Baldur's Gate 3 by Larian Games

I'm extremely hopeful for whatever Larian has cooking, but it seems like every time a premier RPG studio makes an S-tier game, they completely lose the plot and never recover.

Bioware
Black Isle
Bethesda
InXile
CD Projekt Red (if reports are true)

Owlcat and Larian are really the only two studios that haven't gone off the rails (yet), but they're currently balls deep in multiple projects. Owlcat has even moved to publishing in addition to development.

Grabbit Allworth said:

I'm extremely hopeful for whatever Larian has cooking, but it seems like every time a premier RPG studio makes an S-tier game, they completely lose the plot and never recover.

Bioware
Black Isle
Bethesda
InXile
CD Projeckt Red (if reports are true)

Owlcat and Larian are really the only two studios that haven't gone off the rails (yet), but they're currently balls deep in multiple projects. Owlcat has even moved to publishing in addition to development.

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FromSoft?

Bald Brah said:

FromSoft?

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I don't really consider Elden Ring a traditional RPG, but I can understand why other people do.

Regardless, they make S-tier games.

Grabbit Allworth said:

I don't really consider Elden Ring a traditional RPG, but I can understand why other people do.

Regardless, they make S-tier games.

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I mean it's the same vein as Witcher, 3rd person RPG, with less story and immensely better combat.

not really. elden ring is in the linage of Wizardry>ultima underworld>shadow tower, kings field>TES>demons souls>dark souls.

which yes, from software has a solid long history of just putting out solid games without, fucking it up, unlike Bethesda.


I actually tried Dark souls again last week. I still can't fucking stand it. I appreciate the metroidvania map design.
But the actual gameplay/controls god fucking damn, I just can not stand.

using all 4 shoulder buttons. hate it. (I might be able to remap rt/rb to x and y.) but, even past that. jumping. fuck that shit. hate it. Lock on targeting. magic requires it. I TRIED for like an hour to practice magic targeting without it, and it just didn't work. the lock on system blows as well. like 10ft range, often just REFUSES to lock on the blatant thing you are aiming at. decides to spin around instead. breaking target on the fly is balls. causing camera movement/deaths. rolling into ankle high ledges that get you killed and stuck.
limited magic casts, with respawning enemies. making using magic on trash a mistake. especially bad when trying to sequence break, or fight tough enemies. you can't outskill them with limited magic casts really. but it just fails to give the wizard feeling if I spend 99% of the game stabbing enemies with a dagger.

every minute of that game, I felt like I was fighting the controls nonstop. every death was the controls/camera, not the enemies.

there are a hundred other first/3rd person action rpgs that don't have this problem either. bannerlord, conan, enshrounded, gothic, arx fatalis, monomyth, TES, zelda, and so on. its really THIS games controls I just hate.

is eldren ring better in those regards? (I hated dark souls so much, I never touched any of the others personally)

(for the record, i am also still waiting for sales on cyberpunk, hogwarts, and BG3 here as well. cyberpunk and hogwarts have had big sales, but haven't bitten. )

Elden ring is the best game I've ever played. It's controls and combat systems are deep and satisfying. It's an incredible medieval fighting simulation with beautiful world building and incredibly intricate dungeons. The world dungeons not the bonus dungeons. Those are meh, but still have great loot rewards that make them interesting. There is a lot of copy paste in the design but you never get tired of it. There is always some new twist or puzzle that will surprise you.

Rhanyn said:

If Larian can get ahold of the Shadowrun IP and run with it.... just thinking about it, my dick is about to explode.

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not sure if Larian is my Shadowrun wishlist.

owlcat on the other hand. especially afte seeing what they did with Rogue trader. A while back, they had a questionnaire, and I suggested Shadowrun to them. also brought it up a few times in the kingmaker/wotr reddits, and as was roguetrader one.
and I swear since I said it, others have been loudly echoing it as well. also, they announced working in a mystery game shortly after. fingers crossed!

Denamian said:

I'm someone who bounced off of all the Souls games after Demon's Souls, so take this with a pile of salt, but I didn't find Elden Ring's controls to be much different at all. I got much further in ER than I did in DS 1-3 or Bloodborne, but that was mainly due to being able to grind and out level my lack of skill for a while.

While there's still a chance you might enjoy Elden Ring despite not liking Dark Souls, I'd suggest taking it for a test drive before actually buying it.

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I mean, thats just it, though, right? You seemed to have already known, like me, that ER wasnt quite your style and you'll probably never complete it. But it gained so much popularity that people that knew that, bought the game. It took me maybe 3? 4? separate attempts at the game before I made a character and just farmed shit, and the next thing I know Im doing end game shit. Versus, say, Witcher 3, where I beat the game on the second run (because the first run I did fucking every Side Quest I came across and burnt out, lol.

But on a the original note: Fucking sign me up for a Larian based X-Come derivative. After playing Divinity series - I can perfectly see all the different shit that they would do, and in a futuristic setting? Hhhnnngggg BG3 has a lot of references to what they could do in an X-Com, but I think theyre more expressive in the Divinity games.

I can imagine the monotony of making quest triggers, filling in the text and testing them day in, day out will grind anyone down.

I would love to see Larian do a true successor to Sir-Tech's Jagged Alliance 2. Jagged Alliance 3 was alright but it did not have the magic of JA2 in my opinion.

Denamian said:

I picked up a used PS4 disc when I bought my PS5, so I figured it was worth a chance. Everything I has seen about it looked great and I certainly was feeling a bit of FOMO. At this point I've come to the conclusion that I simply do not enjoy the combat.

To get a little more on topic, an X-Com style game from Larian sounds like it could be a lot of fun. If dealing with Hasbro hasn't completely soured them on a licensed IP, doing that with a RIfts RPG setting would have me begging to give them my money.

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I've love to see an Xcom style game but in the Star Wars setting. No way Disney or whoever controls the IP would give a studio like Larian the time or creative freedom to go hog wild with it but a man can dream. On another note, let CDPR run it back and do a Shadowrun game. Would also take 10 years to come out but meh.