Looking for Good RPG (specifics to follow)

We (husband and I) had a previous post looking for games to try out. We received a LOT of helpful and not so helpful suggestions, depending on the point of view of the people responding. We did try a lot of the suggestions out, yet found a lot of them lacking something in some form or other. Since that post was made, we've decided to completely abandon the console (except games we already own) and go PC only (not gonna say master race, because yea.... there isn't one better than another).

We're currently looking for an RPG with the following requirements:

-New. Made somewhere around 2017 or later. Not looking for older "classics", because yes, we know they exist and we do have a lot of the older RPGs for PC, but we've discovered that we do indeed like the nicer looking graphics. Which leads nicely to the next bullet point....

-No "childish" graphics. I'm looking at you Cuphead.... This game to us looks like an indie developer had a great time with the old Steamboat Willie cartoons and decided to give it a technicolor explosive twist.

-NO LAUNCHERS!!! This does not refer to the game loading screen, this refers to some company who forces you to open their launcher to select your game from the list of other games.... Steam, Origin, Uplay are all examples of this. In fact, for one of my favorite games, I had to navigate 2 launchers just to play. From Dust? Yea, not only did I BUY it from Steam, they sent me to Uplay to get the game install and launcher. So I launch from my desktop, get Steams pop-up, and have to log-in to Uplay as well just to play a game that suddenly crashes before I can even start to play the first level!

-Offline ONLY. Can't stress this enough. We don't want online multiplayer features. This means no people hopping into our games like the awful Souls series (dark, demon, etc.). The only feature we would consider is LAN only play, allowing us to play with each other. At least this way we can control who does what, rather than hope some random will play on our side. Also, no dang microtransactions. We're working and living on a tight enough budget, we should not have to pay $20 for a "pet" (looking at WoW here) or $10 for a cosmetic shirt (looking at FF14 here).

-We want a game that doesn't incrementally grow more difficult, leaving the fan base to pull that "git good" bull****. That. Does. Not. Fly. With. Us. A game should not have you rage quit, look for help, and get told that "you suck" "kys" "git good", etc.

-3rd Person camera perspectives, please! We've both played first persons before and have a hard time coping with the limiting view range. Our peripheral vision is so much broader than these games limit down to, it's gotten ridiculous. So we'd like games where you can indeed adjust the camera a bit, say like zooming in to see the new armor upgrade, or whatnot and still be able to zoom back out and pan to check out the surrounding areas for enemies or items, etc. (This also means no 1st person shooters.)

-We'd like to stay away from the "Action RPGs". This isn't RPG to us, it's a hack and slash reminisce to playing Dynasty Warriors. True, yes there was a storyline to it, but that's all. Story, kill tons of people, story, kill....

-We aren't looking for another Diablo clone, so games like Titans Quest are out. We're also trying to stay away from Elder Scrolls/Skyrim clones.

-We would like a good customization for characters, since in 3rd person, you can actually see yourself, we'd like to make ourselves as awesome looking as possible. It doesn't have to be Sim 3 spectacular, just not be as cheesy as the WoW customizations (seriously guys, gnome men have the UGLIEST haircuts in existence).

-Along the customization route, skilling is a thing we like and have a fondness for. Skill trees that we can pick and choose from, without having to be locked into one "formula" for the character build. He's well known to fighter rogue on a lot of characters and as for me, I just like to do whatever I feel like. Ranged, close combat, all good. :)

-Crafting is fun and welcomed by us. But please, if a game has crafting, let the items crafted actually be useful, not outdated in 2 levels by some random store keep, mmkay? (We found Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning to have that nailed down, too bad we found the story beginning and endings abysmal, he beat the whole game in about 4 days.)

So now that we have established the list of what we're after, comes a final thought before I free it to the masses. We've tried games out. Lots of them since the last post and suggestions. We do appreciate the people who took the time to help us then and we hope to hear some good reviews of games this time too. So help us out again guys and gals? Let us find some awesome games again, something to draw us in, to keep us captivated and lost in the sheer amazement of this game.

And trolls? Yea, we don't feed ya. Bug off~!

(husband here) thank you for the suggestion Nibbin1191,i do anticipate a hefty struggle to find a satisfying game but after all the money we blew to try out the newer games i am more than happy to take each suggestion one at a time and investigate the games listed. we feel that all of you that offer your suggestions are offering us your personal favorites and as such they deserve no less than that, that being said, i was not a fan of witcher or dragon age, divinity 2 was bought, downloaded, tried and deleted. i don't want party games, i want to play alone or with my wife only, i don't want to worry about ai chars or any other characters to be honest. just me, my toon and maybe my wife if we are lucky enough to find a rpg with local options we both like.

also should be noted we use GoG now, their launcher so far is completely optional, if they keep it that way i am more than pleased to buy my games from them. i will not use steam or any other service that requires me to use a launcher to play offline. just went through the GoG library again and sad to say they have nothing in single player RPG's that i am even remotely interested in at this time. ( i check at least once a week)

I skimmed over your requirements so forgive me if you mentioned it, but I wholeheartedly recommend Divinity: Original Sin 2.

Great RPG mechanics, you can almost, just-about, semi-literally play the game how you want. The class system is both non-existent and completely freeform; as the game says, mage today, ranger tomorrow.

The voiceacting is goofy, but not in a Elder Scrolls same-five-actors-for-1000-characters; it's goofy in a Monty Python kind of way. Writing is good, stories are good, full of quests. You can kill, talk, bribe, hide as a barrel, and do just about anything you want to resolve your quest.

Do you have two PCs? There is a LAN option I believe, and the game is great solo, but it shines as co-op, especially with a dear friend...or spouse! :D

Crafting is not in-depth, but sufficient, andyou do use everything you make. Archer? Well you should learn to craft arrows because those poison, fire, ice, etc arrows come in handy.

Parties are 4-character, but you can do a lone-wolf option where you are buffed, but you get no companions.

As for your "no launcher" requirement, sorry, but that's not really going to happen. I mean you need some sort of platform just to acquire your game. But it sounds like you chose the best (GoG) for your standards, so good job there :) I don't think Divinity OS 2 requires an online connection, but don't quote me on this.

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Outside of that, you might want to check out Drakensang: The Dark Eye; it's your basic DnD-type RPG, but the Dark Eye is a different franchise so it used it's own rules. Very, very good for the faithful RPG fanatics out there. It's been a while, though, not sure if it meets your other requirements.

I'll second Divinity: Original Sin 2. Also you don't need two pcs for co-op you can do split screen but it requires controllers. That's how me and my wife play. The keyboard and mouse setup is much better though so if you can do lan it would be better.

@mrbojangles25: it's ok that you skimmed the reqs but yes we did already mention divinity 2. bought it, downloaded it and tinkered with a bit and deleted it. so far that has been the closest to what we are looking for, but i don't want to manage a part of ai's when i am solo playing. GoG has been great about making their launcher optional so for me that's the only place i buy games. she doesn't mind steam but i refuse to use it or origin. i will not use a launcher i have to keep on (even if it is in offline mode) i thank you and mud for suggesting divinity 2 though, it was so close to what we wanted but not good enough

So would a single-character isometric DnD-esque RPG kind of be what you are looking for?

Have you tried any of the original Fallouts? Might be a bit dated, but still good.

There are also turn-based tactics games that have strong roleplaying elements as well, like XCOM combat but more character focused, less strategy focused.

@mrbojangles25: i never played the original fall out and after checking it and 2 out i never would because it's so old. got tons of classic games i'd rather play over those 2. however fallout 3 looked sooooo different i was impressed. 3rd person shooter is the only type of shooter i like but the type of RPG we're looking for consists of magic, steel and bow and arrows. now having said that, since i looked up FO3 i think i will be giving that a test drive that looks like an amazing shooter thank for suggesting it. as for tactic games Command and conquer and original star craft/ brood war expac are what i play when in the mood for that type since i still own the original battle chest and don't have to have blizzards stupid B-net app for it. may have to give XCOM a try though but it's not what i am looking for at this time. thank you so much for your time friend. i hope this day finds you well

There's a game on Steam called LISA: The Painful that is amazing. Seriously one of the best stories in any game ever. Although I will warn you the difficulty can be brutal, with the RNG at times making it frustrating. Still, I'd say it's worth a look if you're in the market for something wholly unique from a storytelling/ tone perspective.

@turtlethetaffer: We appreciate your suggestion, but we're not looking for steam specific games. We're attempting to stay away from steam and origin launchers completely.

Unfortunately, your criteria seems to rule out most of the best RPGs ever made, and most of the pretty good ones as well.

Can you provide examples of your top 10 favourite RPGs? That might make it easier for us to match things up.

Also, you could try Fallout 3, but if you hated Skyrim, Fallout 3 is the same thing with guns (and worse gameplay, and worse writing, and...). Fallout 1 and 2 are better by a wide margin.

As a gaming couple, we both know that our likes and dislikes for games will never match up 100%. So there's going to be 2 lists of top 10 favorites.

His:

Planescapes: Torment

Baulders Gate 1

Baulders Gate 2 w/ Shadows of Amn expac

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Shining Force

Final Fantasy 7

Final Fantasy 12

Legend of Dragoon

Legend of Zelda (NES version)

Dues Ex Machina: Human Revolution

Hers:

Sleeping Dogs

Watch Dogs

Fallout 3 (didn't really care for the endings though) BioShock 1 & 2 (3 was ok... kinda) Skyrim (huge game content wise... still haven't got 20% through it yet)(lumping all Bethesda RPGS here)

Final Fantasy 7 / 8 / X / X-2 (Let it be noted, we both did play FF14: Heavensward, right up until they tweaked the game for Stormblood, where we both left the game due to the "change of life upgrade" that absolutely was a game killer for us)

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines

Dues Ex Machina: Human Revolution

Crono Cross

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Mass Effect 1 & 2

.hack: Infection (we just got Mutation haven't gotten a chance to play, but hurray for game transfers!)

@akari25:Thanks for the suggestion, but that falls under the MMO category, that we're not looking for.

Too snobby to have fun on consoles, not sure I care to recommend something fun to people who pimp out their PCs to play isometric RPGs.

If a couple can't even couch co-op together then they should just get their own Tinder accounts.

SWTOR

Final Fantasy games

Very tough, unless you are willing to let some of your requirements go. Playing without a launcher with everything moving towards digital release is getting harder every year.

In any case, try Elex. It's on GoG and seems to meat most of your criteria.

Give up gaming, no launchers, what a moron.

@fannste94: SWTOR is an mmo, but we have played KoTOR. That was interesting to a point. We also have copies of our favorite Final Fantasy games, including FF7, FF8, FFX/X-2 (both ps2 copies and the ps3 remaster)& FF12. We tried 13, it was so bad at the beginning we didn't even play 15 minutes worth. Took it back to the game store the next morning. We tried 14 up til they did the "change of life upgrade" crap with Stormblood, then quit.

@Alondrix: Thanks for the suggest, but he did take a look at Elex and decided against trying that one.

As for GoG though, we check on a more than weekly basis, hoping for some good newer games.

@Yams1980: wasn't intended to troll anyone, just honestly the best source for info on games comes straight from the customers. don't trust review site honestly and gamers give the full gritty opinion without all the paid for embellishments. we're content to wait and see what's coming out and patient enough to see which direction games are taking. thank everyone who had helpful suggestions

@dragonaimee: I'd HIGHLY recommend playing through Final Fantasy IV, V and VI if you have access to them. VI in particular is my favorite in the series and my third favorite JRPG.

I’ll try again - How about Shadowrun Dragonfall, Directors Cut on GoG?

@turtlethetaffer: thanks but we have all the final fantasy games that we like already. We're not a fan of the older ones.

@Alondrix: upon checking out the gameplay on the shadowrun and xcom 2, they're more strategy styled that were not looking for.

A note: we are looking for a newer game because we have bulk of the older good rpgs.

We're looking at offline only because we're tired of game companies *cough*squareenix*cough* updating their games for change of life bs. We would have still been playing final fantasy 14 if they hadn't rolled out the stormblood update on us, making the game damn near impossible to play.

We're looking at no launchers because *cough*steam*cough* has drm on all their games, meaning if you get banned then you lose all the games you put your hard earned money on. And they have to update before you can even play the games.

@dragonaimee: You didn't like FFVI...?

I don't even know what to say.

@turtlethetaffer: to be fair, I (the wife) hadn't played it before, but screenshots look similar to ff7, so I might give it a closer look. But we still are looking for more polished looking games. Ff14 would have been amazing as an offline solo play or lan play game. As an mmo, I think the community killed it for us most, if the change of life update didn't first.

@dragonaimee: It's got essentially the same battle system as FF7 (Active Time Battle) but IMO the graphics have aged much better than FF7's. To be fair I haven't gotten far in FF7 but FFVI has one of the best stories in the series from those I have played. Plus the magic system is fun to mess around with.