What RPG are you playing right now?

[sabrage]

Tell me more about Arx Fatalis. It looks amazing.

I'm struggling to come up with a point of comparison for Arx Fatalis, besides the obvious Ultima Underworld... It's a first-person dungeon crawler with the most ridiculous, meticulous worldbuilding I've ever seen in a video game. The amount of love and craft that went into the environments still makes them look fantastic 10 years on, much as Thief has proven itself relatively impervious to the ravages of time. Arx Fatalis is the kind of game that I only fire up once every few months, but when I do I always remember exactly where I was and what I was doing and I usually end up playing all night. Compare that to any other RPG, where if I stop playing I'll usually forget the plot entirely and end up starting over before I continue my old save.

[Xeogred]

So basically it sounds like Deus Ex, Thief, SS2, etc tier stuff?

Yeah I can't wait to play it. I've told myself I will beat Thief 2 first though before I touch it.

Ultima Underworld I played and beat last year too. Can't wait to play the second one, most say it improves on everything. But yeah, this game is definitely the blueprints for pretty much my favorite kind of FPS/RPG hybrids out there. I liked Skyrim, but I can probably already predict Arx Fatalis will be a way better experience haha. I like how these games (the ones I mentioned at the top) have a lot of flexibility with how you play the game, making them insanely replayable, but at the core they're still semi-linear too. Which I like. I love complex level design and huge area's, but if the game keeps pointing me where to go and gives me a little direction, I always tend to prefer that over the open world styled games. Some of my favorite moments in the new Fallout's or Skyrim is when I'm just in a massive dungeon or cool complicated area and so it's simple and linear, lol.

To sum it up, last year I liked Deus Ex HR more than Skyrim. Definitely more my style.

@ksloth: I already own it! haha.

[ksloth]

I have Ultima Underworld 1 and 2, and I really need to play them sometime this year. I am on a total retro PC game kick right now with Legend of Grimrock.. finest Dungeon Master game I have played other than Dungeon Master itself.

Xeno Chronicles is great too, but I just can't seem to tear myself away from Grimrock.. I still have to get back to Devil Survivor 2 too!

[Xeogred]

That makes me want to ask, how do the Digital Devil Saga games and Nocturne stack up against each other? I've been pretty interested in them for awhile, not sure which would be the better starting point though.

[Dakinggamer87]

Xenoblade Chronicles on Wii currently

[Arbitern1]

Skies of Arcadia .... dreamcast. Just left the silver shrine and I'm grinding in looper land.

[MrPopo]

That makes me want to ask, how do the Digital Devil Saga games and Nocturne stack up against each other? I've been pretty interested in them for awhile, not sure which would be the better starting point though.

Well, I'd say that DDS is probably the easier game, though I've only played a few hours in. They both use the same press turn combat system but DDS has your character development be more controlled and easier. Additionally, there's no demon fusion or recruiting in DDS, so it's easier to build your party. Nocturne is harder and more of a traditional SMT experience. Plus, Nocturne has a massive fuck you boss pretty early in the game, while as far as I know DDS doesn't have anything like that.

[Xeogred]

Interesting to hear. Maybe DDS is the better one to start with. Though I always hear how dark Nocturne's story is, definitely catches my interest. Maybe DDS is pretty serious too though? I honestly can't get into Persona though, but they seem insanely different from the Shin stuff.

[weasels]

Interesting to hear. Maybe DDS is the better one to start with. Though I always hear how dark Nocturne's story is, definitely catches my interest. Maybe DDS is pretty serious too though? I honestly can't get into Persona though, but they seem insanely different from the Shin stuff.

Yes, DDS is still pretty dark. also im a huge fan of the megaten games....but i hate the persona spin offs. so I can be a testament to how one could like the rest of the series and not persona. i think they are both excellent games although nocturne is hard, i would say DDS may be your best bet..but you should still play nocturne at some point.

[J T]

I thought Digital Devil Saga was harder than Nocturne, but for poor reasons. Nocturne has a more challenging and enjoyable battle system. Digital Devil Saga is super hard though because there are sooooo many random encounters that it's impossible to travel and remember where you are headed, plus you can easily die before reaching a save point. It will just be across the room, but you'll hit 5 random encounters on the way there and die just barely out of reach. I love DDS, but it is infuriatingly broken in that respect.