Tchoo-Tchoo, all aboard the rpg train...

[Longing]

... destination freaking nowhere!

So, I was having a quick look up on wikipedia about upcoming rpg games and goddamn, it was depressingly empty.

There DA III at the end of the year and the witcher's been delayed apparently, and some kickstarter games that look interesting mainly pillars of eternity and torment, but besides that...

Dark Souls 2 made me realize there was a gaping hole in my chest that needed filling and I'll have to go back to old games cause nothing's happening this year!

Does anyone know if there's something good coming out this year? Anyone else want to join me in my moaning for something else than shooters?

 

[Elfgore]

I think Deep Down is planned to be released this year. Think it's suppose to be like Dark Souls' and Dragon's Dogma's gameplay had a baby with Assassin's Creed's modern storyline. It's FTP for PS4 only I think.

You have Wasteland 2, which I think is out now. If you count early access that is. Suppose to be pretty good.

Other than that, I got nothing.

 

[shrekfan246]

Anyone else want to join me in my moaning for something else than shooters?

Not particularly, since "something else than shooters" come out all the time. In fact, I don't think I've played a straight shooter since Bioshock Infinite, and I'm actually starting to feel the urge to go back and play something like Crysis again now because of it.

But that's me being a Debbie Downer again.

For me, I'm still eagerly awaiting an actual release for Divinity: Original Sin. It's been on Early Access on Steam for a few months now, but I don't want to play a glorified demo of the game and burn myself out on it before it's even finished, because I think it deserves a little better than that. The other Divinity games have been quite enjoyable, if a bit rough around the edges technically, so I'm really hoping Larian can create a solid title out of it.

Aside from that... ehhh, Age of Wonders III recently came out, with more of a strategy and empire-building bend to it, which I'm a bit interested in but awaiting more complete information on. Sacred 3 has the potential to be interesting, and while I'm unsure of how much "RPG" it'll be considering Bastion, Transistor has been sounding like it'll be bloody amazing. Not that it even has a release date yet, of course...

It's not just RPGs that are looking lacking this year. The entire current release list is a few bits of "Oh cool" mixed in with a whole lot of "Eh." There are a bunch of games I'm still excited to pick up that came out over the last two months, but in the future the only things with definite release dates that I'm looking forward to are Dark Souls II for PC, Kirby Triple Deluxe, and Batman: Arkham Knight. And I'm not even sure my aging PC will be able to play them, anyway.

 

[Longing]

You have Wasteland 2, which I think is out now. If you count early access that is. Suppose to be pretty good.

I was thinking of picking up Wasteland 2... but the 60$ price tag doesn't sit well with me. I feel like that's ridiculously expensive for the bits of gameplay I've seen.

Not particularly, since "something else than shooters" come out all the time. In fact, I don't think I've played a straight shooter since Bioshock Infinite, and I'm actually starting to feel the urge to go back and play something like Crysis again now because of it.

But that's me being a Debbie Downer again.

Ehh, maybe 'shooter' was the wrong word, more like action games. The latest big games have been Titanfall and Infamous, two games that don't interest me at all.

Divinity looks fun, didn't know that even existed. Games seem to fester for so long on steam though, do they have an official release date?

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Aside from that... ehhh, Age of Wonders III recently came out, with more of a strategy and empire-building bend to it, which I'm a bit interested in but awaiting more complete information on.

What do you want to know?

OT: It seems like this year was shaping up to be the "Year of the RPG", but with a lot of stuff getting pushed back it's been quite a dull stretch. Need some of these Kickstarters to hit, but from the sounds of them they're all still very deep in alpha/development.

I was thinking of picking up Wasteland 2... but the 60$ price tag doesn't sit well with me. I feel like that's ridiculously expensive for the bits of gameplay I've seen.

It's extraordinarily expensive. If I hadn't backed it I would hesitate to pay a price that high.

Additionally, the game is perhaps 20% content complete as per last check, and still very much in beta technically. You wouldn't be getting a full featured RPG for your money. You'd be buying into a test.

 

[Longing]

It's extraordinarily expensive. If I hadn't backed it I would hesitate to pay a price that high.

Additionally, the game is perhaps 20% content complete as per last check, and still very much in beta technically. You wouldn't be getting a full featured RPG for your money. You'd be buying into a test.

I really don't like that early access bullshit games have been doing lately. What's the point of playing a bug riddled, incomplete mess? Probably to make you regret those 60 dollars.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I really don't like that early access bullshit games have been doing lately. What's the point of playing a bug riddled, incomplete mess? Probably to make you regret those 60 dollars.

Given the number of MMO fans eager to buy into betas just to start playing, there's obviously an audience for it. For a story driven RPG? It seems insane. Just wait until it's done.

 

[shrekfan246]

Divinity looks fun, didn't know that even existed. Games seem to fester for so long on steam though, do they have an official release date?

No, and that's the crux of my problem with the Early Access program.

Divinity: Original Sin, for instance, was originally supposed to have a final release date sometime in either February or March. Now it's come April and the game is still in its "Alpha/Beta" state, which is... disheartening. Because yeah, it does look pretty cool. But... if I'm going to be paying $40 for something, I'd like a finished product, right? Not just the promise of a finished product eventually.

I mean, I'll admit I bought Grim Dawn because I figured I would like it and wanted to support the developers of it, but I haven't played more than a few hours of it yet because, again, I'd rather not burn myself out on a game before it's even fully completed, and with Early Access there's just no guarantee that you'll ever get a fully completed product. Eugh.

Aside from that... ehhh, Age of Wonders III recently came out, with more of a strategy and empire-building bend to it, which I'm a bit interested in but awaiting more complete information on.

What do you want to know?

Well, performance and stability would be a good starting point. I'm not against turning graphical options down, especially considering my hardware is about five years old now, but I'd like to know a game won't chug at sub-30 FPS with everything on low. Even if it is turn-based.

General playability things, as well. What's the ratio of RPG elements:Strategy elements, how does the combat play out, how does the empire building work, does the AI cheat, is the story completely forgettable, does your Empire ruler get to participate in combat as well or are you just some nebulous force effecting things from on high, are there "Hero" or otherwise unique units or is everything a generic unit each from a different type of character class, is there a great amount of map variety, things like that.

I haven't actually really bothered looking up much information about the game beyond a few glances at the Steam pages. And the franchise in general has been one I've been interested in checking out for a long time, but have never gotten around to because actual hard information about it seems a little bit sparse or conflicted.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Well, performance and stability would be a good starting point.

Oh wow. I'll do my best here. Performance and stability is fine. I hear the multi-player is gonged at the moment though. My PC is decent but no super machine, and it runs the game without hitches on huge maps. Simultaneous turns is quite nice...being attacked on your own turn can be mildly jarring, but hitting end turn and instantly being on your next one is good stuff.

What's the ratio of RPG elements:Strategy elements

Over-arching strategy is fairly minimal. It's a combat heavy game. RPG elements are HOMM level, perhaps a little more involved. My favorite bit is how you can get mounts as drops. I'm riding a Unicorn Sire! Gives you all kinds of extra boosts and bonuses.

how does the combat play out

Like a more tactical MoM combat, or HOMM on super steroids. If combat has an issue, it's that there's a lot of little, easily won battles against neutrals and wandering packs of neutrals (think Civ barbarians) that are more nuisance than anything. Units do not decline in ability as they take damage, so it's important to KILL, not wound. Units, even tier 1 units, can also move pretty far and output surprising damage, and the AI loves to focus fire, so you can have some surprising "Whoops, my hero is dead!" moments if you let them get flanked or surrounded. Interestingly, fighting on non-favored terrain can REALLY destroy troop morale. My otherwise happy Elves were flubbing shots all over the place fighting on Blight.

how does the empire building work

Pretty minimal. You CAN found cities, but I would recommend turning it off, and also turning the number of cities on any map way down. Cities are all the same, with the same building tree. They are pumps for units and income hubs. If you play with found cities on you will end up in "infinite city sprawl" situations ala older Civs. It's ugly and a bit lame. There's some light diplomacy as well, mostly centered around how evil or good you've been acting (which also affects troop morale).

does the AI cheat

Of course it does.

is the story completely forgettable

I expect so, but I've only played random maps. The random map generator is spectacular. Tons of options.

does your Empire ruler get to participate in combat as well or are you just some nebulous force effecting things from on high

Yes! Having your leader die AND losing your capital is how you lose the game. Your leader is a hero like any other, and can be quite vulnerable.

are there "Hero" or otherwise unique units or is everything a generic unit each from a different type of character class, is there a great amount of map variety, things like that.

There are heroes that join you (you can set the hero cap in game options for random games), and each faction has slightly different core units and more dramatically different class units. Dreadnoughts, for instance, get things like Steam Tanks and musketmen, whereas Arch Druids can summon primal animals, and Theocrats get stuff like Angels and Crusaders. If there's an issue with unit balance, it's that if you get into a city sprawl/huge economy situation the AI will spam tier 4 units, meaning you must as well, and it will all get a bit samey at that point.

 

[shrekfan246]

Snip

Interesting.

I still might wait for it to eventually go on sale because... well, I have way too many other games as it is, but it's reassuring to hear it's not a dud.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Interesting.

I still might wait for it to eventually go on sale because... well, I have way too many other games as it is, but it's reassuring to hear it's not a dud.

It's not perfect, but it's definitely not a dud. Given how mod friendly it is, I could see it being a game that enriched significantly as DLC/community mods were trickled into it to give it more strategic breadth.

 

[The Wykydtron]

I suppose Dark Souls 2 on PC if you haven't played it on console already, assuming they didn't make some terrible mistakes with the game because I am keeping myself in the dark about it til I play it myself. I've seen zero "OMG PREPARE TO CASUAL" videos after console launch so I assume they nailed the sequel.

You could also get Dark Souls 1 when it next goes on sale but if you aren't fussed about the DLC you should get the console version because the PC version is a little bit... unstable sometimes, even with the mod that fixes it. Though hell on earth Blighttown runs much smoother on the PC version, thank god. The place was so ugly the game struggles to render it without tanking your frame rate to single digits. PowerPoint Valley indeed.

 

[CrazyCrab]

Snip

I love the Age of Wonders series but the races just seem so bland...
I've been thinking of picking it up but it seems more like the Age of Lord of the Rings than the Age of Wonders.
I mean, what happened to all the cool races? Like the Frostlings, Archons, Demons, Those cat people that I can't remember the name of etc.

Are the races still fun to play with various units or is it just a Tolkien game with dragons in it?
I don't have anything against LOTR but if I wanted to play that I'd play a LOTR game. I was expecting all the awesome races from Shadow Magic.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

Risen 3 drops in a couple of months. Despite Risen 2 being a mess and failed experiment, Piranha Bytes are still a great developer, and since they're using the engine of the original Risen (which was an amazing game), it's looking to be shaping up very well. I'd keep an eye on it, personally, even if you aren't familiar with the Gothic/Risen franchise.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I love the Age of Wonders series but the races just seem so bland...

I've been thinking of picking it up but it seems more like the Age of Lord of the Rings than the Age of Wonders.
I mean, what happened to all the cool races? Like the Frostlings, Archons, Demons, Those cat people that I can't remember the name of etc.

Are the races still fun to play with various units or is it just a Tolkien game with dragons in it?
I don't have anything against LOTR but if I wanted to play that I'd play a LOTR game. I was expecting all the awesome races from Shadow Magic.

I only ever played Shadow Magic, and that was a long time ago, so I had no particular attachment to any race or set of units from previous games. This seems like a good/whimsical unit selection to me...you can have Goblin Angels or Dire Penguins or Baby Krakens, for heavens sake...but there are some complaints that the units are all a bit too similar at the core for balance reasons (IE there are stat points shuffled this way and that, but all core non-class units function fairly similarly regardless of race). That's something it would take a mod to address I expect.

Like I said in my long post, if I were to identify two problems I thought trended towards the serious, it would be that city construction trees are all copy/paste and shallow, and that the game can turn into ICS and tier 4 spamming very easily without judicious use of sliders to limit that as much as possible. Unit variety strikes me as one of the game's more dramatic positives.

 

[Exhuminator]

So, I was having a quick look up on wikipedia about upcoming rpg games and goddamn, it was depressingly empty.

If you're looking towards consoles for your RPG needs, you're going to have a lackluster time. As far as JRPGs go, those have been relegated mainly to handhelds for the past seven or so years. There's still new JRPGs coming out often on the 3DS and Vita, and loads of them released on the DS/PSP. As far as WRPGs go, those land mainly on PC these days. There are actually quite a few RPGs in general coming out in 2014. Here is a link [http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=741172] (on a different forum) covering most of them.

The most important upcoming on-consoles RPGs to remember:

http://atlus.com/persona5/

http://thewitcher.com/witcher3/

 

[aozgolo]

Strange, I kind of considered 2014 my "year of RPGs", as compared to some of the previous years offerings at least.

Torment: Tides of Numenera (which unfortunately is pushed back to Q1 2015)
Shroud of the Avatar (Spiritual Successor to Ultima by the same people)
Pillars of Eternity
Witcher 3 (also pushed back to Q1 2015)
Dragon Age III
Stardew Valley (An indie farming sim RPG similar to Harvest Moon for PC)
Divinity Original Sin (already out in Early Access
Dark Souls II (not really on my list but I think it qualifies as a 2014 RPG already out)


I'm sure there'll be even more I haven't heard about but I'm also looking at these games in terms of content, half of them are already boasting 100+ hours of gameplay to them. I've been playing Skyrim pretty steadily since it was released in 2011 and still going, so unlike other genres (barring strategy or simulation) RPGs are designed to not be finished in a weekend, they are meant to be fully experienced over the course of a long time, and in some cases multiple playthroughs.

Granted I cannot speak for the console market, I gave up on it last generation for scratching my RPG itch.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Shroud of the Avatar (Spiritual Successor to Ultima by the same people)
Pillars of Eternity

*Kickstarted* spiritual successor to Ultima Online specifically, and by Richard Garriott as opposed to "the people who brought us Ultima"...the peak of that series can probably be attributed to Warren Spector.

Garriott gets credit for pioneering the series...the original (somewhat batshit crazy) games were labors of love he made in his basement, but the guy has done absolutely nothing of note for something like 20 years. He helmed the utter catastrophe that was Ultima IX, he was in charge of Tabula Rasa...one of the few truly failed MMOs that never even made a transition to FTP...and has spent the better part of his time making absurd declarations in the media and hanging out in his castle, wearing tights and playing with his secret doors.

I'll always be grateful to the man for giving birth to arguably the most important/influential RPG series ever made, but Garriott is fucking cray-cray now. I'm not sure I would trust him to make me a sandwich, never mind a "spiritual successor" to Ultima.