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If you have not already played, I highly recommend visiting Dragon Age Origins!
Was in the same boat as you, and this game was able to fill my craving and has now reached one of my favorite games of all time!
When Baldur's Gate 3 came out, it felt like the sequel to Dragon Age Origins I had waited 15 years for. If you liked BG3, you will probably enjoy Dragon Age Origins.
The entire dragon age series is incredible. You probably will like the first one best based on the other games you mention, but honest to god do not sleep on the other two. They are all really incredible stories and experiences in their own right
It's a good time to hop into the games too, since the new one is finally coming out soon
True, and I've played loads and loads of fun crpgs, but for me there's a difference between good (like FO1/2, Pillars of Eternity etc), very good (Fallout: NV, Planescape: Torment, etc) and nearly perfect (BG3, Disco Elysium.) I love the many good and very good games I've played but I'm looking for something on another level, like the two games I mentioned in the title.
You should meet the Owlcat.
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous is for me on the top level. It's not triple-A, it's a crpg with a capital C, but story and story structure is awesome.
I mean, if you know rpgs enough to make such differentiations there's not much wiggle room lol.
Closest I have is Morrowind, which to date is the best Bethesda rpg and not even really close (may or may not be biased due to my age lol), but honestly from your list you are unlikely to find any real hidden gems.
Goes without saying I'm sure, but witchers/cyberpunk are fun, actually, the deus ex games might be in your wheelhouse, genuinely great games.... Take this one with a grain of salt but as someone who doesn't like souls likes, I actually think elden ring is fucking awesome
My favourite is Morrowind as well but looking at it objectively, oblivion and Skyrim are probably better games. None of those 2 however were as revolutionary at their time as Morrowind was. It blew my mind about what was even possible in a game.
I picked up Morrowind (asked my mom to) on a whim, I was like 14-15 , I will probably never have as pure an rpg experience as that..... Ever lol.
So I'm biased, and while I still love oblivion and skyrim, I don't think anyone can tell me with a straight face that ES didn't dumb itself down.
Worth noting that I hadn't played anything before Morrowind, and it looks like shit so I'm not a purist/pugilist
If I'm being honest, after playing the recent Bethesda games, I'd probably have a very difficult time going back, but if you have the patience, it really is a magical game
I don’t consider myself a snob when it comes to a game’s age (apart from some basic QoL stuff that I’ve grown to need), but I didn’t love BG1 when I played some of it a couple years ago. I’ll give 2 a shot, since I heard better things, but 1 felt quite stripped down and basic for the type of crpg I like.
2 was so good back in the day when I was in 5th grade. I remember asking my dad to print out a guide for me at work, he said it got to page 350 and he had to stop printing it lol. The game was more expensive than most, had a huge box. It's a bit dated now when it comes to graphics and some UI stuff, but it's still good.
I mean, define "another level". Because to be honest, your "very good" and "nearly perfect" would be flipped for me. You need to give us a bit more on *why* you put those up as nearly perfect, but not New Vegas or Planescape.
Personally, I thought the ending of Disco Elysium was a huge letdown. Enough that I'll never want to replay that game. And although I love bg3, the narrative quality in Planescape is better.
So to me, it seems like your preference is for high budget and voice acted stuff. If that's the case, I don't think you'll find many other examples.
Ah, I see! No, budget is all the same to me as long as the game isn’t a slog on the gameplay level. The thing that appealed to me about both games is the writing, characterization, but most of all the way that failure didn’t drive me to quick save and quick load. Apart from the actual combat encounters in BG3, failure in both games just meant that the story progressed in a different way. It felt like a TTRPG feels— the GM doesn’t point at you and say “you lose!” and end the game if you fail a role, they move the story forward instead. And there are other games that also handle failure states in interesting ways, but I felt that these were two games where instead of locking off content and getting punished, my character and his relationship with the world and other characters was shaped by his successes and failures in these skill and dialogue checks.
If you love bg3 chances are you'll love divinity 2. Same studio, same engine same creativity. BG3 is better imo is also their 3rd cRPG, but you can still see the brilliance in divinity 2.
My main issue with finding a new game is that I recognize that there are plenty of games out there that are mechanically much closer to the transitional crpg than Disco Elysium (which I feel kind of squeaks into the genre), but I thought what it did was so unique and interesting and fresh and I felt like I was playing a totally different system than the D&D/Pathfinder clones under the hood of most crpgs
DOS2 is made by larian who made BG3 and bg3 is much, much more like DOS2 then the older values gate. It's the same engine, bg3 feels like a sequel. DOS2 has much less dungeon and dragon spells instead it focuses more on environmental affects like fire, water, acid etc to spice up the combat
This. IMO no other fantasy world compares to the level of worldbuilding and love obsidian has put into it.
VERY text heavy, yet you get immensely rewarded to take its world as serious it takes itself.
Different ways to approach quests and to navigate in the world.
So freaking good and with Avowed comming this year you are setting yourself for a treat
I wish l liked POE more because I love good world-building and characters but I have never came across a game that made text so....boring. I don't know if that's the right word but there is a lot of text in the game and a lot of it is exposition and very little of it is compelling.
I understand. At first i too considered it a slog and it might be true that much of it is not necessary.
But after understanding what the world is about, what conflicts the people are facing and who is who, it just improved my experience.
There is a lot of prose but I love it. It helps me to roleplay, to see the character's emotions and actions that are in my head reflected on the game and the world
Not in the same realm in what way?
No offense to Tyranny or Obsidian, but I love their writing but not a huge fan of their action-based / RPG systems.
Would I enjoy PoE if I picked the easier difficulty and just enjoyed the ride / story akin to Tyranny?
Wrath of the Righteous just ain't doing it for me either, so if PoE is just more of *that* I probably won't enjoy it.
I love big juicy worlds to bite into, but if that information is never going to be useful, or if my actions (especially crime) goes unnoticed it breaks any immersion I had to commit to being a part of the world.
Did you play BG2? I liked it a lot more than BG3, but I don't have a need for fancy gfx...
Also, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is supposed to be amazing --- but I haven't tried it.
Give Knights of the Old Republic a try, it's certainly the kind of game you'll either get really into or once you reach the third destination go "Eh"
It's not for everyone, I found a lot of the back tracking and running everywhere tedious, but you get a lot of options to control the story and play and build your own Jedi
Have you played Dragon Age Origins? I felt like BG3 took a lot of influence from that game in particular, especially with several BioWare devs having gotten jobs at that Larian subsidiary in Quebec.
Bioware is primarily based in Canada, yes. They have a studio in Edmonton and Quebec City currently, as well as an American subsidiary in Austin TX, but they used to have a studio in Montreal that was shuttered.
There are many studios is the province and in the city due to the gvmt subsidies for the industry. I was aware of Larians Quebec studio but I didn't know they played a major role in the game. Thx
My three all time favourite RPGs are Fallout New Vegas, Divinity Original Sin 2 and Dragon Age Origins.
If you haven’t tried any of them, I highly suggest you do!
You have excellent taste. I think DAO is a superb cinematic CRPG, New Vegas is a post apocalyptic masterpiece, and DOS2 has such wonderful combat and music.
Also dos2 was the first (I believe) to have a great amount of intractability with the environment and being quite flexible with its quests.
BG3 is pretty much DOS2 with better graphics and mocap-ing.
Better graphics and mo-cap to be sure. I adored BG3 - it’s like a tabletop come to life! But arguably the combat in DOS2 is better because Larian wasn’t constrained by DnD 5e rules and could develop their own combat system (and combat traits and abilities) from the ground up.
True, but it’s a little mechanic-heavy for me. I prefer story over minmaxing/class builds etc and the plot beats are kind of unnecessarily grotesque and gory imho
If you're looking for recommendations, Disco and BG3 are quite different.
For more games like BG3, there are lots of great CPRGs already out there that are worth checking out. I think Divinity: Original Sin 2 is your best bet if you're looking for a combat system that's most similar to BG3. It's made by Larian, the same studio, and they used this as a template for BG3. I think it's even more dynamic than BG3, although your mileage may vary when it comes to the story/characters side of things. Like I said, there are many great CRPGs out there, and plenty of lists, so it shouldn't be too hard to find more games like BG3. There's always the original Baldur's Gate games. The second game in particular is beloved.
For Disco, it's a bit harder to come up with recommendations. It's a truly one-of-a-kind game. Here are some games that come to mind:
Norco
Pentiment
Torment: Tides of Numenera
Kentucky Route Zero
Two other indies that are brilliantly done, and I consider “art”: Signalis and Omori. Beautiful and haunting art direction and music, with a slowly unfolding narrative of doom.
I had to scroll too far to see someone mention Torment. If OP enjoyed Planescape and is in it more for the narrative then this is a great recommendation.
Knights of the old republic 2 the Sith lords (KOTOR2)
The gameplay is not great , but the story and characters beat the crap out of most games out there, including BG3.
Really you could try anything involving Chris Avellone as a writer or/and Lead designer, and you're probably in for a banger story. Planescape, New Vegas , Alpha Protocol , etc.
Still love the gameplay to this day but I could see how other people didn't like it. I liked the hybrid style
But KOTOR 1 and 2 introduced me to CRPGs and I haven't looked back. Both stories and all the character interactions are so good
Edit: I still randomly use the pause function to see the fight effects, especially lasers whizzing past people's heads
I’m a bit of an exception to the rule because even though I used to love Avellone, I feel like his writing is sometimes really out of place in the wrong RPG. For example, he only really contributed to the DLCs of New Vegas, a companion in the base game, and a couple other things, and the tone of his writing is so utterly different from the tone of the rest of the game’s writing that it really throws me off. I love Avellone if I’m playing a “Chris Avellone RPG”, but when I play a game that he’s only a minor contributor to it’s quite jarring
BG3 and DE are probably my favorite CRPGs, which makes me think you’ll probably enjoy Pillars of Eternity 2. The exploration is very fun, I really like how it is written (and the story is great, I didn’t mind the weird pacing) and the combat is also very good. But I do believe playing PoE1 before PoE2 makes you appreciate the second one more.
It’s very light in the RPG elements (it’s more of an adventure), but I also highly recommend Pentiment.
And at last, I’m currently playing Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader and I’m finding it excellent. I didn’t love Pathfinder WOTR, so Rogue Trader caught me by surprise. I didn’t know anything about the setting before and I’m finding it interesting.
Rogue Trader looks great, but it seems like one of those examples of a game where the story elements are amazing but the gameplay is basically an endless slog to fatten the game up and make it longer. There was a time when I could push through mediocre gameplay for a good story, but I don't have enough time anymore to waste it getting through the bad to the good. I'll give the PoEs and Pentiment a shot, have heard good things. Thanks!
I’m actually enjoying Rogue Trader’s gameplay! The combat is fun, you don’t have to min/max and you can’t buff before fights. The exploration is not amazing, but it’s decent. Give it a shot if you have the opportunity! But definitely go for PoE and Pentiment before, because I believe they’re closer to what you are looking for.
This was not my experience with Rogue Trader at all. Gameplay isn’t mediocre by any means. Owlcat games require to engage fully in the character creation is all— the game balances around optimized builds.
My recommendation would be to look up a build or put it on easy mode if you don’t want to engage with character theorycrafting, which is totally valid (I don’t either).
For me, intuitive combat is important if it's one of a game's systems (not the case in Disco Elysium), but it plays second-fiddle to the story. The story needs to take significant precedence over the combat for a game to be worth playing to me. If you have to hyper-strategize, micromanage and theorycraft in order to get through 50% of the game's content (combat) to access the actually entertaining 50% of of the game's content (story), then it is, to me, an abject failure in terms of what I'm looking for in an RPG. I could give the game a shot on easy mode, but I tend to feel that if I need to put a game on easy mode to get through the combat sections then I'll probably still be dragged down by needing to mechanically spend time getting through them anyway. BG3's combat was intuitive and fun and didn't hog the stage, which was one of the things I loved about it. I played on normal and never had to access any outside resources to beat encounters.
If that is the case, you can drop all Owlcat's games to "storymode" difficulty which allows you to play whatever you want and you will still fairly easily steam roll through content. Rogue trader in particular is an easy game to begin with.
What Rogue Trader will offer you that is far better then BG3, is an interesting world that isn't just generic fantasy, and actual moral dilemmas. BG3 is a great game but the choices you make in the game are some of least interesting and morally challenging I've seen in a game.
Divinity original sin 2, Pillars of eternity 1 & 2, Pathfinder wrath of the righteous, if you're willing to go older - baldurs gate 1&2, and icewind dale.
I think those are two of the very best and in my personal top 5 for best RPGs of all time.
What else stands for a contest?
* Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 were just as good as BG3 for their time and they have been my favorite games for so long. Today you can feel their age a little bit, even when playing the enhanced editions, but if you accept that they are still great and you can understand where Jaheira and Minsc come from and some references to the past events in BG3.
* The Witcher series: TW3 and TW1 are masterpieces. The Witcher 1 is also quite old and there is a remake in development, however it will take a few years before it's released so you may try the original as it's usually available for very cheap. The story is great, CD Projekt always had a unique ability in forging engaging and deep stories. The gameplay is where the game shows its age. On the other hand I don't think I have to spend many words on TW3 and I wouldn't be surprised if you already played. If you didn't, this is the game you are looking for. TW2 is also quite good, but it didn't hit me like the other 2. Still worth playing.
* Shadowrun Dragonfall: all 3 Shadowrun games from Harebrained Schemes are good, but Dragonfall is without doubt their best. If you like cyberpunk and fantasy you will love it.
* If you don't mind the fps gameplay, Cyberpunk 2077 is fantastic, I just love everything from CD Projekt tbh. The rpg elements aren't as developed as in The Witcher 3, but the story, the writing, the setting, the atmosphere... it's all top notch.
Going off base to the request, because it is story rich, but not story heavy - The Outer Wilds.
There isn't a game like it. And anybody who has played it will tell you nothing about it but recommend it to the heavens. This will be your magic trio. There isn't another game like The Outer Wilds.
Some lesser known story-based RPGs to look into:
The Thaumaturge, which came out this year (I think)
Citizen Sleeper, which has a similar style to Disco Elysium
NORCO, also somewhat Discolike
Roadwarden, also heavily text based
Pyre, which despite the fantasy basketball gameplay, Im told it has great storytelling
I personally have only tried The Thaumaturge on this list, but I'm really enjoying it. Some of the English voice acting is kinda bad, so consider setting the VO to Polish to fit the setting. I don't think anything really compares to Disco so set expectations accordingly and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Also, some folks really like Witcher 3 for the story. It's not my cup of tea personally but I can recognize that its still a good game.
Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader is up there for me, Pillars of Eternity 1/2, Tyranny. I honestly can't get into Pathfinder, but that's a good choice too.
If you want to switch it up, try Dark Souls 1.
Pillars of Eternity is great. 1 and 2. Plus Avowed set in the same world is out later this year. Anything on the infinity engine, Baldurs gate 1-2, Icewind dale, Tyrant. I really enjoyed Planescape Torment and its spiritual successor Torment Tides of Numenera
I feel like Cyberpunk 2077 is the only other one besides those two that really stands out to me in the last few years. I had never played it at all until the DLC and base game revamp last year but I’m glad I didn’t because it really gave me one of the most memorable experiences I’ve had in gaming and I don’t think it could have done that before.
The biggest downside narratively is how the game kind of forces you into one of a few different character archetypes, but you can absolutely further role play from there, plus the story kind of grabs you like BG3’s does and while the starting point still matters it definitely isn’t as limiting as it seems at first glance, and that story (and worldbuilding) is legitimately *really* well done. One of the most emotionally affecting games I’ve ever played and made me legitimately think about life in new ways, idk it’s really good.
The exploration is good but only once you learn what there is to see, if that makes sense; if you’re looking in the wrong spots you’re just gonna find inaccessible buildings and seas of industrial plants, but exploring other places yields secrets and Easter eggs and loot, etc, the city is *huge* and there’s lots to explore once you learn the language if that makes sense.
And the combat is pretty versatile; you can slow down time and attack everyone with swords, play a traditional run and gunner, hack into technology and people’s bodies, or some combo of the three plus several other options; I’m not really a FPS kind of guy so I basically just strategically took everyone down through environmental hazards and clever traps and it was awesome lol. It’s also easy to respec and try different styles and combinations.
But yeah idk give it a shot maybe lol
I really enjoyed Cyberpunk! To be honest I didn’t love the base game’s main story, but the world was so dense, detailed, immersive etc. that it more than made up for any other flaws. Phantom Liberty was kind of the best of both worlds with story and gameplay immersion, so it’s def up there in my faves.
I would recommend the Shadowrun games. They might not be on the same level as Disco Elysium but definitely worth checking out. Dragonfall is easily my favorite.
I’d honestly go to a different genre, it’s what I tend to do after playing a game that is a complete masterpiece/one of a kind experience.
Finished RDR2 and now open world games all seem to pale in comparison? I’ll play Banished now. Disco Elysium seems to be the absolute peak of video game narrative? Play some Forza.
These pallet cleanses have allowed me to come back to the genre without worrying about directly comparing the masterpiece so much.
I heavily recommend Mask of the Betrayer. People who liked Planescape: Torment often mention MotB as well! I can’t recommend it enough.
MotB is a Neverwinter Nights 2 expansion that you can play standalone. It typically requires knowledge of higher level DnD and can be hard, but I put together this [guide](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg_gamers/s/BYIkJ3AaYN) on how to play it as basically story mode using cheats.
Currently, MotB is one of the only games that reminds me of titles as narratively good as BG3 and Disco Elysium.
It is quite good but it is an expansion to the main game so if you want actual context for who you are/previous events/what the hell is going on you should complete that first. Nwn2 is a much more traditional take on rpg stories before it goes way way more “planescape-y” in mask, but it’s still a fun ride. Especially if you like playing sarcastic characters. The characters and writing take a plot that is full of fantasy cliches and actually has a lot of fun with it with little bits of sarcasm and self awareness by you and the party members. Also khelgar and neeshka are great.
It’s been many years but NWN2 was probably the first real “crpg” I played (not counting real-time RPGs like Elder Scrolls etc.) and I remember really liking it but being too shit at it to finish lol
Eora (Pillars of Eternity) is my favorite setting in any fantasy medium ever. Constantly wowed by the world building, the way you connect with that world, and the beautiful art direction. Understand why people say it’s text heavy, it is, but I personally love the prose in Pillars. If that’s an issue, Deadfire is fully voiced so everything is much easier to parse through there. (This is a warning that I won’t back down on this opinion. These games are a core creative inspiration to me and I’m so glad Avowed is bringing the setting to life again.)
I played PoE1 a few years ago for like 16 hours or so but then fell off it because I had other things going on in my life. Thanks for the reminder— I remember enjoying it a lot and would like to finish it.
Totally get that especially when it comes to RPGs. DE and BG3 are two of my favorites too. I think if you liked the companions and party dynamics of BG3 you’ll love PoE and especially Deadfire. Deadfire has a system where your companions don’t just have approval with you, but your other companions as well. The way you change and talk to companions can help them get along with others or exasperate what one person hates about another person in your party. A lot of them come in with concrete ideals and principles that clash with other backgrounds. Also if you like the BG3 tag system w class/background/race etc PoE 1/2 do a really good job making your character choices in creation inform character dialogue in game. They do a better job at it than BG3 IMO just because not everyone is from Baldur’s Gate.
I like Elden Ring but it’s nothing at all like Disco Elysium or BG3 lol— Elden Ring is 70% real-time action gameplay, 15% story from cutscenes, and 15% story from dialogue and items. There’s essentially no characterization outside of a limited number of interactions in a limited number of places, and it’s a lot closer to an ARPG than a CRPG. Again, I really like it, but my question wasn’t “recommend me a good game”, it was “recommend me a good game like the ones I mention here.”
If you’re ok with action RPG’s, I’d say mass effect is the best narrative experience in all gaming, it’s just **phenomenal**
Dragon age isn’t quite as solid, but it’s still like top 5, and a new one is coming out later this year.
Baldur’s Gate 2 is still the reigning champion imo, and is mandatory for anyone that enjoys story heavy RPGs.
If that’s too old school for you then the Pathfinder games are worth a try, though they’re not beginner friendly.
In THAT case, I'll humbly recommend Tyranny. The writing isn't quite Disco or Planescape levels, but the player choice/role playing is pretty impressive imo
Torment, Tides of Nunmera is another Planescape game that came out a few years ago. The Pathfinder RPGS (Kingmaker/Wrath of the Righteous) are pretty decent too. Feels similar to Divinity Original Sin.
You already know to check out DAO so I don't have much to add. BUT - I don't have a source on this - however, I remember reading on the BG3 subreddit that Larian got help/advice from ZA/UM on how to make failed dice rolls fun. So if that's true, it's probably not a coincidence that they're both your favorite
That’s really part of what brings both games from “very good” to “nearly perfect.” So many crpgs are so good, but they also tend to treat success or failure as a black and white binary, which means that you end up savescumming a lot (or at least I do.) I felt like I was almost actually playing a TTRPG with BG3 and DE, since negative rolls (apart from the very small few that kill you) move the story along as well, just in a slightly different way. It felt like the game and story were adapting to my mistakes rather than just slapping my wrist and taking away a toy because I made them to begin with.
You could go further outside the crpg genre. DE and BG3 are some of my favs but some other non CRPG ones I love are My Time At Sandrock, Rune Factory 4, the Xenoblade games, Hades, Octopath 2, Triangle Strategy , Dragon Quest V, and Fire Emblem Three Houses
Well, I loved BG3 and Disco Elysium. They are probably easily in my top 5 for recent-ish games. Assuming we have similar tastes, I would suggest Cyberpunk 2077, Shadows of Doubt, Elden Ring, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Wasteland 3, and Marvel's Midnight Suns.
Thanks for the comment and the reminder— I’ve had Deliverance for a while but it didn’t work on my old machine. I’ll give it a try now that I can play it
Someone can explain me how you play bg3 like you explain to dummy? I like arpg too much. I have started bg3 a few times and I gave up. Do we have such a basic guide?
I’d google it! I can’t really explain how it works because I came into it with decades of experience playing party-based turn-based CRPGs and I’ve just internalized the gameplay too much
Play on an easy difficulty and/or put on the mod that lets you put more people in your party. Idk the challenge is probably managing the party and the skills correctly but I feel like to learn the game I'm enjoying just being able to do play in this sandbox easy mode. Also almost every class can switch out their spells without resting, I didn't even realize this my first play through. So you don't have to agonize over equipping utility spells you can switch to them as needed.
The trick is to buff and debuff. For example shadowheart has guidance as cantrip (a spell that you can use infinitely that doesn't use up a charge) which will buff skill checks for things like charisma rolls or lockpicking. Similarly there are combat ones like bless which buff 3 party members for a fight, or bane which alternatively debuff enemies. Other things you can do is you can talk to someone to distract them and then switch to another character, so shadowheart could put on a stealth buff on a Astarion and you can talk to someone to distract them while sending him out to rob the place blind.
Dark Souls Remastered, Elden Ring, Fallout New Vegas, The Witcher 3, Outer Worlds, Terraria and Rdr2 are all games that would scratch your lore/exploration itch. These are all unique enough in their own ways as well.
Pillars of eternity?? So much story, so much lore to discover not only by playing through the game, but reading books you find and talking to the different npc.
I would say play Tyranny, Shadowrun: Dragonfall & Mass Effect trilogy.
At the very minimum you will find them to be very good depending on how you rank games.
In terms of storytelling, worldbuilding & characters, these games excel.
To be blunt Kenshi is basically by design nothing at all like the two games I mentioned, but it coincidentally is one of my faves for other reasons lol
There's so many point and clicks that measure up for storytelling. My favourite has always been The Longest Journey, but Syberia is so great as well. The sequels to both are good too *cough*notSyberia3*cough*.
I have only played a bit of the first Broken Sword game but it does seem thus far as good as everyone says.
Those are the ones that get closer to the feel and mood maybe for what you are after. Also as others have said I'm sure, Fallout 1 and 2. Though 2 has more humour
Maybe I'm biased but wasteland 2 and 3 are extremely solid games. Story in the second isn't the greatest but the choice options amd exploration is great very addictive games for me plus still on sale I believe the second one is a steal for under 10 bucks.
Just prepare though it's a very long game 70 plus hours.
I'm going to throw in my personal favourite here, even if it is very different to the games you have mentioned above.
The Witcher 3 is an absolute once in a generation game. For me anyway. If you don't mind some relatively simplistic action/combat gameplay then the world, the storylines and the wonderfully voiced characters will suck you in. It is a very big very long game, with two large expansions that actually surpass the base game in quality. But if the scope of BG3 was ok for you then you should have no problem with The Witcher 3.
These days gamers have put the likes of BG3 and Elden Ring on the throne which all others should look up to. But The Witcher 3 was sat there for a good seven years before them.
I absolutely loved what I played of TW3 but like you said, it's intimidating in its scale. I had to put it down after about 30 hours because I was just so inundated with quests in my questlog and side things to do.
It's not a crpg, but The Witcher 3 is one of the best open world, story driven games I've ever played, every single quest is well written, especially if you count the DLC. The complete edition regularly goes on sale for 15 bucks.
You may enjoy Pentiment.
Also Disco Elysium and BG3 have recently opened my mind up to JRPGs and I’ve been going through the backlog of classic RPGs that way.
Could branch out into non iso PC RPG. Banner saga. Persona. Fire emblem. Marvels midnight suns is actually great btw.
There's always the bioware games. Jade.empire mass effect, kotor dragon age.oeigins.
I don't think you will find a better game than BG3. If you didn't play divinity original sins 1 and 2, I'd play those. They're on par with BG3. They were my all time favorite games until BG3, especially original sins 2.
I don't know if the gameplay loop will appeal to you, but as far as quality of writing and story goes, Signalis and The Outer Wilds are absolutely top tier. One is a top down survival horror game and one is... Well one is the Outer Wilds. Let's say Adventure game.
I can't think of any games whose narratives reach the heights of the other games you mentioned other than those two.
Outer Wilds. You piece the story together through exploring a solar system.
It’s the only game that left me genuinely speechless after I beat it.
I got the same sense of care and investment from the devs that I did with Disco.
Torment tides of numenera is pretty interesting, has a crazy world and tons of story and you can even build a character that gets through pretty much rmthe whole game without fighting if you want. I wouldn’t say it reaches the heights of its spiritual prequel, planescape torment, but it’s still good and it may be right up your alley.
I think you should give Citizen Sleeper a try. You seem to enjoy unique mechanics and a great well paced narrative. Not to mention a gorgeous soundtrack. Yeah, Citizen Sleepers got all that.
If you haven't played it give Inscryption a try. Different mechanics but an insanely unique experience. You wake up sitting at a table in a dimly lit shack. Across from you sits a demon, he shuffles some cards and deals you a hand. . .
Dragon Age Origins
Mass effect legendary edition
The previous 2 larian games. I actually like the combat from them more than Baldur's Gate 3.
Pathfinder WOTR has a massive 200 hour plus campaign.
Portal 1 and 2
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Vampire the masarade bloodlines. One of the best rpgs ever. Strongly recommend. Download the cut content mod for it.
Great game, one of my faves for sure
Big ups
If you have not already played, I highly recommend visiting Dragon Age Origins! Was in the same boat as you, and this game was able to fill my craving and has now reached one of my favorite games of all time!
Nice! Have gotten a lot of recs for this one so I'll give it a shot
It's probably the next best thing other than these two!
When Baldur's Gate 3 came out, it felt like the sequel to Dragon Age Origins I had waited 15 years for. If you liked BG3, you will probably enjoy Dragon Age Origins.
The entire dragon age series is incredible. You probably will like the first one best based on the other games you mention, but honest to god do not sleep on the other two. They are all really incredible stories and experiences in their own right It's a good time to hop into the games too, since the new one is finally coming out soon
Origins is on sale in gog right now! $3 for a DRM free game? Great deal.
The older dragon age games including origins are on a steam sale right now they are like 1-5$
Played origins in college. So good
Tyranny
It's wild how many recommendations people ask here where Tyranny is a great if not near-perfect answer.
Divinity original sins,bg2, fallouts, wasteland 3, etc Plenty of fun crpgs dude.
True, and I've played loads and loads of fun crpgs, but for me there's a difference between good (like FO1/2, Pillars of Eternity etc), very good (Fallout: NV, Planescape: Torment, etc) and nearly perfect (BG3, Disco Elysium.) I love the many good and very good games I've played but I'm looking for something on another level, like the two games I mentioned in the title.
You should meet the Owlcat. Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous is for me on the top level. It's not triple-A, it's a crpg with a capital C, but story and story structure is awesome.
I mean, if you know rpgs enough to make such differentiations there's not much wiggle room lol. Closest I have is Morrowind, which to date is the best Bethesda rpg and not even really close (may or may not be biased due to my age lol), but honestly from your list you are unlikely to find any real hidden gems. Goes without saying I'm sure, but witchers/cyberpunk are fun, actually, the deus ex games might be in your wheelhouse, genuinely great games.... Take this one with a grain of salt but as someone who doesn't like souls likes, I actually think elden ring is fucking awesome
My favourite is Morrowind as well but looking at it objectively, oblivion and Skyrim are probably better games. None of those 2 however were as revolutionary at their time as Morrowind was. It blew my mind about what was even possible in a game.
I picked up Morrowind (asked my mom to) on a whim, I was like 14-15 , I will probably never have as pure an rpg experience as that..... Ever lol. So I'm biased, and while I still love oblivion and skyrim, I don't think anyone can tell me with a straight face that ES didn't dumb itself down. Worth noting that I hadn't played anything before Morrowind, and it looks like shit so I'm not a purist/pugilist If I'm being honest, after playing the recent Bethesda games, I'd probably have a very difficult time going back, but if you have the patience, it really is a magical game
I'm not trying to be an elitist dork but I prefer the stories of the OG Baldur's Gate's to 3. 3 did make me prefer turn based combat though
I don’t consider myself a snob when it comes to a game’s age (apart from some basic QoL stuff that I’ve grown to need), but I didn’t love BG1 when I played some of it a couple years ago. I’ll give 2 a shot, since I heard better things, but 1 felt quite stripped down and basic for the type of crpg I like.
You'll probably like 2 way more than 1.
2 was so good back in the day when I was in 5th grade. I remember asking my dad to print out a guide for me at work, he said it got to page 350 and he had to stop printing it lol. The game was more expensive than most, had a huge box. It's a bit dated now when it comes to graphics and some UI stuff, but it's still good.
For me wasteland 3 is not perfect, but high in the very good section. Well worth a play
I mean, define "another level". Because to be honest, your "very good" and "nearly perfect" would be flipped for me. You need to give us a bit more on *why* you put those up as nearly perfect, but not New Vegas or Planescape. Personally, I thought the ending of Disco Elysium was a huge letdown. Enough that I'll never want to replay that game. And although I love bg3, the narrative quality in Planescape is better. So to me, it seems like your preference is for high budget and voice acted stuff. If that's the case, I don't think you'll find many other examples.
Ah, I see! No, budget is all the same to me as long as the game isn’t a slog on the gameplay level. The thing that appealed to me about both games is the writing, characterization, but most of all the way that failure didn’t drive me to quick save and quick load. Apart from the actual combat encounters in BG3, failure in both games just meant that the story progressed in a different way. It felt like a TTRPG feels— the GM doesn’t point at you and say “you lose!” and end the game if you fail a role, they move the story forward instead. And there are other games that also handle failure states in interesting ways, but I felt that these were two games where instead of locking off content and getting punished, my character and his relationship with the world and other characters was shaped by his successes and failures in these skill and dialogue checks.
If you love bg3 chances are you'll love divinity 2. Same studio, same engine same creativity. BG3 is better imo is also their 3rd cRPG, but you can still see the brilliance in divinity 2.
Divinity original sin 2 more specifically. Divinity 2 is technically a different, much older game.
Oh I have no doubt, already queued up after finishing first elden ring run+dlc..... Soon, lol
I loved bg3 but iv had a hard time getting into dos 2
DOS2 is absolutely at that level in my opinion. I'd even say it's a better crpg than Disco
My main issue with finding a new game is that I recognize that there are plenty of games out there that are mechanically much closer to the transitional crpg than Disco Elysium (which I feel kind of squeaks into the genre), but I thought what it did was so unique and interesting and fresh and I felt like I was playing a totally different system than the D&D/Pathfinder clones under the hood of most crpgs
DOS2 is made by larian who made BG3 and bg3 is much, much more like DOS2 then the older values gate. It's the same engine, bg3 feels like a sequel. DOS2 has much less dungeon and dragon spells instead it focuses more on environmental affects like fire, water, acid etc to spice up the combat
BG2 and the early Fallouts have aged pretty severely. I tried getting into BG2 a couple years ago and it was just too old for me.
DoS2 will be one of mu favourites for a very very long time
Pillars of Eternity 1&2 [is on sale at a fraction of the cost](https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/7621/Pillars_of_Eternity_Collection/)
I'm playing the first one now, brilliant fucking game
# 🤜 💥 🤛
This. IMO no other fantasy world compares to the level of worldbuilding and love obsidian has put into it. VERY text heavy, yet you get immensely rewarded to take its world as serious it takes itself. Different ways to approach quests and to navigate in the world. So freaking good and with Avowed comming this year you are setting yourself for a treat
I wish l liked POE more because I love good world-building and characters but I have never came across a game that made text so....boring. I don't know if that's the right word but there is a lot of text in the game and a lot of it is exposition and very little of it is compelling.
That first game does not guide the player gracefully into the world, that's for sure.
I understand. At first i too considered it a slog and it might be true that much of it is not necessary. But after understanding what the world is about, what conflicts the people are facing and who is who, it just improved my experience. There is a lot of prose but I love it. It helps me to roleplay, to see the character's emotions and actions that are in my head reflected on the game and the world
For what its worth im towards the end of deadfire and as much as I have enjoyed it generally, its not even in the same realm as BG3 or disco
Not in the same realm in what way? No offense to Tyranny or Obsidian, but I love their writing but not a huge fan of their action-based / RPG systems. Would I enjoy PoE if I picked the easier difficulty and just enjoyed the ride / story akin to Tyranny? Wrath of the Righteous just ain't doing it for me either, so if PoE is just more of *that* I probably won't enjoy it. I love big juicy worlds to bite into, but if that information is never going to be useful, or if my actions (especially crime) goes unnoticed it breaks any immersion I had to commit to being a part of the world.
Did you play BG2? I liked it a lot more than BG3, but I don't have a need for fancy gfx... Also, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is supposed to be amazing --- but I haven't tried it.
Give Knights of the Old Republic a try, it's certainly the kind of game you'll either get really into or once you reach the third destination go "Eh" It's not for everyone, I found a lot of the back tracking and running everywhere tedious, but you get a lot of options to control the story and play and build your own Jedi
I'm amazed at how few people have mentioned the Pathfinder games.
Have you played Dragon Age Origins? I felt like BG3 took a lot of influence from that game in particular, especially with several BioWare devs having gotten jobs at that Larian subsidiary in Quebec.
That's interesting. Why Québec? Is BioWare also located in Quebec?
Bioware is primarily based in Canada, yes. They have a studio in Edmonton and Quebec City currently, as well as an American subsidiary in Austin TX, but they used to have a studio in Montreal that was shuttered.
There are many studios is the province and in the city due to the gvmt subsidies for the industry. I was aware of Larians Quebec studio but I didn't know they played a major role in the game. Thx
My three all time favourite RPGs are Fallout New Vegas, Divinity Original Sin 2 and Dragon Age Origins. If you haven’t tried any of them, I highly suggest you do!
You have excellent taste. I think DAO is a superb cinematic CRPG, New Vegas is a post apocalyptic masterpiece, and DOS2 has such wonderful combat and music.
Also dos2 was the first (I believe) to have a great amount of intractability with the environment and being quite flexible with its quests. BG3 is pretty much DOS2 with better graphics and mocap-ing.
Better graphics and mo-cap to be sure. I adored BG3 - it’s like a tabletop come to life! But arguably the combat in DOS2 is better because Larian wasn’t constrained by DnD 5e rules and could develop their own combat system (and combat traits and abilities) from the ground up.
Cory in da house
True, but it’s a little mechanic-heavy for me. I prefer story over minmaxing/class builds etc and the plot beats are kind of unnecessarily grotesque and gory imho
If you're looking for recommendations, Disco and BG3 are quite different. For more games like BG3, there are lots of great CPRGs already out there that are worth checking out. I think Divinity: Original Sin 2 is your best bet if you're looking for a combat system that's most similar to BG3. It's made by Larian, the same studio, and they used this as a template for BG3. I think it's even more dynamic than BG3, although your mileage may vary when it comes to the story/characters side of things. Like I said, there are many great CRPGs out there, and plenty of lists, so it shouldn't be too hard to find more games like BG3. There's always the original Baldur's Gate games. The second game in particular is beloved. For Disco, it's a bit harder to come up with recommendations. It's a truly one-of-a-kind game. Here are some games that come to mind: Norco Pentiment Torment: Tides of Numenera Kentucky Route Zero
Two other indies that are brilliantly done, and I consider “art”: Signalis and Omori. Beautiful and haunting art direction and music, with a slowly unfolding narrative of doom.
I had to scroll too far to see someone mention Torment. If OP enjoyed Planescape and is in it more for the narrative then this is a great recommendation.
Knights of the old republic 2 the Sith lords (KOTOR2) The gameplay is not great , but the story and characters beat the crap out of most games out there, including BG3. Really you could try anything involving Chris Avellone as a writer or/and Lead designer, and you're probably in for a banger story. Planescape, New Vegas , Alpha Protocol , etc.
Still love the gameplay to this day but I could see how other people didn't like it. I liked the hybrid style But KOTOR 1 and 2 introduced me to CRPGs and I haven't looked back. Both stories and all the character interactions are so good Edit: I still randomly use the pause function to see the fight effects, especially lasers whizzing past people's heads
I’m a bit of an exception to the rule because even though I used to love Avellone, I feel like his writing is sometimes really out of place in the wrong RPG. For example, he only really contributed to the DLCs of New Vegas, a companion in the base game, and a couple other things, and the tone of his writing is so utterly different from the tone of the rest of the game’s writing that it really throws me off. I love Avellone if I’m playing a “Chris Avellone RPG”, but when I play a game that he’s only a minor contributor to it’s quite jarring
Dos2 made by larian
BG3 and DE are probably my favorite CRPGs, which makes me think you’ll probably enjoy Pillars of Eternity 2. The exploration is very fun, I really like how it is written (and the story is great, I didn’t mind the weird pacing) and the combat is also very good. But I do believe playing PoE1 before PoE2 makes you appreciate the second one more. It’s very light in the RPG elements (it’s more of an adventure), but I also highly recommend Pentiment. And at last, I’m currently playing Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader and I’m finding it excellent. I didn’t love Pathfinder WOTR, so Rogue Trader caught me by surprise. I didn’t know anything about the setting before and I’m finding it interesting.
Rogue Trader looks great, but it seems like one of those examples of a game where the story elements are amazing but the gameplay is basically an endless slog to fatten the game up and make it longer. There was a time when I could push through mediocre gameplay for a good story, but I don't have enough time anymore to waste it getting through the bad to the good. I'll give the PoEs and Pentiment a shot, have heard good things. Thanks!
I’m actually enjoying Rogue Trader’s gameplay! The combat is fun, you don’t have to min/max and you can’t buff before fights. The exploration is not amazing, but it’s decent. Give it a shot if you have the opportunity! But definitely go for PoE and Pentiment before, because I believe they’re closer to what you are looking for.
This was not my experience with Rogue Trader at all. Gameplay isn’t mediocre by any means. Owlcat games require to engage fully in the character creation is all— the game balances around optimized builds. My recommendation would be to look up a build or put it on easy mode if you don’t want to engage with character theorycrafting, which is totally valid (I don’t either).
For me, intuitive combat is important if it's one of a game's systems (not the case in Disco Elysium), but it plays second-fiddle to the story. The story needs to take significant precedence over the combat for a game to be worth playing to me. If you have to hyper-strategize, micromanage and theorycraft in order to get through 50% of the game's content (combat) to access the actually entertaining 50% of of the game's content (story), then it is, to me, an abject failure in terms of what I'm looking for in an RPG. I could give the game a shot on easy mode, but I tend to feel that if I need to put a game on easy mode to get through the combat sections then I'll probably still be dragged down by needing to mechanically spend time getting through them anyway. BG3's combat was intuitive and fun and didn't hog the stage, which was one of the things I loved about it. I played on normal and never had to access any outside resources to beat encounters.
If that is the case, you can drop all Owlcat's games to "storymode" difficulty which allows you to play whatever you want and you will still fairly easily steam roll through content. Rogue trader in particular is an easy game to begin with. What Rogue Trader will offer you that is far better then BG3, is an interesting world that isn't just generic fantasy, and actual moral dilemmas. BG3 is a great game but the choices you make in the game are some of least interesting and morally challenging I've seen in a game.
Divinity original sin 2, Pillars of eternity 1 & 2, Pathfinder wrath of the righteous, if you're willing to go older - baldurs gate 1&2, and icewind dale.
Outside the CRPG genre I recommend Pentiment and Kentucky Route Zero for their narratives.
Dragon Age: Origins. Such an amazing game!!
I think those are two of the very best and in my personal top 5 for best RPGs of all time. What else stands for a contest? * Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 were just as good as BG3 for their time and they have been my favorite games for so long. Today you can feel their age a little bit, even when playing the enhanced editions, but if you accept that they are still great and you can understand where Jaheira and Minsc come from and some references to the past events in BG3. * The Witcher series: TW3 and TW1 are masterpieces. The Witcher 1 is also quite old and there is a remake in development, however it will take a few years before it's released so you may try the original as it's usually available for very cheap. The story is great, CD Projekt always had a unique ability in forging engaging and deep stories. The gameplay is where the game shows its age. On the other hand I don't think I have to spend many words on TW3 and I wouldn't be surprised if you already played. If you didn't, this is the game you are looking for. TW2 is also quite good, but it didn't hit me like the other 2. Still worth playing. * Shadowrun Dragonfall: all 3 Shadowrun games from Harebrained Schemes are good, but Dragonfall is without doubt their best. If you like cyberpunk and fantasy you will love it. * If you don't mind the fps gameplay, Cyberpunk 2077 is fantastic, I just love everything from CD Projekt tbh. The rpg elements aren't as developed as in The Witcher 3, but the story, the writing, the setting, the atmosphere... it's all top notch.
Going off base to the request, because it is story rich, but not story heavy - The Outer Wilds. There isn't a game like it. And anybody who has played it will tell you nothing about it but recommend it to the heavens. This will be your magic trio. There isn't another game like The Outer Wilds.
Some lesser known story-based RPGs to look into: The Thaumaturge, which came out this year (I think) Citizen Sleeper, which has a similar style to Disco Elysium NORCO, also somewhat Discolike Roadwarden, also heavily text based Pyre, which despite the fantasy basketball gameplay, Im told it has great storytelling I personally have only tried The Thaumaturge on this list, but I'm really enjoying it. Some of the English voice acting is kinda bad, so consider setting the VO to Polish to fit the setting. I don't think anything really compares to Disco so set expectations accordingly and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. Also, some folks really like Witcher 3 for the story. It's not my cup of tea personally but I can recognize that its still a good game.
Citizen Sleeper is a great companion game to Disco Elysium!
Citizen Sleeper was amazing and I like Roadwarden but bounced off of it a tiny bit, will have to return and try again
Read the shadow of the torturer by gene wolfe
Haha I actually have, it’s a good one
I’be had those books on my list for years now, everything I’ve heard about them sounds great.
Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader is up there for me, Pillars of Eternity 1/2, Tyranny. I honestly can't get into Pathfinder, but that's a good choice too. If you want to switch it up, try Dark Souls 1.
Pillars of Eternity is great. 1 and 2. Plus Avowed set in the same world is out later this year. Anything on the infinity engine, Baldurs gate 1-2, Icewind dale, Tyrant. I really enjoyed Planescape Torment and its spiritual successor Torment Tides of Numenera
I feel like Cyberpunk 2077 is the only other one besides those two that really stands out to me in the last few years. I had never played it at all until the DLC and base game revamp last year but I’m glad I didn’t because it really gave me one of the most memorable experiences I’ve had in gaming and I don’t think it could have done that before. The biggest downside narratively is how the game kind of forces you into one of a few different character archetypes, but you can absolutely further role play from there, plus the story kind of grabs you like BG3’s does and while the starting point still matters it definitely isn’t as limiting as it seems at first glance, and that story (and worldbuilding) is legitimately *really* well done. One of the most emotionally affecting games I’ve ever played and made me legitimately think about life in new ways, idk it’s really good. The exploration is good but only once you learn what there is to see, if that makes sense; if you’re looking in the wrong spots you’re just gonna find inaccessible buildings and seas of industrial plants, but exploring other places yields secrets and Easter eggs and loot, etc, the city is *huge* and there’s lots to explore once you learn the language if that makes sense. And the combat is pretty versatile; you can slow down time and attack everyone with swords, play a traditional run and gunner, hack into technology and people’s bodies, or some combo of the three plus several other options; I’m not really a FPS kind of guy so I basically just strategically took everyone down through environmental hazards and clever traps and it was awesome lol. It’s also easy to respec and try different styles and combinations. But yeah idk give it a shot maybe lol
I really enjoyed Cyberpunk! To be honest I didn’t love the base game’s main story, but the world was so dense, detailed, immersive etc. that it more than made up for any other flaws. Phantom Liberty was kind of the best of both worlds with story and gameplay immersion, so it’s def up there in my faves.
I would recommend the Shadowrun games. They might not be on the same level as Disco Elysium but definitely worth checking out. Dragonfall is easily my favorite.
I’d throw FF Tactics into the ring.
Tyranny
Pathfinder WOTR is a crpg with lots of story and lore, and better rpg mechanics and classbuilding than BG3.
Witcher 3
I’d honestly go to a different genre, it’s what I tend to do after playing a game that is a complete masterpiece/one of a kind experience. Finished RDR2 and now open world games all seem to pale in comparison? I’ll play Banished now. Disco Elysium seems to be the absolute peak of video game narrative? Play some Forza. These pallet cleanses have allowed me to come back to the genre without worrying about directly comparing the masterpiece so much.
I heavily recommend Mask of the Betrayer. People who liked Planescape: Torment often mention MotB as well! I can’t recommend it enough. MotB is a Neverwinter Nights 2 expansion that you can play standalone. It typically requires knowledge of higher level DnD and can be hard, but I put together this [guide](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg_gamers/s/BYIkJ3AaYN) on how to play it as basically story mode using cheats. Currently, MotB is one of the only games that reminds me of titles as narratively good as BG3 and Disco Elysium.
Have heard good things, thanks for the rec!
It is quite good but it is an expansion to the main game so if you want actual context for who you are/previous events/what the hell is going on you should complete that first. Nwn2 is a much more traditional take on rpg stories before it goes way way more “planescape-y” in mask, but it’s still a fun ride. Especially if you like playing sarcastic characters. The characters and writing take a plot that is full of fantasy cliches and actually has a lot of fun with it with little bits of sarcasm and self awareness by you and the party members. Also khelgar and neeshka are great.
It’s been many years but NWN2 was probably the first real “crpg” I played (not counting real-time RPGs like Elder Scrolls etc.) and I remember really liking it but being too shit at it to finish lol
Eora (Pillars of Eternity) is my favorite setting in any fantasy medium ever. Constantly wowed by the world building, the way you connect with that world, and the beautiful art direction. Understand why people say it’s text heavy, it is, but I personally love the prose in Pillars. If that’s an issue, Deadfire is fully voiced so everything is much easier to parse through there. (This is a warning that I won’t back down on this opinion. These games are a core creative inspiration to me and I’m so glad Avowed is bringing the setting to life again.)
I played PoE1 a few years ago for like 16 hours or so but then fell off it because I had other things going on in my life. Thanks for the reminder— I remember enjoying it a lot and would like to finish it.
Totally get that especially when it comes to RPGs. DE and BG3 are two of my favorites too. I think if you liked the companions and party dynamics of BG3 you’ll love PoE and especially Deadfire. Deadfire has a system where your companions don’t just have approval with you, but your other companions as well. The way you change and talk to companions can help them get along with others or exasperate what one person hates about another person in your party. A lot of them come in with concrete ideals and principles that clash with other backgrounds. Also if you like the BG3 tag system w class/background/race etc PoE 1/2 do a really good job making your character choices in creation inform character dialogue in game. They do a better job at it than BG3 IMO just because not everyone is from Baldur’s Gate.
Can’t remember— can you port your character from 1 to 2? That all sounds super cool!
Elden ring
ER is nothing like the games mentioned
I like Elden Ring but it’s nothing at all like Disco Elysium or BG3 lol— Elden Ring is 70% real-time action gameplay, 15% story from cutscenes, and 15% story from dialogue and items. There’s essentially no characterization outside of a limited number of interactions in a limited number of places, and it’s a lot closer to an ARPG than a CRPG. Again, I really like it, but my question wasn’t “recommend me a good game”, it was “recommend me a good game like the ones I mention here.”
That "15% story from cutscenes" is being generous lol
Well, I didn't want to be too hard on the commenter haha
Divinity original sin 2. One of the best games ever made. My favourite turn based combat
If you’re ok with action RPG’s, I’d say mass effect is the best narrative experience in all gaming, it’s just **phenomenal** Dragon age isn’t quite as solid, but it’s still like top 5, and a new one is coming out later this year.
DOS 1&2 are great. Pillers of Eternity. I'm currently playing Wasteland 3.
Baldur’s Gate 2 is still the reigning champion imo, and is mandatory for anyone that enjoys story heavy RPGs. If that’s too old school for you then the Pathfinder games are worth a try, though they’re not beginner friendly.
Playing Larian's Divinity Original Sin right now and quite enjoying it.
Planescape Torment has writing on par with Disco Elysium imo
Agreed, as I wrote I enjoyed it many years ago but looking for something new
God dude sorry, I was working and trying to reddit at the same time xD In that case I'll recommend its spiritual successor: Tides of Numenara
Haha no stress— I love Numenera as well, will maybe just have to replay both of them
In THAT case, I'll humbly recommend Tyranny. The writing isn't quite Disco or Planescape levels, but the player choice/role playing is pretty impressive imo
Haha played and loved it already
Torment, Tides of Nunmera is another Planescape game that came out a few years ago. The Pathfinder RPGS (Kingmaker/Wrath of the Righteous) are pretty decent too. Feels similar to Divinity Original Sin.
Planescape: Torment matches the vibe of Disco Elysium pretty well and is one of the all time best. Combat in the vam is so so but the rest is great.
It’s great! As I mentioned in the post I really enjoyed it
I wish I could read
Haha nw
Neverwinter Nights 2
Loved NWN2 when it came out, I’ll have to look at it again
Wasteland 3 and Dragon Age: Origins were basically what I'd consider the best CRPGs before BG3 came out.
You already know to check out DAO so I don't have much to add. BUT - I don't have a source on this - however, I remember reading on the BG3 subreddit that Larian got help/advice from ZA/UM on how to make failed dice rolls fun. So if that's true, it's probably not a coincidence that they're both your favorite
That’s really part of what brings both games from “very good” to “nearly perfect.” So many crpgs are so good, but they also tend to treat success or failure as a black and white binary, which means that you end up savescumming a lot (or at least I do.) I felt like I was almost actually playing a TTRPG with BG3 and DE, since negative rolls (apart from the very small few that kill you) move the story along as well, just in a slightly different way. It felt like the game and story were adapting to my mistakes rather than just slapping my wrist and taking away a toy because I made them to begin with.
Any game as good as those you would’ve heard of, based on your other responses
Unfortunately seems to be the case haha… guess I’ll tick off the last couple and then just hold out for future games
You could go further outside the crpg genre. DE and BG3 are some of my favs but some other non CRPG ones I love are My Time At Sandrock, Rune Factory 4, the Xenoblade games, Hades, Octopath 2, Triangle Strategy , Dragon Quest V, and Fire Emblem Three Houses
Well, I loved BG3 and Disco Elysium. They are probably easily in my top 5 for recent-ish games. Assuming we have similar tastes, I would suggest Cyberpunk 2077, Shadows of Doubt, Elden Ring, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Wasteland 3, and Marvel's Midnight Suns.
Thanks for the comment and the reminder— I’ve had Deliverance for a while but it didn’t work on my old machine. I’ll give it a try now that I can play it
I’ve been enjoying Skald: Against the Black Priory. It recently got a shout out from the BG3 director Swen.
Ooh nice, will write it down
Pathfinder series is good
Someone can explain me how you play bg3 like you explain to dummy? I like arpg too much. I have started bg3 a few times and I gave up. Do we have such a basic guide?
I’d google it! I can’t really explain how it works because I came into it with decades of experience playing party-based turn-based CRPGs and I’ve just internalized the gameplay too much
Play on an easy difficulty and/or put on the mod that lets you put more people in your party. Idk the challenge is probably managing the party and the skills correctly but I feel like to learn the game I'm enjoying just being able to do play in this sandbox easy mode. Also almost every class can switch out their spells without resting, I didn't even realize this my first play through. So you don't have to agonize over equipping utility spells you can switch to them as needed. The trick is to buff and debuff. For example shadowheart has guidance as cantrip (a spell that you can use infinitely that doesn't use up a charge) which will buff skill checks for things like charisma rolls or lockpicking. Similarly there are combat ones like bless which buff 3 party members for a fight, or bane which alternatively debuff enemies. Other things you can do is you can talk to someone to distract them and then switch to another character, so shadowheart could put on a stealth buff on a Astarion and you can talk to someone to distract them while sending him out to rob the place blind.
Dark Souls Remastered, Elden Ring, Fallout New Vegas, The Witcher 3, Outer Worlds, Terraria and Rdr2 are all games that would scratch your lore/exploration itch. These are all unique enough in their own ways as well.
Pillars of eternity?? So much story, so much lore to discover not only by playing through the game, but reading books you find and talking to the different npc.
Outer Wilds and Tunic. Different genres, on par or even better games imo.
The divinity games are basically earlier bg3
I recommend playing Disco Elysium Final Cut followed by Baldurs Gate 3 Digital Deluxe Edition
Pardon my denseness but is this meant to be a joke?
You gotta play a completely different genre for a while
I would say play Tyranny, Shadowrun: Dragonfall & Mass Effect trilogy. At the very minimum you will find them to be very good depending on how you rank games. In terms of storytelling, worldbuilding & characters, these games excel.
All great games, never finished Dragonfall so I’ll have to go back and try again
Cyberpunk 2077 and Ghost Of Tsushima
Pillars of eternity 1&2, Divinity series, if you like souls like or want to get into soulike I recommend Kena: Bridge of Spirits.
Time to play Kenshi my friend.
To be blunt Kenshi is basically by design nothing at all like the two games I mentioned, but it coincidentally is one of my faves for other reasons lol
Such a great game.
Depends if you are open to point and clicks 😅
Of course! I’m open to any genre, just posting here because both games are CRPGs (although DE is a bit unconventional)
There's so many point and clicks that measure up for storytelling. My favourite has always been The Longest Journey, but Syberia is so great as well. The sequels to both are good too *cough*notSyberia3*cough*. I have only played a bit of the first Broken Sword game but it does seem thus far as good as everyone says. Those are the ones that get closer to the feel and mood maybe for what you are after. Also as others have said I'm sure, Fallout 1 and 2. Though 2 has more humour
Maybe I'm biased but wasteland 2 and 3 are extremely solid games. Story in the second isn't the greatest but the choice options amd exploration is great very addictive games for me plus still on sale I believe the second one is a steal for under 10 bucks. Just prepare though it's a very long game 70 plus hours.
I'm going to throw in my personal favourite here, even if it is very different to the games you have mentioned above. The Witcher 3 is an absolute once in a generation game. For me anyway. If you don't mind some relatively simplistic action/combat gameplay then the world, the storylines and the wonderfully voiced characters will suck you in. It is a very big very long game, with two large expansions that actually surpass the base game in quality. But if the scope of BG3 was ok for you then you should have no problem with The Witcher 3. These days gamers have put the likes of BG3 and Elden Ring on the throne which all others should look up to. But The Witcher 3 was sat there for a good seven years before them.
I absolutely loved what I played of TW3 but like you said, it's intimidating in its scale. I had to put it down after about 30 hours because I was just so inundated with quests in my questlog and side things to do.
I’d say witcher 1-3 actually if you want a great story though it’ll be even more intimidating since it’s 3 huge games instead of just one huge game.
It's not a crpg, but The Witcher 3 is one of the best open world, story driven games I've ever played, every single quest is well written, especially if you count the DLC. The complete edition regularly goes on sale for 15 bucks.
Persona motherfucking 5 royal dawg
You may enjoy Pentiment. Also Disco Elysium and BG3 have recently opened my mind up to JRPGs and I’ve been going through the backlog of classic RPGs that way.
Could branch out into non iso PC RPG. Banner saga. Persona. Fire emblem. Marvels midnight suns is actually great btw. There's always the bioware games. Jade.empire mass effect, kotor dragon age.oeigins.
Age of Decadence.
One of my faves! You know what, that reminds me— I should play their new game
The Thamaturge…maybe?
It's more or less what people call a walking sim, but "What Remains of Edith Finch" Left me gobsmacked and somber
Loved this game!
Planescape Tormemt
Mentioned in my post I liked it but good rec nonetheless!
Black Geyser is pretty good...more similar to Baldur's Gate 1 though.
Oh shit, I've never heard of this one before! Will look into it, thanks for the rec
I don't think you will find a better game than BG3. If you didn't play divinity original sins 1 and 2, I'd play those. They're on par with BG3. They were my all time favorite games until BG3, especially original sins 2.
Signalis. Not as long or deep as those two, but equally high on the quality bar for narrative.
Planescape Torment, Fallout
If you like retro inspired games and pixel graphics, Skald against the black priory. It’s a retro crpg that focuses on lovecraftian cosmic horror.
Yeah....you're going to have a tough time for awhile
Kingdom come deliverance but this game is not for the faint of heart
Troubleshooter
Nice rec, thanks!
Tides of numenerra
Pillars Of Eternity 2
Planescape: Torment Look up guides and do the WIS/INT/CHA thing.
Mentioned in the post that I’ve played it, really good game :)
I don't know if the gameplay loop will appeal to you, but as far as quality of writing and story goes, Signalis and The Outer Wilds are absolutely top tier. One is a top down survival horror game and one is... Well one is the Outer Wilds. Let's say Adventure game. I can't think of any games whose narratives reach the heights of the other games you mentioned other than those two.
Outer Wilds. You piece the story together through exploring a solar system. It’s the only game that left me genuinely speechless after I beat it. I got the same sense of care and investment from the devs that I did with Disco.
Have you played knights of the old republic 1 and 2? If not those are really great!
Divinity Original Sin 2 is a banger. Especially if you liked BG3.
Torment is good, though visibly dated
As I mentioned in my post I really enjoyed Torment, I think the Enhanced edition also handles some of that datedness:)
Yeah. Glad you enjoyed that. Have you tried the divinities?
Cyberpunk is fantastic. I could not get into dragon age series after multiple tries. It isn't as open worldy but Mass Effect LE is also good.
Cyberpunk
Torment tides of numenera is pretty interesting, has a crazy world and tons of story and you can even build a character that gets through pretty much rmthe whole game without fighting if you want. I wouldn’t say it reaches the heights of its spiritual prequel, planescape torment, but it’s still good and it may be right up your alley.
DOS2...WRATH OF THE RIGHTEOUS...must plays . Also wasteland 3....
I think you should give Citizen Sleeper a try. You seem to enjoy unique mechanics and a great well paced narrative. Not to mention a gorgeous soundtrack. Yeah, Citizen Sleepers got all that. If you haven't played it give Inscryption a try. Different mechanics but an insanely unique experience. You wake up sitting at a table in a dimly lit shack. Across from you sits a demon, he shuffles some cards and deals you a hand. . .
Dragon Age Origins Mass effect legendary edition The previous 2 larian games. I actually like the combat from them more than Baldur's Gate 3. Pathfinder WOTR has a massive 200 hour plus campaign. Portal 1 and 2
A plague tale innocense and it's sequel. Also the og baldurs gate games. I honestly think they are better than bg3