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Inspired by the survey discussed in this video. Name five things you want in an RPG, and five things your don't want. You don't necessarily need to list things you, hate, if you're apathetic to it that's nice as well. I would prefer answers from a general pool of the genre, and not simply signaling out one particular entry, but I'm sure it's going to happen one way or the other.
I don't want tropes and archetypes that are just tropes and archetypes. That is to say I don't want one-note characters. Ideally they'd have lots of notes and layers, and hopefully actually develop or expand on those notes and layers
I mostly hate having kids and chibi mascots in JRPGs because that's all they are. I'm okay with Persona having kids, because they aren't just one-note stereotypes. And I think that's why I've grown to hate having high school kids lead the way in my JRPGs. Because the writers rarely know how to do any real storytelling with them
I also tend to like having sidequests, and completely missable/extra content that is just as compelling and treated with just as much care as the main story quest and characters. Things that spring to mind are the Neir games, Bloodborne, and Symphony of the Night as far as compelling optional and extra content. And while I haven't played it, I've heard enough to know that The Witcher 3 is a master at making side quests that are as memorable as the main quest. I've listened to plenty of podcasts where someone was talking about how they were doing the one quest where they were out lost in the woods and came across the one person and did the one thing with them, and people remember that as well as any other part of the game are just like "oh yeah, I remember that quest. I loved that quest." And it's just a side quest, where you could have played the game for 500 hours and never gotten lost in that area and met that person. And I think that's just grand
Don't Want :Quote:
name five things you want in an RPG, and five things your don't want
- Action RPG. It just feels so empty and dull only playing as the MC and if you don't like said MC, whelp, you are screwed basically as you are stuck controlling them for the whole game. Also not a fan of the hack and slash gameplay. I think Crisis Core's system put me off Action RPGs forever. Ugh. Kingdom Hearts as well with it's bad CPU when it comes to Donald and Goofy.
- Anime Styled Characters and Themes. I don't mind Anime or Manga in small amounts, though usually it makes the characters look cheesy and difficult to take on a serious level. Xenoblade 2 is coming to mind here. It's just cringe. Fine in small amounts though. Just don't over spill it.
- Open World/ Hallway. Works in Zelda, didn't really work in FF XV. Though on the opposite side, XIII's road is no good either. I- IX had it about good.
- Story- Forced DLC. DLC is okay if it's cheap, fun and optional. Though if it's basically almost forced to understand the characters and story more like how they're doing with FF XV. No. Put the whole story in the whole game.
Want :
- More older characters ! Give me a old gruff man, give me a experienced solider type, give me a friendly grandpa character. Give me more characters like Galuf from Final Fantasy V. Don't shy away from 21 + year old characters !
- More Male Healers. A little bit tired of the whole healer = female cliche. A man can be a doctor/ nurse too ! Hey, just look at Minwu !
- Turn- Based. Bring it back. If Persona 5 can do it. So can you.
- More Female characters.
- Plenty Of Side-Quests. Something like FF VII's Gold Saucer comes to mind, just a place where you can just chill out from the main game for a while and take a break.
Can't exactly put it into words, but if there's one thing I don't want, it's whatever happened to the character designs in Xenoblade Chronicles 2. So I guess I just want Japanese devs to keep the porn out of the regular, non-porn video game genres, thank you. Especially from series I enjoy.
Want
Mature themes. I don't mean sexytimes, I mean pregnancy, I mean the struggles that Sazh went through, and further... depression is one thing, but being a single dad, trying to get your son back, almost giving up, stuff like that. This means older characters, probably.
Chocobos. :D
Genuinely different characters, physically, and gameplay factoring this into it. Have a fairy character who can access places that others can't, or larger characters that can push rocks away from cave entrances or something. Have these kind of places hidden in various areas and force the parties to split up, but still accessible later on so you don't miss anything. Just gives you something to look forward to discovering later on.
More dynamic interactions. I love that characters you bring into certain areas of FFVII will say different things, and I want more of that kind of stuff. Go into a town with one set of characters, okay, you carry on, thinking nothing of it, but come back later with a different set and they'll perhaps trigger something else being said, that kind of thing.
Control all characters in battle. I dislike that we were just one character in FFXV.
Don't Want
Wonder Kids. I never get into the idea of a 13 year old swinging a sword around and being a genius etc. Just doesn't appeal to me at all.
Forever Clean Characters - Give them some bruises and dirt sometimes, eh?
Earth - I like fantasy worlds. Give me fantasy. Lots of fantasy worlds these days aren't really fantasy, they're just Earth, regurgitated. I want more alien worlds.
Everything Through Battles - I want the ability to do minigames that don't revolve around battles. Hunts and similar things found in FFXIII are cool and all, but give us some platforming minigames, some racing, stuff like that.
Co-op - I would love for some RPG developer to create a game designed for co-op on the level of Portal 2, where it basically requires two people from the start, or at least caters to that option with pretty much full integration on par with, say, Borderlands. I remember playing a PS1 game that was designed to be played with two people. It was rubbish, but it was so much fun. Let's get a game designed like that to modern AAA standards, and actually be good, too. :p
Ah yes, all that hardcore porn in Xenoblade 2. :roll2Quote:
Originally Posted by Fynn
Anyway
Things I don't want:
1. Being forced to listen to a bad dub. Either make a good dub or give the option for Japanese audio.
2. Time limits. See: horrible abomination called Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter. Other notable: Lightning Returns, but it was less invasive since you could freeze the timer.
3. A bad soundtrack, audio's a big part of games for me.
4. Uncontrollable party members. Even worse when they're dumb.
5. Mobile games :p
Things I want:
1. Incentives for backtracking and exploring. Think hidden chests, pathways that are blocked until you get an item/power from later in the game and such.
2. A good middle ground between linear and open world. Xenoblade does this well, with big areas to explore but it's still a linear game.
3. A good soundtrack. :p
4. Interesting, fleshed-out cast of characters.
5. Not entirely sure how to word this one, but sequels that expand the world. Not like FFX-2, but more like Legend of Heroes and Ar Tonelico did it. Completely new continent/country/whatever in the same world, with a new main cast, but familiar elements and some returning characters. Enough new stuff to not grow stale, but also enough old stuff because it allows for more expansive world-building and i like returning to worlds that grip me.
Not having played the game, this prompted me to do image search for screen shots and art assets, and I can see it. He's speaking in hyperbole of course, but it does seem to languish a lot more on skin tight clothes and large breasts and needless pieces of skin flash. Most of what I see doesn't really look so much as outfits as they do your typical anime bodysuit/bathing suit/bikini armor. And looking back at Xenoblade 1, they definitely had noticeable cleavage and pieces of skin showing, but the things they wore looked like actual articles of clothing and outfits real people could/would actually wearQuote:
Originally Posted by WarZidaneAh yes, all that hardcore porn in Xenoblade 2. :roll2Quote:
Originally Posted by Fynn
Have you played Divinity: Original Sin? An entire massive western RPG that may not have been designed specifically for co-op, but it was designed specifically to cater to co-op. And the sequel was designed specifically for co-op. And they both do an exemplary jobQuote:
Originally Posted by Loony BoB
Vyk gets it. There is such a thing as porn aesthetic that isn't necessarily tied to how naked the designs are or how much sex there is occuring. There are certain visual tropes occuring in what I've seen of this game that really leave a sour taste of my mouth due to how "ecchi" they feel, or even outright hentai (no surprises there, considering they actually hired a hentai artist as the main character designers for this game).
So like
http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/...69/034/100.png
For contrast, I don't consider the Witcher 3 to look like porn, even though it has far more nudity and explicit sex scenes. That's because important story scenes are not made ridiculous by the main famale character's boobs having as big a scene presence as the main character, if not more. The sad part is, I heard Pyra is a really great character, but it's really hard for me to take seriously where every scene I see of her makes it very clear what the scene director wants to draw your focus to. Games are a visual medium, and so the visual aspect has a language of its own, and it is insanely jarring to me when a game wants me to treat its story seriously while trying to... well, do this
Can't say I have! Although I probably should note I'm more talking about JRPG style of games than WRPG. Might check this out someday if we ever finish our other co-op western RPG/FPS games we have on the go - basically Diablo III and Borderlands 2 at the moment.Quote:
Originally Posted by Vyk
I feel a team writing for an RPG should be well-versed in the use of tropes and archetypes. They're inescapable, so they may as well be used well. Tropes I particularly like are gender reversal (we hardly see genuine female representation in games), decent use of innuendo, competently constructed composite characters, new twists on old stories (extremely difficult as every critic always says "it's been done" because there are no more twists), etc.
Five things I don't want
1. Only voice acting - I don't care if it's done well or not, let the traditionalists like myself have the opportunity to use text boxes that we can control, and still have the other sounds as we do so.
2. Actual turn based battles - "Active Time" is not turn based, as you can be attacked while selecting (at least that's how I see it), basically don't do what Final Fantasy X did, where you can just leave your battle unpaused for days and still be okay.
3. A battle that is anything but ATB - providing we're talking about a Final Fantasy style RPG, that is. I will admit that for other games, it can work in my opinion.
4. Only medieval worlds - expand what kind of world RPGs can have.
5. "Berserker" characters - characters you can't control? Never wanted them before, don't want them now.
Five things I do want
1. Interactive attacks - don't just have us select attacks, have a specific code to use, like the trigger command or "Duel" in Final Fantasy VIII or the Overdrives in Final Fantasy X, at least when talking about specific "Limit Break" style attacks.
2. An option for text base speak - at least give people like me the option for this.
3. Modern locations - I love when RPGs have more modern looking locations like in Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII.
4. The World Map - Final Fantasy X didn't look right without it, and I have no idea what the later ones did.
5. A storyline for each party member - even if some are optional, let each character have their own little "ending" located somewhere in the game, as well as the big ending where we win the game.
I realise a lot of these coincided with each other, and I also realise that a lot of this was more "what I want/don't want in Final Fantasy more than anything.
I don't like hours of unskippable cutscenes, bad voice acting, stifling linearity (see FFX and XIII), painfully slow gameplay (see IX) and "challenge" that amounts to grind2win. I'm fine with everything else.
5 things I want:
-Good character focus, I like story driven RPGs
-Decent sized cast, 6-8 ideally
-DRESS UP
-Engaging narrative
-Immersive
5 things I don't want:
-Half naked ladies
-Overly difficult/No difficulty setting
-Only one playable character/Not being able to switch leader character
-No replayability
-Platforming. I dont like platforming in my RPGs :stare:
Not gonna do 5 because only 1 really matters to me: An interesting world I can explore, with things happening that aren't just the party's trip. Exploration is a huge part of it and something that certain RPGs have lost.
Also I am in complete agreement with people who want to tone down/remove the ridiculous fanservice-y outfits. Come on, I get that you have certain demographics in your audience but please, it's insulting and embarrassing.
BoB - Divinity:OS is absolutely nothing like Diablo 3 or Borderlands 2. They really couldn't have less in common apart from technically gaining experience and loot. It's a turn-based, slower-paced, deeper experience. And the multiplayer co-op element really works (especially in D:OS2).