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for me music and art direction are two huge components of a good RPG.. if im not digging those two aspects of the game chances are that im not gonna like the rest of the game.
FFIX was my favorite rpg/final fantasy/game of all time and i though they nailed both music and art
chrono cross is my second rpg... despite a lot of flaws i loved the art and music
For me it's about the battle/experience system. If fighting and leveling up my characters is boring, I will lose interest quickly. Second is probably story. When I play RPGs I expect to be immersed in a fantastic world with entertaining twists and turns.
It needs to be balanced, really. A good RPG needs good music and art, but I think what is most important is the balance between story and gameplay (mainly exploration). The best RPGs have a great, character-driven, well-paced story, and the gameplay is exciting with big worlds which just make you want to explore every nook and cranny. For reference, I find Xenoblade Chronicles to be the perfect RPG.
You know, it's an interesting question because I know a lot of us, including myself, play RPGs for story and gameplay, yet at times were willing to overlook deficiencies in one or the other if its made up for.
So I think the most important aspect would be the accessibility, such as if it's intuitive to navigate around menus, the movement feels right, the pacing of gameplay and story is well done, and it's not a pain to go through either. After that, a game can build up amazing visuals, phenomenal music, a fantastic story, and incredibly deep gameplay, but that base of accessibility and respecting the person who's playing you're game needs to be there.
You euros need to stop bragging about how awesome it is before we do something drastic.Quote:
Originally Posted by The White Wizard of Fynn
:shoot:
Gameplay for sure. I won't slug through a game that I find terribly un-fun just because the story is fantastic. I may play through a game with a terrible story if I am having enough fun playing it.
But pegging a 'most important element' is a little miss leading. All elements in the game have to be equally good for the game to be considered good. If you have one thing excellent and everything else mediocre I would still consider it a mediocre game. If everything is excellent except for one thing that is poor it will drag the rest of the gaming experience down considerably.
If I don't enjoy the gameplay then I'll just read a story synopsis online. Therefore, battles etc are the most important aspect. It feels strange to say that but I'm not going to do something I find trout just to get a story that I can find online. I used to read walkthroughs purely to "experience" games I didn't have/ didn't plan to get.
Wat Del Sed.
For me, story is most important. If I like the story enough, I'll drudge through whatever I don't like about the gameplay. This is how I am able to sometimes replay the first Assassin's Creed after playing Assassin's Creed II. On the other hand, a game has to be really really fun for me to play it even though I'm not fond of the story. For a while, FFX-2 was like that, but then as I played through it more I realized the writing is actually a lot better than most give it credit for. No, it's not exactly the best, but it deserves better recognition.
For me, with anything, it's a balance of everything.
Demon/Dark Souls has very little story, and only if you look for it. But the gameplay, the sense of accomplishment makes it very rewarding.
Uncharted has typical Third Person Shooter gameplay, but the story is awesome and it's very beautiful that I play through it to know what happens and see everything.
So, I think gameplay is most important, but if the story is strong enough, and the gameplay isn't horrible, I will play it through. Honestly, I'd almost rather no story on some games that exist because it's just horrible, but the gameplay was still good. I find my biggest problem with games today is that there is little challenge to any of the gameplay, especially RPG's. Like Resonance of Fate was creative and cool, but as soon as I knew the perfect strategy, every single fight was identical, and no longer any fun. I never finished it. That's fine for games like God of War where you only play 8 hours anyways, but for a 40+ hour RPG, you have to make enough variety for me to enjoy playing it that long.
So I think everything is important for a GREAT RPG, but gameplay is the most important because that's the part you're actually controlling.
THE JACKEL