If you want to play a Baldur’s Gate expansion, I would suggest getting the original un-enhanced editions and installing both games along with the BGtutu mod. After that, you can download the fan-made Dark Side of the Sword Coast, which is infinitely better than what Beamdog has created here with Siege of Dragonspear.
It's a pity that the failings of this game will probably discourage any real development on future hardcore D&D CRPGs. Other than Trent Oster & Beamdog's upcoming Baldur's Gate "1.5" sequel, there isn't likely to be much in the way of good news for fans of the license.
I would only recommend Victor Vran to people who despise the complexity in those games and want something a bit more "introductory" in design.
Those who are used to the slick action RPG combat of Diablo, Titan Quest or Sacred will probably come away with the same assessment I did, while those who are more interested in Planescape-style questing will find the patience necessary to trudge through the combat to get to the game's tasty dialog-saturated center. Since I am firmly in the former of those two categories, I walked away feeling very disappointed with Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms, and wish more than anything that I could be a member of the latter group.
Essentially just a new coat of paint, a rookie soundtrack remastering, and a few voice actors.
What's so sad about Pathfinder: Kingmaker is that the combat, spells, classes, and actual gameplay are all so solid, but everything else is mired in poor planning and design.
For me, Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet was a great game that scratched that same "I want to blow things up and gain power" itch that Borderlands and PSO did for me, and while I wouldn't want anyone to pay full price for such a game, I'd highly recommend it to bored ARPG fans that catch it on sale and need something to get them through a lean gaming period.
That being said, if you enjoy a well-written book that happens to have a few dungeons and some evenly-leveled combat thrown in every ten minutes or so, you really can’t go wrong with Obsidian’s wordy magnum opus. Just get a good pair of reading glasses first.
Sure, there is the typical Fallout aesthetic and the goofy music and that joy of seeing deathclaws rip the occasional NPC to death, but with much of the core roleplaying aspects torn out of the game, it isn't the New Vegas (or even Fallout 3) inspired heir that many hoped it would be. Still, it is fun to engage in, if you don't mind being an early adopter and paying full price for a loot hauling ARPG. If you're fine with that, hit the trigger on the game and spend the next 60 hours killing mutants with missile launchers.
What it all comes down to is this: if you enjoy your RPGs as challenging as possible without being so difficult they are impossible, then Blackguards was made especially for you. If you have the patience to work hard at finding the correct strategy to win each battle and enjoy obsessing over character builds, you may have just found the gaming equivalent of the Holy Grail.
Sure, it mainly relies on nostalgia – which may make people who never played the original a bit harder to win over – but the sheer amount of content available on disc and the intriguing story that ties it all together does an admirable job of making up for its lack of modern features.
Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness is an RPG that is built specifically for the PlayStation 2 crowd who still pine away for the mid-2000s and the days when Japanese developers hadn’t yet played Skyrim. Those who want another JRPG from that era that is unashamed to be Asian (complete with Fiore’s bouncing breasts, which might make up for Miki’s “diapers”) and delivers on the promise of taking Star Ocean into the current generation shouldn’t be disappointed.
Overall, I was very pleased with Stranger of Sword City and go back to it when long periods of time (and an insatiable desire to work towards max’ing my party) are available to me. If you have a craving for the type of gridder where you change classes five times, grind for hours, and obsess over gear, then you just found your next purchase.
It certainly has its downsides, as most games of this type often do, but if you are used to sketchy difficulty and paper thin dialog and just like the character building/dungeon crawling of the genre's storied past, then Legacy is what you'll be spending your next 50 hours worth of free time playing.
In spite of these small gripes, Blackguards 2 is a much more complete and better-playing game than its predecessor and will no doubt please all of those who loved the first. Unfortunately (or fortunately, if you are a hardcore fan like me), the game has not been streamlined enough to attract casual CRPG fans and will still be far too complex and challenging for those not accustomed to the difficulty of a dyed-in-the-wool European game like Blackguards.
Through it all though, Trails is a great example of why the PC needs JRPGs and why the genre doesn't deserve the negative connotation it often gets stuck with. Buy it, support the genre, and hope this convinces other Japanese companies to release their games on digital services like Steam and GOG as well.
Just be sure to take a look at the fan-operated wiki and study up on skill stacking, because you’ll need it when your NPCs bum rush a boss without their guard up.
This year has seen a lot of great modern CRPGs impersonating old school titles, and Grimrock 2 is yet another in that long list of spiritual successors to long dead franchises that have been begging to be resurrected. If you want to lose a couple of weeks to a good dungeon crawler with a thriving community and some very un-indie-like bells and whistles, Grimrock 2 is a sure way to scratch that itch.
Kudos to Nippon Ichi Software for finding a way to slay the six-headed hydra and make dungeon crawlers great again.
Octopath Traveler is all about taking the very best facets of every classic JRPG and combining it with newer features such as open world gameplay and non-linearity to create an extremely addicting and well built throwback RPG that fans both young and old will find hard to resist. Most of all, however, is the fact that the game feels like those who developed it truly love the genre and this is their love letter to it and its fans.