Mechanics you hate?

Which RPG mechanics make you hurl your controller/break your keyboard in half out of frustration?

Personally, I smurfing hate point-build systems. I could never beat Diablo II because the smurfing skills were so vague on what is useful enough to invest in. It also made me not beat Dragon Quest VIII - oh, too bad you spent the whole game giving Jessica and Angelo points to weapons that actually deal damage, because you neglected staff points which means that you won't be getting any useful spells ever, at this point. Please, just give me a job system or something like materia/magic eggs so I can just mix and match in peace.

Cindy :argh:

But she's at least competent, right? I mean, she fixes your car and stuff :p

I hate that in SMT: Strange Journey the weakness exploit system is changed from giving extra turn to "an extra attack by your party members of the same alignment"

It's really limiting. You have to have party members of the same alignment, with high physical attack power, to make it useful.

main character KO = game over in games where you control an entire party.

Games with restrictions on what characters/races can be what jobs or learning skills.

Games with scaling enemies that don't tell you so you spend a good time grinding only to wonder why things are getting more difficult instead of easier.

First person combat in RPGs. I don't know why, but it shatters immersion for me.

I hate waypoint, compass, minimap system that every game has now. I want to explore and find my way!

MP Death in Star Ocean 3.

This is a bit hard for me, as certain mechanics I dislike have games that do pull it off well so it really comes down to the designers. For instance, I have never minded the ones already mentioned (well maybe MP death one) as I know games that do them right.

These were the only two I don't care for and even then, I'm not terribly bothered if the game does it.:

Save points that restore health, I just feel like it undermines the use of items.

Randomized treasure chests, because some of my favorite gaming highlights in old school games is obtaining that awesome Axe or piece of armor in the dungeon. Turning it into a grindfest just kills the discovery factor.

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Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno

Save points that restore health, I just feel like it undermines the use of items.

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You use items?

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Originally Posted by Skyblade

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Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno

Save points that restore health, I just feel like it undermines the use of items.

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You use items?

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In old school games or where magic healing items are not plentiful, yeah.

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Originally Posted by Skyblade

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Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno

Save points that restore health, I just feel like it undermines the use of items.

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You use items?

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You don't? I mean, that's why they're there. It's kinda lame how most games just forget about them. Luckily, more and more games are remembering that in the past, they used to be pretty crucial to your survival, so they bring back their importance.

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Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno

Randomized treasure chests, because some of my favorite gaming highlights in old school games is obtaining that awesome Axe or piece of armor in the dungeon. Turning it into a grindfest just kills the discovery factor.

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Looking at you here, FFXII​. :colbert:

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Originally Posted by Mirage

main character KO = game over in games where you control an entire party.

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Yep, that trout is annoying, though I got used to it in Kingdom Hearts.

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Originally Posted by Fynn

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Originally Posted by Skyblade

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Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno

Save points that restore health, I just feel like it undermines the use of items.

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You use items?

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You don't? I mean, that's why they're there. It's kinda lame how most games just forget about them. Luckily, more and more games are remembering that in the past, they used to be pretty crucial to your survival, so they bring back their importance.

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Never did. If you use items, they'll never be there when you need them.

I always hold onto them until super-critical moments when I absolutely need them. As a result, I NEVER use them, and I have a humongous stockpile by the end of the game. If I remember them, I'll cheese the final boss with infinite Elixirs and whatnot.

But, really, in most RPGs, the Item command may as well not even exist.

That's another mechanic for me: Consumables. Dodgy, unreliable things that are never there when you need them.

Then what do you use in games when you don't have access to healing items yet?

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Originally Posted by Depression Moon

Then what do you use in games when you don't have access to healing items yet?

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Before I get healing magic, I rest at inns.

I use Potions during the Bombing Mission in FFVII (mostly to grind up Limit Breaks). Then I never use items again.

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Originally Posted by Fynn

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Originally Posted by Skyblade

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Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno

Save points that restore health, I just feel like it undermines the use of items.

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You use items?

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You don't? I mean, that's why they're there. It's kinda lame how most games just forget about them. Luckily, more and more games are remembering that in the past, they used to be pretty crucial to your survival, so they bring back their importance.

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I still love how SMTIV got around the whole "hoarding item" issue by limiting how many of a certain item you could use. Never bothered using Soma's until that game.

Yup. That game really did items well.

(I still think III was bad with Phoenix Downs, though. It's one thing to be able to carry around a limited supply, and another thing entirely being unable to buy them and only capable of finding a limited amount in the game world)

You honestly get enough to carry you through the game though, so it's no big deal. The worse part was the times you realize that just dying and going back to your last save would be more beneficial than using the Phoenix Down.

The game is immensely stressful as it is. Being able to just have something to fall back on when a character dies would have alleviated that a bit.

Well you could always go to town and pay a fee. I don't know, I never felt too stressed by it.

Long-ass dungeons with no save points. Sometimes a dumb monster one-shotting your healer once you're near the top and you don't want to waste Phoenix Downs because they can come in handy later on, is kind of stressful, because coming back to where you were takes a lot of effort.

There's only really four nasty dungeons in the game and they are all at the end, so I wouldn't say it's too stressful. I've lost more time in DQ or classic SMT games than FFIII.

I really hate when hard boss battles take place right after a long tedious story scene that goes on for like 5-10 minutes.
At least give me chance to go back and save the game before the battle begins, seriously.

Characters with essentially only a sin gle attack option. Especially when they're tanks. It means you'll usually have a character in your party that is extremely dull mechanically.

I am a bit of an item hoarder, like Skyblade. Don't get me wrong, I do use common items with some degree of regularity, but rare items are reserved for the endgame, minimum.

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Originally Posted by Laddy

Characters with essentially only a sin gle attack option. Especially when they're tanks. It means you'll usually have a character in your party that is extremely dull mechanically.

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What I've learned about these type of characters is that it's best to build a team around them. One of my favorite "screwing around" builds in FFIIIDS involves a team built around the Viking class, who is only good for taking hits to the face. Yet it made me appreciate classes like the Bard and get around some issues with the Dark Knight, so it was quite the pleasant experience to toy with them.

As Fynn points out, the Diablo stuff is pretty bad. Horses die very easily for example. I can't stand FF8's mechanics, there's a scene in Deling City where you're so supposed to climb something and it genuinely takes fricking ages to get past it.

Stuff like fighting Sin's fin in 10 or the Jecht shot, in fact fricking Blitzball in general. Did you also know that one can get permanently stuck in Djose and Kilika temples if you dare to put the wrong sphere in a slot?

10-2 is less annoying but sphere break and the whole notes thing at the end makes you wanna throw the game out the window.