Support NeoGAF

[LakeOf9]

Role playing games are among the best type of game there is, and western take on RPGs may be the peak form of the genre, allowing for an insanely granular level of player agency and build variety (albeit at the expense of game feel and mechanical finesse, usually).

Over the last 20 years, WRPGs have become a dominant genre of gaming (thanks largely to the success of The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion, which helped popularize the burgeoning genre to mainstream popularity basically overnight). With multiple WRPGs already having launched this year, and even more fantastic ones on the horizon, this is the time to ask - what western role playing game franchise do you think is the best one and why?

For this poll, I basically had two criteria:

• The IP has to be a "series" i.e., two games or more
• The IP has to be active, i.e. it has to either have a recent release, or a recent announcement of an upcoming release

Anyway, my favorite is The Elder Scrolls, which is also one of my favorite franchises in general – it is certainly my favorite open world franchise, if nothing else, yes, I like it way more than Rockstar or From or Nintendo open worlds too, no I am not going to change my mind on this

 

[Liopleurodon]

Clair Obscur.

 

[TintoConCasera]

Include Ultima, Might & Magic and Gothic on the list you pleb.

...mine's Mass Effect, love the blue chick.
Quite barebones as an RPG lol, but what can I say, love the setting and narrative, plus the gameplay isn't bad at all imo.

Kingdom Come would be a close second. The sequel specially gave me a lot of hope for the future of videogames.

 

[LakeOf9]

Clair Obscur.

For this poll, I basically had two criteria:

• The IP has to be a "series" i.e., two games or more

-

Include Ultima, Might & Magic and Gothic on the list you pleb.

...mine's Mass Effect, love the blue chick.

I really wanted Ultima and Gothic on there, but they've been dead for so long, there's no real point lol. But hell yeah on the shout out if nothing else!

 

[TintoConCasera]

-

I really wanted Ultima and Gothic on there, but they've been dead for so long, there's no real point lol. But hell yeah on the shout out if nothing else!

Hey! Gothic is getting a remake soon, if that makes any difference.

 

[vodka-bull]

Clair Obscur.

Series…

I wanted to post the same…

 

[LakeOf9]

Hey! Gothic is getting a remake soon, if that makes any difference.

Did not know that, good enough for me to add the option to the poll at least lol

 

[HRK69]

Pathfinder is up there

 

[ShadyAcshuns]

Fallout

 

[calico]

Probably The Witcher as a franchise. Deus Ex the best single RPG.

I don't think of AC as an RPG franchise.

 

[Mister Wolf]

Baldur's Gate.

 

[amigastar]

Did not know that, good enough for me to add the option to the poll at least lol

Yep, the upcoming Gothic remake which looks very good. I voted for Gothic btw.

 

[BennyBlanco]

Elder Scrolls

 

[WoJ]

Mass Effect and its not close.

 

[Schmendrick]

Elder Scrolls and Bethesda games in general never really clicked for me.
I really liked Fable 1 and 2 back in the day and Mass Effect was also up there, even though the 3rd part fumbled it a bit, but since Witcher 3 came out that one took the undisputed top spot for me.

 

[Fbh]

Mass Effect.
I tend to like Sci Fi more than medieval fantasy and I've always thought ME has one of the most compelling original worlds in gaming.

 

[Doctor Hades]

I am going to be really old-school here (and give my age away) by saying that I loved Dungeon Master on Atari ST and Eye of the Beholder 1 & 2 on Commodore Amiga and probably rate those as being my favourite RPGs of all-time, at least from memory. I spent hundreds of hours playing those games, something I rarely do with modern RPGs with the exception perhaps of Skyrim and Oblivion.

 

[Artistic]

Mass Effect. 2 is a top 10 game of all time.

 

[Rockondevil]

TES and it isn't even close.

 

[LakeOf9]

TES and it isn't even close.

 

[intbal]

Gold Box

 

[Hawk The Slayer]

Super hard between Fallout and Elder Scroll, the two best RPG ever!

 

[R3TRO]

Fable

 

[Judge Magister]

As a series maybe Fallout. First two are classics, 3 and New Vegas are awesome.

Also like Borderlands alot if that qualifies. Had so much fun with 1, 2 and TPS.

 

[pudel]

They are all awesome (except AssCreed....thats not an RPG for me)....but Witcher it is.

 

[Topher]

Tough one. Between Elder Scrolls and Mass Effect for me, but voted for Elder Scrolls.

 

[March Climber]

The pacing in the original Mass Effect trilogy (especially 2) is so immaculate that I can't vote for anything else.

 

[Black_Stride]

Twas a tough call between Mass Effect and The Witcher.
Mass Effect 2 is in my list of favorite RPGs of all time.
As a series though The Witcher takes it.

 

[SomeNorseGuy]

Since Pathfinder wasn't an option I went for Divinity Original Sin. Great first outing and amazing sequel, hope Larian returns to this world in the future.

 

[KenaiPhoenix]

Fallout 1 and 2 are just incredible. It would have been nice to see what ideas they could have with the Van Buren version of the FO3.

 

[Durin]

Always going to be Baldur's Gate for me. The 1st game was one of the first RPG video games I ever played, the 2nd is still the best Bioware game to this day, and the 3rd brought everything I love about Larian when it comes to combat + ridiculous player choice.

I'm glad Dragon Age has 0 votes (so far), because only Origins and Inquisition are worth a damn in that series.

 

[balls of snow]

Witcher...was there at the beginning with Witcher 1. Mass Effect trilogy close second.

 

[Lillie]

I can play this game over and over again + the original and TLC

 

[Goalus]

Baldur's Gate

But Ultima is close behind, maybe Larian are working on Ultima 10 right now?

 

[Cert.in.Death]

One among:
Elder Scrolls, Path Of Exile, Deus Ex

Gun to my head: Elder Scrolls. But the argument for Deus Ex is compelling.

 

[Mozzarella]

Remove Ass Creed its an insult that its on the poll.
Also no Might and Magic? no Wizardry? no Ultima? even if they are no longer active those are the most iconic and the most influential and they should be on every poll like this.

I vote for Fallout, i like the perks and the way its leveling works, its a cool setting too with a lot of roleplay potential and evil playthroughs are great in this franchise.
Baldur's Gate is basically DnD and thats an excellent franchise but i think the Bioware games didn't age so well. I think i prefer the way Larian handles DnD more.
Elder Scrolls is fun and all but its way too simplified and too easy, its cool for newcomers though.
Witcher is alright, but only 1 game is truly great.
KCD is still fresh and small, no opinion yet.
Gothic same as Witcher.
Not a fan of Star Wars.
Mass Effect is a great trilogy but its not influential or iconic in any way.
I find Fable too shallow to even be considered.

Fallout is my favorite but it has a lot of stinkers as well as a lot of great ones, for most consistent and best objectively its probably Baldurs Gate

 

[GHound]

Gotta be Dark Souls for sure.

I put The Witcher because I've been mostly ambivalent to them for a minute.

 

[DaciaJC]

The Witcher for sure. First two games are pretty good, third game is outright magical, a real love letter for fans of the books.

 

[Shubh_C63]

Mass Effect
But I really never saw it as an RPG. Idky

 

[Brigandier]

Fallout for me.

 

[Celcius]

The Elder Scrolls >>>>>>> Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Everything Else

 

[simpatico]

1a: Fallout - the amazing set of lore continues to get watered down with Bethesda releases, but in the right hands it can provide a granite foundation for a kino kaleidoscope. ie: New Vegas, interpreted properly, pulls this up to number 1.
1b: Elder Scrolls - The easily approachable nature and abyssally deep replay value thanks to the race system pull this ahead of Witcher and another I don't see mentioned in this thread. Bethesda provided a great lore structure, but all the best moments are head cannon or community created. Since it doesn't have a release that I feel truly realizes the promise on the tin, Fallout barely pulls ahead (Heil Caesar).

I don't have any faith in Bethesda moving forward. The only hope we have is them staying on Creation Engine. I promise the overcast drizzly days, interior emergence moments and single light source rooms aren't worth it bros. Starfield looks plenty crispy and I don't need a continent simulator. Skyrim map size is more than I can reasonably handle anyways. Loading screens going into buildings beats the hell out of whatever vanilla experience Bethesda is going to serve us. If they drop the race system like I expect them to, nunadis mattas anyways.

 

[LordCBH]

Elder Scrolls vs Fallout vs KOTOR for me. I can only pick one so I'll go with elder scrolls.

 

[R6Rider]

Elder Scrolls still.

 

[Hawk The Slayer]

Elder Scrolls and Fallout games are the only single player RPGs that lots of people could spend over a 1,000 hours on and over 2,000 hours in some cases or more and could still go back and have tons of fun from time to time. The others there are either 100 or 200 hours at most before being bored completely or not even worth playing at all.

 

[Sinozen]

Damn that's hard choice

 

[Grildon Tundy]

This was way harder of a choice than I thought it'd be.

I was torn between Fallout and Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Elder Scrolls and The Witcher honorable mentions.

I went with Fallout.

I bet you after KCD 3 comes out, that'll be my favorite all-time series. KCD 2 is my GOTY--and I've played Clair Obscur.

 

[GHG]

Close one between the Witcher and TES and Divinity for me. If not for Skyrim then I probably would have gone for TES.

The both the Wasteland series and the shadowrun series also deserve a mention in addition to those in the OP IMO. The fact that Fallout gets a mention but wasteland doesn't is terrible. Outside of NV, what's happened to the fallout series since 2 is criminal.

1. Witcher
2. TES
3. Divinity
4. Baldur's Gate
5. Wasteland

 

[nikos]

I've given all of those series a chance and didn't like them except for the following.

Kingdom Come was pretty good but I never finished it.
Assassin's Creed has a few good entries but I don't consider it an RPG.
I remember Fable being pretty good but don't think I played much of it.

Will give the new Gothic a shot.

 

[orfax]

Tough choice, Baldur's Gate or Gothic. I went with Baldur's Gate in the end.