RPG Ranking Thread

[Jordy]

@Jordy
I'm making Jagged Alliance 2 my #5

Unless I think of something better.

'Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game' is just 'Fallout' right?

[Vergil]

Everyone who is too afraid to post their list, or too indecisive about their top 5, or can't follow simple instructions, gets killed irl. simple as. just shoot them and problem is solved.

***** we'd have you hanging upside down with a pineapple up your *** back in the day stfu

[Schizoid1488]

Everyone who is too afraid to post their list, or too indecisive about their top 5, or can't follow simple instructions, gets killed irl. simple as. just shoot them and problem is solved.

***** we'd have you hanging upside down with a pineapple up your *** back in the day stfu

says a zesty fr*nchoid, shut yo goofy *** *** up and post in the handsome men thread instead

[GhostCow]

1. Deus Ex
2. Bloodlines
3. Planescape
4. Gothic
5. FF Tactics

[Rand]

@Jordy
I'm making Jagged Alliance 2 my #5

Unless I think of something better.

'Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game' is just 'Fallout' right?

It's the real name for the first Fallout game.

[maidenhaver]

@Jordy
I'm making Jagged Alliance 2 my #5

Unless I think of something better.

'Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game' is just 'Fallout' right?

It's the real name for the first Fallout game.

How do you know the game is in there if you haven't opened it?

[Irenaeus]

Fallout 1 & 2 (and Age of Decadence)
Infinity Engine Games
Wizardry 6 & 7 (and earlier)
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Vampires: The Masquerade Bloodlines

Edit: Reading this thread was such a thrill, so many gems that I had forgotten (How could I forget Grimoire or Jagged Alliance?). Gonna save it to reread again for the enjoyment of reading and remembering so many good games. I see that my list was something of a Frankenstein monster because I was so reluctant in casting great games aside, but it's pointless to overthink it. I'll narrow it down below based on the first games that come to my mind:

Fallout 1
Baldur's Gate
Wizardry 6
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Vampires: The Masquerade Bloodlines

[rusty_shackleford]

"pick five games"

hq members:
"ok here's my first pick"

[1998]

All this time I thought there were more than two genres and Deus Ex was an Immersive Sim.

Interestingly it was Immersive Sim as a term/genre they came up with years after Deus Ex's release

[ArcaneLurker]

1. Dark Souls 1 (gameplay, difficulty, level design, visuals)
2. Troubleshooters: Abandoned Children (gameplay, difficulty, character progression, soundtrack)
3. Guild Wars (gameplay, difficulty, environment, atmosphere, soundtrack, having multiplayer hubs but privately instanced worlds)
4. Fable (gameplay, funny gimmicks, story, atmosphere, soundtrack)
5. Dragons Dogma/ Dark Arisen (soundtrack, difficulty, combat gameplay-- specifically being able to climb on mythical beasts like a baby marsupial searching for nipples, and the interactivity in how different creatures are fought, I'm not too annoyed by pawns and enjoyed that system too)

Baldurs Gate 3 has uniquely addictive gameplay, great visuals and soundtrack, but Act 2 and 3 are so subpar and obnoxious that I can't consider it my top 5.
Bethesda/ Bioware games could have been mentioned but I think that's mostly nostalgia talking. They're quite stale for me now.
Games like Nioh are great too, but there's too many games of that kind, it's become too formulaic.
Witcher 3 has superb visuals, and decent story & characters, but the gameplay is lacking somewhat...

I'd be more than happy to change my mind on it, and I don't consider my choices to really embody what an RPG is supposed to be either, but they're the RPGs which stick in my head the most, for positive reasons.
I wish there was at least 5 RPGs that I could easily put forward as my favourites, but a lot of the story-based ones have philosophies or ideologies I disagree with and therefore tune out now (like BG3 or NWN).

[rusty_shackleford]

All this time I thought there were more than two genres and Deus Ex was an Immersive Sim.

Interestingly it was Immersive Sim as a term/genre they came up with years after Deus Ex's release

Immersive sim is a subgenre of RPG, it started with Ultima 6, continued with the Ultima Underworlds, Doosex, Arx Fatalis, etc.,
It's very hard to have an immersive sim without RPG because RPG is intrinsically tied to simulationism. It's also why I don't consider games like Sir Brante or Disco Communism to be RPGs.

[rusty_shackleford]

Dragons Dogma/ Dark Arisen

To clarify for @Jordy since I've seen it a couple times now: Dragon's Dogma is effectively the same game as Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen. The former never released on PC, the latter is an enhanced edition of Dragon's Dogma.

[1998]

As I am not a game journalist, I am self aware enough that my top 5 are probably not great games because of great stories and game mechanics, but because I personally enjoyed them so much while playing.
It's tough to come up with a list of just 5, but as a start:

• Exile III
• Ultima V
• Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game
• Morrowind
• -to be determined-

That last one is the tricky part. Might be Jagged Alliance 2, Terraria (if you count it as an RPG), or one of many others like Chrono Trigger or Dragon Age Origins or Baldur's Gate.

When you figure out #5 I'll get them added.

@1998 Same for you. If you ever find 4 more RPGs you like I'll add your list.

Alright...

1. Baldur's Gate
2. Gothic
3. Fallout
4. Deus Ex
5. Neverwinter Nights (obv. for toolset only)

[Breathe]

1. Dark Souls 1 (gameplay, difficulty, level design, visuals)
2. Troubleshooters: Abandoned Children (gameplay, difficulty, character progression, soundtrack)
3. Guild Wars (gameplay, difficulty, environment, atmosphere, soundtrack, having multiplayer hubs but privately instanced worlds)
4. Fable (gameplay, funny gimmicks, story, atmosphere, soundtrack)
5. Dragons Dogma/ Dark Arisen (soundtrack, difficulty, combat gameplay-- specifically being able to climb on mythical beasts like a baby marsupial searching for nipples, and the interactivity in how different creatures are fought, I'm not too annoyed by pawns and enjoyed that system too)

Baldurs Gate 3 has uniquely addictive gameplay, great visuals and soundtrack, but Act 2 and 3 are so subpar and obnoxious that I can't consider it my top 5.
Bethesda/ Bioware games could have been mentioned but I think that's mostly nostalgia talking. They're quite stale for me now.
Games like Nioh are great too, but there's too many games of that kind, it's become too formulaic.

I'd be more than happy to change my mind on it, and I don't consider my choices to really embody what an RPG is supposed to be either, but they're the RPGs which stick in my head the most, for positive reasons.
I wish there was at least 5 RPGs that I could easily put forward as my favourites, but a lot of the story-based ones have philosophies or ideologies I disagree with and therefore tune out now (like BG3 or NWN).

Good list as well. I wasn't considering Dark Souls in the list, but if it counts I'd definitely have to throw it in mine. I've probably completed it more than any other game I've played.

[1998]

All this time I thought there were more than two genres and Deus Ex was an Immersive Sim.

Interestingly it was Immersive Sim as a term/genre they came up with years after Deus Ex's release

Immersive sim is a subgenre of RPG, it started with Ultima 6, continued with the Ultima Underworlds, Doosex, Arx Fatalis, etc.,
It's very hard to have an immersive sim without RPG because RPG is intrinsically tied to simulationism. It's also why I don't consider games like Sir Brante or Disco Communism to be RPGs.

Was Ultima 6 at release really called an immersive sim? Or Ultima Underworld, or even Deus Ex?

[rusty_shackleford]

Interestingly it was Immersive Sim as a term/genre they came up with years after Deus Ex's release

Immersive sim is a subgenre of RPG, it started with Ultima 6, continued with the Ultima Underworlds, Doosex, Arx Fatalis, etc.,
It's very hard to have an immersive sim without RPG because RPG is intrinsically tied to simulationism. It's also why I don't consider games like Sir Brante or Disco Communism to be RPGs.

Was Ultima 6 at release really called an immersive sim? Or Ultima Underworld, or even Deus Ex?

At release, no, but they have been cited by Spector himself as part of the genre.
https://web.archive.org/web/20170707043 ... ee-w485404

"There was a moment when we were working on Ultima VI that I'll never forget," says Spector. "I was watching testers play this area where your path is blocked by a portcullis, and you had to flip a lever to raise the portcullis and advance. The tester didn't have the telekinesis spell that you needed in order to flip the lever, and I thought he was doomed. But one of the members of his party was a talking mouse, and since the portcullis was a simulation, the mouse could actually wriggle through it and flip the lever. And I just fell on the floor. No one else in the world had ever done that! You weren't supposed to be able to do that! And I thought to myself, ‘That, that is what I'm doing for a living from now on. I'm going to make things like that happen.' That's the immersive sim right there – all because of an accident."

And, yes, by extension Baldur's Gate 3 is an immersive sim. All of Larian's games were explicitly designed in the style of later Ultimas.

[Irenaeus]

Updated my list above.

[Manny V]

i have **** tastes and put more hours into Bethesda games than i'd like to admit, guilty pleasure of the past i guess. also don't have the refined tastes of some of you gentlemen because i don't have the stomach for old 8-bit games

also like Oyster Sauce said I too have the ol 'can't stick with a game' situation, so some games that would probably be on the list aren't simply because i haven't played them yet (like Witcher 3 and Kingdom Come Deliverance)

with that out of the way:

1. World of Warcraft
2. Monster Hunter Tri
3. Mount and Blade: Warband
4. Dark Souls
5. Morrowind

For WoW: pre Cataclysm, anything retail makes me SICK (although Cata has great music)
Monster Hunter Tri: Hardly an RPG, but probably my all time favourite game, and i saw World listed which while i put fucktons of hours into as well, Tri is just objectively the better game
Warband: Unmodded, or if modded, only Warsword Conquest, The Last Days of the Third Age, or Crusades Against Jihad. No in between. Never tried Prophecy of Pendor or what have you, no intention to
Dark Souls: Only played 1 and Elden Ring, been meaning to play 3 but what can you do
Morrowind: Put more hours in Skyrim unfortunately, and never played Oblivion tragically (on the to-do list) but i respect the OG (i don't **** wid dat pixel shiet)

[Tipfy]

*ahem*
@Adventurer

- The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt
- Dragon Age Origins
- Mount & Blade Bannerlord
- Kingdom Come Deliverance
- Kingdom of Amalur Reckoning (I would have put Skyrim, but it does not deserve to be on the list, since it would not without the hundreds of mods required to make it playable...)

It was easyer to pick than expected. I thought i had mostly RPGs on my list, turn out most things on it are classified as STR-Management & Action-Adventure.

[Rand]

'Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game' is just 'Fallout' right?

It's the real name for the first Fallout game.

How do you know the game is in there if you haven't opened it?

Not my picture, unfortunately.

[aweigh]

I honestly like too many RPGs to rank them. Some hold extreme nostalgia value, some were just fun to play for endless hours. It's like asking me to list my favorite songs or movies, can't do it. Besides, no one needs another list with Chrono Trigger, FF7, FF Tactics, Ogre Tactics, Pokemon Red & Blue, Deus Ex, a bunch of MMOs, Legend of Dragoon, Vanguard Bandits, etc

Too much **** at too many specific times in my life.

the way i go about it is i just think about what rpgs still make me feel happy for having played them. it's partly why a lot of snes and ps1 games make my list, but it's also why a lot of relatively recent left-field choices make the cut.

then once i've got a nice list of rpgs that still make me feel happy when i remember them, i start pruning them down to which ones I legitimately think are worth playing and which ones aren't.

worst mistake is putting a bunch of games on a list because you think the games are historically important or because you think they're important for "educated tastes", that's how you end up with a fake list people can see right through. A good rpg ranking list comes from the heart.

EDIT: I'm happy to report most of the HQ lists i'm seeing seem very honest. Back on the codex it was always a contest to see who could earn the most cool points.

[Rigwort]

1. Chronicles of Myrtana: Archolos
2. Ultima Underworld
3. Knights of the Chalice
4. Tales of Maj'Eyal
5. Arx Fatalis

I like fantasy and exploration. No particular order.

[CSM-101]

Alright, I've been thinking about this at work because it bugged me but I think I have narrowed down five essential RPG games to myself. A few of these choices may be "typical" but then again this is a list that is important to me for personal and nostalgic reasons.

1. Chrono Trigger. Words cannot describe the impact this game had on me. It was probably the first RPG game I ever played when I got my Super Nintendo for my birthday way back in 1995. The artwork, the actual in game graphics, the story, the gameplay and battle system, and most importantly, the music. This is a game I first played 30 years ago and I still regularly listen to the games soundtrack. I have listened to it in MIDI, I have listened to orchestral renditions of it. I've listened to heavy metal mixes, and the like. It is both haunting and timeless and evocative, reminding me of better and funner times.

2. Final Fantasy 7. This game is important to me both because of the music (like Chrono Trigger, I have been listening to this games soundtrack since it came out, in various different forms. It is simply a masterpiece.). This RPG is important to me because it showed me that a video game can inspire actual emotions in you besides just rage at whatever ******** Ninja Gaiden or Ninja Turtles or whatnot just threw at you. Besides the gameplay, FMV, etc being stellar for the time, the game itself was just a massive adventure that never got old or boring. There was always something new or fun to do, so many secrets to find on your own (or ***** out and use the Bradley guide, which I DID have...). I honestly believe anyone who thinks this game does not rank up there on the list of greatest RPGs ever is simply being contrarian to be contrarian.

3. Vanguard Bandits. I was a mech nerd as a kid (and still am today). While other kids were playing Dungeons and Dragons or whatever the **** faggoty virgin game, I was playing Battletech. When I saw the jewel case of this game in Blockbuster as a kid, I was immediately intrigued by the giant armored figures on it. It was totally new to me to have the idea of a tactical mecha RPG game and it just looked ******* cool. The story isn't anything to write home about but the actual combat in game was ******* stellar, and at the time a little challenging due to the different mechanics and how you can tire your pilots out. All in all, most people would consider this game just average but it's special to me because of my love of giant ******* robots.

4. Diablo II. Oh man, this was the biggie in junior high and high school. This is the game my school friends and I played together on all the time when we weren't playing system linked Halo, trolled each other on, ran endless dungeons with, grinded for hours for gear that was just a single stat point better. And it was fun. While this game did not introduce me to multiplayer online gaming, it is probably one of the multiplayer online games I have played the most just due to the almost endless variation in crafting and between difficulty levels. Diablo II to me is basically multiplayer fantasy DOOM and that's ******* alright. While the story is fine and the music is just okay to me, what makes me remember this most is the hours of fun with my friends.

5. Mount and Blade: Warband. I don't think I've ever played a video game that offers the sheer amount of freedom that Mount and Blade: Warband did. From the endless mods to just being able to go off on your own adventure doing whatever you wanted with a character you created from the ground up.. Then being able to take that and the mods and go into multiplayer and be able to be on a server with 199 other people at the same time in the same space was incredible. I have dumped so many hours into this game, the base game, Crusader total conversion mods, Warcraft mods.. Someone even made a ******* WWI mod. The total freedom you have to pick a setting and adventure and just run with it is incredible. Of course, some people may not like it because this is one of those games where you have to make your own fun as opposed to following a preset story.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

3. Vanguard Bandits.

That was the closest to an Escaflowne JRPG we ever got. Medieval mecha duels are cool, wish we had more of that. The only other games that provide that are Xenogears and Trails of Cold Steel.




I also found that the story was novel in that the "empire" wasn't automatically labelled as evil simply for being an empire in a JRPG and you could fight to reform them from the inside, which is extremely rare (I think FF12 and the first two Trails of Cold Steel games are the only other JRPGs I've seen where the empire is not declared to be intrinsically evil and we get a more nuanced view of the conflict).








It was also funny at times, perhaps a result of Working Designs' localization.

[Jordy]

Dragons Dogma/ Dark Arisen

To clarify for @Jordy since I've seen it a couple times now: Dragon's Dogma is effectively the same game as Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen. The former never released on PC, the latter is an enhanced edition of Dragon's Dogma.

Thanks Rusty. I'll just put Dragon's Dogma down to cover both of them.

[Jordy]

1. Dark Souls 1 (gameplay, difficulty, level design, visuals)
2. Troubleshooters: Abandoned Children (gameplay, difficulty, character progression, soundtrack)
3. Guild Wars (gameplay, difficulty, environment, atmosphere, soundtrack, having multiplayer hubs but privately instanced worlds)
4. Fable (gameplay, funny gimmicks, story, atmosphere, soundtrack)
5. Dragons Dogma/ Dark Arisen (soundtrack, difficulty, combat gameplay-- specifically being able to climb on mythical beasts like a baby marsupial searching for nipples, and the interactivity in how different creatures are fought, I'm not too annoyed by pawns and enjoyed that system too)

Baldurs Gate 3 has uniquely addictive gameplay, great visuals and soundtrack, but Act 2 and 3 are so subpar and obnoxious that I can't consider it my top 5.
Bethesda/ Bioware games could have been mentioned but I think that's mostly nostalgia talking. They're quite stale for me now.
Games like Nioh are great too, but there's too many games of that kind, it's become too formulaic.

I'd be more than happy to change my mind on it, and I don't consider my choices to really embody what an RPG is supposed to be either, but they're the RPGs which stick in my head the most, for positive reasons.
I wish there was at least 5 RPGs that I could easily put forward as my favourites, but a lot of the story-based ones have philosophies or ideologies I disagree with and therefore tune out now (like BG3 or NWN).

Good list as well. I wasn't considering Dark Souls in the list, but if it counts I'd definitely have to throw it in mine. I've probably completed it more than any other game I've played.

I already added it in for someone else so let me know if you make any changes.

[Kowe]

Here is my list:

► Show Spoiler

1. Hello Kitty Online
2. Chronicles of Elyria
3. Paper Mario: Sticker Star
4. Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
5. Final Fantasy 14 Ver. 1.0
6. Unlimited Saga

Okay, here my the actual list:

► Show Spoiler

1. Planescape: Torment
2. Deus Ex
3. Kingdom Come: Deliverance
4. Guild Wars 1
5. Baldur's Gate 2

It was a bit hard with the 4th and 5th choice. If it has to be a campaign from GW1, then Factions. Were it a list of 10, BG3, VTM:B and a few other great titles would have made the cut.

[Jordy]

Updated.

[1998]

1. Dark Souls 1 (gameplay, difficulty, level design, visuals)
2. Troubleshooters: Abandoned Children (gameplay, difficulty, character progression, soundtrack)
3. Guild Wars (gameplay, difficulty, environment, atmosphere, soundtrack, having multiplayer hubs but privately instanced worlds)
4. Fable (gameplay, funny gimmicks, story, atmosphere, soundtrack)
5. Dragons Dogma/ Dark Arisen (soundtrack, difficulty, combat gameplay-- specifically being able to climb on mythical beasts like a baby marsupial searching for nipples, and the interactivity in how different creatures are fought, I'm not too annoyed by pawns and enjoyed that system too)

Baldurs Gate 3 has uniquely addictive gameplay, great visuals and soundtrack, but Act 2 and 3 are so subpar and obnoxious that I can't consider it my top 5.
Bethesda/ Bioware games could have been mentioned but I think that's mostly nostalgia talking. They're quite stale for me now.
Games like Nioh are great too, but there's too many games of that kind, it's become too formulaic.

I'd be more than happy to change my mind on it, and I don't consider my choices to really embody what an RPG is supposed to be either, but they're the RPGs which stick in my head the most, for positive reasons.
I wish there was at least 5 RPGs that I could easily put forward as my favourites, but a lot of the story-based ones have philosophies or ideologies I disagree with and therefore tune out now (like BG3 or NWN).

Good list as well. I wasn't considering Dark Souls in the list, but if it counts I'd definitely have to throw it in mine. I've probably completed it more than any other game I've played.

I already added it in for someone else so let me know if you make any changes.

Many games are identifying as an RPG without actually being one, Dark Souls is one of them.

[Jordy]

Good list as well. I wasn't considering Dark Souls in the list, but if it counts I'd definitely have to throw it in mine. I've probably completed it more than any other game I've played.

I already added it in for someone else so let me know if you make any changes.

Many games are identifying as an RPG without actually being one, Dark Souls is one of them.

I trust the members of this forum to make the right decisions. If anyone does put something down that's not an RPG it will likely remain at the bottom of the list.