time waster top down rpg?

[Midnight_Carnival]

Hello.
I´m looking for a game to play when I get back from work.
Graphics are not a priortiy but I'd favor well done pixel art or kind of quirky "hand drawn" graphics, good music is a priority though.
I want a game with a kind of optional storyline, as in you can finish quests and stuff but the game isn't about them, there is a lot of wondering around in the wilderness and you can carry on even after you've "finished" the game.

I want lots of different options for types of weapon, equipment and magic, no "best" option, but your equipment, etc should be part of your approach to the game, for example you could get a mage type and instead of combat magic you go for protective magic then sheild yourself to hell and back and run in and smash monsters with a mace.
I want either lots of different character types with a degree of customization or no character classes whatsoever and you have to "build" your character from scratch.

I want a game where your character starts off really weak and has to battle puny monsters like slimes and stuff, avoiding the scary places but where you gradually build up gaining better skills and the abilitiy to equip better items or cast better spells. I want you to start off just leveling up but as the game progresses, getting to the next level must be harder and harder and when you do level up you must make a hard choice between one ablity or benifit and another.

I want a free open source game that I don´t have to go online to play.

I want a game which will be absorbing but not demanding, kind of like "go to town, buy stuff, can't afford that sword I want, oh well, go into the forest and bash monsters, get gold, go back to town, still can't afford sword, no problem, do caravan trail quest, tons of gold, come back don't need sword any more becasue I found a silver trident in a cave while completing quest, buy potions and an elven cloak instead..." stuff like that.

I want a game where your charact you spent weeks building up dies and you go crazy because you couldn´t just save him and reload from 5 min ago.

Do you have any suggestions? I realise that the best way to get what I´m looking for is to write it myself, but my brain is full of work related stuff, I need to play the game I would be making to empty it so I can program the game

[Lord-Knightmare]

The requisites which you have mentioned all lead to the following conclusion:
Skyrim

You don't really need to buy it from any store or from Steam. It's available for free from torrents (look for the one that allows mods and has SKSE pre-installed). Heavily customisable. Install whatever mods you like to suit your needs. I believe there was this levelling mode that makes levelling and gameplay harder and a lot more challenging. Forgot the name though.

[Midnight_Carnival]

The requisites which you have mentioned all lead to the following conclusion:
Skyrim

Top down skyrim with 2d retro graphics and possibly none of that dragonborn stuff?
A cross between torchlight and skyrim with saurbraten's soundtrack and final fantasy 4 (I mean the old one) graphics would be ideal.

I was wasting a lot of time with ADOM but I want to try something not so ...ADOM

[GoatGoat]

Have you heard of FLARE before?

http://flarerpg.org/

It's not quite top down (it's Isometric), and the graphics aren't pixel art. I remember playing it years and years ago, back when it was at like, v0.10. But you can go around and smash up monsters at your own will, go back for a quest, etc. No idea where it's at now, it's been a long time since I last played it.

[Midnight_Carnival]

I downloaded it before I even saw the whole video.
Think of a mixture of diablo and nox, only more tactical.
I don't know what I will think of this game in 6 month's time, but I find it highly likely that I will still be playing it then.

[Dugi]

Ever heard of Path of Exile? It's a Diablo-styled fast action RPG, trying to focus really hard on variety of characters and complex mechanics, encouraging build creativity (they even have a forum for players to showcase what crazy characters they've made). It's free to play, you can pay to look cool so that all other players would see how amazingly you look. It's poorly optimised and requires a good video card even if the visuals aren't stunning.

Another game that I can think of is some of the Neverwinter series, each of them has a load of user-made stories.

[Midnight_Carnival]

Never heard of it, I´ll check it out.

I'm a big fan of games which encourage crazy customization, I enjoy it when this extends into the game play as well although I seldom have time for any sort of contribution. next I will have a grilfriend and have no time for gaming eihter

[Lord-Knightmare]

next I will have a grilfriend and have no time for gaming eihter

Well, at least you won't be forever alone like me.

I recently started Guild Wars 2. It's much better than WoW in terms on Graphics and gameplay. I play on the French server Arborstone if you want to join me. I know it's online but I would always welcome a fellow player during raids and group missions.

[johndh]

I've sunken a lot of time into Tales of Maj'Eyal and really enjoyed it. It's loosely a Rogue-like, but a bit more casual than most -- I haven't run into any traps that will permanently reduce my stats or anything like that, and you'll rarely die instantly without at least having an idea that you're in a dungeon you shouldn't be in yet, but it's still quite challenging and you'll die quite a lot. By default, you get a very limited number of respawns, but you can also play on a one-and-done setting as well. It's somewhat open-world, and there are different towns and locales you can visit, various dungeons and lairs, different factions you can align with, and a ton of different character classes and races that are actually vastly different from one another. Playing as a dwarven alchemist is a very different experience from playing a human archer. Just when you think you're nearing what might be some kind of end, you find out that you've completed maybe 5% of the game. There are still a lot of locations I've seen on the map that I have no idea how to get to. The setting also has a rich history that you discover as you go, and the historical events actually have a great deal of bearing on current events. There are at least two unlockable game modes, several unlockable races, and a multitude of unique classes.

http://te4.org/

[Slann]

You may want to try FF V

[Midnight_Carnival]

You may want to try FF V

Tried it, finished it, ...wait, is that the one with Neo Exdeath? in which case I didn't but did manage to get to him.