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[Tyg13]

I got into Echo Bazaar recently and I have to say that it's a really great and well-thought out game. I love the mechanics, the story, the setting, etc. and if it were a P2P game I'd probably buy it. However, the actions limit per day frustrates me to no end. I understand where they're going with this; the game would probably go by really fast and be relatively simple to max out all your stats in (you could just spam an option until you succeeded) but I really just want to play, dammit. I know you can buy Fate and you can refresh your actions like that, but in my experience that leads to you actually paying more than you would if you were to buy an actual $60 version of it.

This leads me into my question, are there any Echo Bazaar-like RPGs? You know, RPGs that aren't all about turn-based combat and fighting and whatnot, but a game with an actual focus on the non-combat oriented aspects? I played Embric of Wulfhammer's Castle and I enjoyed that a great deal. I'd definitely play a game like that, only with more emphasis on player decision (imo, you don't really get much chance to change the story yourself, you get set endings). I also played those Choice of games and I really really enjoyed those as well.

[Astral]

Recettear might be something along the lines of what you're looking for; running an item shop is the majority of the game, though I haven't gotten too far into it myself.

[Ozyton]

Much of Racettear involved diving into dungeons to acquire gear to sell at your store, so it's like half and half I suppose.

[neotemplar]

Much of Racettear involved diving into dungeons to acquire gear to sell at your store, so it's like half and half I suppose.

Honestly there is really no need to enter the dungeons ever.  The only reason to do so is to unlock characters to buy stuff at your store.  Otherwise you can do darn well avoiding it completely.  (Probably can avoid it anyway.)

[Tyg13]

Racettear seems like it would be interesting, but it would be interesting to see something along the lines of a historical rpg. You know, where you're a noble in the King's court and instead of brutally murdering everyone to become King, you could worm your way into the good graces of some powerful people and rise in the ranks like that. I don't think anyone's really done that, and that's why I liked Embric of Wulfhammer's Castle so much, it had RPG elements to it, but at the same time it didn't feel like any RPG I'd ever played.

If I can't find anything, I'm going to have to make this game myself, and that's just a pain.

[Astral]

The Guild 2 may also be something along the lines of what you posted. No game I personally know of fits what you're asking for, but that's because an indie dev hasn't made it yet. And AAA studios wouldn't touch something that isn't visceral action oriented to sell to the masses.

[Viken]

Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar for the DS may be one, as well.  No dungeons/fighting and only a few 'skills', but the game is set up to be more fast-paced than the previous Harvest Moon games, and the 'weekly' bazaar grows the more you sell and expliot the resources around you.

[Croquantes]

Damn. Since the OP went on about how "Embric Of Wulfhammer's Castle" was such a great game, I went and downloaded it.

It was fun and while the constant fourth-wall-breaking jokes and constant satire got on my nerves I stuck with the game for a while... but when I was nearing the end, I had a dawning realisation that I was playing a yuri game. At least there was no nudity, sex scenes, or tentacle rape. ^^;

There was no combat though. It's basically a romance simulator. :S

A series I rather like, without the yuri, is the "Atelier" series. A bunch haven't made it to the West, but we got some. A few on the PS2, and one on the DS. I don't know if there are any english Atelier games on the PS3 yet. The focus of the series is alchemy, and transmuting/combining different materials to create new items.

I rather liked Atelier Iris 1, because the inventory of the various stores depended a lot on what you, the player, created. And depending on what you created, you'd unlock various scenes, some of which were very amusing.

[Tyg13]

Damn. Since the OP went on about how "Embric Of Wulfhammer's Castle" was such a great game, I went and downloaded it.

It was fun and while the constant fourth-wall-breaking jokes and constant satire got on my nerves I stuck with the game for a while... but when I was nearing the end, I had a dawning realisation that I was playing a yuri game. At least there was no nudity, sex scenes, or tentacle rape. ^^;

There was no combat though. It's basically a romance simulator. :S

A series I rather like, without the yuri, is the "Atelier" series. A bunch haven't made it to the West, but we got some. A few on the PS2, and one on the DS. I don't know if there are any english Atelier games on the PS3 yet. The focus of the series is alchemy, and transmuting/combining different materials to create new items.

I rather liked Atelier Iris 1, because the inventory of the various stores depended a lot on what you, the player, created. And depending on what you created, you'd unlock various scenes, some of which were very amusing.

There is some combat in Embric of Wulfhammer's Castle, but since there's literally like 20 endings, you kind of have to mess around with it to get it. There are a few endings that don't involve Yuri, but yeah, I suppose that was a lot of the game. Sorry for not putting some kind of disclaimer in there (I loved the game so much that I didn't even pause and remember that it was all Yuri). But it's a pretty good example of where I think we should be able to take our games.

Will there ever be a world where non-combat games are just as common as combat-based games? I have no idea, but it would be nice. Pretty much every AAA game out there is combat-based, with a very small niche of non-combat games. When I look at my vast library of games that I've built up over the years, I see only a couple of games that literally have no combat in them. That's not to say that combat is somehow less meaningful, I would just enjoy some kind of variety in my games. I figured that the indie scene would be able to satisfy me, but though I've searched, finding games without combat and that aren't basically just a simulator is damn near impossible.

I used the Choice of Games as an example, and I would like to know where all the games like that went. An RPG where the conversational skills actually mean something more than just a tool to advance yourself further in the plot so you can kill more stuff.

Agh, this has been bugging me for a little while, and I figure I might as well post it. I've been quoting pretty much verbatim this video.