Can someone recommend turn-based RPG's for consoles also? (PS3, PSX...)?
I've pretty much played all the RPG's on PC (lol not really but nearly)
I heard Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross are pretty highly rated?

Hello....Might and Magic games.....

Eschalon Book 1 + 2
Wizardry series

You know I don't see a "c" in the OP so make your narrow defined rpg recommendations and have a good day.

Dark Sun: The Shattered Lands
Betrayal at Krondor
Gorky 17

Incubation's among the best of its kind, but its RPG layer is nowhere near as robust as, say, Jagged Alliance 2's. On the other hand, one could say the exact same thing about SS, so there's no harm in adding Incubation to the list, I presume.

Hm.

I know some people are going to recommend Spiderweb Software or Eschalon. Just a warning - those games have the classic indie game problem of terrible, terrible UI. I haven't finished Avadon and probably never will because trying to play the game was frustrating (the colors were washed out and it was hard to distinguish things, controls were counter-intuitive, etc). Eschalon was visually super-busy, so I couldn't tell important items from the background and had a lot of the same issues. Some people love them, and Avadon's characters were pretty interesting, so YMMV on how much the UI is a problem.

The Infinity Engine games are real-time wandering around and turn-based combat, which works very well. They are also classics of the RPG genre. I would skip Baldur's Gate 1, and play:

Icewind Dale 2
Baldur's Gate 2
Icewind Dale 1 ( story is great, controls are clunkier than Icewind Dale 2)

Have you tried Baulder's Gate 1 with the community patches so you can play it in the Baukder's Gate 2 engine?
It was definitely the poor journal, re-spawning enemies etc. that put me right off, especially as I'd played BG2 first, I definitely plan to give the first one another go with the BG2 engine stuff at some point and hope that solves the issues that made me stop playing it before but, admittedly, haven't yet

Or is it just the actual story / quests etc. you don't think are worth it even still?

Too be honest, it's the party-management mechanisms (or lack thereof) that irritate me. I don't *want* the crazy wizard and his equally creepy companion to join, and I don't think any two young people in the wilderness would be especially happy about that either. But instead Imoen and PCToon are perfectly happy to have rampaging nutballs tagging along and I can't get rid of them until I find other people? Totally destroyed my suspension of disbelief.

I made it to the first town after losing the creeps (thanks, wolves!), but there wasn't any clear direction or way to tell what was important for the main story vs sidequests. So there I was, not invested in the characters and without an actual story to follow. I said 'Meh' and started Icewind Dale 2.

To put it in terms of your questions, yeah, the characters weren't believable and the story / quests were confusing or flat.



For me, all games have to pass the 'Dwarf Fortress' test (it works equally well without whatever game a person played for a long time):
1) Is the UI / story less confusing that Dwarf Fortress?
2) Are the things I lose vs Dwarf Fortress outweighed by the things I gain in this game?
3) At any point during a play session, do I say to myself, 'I might as well be playing Dwarf Fortress'?

Morrowind, the Icewind Dale games, Neverwinter NIghts games, Planescape Torment, all passed that test. I think Jade Empire will based on Shamus Young's review. Baldur's Gate, Eschalon and Avadon did not. Haven't tried BG2, because it seems to have the same stupid, story-breaking party setup. Might get into it one of these days.

Sorry, but I must ask: what is Dwarf Fortress?

On topic: I recommend, for turn based RPGs: Darklands, Heroes of Might and Magic series, Betrayal at Krondor, Master of Magic, X-Com series (especially Apocalypse).

Even though X-com and Master of Magic are more strategy than RPGs, your characters do gain xp and increase their stats overtime. Regarding Darklands, you have the pause feature that allows you to give commands to your party.

If you don't mind old graphics (I'm talking about 8-bit era), then you could play Ultima IV or Phantasie.
If you do mind old graphics, then maybe Ultima VI, Geneforge are more to your liking.
If you are going to play Phantasie, I would recommend you to use an emulator since ATARI 8-bit version was better than the PC Version.

If you are into console RPGs, honestly, for me, most of them use the same interface, so the only thing that changes is the story. Still, I found Chrono Trigger, Rudra, Tales of Phantasia and Parasite Eve to be enjoyable.

BTW, to this date I still consider Darklands to be the best RPG ever and Ultima IV to be the most influential RPG of Computer RPG history, but that's IHMO.

Seconded for Spiderweb games.

How are the Eschalon games? They look very appealing to me in their function, but how are the story elements and quests? Common or extraordinary like the Spiderweb games?


---
add more: I'll second Temple of Elemental Evil, too. I love that game.

They are a bit worse than Spiderweb's offerings, but not bad. The main draw of the Eschalon games though was, at least to me, the character customization, which was quite good. The writing was also a good bit above average, even if it can't quite compete with the very best, and the story is nice (though again, can't compete with the very best).

Already said, but Expeditions Conquistator is really excellent!

Oh you can of course just play XCom Enemy Unknown although the "roleplaying" part is tad weaker than elsewhere.

Like it how ? How can you expect an accurate answer ? People are just projecting their tastes through the prism of Shadowrun .... so you can pick half the gog catalogue I s'ppose.