what is the absolute best top-tier RPG game where you go around defeating things and level up and acquire more and more powerful gear and such?
actually fun gameplay. gameplay > story. But story should be decent too.
I'm looking for the absolute cream of the crop here. Something that will make me say WOW and have at least a few hours of fun. What genre or fetishes matter not.
That being said, I don't know many RPG-games. It's a problem I have too when I'm in the mood for one. Plus, are you talking about RPG in general or RPG-maker style?
What are you looking for specifically in the game play? What makes it fun for you?
I think for me it'd be:
- Special equipment with flavor text in the overworld or even special sprites if you equip them
- different classes
- party members and you can interact with them
- QoL stuff like objective tracker or a mob attack skill
I don't know. I'm not really sure. Most of the RPG games I've played on here have been so bad that I can't remember what makes a good RPG anymore. LOL.
i was thinking something a bit grindy & where gear progression feels like it matters (like you'll actually care if you get a rare piece of gear from a drop for example). Akin to the feeling of diablo or runescape. Something where maybe sometimes you are locked out of progressing the story until you go out of your way and earn some money for gear / grind mobs for rare gear drops in order to defeat something.
i was thinking something a bit grindy & where gear progression feels like it matters (like you'll actually care if you get a rare piece of gear from a drop for example). Akin to the feeling of diablo or runescape. Something where maybe sometimes you are locked out of progressing the story until you go out of your way and earn some money for gear / grind mobs for rare gear drops in order to defeat something.
Ah. Ya, I see. That is fun. But I can't recollect many games on here that treated gear and weapons that way. Most of the time it just felt like "random trash" and then "THE ONLY THING THAT WORKS WELL".
I think if you're not looking for strictly RPG-Maker games but just something where you level up and crap, you could give "Condemned Bunker" a shot. It's an HTML game. It's still probably not going to be what you're looking for but it feels simple, light, seems like it's being made by a dev who actually cares about making a good game. Might scratch that itch for you at the very least.
Sorry I don't have anything better. Let me know if you ever find anything.
Worst case scenario, you just go to the Latest Updates section and look at only games with the RPG tag. There over 3,000 of them but you could probably whittle that down with additional filters.
https://f95zone.to/threads/star-knightess-aura-v1-2-1-aura-dev.76764/
Easily the most solid RPG I've played that has H. It doesn't have grind though, in fact you can't because mobs don't respawn. The gameplay is mostly about spending money wisely, fighting smart in terms of resources, and not stalling too long because there is a soft time limit (though it shouldn't be an issue unless you play super-slow).
XP is finite in that game and battles are tailored to that pretty well - so better equipment does make a difference. game offers >100 hours of play.
The game was however developed in "Patreon-style", so every update meant to provide entertainment for ~2 monthes (or 3?), encouraging trying the same section again and again for better outcome - not so much the everyday/exploring battles, but investments and politicking or other choices, and wars.
I have not looked into it for monthes now, but Sierra Lee does not have a record of trimming her games post-complete.
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also by Sierra Lee, but simpler and shorter: Ouroboros
a rogue-lite-like (?) and also a comment on rogue-like-lite, with some good QoL to keep repititiveness down. not as much sex as in The Last Sovereign.
Menasphere of Inverted Dreams has by far the most sophisticated maps I have come across in lewd rpgmaker (and Wolf) games. Even at the very end when I thought it is getting a bit long now, they still had more ideas that were completely new to me.
Equipment is by gacha, but even in hard mode reloading would only be necessary on extremely bad outcomes. Mostly it is possible to play with what you get (upgraded), almost no matter what it is.
also the *Meister games by Eushully - VERY slow growth, saving and reloading is ... ok, not mandatory, but probably everyone does. After all a levelup can mean +1 important stat and +1 not so important stat (this is considered "good"), or better, or worse, up to outright nothing at all. Find or craft a new weapon and it has just 1 more to attack than previous weapon.
And it works, astonishingly.
From porn rpgs... Yeah, Sierra's Ouroboros fits - gear is very important there. In fact, gear is only what's important, as there's no leveling up. You can get permanent boosts from gems tho, but they are very limited.
My favorite RPGM game ever is Arle The Sorceress. To make it decent RPG-wise, just don't buy the green coat in the starting stores (or at all). This coat is a pure cheat and ruins the balance making the MC invincible.
Outside of porn, I think the first Ys (windows remake) gave me that feeling - every level and every new sword or armor are extremely important and game changers. Don't forget to install framerate limiter tho (set it to 30 fps max), or bosses will be unbeatable.
And of course Gothic 1 - a game where EXP, items and money are all very limited and extremely important.
