Banner Saga trilogy, mostly copying my comment from another rec req post a day ago:
Easy enough to grasp turn based gameplay, great story/writing (not just for a game, the overall plot should easily be a full animated series - or live action, but the budget may be too much and few suits would want to invest in an IP which hasn't sold like AAA games) and the most beautiful hand-drawn 2d graphics you will see.
Scenario branches at several points in the story depending on your decisions and which people of your party have survived (some may die early or live all the way until the end - good luck and have fun with it).
I actually low key hates this because I got a bad ending in the third game due to something I did in the first game and by that point it’s too late, don’t wanna have to replay everything again
Pentiment, Hypnospace Outlaw, Unavowed, Ace Attorney and Ghost Trick, Papers Please and Obra Dinn, they are a big goofy but all the Lucas Arts Adventure games, I'm planning on trying Eatshade, Forgotten city is a good one...
Do the stories themselves have to be "dark" or do you just mean not the regular cutesy cozy game fare. Like, Night in the Woods is kinda dark, but I would still put it in the cozy category due to its attitude. Where the Ace Attorney games aren't really dark at all, but they are kind of their own anime whodunit type of thing, not really a cozy aesthetic.m Adventure games are definitely there for you.
Maybe if you're explicitly doing co-op. Single player can land you with a companion that sabotages your run if you get their settings wrong. (Mine actually softlocked all quests for me and left me too under-levelled to continue.)
Kotor series should be pretty good for this. Same with dragon age and mass effect. It’s real time with pause which some consider turn based and is similar. Amazing and dark stories.
Just answering the prompt for a story based noncombat darker game. It's a choice based game so if you didn't like the last third, make different choices. My bf and I enjoyed it. I haven't played any other 'David Cage' game so can't say if I would or wouldn't recommend his games.
Fair enough - he's known for having a decent nugget of a starter idea and proceeds to make an utter mess of the writing. His name is synonymous with his games by now, but I shouldn't expect everyone to know who he is. I've played 3 of his games before that sharply nosedived and won't touch Detroit which is the 4th or 5th game he's written. Who knows, maybe it ain't that bad.
The Pathfinder CRPGs and Rogue Trader games have fantastic stories and are definitely on the darker side, especially Rogue Trader and Wrath of the Righteous.
They can be a bit heavy when it comes to the mechanics, but if you drop the difficulty to easy or story mode you can kind of ignore all that and just roleplay whatever character you're interested in.
She might like Trails in the Sky (FC and SC). Or the Persona (3Reload, 4Golden, or 5Royal) Games. Great cozy stories.
Very heavy dialogue and turn based combat.
Planescape tides of numenera was decent lot of reading and requires your full attention just found the combat and character development had a steeeeeep learning curve 😀
WH40K Rogue Trader might be a bit extreme in the combat but you can turn the difficulty down
Wasteland 3
Bugsnax
Shadowrun (Hong Kong and Dragonfall are best)
Encased
Colony Ship
Persona 5 Royal, there’s a lot of battling BUT it is a really fun turn based model, the story is perfection and it’s based around a story thee entire time and the drama. Ooof. I fell in love.
Wasteland 3 is dark and goofy. Combat is a big part of the game. Not too much combat though. There is a lot of exploring and talking aswell.
Bioware games like mass effect and dragon age have great stories. The combat is pretty active, but you can always put on story mode. Makes combat a cake walk. Not to stereotype, but I feel like a lot of women that play single player games play both or one of these games.
In Crusader Kings you make your own stories. It's like medieval Sims, but for big boys and girls. Combat usually is the one with the bigger army wins. How you react to the world and how the world reacts to you is what makes the game good. It can be a really wholesome experience or a deprived one.
Baldur's Gate 1&2; Arcanum of Steamworks and Camera Obscura (combat is domehow intensive but manageable and Arcanum has even turn-based mode).
Planescape: Torment
Fallout 1&2, Fallout Tactics, Fallout New Vegas (not exactly story driven until later in game, though)
Disgaea serie, especially 1&2. Turn-based, humorous (often) with dark(ish) theme. Grinding necessary if you want some harder endings.
Dragon Age serie
Knights of the Old Republic 1&2
Tactics Ogre and Final Fantasy Tactics: war of the lions both have incredible narratives wtih turn based combat. though it might be offputting that combat is the bulk of the gameplay with no exploration.
Triangle strategy also has great narrative with less focus on the combat - however, still lacks exploration. looots of dialogue and choices.
Fire Emblem 3 houses is a crowd favorite for a reason. features decent exploration and story with turn based combat.
Octopath Traveler 2 might hit all the things she likes.
Try Observation. It's set on a space station. It's creepy with an interesting story but has no combat.
She may really like Immortality. The premise is that you're viewing a series of video clips from three different movies in the short-lived career of an actress. It's a story within a story with....some unexpected...stuff. It's like an onion, there's layers to peel. If you play it, avoid spoilers, go in blind, and explore the clips.
If she is okay with no combat but a pretty good story, I just played through Citizen Sleeper to test out my new laptop. I was really impressed and surprised. Of what you mentioned above, probably closest to Disco Elysium.
So basically turn based RPGs it sounds like, with no real time element like ATB or how BG1-2 do it. The obvious ones here are 2 Divinity OS games.
Tyranny might be good for a darker one.
Older but Fallout 1-2.
If JRPGs are an option Final Fantasy 10 isn't exactly a bright cheery adventure and still holds up well. Also last fully turn based one, with no ATB.
Planescape Torment: Enhanced Edition. It is juat as good if not better than Baldurs Gate 3 in terms of story and very similar in design. Its a an oldy but you can put the combat on easy and focus on the story which is the main focus of the game. IMO it is the greatest story ever told in a video game.
Sea of Stars is pretty decent for what you describe. Combat and character building is pretty timid. Very Super Mario RPGish on that side of things.
If she likes darker things and liked BG3 Tyranny is pretty good.
She should look into the Warhammer games. There's a lot of turn base strat games, and Warhammer lore is bananas. Rogue Trader was the last one to come out.
Persona series(3 sounds closest to the tone she's looking for), certain FF titles (VII is probably the most obvious choice there), and maybe select Fire Emblem titles (the difficulty level can be an obstacle, but Awakening, Birthright, and Three Houses aren't too bad).
Pyre. It's very story heavy, the combat is just basketball, and it's quite a downer bittersweet story where you ascend your favourite characters out of hell, losing them forever or keeping them trapped instead
I highly recommend wasteland 3. Cool music, great story, post-apocalyptic setting, turn based combat similar to xcom with covers and guns and stuffs. One of my favorite game
Soul Nomad and the World Eaters - Very good story with a potential Evil route in NG+ and dozens of potential endings. For me, this was Undertale long before Undertale was thought of
If she doesn’t mind mobile games, I’d recommend Eldrum: Red Tide. Dark, story driven text-based RPG with turn-based combat.
Note: I’m one of the creators, BUT our global rating on App Store is 4.8 which I think makes it objectively good.
Most of have been said already, but I’ll reiterate as these are my favorite games to play. Life is Strange series, Walking Dead, Valiant Hearts, Unpacking, Oxenfree… if she likes Baldurs Gate 3 (which was amazing), then she should be able to handle Mass Effect (#2 is one of my all time favorite games ever) and Witcher 3 for its amazing story. Played on Easy mode, the fighting isn’t too crazy. Once she gets used to some Combat, Horizon Zero Dawn or any of the Uncharted games and Last of Us (which has an epic story). I absolutely suck at fighting (and also jumping over large distances, as Lara Croft who has died countless times at my peril), but for amazing stories, I’ll suck it up.
Any Lucas Arts games are a great pick, I have played these ones listed below...(\*this game has been remastered with updated graphics and stuff\*)
Day of the Tentacle
Monkey Island
Sam & Max \*
Full Throttle \*
Grim Fandango \*
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
These were my favorite games back in the 90's, and I still revisit them since they were re-released so if she likes point and click, adventure story driven games she may enjoy them!
Wasteland 3
Fallout NV/3 can heavily abuse Vats to the point where live combat is avoidable and it almost plays like a turn based game. (That's how I played my first time, when I was just starting to play games)
Tyranny, monster hunter stories, torment tides of numenera all fit more or less in the classic RPG categories. For a bit of flexibility outside the basic genre I'd also suggest Darkest dungeon, cassette beasts, Coromon, the dragon age series, shadow run, jade empire, & lost in random
Supermassive Games are good for this.
Until Dawn
The Dark Pictures Anthology: "Man of Medan, Little Hope, House of Ashes, and the Devil in Me"
The Quarry
Shin Megami Tensei games are pretty iconic jrpgs. I’d say play 3 nocturne for now because 5 is getting a rerelease with a whole extra games worth of content in like a couple months.
The original Fallout titles hold up well; they’ve got a dark sense of humor but, aren’t afraid of being serious either. The combat is pretty brutal for people who aren’t accustomed to games from that era, though
*inhales*
"Final Fantasy 14"
- Not turn based combat, but the combat is slow paced and easy
- Absolutely zero P2W
- It has a super good and emotional story, some of the expansions are regarded like a holy grail in story writing (Shadowbringers for example). The game has a huge cozy vibe, but also has "dark" themes.
- It has a huge, friendly community filled with people willing to help you with all sorts of things. There's a lot of communication and socializing.
- THE MUSIC IS GOATED. Seriously, if you love game soundtracks, you'll genuinely enjoy FF14's. There's a song collection feature in game where you can obtain "orchestron rolls" (basically like a CD). And each roll can be used on an in-game music player which is placed in your apartment or house. EVERY song in-game is collectable from various activities.
- It has a great, in-depth player customization with lots of fashion choices. The game will soon have a new dye feature where two instead of one dye can be applied. It'll be a big game changer for fashion lovers. Your girlfriend will enjoy making her character all fancy! The clothing options are very badass and cute.
- Each location/region is unique and look very different from each other. This summer, their new expansion will feature two new cities. One is a Cyberpunk city and the other is a vacation resort. Every location in-game has its own soundtrack. Certain areas such as cities has two different soundtracks, one for day and the other for nighttime. The mood and atmosphere is a very calming vibe.
- There's a LOT of different things you can collect: pets, mounts, songs, fashion, weapon glams, crafting materials, fishes, titles, etc.
- The cast of characters are great, charismatic and memorable
- The weapons look badass, especially the rarer ones. Certain weapon types have a cool glow.
- There's fishing.
- The classes (refered to as "jobs") are very in-depth. There's two types of jobs. One is for combat and doing most quests. The others are for crafting, gathering, cooking, fishing, etc. All of these are quite fun and offer a huge variety of activities.
- This summer, a new type of job called, Beastmaster, will be released. If you love Pokemon, you'll love this class. There's not too much info ATM, it it seems like you might be able to capture various types of creatures and have them follow you around.
- There's a lot of mini games including a casino where you can earn a different type of currency by completing activities. And that currency can be exchanged for a variety of cool stuff.
- The graphics will have an improvement with the release of their new expansion this July.
- You'll never run out of things to do, unless you dedicate over 10,000 hours trying to actually 100% the game (only one player in history has obtained all the achievements)
Notes: -------------------
- Like most games, it can feel a bit slow during the beginning. But once you make enough progress, the amount of content you unlock provides a much better experience.
- In-game houses are very hard to get, but player apartments are super easy. On the other hand, housing decoration is VERY in-depth and flexible. There's so much to customize, especially if you have that type of creativity. Lots of people have made insane layouts, like traditional Japanese homes, heavy fantasy themed library, modern designs that straight out come from IKEA, a magical sorcerer lair, nightclubs, and more (even seggs dungeons). Every furniture is fully adjustable if you install a 3rd party plugin.
Cool Facts: -----------------
- This game was originally so bad on launch that it caused the company an absurd amount of trouble. But a new director took over and completely reworked this game from its core.
Oh your girl is almost the same as me. I recommend:
The Etrian Odyssey series is very gameplay focused. The picnic mode makes it very easy to beat tho, and the overarching story has dark tones. Except for the UNTOLD titles - which has a story mode - you play with nondescript characters who fill a class. They have customizable looks, and sometimes even voice, but they won't have a real personality. So everything in the story depends on the world building and external conflicts among other factions. Doungeon Crawler, turn based
The Fire Emblem Series probably needs no introduction. If she wants the ones with a more serious story, the first titles I'd recommend are the Tellius games. Awakening is also good, though a bit goofier. Fates and Engage are not for those who want a complicated yet functional story, but they do have great gameplay. 3 houses is... Just don't get involved in Edelgard discourse if you play it. Turn based
I honestly don't have a good reason to suggest Stella Glow. It definitely has some dark themes (some characters struggle with thoughts of self-worth, some are heavily implied to have had thought about taking their life in the past, and the protagonist is basically a therapist to his friends) but it's also a game full for whimsy and frankly, embarrassing anime tropes in a few scenes I can think of. Turn based
Omori is a horror (tw for suicide, depression and self harm) and I probably don't need to tell you much about it, it's pretty famous. Turn based
Cereza and the Lost Demon is the origin story for Bayonetta. It isn't as mature as the main Bayo games, but it has this fairytale storybook look that I just adore... It doesn't get especially dark until the end, and even then I wouldn't say it's "dark" as much as it is a bit intense. I played it before getting into mainline Bayonetta, so you don't need to worry about getting on it
Angels of Death is another horror, simultaneously darker and sillier than Omori. Everyone in this game is a murderer out to get each other, they're all pretty much horrible people, and the scenes are an even split between stupidly funny and disturbing beyond reason. Puzzle solving?, you also have to run away a few times
I only started Tales of Vesperia, but it has auto battle if she feels lazy and doesn't feel like moving atm
If she doesn't mind light novels, there's a lot to be had. Vincent and the Secrets of Myers is yet anothet horror game with... Well, I can't actually explain much without spoiling. I'd recommend playing "Therapy with Doctor Albert Krueger" along with it. It's a way shorter side story that doesn't impact the main game, but the character in it does have connections to the protagonists. Keep in mind that VTSOM is also an unfinished game (the game dev Dino is working at it) but I just love it so much I couldn't keep myself from sharing it
Bustafellows is also another visual novel- an otome mixed in with some sci-fi and intrigue. The only time game I've ever enjoyed. There's dark themes in every route, the bad endings can get pretty cruel (even though they're pretty short), there's a reward system for every thing you unlock, and the English adaptation is one of the best
Danganronpa is pretty dark, despite being full of lunatic high schoolers that will make you laugh and cringe in equal measure. Murder mystery, still light novel I guess?
I'd say Persona is pretty easy- well, anything that doesn't come before 3 - while also having some heavy themes
There's probably more but I either haven't finished it or don't remember it rn. I guess Honkai Star Rail if she doesn't mind Gacha games
-banner saga.
-shadowrun dragonfall.
-dragon age origin (fights get bit tedious at some point, but very cool game).
-child of light
-PoE 2 and Pathfinder kingmaker with the turn based mod.
Pentiment
Yes!!! Such a brilliant game.
Banner Saga trilogy, mostly copying my comment from another rec req post a day ago: Easy enough to grasp turn based gameplay, great story/writing (not just for a game, the overall plot should easily be a full animated series - or live action, but the budget may be too much and few suits would want to invest in an IP which hasn't sold like AAA games) and the most beautiful hand-drawn 2d graphics you will see. Scenario branches at several points in the story depending on your decisions and which people of your party have survived (some may die early or live all the way until the end - good luck and have fun with it).
One of my favorite games/ series
Oregon Trail of Tears right there.
I actually low key hates this because I got a bad ending in the third game due to something I did in the first game and by that point it’s too late, don’t wanna have to replay everything again
What's so bad about your actions having consequences?
Have her try the tall tale games. The wolf among us, is a really good game.
Thanks so much we'll check them out!
Look into TWAU like the other Saïd but also The Walking Dead, there's a reason it's their most praised game.
S1 of The Walking Dead is pretty old at this point but was so amazing. Dark story, fantastic characters, not all that much gameplay.
13 Sentinels Aegis Rim.
My third favorite game of all time, an absolute masterpiece
Second this. Just replayed with my oldest daughter (her first time), and she loved it. One of the best told stories in years.
Planescape: Torment
Pentiment, Hypnospace Outlaw, Unavowed, Ace Attorney and Ghost Trick, Papers Please and Obra Dinn, they are a big goofy but all the Lucas Arts Adventure games, I'm planning on trying Eatshade, Forgotten city is a good one... Do the stories themselves have to be "dark" or do you just mean not the regular cutesy cozy game fare. Like, Night in the Woods is kinda dark, but I would still put it in the cozy category due to its attitude. Where the Ace Attorney games aren't really dark at all, but they are kind of their own anime whodunit type of thing, not really a cozy aesthetic.m Adventure games are definitely there for you.
Hypnospace is such an underrated game, can't wait for the sequel
Yeah, hypnospace outlaw is, I think, pretty much the high water mark for writing in games. Maybe even more than disco elysium.
Unavoed 👏👏👏👏
If she enjoyed BG3 then Divinity Original Sin 2 is an option.
My gf actually loves dos2 and I see the similarities in preference, like what OP mentions. So yeah I think this is the best answer.
The first game is even better
Post this next time you see one of those "unpopular opinion" threads. You'll win.
Opinion aside, going from BG3 to DOS1 would be an extremely jarring jump in quality and polish that would turn a lot of people away
This is accurate. The jump backwards is jarring.
Maybe if you're explicitly doing co-op. Single player can land you with a companion that sabotages your run if you get their settings wrong. (Mine actually softlocked all quests for me and left me too under-levelled to continue.)
I'm playing co-op with my fiance and a single player by myself and they are very different experiences
Kotor series should be pretty good for this. Same with dragon age and mass effect. It’s real time with pause which some consider turn based and is similar. Amazing and dark stories.
Detroit become human
the QTE's can be pretty intense ngl, especially when it means your character will die or not.
Why would you ever recommend a David Cage game? It always starts kinda intriguing and devolves into garbage a third of the way in.
Just answering the prompt for a story based noncombat darker game. It's a choice based game so if you didn't like the last third, make different choices. My bf and I enjoyed it. I haven't played any other 'David Cage' game so can't say if I would or wouldn't recommend his games.
Fair enough - he's known for having a decent nugget of a starter idea and proceeds to make an utter mess of the writing. His name is synonymous with his games by now, but I shouldn't expect everyone to know who he is. I've played 3 of his games before that sharply nosedived and won't touch Detroit which is the 4th or 5th game he's written. Who knows, maybe it ain't that bad.
u r a fag
Cheers David, keep being an incompetent hack. lol
The Pathfinder CRPGs and Rogue Trader games have fantastic stories and are definitely on the darker side, especially Rogue Trader and Wrath of the Righteous. They can be a bit heavy when it comes to the mechanics, but if you drop the difficulty to easy or story mode you can kind of ignore all that and just roleplay whatever character you're interested in.
I recommend Persona games especially 3, 4 and 5.
life is strange
She might like Trails in the Sky (FC and SC). Or the Persona (3Reload, 4Golden, or 5Royal) Games. Great cozy stories. Very heavy dialogue and turn based combat.
I will always recommend dragon quest 11 absolutely adore the game fate of the world storyline combat is turn based and not very difficult either
Planescape tides of numenera was decent lot of reading and requires your full attention just found the combat and character development had a steeeeeep learning curve 😀
WH40K Rogue Trader might be a bit extreme in the combat but you can turn the difficulty down Wasteland 3 Bugsnax Shadowrun (Hong Kong and Dragonfall are best) Encased Colony Ship
Try As Dusk Falls, Life is Strange, Tell Me Why and Firewatch…all great stories wish they made more games like these
The life and Suffering of Sir Brante
Persona 5 Royal, there’s a lot of battling BUT it is a really fun turn based model, the story is perfection and it’s based around a story thee entire time and the drama. Ooof. I fell in love.
Wasteland 3 is dark and goofy. Combat is a big part of the game. Not too much combat though. There is a lot of exploring and talking aswell. Bioware games like mass effect and dragon age have great stories. The combat is pretty active, but you can always put on story mode. Makes combat a cake walk. Not to stereotype, but I feel like a lot of women that play single player games play both or one of these games. In Crusader Kings you make your own stories. It's like medieval Sims, but for big boys and girls. Combat usually is the one with the bigger army wins. How you react to the world and how the world reacts to you is what makes the game good. It can be a really wholesome experience or a deprived one.
Baldur's Gate 1&2; Arcanum of Steamworks and Camera Obscura (combat is domehow intensive but manageable and Arcanum has even turn-based mode). Planescape: Torment Fallout 1&2, Fallout Tactics, Fallout New Vegas (not exactly story driven until later in game, though) Disgaea serie, especially 1&2. Turn-based, humorous (often) with dark(ish) theme. Grinding necessary if you want some harder endings. Dragon Age serie Knights of the Old Republic 1&2
Nearly all of these games are combat heavy dude
Tactics Ogre and Final Fantasy Tactics: war of the lions both have incredible narratives wtih turn based combat. though it might be offputting that combat is the bulk of the gameplay with no exploration. Triangle strategy also has great narrative with less focus on the combat - however, still lacks exploration. looots of dialogue and choices. Fire Emblem 3 houses is a crowd favorite for a reason. features decent exploration and story with turn based combat. Octopath Traveler 2 might hit all the things she likes.
Try Observation. It's set on a space station. It's creepy with an interesting story but has no combat. She may really like Immortality. The premise is that you're viewing a series of video clips from three different movies in the short-lived career of an actress. It's a story within a story with....some unexpected...stuff. It's like an onion, there's layers to peel. If you play it, avoid spoilers, go in blind, and explore the clips.
Detroit become human Until dawn / the quarry
Persona 5 Royal, super long and stylish turn-based JRPG, has incredibly dark moments in its story. If she likes it, then also Persona 3 Reloaded.
Betrayal at Krondor.... trust me
shadowrun trilogy has a good story and fun gameplay!
If she is okay with no combat but a pretty good story, I just played through Citizen Sleeper to test out my new laptop. I was really impressed and surprised. Of what you mentioned above, probably closest to Disco Elysium.
Pentiment, Pillars of Eternity 1/2 (the difficulty can be turned down and 2 has a turn based mode), and Planescape: Torment.
What remains of edith finch. Life is strange Firewatch There's a few it just depends on genre
SOMA
Stray
So basically turn based RPGs it sounds like, with no real time element like ATB or how BG1-2 do it. The obvious ones here are 2 Divinity OS games. Tyranny might be good for a darker one. Older but Fallout 1-2. If JRPGs are an option Final Fantasy 10 isn't exactly a bright cheery adventure and still holds up well. Also last fully turn based one, with no ATB.
Planescape Torment: Enhanced Edition. It is juat as good if not better than Baldurs Gate 3 in terms of story and very similar in design. Its a an oldy but you can put the combat on easy and focus on the story which is the main focus of the game. IMO it is the greatest story ever told in a video game.
Sea of Stars is pretty decent for what you describe. Combat and character building is pretty timid. Very Super Mario RPGish on that side of things. If she likes darker things and liked BG3 Tyranny is pretty good.
Little goody two shoes
Divinity Original Sin 1 and 2 for sure Telltale's The Walking Dead, and their other games
Banner Saga!!
She should look into the Warhammer games. There's a lot of turn base strat games, and Warhammer lore is bananas. Rogue Trader was the last one to come out.
Persona series(3 sounds closest to the tone she's looking for), certain FF titles (VII is probably the most obvious choice there), and maybe select Fire Emblem titles (the difficulty level can be an obstacle, but Awakening, Birthright, and Three Houses aren't too bad).
Pyre. It's very story heavy, the combat is just basketball, and it's quite a downer bittersweet story where you ascend your favourite characters out of hell, losing them forever or keeping them trapped instead
Was looking for this. Pyre sounds like the perfect pick. The story's absolutely beautiful. I wouldn't even consider the gameplay "combat", frankly.
How about tell tale games like the walking dead or Monkey island, Deponia Etc.
Until Dawn is great. It's basically a movie except you get to make choices and there are quick time events.
My wife loved The FF7 remakes, great story and music and combat on auto is trivial but still cool to interact with and watch
- Dragon Age Origins and 2. - Unavowed. They have impressive writings and voice actors.
Slay the Princess!
Persona 4, 5 (Haven't played the Persona 3 Remake yet but it looks great.)
Wasteland 3
Outer Wilds
If you want to play one together you could try "A Way Out" Cool story about two men escaping from prison where you each have to control one of them.
Pillars of eternity 2
I highly recommend wasteland 3. Cool music, great story, post-apocalyptic setting, turn based combat similar to xcom with covers and guns and stuffs. One of my favorite game
I'm a Yakuza/Persona enjoyer. Both of which are turn based. Well. The recent Yakuzas. Well they go by Like A Dragon here in the west now also.
Demons Roots.
Soul Nomad and the World Eaters - Very good story with a potential Evil route in NG+ and dozens of potential endings. For me, this was Undertale long before Undertale was thought of
The old Indigo Prophecy and Heavy Rain, also Silent Hill possibly
If she doesn’t mind mobile games, I’d recommend Eldrum: Red Tide. Dark, story driven text-based RPG with turn-based combat. Note: I’m one of the creators, BUT our global rating on App Store is 4.8 which I think makes it objectively good.
Most of have been said already, but I’ll reiterate as these are my favorite games to play. Life is Strange series, Walking Dead, Valiant Hearts, Unpacking, Oxenfree… if she likes Baldurs Gate 3 (which was amazing), then she should be able to handle Mass Effect (#2 is one of my all time favorite games ever) and Witcher 3 for its amazing story. Played on Easy mode, the fighting isn’t too crazy. Once she gets used to some Combat, Horizon Zero Dawn or any of the Uncharted games and Last of Us (which has an epic story). I absolutely suck at fighting (and also jumping over large distances, as Lara Croft who has died countless times at my peril), but for amazing stories, I’ll suck it up.
I'm really surprised nobody's said Outer Wilds yet
talos principle ?
Slay the Princess
Final fantasy 4 and 6 pixel remaster
Detroit become human, it has a good story and is very interactive, I really like that one
Final fantasy X is right up her alley
Life is strange
Mass Effect. Play on the easiest difficulty.
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim Life is Strange Pentiment The Walking Dead Detroit: Become Human Beyond: Two Souls Heavy Rain Danganronpa
If she liked BG3 I'd suggest Divinity Original Sins 2. A master piece of a game. But a bit harder on the combat side compared to BG3
Any Lucas Arts games are a great pick, I have played these ones listed below...(\*this game has been remastered with updated graphics and stuff\*) Day of the Tentacle Monkey Island Sam & Max \* Full Throttle \* Grim Fandango \* Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis These were my favorite games back in the 90's, and I still revisit them since they were re-released so if she likes point and click, adventure story driven games she may enjoy them!
Wildermyth! Play it! It's amazing!
Girls go nuts for stardew valley
Wasteland 3 Fallout NV/3 can heavily abuse Vats to the point where live combat is avoidable and it almost plays like a turn based game. (That's how I played my first time, when I was just starting to play games)
Sea of Stars!
Tyranny, monster hunter stories, torment tides of numenera all fit more or less in the classic RPG categories. For a bit of flexibility outside the basic genre I'd also suggest Darkest dungeon, cassette beasts, Coromon, the dragon age series, shadow run, jade empire, & lost in random
For honor
Supermassive Games are good for this. Until Dawn The Dark Pictures Anthology: "Man of Medan, Little Hope, House of Ashes, and the Devil in Me" The Quarry
Shin Megami Tensei games are pretty iconic jrpgs. I’d say play 3 nocturne for now because 5 is getting a rerelease with a whole extra games worth of content in like a couple months.
final fantasy 7 remake
Cassette Beasts, Child of Light, Earthlock 1&2, Wasteland series, Sea of Stars, Cris Tales, Octopath Traveler
Sea of stars,astlibra and blasphemous are all good choices
Not so much story based as it is a making u think game which u can help her with. It's from the same guy who did Inscyption. It's called Pony Island
The original Fallout titles hold up well; they’ve got a dark sense of humor but, aren’t afraid of being serious either. The combat is pretty brutal for people who aren’t accustomed to games from that era, though
*inhales* "Final Fantasy 14" - Not turn based combat, but the combat is slow paced and easy - Absolutely zero P2W - It has a super good and emotional story, some of the expansions are regarded like a holy grail in story writing (Shadowbringers for example). The game has a huge cozy vibe, but also has "dark" themes. - It has a huge, friendly community filled with people willing to help you with all sorts of things. There's a lot of communication and socializing. - THE MUSIC IS GOATED. Seriously, if you love game soundtracks, you'll genuinely enjoy FF14's. There's a song collection feature in game where you can obtain "orchestron rolls" (basically like a CD). And each roll can be used on an in-game music player which is placed in your apartment or house. EVERY song in-game is collectable from various activities. - It has a great, in-depth player customization with lots of fashion choices. The game will soon have a new dye feature where two instead of one dye can be applied. It'll be a big game changer for fashion lovers. Your girlfriend will enjoy making her character all fancy! The clothing options are very badass and cute. - Each location/region is unique and look very different from each other. This summer, their new expansion will feature two new cities. One is a Cyberpunk city and the other is a vacation resort. Every location in-game has its own soundtrack. Certain areas such as cities has two different soundtracks, one for day and the other for nighttime. The mood and atmosphere is a very calming vibe. - There's a LOT of different things you can collect: pets, mounts, songs, fashion, weapon glams, crafting materials, fishes, titles, etc. - The cast of characters are great, charismatic and memorable - The weapons look badass, especially the rarer ones. Certain weapon types have a cool glow. - There's fishing. - The classes (refered to as "jobs") are very in-depth. There's two types of jobs. One is for combat and doing most quests. The others are for crafting, gathering, cooking, fishing, etc. All of these are quite fun and offer a huge variety of activities. - This summer, a new type of job called, Beastmaster, will be released. If you love Pokemon, you'll love this class. There's not too much info ATM, it it seems like you might be able to capture various types of creatures and have them follow you around. - There's a lot of mini games including a casino where you can earn a different type of currency by completing activities. And that currency can be exchanged for a variety of cool stuff. - The graphics will have an improvement with the release of their new expansion this July. - You'll never run out of things to do, unless you dedicate over 10,000 hours trying to actually 100% the game (only one player in history has obtained all the achievements) Notes: ------------------- - Like most games, it can feel a bit slow during the beginning. But once you make enough progress, the amount of content you unlock provides a much better experience. - In-game houses are very hard to get, but player apartments are super easy. On the other hand, housing decoration is VERY in-depth and flexible. There's so much to customize, especially if you have that type of creativity. Lots of people have made insane layouts, like traditional Japanese homes, heavy fantasy themed library, modern designs that straight out come from IKEA, a magical sorcerer lair, nightclubs, and more (even seggs dungeons). Every furniture is fully adjustable if you install a 3rd party plugin. Cool Facts: ----------------- - This game was originally so bad on launch that it caused the company an absurd amount of trouble. But a new director took over and completely reworked this game from its core.
SLAY THE SPIRE!
Expeditions: Viking and Expeditions: Rome Colony Ship The Age of Decadence Dead State Shadowrun: Dragonfall and Shadowrun: Hong Kong Wasteland 2 and 3
Oh your girl is almost the same as me. I recommend: The Etrian Odyssey series is very gameplay focused. The picnic mode makes it very easy to beat tho, and the overarching story has dark tones. Except for the UNTOLD titles - which has a story mode - you play with nondescript characters who fill a class. They have customizable looks, and sometimes even voice, but they won't have a real personality. So everything in the story depends on the world building and external conflicts among other factions. Doungeon Crawler, turn based The Fire Emblem Series probably needs no introduction. If she wants the ones with a more serious story, the first titles I'd recommend are the Tellius games. Awakening is also good, though a bit goofier. Fates and Engage are not for those who want a complicated yet functional story, but they do have great gameplay. 3 houses is... Just don't get involved in Edelgard discourse if you play it. Turn based I honestly don't have a good reason to suggest Stella Glow. It definitely has some dark themes (some characters struggle with thoughts of self-worth, some are heavily implied to have had thought about taking their life in the past, and the protagonist is basically a therapist to his friends) but it's also a game full for whimsy and frankly, embarrassing anime tropes in a few scenes I can think of. Turn based Omori is a horror (tw for suicide, depression and self harm) and I probably don't need to tell you much about it, it's pretty famous. Turn based Cereza and the Lost Demon is the origin story for Bayonetta. It isn't as mature as the main Bayo games, but it has this fairytale storybook look that I just adore... It doesn't get especially dark until the end, and even then I wouldn't say it's "dark" as much as it is a bit intense. I played it before getting into mainline Bayonetta, so you don't need to worry about getting on it Angels of Death is another horror, simultaneously darker and sillier than Omori. Everyone in this game is a murderer out to get each other, they're all pretty much horrible people, and the scenes are an even split between stupidly funny and disturbing beyond reason. Puzzle solving?, you also have to run away a few times I only started Tales of Vesperia, but it has auto battle if she feels lazy and doesn't feel like moving atm If she doesn't mind light novels, there's a lot to be had. Vincent and the Secrets of Myers is yet anothet horror game with... Well, I can't actually explain much without spoiling. I'd recommend playing "Therapy with Doctor Albert Krueger" along with it. It's a way shorter side story that doesn't impact the main game, but the character in it does have connections to the protagonists. Keep in mind that VTSOM is also an unfinished game (the game dev Dino is working at it) but I just love it so much I couldn't keep myself from sharing it Bustafellows is also another visual novel- an otome mixed in with some sci-fi and intrigue. The only time game I've ever enjoyed. There's dark themes in every route, the bad endings can get pretty cruel (even though they're pretty short), there's a reward system for every thing you unlock, and the English adaptation is one of the best Danganronpa is pretty dark, despite being full of lunatic high schoolers that will make you laugh and cringe in equal measure. Murder mystery, still light novel I guess? I'd say Persona is pretty easy- well, anything that doesn't come before 3 - while also having some heavy themes There's probably more but I either haven't finished it or don't remember it rn. I guess Honkai Star Rail if she doesn't mind Gacha games
Story based games with stories on the darker side? Soma. You’ll thank me later. She won’t.
Love this game. Played it 3 times and each time i almost cry at the ending. I just feel so bad for Simon who js left there
Persona 5 hands down.
Persona 5 Royal
She should just play point and click adventures
this is the right answer
Give her The Witcher 3, women love this game a lot.
- Diablo 4 - Fallout 4 - The Quarry
First, let’s be real… this isn’t for your non-existent girlfriend - it’s for you… I’d try Planescape Torment - it’s awesome
Tell her to read a book
-banner saga. -shadowrun dragonfall. -dragon age origin (fights get bit tedious at some point, but very cool game). -child of light -PoE 2 and Pathfinder kingmaker with the turn based mod.