Looking for some less obvious PC fantasy RPG recommendations.

[ninja666]

Hello, everyone!

I feel like playing a fantasy RPG right now. Something with a solid, well-written story of the epic kind, and likeable, memorable cast of characters, that feels like reading a good book. The thing is, I'd like to see some lesser-known, less obvious suggestions. Something that wasn't made by Bioware, Obsidian, Black Isle, or Troika, and isn't the first thing people think of when asked for good RPGs.

Aside from that, I'd like the game to meet these criteria:

- Character creation and customization.
- Villain with an interesting motivation. It doesn't need to be too deep, but at the same time I'd like it to be deeper than "I want to become the ultimate ruler of this world and then destroy it because the game's script told me so."
- No moral choices, no morality systems. Period. What I mean by that is that I don't want a poorly thought-out, Bioware-style morality system, that's incredibly black and white and pretty much never gives you a viable solution to the problem because the only choices are "be a selfless saint" or "be a total dick", while at the same time having the audacity to actually affect the outcome of the main story based on those choices. Very few games can pull this off right and nothing irks me more than a shoddily-made morality system. Choice in context of roleplaying potential, however, is more than welcome.
- No D&D. I tried many times, but still for the life of me I can't understand how this system works. I prefer my damage to be expressed in numbers rather than virtual dice throws.
- Not too old. Let's say I draw the line at the point where the games stop running natively on Windows. Other than that, I'm not too picky.
- [OPTIONAL] First/Third Person Perspective Action RPG.
- [OPTIONAL] Fully voiced dialogue.

And here's my incredibly bad PC:

- AMD Athlon II X4 @ 2.8GHz
- 4GB RAM
- Radeon HD 7770 1GB
- Windows 7 x64

Thanks in advance for any and all recommendations.

 

[meiam]

Hmmm probably not the best suggestion and I'm not sure if you'll be able to run but I'm playing spellforce 3 at the moment, which is an RPG/RTS hybrid that fit most of your criteria. Honestly it's not that well written and the gameplay has a massive disadvantages (you can only use 3 active skill at once). But I doubt many people played it.

Age of decadence, roman fantasy RPG, it's big selling point is that you can play trough the whole game with no combat at all if you spec for other stuff. No party member though.

You can check out spider as a company, none of there game are that great but there little know and make decent if unimpressive game. Can't remember if they have character customization though, I usually just click random and roll with it.

You can try divinity original sin 1/2, honestly I don't think they're that well written but your mileage may vary.

Expedition viking/conquistador, if you want something that stir closer to realistic setting (but still keep a bit of fantasy).

Not fantasy but the shadow run return are pretty good, dragonfall is the best of them.

Underrail, also not fantasy but if you liked fallout 1/2 you might want to check it out (the last chapter is very disappointing though), I think there is character customization, but it' not that noticeable since it's all top down.

TBH none of those are amazing, writing wise age of decadence is probably the best (mostly because the world lore is interesting and it has a lot of replay value). I don't think any of them have bioware style morality system but some of them have decision in them. Villain is up and down, most of them don't really have one until much later, I feel like big villain is more a JRPG things.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Fantasy RPGs, not D&D:
- Elder Scrolls: Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim. All first/third person, large sandboxes with magic, swords, armour and gold pieces.
- Elex: More recent, interesting take on the genre, a cross between Fallout and fantasy. Good game, lots to do.
- Drakensang, Two Worlds 2, Gothic 3: Mid-tier fantasy RPGs with good reviews.
- Divinity 2 - Dragon Knight Saga: 3rd person RPG where you can turn into a dragon. Has some cool mechanics. Set in the same world as Divine Divinity and Original Sin. Speaking of...
- Divinity Original Sin 1-2: Isometric, turn-based RPGs with rich stories, plenty of RP and great reputations.
- The Witcher 1-3: Don't think they need much introduction, having put CDPR on the map. Based on a polish book series.
- Fable 1-3: They were better than people remember.

- Action RPG: Dark Souls 1-3, Nioh: Tough, unforgiving enemies but sublime melee combat and interesting character builds.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

I would think twice about Divinity: Original Sin with your PC... I'm pretty sure it would chug.

Hrm, doesit have to be fantasy? Apart from the villain aspect who is deliciously 80s action move cliche, can I suggest Jagged Alliance 2?

It's a tactical turn-based RPG where you hire mercenaries, outfit over the adventure, pay their fees, with a clever character creation system. You build up skills, you have resource management, no inbuilt morality systems.

The cool thing is your created character can actually die and you just flat out lose them permanently. All the mercs can just sort of die. But your character is one of the few that you don't have to ever pay for, and they rank as a fairly good merc in terms of points in comparison to the ones you can hire.

You also improve as you go through the game. So you do get better as time goes on.

Day/Night systems which alter combat and gameplay, massive options in kitting out your soldiers. You largely choose where to fight and when.

Don't like the approach your mercs will be making on a location? Move around to another side and attack from there. Too many enemy soldiers on a map? Well try using stealth and attacking at night to kill as many as you can before your presence is detected....

I won't say it has an 'epic story' ... but it feels epic. You're basically committing a CIA shadow war style regime change of a country. And the characters ... well, they probably have more flavour than your bog standard RPG funnily enough. With cheesy 80s one liners, with their own skills, with their own traits, with their own grudges with other mercs ... often you won't even discover what they are until two mercs who are working in the same squad begin to respond poorly to their mutual presence.

Which kills morale and creates problems.

----------------------

I could also suggest the Sacred series of games, but that's more select a character ...? If it has to be fantasy, that is. Divine Divinity and Beyond Divinity has an amazing world and a pretty cool, epic story.

Spellforce 1 & 2 is pretty epic.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Hmmm probably not the best suggestion and I'm not sure if you'll be able to run but I'm playing spellforce 3 at the moment, which is an RPG/RTS hybrid that fit most of your criteria. Honestly it's not that well written and the gameplay has a massive disadvantages (you can only use 3 active skill at once). But I doubt many people played it.

Age of decadence, roman fantasy RPG, it's big selling point is that you can play trough the whole game with no combat at all if you spec for other stuff. No party member though.

You can check out spider as a company, none of there game are that great but there little know and make decent if unimpressive game. Can't remember if they have character customization though, I usually just click random and roll with it.

You can try divinity original sin 1/2, honestly I don't think they're that well written but your mileage may vary.

Expedition viking/conquistador, if you want something that stir closer to realistic setting (but still keep a bit of fantasy).

Not fantasy but the shadow run return are pretty good, dragonfall is the best of them.

Underrail, also not fantasy but if you liked fallout 1/2 you might want to check it out (the last chapter is very disappointing though), I think there is character customization, but it' not that noticeable since it's all top down.

TBH none of those are amazing, writing wise age of decadence is probably the best (mostly because the world lore is interesting and it has a lot of replay value). I don't think any of them have bioware style morality system but some of them have decision in them. Villain is up and down, most of them don't really have one until much later, I feel like big villain is more a JRPG things.

Fantasy RPGs, not D&D:
- Elder Scrolls: Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim. All first/third person, large sandboxes with magic, swords, armour and gold pieces.
- Elex: More recent, interesting take on the genre, a cross between Fallout and fantasy. Good game, lots to do.
- Drakensang, Two Worlds 2, Gothic 3: Mid-tier fantasy RPGs with good reviews.
- Divinity 2 - Dragon Knight Saga: 3rd person RPG where you can turn into a dragon. Has some cool mechanics. Set in the same world as Divine Divinity and Original Sin. Speaking of...
- Divinity Original Sin 1-2: Isometric, turn-based RPGs with rich stories, plenty of RP and great reputations.
- The Witcher 1-3: Don't think they need much introduction, having put CDPR on the map. Based on a polish book series.
- Fable 1-3: They were better than people remember.

- Action RPG: Dark Souls 1-3, Nioh: Tough, unforgiving enemies but sublime melee combat and interesting character builds.

Guys ...did you bother to even read their PC specs? Some of these will flatout just chug. Like,Idon't even think you could get DS3 to run.

 

[09philj]

Shadowrun Returns is an excellent port of the tabletop cyberpunk tactical RPG. The included campaign, Dead Man's Switch, is a good introduction to the world and systems. Workshop support means there's a huge swathe of user designed content to choose from once you're done with that.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I really just came in to say Divinity Original Sins and Pillars of Eternitys. I've only played Divinity Original Sin (and haven't yet completed it) out of the 4 of those (as both have 2 games) and the story is much more on the whimsical/comedic side than serious side. The writing is fine overall, but I hear Divinity 2 is has better writing. Super Bunnyhop's review of Pillars [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml3EdUJJOPw] is really positive but also informed me it's not the type of game for me. If you dig everything he has to say about the game, then it might be your game.

I would think twice about Divinity: Original Sin with your PC... I'm pretty sure it would chug.

I just have an AMD A8-5500 APU (no video card) and Divinity runs just fine on my computer so the TC's PC should be more than fine with a standalone video card. I don't know about the sequel though and its specs.

 

[Satinavian]

I would say Drakensang : River of Time

- Character creation and customization
- a Villian with a proper motivation
- no morality system
- not D&D (it is TDE)
- not too old
- 3rd person RPG

It gas only partial voice acting though but overall it is not a bad game.

 

[MrCalavera_v1legacy]

Shadowrun Returns is an excellent port of the tabletop cyberpunk tactical RPG. The included campaign, Dead Man's Switch, is a good introduction to the world and systems. Workshop support means there's a huge swathe of user designed content to choose from once you're done with that.

Was about to suggest Harebrained's Shadowrun games too, except i'd go further and advice that OP can safely skip DMS and go straight to the Dragonfall.

It's not pure fantasy. It mixes that and cyberpunk, but you will still find plenty of the former.

 

[Saelune]

Arx Fatalis, though you need to download the Arx Liberatis fanpatch for it work, but Arx Fatalis is worth it, a very interesting game made by Arkane Studios who would go on to make Dishonored and the uh, other Prey. It is from like, 2002 or something.

 

[meiam]

Shadowrun Returns is an excellent port of the tabletop cyberpunk tactical RPG. The included campaign, Dead Man's Switch, is a good introduction to the world and systems. Workshop support means there's a huge swathe of user designed content to choose from once you're done with that.

Was about to suggest Harebrained's Shadowrun games too, except i'd go further and advice that OP can safely skip DMS and go straight to the Dragonfall.

It's not pure fantasy. It mixes that and cyberpunk, but you will still find plenty of the former.

Absolutely skip dead man switch, it's more of a tech demo than a full game.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

I
I just have an AMD A8-5500 APU (no video card) and Divinity runs just fine on my computer so the TC's PC should be more than fine with a standalone video card. I don't know about the sequel though and its specs.

Hrm .... I would imagine D:OS2 would have difficulties... not 100% sure about D:OS1.IF it can run, yeah ...the first. But I can't see the second doing so.

Also, I just want to second Saelune's suggestion. Arx Fatalis is pretty brilliant.

 

[ninja666]

I've looked through your recommendations. Drakensang: The River of Time and Divinity: Original Sin sound like the thing I want, so I think I'll go with those. I'll definitely also consider the Shadowrun series, since I generally like mixing classic fantasy with another setting (I really enjoyed Arcanum back in the day). Jagged Alliance 2 I might also play, although perhaps another time, as I'm not in the mood for something set in modern times right now. As for Arx Fatalis, it's also a great suggestion, but I've already played it.

Big thanks to everyone who contributed.