Lost Odyssey. I haven't played Clair Obscur yet, so I one know how it compares, but for me Lost Odyssey is the pinnacle of turn based RPGs.
Greentext
This is a place to share greentexts and witness the confounding life of Anon. If you're new to the Greentext community, think of it as a sort of zoo with Anon as the main attraction.
Be warned:
- Anon is often crazy.
- Anon is often depressed.
- Anon frequently shares thoughts that are immature, offensive, or incomprehensible.
If you find yourself getting angry (or god forbid, agreeing) with something Anon has said, you might be doing it wrong.
A videogame that was made with complete love and devotion to the medium, made with talent and sincerity, and is a pinnacle of everything it stands, something that will stand the test of time...
And nobody mentioned Stardew Valley? I spent too long looking for it and didn't find a single mention of it. Absolute mastery of its genre, an incredible amount of dedication spent by the developer listening to the fans, and I can't imagine it not still holding up 10 years from now, or even 20 years from now.
Baldur's Gate 3 is great, I love it, but there were so many performance issues with the game even with top tier hardware, and the game was borderline unplayable for others due to these issues. I have a little bias since my save didn't sync across devices with the steam cloud and I have to start all over. Love the game, but I just can't believe Stardew Valley isn't even mentioned.
Terraria I feel would be closer as stardew valley is a one man job. Terraria grew as a vision that hasn't really strayed beyond, but every update instead chisels the stone more. It is a game that took castlevania/mario inspirations and honed it into a perfect conception of 2d sidescrollers but with a liberty. (Akin to stardew being the first real open farming sim)
Redigit did amazing on the original SMBX fangame. Basically took the concept, and removed constraints. You can see the differences in development ethos as new people came on and really created a diverse game. It is so groundbreaking in their conformity that most can only compare to Minecraft, something essentially extradimensional to terraria.
Imagine being so baller you get compared to a game that puts you in control of shaping the world around you. When terraria is a game that predominantly shapes you around the world. Eventually even adding lore to these shapes it forms out of you.
Are you the summoner? The fisher? The knight? The archer? The farmer?
You will be all at some point in your journey of improvement. You will don every hat and for it you will be able to reflect back on your next life and proceed with new knowledge. The Belmont's curse is never over, and this is our only solace.
Outer Wilds is this game.
Cold Waters if you're hankering for some hot sub on sub action.
Surprised no-one pitched Elite:Dangerous. Certainly a labour of love to begin with, incredibly talented sound design, first space sim to VR, truly devoted to the original material... Still going pretty strong (had a few weak years) with updates (only 2 DLC-ish major updates of which were paid) a decade later...
Mass Effect. I know some will disagree, the third game has a lot of glaring issues, and EA really fucked up the ending, but as far as a fully fleshed out story and universe with a multitude of unique and independently structured species, characters, and cultures I think it’s one of the best. The writing and possible story outcomes and decisions that vastly and permanently affect the story from the first to the third game are insane.
We don't talk about Andromeda anymore... (And such a fucking lost chance at continuing the franchise) I agree. At the time of release, it sucked all your choices where concentrated to three at most. Actually it still sucks. Buy the whole experience from 1 to 3.... It takes space in my mind you know. Its the peak of escapism for me. 3 should have been a lesson to learn from going forward with the franchise... But EA mauled all of it... The worst part is, with such strong connection to the world, lore and characters you can't just make a "spiritual successor". The same formula wouldn't work without preexisting lore.
I agree, it’s all or nothing with Mass Effect, you have to play all three games, especially with the third one because that game is trash if you haven’t imported a save from the previous games, it simply does not stand on it’s own like 2 does. Andromeda had a lot of amazing gameplay mechanics that I felt were a big upgrade from the Shepard saga, but every other aspect of that game was just so awful that I can’t even think of it as canon to the original series. They could have done some cool shit with it, but instead we just got a castrated rip off version of the original trilogy story, but with less species and absolutely no consequences for your decisions, and crew interactions were utter bullshit, everything lead to the exact same thing. Fuck EA. The online co-op stuff was pretty dope, though.
Neither of these are popular enough to be on the scale of LoTR, but in terms of atmosphere and detail:
Hollow Knight - my absolute favorite thing about it is each NPC has its own voiced language recorded, babbling in the background as you read the dialogue.
Subnautica (the first one) - shitting myself with each new experience is something I'll always cherish. Highly recommend just playing without looking into the gameplay or plot. Has elements of exploring, resource gathering, base building, psychological horror (not graphic, just tense scenarios), sneaking.
The Stick of Truth, obviously.
Semi-jokes aside, I am a bit sad that not a single person mentioned the first four Silent Hill games. The sheer influence that series had on video games as a whole, especially in the horror genre cannot be overstated. But I guess it is tricky with games because everyone has different tastes and interests. It is rare that games unite people the way lord of the rings did. Gaming is at once so broad and so niche.
Planescape: Torment does it for me.
More lines of dialogue than all of Shakespear's works? Sign me up for that kinda RPG, lol.
Though these days some good voice actors can do a lot, looking at BG3 here, at least the voice casting.
World of Warcraft, at least for the first 3 expansions. I think the people that made it back then were utterly devoted to the story and gameplay, as were the players. I'll remember playing that until I die, so many memories.
Downvote away.
Clair obscur
It's weird that Deus Ex isn't in this thread yet. Such a well made game with quite a few prophetic moments.
I would have to go with the Panzer Dragoon trilogy on the Sega Saturn.
While the first title was, at its basics, a fairly simple on rails shooter it was more than the sum of its parts.
It had incredible art direction, a sweeping musical score, innovative world building and rock solid gameplay.
The second title built up on the first installment in every way to solidify it as one of the best titles of that generation.
Then came Panzer Dragoon Saga which evolved the series into a full blown JRPG that is still so unique and unlike anything else out there.
Team Andromeda's passion, dedication and innovation ensured each game was a new benchmark for Segas black box.
What I wouldn't do for a new installment by the original team.
Completely different genre but the Stabley Parable checks all of these.
100 years in the future and it will be just as perfect.
The Yakuza series I guess? Granted I've only played zero, kiwami and kiwami 2, but it all seems to be completely sincere in its craziness. It doesn't appear to pretend to be anything more than it is.
Terraria! That game is great and aged like fine wine
Came to say Terraria.
Played it in 2017.
Then tried to play it in 2022 and was blown away with what was added.
Ocarina of Time. I'm biased because of nostalgia, but I genuinely think it's the best game ever created. It took everything that was great about the SNES classic A Link To the Past, brought it into 3D as an early N64 game, and improved literally everything. The atmosphere, the gameplay, the story, the time mechanic, the music... It's not perfect, in fact these days it's trivial to break many things in it with glitches, but I think it's absolutely the best.
FALLOUT NEW VEGAS! (Side note) Oh boy, a new list of games to play as I scroll through these comments.
Came here to say this, that game is a masterpiece. By far one of my favorite games.
Undertale and Deltarune.
Dwarf Fortress.
Ultima 1-7 and 8 partially.
Baldurs Gate 3.
Half life and half life 2