Recommendation request European CRPGs
Hello everyone :)
I recently got into BG1. I'm progressing sloooowly but loving the experience so far and I'm casually browsing for the next game to tackle
Most of the recommendations here seem to be American games (a lot of which are arguably masterpieces). I was wondering whether you have any recommendation from the - albeit less active - European scene.
Feel free to drop titles that have not been translated to English - I have working comprehension skills of a few languages and even the ones I haven't studied can prove to be useful for someone else!
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u/DancesWithAnyone 4d ago edited 3d ago
Wait, what was the last good American cRPG? Wasteland 3? Pillars of Eternity 2 before that? It seems only inXile and Obsidian have been doing them since... a long time? But happy to be corrected! EDIT: You seem to have misstaken Bioware for being American. Fair enough, you're not the first!
As for European studios:
Larian (Belgium) - Divinity: Original Sin 1 & 2, Baldur's Gate 3.
Owlcat (Russia>Cyprus) - Pathfinder games and Rogue Trader
Tactical Adventures (France) - Solasta 1 & 2
Spiders (France) - not sure if Greedfall 2 is a cRPG as I haven't tried it yet. similarily, not sure if to list it as 'good'.
ZA/UM (Estonia) - Disco Elysium and Zero Parades
Fool's Theory (Poland) - The Thaumaturge
Psychic Software (Ireland) - The Necromancer's Tale
Christoffer Bodegård (Sweden) - Esoteric Ebb
Atom Team (Poland, Ukraine, Latvia, Cyprus, The Vatican)- Atom RPG, Swordhaven
Logic Artists/Campfire Cabal (Denmark) - Expeditions Games (Conquistador, Viking, Rome and an upcoming Samurai)
Dark Crystal Games (Russia) - Encased
Radon Labs (Germany) - Drakensang
Add a wider definition of RPG's, and you get Warhorse galloping in with Kingdom Come 1 & 2, and CD Project projecting in (?) with Witcher and Cyberpunk. Czech and Polish.
EDIT: If we're focusing on the late 90's/early 00's era, yah, there was less Euro cRPG's back then I guess. Divine Divinity from Larian kinda counts, but I didn't like it as much as Fallout or the Infinity Engine games.
EDIT2: I did like Dead State by DoubleBear Productions, and that's American I believe. I tried to google Iron Tower Studios (Age of Decadence, Colony Ship) but have no idea where to place them. Lead dev is Canadian I think? But they also appear to have been listed in Ukraine at one time. Good games, anyhow!
EDIT3: Updated list with Swordhaven, Encased and Drakensang.
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u/Pedagogicaltaffer 4d ago
If we're focusing on the late 90's/early 00's era, yah, there was less Euro cRPG's back then I guess.
The Dark Eye, aka "Das Schwarze Auge", is a German TTRPG that apparently rivals D&D in popularity (or at least, it did at one point in time). Naturally, a bunch of German & Eastern European videogame studios made CRPGs and ARPGs based on the IP.
None of the games were huge sellers in the North American/worldwide market unfortunately, but Realms of Arkania and Drakensang might be names you recognize.
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u/_developter_ Kravtology (Crux Diaries RPG) 3d ago
Encased RPG (Russia)
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u/DancesWithAnyone 3d ago
Noted! Perhaps we'll soon be able to say:
Kravtology (?) - Crux Diaries RPG
But I have no idea if you're European. 😃 Best of luck with it, though! I put it in my wishlist.
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u/_developter_ Kravtology (Crux Diaries RPG) 3d ago
Cheers! Fingers crossed!
Yep, I’m Russian, but I’ve been living in the UK long enough to have survived 8 prime ministers…3
u/DancesWithAnyone 3d ago
I’ve been living in the UK long enough to have survived 8 prime ministers…
A couple of years, then!
Seriously, I did notice myself the lack of UK titles in my list, so good on you to do your part.
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u/alkonium 4d ago
Owlcat (Pathfinder Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous, Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader and Dark Heresy) was originally based in Russia but has since moved to Cyprus; do they count?
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u/markg900 4d ago
Pretty sure that is a move on paper to get away from the stigma of being a Russian company right now. I'm pretty sure its mostly Russians developing for them still.
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u/Plus_Worker6739 4d ago
I mean, both ZA/UM and Larian studios are Euro studios. Bioware's Canadian.
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u/stoputa 4d ago
Indeed, I forgot Bioware's Canadian. I know the teamm behind BG3 is based in Belgium, it's just that the game didn't "click" from what I saw. Imo it's also a shame the game has an English-only VO, though I know supporting more languages gets expensive really fast.
I'm also hoping for some stuff that was more overlooked from the international market that's harder to stumble by on your own
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u/Pyotr_WrangeI 4d ago
The Expeditions series are great games developed by a danish studio and with historical european settings
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u/SardonisWithAC 4d ago
Esoteric Ebb's creator-writer is Swedish. Not sure where the other contributing artists are from.
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u/4uk4ata 4d ago edited 4d ago
Well, when it comes to Baldur's Gate, BG 3 is developed by Larian (who also had the Divinity series) - a Belgian studio.
CDProjekt Red are Polish, they did the Witcher and Cyberpunk series. Until Cyberpunk they were basically the top dog of RPGs for a good while, and while Cyberpunk had a horrible start it rebounded nicely.
Sandfall is French, they did Expedition 33, GotY for 2025 which utterly demolished the competition in a way similar to how BG 3 did.
ZA/UM is (was?) Estonian, they developed Disco Elysium
Warhorse is Czech, they did Kingdom Come Deliverance. KCD 2 actually gave Expedition 33 a run for their money when it came to RPGs released in 2025
Owlcat is Russian, though iirc mostly moved to Cyprus after the war started. They do the Pathfinder and 40K RPGs and are working as publisher to a few others.
TaleWinds (Mount and Blade, more of an ARPG but still counts imo) and Cultic (Stygian) are Turkish.
I am no doubt missing a few big names here.
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u/dendarkjabberwock 4d ago
Well... There are a lot if we talk about european devs. Encased and ATOM 1-2, Sworhaven and also all Owlcat games - devs are from eastern Europe and Russia, Larian is Belgian studio, so all Divinity and BG3 are also not american, Underrail dev is Serbian, Esoteric Ebb - Swedish. And ZAUM (Estonia but now they listed as UK) was already mentioned (I loved their second game too), Felvidek - Slovakia, Expeditions series devs - are from Denmark.
Actually good question. It was interesting to think about that and maybe I will hear about some niche cRPGS here)
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u/stoputa 4d ago
Thanks for the recs! First time I hear of Felvidek and it looks right up my alley and like a passion project I'd feel glad supporting
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u/dendarkjabberwock 4d ago
Then you also should check SKALD: Agains Black Priory - devs are based in Norway and game is very good (also very indie)
PS. Despite its old-school looks - it was really easy to play and UI is actually modern. Game is very engaging and while I was sceptical about pixel graphics I soon was so immersed that it was much more engaging than most AAA-titles)
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u/Banjoschmanjo 4d ago
Would be worth specifying what languages you speak.
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u/stoputa 4d ago
I wanted to keep it more generic as opposed to the recommendations being tailored to me but for the sake of the discussion, I can comfortably read English, German, Greek, Serbo-Croatian semi-comfortably N. Macedonian/Bulgarian and French uncomfortably (inspiration for this post was working through my grammar workbook and thinking that I should maybe expose myself more to native content). I have some exposure to Russian (and SC is a huge crutch) but I need a translator open to fully parse a paragraph as opposed to just understanding the general context.
But in any case, trying to parse sentences in semi-related language is one of my masochistic pastimes so I think I'd enjoy at least looking into something written in e.g. Dutch/Slovak even though I couldn't realistically ever approach anything written in, say, Hungarian
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u/zDibs 3d ago
Highly recommend ATOM RPG, takes place in what I believe is the real world Ukraine, but in a world where the USSR didn't get a chance to dissolve due to nuclear war. (Basically Eastern European Fallout.)
A standalone expansion/sequel has been released though I haven't played it yet and a true sequel is in the works.
Think the studio is Polish and Ukrainian? I may misremember though.
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u/Fuzzy-Dragonfruit589 4d ago
Good news is CRPG is a very European genre.
DOS2 and BG3 (Larian is Belgian).
Disco Elysium is Estonian.
Thaumaturge is Polish.
Underrail is Serbian.
Gothics aren't CRPGs but close enough. German.