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 trout then I won't be able to stomach it long enough to enjoy the story. If the story is trout 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 trout.

[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 bulltrout, 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..

[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