Top 256 — Week 4 — Poll 3

[This Old Neon]

Welcome to the #BGE2020 Elimination Round of 256!

Each game is seeded based on its performance in the two opening rounds of pools. Every game in the Upper Bracket has defeated multiple other games in 1-on-1 polls to get to this point. These are still the best of the best.

Polls are updated weekly, typically on Sunday or Monday. Check back throughout the week to make sure you don't miss a vote!

HOW TO VOTE

This is easy. You only get one vote per poll. The game with the most votes wins. In the event of a tie, the higher seed advances, so don't get complacent!

[Sharecrow]

Phantasy Star all the way. One of my favorite RPGs ever.

[Niahak]

This is rough. Slight edge to Baldur's Gate here. Even if it was a little unpolished (and hard, especially early, as a result of its chosen engine) it was really ambitious and delivered on much of that ambition. Phantasy Star is still great though, especially for its time.

I never did beat BG as I got stuck with a save just before a beholder and didn't have a stone-to-flesh spell or scroll... or the patience to retry until I lucked my way through all the saves involved.

[Kong Wen]

Tough match, but Baldur's Gate gets my vote here for basically being the big branch of the cRPG tree from which most modern cRPG twigs have grown. Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights, Baldur's Gate II & III, Planescape: Torment, Dragon Age, Divinity—hell, even the new Shadowrun games—are all pretty much BG1's direct descendants.

Influence and genre-torch-bearing aside, BG1 is a solid, expansive game that features a great turn-based party-based combat system, big world, lots of fun voice acting, and a good translation of D&D rules into a video game engine with just the right amount of mechanics above the surface to thrill tabletop dice-rolling fans and just enough mechanics hidden away under the hood to not be overwhelming or confusing.