Other great Action RPGs for the PC?

[legendarygamer]

Mann this is a great site! I am a Action RPG fan! I have been for years! Since owning a Sega Saturn!

I have been wondering are there other great Action Rpgs for the PC much like Ys or Zelda? I have one that interest me and this is the link for info kelesis.free.fr/hp/pc-games/wander_wonder/index.htm

The game is like a Ys and Zelda type rpg. So are there others like Ys? If so can someone list a few names and post some links with info of these games? I would like to play some of the best RPGs there is for the PC! I'm more into the old school zelda type more than todays RPGs. Thanks guys and gals here!

Legendarygamer

[Inochi 命]

heh, good taste, man. im more into action-rpgs and action-adventures (zelda is more like that since it doesnt have any RPG elements) as well.

umm... cant say ive found any other games like Ys and Zelda that i like as much, but i can suggest a few action RPGs... theres a few from Square-Enix like the Mana (Seiken Densetsu) series and Secret of Evermore. And I havent played any but I heard that recent games from Sega's Shining series are action-rpgs. I cant think of many more, developers rather make strategy and traditional rpgs than action/adventure ones, unfortunately

if you're also interested in action adventures, try Shadow of the Collosus (i havent tried it myself though) or even Castlevanias (actualy, im sure anyone that loves Ys will love castlevania).

as for PC... i dno, just look to Falcom, what else? Xanadu Next should be good. Ive only realy tried Ys from here, so someone else here can be better help with that.

[FM-77AV]

inochi said:

heh, good taste, man. im more into action-rpgs and action-adventures (zelda is more like that since it doesnt have any RPG elements) as well.

Excellent! Finally someone who doesn't claim Zelda to be an RPG. It annoys me a LOT!


Anyway, I'm also an action-RPG /action-adventure fan. Pretty much the only games I play.


Wander Wonder is very nice. It is a lot like Ys V for SNES. Unfortunately it contains a LOT of dialogue and it doens't really run under Windows XP.

Get Xanadu Next. That is THE best game I have ever played and it doesn't contain mych dialogue at all. That game is just so incredibly fantastic. I can't describe it with words. I love it!

If you want action RPGs, you'd better get a PS2. There aren't many games in the genre for PC.

[uzumakijr]

Ys ,Xanadu Next
hmm
action RPG ....
try something like Diablo or Sacred

[Ryle]

Dont forget Lagoon for the SNES.

[Ryle]

wyrdwad said:

I remember hating that game, actually.

-Tom

Ya it really isnt that good but i thought id mention it cuz its a Ys kinda rip off hehe

[Inochi 命]

let me reitterate that special, golden rule, just in case: anyone cought refering to any existing zelda other than Zelda II as an RPG is just asking to go to heck. how wide-spread that confusion still is just irritates, astounds, and saddens me (maybe because i dont want anyone to see Zelda in the same bin as Final Fantasies and such). you can argue that technically any game can be an RPG, but thats just silly. in this industry, Square and Enix had set the stardards for what RPG would mean for all generations to come, and its not gonna change (even though it desperately needs to). you can say a game can have RPG elements, like Zelda II did, but by no means does that make it a traditional RPG. Castlevania also had RPG elements, do you see anyone calling it an RPG?

also, that takes me to another thing i want to state:

95% of ppl who like Ys will also like castlevania... anyone agree/disagree?

so thats my ultimate recomendation for this guy: CHECK OUT CASLTEVANIA, first and fore-most.

[blabla76]

Hum, factly the father of RPGs is Dungeons and Dragons !
Square soft copied Enix, which had copied Ultima. which comes from tables rpg land founder... dungeons and dragons.
And real RPG don't come, normally, with named characters. if you have played real rpg, remember, you had to choose everything before starting a game, from class, race to name (took one evening some times).
So I think, to be so crazy about this dilemma about Zelda (lol...) isn't a problem coz every japanese "rpg" are only aventure games. you just follow the path the publisher has written. if the hero must die at the end, he will !what ever happen, even you "did a double six" at the last boss.
I remember have played some great parties of real RPG with a story which changed completely during the hours coz the master and players decided to change all the game. Did you find a videogame that could let you change that ? of course not.
So just let say Ys a good game with experience points and items and Zelda is a good game with pieces of hearts and items. where is the difference ? The brave hero vanquish all the bad boys and peace returns , children are save and they married and....
pathetic.

[Inochi 命]

first, i was talking about console video gaming only. sure they could have taken many things from D&D. I guess you could argue that text-based RPGs were based of D&D and therefore are the real sources...

and if RPGs are "just adventure games" then why not call them as such? I know what you mean because technically speaking that could be correct. but then, like i said before, you can call every game a Role Playing Game because you are undoubtably and usualy playing the Role of another character. and thats realy what you are also doing, but that gets the point nowhere.

"So just let say Ys a good game with experience points and items and Zelda is a good game with pieces of hearts and items. where is the difference ? The brave hero vanquish all the bad boys and peace returns , children are save and they married and...."

nearly every game has that basic scenario. by that remark you can call castlevania or metroid a total RPG. you can even call mario games an RPG. just simply because you can adventure to some extent and the game has a story doesnt make it an RPG in today's world of gaming. if you get right down to the core meaning of the acronym, then yes you call call nearly every game besides an on-rails shooter an RPG. personally i dont find much sense in that, and neither does the industry as a whole. i mean, if giving a game what many call "RPG-elements" doesnt make it an RPG then why call something that has none an RPG? we could very well get technical to the bone and throw "RPG" into the genre of every game and end up making zelda as a whole officialy a Strategy-Puzzle-Adventure-Platforming-Fighting-Action-Adventure-RPG. i mean, you encluded that you're role-playing so why exclude the obvious amount of puzzles or strategy in the game? ive also found that many people like to call any adventure game an RPG when its over-head or 3D, but what about the side-scrolling ones?

i guess the way i see it, a real RPG has more strategy in it through the ability to manage characters and play as more than one role. an action-rpg would make it impossible to play as more than one character at the same time, which is why they never call castlevania an RPG and instead call it an Action (or action-adventure... its just that "adventure" has an even worse story that "RPG", cuz even games like mario are instead refered to mainly as "platformers") game with RPG elements, making it an action-rpg as well dispite being a side-scroller. Ys III and Zelda II are also technically Action-RPGs... but it'd make no sense to just simply call it an RPG.

btw, the biggest element of an RPG would have to be the experiance system, no doubt about that. you cant even say something has RPG elements without that.

I guess what im saying is calling something only an "RPG" implies that it's a traditional one, like an FF. you just cant simply call it an RPG only because a single element of RPG gaming exists in it. making a game an adventure wit ha storyline doesnt make it an RPG. Zelda came before FF and it never would have made anyone think of D&D, but instead could have reminded some people of the game "adventure", because thats what the series was first presented as, an adventure, an action-adventure. NINTENDO THEMSELVES call the series an action-adventure. it says so on NoA's site.

and i didnt mean to be harsh with my bolded statement in my last post seriously, i wasnt being serious with that. had i remembered to use emoticons in my post i probably would have shown that... >_<

ermmm... due to me being in a hurry i dotn think i explained this stuff as well as i could have... seldane, maybe you have something to help the deffence too?

[FM-77AV]

All I can say is: RPGs does not (usually) contain puzzles, adventure games do.

Zelda is NOTHING but action and puzzles. Action adventure.

Ys and Zelda doesn't have much in common at all. They are very different from eachother.

[Haven]

Zelda is like a puzzle game in a way that the dungeons and even the world map itself are like a big playground filled with different stuffs to do that make use of your actual abilities (instead of those "mash the triangle button to put the gift in the boxes* that feel so useless). Even the battles themselves (like the bosses) have puzzle elements into them which is kinda refreshing.

Ys on the other hand is like an fast-paced arcade-style pick-up-and-play adrenaline-pumping buttonmashing slasher that also makes you think
(unlike *cough*Kingdom Hearts*cough*)

If you got both Ys and Zelda, I dunno what else is there besides other games of different genres.

If the game focuses on puzzles - compare them to Zelda
If the game focuses on battles - compare them to Ys (especially Oath)

[FM-77AV]

wyrdwad said:

Add to that the fact that the Zelda games DO actually have stories, and have since Link to the Past. Sure, they're not especially great stories, but they're stories nonetheless, complete with characters, plot twists, cutscenes, and everything else you'd expect from an RPG.

I wouldn't exepect any of this in an RPG. Take The Elder Scrolls, for example -- no "characters", "plot twists", cutscenes or anything like it.

I consider The Elder Scrolls (and similiar games) to be the real RPGs. I'm kind of with blabla76 here -- Japanese "RPGs" aren't really RPGs at all. Xanadu Next is certainly not an RPG. Neither is Zelda, or any other puzzle-based adventure game.

[Inochi 命]

i can see it cant be helped. lets just say everyone has their own view on the topic and leave it at that... but i was just speaking from the industry's standpoint in what i said. technically you can get into a lot of descriptions, but its realy just silly to discuss it at all. it just cant be resolved.

personaly, i just hate traditional RPGs and FF... so i dont want Zelda to be considered an RPG in that sense. if thats an RPG... then EVERYTHING is an RPG. anyone can say that in super mario bros. you PLAY the ROLL of a guy named mario, so its an RPG. thats how silly it is... just simply have a game with some kinda story and a character to play as. i guess RPG was never an acurate enough description to desrcibe a particular kinda of game. but in this industry, its a fact that Zelda does not = RPG and FF 100% does, thats just the way it is. an RPG needs to have experiance points, thats the easiest i can put it. i dno, i guess my last post was much too long to fully understand...

if you had understood my last post, no one would be restating that story makes a game into an RPG.

you cant just look at a couple of games and make you're own decision. you need to see which games are seen in the industry as falling under which category and understand WHY... make connections that way. For instance, why is

Resident Evil has puzzles, and FF has puzzles, so is RE an RPG? what about tetris? Mario has a story, so does FF, is Mario an RPG? Mega Man Zero has plot twists and character development, is that an RPG?

just simply having an element or two of a typical "RPG" does not make the entire game fall under the category of typical "RPG".

im not gonna explain the connections again, just take a look back at all the typical RPGs you've played in the past and see what the biggest connections are, connections that no other games have.

im just a bit astounded now because now it seems that not only do people consider Zelda an RPG... but nearly everythign else too! Ys IS an action-RPG (you wont find many others in the industry refer to it as anything else), because its a game where you mostly find yourself in action through battling... above anything else. then it also has SOME RPG elements, and im not talking about story and character interactions because MANY kinds of games have those things as well... i talking about the experiance system, thats why it's RPG-related. its because you are managing your character by leveling him up. he has stats that change. it doesnt matter if hes growing storyline-wise, it matters is if he is growing in strength as a character you are playing as.

you cant just look at what the acronym stands for, you have to look at what the industry sees it as. since the days of D&D, RPGs have and always will be about MANAGING characters for battle. every character has a strength and weekness deffined by a number or ability that changes as the game moves forward. do a bit of research and you can find these connections through out anything that has the RPG label on ot.

hopefully you guys will consider what im saying and not just shove it off... seeing as it seems you have your minds set. this isnt the first time ive discussed this, every single time people just wont open their minds to what others are trying to say. everyone just sticks with what they've been thinking since as long as they can remember... i have to say ive taken other comments into mind in order to narrow down what an RPG is specificaly in my mind: its about management of characters. maybe you guys didnt think of this but a game's genre depends on it's gameplay and nothing else. music, story, graphics, etc are all just secondary things that any game can share.

great, now ive made another long post that will go unread (mostly)... it suddently seems that i have gained quite a bit of time on my hands...

[FM-77AV]

I see the word "role" in role playing games as "yourself."

Take The Elder Scrolls, for example. You create your own character, and there's no linear story that you HAVE to follow. You do whatever you want -- whenever you want. Just like in real life. Now that's playing a role.

In Final Fantasy (for example), you're a pre-made character. It is not "you" -- and you HAVE TO follow the ultra-linear story whether you like it or not. You don't have any options whatsoever -- it is like reading a book.

[FM-77AV]

RPGfan should change their name to Adventure fan.

Is this an RPG?

....Or this?

Heck, they're even listing Castlevania!

Oh my ... they're listing Final Fantasy .... The MOVIE!!

Oh ... RPGfan doesn't list PC games.. Where the REAL RPGs are. Odd site.

[Inochi 命]

then that settles it, mario (as well as any other game out there except maybe pure puzzle games) is undoutably an RPG as well. because we are taking the litteral meaning out of it... anything can be an RPG.

and i realy dont think a game's quality can make it into an RPG. is MGS an RPG?

and i also think RPG-fan should have changed its name a long time ago. maybe fantasy-fan or yeah, adventure-fan.

[FM-77AV]

If Castlevania is, then Metal Gear Solid is definitely also an RPG. It is in 3D (and in third person) and you can find items. It is also a video game -- that makes it an RPG.

Since Final Fantasy VII: The Spirits Within (or whatever it is called) is a movie/an RPG, I guess Star Wars is an RPG too.

And while we're at the whole media/RPG thing, I guess books are RPGs as well ... heck, even LIFE is an RPG. You gain experience and you can obtain items and everything. It is the best RPG of all. I give it 97/100. Definitely. One flaw: you can't start over when you die. It is all over.

[blabla76]

well well...
strange topic.
just about some words.... Lets' just say that those games, Ys, zelda, xanadu are great games and they give us fun. that's the most iimportant, isn't it ?
who cares if zelda is an action aventure or a rpg...
at least I am gonna buy Twilight princess for christmas !
and like felgana it's gonna rock. that's all !

[Haven]

RPGs are interactive stories
Wether they are in an action-platform-ish kind of way
or a point and click kind of way
or blah blah blah

I've read in a magazine not long ago about a gamer complaining why people like RPGs when all you do is run around and talk to people, and fight enemies by lining up in straight lines and hit each other back and forth.

I see RPGs as interactive stories.
Either I follow a premade script, or make my own.
That's what they are^^

But I don't think Metal Gear is an RPG, and I don't consider it as a "Tactical Espionage Action" either.
It's just a different genre IMO (considering my experience with MGS2).

[cmdrmarkus]

haven9270 said:

RPGs are interactive stories
Wether they are in an action-platform-ish kind of way
or a point and click kind of way
or blah blah blah

Bingo. I think you guys are skipping something. There are 3 distinct flavors of RPG - turn based, strategy and action. And never forget that RPG means Role-Playing Game. A role playing game can be defined as a game in which you play the role of one or more characters that interacts with other non-player characters.

Zelda, Ys, and Fable would be action RPGs. The combat system is an action combat system but you're still playing the role of the main characters.

The Final Fantasy series, Wild Arms series, Sudeki, Dragon Quest VIII, The Legend of Heros series would be turn-based RPGs, because again, you're playing the role of the main characters and interacting with other non players.

Games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Disgaia, La Pucelle tactics, are all strategy RPG's. Again, you play the role of a character in the game, and you interact with other characters.

Same genre, different flavors.

Playing the role of a character, and interacting with other characters are what defines an RPG.