Need suggestion for my next game

[Sorrow]

How about Sengoku Rance, then? It's a tastefully done game.

[Ipsy]

Sorrow, is that supposed to be amusing somehow? It's not.

 

Vaalyah, not sure if you knew this, but Sengoku Rance is a hentai game, and thus anything but tasteful.

[Sorrow]

Sorrow, is that supposed to be amusing somehow? It's not.

Butthurt detected.

[Ipsy]

Sorrow, is that supposed to be amusing somehow? It's not.

Butthurt detected.

No, actually. I just don't think it's funny to recommend a hentai game as "tasteful." Vaalyah stated that she was looking for an interesting, well-made roleplaying game. So your suggestion was basically spamming. What I want to know is...why?

 

Also, my apologies to Vaalyah for thread derailing.

[berelinde]

Since the protagonist seems to be escaping from a forced marriage to the daughter of a noble family, that would imply that the protagonist is forced to be male, something the OP does not enjoy.

 

No, I can't say I've ever played a JRPG, so I can neither recommend it or condemn it, but I read the review on gamefaqs which contained the information I posted above.

[Ipsy]

The game is supposed to be turn-based strategy anyway, according to this review. But this review actually rated it on its erotic content, and apparently the protagonist must have sex with 300 women to win.

[Sorrow]

Sorrow, is that supposed to be amusing somehow? It's not.

Butthurt detected.

No, actually. I just don't think it's funny to recommend a hentai game as "tasteful."

If wasn't not funny, I wouldn't laugh :3 .

 

Vaalyah stated that she was looking for an interesting, well-made roleplaying game.

That has to have a male romance and a female protagonist. Good luck finding one that isn't combat-orientated. Because I don't know any.

 

So your suggestion was basically spamming. What I want to know is...why?

GAHAHAHAHA! Because it's content may make Planescape Torment look appealing, of course :3 .

 

I've started it about... errrrr... 4 times :-D and never finished... I've heard it's the bestest story in the world, but it simply doesn't seem to be able to catch me... I suppose the reason is that I can't customize my character...

What? What about setting stats with stat choices having a huge impacts on gameplay (especially dialogues?)?

In opposition to Baldur's Gate series where one can customise character but get practically no reaction from the game to it. Playing a male/female intelligent/stupid, strong/weak, charismatic/uncharismatic etc. character is practically the same except for combat.

While customisation in Torment is limited to stats, it has much bigger impact on the gameplay experience than in BG.

 

1) my favourite class is Cleric, there you can't do a cleric

And class matters anything in games that aren't "kill everything and move to next level", because?

It's not like many of these games recognize that you are playing a Cleric anyway, beyond combat abilities.

 

2) I am a female, with female PC. And not, I am not so good in role playing being able to amuse myself in flirting with a female. Sorry, I need a male NPC to flirt with. Maybe I have too many limitations about my ability in role playing, but to romance an NPC I simply need to be "a little in love" with him. Not able with a female...

I can assure you that the Torment scenes with your ex-girlfriend (you can see her as a ghost or a spirit...) have been quite disappointing to me o_O

Romances in cRPGs are usually just a tiny part of the game's content and usually they are shitty as hell.

Guess what? I couldn't relate to Nameless One's ex-girlfriend either. Actually, she was just a some creepy chick that didn't matter to me. Which isn't a good reason to reject a game.

And while we are at it if I would have to choice, I would never get an idea of playing an immortal scarred dude. Because, totally, like, every male player just dreams about being able to create an ugly zombie dude as his character!

 

The whole point of the Torment is that the

dude wakes up in a mortuary and his memories are gone. He is basically a newly born character that the player can shape. He doesn't have to romance anyone who his previous incarnation have romanced and can have different approach to people.

Each his incarnation is practically a separate person.

 

Still, the most important thing about Torment is the narration and interaction of stats with dialogues and discovering the past incarnations of the Nameless One and his impact on the game world and lives of various people, not how he looks and who he can romance with.

[berelinde]

So your suggestion was basically spamming. What I want to know is...why?

GAHAHAHAHA! Because it's content may make Planescape Torment look appealing, of course :3 .

Compared to this steaming pile of dung, your perfume smells delightful!

 

Hey, I'm not knocking you or your perfume... I mean PS:T. I'm told that it's a fantastic game by people whose opinions I respect. I, too, have tried to get into it a few times, but it just never works. I get bored and go back to BG2 before I get too far.

 

I don't think it has anything to do with the PC being male because I play RPGs with a male PC all the time. I think it's more a combination of a plot that gets off to a slow start and a protagonist that just doesn't interest me that made me give the game to my nephew. He likes it, though, so at least it found a good home.

 

What I'm saying is that if she tried PS:T repeatedly and still doesn't like it, playing something terrible will not make her like it better.

 

Ya know, Valyaah, you said you liked BG2. I'm guessing that you haven't played in a while. Have you seen all the mods that are out for it? It might give you something fun to do while you're waiting for your copy of Dragon Age to arrive. Best of all, mods are free.

[CoM_Solaufein]

PST sucked balls. I really dislike games where your character is forced on you, as in being premade. PST, the Witcher, you will be a male human whether you like it or not. Kinda ruins the role playing aspect of an RPG. If you want to try another RPG, try Fallout 3 or the two before it. You won't be able to put it down for a long time.

[Vaalyah]

Sorry guys for delay, but I've had major computer problem yesterday and today. Not solved yet, but at least I was able to contact the place where I bought my gpu to see how I have to do for change that.

Ehm, no, I don't think an erotic game could be the one I am looking for... by the way, what is a JRPG?

 

I've read in a game magazine about a "drakensag" (or something similar): has anyone tried it? how it is?

[Ipsy]

Sorrow, there are some things that you should probably keep in mind:

1) Vaalyah's interest in games differs from yours.

2) Playing a horrible game will not make other games seem more appealing.

3) You aren't actually contributing to this thread.

 

If for whatever reason, you enjoy suggesting bad hentai games to people and attacking their gaming preferences, you may find the RPG Codex forums to be a friendly and welcoming place. Particularly if you're trying to antagonize.

 

Edit:

@ COM Solaufein: I think that the appeal of PS:T for many people was the writing and, possibly, setting. Personally, I loved the game, and I didn't care about the lack of character choice. The rest of the game made up for it.

 

@ Vaalyah: JRPG is Japanese RPG.

 

Drakensang was apparently OK, playable but not that great (source).

 

Edit 2: Just noticed Berelinde's post. You might find Classic Adventures interesting. It's a Total Conversion mod of BG2, with its own plotline. There are romances, but in the current version (.52) they don't work, unfortunately. It's in progress but playable, so you might want to keep an eye on it

 

Aside from that, have you tried EasyTutu? It's BG1 with the BG2 engine, so there's a lot more mods you can play, including BG1 NPC Project and Gavin NPC, giving you 4 different male romances to choose from.

[Evaine Dian]

A couple of things:

 

 

 

1) Drakensang:

 

There are two Drakensang games out now, but I don't know if the second one is available in English yet (the original games are in German). The first one is called Drakensang, the second is called Drakensang: The River of Time. There's a thread where I wrote a bit about my experiences with the first game. The second was very similar if I remember correctly, but I don't remember much, although it came out only a couple of months ago (and I have a very good memory!). It was just too bland, I can't even tell you what it was about, that's how unimpressive the story was. They are ok games to pass the time, but there are better ones out there. I think you might be disappointed by the lack of banters.

 

 

 

2) The Witcher:

 

I love the Witcher. The game has its flaws, yes, but I enjoyed it more than e.g. Dragon Age. I read the first book in English and found that the translation sucked so much I didn't know what I was reading about, but the German translation is ok and there are more books available. I very much like fixed characters in general and Geralt in particular. He's badass and it's a joy to play as him.

 

I think the Witcher is somewhat darker, grittier and moodier, sort of what Dragon Age wants to be when it grows up. It's a violent, rude and dirty world; in comparison, Dragon Age looked like Disneyland to me. The sex card collecting isn't obligatory as far as I know, just a bit of silly pastime. The are lots of more "mature" aspects to the game. It's all about choices. The game is linear and your choices don't change the plot very much, true, but they still come back to haunt you, often when you least expect it.

 

You're on your own for most of the game, but there are a couple of NPCs you see more often and who have really grown on me, like Siegfried. But overall, there is too little dialogue for my taste.

 

The main flaw of the game is the fighting. I had a tough time killing that one fire dog thing right at the start of the game, but turns out that was the most difficult fight of the game and it all just got easy-peasy from there. And tedious. It's a lot of hacking and slashing with very little variety.

 

As I said, I love the Witcher and I'm looking forward to the second one. I think it's mainly because I like Geralt and the whole gritty setting so much. From what I've read, I don't think you'd enjoy it.

 

 

 

3) Fixed characters in general:

 

I'm suprised that so many people don't like fixed characters. I think a fixed character is a virtue, not a flaw, and so much nicer than generic no-name PCs. If PCs have a fixed gender, look, voice and (to some extent) personality, they feel so much more alive, I think. They usually have a much better graphic design; I'd much rather play as a butt-ugly, but memorable dude than one of those interchangeable, faceless glossy magazine models. If PCs are voiced, they don't have to stand around dumbfounded while the other characters deliver gorgeous lines. And the surroundings can react so much more to them.

 

As much as I like BG, I don't like how the PC is soulless (in more than one sense). I'd prefer it if games could take into account all aspects of the PC, gender, looks, dislikes, quirks, class, race, etc., and that is a lot easier if the main aspects of the PC are fixed to begin with. I want to see all this in the game, not imagine it in my head. I'm not saying it's impossible to have a memorable entirely player-generated PC, but it seems much more work than developers are willing to do.

 

 

 

4) NWN1:

 

The original game is boring as hell, but there are fantastic mods out there! My favourite is A Dance with Rogues Part 1 and Part 2. I think it beats many (all?) professionally made games by far - and all that written and coded by one single person! I think it has much more content than most professional games nowadays, has an interesting main storyline and loads and loads of side quests. It takes forever to play the whole thing. In the first few hours/chapters you can pretty much do anything you want and roam the town and parts of the countryside. Later the plot becomes quite linear, but it's all very carefully designed and never gets boring.

 

I don't want to give too much away about the plot, you just have to see it for yourself, but let me tell you, it has lots of twists! Just a couple of things: The PC is somewhat fixed; you have to play a human woman (a princess) and I think you also have to have basic thief skills (there are some main quests where you need to sneak and open locks and stuff), but it makes perfect sense storywise. Other than that you're pretty free to do what you want and can e.g. level up as a cleric, too, you can choose her looks (not that it matters, NWN looks ugly either way) and name.

 

You play the princess of a kingdom which is taken over by its hostile neighbour. Everything she knew is destroyed, everyone's dead but her. She escapes and lives with a thief guild. That's where the fun part starts! You can determine how your princess behaves; she can stay a virtuous princess or become a harbour whore, be prissy or strong, nice or bitchy, whatever you want.

 

In the beginning of Part 1, you are on your own without a party for quite some time, but it makes perfect sense and you will still see a lot of dialogue and meet a lot of people. You'll get to meet NPCs who will stay with you (or not) eventually, and they will banter with you and with each other. A lot. The NPCs all have unique personalities, some like and some hate each other, some are nice, some are very, very rude.

 

The princess can romance the joinable NPCs and sleep with, uhm, almost everybody, joinables, non-joinables, men, women, young people, old people, humans, elves, dwarves, animals (oops)... There is loads of sex, nudity, swearing, crime, torture, rape, killing, and general violence in this game. The sex is sometimes romantic, often weird, brutal and nauseating, mostly offensive and always overly detailed, graphic and campy. I love it. It might not be for the faint of heart, but I heard you can skip almost all of it if you don't like it. I wouldn't, because it's a huge part of what makes the game so fantastic. The game is just so daring and racy and addresses almost every possible and impossible aspect of life.

 

The plot is very exciting! There are many quests which can be solved in different ways, you can be sneaky, kill everything in sight, trade sex for what you want, talk yourself out of it, whatever you fancy. Note that you will be very weak in the beginning though, and probably won't be able to fight at all, but that is why it's so fun and exciting! You have to be on your guard constantly; after all, the city is full of hostile soldiers looking for the princess. In general, the quests are very versatile, not just FedEx quests and battles, but lots of different ideas and always interesting.

 

The game has great replay value. There are a couple of choices you have to make that will somewhat influence the outcome of the plot later. I played it a couple of times and haven't yet seen all the outcomes! Also, the author, Valine, has changed large chunks of the game over the years, I think mostly adding to it, not taking from it, but always changing it and always for the better, I think. Sadly, the older versions aren't openly available; I found it very interesting to compare the older version I played first to the latest one. Last thing I heard was that she was planning a major overhaul of Part 2 to make more sense of the stuff she added to Part 1. I'm very much looking forward to it!

 

I could imagine some people might not like the writing very much, it's often vulgar and crude and not the best style, but it's part of the charm. I just can't praise this mod enough!

[Daulmakan]

PST sucked balls.

[Vaalyah]

@CoM Solaufein: can you tell me something more about Fallout series?

 

@ Ipsy: "2) Playing a horrible game will not make other games seem more appealing." that's wisdom!

Well, ok, about Torment... I don't exactly know why that game is not able to catch my interest... I suppose it is due to the fixed PC, or maybe it is just that after 15 hours playing, I am still not able to find a stupid merchant to whom sell all the useless things I have in my inventory, or maybe because the environment is so dark and spoil and sad. I don't know. Fact is that even if everyone has told me that game to be fantastic, it seems I am not able to overcome the first hours of playing time. Ideas?

Other games I didn't like was the IWD series (no npc interaction, plus too much killing and too few dialogues) and NWN1. Really, it was soooooo boring... Just

 

go to the first city area, kill everyone and find the ingredient, go to the second city area, kill everyone and find the ingredient

...

go the first location, kill everyone and find the clue, go to the second location, kill everyone and find the clue...

repeat till the end of game.

Sometimes, have stupid dialogue with a spy who doesn't even know who you are, but that at the end of all the missions, will ask you to be engaged with him o_O

 

no, thanks, not my game. I get so bored that after finishing it, I had not bought the expansions!

Thank you for the link of "classic adventures", I may have a look as soon as my more powerful computer (1 month old) has received the new gpu!

 

@Evaine Dian: next thing in to do list: going to read your review, thanks!

However, I don't obviously buy games in English. I buy the Italian translation (yes, also spoken dialogues are translated! Kelgar has a very amusing voice! ) and from what I've read in that magazine, it is already available in Italian (don't know for the English version).

About fighting in game... to say the truth I just consider a waste of time becoming crazy pressing all the keys in my keyboard. If I want to do exercises for my fingers, I just go to play drums a bit more. When I sit on my computer, I want to exercise my brain, not my fingers. ie: I hated with all my being Gothic 2 fighting system. It was just impossible to do: you have to take a sort of rhythm while crashing an axe in the head of a monster. If I have to spend more time in learning how to fight (and fighting is something so boring for me) than to really play, it is not my game. If I remember correctly, I played Gothic 2 for about 15 hours, no more.

 

About fixed characters... I simply think that to live entirely a game, I must be able to imagine myself as the protagonist. Like in a book: the more the protagonist resembles you (about choices, tastes, moralities, ideas, opinions, background) the more you would find the reading immersive. And no, I can't see myself as a male who likes to caught a number of girls bigger than one.

 

Hmmm thank you for the suggestion, but after having reading the apparent big sexual related situations in the plot... no, thanks. Not my kind. It is more realist to see a character of mine going around and cutting off penis of wanna-be lover just because she is bored by guys trying to flirt with her, than collecting relationships! Moreover, for what my experience is, usually a plot (book, game, rpg, whatever) in which a female character sleep around so much, has being written by a male person... and I can assure you that when a male pretend to role play as a female, the outcome is usually grotesque

No offence here, everyone has its own tastes. Mine are not strictly related with PC sleeping around that much!

[Evaine Dian]

However, I don't obviously buy games in English. I buy the Italian translation (yes, also spoken dialogues are translated! Kelgar has a very amusing voice! ) and from what I've read in that magazine, it is already available in Italian (don't know for the English version).

Oops, I forgot about that. Games and films are translated and dubbed in Germany, too.

 

 

 

About fixed characters... I simply think that to live entirely a game, I must be able to imagine myself as the protagonist. Like in a book: the more the protagonist resembles you (about choices, tastes, moralities, ideas, opinions, background) the more you would find the reading immersive. And no, I can't see myself as a male who likes to caught a number of girls bigger than one.

It doesn't matter to me at all if a character is similar to me or not. It's the writing that makes a plot immersive, it has to catch my interest, either because the style is so much fun to read (I've read books with no plot or character development that I got hooked on just because the language was fantastic) or because the story is interesting and I want to know more about it. Protagonists can be however they want, I don't care as long as it's well written.

 

 

 

Hmmm thank you for the suggestion, but after having reading the apparent big sexual related situations in the plot... no, thanks. Not my kind. It is more realist to see a character of mine going around and cutting off penis of wanna-be lover just because she is bored by guys trying to flirt with her, than collecting relationships! Moreover, for what my experience is, usually a plot (book, game, rpg, whatever) in which a female character sleep around so much, has being written by a male person... and I can assure you that when a male pretend to role play as a female, the outcome is usually grotesque

No offence here, everyone has its own tastes. Mine are not strictly related with PC sleeping around that much!

I still think you should give it a try! As I said, I read that you can skip all the sex but ONE single scene which is important to the plot, as it sets the background of the princess. You can always find another way to solve the quests, bribe, fight, sneak, talk. And, depending on how you want her to be, castrating men who get too intrusive sounds just like a thing the princess would do, actually.

 

The game was written by a woman. I wouldn't always express myself the way she does, but I know where she's coming from. I don't find it grotesque at all. The game is not about sexual conquests, this is just a fun part you don't see in other games in such an extensive manner. It has a lot of other things to offer, an immersive plot, great NPCs with a lot to say and interesting quests. It can cater to diverse tastes. And I stand by it, it's a wonderful game and everyone should play it.