Very open-ended console RPGs
 

I've been completely bored of RPGs lately. I found myself unable to beat Kingdom Hearts 2, Suikoden V, Dragon Quest VIII and a lot of other RPGs. I don't know what it is, I just can't play them anymore.

But, when I picked up Oblivion, I was immediately sucked in and played it for about 150 hours. I was completely addicted. Which tells me, I still have some desire to play RPGs in my blood, but right now just not your typical style RPGs.

Until my desire to play typical RPGs comes back, I'm going to focus on playing The Elder Scrolls-like highly open-ended games. My PC is awful for gaming, so please, no PC-only games. Preferably high customization of your character and a lot of weapons, and equipment to get.

Knights of the Old Republic and its sequel. In each, once you get past the first couple of locations, you are given your choice of several other locations to tackle in whatever order you want. Plus they are really cool games.

I noticed that we're roughly the same age and I've come to a point where it's hard to play an RPG nowadays. The only RPGs I play now are oldschool, like FF1 to FF7, Zelda, and a few others. I've changed from RPG being my favorite genre to FPS and platformers such as Mario 64/Sunshine.

I think it's like this because most RPGs don't require much use of the brain or reflexes. I would much rather play Bloody Roar(fighting) over Kingdom Hearts 2 anyday.

To help your need, I don't know any open-ended RPGs. What I can suggest is find a series where each installment is part of the series' story, ie: Suikoden.

I still have RPG as my favorite genre, but FPS right now I'm having the most fun playing. I love FPS games so much. Never get enough of them.

I'm pretty much in the same phase right now, actually. RPGs are still my favorite genre though and I have plenty of of 'em I am looking forward to this year. Just, none of them are out yet so I've been playing a lot fps to pass the time.

And contrary to popular belief, not all rpgs these days are "easy"; saying that just proves you need to branch out a little more and play some different rpgs. Try SMT: Nocturne or Romancing SaGa or something.

I never said they were easy.

I just said this in another thread but Lufia 2 for the SNES is WICKED. When I was playing it for some reason my saved file got deleted so I started again. When I reached the same point and saved the game deleted it again. I begun the quest a third time and saved in all save slots and finished it. Then I finished it in retry mode. Now I'm considering doing the Ancient Cave (check out some of the guides in gamefaqs and you'll see how daunting a challenge it is). I think it's got just the right mix of puzzles, training your characters and a decent plot. Check it out if you get a chance

Look above you at rendr's post. I was responding to you and then to him. I guess I should have used the quote option, but I didn't feel like going back to check his name at the time.

LUFIA 2 IS THE BEST. God that takes me back, besides the awesome puzzles, bosses and plot, the dungeon music was the greatest.

dun dun dunununununununu dundun

Jade Empire, however it's not as open ended as the Elder Scrolls games, it has some open endedness and it's made by BioWare. Fantastic RPG.

If you're restricting yourself to console RPGs, the Elder Scrolls and KotR games are it.

Romancing Saga: Minstrel Song is pretty open ended too, but that one is open ended to the point of "So where the hell do I go NOW?" I hesistate to recommend that one to anybody with the slightest bit of taste. The creepy doll people don't help matters any.

Get Nocturne and SaGa Frontier. You're done.

Okay, not really done, but those are a great start. SF still confines you to one or two endings per character and has a more simplistic system for determining which ending (assuming you even have a choice) you get. The journey is the fun part, though, as you can pretty much explore freely on your way to completing your quest.

Nocturne gives you a ton of different endings and the whole experience feels more personal, as the character is more your avatar in the game as opposed to a character you're watching as an outsider. The game asks you, the player, questions about your philosophy on life, morality, conflict, religion, death, and some other pretty heavy topics. Once it has a "profile" of how you think, the game (and ending) adapts accordingly. Also, some demons won't join you if they don't agree with the way you think. Note that this "profile" really only applies to the ending, as demon conversations reset each time you start one up.

If you want something traditional and more lighthearted, go with Frontier. If you want something more unorthodox and significantly more gloom-and-doom, go with Nocturne.

How exactly is Morrowind or Daggerfall not like that? Oblivion has map indicators and all that but none of the previous TES games had them. They were just as vague and open ended. If you really like open ended games that give you BASICALLY total freedom; than console wise you can't get much better than Romancing SaGa. One of the best remakes of a game I have ever seen, too. :)

I'll add Legend of Mana and Metal Saga to the titles that have been mentioned already. Also Romancing Saga 3, if you have access to it.

It looks like I really need to try the Romancing Saga remake.

Steambot Chronicles has a pretty open-ended sandbox-like gameworld as in Oblivion and GTA. However, unlike Oblivion, Steambot actually has interactive dialogue and meaningful NPC relations, and unlike GTA, you can't just run dudes over with your Steambot. =/

I have Saga Frontier. It's not the most popular game, but I personally loved it.

If you liked SF, go out and grab Romancing SaGa. They play very similar, and it's a beautiful title.

Nippon Ichi titles. Phantom Brave, La Pucelle and Disgaea all have extreme customization when it comes to items/weapons. Even items have their own levels. It's quite difficult to get yourself involved with, but once you set yourself some goals it's pretty understandable. The games are replayable as they have multiple endings.

But it's extremely time consuming. Also, if you want one of those "my character changes as the story does" RPGs, I recommend Fable.

Star Ocean the Second Story only in regards to the insane amount of endings in the game. 80+ apparently, though I imagine that most are just minor changes. The item creation thing is fun, I personally haven't grasped it fully yet.

Well, I haven't played Dark Cloud 2 in a while, but I recall it having a fairly large amount of customization options. And the dungeons are randomly generated. It's an RPG but definitely not your typical one. You could sink many many hours in if you want to do everything.

Technically yes, Saga Frontier is pretty open ended. I have a hard time recommending any game that is impossible to actually complete without a FAQ or strategy guide, though. I don't like to suggest Romancing Saga for similar reasons - it's TOO faithful to the original. Enjoy being raped repeatedly by super monsters while you try to figure out what side-quests are actually safe for you to do. Aquaint yourself well with the money cheat too; you will need it.

Eh? Enemies in both games scale as you do. It's true that sometimes they may scale a bit too fast, or maybe you'll come across a boss that is a little too hard for your current set of equipment or the like but generally all that means is you'll struggle through the battle (doesn't matter since hp recovers entirely after every battle in SaGa games anyway) or you'll have to go back to the boss later if it owns you.

It isn't like you'll forget about it (Romancing SaGa has a journal at least, something SF sorely lacked) and you have to pass a certain amount of event levels and/or beat certain quests to open the tougher ones anyway. You're grossly exaggerating the difficulty.

Talk about it. I can't even bring myself to finish Kingdom Hearts I. Tried Suikoden III for 5 minutes and ditched that for Grandia III instead. It's odd, but I find it harder to get attracted to a game nowadays (or maybe it's just me)

I don't play enough so I can't recommend anything much out there, but Star Ocean III and Grandia III works pretty well for me so far. And I'm gonna get my hands on Elder Scrolls since everyone's recommending it.

Same here. I'm getting a little bored with RPG nowadays too. I had to force myself to play Dragon Quest VIII and Star Ocean. They are good games, don't get me wrong, but sometimes you are simply not in the mood for it.

On the other hand, I had a balst of fun playing KOTOR 1 and 2, and Jade Empire, I recommend it. And the RPG titles I haven't got bored are SRGPs (Strategy). Adding what Elixir said, another title I played like mad was Stella Deus: Gate of Eternity.

I was going to play Oblivion myself, but my video card is not up to the task, so I plan on trading it in a few months.

KOTOR is for sure one of the most open ended RPGs I've ever played, if you are into that Star Wars stuff.

I found the battles kind of tedious and lame after a while, but it is a great game.