Essential CRPGs

[Anonymous No.6233914]

Looking at the attached picture, which of these would you say are "essential"? I started playing CRPGs after having played Disco Elysium, proceeding to Planescape, Fallout and KOTOR and now I have a craving for more, though it'd be super cool to find a setting similar to the one in the Conan books.
Posting here because most of the games shown are 'retro'.

[Anonymous No.6233923]

>>6233914

Dark Souls doesn't really fit there.

Darklands is really underrated.

Dragon Age Origins is garbage.

[Anonymous No.6233942]

>>6233923
I found the image while browsing for CRPGs online, it's a ranking some site made a few years ago
>https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/rpg-codexs-top-50-crpgs-results-and-reviews.89680/

[Anonymous No.6233951]

>>6233914
i recently bought the big box for arcanum cib for 15 bucks.

shame the combat is iffy. i use turn based but go real time and spam harm if a battle gets annoying.

where is albion on your list? i'm about to play it for the first time once i beat persona 5.

[Anonymous No.6234149]

>>6233914
Planescape Torment
Fallout 1 and 2
Icewind Dale 1 and 2
Baldurs Gate 1 and 2
Ultima 4, 5, 6, Savage World, Martian Dreams, Underworld 1, Underworld 2, 7, 7 part 2 and 8
Wizardry 6 , 7 , 8
Might and Magic 3, World of Xeen, 6, 7, 8
Arcanum
Gothic 1 and 2
Daggerfall, Morrowind
Deus Ex
Dark Sun Shattered Lands
Temple of Elemental Evil

[Anonymous No.6234178]

Don't forget Betrayal at Krondor. Graphics were pretty low-tier, even for the time, but it feels a bit like what a JRPG dungeon crawler might have been like, had it been created with Western conceptual fundamentals.
It's not a classic-style CRPG, since all your party members are pre-determined (though they change throughout the game), and it's only partially free-roaming, since it's chapter-based, and some chapters restrict your travel area.

[Anonymous No.6234229]

>>6233914

Overall it's a pretty good list but not all games would really qualify as "CRPGs". Dark Souls certainly wouldn't. Also blobbers like Wizardry 8 are very different experiences from immersive RPGs like New Vegas.

I personally think Arcanum is vastly overrated. Bloodlines and Alpha Protocol are super interesting but also extremely flawed. And a lot of the newer stuff like The Witcher and Dragon Age Origins is mediocre.

[Anonymous No.6234796]

>>6233914
The expanded version of this RPGcodex list has Dark Souls 2 but not Bloodborne. Those Mustard race faggots are retarded

[Anonymous No.6234912]

>>6233914

Eye of the Beholder
Betrayal at Krondor
Lands of Lore

The best of the golden era of dos crpgs.
It just wasnt the same when windows games started...

[Anonymous No.6234971]

>>6233923
>Dragon Age Origins is garbage.
>>6234229
>Dragon Age Origins is mediocre.
Disagree. One of the best games of that decade and at least on par with the first Baldur's Gate.

[Anonymous No.6234974]

>>6234971
>Disagree
Agreed, it is good.

>One of the best games of that decade and at least on par with the first Baldur's Gate.
Not even close on either count. Too ugly graphically and restrictive in gameplay options.

In any event, I really recommend this game. It was a childhood favorite, played it regularly all the way into the 2000s, and it got me into RPGs and D&D. I replayed it a few years back and it holds up well. Nice colorful graphics, amazing UI and Controls for the era. People think of the infinity engine era as the golden age of D&D games, and I think that's right, but SSI put out a ton of games, and most of them are at least good, with a few being great.

[Anonymous No.6235326]

>>6233914
The Pool of Radiance series. Not the game by itself, but all four games importing the characters from one to the next. Gold Box is the peak of computerised D&D.

[Anonymous No.6235739]

>>6234974
>>6235326
How easy/difficult is it to run these on a modern machine?

[Anonymous No.6235964]

>>6233914
Al-Qadim: Genies curse.

I played that shit begining to end five times. It was awesome.

[Anonymous No.6236010]

>>6233914
I strongly recommend Deus Ex, Ultima Underworld, System Shock 2, Ultima VII, Anachronox and Arx Fatalis, but keep in mind that Anachronox is more like a JRPG made by western devs

[Anonymous No.6236017]

>>6235739
Very easy. Especially if you download it per-installed. Just follow the DOSBOX instructions. I even got DOSBOX to passthrough my midi device last time I played.

[Anonymous No.6236124]

>>6234178
Its in the pic

[Anonymous No.6236297]

>>6233914
What is a good first CRPG for somebody who grew up on JRPGs?

[Anonymous No.6236317]

>>6236297

Anachronox is very similar in structure to JRPGs

[Anonymous No.6236335]

>>6236297
Betrayal at Krondor
Dragon Age: Origins

[Anonymous No.6236487]

>>6234974
Yeah, I always thought late 90's was the golden era, but reading the http://crpgaddict.blogspot.com/ makes you think twice.

[Anonymous No.6236537]

>>6236124
Yeah, I've noticed after posting. I derped there and didn't look carefully at the pic.

[Anonymous No.6236542]

>>6236317
>very similar
Saying that Anachronox is "similar" to a JRPG is like saying that a cantaloupe is "similar" to a honeydew.

[Anonymous No.6236547]

>using rpgcodex as reference
Big mistake

[Anonymous No.6236784]

>>6233914
Ultima, Deus Ex, Gothic, Arx Fatalis, Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines, arguably Planescape Torment, maybe Arcanum, maybe Wizardry 8, maybe Might and Magic 6 and 7.

[Anonymous No.6236786]

>>6233914
>it'd be super cool to find a setting similar to the one in the Conan books

Conan, and similar themes, have only really ever been properly used in games that suck pretty badly. At least if we're talking about RPGs.

[Anonymous No.6236793]

>>6236542
They actually are though.

[Anonymous No.6236797]

>>6236297
Deus Ex is the RPG that I can most confidently recommend to anyone regardless of taste, experience, or circumstance.

[Anonymous No.6236851]

>>6233923
Wish there were a remake of darklands, game really needs some QoL features and more different quests.

[Anonymous No.6236890]

>>6233923
At least a third of those aren't even CRPGs, but sure, why not.
Top-tier
>Fallout 1/2
>Gothic 1/2
>VTM:B
>Dark Souls
>Baldur's Gate 2
>Deus Ex
Good-tier
>Baldur's Gate
>Neverwinter Nights
>Planescape Torment
>Arcanum
>System Shock 2
>Icewind Dale 1/2
>Dragon Age Origins
>Knights of the Old Republic 2
Okay-tier
>Jagged Alliance 2
>Morrowind
>Knights of the Old Republic
>Fallout NV
>Daggerfall
>Neverwinter Nights 2
>Witcher series
>Anachronox
Meme games
>Arx Fatalis
Games I haven't played
>everything else

[Anonymous No.6237189]

>>6236317
>>6236335
>>6236797
Is Temple of Elemental Evil a good pick? I like that it's turn based and I like the isometric style

[Anonymous No.6237318]

>>6235739
Simple as. Dosbox does it just fine. If you get the GOG versions, I recommend you delete the config fies (POOL.CFG, CURSE.CFG, etc) to force the games to use the video and sound modes of your choosing and to configure the save directories properly so you can import your party from previous games.

[Anonymous No.6237326]

>>6235739
>>6237318
Oh, and set the in-game speed to 6 or slower. Even at low cycles Dosbox will run the game at light speed and skip past all timed dialogue before you can read it. Slower in-game speed fixes this. Or play it on a 286.

[Anonymous No.6237339]

>>6237189
I didn't play it all that much, but I remember it being a real ball-buster that doesn't forgive the unprepared player. You'll need to patch it quite a bit to get it running on modern PCs (and perhaps grab Temple+ just to throw in some "house rules"), but if D&D combat was always your favorite part of Baldur's Gate or the Gold Box games, it's probably the pinnacle. UI is both great and cumbersome.

[Anonymous No.6237487]

>>6236890
>my personal opinion is fact
kill yourself faggot

[Anonymous No.6238321]

>>6233914
Only Deus Ex of those is retro

[Anonymous No.6238349]

>>6238321
Are you crazy?

[Anonymous No.6238771]

>>6237487
>everyone everywhere has to state that it's just their opinion because I'm just that autistic when they don't

[Anonymous No.6238779]

>>6238771
>haha just an opinion, don't attack pls haha

[Anonymous No.6240116]

>>6233914
Is Jagged Alliance 1 a necessary prerequisite before tackling 2?

[Anonymous No.6240130]

>>6233914
I am going to limit myself to four.

Ultima IV
Pool of Radiance
Baldur's Gate
The Witcher

Those are decent examples of what were held to be good RPGs of their times; enough to encourage someone to take a look at others of those eras.

[Anonymous No.6240203]

>>6240116
Absolutely not. If you don't enjoy DOS graphics/soundset, you would get bored with it. 2 has a shitton of content with the mods.

[Anonymous No.6241276]