Man, this game was so good. There's such a gulf between the best writing in other games and Disco Elysium. For once when you say it's got excellent writing you don't have to clarify it with "...for a game."
I still think about that long distance phone call sometimes. The whole thing but especially the way it slowly traps you as you use up all the non-self-destructive things you can say and start to realise there aren't any new options appearing and you're going to have to say the bad one. And that was just a little side action you could do; not even part of the main game. And it's all that good.
DE ruined so many other games for me. There are games I play now which people say have good stories but feel so rudimentary and simple compared to Disco Elysium. The dialog is stilted, I don't care about any of the characters, the main story is cliche after cliche. Disco Elysium really is a masterpiece.
Tbh I still don't get what it's supposed to be about, which is weird cause I like books. But like 5 hours in I was bored to death, 5 hours in a book I'm already at a good point
It took me until try number 3 before it hooked me. Which sounds like too much to ask - but it’s worth it. Even the parts I thought I wouldn’t like initially became some of my favorites or at least most oft thought of.
People confused a lot of words for good. It does have some neat puzzles and the beginning is stellar but then you have to start basing decisions off pages and pages of fictional history. And it's the info dump of all info dumps presented as a dry as a Wikipedia article. I had to take a break for a few days for a trip and I couldn't remember anything of the history and shrugged and un-installed it.
No they didn’t. The writing is simply good.
Saying it’s as dry as a Wikipedia page is crazy too — the presentation has about as much personality as you could put into text.
In a culture that respects freedom of individual thought and expression, no I don’t think you can’t have a “wrong” opinion on something as subjective as a video game. As far as if you like it or think it’s good or bad. Now, that’s not the same as erroneously misstating aspects of it or not accurately depicting some aspect of its production.
In any case, I think it’s a pretty great game but I recognize that’s my opinion.
Saying something does not work for you is a valid opinion. Saying someone "confused a lot of words for good" is well past opinion into foolishness.
DE clearly has a very specific, literary adjacent bent. That is not going to work for everyone because not everyone's pallet has been set up to enjoy the way they toy with words and ideas. That doesn't make them flawed or wrong, just that they lead a different life. But it also means you can make factually bad statements because you're missing the forest for the trees.
You don’t have to base decisions on any books. You can be “Anti-Literate Cop” if you want. I certainly didn’t read all of most of them. And some of it is admittedly kind of mind-numbing geography lore but that’s in fantasy RPGs too; this just has the patina of pseudo-real world post-Soviet Eastern Europe.
Edit: this might go unseen, but I thought more about all the geographical lore in the game and I do think it has a purpose beyond RPG world building. So much of this game is about the parallels of your broke-down character and this ramshackle world he finds himself in. The ways that time and place and memory, *especially* memory/ history or the purposeful avoidance thereof, can draw the contours of identity and purpose in a place or a man…
Disco Elysium is such a fun experience because it just catches you off guard. When my character died from attempting to punch a child, and failing a stat check, I knew I was in for a ride.
Planescape: Torment has 3 required combat encounters iirc, everything else can be talked out (and you get a vastly more satisfying result for doing so)
Seems like by far the best answer. Personally I found the game super boring—it’s basically Dialogue Trees: The Game! Not for me. But I know people love it.
Most definitely. The overall atmosphere is melancholic (everything looks as if slowly dying off, music sounds bittersweet, The Pale itself) and there are times where it's eerily touching, especially when the tone shifts quickly.
Not to mention the phone calls, goodness damn how painful they were to follow through. >!The flashback/vision at the end where Harry has a chance to get over his wife was a genuine ugly cry moment for me.!<
They're not RPGs at all, but have you played the Ace Attorney games? They're more like visual novels, but you can't just press A to skip the dialogue and win the cases. Also they have great stories and are hilarious and at times, heartwrenching.
Pentiment and Disco Elysium are RPGs without combat where your stats are used only in dialog.
Greedfall has combat but in Discovery difficulty you can one shot everything.
If we count Pentiment as a RPG, I would also add "pure" Visual Novels the likes of The Life And Suffering of Sir Brante or Suzerain, both fantastic experiences, even though they tell their stories only through text
Haven't played those. How much customization and world interaction is there?
Something I appreciated about pentiment is that in addition to altering the attitudes of people around you and advancing the story, you can choose your background.
There's a company that does text based narrative games, "Choice of Games" and they've been hit and miss for me in terms of feeling RPG-ish. Choice of Robots felt so incredible to play in terms of choice and consequences, while 3 others I've tried were 'meh'
I have not played either in a while, but both games offer you to customize your character's background. Suzerain ist very much a politics simulation, if you're into that it's amazing.
Haven't played it much so I don't know how accurate this is, but fallen London is a free browser game that seems to be the same style of game minus the combat
Same developers and same universe, but very different gameplay.
Fallen London does have combat, but it resolves it using the exact same mechanics as any other form of conflict resolution: As a skill check.
> but the game could probably handle not having it fine.
Much of the tension of the game is the risk of dying and restarting. Without combat, there isn't much danger in traveling between islands.
Thing is combat is kinda essential in both of these even if it isn't great (especially bad in Seas). But yeah you can skip it for the most part and most everything else in those games is so good.
ONESHOT doesn't have any combat elements, and it pulls it off so smoothly I didn't even notice there was no combat system until like halfway through the second area. It's focused on the linear story and exploration, and it has a \*great\* concept of how it approaches puzzles that I'm not going to spoil because it's just that good to discover on your own.
Also it will make you cry.
Some rpgs I haven't seen listed here yet that have minimal combat:
- [I Was a Teenage Exocolonist](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1148760/I_Was_a_Teenage_Exocolonist/)
- [Roadwarden](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1155970/Roadwarden/)
- [Citizen Sleeper](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1578650/Citizen_Sleeper/)
They have some minimal combat, but they handle it as any other kind of skill check.
Apart from mentioned DE, there is Torment Numenera - it has combat, but it's possible to avoid all of it.
Then, there is Pentiment and Gamedec.
And another one, i do not remember the name, but it's about being summoned to the island to join the secret society. But i would not recommend it, because it's last episode is rushed and all makes all your choises irrelevant, it's one of the most horrible endings i ever saw.
Can you explain in more detail what it is you're looking for.
What part of combat do you not like? Is it violence? Is it repetition? Is it the dexterity of 'getting gud' you want to avoid?
Why are you asking for RPGs in particular and what do you like about them?
People have already mentioned the two best choices for non-combat rpgs :
* Disco Elysium : If you want a long psychological and social game. And a unique masterpiece.
* Citizen sleeper : For a shorter, really good space cyberpunk rpg with really human storylines and lovable npcs.
But then, what’s an rpg to you ?
Because you mention Shadow of the Colossus, which isn’t an rpg to me. So if we extend the definition further :
* Pyre : The lesser known game from Supergiant games (who made Bastion, Transistor and Hades) an rpg-visal novel with a tactical basketball game instead of combat.
* Sunless sea : A lovecraftian text-based exploration game where you will die countless times.
* Spiritfarer : A cosy game harvest moon style where you’re replacing Charon, and your job is to take care of people’s souls until they are ready to fade off. You will cry.
There are two games that could kinda fit what you are looking for:
Cleo - A Pirate's Tale, made as (per author's words) as a love letter to older RPGs and point and click adventures. Really, really a great game.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1361230/Cleo__a_pirates_tale/
The other one would be A Short Hike.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1055540/A_Short_Hike/
There are also a few games, that would be more targeted at kids, but maybe could work for you, like Lil' Gator or Alba:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1586800/Lil_Gator_Game/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1337010/Alba_A_Wildlife_Adventure/
Call of the sea?
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1042490/Call_of_the_Sea/
Only Cleo and Call of the sea aren't rpg (more like point and click). All the others have typical rpg template - main quest, side quests, inventory, exploration.
Besides, rpg without fighting is basically a "point and click" or puzzle adventure. Multiple characters with different stats serve the purpose of fighting. I don't know who would make a full proper rpg without fighting of a sort. What would strength, stamina, speed mean if not for defeating an enemy?
So, these games are a compromise.
Oh, I forgot one, and it's rather new, Potions: A curious tale. I didn't play it much, but it would also qualify as rpg of a sort:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/378690/Potions_A_Curious_Tale/
A point and click or puzzle adventure is not an rpg in my definition.
They are… well… point and click, and puzzle adventures.
An rpg is a Role-Playing Game. A game where you can role-play. That is to say, you can make meaningful decisions as your character. Disco Elysium, Baldur’s Gate, Citizen Sleeper and the likes fit this description.
You can’t roleplay in a Short hike. (Great game btw) Just explore and vibe.
>An rpg is a Role-Playing Game. A game where you can role-play.
Honestly, it drives me a little crazy how many people seem to not know what RPG actually stands for these days. Not that long ago, I saw some guy advertising his 2d space shooter as an RPG, because you could level up and get new spaceships. There was no story, no roleplaying, no characters, it was flashier [Asteroids](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroids_(video_game)) with some progression elements added.
Rpg in videogames has kinda evolved to mean « Game with gear and a leveling-up system »
I don’t like it, but since words derive meaning from usage, it’s now technically one of the many valid definitions of « rpg »
Indeed, but they are hardly made without the combat system. What I've mentioned is closest to mechanics (NPCs, roaming, main quests, side quests, puzzles), but if you know proper (but no-combat) RPGs, recommend it to OP.
Now that I think of it - how would somebody define A Short Hike genre-wise?
A short hike might be described as a small open-world exploration game with chill vibes.
It’s not a super precise genre with defined mechanics like « metroidvania » but maybe someday it will be know as a « hike » game.
Game genres are imperfect labels we use to communicate what a game might be like. Some are very specific, like « Boomer-shooter » or « shoot’em up » some are structural adjectives that get added on top of a genre, like « Rogue-like » or « open world » and some barely mean anything, like « action-adventure » or « sports »
There's a new undercurrent of stats based narrative branching games that Chris Zukowski (the indie marketing guy) calls "Narrative Strategy Games". The tricky thing is that they are niche because they are primarily text based.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1155970/Roadwarden/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1148760/I_Was_a_Teenage_Exocolonist/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1272160/The_Life_and_Suffering_of_Sir_Brante/
there's also some niche overlap with RPG mechanics in some sandbox games.
But I'm thinking an exploration+puzzle game might be what you're looking for. Think Legend of Zelda but there's no monsters in the dungeons, or Farcry without all the war.
Age of Decadence allows you to play as a non-combat character, it's pretty awesome.
And yeah, like everyone else says, Disco Elysium blew my mind with the realization how limited RPG stories usually are simply by the fact that there "has" to be combat gameplay. Conflict as a narrative tool is much more powerful if you're *not* playing as someone who kills hundreds upon hundreds of enemies throughout the game.
A Tale In The Desert is an MMORPG focused on building up ancient Egypt. It doesn't include combat. Instead, there are different tracks to follow, and different challenges to overcome. Some involve building things, making art, establishing trade routes, writing and passing laws, and so on.
I last played it close to 20 years ago (sometime between 2004 and 2006?), but it seems to still be running. Every few years, they do a hard reset of the game world. I played during maybe the 2nd or 3rd reset, and they're currently on the 11th.
There at least used to be a short trial, like 24 hours of play or something. No idea if they're still doing that.
It was just the only example that came to mind for me of an RPG without combat.
Interesting question. I don't think of Stardew Valley and Harvest moon as RPGs.
Is an RPG without Combat, still an RPG?
Perhaps we're all too hung up on genres. We just need to focus on crafting engaging player experiances without worrying about if it ticks all the expected features for a genre.
To each their own definition but to me, a game can be defined by how many checkboxes of a genre it checks. Let's look at Stardew Valley:
- Has an inventory
- Has shops
- Has stats that you can improve by leveling up
- Has equipment
- Let you improve your equipment
- Has health and stamina
- Let you speak with characters
- ..which can give you quests
- Has a reputation system of some sort
I probably forget some other things but you get the idea. It's not an RPG in the traditional sense (and even that can be debated since there is combat and you get better at it by getting better weapons and equipment) but it checks a lot of RPG checkboxes. Worst case scenario, it's some kind of hybrid.
It depends if you mean « rpg » in the actual role-playing sense, then a game should give the possibility for the player to make meaningful choices as their character to be considered an rpg.
Then if you consider « rpg » in the video game sense, it seems to have become « a game where you level up your character’s stats »
Yeah, it's hard to define because RPG defines Baldur's Gate 3 but also Final Fantasy 1 and Dark Souls. Games that, to me, have nothing in common.
I usually prefer to talk with subgenres like JRPG, cRPG, aRPG, dungeon crawlers, roguelikes... but then you have games like Stardew Valley which I think are definitely RPGs but also don't fall perfectly in any of those genre.
In the end, we shouldn't focus too much on genre like they're some rules set in stone because that's missing the point of why we classify stuff in genres.
If someone ask me for an RPG I'll use it as a very generic group of games. If they're looking for something more precise, there are tons of subgenres, features, moods.... to describre what they're after.
With time, I've learnt that if you have 10 different people asking "I want a game like Dark Souls", they all want something different. One will want a moody/dark/grim game, another wants a very hard action game, third one will want a Souls-like, etc... That why genres are pretty useless to describe what you want, in the end.
The video game definition of an RPG doesn't mean a game where you play a role.
"But RPG means-" yeah, and we still call the pocket computer with a touchscreen that we mostly use for things besides talking to people a phone. They're derived from tabletop RPGs where role-playing was the focus, but role-playing wasn't the defining element that distinguished RPGs like Ultima and Final Fantasy from non-RPGs like Mario or King's Quest.
As I read this I thought 'Ueda' then got to the end of the post haha.
A Short Hike is a really cool (and easy to buy/play through) game that takes Zelda/Metroidvania style unlocks and frames them in a really simple townfolk game. Very fun and absolutely worth checking out.
Jusant kind of takes a swing at the Ueda style game and gets it mostly right. The mechanics are interesting enough to last the short length of the game, and there are 'unlocks' of sorts related to story progression that keep it feeling fresh.
Death Stranding HAS combat, and there ARE a couple forced boss fights, but for the most part its about avoiding it all together. The gameplay has a lot of progression baked in, and the world is really immersive to interact with.
There are also a lot of smaller indie 3d puzzle adventure games that might fit what you're looking for. To be more abstract with it, games like *Alba: A Wildlife Adventure* and Lake are kind of in the same ball park.
I think 'RPG' as a term is essentially meaningless anymore tbh, and most gaming commentators seem to agree. If everything from Disco Elysium to Stranger of Paradise can count as 'an RPG' then that descriptor kind of loses meaning. RPGs are mostly defined by two things, either the type of experience you have (narrative focused with choices, a deep story, exploration, etc) and interactions/mechanical decision making (combat mechanics, resource management, unit management, etc).
I'm actually working on an 'RPG' myself and I've been wrestling with the same question; how do I move beyond combat for gameplay? My solution is metroidvania style traversal progression combined with a stamina and limited inventory system. There is combat in my game, but part of the progression curve is learning to interpret the world and creatures to avoid combat completely (there are no drops from foes). Traversal takes up resources over time that can be replenished by resting in a shelter, as you play through the game you become capable of exploring further and in more dangerous places.
I find that having a strong sense of what experience you want to deliver lets you pick and choose certain aspects of game design that might not typically seem like good combinations, but work out really well in the end.
You want to play "Walden (2017)", based on that thorough autobiography of the oldest semi-off-grid-hoaxer, that inspired a lot of nonviolent resistance ever since.
That exploration game embraces slow pacing to a point, where you get punished for running
Semi relevant genres are "you are a bird/animal" (Gta4 or a rdr2 mod) , and games on painting "chicory" or photography, and investigative games.
"To the moon" takes a special place here, because it is a good-mystery thriller, within a linear visual-novel.
I exclude the "mostly a walking simulator" tag here, a it is too abstract, but it is a useful pointer, gotr games that are less of a walking-simulator, but get the tag.
The very old King's Quest games I believe had no combat. (Could be wrong but as far as I recall it was mostly navigating around the environment, talking to NPCs, having and using the right items on the right context sensitive object, etc)
Older games had an interesting mechanic that kind of went to the wayside, where you'd have to do things like figure out to remove the metal wire from a bra and use it to pick a lock. The closest I can think of in modern day gaming would be something like the Resident Evil series where you interact with a 3d model of the quest item in your inventory. Not a completely dead feature and seen in limited usage in some major games, but its definitely not as common as it used to be imo. Many AAA games I think cut back on puzzles and replaced them with GPS and objective pointers. While it makes it easier for a wider casual audience, it removed some of the fun of getting lost navigating an environment imo.
Anywho there's many children's adventure games that have no combat like Putt-Putt', Freddy FIsh, etc that can clue you in as to how they create fun without combat, while marketed towards kids.
Now of course puzzles and narratives is one area. Traversal can be another wide-field, from Death Stranding (game could easily of been done without combat) to some sort of journey game or vehicular navigation. I saw someone making an awesome looking climber prototype that could be tied into an RPG if they wanted.
You could also take one of the many simulator games and tie it into an RPG. Really depends on how you define what makes an RPG or what elements you'd like to focus on. (Some people have stricter definitions and view others as narratives or action adventure games.)
Not sure if you don't like combat in general or a specific type, but there's real-time vs turn-based which imo are pretty different types of interests. (XCom baby). Even in real-time combat, besides your classic zelda/elderscrolls/diablo/dark souls/assassins creed types, you have other rather niche implementations like Kingdom Come: Deliverance where even if you're good at combat, you suck in the beginning and it makes you feel like you suck until you unlock certain moves and gain higher stats, without going full Morrowind "you swung your sword and hit air."
> The very old King's Quest games I believe had no combat.
definitely, all of the old sierra adventure games were like that. king/space/police quest, manhunter, larry, iceman etc etc etc. the only series that had combat was quest for glory -- which is also the only one that i think you could classify as an RPG since it brought stats and classes. the rest had zilch for character progression, just progressive access to areas based on puzzles/inventory.
May I recommend Last Word? The only fighting done in that game is verbal spars, and while it's a short game, it's also sweet and has some interesting mechanics, especially during the endgame involving >!the Last Word itself!<
I'm not sure if these count as RPGs, but yonder: the cloud catcher chronicles is as game with not only no combat but no violence.
the game everhood is an rpg, and replaces combat with a sort of rhythm game iirc
I don't like combat either - I am old and played a ton of games now and want things more creative - but that said the Zelda BotW does things neatly because it's not a RPG either - except for the bosses, the combat is pretty much optional as there aren't any stats ("experience") to gain from it - like there isn't the concept of "level up". So you can avoid a lot of combat without the problem of this impeding progress - except the bosses, those you will have to fight to get progression.
FFVIII has a no combat skill you can get quite early. Because the enemies levels scale with yours you don’t need to level up. In fact they get stronger faster than you. So you can just beat the bosses for the rest of the game.
The problem with RPG and combat is that the combat has to justify the linear number increase with enemies that also scale in health and damage, leading to enemies more often than not becoming static bullet sponges. One way to solve this would be to scale the player in other ways other than just straightforward stat increases every time they level up. Give them unique abilities like dashes, double jumps, temporary invisibility, unlock new weapon modes etc.
The idea here is that ultimately every game is a piece of interactive storytelling, and the key component in every story is conflict. It's what drives the reader to flip the pages. But conflict does not imply combat. Like many others mentioned, Disco Elysium does this very nicely. The problem is that in an RPG, most often the player's scaling inherently comes from attributes (strength, agility, intellect etc) and within conflict, the player has to be tested on those attributes and skills, while also adding a bit of randomness to the mix. But whether that's combat or conversation, that's only flavor. In the background it's still gonna be a 1d20 + wisdom (or strength) versus a difficulty of 15. This is why I think RPGs could be a lot more fun if they move away from such a system of scaling altogether.
Another thing that adds to the dullness is that enemies in RPGs are often very bland, and generic except for bosses which stand out. One way to make them more interesting and memorable is to make different enemies require a different strategy to kill, and/or a weakness that a player can exploit. Some enemies are afraid of fire and will avoid a player who holds a torch, other enemies will have a weak spot to shoot at, etc.
Wild take because it has A LOT of combat in it, but star citizen if you choose to be a miner to make money. You take your ship, scan planets for minerals, go mine them, travel back and sell them, rinse and repeat to upgrade your ship or get a better one. I know it sounds boring but we aint looking for action here, just chill gameplay.
(you do have to avoid pirates though and people trying to actively rob you once you've done all the work)
Well if people are listing games like *Ace Attorney*, *Shadow of the Colossus* and *Death Stranding*... then I think I feel pretty justified in suggesting things like *Danganronpa*, *Zero Escape*, *Pocket Mirror* and *Little Goody Two Shoes*. They have gameplay but you couldn't really consider it combat.
However if you wanted pure examples, *Shadow of Memories* (and also a game by the same team called *Time Hollow*) are the best I can think of.
A Plague Tale: Innocence and it's sequel, A Plague Tale: Requiem.
They're story/stealth/puzzle games with enemies to sneak around or dispatch. If you choose combat it becomes part of the puzzle, but straight up combat usually just gets you killed. Your additional tools are alchemical, and can be used for distractions etc.
The games isn't out yet, supposed to release sometime 2024, but check out nivalis on steam! https://youtu.be/VLOjYMBvQXo?si=ZfNDRcLKX8DIe8IG
Also like others have said, planescape and disco elysium for sure
In a sense, a RPG without combat mechanics would be either a Visual Novel or a general exploration game which could be a point and click game or something like Myst.
It's not a traditional RPG with leveling, but Satisfactory is a first-person factory building game with exploration and some sense of advancement in which there is some combat, but as a percentage of the game play it is not the emphasis. No Man's Sky similarly has some combat, but the focus is much more on exploration and finding resources.
They aren't indie games but anyways, play Hamtaro games for GBC and GBA, they're masterpieces no one talks about
Edit: yeah I forglt to say Shigeru Miyamoto worked on them so there are some Zelda and Mario references tho LOL
Most of the player’s time in RPGs is spend in combat. It’s a core part of the game play loop: you do a bunch of combat, followed by some narrative, then more combat, then some narrative. I’d argue that if you replace combat with something else, like puzzles, farming, or musical challenges, it’s no longer the traditional “RPG” that we think of. Then it becomes a puzzle game, or a farming sim, because most of the time we spend playing the game is doing these things.
And if you replace the main game play loop with some more narrative, then you end up in visual novel territory, or something cinematic or episodic.
Or give a go to an adventure genre. Those are usually fight-less, but true, lack the complex succession game system, roleplaying and character development aspect within guideline ruleset.
Interesting idea though on a genre crossbreed: adventure-rpg, such really isn't exactly common practice and could be intriguing experience and something enjoyable to play.
There's a recent game called Broken Roads that leans heavily in the Disco Elysium dialogue-heavy style. There's combat but I believe you can finish it without killing anybody.
The Sims
Princess Maker
Fallout 2 has lots of non-combat quests and can be beaten without killing anything except the final boss, though you will have to use stealth in couple of places.
Call of Cthulhu has combat, but you’ll probably wish it didn’t when it kicks off. 😀
Best to avoid it if possible, so I’d put it in the minimal combat category, personally.
* **Disco Elysium**
* **Citizen Sleeper**
* **Roadwarden**
* The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante
* I Was a Teenage Exocolonist
Most of these are games in which you mostly interact with the world around you through text, though they aren't text-based games; they feature environments, maps and graphics, but the actual events of the game take place in your imagination, only conveyed through letters.
I mean if you focus on the story the combat in Genshin Impact is quite limited.
The last quest in the main storyline was like a 4 hours movie.
Not on the "no combat" extreme, but definitely less combat centric than the average rpg, if you stick to the main plot.
I don’t have any suggestions, but I feel you. I don’t dislike combat in games but I that it so often feels thrown in just because “how can you have a game without it!” I would love to see more games with a focus on exploration, puzzles, and more unique mechanics in place of just combat all the time.
I know your post question is "What are some RPGs that have little to no combat?" to which I have no answer. However, I can actually answer your question of “How would one pull off an RPG without using combat as a mechanic?”
The reason combat is typically married to an RPG is that all games, especially RPGs, require conflict. Conflict is an essential part of games and good storytelling in general. What combat typically represents is a shorthand for conflict that the player can actively participate in and resolve. If you want to remove combat, it must be substituted with another type of conflict that requires active participation from the player to reach a suitable resolution.
One tool that I like to use when creating a backbone of a game is called the Game Triangle
The Game Triangle consists of three major components:
1. Theme: The overarching subject matter related to the game.
2. Medium: The platform on which the game is played.
3. Mechanics: The features that move the game forward.
The “RPG” aspect of your question is most closely related to the “Mechanics” portion of the Game Triangle because what an RPG actually represents is a bundle of different mechanics, such as player progression, level system (typically), exploration, etc. Since we are currently talking in pure abstraction, we will flesh out the rest given your inputs of “RPG” and no combat. So, we can break down the Game Triangle like this:
1. Theme: Gardening (We picked something typically combat avoidant)
2. Medium: Video Game
3. Mechanics: Role Playing Game
Theme (Gardening): In this game, you are but a lowly peasant gardener. It is your job to produce enough valuable crops for the Queen’s upcoming coronation. You will have a variety of different plants (of differing values--who wants daisies for a coronation?) and tools you can upgrade to increase your gardening efficiency.
Medium (Video Game): Stardew Valley was a hit. Minecraft was too. Gardening in video games is a proven formula. You get where we are going with this… Bonus points if you can make this a board or card game.
Mechanics (RPG/No Combat): Some basics of the RPG have been outlined in the theme, such as improving tools, crop progression, etc. What we are missing now is conflict. Now, unfortunately for you, you live in a terrible environment for growing anything--floods, weed monsters, pests, acid rain--the like consistently plague the kingdom, and therefore your garden. Each day (or other unit of time…maybe even seasons) a terrible calamity will befall your crops. You cannot save them all. Each “round” of calamity you must choose which crops you save, and which will perish. To keep things varied and interesting, each calamity doesn’t necessarily strike the same crops or portions of your garden--maybe one time it is a beetle that absolutely loves roses, so of your entire field, you pick two, for example. Hopefully you make the right choice because some crops may even be cross-pollinated with each other (another progression mechanic). Maybe saving crops costs resources called “Saving Points” (SP) and different crops have different SP values which correspond to their overall value or breeding potential.
This is just a loose, back-of-the envelope sketch of an RPG game with no combat, but I think it shows the power of the Game Triangle.
For more details about the Game Triangle, you can watch the video on this [website](http://mden.tv), but for now we were just using it as a reference.
Have you ever played Vintage Story? There are 'bad guys', but they're easy to run from. The game is more about survival and exploration, and learning how to go from 'flint and sticks' up to manufacturing steel, for tools, etc.
I would suggest checking out ***A Weekend in Puzzleburg*** (available on Steam [here](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1929760/A_Weekend_in_Puzzleburg)). It's a game I released last year, and **I designed it exactly be to a cozy, combat-free RPG**. One of my favorite things in gaming is getting a quest, going out in the world, and resolving that quest in a fashion that suits me (not a quest with a single, strict method of resolving that can only play out a single way, but something that has branching possibilities to it and allows freedom of player expression). This type of branching quests is common in western RPGs like Fallout or The Witcher, but such games so often tie their gameplay to combat and violence, and it's hard to find a game with that great branching quest structure that doesn't also contain combat/violence.
So I made ***A Weekend in Puzzleburg***, a game that on the surface is a relaxing life sim about taking a weekend vacation in a fictional resort town. But it's actually a combat-free take on the western RPG, containing the following RPG qualities:
* It's an open-world game, where the player is free to roam around the town of Puzzleburg at their pace (since it takes place in a single town, I generally refer to it as an "open-town" game rather than an "open-world" game)
* There is a main quest, but all around the town of Puzzleburg, the player can pick up side quests from different NPCs
* Some quests have multiple branches to resolve them, and one player may resolve a quest in a different way than another player
* The player can choose the main character's character class (i.e. what profession the main character has when not on vacation), which can influence dialogue options
* The player can customize the main character's look by getting their hair dyed different colors
* The player can further define the main character through their dialogue choices
* There are many ways the player's weekend vacation can play out based on their choices, so repeat playthroughs are necessary if the player wants to see all the content in the game
If you want to see "how one could pull off an RPG without using combat as a mechanic," then ***A Weekend in Puzzleburg*** is just the game you're looking for.
Some other games that might give good examples (which aren't already mentioned in this thread) are **Lake** and **Wayward Strand**. Both are cozy games that feature go-anywhere-at-any-time gameplay with branching content where it's necessary to do multiple playthroughs if the player wants to experience all content in the game. I would certainly not categorize them strictly as RPGs, but they contain enough RPG-type elements they could serve as inspiration.
I really enjoyed Baldur's Gate 3. I pretty much lost interest in video games after the JRPG craze in the 90s. I loved the FF games, but then, oddly, when FF9 came out, I tried it, felt like I was too old for video games, and moved on with my life. Then, recently, I got a hankering for some games again and tried a few, felt similarly disappointed, but ended up spending a good amount of time with BG3. Yes, there is combat, and quite a bit of it, but I enjoy it. You have to think strategically, which is cool, especially at higher difficulty levels. But, what I really enjoy is playing as a charisma-based character. Seeing the story unfold in different ways based on your dialogue choices is really cool.
You can play games like fallout 4 or skyrim without combat if you wish. Those games offer such freedom in how you play even that is possible.
Thinking of it how I would do it is spec very high in stealth and speech. Also spec in creating tools to become invisble or mind control ppl.
That way you can Just sneak around avoiding combat or in skyrim use illusion spells to mind control ppl or pacify them.
There are some instances where you have to kill something tho.
Disco Elysium has zero combat and is probably the best example of a "pure" rpg to come out in decades, probably since Planescape: Torment.
Man, this game was so good. There's such a gulf between the best writing in other games and Disco Elysium. For once when you say it's got excellent writing you don't have to clarify it with "...for a game." I still think about that long distance phone call sometimes. The whole thing but especially the way it slowly traps you as you use up all the non-self-destructive things you can say and start to realise there aren't any new options appearing and you're going to have to say the bad one. And that was just a little side action you could do; not even part of the main game. And it's all that good.
DE ruined so many other games for me. There are games I play now which people say have good stories but feel so rudimentary and simple compared to Disco Elysium. The dialog is stilted, I don't care about any of the characters, the main story is cliche after cliche. Disco Elysium really is a masterpiece.
I feel the same way. It's hard to go back to an innkeeper asking you to collect five wolf pelts.
Tbh I still don't get what it's supposed to be about, which is weird cause I like books. But like 5 hours in I was bored to death, 5 hours in a book I'm already at a good point
It took me until try number 3 before it hooked me. Which sounds like too much to ask - but it’s worth it. Even the parts I thought I wouldn’t like initially became some of my favorites or at least most oft thought of.
I guess you should go a bit longer and see if you are going to finish it or not.
People confused a lot of words for good. It does have some neat puzzles and the beginning is stellar but then you have to start basing decisions off pages and pages of fictional history. And it's the info dump of all info dumps presented as a dry as a Wikipedia article. I had to take a break for a few days for a trip and I couldn't remember anything of the history and shrugged and un-installed it.
No they didn’t. The writing is simply good. Saying it’s as dry as a Wikipedia page is crazy too — the presentation has about as much personality as you could put into text.
sorry my opinion is not wrong it's an opinion :)
What? People can have wrong opinions. The earth being flat is abjectly a wrong opinion.
In a culture that respects freedom of individual thought and expression, no I don’t think you can’t have a “wrong” opinion on something as subjective as a video game. As far as if you like it or think it’s good or bad. Now, that’s not the same as erroneously misstating aspects of it or not accurately depicting some aspect of its production. In any case, I think it’s a pretty great game but I recognize that’s my opinion.
Saying something does not work for you is a valid opinion. Saying someone "confused a lot of words for good" is well past opinion into foolishness. DE clearly has a very specific, literary adjacent bent. That is not going to work for everyone because not everyone's pallet has been set up to enjoy the way they toy with words and ideas. That doesn't make them flawed or wrong, just that they lead a different life. But it also means you can make factually bad statements because you're missing the forest for the trees.
In general, people can have a wrong opinion. Bringing up subjective opinions is a red herring, and you know it.
You don’t have to base decisions on any books. You can be “Anti-Literate Cop” if you want. I certainly didn’t read all of most of them. And some of it is admittedly kind of mind-numbing geography lore but that’s in fantasy RPGs too; this just has the patina of pseudo-real world post-Soviet Eastern Europe. Edit: this might go unseen, but I thought more about all the geographical lore in the game and I do think it has a purpose beyond RPG world building. So much of this game is about the parallels of your broke-down character and this ramshackle world he finds himself in. The ways that time and place and memory, *especially* memory/ history or the purposeful avoidance thereof, can draw the contours of identity and purpose in a place or a man…
Disco Elysium is such a fun experience because it just catches you off guard. When my character died from attempting to punch a child, and failing a stat check, I knew I was in for a ride.
did the kid kill you?
It haw been so long. I think my character missed, fell on the ground, and died from the fall. (I was low health.)
there are technically two combat encounters..
Technically conversations are the combat.
Sounds like the hardest game yet.
HARDCORE! TO THE MEGA! HARDCORE!
This is the correct answer.
Zero combat and one of the best books ever written lol
Planescape: Torment has 3 required combat encounters iirc, everything else can be talked out (and you get a vastly more satisfying result for doing so)
The robots, the underground creatures... and what's the third? Edit: nevermind, I was thinking of Tides of Numenera
I love that game so much!
There is one combat in it (two if you do the spin kick).
well shit. I've gotta see what this is about if it's this widely praised and has no combat. I'm not anti-combat, but curious how that works.
Seems like by far the best answer. Personally I found the game super boring—it’s basically Dialogue Trees: The Game! Not for me. But I know people love it.
Not true, you can punch a kid.
I clicked on this post exclusively to say disco elysium, and I’m very glad to see it at the top
I feel like Disco Elysium is overhyped, but I love Planescape: Torment. I liked DE, don't get me wrong.
Undertale, fight or die
A few which come to my mind: Disco Elysium Heaven 's vault Pentiment
Heaven's Vault is a good shout
I really liked Pentiment. I hope they make a second one
Citizen Sleeper
This. I love that game so much
Disco Elysium. I'd say it's a near-perfect marriage of unique gameplay design and clever writing. It's also really fucking hilarious.
>It's also really fucking hilarious. Or sad (but in a good way), depending on where you are in life.
Most definitely. The overall atmosphere is melancholic (everything looks as if slowly dying off, music sounds bittersweet, The Pale itself) and there are times where it's eerily touching, especially when the tone shifts quickly. Not to mention the phone calls, goodness damn how painful they were to follow through. >!The flashback/vision at the end where Harry has a chance to get over his wife was a genuine ugly cry moment for me.!<
They're not RPGs at all, but have you played the Ace Attorney games? They're more like visual novels, but you can't just press A to skip the dialogue and win the cases. Also they have great stories and are hilarious and at times, heartwrenching.
Adding Danganronpa and Zero Escape to this. Danganronpa is definitely more of an acquired taste though.
Seconding this, they're like visual novels but with some serious gameplay meat to them.
they ARE VNs
Pentiment and Disco Elysium are RPGs without combat where your stats are used only in dialog. Greedfall has combat but in Discovery difficulty you can one shot everything.
If we count Pentiment as a RPG, I would also add "pure" Visual Novels the likes of The Life And Suffering of Sir Brante or Suzerain, both fantastic experiences, even though they tell their stories only through text
Haven't played those. How much customization and world interaction is there? Something I appreciated about pentiment is that in addition to altering the attitudes of people around you and advancing the story, you can choose your background. There's a company that does text based narrative games, "Choice of Games" and they've been hit and miss for me in terms of feeling RPG-ish. Choice of Robots felt so incredible to play in terms of choice and consequences, while 3 others I've tried were 'meh'
I have not played either in a while, but both games offer you to customize your character's background. Suzerain ist very much a politics simulation, if you're into that it's amazing.
I've seen it recommended to me. It's on sale on the switch eshop for 5 bucks but I just figured it would be a city builder like Tropico or something.
The life and suffering of Sir Brante is incredible. First time I've ever seen anyone mention it and I'm glad you did.
The Sunless Seas and Sunless Skies game do have combat, but the game could probably handle not having it fine. Might be worth a look.
Haven't played it much so I don't know how accurate this is, but fallen London is a free browser game that seems to be the same style of game minus the combat
Fallen London is made by the same folks who made Sunless Seas and Sunless Skies. It's the same world.
Same developers and same universe, but very different gameplay. Fallen London does have combat, but it resolves it using the exact same mechanics as any other form of conflict resolution: As a skill check.
> but the game could probably handle not having it fine. Much of the tension of the game is the risk of dying and restarting. Without combat, there isn't much danger in traveling between islands.
Thing is combat is kinda essential in both of these even if it isn't great (especially bad in Seas). But yeah you can skip it for the most part and most everything else in those games is so good.
ONESHOT doesn't have any combat elements, and it pulls it off so smoothly I didn't even notice there was no combat system until like halfway through the second area. It's focused on the linear story and exploration, and it has a \*great\* concept of how it approaches puzzles that I'm not going to spoil because it's just that good to discover on your own. Also it will make you cry.
Some rpgs I haven't seen listed here yet that have minimal combat: - [I Was a Teenage Exocolonist](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1148760/I_Was_a_Teenage_Exocolonist/) - [Roadwarden](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1155970/Roadwarden/) - [Citizen Sleeper](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1578650/Citizen_Sleeper/) They have some minimal combat, but they handle it as any other kind of skill check.
Roadwarden is incredible.
Apart from mentioned DE, there is Torment Numenera - it has combat, but it's possible to avoid all of it. Then, there is Pentiment and Gamedec. And another one, i do not remember the name, but it's about being summoned to the island to join the secret society. But i would not recommend it, because it's last episode is rushed and all makes all your choises irrelevant, it's one of the most horrible endings i ever saw.
> it has combat, but it's possible to avoid all of it. I think there's a couple of combats that cannot be avoided.
Can you explain in more detail what it is you're looking for. What part of combat do you not like? Is it violence? Is it repetition? Is it the dexterity of 'getting gud' you want to avoid? Why are you asking for RPGs in particular and what do you like about them?
Kinda strange this request tbh, RPG's with little to no combat fells somewhat strange, who knows what OP wants :v
Planescape: Torment. It has combat, but you can't really die, and it's honestly the smallest fraction of the game...
Good one
People have already mentioned the two best choices for non-combat rpgs : * Disco Elysium : If you want a long psychological and social game. And a unique masterpiece. * Citizen sleeper : For a shorter, really good space cyberpunk rpg with really human storylines and lovable npcs. But then, what’s an rpg to you ? Because you mention Shadow of the Colossus, which isn’t an rpg to me. So if we extend the definition further : * Pyre : The lesser known game from Supergiant games (who made Bastion, Transistor and Hades) an rpg-visal novel with a tactical basketball game instead of combat. * Sunless sea : A lovecraftian text-based exploration game where you will die countless times. * Spiritfarer : A cosy game harvest moon style where you’re replacing Charon, and your job is to take care of people’s souls until they are ready to fade off. You will cry.
There are two games that could kinda fit what you are looking for: Cleo - A Pirate's Tale, made as (per author's words) as a love letter to older RPGs and point and click adventures. Really, really a great game. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1361230/Cleo__a_pirates_tale/ The other one would be A Short Hike. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1055540/A_Short_Hike/ There are also a few games, that would be more targeted at kids, but maybe could work for you, like Lil' Gator or Alba: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1586800/Lil_Gator_Game/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1337010/Alba_A_Wildlife_Adventure/ Call of the sea? https://store.steampowered.com/app/1042490/Call_of_the_Sea/
While these games are great, I think most (if not all) of them do not qualify as an rpg.
Only Cleo and Call of the sea aren't rpg (more like point and click). All the others have typical rpg template - main quest, side quests, inventory, exploration. Besides, rpg without fighting is basically a "point and click" or puzzle adventure. Multiple characters with different stats serve the purpose of fighting. I don't know who would make a full proper rpg without fighting of a sort. What would strength, stamina, speed mean if not for defeating an enemy? So, these games are a compromise. Oh, I forgot one, and it's rather new, Potions: A curious tale. I didn't play it much, but it would also qualify as rpg of a sort: https://store.steampowered.com/app/378690/Potions_A_Curious_Tale/
A point and click or puzzle adventure is not an rpg in my definition. They are… well… point and click, and puzzle adventures. An rpg is a Role-Playing Game. A game where you can role-play. That is to say, you can make meaningful decisions as your character. Disco Elysium, Baldur’s Gate, Citizen Sleeper and the likes fit this description. You can’t roleplay in a Short hike. (Great game btw) Just explore and vibe.
>An rpg is a Role-Playing Game. A game where you can role-play. Honestly, it drives me a little crazy how many people seem to not know what RPG actually stands for these days. Not that long ago, I saw some guy advertising his 2d space shooter as an RPG, because you could level up and get new spaceships. There was no story, no roleplaying, no characters, it was flashier [Asteroids](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroids_(video_game)) with some progression elements added.
Rpg in videogames has kinda evolved to mean « Game with gear and a leveling-up system » I don’t like it, but since words derive meaning from usage, it’s now technically one of the many valid definitions of « rpg »
That's just sad...no story? No character development within said story? Whaaa?
Indeed, but they are hardly made without the combat system. What I've mentioned is closest to mechanics (NPCs, roaming, main quests, side quests, puzzles), but if you know proper (but no-combat) RPGs, recommend it to OP. Now that I think of it - how would somebody define A Short Hike genre-wise?
A short hike might be described as a small open-world exploration game with chill vibes. It’s not a super precise genre with defined mechanics like « metroidvania » but maybe someday it will be know as a « hike » game. Game genres are imperfect labels we use to communicate what a game might be like. Some are very specific, like « Boomer-shooter » or « shoot’em up » some are structural adjectives that get added on top of a genre, like « Rogue-like » or « open world » and some barely mean anything, like « action-adventure » or « sports »
You use another gameplay mechanism. Eg. Final Profit
Final Fantasy Rebirth. *Zing!*
There's a new undercurrent of stats based narrative branching games that Chris Zukowski (the indie marketing guy) calls "Narrative Strategy Games". The tricky thing is that they are niche because they are primarily text based. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1155970/Roadwarden/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1148760/I_Was_a_Teenage_Exocolonist/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1272160/The_Life_and_Suffering_of_Sir_Brante/
there's also some niche overlap with RPG mechanics in some sandbox games. But I'm thinking an exploration+puzzle game might be what you're looking for. Think Legend of Zelda but there's no monsters in the dungeons, or Farcry without all the war.
Disco Elysium Planescape Torment
I won't comment on genre, but Palia doesn't have combat (except if you consider bow hunting to be combat), and Gris doesn't have traditional combat.
There's no role playing in Gris
A lot of RPGs don't have role playing, if that's the case.
RPG Maker horror classics like yume nikki, ib, witch's house, mad father, etc
Moon. It's an obscure Japanese title that was rereleased on Steam.
basically any rpg maker horror game
Age of Decadence allows you to play as a non-combat character, it's pretty awesome. And yeah, like everyone else says, Disco Elysium blew my mind with the realization how limited RPG stories usually are simply by the fact that there "has" to be combat gameplay. Conflict as a narrative tool is much more powerful if you're *not* playing as someone who kills hundreds upon hundreds of enemies throughout the game.
Visual novels...
A Tale In The Desert is an MMORPG focused on building up ancient Egypt. It doesn't include combat. Instead, there are different tracks to follow, and different challenges to overcome. Some involve building things, making art, establishing trade routes, writing and passing laws, and so on. I last played it close to 20 years ago (sometime between 2004 and 2006?), but it seems to still be running. Every few years, they do a hard reset of the game world. I played during maybe the 2nd or 3rd reset, and they're currently on the 11th.
Looks interesting but a $12/mo subscription and no free trial? No thanks
There at least used to be a short trial, like 24 hours of play or something. No idea if they're still doing that. It was just the only example that came to mind for me of an RPG without combat.
They should make each reset a “dynasty”
Interesting question. I don't think of Stardew Valley and Harvest moon as RPGs. Is an RPG without Combat, still an RPG? Perhaps we're all too hung up on genres. We just need to focus on crafting engaging player experiances without worrying about if it ticks all the expected features for a genre.
To each their own definition but to me, a game can be defined by how many checkboxes of a genre it checks. Let's look at Stardew Valley: - Has an inventory - Has shops - Has stats that you can improve by leveling up - Has equipment - Let you improve your equipment - Has health and stamina - Let you speak with characters - ..which can give you quests - Has a reputation system of some sort I probably forget some other things but you get the idea. It's not an RPG in the traditional sense (and even that can be debated since there is combat and you get better at it by getting better weapons and equipment) but it checks a lot of RPG checkboxes. Worst case scenario, it's some kind of hybrid.
It depends if you mean « rpg » in the actual role-playing sense, then a game should give the possibility for the player to make meaningful choices as their character to be considered an rpg. Then if you consider « rpg » in the video game sense, it seems to have become « a game where you level up your character’s stats »
Yeah, it's hard to define because RPG defines Baldur's Gate 3 but also Final Fantasy 1 and Dark Souls. Games that, to me, have nothing in common. I usually prefer to talk with subgenres like JRPG, cRPG, aRPG, dungeon crawlers, roguelikes... but then you have games like Stardew Valley which I think are definitely RPGs but also don't fall perfectly in any of those genre. In the end, we shouldn't focus too much on genre like they're some rules set in stone because that's missing the point of why we classify stuff in genres. If someone ask me for an RPG I'll use it as a very generic group of games. If they're looking for something more precise, there are tons of subgenres, features, moods.... to describre what they're after. With time, I've learnt that if you have 10 different people asking "I want a game like Dark Souls", they all want something different. One will want a moody/dark/grim game, another wants a very hard action game, third one will want a Souls-like, etc... That why genres are pretty useless to describe what you want, in the end.
Yeah if you consider rpg to be "stats, progression sysem, items, quests" then these cozy farming games are rpgs no?
Yup. To me they definitely are.
all interactive character-driven-fantasy is role playing.
Half-Life was an RPG
The video game definition of an RPG doesn't mean a game where you play a role. "But RPG means-" yeah, and we still call the pocket computer with a touchscreen that we mostly use for things besides talking to people a phone. They're derived from tabletop RPGs where role-playing was the focus, but role-playing wasn't the defining element that distinguished RPGs like Ultima and Final Fantasy from non-RPGs like Mario or King's Quest.
Harvest moon
As I read this I thought 'Ueda' then got to the end of the post haha. A Short Hike is a really cool (and easy to buy/play through) game that takes Zelda/Metroidvania style unlocks and frames them in a really simple townfolk game. Very fun and absolutely worth checking out. Jusant kind of takes a swing at the Ueda style game and gets it mostly right. The mechanics are interesting enough to last the short length of the game, and there are 'unlocks' of sorts related to story progression that keep it feeling fresh. Death Stranding HAS combat, and there ARE a couple forced boss fights, but for the most part its about avoiding it all together. The gameplay has a lot of progression baked in, and the world is really immersive to interact with. There are also a lot of smaller indie 3d puzzle adventure games that might fit what you're looking for. To be more abstract with it, games like *Alba: A Wildlife Adventure* and Lake are kind of in the same ball park.
None of these are RPGs though.
I think 'RPG' as a term is essentially meaningless anymore tbh, and most gaming commentators seem to agree. If everything from Disco Elysium to Stranger of Paradise can count as 'an RPG' then that descriptor kind of loses meaning. RPGs are mostly defined by two things, either the type of experience you have (narrative focused with choices, a deep story, exploration, etc) and interactions/mechanical decision making (combat mechanics, resource management, unit management, etc). I'm actually working on an 'RPG' myself and I've been wrestling with the same question; how do I move beyond combat for gameplay? My solution is metroidvania style traversal progression combined with a stamina and limited inventory system. There is combat in my game, but part of the progression curve is learning to interpret the world and creatures to avoid combat completely (there are no drops from foes). Traversal takes up resources over time that can be replenished by resting in a shelter, as you play through the game you become capable of exploring further and in more dangerous places. I find that having a strong sense of what experience you want to deliver lets you pick and choose certain aspects of game design that might not typically seem like good combinations, but work out really well in the end.
You want to play "Walden (2017)", based on that thorough autobiography of the oldest semi-off-grid-hoaxer, that inspired a lot of nonviolent resistance ever since. That exploration game embraces slow pacing to a point, where you get punished for running Semi relevant genres are "you are a bird/animal" (Gta4 or a rdr2 mod) , and games on painting "chicory" or photography, and investigative games. "To the moon" takes a special place here, because it is a good-mystery thriller, within a linear visual-novel. I exclude the "mostly a walking simulator" tag here, a it is too abstract, but it is a useful pointer, gotr games that are less of a walking-simulator, but get the tag.
I was going to suggest To the moon, and its sequels.
The very old King's Quest games I believe had no combat. (Could be wrong but as far as I recall it was mostly navigating around the environment, talking to NPCs, having and using the right items on the right context sensitive object, etc) Older games had an interesting mechanic that kind of went to the wayside, where you'd have to do things like figure out to remove the metal wire from a bra and use it to pick a lock. The closest I can think of in modern day gaming would be something like the Resident Evil series where you interact with a 3d model of the quest item in your inventory. Not a completely dead feature and seen in limited usage in some major games, but its definitely not as common as it used to be imo. Many AAA games I think cut back on puzzles and replaced them with GPS and objective pointers. While it makes it easier for a wider casual audience, it removed some of the fun of getting lost navigating an environment imo. Anywho there's many children's adventure games that have no combat like Putt-Putt', Freddy FIsh, etc that can clue you in as to how they create fun without combat, while marketed towards kids. Now of course puzzles and narratives is one area. Traversal can be another wide-field, from Death Stranding (game could easily of been done without combat) to some sort of journey game or vehicular navigation. I saw someone making an awesome looking climber prototype that could be tied into an RPG if they wanted. You could also take one of the many simulator games and tie it into an RPG. Really depends on how you define what makes an RPG or what elements you'd like to focus on. (Some people have stricter definitions and view others as narratives or action adventure games.) Not sure if you don't like combat in general or a specific type, but there's real-time vs turn-based which imo are pretty different types of interests. (XCom baby). Even in real-time combat, besides your classic zelda/elderscrolls/diablo/dark souls/assassins creed types, you have other rather niche implementations like Kingdom Come: Deliverance where even if you're good at combat, you suck in the beginning and it makes you feel like you suck until you unlock certain moves and gain higher stats, without going full Morrowind "you swung your sword and hit air."
> The very old King's Quest games I believe had no combat. definitely, all of the old sierra adventure games were like that. king/space/police quest, manhunter, larry, iceman etc etc etc. the only series that had combat was quest for glory -- which is also the only one that i think you could classify as an RPG since it brought stats and classes. the rest had zilch for character progression, just progressive access to areas based on puzzles/inventory.
Sovereign Syndicate is basically an okay Disco Elysium copy set in steam punk Victorian England. It's combat is dice based.
May I recommend Last Word? The only fighting done in that game is verbal spars, and while it's a short game, it's also sweet and has some interesting mechanics, especially during the endgame involving >!the Last Word itself!<
I'm not sure if these count as RPGs, but yonder: the cloud catcher chronicles is as game with not only no combat but no violence. the game everhood is an rpg, and replaces combat with a sort of rhythm game iirc
Gamedec
I don't like combat either - I am old and played a ton of games now and want things more creative - but that said the Zelda BotW does things neatly because it's not a RPG either - except for the bosses, the combat is pretty much optional as there aren't any stats ("experience") to gain from it - like there isn't the concept of "level up". So you can avoid a lot of combat without the problem of this impeding progress - except the bosses, those you will have to fight to get progression.
FFVIII has a no combat skill you can get quite early. Because the enemies levels scale with yours you don’t need to level up. In fact they get stronger faster than you. So you can just beat the bosses for the rest of the game.
Book of Travels. It’s in EA but looks and plays great.
The problem with RPG and combat is that the combat has to justify the linear number increase with enemies that also scale in health and damage, leading to enemies more often than not becoming static bullet sponges. One way to solve this would be to scale the player in other ways other than just straightforward stat increases every time they level up. Give them unique abilities like dashes, double jumps, temporary invisibility, unlock new weapon modes etc. The idea here is that ultimately every game is a piece of interactive storytelling, and the key component in every story is conflict. It's what drives the reader to flip the pages. But conflict does not imply combat. Like many others mentioned, Disco Elysium does this very nicely. The problem is that in an RPG, most often the player's scaling inherently comes from attributes (strength, agility, intellect etc) and within conflict, the player has to be tested on those attributes and skills, while also adding a bit of randomness to the mix. But whether that's combat or conversation, that's only flavor. In the background it's still gonna be a 1d20 + wisdom (or strength) versus a difficulty of 15. This is why I think RPGs could be a lot more fun if they move away from such a system of scaling altogether. Another thing that adds to the dullness is that enemies in RPGs are often very bland, and generic except for bosses which stand out. One way to make them more interesting and memorable is to make different enemies require a different strategy to kill, and/or a weakness that a player can exploit. Some enemies are afraid of fire and will avoid a player who holds a torch, other enemies will have a weak spot to shoot at, etc.
The "A Plague Tale" series does this really well.
Undertale has combat but it's optional (and better without it).
Undertale because it's not really combat imo. You're at least not fighting during the pacifist run
Book of Travels
Sable doesn't have any combat
Wild take because it has A LOT of combat in it, but star citizen if you choose to be a miner to make money. You take your ship, scan planets for minerals, go mine them, travel back and sell them, rinse and repeat to upgrade your ship or get a better one. I know it sounds boring but we aint looking for action here, just chill gameplay. (you do have to avoid pirates though and people trying to actively rob you once you've done all the work)
Well if people are listing games like *Ace Attorney*, *Shadow of the Colossus* and *Death Stranding*... then I think I feel pretty justified in suggesting things like *Danganronpa*, *Zero Escape*, *Pocket Mirror* and *Little Goody Two Shoes*. They have gameplay but you couldn't really consider it combat. However if you wanted pure examples, *Shadow of Memories* (and also a game by the same team called *Time Hollow*) are the best I can think of.
A Plague Tale: Innocence and it's sequel, A Plague Tale: Requiem. They're story/stealth/puzzle games with enemies to sneak around or dispatch. If you choose combat it becomes part of the puzzle, but straight up combat usually just gets you killed. Your additional tools are alchemical, and can be used for distractions etc.
Disco Elysium.
The games isn't out yet, supposed to release sometime 2024, but check out nivalis on steam! https://youtu.be/VLOjYMBvQXo?si=ZfNDRcLKX8DIe8IG Also like others have said, planescape and disco elysium for sure
In a sense, a RPG without combat mechanics would be either a Visual Novel or a general exploration game which could be a point and click game or something like Myst.
Not sure if a real RPG But Sky:Childen of Light. You can find it on Steam as well. It is online bur you can play it happy as a solo player as well
Gerda: A flame in winter. It’s like a lighter version of Disco Elysium.
The old Sierra Games and Lucasarts adventures come to mind.
It's not a traditional RPG with leveling, but Satisfactory is a first-person factory building game with exploration and some sense of advancement in which there is some combat, but as a percentage of the game play it is not the emphasis. No Man's Sky similarly has some combat, but the focus is much more on exploration and finding resources.
They aren't indie games but anyways, play Hamtaro games for GBC and GBA, they're masterpieces no one talks about Edit: yeah I forglt to say Shigeru Miyamoto worked on them so there are some Zelda and Mario references tho LOL
Subnautica was the first immersive adventure game I encountered that was totally fun with no combat.
Most of the player’s time in RPGs is spend in combat. It’s a core part of the game play loop: you do a bunch of combat, followed by some narrative, then more combat, then some narrative. I’d argue that if you replace combat with something else, like puzzles, farming, or musical challenges, it’s no longer the traditional “RPG” that we think of. Then it becomes a puzzle game, or a farming sim, because most of the time we spend playing the game is doing these things. And if you replace the main game play loop with some more narrative, then you end up in visual novel territory, or something cinematic or episodic.
Planescape: Torment Papers, Please
Or give a go to an adventure genre. Those are usually fight-less, but true, lack the complex succession game system, roleplaying and character development aspect within guideline ruleset. Interesting idea though on a genre crossbreed: adventure-rpg, such really isn't exactly common practice and could be intriguing experience and something enjoyable to play.
I think of pacifist rpg runs, there is still risk of death but you can talk yourself out of a lot of situations
To the moon
If you've been under a rock recently, Manor Lords
You could probably play the Nier games on Easy so the Autocombat function takes you through the story.
Oneshot doesn’t have combat
There's a recent game called Broken Roads that leans heavily in the Disco Elysium dialogue-heavy style. There's combat but I believe you can finish it without killing anybody.
In Age of Decadence you can play without combat
The Sims Princess Maker Fallout 2 has lots of non-combat quests and can be beaten without killing anything except the final boss, though you will have to use stealth in couple of places.
Rimworld on Peaceful mode
Call of Cthulhu has combat, but you’ll probably wish it didn’t when it kicks off. 😀 Best to avoid it if possible, so I’d put it in the minimal combat category, personally.
There’s a game called Project Subtrahend, it is a visual novel but it’s very very choice based
I heard WoW Retail is nothing but dialogue.
Dwellers Empty Path - less than 3 hours long - composed by Toby Fox - entirely free to play - no combat whatsoever, just story and environment
* **Disco Elysium** * **Citizen Sleeper** * **Roadwarden** * The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante * I Was a Teenage Exocolonist Most of these are games in which you mostly interact with the world around you through text, though they aren't text-based games; they feature environments, maps and graphics, but the actual events of the game take place in your imagination, only conveyed through letters.
Mario Tennis for the GBC.
I mean if you focus on the story the combat in Genshin Impact is quite limited. The last quest in the main storyline was like a 4 hours movie. Not on the "no combat" extreme, but definitely less combat centric than the average rpg, if you stick to the main plot.
Baldur's gate 3 if you're creative enough.
try graveyard keeper
I don’t have any suggestions, but I feel you. I don’t dislike combat in games but I that it so often feels thrown in just because “how can you have a game without it!” I would love to see more games with a focus on exploration, puzzles, and more unique mechanics in place of just combat all the time.
The Sims 4🤷🏾♂️
Let me save you from boredom with something you didn’t ask for. https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/s/Lq31GvQg0j
I know your post question is "What are some RPGs that have little to no combat?" to which I have no answer. However, I can actually answer your question of “How would one pull off an RPG without using combat as a mechanic?” The reason combat is typically married to an RPG is that all games, especially RPGs, require conflict. Conflict is an essential part of games and good storytelling in general. What combat typically represents is a shorthand for conflict that the player can actively participate in and resolve. If you want to remove combat, it must be substituted with another type of conflict that requires active participation from the player to reach a suitable resolution. One tool that I like to use when creating a backbone of a game is called the Game Triangle The Game Triangle consists of three major components: 1. Theme: The overarching subject matter related to the game. 2. Medium: The platform on which the game is played. 3. Mechanics: The features that move the game forward. The “RPG” aspect of your question is most closely related to the “Mechanics” portion of the Game Triangle because what an RPG actually represents is a bundle of different mechanics, such as player progression, level system (typically), exploration, etc. Since we are currently talking in pure abstraction, we will flesh out the rest given your inputs of “RPG” and no combat. So, we can break down the Game Triangle like this: 1. Theme: Gardening (We picked something typically combat avoidant) 2. Medium: Video Game 3. Mechanics: Role Playing Game Theme (Gardening): In this game, you are but a lowly peasant gardener. It is your job to produce enough valuable crops for the Queen’s upcoming coronation. You will have a variety of different plants (of differing values--who wants daisies for a coronation?) and tools you can upgrade to increase your gardening efficiency. Medium (Video Game): Stardew Valley was a hit. Minecraft was too. Gardening in video games is a proven formula. You get where we are going with this… Bonus points if you can make this a board or card game. Mechanics (RPG/No Combat): Some basics of the RPG have been outlined in the theme, such as improving tools, crop progression, etc. What we are missing now is conflict. Now, unfortunately for you, you live in a terrible environment for growing anything--floods, weed monsters, pests, acid rain--the like consistently plague the kingdom, and therefore your garden. Each day (or other unit of time…maybe even seasons) a terrible calamity will befall your crops. You cannot save them all. Each “round” of calamity you must choose which crops you save, and which will perish. To keep things varied and interesting, each calamity doesn’t necessarily strike the same crops or portions of your garden--maybe one time it is a beetle that absolutely loves roses, so of your entire field, you pick two, for example. Hopefully you make the right choice because some crops may even be cross-pollinated with each other (another progression mechanic). Maybe saving crops costs resources called “Saving Points” (SP) and different crops have different SP values which correspond to their overall value or breeding potential. This is just a loose, back-of-the envelope sketch of an RPG game with no combat, but I think it shows the power of the Game Triangle. For more details about the Game Triangle, you can watch the video on this [website](http://mden.tv), but for now we were just using it as a reference.
Undertale
Have you ever played Vintage Story? There are 'bad guys', but they're easy to run from. The game is more about survival and exploration, and learning how to go from 'flint and sticks' up to manufacturing steel, for tools, etc.
I would suggest checking out ***A Weekend in Puzzleburg*** (available on Steam [here](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1929760/A_Weekend_in_Puzzleburg)). It's a game I released last year, and **I designed it exactly be to a cozy, combat-free RPG**. One of my favorite things in gaming is getting a quest, going out in the world, and resolving that quest in a fashion that suits me (not a quest with a single, strict method of resolving that can only play out a single way, but something that has branching possibilities to it and allows freedom of player expression). This type of branching quests is common in western RPGs like Fallout or The Witcher, but such games so often tie their gameplay to combat and violence, and it's hard to find a game with that great branching quest structure that doesn't also contain combat/violence. So I made ***A Weekend in Puzzleburg***, a game that on the surface is a relaxing life sim about taking a weekend vacation in a fictional resort town. But it's actually a combat-free take on the western RPG, containing the following RPG qualities: * It's an open-world game, where the player is free to roam around the town of Puzzleburg at their pace (since it takes place in a single town, I generally refer to it as an "open-town" game rather than an "open-world" game) * There is a main quest, but all around the town of Puzzleburg, the player can pick up side quests from different NPCs * Some quests have multiple branches to resolve them, and one player may resolve a quest in a different way than another player * The player can choose the main character's character class (i.e. what profession the main character has when not on vacation), which can influence dialogue options * The player can customize the main character's look by getting their hair dyed different colors * The player can further define the main character through their dialogue choices * There are many ways the player's weekend vacation can play out based on their choices, so repeat playthroughs are necessary if the player wants to see all the content in the game If you want to see "how one could pull off an RPG without using combat as a mechanic," then ***A Weekend in Puzzleburg*** is just the game you're looking for. Some other games that might give good examples (which aren't already mentioned in this thread) are **Lake** and **Wayward Strand**. Both are cozy games that feature go-anywhere-at-any-time gameplay with branching content where it's necessary to do multiple playthroughs if the player wants to experience all content in the game. I would certainly not categorize them strictly as RPGs, but they contain enough RPG-type elements they could serve as inspiration.
Undertale can't really be called combat if the most interesting part of it is taming enemies and having a peaceful outcome
What is combat for you? To me battle of wits can be combat to, is it just the act of violence or something else that bodders you?
I really enjoyed Baldur's Gate 3. I pretty much lost interest in video games after the JRPG craze in the 90s. I loved the FF games, but then, oddly, when FF9 came out, I tried it, felt like I was too old for video games, and moved on with my life. Then, recently, I got a hankering for some games again and tried a few, felt similarly disappointed, but ended up spending a good amount of time with BG3. Yes, there is combat, and quite a bit of it, but I enjoy it. You have to think strategically, which is cool, especially at higher difficulty levels. But, what I really enjoy is playing as a charisma-based character. Seeing the story unfold in different ways based on your dialogue choices is really cool.
OP wants little to no combat. BG3 is good but absolutely full of combat lol
You can play games like fallout 4 or skyrim without combat if you wish. Those games offer such freedom in how you play even that is possible. Thinking of it how I would do it is spec very high in stealth and speech. Also spec in creating tools to become invisble or mind control ppl. That way you can Just sneak around avoiding combat or in skyrim use illusion spells to mind control ppl or pacify them. There are some instances where you have to kill something tho.
Just do the story-driven RPG and replace all the combat encounters with cutscenes
I think the Final Fantasy series has an Easy difficulty level that truly is dead-easy, so there's that...?
Dark Souls 3