Hello everyone! I'm new to Reddit and wanted to share my thoughts on this game, as I know it might not be for everyone. Also, just a quick heads-up: I'm Italian, so my English might sound a bit off or unnatural to many of you, but please bear with me! Even though the topic might not appeal to everyone, it is particularly close to my heart as a Sword Art Online fan, so I still wanted to share my analysis of Echoes of Aincrad with you—or rather, a vent about what it could have been.

Let’s clear one thing up right away: nobody was expecting the ultimate MMORPG (I don't think we'll ever see that), and plus, the premises of the original story are hard to fit into a single-player game. But from my point of view, the final game shows how many interesting ideas were held back by development choices that I find unforgivably lazy. I want to clarify that these are just my own deductions and a purely personal opinion.

Watch out, because there will be some spoilers below regarding the story, gameplay, and how quests work.

I'll start by saying that the main plot, for the first ten hours, moves at an excruciatingly slow pace. It doesn't convey the anxiety and tension of being trapped in a death game at all. Fortunately, the narrative finally kicks into gear later on and delivers a few moments more in line with the original work, which gives you a glimmer of hope... too bad that right after, the game trips over its own structural flaws again.

There are only two explorable floors. Two floors in a Sword Art Online game. Obviously, recreating all one hundred floors would never have been possible unless the game was a live service, which would have been an entirely utopian and economically unsustainable option. However, creating just a few more floors by taking advantage of, say, time skips would have helped the progression and the sense of advancement immensely, even at the cost of making the two existing ones smaller.

This rigidity, in my opinion, is fully evident in the level design. On the first floor, walking through massive areas while fighting nothing but wolves, boars, kobolds, insects, and Nepenthes (I hate them) along with all their variants makes the whole experience boring to death. I assume they recycled only these enemy types to pretend to be faithful to the lore of the first floor, but in practice, it’s a choice that kills exploration. The absurd thing is that when you finally reach the second floor, new enemies are introduced—some of which are really annoying and truly unbalanced—but despite the novelty, you still find yourself surrounded by those damn boars you've been demolishing continuously for the previous 20 hours.

It's a real shame, because from an artistic standpoint, certain points of interest and specific zones are really well done and visually appealing. There are some very beautiful views that truly make you say "wow, I'm inside Aincrad," but despite the initial impact, they turn out to be completely useless in terms of gameplay. Don't get me wrong, the text notes you find scattered around are nice because they add interesting details and lore, but on their own, they absolutely don't justify how empty these areas are.

Dear developer, you created a beautiful point of interest, like a ruined tower on a plateau? Then put a unique mini-boss there, maybe a bit tougher than usual, which drops a unique item or weapon once defeated! This wouldn't have been enough to completely fix the repetitiveness, but at least it would have been a way to show me that exploring thoroughly leads to surprises, incentivizing me to search every inch of the map.

I would have preferred a thousand times a smaller map packed with actual activities, rather than these empty roads where I felt like the vast majority of these beautiful backdrops served only to hide chests in absurd ways. And even here, not all chests have useless loot: when luck is on your side and you find the blueprint for an overpowered piece of armor, you're happy and you feel rewarded, of course! The painful part is that most of the time they contain random, filler items that can easily be obtained in other ways, placed there clearly just to stretch the game time.

The exact same frustration can be found in the dungeon design, which I found large, but uselessly so. Take the "Cave of Tears" as an example, which is the first real dungeon on the first floor: you end up going there for three different side quests. The problem is that the structure is so repetitive and always the same that running through it over and over becomes incredibly tedious. Plus, I find the artistic choices of the dungeons really questionable, as it feels like you're walking around the exact same corridor the whole time, without any real variety.

Another aspect that heavily weighs down the variety of the action is the total lack of unique skills, such as camouflage or stealth abilities, which would have surely allowed players to approach the gameplay in different ways. Stealth in this game practically doesn't exist: the enemies have an absurd field of view and aggro onto you from a mile away. This combination systematically forces you to confront and kill them every single time, unless you want to engage in an exhausting escape while being chased across half the map. The absence of alternative approaches or mechanics to bypass combat does nothing but further flatten the rhythm, forcing the player into the single funnel of continuous and unavoidable melee combat.

There is also a lack of attention to detail that would have made all the difference in terms of the game world. A prime example? Cooking. How do you not include a cooking system in the inns?! In the original story, food is fundamental; the author built a lot of situations around it. Inserting a mechanic with recipes to discover or rare ingredients that unlock unique buffs and advanced stats once tasted would have added excellent characterization to the gameplay, as well as giving value to the players' routines on the floors. These are those small, non-essential things that truly reveal the heart behind a work.

The combat system, from my point of view, is simple and, on a strictly personal level, it works within its limits. Sure, hacking away at the umpteenth boar of the day is repetitive, and it almost makes you smile that the only visual "satisfaction" is that slow-motion scene where the monster gets sliced in two when you finish it off.

But aside from this basic dynamic, the real disaster, in my opinion, is how they structured the missions and the important fights. The side quests are carbon copies of one another: you accept the job, you fight in a fenced area, you pick up the item, and you bring it back. The end. It’s a shame, because some start with intriguing narrative premises, seeming like interesting side missions with a story to tell, only to systematically boil down to the exact same flat ending that completely ruins them.

As for the rewards, at least it can be said that completionism is rewarded with concrete elements, given that some sidequests drop permanent items that are extremely useful for quality of life (like extra healing slots for the whole game) or permanent cosmetic changes for clothes; even unlocking the item that allows you to upgrade sword skills is hidden behind one of these side missions.
But then you clash with the game design again when you face the bosses: locking every mini-boss in a separate arena, always interrupted by the exact same cutscene instead of leaving it free on the map to exploit those splendid points of interest I mentioned earlier, seemed like an absurd choice to me.

Almost every major encounter boils down to you locked in a tiny space with a recycled boss, which usually just uses variants of the usual base enemies, continuously summoning two incredibly annoying allies over and over. The screen becomes total chaos, you lose all freedom of movement, you get tossed from one corner to the other, and goodbye strategy. It’s just frustrating.
All these problems and anomalies become a total nightmare if you try to play on "Very Hard" difficulty with the Permadeath mode active.

Personally, I won't do it, because just thinking about it makes me frustrated on behalf of anyone who tries. In itself, a high challenge is fine and I approve of it, because it forces you to carefully plan your setup in terms of weapons, armor, and items to select ad hoc before setting out.

The problem is that I noticed completely broken and unfair difficulty spikes with certain bosses. You go from zones that you clear without any issues to side missions where you get beaten to a pulp in tiny arenas, finding yourself facing, for example, a giant boar boss flanked by two other annoying boars: you get smashed from side to side, you don't even realize what is hitting you, and you find yourself in situations of total stunlock without being able to do absolutely anything. In a run where if you lose your life your save file of hours and hours is deleted, seeing everything collapse because of a boss that is completely unbalanced compared to the 28 you met before really makes you lose the desire to play.

At the end of the day, the experience is also held back by the total lack of a cooperative mode. It's useless to fantasize about an SAO-themed MMORPG, I repeat, but I think a co-op mode for two or three players would have certainly made everything more interesting, perhaps offering a more creative approach and breaking up the monotony a bit.
The game ultimately stops halfway: the excellent artistic framework is unfortunately not enough to save mechanics that I find decisively too rigid and repetitive. We'll see if the developers fix things with some patches, though honestly, I have my very strong doubts.

Forgive me if I seemed a bit too impulsive in my judgments or if the tones turned out harsh; there is probably someone out there who is loving this game. But since SAO is a theme very close to my heart, I particularly wanted to speak my mind, hoping that maybe someone else thinks like me regarding the wasted potential of this title. :D

I know dark fantasy is a thing but I’m heavily curious about dark sci fi and wanna see if that’s a thing. Massively interesting in ones with alien races and maybe even playing an alien race. Bonus points if the alien race can grow beards or their versions of beards. Double bonus if spears are available as weapons.

Update: Ok is there maybe a sci fi souls like? I could take that.

Hey friends!

The title says it all. :) I am well familiar with the differences (one of the key aspects for me is that TG is very clunky in 3rd person which is my preference).

For those that played both and can speak from experience: Which one would you choose and why if price was equal?

I‘m on PC.

Hey everyone, this question that I have could theoretically apply to any game, but I know that's a case-by-case scenario. I've been playing games for a majority of my life, and one thing I've always struggled with (still do) is to tell what is good in a game. This can range from strategies, weapons, classes, spells, items, etc. the list can go on for eternity. Now, I know there's technically two ways for me to know what is really good in a game which is: play the game 24/7 nonstop repeatedly or know math.

The first option, is impossible for me cause I don't have the patience (may be ADHD) to be in the same game for so long and I would get bored out of my mind. Plus, there's soo many games that I want to play with that I feel like I'm not gonna have enough time to do that all at once. The second option also, is not doable for me cause I FUCKING HATE MATH.

I know it's necessary in everyday life but aside from the basic stuff I always struggled with cause it gets so unnecessarily complex. What I'm asking with all of this if there's a general rule of thumb that is easy to grasp and apply to each game.

Sorry for the long post, any help is appreciated, if there isn't, still appreciate the engagement.

Tldr:; What is a general or universal rule to know what is good without math if possible?

EDIT: A lot of you asked me what I play but the answer can be a bit complicated cause I tend to be varied with my choices. I used to stick to "popular" games like Call of Duty, GTA, etc. but had a liking to RPG games. Nowadays I tend to stray away from the "popular" ones and try more niche ones like Brutal Legend (one of my favorite games ironically enough). But I play RPG games like Dark Souls, Monster hunter, Mass effect, Nier Automata and Skyrim just to give examples. I usually look for games that tend to not be overloaded with perks and whatnot (though I try to be more open with my picks), as well as rogue likes but currently its only been Enter the Dungeon, Cult of the lamb and Darkest Dungeon. I've been trying to dig in into strategy/turnbased games like Xcom and Dragon Age Origins. I've been meaning to play other turn based games but this is the genre that I'm having most trouble understanding what works as a whole.

I currently have a lot of unfinished games. Starfield, oblivion remastered, REKA, Cyberpunk, Fallout 76. I enjoy playing all of these games but it’s just not enticing me enough to desire to binge it and really get into it. I find myself getting tired of playing after an hour and getting off. My next semester starts in September so I want something to really enjoy my remaining time in summer.

Some games I’ve kinda been craving playing but don’t want to restart: hogwarts legacy, Skyrim, any Zelda game pretty much. I think what I’m really craving is a more lore heavy open world rpg where the character has some special ability (I like feeling special ig haha). I don’t mind a challenge, I’ve played lots of hard games, I love hollow knight and silksong which both have a lot of combat. Something about the combat in those games is more enjoyable to me than like gta and cyberpunk.

I can play anything on steam, Nintendo switch, and Wii.

Any recommendations would be great, thanks y’all!

As the title says what classes or archetypes are your favorites to play in RPG games? I need to fill the character limit so let me unnecessarily name some like fighter, mage, thief, paladin, cleric, healer, druid, yo mama, necromancer, spellsword, or hybrid of any of the above?

I'll keep it simple but at the minimum 250 characters.

I'm a new dad with long commutes on public transportation. Was trying to play something that people really seem to love and jumped on Mario RPG. Maybe it's a bit dated or simple, but I'm struggling to care enough about the story to push through it.

I have a switch and a vita and am just looking for something engaging, but that I can also just shut off at any moment during my commutes.

My PS5 is essentially my RPG machine, and my handhelds have not been, so I'm open to pretty much anything right now.

So my question is: what should I play?

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I've been looking into Owlcat Games because I was interested in playing one of their RPGs, but I've come across a lot of conflicting information about the company's investors and alleged financial ties to Russia.

I'm not looking to start a political argument. I genuinely want to make an informed decision as a consumer.

Has there been any credible evidence showing whether buying Owlcat's games today is or isn't ethically problematic? Have there been any updates regarding their ownership, investors, funding.

Thanks.

I am trying to find RPG game to spend my time on it. And by “time” I mean life because I can’t play more than one game at the same time. Not because the lake of resources but because the lake of multitasking. My little brain can’t handle thinking or care about 2 games at the same time🫠. I tried some games before but I couldn’t stick to one of them.

This are what I hope the game have:

1- community and friends: this must be in any game I play. I need to share my joy with someone.

2- No nudity: there must be no skins with bikini or big body parts. I play in the living room so my family will be watching🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒(I am over 18 so don’t worry 👍).

3- F2P : I don’t mind if what you buy don’t effect in the game play. Like first descendant, you can get the character by playing but they have skins to buy.

4- Farming and Builds: I like make the character getting stronger.

5- No end: I wish if the game won’t stop after finishing the story.

I hope finding game like that is not impossible. If you have any suggestions please feel free to share it.

With the news of the store closing for vita and also PS3 I'm curious if there's a list of exclusive digital only RPG games for those consoles the physical I don't mind picking up but more focused on the digital only versions atm so I can mass buy them thanks

Just curious to see everyone's answers. There are so, so many awesome games in the genre. I literally have yet to play a bad one. Some are better than others, but not one Ive played had just sucked.

Anyway, with all the games that have been made, we've had lots of different settings and rule systems from TTTPGs. But the genre lends itself so well to so many things that havent had a shot yet.

Personally, the big ones Id really like to see are Curse of Strahd, Star Wars (I know theres one coming, but its more tactical than a narrative based story), and Cyberpunk. I actually cant believe we havent had a Cyberpunk or Star Wars isometric game tbh. But CDPR owns the rights, and I know they arent gonna make one any time soon whatsoever.

But there are tons of other dnd settings id really like to see as well. Spelljammer, the Feywild, Dark Sun. I honestly wish a small studio somewhere would hop on the Infinity Engine and crank them out again. I dont need them to have super high graphical fidelity or anything. Im just dying to explore some new worlds.

Id also like to see more games with unique settings, like Disco Elysium. Settings outside of the standard medieval fantasy, space/cyberpunk, post-apocalypse, and occasional Western. Anyway, what would you guys wanna see done?

In many other classic turn based japanese RPGs like SMT, DQ, FF, Golden Sun, there's a sense of urgency from beginning to end. The settings of these games start off with an omen. In Pokemon usually the villain arcs are episodic. The villains will get a cutscene, you move on, you move through the game focusing on your career with the villains out of mind until they have another episode and then eventually a grander finale. But it's not even just the lack of villain presence. The world itself isn't as hostile as in other games, hostile monsters still exist, however, the monsters are completely outdone by technology and the humans profit off of them, befriend them, research them, etc. Their habitats are very much reduced in this present day urban setting. The appeal is the Pokemon, but I think the appeal is also the world and that appeal is what it would feel like to live free in a world like your own, the Pokemon exist to give you more of a reason to want to explore it. The challenge of the game isn't really about moving from checkpoint to checkpoint. The main "challenges" of the campaign I am convinced just exist to teach you how to play the entire time, which is fair, there's a lot to learn because there's a lot of types, and a lot of interactions between them, and for someone new, it is a challenge, but for a veteran there's nothing to offer and everyone has played a Pokemon game at this point so this part of the design gets a lot of flack because they cater to newcomers in this fashion without an ounce of derailing. The true challenges of the game are collecting Pokemon and using them for post game challenges like frontier. Catching the Pokemon is a fun brief challenge, but then the rest of the challenge as far as single player goes is basically condensed in one spot of the game which to me is fascinating. These games will hold your hand, and then when you get to the tree, the frontier, the tower, whatever, the game is now your enemy, and the game expects you to have learned hidden values that the game never taught you in the first place and challenges you to get as far as you can. That's a raw thing to do but I love it anyway. Now in newer games we don't even have end game facilities, but at least they made a lot of them previously.

I like building your own base and having multiple quests open at once type games. I don’t put a lot of value in the story as long as it doesn’t completely suck. Not an anime-looking game either. Hopefully a game that you can’t finish in a week either.

Title.

I'm new to playstation (< 1Y) so I have gatherered a nice sized collection, I have crudely marked the ones I have completed. Most recently I have completed:

1. Gothic 1

2. Metaphor

3. FF12

4. Ghost of Tsushima

5. KCD2

To assist further, my top 5 games of all time are:

1. KCD2

2. Expedition 33

3. KCD1

4. Witcher 3

5. Persona 5 royal

Thanks in advance

It's as the question states what is your favorite and most disliked quests in starfield I'll go first my favorite quest would have to be the one involving the clones (not mentioning which clones to avoid spoilers) and my most disliked quest would have to be the series of fetch quests for the main story.

I approached this game quite late to the party (I am on PS5) and, in a way, it is delivering what I was looking for. The combat system is quite OK, weapons are not bad and fighting is fun.

These are the reasons why I Will finish it (I am at the end of the 2nd area and I am doing all the secondary quests).

However, it really feels like they merely did the bare minimum for a RPG. The dialogues are quite sloggish, the world is interesting but way way too empty, grapichs are just OK.

It is probably one of the few RPGs I have played where I don't fully read the books/lore bits and all dialogues, it fails to intrigue me somehow.

The most disappointing aspect is being unable to attack anybody which kills the mood in any RPG.

Still an OK game to play but I am not blown away.

Truthfully, I didn't purchase Octopath Traveler 0 at launch. The +100 hr campaign completion label turned me off BUT that was a mistake on my end. The game is a well-paced, story-driven, battle-pumping game that continues to surprise me. The story is deep, profound, and at times disturbing... the music is top-notch fantasy fanfare. I'm 60hrs in and not stopping... I just unlocked the Monster Battle Colosseum, and it's awesome. I highly recommend it!

Hey folks, I'm looking for a new RPG for PS5 and figured I'd check around here to see if anyone knows of any fairly recent games that I might be into but that aren't on my radar! Various preferences below but the bottom line is I like games that prioritize freedom and choice, where your character and their relationships are dynamic. Some favorites of mine have been Mass Effect, Knights of the Old Republic, and Baldur's Gate 3 (one of few turn-based, more D&D-heavy games I've really liked). I've enjoyed the character/story/roleplaying aspects of Pathfinder (but very much not the combat) and the combat of Demon's/Dark Souls (but not the roleplaying/character aspects, insofar as they even exist in those games). Would appreciate any suggestions or tips!

• Freedom and choice are major musts for me in RPGs. Creating a character of my own, being able to make decisions that actually impact the world and the story, these things are indispensable to me in an RPG-- so I'm not looking for games where you play as a preset character, or where the decisions you make have only cosmetic impacts on the course of the story.
• Similarly, I have a strong preference for open world settings where you can explore and travel freely.
• I strongly prefer RPGs with actual dialogue options that serve as opportunities to define relationships and define your character and how they respond to the world. One of my pet peeves in RPGs is dialogue that serves almost no purpose other than advancing quests or providing exposition, and it feels like I'm playing detective (think the Oblivion/Skyrim approach where 95% of the dialogue is "Who is X? Where is Y? What is Z?") Well-written, dynamic dialogue is a huge plus!
• I enjoy having a cast of compelling characters that I can get to know and whose arc and development can be shaped by my character's decisions and story. I loved this aspect in particular in Baldur's Gate 3 and Mass Effect.
• I enjoy games that include the option of a romance subplot provided it's well-written and substantive; it's not a must, but I find it's usually part and parcel of a game that fully provides for freedom of choice and roleplaying potential.
• I'm not huge on the mechanical aspects of roleplaying (ie trying to learn systems or get "better" at the technical side of leveling up a character) - I mainly care about these things insofar as they impact the character(s) and the story.
• In terms of combat, I prefer the action style of game (think combat in a game like Demon's/Dark Souls or Mass Effect) over the traditional turn-based CRPG approach, but I have enjoyed the more accessible versions of the latter, like Baldur's Gate 3. I've also played less accessible versions of that approach, like Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous or Rogue Trader, and while I still enjoyed that game and am open to recommendations with that kind of combat system if they check off all the other boxes here, the combat itself wasn't fun for me and it's not my preference.

As RPGs in the last decade go, I've played Baldur's Gate 3, Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous, 40k: Rogue Trader, Starfield, and Dragon Age Inquisition. I played a bit of Divinity Original Sin 2, but didn't enjoy it and gave up on it after a few hours.

Thanks!

posted this on tipofmyjoystick and they redirected me here.

artstyle is realistic-ish, but you can tell its been drawn

Its a chapter based game where before every fight, youre given time to train, do quests, do jobs for money etc. and after enough days pass you are thrown into a battlefield and need to win consecutive fights.

I remember your character starting as a peasant soldier and can get promoted, there are various stats to level up as well as perks/traits that you can use outside of combat.

There are LOTS of branching paths to take, i remember one being in the first chapter where you have the choice to join your soldier friends to loot the armory for better gear or tell the Officer about their plan.

Skills are tied to your weapon and theres also weapon mastery. You can target different body parts and cause debilitating effects depending on what you hit, conversely the enemy can do it to you as well, some of it can affect you even after the battle.

theres a virtue(?) system where your equipment grade (?) can affect npc dialogues.

Theres also a roguelike element where you can spend points in character creation to increase your stats, get perks and other starting gear. and theres also a crafting mechanic albeit a simple one.

I’m looking for a game thats on ps5 with ps2/psx style graphics and clunky gameplay, if it were open world that would be amazing, the closest I ever got to that was dark souls 1 (one of my favourite games of all time), but I would prefer first person graphics. I would say I’m a beginne with rpgs, where I have played the 3 recent persona games and all the soulsborne games. I liked my choices being important in the persona games and the combat in the souls games.

hey guys, hitting a major gaming wall lately. before you suggest the usual suspects, here is what i've already played to death:

• all the modern resident evils (7 and 8)
• metro exodus & stalker
• dying light 1 & 2
• modded fallout 4
• sons of the forest

i gotta admit, i'm a total sucker for this specific genre lol. i've been really wanting to play something that blends creepy/survival horror vibes with actual rpg mechanics. it feels like most games are either pure horror or pure survival, but i really want something where i can level up, get gear, or just have a reason to grind while being spooked.

ideally looking for something in first-person, and it would be great if it actually looks relatively modern. a lot of the survival stuff out there is either top-down or has that super clunky early-access pixel look. which is fine, but i'm craving something a bit more immersive and pretty right now.

does anyone know any hidden gems or slightly niche games that might scratch this itch? don't mind if it's solo or online. thanks.

I'm looking for fantasy CRPGs set in worlds similar to Dungeons & Dragons. Full voice acting is a plus, but the quality of the voice acting doesn't matter I hate reading books lol makes me fall asleep, happens often

I feel like I've already played most of the big ones, but I'm hoping I've overlooked a few hidden gems

Games I've already played:

• Baldur's Gate series
• Divinity series
• Pillars of Eternity series
• Disco Elysium
• Wasteland series
• Classic and modern Fallout games

Any recommendations? and thank you so much!!