I think I played whichever one was on my Amiga waaaay back in the day, and whichever one was on PS3 for a bit. I was also a big fan of some of the Might and Magic games, which I feel were something of a bridge between the old dungeon crawlers and something like Morrowind.

Anyway I was thinking of trying one out again. Any recommendations, maybe one with modern QOL features to ease in?

I see there’s a remake of Wizardry 1(?) and remasters of the Etrian Odyssey games in the past couple years. I’m also kind of intrigued by Undernauts, which looks like it might throw a little Shin Megami Tensei flavor in?

  • MystValkyrie@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    2·
    16 hours ago

    Ultima, if it counts, are some of my favorite games of all time. In particular, I love Ultima 1’s bite-sized first-person dungeons that you do in between overworld exploration – the rewards you get versus the time spent make them a retro dopamine hit. Ultima 4 has you going through first-person tailor-made around eight thematic moral vices. Since the stat-boosting orbs of virtue you’d find at the end of the dungeon respawned, I had fun going back in and further boosting my stats.

    Daggerfall is my favorite Elder Scrolls game. People complain that the dungeons are labyrinthine and take hours to finish, but I absolutely love that (with QoL mods). I tend to roll up non-magic characters who are good at climbing, and I feel like a proper Tomb Raider-esque explorer.

    I’ve been gradually working through the old Might and Magic games. I really enjoy the “scavenger hunt” gameplay loop of that series with how you’re given riddles in the environment to figure out where to go next. I just wish they were a little shorter, so I get the feeling that The Bard’s Tale trilogy will be even more up my alley when I get to them.

    I did try Wizardry 1-5, minus 4, and found them all really repetitive, even for the time they came out. You just kill a wizard and draw maps and there’s not much else going on with it. I’d love to try the later games someday, though.

    For modern games, I haven’t played Etrian Odyssey yet, but I did play The Dark Spire on DS, from the same developers, and loved the dark tone and horror-esque art direction.