Wizardry 7: Crusaders of the Dark Savant

The story masterfully opens with the foreboding of a huge and hostile open world and the possibilities therein, and does not fail to deliver with its excellent thematically dense story, dynamic quests and character interactions, and lots of sprawling environments and intricate dungeons to explore.

Engaging with NPCs and typing in statements where they recognize keywords is a little stilted in this game, but is a fantastic way of revealing the story and your goals by keeping the narration limited to the characters in the story.

The seventh game continues that trajectory not only offering an intriguing story with a lot of characters, but also letting the player explore a huge and beautiful (the graphics were great for the early 90's) open world full of dangers and secrets.

Combat can be a little grindy sometimes, but there are some fantastic elements, too.

Add in deep character customization and actions that actually have long-term (and sometimes surprising, unintended consequences) and you've got a gem with some true replay value.

That being said, all of those, and I do mean all, are completely dwarfed by this game in terms of being unforgiving, punishing, and testing your patience every step of the way; this is one of the most extreme titles out there, bottom line.