The quest for a legendary game

The quest is for a legendary game with all criteria being met satisfactorily. The standards are high, but the execution/application is very flexible. So far myself, friends, random gamers, and gamer gurus are in agreement it does not exist.

The criteria for this game is a combination of elements from an assortment of games, but not the entirety of the games themselves. The focus is on the quality of the concept being loosely portayed in the games. It does not have to match.

Disclaimer: I prefer it to not be an MMO, but will consider it if I can progress to the end of the game or peak gameplay without outside aid. Bad example: Playing wow as solo player, best gear is available only in raids thus never reaching the peak.

Ranking of importance (Descending order), but all must be present and satisfactory to fulfill requirement (#7 exception):

1. Crafting System. The key here is the importance and meaningfulness of the crafting system. It has to feel rewarding and can be complex or tedious. Ideally, there unique materials that allow for special crafting. Examples are Kingdom of Amalur, most MMO's, Monster Hunter, and in a general sense Post Knight.

2. Combat. Flexible on the application of combat, but must contain variety of difficulty, different movesets and/or attack patterns for foes. Not simply this foe hits harder and has more stats thus must have certain stats to beat said foe. Not in it for a paladin in vanilla WoW experience. Good examples of this are Dark Souls, Monster Hunter, and Rare mobs in recent WoW expansions.

3. Customization/Development. Variety in class/role types with the application of meaningful talent or specializations. Games with a strong meta are not welcome. Good examples are Dungeon Siege, any MMO, and Borderlands.

4. Fantasy World. Open world, linear, or instanced concepts are fine considering the difficulty of the previous 3 criteria. Minimum is a world with dungeons, towers, or instances to "dungeon crawl"

5. Game Narrative. Most important key here is that you are not stuck in a boring narrative. Non existent is fine, but a good one is preferred.

6. Replayability. This can take many forms as in an end game that doesn't end or continually evolves. Other examples could include end game zone/dungeon scaling with player. Satisfied by excellent criteria #3 as well.

7. Randomization Engine. (Optional) This is the hardest criteria to satisfy, which upgrades the quest from legendary to mythical. Engine that continually randomizes foes/dungeons/zones to keep the game fresh.

I look forward to your suggestions and I will update the list of games already attempted, but did not satisfy the quest. Good luck, Heroes!

Game List:

*Any game without Crafting*

Star Wars: The Old Republic.

World of Warcraft.

Everquest.

Guild Wars.

Elder Scrolls Online.

Black Desert.

Shroud of the Avatar.

Skyrim.

Monster Hunter.

Fallout.

Kingdoms of Amalur.

ARK.

Neverwinter Nights.

Warframe.

Divinity: Original Sin II.

@crimsonllama: Thank you for your comment. It is a flexible quest with open criteria and I am open to whatever form or forms it takes within the fantasy realm. Fallout doesn't meet the criteria, but I did enjoy hundreds of hours in Skyrim. I also tried ESO, but my interest died quickly.

Yeah, it's very Skyrim-esque.

Have you played Kingdoms of Amaluar?

You know what? Bloodborne.

Has everything you wanted + horror theme.

@tennisthor: I think what makes this difficult to answer is you want a game with a deep crafting system, but also a deep combat system on like Souls-level. I am seriously drawing a blank on many games that have done both of those things really well.

Chivalry, Mount & Blade, Dragon's Dogma, Nioh and Kingdom Come: Deliverance are some games coming to mind for the combat aspect of things at least.

Ultima Online, Neverwinter Nights 2, ARK: Survival Evolved, The Guild 2, Star Wars Galaxies, Evil Islands, Path of Exile, Guild Wars 2, Factorio, and even Don't Starve were some games that came up when I went looking for suggestions on games with good crafting systems.

@Ovirew: Thank you for your comment. I appreciate how in depth you were in your evaluations. Many gamers have come to the same conclusion that it doesn't exist just yet. I saw a gamer the other day start day-dreaming when I mentioned it. He thought it was like a gamer's fantasy. I then said what if it included a deep story narrative that changed with each class type like SW:TOR lol? For now, I'd settle with all being met and combat being decent and crafting being deep as you said. Not legendary completion, but certainly epic worthy, yes?

@sakaiXx: Thank you for your comment. I had thought about playing it, but I was currently absorbed in multiple playthroughs of Dark Souls 3 and forgot about it. Horror isn't my thing, but I'm okay with darker tones so I will certainly give it a go!

@jasonredemption: Thank you for your comment. Yes, I have played it and I definitely included it as a good example of a crafting game in criteria 1. Last I looked at time played it had over 100 hours and that was before another playthrough. It was too bad about the company, they had a true gem.

@tennisthor: personally its much better than dark souls 3 but it depends on what u start first really. Never replayed Dark Souls 3 after finishing it, it tried so much to be BB with just how faster the movement is compared to old DS games but that is just my take on it.

Sounds like a MMO, maybe ESO.

@saltslasher: Thank you for your comment. MMOs typically lack the combat depth and crafting importance I'm looking for. Additionally, being able to achieve the pinnacle of a game solo isn't the premise or selling point of that genre. ESO didn't fulfill the requirements unfortunately.

@sakaixx: I could see why it depends which was first to be played. They felt very similar in watching gameplay footage and their combat theme. I'm looking forward to trying it and will let you know what I find since I really enjoyed DS3.

I prefer Dark Souls III over Bloodborne. It's mostly preference based. Loot is pretty worthless in BB, once you have a preference or know the linear meta, it's game. Though BB just has better combat even if the other features and RPG elements are better in DkSIII.

Also Monster Hunter: World. Best combat, and most interesting Fantasy World of the three. Also loot and crafting is really awesome_

All three do not have a good gaming narrative though.

Sounds like Morrowind running on OpenMW with mods.

@RSM-HQ: Thank you for your comment. Meta is a big flag for me. If there are going to be multiple playthroughs, it has to feel meaningful. Playing a game at less than optimal purposefully for variety or stuck in the meta is highly unmotivating. I felt this was very prevalent in DS3. DS3 also lacked crafting in my eyes.

MH:W was fantastic, however the combat wasn't for me in that the monsters we're either helpless slaughter of wildlife or colossal fight lasting way too long. Two extremes with little balance in between. I enjoyed the crafting, but the game lacked depth of variety of foes and crafting loot from said foes. I liked it, but I just wanted more you know? Thanks again for your comment. The legendary quest is shaping into DS3 combat with more in depth MH:W crafting and foe variety/loot with meaningful class customization from SW:KotOR.

I don't fully agree with this, can't think of a single RPG that has more depth, complexity and choice than Monster Hunter. It's the only RPG listed that has competitive tournaments as well. However seems to be a preference concern so won't dive deeper.

If those kind of games are less your favor have you considered Divinity: Original Sin II? Has a lot of what you are after, the only side note is the combat is turnbased in a Dungeon and Dragons kind of way. Has a pretty good gaming narrative though. And has a crafting element, though probably not the same kind as what you're after

@RSM-HQ: Thanks for your response. It is a subjective statement we are talking about for a particular quest. I want to reiterate this is a legendary quest. Doesn't exist is an acceptable result due to the level and number of the criteria.

I did try Divinity and I wasn't into the turn based or crafting in the way they represented it. Well executed game for it's genre.

@tennisthor: Oh you mean content as in not enough monsters? That I do agree with, suppose that is something we can both agree on when previous MH games had so many monsters. I'm sure they'll have a lot more when G-Rank drops later this year.

want to reiterate this is a legendary quest, not a settle for what's out. Doesn't exist is an acceptable result. For clarity, all the games that have been mentioned so far that I have played I would rate on normal scale around 8-10/10.

I suppose taste is debatable but no game is really a 10 in my eyes. I could poke flaws in any game that I play. Though sometimes the pros outweigh the cons Monster Hunter 4G, Divinity:OSII, Chrono Trigger, and Dark Souls III are probably the best RPGs. Along with Disgaea though that's more on the strategy side.

I did try Divinity and I wasn't into the turn based or crafting in the way they represented it.

Fair enough, good luck with finding your perfect game. Maybe worth keeping an eye on The Outer Worlds. That's an interesting looking game.

@pyro1245: Thanks for your comment. Morrowind on OpenMW with mods is not something I'm familiar with. I'll take a look at it, you do mean the original Morrowind and not the updated ESO Morrowind right?

@RSM-HQ: Thank you for your time and thoughtful suggestions. It has been fun adventuring on this quest with you. A whole lot more indeed on the monster availability in MH:W. I may pick it back up when more content drops :).

Yes. OpenMW is a remake of the Morrowind engine. You need the data files from the original game and it's expansions. There are a few big mods that add a ton of content like Morrowind Rebirth and Tamriel Rebuilt.

If you haven't played Morrowind it's worth it whichever way you play it. There's even a good enhanced version on X1X.

@pyro1245: Wow, that's a lot. I'll be honest I played it way back in early 2000s and stopped because my system couldn't handle it. WoW took me over shortly thereafter in 2004 lol. I will most certainly give a reattempt after looking into these mods and versions of it.

@tennisthor: Shroud of the Avatar has crafting (mining, refining component creating and then finally assembling. It is a bit of a dad/dnd nerd game though.

If you don't mind a graphics engine that predates WoW and a game in an Old England style of setting, there are alot of stories.

This is not a visually impressive game and I can't say much about the combat.

I just want Richard Garriot to succeed in life so will continue to promote this game.

He needs to save up for another trip into space, the poor thing.

@jackamomo: Thanks for the suggestion. It doesn't appear to meet all the criteria, but I will give it a fair F2P go. As for Richard and the game development, hmm...

@tennisthor: yeah. It’s atill in early access I think. It runs. Just not perfectly. It seems to be quite a socially focused game though with emphasis on role play, that is, it seems people like to, ‘RP’ in SOTA.

It might not hold up so well as a single player game but if you try it out I would be interested to hear your thoughts. If it’s in less than a month, otherwise threads get locked in this forum at that point.

@jackamomo: Released in March 2018, kick-started over 5 years ago though, Early Access happened in 2016 IIRC. So I am inclined to believe current state is what you get. I am about to jump into the game now, in fact.

*Update*

I spent hours trying to get the game to run on a gaming PC & laptop. Crashed many times during loading screens. I did manage to login a few times, but I was an ethereal being without a UI that repeatedly haunted the starting map for half an hour. I explored while enjoying the music, scenery, and NPCs present. Maybe I will try again in the future if it is still up. It strikes me as odd that WoW, SW:TOR, and Diablo III function perfectly on both machines...

@tennisthor: oh dear. Bit too buggy then. I'll let Dicky know. :/

...but if you want to see it finished you should give them some money.

@jackamomo: Other than SotA, do you have other suggestions that could fulfill this quest?

@tennisthor: It feels like you want a deep crafting game with proper combat and loads of story which probably doesn't exist because they're two different markets.

I only know about Dreamcast games so would suggest Phantasy Online for a combination of arcade combat and role playing. Record of Lodoss War has satisfying combat and random dungeons like Diablo games.

I think you might be hoping for the moon on a stick but good luck nonetheless!

@jackamomo: :) That is pretty much the consensus without the story bit. But what rpg lover wouldn't want that kind of game?

@tennisthor: Games have budgets and timelines. Your game would need lots of both. Practicality means you have to focus on a market to ensure sales.

You're idea could become a watered game of the disparate elements you want.

You don't want a whale o your hands because the game might not get finished or combine the different elements gracefully.

I suggest you go play Omikron: The Nomad Soul just because it is interesting and unique.

@jackamomo: Thank you for suggestion, I will give it go after the others I have received. That question in the previous post was rhetorical by the way and we (quest posters) intimately understand the parameters of the legendary quest :).