PS2 but the .hack//GU series is amazing, eps 1-3. It plays like an mmo, which is super fun, has choices, a party and your character copies over from each episode. Very good story in my opinion, good characters and terrific presentation. If you want a modern game, I might need longer to think but if you're cool with playing a PS2 game, you must play this game.

 

[Trildor]

This has made me reflect, and the reflection has made me bang my head on the wall of text.

What have we come to, that games labeled "RPG" can have no role-playing?

 

[moretimethansense]

You could try Kings Bounty, it's a sorta RPG TBS, not sure about the story as I've been mostly dicking around with sidequests though.

And when you get a Gaming rig, laptops are more powerful or if they ever pull the finger out and release it on consoles, Defo try The Witcher

Also have you tried other SMT games?
Digital Devil Saga mighrt be right up your alley

And Nippon Ichi games as well
Decent stories, plenty of customization and comfortably linear, I'd recomend Soul Nomad or Phantom Brave personally.

EDIT: Fuck you for not liking Persona
What you call role playing is just stat building you realise?
It's not meant to be immersive, it's meant to force you to manage your time t build social links that complement the lodout you want.

 

[Olrod]

Have you tried Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies on the Nintendo DS?

It's becoming a favourite of mine, and I think a lot of that is because of the character customisation system.

 

[kingcom]

This has made me reflect, and the reflection has made me bang my head on the wall of text.

What have we come to, that games labeled "RPG" can have no role-playing?

Yea, i die a little inside....

 

[Board]

I request you go play Chrono CROSS (not trigger, its a "sequel")
over 60+ characters to form your party
really customizable element system for each character.
Completely linear, you occasionally have to choose from 1 - 3 choices, but they only affect what character(s) you get (have to play the game 3 times through to get everyone) and what order you do the content in.

Quite honestly, it is my favorite RPG of all time.
The story is amazing, the game play is perfect for me, the Game+ feature is awesome too.

Unfortunately, its PS1. so the graphics aren't great. but that doesn't really matter, right?

EDIT: saw the
"Most JRPGs don't cut it. The character are often designated with roles. "The Healer". "The Warrior". You know. The main character is rarely offered a choice in his role in the combat."
definitely not how it is in CC. although some characters lend themselves better to healing/damage positions, there are so many characters to choose from, and you can Build them however YOU choose.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

EDIT: Fuck you for not liking Persona

Still love Persona. 2/3rds of the time, at least. When I'm NOT let lose on the town.

 

[Chibz]

SNIP

If you don't like roleplaying, why are you playing a... *Cough* ROLEPLAYING game?!

On a slightly related topic...

I like FPS' but I don't like shooting people.

Oh. You mean those RPGs that don't offer any real roleplaying potential well then.

If you want a rather linear JRPG with good story & multiple endings: Disgaea.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

I request you go play Chrono CROSS (not trigger, its a "sequel")
over 60+ characters to form your party
really customizable element system for each character.
Completely linear, you occasionally have to choose from 1 - 3 choices, but they only affect what character(s) you get (have to play the game 3 times through to get everyone) and what order you do the content in.

Quite honestly, it is my favorite RPG of all time.
The story is amazing, the game play is perfect for me, the Game+ feature is awesome too.

Unfortunately, its PS1. so the graphics aren't great. but that doesn't really matter, right?

EDIT: saw the
"Most JRPGs don't cut it. The character are often designated with roles. "The Healer". "The Warrior". You know. The main character is rarely offered a choice in his role in the combat."
definitely not how it is in CC. although some characters lend themselves better to healing/damage positions, there are so many characters to choose from, and you can Build them however YOU choose.

Fucking adored that game. Fucking adored it.

Seriously. I still have that game, too. And the guide.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

If you don't like roleplaying, why are you playing a... *Cough* ROLEPLAYING game?!

Because they weren't always about big far-reaching choices and dialogue trees.

They used to be the only real games with depth in the days of plot-light platformers.

And now, they are making action games, slapping on dialogue trees and moral choices, and calling them RPGs.

Sorry. My anger at Mass Effect 2 winning RPG of the Year from everything is showing.

 

[Board]

Fucking adored that game. Fucking adored it.

Seriously. I still have that game, too. And the guide.

same man.
I have the guide sitting right next to me, the games somewhere on my shelf im guessing.
I don't have a ps1 though so, eh :/

Might I reccomend Legends of Dragoon or Legends of Legaia?
I played those along side CC.
Not nearly as good, though Dragoon had some cool game mechanics and a nice story, but every character had a little niche.
Legaia was okay, but one of the better jrpgs I've played. Don't remember it customization wise, though. Been so long since I touched the ps1 classics..

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Well, have you every played Deus Ex 2: Invisible War?

Heard bad things. Is it more in-line with what I'm looking for than Deus Ex 1 or something?

Well yeah. That's why everyone hated it.

EDIT: Try Front Mission 3. It's a Turn-Based Tactical mech game and there's only 2 choices that determine the way the game goes. One at the very beginning, one a third of the way through.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Fucking adored that game. Fucking adored it.

Seriously. I still have that game, too. And the guide.

same man.
I have the guide sitting right next to me, the games somewhere on my shelf im guessing.
I don't have a ps1 though so, eh :/

Might I reccomend Legends of Dragoon or Legends of Legaia?
I played those along side CC.

Dragoon was alright...Not too much in the vein of what I'm looking for now. Back then, it was another story. It did great for me. The addition system was basically gaming's first major encounter with the Quick Time Event.

Spoiler

LAVITZ!!!!!!!!!!!

First time I cried at a game, though.



But we didn't care about QTEs back then, did we?