So I got a bug in my butt to install Mortal Kombat 11 last night and was doing the story mode which is basically like a movie with intermittent fights and it occurred to me that I love Mortal Kombat but just the characters, the worldbuilding, and the lore. I’ve never been big on fighting games and as I age, I am finding it harder and harder to pull off special combos quick enough to even do much other than slapping buttons and hoping for the best.
My favorite MK game was one of the ones on PS2 where the story mode was basically God of War gameplay turning it from a fighter into an action adventure game.
If Midway were to make a Mortal Kombat title that was like Dark Souls but set on Outworld or something, that would definitely be my jam.
Another would be Warhammer 40k. I am not at all interested in the PnP gameplay nor a lot of the video games. But I love the lore and the game Rogue Trader is fucking dope, playing more like a traditional CRPG in that setting and not an RTS or straight up shooter.
Do y’a have any games like that? Where you like everything about them except the actual gameplay?
I just wish No Mans Sky had some point.
The point is to get super high and hang out on toxic planets for the trippy colors.
The point is to spend hours travelling across the universe looking for an Earth-like planet, with green grass, blue skies and relatively safe temperatures, instead of just going outside in real life.
I’d love it if Secret World (preferably the original release, not Legends) was a singleplayer RPG instead of the half-assed MMORPG that it was. You could lower the enemy density and respawns, maybe add some computer-controlled party members Guild Wars 1 style, and it would be the dopest thing ever. The lore, vibe, and worldbuilding in this game is immaculate, it’s just a shame it’s strapped to an MMO framework.
Total War Warhammer 1/2/3! I hate RTS combat. If these games were turn based they’d be amongst my most played.
A civ 40k would be awesome!
For the record you can auto complete the battles and just play them as turned based strategy games with no tactical component. That may or may not be what you’re looking for, but just figured I’d let you know.
Yeah, I know. It’s barely even half a game at that point though so what’s the point?
Does wishing that Final Fantasy would return to its roots and be a turn-based JRPG again count?
If you want something echoing back to the og, I found the 4 heros of light very fun. I replay it once every few years or so. Also, it is the scaffolding that bravely default was built with
“I like FF7 but I wish instead of a JRPG, it was a generic ARPG” said an SE exec at some point, apparently.
Crisis core worked surprisingly well!.
I’m one of these weird people that actually prefer it as an ARPG.
I just wish it was a good one.
did you give bravely default a shot?
Yup, and I’d even say that the best FF is the one that SE was too afraid to put the FF name on. I just wish it wasn’t relegated to being a lower budget B-list project, imagine if SE put the same kinds of full AAA resources behind this that they put on the FF7 ‘remake’.
That’s what I was here to post.
Quite a few games as a service games look like they could have been turned into interesting single player story based games if, you know, someone bothered to write a story for it.
Brink for example had fantastic art assets and back story, but no actual story.
Yeah, there have been a bunch of extraction shooter style games that I would play the shit out of if they just weren’t extraction shooters.
Jesus fucking Christ, why did Marathon have to suffer that fate?
Welcome to Tarkov
The Endless games have such fucking dope ass lore and it makes me wish there was any kind of RPG where we could get more intricate lore instead of just the grand, sweeping stuff.
Like, how do the average Riftborn cope? What was it like for individual Vaulters to retuen to the stars? What’s it like day to day in Broken Lord society?
So many awesome things to explore and the vistas would be stunning! I really hope Amplitude gives us one someday. But they’re still fantastic 4x games with great music and top tier artwork. If you’re a 4x, definitely go try them! Just don’t expect Civ.
I’ll say it, Mega Man X7 should have been purely 2D.
I feel like the genres of Warhammer 40K games are all over the place. Last year they put out a racing game.
I felt this way about Eastward and Pyre. Both were beautiful games, amazing art, well written characters, excellent soundtracks, but the actual gameplay didn’t grab me.
I love the aesthetics of the wipeout games but suck at racing games
Starcraft. RTS is not for me; I played the campaigns with cheats on so I could see the story unfold.
Then again, that was back when I was still willing to give money to ActiBlizzard. Not so since Blitzchung.
We almost had an OTS shooter set in StarCraft’s universe… I wonder what life would have been like if Ghost actually came out in 2005. 🤔
I’ve seen this image so often, but just now it occurred to me: Living the best life in the year 3000 and cars still park on the sidewalk.
Starcraft 2 is super fun as a randomizer in the RTS format, but I do want to see more done with that IP. The problem is, like you, I will never give Blizzard a single penny ever again.
Yup. I love the lore and atmosphere, fun in archipelago for randomizing, i like the campaign and co-op modes a lot. But since I won’t give blizzard any money it’s nice that they just gave up on the IP for whatever reason
I would enjoy the hell out of XCOM if it played more like Mass Effect.
I would enjoy the hell out of a Mass Effect themed turn based strategy.
They kind of tried that, but unfortunately it wasn’t very good.
I don’t know if this counts. But I want a Kenshi like game set in Morrowind. And I want a Morrowind like game set in the Kenshi universe.
Love them both as they are though.
I hadn’t heard of this game somehow, thanks!
Prepare to either bounce off a game harder than anything before, or lose the next three years of your life. Or, possibly, somehow, both.
That would be on-brand for me lol
But I want a Kenshi like game set in Morrowind.
Honestly, I’d like a Kenshi-like game set in damn near any setting.
Like, the Kenshi setting is interesting, but in terms of gameplay…it’s essentially unique from a gameplay standpoint. I’m still a bit amazed that nobody has made other games in the genre.
There is a sequel that is being worked on and will come out someday…
I tried getting into Kenshi twice and failed. I don’t like hand holdy games, but that felt like being pushed of a cliff with no supports. What’s the pull for everyone here? I want to take another shot at it
Personally, I like games where you start as a relative nobody and have to claw your way to success. I enjoy how in Kenshi you start having the snot beaten out of you by absolutely everything, but can eventually have the skills and equipment to be taking out whole factions.
You are right about the lack of support though. I think the intention is to play to fail and learn from mistakes, but it’s a harsh lesson when you wander into a new area only to be knocked out and imprisoned by cannibals. I don’t have the fortitude to keep failing, so end up just using the wiki at times.
Kenshi Scrolls, Kenshi/Fallout, Kenshi Wars, Kenshi Effect, Halo: Kenshi, Kenshilands, Kenshi-Life…
There are so many awesome settings you could make a Kenshi game in.
Oh I’d pay so much for Halo: Kenshi. Didn’t even know it was something I wanted until I read this lol.
I would probably damn near never leave the house if that game were to exist.
I wish souls games were more like action games similar to DMC. I hate the clunky and slow movement and attacks. I loved hyper light drifter. Despite it being a souls like in mechanics, I loved how fast paced it was.
Some games have started to crop up that straddle the line between Souls and CAG, The Nioh series and First Berserker: Khazan come to mind. I’ve also heard good things about AI Limit, it looks pretty fast and it doesn’t have stamina.
Also not a Soulslike but I assume you’ve played Ninja Gaiden?
Stellar Blade fits here aswell
I have only really played one game in the franchise, but I’d love to see BlazBlue in more of either a regular action game or maybe a visual novel.
Again, I have only really played Continuum Shift Extend since I picked it up maybe 2021 thinking it was gonna be a regular JRPG and not a fighting game since I didn’t look it up or read the back of the box at the pawn.
I’m interested in the story just as much as I am in some of the fighting, but I am much better at understanding the story than doing the fighting portion of the fighting game. Especially since I swear some of the attack combos having me move the joystick in specific ways on my 360 controller don’t register or have some other problem that makes it nearly impossible for me to do anything more than spam a few attacks whenever possible, locking me out of a character’s moveset.
Would love to hear more about their world because I find it interesting enough, but not interesting enough to play through the story type mode and other story mode like modes with every character. Not gonna kill myself with the stress of that challenge.
Some games that I like thematically, but don’t enjoy the gameplay on:
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Elden Ring. If it was more RPG-like, avoided respawning enemies and reliance on learning patterns, I think I’d like it more.
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Sunless Sea. Neat setting and writing. I don’t like the gameplay — simple combat, not very interesting choices, hunt-the-item stuff.
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Cyberpunk 2077. This isn’t bad, but I wanted something like a Bethesda game, and I got something like a Grand Theft Auto game. I think that it’d be much better as a Bethesda-like game. Oh, though I never really liked Johnny Silverhand as a character much.
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Fallout 76 — well, I don’t have a problem with the franchise — but on that particular game, I’d rather it wasn’t an online game, were a single-player open-world RPG. It’s more like that than when it launched, but…
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To expand on that: a whole slew of games that are really intended to be played multiplayer, but where I only want to play against the computer. I don’t like playing games multiplayer. I would buy an expansion for these that went back and put in some major single-player improvements and good game AI. Carrier Command 2 can be played single-player, but it’s kinda repetitive and not balanced well for single-player teams. Wargame: Red Dragon. I like the game and the setting, but the AI is very difficult to enjoy playing against; just too primitive. Steel Division 2, later in Eugen’s series, really improved on the AI. Defense of the Ancients 2; the whole MOBA genre is really oriented towards playing with real humans.
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Scanner Sombre. This is a mostly-psychological horror game, where the gimmick is that you can only see something that you’ve scanned with this LIDAR-type gizmo. You’re walking through a cave complex, and the mechanic of things slowly emerging and having to manage your visibility really works in a horror environment. But…the game isn’t really very replayable, and I like replayable games. I wish that someone would basically take the stumbling-around-in-a-cave-with-a-scanner thing and make a different sort of game out of it. (Note: If you play this, I played the Windows version in Proton. The Linux-native build was extremely unstable for me.)
And just for the hell of it, the opposite — some where I like the gameplay, but not the theme:
- The Binding of Isaac. I love the action roguelike gameplay. I don’t like the gore/fetus/abuse/scatological stuff all that much. I’ll deal with it, but I’d have liked the game more if it had a different theme.
Wanting anything to be more Bethesda is wild to me.
Out of curiosity: What would a more Bethesda-Like CP77 look like to you?
Sunless Sea mentioned! Most of its value is in setting, writing and atmosphere, which are all really well executed. The gameplay was fun enough, but combat is tedious and I tried to avoid it, like you’d do in a horror game. I see it more as a visual novel with some exploration and resource management. Focus on the story, the characters, the locations. Fetch a macguffin only because it makes the story progress or because it makes you go beyond the explored world, not because you’re so interested in the act of fetching.
Fortunately Isaac influenced a lot of similar action roguelikes, my recommendation would be Enter the Gungeon, which in a line I’d describe as “Isaac with guns”
Isn’t Binding of Isaac by the guy(s) that did Castle Crashers, which got their start on Newgrounds?
I haven’t played Isaac, but I’ve played enough Castle Crashers to know that it’s pretty gorey/scatty with all the weird poop “jokes” and whatnot.
I feel the same way about CC as you do about Isaac. It’s fun to play, but some of the themes either haven’t aged well or were already for a particular audience.
TBoI is from the guys that made Super Meat Boy, not CC. TBoI is like CC’s poop jokes on steroids, at least in terms of frequency. There’s an entire character who’s based around eating poop and throwing it at enemies.
Though, TBoI is perhaps more likely to desensitize you. Save for the aforementioned character (not-so-coincidentally my least favorite out of all 34), most of the poop stuff in the game is just a simple sprite that you shoot and break, and it becomes something you don’t really need to think about. There’s no gross sound related to it and it isn’t designed to look particularly disgusting. Especially since its something you see just about the whole time you’re playing, it’s easy enough to get used to. I can’t think of any other game that manages to make me think something like “yay, golden poop!” without a second thought.
Compare that to Castle Crashers where everything’s good and then there’s suddenly a giant bat throwing gross looking and sounding crap at you during a fight, it really stands out more.
No, Castle Crashers was by Tom Fulp (creator of Newgrounds) & crew at The Behemoth as well as Alien Hominid.
Binding of Isaac was Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl.
Elden Ring was more RPG-like by avoiding respawning enemies? What RPG are you talking about? Most RPGs respawn enemies right in front of your face, while you are still in their spawn area.
I’m assuming they mean western RPGs. For most there is no enemy respawn. You can only kill each enemy once. Or there’s respawn but at a set time like end of a chapter or when you’re in town or whatever.
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