I never did play any of the Phantasie games.. good to know I should just start with III.

[quote=Flack post_id=106306 time=1581427699 user_id=840]
I think the following four games meet your criteria:

Legacy of the Ancients / The Legend of Blacksilver
Tangled Tales / Times of Lore
[/quote]

I loved Times of Lore. I beat it, but the cracked version I had always failed to load the winning "cinematic." I don't think it had additional characters beyond your one player, though, and it's mainly an action game with a lot of aimless wandering. I loved it, but I don't normally recommend it to anyone because it takes a lot of patience.

[quote="Billy Mays" post_id=106295 time=1581398904 user_id=1042]
Have you checked out the Spiderweb Software games? The Avernum series would be a good place to start.
[/quote]

These definitely qualify. I will say that the art is a bit of a turn off. I do like pixel stuff a lot but the Spiderweb games are in this weird spot where they aren't abstract enough for me to find them appealing but also not ..... possessing whatever quality Baldur's Gate has. But yes, this is definitely that kind of game.

I think the following four games meet your criteria:

Legacy of the Ancients / The Legend of Blacksilver
Tangled Tales / Times of Lore

Have you checked out the Spiderweb Software games? The Avernum series would be a good place to start.

I found Skald but it's not out yet.

I played both BGs! Didn't finish BG2, wish I had.

And I thought Phantasie was in blobber style! I am looking that up now. Thanks guys! I'll find more!

To be honest, I never played any of the Ultimas, but if you're fine with sticking in the 80s and haven't played it, I enjoyed the Phantasie games. Personally, I'd recommend just jumping to Phantasie III, as it's the most user friendly and approachable of the bunch (I mean, it's the only one I made any progress in as a dumb kid, even if I have fond memories of cheering for reincarnation in Phantasie II).

Maybe some of those ACK games discussed on THIS VERY FORUM have some good options? Do they not have multiple characters?

Baldur's Gate 1 and 2. Get the "enhanced edition" versions, as they allow the games to not look like ass on modern systems.

Amazing games to boot! Among the best old-school CRPGs.

Curious if you guys know of any games that I am unaware of that play like this:

- Top-down view, pixel graphics are fine
- Is an RPG
- But lets you make a party of 4 or more people

I am ok if moving around the larger map screen has one icon, rather than one for each party member. Minima, at itch.io is exactly this except it seems to just have one part member instead of multiple ones. And I think Ultima 3, 4 and 5 are like this.

Unknown Realm is a game exactly like this but still in development - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stirringdragongames/unknown-realm-an-8bit-rpg-for-pc-and-commodore-64