RPGs where options matters somewhat

[aragorn1776]

RPGs where your choices(diaogue/class) can actually change the quest/storyline somewhat, even if only sidequests

I'll start: Vampire the masquerade bloodlines 1

Different "classes" switch how you experience the game a lot, also class specific dialogue options for most quests, how people treat you, how you solve tasks etc.




Also here's an example of a bad variety RPG although one of my favourite games OAT: Baldur's gate 1

You dialogue doesn't really change anything only in few quests, classes mostly change with which weapon you'll attack and whether you'll attack using magic/weapons/unarmed etc

UPDATE: Games mentioned so far and my own additions
light choices
classic rpg level
heavy choices/variety
Age of decadence, colony ship RPG (decent fallout new vegas like variety where you can pick your faction and change several fights in the game or go either persuasion/sneak/sharpshooter build to solve your tasks a different way)

Tyranny (obisidan factions, some sidequests, etc)

Planescape torment: somewhat decent variety, like you'll either persuade everybody or smash them up using either magic/weapons BREAK HIS NECK QUICKLY/PERSUADE

Witcher 2 (Not very familiar with it)

Shin megami tensei and other JRPGs usually you gotta pick a side or something 50-70% into the game and then it changes the content, items, characters, fights and even music

Kingmaker, Wrathfinder - weird ones, its mostly prebuff vs prebuff fights on rails, but mythic paths really do change quite a bit in the second one, has some dialogue checks (i remember more in the first one)

Divinity original sin 1/2 fights on rails, especially the first one, you can't even choose which enemy encounters to do first, cause of severe outlevel(same for second one - check map guides for dos1 dos2) DOS2 at least has backgrounds/origins that can affect very little sidequests, dialogue slightly, aaaaaand.... you can choose a faction, kinda which will change fights and other stuff, also companions have unique storylines and you can only have so many in one playthrough

Baldur's Gape 3 hear me out on this one, most dialogue dice checks have 4 scenes(or variants if you wanna call it that), crit failure/success and failure/success, also with choices in act 1 you can change act 2 quite a bit, also origins and backgrounds, which add some extra unique dialogue options, some fights are forced and on rails but some can be avoided/changed quite a bit via dialogue or different starting position etc, simply having teleport/fly adds extra options to approach fights/places to reach

The Banner Saga - Not familiar personally but seems to have JRPGish variety

Deus Ex (ORIGINAL) Human Revolution & Mankind Divided – Augmentations, dialogue battles, side-quests, choosing different vent, aug, approach, who survives, etc, More immersive sim than pure RPG but still decent

Disco Elysium - strange one, has some variety but mostly its just funny dialogue comment of your ingame brain depending on which skill you level

Fallout 1 / 2 / 3 / New Vegas - low int run in 1/2, branching sidequests, approach, factions, build, perks that affect some dialogue, etc.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

A lot of SRPGs and VNs have forking routes where you make a choice early on or half way through the game, and you will then see a completely different storyline from that point onward with different characters, events, locations, fights, music, etc. Usually involves which side you are fighting for. Fate/Stay Night, Hakuoki, Rance, Vanguard Bandits, Fire Emblem Fates, Fire Emblem Three Houses, etc. Tactics Ogre does this somewhat, forking early on, but then IIRC due to memory limitations of the SNES cartridge they couldn't do a final chapter for each of the three routes, so the three routes converge back into one at the final chapter.

[logincrash]

A lot of SRPGs and VNs have forking routes where you make a choice early on or half way through the game, and you will then see a completely different storyline from that point onward with different characters, events, locations, fights, music, etc. Usually involves which side you are fighting for. Fate/Stay Night, Hakuoki, Rance, Vanguard Bandits, Fire Emblem Fates, Fire Emblem Three Houses, etc. Tactics Ogre does this somewhat, forking early on, but then IIRC due to memory limitations of the SNES cartridge they couldn't do a final chapter for each of the three routes, so the three routes converge back into one at the final chapter.

Witcher 2 does this.

[Tadeusz]

Banner Saga - your choices can dramatically affect your party (companions may die) and the story (up to determining for who you would play).
Planescape: Torment - your class and choice of stats determine what options you have in dialogues and thus what outcomes you can have in many side quests as well as in the main quest.

[Eyestabber]

AoD does it better than all the titles you mentioned.

[rusty_shackleford]

AoD does it better than all the titles you mentioned.

AoD has no choice beyond whatever you pick at character creation unless you know everything about the game beforehand/are cheating

[Eyestabber]

AoD does it better than all the titles you mentioned.

AoD has no choice beyond whatever you pick at character creation unless you know everything about the game beforehand/are cheating

Lol. Did you get that out of chat gpt?

[rusty_shackleford]

AoD does it better than all the titles you mentioned.

AoD has no choice beyond whatever you pick at character creation unless you know everything about the game beforehand/are cheating

Lol. Did you get that out of chat gpt?

What choice is there? You go around picking dialogue options, most of which will be gated by what you picked at character creation. If you made a non-combat character you're basically playing a linear visual novel. If you made a combat character, you just teleport between combat encounters.
You'd have to know exactly how to metagame to actually have any choice i.e., looking at a guide.

[rusty_shackleford]

AoD is barely an RPG and skirts by on virtue of having combat - It's a gamebook. When you're not actually interacting with the world and not making your own choices but instead picking "[stealth] I stealthily do the thing" from a list of options that are performed for you, you're playing a gamebook. A digital gamebook it may be, but a gamebook nonetheless. It's much closer to Disco Elysium than Ultima Underworld, Arx Fatalis, Morrowind, etc.,

[rusty_shackleford]

RPGs where your choices(diaogue/class) can actually change the quest/storyline somewhat, even if only sidequests

This is basically all post-Fallout western RPGs if we exclude some subgenres e.g., Diablo-clones (which weren't considered RPGs at the time but 'hack and slashers'). But even some of those inherited it due to being made by teams that wanted to make a real RPG but were forced to make a diablo clone by publisher demands such as Divine Divinity.

[Eyestabber]

AoD is barely an RPG and skirts by on virtue of having combat - It's a gamebook. When you're not actually interacting with the world and not making your own choices but instead picking "[stealth] I stealthily do the thing" from a list of options that are performed for you, you're playing a gamebook. A digital gamebook it may be, but a gamebook nonetheless. It's much closer to Disco Elysium than Ultima Underworld, Arx Fatalis, Morrowind, etc.,

Show us in the doll where VD touched you, Rusto.

[rusty_shackleford]

AoD is barely an RPG and skirts by on virtue of having combat - It's a gamebook. When you're not actually interacting with the world and not making your own choices but instead picking "[stealth] I stealthily do the thing" from a list of options that are performed for you, you're playing a gamebook. A digital gamebook it may be, but a gamebook nonetheless. It's much closer to Disco Elysium than Ultima Underworld, Arx Fatalis, Morrowind, etc.,

Show us in the doll where VD touched you, Rusto.

He's a giant libtard who virtue signals by putting a ukraine flag in his game but that's besides the point

[xXD4rk_s3pher0th22Xx]

AoD does it better than all the titles you mentioned.

AoD has no choice beyond whatever you pick at character creation unless you know everything about the game beforehand/are cheating

TRUE and i heard that @Eyestabber is gay

[aragorn1776]

A lot of SRPGs and VNs have forking routes where you make a choice early on or half way through the game, and you will then see a completely different storyline from that point onward with different characters, events, locations, fights, music, etc. Usually involves which side you are fighting for. Fate/Stay Night, Hakuoki, Rance, Vanguard Bandits, Fire Emblem Fates, Fire Emblem Three Houses, etc. Tactics Ogre does this somewhat, forking early on, but then IIRC due to memory limitations of the SNES cartridge they couldn't do a final chapter for each of the three routes, so the three routes converge back into one at the final chapter.

Oh yeah, even SMT has that. Love it for that!

[aragorn1776]

AoD is barely an RPG and skirts by on virtue of having combat - It's a gamebook. When you're not actually interacting with the world and not making your own choices but instead picking "[stealth] I stealthily do the thing" from a list of options that are performed for you, you're playing a gamebook. A digital gamebook it may be, but a gamebook nonetheless. It's much closer to Disco Elysium than Ultima Underworld, Arx Fatalis, Morrowind, etc.,

This is how i felt playing it, (played like 4 paths)
You don't have much freedom to begin with, mostly where you pick background and then general faction you choose.
Talking about where you can go and stuff, you either do few sidequests or do main storyline and fail cause you didn't get sidequests or some stat buff and can't progress

Still liked it for good postapoc alienschizo world, some storylines and combat

[anvi]

The Adventure Games and VNs do this so much more. Maybe most adventure games don't but I remember playing through Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis 3 times to get 3 quite different journeys through it. But it is a lot easier for games mostly about story and especially if locations are 2D. For RPGs it would ideally need different locations/dungeons/battles which would be a lot to do. And it makes less content for people who only play through it once.

[rusty_shackleford]

The Adventure Games and VNs do this so much more. Maybe most adventure games don't but I remember playing through Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis 3 times to get 3 quite different journeys through it. But it is a lot easier for games mostly about story and especially if locations are 2D. For RPGs it would ideally need different locations/dungeons/battles which would be a lot to do. And it makes less content for people who only play through it once.

If it's specifically about dialogue reactivity then yes, because that's where RPGs pulled it from and RPG is the omega genre, it takes from everything without losing anything in identity(contrast with the reverse where they then become "x with rpg elements")

There's a bunch of text based interactive fiction that is very reactive.

[Eyestabber]

AoD does it better than all the titles you mentioned.

AoD has no choice beyond whatever you pick at character creation unless you know everything about the game beforehand/are cheating

TRUE and i heard that @Eyestabber is gay

Joined: Apr 23, '26

[asf]

muh cnc

[aragorn1776]

muh cnc

Yes, but specifically where its constantly throughout the game, not like skyrim where you pick faction and that's it

[aragorn1776]

updated with your suggested games and whatever i played and remembered, looking for more suggestions/games

[aragorn1776]

Bump added more games to the list

[The_Mask]

I think the best example of this that I can think of is NOX.

I'm not sure if you've played it, but if you haven't: essentially the class that you choose basically chooses not just the difficulty the game sets out for you, but, narratively, the factions that are allied to you and the people that help you the most in assembling your iconic staff. (I'm trying to stay spoiler free here) It also choses the ending.

The gameplay is completely different from class to class, the side quests are different, you access different locations through those side quests, you deal with the various monsters you encounter differently. NOX is pretty much 3 games in 1. As a good RPG should be.