I have tried a ton of RPGs, and most just don't click for me. Here are a few:
- Skyrim - enjoyed Morrowind for the side content, Skyrim just felt empty
- Chrono Trigger - enjoyed until about halfway through with the battle with Magus; felt very RNG dependent, or maybe I was under leveled; I bailed after 5 or so attempts that all ended the same way (healer got killed and everyone got picked off)
- Pillars of Eternity - burned out somewhere in Act 2 (20-25 hours); combat system annoyed me, and I dislike picking new abilities
- Banner Saga - story is great, but I hate the combat, so I bailed
Some things about me:
- I don't care about leveling up/character builds, it feels like a chore; abilities also don't interest me
- I hate grinding
- using items feels like cheating, so I tend to just use character abilities (I will heal if needed); I'd rather "git gud" than buy and use items
- turn based combat (tactics) is generally boring, but I do like puzzles, so that can make it acceptable
- I don't like the feeling of being OP, I want to struggle through the end
- I don't like loot
That said, here are a few that I've really enjoyed:
- ARPGs like Ys and Zelda - items are rare or are tools in a puzzle-like system; favorites are Ys 1, Ys Origin, Zelda: A Link to the Past, and Zelda: Skyward Sword (probably because I played Skyward Sword recently); I dislike BotW, and Memories of Celceta has been dragging a bit (I'm near the end, but excited to finish)
- interesting RPGs like Undertale - short and very unique experience
- Souls-like games - challenge involving melee/dodging keeps me going
- Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - not a fan of the combat, but the story is interesting somewhat at least; I'm about 2/3 through I think (30 hours), but I've taken a multi-month break; likewise, Xenoblade Chronicles is interesting so far, but I'm not super excited about it (may bump down to story mode to get through it, the combat sucks imo)
- Nier: Replicant - great story, leveling stayed out of the way, and I never felt like I needed to grind or upgrade gear
I really like the storylines of RPGs, I just don't like actually playing them. Unfortunately, my preferred ARPG genre is filled with loot nonsense, and I've played most of the ones that don't really on that as a mechanic. Perhaps my favorite RPG-adjacent game not mentioned already is Yakuza 0, I'm not a fan of the combat, but he story is amazing and the side content is fun.
Does anyone feel similarly? Do you have any suggestions for other games to try?
This is a difficult one to answer as most RPGs I can think of have some combination of the stuff that puts you off. Have you tried the Witcher 3 (great story, and the RPG elements are fairly simplified) or Deus Ex: Human Revolution? And if you've played Nier Replicant and enjoyed it, I think you'd love Nier Automata.
Yeah, Nier Automata is certainly on the list, just waiting for a good vacation to really get into it.
And yeah, I've been putting off playing The Witcher 3 for a while since I wasn't sure about the long playtime. I've played a lot of Witcher 1 and read some of the books, so I'm interested in the world, just not sure if I'm 100 hours interested. I'll have to give it a shot though.
I also vote this. The side quest writing in the Witcher 3 is very high quality for the genre, and it's easy enough to completely ignore the superfluous content like bandit camps and stuff littered around.
It's a long game but it's so good I never got that feeling of "uhhhgg this was fun but I'm ready to be done". The thing about very good writing is that more is always better. Even excellent gameplay gets old after a while.
W3 is not very similar to W1 though. You may want to try W2 instead if you liked 1.