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Help me find some old RPGs I haven't played that scratch this specific itch

hunterjwizzard

hunterjwizzard

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My favorite old game is Return to Krondor. I play through it at least once a year. I own two boxed copies(1 complete, 1 missing a disk). I have a framed copy of the Krondorian sewer in my hallway.

A big reason why I like the game so much is as soon as I get control of my character the shop system. As soon as the game starts, I can go to a specific shop, sell all my starting gear, and buy much better gear with the money. After that the game becomes a hunt for rare items, some found in random encounters and some only obtainable through specific quests. Even though I've "found" every single item in the game 100 times by now, I still enjoy the journey.

Another game that tickles this specific fancy is Quest For Glory V, though in a different way - the shop in the main town just happens to have actual good items for sale. If you want, you can grind monsters in the early game and get fairly good equipment before you start the main quest. I like this sort of thing a lot.

And then there's my old standby the Might and Magic series, where you always begin in a town and every new area includes a new town with new shops.

Obviously the best gear in all these games is found through adventuring, but for me the ability to also upgrade my equipment in shops(and to do it early) is a big factor in replayability.

I don't like procedurally-generated, totally pointless to me. I also don't tend to go back and reply games where the only way to get usable loot is adventuring. Its fun and all for the first trip through, but something about the grind/buy/sell cycle really entertains me.


So I'm wondering what other old fantasy RPGs out there meet some of these same things?
 
In the original Ys you started with no equipment and the obvious thing to do was go buy a short sword so you could start fighting. But there were a couple items that could be found and sold to raise enough money to buy a long sword instead. There were basically 5 grades of equipment in the game, and if you were committed to grinding, you could buy all the grade 3 equipment from the shop before setting foot in the first dungeon. (For me the SEGA Master System is the definitive version of this game, although I did buy the Turbo CD one just for the soundtrack.)

Phantasy Star 3 had one shop in the first generation with wildly overpowered (and expensive) equipment. The other games in the series were more strict about not giving you access to the good shops until the appropriate point in the game.
 
Did Phantasy Star 3 ever get a proper PC port?

Obviously not a challenge to emulate, am just curious.
 
The original Dragon Quest/Dragon Warrior can be pretty open-ended, thinking back, I don't recall a whole lot you couldn't do due to story cues, I think only the final dungeon is completely inaccessible without progressing the story, the rest is just "can you make it there". Following Dragon Quest games do inch a little closer to needing to follow the story to make any meaningful progress in the game, although Dragon Quest III I often see cited as one of the most true-to-formula JRPGs ever made, with the world really opening up after a little bit of story progression. It's been a while since I've played these though.

Looking up your examples, these remind me at least on my limited reading of things like Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment. I haven't touched either, but I hear excellent things about both. Of course then there are the Wizardry and Ultima games, grandpappies of most RPGs.
 
I had a lot of fun playing through Dargon Quest 1 when it got ported to Android a few years back. I also tried 8 but it wasn't as much fun on a tablet. Do you know offhand if the series ever got a proper PC port? I mostly know of them as console games.

I should give Baldur's Gate another chance. It has been a few years and I can't remember why I stopped playing it(realistically its most likely because I lost the disk, but it has been recovered).

I did give one of the later Wizardy games a try. I am enamored with the concept but I think the games themselves are a little too challenging for me. I don't know, its been some years and maybe another attempt is warranted. Ditto for Ultima, I just don't find myself that interested in save-scumming punishingly difficult games. That being said, I do often have a real swell time cheating rampantly at those same games so long as there's a big world to explore and a solid savegame editor.
 
So if you really want to dive in on Dragon Quest in the context of retro computers, Dragon Quest I and II were actually released for the MSX platform a few months following the Famicom releases, although they're cited as being a poor experience compared with the Famicom originals. As far as modern Wintel stuff, looks like SquareEnix is doing some "HD remaster" style releases of the first three titles shortly: https://dragonquest.square-enix-games.com/games/en-us/dragon-quest-123-hd2d-remakes/

I've played through the first 6 titles in the series and out of those, III stands out, so if you're not looking for release chronology, I'd recommend the third title. Plus, if you're looking for pure story chronology, Dragon Quest III is actually a prequel to I & II, so you'd just be experiencing the story in order if you then went back and played the first 2 (note, II is *rough* on the Famicom/NES, expect much frustration). The first three titles make up a trilogy and the second three titles a bit looser of a trilogy, I'm not sure if any of the later games have any story connection. This is contrasted with the Final Fantasy series in which every entry is a standalone story that simply shares motifs with the others. Of those, Final Fantasy VI is the one I'll always recommend to folks. It can get hilariously broken in all the right ways.

I don't know how they stack up compared to what you're describing, but the first two Fallout games are isometric RPGs as opposed to the Elder Scrolls-With-Guns engine adopted from 3 on, so that may fit well with your interests. I recall a friend of mine had much praise for Fallout 2.
 
I played the crap out of fallout 2, it was fun. Exactly the sort of 'meander around the map visiting towns and finding cool things' game I love. I would really love something thats basically fallout 2 but fantasy.


segaloco said:
As far as modern Wintel stuff, looks like SquareEnix is doing some "HD remaster" style releases of the first three titles shortly: https://dragonquest.square-enix-games.com/games/en-us/dragon-quest-123-hd2d-remakes/
Click to expand...
I definitely don't care for anyone's modern HD remake of anything. For one, they ALL come with DRM these days and I'd literally rather not play games than deal with that shit. And often times my favorite parts of classic games are the parts that fixed in a remake.

Was there ever a proper winter port of DQ III? Like contemporary? I can always resort to an emulator.
 
The Bard's Tale series and the new Bard's Tale IV are available on Steam. Game play is the same, just updated engine/graphics in BT IV.
 
Never touch steam. DRM crap.

I am also here on a vintage gaming forum looking for vintage games to play on my vintage PCs.
 
They're also available DRM free on GoG. As for the original versions of The Bard's Tale series, I'm sure they're on many abandonware sites. I mentioned them because it was a good way to support efforts to extend / make easily playable some of these original RPG series.
 
Not aware of any earlier ports of Dragon Quest titles to computers beyond the MSX ports I mentioned. Emulating the NES is probably your best bet. Emulation with some sort of CRT shader/filter would be ideal, the art of games from that era was designed with analog interference in mind. Even better if you can play on a real TV. The Wii makes for an excellent retro emulation machine as it supports native 240p and can spit out a number of 15kHz analog formats.
 
Darklands (DOS). An open world RPG back in the early 90s with tones of character and medieval music. You can create new characters at any time, so first build up an old Alchemist in your party who will start with a few very expensive potions to which you can sell right away enabling you to buy all the best armor and weapons (and dont forget to buy horses). Retire that character and create another. Give the game time to set, as it gets really good when your out raiding castles, dungeons, and dragon lairs with lots of loot. Save often.
 
If you want a strict dungeon crawl, with a maddening search for rare artifact items, I would recommend Angband. One of the many many Rogue-likes.
It's ASCII graphics only, but it's really good. And every time you start it, you get a different experience. A true classic.
 
Thanks for the welcome!

Yes, I played Nethack (and Rogue, Umoria, and even Moria) way back before I found Angband. Angband (why is that so hard to type??) was the one that stuck. Something about wearing Morgoth's crown and Galadriel's ring at the same time. Or destroying the dungeon itself every time I smote something with Grond. It just tickled my Tolkien fancy I guess. I'll go back and give Nethack another try some day. At the time it seemed there just wasn't enough info to get started with it unless I went on usenet and asked around. That was frustrating.

Platform availability is key! Especially as old hardware dies. :( I introduced my nephew to Angband on a laptop. A few months later I caught him playing it on his phone. There's hope for the future! :)
 
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