Which rpg is the most outlandish about what they say young people can do.

[darkchrono]

We all know rpg's are notorious for having extremely young characters do kind of outlandish things (acting in ways or doing things that nobody of their age would be even remotely capable of acting or doing in the real world).

Well which character or game do you think would be the most outlandish or unrealistic when it comes to this particular subject.

In my opinion as far as a total cast of characters in a game I would have to go with the first Grandia game. Every single main character for the most part in that game is about 14-15 and yet they are able to explore across the world and go places that nobody has been able to go before and even join the military (which by the way pretty much all the military leaders within that military are only about 18 years old).

But that probably would not be the single most unrealistic instance though in the rpg world in regards to the youth of the characters and what they have them do. Grandia was a very light hearted game that was not meant to be taken seriously and was put together more for the fun aspects rather than the storyline.

But the single most unrealistic character in an rpg I would say would probably have to be Maria from Xenogears. She is only six years old and yet she claims to be an expert on running Gears that not many grown-ups can do. And she is put in kind of a position to where she is the one who kind of shows people around in the place that she is from.

Although Maria does not have much to do with the overall path of the story in xenogears. Xenogears is a storyline that is supposed to be taken much more seriously than a storyline like Grandia is supposed to.

So because of the seriousness that xenogears is supposed to be taken I would have to go with Maria as being the most unrealistic character in an rpg in regards to how young she is and what they have her do.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

Check your resources. Maria is thirteen (http://guardian.leamonde.net/chars/maria.shtml).

Porom and Palom are both only five yet are capable of carrying on a semi-intelligent conversation.

[black orb]

>>> I think EarthBound has the youngest characters... never played the game but they looked like a bunch of brats..

[Zeromus_X]

Brats with Psychic powers to obliterate evil alien robots :cat: (And Jeff has his machines...)

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

I don't think there's any official word on how old Ness is, but his repertoire consists of fighting with a baseball bat and traveling from city to city by methods such as bicycle and bus, which is all rather conservative. The most outlandish abilities at his disposal are his psychic powers, which are actually more realistic than the magic spells kids use in other RPGs.

[Dreddz]

I think Justin is pretty young in Grandia....

[KentaRawr!]

In alot of RPG's, it appears as though 13-14 year olds found the fountain of youth.

But the most outlandish thing has to be Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time. Infants could jump on turtles to kill them, for god sakes!

[darkchrono]

Hmm, I swear I thought that I read Maria was only six somewhere. Maybe I was getting the memory of her age mixed up with the age of some other character from some other game.

[Zeromus_X]

Oh yeah! Souffle from SO3. (Peppita.) She's pretty young. Well actually she's like older for her race...or something... Well I liked beating the crap out of enemies with her giant teddy bear attack...:cat:

[Larahl]

Hmm, I guess I'll take Kingdom Hearts for that thing.
Though the gmae's storyline is a bit childish, still, where could some kids like Sora and Riku could fight like that?

Aren't they living in a peacful island? who taught them to fight and jump and do things like they did?
So I guess Kingdom Hearts has outlandish kids.

[darkchrono]

Yeah the three main characters in kingdom hearts are 14,14, and 15 respectively. So they are pretty darn young to do what they did in the game. But then again Kingdom Hearts like Grandia is not really meant to be a serious story (just a game designed to be fun with a storyline just to piece all the fun gameplay together).

[Markus. D]

it is in the fantasy genre....

it seems to all make sense when you see an elder doing the matrix.

[Shaun]

I reckon Justin from Grandia was about fifteen. But that girl who helped him was like...six or something. So yeah, you do get some severely young (and therefore incapable) characters in a few RPGs. Speaking of which, you've reminded me to play Grandia again. What a fantastic game it was, but I got about an hour into disc two if I can remember.

[Zeromus_X]

Logan's Run Rule
RPG characters are young. Very young. The average age seems to be 15, unless the character is a decorated and battle-hardened soldier, in which case he might even be as old as 18. Such teenagers often have skills with multiple weapons and magic, years of experience, and never ever worry about their parents telling them to come home from adventuring before bedtime. By contrast, characters more than twenty-two years old will cheerfully refer to themselves as washed-up old fogies and be eager to make room for the younger generation.

[Elite Lord Sigma]

I think the main characters from Skies of Arcadia are outlandish, such as Vyse, Aika, Fina, and Enrique, all of them are either teenagers or very young adults, yet they sail around the world, go to a moon, kill a crapload of monsters that possess odd abilities, and kill giant machines capable of destroying the world (The Gigas).

[KoShiatar]

I think it's Yoshi's Island. Who thinks a newborn baby could ride a dragon like that for all that time while shaughtering monsters, avoiding traps and running from an evil wizard?

[(CECIL120X]

palom and porom are young and still can do the best spells and more efficentlly than anyone in the game on ff4. i go with the other dude about the little baby mario brothers. this doesn't just happen in games it also happens in comic books too but yet again there comic books.

[Zeromus_X]

I'm pretty sure it was Yoshi that was in control... :cat:

[Gnostic Yevon]

Relm.

Killing people by drawing pictures of them is pretty good for a little girl.

[darkchrono]

Xenosaga is a game where I think they did a good job of not making the characters too young. The only character in Xenosaga who seems just a bit too young to do what she is doing would probably be Shion.

The rest of the characters ages were done pretty well I would say in that game

[Vermachtnis]

Pokémon, you have this, what is he/she like 12, 13, 14, over throwing entire crime syndacites and doing tasks adults can not accomplish. I remember reading the statue back in the Red/Blue days and only seeing the rival and my name.
On a less serious note, you have these freakin animals that just popped outta there eggs two days ago taking on the elitest fighters in the land, I mean WTF.

Or the Baby Brothers, they took down the 1337 H3mm3r Br0z all by them selves.

[Elhaym]

In most cases I never found it odd that RPG heroes could do the things that they do. Generally you don't play some completely run of the mill kid in RPGs, you play an exceptionally talented, exceedingly determined individual who probably has some sort of power that is strange even by their own world's standards =P Maria from Xenogears, for example, isn't a normal child at all. I don't want to spoil anything, but if you've played the game you'll know why.

Talent is talent, and I never found it strange that somebody with that sort of talent could save the world in RPGs just as I don't find it strange that, in real life, there's probably plenty of child prodigies out there that are well beyond the aptitude of many adults at certain things. I guess there are some exceptions, such as Justin from Grandia who is...basically just a normal kid, but generally RPG heroes aren't exactly run of the mill children.

What I find stranger than kids being able to save the world in RPGs, though, is them being able to take the mental strain of such a burden. I mean basically if the kids fail, then the world is completely doomed. At that sort of age I couldn't even fathom that sort of burden, it'd simply be too big. I'd be terrified. There's no way that as a kid, even if I had RPG hero-esque powers, I'd be able to handle that sort of pressure. Heck I doubt I could handle it now ^_~ Yet most RPG heroes swallow it without so much as a second thought. I always found them having that much courage to be stranger than them having any amount of strength, personally ^_^

[darkchrono]

Yeah since the biggest age range who usually plays rpg's is usually between the ages of 10-21 (meaning that the majority are probably going to be about 15 or 16) they want to create characters that will make people who are playing the game feel good about themselves.

And creating characters who are young but have the maturity and the physical prowess of probably somebody twice their age would adhere to the people playing the game much more than to actually have teenage characters in the game act how teenage characters act in real life.

I think this also might have something to do with why people who are in their late teens or early twenties tend to lose interest in rpg's because they instead start viewing the young characters in the games as being silly and unrealistic instead of thought provoking.

Yes people of that age tend to get busy with other things and do not play video games as much in general. But I think people tend to lose interest in rpg's a little quicker than they do other genres.

[Azure Chrysanthemum]

If you play Dungeons and Dragons, you'll note that most people like to start their characters at the minimum adventuring age (16 for humans) because it doesn't make sense for an older character to not be a higher level, unless you employ the artificial level drain technique which is kind of cheesy but can work in a pinch.

Basically, a level 1 character doesn't have a whole lot of experience in combat or spells, and that's how most of your characters start out. It'd make far more sense for an older character to have more advanced magic and better weapon abilities, which is why you tend to get them later on in the game and they DO come with such things.

[darkchrono]

Really? I never played Dungeons and Dragons and am not familiar with how it's character set-up system works. Does Dungeons and Dragons allow you to pick how old your character is as well. And people in their teens in general were the most popular age to start out with.

Since present day rpg's kind of derived from Dungeons and Dragons I guess it would make sense for them to kind of have the same basis for their characters as D&D did.

But for people not familar with the Dungeons and Dragons system it makes the present day system seem a bit awkward.

[Azure Chrysanthemum]

In Dungeons and Dragons you can pick an age, although you do get stat bonuses and penalties for picking a really high age and making an old character start at level 1 really doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Although with the D20 Modern system they've made it so that PCs, in order to have a reasonable starting occupation, need to be somewhat older. But typically a high fantasy adventuring party will have a bunch of sixteen year olds.

And yes, as the modern RPG is based off the D&D system, I think it stands to reason that the characters are usually younger.

[Vivi123]

All Characters under 10 in Final Fantasy.

FF6: Relm
FF9: Vivi, Eiko

[Vyk]

People lose interest in those RPGs as they grow up, becuase the RPGs themselves don't grow up with them. I'm in my 20's and I don't really care for the next RPG I play to be yet another "coming of age" story. Probably one (of many) of the reasons I liked FF7, your character is older and more mature. I won't say its more realistic, but it's certainly more reasonable, considering the task at hand. Xenogears had older characters. The Baldur's Gate games had older characters. KOTOR games had older characters. All stellar games. I'm tired of playing as little kids, or rather, unrealistic little kids. If I play another game with some punk teenager, he needs to still be wet behind the ears and I'll train the brat into some gritty old man (a la Fable). Or something...

As for the topic... Isn't FF3j the pennicle of this? You have four todlers chosen by fate to save the world

[Zeromus_X]

I think that they're teenagers. Well, they most definitely are in Amano's artwork. :cat:

[darkchrono]

The characters in ff7 are still pretty darn young as well to be doing what their doing. Just not as young as what most rpg's have.

If the games were having their ages be realistic the very youngest people in your group would probably be in their mid to late twenties.

Any younger then that and they wouldn't have the maturity (and in alot of cases the physical strength) to pull off the task at hand.

And the wise advice givers would be in their 40's and 50's instead of their late twenties or early 30's like many rpg's have them.

[(CECIL120X]

does growing up really effect the way you see the characters in games?

[Madame Adequate]

It's an RPG.

Fiction.

Soo... I've never really concerned myself with the matter.

[Old Manus]

They had to rethink this come the age of voice acting because you can't have people shouting I WILL AVENGE MY FATHER'S DEATH in a high squeaky voice

[Madame Adequate]

They had to rethink this come the age of voice acting because you can't have people shouting I WILL AVENGE MY FATHER'S DEATH in a high squeaky voice

You always deliver me the very best sarcasm.:D