What do you want to see in future RPGs?

[EverVine]

I am doing a little bit of research because I would like to design a game. Unfortunately I will only be able to write the script and design the characters and things, but I am hoping that in a couple of years I will have the ability to actually turn it into a game.

And yeah, basically, all I need to know is what do you all want to see in RPGs in the future? Would you like it if the main character was a female instead of male? Would you want to see a bit more romance? Would you want an interesting and different plot? Just really anything that you can think that you would like to see that is different, or just better from the RPGs that are around now. It would be a huge help!

[Vyk]

Female protagonists. And not some girly childish thing either. A serious game with a serious female lead :D

[EverVine]

That is actually what I was planning. I am sick of the female characters always being the healers and weak, so yeah. That is already a definite. A strong female protagonist.

[Vyk]

Something just popped in my head. I've always loved the gimick in certain RPGs where you play different people at different times. Sometimes the group splits up and you have to play groups seperately. Or like in Wild Arms you have to guide them together to start. It keeps it varied and awesome. I think a game would be great if it abused that gimmick masterfully. Like having two or three people independantly unfolding the series of events that make the story. Though that'd be really hard to pull off

[EverVine]

Hmmm... so, do you mean something like, being able to play the game through two different character's points of view? What I think would be interesting would be to have two different characters that you can play as, the main female character and the main male character.

[Vyk]

What I was talking about is at a certain point you switch. Not like two different games, based on different perspectives. But two alternating perspectives within the same playthrough. Who you take control of keeps changing as you progress

[NeoCracker]

Sounds like ARc teh lad, twilight of the spirits. You start of with Karg, and after a while you take control of Darc, and you switch between the two groups most of the story. There are times the groups cross paths, until you finally get them all under your control in the end. Good fun it was.

[Ultima Shadow]

Great and flawless plot twists, superior overall gameplay and battlesystems, excellent music, super cool creature designs, interesting characters, different difficulty levels, and insane amounts of challanging super bosses and bonus dungeons.

Yeah, that's basically what I would like to see in future RPGs.

[Tama2]

I've always been more interested in a family tree idea in an RPG. Charcter A (excuse my typos) meets Chacter E have kids get older die but Chacter K has abilities of both parents or Grandparents or so on. But the story kind of keeps goin on. That would be rather complcated. But it is an interesting idea.

[EverVine]

I've always been more interested in a family tree idea in an RPG. Charcter A (excuse my typos) meets Chacter E have kids get older die but Chacter K has abilities of both parents or Grandparents or so on. But the story kind of keeps goin on. That would be rather complcated. But it is an interesting idea.

I think that would be able to work if you were playing an online RPG. It probably be the only way for it to keep on going on and on.

[a nirvana fan]

I'd like to see more games like Dark Chronicle(Dark Cloud 2) or Dark Cloud without some crappy characters like Monica and Robopod(or whatever its called). So basically a game like DC but more serious and giving the characters a really deep story behind them. Oh and by the way, what are you using to create the game?

[EverVine]

As I said, I am only going to be coming up with the script and the concept seeing as though I am hopeless at artwork and grapgics and things like that.

[Madame Adequate]

1) I want characters to die, permanently, and for it to mean something, from both the story perspective and gameplay.

2) I want a normal RPG (Not SRPG like FFT or Vandal Hearts.) where you don't get more characters than you can have in your party.

3) A fully branching plot would require insane amounts of work, but having places where the plot can take different routes with different outcomes would be nice. Especially if it affected #1.

4) A game with challenging, interesting bosses. There's an idea I've been idling with, it will serve well here. Let's say there is a certain boss who is (For whatever reason) vulnerable to a certain tune. You can't really take him down otherwise. So let's say you have a party of six characters in the fight, and you have to have some break off the attack and go to an organ or something. Well, the enemy's henchmen are on the way there, and the area is designed for a party of six, but so is the boss. So do you split the party in half? Or do you just send two people off to the organ, while four stay in the fight to survive?

So when you split you take control of the organ party. Speed is of the essence - once you get there and play the tune, you switch back to the other party, but at the point where the characters just left. Now you have to survive against the boss until the music plays - which is as long as it actually took for your party to get there.

4b) Boss fights somewhere other than dungeons, castles, forests, and enemy bases. Hell, adventures in other places, period.

5) If a character you fight later joins you, they should be at least as strong (Barring plot reasons) when they join you as they were when they fought you. Not uber-awesome during the fight and then lamesauce on your side.

6) Tons of additional stuff to do, if you want to, aside from the main quest. But some of them should be able to influence it. Ok, think of FFVII. If you do the Fort Condor minigames, sure you get some extra items and the Phoenix materia - what if it actually affected the numbers and positions of Shinra troops in later encounters?

6b) Random-ish events based on what you do. Again in FFVII, if you're always there protecting Fort Condor Shinra might dispatch an elite strike team who will attack you when you're out in the field. Don't help them out and they won't bother you as often or with as strong a force.

[Azure Chrysanthemum]

Different paths. It can be done with several main arcs, but highly nonlinear games are in somewhat short supply. I would much prefer the ability to choose my overall path, preferably with several "good", "neutral", and "evil" paths that you can take your character.

Generally though you will define the main character's personality through your choices. A Baldur's Gate-like system'd probably work best in this, where you get to choose from several different dialogue options, some wildly different.

[EverVine]

Hmmm... so many interesting ideas.

Also, I just have a small question for you all. Would you like a game where there are just two characters and you aren't the chosen one, but instead you are a character that is there to help the chosen one? Also, you wouldn't really be involved with battle monsters and things. The game would be more focused on the storyline than the gameplay (there wouldn't be much of it).