Gameplay vs. Story/Characters

[Wolf Kanno]

Which is more important to you when playing an RPG of any kind. The gameplay (combat, exploration, crafting ,sidequests, mini-games) or the story and characters? By this I mean, can you slog through a game with awful gameplay if you like the story or is the other way around where having a cheap excuse plot and some one-dimensional characters can be easily stomached if you are spending most of your time customizing characters and using that great combat system while exploring that huge world.

[Pike]

It depends.

If it's The Elder Scrolls, then I play it mostly for the lore.

If it's Deus Ex or Fallout, then I play it mostly for story/atmosphere.

If it's just about any other RPG, then I probably play it mostly for the gameplay.

[Madame Adequate]

I can do both. I'll play a game with a bad story if I like the gameplay, and I've slogged through bad gameplay because I liked the story. Generally I'd probably rate atmosphere, lore, and story a bit higher though. No matter how good some gameplay is it won't actually be long-term memorable without something backing it up.

But when I do want some mindless grinding there's always plenty of JRPGs around for that, and if I want to stomp around being a badass there's plenty of WRPGs for that.

[VeloZer0]

If the story is terrible I can ignore it.
If the gameplay is terrible not so much.

For me story is just something that enhances the gameplay experience. A good story will elevate an 'ok' game into something I remember fondly, or motivate me to finish a game I might otherwise not.

If the story is really bad it depends upon how much I can ignore it. If it is an FPS I can easily ignore it and move on. If it is constantly barraging me with long uninteresting cut scenes then it degrades the game experience.

Now, I think atmosphere is of the utmost importance. This is an integral part of what the story creates, but goes a lot deeper and is also greatly impacted by things like visuals and music. A game like Mega Man X, which maybe has like 20 lines of dialog, does more to stimulate my imagination than 12 hours of cutsceens in FF13.

[Ayen]

Both are important to me. If the gameplay is shit then I won't be able to stomach it long enough to enjoy the story. If the story is shit then I don't see much point of going on. Luckily for me I haven't played a game where one or the other was complete shit.

[metagloria]

Gameplay is more important to me. I'd much rather get absorbed into a game that lets me level grind and explore (XII, Skyrim, Kingdoms of Amalur) or has an entertaining combat/skill system (V, X, X-2) than one that has decent gameplay but great story (IV, VI, Xenosaga I-III).

(Don't get me wrong though...I love those latter games.)

[Bolivar]

When I was younger I could slog through any game if it had a great story but now I need sound mechanics as the backbone.

[Pumpkin]

I much prefer story/characters to gameplay

[Mercen-X]

If the characters/story are interest and told well then I play solely for that. If those come up short, then I surely hope the gameplay compensates.

[Vyk]

I've dealt with both situations, but they definitely both have their limits. I think I could probably deal with a bad story more than I can bad gameplay

Legend of Legaia's gameplay was so much fun, but the story was very so/so. And I played it and enjoyed the hell out of it. And then there's Star Ocean: Last Hope, where the gameplay was really fun, and the story was blah, and then you get the Tidus transformation, and after about 10 hours of that bullshit, I quit. FFX falls completely into that category as well. I've gotten towards the end of the game twice, because its fun to play, but ugh is it terrible to experience

The first Uncharted game made me rage so much with its glitchy and inexperienced gameplay mechanics. You could definitely tell the developers were not used to making that sort of game. But it was totally worth slogging through because it wasn't quite THAT bad, and the story and characters and settings were really interesting. Same with Dark Souls. There's more cheap and unexpected deaths rather than earned deaths through sheer challenge, like "Haha, I got you", because there's NO lighting and you're expected to go at a snail's pace in one area. Or the camera hits a wall and spins around so you can't see the combat, or gives you a great full-screen view of your entire back, while you're getting wailed on by the front. And yet I slog through that, because of the atmosphere and exploration and wonder are totally worth it

But in all cases where I slogged through one aspect to enjoy another, that other wasn't completely unredeemable. Tidus was unredeemable. Hell, I couldn't stomach Kingdom Hearts because of its gameplay mechanics. Running around thwacking stuff constantly just didn't appeal to me, but I imagine the story was interesting

[Raistlin]

I can deal with mediocre gameplay if there is wonderful story and characters (I'm looking at you, Lunar SSSC). I can also deal with a mediocre story if the gameplay is fun (I'm looking at you, Suikoden IV). But for JRPGs, my preference would definitely be towards story/characters first, as my favorite JRPGs are considered favorites in large part due to story elements (though the gameplay in some, like FFT, is equally great).

[Depression Moon]

Thought I posted in here. Well, if I can't even play the game there's no way I could tell if it has a good story. Gameplay has to be at least mediocre for me to play it to the end.

[black orb]

If the story is terrible I can ignore it.
If the gameplay is terrible not so much.
>>> This..:luca:

[Skyblade]

Knights of the Old Republic had horrible gameplay.

I cheated to ignore it so I could enjoy the world, story, and characters.

It's easy to ignore bad gameplay, because there are so many ways past it in most games. I'll still put up with quite a bit for a good story and characters.

[krissy]

Story
Is why I play games tbh

[Mirage]

I've never managed to complete a single game with terrible gameplay no matter how good the story/characters were.
I've completed tons of games with awful stories/characters and good gameplay. Of course, both need to be good if a game wants to get near the top of my favourites list.

[Alive-Cat]

Story all the way! I wish games were still like FFVII.

[Sephex]

It's hard to answer this question so broadly. It really depends on the RPG, but I strongly prefer if both options in the poll were at their best when I am playing one.

That being said there have been times where I felt that the gameplay and story/characters held my interest enough to play through an entire game.

Example: I always felt that FFX-2 is a bit disjointed, but I love the game's version of the job system enough to play through the whole game.

[Sefie1999AD]

If the story is terrible I can ignore it.
If the gameplay is terrible not so much.

This. I mostly play RPGs for storyline, but if the gameplay is terrible, I don't want to keep playing the game. The original Final Fantasy II for NES is a great example of this: the storyline is fantastic, but the battles are really slow (try casting a spell on 8 enemies, it will take forever to go through all the messages "hit enemy #1", "273 damage", "terminated", ..., "hit enemy #8", "281 damage", "terminated") and the characters are extremely slow to level-up, so the only bearable way to play the game is to beat up your own characters and use an action-cancel bug to level up weapons and spells... and use an emulator with a fast-forward button. :erm: Meanwhile, if the storyline is weak but the gameplay is enjoyable (e.g. Seiken Densetsu 3, Super Mario RPG, FFI, FFV, FFX-2, FFXIII-2), I'll still be able to like the game a lot.

However, I think great story + decent gameplay > decent story + great gameplay. If the gameplay is at least tolerable, the story is what will make me remember and love the game (e.g. FFIV, FFIX). Of course, the best games shine in both. :D

[Mirage]

Story all the way! I wish games were still like FFVII.

But FF7 has decent gameplay too...

[Wolf Kanno]

In the past, I used to have a high tolerance for BS and would consume anything with the words RPG plastered on them, now I'm really picky and I certainly have certain flavors I vastly prefer my games to have.

I can usually suffer through awful gameplay if the plot is really good but I also notice that I tend to never play those games again. A similar trend happens with the reverse situation. I kind of prefer having both like most have said but I guess I may have to say plot is the deciding factor for me. If I want great gameplay I can just switch to a different genre if need be. I can tolerate bad gameplay over an awful story, I need motivation to keep going forward.

Case in point, Thousand Arms, this is a quirky fun dating-sim/JRPG for the PS1. It is funny as hell and never takes itself terribly serious and was fun to go through... except it might have the most obnoxious battle system ever conceived for the genre and whenever people whine about awful battle systems I think of this game.