Aveyond

Vicky: What's that? It looks like Final Fantasy.

Me: No, it's a game called Aveyond.

Vicky (after watching for several minutes): It looks fun. Can I play?

Vicky's right; Aveyond does play a lot like Final Fantasy--maybe about V, since the graphics are 2D sprites in an oblique overhead view. It's a game you wouldn't be surprised to find on your SNES or Genesis.

Which is unusual, actually; PC RPGs tend to derive from Dungeons & Dragons, and the Western RPG tradition that runs from the Ultima series through Morrowind and Neverwinter Nights. They have complicated character generation systems, complicated combat strategies, and lots of stats. Console RPGs, by contrast, followed a separate path, with games like the Final Fantasy series, Zelda, and Dragonquest, where there is no character generation (the game choses your hero/ine), combat is fast and simple, and the emphasis is more on story and less on min-maxing your characters.

Aveyond is very much in the latter tradition, even if the developers are American, and it's a PC title. You always know what you need to do next to advance the story; there are lots of side quests; combat is turn-based, with you selecting an attack or spell for each party member each turn--very Final Fantasyesque; and your ultimate goal is (of course) to save the world from a big butch bad guy who wants to destroy it.

If this is your kind of game, this probably sounds like fun to you already. It is, too... graphics may be a little retro, but in terms of story-telling and sheer depth of gameplay, there's a lot here to like.