Looking for a story-driven RPG

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 10:21 am

I've still got plenty of action RPGs on my shelf, but I'm burning through the story-driven ones pretty rapidly.

So far I've played:

All Infinity games.
Everything NWN.
Everything Fallout. (I ignore FO3; very, very wary of New Vegas.)
Arcanum.
Vampire: Bloodlines.
Deux Ex 1 & 3.
Both Drakensangs.
Divine Divinity, Beyond Divinity. So far, I find Ego Draconis a bit too much on the action-side to be in this catergory.
Anachronox.
Venetica.
Both Witchers.
Both Dragon Ages. (Arguably, DAII doesn't belong here.)
Jade Empire.
KotOR I & II.
Temple of Elemental Evil.

I place Lionheart, Vampire: Redemption, Might & Magic & Wizardry in the "action" category, given the huge amounts of combat.

I really like combat, but for this thread's purpose, I'd like to avoid the heavy combat games. On the same lines, I've excluded most JRPGs. I think the best definition is "games were you can also complete quests without going into combat areas", if that makes any sense.
I also excluded Gothic & Elder Scrolls, since the story tends to take a second seat to the sandboxing. Nothing wrong with that, but not what I'm looking for now.

Any recommendations you can make?

Thanks in advance!

Stworca · Post by **Stworca** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 11:36 am

Gothic 1 and, to a lesser extend, 2 are actually story-driven. Gothic 3 is all sandbox.

There are many more "Story-driven" RPG's, but all of the ones that i know off, are combat heavy.

Other than the likes of Suikoden & Co, you have pretty much depleted the pool of RPG's that aren't old, sandboxy, combat101 or simply crappy.

Two Worlds is an RPG that i know that exists, but other than that : Nothing. You may check it out and tell us all about it.

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 12:37 pm

Two Worlds falls in the category of crappy, combat heavy and sandboxy.

I started Gothic II once, but the controls felt very awkward, and the game was pretty slow paced, and uninvolving.

I don't mind combat at all, but I would like another RPG where combat is "one of the things" instead of "the thing."

Scottg · Post by **Scottg** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 1:14 pm

GawainBS wrote:Two Worlds falls in the category of crappy, combat heavy and sandboxy.

I started Gothic II once, but the controls felt very awkward, and the game was pretty slow paced, and uninvolving.

I don't mind combat at all, but I would like another RPG where combat is "one of the things" instead of "the thing."

I enjoyed Two Worlds.. it wasn't great by any means, but I wouldn't call it crappy either.

Graphics were very good, combat mechanics were very good, magic system was better than average, leveling system was decent, story was decent, etc..

If nothing else, it was pretty and it plays well for almost half of the game - and it's not a short game (if you play it thoroughly).

Its biggest problem is maintaining the level of difficulty throughout. After level 40 with a good selection of equipment - its just to easy.

While combat is the "main point" of the game, it's certainly not the only point with respect to quests. In fact while many quests *usually* involve combat - they don't all have to be. Several can be the "run" and retrieve while being chased variety. Still others have nothing to do with combat. In fact overall I think they did a better job of integrating incidental combat into quests than say.. Dragon Age Origins.

As for "sandbox".. yes, and in fact (excluding troop contributions), much of it was as good or better than Mount and Blade (original).

I honestly can't think of a *good* rpg where combat isn't "the thing" - except the first two "Thief's" (and they don't fit the classic "rpg" mold).

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 1:17 pm

The voice-acting and character animations made me cringe. It certainly had a good system, I won't deny that, but the game felt so... generic after a while. I couldn't really be bothered with the mainquest, so it bogged down in sidequest after sidequest, most of which I remember as a lot of walking and fighting.

Scottg · Post by **Scottg** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 1:31 pm

GawainBS wrote:The voice-acting and character animations made me cringe. It certainly had a good system, I won't deny that, but the game felt so... generic after a while. I couldn't really be bothered with the mainquest, so it bogged down in sidequest after sidequest, most of which I remember as a lot of walking and fighting.

I don't remember the voice acting or the character animations being that bad, but I don't remember them as being good either.

Generic - yes, absolutely.

I think though that it's like any game (or even life in general), if you are looking toward a destination or conclusion - then you are probably missing the finer points of the journey.

The game trumps-up the sense of urgency initially, but once you talk to your sister the first time that *should* be relaxed and you should feel pretty much free to do whatever you want.

BTW, this is one of the better archery games you can get.

Thieving however was an incredibly missed opportunity in this game.

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 1:38 pm

Oh, I do enjoy the journey: I'm one of those players who absolutely wants to do each and every sidequest. However, I want them to end some time, then do some mainstory, then sidequests again.
Deus Ex 3 & Bloodlines, for example, do excellents jobs in that.

Scottg · Post by **Scottg** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 2:36 pm

GawainBS wrote:Oh, I do enjoy the journey: I'm one of those players who absolutely wants to do each and every sidequest. However, I want them to end some time, then do some mainstory, then sidequests again.
Deus Ex 3 & Bloodlines, for example, do excellents jobs in that.

It does that to some extent, it's not like say - Morrowind in that you have a general idea of a main story and from there it's almost exclusively side-quests. (..though note that I liked Morrowind better, though not because of of it's poorer story delineation.)

For Two Worlds the main quest becomes "hunting" for relic pieces - with only a vague idea of their location. It's a decent plot device to spur-on discovery, and "trip up on" side-quests along the way.

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 2:54 pm

Anyway, it's not my cup of tea.

Scottg · Post by **Scottg** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 3:09 pm

GawainBS wrote:Anyway, it's not my cup of tea.

..err, yes.

-but it's about WHY it's not your cup of tea.

Again, if you haven't played the Thief I & II - you might rather like that. It's still "combat heavy", but from a very different perspective. (..and it's HIGHLY story-driven.)

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Mon Oct 10, 2011 9:27 am

Do the Thief games have leveling systems? For me, that's an integral part of the RPG experience.

Darth Gavinius · Post by **Darth Gavinius** » Mon Oct 10, 2011 10:42 am

Alpha Protocol would certainly fall under Story Driven and it is as action oriented for the most part as you want to make it.

If I am stuck for story-driven games, I usually just look for a NWN or NWN2 mod or series of mods.

I agree with your stance on Two Worlds - I have a very low tolerance to cringing and was tempted to turn off the sound, but the gameplay sucked as well.

If you can bear to return to Oblivion there are some really good mods that add additional story driven campaigns such as an Archeology Guild or the epic Windfall, which was a very enjoyably playthrough for me.

You could try Silverfall, Dungeon Lords, Sacred, Dungeon Seige - but they are easy to get bored with (more akin to Lionheart) and less story more combat. Nox was recently added to GOG, I have heard some good things about it.

Darth Gavinius · Post by **Darth Gavinius** » Mon Oct 10, 2011 10:47 am

I could also suggest Fable...

But I wont....

LastDanceSaloon · Post by **LastDanceSaloon** » Mon Oct 10, 2011 10:49 am

There's a good chance, Gawain, that you might have already consumed all the available titles that offer what you're looking for.

Even if there are 2 or 3 good ones made a year, that's only 20 or 30 games in 10 years, and you're is about that big.

Galrean keeps nagging me to try Eye of the Beholder, and there's always Zelda and the Mario RPGs, but these are all either ancient or more cartooney.

There must be something else out there, you think to yourself, but you might have face the truth that you've dun-em'all. Half the fun is the chase, however, and I've no doubt you can have some fun in this regard. Try hunting down an old ZX RPG from 1982 where all you had was a screen of text and your imagination (you have found - rope), you never know, you might find a gem in the old skool catacombs of dead games.

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Mon Oct 10, 2011 11:19 am

I've played Alpha Protocol, forgot to mention it. It's a candidate for a re-run.

Oblivion really doesn't seem like my cup of tea, as it looks mostly like a toned-down Morrowind.

Silverfall, Dungeon Lords, Sacred, Dungeon Seige. I played all of these, and while certainly fun, they're too combat-driven for what I'm looking for.

LDS, Zelda & Mario and other SNES RPGs would be great suggestions, but I've played those as well. Several times. I'm playing the FFIV remake on the DS now.

I tried some of the really old games, but the problem is that if I play them on the "original" resolution, that the window is too small and it strains my eyes, and if I play them in a larger windows, the text is barely legible. I really don't need fancy graphics, but I do like being able to read what's written.

Come to think of it: it's rather a small pile of games, these story-driven RPGs...

Ares2382 · Post by **Ares2382** » Mon Oct 10, 2011 11:30 am

If you don't mind going through some older titles. Try Septerra Core. Very nice game. It's very linear though, and the combat is not the greatest, but I liked the story and some of the characters were very well done.

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Mon Oct 10, 2011 12:50 pm

Oh, played Septerra as well.

sunnystormy · Post by **sunnystormy** » Mon Oct 10, 2011 1:12 pm

@OP:

Would you mind telling me what you look for in a story-driven RPG?

I'd appreciate it! ^_^ Thanks.

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Mon Oct 10, 2011 1:30 pm

I explained it in a few earlier posts, and the list of games played are probably the best indicator I can think of.

Scottg · Post by **Scottg** » Mon Oct 10, 2011 3:04 pm

GawainBS wrote:Do the Thief games have leveling systems? For me, that's an integral part of the RPG experience.

No, but please don't let that stop you. At first I was like: huh? Two "levels" in and I was utterly "hooked". It's more like a truly interactive book where you assume the main character, going out and doing "jobs". In that respect it's actually a *role* playing game: you become Garret the thief.

Instead of your character getting better - YOU get better, which is far more realistic than "leveling". The oddity is that "leveling" is essentially replaced by item use, which is both perishable and very limited (..and again, far more real).

Note the mention of "combat" is somewhat misleading, most "levels" have little to do with *engaging* in combat, and everything to do with avoiding it altogether - which I think you'll find *very* much to your liking.

The only other one I could think of on my list that's not on yours is Avencast.. a thoroughly mediocre game that looks good and plays well but is almost exclusively about combat. It has a standard "level" system though.