I haven't played an RPG for years. I have played several, both on playstation and on PC. I played some of the supposed best games ever (in most instances 'tried' as I got bored and gave up)......several Final Fantasies and Persona 4 on PS, and Morrowind, Oblivion, Planescape Torment, Neverwinter, Baldur's Gate on PC.

The only ones I completed were some of the Final Fantasies (7 and 8) and Persona 4 What I loved about these were the incredible and imaginative battles. BUT, the story on JRPGS, I find is ALWAYS nonsense. I completed Neverwinter too and it was probably the PC Rpg I liked the most. But the end is underwhelming compared to the best Jrpgs. I remember I almost completed Oblivion and I just gave up at the last 30 minutes or so, I was bored out of my skull.

With Western RPGS, the story is WAY better (Baldur's Gate, Dragon's Age Origins), BUT the battles are too messy, there's always 20 things going on at the same time. Also, most of the games are 'silent'. I like to have always great music in the background.

AND, I can only play isometric games for the most part, as I get motion sickness.

I have spent several hours on what are the absolute best games now (I won't waste my time on games that have received less than 9/10) and I seem to understand that the one to go for is Divinity Original Sin 2, am I right? The battles still look like a mess to me, compared to something like Persona (true turn based, i.e. you don't see more than one thing happening at a time), however the stellar reception Original Sin 2 has received, seems to indicate that it's just too good to miss, so I might overlook the bits I don't like. Anything else like it?

If you're primarily interested in turn-based combat, Age of decadence and its combat spinoff Dungeon rats might be interesting.
Those games don't really aim for an epic rpg experience though, don't expect to be a shining hero as in most other games.

that's interesting, I didn't know about Age of Decadence. I'll have a look, thanks. Yes my fav battle style is definitely turn based. I don't really like bashing on stuff and running around, I like to have time to decide what spell to cast or item to use to cure an ailment, this sort of thing.

Well, try Lords of Xulima, it`s a fantastic RPG with turn based combat and lotsa skills to develope.

I think Pillars Of Eternity 2 can now be played as a turn-based game?
The combat in both Divinity Original Sin 1 and 2 is turn-based and the games have some lovely background music. You only mention the second game but the first one is well worth playing.

Do you mean Neverwinter Nights? In that case, and if you liked the game but were disappointed with the story, I strongly recommend to play some of the top rated, freely available community campaigns (Aielund Saga, The Prophet series, Sanctum of the Archmage series etc., you might find some inspiration in this thread).

Likewise, the better Oblivion is the total conversion mod Nehrim that's also freely available for it. But if you get motion sickness from 3D games that's probably not what you're looking for, and it's not turn-based either.

Some turn-based WRPGs you might want to check out:
- Shadowrun series (especially Dragonfall)
- Geneforge, Avernum and Avadon series
- Fallout 1 & 2
- Pillars of Eternity 2 (now has a turn-based mode, too, but it's probably no less confusing than D:OS 2)
- The Temple of Elemental Evil (not a great story though, mostly combat)
- Albion (there are some 3D parts that could cause motion-sickness though)
- Realms of Arkania series (a bit too complicated and slow perhaps, and there are some 3D parts that could cause motion-sickness)

excellent, thanks all so much, I will check all these :)

Check out Wasteland 2 and Blackguard 1 and 2 also. They are also isometric RPGs.

IMO DOS 2 is highly over-rated. DOS 1 is much better I think. The story & characters in either DOS game aren't that great.

I recommend to try the Trails in the Sky games (which GOG actually has on sale for 6 more hours as of the time of this post). They have a good story and good characters and good combat. They are kind of similar in format to the Final Fantasy 2 and/or 3 games for the SNES.

Age of Decadence has a demo, at least on ...that other site. The game is here on GOG but the demo doesn't appear to be.

I'll toss a second vote for Wasteland 2, and maybe check out the Banner Saga series, the Eschalon sereis (rather old school and old style graphics though), Torment:Tides of Numenera, Underrail, and to a lesser extent (the story isn't that great, but the turn-based combat is awesome) Temple of Elemental Evil.

yeah Xulima seems interesting, great music and atmosphere. But.....one thing bothers me: the main character only walks, not runs? Weird. Thanks

You could try the various games put out by Spiderweb Software. The perespective is isometric (except the old Exile games, which use tile-based graphics, which IMO are superior to isometric), the battles are turn based, there's plenty of good dialog, and there are big demos available for all the games (so you don't have to pay just to see if you're into that sort of game). The only downside is the complete lack of music after the title screen (though, of course, you can play your own music either on the same computer or on another device). Well, I guess that's the second accessibility fail I've heard regarding the game (the first is having at least one mandatory action sequence in what is otherwise a turn-based game).

You could also try some of the Ultima games; 3-6 are what I would recommend playing. (Note that, for 3-5, if playing the DOS version you might want to look for an "upgrade patch" that adds the music found in other versions.) (Note that Ultima 1 has a part near the end that could be an issue, and Ultima 7 has real-time combat that doesn't work that well. The first-person dungeons in Ultima 1-5 aren't likely to cause motion sickness due to having grid based movement.) Of the Ultima games, I think you might enjoy Ultima 6 the most.

You could also try the Might and Magic series, at least up to 5; while the viewpoint is first person, the games are strictly turn-based and you don't have any 3d movement animations, so motion sickness shouldn't be a problem here.

Also, in the Final Fantasy series, my favorite one is Final Fantasy 5, and it's the one I would actually recommend. (My second favorite is FF2, but I wouldn't recommend that for various reasons, as the game is objectively flawed in many ways.)

Leroux,

yes I meant Neverwinter Nights. I bought the game on GOG and played it several years ago. Probably about 6 or more years ago.

Whoa, you mean there are top rated new campaigns for it? I will definitely check them out. No I wasn't disappointed with the story, just the ending, I felt the boss was a bit too easy. But nah, I thought the game was very good and I definitely enjoyed it.

Will check out the others you mentioned too, but the NN should be interesting. Thanks. I see, that's disappointing about the DOS games, but I think soon or later I will check out at least the first one.
I did play Trails In the Sky a few years ago, yeah nice game, but gave up about 2 thirds in. The graphics were a bit too basic, you are right that it looks like early Final Fantasies, but the only ones I really like are 7 and 8. These really blew my mind, the battles were spectacular. :)
Nice, I'll have a look, thanks :)
cool, I'll check Wasteland 2 out and the new Torment. The other ones would probably too old school graphics wise. Thanks. :)

dtgreene, thanks. Yeah I played some FF 5 a very long time ago, but this kind of game is a bit too old now....my fav FF games were 7 and 8, the earlier ones have much lesser graphics, and the later ones I just did not like. I have never understood why instead of giving more of a great game, they completely change a great game into something almost totally different.

What I am looking for as for isometric is possibly something that has the same graphics, or better, to Neverwinter Nights 2. I would be pretty happy with that. In other words, isometric but top notch, and the newer, the better, unless it's an incredible game. I'll check the other games you mentioned. Thanks :)