Elmarion: the Lost Temple

Elmarion: the Lost Temple

A wonderful dungeon crawler, a bit like might and magic. A beautiful world, endless dungeons, and crowds of monsters - everything we love. But there is no turn-based combat (although they promise to add at the time of release). There is no big map. Unobvious increase in levels. And what I don’t like is that you can’t make a save. But in general it is quite an interesting and enjoyable game.

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Real player with 6.0 hrs in game


Read More: Best Party-Based RPG Dungeon Crawler Games.


⭐️I do not even know. It seems like a cool game. But there are also enough cons. Some things, of course, are debatable. But here’s my vision:

⭐️Pros:

1. A fairly rare genre of party RPG in the first person. I haven’t seen such games for a long time.

2. Generation of dungeons. The idea is not new. But I was glad that it was implemented here.

3. A sufficient number of heroes to choose from, a large number of abilities of the heroes. You can make a variety of games and potentially play the game several times.

Real player with 4.5 hrs in game

Elmarion: the Lost Temple on Steam

Irongate Arena

Irongate Arena

Continue your family legacy into new and exotic lands, but first prove yourself a worthy commander to the men who have pledged fealty to you. Battle in the proving grounds where humans are not the only fighters trying to knock you on your ass! Will your reward be glory or death?

If you have the strength, journey through the desert where if the heat doesn’t kill you, something or someone venomous just may. If you have the will of a warrior those deadly and toxic creatures may join you and take up your cause of vengeance.

To make it in the harsh, icy, North you must be a wise in deploying the right strategies to defeat your enemies in the Arena. Vikings, elves and witches can be so cold, but not cold enough to turn down a little coin to join your ranks, if the price is right.

Put your team skills to the test and push their limits in order to survive the Inferno. Hotter than Hades itself only the most vile creatures dwell here, along with the strongest arena fighters. If fear has not run your men out, then you may stand a chance, otherwise see yourself cut down by powerful beings capable of wielding great strength and abilities.

You must have strategic cunning when facing Lord Asshat, so that you may reclaim honor to your surname. Will your become the champion your father was or will you fall before your enemies?


Read More: Best Party-Based RPG Turn-Based Combat Games.


Irongate Arena on Steam

Dragon Age™: Origins Awakening

Dragon Age™: Origins Awakening

Dragon Age Origins Awakening is in no way an anomaly. It does what is expected from an expansion pack, adds a little here and a little there, rehashes everything that was in the original and doesn’t add anything new or major. And, like most expansion packs, stand alone or otherwise, it is only worth it for fans of the original as taken by it’s own merits, it’s not much of a game.

Awakening starts you off short after the end of the original Dragon Age, you can choose to either import one of your old characters or just from scratch. The latter option gives you an Orlesian Grey Warden background which adds plenty of interesting dialog concerning your heritage throughout the game. Importing a character however, yields almost no interesting dialog throughout the game and even in places and with characters that you original play through should have had a profound effect on you will find that nothing changes regardless of your actions in Origins. This leads to a highly disappointing experience for those of us that have actually played the original and like to think our choices actually mattered, if only in terms of storyline.

Real player with 71.3 hrs in game


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If you were a fan of Origins, you would like this, featuring your gray warden and a whole new cast of colourful companions (and Oghren.) This Expansion deals with the aftermath of the war, and you need to quell another darkspawn uprising. I didn’t find the game as compelling as base, but it was entertaining enough.

However, I wouldn’t really recommend getting it as is because it’s as expensive as the main game but with only a quarter of the content. And don’t play this if you haven’t played the main game either.

Real player with 16.1 hrs in game

Dragon Age™: Origins Awakening on Steam

Drakensang

Drakensang

A party based RPG with great potential but quite unfinished and unpolished. Some people compare it to DA:O, NWN, BG, etc…(that being the reason I bought it) but that’s a big overstatement.

The bad:

1. The story/main quest - linear, blurry and uninteresting - does little to motivate the player to save the world.

2. The side quests are scarce, petty, uncomplicated and unrewarding.

3. The companions are plain, stereotyped and boring. They have no personal quests (except one), don’t develop with the progress in the game, rarely have something to say about quests/environment. Puppets with no personality, no conflicts, no banters, no life. The majority of them can be recruited too late in the game, so, for the first half, you will probably be stuck with the barking amazon and the cliché dwarf.

Real player with 178.9 hrs in game

Ah, so this is where Dragon age origins stole all their ideas.. Of course that most likely isnt true. Judging by the release dates, the guys and gals over at Bioware were almost certainly unaware of the osbcure German title Drakensang, even tho Drakensang did come out first.

After beating Drakensang and enjoying it greatly, I couldnt help but notice similarities. Four member party- check. Pause and play tactical combat- check. Mages have magical skills and fighters get erm, fightery skills. Your archers stand back and sling arrows, you’ll need a rogue to open locks, disable traps and even smooth talk out of a situation or two. Its all done well, and made with obvious care, so if your into that sort of thing, your gonna like this.

Real player with 138.8 hrs in game

Drakensang on Steam

Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Enhanced Plus Edition

Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Enhanced Plus Edition

Kingmaker is rough around some edges, with a few changes to the tabletop rules that aren’t clearly stated to the player. (If you’re unfamiliar with Pathfinder, it is a variant of Dungeons and Dragons.) A large number of frustrations I have often come from either the interface not being great at explaining when something is different, or not explaining anything at all until you’re in another menu. (A game like Pathfinder really demands a character creation/level up screen that lets you preview your whole build from levels 1-20 just to get an idea of what you’re doing.)

Real player with 255.9 hrs in game

As a cRPG this is an excellent game - great characters, great companions, great stories - main plot and companions - and a combat system that works.

As a game, it’s a mish mash of systems, ideas and a rigidly enforced ruleset that sadly overwhelms that content a little. It is a massively long game with 6 distinct acts that do not flow one after another, but intersperse themselves with a poorly explained Kingdom building mechanic that ultimately just doesn’t work and really, really gets in the way of the rest of the game. Making numbers get bigger doesn’t really make for a compelling experience, but if you don’t do it you’ll get yourself in a right mess and the game will end. It has no respect for your time as a gamer at all, and will test the very limits of your patience.

Real player with 209.4 hrs in game

Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Enhanced Plus Edition on Steam

Rave Heart

Rave Heart

My playtime: 24:01:06 (based on in-game clock, 100% achievement, last save before the final area)

Grindy Achievement(s): No.

Optional Achievement(s): Yes (~19 achievements).

Difficult Achievement(s): No.

Intro

Rave Heart is a turn-based RPG Maker game that offers up to 6 playable party members and a lot of side quests.

Pros:

  • A lot of side quests that lead to boss fights

  • Charming side stories for some characters

  • Quest direction is denoted by arrow marks

Real player with 39.0 hrs in game

GREAT RPG! The graphics are classic and the music is catchy. The storyline itself is story-rich and the puzzles are just like good old RPG’s I grew up with. Definitely a game I will remember.

Real player with 31.1 hrs in game

Rave Heart on Steam

Archquest

Archquest

Gather your party and venture forth to the city of Evertide, where invading monsters have risen from the ruins of the old city. Liberate the city block by block as you uncover the mysterious origins of the ancient city and what lies beneath.

  • Create your character - based on tabletop RPG rules. Choose your class, feats, skills, and spells, and then customize your appearance by selecting your hair, beard, and skin.

  • Explore the world in an immersive first-person view with grid-based movement. Each character in your party gets to choose an exploration activity, such as Search, Scout, Sneak, or maintain a Detect Magic spell.

  • Engage in tactical turn-based combat. Execute reactions like Attack of Opportunity. Smash your enemies with Power Attack. Apply status effects with spells like Sleep, Grease, or Color Spray.

  • Converse with your Diplomacy, Deception, or Intimidation skill against NPCs in a full-featured branching dialogue system.

  • Manage your inventory and equip yourself with a paper-doll system. Craft magic items by grafting Potency Runes to weapons and armor.

Archquest on Steam

Asdivine Cross

Asdivine Cross

i love this game. the screens are kinda weird as i have to hit escape to leave any menu i pull up… but its fun and gets real hard real quick. i also love how awesome and cute the chars are. 10 outa 10 recommend if your looking for a good rpg.

Real player with 54.1 hrs in game

Asdivine Cross on Steam

Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition

Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition

Baldur’s Gate is truly a masterpiece. Despite it’s beauty, tactical depth and great story, the game does not take itself too seriously. This cannot be said of many other leading RPG titles, which I soon begin to find rather corny. If you like RPGs and have not played Baldur’s Gate, then this is an absolute must, you do not even need to waste your time reading this review but of course you are welcome to. If you have played the original BG and are curious about Beamdog’s boob job, I share with you my opinion.

Real player with 425.6 hrs in game

Classics are often thought to be timeless for future generations to enjoy, but the same cannot be said for Baldur’s Gate—and it’s not because CRPGs are uncommon. To go blind into BG in 2016 is practically impossible because how modern expectations are at odds with the brutal accessibility of ’90s computer games.

Baldur’s Gate, simply put, is an sarcophagus; it is a coffin of a bygone time of design philosophies and of late ’90s player expectations, immersed in the counter-culture of D&D and of fantasy-fiction that is written in its code like hieroglyphics to modern eyes. The game’s reverence is both a nostalgic call-back as well as an appreciation of BG’s systems as a traditional role-playing experience.

Real player with 203.9 hrs in game

Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition on Steam

Blacksmith of the Sand Kingdom

Blacksmith of the Sand Kingdom

Fun combination of turn-based party RPG with crafting and simple storefront management. The early gameplay felt a bit repetitive until class options open up and your ability and equipment choices expand, and from there it was more enjoyable as new strategies opened up.

The game was developed as a mobile game, and has a lack of mouse support. The keyboard-only gameplay took a bit to get used to, but overall it isn’t that big of an issue.

Apparently the game is available at a lower price point on mobile, so if you’re looking to save a few bucks and don’t mind playing on a smaller screen, that is an option. At the time of the review I’m progressed about 40% through the game, so if you plan to do a completionist run, you’re still going to get plenty of time out of this one for what you spend. From a value perspective I’m still quite happy with it, even if it doesn’t exactly feel like a $20 game. I’d definitely recommend picking it up during a sale.

Real player with 42.6 hrs in game

Overall gameplay’s great. Story is meh, I actually skipped a lot of side quest dialog, and that’s coming from someone who usually reads pretty much everything in every game he plays. Battles are really easy, auto battles clear all of your random encounters, boss fights are a bit harder, but still pretty easy.

The class system is in general, what keeps me playing. It allows a lot of customization, one main class, one sub class, stats are decided by your main class, while sub class modifies it a bit. You can fully utilize active skills from both main and sub classes, while passives are freely assignable across ANY class. There are no class requirement at all, like none, after you unlock a class you can just switch to that class, grab some skills, move on. While this in itself isn’t bad, some sort of investment would be nice to make me feel like I “earned” the skill(for example, say you play a fighter and want that 2Hsword passive, you just switch to an elementalist, grab the skill, and you’re good to go, you spend literally no time into elementalist at all).

Real player with 28.3 hrs in game

Blacksmith of the Sand Kingdom on Steam