The Seven Virtues of RPGs

[Wolf Kanno]

Similar to the Sins thread, what are seven game design, story, character or misc. elements about RPGs that you love to see in all your games.

[Ayen]

Character creation, character modification, alternative costumes, dialog options, multiple choices, being able to control all my party members if the battle system is turn-based. I threw "character modification" in there for games like Final Fantasy that has a preset character so I at least have some things I can tweak like how Game of Thrones did it. I'd throw a morality system in there, but I'd like to see a morality system with more shades of gray first.

[Christmas]

Nudity, violence, sex, humour, food, gore and love.

[black orb]

>>> 1- Exp points
2- Money
3- Items
4- Swords
5- Magic
6- Monsters
7- Dungeons..

[Mercen-X]

Swords, Magic, Giant Monsters, Large World, Epic Plot, and, naturally, Heroes and Villains.

[metagloria]

Unordered:

1) Great skill system (X, XII)
2) Level grinding (almost all of the FFs, peaking with Bravely Default)
3) Large world with heaps of sidequests (XII, Xenoblade, Skyrim, Kingdoms of Amalur)
4) Shocking plot twist (lots, but done best in VII and X)
5) Great music... (VII, VIII, III, XII, X-2, Star Ocean 3, Chrono Cross)
6) ...that aligns with the game well (Chrono Trigger, SO3)
7) Characters that are somewhere between unique (IV) and virtually interchangeable (VII, VIII, XII) - probably done best in X (though if you grind to the end, obviously, they become interchangeable) and IX.

[Ergroilnin]

1) character customization! (that's why I love and never grow bored of Ragnarok Online or Diablo II)
2) story
3) gameplay
4) superbosses
5) characters
6) challenge runs
7) sidequests

[Laddy]

1) Well written-characters and storylines
2) Combat that has an element of strategy and tactics
3) Strong character advancement, one that's not overly open-ended or too constricting
4) A certain element of non-linearity without feeling too randomized, i.e. Daggerfall
5) A compelling gameworld with unique environments, factions, and stuff
6) Avoid cliches like the plague
7) Have a level of challenge, a game that can be beaten with everyone attacking is a bad game

[blackmage_nuke]

1) Linear main storyline
I dont like branching plots in RPG's as it's harder to play through all the storylines since one playthrough can usually take 40 hours unlike a FPS, 3PS or Visual Novel which generally have a shorter play time and dont require level grinding. Chrono Trigger is an exception as it only requires 2 play throughs to see every ending

2) Side quests
I want to beef my characters up but I dont want to run around in circles grinding all day. Side quests are a fun way to level up as I fight enemies towards an actual goal and hoepfully get extra trinkets as a reward as well as more character depth

3) New game plus
In case I want to play again but dont want to do all that grinding again

4) Open World
Not as important and can just be a gradually more accessible world with end game openess. Also I like going to the towns from the start and seeing what all the NPC's have to say about the current situation.

5) Customisable Character Structure
I like the sphere grid system in X because everyone had a recomended class but if I so chose I could make them become anything I wanted.

6) Interesting characters
Or it'll be boring

7) Enemies that can be beaten with clever tactics OR grinding
Dont just throw a boss at me with big numbers that I have to grind at it until Im strong enough. Give me a boss with weaknesses to exploit with a little thinking but at the same time dont make it so the only way to beat this boss by exploting the weakness.