Armchair Arcade’s Top Ten CRPGs

We haven’t covered a “top ten” list of role-playing games for quite some time now, so I thought I’d send you over to this list on Armchair Arcade where CRPG enthusiast Matt Barton actually has decades of experience to back up his picks. The top two:

2. Baldur’s Gate 2. The first game is okay, but the second one is my favorite. I like the additional rules that let you tweak your character, and of course the characters and story are top shelf stuff. I really don’t see how any true CRPG fan could dislike this game. I’ve played it through twice and enjoyed it both times. Who could forget Minsc and Boo, or the awesome boss fights? To me, this is Bioware’s crowning achievement. I actually was reluctant to try this game because I was so turned off that you only created a single character than a whole party. I finally gave in, though, and am glad I did–I even ended up liking this better than Icewind Dale, which did let you do the party thing. Still, what makes the game stand out to me is the detail; the developers did a great job bringing the world of AD&D to life, and for that I am grateful.

1. Pool of Radiance. This is the game that really hooked me on CRPGs, even though I’d played Telengard, Bard’s Tale, and others before it. It was really the package as a whole that captured me–I was already interested in AD&D and its subculture, but unfortunately knew no one who was into it. This game seemed like a great introduction, and it was. Unlike almost every CRPG after it, the world of Phlan is genuinely interesting and you feel like you’re not just building up a set of characters, but a struggling town as well. I ended up playing almost all the Gold Box games, including the Dragonlance and Gateway series.

There are some head-scratching omissions, however (Ultima VII!), which he explains as so:

You might be surprised to see some titles missing, such as Ultima, Arcania, Phantasie, Daggerfall, Final Fantasy (not if you know me!), etc. The truth is, I missed a lot of those games when they were fresh, and it’s been hard to get into most of them today. This is particularly true of the Ultima games, which really strike me as a “had to have been there” kinda thing. I know a lot of folks drool every time “Final Fantasy” is mentioned, but I (thankfully?) didn’t own an NES or SNES, so wasn’t corrupted by their influence. I have played FF IV on my DS and the first game, and while I can see their good points, disliked both. Chrono Trigger was fun, but again I think people like to go on about it because it has a certain cachet with a certain set, and will help deflect the endless hordes of Final Fantasy fanboys who think you’re an idiot because you aren’t obsessed with all things Japanese.