Preferably in the high fantasy or sci fi genre.
I enjoy playing games like Chronotrigger, Tales of Symphonia, Witcher 3 (easiest difficulty), Mass Effect (in Story mode), Outer Worlds (in Story mode), etc.
Basically, story first, mechanics second. What’s your fav?
Planescape Torment, Disco Elysium.
Oooh, nice! Watched some trailers. Steam version? Or are they better on a console? Both look like they’re PS4 titles as well.
I’ll chime in and suggest PC, as you can probably get them at a lower price than on PS4.
Price doesn’t matter. Just want a low bug comfortable experience. Sometimes games are better on one or the other. I liked No Man’s Sky a lot more on the PS4pro than on the laptop, for example – just felt more like it was the right tool for the job :)
visual novels: Digimon survive, Danganronpa
On the topic of Visual Novels: I’d like to recommend basically everything from Winter Wolves Games that is tagged as RPG. The classic is of course Loren the Amazon Princess, but, to be honest, their writing has improved since then, so you might want to check out their newer Tales of Aravorn games, like Seasons of the Wolf. Also, Loren is really long, so if you don’t have a ton of time, the newer, shorter games might be a better choice.
A word of warning though, by Winter Wolves themselves: https://mastodon.social/@winterwolves/111588943770965424
You sound a lot like me, and probably get annoyed with a lot of grindy mechanics. Especially when you have limited time to play games.
Sea of Stars and Chained Echoes will really scratch that Chronotrigger itch.
Outer Wilds is also incredible (don’t read spoilers, just go in blind). It’s mini space exploration with cartoon-arcadey newtonian physics.
Sword & Sworcery is also great, and a good point-and-click adventure with an amazing soundtrack. I’d almost argue it’s better on a tablet or largeish phone through. It’s very touch input focused, which is OK with a mouse, but I think is better with a finger (as intended)
Others I enjoy :
- Kentucky Route Zero (point and click with a wild vibe)
- Firewatch (walking Sim with pretty low poly art)
- Dishonored 1 & 2 (gritty fps with stealth and magic)
- Inside (short puzzle platformer)
- Abzu (undersea exploration, relatively chill, but I never completed it)
- The Invincible (more recent than the rest, a very pretty walking sim in a retro-future sci-fi setting (Stanislaw Lem) that kept me pretty engrossed and occasionally worried)
- Horizon: Zero Dawn. (Absolutely adored this world and story. Story mode combat was good, but I just used cheats for a lot of the basic pickup/crafting stuff. Yes, I can take 30 minutes to run around and gather basic materials, but I don’t have that kind of time irl.)
Thanks for the recs! Already played Chained Echoes and quite liked it. Wish it was longer haha. Seen Sea of Stars reviews saying weak on story and dialogue and such, so I backburnered it, but maybe it’s worth it for the exploration elements alone?
Never played Outer Wilds. But seen it recommended before and it’s on my radar. Should it be played on console, do you think? Or is the steam version fine.
I’ll look into the rest when I have time. I appreciate all the details :)
Abzu (undersea exploration, relatively chill, but I never completed it)
@troyunrau@lemmy.ca Abzu isn’t an RPG, but I’d still second this recommendation, as it’s very chill to play, has zero combat, and has a lovely story to it. Would also recommend Spirit of the North for the same reason. No dialogue in either, though - the story is very much in the visuals, music, and atmosphere rather than words.
Fair. I did stray from the “rpg” theme on… Most of my responses.
Will look up Spirit of the North though! It sounds right up my alley
For real. Its high time I replay it, too. Been long enough that I just remember general themes.
It has gotten an update recently, to improve compatibility with modern systems: Patch Notes
I’ve only played the first three you mentioned, but I would say they’re all far from minimal focus on combat…
If you’ve not yet played through the Kiseki (The Legend of Heroes: Trails) series, I highly recommend them. They are very story heavy. You’d definitely want to begin with the Trails in the Sky series since every game in the series is connected (and if you want to get the whole picture and experience the greatest impact from the events that happen throughout the series).
I have had that one in my steam wishlist for a while, starting with Trails. Never pulled the trigger. I’ve heard that it is very much a slow burn, but ends up being a favourite for a lot of RPG fans. Accurate?
I’m a big fan of the series and would consider it to be my favorite JRPG series, not just for the story but because I enjoy the gameplay it offers as well.
It’s a fairly “cheap” series to try out and see if you’re into it. The entire series is a singular, continuous story, so the recommended place to start is Trails in the Sky First Chapter, which can be picked up fairly cheaply on Steam, especially during Steam sales. It’s not as long as future games in the series, and is fairly representative of the pacing and storytelling format that later games will follow (though it is considered one of the slowest-paced games in the series). Basically if you’re not a fan of Sky FC, you’re not likely to be a fan of the future games in the series either (especially given that the substantial improvements to gameplay over the series’ 20 year history likely won’t have much appeal to you).
There are also demos available for some of the newer games in the series (e.g. Trails of Cold Steel III), and while I would not recommend actually playing through those games out-of-order, they may serve as a quick/cheap way to see if the format of the games is right for you.
I will say that while the combat of the games is rarely very difficult, and the game provides difficulty modifiers to make it even easier if you’d like, that the combat system is still fairly fleshed out and quite good casually IMO, but if you’re really not into doing it even at easy difficulties, one option (PC exclusive) may be to download completed game saves and play through the games on New Game+ and completely trivialize the combat.
I’d say that is accurate. It is a slow burn to start, and it took me several tries to actually get into it. Once I did, I ended up plowing through all of the games. :) They are all excellent. The series is really something special. Trails to Azure is actually one of my most favorite games of all time, too.
