South Park Stick of Truth - Serious Turn-Based Fantasy Games on PC ?

[Ian C]

Against my better judgement I got South Park Stick of Truth and it's given me a thirst for playing non-comedic sword & sorcery games similar to this.

I have no experience with playing turn-based fantasy games on PC so any recommendations? I'm looking for something really immersive to get my teeth into.

[tgb]

Fallen Enchantress Legendary Heroes is probably your best bet.  Age of Wonders 3 will be out on the 31st, but you can pick up 1 or 2 cheaply on GOG or Steam. The first Warlock is good, but there is some humor and the A.I. isn't the best.

[Nefaro]

Fallen Enchantress Legendary Heroes is probably your best bet.  Age of Wonders 3 will be out on the 31st, but you can pick up 1 or 2 cheaply on GOG or Steam. The first Warlock is good, but there is some humor and the A.I. isn't the best.

Stick of Truth is an RPG.  You're talking about fantasy strategy games, tgb.

[Nefaro]

Unfortunately, turn-based RPGs have been out of style for ages so there are almost no new ones.  The recent Might & Magic X: Legacy is an old school turn-based RPG that came out recently.  I'm not sure as to the overall quality or length of it yet, as I've only played a short stretch to satiate my curiosity.   I plan to tackle it properly when I'm back to the RPG mood.   You can find this one on Steam but it's Ubisoft and uses their annoying DRM.

The last oldie made for the genre was Wizardry 8, which you can find at GOG and Steam.  It's a good game with a much more modern interface than most of the old games of the genre, which were mostly DOS or early Windows.

There are pseudo turn-based RPGs where you wander around in real-time and then have to jockey the space bar to pause and give orders (or set it to automatically do so at the end of every turn) for games like Dragon Age: Origins, and Neverwinter Nights 2.  Those are both fun and fairly recent but they don't quite play like the older "tile-based movement" games.  Perhaps these are the droids  you're looking for?  They tend to have more story to them, although whether the combat involves more strategy may be debatable.

When I want more combat and variety, I tend to just play some roguelikes which are essentially turn-based RPG lootfests with randomized dungeons & loot and no real storyline.  The meat of the gameplay is the turn-based combat and trying to make it as far as you can.  They're often permadeath too so you gotta take your turns with care but it's fun to see how far you can get with various strategies.  Dungeons of Dredmor got over 200 hour playtime from me (on Steam and Desura IIRC) and I still keep it installed.  Tales of Maj'Eyal is a bit of a hybrid between roguelike and regular RPG and is another fun one for concentrating on the turn-based combat.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

South Park is copying/spoofing Japanese RPGs.  Take a look at Final Fantasy if you want that sort of play style.

[Tpek]

This game certainly has a huge controversy over it.

I'll try to sum up my personal PoV on the matter.

One of the original release dates for the game was November 2012.
And one day happening upon a GMG coupon for about 33% off prepurchase I pre-ordered the game.
Come release day, and the game was delayed until May 2013.

Come May 2013, and it turns out that THQ is dying and Ubisoft is taking over it.
The status of the game became unknown and everyone was kept in the dark about it until a few months ago when it was revealed that Ubi will finally be releasing the game
early this month.

Come the day of release, turns out Steam won't allow anyone outside the U.S to register their games.
Only after a few days did they allow SOME European players to register their copies and about a week after some more European countries and that's it.
Anyone outside of those few privileged states would just have to "accept" that the publishers got their money but won't be delivering the product.

I tried contacting GMG (the retailer), who had told me that since over a year has passed since the order they can't refund me.
Steam, that have never bothered to reply to why are they blocking me from playing a game I legally bought.
The developers (Obidian) who didn't even know who is responsible for this.
And Ubisoft that simply stated its' Steam/Valve that determine region-lock policy and they have no say about it whatsoever.

Eventually I had to use other ways to legally get the game.


I don't think I've ever had a worse dealing with publishers/sellers in the nearly 30 years I've got of PC gaming.
One thing I know for sure now, is that Steam's ever growing monopoly of the PC games industry is dangerous to all those outside the U.S. :(

[Nefaro]

That sounds terrible. 

[tgb]

Fallen Enchantress Legendary Heroes is probably your best bet.  Age of Wonders 3 will be out on the 31st, but you can pick up 1 or 2 cheaply on GOG or Steam. The first Warlock is good, but there is some humor and the A.I. isn't the best.

Stick of Truth is an RPG.  You're talking about fantasy strategy games, tgb.

I knew that.  Somehow I had a senior moment/brain fart and thought the OP was looking for a strategy game

[Ian C]

Thanks for the advice guys. I might try Neverwinter Nights 2 (complete version is on GG). Age of Wonders II looks immense but I'll wait until the reviews appear (and patches).

[reapagan]

Temple of Elemental Evil is an outstanding turn based RPG. Make sure and get the Sorcerer's Circle's mods and patches though, without them the second half of the game is unplayable.

[Nefaro]

Temple of Elemental Evil is an outstanding turn based RPG. Make sure and get the Sorcerer's Circle's mods and patches though, without them the second half of the game is unplayable.

ToEE has an excellent turn-based combat system.  But the campaigns feel a bit more like a dungeon crawl than a narrative.  Which is fine with me because I usually enjoy RPGs for the 'stuff' and mechanics.

The "Circle Of Eight" mod is absolutely recommended since the original game had some bugs and features that weren't even working in the vanilla game.   However, I did manage to finish the whole game years ago, shortly after it came out, with no mods.  I still noticed the occasional missing thing or a bug.  So if you get this older game, get the mod for it.   

[Nefaro]

South Park is copying/spoofing Japanese RPGs.  Take a look at Final Fantasy if you want that sort of play style.

I don't think there have been many decent JRPG-style games on the PC in quite awhile, which don't have some annoying Japanese anime or manga style creepiness in them.   Someone hereabouts has enjoyed that Loren: Amazon Princess game, which takes a few cues from JRPGs, but I've not played it.

So the Might & Magic X Legacy and Wizardry 8 suggestions were a close analog, albeit with more complex inventory management, combat options, etc.  I've not played a Final Fantasy game since the first two or three ages ago so perhaps they have more 'stuff' these days.  I thought they went MMO anyhow??


I also forgot to mention the indie stuff from Spiderweb Software, like their remake of Avernum: Escape From The Pit.  These aren't as complicated as some, but they still have a good bit of story to them.

If you end up enjoying Neverwinter Nights 2, you can't go much wrong getting Dragon Age: Origins.  The latter isn't set in the D&D world but the game engine will be familiar and there is an engaging storyline with lots of voice acting.  Many enjoyed it for the production value.  If you want to get something with a sci-fi setting that is similar, you can get the older Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2 for a Star Wars RPG.  I certainly enjoyed the first one years ago and played it non-stop to the end, which is quite an accomplishment for me.

[eyebiter]

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[FarAway Sooner]

There are some TBS games that mix together Strategy and RPG elements.  Heroes of Might & Magic isn't bad, and HOMM 6 was patched into a pretty decent state eventually.

If you don't mind a slightly retro look to the game, you could try Din's Curse.  It's not turn-based, but it is Pausable.

[eyebiter]

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