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The 2016 RPG Discussion Thread

Durante

Member
So much cool stuff coming out. I still haven't even touched a lot of awesome games from 2014!
That's not saying much, though. That year was insane.
Yeah, I'm in the same boat. And 2015 added to that. I don't expect 2016 to match 2014, but it's looking pretty good.

Too many RPGs is one of the very best problems to have.

I'll go ahead and do a write up for Cyber Sleuth, seeing as how it's probably going to be #2 on my GOTY list once I write it up.

2nd of February: Digimon Story - Cyber Sleuth
turn-based, party, monster raising, random battles, Media Vision

As a long time fan of the Digimon franchise, Cyber Sleuth pretty much immediately established itself as one of my most enjoyed RPGs in recent years. The combat, while simple, is a fairly fun system. The biggest drawback I had with the combat was how easy the game was aside from some very challenging late game side quests (that were easily the most enjoyable battles in the game), but the western release is adding in new difficulty levels that should hopefully help on that front. The real gem of the game play is the evolution system, which allows players to evolve and devolve their Digimon at will provided they meet the requirements. Players who enjoy min-maxing or like playing around with class systems will be right at home here. Digimon can evolve once they meet the requirements for one of their possible evolution paths (which might be level, stats above a certain threshold, potential, friendship %, or even having completed a certain quest). In order to keep getting stronger however, you'll need to devolve as well, letting you take your Digimon down a different evolution path, as well as raising its potential and max level, and keeping learned moves from one Digimon onto the next one (not unlike inherited moves in the SMT fusion system). I probably spent a large chunk of my 120+ hours of the game just messing around with evolving and devolving my Digimon in order to get new ones and stronger ones. It's a very addicting feature that I think most RPG fans will be able to enjoy.

Coupled with that, the game also features a pretty enjoyable story that fleshes most of the main cast out well, and from Chapter 10 on the plot moves very fast and has a lot of great twists. The soundtrack from Masafumi Takada (Danganronpa) is also very memorable.

This is obviously a must get game for any Digimon fan, and fans of monster raising/battling games in general, but I also think it should be a strong consideration for any RPG fan that likes messing around with their party and taking advantage of class/job systems.
one-punch-man-vol-1-twenty-words.png


Just joking, it's a great writeup, but it's too long to include in the OP as-is. Can you summarize it a bit and also select a few images?
 
one-punch-man-vol-1-twenty-words.png


Just joking, it's a great writeup, but it's too long to include in the OP as-is. Can you summarize it a bit and also select a few images?

Heh, yeah. I realized I after I posted that I really rambled on quite a bit. I've edited it down and added some images.
 

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
CRPG, expansion pack, isometric, party based, RTwP, Beamdog, possibly garbage

Yes you are reading that right. We are getting an expansion pack for Baldur's Gate 1 (originally released in 1998) in 2016. It's being developed by the folks at Beamdog who are responsible for the Enhanced Editions of BG and IWD. On the one hand it's fucking awesome that we are getting a new 2nd edition AD&D RPG in 2016, on the other hand Beamdog haven't really shown that they have the chops to pull this off. Fingers crossed.

SRPG, isometric, hex grid, turn based, Overhype Studios, incredible depth

A dark horse for 2016 GOTY, if you're into strategy RPG's you absolutely need to look into this game. Incredible depth on all systems, great challenge, and the developers really seem to have a solid head on their shoulders. To give an example of the crazy awesome shit this game is doing:

Dev update blog said:
Your employer hired you to raid a caravan, kill everyone and burn everything – their motivations for doing so vary throughout the game, the specifics will differ, but the general structure of the contract remains the same. You’re given information on a caravan travelling from one settlement to another and have to intercept it on your own terms. Predict the way it’s going to take, pick a good spot, pick a good time, and attack.

As you close in to attack, several things can happen. You may be spotted, and the caravan leader may seek a parley to offer you a bribe. You’d just have to return to your employer and tell him that you failed to catch up to the caravan. If you accept, he may even offer you a second bribe to name your employer. Failing to destroy the caravan will hurt your reputation either way, but naming your employer is a betrayal – and if your employer were to find out, he might seek revenge, and will certainly not want to trust you with contracts for the foreseeable future. But then, how should he find out? And it’s a lot of crowns you’re offered.

The caravan may have also taken up travellers along the way. One of them could be a swordmaster, a dangerous opponent that now threatens you to leave alone the caravan that so graciously took him along. Is fighting him at the risk of losing good men worth it for what you’re paid?

Closing in on the caravan successfully, you have several options. You may choose to encircle the caravan for different starting positions in battle – helpful when your orders are to leave noone alive. So are wardogs, of course, to catch up with anyone attempting to flee. If it is night time, you may try to close in even further. Note that while these actions allow you to adjust your approach to the situation, they’re not meant as a replacement for a potential deployment phase, preset formations, or similar.

The battle is done, you’re victorious! Time to report to your employer. Again, several things can happen. Maybe this time, while looking for valuables and burning the rest, your men find some delicate papers about your employer that make for an interesting read. Turns out that this was the reason he wanted to have the caravan burned in the first place. You may choose to burn the papers with the rest, or take them along. As you return to your employer, you can blackmail him with the papers for a large sum of crowns, but at the cost of your relations. Or you can just hand them over. Or keep them for a later time.

And did you let anyone escape alive to tell the tale of your attack? If so, then you better hope they didn’t know who you were, or they didn’t make it, because if the trail leads back to your employer, he probably won’t be happy about being incriminated. And neither will whoever owned that caravan appreciate your involvement.

And that’s a day in a mercenary’s life.
 

Sp3ratus

Neo Member
TDB 2016: Death's Gambit
Action RPG, side-scroller, fantasy, PC, PS4, White Rabbit(dev)
Steam page says 2016, but when hasn't been announced. Set on an alien, medieval planet, this game looks like a 2D version of a cross between Shadow of the Colossus and a Souls game, with several bosses, forcing you to scale them, in order to defeat them. The game casts you as a servant of Death, with whom you've made a bargain, in order not to die. Your end of the deal is to destroy the source of immortality, in the world the game is set in. It's being developed by White Rabbit, a 4 man team with no previous games released.

Q1 2016: Salt and Sanctuary
Action RPG, side-scroller, fantasy, PS4, PS Vita, Ska Studios(dev)
A 2D side-scroller, action RPG, set in more traditional fantasy world. You play as a sailor, stranded on an island, ravaged by centures of ongoing war. The Sanctuary part of the name of the game, presumably refers to hubs throughout the game, where you'll meet friendly NPCs. The combat is very much Souls-esque, with weight affecting your movement, stamina management being an integral part of combat, different movesets for different weapons and whether they're one or two-handed and quick use slots. Developed by Ska Studios, a 3 man dev team, with a few titles under their belt like The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile on Xbox LIVE Arcade.
 

kcp12304

Banned
TBA 2016: Persona 5


JRPG, Turn-Based, Party, Atlus, Characters, Story, Style

Atlus has been leaving us waiting for years with teases and delays but hopefully this is the year for the squeal to one of the most beloved JRPGs. Play as the leader of a band of high school delinquents who hangs out with interesting characters, has fun doing activities in the big city, and plans a rebellion against the authorities. Persona games are a lite sim about having lots of people to meet and things to do but you have to carefully manage as you live out a year as a high school transfer student. By Night, our heroes turn into thieves who infiltrate an alternate world created by the hearts of man. This involves dungeon crawling with your party in turn based combat that looks much improved from P3/P4. The game oozes with style with it's awesome art-style, acid jazz soundtrack from the legendary Shoji Meguro, stylish UI, and cool looking characters. Hopefully these characters steal our hearts like they did in Persona 4.
 

Ceebs

Member
Outside of Divinity, I think the next Witcher 3 "expansion" has me more excited than anything else on the horizon.
 

WanderingWind

Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
Durante, if you drop me an email address, I'll just send you the tagged text so you don't have to find/relink the videos and rehost and mess with formatting.
 

Durante

Member
Durante, if you drop me an email address, I'll just send you the tagged text so you don't have to find/relink the videos and rehost and mess with formatting.
That would help. Please add a [WanderingWind] in front of the description and note that the tags are [ indent ] ed.
You can put the tagged plain text up on pastebin and link it here.

That goes for everyone else too! (not that you have to, but it lowers my workload)

Outside of Divinity, I think the next Witcher 3 "expansion" has me more excited than anything else on the horizon.
I haven't even finished TW3 yet...

Though as far as open-world RPGs go I like it a lot.
 

Zakalwe

Banned
TBA 2016: Persona 5



JRPG, Turn-Based, Party, Atlus, Characters, Story, Style

Atlus has been leaving us waiting for years with teases and delays but hopefully this is the year for the squeal to one of the most beloved JRPGs. Play as the leader of a band of high school delinquents who hangs out with interesting characters, has fun doing activities in the big city, and plans a rebellion against the authorities. Persona games are a lite sim about having lots of people to meet and things to do but you have to carefully manage as you live out a year as a high school transfer student. By Night, our heroes turn into thieves who infiltrate an alternate world created by the hearts of man. This involves dungeon crawling with your party in turn based combat that looks much improved from P3/P4. The game oozes with style with it's awesome art-style, acid jazz soundtrack from the legendary Shoji Meguro, stylish UI, and cool looking characters. Hopefully these characters steal our hearts like they did in Persona 4.

So, so hyped for this game.
 
Added both of these, thanks!

I left platforms out on purpose, too often it just dilutes discussion. If anyone sees a game that looks interesting to them and wonders about the platforms they can google it.

Well, your thread choice i guess, but it's kind of a useful piece of information. Having to google 30+ games to figure out which ones i can play is a little frustrating
 

Knurek

Member
What's with the Beamdog bashing, the Enhanced Editions have been patched into a very solid state.
Best way to play those games now, really. :\
 

KR_remix

Member
Too many of these blobbers don't learn from Might and Magic. We need more of them with proper overworlds/towns instead of just dungeons, and free movement instead of being locked to a grid.

What's with the Beamdog bashing, the Enhanced Editions have been patched into a very solid state.
Best way to play those games now, really. :\

Can you play them without the additional writing/characters?
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
Durante himself is hype enough for Nier Automata to buy a PS4 to play it...good....good...

In general, the title needs as much hype as it can get. I don't want to see a repeat of the original Nier and god forbid Drakengard 3.

Let's see if we can break the cycle of Platinum games as well.
 

Durante

Member
Too many of these blobbers don't learn from Might and Magic.
You can say that again!

I'd back the fuck out of any project which tries to create something inspired by Might & Magic.
It's pretty much the only thing sorely missing on my RPG plate for the next few years or so.
 

Ceebs

Member
I haven't even finished TW3 yet...

Though as far as open-world RPGs go I like it a lot.

I sorta decided to mainline the main story stuff at some point to finish it, and have just been going back doing side stuff when I get the urge to play.I jump in for a few hours every month it seems, and have been doing that since it came out in May.
 

KR_remix

Member
You can say that again!

I'd back the fuck out of any project which tries to create something inspired by Might & Magic.
It's pretty much the only thing sorely missing on my RPG plate for the next few years or so.

Some of the biggest steps forward for the genre and it seems like no one is cribbing from the series, reminds me of the rts genre. It's a shame the series probably isn't coming back. Even though the latest entry felt like a few steps forward and a couple back, it still was good enough and had enough potential that a sequel would've been a nice chance for the series to become something special again.
 

Knurek

Member
Can you play them without the additional writing/characters?

It's not a Mass Effect game, nobody's forcing you to have a party with all characters available.

You can say that again!
I'd back the fuck out of any project which tries to create something inspired by Might & Magic.
It's pretty much the only thing sorely missing on my RPG plate for the next few years or so.

Maybe try Lords of Xulima, that seems to be going directly for the World of Xeen vibe from what I've seen.
(World of Xeen remake when? Would be amazing to have the game in something higher than 320x200)
 

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
You can say that again!

I'd back the fuck out of any project which tries to create something inspired by Might & Magic.
It's pretty much the only thing sorely missing on my RPG plate for the next few years or so.



If you can deal with the awful visuals, it's *very* might & magic.
 

KR_remix

Member
It's not a Mass Effect game, nobody's forcing you to have a party with all characters available.

I've already played the series enough times, but someone who is new to the series might want to play it with modern additions and without the additional characters/story. Not that modding the original game isn't possible, but I've seen enough people say they aren't interested in modding the original version or playing it as is.
 
I haven't played Darkest Dungeon since it was first released in I think Early Access. What have they changed to make people dislike it so much?
 

StereoVsn

Member
Tales of Berseria (PS4)

Embark on an all-new adventure from the celebrated team behind the Tales Of series and assume the role of Velvet, a young woman whose once gentle nature has been replaced and overcome with a festering anger and hatred after a traumatic experience three years before the events of Tales of Berseria. This is the same world but hundreds if not thousands years in the past of Tales of Zesteria (PC is rumored).

TBA: 2016

Edit: Are we listing "Hunting" games here since God Eater Resurrection, God Eater 2 and probably Toukiden 2 are hitting in 2016.
 

Steel

Banned
I haven't played Darkest Dungeon since it was first released in I think Early Access. What have they changed to make people dislike it so much?

Everything they've changed is undoable by going into the options menu.

But to sum up: They added a mechanic where, when you kill an enemy, a corpse would pop up in its place. In order to shuffle everyone behind the corpse forward, you'd have to kill the corpse. You can turn this off.

They added a heart attack mechanic, where, if you fill up the fear bar twice a character would instantly die, no questions asked(used to be random from what I understand). You can turn this off.

They added a mechanic where there would be lingering massive debuffs after a character is brought back from death's door. Also can be turned off.

They changed enemy crictical hits from being simply max damage hits from the enemy to the multiplicative crits that players get. Once again, you can turn this off.

There's a couple more things I can't remember off the top of my head, but that's the major beats. Originally, you couldn't turn this stuff off which is why people took it as a big minus on the game.
 

Labadal

Member
Sorry in advance for my descriptions. I am not very good at them, especially not when I have to do them in anything but Swedish. Odin Sphere description is just copy/paste. Will add more later.

February 26, 2016: (EU/AUS Bravely Second: End Layer - Nintendo 3DS
turn-based, Silicon Studio/Square Enix, party, job system

Sequel to Bravely Default: Flying Fairy, which in turn was a spiritual successor to Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light. Bravely Default was streamlined in all the right ways. The game uses a turn-based battle system, but for people who don't like that, there are fast forward options. There's an auto battle option for easy fights and you can turn down random encounter rate or completely turn them off. It uses a job system similar to Final Fantasy V which gives you many build options.

Liege
strategy, turn-based, job system, kickstarter, Coda Games


Serpent in the Staglands Expansion

pixel graphics, real-time-withmpause, Whalenought Studios, party, atmospheric

Jun 7, 2016: Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir - PS3/PS4/PSVita
action, side scrolling, Atlus/Vanillaware, 2D graphics, remake

HD Art Upgrade: Known for its beautiful, 2D hand-drawn art style, Odin Sphere is recreated in 1080p and 60FPS, making the vivid even more vivid and the beautiful more beautiful Redesigned for More Action!: The controls and mechanics refined in Dragon's Crown have been fine-tuned and carried over to Odin Sphere Leifthrasir . New moves give the gameplay more fluidity and make the game feel better than ever before. All-new skill trees and an easy-to-use inventory system further refresh the experience
New Stages and Enemies!: Extra stages have been added, expanding the world of Odin Sphere. More than just gorgeous locales to be visited, new stages means new enemies to challenge! Classics Don't Go Out of Style:Those who prefer the battle gameplay of the original Odin Sphere need not fret, as the classic gameplay will remain an option--without sacrificing the upgraded high-definition graphics.
 

Durante

Member
Regarding Berseria: as far as I know no 2016 western release has been confirmed (what has been confirmed is that it will release on PC and PS4). Otherwise I'd have included it, I actually enjoyed Zestiria more than I expected.



If you can deal with the awful visuals, it's *very* might & magic.
Wow, you weren't kidding. The cell phone dungeon crawling game prototype I made 3 years ago has more appealing 3D graphics (of course, it also only had one tileset. And no game)! Is it good enough to warrant a look despite that?
 

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
Regarding Berseria: as far as I know no 2016 western release has been confirmed (what has been confirmed is that it will release on PC and PS4). Otherwise I'd have included it, I actually enjoyed Zestiria more than I expected.


Wow, you weren't kidding. The cell phone dungeon crawling game prototype I made 3 years ago has more appealing 3D graphics (of course, it also only had one tileset. And no game)! Is it good enough to warrant a look despite that?

I've only played a little of it, but it seems to have the Codex seal of approval for what that's worth.
 

Arulan

Member
The perfect thread to start a new year. I see Battle Brothers has already been mentioned, and everything else of note I can think of.

Durante said:
haha-if-you-think-this-releases-in-2016-I-got-a-bridge-to-sell-you/10 Durante hype points (a reward held by Torment: Tides of Numenera in 2015).

*Chuckle*

I'm most looking forward to Torment: Tides of Numenera, but all in all it looks like it'll be another strong year for RPGs. I haven't played the pen and paper Numenera, but I've read the two novels released for backers, and they have me very interested in the setting.
 

ArjanN

Member
Cool thread.
Darkest Dungeon needs about 5 more hype points Durante, you'll see once you actually play it.

That's going to be on a ton of people's top 10 lists in 2016.
 

StereoVsn

Member
Regarding Berseria: as far as I know no 2016 western release has been confirmed (what has been confirmed is that it will release on PC and PS4). Otherwise I'd have included it, I actually enjoyed Zestiria more than I expected.
Huh, you are correct it seems, thought it was pegged for 2016. I guess if it releases toward the end of 3rd Quarter or beginning of the 4th Quarter in Japan, then we would get it sometime in the spring of 2017.... which is fine as we'll most likely have FFXV and Persona 5 hit 2nd half next year (which is kind of crazy).
 

StereoVsn

Member
The perfect thread to start a new year. I see Battle Brothers has already been mentioned, and everything else of note I can think of.

*Chuckle*

I'm most looking forward to Torment: Tides of Numenera, but all in all it looks like it'll be another strong year for RPGs. I haven't played the pen and paper Numenera, but I've read the two novels released for backers, and they have me very interested in the setting.

I am really hopeful that Numera will prove strong but at the same time after having PoE disappoint somewhat (hoping for modern BG2, got modern BG1.5) I am kind of afraid to see what happens here.

That said, I am looking toward playing PoE again with finished expansion (dropped it mid-way after it first came out), playing Witcher expansions (less then half done with main quest), playing Shadowrun Hong Kong expansion.

Man, it would be great if D:OS 2 hits end of next year, but its very unlikely. I am thinking more end of Q1 or beginning Q2 (if not early summer) of 2017.

Edit: Btw, I still to this day don't get the super high praise PoE gets. It is a good game certainly, but, IMO, far from great one. Hell, Shadowrun Dragonfall or Divinity OS are both quite ahead of it for me (those are great games).
 

Steel

Banned
There was an update a few days ago. They had to scrap the idea of everyone acting simultaneously. Now it's the player does all their moves in one turn and then the enemies do theirs in one turn.
Here's the update.

Yeah, the image still shows the player doing all their moves in one turn without the opponents acting, so it's not inaccurate.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
One I have been looking forward to for a while should drop in 2016

TBA 2016: Cosmic Star Heroine (they now say "early 2016" on their Kickstarter page).

From the guys at Zeboyd games, Breath of Death/Cthulu Saves the World/Penny Arcade dudes.
Came here to post this. So I guess I'll do it in Durante's format:

TBA Early 2016: Cosmic Star Heroine


JRPG, 2D, party, turn-based, Zeboyd Games, sci-fi, HQ building
A Kickstarter project by the creators of Breath of Death VII and Cthulhu Saves the World, this game in the style of classic JRPGs such as Phantasy Star, Grandia and Chrono Trigger is coming out this year for PS4, Vita and PC. Battles take place on the same screen as exploration (like Chrono Trigger), have quick and fluid pacing, and encourage the player to experiment with each character's unique abilities. Features a female protagonist (Alyssa) and her allies as she faces conspiracies trying to take her down.
 
Wow, you weren't kidding. The cell phone dungeon crawling game prototype I made 3 years ago has more appealing 3D graphics (of course, it also only had one tileset. And no game)! Is it good enough to warrant a look despite that?

The trick is to psych yourself up by playing literally the first 1-2 M&M games as those were the primary giants he was aiming to topple to get things started---though I did endlessly implore him to focus on at least beating out the NES rendition of the 1st one or so in terms of aesthetics and flair since the days of the first release edition of the game. There's been progress since then for sure as this latest, surely final edition is about as overhauled in terms of the core concept as it can get given the foundations....but yeah, time and shoestrings situation.

The good news is that he's actively fielding updates and whatnot and his plans for the sequel when all the firefighting is settled is MUCH more ambitious as far as the ante goes versus the subsequent classic M&M games.
 
oh my god this year looks ridiculous for RPG's

Fire Emblem Fates and Bravely Second will take up the early part of the year for me, but I'm hoping to throw some CRPGs and console JRPGs into my list after those are through.
 

JC Sera

Member
If the PoE expansion is ok for this thread, this should be too
TBA "Early 2016": Shadowrun Hong Kong – Mini-campaign
CRPG, isometric, party, turn-based, cyberpunk, classes
SR:HK could probably be described as a solid game, a mechanical improvement over its stellar predecessor Dragonfall. Dragonfall itself started out as an extra-campaign for SR: Returns, which gives me high hopes for the SR:HK mini-expansion. The SR:HK mini-expansion will allow you to return to your high karma characters for continued adventures in Hong Kong.
 
header12udr.jpg

Yup, even in 2016 it's still a thumbs up.


DOS2' release date is going to critically whoosh by. I'm looking forward to it, perhaps even because of this. Undead and/or lizardmen shapeshifters are the stuff dreams are made of, man.
 

Sp3ratus

Neo Member
Definitely PS4, I played it at PSX
Many of the news posts I found did mention that it was coming to PS4 as well. The FAQ on their own website however, says that it's only for PC, so I got a little confused. Thanks for the confirmation, though!

How did you like the game? I'm really excited about it, I think it looks amazing.
 

Durante

Member
I'm up to WanderingWinds' post with adding stuff. For those keeping track, that's still on the first page. I'm going through the additions on a first-come-first-serve basis, so don't worry if I haven't reached your contribution yet. (Do worry if I appear to have skipped it)

If you want a game to get included (as more than just a name), please do include a logo image and at least one screenshot with the tags and description (also, no copy/paste marketing blurbs).

I had forgotten about Masquerada, I hope it turns out well. It's certainly unique.

Torment will definitely be this year, they are getting ready to ramp up on Bard's Tale IV development.
Definitely?
 

JCX

Member
2016 will be a banner RPG year for me. Nearly every console will get one big game

3DS: Fire Emblem Fates, Final Fantasy Explorers, Bravely Second, M&L Paper Jam
Vita: Digimon Cyber Sleuth, World of FF
Wii U: #FE
PS4: Digimon Cyber Sleuth, Persona 5, FFXV, KH 2.8, FFXII remaster (hopefully)

Also still playing XCX, so 2016 is already off to a great start.
 
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