Sci-Fi RPG ideas (video games, not table top)

Nightslyr

I have a hankering for a good sci-fi RPG experience, but I don't know what titles I should look at. I figured the collective wisdom of the PA forums could help me add to my anemic collection.

Systems I Own:

PC
iPad
XBox 360
PS3 (non-BC)
PSP
3DS XL
Wii

I tend to go for console games over the PC due to the way my hands work, but will do a Steam thing if it's good/easy on the hands

Games I Already Own/Have Beaten:

Mass Effect 1-3
Mass Effect: Infiltrator (iPad controls kinda suck for me)
Xenogears
Xenosaga 1-3
Phantasy Star IV (need to finish it)
Deus Ex
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Chrono Trigger
Chrono Cross
Shadowrun (Genesis)

Game I Tried But Hated:

Star Ocean: The Last Hope (yeesh...)
Fallout: New Vegas (too slow, too dependent on Speech, boring setting)
Bioshock (love that art deco aesthetic, but too repetitive)

Titles On My Buy List Due To Suggestions Below:

Infinite Space
FTL
Xenoblade Chronicles
XCOM: Enemy Unknown (played demo)

I'm open to just about anything. I tend to aim more towards classic RPGs with a party, and inventory, and separate battle screens, and all that jazz, but won't turn down a more hybrid experience. I just want spaceships, and lasers, and maybe a giant robot or two.

Note: I'm a wuss, so no horror games.

zerzhul

KotOR 1 and 2

Wassermelone

You havn't checked out Xenoblade yet? Well, you should.

Its more or less the best jrpg of recent years along with Radiant Historia (which isn't scifi, but is still fantastic). And its sci-fi. It takes place on the body of a absolutely giant 'mecha'!

Nightslyr

Yeah, Xenoblade is on the list, but it'll have to wait until the Wii is moved from the living room to my room. I'm also not sure about its availability in my area.

TychoCelchuuu

Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout: New Vegas, System Shock, System Shock 2, Gorky 17, KOTOR, KOTOR II, Anachronox, Outcast.

see317

The BioShock series maybe?

Lepton

Lost Odyssey, maybe. Rachet and Clank is fun, but not really an RPG (you do level up your weapons, though).

Essee

For your PSP, Star Ocean: First Departure and Star Ocean: Second Evolution. If you had a PS2 or backwards compatibility on your PS3 (I seem to recall it works), which it seems you don't, Star Ocean: Til the End of Time is also good, but it doesn't have the same feel as the first two Star Ocean games, which are great. (Don't worry, The Last Hope is the first game that I ever quit because I wanted to gouge out my ears... and brain... and possibly other body parts... Seriously, that game is insipid.)
For your DS, Contact should qualify I believe. It feels kind of Earthboundish, and I definitely liked it.
Lost Odyssey (360) counts, I guess? I think it's a bit more steampunk than sci-fi. Regardless, it's cheap to pick up and is a fantastic RPG, so you should probably pick it up someday regardless.
And yeah, seriously, Xenoblade, when you get the chance. Every RPG fan should play it, and in my opinion so should pretty much anyone interested in video games and good stories. If I didn't already have a Wii, I swear I would've bought one just for that. Probably my favorite game of all time now.

Esh

System Shock II (with the requisite graphic upgrade mods) times 1,000,000.

RiemannLives

the Might and Magic guys made an excellent space opera RPG back in the Golden Age of Gaming called "Planet's Edge". It works well in DOSBOX.

Satanic Jesus

Opoona (Wii), Magical Starsign (DS), and Infinite Space (DS).

The Ender

Seconding Fallout 1 & 2.

Also try: Faster Than Light.

Great Scott

Although it was possibly the weakest game in the series, two things in favor of Fallout 3 - xbox 360 version, and Giant Robot. You really only need the one Bot. Less is more in this case.

The Ender

Counter-point: Though they are not giant, there are robots in Fallout 2. You can even put one in your party!

Fallout 3 is a good game, but I just can't recommend it in good faith. It didn't keep my interest, there are too many bugs, and none of it's mechanics seem tight enough (the UI is too clunky, the shooting feels weak/floaty, VATs is awkward at best when using melee combat or heavy weapons).

Jacobkosh

There's a fantastic PC game from back in the day called Star Control II that's one of the best space opera stories I've ever played. You fly an upgradeable spaceship, build a fleet of ships from a dozen allied races, and explore a huge galaxy with hundreds of worlds to save the human race from a billion-year-old threat.

Now "back in the day" sounds like a big hassle, fiddling with DOSBox and all that stuff, right? But it's not. There's a free, legal open-source update of the game called The Ur-Quan Masters that will play on pretty much any PC and features the snazzy graphics, sound, and voice acting of the 3DO version of the game. Just download and install.

The Ender

Oh fuck, I forgot about Star Control II.

Seconding that one too.


I think I should also recommend Planescape: Torment. I'm not sure if it runs well on modern systems, though, and... well, it's pretty buggy. And the combat in that game is a joke.

Great Scott

The Ender wrote: »

Counter-point: Though they are not giant, there are robots in Fallout 2. You can even put one in your party!

Fallout 3 is a good game, but I just can't recommend it in good faith. It didn't keep my interest, there are too many bugs, and none of it's mechanics seem tight enough (the UI is too clunky, the shooting feels weak/floaty, VATs is awkward at best when using melee combat or heavy weapons).

In my defense, the OP seems to prefer controller games over mouse games. That's really why I mentioned the Bethesda version.

I seem to remember that all the FO3 bugs were eventually patched; I'd assume he'd get the GOTY version.

EDIT: I don't use VATS, so I can't comment on how it works in Fallout 3. Was it fixed in later games?

The Ender

That's a fair point.

Also, X-COM!


There are a lot of X-COM games, but I'd only recommend two:

X-COM UFO Defense by Microprose and X-COM Enemy Unknown by Firaxis. The old Microprose game is a bit of a hassle to get running on modern systems, but I personally prefer it to the new title. The new title is much more user-friendly, though, and looks gorgeous (and I think it's available on consoles?)

Dehumanized

Yeah, XCOM Enemy Unknown plays beautifully on consoles and is a hell of a game. UFO Defense is still a total classic as well, and the versions you can buy run fine via DOSBox.

They're a little light on the RPG side, but that's because the focus is fully on turn-based strategy. They've got spaceships, lasers, and robots (sadly, not of the giant variety... some are pretty large though!). Given that it's about an alien invasion, it might not tick the boxes the way you're hoping for.

The Ender

Does Bastion count as a sci-fi RPG?

Fuck it, I'll recommend it anyway. There are no giant robots, but there is some of the best writing you'll ever hear in a game.

dresdenphile

Chrono Trigger? Robots and time-traveling spaceships!

Essee

dresdenphile wrote: »

Chrono Trigger? Robots and time-traveling spaceships!

Right, yeah, I was going to mention this in my own reply but I apparently forgot to. It's been released on Virtual Console in its original form, as well as updated versions on DS and PSN, so it should be easy to find. The PSN version is the one from the PSX Final Fantasy Chronicles, so it has animated cutscenes and a little bit of bonus content... Everyone complains about the load times on that version, but I played through it that way for the first time (on PSX) and it never bothered me much to be honest. The DS version is portable (but the PSN one can be put on your PSP too), has the same extra content from the PSX version (but no load times), a totally revamped translation (which makes it much closer to the Japanese game but apparently drops some of the fun bits from the original translation, like Frog's dialogue), and apparently also adds a monster arena, two extra dungeons, and an extra ending. So it's up to you which one you pick, but the DS version is probably gonna be best unless you want it on the big screen.

Nightslyr

Ah, yeah, forgot to mention Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross in my list. Been so long since I beat them, I forgot about them completely.

Looking into the others....

Nocren

If you do get Fallout 3 and New Vegas, get them on Steam. They have 360 controller support out of the box and you can get some great mods for them.
Best of both worlds for you.

ceres

To split hairs about Bioshock, I would say that's more along horror lines than sci-fi lines. That may be fine with you, and the first one at least was a great game, but in to put it in movie terms.. well.. think Event Horizon.

In its favor, it has Pipeline.

TychoCelchuuu

Event Horizon is sci-fi too. Things can be horror and sci-fi.

ceres

It's a pretty tenuous case for Event Horizon as sci-fi. Very, very little even in the way of jargon, lots of demons and bad Latin and so forth. I feel like Bioshock is kind of the same way, only replace "demons" with "assholes".

Nocren

I dunno, spaceship...fantastical underwater city....

kaliyama

ceres wrote: »

ceres wrote: »

It's a pretty tenuous case for Event Horizon as sci-fi. Very, very little even in the way of jargon, lots of demons and bad Latin and so forth. I feel like Bioshock is kind of the same way, only replace "demons" with "assholes".

So Warhammer 40k is not Sci-fi? That game is 90% demons and bad Latin.

see317

No need to start an argument over the definition of sci-fi. No one wins when that happens.
I though Bioshock had a nice retro-sci fi look and feel to it, but it takes a lot of cues from survival horror genres as well (monsters popping out of shadows, limited ammo at first, body horror up the orifice of your choice).

Might try DeadSpace as well, it's more of a shooter with RPG elements, but it might work out for you.

Another vote for Chrono Trigger, probably one of my favorite games. Also, another vote for KotOR. Good times with that one.

zerzhul

I basically stayed away from suggesting things like bioshock and fallout because spaceships and lasers were requested :P

If fallout and bioshock fit within what the OP wants, I would totally second/third/whatever those.

TychoCelchuuu

Fallout has lasers and Fallout 2 has both.

zerzhul

Huh, yeah now that I think about it even more, via some DLC even Fallout 3 and NV have very sci-fi shit going on, and they both totally have lasers.

RadicalTurnip

Wow, I just started Fallout 1 last night again. Anyway, the Fallouts of course, Crono Trigger is a must. I pretty much hate all JRPGs (unfortunately) and I loved Crono Trigger. KotORs...Wow, now that I'm writing this I realize I can't think of any Sci-Fi RPGS that haven't been recommended that are any good. I mean, there was Fallout: Tactics, but that was cool for like 10 minutes because you could control each party member, but then you realized that the storyline was crummy and repetitive...and it wasn't actually an RPG.

What about Dishonored? I haven't snagged a copy yet, but it looked good, and Sci-Fiey, and like an RPG...

skeldare

You could always try Star Trek Online since it's free to play.

Twenty Sided

Okay, seriously, do you want hard sci-fi? Because it seems like you want fantasy with sci-fi trappings? Or do you want the actual This-Is-The-Future-Consequences-of-Technology-With-Possible-Fantastic-Elements thing?

Fallout is very soft sci-fi and it starts jumping the shark at around Fallout 2 and circles around to do a double flip over the shark at Fallout 3. Personally I'd just skip FO3 and go straight to New Vegas for Chris Avellone goodness. (Where he jumps the shark, because, hey what-the-fuck, it's pretty much Bethesda canon to jump the shark.)

Nightslyr

Twenty Sided wrote: »

Okay, seriously, do you want hard sci-fi? Because it seems like you want fantasy with sci-fi trappings? Or do you want the actual This-Is-The-Future-Consequences-of-Technology-With-Possible-Fantastic-Elements thing?

That's a good question. To be honest, I'm not sure. I guess I'm trying to get a broad view of the quality titles out there so I can choose some based on my mood. Right now I'm in a "return to JRPG" phase, but that doesn't mean I won't change gears and go for something Western or hard sci-fi. So, something like Infinite Space is on my list at the moment. But so is FTL. I'm not a big fan of earth based sci-fi, aside from cyberpunk. Give me aliens, space travel, that sort of thing.

I have to add that I'm looking for non-horror sci-fi. I'm a wuss when it comes to jump scares. So, no Dead Space for me.

Ideally, I'd find something that was in the mold of Another World with RPG trappings. I loved the mysteriousness and look and feel of that game, and want something that will spark that sense of wonder again. The beginning segment of Final Fantasy X (of all things), from when Tidus is first sucked away until he meets Wakka and the others, is as close as I've come to that. I want that fish out of water suddenly immersed in a new place feeling.

---

I tried New Vegas and hated it. It was just too slow, too dependent on Speech, and the setting just never captured my interest. Should've added it to my list, but it was so forgettable for me.

I watched my brother play through Bioshock. I liked the setting and aesthetic, but that's about it. It just seemed too long and repetitive to me. Enter new area, fight assholes, kill Big Daddy, rescue girl, repeat.

I'll update my OP to clarify things.

jefe414

How about Dead Space? It has a significant horror aspect to it but I'd still consider it sci-fi.

EDIT: Whoops, just read that last post.

TychoCelchuuu

Sounds like you want this game maybe.

Wassermelone

Oh yeah, why didn't I think about this?

Rogue Galaxy. Its a PS2 jrpg by Level-5. Its basically Treasure Planet the JRPG. Personally I thought it was a lot of fun, but I also never quite got past midgame.

Forar

If you don't mind going old school, Crusader: No Remorse and Crusader: No Regret are pretty awesome sci-fi games. Not sure how well they've aged, but I loved them dearly and continue to hope for a remake.

Also along those lines; Syndicate.