Recommend me a RPG game with these criteries

[Jon AS]

And the first one at least isn't going to be winning any feminist gaming awards (I haven't played the second).

That goes without saying, the game is rather infamous for it. The second one is much improved on that front, though Triss sadly turns into a damsel in distress for much of it.

[Fez]

I'd like to throw my own request for a recommendation in here for an RPG/action RPG, rather than starting another thread. Although note that I've already played pretty much every game mentioned so far. My criteria are:

-fully customizable main character (I can't stress enough how much I hate Geralt, I don't want to deal with that again)

-either turn-based or completely real-time, not real-time-with-pause (pretty much every game besides dark souls lets you pause of course, I just don't want the sort of game where I need to constantly interrupt the gameplay to set new commands)

-story and characters are central to the game experience (gameplay itself just needs to be non-repetitive)

-A well-crafted shorter game is better than a padded out longer one

Right now I'm looking at Drakensang, Titan Quest, Avadon 2, Enclave, NWN 2 (that's pretty much the only game already mentioned that I haven't played), Torchlight II, or Dungeon Siege III (I'm sort of leaning towards this because it is Obsidian). But I don't know a ton about any of them, and I'm open to anything else.

[Clueless Northman]

Surely the decisions you make during the game are more important than character customisation? Having a well-defined protagonist allows for a more personalised story, which is a good thing.

Indeed with the Witcher, if the playable character is all set to begin with, like in Planescape Torment, he suffers from a major case of amnesia, so the player is free to pick any path he wants - including paths that books-Geralt would never take and would actually fight against.

So, in this regard, you still have a fairly wide margin of RP. But obviously you don't have as much freedom as in games like BG or Elder Scrolls where you can create your own character from scratch.

[emberling]

Surely the decisions you make during the game are more important than character customisation?

No. The choices made during the game are important but they are informed by who the character is in my mind, yeah?

I've got no desire to RP or get into the head of someone as uninspiring as Geralt, so it's a much more "gamey", disconnected decision process. Less "what would I do" and more "which path do I want to see/which path looks easiest/has the best reward". Could I force myself, really push myself, to get inside the mind of a completely uninteresting dudebro so that I can maybe enjoy this game that has terrible combat, terrible systems, terrible loading times, no sign of a decent story in the first several hours, and blatant misogyny to boot? Yeah, I could probably handle that. How much does it pay?

I don't know, I think different people must have entirely different approaches to these kinds of games. For me, the character creation is the entire core of the game. I don't mean that I spend my time on the creation screen - I mean that even after it's closed, the point of the game is fleshing out this character, finding out how she interacts with the world and how she is changed by contact with it, how she grows in my mind. This process works for me independent of how much my character's choices affect the world, which seems to be a common RP metric others use. What do I care whether random townsfolk talk about my deeds rather than whatever else townsfolk talk about? Was Dragon Age: Awakening terrible because it barely acknowledged that I was the goddamn queen? No. I knew I was the queen, that was enough. Even in MMOs as shallow as a puddle where there's barely two bits of story to rub together, I can really get deep into my character because she is mine.

It has a lot to do with the character too, though. I was able to get fully immersed in Gaige in Borderlands 2. Probably wouldn't have with Maya, definitely not the boys. So it doesn't necessarily depend on full customization but full customization virtually guarantees success while no customization has a really low success rate.

Fez:

DS3 doesn't have fully customized characters - it's like Borderlands. Pick one of four. It's not the worst way to spend twenty hours but nothing special.

Have you played Divinity II and Kingdoms of Amalur? For your criteria I'd put those above anything I've played out of your list. Divinity is one of those games where it's full of awesome and awful and not a lot in between, but overall I had a great time with it. Amalur was just smooth, well put together, fun, and expansive. Neither really fit the "short" part of the criteria though. Neither does NWN2. I did like NWN2 but it's a lot clunkier and less fun.

I played like five minutes of Drakensang years and years ago but I remember it being a straight baldur's gate/NWN clone i.e. realtime with pause. NWN2 is as well, of course.

Titan Quest and Torchlight II are Diablo type ARPGs. You probably know that already. I only got like an hour or two into either one before getting too bored to continue, but that's just me. I never met an ARPG of that formula that I liked except the actual Diablos.

[snowleper]

Glad to see someone else appreciating BoF IV as it should be, people tend to glorify the 3rd one, and while the end of the game was definitively more satisfying in 3, the story and party members were more interesting, and by far, in 4.

Also, Breath of Fire IV's soundtrack is simply brilliant.

Wouldn't recommend playing the PC version though, it's buggy as hell.

Suikoden 2 has a similar soundtrack. (They share songs).

I love BOFIV -- but of the two games, I think Suikoden II is the better. You should really give it a shot if you already haven't.

[Fez]

Fez:

DS3 doesn't have fully customized characters - it's like Borderlands. Pick one of four. It's not the worst way to spend twenty hours but nothing special.

Have you played Divinity II and Kingdoms of Amalur? For your criteria I'd put those above anything I've played out of your list. Divinity is one of those games where it's full of awesome and awful and not a lot in between, but overall I had a great time with it. Amalur was just smooth, well put together, fun, and expansive. Neither really fit the "short" part of the criteria though. Neither does NWN2. I did like NWN2 but it's a lot clunkier and less fun.

I played like five minutes of Drakensang years and years ago but I remember it being a straight baldur's gate/NWN clone i.e. realtime with pause. NWN2 is as well, of course.

Titan Quest and Torchlight II are Diablo type ARPGs. You probably know that already. I only got like an hour or two into either one before getting too bored to continue, but that's just me. I never met an ARPG of that formula that I liked except the actual Diablos.

Thanks.

I've played Divinity II and KoR. I liked Divinity II for about 20 hours, but then got bored with the gameplay and didn't find the story compelling enough to keep going; same happened with KoR.

I know DS3 isn't customizable, but my hope is that with 4 characters I'd fine at least one to be compelling.

I actually wasn't sure about Drakensang and NWN2, so that's good to know.

And I knew that TQ and Torchlight II were Diablo-types, but I was hoping they'd have deeper stories nonetheless; it could happen.

[Maia]

Thirding Planescape Torment. But anything by Spiderweb software is going to scratch that old-school RPG itch, I think.

Yea, Torment is very good, but if somebody enjoys tactical combat of the other IE games and/or highly values the ability to define gender and appearance of the main character, it may not quite suit. Spiderweb stuff is purely turn-based, which the OP doesn't want, IIRC.

Also, Heroine's Quest is, I believe, free on Steam and is basically a Quest for Glory game. Which you should also check out.

I completed it and absolutely loved it. I have never played any of the old "X's Quest" or "Quest for Y" series, but combination of puzzles, a bit of action and some meaningful survival gameplay turned out to be right up my alley. Writing in it is very enjoyable and funny too, and I loved the retro-ish, but very appealing visual presentation.

It has little in common with Infinty Engine games, so I don't know whether it would appeal to Elysia, but more people should try it regardless, IMHO.

I'm not interested in planescape. Oblivion and Morrowind are OK, KOTR are not my cup of tea, I think I will try Dragon Age Origins.

Well, Torment is very good, but see above. As to Morrowind, I love it to pieces, but people complimenting it for it's story are rather misleading, IMHO. Not that there isn't an interesting story buried deeply inside it, but one has to dig through uninspiring wiki-style dialogue system, lots of unadorned fetch or kill Z quests, and read lots of in-game books to get to it. I am a fan of Morrowind, but I would never recommend it for it's story, and of course the gameplay is very different from the IE games too. Exploration is the name of the game, and early on, survival.

In your place, I wouldn't dismiss the KOTORs out of hand, though, they are very enjoyable games, that have quite a bit in common with IE games. Certainly much more than some other options suggested. They are party-based, RTwP (though combat is not as complex or good as in BGs, but looks prettier), and you create the main character yourself. And the stories are well-presented. KOTOR 2 is a bit of a diamond in the rough, though, and needs to have fan patches applied. YMMV, of course.

Oh, and I have heard that Drakensang II + expansion is quite good, at least in German. Also party-based, RTwP, free creation of the main character. Not sure about the English localization, though, and I have never played it myself.

[emberling]

Morrowind's strength is its setting. It's got a perfectly adequate Kwisatz Haderach plot but what really makes it work is delving into the super awesome creepy Dwemer and Daedric ruins, trying to dig up some answers to their mysteries. And the giant crabshell houses of the Redoran, and the Silt Striders looming over the cities, and figuring out what the deal with the religion is, and so on and on. The game is just full of enticing mystery in a way that Oblivion completely failed to duplicate and Skyrim only managed a pale shadow (though Skyrim managed to be a decent game in other respects).

[Werthead]

To the OP:

Wait a month or two.

Purchase Pillars of Eternity.

(it's an Infinity Engine-style game from the makers of Icewind Dale 1+2, Planescape: Torment, Neverwinter Nights 2, Fallout 1+2, Fallout: New Vegas, Knights of the Old Republic II and who also helped out on Baldur's Gate II)

Job done.

I'd like to throw my own request for a recommendation in here for an RPG/action RPG, rather than starting another thread. Although note that I've already played pretty much every game mentioned so far. My criteria are:

Divinity: Original Sin? Otherwise I'd wait for Pillars of Eternity or Wasteland 2, which is out in a fortnight.

Hey, Wasteland 2 skill video. Looks pretty good.

[Clueless Northman]

Werthead: OP should just check if PC requirements are fine or not. Though considering the kind of games Pillars of Eternity is, I don't expect it to require a monster PC, unlike Witcher 3 or Planetside 2.

Morrowind's strength is its setting. It's got a perfectly adequate Kwisatz Haderach plot but what really makes it work is delving into the super awesome creepy Dwemer and Daedric ruins, trying to dig up some answers to their mysteries. And the giant crabshell houses of the Redoran, and the Silt Striders looming over the cities, and figuring out what the deal with the religion is, and so on and on. The game is just full of enticing mystery in a way that Oblivion completely failed to duplicate

Totally agree. If you love huge open-world, it's even more reason to try it.

[Fez]

Divinity: Original Sin? Otherwise I'd wait for Pillars of Eternity or Wasteland 2, which is out in a fortnight.

Hey, Wasteland 2 skill video. Looks pretty good.

Played it. Liked it a lot at first, ended up becoming game-breakingly over-powered though. I am looking forward to both of those when they come out, but right now pretty much the only game that's held my interest over the past month has been Civ5, and I'd really like to break that up with something else.

I will probably get Destiny this week so the pressure to find something will lessen, but that looks like they're keeping the RPG elements extremely light. I think it'll be fun, but won't hit that itch.