Banquet for Fools is essentially Morrowind mixed with Dragon's Dogma by way of Diablo 2 with special support from Parasite Eve and Vagrant Story. It is my favorite game. I love it. I can't stop playing it. I also can't stop making new parties. Send help.

I wrote my original review on July 24, 2025 a little before 10am. I had put 30 hours of play into the game when I posted it. In that time, I had grappled with Banquet for Fools' many complexities, made terrible mistakes, and restarted hundreds of times in an attempt to make the perfect party. It was a tedious, repetitive process and I enjoyed every second of it.

I decided to stop and write that review because there was something here, something special. Something unique. A genuine vision. A game that didn't bother leaning on popular fantasy tropes or copying well-known RPG conventions. Banquet for Fools was daring to do something unique at a time where every other game, indies and AAA alike, seemed to be doing their damndest to prey on my nostalgia. People had to know about this. They deserved to know.

Here's the thing though, Banquet for Fools isn't perfect by any means. It's beautiful and fun but it's also slightly buggy and unintentionally obtuse at times. Yet the devs, Hannah and Joseph, are still here two days after launch, graciously responding to criticism and fixing problems almost as fast as they are being reported. That's the real reason I'm giving my recommendation.

I believe this will end up being one of the best RPGs in decades. It won't be for everyone and it probably won't be exactly the same way it is right now. But, right now, it's solid. It's the most fun I've had in years to the point where I'm struggling to commit to a single playthrough. And, I think, it's only going to get better.

It's 2002. You are on a family vacation. Your parents have brought you to a remote suburb in the midwest to visit your aunts, uncles, and cousins. There's not much to do in this town and your preteen mind can just barely take the boredom. But there's a silver lining: your gamer cousin. He's older than you, almost college-bound. He introduced you to Diablo II last year and you life was changed forever. Today, he lets you hang out and play a new game: EverQuest. He just got the Shadows of Luclin expansion and he lets you make a new character on his account. The controls are awkward, the graphics remind you of construction paper models. But there's a magic to this experience. You see things you've never dreamed of. You face dangers and barely understand how to react. You learn about spells and cooldowns. You watch the chat box fill with what can only be some secret, coded language. For a brief moment, you get to live a second life and it's wondrous.

Fast forward to today. You have a job. You have a house. You have a family. What you don't have is time and you certainly don't have time for an old-school MMO.

You don't have time for raids. You don't have time to Look For a Group. You don't have time to deal with janky controls. You don't have time to wait for cooldowns. You don't have time to level. You don't have time.

But what if time wasn't an issue?

Fallout 4 or "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Got Rid of the RPG Mechanics"

It's fine as far as looter-shooter games with story elements go. Lots of weapon and armor customization. Decent worldbuilding as long as you don't question any of it.

Main criticism: still has game-breaking bugs years after its release. The kinds of bugs that make it impossible to progress a 100+ hour playthrough, for example.

Play it if you're the kind of person who looks forward to disappointment.

Have you ever heard of Aarklash: Legacy before? Probably not.

Should you be playing Aarklash: Legacy? Well, let me put it this way: did you enjoy Icewind Dale or Dragon Age: Origins' frequent "real time w/ pause" combat? If the answers to these questions are "Yes" then Aarklash is for you!

Not much of a story but one hell of an experience, Aarklash: Legacy presents challenging, exciting isometric RPG combat in a way that hasn't been seen for years. While essentially a linear slaughter from one story event to the next, Aarklash delivers it's frantic tactical battles wrapped in a beautiful aesthetic.

This is the kind of game you buy not just to enjoy, but to also ensure the possibility of an even bigger sequel.

It just keeps getting better. Updated on a regular basis and so open-world that it literally hurts. If you like challenges and carving your own path, then this game might be just what you're looking for.

Be prepared to get your ass kicked a lot before you can build up the strength to crush your enemies effortlessly. Perseverance is rewarded with power.

A surprisingly entertaining RPG experience!

As free-form as Skyrim. As lore-infused as Dragon Age: Origins. Generally better than Fable in all regards. It takes a lot of fun elements from other games and combines them into something great. You will enjoy the combat system if nothing else.

Warning: Do not level any crafting skills past 4. There are many, many ways to break this game until even Hard mode offers little to no challenge.

A step in the wrong direction from X3: Reunion while still being as tedious and slow-paced as its predecessor. Also a massive resource hog (the engine isn't designed for multithreading so your multiple cores won't be able to help you)

Modded X3: Reunion is a better choice.

The best open-world zombie survival Simulation on the market!

Unfortunately, it is not yet optimized and may not run on the best computers.

Update 2014: Disregard the second line and rejoice! Time and effort has given this game some polish.