Western RPG's

[Kamahl]

Late to the party. In Ultima 7 you can use a spell that literally ends the world (only leaving lord british and the final boss alive because they're just that powerful). And then you can kill lord british by making a rock fall on his head, or just hit him with a sword that can suck the souls out of anything (except the final boss, because he is protected by the guardian).

Now that's a Western RPG.

[OverDrone]

^ That sounds incredible! Confession time, I've never played any of the Ultima games. Stuff like the above certainly makes me want to, though.

What about the Mega CD version of Eye of the Beholder, any good? I played some of the original on A600 when it came out, does it compare with the Amiga game or improve on it?

[Kamahl]

^ That sounds incredible! Confession time, I've never played any of the Ultima games. Stuff like the above certainly makes me want to, though.

The game is horribly clunky, you can barely control your character in combat, and the inventory system is batshit insane (in a really bad way). What they really nailed was the story, the world, and the feeling of freedom. One of the first things you see in the game is the village smith that was brutally murdered in some kind of ritual with his gargoyle manservant staked against the wall with a pitchfork. This in 1992.

Probably the game's only major failing story-wise is the intro "FMV" (if you can even call it that), where the true villain just straight up mocks you. Game would be better without it.

Edit: The game's cover:

What about the Mega CD version of Eye of the Beholder, any good? I played some of the original on A600 when it came out, does it compare with the Amiga game or improve on it?

I've always hated that sort of first person RPG, so I can't really say.

[Armoured Priest]

^ That sounds incredible! Confession time, I've never played any of the Ultima games. Stuff like the above certainly makes me want to, though.

What about the Mega CD version of Eye of the Beholder, any good? I played some of the original on A600 when it came out, does it compare with the Amiga game or improve on it?

I love EotB. I didn't own a PC until 2000, so the version I played first was the Sega CD port. Its why, when I finally did get a PC, one of the first things I bought was the Forgotten Realms Silver Anniversary Collection (which included Eye of the beholder 1, 2, & 3). Its a pretty straight forward port. The main difference is the addition of a Red Book audio CD soundtrack...and the soundtrack was done by Yuzo Koshiro and is pretty awesome (though more techno/electronica compared to the stuff he's done more recently for Etrian Odyssey.

[Black_Tiger]

Late to the party. In Ultima 7 you can use a spell that literally ends the world (only leaving lord british and the final boss alive because they're just that powerful). And then you can kill lord british by making a rock fall on his head, or just hit him with a sword that can suck the souls out of anything (except the final boss, because he is protected by the guardian).

Now that's a Western RPG.

Doesn't Final Fantasy II have a sword found midway through the game, which kills the final boss in a few hits?

Dungeon Explorer Turbo/PCE lets you seize the throne after the King is revealed to be Satan. The game ends with you bragging about how shit hot you are.

[Kamahl]

Doesn't Final Fantasy II have a sword found midway through the game, which kills the final boss in a few hits?

Very different, Final Fantasy II doesn't let you use that sword to slaughter everyone in the world. Heck in Ultima 7 people even respond to getting robbed if they catch you stealing shit from their house.

Dungeon Explorer Turbo/PCE lets you seize the throne after the King is revealed to be Satan. The game ends with you bragging about how shit hot you are.

A binary yes/no choice at the end that allows you to be the bad guy is atypical for JRPGs, but pretty weak in comparison to simply letting you do whatever (even if it means the game becomes unbeatable).

[midnightrider]

Never got much into WRPGs besides a little bit of the first Fable game. I've mostly given up RPGs, Japanese stuff included, for ones that actually work my noodle and feel like real games. For example, I've been really addicted to the first Langrisser and Shining Force games for Genesis.

^Then you'd probably enjoy Knights of the Chalice and Heroes of Might and Magic 2-3.

Heh, sort of another Genesis plug, though it's a port of a PC game in itself, but King's Bounty is very similar to a HoM&M game. At least in combat.

Doesn't Final Fantasy II have a sword found midway through the game, which kills the final boss in a few hits?

Sure, but is there a more influenced-by-WRPG's JRPG than Final Fantasy II? It was basically the start of the SaGa series, in which Romancing SaGa is basically Japanese Elder Scrolls(regardless which came first).
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My Shadowrun game so far:
Hit a few more storyline beats, One that even payed off 10,000 at a point when I had 20,000 already, so I upgraded the hell out of my cyberdeck(as in all I have left is 2,000). Despite that, it still seems I may be in over my head doing a Matrix run that pays out 3,000, for the Johnson that hired Michael for his last run. If I can't get anywhere with this, I'm going to cancel out and do some corp runs, with the occasional Matrix data download and payoff from selling data to Roscoe.

Update:
Beat it. Not sure I would have gotten through Salish-Shidhe without some directions though... Almost want to try soloing as a Shaman now, but I don't think I'm going to forget how slow the game went that first time around. Still, 1 character would be a lot less money to spend, plus I know the districts well now.

[midnightrider]

Hate double posting as it were, but this is pretty cool, for fans of the original Diablo. Apologies in advance if you already know about this, but I suspect that most do not.

http://diablo1.ovh.org/hd/

The site might be a little spotty, but click "Download" (or just go here instead: http://diablo1.ovh.org/hd/?download) and download the first option. Then if you want to play the game in Polish, Turkish, Czech, Italian, or Brazilian, scroll down and download the files for that language.

It should run the game perfectly in a modern version of Windows, with a ton of enhancements. This doesn't work with multiplayer yet, however.

On the flips side, this program...: http://sourceforge.net/projects/dxwnd/ should be able to run vanilla Diablo(along with all sorts of other older Windows games) in a modern versions of Windows, in a Window if you want(windowed or full screen are options with Belzebub up there too), with multiplayer as it was always handled.

Edit: Well, at least I know that first option works... Trying DxWnd with other games, and it's not working out so well for me...

Edit 2: Belzebub doesn't save, but remembers things when you exit, making it more like Diablo 2 in that way. So it only remember your levels, equipment, and which waypoints you've reached(one every 2 levels in the dungeon, but you also have the new openings, at levels 5, 9, and 13, to help out as well). I suppose in a way that would bypass the grinding needed to restart the game with the character as they are, to be able to reach level 24 or so, to be able to take on Diablo in the first place. You can also die without any real penalty, just choose "Restart in town" and you'll be as you were, with all the gold and items you've gathered and everything. As long as you don't exit the game(or have a crash, which did happen to me once, but didn't set me back, thankfully), the dungeon layout will be exactly the same. There's also no difficulty selection beyond normal, but as the game tells you, you have to beat it on the previous level of difficulty to be able to start on the next.

[Phexar]

Update:
Beat it. Not sure I would have gotten through Salish-Shidhe without some directions though... Almost want to try soloing as a Shaman now, but I don't think I'm going to forget how slow the game went that first time around. Still, 1 character would be a lot less money to spend, plus I know the districts well now.

Oh yeah, Shadowrun (Genesis) is an awesome game, I haven't played it in some time though I did make a load of notes and research about it back on Gamefaqs involving optimal equipment, breakdowns of the other shadowrunners and where the best discounts are, you can find some of my posts in this topic if you're curious: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/36685...owrun/57953758

If you're going for a Shaman then you'll want to boost your Quickness or Body right away or you'll have trouble both surviving and fleeing enemies. Also if you want to hold onto Ricky for a bit while you get yourself stronger, you can save a bit of money by hiring him for a single run and then only doing Bodyguard and Courier runs - a shadowrunner will never leave unless you do a Ghoul run or some other kind.

On a separate note I should try Might & Magic 2 again some time, I enjoyed playing a bit of that.

[midnightrider]

I did try the Shaman game and I gotta be honest, I don't know if I burned out playing it so soon after that last run to completion, or if the game just wasn't for me in the longrun. I eventually resorted to cheating, then lost interest before the Renraku run/Salish-Shidhe. The beginning is just way too slow.

I have been playing the hell out of that Diablo mod though(it's kind of like Diablo 1.5, a few elements of 2, but very much still 1, with extra content, and some bosses that are pretty brutal). Seems the only way I can play the game on my PC nowadays, which is kind of strange, I know Diablo's older, but the first 2 Fallouts run just fine.