Rajaah's CRPG Blog

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Droigan

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For story, Planescape Torment. Still regarded as one of the best in the genre. (30-50 hours)

For combat, Divinity 1 and 2. I would play them in order though, because 2 is better than 1 (which is still good), but hard to go back to 1 from 2. I played both on tactician just for more combat and enemies use more skills. I love the turn based combat in these games. (both are 70-100+ hours long)

Since Deus Ex might be getting a remaster/remake ish type, maybe wait for that? Fantastic game though. (25ish hours)
 
Rajaah

Rajaah

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Early totals:

Planescape - 3
Diablo 2 - 2
Divinity 1 - 2
Divinity 2 - 2
Pillars of Eternity - 1
Arcanum - 1

Write-Ins:
Ultima 7 - 1
Underrail - 1

Cast any further votes and I'll check back later. Since it's far away, I might start this before Jan 1st if I end up with a hole in the schedule and if there's a clear winner.
 
Rajaah

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Hateyou said:
Diablo 2 as a crpg option? What?
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It's a computer game, it's an RPG of sorts, and I missed out on it, that gets it on the list. Warcraft 3 is on the list too.

If anything shouldn't be on the list it's the two System Shocks, which I think I'm gonna bump off. Tried to get into the remake of the first one and couldn't for some reason. That and Neverwinter pretty much ended my first swing at the CRPG fest, after I knocked out a bunch of other things.
 
Talos

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Diablo 2 should really be a priority. That's like a rite of passage for all pc gamers.
 
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Rhanyn

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Talos said:
Diablo 2 should really be a priority. That's like a rite of passage for all pc gamers.
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I missed Diablo 2 for whatever reason, until the day my friends and I went to a local gaming shop that had 4 PC's you rent to LAN play that they had setup with things like StarCraft and Diablo 2. We were initially just looking at dice and some other stuff, until I dropped that I had never played Diablo 2, and they instantly said "nope, we are educating you" and we spent the next 9 hours playing it together. Was an amazing day trucking around on the Necromancer, still probably my favorite class from Diablo 2.
 
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Talos

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Rhanyn said:
I missed Diablo 2 for whatever reason, until the day my friends and I went to a local gaming shop that had 4 PC's you rent to LAN play that they had setup with things like StarCraft and Diablo 2. We were initially just looking at dice and some other stuff, until I dropped that I had never played Diablo 2, and they instantly said "nope, we are educating you" and we spent the next 9 hours playing it together. Was an amazing day trucking around on the Necromancer, still probably my favorite class from Diablo 2.
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My best friend in 9th grade let me borrow his copy. I was hooked instantly. He and his older brother got caught huffing shortly after. They had super religious parents so I never saw them again. His mom came over to talk to my mom and she blamed me for some reason even though I never did any of that shit.

Anyway, that's how I got my copy of D2. I still have it.
 
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Kajiimagi

Kajiimagi

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Talos said:
My best friend in 9th grade let me borrow his copy. I was hooked instantly. He and his older brother got caught huffing shortly after. They had super religious parents so I never saw them again. His mom came over to talk to my mom and she blamed me for some reason even though I never did any of that shit.

Anyway, that's how I got my copy of D2. I still have it.
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Slight derail. I had a friend in high school who's parents were uptight religious nutters. They didn't really like me cuz they were sure I was a Satan worshiper. I did nothing to dissuade them and everything I could to corrupt their son and daughter. Their proof of my Satan worship? Tie die Master of puppets , ride the lightning , all the Eddie Iron Maiden shirts, etc. I did a lot of shopping at the 'head shop'.
 
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Rajaah

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Rhanyn said:
I missed Diablo 2 for whatever reason, until the day my friends and I went to a local gaming shop that had 4 PC's you rent to LAN play that they had setup with things like StarCraft and Diablo 2. We were initially just looking at dice and some other stuff, until I dropped that I had never played Diablo 2, and they instantly said "nope, we are educating you" and we spent the next 9 hours playing it together. Was an amazing day trucking around on the Necromancer, still probably my favorite class from Diablo 2.
Click to expand...

Necromancer is the main thing I know about with Diablo 2. When it came out I was playing a Necro in EQ, and a lot of people were saying Diablo 2 was going to be an "EQ killer" (for some reason). So once EQ inevitably started annoying me, I nearly "jumped ship" to Diablo 2. I remember spending a bunch of time studying the Diablo 2 guide, tables, charts, etc, to learn all the Necromancer abilities.

If I play Diablo 2 it'll 100% be as a Necro. Sounds good to me, let's get some more votes for Diablo 2 in here. Planescape/Diablo 2/Fallout 2 would be a pretty good haul for the winter break. I might end up just limiting it to 3 things altogether and drop the runner-up until later, depending on what the finalists are, and I'll vote for a tiebreaker. Idea here is to get this thing moving, not to get buried and stall it out again.
 
Tuco

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Rajaah said:
Necromancer is the main thing I know about with Diablo 2. When it came out I was playing a Necro in EQ, and a lot of people were saying Diablo 2 was going to be an "EQ killer" (for some reason). So once EQ inevitably started annoying me, I nearly "jumped ship" to Diablo 2. I remember spending a bunch of time studying the Diablo 2 guide, tables, charts, etc, to learn all the Necromancer abilities.

If I play Diablo 2 it'll 100% be as a Necro. Sounds good to me, let's get some more votes for Diablo 2 in here. Planescape/Diablo 2/Fallout 2 would be a pretty good haul for the winter break. I might end up just limiting it to 3 things altogether and drop the runner-up until later, depending on what the finalists are, and I'll vote for a tiebreaker. Idea here is to get this thing moving, not to get buried and stall it out again.
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I dunno about D2 Resurrected, but in the original game depending on your build, D2's necromancer is also one of the few games where you feel like you're raising a literal army of the dead. You can defeat content off-screen while you're just raising skeletons, zombies and a golem to do your bidding.
 
Rajaah

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Tuco said:
I dunno about D2 Resurrected, but in the original game depending on your build, D2's necromancer is also one of the few games where you feel like you're raising a literal army of the dead. You can defeat content off-screen while you're just raising skeletons, zombies and a golem to do your bidding.
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When I D2, it'll be the original version, not Resurrected. I think there might even be an HD port of the original now, not sure. I still have the guide:

PXL_20251019_015738688.jpg

Soured on remakes a bit after some of the debacles we've gotten so I'm more inclined to go with the original versions of things whenever possible, unless it's a basic upscaling / HD texture situation.
 
Tuco

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Rajaah said:
When I D2, it'll be the original version, not Resurrected. I think there might even be an HD port of the original now, not sure. I still have the guide:

View attachment 606136
Soured on remakes a bit after some of the debacles we've gotten so I'm more inclined to go with the original versions of things whenever possible, unless it's a basic upscaling / HD texture situation.
Click to expand...
From a quick read of



Resurrected seems like an HD remaster with some QOL, so I'd recommend that.
 
Rajaah

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Pretty much ready to call it for votes, I'll give it until the end of this business week and then shut it down. Once I actually start playing I'll post thoughts on 'em. Still aiming at this being a January thing once I'm on break, but I'll start it whenever I've got a chunk of free time.

Speaking of CRPGs and Ultima, anybody who missed it might want to check out Majuular's Ultima series:

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Majuular

Welcome to my channel! Mostly long-form videos about RPGs and other old/weird/interesting games. PFP by @Fenrir_Lives on Twitter
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This series actually got me back into the idea of resuming the CRPG quest. He believes the series peaked with Ultima 7 and Ultima Underworld, then it was pretty much downhill.

His Kings Field series video is also a good watch, interesting to see the genesis of Fromsoft when they were basically making CRPGs on consoles.

Hard to believe we've never gotten any sort of Ultima series remaster or collection that modernizes/adds QOL/makes them all playable easily in the modern era.
 
Tuco

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Rajaah said:
Pretty much ready to call it for votes, I'll give it until the end of this business week and then shut it down. Once I actually start playing I'll post thoughts on 'em. Still aiming at this being a January thing once I'm on break, but I'll start it whenever I've got a chunk of free time.

Speaking of CRPGs and Ultima, anybody who missed it might want to check out Majuular's Ultima series:

www.youtube.com

Majuular

Welcome to my channel! Mostly long-form videos about RPGs and other old/weird/interesting games. PFP by @Fenrir_Lives on Twitter
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
This series actually got me back into the idea of resuming the CRPG quest. He believes the series peaked with Ultima 7 and Ultima Underworld, then it was pretty much downhill.

His Kings Field series video is also a good watch, interesting to see the genesis of Fromsoft when they were basically making CRPGs on consoles.

Hard to believe we've never gotten any sort of Ultima series remaster or collection that modernizes/adds QOL/makes them all playable easily in the modern era.
Click to expand...
Yeah Ultima 8 and 9 were kind of a mess for a lot of reasons, and then the Ultima series got consumed by Ultima Online.
 
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Kajiimagi

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Tuco said:
Yeah Ultima 8 and 9 were kind of a mess for a lot of reasons, and then the Ultima series got consumed by Ultima Online.
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Was 9 the 3d one? Yeah I really felt ripped off on that one. Years later I cheated my way through the game, pretty much had to as much as you got caught in walls/worlds.
 
Urlithani

Urlithani

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Rajaah said:
When I D2, it'll be the original version, not Resurrected. I think there might even be an HD port of the original now, not sure. I still have the guide:

View attachment 606136
Soured on remakes a bit after some of the debacles we've gotten so I'm more inclined to go with the original versions of things whenever possible, unless it's a basic upscaling / HD texture situation.
Click to expand...

20 points in Raise Skeleton
20 points in skeletal mastery
10 +/- points in corpse explosion
10 +/- points in Revive
1 point in: clay golem, golem mastery, summon resist, iron golem, teeth.

Edit: hit reply too soon trying to switch tabs lol.

You can also do 1 point in each curse for utility, but you probably dont need the left side (dim vision, confuse, attract). I like to add enough points to corpse explosion to cover a good portion of the screen, and enough points in Amplify Damage that I only have to cast it once. I also max out golem mastery sometimes. Its very flexible, since as long as you have a skeleton army you're fine.

Sometimes you'll need to use decrepify or lifetap to keep your skeletons alive, but other than that you can crush the whole game with your skeleton army.
 
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Vinjin

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Kajiimagi said:
Was 9 the 3d one? Yeah I really felt ripped off on that one. Years later I cheated my way through the game, pretty much had to as much as you got caught in walls/worlds.
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Ultima brings back so many memories. I started with 2 and loved it. Then finished 3 before going back to play the first one where the villain was Minax.

Ultima 4 was awesome for me and my friends. The four of us were pretty much locked in my room for almost two weeks playing it non stop.

I don't remember much about 5 but I do remember feeling disappointed with 6. And 7 was decent but I can't remember if it was the base game I liked more or the Black Gate expansion.

I was so excited when I got my copy of Ultima 8. Good Lord did it suck. It felt like a completely different game (it was still isometric though). I thought for sure Garriot was gonna redeem himself with Ultima 9 but that was such a buggy, hot garbage POS mess that I never ever even got it to work on my PC.

My brother played it but I remember him telling me something along the lines of "be glad you didn't play it". LOL
 
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