Recommend me Some Fantasy RPGs That AREN'T in a Medieval Setting

[templar1138a]

Single-player RPGs where I get to create custom characters and play out their personalities are my favorite. Unfortunately, they're in short supply, and I'm tired of the medieval setting. I tried to get back into Arcanum, but that game really hasn't aged well and I'm not a huge fan of all the hoops I have to jump through before getting to Gilbert Bates or how limited my options are combat-wise unless I grind.

Can any of you recommend to me any good custom-character, single-player, fantasy PC RPGs that aren't medieval? No RPG Maker products, please, and if you're going to recommend an isometric indie throwback to Baldur's Gate, it'd better have a lot more emphasis on characterization than mechanics, and I don't want to put up with tons of text. I recently gave Planescape a try, and I may as well have just picked up a book.

I'm looking for RPGs that are fantasy, not sci-fi.

Games that fit this bill that I've already played and haven't mentioned yet:
Both KotOR games
Fable 2 and 3
Bloodlines

Games that don't fit this bill (but I know people are going to recommend anyway) that I've already played:
Alpha Protocol
The Mass Effect series
The Deus Ex series
Consortium
Dishonored
Kenshi
The Stick of Truth.

Edit: Okay, I knew this would happen, but I didn't want to type this pre-emptively. I have to address a few things.

1. A medieval setting is NOT implicit with fantasy. Fantasy involves the existence of things that do not exist within our own world, such as magic, non-human yet sapient races, and creatures/entities of immense innate power relative to what's typically found in nature. None of those factors have anything to do with a setting that involves feudal governments, sword-and-shield warfare, or castles. You can place those factors in settings similar to the Industrial Revolution, the World Wars, the Cold War, and the modern day (to name a few).

2. Star Wars is not Sci-Fi. Star Wars is best described as space fantasy. Sure, it has plenty of sci-fi elements like faster-than-light travel and interstellar civilization, but the stories are much more focused on individual characters than you typically see in Sci-Fi, which tend to have a lot more commentary on societal trends. Plus the Force is basically magic.

3. Don't recommend games where I can't make a custom character. No JRPGs.

4. Don't recommend games I've already listed. Seriously, why do you think I listed them to begin with?

5. PC games only. Seriously, what's with the recommendations I've seen for NES and SNES games?

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Wait, you want a fantasy setting without the medieval part of the fantasy setting? Fantasy games = games in a medieval setting. That's what fantasy means in this context, not simply make-believe. Isn't this like asking for a Star Wars game, but hold the Sci-Fi setting?

Kinda' pointless, really...

But I'll give it a shot!
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Wasteland 2(but that has robots, so I guess that's out.)

Fallout? Nope, aliens and robots.
And how does KotOR fit? Its Star Wars! That's as sci-fi as it gets. And Fable 2-3 I guess, technically, aren't medieval as they're like...100 years after.
I'd recommend just playing those a few more times.

Maybe try Jade Empire?

 

[Aetrion]

Risen, Risen 2, Risen 3 (pirates)
Mars: War Logs
Fallout 3, New Vegas.

There really aren't a lot of games that fit this bill. I think Vampire: Bloodlines is your best bet.

 

[shrekfan246]

But Star Wars is sci-fi.

...

Well, okay, I guess people generally make some distinction between sci-fi and space opera, I'm just confused as to how KotOR would fit and Mass Effect doesn't when Mass Effect is just Star Wars without lightsabers.

Anyway, when you say "medieval" do you mean medieval, or do you mean "inspired by The Lord of the Rings"? I suppose the fact that you mention Fable 2 and 3 but not the first means the latter, which kind of reduces your options a bit. I'd start listing JRPGs, but they don't tend to allow you to create custom characters.

Uh. Would Shadowrun work? It's cyberpunk, but it's a mix of fantasy and sci-fi. They've got magic and orcs and trolls and also augmentations and guns and hacking. But it's set in a futuristic society, so I don't know if that would be too sci-fi for this.

Sunless Sea might be worth checking out? I don't know if you necessarily create a custom character at the beginning of the game, but it's a narratively-driven rogue-lite RPG where you're commanding a steamship through the Gothic Victorian world of "Fallen London". From what I've heard, you can have a lot of really unique, strange encounters both as random encounters and with your crew and NPCs you run across.

I want to say The Banner Saga, but it's kind of borderline because it's heavily inspired by Norse mythology. It's a far cry from the likes of Dragon Age in setting, but it's still not too far off from something like Skyrim.

Another rogue-litey ARPG is Full Mojo Rampage. I don't know how much character customization it has and I think it's pretty heavily based around dungeon crawling, but games based around Voodoo are pretty few and far between.

Titan Quest is an isometric ARPG set in a world built upon Greek, Egyptian, and Asian mythology. It's generally regarded as one of the high-points of "Diablo clones".

Age of Decadence might be one to keep your eye on. It's in Early Access right now, but it's apparently a low-magic post-apocalypse setting drawn around the Roman Empire.

Jade Empire is a Bioware ARPG that's based around Chinese mythology. Takes a bit of getting used to the controls as they're not amazing, but it's a pretty fun time.

I think that's all I've got.

 

[templar1138a]

Baldurs Gate/Tales of the Sword Coast
Icewind Dale
Icewind Dale 2
Baldurs Gate 2 Shadows of Amn/Throne of Bhaal
Tales of the Abyss
Kingdom Hearts
Chrono Trigger
Final Fantasy 1-5

Try reading the parameters, chief. I said non-medieval games.

 

[MASTACHIEFPWN]

Star Wars is not Sci-Fi. Star Wars is best described as space fantasy. Sure, it has plenty of sci-fi elements like faster-than-light travel and interstellar civilization, but the stories are much more focused on individual characters than you typically see in Sci-Fi, which tend to have a lot more commentary on societal trends. Plus the Force is basically magic.

Yes it is, though.
Star wars is a Space Opera, which is a subgenre of Science Fiction. You described a Space Opera- a story that focuses on a set of individuals on a melodramatic adventure; the technology is a secondary point to the story, and it usually takes place in space or in an interstellar environment. Mass Effect is technically a Space Opera. Science Fantasy is an entirely different thing- Science fantasy has like space-castles and knights and dragons attacking spaceships.

Based on your requirements, there is nothing I can recommend to you, from a sci-fi perspective, at least.

 

[dangoball]

Shadowrun: Dragonfall - not really big on character customization, but it has a good story and fun NPCs. Definitely better than Shadowrun: Returns.

Maybe try SW:TOR? I know you said singleplayer, but what you want is even rarer than what I wanted some time ago (simply sci-fi RPG, how hard can that be?). Hop on an RP server and have all the fun you might want. Overlevel and don't bother with other people for instances and the such.

I take it that by Bloodlines you mean Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines? If so, you might be interested in The Final Nights mod. Never played it myself, but from what I heard it's basically a new game.

If you don't mind oldies, Arx Fatalis might also be worth a try. Very interesting world to play in and fun magic mechanics.

Oh! Almost though I have nothing else, but Wizardry! Old as heck and I only ever tried Wizardry 8, but it's an interesting mix of fantasy and sci-fi (swords and sorcery but also space crafts and laser with anything in between) It also has some interesting monsters. It's party-based so you create a bunch of characters, not just one.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

If Fable fits the bill then Kingdoms of Amalur should too. It's got some medieval weapons and armor but that's about the extent of it. It's very Fable-ish, but on crack. It's all fantasy and magic and it's very weird. Big open world areas for you to explore, hundreds if not thousands of quests. I've played that game for about 150 hours and I haven't even explored every open world area. I never finished the main story, actually. Now I feel like I have to.

 

[The Madman]

Shadowrun: Dragonfall is a damned good cyberpunk rpg and worth at least trying out. The setting if you're unfamiliar with it is one in which magic has re-emerged following a catastrophic incident in an already somewhat dystopian future, resulting in a setting where you've got ogre gangs with machine guns and wizards duking it out with elven ninjas with lazer swords and stealth technology alongside battle droids and rogue AI matching wits against ancient Dragons.

Awesome setting, awesome game. There's a third one in the series being worked on right now too after the big success that was Dragonfall, it's called Shadowrun: Hong Kong. The original Shadowrun: Returns wasn't terrible either though Dragonfall was undeniably better in pretty much every way. Gameplay wise it's similar to products like XCOM with isometric turn-based tactical combat. Nothing amazing but not bad either, I enjoyed it.

Otherwise not sure what to recommend. I can name a few other games but with you naming your dislike for games like Arcanum and Planescape you probably wouldn't like them either. Hell, I'm not even sure you'll like Dragonfall as it's pretty obvious from your post you and I have very different tastes in games. Still, might be worth looking into, could be worth a shot.

 

[NPC009]

You sure you don't have access to some (older) handhelds or consoles? I think you'll have more luck if you aim for a 'blank slate' or 'silent hero' instead of 'custom character'. There's plenty of those in JRPGs and JRPGs have some amazing settings.

You know what? I'm going to recommend you some JRPGs just to piss you off

Ar Tonelico series (PS2/PS3): Imagine a world where science is so advanced it looks like magic; magic that is activated by songstresses singing the right code to the giant tower at the centre of their world. Also, the planet is a toxic place, so people kinda live on floating islands that surrounds the tower. Cool, right? The game also has an amazing soundtrack, a fast-paced turn-based battlesystem and some item crafting. One warning, though: lots of innuendo.

Shin Megami Tensei IV (3DS): It way look like a generic medieval fantasy setting at first, but just wait till they bring out some out of place technology.

Persona 3 and 4 (PS2/(PSP)/Vita): How about some urban fantasy? Lots of character interactions. In fact, it's one of the two most important parts of the game. (The other is fighting shadow monsters in dungeons, which is also fun.)

Tales of Xillia 2 (PS3): A large part of the game takes place in a fantasy take on our modern world, but there's also some more traditional JRPG places to visit. You may want to play Tales of Xillia first, though.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

If Fable fits the bill then Kingdoms of Amalur should too. It's got some medieval weapons and armor but that's about the extent of it. It's very Fable-ish, but on crack. It's all fantasy and magic and it's very weird. Big open world areas for you to explore, hundreds if not thousands of quests. I've played that game for about 150 hours and I haven't even explored every open world area. I never finished the main story, actually. Now I feel like I have to.

If you've played that much, you're likely going to just fucking obliterate the end game boss. My single complaint with that game is that the opportunity to romance or at least shag Alyn'Shir never comes up.


OP, the only game I can think of that fits your bill is Jade Empire.

 

[Pinkilicious]

5. PC games only. Seriously, what's with the recommendations I've seen for NES and SNES games?

You know you can play them for free online rite?
I don't even mean "illegally" with downloaded roms but there's legit websites you can play old 'abandoned' console games online using a flash emulator.
With that said, since Shadowrun was already mentioned, here they are.
http://game-oldies.com/play-online/shadowrun-sega-genesis
http://www.letsplaysnes.com/play-shadowrun-online/
Saving in these works like in normal flash games that have stats/progress to save, somewhere in your user/browser/local/etc folder will be a .sol that it will look for when you come back.
Although you can't change the look of your character, the Genesis Shadowrun is pretty PC in style.
I'd wager it was probably more a limitation of space than anything else, because your story has nothing at all to do with 'you' but your quest to avenge your brother. If it were made today you could probably change yourself.
Also Phantasy Star Online.


Speaking of flash, there's a pair of post-apoc trading sims-slash-RPG called Caravaneer. Stat growth works similar to Elder Scrolls, run around a lot and you get more AP, land more shots and your accuracy goes up, carry more shit from town to town or punch people in the face and your encumbrance max goes up, buy and sell shit and your barter (not displayed) goes up. If you use a program to download it, or know how to rip it off the site, remember that the .sol points to your current directory, so moving the swf to a different location will screw with the save.
I'd rec dropping 8-10 points in Physical, however. You can't raise max HP aside from with rare specialised gear. Everything else can be trained up (although you might kill a few people training up Int as it requires practicing medicine) but you can't "train up" your actual max physical state. If you find characters with 1-3 Physical, if their AP is low, give them nothing but grenades. Worst case scenario, they ALLAH AKBAR the enemy. If they start with high AP, let them hang at the far corner of the map with a sniper rifle. Typically medically trained characters have 1-5 Phys, and moderate AP for patching people up in battle. So your doctors will be mostly hanging back plugging long-range with Garands, Nagants, Rugers, and PSGs.
It's also gamebreakingly worth it to spend about two hours messing around with a melee only enemy, healing as you need, running away from him, training up (a few) someone(s) with high Phys to have massive AP. This ninja SOB can now run up in someone's face, then have enough time to full auto them and reload before ending their turn, then survive the returning fusilade. Use that guy on solo or straggler armoured enemies, or conveniently-lined-up 'softies.'
If you've ever played Jagged Alliance or X-com, it's like that but with Elder Scrolls stat growth.
Also be mindful that the trading aspect in the first is a bit unfair at the start. Even if a town is starving to death, the most you can ever get for food/forage is 4x max value. Everything tops out at '4x list price' and bottoms on the opposite end as well (the setting for the game is quite a bit After The End so people have already reclaimed production facilities and relearned agriculture). Shops will also cease buying certain supplies eventually if you've put too many in the market (this is almost always knives and guns first due to battle spoils.) The only difference is the rare commodity Jewelry, which can go as high as 70k-80k (7.5 times profit) apiece, more than enough to buy an additional hummer. You may also create jewelry by selling gold in two particular towns and waiting a few days (I believe it's qubba and kulin offhand), just be sure no other caravans are on the way to that town when you do, or they'll buy it instead of their normal loadout.
Also, be sure to never run a place that prioritises it out of crude oil or fuel. Each produces the other. You'll get stuck waiting for some other caravan to drop by so production can continue. Worth it mid-game to take a money hit and make sure everyone's well stocked so you never need to worry again and can amass your millions safely.

 

[shrekfan246]

If Fable fits the bill then Kingdoms of Amalur should too. It's got some medieval weapons and armor but that's about the extent of it. It's very Fable-ish, but on crack. It's all fantasy and magic and it's very weird. Big open world areas for you to explore, hundreds if not thousands of quests. I've played that game for about 150 hours and I haven't even explored every open world area. I never finished the main story, actually. Now I feel like I have to.

I would've recommended Kingdoms of Amalur, but I suspected that the OP specified the second and third Fable games and omitted the first one for a reason. II and III are still very much an "olde-tymey" style fantasy, but they're more steampunk than medieval Europe.

Unfortunately, OP really doesn't have many other options. With the exception of JRPGs, fantasy video games as a whole haven't really grown beyond the "taking a world inspired by Tolkien" thing yet, especially not for in-depth RPGs that let you create your own character. EDIT: And especially if he doesn't like the style of games like Arcanum or Planescape: Torment. I elected to not mention Geneforge for that reason.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Honestly, OP, you're kind of shooting yourself in the foot. "Reccomend me things, except those things that make up the vast majority of the things I want out of the things that interest me!"

In the Dark Urban Fantasy genre, I'd mention Vampire - The Masquerade: Bloodlines. Its unofficial predecessor, Redemption, is also fairly tolerable even if it's a bit clunky around the edges. Other than that, it feels like everything under the sun has already been mentioned.

 

[Metalmacher]

Dragonball Z Xenoverse takes place in the future, you can make a character of your own, and it has RPG elements. Bam!