party-based vs. solo DRPGs

[eVander Repulsionfield]

hey all,

researching for a project and wanted to ask the hivemind:

what are some of your favorite solo DRPGs?

in this case, meaning those that limit your party to one character. Dungeon Hack comes to mind. most of my experience is with multi-character crawlers - they seem to be the tradition or norm. with that out of the way, some followups:

of the 2 types, do you have a preference and why?
do you find solo games offer more complexity in other areas to account for the difference?
what's an interesting mechanic in solo games you haven't seen in multi-character games?

i know some kinda sit on the fence. Lands of Lore lets you bring allies with you, but you start solo. i'd say these count as solo-able, but not strictly a solo DRPG.

any details you care to add concerning solo crawlers, their appeal, popularity, anything is fair game!

[M.V.Petra]

It's dangerous to go alone, always take a party. I always thought solo games in general end up feeling kind of lonely. And also don't seem as popular these days anymore, most RPGs have a party now. To wit, I can't really think of any solo DRPGs that I *really* enjoyed. Maybe I'm too young.

[UncleYar]

I mostly prefer party-based, but The Quest and Vaporum 1 and 2 are solo and have their charms (ok, I really hate the regenerating health with no rest option in Vaporum).

They are real-time, but I think Barony, Slasher's Keep and perhaps Eldritch could've worked well as a solo DRPG.

I find the grid-based abstraction helps suspension of disbelief when it comes to imagining the movement of the party "blob". Which is one of the reasons most RPGs dropped the party idea when they introduced free movement: as you increase realism, a blob just feels weird and you feel obligated to represent each and every character running around (Dragon Age) - and that doesn't really work well in first-person, so you essentially end up with Skyrim.

Therefore if you're going grid-based from the onset, it kinda feels like a waste not to take advantage of that to have a party. And make combat turn-based, please. Otherwise the depth inevitably suffers and movement is likely some form of square-dancing.

My dream would be some kind of turn-based Lands of Lore (mostly for the entertaining story and world and graphics/voice acting) hybridized with the best of M&M: World of Xeen and Wizardry 7.

This said, most old-school roguelikes such as DoomRL/Jupiter Hell, Nethack, Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup, ADOM, Tales of Maj'Eyal, BRogue and the like are all solo, and are very close conceptually to DRPGs, minus the first-person perspective. What the single character gives to those games is simplicity of controls and fast play - and perhaps a more intimidating "you vs the megadungeon" feel, especially with the permadeath aspect. But fast play kind of ties in with the overhead perspective, and quality of life such as auto-explore to skip boring hallways. Not sure that translates well to a full on DRPG.
Those roguelikes do demonstrate that a solo RPG can have incredibly complex mechanics.

[Zyro Mane]

Eh, soloing a party-based game is usually more fun than playing a solo game. Even games with only partial party control—e.g. Fallout, Neverwinter Nights, and Dragon's Dogma—tend to be more entertaining. But, honestly, the most important part of an RPG is what the developer wants to highlight. For example, Wiz-combat tends to be great for resource-management, and first-person grid-locked movement is great for mapping challenges. For the latter, the best games to look into are—still—The Return of Werdna, The Dark Heart of Uukrul, and Chaos Strikes Back. Likewise, if the combat lacks tactical options like combat maneuvers or stances, might as well make it quick and dirty. If deep combat isn't the point, don't make it both tedious and easy, or you'll have a mess like Wiz8. Furthermore, if you aren't going to allow the clever player to take advantage of the environment—e.g. drop portcullises on monsters—don't make a DMC. Such a shame that very few games even come close to the quality of the original Dungeon Master.

I actually find free-movement to better serve the abstraction, but I have advanced phantasia and a Master's in Mathematics, so YMMV. There is a reason why DMCs started the meme of the four-headed hydra with eight hands. But MM6 doesn't have the same issue of how four humanoids take up the same space as a small giant rat. That is: your brain finds it easier to hand-wave such without a grid. Separate battle screens eliminate this issue, however.

The best use of a single-character is indeed a sense of isolation, which can be great for the horror genre. That's where you really want to nail the atmosphere. Games like Arcanum and Unreal have great atmosphere.

[eVander Repulsionfield]

a thread this genre shares w roguelikes (personally) is that i adore the heck out of them but haven't beaten any (that matter only in my head) — so i appreciate these insights from you both. shows that i have plenty more views to consider and research to do. glad i'm in the earliest planning stages.

so far, my (planned) design instincts are generally orbiting what i'm hearing here, and a 1-bit isolationist pseudo-horror gamma-worldy environment (tentatively categorized 𝚌𝚢𝚋𝚎𝚛𝚌𝚛𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚋𝚒𝚝𝚙𝚞𝚗𝚔) sounds old & new enough to explore.