Morning Rag....errr I mean Bob.

No, I have not..but by this weekend I plan on digging in. With all the great suggestions everyone gave me it took time to look at them all. I've narrowed my list down to 6 games and I can't wait to start one of them. Have you played any of these or do you have any final thoughts on which one should be my 1st.
King's Quest-Chapter 1
Final Fantasy VII
Quest For Glory
Skyrim
Anachronox
Heroine's Quest (Free)

Only one of those is a traditional PC RPG, just so you know. Actually I'm not even sure I'd call Skyrim that.

Okay..that might make my decision very simple. Which game are you referring to.

StingingVelvet was referring to Skyrim. But I'd say that makes it the worst pick of the list for a newbie. The adventure-RPGs (HQ, QfG, KQ) would be the best. I'd say in that order due to HQ being free so losing nothing but time in case of a try. Anachronox may follow.

That's kinda what I was thinking in regards to HQ if I try it and don't like it I'm not out anything. Thanks

The quest games are adventure games with some RPG influences. I'm not saying that's a bad place to start, just know that's what you're playing. I thought the thread was about wanting an actual RPG good for beginners, to get out of playing adventure games. In that scenario I don't think any on that list make sense.

King's Quest is not an RPG by any reasonable definition of the term (though King's Quest 8 could by some definitions, I think), so if you're looking for an RPG, cross that one off your list. (Quest for Glory and Heroine's Quest are hybrids.)

I did not like Final Fantasy 7 when I played it, despite liking earlier games in the series. With that said, the Final Fantasy games can work as a first RPG, as long as you don't play 2 or 8 first. (Note that the Super NES game titled "Final Fantasy 2" is really a simplified version of Final Fantasy 4, and is therefore an OK starting point (and certainly a better choice than the 3D versions of said game).

Note that the King's Quest games (except 8) are pure adventure games; they don't have the RPG influences that are found in games like Quest for Glory or Heroine's Quest.

Quest for Glory 1 is a bit complicated adventure with things happening at different times of the day and you need to visit some areas at different times of the day(in the game time) to do some things. You can also die often from various things, but the game is fun if you keep a journal of information handy to keep track of progress.

King's Quest. Is that the new one that is an adventure? I never played that series so I am not an expert on it.

Final Fantasy 7 seems good and is one of the best final fantasies ever made, and easy to get into. But as with QFG you might want to keep track of things with a journal of some sort and maybe use a guide to get all the secret stuff.

I would go with Anachronox if you like slightly combat focused role playing games with story or FF7 for older titles, and maybe Skyrim if you have plenty of time and want something newer with combat as well.

Actually no, it's most of the series, from the very first game, that is an adventure game and not an RPG.

Actually, I consider it one of the worst Final Fantasies ever made.

Yeah by Quest games I meant Quest for Glory, etc. Point and click adventure games mainly, with RPG elements. If he wants a "real RPG" and is coming from a point and click adventure game background, I maintain that something like Fallout would be perfect. Point and click interface, lots of dialogs and choices, turn-based combat that doesn't require twitch reflexes.

For my two cents, another vote for Eschalon: Book I (especially since it's free, it doesn't cost anything to try it out!) and also Evil Islands (which is a very adventurous-like RPG that deserves more play hours in this world!).

Welcome, aem2169 and enjoy your stay! :)

I see what you me. I'd be falling right back into the Adventure Games and that's exactly what I don't want. I want to reach out to RPG games and that genre. So I just need to take a step back and rethink my choice.

I'm going to look at Fallout. Thanks

Or I might just jump right into Witcher 3, that's one of the very first ones that caught my attention.

hello, and welcome to the forums.

i'd like to suggest three games that i think you might be interested in. [though i do realize this has been marked as "solved," it never hurts to have games that you can try if the initial few don't pan out.]

some of the games i'm going to mention are games you'll have to pick up from elsewhere. i'll try to point out where you can find them if that's the case.

right. onto the games:

heroine's quest:

you mentioned wanting a female protagonist. well, heroine's quest is a game that's set up like that. you get a fixed character [in that it's a very specific lady in a very particular situation] but you get to choose how she powers up through the game. it's a little bit of a mixture between a rpg and an adventure game, too, which might make it a little more comfortable to play, since you know some of the conventions of the adventure genre and - thus - you can focus on the rpg elements in the game.

this game takes it's inspiration from hero's quest, which is the same style of game, but the protagonist is male. i bring up hero's quest, because you do need to be aware that the combat is a bit twitch-oriented.

heroine's quest can be had here: http://crystalshard.net/?g=16

child of light:

child of light is a BEAUTIFUL game that has graphics that sort of look a little like someone painted them. it - again - features a female protagonist and is completely turn based. one feature that might be a little of a turn-off is that everyone speaks in rhyme and that might not agree with you. however, it's turn-based, has a small party to manage, has a very simple set of skill trees that are easy to navigate and understand and has a very light crafting system.

the only minor problem it also has is that the adversaries you face sometimes do MASSIVE numbers for damage, so it can be a little tricky hanging in there while the fights get started.

child of light is an ubisoft game, so you cannot get it on gog. [which is a pity, it's a great game that i think more people should try.]

child of light can be bought here: https://www.ubisoft.com/en-us/game/child-of-light/

you can also buy it through that-other-store-folks-don't-mention, but it'll force you to run ubisoft's launcher regardless [because ubisoft and friends don't care about convenience and the absurdity of running multiple launchers to get a game going, but that's a different issue for a separate topic.]

with all these games, i recommend watching at least a little bit of gameplay. to that end, i have [exhaustively] played through child of light, and you can find that playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMhI8uDx_hIIKP9QDa2YjbJiYb_XwUn__

costume quest:

costume quest is a great, spooky, halloween-y game where you're either a boy or a girl and you save the holiday from evil. it's absolutely charming and fun, the sidequests are simple, it has a beautiful, cartoon-y aesthetic [like a saturday morning show] and the ultimate forms you get can be a blast.

while the combat is turn-based, this game does rely on button-presses for getting the "timing" of a hit just right. which veers it a LITTLE into a more frantic affair, but if you play with a controller, it won't be too bad. just be warned: one or two of the boss creatures can take a bit of doing.

costume quest can be had from gog and you can find it here: https://www.gog.com/game/costume_quest

i also did a [somewhat exhaustive] playthrough of this, too. again, i recommend watching a tiny bit to get an idea for what it is you're getting into so you don't regret your spend. you can find my playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMhI8uDx_hILnvRxTnLjOpQd9yIBFEmFm

---

i hope that you find a game that interests you and that is fun and i hope you enjoy the rpg genre.

As people have noted, these aren't really RPGs. (No big deal: just play what you want; but these are more adventure games where you play a pre-drawn character, which is one of the definitions of an RPG, but not the typical understanding most gamers have. They think RPG means "I get to create my own avatar".)

A continuum of gaming from the predesigned character to the choose-your-own character paradigms would look something like this:
A [Wadjet Eye] game like Technobabylon is a good cyberpunk adventure game, but logical enough to be a graphic novel. (I found it easier than Primordia.)
Arcanum has a bunch of pre-drawn characters you can play and a terrific corpus of lore (technology versus magic) that would be a good stepping-stone into RPGs from adventures.


Once (and assuming) you make the leap to RPGs, there are quite a few that have rudimentary mechanics.
I can't give an opinion for the various games mentioned here that I haven't played (like Driftmoon), but I would caution jumping into Balder's Gate. The latter is obviously a brilliant game but it can be very confusing to learn; i.e., what is important to know and what can be learnt later can be overwhelming.

I second games like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, which is less complex than most other RPGs.

Also Shadowrun games are all pretty hard to mess up a character build. Remember that min-maxing is the most useful tactic, wherein you maximize the strengths (for each character in the group) which inevitably leaves them with weaknesses. (These weaknesses you must compensate with other characters' strengths.)

Starcrawlers seems pretty decent, too, with a lot of modern mechanics and pretty graphics.

Welcome community and happy gaming.