RPGs Without Stupid Effing Dragons

darklands

I'm pretty sure there's dragons in Darklands.

the guild

if you can puzzle it out which i totally can't

this is a good question!

i think i would like to play something like this too!

I could be wrong, but I think the Joan of Arc game recently released for PSP fits these criteria. I imagine since you play Joan of Arc there's a supernatural element of a kind, but I think it's a pretty mundane historical evocation and there are no beasties or anything.

PC RPGs to try:

Arcanum (victorian steampunk, little magic)
VTM: Bloodlines(goths, little magic)
Lionheart(set in 15-Cent alt-Europe, some magic, 2nd half of the game turns to shit, tho)
Fallout (laser guns, no magic, great writing)
Planescape: Tormet(magic, no dragons, entire game is designed to support plot)

darklands has dragons but it's still ace. kind of a steep learning curve at the outset, it takes a long time to get your characters up to the point where they do anything interesting.

tho since it's abandonware (u need dos emulator thing to run it too) the places where it's available usually give you a cheater/editor along with it, too.

I've actually had Darklands for a long time but I never seem to get into it - steep learning curve, as you say, and a lot of info to absorb early on. Also it still falls outside my severe Socialist Realism criteria here.

I've been meaning to play Planescape for a long time too. I mean I'm not against fantasy elements in games, I'm just wishing for something that doesn't have those elements in at all.

What about wastelands?

Thing is, now you're starting to get into the heart of escapist entertainment & genres & such. The easiest way for gamedevs for the last 20 years to add to the escapist elements to go for the really different bits, and all the genre trappings.

Dark Cloud 2 had a lot of fantasy bullshit but as far as I remember there were no dragons. There were wrenches though.

wandering into a town where they say they worship Saint Simon Magus, who taught them to judge good and evil, as the gods, then accusing them of witchcraft and cutting them down as they all attack you, then burning the town... no that isn't socialist realism but it's pretty fucking awesome

TBH That sort of thing probly happened quite a bit.

there were dragons in DC2. I had to use the buggy robot to kill them.
(the buggy robot killed the game for me, actually. after I got him built up to where he could basically destroy any and all opposition, I got disgusted grinding up the levels on the comparatively pathetic dude & girl and just kind of gave up on it).

Front Mission 4 has exactly 100% no fantasy bullshit in it at all. If you ever wanted to play a square enix tactical take on a sort of masamune shirow mecha universe, it's pretty good. Note: the terrain and sprites are "realistic" to the point of occasionally being really muddy and ugly on screen, so I recommend getting component cables and a TV with excellent contrast to enjoy it proper like.

In fact I'm pretty sure FM4 doesn't even have lasers in it. closest things to magic are healing and status effects which are explained away by requiring big bulky add-ons to the mecha in the form of a "repair" backpack (which apparently can just spray-on a new arm or leg or slop on fresh coat of armor lickety-split in the middle of combat) and an EMP generator (which somehow manages to focus its effects on just the bad guys).

BUT I could not live in a world without Dragon Quest (which features mostly not dragons anyway). "A capsacin approaches!"

there's some advertisement on lately that has a bit of classical in it that reminds me of the DQ8 overworld music and makes me really want to skip out of work and go home and fire that shit up right now

actually

Yeah don't get me wrong I play nuff RPGs with Orcs and Dragons and Bilious Cubes and I love all that.

I think it's the extended Morrowind jag I've been on that led me to think how cool it would be to have all those intricacies of politics in a real world setting. That game's pretty cute in its relatively restrained use of monsters and the fact that most of your serious enemies are humanoids like you. I've still got love for D&D-esque games, I would just love to play a deep historical nerdfest.

I just bought a box of wine and DQVIII. This is my weekend.

Planscape: Torment is one of the top 5 games ever written.

RPGs need dragons because RPGs are about killing things and a game where you kill thousands of humans would be disturbing.

Yeah, luckily nobody has come up with a video game that involves killing thousands of humans yet.

xpost

I've just got Planescape after reading its praises for a couple of years. At the moment it feels good but not great, but I assume it's going to open up big time.

I sohuld play Planespae... are you running it on WinXP? Should I attempt the same?

wow, my spelling.

I was able to run Planescape: Torment on WinXP with zero problems, give it a go.

Planescape has the standard "learning dungeon" thing, like the Fallout games, where you're plunked down in a pretty constrained environment until you finish the prologue.

Consider it a pre-title sequence to a Bond flick, only with more clicky.

Yeah I'm running it on XP too Will no problems at all. It's not that old!

I'm more concerned about playing it on my laptop, which has somethingl ike 1440x800 as the resolution. It's going to look very lol.

Playing Shadow Hearts: Covenant currently. No dragons yet, but there are some monsters, and it starts in WWI-era France. Notable exceptions to the JRPG standards are that your hot female lead starts off in german infantry officer garb (which i can't currently find a pic of) before switching into traditional jrpg female wear:

http://img.gkblogger.com/blog/imgdb/000/000/006/779_2.jpg

I think I wd prefer the army gear.

She has it for the 1st bit, at least.

JRPGs are never, ever about the realism are they?

http://www.rpgfan.com/soundtracks/rg-ost/cover_l.jpg

now, what would make you say a thing like that?

also, note that SH:C has a component where your wolf battles other champion wolves that you encounter, and the 2nd wolf is sporting a red trucker hat with "DREADNOUGHT" emblazoned on the brim.

lol

I am always troubled by characters with big swords who can still defeat guys without giant laser cannons and such.

rogue galaxy is awesome space opera though

btw I got STALLED in Front Mission before one of the final battles. It sucks the only way to grind up in this game is to rehash the same ten simulator missions over and over. Bleah.

Dragon Quest VIII too Dragony for you, kingfish? Or don't tell me, you beat the whole thing in a week.

No, still playing DQ8, am quite enjoying it, partially due to the fact that you don't really have to grind. However, i'm at the first dhoulmagus fight, and it seems i have to build my guys up a bit to win.

Other than that, I like it. I'm already like 60 hours in.

Rogue galaxy i will probably pick up next. And Okami and maybe Odin Sphere. We're at that great point in a console's life where all the games made for it are still out there & available cheap, but the hardcore crowd has already moved out to the next iteration and are selling all their old stuff. Like the gamecube, for example.

And we haven't hit the point where the system & the games are collectors items(see Saturn, Sega) or almost there(see Dreamcast, Sega).

oh the first dhoulmagus fight is for real probably the toughest battle in the game, period

kingfish let me know what else you find that's pretty great. I'm going to put the Shadow Hearts game back on the wishlist as a reminder.

also who knows anything about suikoden v?

I know that plenty of folks enjoy the series, but not much more than that. Hell, I got lots of my first impressions of titles from threads on the SA forums. Mix in some metacritic and gametrailers and you have a good sampling.

I just want a few more RPGs that I'm not going to be too pissed off at to finish

how's your progress at Dark Cloud 2? I'm on hold right at chapter 6 or so, when you come back from the future.

Oddly enough, I'm also smack in the middle of playing Shadow Hearts: Covenant- just reached disc 2, where my party is fighting the Japanese Imperial Navy and their thoroughly improbable steampunk robots. What really got my attention was <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZsHIAoTgZM";>this video</a>- any game that fucking bizarre had to be worth playing. Note that a) the blonde guy is a pro-wrestling vampire, b) the little girl is Anastasia Romanov and c) this game actually managed to get released uncensored in the US. I have no idea how, but wow, it is hilariously filthy.

The basic idea seems to be taking all the most ridiculous tropes in Japanese-style console RPGs- airships, random encounters with monsters in even the most inappropriate of settings, overripe dialogue, elaborate summoning spells, angst-filled antiheroes, etc.- and putting them in WWI-era Europe. Even once you've gotten into the RPG-y groove somewhat you'll be snapped out of it every so often by a character's urgent declaration that WE NEED TO REACH WALES OR ALL HOPE IS LOST.

And once again I forget that ILX uses BBCode now; click the link, delete the ending quotation mark and try again to watch the video.

I can't edit post text anymore, i don't think, w/ the latest code.

Also, this game is funnier than most Square Enix outings.

And the whole thing is hilariously overstuff with anachronisms, usually self-aware.

And the rendering style is such that all the characters look like well-endowed Thunderbirds.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0443635/

HAHAHA one of the voice-actors is credited as "John Smallberries," but I haven't really found any other refs yet

I stalled and quit DC2 shortly after getting the time-travel train and realizing I didn't care what happened to the main characters at all after the max's mom story petered out. Also I basically got all the pimpest gear for the Hoopty Pod and built all the towns up to the maximum (I think) so "eh"

I also stalled in RG right before the ending! Jesus this is like four games I'm in the final chapter of right now that I'm not going to finish isn't it. wtf

I stopped Xenogears whilst wandering around in the final dungeon. Enh, says I.

I think I still have that game, too.

If your copy is in good condition, you should trade it to me for something

PLEASE?

The discs are all good, the manual has a little water damage.

Hell, it's not going for too much on ebay, either.

Where the hell do all the millions of games sold go, anyway? It's not like they're star wars figures and yer mom trashes them(like she did w/ my micro-bespin playset), these things sold plenty, should be more than a few out there. Well, maybe not Xenogears, but FF7 at least.

I'll seriously take it off your hands if you for some insane reason don't want it anymore, e-mail me

haha no, i think i'll be holding it for a while. Wanna sell your copy of RG?

I'm surprised Square hasn't worked out some XBLA/VC deal with all their old titles, Castlevania-style. As Tim Schafer once wondered, why the hell do games go out of print?

I think square is rightfully waiting it out to see who wants to dump the most cash in their lap for exclusivity before they re-release their best titles ever. which means of course they'll all end up on the Playstation Network

Get on the AIM, will you? I'm on as "Senor Funkapus"

lol I need to get back on the aimwagon apparently

will surely do wonders for my diction

how it works, usually.

I feel like many RPGs have moles (the animal) in them.

Moles
Chickens
and
cows

and, of course, dragons.

Just a regular run-of-the-mill mole.

<3

http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/EarthBound/Update%2016/10-capture_09032008_105030.png

http://www.1101.com/MOTHER3/monster/m_08.gif

http://www.woodus.com/den/gallery/graphics/dq8ps2/monster/don_mole.png

http://www.smrpglegacy.com/Nintendo%20Pictures/Super%20Mario%20RPG/dynamite.gif

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:U5mk37rMjv3CdM:http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q177/zenigame1004/mischivousmole.jpg&t=1

http://www.woodus.com/den/gallery/graphics/slimedq2/chara/mischievous_mole.png

Not an RPG but

http://www.mariowiki.com/images/b/bc/Mega_Mole.PNG

Oh man there are SO many moles outside RPGs. I should have just started a thread for moles in vid games.

There was a mole character in Pocky and Rocky 2 but I can't find any photo evidence.

http://www.mariowiki.com/images/b/bc/Mega_Mole.PNG

Such a strong memory FEELING of how satisfying this dude is to jump on.

http://mimg.ugo.com/200812/14414/mr-resetti.jpg

xp Almost as fun as watching them run into a lava pit and slowly sink beneath the surface. :D

in the UK there was a series of early platforming games for computers based around a character called Monty Mole
http://hem.passagen.se/uffewald/monty/mm_cover.jpg

Monty Mole! Maybe I'll go and post this on the video game music thread.

I was once horribly addicted to a Pipemania/Pipe Dreams clone featuring moles digging up a garden. Will wake up at 3am remembering the name.

Molefest!
http://www.pdroms.de/media/upload/images/news/20091107_molefest_%2831-10-2009%29_%28dc_game_port%29.png

...ok, not looking very mole-like there, but still.

http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/4055/bofmogu3.jpg

cute :D

Please do start a mole thread as i would read it

in high school, i created a cartoon character called avogadro's mole
i wrote him a theme song and sang it with my friends and i still can sing it.
It had a great tune.
i still remember all the words

THE MOLE HAS A SOUL BLACK AS COAL CAUSE HE DRINKS OUT OF A FISHBOWL
HE LIVES IN A HOLE WITH A TROLL AND HE LIKE TO CHEW TO-BACC-O
...SKOAL
HE EATS PINEAPPLE, DOLE AND HE JUST SOLD YOUR SOUL TO THE GOD OF ROCK AND ROLL, HE'S THE MOLE
(HE'S THE MOLE)
HE'S THE MOLE
(HE'S THE MOLE)
HE'S THE MOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLE.

oh yeh has anyone played Mole Mania for the gameboy? it was a Miyamoto designed puzzle game, i've been kinda curious about it for a while now.

http://www.consoleclassix.com/info_img/Mole_Mania_GBC_ScreenShot1.gif

omg forks that's great

forks when I read those lyrics it was immediately 100% obvious what tune to sing them to, but what is that tune called? it's been bugging me!

He eats pineapple... DOLE!!!

Real life looool at forks. I sang that in my accompanied by hair metal with a really really long dueling guitar solo after the word SKOAL

Avogadro's mole!

please record this Z S

I would but I'm busy recording my latest concept album, Daryl Dinosaurpants

Or as we refer to it in the studio, "double d - teeheeheeheehee"

i kinda made up the tune as best as I remember but i'm sure i ripped it off from something? i wish i knew where all those cartoons I drew in highschool got off to.

Oh, you know what I found recently was the complete Mister McEntire folder! Therein lies a serious crazy story!