Games with a grand sense of adventure

So I was thinking about this for a while now and I would just like to ask the community of games that you consider as a grand adventure. Personally, the first game that comes to mind is Dragon Quest VIII simply because by the time I got the ability to fly and have a bird's eye view of the world I realized that I walked all through the mass of land beneath me and that is why that game is one of my favorites. So what games scratched your itch for adventure?

I saw the title of the post and came here to recommend Dragon Quest VIII, which I can see is unnecessary, but I'm already here so...

Fez and Journey are the most recent ones for me

Euro Truck Simulator 2.

Pretty much all of the Zelda games.

Most Suikoden games.

Flashback and Another World/OOTW.

Shadow of the Colossus.

Shenmue & Shenmue 2 combined.

maybe Grim Fandango?

RDR?

DQ is pretty much an entire series predicated on encapsulating the classic idea of the adventure story.

You're going to have a hard time finding anything that can beat it, especially since no one makes RPGs like DQ anymore.

They don't even make DQ games like DQ anymore.

Okami, Shadow of the Colossus and numerous Zelda games.

• The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
• The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
• Chrono Trigger
• World of Warcraft
• Dragon Age: Origins
• Final Fantasy IX
• Shenmue
• Half-Life 2 in a way.

Shadow of the Colossus. Seriously that game is one of the few games that is truly worthy to be described as epic.

Wind Waker, most Metroidvania games and any BioWare game before ME2.

A lot of D&D games and most Bioware games manage to generate this feeling tbh and I love it every time. KOTOR, Neverwinter Nights 2, Jade Empire, Dragon Age, Mass Effect... ahhh. Think Grim Fandango is a good shout. Little Big Adventure is a good one for this.

I think the key for me is that you need to feel like you're going to travel great distances and see a lot of different places. NWN1 and DA2 never really achieved it because they felt too confined. First person / open world games rarely create the same feeling for me either, but I'd agree that Half-Life 2 had it. You really feel like you're covering a lot of ground in HL2.

Super Metroid.

Everything else i thought of has been said already. Journey, Shadow of the Colossus and Half-Life 2.

Skies of Arcadia comes to mind. You visit a ton of distinctly unique cultures and a ton of areas are just amazingly inspired. Yes, I realize that this thread is a year old and was bumped by a bot, but I like the idea of this thread.

Dragon’s Dogma, it surprises me how many people over look this game. The combat can be amazing.

I think for me personally the first one that comes to mind is Suikoden. Everything from how it begins to the places you go and especially the quiet moments that happen in various places. Not to mention that the game is good at reminding you of where you come from and where you're going in a way that puts it all in perspective. There have been others since but none that really had me feeling it to the extent that the original Suikoden did.

Minecraft. You have to make your own adventure, but with the endless opportunities with mods, you can do almost anything in that game.

Brothers a Tale of Two Sons.

Brutal Legend.

The Secret of Monkey Island.

Fable.

COD Ghosts. (lol)

Dragon's Dogma, in no small part due to the early lack of fast travel and the intimidating day and night cycle, coupled with the completely open from the get go world and lack of level scaling monsters.

You'll slog back and forth across a hostile land, increasingly pushing further out to the far reaches of the map, through some of the most atmospheric dungeons and finally slaying the dragon in the best boss fight of the last generation.

This thread has a grand sense of adventure.

From its lowly beginnings a year and one month ago, it was once again called to action by a person who somehow inexplicably managed to dig it out of the rabble. Who knows what the future holds...

Ni no Kuni

Agreed and seconded, if not only for the over world map theme alone. Although it is often overlooked due to the universal love of its successor, it remains one of my all time favorites.

I'd say Final Fantasy VII counts, with the way that land masses suddenly open up as your transportation options slowly grow more potent. It very effectively gives you the impression of a guy who never left the city suddenly becoming aware of the greater world.

I've been playing a lot of Civ V lately and I'd say that, maybe surprisingly, I also get it here. I love how the map starts out super zoomed in, but your slice of the world becomes smaller and smaller (and occasionally larger) as you discover more of it, and you send your ships out in search of unexploited riches and unexplored ruins.

1. Mass Effect - This is probably the one game in recent memory that really made me feel like I was an explorer of new worlds. Later games in the series may have had better mechanics and been better games generally, but they didn't instill that feeling of wonder and awe that the original game did. I loved every part of it. Going to new places like the Citadel, Virmire, and Noveria was always impressive. Each location was so different and had many different people to talk to and things to discover. I even enjoyed driving around unexplored worlds in the Mako, whether I found anything interesting or not.
2. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - There is just something about the Zelda formula that makes every dungeon and location feel fresh and instill that sense of discovery in the player. This is one of the earliest games that made me feel like an adventurer, spelunking into caves, fighting humongous bosses and finding hidden treasures. I could replay this game and still feel that sense of wonder every time.
3. Elder Scrolls: Oblivion - I feel like this is similar to Zelda, but first person. I get that same pleasure from finding dungeons, killing bandits and finding treasure. While the game had a few really annoying bugs, long loading times on XBox 360, and leveling that made me bang my head against the wall, the sense of discovery propelled me along for well over 100 hours.

It's kind of an odd choice, but I'd say 'The Last of Us' was the last game where I really felt like I was on an adventure. Granted, it was a dark, depressing, and horrifying one, but man was it pretty great. No other game has made me feel like that since then.

La-Mulana. It starts out as this really hard and slow metroidvania, but once you start solving puzzles ,beating bosses,get a few upgrades, then game really feels like exploring this lost temple. I think generally open world games and RPGs are good at this. World building helps too.

I'm not sure how I missed this thread a year and a month ago. Seems like the kind of thread I'd post in immediately. Anyway, the first game that comes to mind for me is FFXII. Every time you enter a new area it's just an impressive and different place to explore. I think it helps that you can see the wildlife in the environment. When you enter that first area and you see a dinosaur in among the wolves and cockatrices you know there is a long road ahead before you can take it on.

Final Fantasy XII and Chrono Trigger are the two things that immediately popped into my mind as well. Ni No Kuni is well worth a look. Zelda games, if you aren't sick of those, are all built on the idea of a grand adventure. Bravely Default is pretty good. And, of course, the Elder Scrolls games are all built on you creating a character and having your own adventures across the world.

First time I played Dragon Age: Origins and Skyrim I absolutely had that adventure feel of getting engrossed in the world, few games really do that for me.

I immediately think of the sierra adventure games I played as a kid. Kings quest and space quest series in particular.

The elder scrolls games undeniabley have this in droves also.

This definitely feels like something lost in recent times. I dunno, something like AC 4 I guess? It's all so samey after a while though.

I feel like one of the last games I really felt this to a large degree was Jade Empire. That was a long time ago.

Actually the original stalker captured this pretty well in it's own strange way, probably why it's so fondly remembered even over the technically superior sequels.

Dark Souls.

I immediately thought of the Uncharted games. When I think of adventure I think of Indiana Jones type of stuff, and Uncharted comes about as close to that as any game.

Grim Fandango has a great story that takes you all around an awesome imagining of the afterlife.

The first games I can remember where I was blown away by the sheer scope of the world & the adventure that was unfolding were Star Control 2 & the original Fallout. Morrowind had a similar feeling after getting past the character creation, as did Fallout 3 & leaving the fault, New Vegas had it from the start.

Mass Effect 1 and Elder Scrolls Oblivion.

xenoblade

Xenogears. My favorite game of all time since I first played it around release. The story is so grand and sprawling.

Most Bethesda or Rockstar games.

Mass Effect 1 (my favorite of the series despite its issues) and Dragon Age: Origins.

Those are some of the last few games I can remember where after I originally completed them, I went back a second time and tried to experience literally every bit of content they had to offer. I loved exploring every last world in ME, you would find some real gems on some of the random planets (the first time I discovered the big mirrored sphere felt like I was discovering the obelisk from 2001). And in DA:O, I went back and attempted to put together a 'perfect run' and do all of the sidequests and DLC in the correct timeframe which I thought they should occur in my mind.

What about Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis?

Anyway, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis.

I recently had this while playing The Real Texas

Zeno Clash felt like an adventure into a strange, strange world, albeit less grand than you might be looking for. Great game.

I'm playing through the first Witcher now, and it also gives me that feeling of being on an adventure of sorts. I remember it being the first game where the world felt really alive (mostly because when it rained the NPCs would all run for cover to wait it out). Though, so far it's also not particularly grand. Hm.

Fallout 3! The majority of the game, by a long shot, is there to be discovered by the player rather than the main plot. Never knew what I was going to find, or get myself into because of the reactive quality of the world's inhabitants.

The Pokemon games were that for me as a kid. A few years ago Skyrim scratched that itch, but now I couldn't play another minute of it (250 hours kind of burns you out on a game). I'm sort of hoping Destiny can fulfill my next search for grand adventure. It certainly gives off that vibe for me at least.

as redundant as this sounds, dark souls

I'm surprised nobody named Secret of Mana yet.

No mention of Grandia? Giant Bomb I am disappointed.

Grandia captures the sense of adventure better than any other jrpg I've ever played. And this isn't coming from nostalgia, I first played the original only a couple of years ago.

Add to that the fact that it has one of the best combat systems in jrpg history (similar to the recently released Child of Light, but far more fleshed out) and you've got a must play game for anyway looking for a fun, adventure filled jrpg.