Poll of the Day > What would you say are the most emotionally charged WRPGs?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I find most of them entirely heartless.

If anything, Fallout 3 made me care LESS about the people and more about the loot options... ... ... which since the game is about someone living in an idealized underground and then going out into a heartless/greedy world........ suits the narrative.

But asides that!

Bioware, Bethesda, old Goldbox, Ultima, ... Fable

Fable ALMOST made me care, but tried too hard to be funny instead of emotionally invested.

...

Now, by WRPG I mean in the popular sense, since technically games like Undertale and LISA are technically WRPGs, but they don't fit the same style as the classics.
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Lokarin posted...

If anything, Fallout 3 made me care LESS about the people

That's because the writing in Fallout 3 and 4 is mostly shit.

New Vegas is much, much better. Which makes sense, because it was made by Obsidian, which is basically one of the two main "narrative" WRPG developers of the last two decades.

Bioware being the other one, though with EA finally devouring every last shred of their soul and the remaining corpse having lost everything resembling the old company's internal culture until it's essentially a stranger wearing an old friend's face (see also, Bungie), they've pretty much lost the ability to produce those sorts of games anymore (though Mass Effect Andromeda isn't as bad as some people imply, at least not narratively - it mostly suffered from terrible technical issues and a rushed development cycle). I have zero faith that Dragon Age 4 will be anything other than a wet steaming turd, in spite of Dragon Age: Origins and DA2 being some of my favorite games of the last couple decades.

You brought up Fable - I found the first two games to be relatively dull and pointless, but I actually got more out of Fable 3 (which is why it surprised me when I hear most people online praise 2 but shit on 3 - which seems absolutely backwards and insane to me).

I got some feels from playing Deus Ex games, though a lot of that probably depends on the player - I can see one person getting a lot out of it, and someone else getting nothing at all. A lot of it kind of rides on how willing you are to sort of immerse yourself in the mindset of the main character and try to see the world the way they do, rather than just being a player fucking around in their skin and doing goofy shit in their world (which is true for most narrative games, honestly).

I feel like some of my most emotionally charged experiences of all didn't come from WRPGs, though, as much as they did from the Telltale games (more specifically, the Minecraft and Borderlands games). Possibly because I didn't really expect those two games to be as emotionally charged as they wound up being.
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oh you made a separate thread for this question. here is my copied post from the other thread:

Lokarin posted...

the most emotionally charged cRPG

this is actually a great question... WRPGs are pretty lacking in emotional impact, aren't they?

Pillars of Eternity has some, though maybe not tons.
Mass Effect definitely has some.
If you count first-person, then System Shock 2 definitely has some.
Baldur's Gate 2 has a little, but not tons.
Planescape: Torment is probably the winning answer. It has a lot of emotional moments. (This could mean that Tides of Numenera is another good answer, but I don't know since I haven't played it yet.)

while I'm at it I might as well also recommend The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, which is on Steam, and beats all of the above (I think it has the best writing out of any game I've ever played, including Mass Effect), but isn't really a cRPG. (also it's combat is not really that great.)

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Sahuagin posted...

Pillars of Eternity has some, though maybe not tons.

The problem I have with Pillars is that it kind of feels like a rushed attempt to get the Baldur's Gate lightning to strike twice, and everything in it sort of feels like a rip-off of BG stuff. That, combined with all the stuff that is basically there just to stroke the balls of the Kickstarter supporters and the far weaker setting kind of makes it feel like a mediocre game that just reminds me of how much more I used to love Baldur's Gate 2 back in the day.

Though you posting about older PC games reminded me of Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines. Which actually had a few emotional moments, but I think a lot of that (at least for me) was because I was so absolutely invested in that as a setting, which tends to make everything hit harder. And again, a lot of it is how willing you are to try and put yourself into your character.
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Hmm, I'm trying to think of ones that haven't been mentioned yet...

I've heard that Kingdoms of Amalur has an above average story for WRPGs but I haven't played it so I can't personally say whether it's "emotional" or even good by my own standards.

Legacy of Kain series has RPG elements but I don't know if I'd count them...?

... This question is harder than I thought it would be when I clicked on the topic, lol. Oh, well.
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Gaawa_chan posted...

I've heard that Kingdoms of Amalur has an above average story for WRPGs but I haven't played it so I can't personally say whether it's "emotional" or even good by my own standards.

It doesn't, really. There's pretty much only two NPCs that really have much personality at all, and neither is overly complex. Almost all of the interesting social interaction is implied to have happened in backstory you don't remember (and never will). The story is interesting in its own way, but it doesn't really have much emotional complexity.
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Obvious answer: the Witcher games.
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ParanoidObsessive posted...

The problem I have with Pillars is that it kind of feels like a rushed attempt to get the Baldur's Gate lightning to strike twice, and everything in it sort of feels like a rip-off of BG stuff. That, combined with all the stuff that is basically there just to stroke the balls of the Kickstarter supporters and the far weaker setting kind of makes it feel like a mediocre game that just reminds me of how much more I used to love Baldur's Gate 2 back in the day.

It does feel like it has a weak ass form of BG mechanics, yes, but still enjoyable. I think it also loses a lot from having fewer locations, and fewer enemies. (Note: haven't played DLC or PoE2.) It feels really cramped once you play it a second time.

Another thing I think it loses a lot from is the sound effects. BG/IWD had fantastic sound design, but PoE has a lot of really bland generic sounds. You want to hear loud clangs and satisfying thud/crunch sounds during battle, and things like that, but PoE has really generic sound effects; (listening to some combat again, it's really like they bought some stock sound effects. they sound well enough in terms of fidelity and clarity or whatever, but they don't really have much spark or soul.)

But as far as story goes, the BG and PoE stories are nothing alike. BG had a great story, but not really anything all that emotional. PoE definitely has some emotion for me, though it might be because I found it pretty relatable.

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Come to think of it, I don't understand why this is such a problem for WRPGs, even when compared to other western games in different genres.
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Planescape: Torment
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Try The Witcher.

I would normally also suggest ME 1/2 but since that's EA-owned...
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I almost always play good/lawful in everything I play. But Fable.... I don't know why... but that game brings the worst out of me.
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Gaawa_chan posted...

Come to think of it, I don't understand why this is such a problem for WRPGs, even when compared to other western games in different genres.

This is the true question.
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Lokarin posted...

I find most of them entirely heartless.

If anything, Fallout 3 made me care LESS about the people and more about the loot options... ... ... which since the game is about someone living in an idealized underground and then going out into a heartless/greedy world........ suits the narrative.

But asides that!

Bioware, Bethesda, old Goldbox, Ultima, ... Fable

Fable ALMOST made me care, but tried too hard to be funny instead of emotionally invested.

...

Now, by WRPG I mean in the popular sense, since technically games like Undertale and LISA are technically WRPGs, but they don't fit the same style as the classics.

I'll say jade empire as opposed to fable. To me it felt like fable but more serious. When i did something evil it actually made me feel bad.
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mooreandrew58 posted...

Lokarin posted...

I find most of them entirely heartless.

If anything, Fallout 3 made me care LESS about the people and more about the loot options... ... ... which since the game is about someone living in an idealized underground and then going out into a heartless/greedy world........ suits the narrative.

But asides that!

Bioware, Bethesda, old Goldbox, Ultima, ... Fable

Fable ALMOST made me care, but tried too hard to be funny instead of emotionally invested.

...

Now, by WRPG I mean in the popular sense, since technically games like Undertale and LISA are technically WRPGs, but they don't fit the same style as the classics.

I'll say jade empire as opposed to fable. To me it felt like fable but more serious. When i did something evil it actually made me feel bad.

The problem with Bioware is that it's now owned by EA. That means buying a Bioware game means giving money to a company that is pretty much the most hated in the industry and has even won most hated worldwide twice.

Even then, pretty much everything before DAII is good (Jade Empire is really under-loved) and DAII and beyond is... garbage.
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Came in here to mention Jade Empire.

Although for me the most emotional part is that BioWare seemed to completely move away from games like it afterwards.
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Unbridled9 posted...

That means buying a Bioware game means giving money to a company that is pretty much the most hated in the industry and has even won most hated worldwide twice.

Then buy them second hand, they release decent games no need to deprive yourself of something you might enjoy. They stopped the whole using codes to coerce you into buying new ages ago. So a used copy works fine and they don't see a dime.
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KeijiMaedaTiger posted...

Obvious answer: the Witcher games.

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KeijiMaedaTiger posted...

Unbridled9 posted...

That means buying a Bioware game means giving money to a company that is pretty much the most hated in the industry and has even won most hated worldwide twice.

Then buy them second hand, they release decent games no need to deprive yourself of something you might enjoy. They stopped the whole using codes to coerce you into buying new ages ago. So a used copy works fine and they don't see a dime.

Codes don't work for the DLC, but if you can. Sure.
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Unbridled9 posted...

Codes don't work for the DLC, but if you can. Sure.

Most of the DLC is only questionably worth owning anyway.

With the earlier, pre-EA titles (like ME1 and DA:O), you could actually get GotY edition discs with all of the DLC included, and post EA the only title with paid DLC that was worth paying for was ME2 (because Lair of the Shadow Broker and Arrival were fantastic).

Almost everything else was easily skippable, were just alt costume/extra weapon mod packs, shitty multiplayer microtransaction bullshit, or was actually bugged to the point where you were better off not buying it because it could corrupt your save files.

The only real DLC from the later games I would say is absolutely necessary is the Extended Cut for ME3 - and that's a free download. Though I'd also say if you're not willing to make an Origin account (for free) to get the free download because you don't even want to interact with EA even THAT much, I'd just skip ME3 entirely (which, in turn, kind of makes me more inclined to recommend you just skip ME1 and ME2 as well, even though they're great on their own).
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