Support NeoGAF

[Metaroo]

Dahngrest from Tales of Vesperia. A city where the sunset is eternal and the background music is damn good

Haven't played a Tales Of game in a minute. I'm kind of hoping I can find Vesperia for the PS3 after listening to that. I remember exploring cities in Symphonia, and that was pretty freaking awesome

 

[Mman235]

Athkatla in Baldur's Gate 2. The playable area is believably large without having tons of wasted space, there's meaningful content around almost every corner (and that's not even much of an exaggeration), mostly unique areas despite the size, and it's full of secrets even beyond the major quests.

 

[Cloud7]

Midgar from Final Fantasy VII

 

[Kirie]

On mobile right now or I'd post an image, but my top choice would be Domina from Legend of Mana! Lumina, Polpota and Geo are great too. All super charming.

 

[Korigama]

Lots of answers that I could give (and plenty of those have already come up), but the most recent example from what I've played would probably be Trista, the hub town from Trails of Cold Steel.

It's less a case of it embodying any particular grandeur so much as it being this quaint little school town, where I gradually became more attached to both its scenery and its residents over time.

 

[Ryouji Gunblade]

Undertale's Snowdin is a timeless town that always warms my heart.

I also love Colony 9 in Xenoblade Chronicles.

 

[JeffZero]

JRPGs:
Midgar (FFVII)
Cosmo Canyon (FFVII)
Deling City (FFVIII)
Shevat (Xenogears)

WRPGs:
The Citadel (Mass Effect)
Omega (Mass Effect 2)

Haven't played as many WRPGs.

 

[Mipcgamer]

 

[theepicoftyler]

I loved all of the cities in Final Fantasy XII. They did such a great job of making them feel like massive sprawling cities full of life.

 

[GeNoMe]

There's nothing for me to add. Great choices everybody!
I'd like to add these two into the mix though:

Balamb Town

Traverse town

 

[The Last Wizard]

There's nothing for me to add. Great choices everybody!
I'd like to add these two into the mix though:

Balamb Town

Traverse town

After all these years I can still hear the traverse town music.

 

[IncognitoPanda]

FF IX Treno. The city where it's always night, but that never sleeps.

 

[Dombrowski]

Hamelin from Ni No Kuni (PS3).

 

[IAmMonodi]

New Pork City simply because how absurd it is. A congregate of cardboard cutouts, a ridiculously tall building, and just endlessly questionable infrastructure. It's not much of a city but a giant playground they put there expecting people to make a living.

 

[Sanctuary]

Loved Vivec so much:

Pretty much every city in Morrowind was noteworthy.

How much of that do you actually get to explore though?

 

[Spieler Eins]

Skies of Arcadia, Valua



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwSV7nP5wcs


So somber, so good. I guess it's a little like Midgar, which is also great.

 

[John Petrucci]

Surprised I haven't seen any love for Narshe from FF VI yet. Set such an incredible vibe to start the game off with and was always great to revisit for different reasons later on in the game.

 

[LiQuid!]

Balmora from Morrowind.
http://img15.deviantart.net/19cf/i/2009/241/2/b/morrowind_balmora_by_saito00.jpg[IMG][/QUOTE]

Balmora after you level your acrobatics/athletics/speed up and can parkour all over the rooftops. Gaming blissssssssssss

 

[Rock And Roll]

Shapeir from Quest For Glory 2.


I can't stress enough how amazing it was for me to play this for the first time, going from the likes of Spielberg(the small town in the original Quest for Glory) to this was mind blowing. One of the formative moments in my gaming life.

This is a fantastic post and something I would have completely forgot about. Love the QfG series and Shapeir was a blast to navigate.

 

[GidbinN]

From pure game development perspective - Novigrad from Witcher 3

Every NPC has a 24 hours routine, you could follow them all day to see how they get up at 5am and go to work, then hangout at the pub, to finally go to bed at 11.

Also the city's outskirts are so detailed and animated. Walking by it as Geralt felt like watching a documentary of that world's civilization!

If any game trailer now says they are making a living, breathing game world. I'll have no doubt to point them towards Novigrad of Witcher 3 and tell them - "This is what you call a living, breathing world."

in the end, it's the little things that truly immerse the audience.

 

[Malcolm9]

Surprised I haven't seen any love for Narshe from FF VI yet. Set such an incredible vibe to start the game off with and was always great to revisit for different reasons later on in the game.

Spot on, I was trying to remember the name before I saw your post.

When I imported FF 3 (6 in the UK) back in the 90's just the whole intro gave me such a wonderful feeling, and the atmosphere, music and deep snow.

 

[bonesmccoy]

Novigrad is my favourite. It feels believably like a medieval central European city - no weird 'Capital of the Empire with a population of 30' stuff that unfortunately is still in every Bethesda rpg.

 

[DaciaJC]

Whiterun in Skyrim, solely because of the music. Blissful.

 

[Octavia]

Yes! Still lots of fond memories taking the winding road there from barbarian village to go use small smith buildings anvils and then sell to the shopkeep.

 

[IvorB]

Yarnham? Yarnham. Love the vibe, the atmosphere, the architecture everything.

Ishgard from FF XIV:

for architecture and amazing day and night music.

Also the city from Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn which was just packed full of surprising and interesting stuff. And that one city from Morrowind with the mushroom houses.

 

[ethomaz]

This.

Narshe (FFVII) is frear too.

 

[NipplesAndToes23]

Mine's is Lindblum too.

 

[ahdurian]

It's kinda silly, but ever since I played this game as a Kid I've wanted to someday live in a town like this.

I see what you did there

 

[John Petrucci]

I always liked Denerim from Dragon Age: Origins quite a bit.

 

[John Petrucci]

Edit: Sorry double post.

 

[Dr. Benton Quest]

Seeing all the Morrowind cities makes me happy. I have an Oculus coming Saturday and I can't wait to explore Vvardenfell in VR.

On Topic. Seyda Neen

 

[Regginator]

Witcher 3's Novigrad set the new standard for the RPG genre as far as I'm concerned. A capital that actually feels like a capital (as opposed to some other capitals with 12 houses and 2 blacksmiths), huge city with hundreds of enterable houses, fuckton amount of people, and lots to do.

 

[NipplesAndToes23]

It's too bad you don't get to see much of the Industrial district in Lindblum.

 

[orborborb]

Zelda Wind Waker - Windfall Island

Risen - Harbor Town

Final Fantasy XIV - Limsa Lominsa

 

[Skulldead]

Nobillia In Secret of Evermore, i was blown away at the time with all exchange thing and how lively the city was feeling.

 

[cordy]

Not my favorite but

Sol Tower from Legend of Legaia is one of the most memorable RPG cities I've come across since I started playing RPGs. In that entire game, this one stuck out the most to me.

 

[Dark_castle]

It's not really a town or city in traditional sense, but Zozo from FFVI is fantastic.

Also, Tristram from Diablo.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

I can't remember the names of the cities but the games that come to mind are Xenogears, Skies of Arcadia, Arc Rise Fantasia, Grandia, Final Fantasy 12, Esthar from FFVIII, and Arcthe Lad Twilight of the Spirits.

 

[Artdayne]

I'm liking the Gothic 2 mentions, Stormwind in WoW is definitely one of the top, or Ironforge. Beauclair and Novigrad were both great in Witcher 3, actually the first city I saw in Witcher 3 was Oxenfort and the first time I walked on the bridge to the city, at night, I literally just stopped and stared at my surroundings for about 5 minutes. It was one of the most gorgeous city environments that I had seen.

 

[Paradox me]

Maybe not my favorite, but Ni no Kuni's Ding Dong Dell made quite an impression. It was the first town you visited and the Studio Ghibli influence was in full force. It was like stepping into one of their films.

 

[Fafnir]

FFXI Jeuno. I'm sure anyone that's played FFXI has a memorable story on how they traveled to Jeuno and which level they liked to afk at (I liked Port, only went to Lower when I needed a tele). Also remember players would afk bazaar in Rolanberry Fields. I was kind of saddened when the expac came and everyone moved to Whitegate.

 

[JayBabay]

Gotta give it to Midgar. Confirmed when I scrolled to post and saw that glorious overview with the reactor.

So raw and unique.

 

[super-famicom]

TWEWY's Shibuya. I was living in Japan when I first played it and instantly recognized everything in the game (though some stores were re-named due to copyright law).

 

[CreeperBlocks]

There's nothing for me to add. Great choices everybody!
I'd like to add these two into the mix though:

Balamb Town

Traverse town

Traverse Town makes me nostalgic. The Music for Traverse Town is amazing

 

[Vazra]

Resonance of Fate - Ebel City

 

[poodaddy]

I said Kamurocho earlier, and although I'm sticking with that selection, I also wanted to give an honorable mention to Flotsam. I think it's probably my favorite WRPG city of all time. The music, the wildlife, the atmosphere, the greenery, the weather, the lighting, the citizenry, the guards, the docks, the nonhuman district, the outskirts, the forest surrounding it and the caves littering the area; I mean it's all just literally tattooed on my mind. It perfectly encapsulates what an RPG city is supposed to be to me, that is it's supposed to feel alive, memorable, inviting, but somehow also dangerous and exotic.

I think I might have to load up Witcher 2 again for yet another playthrough. Dammit I have to stop talking about Witcher 2.

 

[Srey Plaughtered]

A tie between Iwatodai City(Persona 3) and Sumaru City(Persona 2)

 

[johnnydrama]

Novigrad and Beauclair from The Witcher 3. Mind blowing stuff.

 

[Celine]

Crysta from Terranigma. Great opening town with beautiful visuals and amazing music too. Set the tone for the game perfectly.

Hell yeah.

 

[poodaddy]

Novigrad and Beauclair from The Witcher 3. Mind blowing stuff.

Man Cd Projekt Red just does great cities. I can't even begin to imagine how memorable and beautiful the cities in Cyberpunk are gonna be.