I’ve always been a sucker for RPG games. When I’m feeling down I tend to play Final Fantasy 8 or Final Fantasy 10, they’re like my comfort games.
I’ve had a hard time finding joy in modern RPG games, they all feel very grindy and seem to have an uninteresting plot. I’m looking for something that sparks joy, so I don’t have look for some ridiculous challenge like Khimari only run in FF10 or something.
Things that spark joy:
- Being able to play on Steam Deck or at least stream from my (linux) desktop
- Decent graphics, though pixel art is ok
- Voice acting
- No random encounters
- Good plot
- Good combat
Things that do not spark joy:
- Too much grinding
- DnD mechanics
- Mandatory online requirement
Games that I really enjoyed:
- Final Fantasy 7 through 10
- Final Fantasy 5
- Dragon Quest XI
- Xenoblade Chronicles 1/2
- South Park games
- Stardew Valley
Games that I did not enjoy:
- Elden Ring - I guess I just don’t have the mental patience for souls games anymore.
- Final Fantasy X-2 - great combat mechanics, horrendous plot
- “Modern” Final Fantasy games
- Divinity: Original Sin 2, Disco Elysium - feels too much like DnD
- Hogwarts Legacy - It felt amazing at first but then got super repetitive
- Persona 5 Royal - The game severely overstayed its welcome, very bloated, very repetitive dialog (the characters tell you the same information multiple times)
- I am Setsuna - The plot resembled Final Fantasy 10 way too much, felt like I had already played that game. Didn’t finish
- Kingdom Hearts - Severe motion sickness
- Octopath Traveler - The plot felt extremely disconnected, random encounters were annoying, I got stuck due to an underleveled party and didn’t have the patience to grind it up
Thanks in advance!
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Idk if you can get these to work on the deck; they are not all sold on Steam and I don’t know how well they play with Linux, but here’s some to at least look into:
Planescape: Torment
Icewind Dale 1 & 2
Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2 (and 3 for that matter, which does for sure work on the deck)
Fallout 1 & 2
Neverwinter Nights (particularly its two big expansions)
feels too much like D&D
Well… Fuck. If you didn’t even like Disco Elysium there is no hope… 😩 All of these are literally D&D games except Fallout, which was based on GURPS.
Caves of Qud just did an entire revamp of the control scheme specifically for steam deck. If ur looking for sandbox old-school dwarf fortress stle RPG it’s great.
Have you ever tried the shadowrun games at all? They’ve had a decent track record overall, and several versions exist on steam and play at least okay on the deck (can’t remember exactly which, but protonDB exists for a reason lol).
Might be too similar to d&d for you, but I’ve never seen them be that similar in execution.
The big recent release that’s missing from your list is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. For me, it really evokes that FF8/FF10 era of Final Fantasy.
I hear the developers are still working on the Steam Deck build so it might be a bit rough at the moment, but since streaming from your Linux desktop is an option, I’d highly recommend it. Yes, it’s as good as people say.
Definitely getting it sooner or later!
I didn’t care to play it because I don’t love FF style rpgs anymore, but I watched my girlfriend play and it was worth just for the story and music. The soundtrack is INSANE. Avoid listening to it until you play, if you can. It makes everything so much better.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is probably one of the best games I played, it has RPG elements and the turn-based combat system is unique and satisfying. But this is not a game that will bring you joy, the atmosphere is bleak and it is a dark story.
In fact it kind of ruined RPGs for the moment at least, I played Metaphor:ReFantazio right after and the stakes just did not feel serious enough even 10 hours in.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Definitely on my wishlist, the only reason I haven’t bought it is because I read the Steam Deck experience is very bad. I can always stream it from my desktop though.
I played it on the Deck. I have to agree that there are rough edges (some ambient color go from A to B with no transition, and some zone have a really strange colorimetry compared to a more powerful device). But it is entirely playable.
In that case: on a completely different spectrum, Sea of Stars is an absolute masterpiece, taking liberal inspiration from the good old days of SNES JRPGs.
…and that should run just fine on SteamDeck!
It’s on my wishlist now, definitely going to check it out. Have you tried the multiplayer aspect of the game? Might be fun to couch co-op.
I’ve not had the chance to try it, I also hear it’s quite good.
Cheers!
I don’t see how you can enjoy Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest when you don’t like grinding. Both of those series are like, peak grinding JRPG.
Maybe try The Legend of Dragoon or Breath of Fire?
I can see how it can be confusing, let me shed some context:
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I’m not against grinding, though that’s not exactly what I was looking for right now;
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The last final fantasy I truly enjoyed was FF-X, which I bought on launch. That was more than 20 years ago;
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Final Fantasy games can be REALLY grindy if you want to kill the ultra bosses but not if you just want to follow the plot. You can kill everything in Final Fantasy 8 without gaining a single level (it’s actually easier that way…);
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My tastes in gaming have changed quite a bit over the years…
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I loved Dark Souls 1/3 and just couldn’t enjoy Elden Ring any more;
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I recently-ish tried Final Fantasy 6, which is widely regarded as the best, and didn’t click for me;
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Random battles in particular became a big turnoff for me
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I mean, I tried FFX and once I got to the Seymour Wedding I dropped the game because I was apparently too low level (I do absolutely zero grinding in games, I hate grinding and random battles the most from JRPGs). There was some gauntlet of multiple forced battles one after the other I think with flamethrower guards and my party was on low HP, had no healing items, and I had to save state scum just to pass it. I think I was around level 20? Maybe 30? I dont remember. I just remember the fight with the flying dragon on the ship was very difficult and the fight with Shiva (which also is not explained very well in-game to the point I had to look up what to do just to find out Shiva was added as an Aeon) was also veey difficult, both requiring save scumming.
Then the cutscene where Yuna just completely gives up on everything she believed in as a character up to that point and that was kinda the straw that broke the camels back. That scene, combined with the few cutscenes right before between the thief girl and Waka just felt absurdly out of character to me. I didnt appreciate what was going on and up to that point I wasnt loving the game either so I dropped it.
Also didnt like Blitz Ball. Played it for the tutorial and the forced tournament, but never played it outside of those forced moments.
Mostly I kept thinking how much I would have preferred if the main character was Jecht. Less annoying voice actor and better visual design than Tutus IMO. His story seemed to be way more interesting too.
I never played Breath of Fire, so I can’t say much on it. But I did play a bit of Legend of Dragoon. It seemed cool, but my save file got corrupted and I havent wanted to start a new game.
Could also try Koudelka, which combines true Survival Horror elements with strategy/tactical RPG combat.
Seymour battles can be very challenging but there’s always a gimmick or gear to mitigate their attacks. It’s up to the player to figure it out. The only fight I did have trouble in one of my (too many) runs was in Mount Gagazet, that one can be tough if you don’t have zombie ward or a way to inflict poison.
Unless you’re going for the Dark Aeon’s you can totally skip Blitzball. If you don’t enjoy it you’re not really losing anything. I did like the concept of Blitzball in general, at first I thought it was fun. However, the matches become brain-dead easy really fast and each match lasts 10+ minutes, which is wayyy too long. It’s a huge time sink and the rewards are absurdly bad for the invested time (An ether, seriously? A single ether?)
I have to somewhat agree with you about Jecht. Instead of FFX-2, they should have done a FFX-0 where you follow Jecht’s pilgrimage instead. I’d play that!!!
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I just picked up Beyond Galaxyland in a Fanatical bundle. I have not played it yet, so tentative recommendation, but reviews are indicating it may be a hidden gem.
For an older one I really liked: Cosmic Star Heroine. Pixel art, great soundtrack especially for bosses, and fantastic combat mechanics. It’s all very uniquely designed to encourage high-risk gameplay and variety on every turn, pushing moments where you buff yourself up for one or two supremely powerful strikes in a fight, or even sacrifice a character to KO the last enemy (all characters heal to full after every fight)
For even older: As someone who had that same kind of music-swelling nostalgia around FF7, I managed to win back that feeling when I played “The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky”. It’s a two-part game (sold as two units), that begins a giant series of games, but I only played it out of curiosity. Even though I didn’t fully enjoy later games, Trails had both a lot of enjoyable and unique elements to its combat, and a very emotionally written story that occasionally throws in silliness to retain charm. Though the game itself is old, it got a series of patches by a “master porting engineer” at Falcom that adds features like an experimental fast-forward mode to help with long battle animations.
On grinding, one great thing about the games is their XP system. They grant a lot more XP anytime you’re underleveled for enemies, and much less when you’re overleveled - helping to equalize the experience after just a few fights, many of which can be short thanks to fast forwarding. But, the story is still long overall.
You’ll see a Trails 3, which is very optional in my view. Weirdly, it’s a bit more of a “lore dump” for future games than closing off any major plot threads. To me it was a little bit of a signal of them taking their “Marvel universe” style of world a bit too far.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was amazing and made me want to play the first two but that damn Nintendo tax has prevented me from finding it at a decent price on the secondhand market.
Since you mentioned FF series, don’t sleep on FF12. It is up there on my top games as it was the first one I played where I could automate my group.
I have Chronicles and Chronicles 2 carts if you’re interested. Played the first and just resigned myself to never getting around to the 2nd.
I have played pretty much all final fantasies since FF5, with the exception of FF11 and FF16. FF12 is the only one worth playing after FFX, in my opinion.
For a Stardew Valley type RPG, check out Little-Known Galaxy. I haven’t gotten far in its story but it’s been pretty fun.
For more traditional RPGs, I enjoyed Cross Code, though it is a bit grindy if you want to 100%.
Sea of Stars also has a great story.
For games with voice acting check out Kingdom Come Deliverance and its sequel.
The Forgotten City. More of an adventure game but has good story.
Sea of Stars
Definitely looks cool, thanks for the suggestions!
Ni no Kuni
Star Ocean series
Caves of Qud
Chrono Tigger is a crowd favorite
Pokemon, if you somehow never played it
Not a ttrpg, but Cavestory is one of my favorite classics of all time
Also not a ttrpg, but Dust: An Elysian Tail has a great story.
How do you feel about Skyrim? I kinda want to recommend Morrowind via OpenMW, which should run fine on the Deck, but I guess both games would feel too much like DnD for you.
Undertale, if you haven’t played, might be fun.
You can also check out Trials of Mana, which is a remake of the SNES game and, unlike the remake of Secret of Mana, doesn’t seem to have any unpatched game breaking bugs. Other JRPGs that might be work checking out are the “Ys” and “Legend of Heroes” series, both should have plenty of games that play fine on the deck.
Lastly, Rune Factory, which is fantasy harvest moon (the farming sim that started it all, so to speak) with some light dungeon delving and leveling up.
As an alternative to Skyrim, try Enderal. A free total conversion of Skyrim (you need Skyrim obviously). It’s a complete new game with new mechanics, story, skills, etc. It’s fully voiced and waaaay better than Skyrim IMHO.
Skyrim
I have never tried Skyrim because it appears to be a first person game and first person games tend to give me serious motion sickness. I’m physically unable to play them.
Undertale
Played it, it’s great.
Ys
I tried the Lacrimosa of Dana but never got to complete. Don’t know why, I have this recollection that it’s actually a good game? Maybe I should revisit that!
Skyrim certainly plays better in first person, but you can change the camera to be 3rd person, slightly behind your character. The default kinda sucks and you’d be better off trying one of the camera mods. You’d also need a few mods to get a better experience overall, like SkyUI for better menus, and Unofficial Patch to fix fuckloads of bugs Bethesda never bothered to fix in 14 years
Try out INK INSIDE
It’s an action RPG made by some of the team that made Cartoon Network games like Steven Universe Unleash the Light.
- Works great on steam deck.
- Unique combat that’s a combination of puzzle games and beat-em-up.
- Full voice acting with Brian David Gilbert and Deneen Melody (Evangelion)
- Fun story and character development (that’s basically the first season of a cartoon show)
- Local 2 player co-op
Only $15
A bit of each sale goes to the whole dev team too :)
Games that I really enjoyed:
- Final Fantasy 7 through 10
- Final Fantasy 5
So… did you skip FF VI or did you specifically not like it?
I played it recently-ish but didn’t enjoy it. There are a lot of characters and the story is constantly moving between them. I didn’t enjoy that.
Interesting, it’s my absolute favourite personally. I don’t hear many people dislike it.
On the subject of pixel art retro styled RPGs though I want to make a case for Skald: Against the Black Priory. It doesn’t have voice acting, but otherwise should satisfy your demands given you say you tolerate pixel art. It’s very short for an RPG (16-20h) but that also means it’s very concise, has no filler and no grinding. Should play well on a Steam Deck too. I played it back in January I think and had an absolute blast with it. Cool story and world building, fun somewhat simple combat. Very enjoyable.
EDIT: though there is some dice rolling in dialogue, so maybe that’s a no go.
I don’t hear many people dislike it.
I know it’s a totally unpopular opinion, I know FF6 is often rated as the best one of the series. Just didn’t click for me.
I’ll check out ot Skald, thanks!
Witcher series, cyberpunk, mass effect, horizon:zero dawn, gothic 1+2 (they’re super old so not ideal for the deck, but you can make them work. Found This guide for it. There’s also hades 1+2, but those are rogue-like RPGs, so not quite the same thing.
Edit: Drova: Forsaken kin is also really good.
one of my all-time favs is an ancient one… phantasy star II. you’ll need the sega thing on steam to run it…
the story is good, graphics are very stardew valley.
the only negative aspect from your list is some minor grinding and the randomness of bumping into creatures.
Phantasy Star 4 is also very good and worth checking out, if you’re going back to the early 90s
i will check it out! i was not impressed with PS3 back in the day… too scripted.
Yeah, it seems the general consensus is to skip 3. I wonder how the 2000 era Phantasy Star games fare (not counting PSO)
I was definitely looking for something less ancient xD Solid suggestion, regardless.
