Castle of the Winds is a graphical roguelike, from the Windows 3.1 days. Pretty shameless in its 'oh no your peaceful village' trope. Also pretty shameless in ripping off other roguelikes... as was the style at the time.
Games
Video game news oriented community. No NanoUFO is not a bot :)
Posts.
- News oriented content (general reviews, previews or retrospectives allowed).
- Broad discussion posts (preferably not only about a specific game).
- No humor/memes etc..
- No affiliate links
- No advertising.
- No clickbait, editorialized, sensational titles. State the game in question in the title. No all caps.
- No self promotion.
- No duplicate posts, newer post will be deleted unless there is more discussion in one of the posts.
- No politics.
Comments.
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My goal is just to have a community where people can go and see what new game news is out for the day and comment on it.
Other communities:
Have you played Dragon Age: Origins? It’s an older title, but sounds like it has everything you want.
And, if your itch can be scratched with something other than dragons, I’d recommend Mass Effect. The very first game in the trilogy is very much an RPG while the second and third games are more story and character focused. Overall, it’s just a good gaming time.
Mass Effect is my most favorite series ever. Also played dragon age and liked it.
The most generic, stereotypical fantasy RPG I can think of is The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
Dragon’s Dogma?
I think you're looking for Kingdoms of Amalur.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1041720/Kingdoms_of_Amalur_ReReckoning/
Ah yes, the single player MMO.
I really enjoyed Two Worlds as a generic RPG.
The new Dragon Quest games were fun too.
Also, the 'Tales of' series is fun if you can get into the combat mechanics.
Two Worlds is a gloriously bad game that is an absolute blast to play.
The game has a two-minute speedrun, because the main villain is right there when you start, and some invincible townsfolk NPCs can be tricked into ganging up on him.
I know you've said you don't want Skyrim, but the first thing that comes to mind is Oblivion, I can't think of a more generic, stereotypical fantasy RPG than that game.
In fact it makes me sad considering they retconned the lore of Cyrodil to a super generic LOTR fantasy land.
Yes, we all want a sequel to Skyrim.
If old graphics aren't a deal breaker, try the Gothic series, 1-3. They're about 20 years old but they're the only rival to the Elder Scrolls series. First person, action RPGs in open worlds with great storytelling and branching decision systems.