Which CRPG has the best STORY? (Forked from: Do you not play WoW?)

[Leatherhead]

Could not stand FFTactics. Games that punish you for your experience kill my interest really really fast. Especially when it is the random encounters that are what are auto-scaled to you. I can see the merits of scaling boss battles, since last i checked, those are the ones that SHOULD matter. On the other hand, if the schlubs are piggy backing my XP total, I'm turning the game off. It would not be so bad if the enemies increased in numbers as my characters got better, but if that goblin gained 10 levels just because I gained 10 levels, that is a dealbreaker IMHO.

I also hear you get super characters in the last chapter that make any effort put into leveling allies pretty much pointless.

Actually that is one of the things I liked about it: Grinding is not an option.

 

[Obryn]

Hmm... My favorite CRPG storylines, in no particular order...

(1) Final Fantasy III. It kinda pulled me in, what can I say. I liked it much more than FF1, which quickly got boring.

(2) Star Control II. Amazing, fun, and deep plotline. There's a sense of mystery and probably the best humor in any computer game I've seen. Each of the alien races is ... well, damned excellent. I also loved the game itself... I could destroy whole squadrons with Fwiffo (or any other Spathi). To heck with the rest of those races! Who needs 'em? And IMHO it is a CRPG; the dialogue trees and ship customization just make it a CRPG where your ship is your character.

(3) KotOR 1. It's too bad that the gameplay improvements of KotOR 2 spoiled me on ever playing KotOR 1 again... (Much like how Oblivion spoiled Morrowind for me.) 1 has the better storyline, by far, but 2 has desperately-needed gameplay improvements. Like, not needing to stay at level 3 or 4 for most of the game, so you can get a few real Jedi levels. HK-47 is my favorite CRPG NPC of all time.


Now, my favorite CRPG of all time is Oblivion, but it's not so much for the main storyline. Like most Bethesda games, I think the plot is a convenient excuse for a gorgeous, sandboxy game-world. I liked Morrowind, too, but frankly Morrowind gets irritating... I got sick of the slow pace at which my character moved. It didn't keep me from beating the game, but I got an infinite-Endurance-regeneration item as quickly as I could make it.

I look forward to digging into Fallout 3. At the moment, though, my brain has been consumed by King's Bounty: The Legend.

-O

 

[diaglo]

Zork.

quoted for tr00f

 

[TwinBahamut]

Could not stand FFTactics. Games that punish you for your experience kill my interest really really fast. Especially when it is the random encounters that are what are auto-scaled to you. I can see the merits of scaling boss battles, since last i checked, those are the ones that SHOULD matter. On the other hand, if the schlubs are piggy backing my XP total, I'm turning the game off. It would not be so bad if the enemies increased in numbers as my characters got better, but if that goblin gained 10 levels just because I gained 10 levels, that is a dealbreaker IMHO.

I also hear you get super characters in the last chapter that make any effort put into leveling allies pretty much pointless.

I don't mind that one at all, myself. Really, the game never punishes you for becoming stronger, it just keeps experience levels even with yours. All told, strength in FFT has nothing to do with experience and everything to do with job level and the ability choices you have made. That is why, other than the game's hard battles, the game tends to be a lot easier later in the game than earlier. Grinding on weak enemies to gain enough JP to try new strategies on various characters is certainly a viable and rewarding tactic. Unless you are psychic or have read a FAQ, you will probably need to do this at one point or another in the game (the penultimate battles of Chapters 2 and 3 come to mind). Those are entirely the domain of your first few characters.

Also, there are certainly a number of truly powerful characters who join late in the game, but they join far too late to ever acquire the insane ability combos that really break the game (Mime and Calculator, anyone?). Even giving poor Agrias anything more than her own Holy Knight skills can be a pain.

 

[Shadeydm]

I don't mind that one at all, myself. Really, the game never punishes you for becoming stronger, it just keeps experience levels even with yours. All told, strength in FFT has nothing to do with experience and everything to do with job level and the ability choices you have made. That is why, other than the game's hard battles, the game tends to be a lot easier later in the game than earlier. Grinding on weak enemies to gain enough JP to try new strategies on various characters is certainly a viable and rewarding tactic. Unless you are psychic or have read a FAQ, you will probably need to do this at one point or another in the game (the penultimate battles of Chapters 2 and 3 come to mind). Those are entirely the domain of your first few characters.

Also, there are certainly a number of truly powerful characters who join late in the game, but they join far too late to ever acquire the insane ability combos that really break the game (Mime and Calculator, anyone?). Even giving poor Agrias anything more than her own Holy Knight skills can be a pain.

Despite it being my all time favorite PS1 game, even I have to admit that TG Cid makes the game too easy.

OTOH I did enjoy getting cloud to join the party and building him up into an effective member of the team.

 

[Darkwolf71]

If it helps to refine your theory: the first FF game I ever played was Mystic Quest.

I've only ever applied it to the 'main' series. I mean, I doubt if anyone would claim any of the Gameboy versions as their favorite.

Anyway, I still think it's a sound theory. Like anything else there are bound to be exceptions, but I have found far more folks who agree with me than not over the years.

 

[Sytonis]

Favourite story in CRPGs:-

Planescape Torment
Deus Ex 1

Honourable Mentions:-

Dark Sun Wake of the Ravager
The history of World of Warcraft (up to and including Burning Crusade)
Fallout 1 or 2


My favourite story in game has to go to either Realms of the Haunting or Tex Murphy Under a Killing Moon, neither of which are CRPG's but Adventure Games. I'd rate these above Torment and Deus Ex for story too!

I'd also highly rate the story in Half Life 1 & 2 and they are further removed from CRPGS than Adventure Games.

 

[small pumpkin man]

Best Stories?

Planscape:Torment
KotOR
Mass Effect

That order.

Special mentions for Star Control and whichever FF you feel like picking up. (9 was my first btw, and it holds a special place in my heart, but it's just not the same when you know Zidane isn't actually a chick)

The Fallout games can be very atmospheric, and the first couple were, AFAICT quite ground breaking with the whole "openended" dealio, but they're very buggy and I haven't met what a three dimensional character in them yet. (Of course I haven't actually finished any of them yet, so I could still be surprised). Doesn't help that I'm not particularly impressed with that kind of sandbox play in the first place, I generally find that by often only having the extreme options which often break down to 1, rip everyone for as much money as possible, 2, kill absolutely everybody you see, or 3, don't act like a complete dick it means you rarely have to make actual decisions.

But that's mostly hype backlash, they're actually pretty fun games, I just get annoyed by people talking about how "it's so OPEN, you can be whoever you want" and my response is usually "You know, I've never actually felt restricted by the fact I can't kill children/moogles/townspeople in FF/<insert Bioware game>".

 

[small pumpkin man]

I'd say it was pretty mixed, overall. If you choose the negative outcome for Megaton (

Spoiler

detonating the bomb

), you get some negative karma. Period. No real repercussions for doing something massively, incredibly evil. People don't shun you. Nobody tries to exact vengeance on you.

Spoiler

There's one survivor, Moira, but even though she's been ghoulified, she doesn't seem to care very much!

Actually, there are supposedly random encounters of

Spoiler

megaton survivors

which attack you if you choose the "bad option" but random encounters are unfortunately so rare that most people seem to play the game through without getting any of the interesting ones. But yes, the unconnectedness got to me too.

On the other hand, my standards for such things could be getting to high after Mass Effect.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

I don't mind that one at all, myself. Really, the game never punishes you for becoming stronger, it just keeps experience levels even with yours. All told, strength in FFT has nothing to do with experience and everything to do with job level and the ability choices you have made. That is why, other than the game's hard battles, the game tends to be a lot easier later in the game than earlier. Grinding on weak enemies to gain enough JP to try new strategies on various characters is certainly a viable and rewarding tactic. Unless you are psychic or have read a FAQ, you will probably need to do this at one point or another in the game (the penultimate battles of Chapters 2 and 3 come to mind). Those are entirely the domain of your first few characters.

Also, there are certainly a number of truly powerful characters who join late in the game, but they join far too late to ever acquire the insane ability combos that really break the game (Mime and Calculator, anyone?). Even giving poor Agrias anything more than her own Holy Knight skills can be a pain.

Well said. I loved playing FFT and spent tons of time grinding. Not for levels, but for JP. And you do get ~5 people in a battle, so Cid alone doesn't make the other characters worthless. (I think Beowulf turning everything undead and then having calculators laying down Cure 3 over the whole battlefield; or having Mustadio leave enemies paralyzed in place while you shot them up from afar was just as effective as the Holy Knight powers). End game, my party was usually main character, 3 generics I picked up along the way and mastered all classes for, and Cid. Worker 8 getting the sixth man slot. I assure you, my other characters were just as broken as Orlandu by the time he was available.