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[OmegaSupreme]

Hey hey, all. I was looking at this bundle at humble

RPG Legends: Baldur's Gate & Beyond

We’ve teamed up with Beamdog and Owlcat for our newest bundle. Get games like Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous and Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition. Plus, pay what you want & support charity!

www.humblebundle.com

I've always wanted to get into crpgs and this seems like a great place to start. I like story-focused games with interesting characters. Like most of us though I'm not made of free time. Are there any of these or other crpgs that don't require a huge time sink? I own Pillars of Eternity and Arcanum as well. I also picked up Disco Elysium. I keep buying these damn games but always get overwhelmed by their hugeness. What would be a good crpg for a working man? Or should I just give up on this genre entirely?

 

[qthaumaturge]

Hey hey, all. I was looking at this bundle at humble

RPG Legends: Baldur's Gate & Beyond

We’ve teamed up with Beamdog and Owlcat for our newest bundle. Get games like Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous and Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition. Plus, pay what you want & support charity!

www.humblebundle.com

I've always wanted to get into crpgs and this seems like a great place to start. I like story-focused games with interesting characters. Like most of us though I'm not made of free time. Are there any of these or other crpgs that don't require a huge time sink? I own Pillars of Eternity and Arcanum as well. I also picked up Disco Elysium. I keep buying these damn games but always get overwhelmed by their hugeness. What would be a good crpg for a working man? Or should I just give up on this genre entirely?

Jade Empire
Gothic 1
The Witcher
All of these are ~30 hours
I think everything else is way longer though...

 

[xpresstuning]

Then make your free time count by first playing some of the best games ever made in an isometric perspective. Games that will have a lasting impact, will give you cherishable memories and will possibly stimulate parts of your brain that you did not think were possible. Play with something that you know you must play at least once in your life because there is nothing like it.

Obviously, if you haven't, start with Planescape: Torment Enhanced Edition. It's on the shorter side .. if you rush through it. If you play it organically once i think you can manage like 35 - 40 hours at max. It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that has not been replicated. It hasn't "aG3d" because no creative thought process since has attempted something similar. It is also the best written role playing game ever made. I replay it like once every couple of years.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

Then make your free time count by first playing some of the best games ever made in an isometric perspective. Games that will have a lasting impact, will give you cherishable memories and will possibly stimulate parts of your brain that you did not think were possible. Play with something that you know you must play at least once in your life because there is nothing like it.

Obviously, if you haven't, start with Planescape: Torment Enhanced Edition. It's on the shorter side .. if you rush through it. If you play it organically once i think you can manage like 35 - 40 hours at max. It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that has not been replicated. It hasn't "aG3d" because no creative thought process since has attempted something similar. It is also the best written role playing game ever made. I replay it like once every couple of years.

Isn't Planescape the one where the best playthroughs are the non-combat ones? I thought I heard that if you max out intelligence and charisma it's actually a better game.

 

[qthaumaturge]

Isn't Planescape the one where the best playthroughs are the non-combat ones? I thought I heard that if you max out intelligence and charisma it's actually a better game.

PS:T is not a CRPG, it's a tongue-in-cheek deconstruction of the genre.
There are armor slots but the whole game has no armor, at all.
A lot of high level spells were modeled after FF Eidolons.
And a lot of other spoilery reasons.
Essentially it's "let's do an RPG where everything is not what it seems".
And they did succeed. But it's not a CRPG. Lol.

 

[TintoConCasera]

Heard Tyranny is much shorter than the typical CRPG experience.

I went deeper into the genre this year and managed to beat Baldur's Gate 2. Had an amazing time with that game, but it's long (took me like 75 hours)

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Isn't Planescape the one where the best playthroughs are the non-combat ones? I thought I heard that if you max out intelligence and charisma it's actually a better game.

Yes, with high INT and WIS the play through is much more enjoyable.

 

[xpresstuning]

Isn't Planescape the one where the best playthroughs are the non-combat ones? I thought I heard that if you max out intelligence and charisma it's actually a better game.

Wisdom is the most important stat as far as dialogue option go and you get more EXP the more Wisdom you have, then intelligence and charisma. You can avoid combat in 80% of the situations, but it's best to just role-play your character and organically play the game as you see fit for a first time playthrough. Combat is just incredibly simple and incredibly easy, which makes it boring as a melee character, but i wouldn't call it bad. I wouldn't call it good either. Eh, playing as a spellcaster will be much more entertaining and you'll have plenty of melee characters in your party to tank hits. Also will make sense with a high Wisdom/INT/Charisma build.

 

[Guilty_AI]

I heard Shadowrun games are rather short for the genre, taking usually 20 to 40 hours to beat.

 

[Mozzarella]

I think all kinds of RPGs should stick to normal playtime of 20-40 hours, you can make great RPG without needing to go beyond 40 hours, just dont necessarily make it open world, there's no need for fetch quests, no need for filler content, put all your side content power into side quests that are worthwhile, make them fewer but longer and better, also focus on replay value, 20-40 hours RPG with tons of replay value will net you about 200 hours of playtime IF you enjoyed it a lot, and if you didnt you should be satisfied with one 20-40 hours playthrough.
With that said some RPG could cross the 100 hours mark but i wish that was the few and not the many.
These days it seems every RPG is 100 hours at bare minimum, and there's not really a strong justification for it.
Some of my all time favorite RPGs are 80-200 hours, so i kind of understand that, longer journeys tend to have more lasting impact, but i am sure that developers can manage to make ~40 hours RPG just fine, with high quality as well.

To give you a shorter RPG, i think VTMB might be interesting to check out.

 

[Corian33]

Tyranny is a good one that has all the standard fare of the genre at only 20-25 hours in length. Plus you play as the “bad guys” which is a fun twist.

The Shadowrun trilogy is also a good option. Each game is on the shorter side, like 20 hours.

Absolutely do NOT choose Pathfinder Kingmaker. I’m like 35 hours into it and feel like I’ve only chipped through the surface a bit. It’s seriously like a fully fledged RPG campaign that you might play out over 5+ years IRL.