I was in your position until recently and am now starting to play a few wrpgs classics. From what I see Bioware rpgs are the closest ones to jrpgs you could find, Dragon Age 1 and 2 in particular, probably more so if you play it in a console. They have the same focus on a tight knit party and all the interactions between them. If you can't run that you could try Kotor, I haven't finished that but it seems to be on the same page.

Like someone else mentioned you might try Fallout as well, it was the first old school rpg I finished and it's really good, though like the third one it doesn't have that companion focus, they're just there to do damage; but apart from that it's completely different from the sequel with the isometric view and turn based combat being just a few of the reasons.

You should tell us about your computer so we can know what it can run and what it can't, also tell us about any consoles you might have that could serve as an option (life for The Witcher 2 for exemple).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkBNKa2KXZE

gotta love those old PC game FMVs. imo they look more pretty then todays graphics.

Not that Arcanum isn't a brilliant RPG (as well as a member of the illustrious Troika Trio), but it's safe to assume that world's smartest orc had little or no influence on your perfectly unbiased suggestion of Arcanum, yes? ;)

The Witcher is pretty amazing. The Ultima series is fun, time consuming, but completely unforgiving. I remember my dad on his Atari PC flipping a bitch when he got killed in a dungeon on Ultima V. My mom even caught it on video camera...ah the 80s.

Look, my people finally get their due in Arcanum, it's far to rare, we're a very refined and erudite species:)

Hm. Well, I think the kind of JRPG that you like would impact the kind of WRPG that appeals to you. Do you prefer Chrono Trigger or Dragon Quest? The former is story-based and rather tightly focused, while the latter is more open world. This is an important distinction, because WRPGs like The Witcher and Morrowind occupy opposite ends of the RPG spectrum. I personally prefer games that are not openworld, so I will only suggest those kinds of games since I am not qualified to speculate on stuff like Morrowind and Two Worlds.

The list below is based on how friendly the games would be to newcomers, based on technological age and how well the gameplay held up.


01) Deus Ex: Human Revolution
02) Fallout: New Vegas
03) The Witcher
04) Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines (With the latest fanpatch)
05) Neverwinter Nights 2

06) Knights of the Old Republic I & II
07) Baldur's Gate I & II
08) Planescape Torment
09) System Shock 2
10) Ultima VII complete

Honorable mention: the Witcher II. I haven't actually played it, so I can't honestly put it with the rest of the list - I am just wagering that it is good.

You've already picked good places to start :)

I would suggest something like Divine Divinity, its top down like diablo, but more interesting script, humour, classes and characters. Then you could try the sequel Divinity 2 Ego Draconis plus the expansion Flames of vengence.

Sacred is easy to get to grips with and Titan Quest.

Then you could try the more adventurous games like Baldurs Gate, Planescale Torment, Arcanum etc.

If you like Star Wars, you could easily sink your teeth into Knights of the old republic as the combat can be paused. Its quite like Mass Effect.

Dunno how you would take to the old Fallout games after playing the new ones.

This.

Can you tell us what it was exactly that made you want to get into WRPGs? What did you read that sounded interesting and maybe appealing to you? I feel WRPG is a very inaccurate and trivial term for describing a whole bunch of very different games, and its only function seems to be to distinguish these games from JRPGs.

WRPGs can be less linear than JRPGs, but it's not true for all of them. They might give you more choice in who you are and who you travel with, but not all of them do that. They might allow you to define the stats of your characters, or not. They might be less focussed on story, or not. They might have more mature stories or even more clichéd stories than JRPGs. They might be turn-based or real time, just like Japanese RPGs. And there's a lot of variety in how turn-based and real-time combat is handled.

I think you'd be better advised to search for a game with a setting, story or specific game mechanics that interest you than just play any so called WRPG that someone recommends to you as a characteristic example of the "genre".

I should recommend the Baldurs gate franchise. You should play the two games and using the mod that utilizes the graphics of Baldurs 2 on the original Baldurs. The game is freaking awesome in terms of history and the party system is awesome and it has memorable characters in both games.