I'm going to my local gamestore today to check out what they've got in terms of prices/selection.  I may pick up one of these.

i played some polish world war 2 rpg called another war but it was terrible. i also played a decent modern polish rpg called gorky 13. it was sort of like final fantasy tactics meets resident evil. you might like that.

yeah man.  the game before that too was Odium which was pretty cool to like 13 year old me.  I'd have to play it again to cement my opinion but rpg+zombs+guns etc

I've never played Bloodlines but my roommate told me is wasn't that great either.

do you like deus ex or system shock?  then you'll like bloodlines.

troika went all out with it, too (but i wouldn't expect less from the arcanum guys).  every character class has their own unique lines of dialog and character's react to them differently.  playing as the nosferatu is the most difficult because their appearance forces them to travel through the sewers.

anyways, you won't get much out of modern role playing games because i can't imagine how to make one interesting without tossing in some earthbound surreal shit.  you can try to find the russian game Pathologic but it only had a UK english release and the game is more adventure than RPG.

finally, if you consider turn based strategy games as rpg's, you can try jagged alliance, silent storm, jagged edge, cold zero, and night watch.

finally, check out this compilation of old rpg's.

it's a bunch of european rpg's that chef probably loves.  i keep meaning to play them especially jack orlando but never got around to it.

I heard Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines is a RPG set in modern times, I know nothing else about the fucking thing but i ASSUME VAMPIRES.

Also Megaman Battle Network is futuristic but somehow feels VERY modern (when outside of cyberspace anyway) and it's for the GBA, check out the second one if you can. It has texting, emails, messageboards, camping trips, schools, theme parks, neighbourhoods and all that sort of stuff we associate with our modern lifestyle.

Bloodlines is a great game, provided of course you install the fan-made patches to fix up the myriad bugs it has. It's basically Elder Scrolls in LA with vampires. Some locations have a fairly impressive amount of details, such as the haunted motel which is a massive tribute to horror flicks.

SMT is good as long as you're patient with it; in many games there tend to be large portions of the game where fuck all happens but then suddenly an "oh shit" plotline bombshell hits. It's good storytelling I suppose, but not everyone has the patience for it I guess.

do you like deus ex or system shock?  then you'll like bloodlines.

anyways, you won't get much out of modern role playing games because i can't imagine how to make one interesting without tossing in some earthbound surreal shit.

Deus Ex and System Shock were alright.  My roommate has Bloodlines so I might try it on my PC. 

I've pretty much accepted the fact that there'll be some surreal stuff in a rpg set in modern times (once again: Parasite Eve).  That's not really the issue.  I'm just tired of playing generic medieval fantasy or futuristic setting that's been done hundreds of times before.

Also yeah, not really a fan of turn based strategy games, especially tactical battle ones. 

Actually yes, it is the setting of the game that I care about.  I'm tired of playing rpgs that take place in the same two time periods.  Medieval Fantasy and the Future.  I want to play something in the modern day.

there were three shadowrun console games. one was on the sega cd in japan only, so don't bother with that one, but the other two, which were on the genesis and snes, were both very different games from each other and really neat. they take place in the near future after some crazy event happened called THE GREAT GOBLINIZATION (excellent name) where everyone turned into goblins and dwarfs and elfs. so they're in the us and have magic and shit, but they've got a modern setting. that might be what you're looking for. they're def. not jrpgs.

the genesis one follows closely to the 2e ruleset while the snes one is more adventure/rpg.  they're both pretty fucking hard games.

if you're looking for a different setting, try finding Al Qadim which is a DnD game that's abandonware now.  i don't know if you consider arabian nights inspired fantasy to be "medieval" fantasy, though.

oh and no one has mentioned arcanum?  it's elves and dwarves and shit but it takes place in a civil war/victorian/steampunk era making it one of... what, three games in the history of games to actually use the setting?

also, since setting seems to be your biggest problem, you could try planescape torment which is about as non-traditional fantasy as you can get.  the developer's pretty much set out to destroy every fantasy trope in the book while making it.

there are older OLDER SO MUCH OLDER modern rpg's i could recommend (shit on the amiga and c64 and stuff) buuuut you seem like a picky guy so i'll save it.

Chef: I actually own the snes cartridge and yeah it's a pretty tough game.  Really fun though.  I've also played the rom of the genesis one.

Marcus: Yeah, I don't think I'd put too much time into really old games.  I've played Arcanum, Planescape Torment, and I've heard of Al Qadim but never played it.  Dunno if I'd revisit either of those games and Al Qadim sounds neat but isn't really what I'm looking for.

Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha (and its upcoming sequel) might be the SMT to try then. Although it's lacking in the gameplay area, it takes place in the Taisho era of Japan. I can't claim it's a great game cause it definitely isn't, but the setting was definitely a breath of fresh air. It was a bit underdeveloped though, which is probably a side-effect of being a short game and might be solved in the sequel.

I picked up VTM: Bloodlines because someone compared it favorably to Deus Ex. It's really pretty good, but it has a lot of quirks and you really need the update/patches. You can get a very different experience when you play through a second/third/whatever time with a different character. My first time through I chose a Gangrel (Vampire Werewolf/Druid, basically) and my second I took the "answer the questions to determine your class" path and rolled a sanity challenged Malkavian which resulted in a very different gaming experience.

VTM: Redemption starts off in the 1100's in Prague but continues up to modern day New York. It plays sort of like a team based Diablo, but the party AI is less then stellar. Storyline - dungeon - boss - chance to level up, repeat. At least from what I've played of it (still in Prague) the difficulty is pretty decent. You have to think about how best to use your attacks and disciplines to get through the bosses. And being vampire themed, there are some excuses for standard cheap tricks like regenerating hp. Fighting one boss, he snatched up a party member and started draining his blood. There is a skill that lets you sink into the ground to avoid damage that should come in handy when you need time to change your equipment and remap your hotkeys in the middle of a battle royale.

Shadow Hearts 3 is another good game (not quite up there with SH2:Covenant though).

Redemption also has some of the cheesiest voice acting.

"I shalt bury thee so deeply a root worm will hollow thy brow and robust cheeks."

I have also heard Shadow Hearts 2 is much better so you might want to look into them.

Shadow Hearts 2 is really, really generic jrpg, there is really no reason to get it over some other jrpg, it doesn't have anything going for it.

The voice acting in Redemption...yeah, some of it is hilarious. "I hath spilt my wickedness on milady's bosom." I'm hoping that falls off some by the time I make it through to London and New York.

I really liked the characters in Shadow Hearts 2. Joachim is like an even weirder version of the Tick. What other game out there lets you have a superhero/wrestler/vampire, a guy with Wolverine style claws who can turn into demons, and an aroma therapist in your active party? Not exactly highbrow, but still a lot of fun.

Shadow Hearts 2 is really, really generic jrpg, there is really no reason to get it over some other jrpg, it doesn't have anything going for it.

I was going to argue that what you said was wrong, but I decided not to bother because I realized I didn't agree with my own arguments


So instead of being an hypocrite I'll just

 

It's not like what I said was 100% valid because I only played it for 5+ hours and watched my bro play it like halfway through and it almost bore me to sleep and it just seemed like your can't-tell-one-apart-from-another recycled anime characters brewing in a completely predictable plot accompanied with an average battle system (I hate this fucking term) so I'm basing my opinion entirely on that.

I would recommend Paper Mario for n64 or Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door for Gamecube. They are both simplistically great, hard to put down, humorous, and don't conform to your typical fantasy/futurepunk settings.