D&D (2024) Wizards of the Coast promises to release more “CRPGs that are going to be as serious as BG3” without Larian

[Paul Farquhar]

That's a big part of why there are no AA or AAA "family-friendly" CRPGs

Zelda?

 

[Reynard]

Zelda?

I don't think Zelda games qualify as RPGs, let alone CRPGs.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I don't think Zelda games qualify as RPGs, let alone CRPGs.

The latest ones are getting pretty close. I played Breath of the Wind. It's Witcher 3 without the sex and violence.

I think the main reason CRPGs tend to aim at the older market is they are mostly produced for PC first, and most PC gamers are older. If you want your CRPG on Nintendo it would be a good idea to make it family friendly.

 

[Zubatcarteira]

I have played them both and greatly enjoyed them. With that said, Kingmaker requires a mod to do turnbased mode, which is what you want to be true to the original game. It is also a bit rough around the edges. Both frequently go on sale, but I recommend Wrath of the Righteous as it's more "advanced" in terms of presentation and polish. But I did finish Kingmaker and really enjoyed it. Wrath has been something I just haven't had time to get through yet.

I've just finished Kingmaker, and can confirm it definitely has turn based without mods. I think they added it a while after launch.

 

[SteveC]

I've just finished Kingmaker, and can confirm it definitely has turn based without mods. I think they added it a while after launch.

That's great to know. I played it before Wrath came out, and I had to use a mod for both camera rotation and turn-based. Both of those are in Wrath by default. That definitely makes it better. I did really enjoy Kingmaker.

 

[Dausuul]

A perfectly reasonable attitude, making good quality games seem to be hard given the amount of failures. However, we will not get a good game unless they try and keep trying until they find a team that works.

They did find a team that worked. It was called Larian Studios. Then WotC laid off most of the folks who built and maintained that relationship, and that was that.

I wish WotC would quit trying to be a software company. They're a terrible software company. They have produced an endless series of flops, failures, and barely functional tools. Looking at the last few years, we've had Dark Alliance (went over like a lead balloon), the Sigil VTT (staggered along into alpha development, then got dumped into DDB and left for dead), and the DDB rollout of 2024E (still crawling with bugs halfway through 2025).

The only decent digital products I know of that WotC created in-house were the first iteration of the 4E character builder (which they then withdrew so they could chase more online dollars), and M:tG Arena.

A sensible company would see the success of BG3 and make it the model for future D&D video games: Find a talented outside studio, offer them a license and a long leash, and wait to see what they come up with. If they flop, move on to the next studio. If they knock it out of the park, collect your licensing fees and start cross-marketing the hell out of it. And the team that picked Larian and ran things on the WotC side would have been called in to be personally thanked by the CEO, given big raises, and sent back out to do it again -- not canned in a round of random layoffs.

 

[AlViking]

I imagine licencing to different videogame studios to work with several settings. One with FR, other with Greyhawk, a third with Dragonlance, etc.

D&D is a titan in TTRPG industry but in the videogame one it is a dwarf. D&D earned "brand power" thanks BG3 and Hasbro wants to repeat it, but it will need time, money and talent.

Maybe Hasbro could talk with Tencent for a partnership, a D&D setting adapted to Chinese market. WotC would work in the crunch(PC species, subclasses, monsters, feats, magic item..) and Tencent team in the lore/background/fluff

Hey now, don't be dismissive of the stout folk. Being a dwarf is nothing to be looked down upon! I mean, most folks do have to look down but .. aargh! Just don't sell them short.
Umm ... I mean go ahead and call them a gnome in the video game world then there's no problem.

 

[AlViking]

I just hope they have more heroic but not over the top dark depressing stories. BG3 was just a crawl through broken glass as far as I'm concerned

The biggest issue I have with Larian is this obsession with "Evil is cool and interesting" while "Good is bland and boring". I played BG 3 once it was out of beta but it's one of the few games I played all the way through that I don't know if I'll ever play again.

 

[Gladius Legis]

The biggest issue I have with Larian is this obsession with "Evil is cool and interesting" while "Good is bland and boring". I played BG 3 once it was out of beta but it's one of the few games I played all the way through that I don't know if I'll ever play again.

That ... really does not describe BG3 at all. If anything it's the opposite. Playing outright evil in BG3 punishes you a lot, which is actually something that gets quite a few complaints.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Zelda?

Definitely not a CRPG in the way the word is used now, even if it is in the way the word was used say, 30-40 years ago (when it was used to mean just "not a TTRPG"). CRPGs are a specific thing - usually party-based, usually stats-heavy, with choices and story, and usually not first or close third-person.

There are absolutely family-friendly games that are technically RPGs - Super Mario RPG is another series. A lot of JRPGs are (though by no means all). But in CRPGs that's been pretty much death for decades. You don't have to go full BG3 but you can't do family friendly.

The latest ones are getting pretty close. I played Breath of the Wind. It's Witcher 3 without the sex and violence.

That seems an odd comparison to me as It's a completely different game to Witcher 3 (which is also not a CRPG - it's a story RPG or an action RPG, not to be confused with an ARPG), an almost unrelated genre, a sort of open-world go anywhere, do anything, "solve physical puzzles/situations" game which merely has some largely superficial RPG elements. There are games regarded as "just a shooter" or the like which have more RPG stuff going on than BotW - Ghost Recon: Breakpoint for example. Frankly it's got more in common with any kind of Ubisoft open world game than any CRPG (Ultima 6/7 would be the closest CRPG). It's barely an RPG at all - I don't say that as a criticism, note, it's incredible design! But it doesn't resemble the Witcher. It barely has a plot, characters or interaction (there's probably less dialogue in all of BotW than like, one smallish town in Witcher 3) whereas they're the entire heart of TW3, and the plot it does have is pretty much optional - you can just go defeat Calamity Ganon right at the start of the game and people have. Immersive sims are a bit closer to it (hence the U6/7 comparison, those were RPG that were close to immersive sims), but it has a wild scope that no modern immersive sim does (though some 1980s/1990s games which were sort of pre-immersive sims had a similar scope).