Okay, a big guilty pleasure of mine is D&D and playing computer games. Does anyone have any suggestions on a good modern turn-based RPG you can play on either a PS2 or a PC? The most promising prospect I've foudn so far is Wizardry 8, but that was released back in 2001 I think....

Final Fantasy VII.

If you care about graphics then maybe you should get Final Fantasy VIII or Final Fantasy X.

But Final Fantasy 7 has been regarded by almost all magazines/gamers as one of the best, if not the BEST RPG ever. It was voted in Japan as the greatest RPG ever. The storyline gets so intense and amazing.

If you like D&D, the Baldur's Gate series is based on 2nd edition along with Icewind Dale. Icewind Dale 2 is 3rd edition. Those are all based in the Forgotten Realm's Campaign setting. They're not exactly new, but nonetheless have pre-rendered graphics which I find far far better looking than old poor attempts at real-time rendering anyways. I hated the end of the nineties and the early 21st century in games, they looked so bad compared to an old SNES. Anyways, my favourite D&D CRPG is Planescape:Torment. It's based in the largely unknown Planescape campaign, which is entirely based around... planar travel. Anyways, I think it's of far better quality than Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale, it has a better story, more interesting dialogue choices, better characters, etc. It's mainly different in that it is largely story based and therefore you can't really create your own characters, just customize. Then there's the Fallout games. They are by far my favourite RPGs. Entertaining character creation, so many game choices, it is definitely the most replayable of those old games as you only loosely have to follow a story(and only in the second do you have a time requirement in any part of the main quest) and there are so many side quests. I find it better still than even more modern Western RPGs such as Morrowind and Oblivion(still very good and worth trying). Then again, if you're an RPG fan at all you have to at least play the old SNES RPGs as they are probably of the highest quality ever made. Arguably with Seiken Densetsu 3 being the best, followed by Tales of Phantasia, Chronotrigger and the best actually turn based being Earthbound.

Note about the games though. The D&D CRPGs(Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Planescape:Torment) are not strictly turn based, however you can pause the game to issue commands. It is quite intuitive, yet it can sometimes get annoying since the auto-pause after each round really is after each round, one character, one action and it can get tedious. I just leave the auto-pause to when somebody gets seriously injured and when enemies are spotted. Fallout however is turn based in combat, and is ridiculously fun that way. It is outrageously gory with blood, guts and bodies getting dismembered(but it's more fun that way, especially when your minigun completely rips through blasting off a person's head and arm) and it is loaded with sexually explicit(not visually) themes. Those were all PC games as well, I don't own a PS2, nor really ever wanted to, so I have no idea what games are on there other than Final Fantasy, which I find the bottom of the barrel when people talk about RPGs.

The last few I mentioned are for the SNES and there are numerous places on the internet where you can find ROMs and Emulators so you can play them on your computer, with questionable legality, however. Seiken Densetsu 3 is completely real-time, with seamless transition into combat(nothing changes other than character stance and speed), it was an absolute relief after years of playing rather poor and boring turn based RPGs. My opinion of it is not nostalgia though, I played it again recently and it is probably also one of the most replayable games ever devised. There are numerous character choices all with a different game start and different plot twists throughout the game. I think it's even better to play over and over and over again than a sandbox RPG like Oblivion. Well, without mods that is.

Tales of Phantasia appears at first to be a generic turn based RPG, travel through towns and over the map is completely identical to everything else. Combat is its strong point. It's real-time and you control what it is that your character does in a platform style battle. It's hard to explain, but for the Gamecube at least there was a recent game in the same style called Tales of Symphonia. I've only played that one for a little bit so I can't really compare, it seems nearly identical though.

Chronotrigger is kind of turn based, it's like most of the Final Fantasys, your characters have a kind of countdown bar thing that when empty you have an action. It is realtime in the effect that everybody else's bar doesn't stop dropping while you select what it is that the character is going to do.
Earthbound is turn based. It's just so much more entertaining though.


After this long write up, it'd be funny if you've played them all. Frankly though, there really haven't been any new turn based RPGs in quite some time. Twitch gaming just kept growing and growing and modern RPGs are mainly real time. Nostalgia makes me like Morrowind(Don't buy it, it would be a big mistake. The game is absolutely boring without mods, it's just a time sucker. A horrible evil little leech that can't be removed and only gets a bigger mouth when you start modding the game. Combat sucks, NPC interaction sucks, the graphics suck, the story sucks. I have absolutely no idea why I wasted at least 5 hours a day for over a half a year(oh, probably more) playing that game. I really don't. It's an unexplainable phenomenon.) Oblivion is fun though, and only gets better with mods. The main story sucks and since it was released on both the XBox 360 and the PC at the same time, it's too simple and "childish"(what would probably be better described as "special"). UI is clunky and annoying, blah blah. Whatever.

Oh yeah. I'm a tea snob as well.

If you like D&D and computer games I recommend Neverwinter Nights. I'm not going to go as long as Blib did here, but suffice it to say I've been playing D&D since its invention and if you like D&D this game will be easy to play, and fun.

Neverwinter nights 2 is coming out soon