u/Current_Control7447

Here’s what I mean, I love having OP weapons but - - - having more than the last 0.1% of the game to use them, which is the problem of so many RPGs that give you your best weapons for like only the final part of the game and you don’t really get to revel in them. It wouldn’t even trivialize most games, just make that last run so much more enjoyable, let’s be honest.

I know that when OP gets mentioned in context of RPGs, you can’t not mention the roid fantasies that most isometric action hack & slash games represent.

Games like Last Epoch and Path of Exile 2 always give me that primal kick when a synergy turns you into a walking ball of destruction for everything in its vicinity, that’s the power fantasy behind every one of these games. But the curve always gets steeper and perfecting the “OP build” always kinda feels like sharpening your well honed sword into something that’s even sharper. Until it’s all *edge* lol, perfecting your build is kind of the whole point, because there’s always more to go…

That’s basically what I mean when I say OP, they give you the ability to do crazy stuff but still fundamentally leave you yearning for more of what the game has to offer.

Another kind of OP is the one in good old boomer shooters, up to and including all the new Dooms. I mean, sure you can play on higher difficulties, but you’re still essentially this demon killing badass with all the right tools to do it. They’re even more primal power fantasies since there’s not even a build or gear or any planning to do, you just slay your enemies.

Lastly, whatever game you’d call Mount & Blade Bannerlord. Nothing sweeter than having a gigantic host, finally, and carving out your own slice of the map, that climb to the top is just the part when you start to finally dish it out with other kingdoms and leading your own vassals. Literally, game goes from Conan the Simulation ™ to Crusader Kings with real time tactical combat.

So, what games in your experience give you that “OP feeling” the best?

I can safely say that for me it was always grand strategy and 4X. The farthest I was willing to go in the genre were the Total War games, and maybe Heroes of Might and Magic. The come close in how micro intensive the games feel but they don’t have the absolutely mind boggling scope and the micro systems that you need to master to be competent at a real grand strategy game (or even a complex 4X game)

At best, I was neutral even to games that people would kill for, like the old school Civ games (Civ 4 and 5 mainly), I tried them and they didn’t stick with me though at the time I didn’t really hate them either.

What made me hate them was the gruelling DLC-ess experience of playing Endless Legend, which my 4x-loving friends swore to God was the game that will make me love 4x. It made me despise this kind of gameplay, and this game specifically had some of the worst expansion mechanics I ever saw. Didn’t help that multiplayer was also shit and half the time I couldn’t even play the game with those same friends who recommended it.

Long of the story short, Age of Wonders 4 is what finally bought me, and hell even made me want to check out other indie-er games lurking beneath the surface of the commercial ones, like Dominions 6 and the similar (but admittedly better looking) Atre Dominance Wars that’s coming out next month which is also based more on spellbook powers and influencing the gamemap in tangible ways instead of just painting the map. 

I wouldn’t say I’m exactly enamoured with the genre even now - yeah I’m contradicting myself, I know I said I love it hahahaha but I do love it as kind of sidepiece to enjoy with friends in a drawn out evening. When want more big brain thinking involved instead of the semi mindless horde clearing in Vermintide 2 that we have been using as our stress ball for years now.

It soothes the soul to decapitate Skaven but playing strategy with friends just hits a sweeter nostalgic chord so I get why I’m finally able to enjoy it only now, after all this time.

Some games (or game genres as it were, in our case) you only get to enjoy... once you start enjoying them with friends : )