Current Events > why did everybody suddenly care about turn based crpg now?

(+) Yeah! (+)

very excited for bg3, i have played almost all crpg there is and honestly did not expect this kind of reception by the masses (afaik like 300k concurrent players on steam rn)

Baldur's gate 1 and 2 sold around 2 millions around their zenith and the peak of its genre popularity. This is another whole new level. I understand if it was like witcher 3 or cyberpunk as arpg are more palatable to the masses and with right marketing they do blow up.

This is a mostly faithful tabletop adaptation and a sequel to 20 years old games to boot, from a developer that admittedly relatively well known in the crpg circle, but not outside that niche. Similar games like solasta: crown of the magister did succeeded financially in the scope of their project size, and both original sin game blew up to 2-3 mil sales but at their peak they reached like 100k concurrent players at most.

Is it viral marketing?
Are there always this big of a demand for this style of game that AAA publishers never wanted to take the risk for.?

Dnd has gotten bigger lately and any game with good buzz around it will generate hype. Same way Elden Ring sold 20 million copies.

We old, can only do turn-based stuff.

It's the bear banging

The series hasn't had a new entry in forever, the developers aren't jamming it with any microtransactions, and by all accounts it appears to be a solid game with no bullshit.

Though it is a little weird how the hype got massive out of nowhere.

when the first 2 came out, Western rpgs still mostly were exclusive to pc. Now they can come out on consoles, which gives them more exposure. But also I think people are hearing all the praise and getting intrigued . I have heard some people say this is a "game of the decade"

Never bought into the turn-based hype myself, but I'm happy for those who enjoy that type of game play

people have been wanting turn based stuff to make a comeback for awhile now. the demand was big enough for pillars 2 and the pathfinder games to get turn based settings.

with this game specifically though, it also helps that dnd has undergone an enormous swell in popularity in pen and paper form, and people are wanting to simulate that experience in video games more properly than rtwp stuff. i am hoping that carries over into other devs remembering turn based is fun

...Is CRPG still a term?

No, really, is it? It means "computer RPG" (I will assume people know the RPG part, or are just going to reference rocket propelled grenades to mock this, in which case, later, my top five RPGS)

Like, I get the other stuff. But everything that is on a console or computer is a computer-based version of the RPG concept.

Like, is "CRPG" just some "we are too cool to indentify for you, foo, but, um, we are not technically tabletop" or something? Or what, is identifying as being a "WRPG" so bad because you don't want to identify with the likes of skyrim or dark souls or something (never mind that dark souls is Japanese)? Are you afraid people will identify you alongside Final Fantasy or something?

Really. "CRPG." May as well call them D&D on a computer. A lot more straight forward than "CRPG." Rant done.

Now for my Top 5 RPGs:
Javelin (formerly the classic RPG-7, but the saint just wins me over now)
M72 LAW
Mk 153 SMAW
Bazooka (at the risk of bringing up that debate of just what an RPG is)
And... the original Panzerfaust, if only for the hilarity factor.

On a side note, in D&D in table top format, I have crafted RPGS before. With the right rolls, it is making an impact-detonation potion with a rocket attached to it. You will want the right custom crafting armor for it. Bring something like an artificer or a forge cleric or something that can help you with it.

Even tabletop niche stuff is becoming more mainstream and it's pretty nice to see.

I remember Balder's Gate feeling very similar to Diablo. Not sure I understand why it's a surprise that people like it, people have been looking all over for D2 clones.

Sephiroth_C_Ryu posted...

Like, is "CRPG" just some "we are too cool to indentify for you, foo, but, um, we are not technically tabletop" or something? Or what, is identifying as being a "WRPG" so bad because you don't want to identify with the likes of skyrim or dark souls or something (never mind that dark souls is Japanese)? Are you afraid people will identify you alongside Final Fantasy or something?

you have it backwards, crpg is an older term than wrpg. it was used to describe stuff like might and magic and ultima to differentiate it from games like dq and ff that were thought of as console style rpgs.

Sephiroth_C_Ryu posted...

...Is CRPG still a term?

No, really, is it? It means "computer RPG" (I will assume people know the RPG part, or are just going to reference rocket propelled grenades to mock this, in which case, later, my top five RPGS)

Like, I get the other stuff. But everything that is on a console or computer is a computer-based version of the RPG concept.

Like, is "CRPG" just some "we are too cool to indentify for you, foo, but, um, we are not technically tabletop" or something? Or what, is identifying as being a "WRPG" so bad because you don't want to identify with the likes of skyrim or dark souls or something (never mind that dark souls is Japanese)? Are you afraid people will identify you alongside Final Fantasy or something?

Really. "CRPG." May as well call them D&D on a computer. A lot more straight forward than "CRPG." Rant done.

Now for my Top 5 RPGs:
Javelin (formerly the classic RPG-7, but the saint just wins me over now)
M72 LAW
Mk 153 SMAW
Bazooka (at the risk of bringing up that debate of just what an RPG is)
And... the original Panzerfaust, if only for the hilarity factor.

On a side note, in D&D in table top format, I have crafted RPGS before. With the right rolls, it is making an impact-detonation potion with a rocket attached to it. You will want the right custom crafting armor for it. Bring something like an artificer or a forge cleric or something that can help you with it.

CRPG is an older term that was used to differentiate them from JRPGs, and 2D-ish isometric RPGs were what existed at the time, so thats what those games will always be called.

I don't usually bother with any of them, but if it's really, really high quality, and lives up to the label "a D&D simulator" then I'm at least willing to give it a try. But only once it's on PS5. And maybe that plus a month of post-launch patches.

my main problem was i got this right at the beginning of early access however far back that was and it was terribly optimized. i guess im gonna see if i can reinstall it on my pc and find out how it runs tomorrow but its also huge so its gonna take all night to download lol

It's cause we've been getting like 50 call of duties and pretty much all shooters is just a flying camera point and click. We have like 30 Assassins creeds and all those open world 3rd person games like it.

Balders gate is a nice change to have once in awhile

Larian has built up a pretty large audience on PC and Baldus Gate/DND is also where that fanbase is.

I'm not convinced its popularity will translate to consoles but who knows. Would certainly be cool if it does. Does kinda seem like the mainstream is more ready for more hardcore games.

In my case, I've always been excited for the game. But I do not have a PC that can play games so I've kinda had it on the back of my mind not really thinking about it. I couldn't play the EA so I basically just told myself I'll wait til it's out on console.

It wasn't til just a month or so ago that I saw it advertised and realized it was coming out really soon. Still waiting for PS5 version next month, but now my hype is through the roof and it's all I can think about.

I'm playing this as a huge fan of Larian and the Divinity series, not having as much experience with DnD as others who are hyped for the game.

Ive never played one but what got me interested was some game developers saying the game sets unrealistic standards for the genre because its so good or something

ultimate_reaver posted...

you have it backwards, crpg is an older term than wrpg. it was used to describe stuff like might and magic and ultima to differentiate it from games like dq and ff that were thought of as console style rpgs.

Computer RPG = CRPG, Console RPG CRPG?
But they both are Cs?

because they became available for console.

personally Im just glad were at a point where you can mention balders gate and nobody thinks youre talking about the dark alliance games.

Honestly, I can't understand the sudden hype either. It's gonna be a great game (only played early acces a bit so far), but that's it. Especially the level cap "dissappoints" me a bit.

It doesn't do anything that blows my mind that wasn't already done 20 years ago with Neverwinter Nights (except a much more intense start at level 1).

It shows that AAA graphics and AAA marketing are fucking important, even if everyone claims that they don't care about that.

But hey, if people get addicted to Baldurs Gate 3, and get hooked to such games more, maybe we will see more games like Pillars of Eternity or Wrath of the Righteous too.

Ricemills posted...

Computer RPG = CRPG, Console RPG CRPG?
But they both are Cs?

The only RPGs consoles had with mainstream awareness were JRPGs for a very long time, so when people thought of console RPGs thats what they thought of.

It's also worth noting this isn't out of nowhere - hype for this was MASSIVE because their last game, Divinity Original Sin 2, was a massive sleeper hit, and then they got the chance to revive a fan favorite series, and then the early access came out and showed just how well it's turning out.

This has been hype after hype after hype building up to this.

quality matters, people don't want to play just any crpg.

And I have yet to play D:OS because it seems a bit barrel heavy.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

This should be the marked answer of this topic.

Divinity Original Sin 1/2 were huge and super well received.

I need to get to the first as I own it. I have only played the retro Divine Divinty which oddly makes me think of Runescape.

my brain too rotted for real time combat

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


To add to this, there's also Stranger Things which likely helped boost the popularity of D&D due it's prevalence in the series (and with the monster villains all being named after D&D monsters).

From what I can tell it's a mix of a lot of things that have boosted the appeal and popularity.

For one, back when Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 were coming out, the PC gaming crowd was very small. There just wasn't a lot of room for a large adoption rate. Nowadays, PC gaming has grown much, much larger. We're getting most major releases on it (almost everything apart from Nintendo ones) and it's much more accessible to casual people than it used to be.

Second, there were large or wide-scale games in this or similar genres that greatly boosted the popularity in the casual crowd. I think the start of it came with Dragon Age: Origins, and grew a bit larger with Mass Effect, even if that was slightly different. Even people that got into it or were more comfortable with it because of action combat (Mass Effect, Dragon Age: Inquisition) may have wound up enjoying the conversation and story systems, and thirsting for something with more of that.

And third, this is the only game to have come out since those mentioned above that's really gotten a lot of hype and upswell prior to its release. The other, similar games--Pillars of Eternity, Divinity: Original Sin, and the two Pathfinder games--didn't get a lot of marketing or hype before their release. This one had the early adopters already singing its praises and hype for it, combined with almost anyone who played the original Baldur's Gate games back in the day talking about it.

I'd also attribute a small amount of the growth and success to fantasy settings being more popular than they used to be. Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones were colossal, when other than that people seemed to be more interested in modern or sci-fi stuff prior.

02fran posted...

Even tabletop niche stuff is becoming more mainstream and it's pretty nice to see.

I'm pretty new to D&D, only been playing for about 3 years, but man do I love it. I'm glad it can survive, explode, and thrive in the modern landscape. It's the kind of game we should always have.

Ricemills posted...

Computer RPG = CRPG, Console RPG CRPG?
But they both are Cs?

idk what to tell you other than that people didnt say crpgs for console.

crpg referred to a very specific type of rpg that is more interested in simulation of the elements of a pen and paper rpg (which was another reason for the crpg name, to differentiate them when you're talking about tabletop). consoles at the time were full of much more streamlined stuff like final fantasy that broke down the experience to just turn based combat with stats. those eventually started getting called jrpgs because they were almost exclusively coming out of japan.

Is that a perfect identifier? Not really. Japan likes dungeon crawlers too, they were obsessed with Wizardry and japanese devs developed their own entries after the original sir-tech games for example. But it was just kind of a hard and fast rule.

After the fifth generation of consoles it became increasingly common for there to be crossover onto consoles, and pen and paper simulation started to become less in vogue in general. You saw a lot less "crpg" and a lot more "wrpg". And now the term jrpg is getting pushback, but honestly at this point the line is so blurred and both styles have fed off of each other so thoroughly that most of the time there's barely even a reason to argue about labels anymore.

Most of the turn based stuff lately has been smaller budget indy or AA or Japanese - and a lot of the Japanese stuff has an anime aesthetic that will not appeal to many western gamers: IE Persona, Disgaea, or Fire Emblem.

A big western style turn based RPG is rare from a major studio with a good reputation put in charge of a beloved franchise.

I always felt a big part of the divide in crpg vs jrpg was character creation.

Jrpgs, pre made it all for you, and even the story was more on rails.

Crpg, wasn't. It was channeling classic dnd style more closely.

Divinity Original Sin 2 was a minor hit. I think with the d and d license and maybe the bear thing haha (probably not). It was like how people were so hyped when Cyberpunk 2077 came out and it blew.

Cd Projeckt Red was supposed to be better than that, but without going to off course. BG3 cane out and maybe there are some later performance issues. The populace is generally like wow awesome.

I doubt a lot of the current fan base actually played 1 or 2. I have played a little but uhhh stuff. It came out.