What needs to be changed in RPGs

I agree with your 2 and 3. I mean, I don't mind fighting a "God" or some ultimate creature,..but set it up first, ya know? This is why I didn't even bother beating the final boss in FF9. Innovative battle systems are always good, as long as they arent TOO far removed or complex. Shadow Hearts is a great example, Chrono Cross would be another. Also Arc the Lad: Twilight of Spirits had a really great battle system.

If you want to fight with your whole party, your better off playing a Strategy RPG like Phantom Brave. I would love to see more games rip off FFX's option of switching out characters, though.

I don't mind talking to everyone in town, either. Aside from getting occasional plot stuff, and items, I guess I just have an interest in hearing what people will say. I make sure to talk to everyone until they start to repeat themselves...just in case. But maybe I'm in the minortiy.

Things ID like to see ditched:

1. Random battles. There's just no reason for them, except for being a lazy way to make an area more difficult or longer. It's much more fun to be able to avoid enemies, or clear a room so you can look for treasure at your leasure (see: Xenosaga or Chrono Cross).

2. Fetch Quests that aren't optional. I don't actually encounter this too much, but every time I do it's usually when I decide to move on to something else.

Can't think of anything else at the moment.

- Fate

I still think the Paper Mario series takes a nice, refreshing spin on RPG battle systems.

-Most RPGs take themselves way too seriously

-Random battles = overdone

Those are some things that still bother me.

I thought so too for the first 10 minutes of gameplay. Then realized there wasn't much strategy to it and it wasn't much of a step forward when you think about something like Final Fantasy Tactics' battle system or this Square produced dungeon crawler strategy game who's title escapes me (where you would 'stop time' in battles and then choose to hit the enemy in the head, body, left arm, right leg, etc). But whatever, it's hard for me to say anything good about Arc the Lad: ToS because it sucked. The graphics were mundane for the most part, the story wasn't engaging nor very interesting and everything else about it just lacked. I played 'til the final boss, lost (for the first time in the entire game) the battle and said to hell with it. And I'm glad.


-RPG's need to have more variety in terms of gameplay- and I don't mean silly mini-games. Cut scenes where you have to time a button press so that, say, your character doesn't die. Like in Berserk for Dreamcast. Just an idea. Less of the Xenosaga-type run around, battle enemies, area boss, solve puzzle, story sequence, repeat- cookie cutter formula.
-There need to be more RPG's aimed at mature players. More specifically, I mean story-wise.
-More RPG's with story lines that change according to decisions made through out the game that affect characters, etc.
-More charismatic characters, please. I've yet to play an RPG since Lunar: Silver Star Story which threw characters at me that I actually cared for (FFX came fairly close though).

Overall, RPG's need to have more shit to make the games a bit closer to exciting than they usually are (Xenosaga = YAWN).

Oh and makers of Xenosaga, if you read this- take note: LESS IS MORE.

I hate the fact most RPGs are Sword and Magic or Neo Future City types

I play very few games just because i have the feeling of been there done that

Thank CHRIST, I'm not alone in thinking Xenosaga is massively overrated.

Anyway, my personal pet peeve with RPGs kinda synchs up with Ashxking's.....lack of variety. Final Fantasy aside (those games always seem to be a hybrid of several eras in history, which I like), but most of them stick to the tired old swords and sorcery plots and backdrop, and it's growing more and more stale every game. The time is ripe to try something different with the formulas, something which Jade Empire might accomplish, and giving us a backdrop we've never seen before is a huge start.

Also, while I do understand the whole "these games take themselves too seriously" opinion, I don't think it's so much that as it is no one making these serious games mature instead of stuck in the emotional timeframe of a 16 year old.

Agreed, though, that some of these games desperately need a sense of humor and levity. It's one of the reasons I still stand whole-heartedly behind FFX-2. The game as a whole is lacking a bit, but Square was finally having some fun with their universe, without compromising the emotions we're left with at the end of FFX, and I admired that.

I'm telling ya.. I'm really enjoying Shadowhearts. The battlesystem is very unique and I like the way its incorporated in the shopping for weapons as well. YOu get to try for discounts on weapons and mark=ups on items you sell back to the shopkeeper.

They need to be exciting. I can't remember the last time I played an RPG that didn't bore me to death, and that includes FF VII, VIII, VIXIXI, and FF-XVIIFGT.

Any of you play the Wizardry series? The PS one is a little weak, but the PC versions are fun. They're throwbacks in a way, but you have 6 characters in your party plus up to two that you can recruit. The recruits have tangent stories in addition to the main story of the game. The races and classes are all there, as are the weapons and armor. I like them, and I think in spite of suffering from some of the things you all have cited, they're still fun to play.

I don't like RPGs that feel like they operate on rails. If you're confident in the world you've created, let me explore it at my leisure, and have lots of sideplots for me to look into.

Careful what you wish for. The only reason I give linear RPGs a pass is that it helps keep the storyline and the gameplay itself focused, which is a huge part of what got me into RPGs in the first place. So far, RPGs forays into sideplots have mostly turned into fetch quests and the EQ syndrome of running around in an empty field searching for the next objective for an hour.

Someone should perfect it, of course, but not at the expense of the main story, which is what I'm interested in.

I like RPGs even though it takes me forever to finishe them nowadays, but I think I prefer the old school style RPG. I know by now that most people think the stories are just a series of cliches but I still like it like that. I kind of like the linear progression with side stuff to do along the way. Start out, move on, get new party members, get to a new town, buy newer, stronger gear, move on to next dungeon type thing, etc etc... Maybe, at 27 going on 28, I'm just an old coot, but I like them like this. I find the simplicity kind of appealing. Oh yeah, and long live hand drawn 2-D sprites. It's all good

I like newer stuff too, with more freedoms and all that, I just hope the older style doesn't fade into obscurity.

Different settings. Like a Western, for example. Not a fantasy Western, or a Sci-Fi Western, but an honest-to-God shoot 'em up, bandits and lawmen kinda western.

I would say yes to most of these, and:

1 - Plots outside of the typically D&D plot
2 - More personality options/type - I alays feel when I pick the evil bitchmonster that I'm not REALLY picking the evil bitchmonster
3 - New settings! I loved Arcanum, but I really disliked the flat-look. Things like tht!

Only in Fallout 2 could you get the reputation of "Child Murderer".

Fuck yes. Also, I hate it when you can completely reverse your actions in the last half hour of the game. That basically shits on all your choices during the game.

If only more games were like Fallout, Geneforge or Planescape Torment.

- Change the name: Let's face it, it isn't role playing just because you can choose a few of the skills that you get when you level up. Most RPGs are so linear, they don't even let you make basic 'good' or 'evil' role playing choices, they just make their combat turn based and hope for the best. I'm not even against making games like this, its just that it isn't role playing.

- If the game has a party system, try giving the characters some individuality. There hasn't been a real difference between how each of the characters play in Final Fantasy games since part 6.

- As an aside to my first point, if you aren't trying to make a real role playing game, stick to making an adventure game. All the typical 'rpg' elements just bog the damn thing down, and make it tedious. For instance, I loved the story in KOTOR, as it typically would truck along, but there were times when it could get to be a 'you can't leave the planet until you help this random alien impress his girlfriend'-quest fest. KOTOR 2 is a real offendor, having you complete lengthy non-sequitur quests that you could care less about just to get to a point where the story would advance.

Keep character customization, lots of planets, mini games, and freedom to explore and play your character how you want, just have the quests be something the player would have wanted to do anyway.

I had an idea awhile back concerning experience points in games. I think it would be cool especially in online or non-linear games to get experience points for bad thing that happen to your character, not just for victories. Running around slaughtering bunnies to jack up xp is stupid. You should get points for surviving bad experiences. You get wounded or sick but live. You have a bad accident and loose all your stuff, but you don't quit and start over, you keep going, you survive and come back- these are the things that give you experience in real life. I don't mean loser points here, you shouldn't get xp simply for failing a task, but maybe if you try something really hard and do better than you should have... I realize this would be hard to implement in a game, but there could be a way to do it. I think it would encourage players to continue with a character even when things don't work out, instead of just giving up an starting over- or cheating!

Anyone think this is a good idea? Is it stupid? Has it been tried before?

FFX and Tales of Symphonia hinted at it. FFX had the system where you could choose how you gained Experience (if all you did was sword attacks, you got points each time you attacked.....if all Yuna did was heal, she got AP for healing. The character who took the most damage in a fight could work toward a new defensive skill. Auron and Kimahri could gain XP if other members of the party were injured). Tales of Symphonia (disappointed as I was in the game as a whole) had the title system, which, once obtained, raised certain skills a great amount depending on what spells you casted, what items you created, how often you defended, etc...essentially, how you played each character changed what titles they took on instead of it being predetermined by the storyline....

That would be "Vagrant's Story", one of the most beautiful games I ever saw for the PSX. Not a bad game, but it got sort of repetitious.

I like the idea of a Western RPG. I wanna be a farrier. With a big gun.

my main gripe with modern rpgs is that they are not hard enough. What happened to leveling -up just to make it out of the town?

I want a game with some serious character Customization. Everything from hair color to height. I want it to be like GTA:SA were you work out to build musles eat and get fat and other stuff like that. I want to get scars in battle that you carry around with you through out the game. I want enough choices in a game to where my character is truly original, instead of my charecter being the same as everyone else (who bought the games) Character. Now that would make for some replay value.

Ah, there we go. Thanks, mate. I think that game is amazing and it is now my mission to get ahold a copy of it. It is repetitious but I didn't mind (at least, at the time). If there's one game that needs a bad ass sequel, Vagrant Story would be it.

They have to be more like Baldur's Gate 2, Fallout, and Ultima (any of them) and less like a movie where you press some buttons sometimes, like FF, Diablo, or Dungeon Siege. RPG shouldn't be about PLAYING a role, they should be about CHOOSING your role. THis is a simple concept that eludes most RPG-makers for some reason.

-Also, don't sell your game as having Multiple Endings when those are chosen by choosing dialogue A or B 5 mins before the end, disregarding all the game that went before. (see: KOTOR, from what I'm told)

See, the visual look of the character doesn't concern me at all - in fact, I feel that frequently, developers use the "Look at the Character Customization System and how indepth it is!" to mask the fact that the actual Role playing ain't so developed. I'd rather play someone who looks the same each go-round in the game, but who I can develop in a varitey of different ways.