Topic: (Western) RPG thread

We've got a lot of conversations going on about the various JRPG franchises out there - Final Fantasies and all that - but surely there are some folks in NintendoLife world that like the occasional Western RPG?

Or perhaps not, since the genre isn't exactly common on Nintendo consoles. Still, for the PS3/ Xbox 360/ PC/ iPad gamers out there who like these games - played any recently? What's your favourite from this generation/ all time?

I've been playing through The Witcher 2, and I think it's going to overtake Dragon Age: Origins as my favourite RPG of the generation. The story plays out a bit better (thanks to being based on novels, I guess), and the combat is more on the tactical side of things. Not to say I don't love Dragon Age deeply, but Witcher is really, really compelling.

Historically it's hard to go past Morrowind as the RPG I spent the most time playing, but there's a little-known Dungeons and Dragons game called Wake of the Ravager that held most of my attention as a teenager. That game was the first to make me realise that PC games could indeed hold a similar amount of freedom as the pen-and-paper games.

Skyrim! I haven't done much, and I already love it. That & Xenoblade are my 2 primary RPGs, though Xenoblade's a JRPG.

I find it hard to really invest in RPGs, because generally I don't enjoy creating my characters from scratch and telling them to do everything.

So if you hand me a game like Witcher or Mass Effect I'll enjoy it because, although I have to make a few decisions myself, a lot of the characters are already formed for me.
_{that's also why I love later FF games, as all I have to do is watch the characters develop.}

Skyrim is still better

playing borderlands,borderlands 2 is coming out soon.

Skyrim is about the only Western RPG I truly enjoyed. It actually had a good story and characters, even though the main character has zero personality of his own. The gameplay was better than almost any other WRPG I've played, too, with a fantastic progression system.

EDIT: Oh yeah, Fallout 3 was another good one. I loved the world in that one. It just oozed personality.

Haha, that's the one and only think I dislike about Witcher - I like creating my own characters and inputting my own idea of a personality into them. I'm less of a fan of games that tell you how your character is acting.

Hasn't stopped The Witcher from being absolutely brilliant though.

Come to think of it, I don't think I ever invested in a WRPG

Skyrim owns all. But I've always been a fan of King's Field as well. And of course the Diablo and Baulders Gate games have been great.

King's Field is incredible, agreed, and far better than its spiritual sequels, Demon's/ Dark Souls but it's a JRPG.

I need to keep playing Dark Souls D:

Is Dragons Dogma considered a WRPG? If so, it looks awesome and I want it!

I think so turts, and I agree.

It's close enough. Certainly the best effort of a Japanese company to make a WRPG so far.

It still suffers from a fundamental problem that there's no real control over the plot in that game - there's no plot whatsoever in this instance.

A WRPG really does need an open storyline to really work as a WRPG.

But meh, Dragon's Dogma is close enough

Than what? Oh, and Mass Effect 3's good too. Anyways, Skyrim is probably one of the best RPGs I've played, besides maybe Xenoblade, though the two could be considered in classes of their own (WRPGs & JRPGs). Of course, I've only played a few RPGs in my life.

Here's my problem with Skyrim:

Morrowind did it better.

Skyrim's like a game from a series that is good, the developers know it's good, but they've decided that it's so good they don't need to do anything innovative or new.

The lack of creative risk in Skyrim annoyed me. You could just tell that the developers knew that this was going to be a game as big as a Call of Duty release, so they played it very, very safe.

In many ways I preferred Amalur, which took real creative risk.

Of course, Bethesda is still around and profitable, and 38 Games is dead. So much for creativity

My problem w/ judging MW3 & Skyrim: I never played MW2 or Morrowind/Oblivion before those. Well, I knew MW3 was rehashed, though being new and all, it didn't bother me as much, but w/ Skyrim & The Elder Scrolls...a game series whose games take 100s of hours to beat...ow. That must suck to play a rehashed RPG. The next Xenogears had better bring innovation, because it will make the long times easier to bear.

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To hell with Xenogears. I want a new Baton Kaitos from Monolith.

Back on topic now pls. Monolith is not really a WRPG developer

Is no one else a fan of Dragon Age?

OMG Someone else wants a Baten Kaitos too! I'm heart broken that Namco cancelled BK for DS. Now that Ninty's upcoming console will use touchscreen controls, BK is a perfect fit. Always wanted BK on DS and got excited when I heard it was coming. Now, that part of me is crushed....

Anyways- never messed with western RPGs. The only one that has peaked my interest was Dragon Age. Still have to check out those games. Not sure if Diablo fits in- but D3 was a massive let down for me. Linear, repetative, more than any other game I've played. And the difficulty spikes and the need for the best of the best armor ruins the experience. Will look forward to Torchlight 2 and Guild Wars 2. Both should be offering a better single-player experience over D3.

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Diablo 3 is a hack-and-slash. It's vaguely a WRPG, but it's far shallower.

And yes, just about everyone was disappointed by that one

Here's an idea to help out people who might be interested in this genre - I'll make a list of the WRPGs from this generation - unless otherwise noted these games are available on either PS3, Xbox 360 or PC:

The Witcher
The Witcher 2
Dragon Age: Origins
Dragon Age 2
The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion
The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
Kingdoms of Amalur
Two Worlds
Two Worlds 2
Mount & Blade games
Avadon: The Black Castle
Escape from Avalon
Legend of Grimlock
Mass Effect series
Fable series
Fallout 3
Fallout: Las Vegas
Risen
Gothic 4
Alpha Protocol
Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (Nintendo DS)
The Dark Spire (Nintendo DS)

And then games that are WRPG-ish

Dungeon Siege 3
Sacred 2
Diablo 3
Dragon's Dogma
most MMOs (World of Warcraft being the main one)
Deus EX: Human Revolution (far more a FPS, but it has RPG elements to it with the conversation trees)
Torchlight 2
Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii)
Orcs and Elves (Nintendo DS)
The Etrian Odessey series (Nintendo DS)

I know I've missed quite a few, so if anyone remembers any others, please mention so, and I'll add to the master list.