tbh I don't consider most of the uncommon games that I like to be "must play". I like Game of Thrones RPG a lot, but at the end of a day it's just a janky and low-budget Bioware-style storyfag rpg, and many gamers don't like Bioware-style rpgs.
eh... maybe Ultima Underworld? I know it's actually a fairly popular game, and it sits on the various top10/top20/top100 of best RPGs out there (rightfully so), but at the same time it's fairly old so lot of younger gamers may skip it out of fear of being filtered by archaic UI or badly aged design decisions. Well, it's actually surprisingly playable and accessible game, even if you're a zoomer. Most of the complex gameplay elements (such as lizardfolk language or items identification) are being introduced gradually, so you are never overwhelmed.
The influence this game has had on video games as a whole is hard to understate, yet it's barely discussed. You can't throw a stone without hitting a game inspired by UU or one of its successors.
Tale of wuxia is probably the best gateway into ***** games, relatively "simple" with an easy to follow story and solid mechanics, plus a ton of tropes of the genre.
Neverwinter nights, not the OC but a pick of the best player made modules.
Kingdom come deliverance, just a great adventure.
Conan exiles, so many quality mods
As an aside, only mass effect worth playing is 1, others are shite.
-The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (modded)
-The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (modded)
-Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen
-Shining Force I + II + CD
-Paper Mario I-III
-Fire Emblem (GBA Games)
-Advance Wars series
-Demon's Souls (PS3 original)
-Ni No Kuni series (very nice art direction)
I'm counting hybrids that I consider worth playing so don't whine about how it's not a pure RPG
Fallout 1 and 2
Baldur's Gate 1 and 2
Morrowind
Jagged Alliance 2
Arx Fatalis
System Shock 2
Might and Magic 6
Diablo
Gothic I
Fallouts and BGs are obligatory and don't need much explaining, Morrowind is a lot of fun for exploring dungeons with rewarding itemization. I recently did a playthrough with no magic schools and instead played as a Thief with enchanted items and it's funny that the one TES game with stuff worth stealing is the one that doesn't have NPC schedules. JA2 is definitely focused on strategy and tactics but the level of reactivity and little things you can do in the world is often understated. What other RPGs can you steal from a mob boss then have his hitmen hang around bars to try and assassinate you? Or do things like bribe a hostile NPC (Conrad) into joining you as a fully functional squad member? Arx Fatalis is a great gateway into UUW and is one of Arkane's best games in my opinion. System Shock 1 is a straight up shooter, but System Shock 2 reincorporates aspects from Ultima Underworld and the general reactivity of the Dark Engine and neat systems like Monster Ecology make it a great action RPG. You start off doing things like hitting pipes with your wrench to bait shotgun hybrids around corners then finish the game zooming around with speed hypos while on fire blasting rumblers with an assault rifle. Might and Magic 6 was like crack for me, just exploring the world for little secrets and going through massive handcrafted dungeons. To me, MM6 is like Daggerfall if it wasn't all randomly generated samey looking content. Diablo 1 is an excellent solo dungeon crawl that doesn't go overboard on the loot treadmill and has great aesthetics and music. Gothic I for its great premise, progression, and non-******** balance unlike G2's insane crits.
I thoroughly enjoyed my last playthrough of Arcanum but I wouldn't consider it must-play simply because it requires a very specific taste and willingness to deal with filler dungeons.
Darklands: The best researched CRPG in existence. I actually learned a lot about the HRE and Catholic saints from this game. It's also one that countless open world rpgs owe their lives to. The thick, triangular shaped manual could be used as a weapon and not only contained loads of interesting info along side an explanation of game mechanics, but also really nice sketch art and a huge block of historical references in the back. Game came with a gigantic, foldout map of the HRE and you were expected to use it to get around since the in-game map is teeny tiny. Period piece music in glorious FM synth adds to the mood and the watercolor and pencil backdrops for the menus do an excellent job of making more out of less since half of the game is menu driven. If we didn't have Darklands there would be no Elder Scrolls: Arena and thus, no Daggerfall or Morrowind.
Sandy Peterson (who got called in to make the game more fun) called it a failure, so that's another reason to hate Sandy Peterson.
Shin Megami Tensei: It's Wizardry, it's satanic Pokémon, it's both! Biblical end of the world blobber that always seems to star Japanese high school students and a supporting cast of almost every demon, spirit, and god of various religions at some point in its series. Player has a bit of agency in assembling their team of supporting demons and much like pokemon, a good portion of the game is based around using the right type of damage for the right type of enemy. Debuffs actually do things and you have to use them to survive, unlike most RPGs where they only seem to work for the enemy. First three SMT games are great as far the OG Megami Tenseis, later games are far weaker all the way around and Persona has supplanted Megaten in popularity.
Might and Magic 6: The Mandate of Heaven: Someone already mentioned it, but I need to mention it again because it's the most SOVLish blobber in existence. Something about that cartoony style, digitized human actors for character portraits and shopkeepers, and low-detail dungeon textures come together in a game that's so ******* comfy. Best of all, it's actually fun to play and you can cheese it to death. MM7 was good and you could say it had a better overall aesthetic, but it lacks the charm of MM6, it also balanced out the game so you couldn't just cheese it with a CSSS party.
Betrayal at Krondor: The ultimate storyfag game. Yes, even better than Planescape: Torment. BaK approaches the game as if it were a book, but in a good way. Neal Hartford wrote it and it received Feist's blessing (and then later on he wrote three books). All information is kept in-universe. The game never breaks the fourth wall to tell you that you failed or succeeded to do something, it's all written in as if it were just another paragraph in the chapter. All of the quests in the game tie into each other somehow even if its obscure so you're never just taking out someone's garbage for no other reason than just to get rewards. Grid combat is fun and easy to get into. Soundtrack is excellent. Game is exploitable and fairly easy to cheese though.
A personal "must play" list confuses me. Is it a list of games I really, really like? Or is it a list of games I recommend other people should play for whatever reason?
Anyway, I suppose this list is a mix of those two:
Most of the Infinity Engine games. My favorite is IWD2, but that's an acquired taste.
Arcanum - as @Maggot says it's requires a distinct taste. For instance, I like the combat.
The Bard's Tale
Chrono Trigger
Final Fantasy V & VI
Secret of Mana
Wizardry 6-7 (but really only a remaster)
Most Gold Box games
Wasteland
Horizon's Gate
I'll second Darklands
I think Caves of Lore is quickly becoming this
Maybe the most controversial: The first chapter of Lionheart.
Last edited by Acrux on April 28th, 2023, 16:39, edited 1 time in total.
Like my posts? Consider a donation: PayPal
Hate my posts? Consider a donation: PayPal
Indifferent to my posts? Consider a donation: PayPal
I almost mentioned Ultima V. It's the perfection of those systems created in Ultima IV and it has a very comfy aesthetic.
Knights of the Chalice 1 and 2 are also must plays for the tactical RPG enthusiast. Quest for Glory would be another one and a great example of player agency done right.
Rusty confirmed to be a ******. Gothic is the quintessential white man's game.
Very overrated unfinished games.
Harsh but true. I never understood the Gothic cult. They are fundamentally broken and barely playable, salvaged only by the storytelling.
As for my own must-plays...
1: Demise
An extremely underrated and mostly forgotten dungeon crawler, with very harsh and permanent penalties for ******* up, complex race/class system and years of gameplay in it.
2: Geneforge 1-3
Compelling storylines and strong combat mechanics. Some good C&C. Awful graphics. I like the setting, it's almost like a fantasy Fallout.
3: Serpent in the Staglands
Utterly unforgiving in gameplay, it doesnt hold your hand, it hacks at it with a hatchet. Really nice magic system and an intriguing plot.
So we walked down the hill into all those fears and maybes, all that sorrow, nothing certain in our lives except the frozen earth beneath our feet.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines
Jagged Alliance 2
Baldur's Gate 2
Knights of the Chalice 1
Daggerfall
Divine Divinity
The Bard's Tale 1
The Temple of Elemental Evil
Deus Ex
Wasteland
System Shock 2
Might & Magic 7
Wizardry 8
Diablo I
Diablo 2
ZAngband
Borderlands 1
Mount & Blade: Warband
Kenshi
Shadowrun (Sega Genesis)
Dungeon Master
Everquest
World of Warcraft
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines
Jagged Alliance 2
Baldur's Gate 2
Knights of the Chalice 1
Daggerfall
Divine Divinity
The Bard's Tale 1
The Temple of Elemental Evil
Deus Ex
Wasteland
System Shock 2
Might & Magic 7
Wizardry 8
Diablo I
Diablo 2
ZAngband
Borderlands 1
Mount & Blade: Warband
Kenshi
Shadowrun (Sega Genesis)
Dungeon Master
Everquest
World of Warcraft
The Berlin F-state fits perfectly with my internal image of cyberpunk. Hong Kong's story was better, though.
I dunno, they both get the image right. When I picture cyberpunk, I picture a rain drenched city with smokestacks and bright neon lights, drifters, hookers and hobos on the streets. Its grimy, seedy but also very... I don't even know what to call it. There is a sad beauty to it.
So we walked down the hill into all those fears and maybes, all that sorrow, nothing certain in our lives except the frozen earth beneath our feet.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines
Jagged Alliance 2
Baldur's Gate 2
Knights of the Chalice 1
Daggerfall
Divine Divinity
The Bard's Tale 1
The Temple of Elemental Evil
Deus Ex
Wasteland
System Shock 2
Might & Magic 7
Wizardry 8
Diablo I
Diablo 2
ZAngband
Borderlands 1
Mount & Blade: Warband
Kenshi
Shadowrun (Sega Genesis)
Dungeon Master
Everquest
World of Warcraft
I wouldn't necessarily call them my "must plays", but Dragonfall and Hong Kong are far superior games, surely.
No, I consider Shadowrun (Sega Genesis) to be the definitive electronic Shadowrun experience.
Harebrained Schemes inserted lots of pozzed political garbage into the writing and quests. The gameplay is decent enough, but the writing left a bad taste in my mouth.
I used to have a big long, interesting, and historically accurate list in my head. Then I went back and tried some of them and in many ways, you can't go home again. Some that still stand up, tho:
Ultima VI, VII, and Serpent Isle - still playable, interesting, and all fine games. While Ultima IV and V may be important in their own way, I can't see anyone playing them unless they are really REALLY committed.
Arcanum, Morrowind - Worth playing for at least the first 8 hours. Maybe making it to find P. Schuyler and Sons in one and finding the Dwemer Puzzle box in the other, and everything surrounding them. Then decide if you can slug it out from there.
Fallout: New Vegas - This is pretty much my go to when I'm bored. New mods, tale of two wastelands, hacking it myself, clearing out Camp Golf.
Wasteland, Phantasie, Worlds of Xeen and/or MM3-6 - still hold up!
Just my top 3 really, PS:T for storyfags, Arcanum for omnifags and Wizardry 8 for combatfags.
If you don't like any of these the genre isn't for you. Or rather - if you don't like any of these you need to be gatekept away from my favorite genre.
What do you consider to be your 'must play' RPGs?
