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Best Euro-jank RPG to experience?

butman

butman

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 30, 2017
3,024
This specific WRPG sub-genre has caught my attention for a long time and I have decided to start in it. I know they have their special charm. Some in the story and others in the gameplay.

To get an idea, I've already played The Witcher 3 and I'm looking for something similar but with the Euro-jank dressing. Since the Bethesda games don't attract my attention. I played Skyrim and I got bored to death.

So what game is the one?
 
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Jadax

Jadax

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
1,055
Gothic.
Elex.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance.
Metro (I guess for me it was fps-rpg).
 
Ralemont

Ralemont

Member
Jan 3, 2018
4,508
I had a really fun time with Divinity II (not OS2) and the combat/gameplay is the definition of Eurojank. You can get it pretty cheap these days. The Larian humor is alive and well there.
 

Phantom88

Banned
Jan 7, 2018
726
Gothic 2 is very likely the best 3d open world rpg that has ever been made by the hand of man since videogames have existed in the universe. It is without a doubt better than every modern game with hyper inflated scores and reviews by people who lack the knowledge of the old classics so they actually know how briliant design looks like.

Its astounding really how clever and inteligent everything is designed and thought in that game.
 
Corleth the Fey

Corleth the Fey

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,799
Southend on Sea, UK
Don't sleep on Divinity 2 Ego Draconis / Dragon Knight Saga. Euro Jank supreme, and very entertaining stuff from the lovely Larian Studios. Or anything from Piranha Bytes. Risen is my favourite, and a brilliant game.

Oh and if you want Diablo in your Euro Jank you can't go wrong with Sacred 2. It's as metal as fuck too, if you like that sort of thing. Don't play any of sequels though - they're not made by the original developers Ascaron.
 
Mentalist

Mentalist

Member
Mar 14, 2019
17,976
Pretty much everything Spiders does is the definition of euro-jank.

They're like Bioware-lite, but smaller budgets allow them to be more creative with their settings.

Start with Faery: Legends of Avalon, and go from there.
 
Buff Beefbroth

Buff Beefbroth

Chicken Chaser
Member
Apr 12, 2018
3,011
Corleth the Fey said:
Don't sleep on Divinity 2 Ego Draconis / Dragon Knight Saga. Euro Jank supreme, and very entertaining stuff from the lovely Larian Studios.
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Came here to post this. DKS is a delight, with rewarding exploration, multiple solutions to quests, a wicked sense of humor, and fun action combat. I wish we'd gotten more Divinity games in this mold.
 
JustALurker

JustALurker

Member
Feb 12, 2019
1,018
Had a bunch of fun with Elex. My first Piranha Bytes game and I'm looking forward to Elex 2 as well.
 

Holundrian

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,136
Gothic 1 and 2 have been my favorite's growing up. I fell off of Piranha Bytes after Gothic 3(too overambitious and lost the strong faction identities and multiple ways to approach a situation) and Risen(last act was barren as shit and felt unfinished) kind of lost the things that made me enjoy those games.

I hear though Elex is supposedly really good? There has been this other one posted that is coming out soon that has a lot of hype.
https://www.resetera.com/threads/ou...inity-original-sin-2-up-new-dev-stream.97065/
this one

pswii60 said:
Are all these games actually janky or just European?
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I wouldn't put witcher 3 into the euro jank category unlike the op. But a lot of the european third person rpgs have really unrefined movement and combat.
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I would recommend Vampyr since it's on sale on steam but that one takes a lot to appreciate I feel. It's interesting in a very weird way and has honestly a lot of things going against it. So I can't quite recommend it but it's def in that category.
 
Corleth the Fey

Corleth the Fey

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,799
Southend on Sea, UK
Buff Beefbroth said:
Came here to post this. DKS is a delight, with rewarding exploration, multiple solutions to quests, a wicked sense of humor, and fun action combat. I wish we'd gotten more Divinity games in this mold.
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Me too, but you know - I think we will get one someday. I've believed in Larian since I played this game and they haven't let me down. All it takes is a Kickstarter and off we go!
 
ShadowAUS

ShadowAUS

Member
Feb 20, 2019
2,106
Australia
capitalCORN said:
Old old old school? The Realm of Arkania trilogy. More modern? Drakensang.
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Hey thanks for reminding me! The Dark Eye universe is severely underrated. If you can get through some of the truly janky bits of the Drakensang games they're modern cult classics. It's a crime what ended up of the Drakensang brand, it had so much potential if it was given a chance. I would not touch the remake of the first Arkania game, it goes past jank into budget bad IMO. The originals are definitely worth playing even if they can be a bit of an acquired taste.
 
OP
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butman

butman

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 30, 2017
3,024
Played Divinity Original Sin Enhance Edition and i wouldn't considering it "jank". It's a very well made game with high production values. If "jank" mean that.
 
ShadowAUS

ShadowAUS

Member
Feb 20, 2019
2,106
Australia
butman said:
Played Divinity Original Sin Enhance Edition and i wouldn't considering it "jank". It's a very well made game with high production values. If "jank" mean that.
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Yeah, the 2 newest Divinity games are well polished. The older Larian titles - Divine Divinity, Beyond Divinity, Divinity 2: Ego Draconis/Flames of Vengeance and Divinity: Dragon Commander are all thoroughly in the janky category though, Divinity 2 especially. Note Divinity: Original Sin is a separate, related series that is much more polished.

CreeperBlocks said:
Does The Surge count as Euro Jank?
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Most definitely, I wouldn't call it a true RPG but I would put it into the loose category that is Euro-Jank.
 
ShadowAUS

ShadowAUS

Member
Feb 20, 2019
2,106
Australia
Ladioss said:
Elex and Gothic 1/2.

Kingdom Come Deliverance is much less janky than as release but still qualify, I guess ?

EYE Divine Cybermancy, maybe ?



Seconded, especially when you take into account all the mods out there...
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Oh God. I don't know if I would ever recommend EYE despite how much I love it. It's a super unique experience and very much in that acquired taste category.
Mandalore has a fantastic video on it if anyone is curious.
 
MoneyLaunderer

MoneyLaunderer

Member
Oct 27, 2017
198
Two Worlds II is by far my favorite Euro-Jank RPG. I'm patiently waiting for it to come to XB1 BC. Risen and Gothic 4 round out my top 3.
 
Damaniel

Damaniel

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
6,535
Portland, OR
Gothic and Gothic 2 are the canonical examples of well-done Eurojank. They're both fine, yet clunky, games. Risen is just as good, if not better, and also happens to turn the jank up to 11.

(On the other hand, avoid Gothic 3 and the other Risen games - they're all trash.)
 
monmagman

monmagman

Member
Dec 6, 2018
4,126
England,UK
The Witcher III.......runs for cover!

I'm playing it right now and well over 100hrs in.....wonderful game by the way,but it is there you can't deny it.......every time I draw my sword,there is the faint whif of Euro-jank.
 
ShadowAUS

ShadowAUS

Member
Feb 20, 2019
2,106
Australia
monmagman said:
The Witcher III.......runs for cover!

I'm playing it right now and well over 100hrs in.....wonderful game by the way,but it is there you can't deny it.......every time I draw my sword,there is the faint whif of Euro-jank.
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Haha Witcher 3 is my 2nd favourite game of all time, anyone who says they can't see the lineage of jank while playing it is lying to themselves. It's amazing it was only as janky as it was considering the scale and experience of the studio. Each of their games has gotten more polished so I hope with CP77 they'll truly find their feet in that department.
 
Arulan

Arulan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,571
I'd start with either Gothic or Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Both are fantastic examples of open-world design and encourage the player to make logical choices without having to explicitly tell you what all your options are. Kingdom Come: Deliverance happens to be on sale right now too.
 
monmagman

monmagman

Member
Dec 6, 2018
4,126
England,UK
ShadowAUS said:
Haha Witcher 3 is my 2nd favourite game of all time, anyone who says they can't see the lineage of jank while playing it is lying to themselves. It's amazing it was only as janky as it was considering the scale and experience of the studio. Each of their games has gotten more polished so I hope with CP77 they'll truly find their feet in that department.
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Absolutely,it's an incredible achievement from CDPR and they should be very proud of it.The scale of the game is something I thought only Rockstar could do tbh and not only the quantity but also the quality of the content is amazing.Don't get me wrong the combat if perfectly serviceable and with all the potions and oils it makes it interesting but imagine if it had Bloodborne level combat.......omfg........GOAT!
 

Phantom Head Shaver

Member
Jul 8, 2018
104
Boiling Point surely deserves a mention in a thread like this. Definitely not without its flaws (some aspects of the faction system don't work all that well for example), but still worth a shot if you're into games like Stalker and such. Also heard some good things about its sequel Xenus 2 and the dev's sci-fi rpg Precursors.

Boiling Point sadly isn't available digitally anywhere to my knowledge, but the latter two can be found on steam.

edit: There's a recent indie FPS/RPG called Brigand: Oaxaca that also fits the bill perfectly, not sure if it's literal Euro-jank though.
 
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Mentalist

Mentalist

Member
Mar 14, 2019
17,976
E.Y.E. is the perfect execution of a single idea- that of being a bad-ass simulator, with an entire kitchen sink full of ideas from other games tossed in on top. Quintessential euro-jank

Sure there's cybernetic implants, and psychic powers, and a fast-paced hacking minigame that makes sense, and can actually cost you your life if you lose, and a research mechanic ripped straight out of the original XCOM, and the completely nonsensical (and poorly translated) amnesiac plot.

But none of it matters, because you can equip a pistol and a sword at once, and use your sword to block bullets until your stamina expires... while shooting enemies with your pistol at the same time.


E.Y.E. is so broken. And yet so very special. I love that game, and I paid full price for it on release day, and I do not regret it- even though I never finished the story, the art direction in a few of those levels is to die for.
 
Tya

Tya

Member
Oct 30, 2017
3,656
Out of newer games, I'd definitely go with Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Elex.
 
Anno

Anno

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,950
Columbus, Ohio
I think all the notables have been mentioned here, so I'd just throw in that, while i guess it doesn't technically count, Alpha Protocol is probably about the same "ambition above budget" as most good Eurojank.
 
Tarot Deck

Tarot Deck

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
4,232
Where are the gifs??


Kingdom-Come-Deliverance-Bug.gif
 
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