Where you could just post some spontaneous idea or query or observation that occurred but didn't need an entire thread.
Kind of an ongoing meandering conversation. Might be fun
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I think western RPGs are better then JRPGs.
I haven't played Legend of Zelda and Demonsouls/ Darksouls games but the ones I've played have childish dialogue and rely heavily on sexy characters to hide a predictable and linear story
Top 10 RPGs:
Other RPGs I enjoyed DOS2, Pillars of Eternity, Fallout 1 and 2, Witcher 1, Witcher 3 was a bit disappointing but I did love Blood and Wine and Heart of Stone, Divinity Original Sin 2, Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption, Oblivion, Fable 2, Shadowrun Dragonfall
Special mention: Doom and Destiny - it was recommended on this site as a phone game. The game is free but you can also buy it it if you want, there is no drawback to playing it for free but I ended up buying it, it was that much fun.
I enjoy both WRPGs and JRPGs for their relative strengths and several of my all-time favourite series are in your list. In general I slightly preferred the grit and grime of western fantasy settings rather than the sentimentality of Japanese ones, but I think the era of that great western rpg feel is mostly gone, due to slipping western standards and feminist propaganda contaminating everything. The peaks aren't as high, but I think the hit rate of JRPGs have caught up in the last 10 years. It's a lifetime since I was able to eg. randomly find a life-changing PC game on some shop shelf, whereas casual plays of games like Ys8 and Berseria in recent years have given me more enjoyable scenes and characters than almost any western game in the same period. Sexy characters which I would have regarded as evidence of mindless pandering 20 years ago now comes across more like a bold commitment to a game's art and themes, uncowed by screeching Twitter crusaders.
Your list is conspicuously missing Kingdom Come: Deliverance, though. I didn't find the chars or story great myself (and would have liked there to be an authentic Czech audio option), but the feel of the world and exploration is second to none, other than my memories of being blown away by Baldur's Gate 1 back in the day.
Unfortunately I agree with you 100%. I'm one of the few that was not blown away by Pathfinder: Kingmaker - in fact I found it poorly made with uninteresting characters and forced dialogue that made no sense. I cared nothing for any of the characters. At one point I just ditched all the characters and bought mercenaries.
I've recently started to invest more time in to JRPGs because I feel like I have no choice, but I do find them a bit lacking in deep story, don't get me wrong I like a story that is almost innocent in nature and the good looking characters but I do prefer the more grounded western RPGs. Even BG2 despite being one of my favorites it did have some quests that felt like they were done by an optimistic child that believes everything works out in the end. Speaking of BG2, if the left wanted representation Edwina was the best trans character that the world has ever produced, fictional or real.
As for BG1, although I've played it probably 4 times, it did lack in story. My problem was that I've played BG2 before BG1. I have played a bit of BG1 at a friends house and later I played BG2 then my friend gave me his BG1 CDs so I ended up playing BG1 after BG2 so the great reveal that you were the son of Bhal and that Saravok was your brother was kind of meh.
I do own Kingdom Come: Deliverance, I admit I bought it as a spite buy but I hear only good things about it and I've been planning to give it a try for over a year. I tend to like medieval RPGs with magic and I understand that it does not have that but the story is great. Honestly if The Chronicles Of Myrtana Archolos was not out I would have already played it.
What good JRPGs or RPGs that are not on my list do you suggest? I put ocharina of time on retroarch and was planning to play it, is that worth it as an adult? I also have breath of the wild on NS but I did not get around to it either.
You mentioned Fallout 1&2 which would have been my closest recommendation to some of the classic Bioware and Black Isle games you listed, but did you never play New Vegas? It probably deserves a listing among all the other top titles there and is worth catching if you missed it.
I'm not much of a Nintendo guy so I never completed any of the earlier Zeldas, although I enjoyed Wind Waker quite a bit. Probably my favourite of the series and still looks great when played through Dolphin, although opinions vary on the amount of sailing you're required to do, particularly in late game treasure hunts.
Coming to JRPGs fresh, as an adult, it's hard to know what to recommend, considering their kid-friendly focus and the strong sense of sentimentality I mentioned. But if you go in with a bit more tolerance for corniness and an appetite for more hopeful themes (which I've been driven towards sometimes by pointlessly nihilistic popular media), you might find a payoff. Tales of Berseria and Ys 8: Lacrimosa of Dana are the two I said I enjoyed in recent years, although they both have their strengths and drawbacks. Great character roster for Berseria marred by mashy combat, simple dungeons and a dodgy ending - or for Ys 8, a combination of solid, fun hack and slash gameplay, vibrant atmosphere and likeable chars, which are all just a bit over-simplistic once the play-time starts to drag out. Neither game looks particularly great either, but I think Japan's lack of focus on graphics is the flipside of the coin to the western industry's tendency to bloat game budgets pointlessly, dragging out release cycles forever. Also if you're anything like me these games are unplayable with the English dub, original language only.
If you're going retro you can't really go wrong with an older Final Fantasy, I suppose - I'd recommend FF7 or FF9. Or if you want to try a more modern JRPG with a retro feel I'd say look for The Legend of Heroes: Trails From Zero when it finally gets an official western release in a couple of months. It's part of the same universe and uses characters from Trails in the Sky, and technically you would be playing them out of order - however Trails in the Sky just felt like way too much of a padded out series so it's hard to recommend as a showcase. IMO there's no problem playing them out of order, just you get a few cameos from previous main characters.
Trails From Zero in contrast was very likeable for me because you start out as rookie cops in an disrespected police force, with everybody giving you the stink-eye, which was a nice twist on the usual 'chosen one' formula where everybody kisses your arse. If you want to play before release, look to the high seas version and the Geofront fan patch (the porters partnered with these patchers in order to bring about the upcoming Steam version).
New Vegas should have been on the list, I just forgot to add it.
I'll have to check Tales of Berseria and YS 8 and trails from zero. On FF, I'll give those a try but from what I know of the series, it is overrated
I find they more like a movie, they are enjoyable but I think the same games made with an ugly esthetics would have almost no fans.
For a while WRPGs did try to make the games more immersive and mature with some questionable moral choices. JRPGs have this awe inducing world building, Xenoblade you are walking on 2 titans or SpeteraCore it has this giant rings around a core, this are very cool ideas but they lack substance in their story and dialogue.
Is clearly a personal taste that was formed around the games I was exposed to as a kid.