Tales of Symphonia.... well, Fire Emblem

[A Black Falcon]

Welcome to the world of old-school gaming.

Yeah, I know... when you compare LoZ or LttP (also really hard, but in LttP it's because of how much damage you take from enemies more than anything... well that and how the dungeons are so linear and require you to go through so much on each try...) to newer games in that genre there really isn't much of a comparison. Which works both ways, as it's more likely that you'll actually beat the newer ones but when you finally do finish those old ones it'd probably mean more...

I think they did a relatively decent job with the whole medieval manner of speaking in the Rings movies.

Tolkein was a master at language though, so that doesn't surprise me much. :)

Do your conversations affect things like they do in Fable?

Hmm... you can be good or bad, sure, but it doesn't have a massive impact on where the game goes. There are three endings (though what happens to your character is always the same -- the different endings just change some other things) but that is decided by just the final encounter... though your stats when you get there are a key factor to that of course, so you'll probably end up with the most appropriate one.

It does allow you to act good or bad, though. Actually, there is one unique aspect here. You know how BG has that number it calculates for how good or bad you are being so that if it gets really low guards will attack you and stuff. And KotOR has a good/evil meter. Torment is more like the latter. Your character starts at True Neutral and how you act in conversations (and actions) will actually change his alignment. So yes, you can shape your character in that way... but it doesn't change where you go or the overall story of the game. Just interactions with others and your own character details. So the extent of how much your actions affect all aspects of the game isn't as great as KotOR... but, if you play the game, you'd probably understand why. I don't think that something like KotOR or Fable would be appropriate in Torment, as far as having two totally different paths is concerned... this story wouldn't really work with that. No matter if you are a good or an evil person (and as a result how many people you kill) the way the plot for your character goes is really the only way it could.

Oh, as what I've said should hint you have very little freedom in character creation. All you do is set the six main D&D stats. That's it. You start as a Fighter. A bit into the game you can switch to Theif or Mage, if you talk to the right people, though. And as I said your alignment will move with your actions. But your character image, picture, voice set, etc. are all set... as it has to be in a game with as huge a focus on a specific character as this one. Which is the norm in console RPGs, but quite rare on PC...