Hey folks, I know game requests can get pretty annoying - but please help a brother out.
I’m in a very specific mood, and I want to play an action RPG in a dark fantasy setting - the issue is, people got bored of all fantasy being medieval, so now games always come up with a twist “dark fantasy… But in the 40’s! But it’s cyberpunk! But it’s actually under the ocean!” and while I respect these subgenres… Just give me a knight in armour and a gritty story, pleeeeease.
By action RPG, I don’t even mean Diablo clone. It can be one, but also a 2D open world RPG, or a 3D old-school Skyrim-like, or a MMORPG style, or whatever. I just need one.
Kingdom Come : Deliverance is basically if Skyrim took place in a ren faire. No magic, no fantasy, just dudes in armor completing tasks for the local lords and monasteries.
Any of the fable games are decent at least; some are better than others. Personally felt the series peaked with 2.
You likely already know about the elder scrolls games, but there was a clone series called Two Worlds that were… interesting? Not fantastic, but good ideas and worth a shot.
If you haven’t played all the Witcher games they are likely exactly what you’re looking for. Personally haven’t played 1, but 2,3 are excellent.
Dragons age 1 and inquisition are good. Might be too turn based for your preference as the fights involve many party members.
Then there’s the From soft games; darksouls, etc. No real story to speak of, but very dark medieval fantasy.
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The obvious choice would be Elden Ring. Fantastic game, even for people (like me) who are not fans of soulslike games
Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen
Have to pitch it. DD:DA is what if you had Monster Hunter, added magic classes that feel great, and set it in a high fantasy setting. It takes some cues from jrpgs and feels less western than any soulsborne game, but still.
There’s the divinity series. Original sin 1&2 are the more recent ones, but the old stuff is playable.
There’s dragon age.
Fable is a bit light, but fun. Medievil if you have Playstation. Bard’s Tale is more comical dark.Skyrim-like
Enderal.
Official page here: https://sureai.net/games/enderal/
Original Skyrim version: https://store.steampowered.com/app/933480/Enderal_Forgotten_Stories/
2016 Skyrim re-release “special edition” version: https://store.steampowered.com/app/976620/Enderal_Forgotten_Stories_Special_Edition/
You’ll need whichever version corresponds with the version of skyrim you own. If you own both, I’d recommend choosing the version of enderal that goes with the version of skyrim that you play the least - because it uses skyrim’s assets, switching back and forth has been known to corrupt saves, so back up any skyrim saves you care about.
Anywho, Enderal is set in its own universe - it looks and kind of feels like skyrim because it’s built from the same blocks, but has nothing to do with the Elder Scrolls, or Tamriel, etc (barring a few easter eggs). New lore, new characters, new terrain, new music, new voice acting.
The company that made it is “SureAI” - indie dev crew that has nothing to do with AI. /shrug. It’s a predominately German studio, and while Enderal is available in English, iirc the English version is voice acted mostly by German native speakers who happen to know English as a second language. Reason for mentioning that is: be gentle in your judgement of the voice acting, lol. Along the main quest line, it’s pretty much all rock solid; some of the side quests and random NPCs… not so much. And the children NPC voice acting is fucking awful. The console command “TAI” (after targeting an entity) can be used to shut up an annoying NPC without breaking it - just TAI it again if you happen to need to interact with it for a quest or something later.
Speaking of the command console - don’t be afraid to use the command console!! Again, this game is built on Skyrim’s engine/assets, so it comes with all of skyrim’s problems - e.g., step on a basket full of cabbage; get launched into low orbit. Things like quest items falling through the floor n’ shit can happen, so you may need to use the console to force a quest to progress or some shit - also save frequently, same reason. And from a technical standpoint, some of the shit they do with Skyrim’s engine is mindblowing.
Not much of a sales pitch so far lol. The good stuff though: Enderal’s story is pretty wild. There isn’t really a traditional antagonist - instead it tackles concepts ranging from philosophical to religious to emotions / repressed emotions… this game WILL get under your skin, but in a really artistic kind of way. Very much a passion project by the devs.
Combat and skills are completely redone. It’s not like Skyrim where you can just shoot icicles up a mudcrab’s ass until your destruction level is 100. It plays kinda like an oldschool RPG where killing shit gives you overall-level xp, but raising skills requires skillbooks that you’ll need to find or buy. Also the things that were OP in skyrim are no longer so - try the sneaky archer build in Enderal and you’ll get your ass handed to you in pretty much every encounter. I recall having a lot of fun with the 2H sword path; and the magic ‘schools’ are mostly redone (like iirc there’s a school of ‘Entropy’ that an entire talent tree dedicated to dark lifesteal type spells, and stronger attacks that use HP instead of mana) so read through the options, cuz a lot of them will be totally new.
Even with all the combat tweaks though, it plays pretty familiar to Skyrim, just don’t lean too heavily into Skyrim’s tricks.
The story though, and the way they tell it… holy shit. If you’re a bookworm, you know when you finish the last page of a REALLY good book, and then get hit by that kind of empty feeling as it sinks in that the ride is over, and you want more but know there’s nothing left? I’ve played a fuckton of videogames, and only ONE has ever hit me with that at its conclusion: and yup, it’s Enderal.
It’s a slow start, and there’s some jankiness in general like the occasional shit voice acting and technical instability, but if you can look passed that shit (and I mean, keep in the back of your mind that it’s a FREE passion project from an indie dev crew with no real budget), then this game will go down as one of your all time favorites.
+1 for Enderal. I liked it enough that I bought the writers standalone book. My friend and I played it at the same time. We both got the Enderal hangover and couldn’t start a story based game for weeks
How was the book?
Enderal is amazing
Have you heard about gothic? They are kinda old except gothic 3 which is also pretty old but not that much. It has supreme story and a rich fantasy world but I dunno how well it aged since I have nostalgia glasses on.
In my opinion gothic 2 is the best, gothic 1 was also pretty good but it crashed at a specific point and I couldn’t play on. Gothic 3 is buggy as hell
If you consider playing any of the Gothic games, the community patches are a MUST.
Lords of the Fallen is pretty recent if you’re into soulslike games
Kingdoms of Amalur is pretty decent! Not very complex in the RPG department but a big high fantasy world to explore. The combat is very action oriented and you can play a lot of different builds. Pretty satisfying, too! The game is a bit older (ten years or so) but got a re-release two years ago. So, the graphics are a bit dated but not ugly. The art style saves it imo. I enjoyed it a lot when I played it last year!
Vermintide II
Have you tried any Warhammer fantasy stuff (it’s not the sci-fi “40k” setting).
Vermintide is supposed to be really good!
It’s not specifically action but Total War Warhammer games are amazing.
I’ve got a lot of hours in them and I’m not usually one for this kind of strategy game.
There’s two types of gameplay in it.
First is a Civilisation-style empire management tool and army-builder.
Second is the live action battle gameplay, where you’re mashing thousands of troops and monsters against one another. That’s the half of the game that’s fast-paced and bloody as hell.
Total war is a bit of an acquired taste, also the publisher is having some pr issues for upping proces and cutting content at the moment. Anyone interested might want to pass on Warhammer 3.
PR issues won’t affect the gameplay.
It’s worth a shot, I reckon.
Because if you like it, you’ll get more for your money than any other game.
But yeah if you’re unsure on game 3, game 2 is still exceptional.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is absolutely fantastic. You owe it to yourself to play this game.
It’s a good game, but not an action RPG - the combat is heavily turn based. Thanks though!
Been playing Half Sword, it’s hella addicting even if it’s only an experimental demo lol
Gothic 2 Legend of Ahssun mod. Highly recommend.
No one’s mentioned it here, and I just got it last night because it looked pretty damn cool, and it is actually: Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon.
It’s kinda like a cheap Elder Scrolls game mixed with a tiny bit of Souls-Like (you have a stamina bar and a dodge-dash move), but it works. It’s in early access, with the first chapter of the story out now. The devs say it’s about 15-20 hours worth of content so far, and I’ve only put in a few myself.
I haven’t really gotten into the main story myself, but it’s based on Arthurian Legend/the Tainted Grail tabletop series. It’s kinda like a gothic Oblivion mixed with the Witcher.
Tbh I mostly checked it out because it seemed to have a pretty sweet magic system, which lately I’ve been really in the mood for a game with a good magic system.
Just to add onto your question: anyone here play the early access preview of that Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon game? Because I think it looks awesome. It looks to me like what Hellraid could have been (the dark fantasy first-persom dungeon crawling RPG from Techland, who ended up stopping development on that and made the Dying Light games instead).
