Create your perfect RPG.

[Olrod]

If you could combine your favourite ideas and mechanics from multiple games into one Uber-RPG, what would you have?

Personally, I'd have the Jobs/Class system from Final Fantasy 3/5/X-2
The Materia system from Final Fantasy VII. (Certain Jobs could only equip certain Materia, etc.)
The ring-menu system of Secret of Mana.
Player characters like Rikku and Vanille because I think they're great.
A medieval world with the ruins of a long-dead ancient civilization of high technology from numerous cliche-ridden RPGs (just because it's a cliche doesn't mean it's not fun).
A level-up system where you either choose your own stats and skills, or the choices are predetermined and consistent. I HATE random stat increases when leveling up.
A randomized loot system like Diablo/Borderlands 2 or Phantasy Star Online/Universe.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

Very interesting idea. Hmm.

- The setting would be a gritty/dark medieval fantasy, akin to The Witcher or Gothic. Preferably it would have two or more different geographical areas in this setting, one akin to Medieval Europe and another like the Saracen Middle-East. (I love deserts, and Arab kingdoms and stuff like that)

- It would have some level of openness while still being focused, again akin to The Witcher. So not open-world, but still gives you a level of freedom.

- Very storyline driven, with a cast of characters you learn to love or hate and care about, and interactions with those characters. So basically, take a page out of Mass Effect here.

- A leveling system similar to Gothic/Risen. You get experience from completing quests and killing enemies (and also, solving problems that may arise with your characters and other such interactions) and can choose which stats/skills to upgrade when you reach a new level.

- A magic system somewhat similar to D&D, such as Baldur's Gate. One where magic is limited, but very powerful. So you can't spam magic such as in Skyrim, but when you do use it, it's very powerful and very effective. I find magic in a lot of RPGs to be very standard-feeling, when it should be something that is awed and feared.

- Gothic 2's melee combat system with some polish/refinements. I love Mount & Blade, but Gothic 2 still has the most enjoyable melee system I've ever played.

- The artstyle would be like The Witcher. Realistic and detailed. Not bright and overly colourful like a JRPG or cartoonish like Dragon Age.

Yeah, that seems rather cool to me. Combines elements of my favourite games (Witcher, Gothic, Mass Effect).

 

[IllumInaTIma]

Well, since I'm such a Persona fanboy and since Persona 5 is currently in development, let's just imagine what it would be like in perfect world.
1)Continuation of all the events that happened in Persona 4: Arena
2)Combined cast of Persona 3 and 4. Maybe make like two separate campaigns with different main characters
3)I'd like to see classic press-turn system completely reworked. Now, I kinda enjoy that system, but I believe it is really lacking. Make something akin to classic job and class system. I feel that Persona games had some sort of predetermined roles for characters, but they didn't work really well. For example, in Persona 4 it is obvious that Kanji was supposed to be a sort of tank character, but it never really mattered since game didn't have any sort of aggro mechanic.
4)Less Persona fusion hassle. Again, I kinda enjoyed Persona fusion, but not so much to spend hours trying to complete 100% compendium. Make instead some sort of improved Persona level up mechanic, so that our initial Persona would be viable option even at end game.

 

[wintercoat]

Take action-y combat like Kingdom Hearts, or possibly the Tails of series,
Add in the job system from the various games, possibly combined with the sphere grid from FF X somehow,
Throw in the crafting of the Atelier series,
With a cast like FF VI, only more detailed,
Set in a Techno-Medieval setting, like a mix of FF VI, VII and IX,
World-building like a Blizzard game,
Environments done by Bethesda,
Simple armor and weapon designs(I hate garish designs),
Top it all off with Grade A voice acting.

 

[shrekfan246]

Well, I already stated one... earlier today, I believe. But I can probably think of two more in addition.

Spoiler: Sci-Fi, Space Combat/RPG

A large universe, with the freedom to explore the stars and planets alike while you're in direct control of your spaceship. You work your way up from starting with something such as a merchant ship, scout ship, or small raider and can build your way to massive capital ships. Along the way, you recruit your crew and assign them to stations, their effectiveness altered by their stats which grow in efficiency as they become more experienced, and the head officers of each station grant extra abilities for use in ship-to-ship space combat a la Star Trek Online.

You also get the ability to walk about your ship yourself, and maybe have personalization for things like the bridge, captain's quarters, galley, that sort of thing, and outfit the ships weapons, defenses, systems, etc. in a manner not unlike RPG equipment progression. Optional ability to customize weapon hardpoints or outfit a ship with more than the base in a refit if you like a particular class' hull.

In addition, you can survey planets on foot to search out side-quests, establishing diplomatic relations with alien species or fighting off harmful enemies, exploring ruins and all of that good stuff, and a heavy focus on player-driven dialogue that allows for alternate paths through the story itself. Certain sections will be required and scripted, but the player would be allowed to set their own pace of progression, choosing when to take on new assignments to new sectors, and you wouldn't have to visit the same places through every game to progress the story.

Oh, and you could make your character an alien.

Spoiler: Fantasy, RTS/ARPG

Kingdom Under Fire 2.

To expand a little, you would control a general or other such leader, and would amass an army, Mount & Blade-style. You would get to control the army, issue them orders, maintain their well-being, lead them into battle, but in the thick of it you would also be directly controlling your general, cutting down your foes alongside your army instead of looking down on them from on high, with a much more arcade-y combat system than M&B has. A few games have done it before, but most of them are rather poorly aged now and control not unlike a drunken horse.

Spoiler: Fantasy, RPG

This is the one I'd be most unsure of actually working in video game format, if just because the pacing would be hell and the action rather sparse.

Basically, something akin to A Game of Thrones and The Witcher, but with mechanics that don't suck eggs. By which I mean, something with heavy amounts of political intrigue and a story that isn't afraid to rip the plot armor away from any of the central characters, and that actually sounds like it was written by somebody who has physically held a pen in their hands before. Bonus points if, in GoT fashion, you could create and go through the story as multiple characters along multiple paths that occasionally intersect each other, but may or may not reach the same end. Oh, and even more bonus points if the game used your created characters for the moments that do cross. Obviously customization would need to be somewhat limited if the characters held an integral part to the plot, but I'd certainly be interested in something like that.

 

[The_Lost_King]

Spoiler: Star War RPG

My dream game is an open world Star Wars game.

So the skills and character building would be like in Fallout: New Vegas. You would put points into blasters or force powers or light sabers. There would be Jetpacks because jetpacks make everything better. The skills would be, lightsabers, blasters, force powers and other stuff I can't be arsed to think about, probably stuff like speech.

You would have Force powers be like spells in Oblivion. You would learn them from Jedi(or Sith) masters. There would be a morality system('cause y'know Star Wars) and like in KotOR, it would take less power to use powers of whatever alignment you are.

I don't know what the story would be and I don't much care because I am not really making this game and it would be like every Star Wars game ever, "Oh noes, the Sith".

The setting would take place on 4 different planets(terran, desert, ice, and molten types) which can be flown between at will, either on your own, or you could book passage on another ship. There would be space combat because what Star Wars game would be complete without a ship battle. It would take place in the Old Republic because the prequels suck and I want there to be a lot of Sith and Jedi.

The weapons would be different types of blaster pistols and rifles. There would be all kinds of different lightsabers, regular, double, whips, spears and anything else on the wiki. There would also be blades, there would be very rare ones made of cortosis which shuts down lightsabers, most would have have phrick in them which can resist sabers.

There would be destructible terrain, however there would be a force power that can fix everything. That feature was a good idea in red faction because you don't want to make it impossible to progress, and you don't want to completely destroy a shop because you were protecting it from bandits.

or just an RPG like dragon age: origins. That shit was amazing.

 

[Austin Howe]

It would be the HD remake of Final Fantasy VII

 

[tilmoph]

Setting: Far Future Space. Need all those uncharted worlds, that vast area to explore, the range of weirdness you can fit into the setting.

Open world (well galaxy) is a must, with dynamic sidequests, like local feuds amongst colony and established world nobility, titles to be claimed by force or by politics, alien invasions to fight off or aid, lost treasures (of the monetary or familial variety), strange space gods to deal with, just a big, living galaxy where stuff is always happening. So the Radiant thing Bethesda's been doing, but at it's full stated potential.

The main plot can be any old thing. Let's be honest, the main quest in any really open world RPG is just a thing you do when you've run out of other things to do. But I'd prefer a three-way civil war between federalist, who want the galaxy loosely governed by a weak central government whose only job is to try and limit the casualties from internal wars and to broker peaces when things get out of hand, with an enormous amount of autonomy for the individual worlds; an Imperial faction that wants a strong, elective monarchy, basically the Holy Roman Empire in space, and also closer to what it was suppose to be than it was historically;, and an Techno fetishist group that wants to use the galaxy's computers and nano-factories to convert the meatbags into a cybernetic hivemind, via forced implants and mass distribution of AI programs. And of course, a decent number of neutral worlds that want to keep the status quo, free-for-all style lack of government the galaxy was in at the start, that you can convert to one of the factions or help build into a fourth faction.

Gameplay wise, I like fallout's stats + perks system since it allows for a lot of customization, so I'd probably just expand that with a higher level cap. What I'd like to add is a bigger emphasis on diplomatic intrigues; forming alliances and negotiating or making small scale coups to accomplish goals as opposed to all murder with the occasional dialogue tree. I'd like NPCs that keep fairly detailed track of your behaviors and actions and factor those in when decided if and how much they want to help you, with a reach mechanic to determine where, how much, and in what ways a given NPC can help.

For example, a powerful warlord in a poor part of space could exert a lot of military and even diplomatic (in the form of implied force) weight in her part of the galaxy, but because she's fairly poor overall and has a bad reputation amongst the more civilized planet's gentry, she couldn't really force project against someone on the other side of the galaxy (logistical issues), and being close to her could hurt your chances for alliances in the core worlds, since the taint of blood soaked barbarism would make openly associating with you hurt a noble/plutocrat/politician's image amongst their fellows.

As I mentioned, the gameplay would be waited more towards politicking than kill all the bad guys. Even the combat would simply be a way to improve your standing or eliminate a rival from the field, an option rather than a requirement. Combat itself would probably be skyrim/new vegasy, with a emphasis on variety, with stealth, range attacks, and brute force being options.

Summary: A big open-world space game where the point is to start as some random asshole, and through negotiation, assassination, or just kicking, forge enough alliances to become a player in galactic level politics and determine the outcome of the biggest war to the stars, with an emphasis on alliance building, realpolitik, and manipulation of factions over slay the dragons, save the world.

 

[nykirnsu]

I had some great ideas for a sci-fi RPG a while ago, I know practically nothing about programming so I'll likely never make it, but I'm in the process of adapting the plot and setting into a graphic novel.

-The setting is mix of traditional Tolkien-esque fantasy and sci-fi. All the usual races are there; elves, dwarves, humans, orcs, etc, but how you'd expect them to be in the far future (a bit like Warhammer 40k). The world as a whole is a sprawling intergalactic universe, but takes place largely on a single archipelago.

-The story basically involves an oppressive government (who aren't really evil in a traditional sense, they're sort of like futuristic republicans) ruling the aforementioned archipelago, but then the opposing (radical) political party creates a group of superheroes to gather support for a revolution. Gathering support in gameplay mostly just involves doing quests until you get called to defeat he bad guys with your new army of supporters.

-The class system is a cross between JRPG and western RPG classes. You have two main protagonists who you play as (both of whom are customize-able to a degree) and have access to every class' abilities; then there are the other 6 party members who each have access to two of the twelve available classes. One character is a ranger and potion-master (a scientist who became a vigilante), another is an assassin and illusionist (a vampire), another is a warrior and ninja (the character is a ninja), then there's a barbarian and soldier (a retired cop), there's also a black mage and defense class (an alien priest) and lastly there's a white mage and de-buff class (an angel).

-The combat is taken from a number of different styles. The game would use guns, melee weapons and magic, so there're a lot of options. The gun-play is mostly cover-based unless you have an incredibly high armor level, the stealth is a bit like Assassin's Creed crossed with Batman, so a lot of sneaking (unless you use illusions, where it's more about convincing NPCs), the magic is hard to describe; I guess it's most like Elder Scrolls in that you can use most spells with a single button press.

-The world is made up of several large islands. Each time you complete a certain number of quests on an island you gain access to the next one. The quests themselves would vary quite a bit. Some would mostly involve dialogue (it uses a Mass Effect-style dialogue system), while others would involve clearing out dungeons, some even involve both.

-Morality is there, but it's quite minor. Most bosses can be persuaded out of there evil, and enemies can be dealt with without killing them. Rarely would this have a substantial effect on the game, except maybe affecting who helps you in the final level.

-The game would have a an art style inspired by various European comics (particularly the work of Jamie Hewlett).

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Long, huge world to explore, fun and involved battle system with lots of interesting abilities available, amazing plot and characters. That's all.

Whenever the subject of desired sequels comes up I always include a Wild Arms 6, but really it's more the battle system I wanted to see expanded than the setting, though that could be good too if they return to the third one's level of Western-ness, so it doesn't have to have that franchise's name. The change I suggested to make it more seamless and not dependent on random encounters (something that is now practically considered taboo and a major annoyance in WA4 and 5), instead divide the dungeons into segments composed of large numbers of hexes with puzzle rooms and rest stops in-between, with the goal merely being to get all party members safely to the 'exit' hex at the far end.

While I'm flexible on setting, the more gritty western-style would actually be fitting for my plot idea (in fact I'd toy with the idea of making it sepia-toned or cel-shaded). In it, the world is recovering from a revolutionary war against an aristocratic group of armoured figures who ruled it for centuries with their advanced technology (mechs vs. early gunpowder). The revolution's success is mainly attributed to a single heroic man- we shall call him Nathan Grey- who was both fierce in battle and persuasive at getting other humans to join his quest for freedom. However, he dies in the final battle of the revolution, delivering freedom to everyone. This leaves the world divided between his top lieutenants, all of whom believe that they should be the one to rule now. Battle lines are drawn and the conflict begins anew.

While initially just out to explore places beyond his nowhere farm town and have a good time, the main character eventually witnesses enough abuses and cruelty by both sides of the conflict to found his own party seeking to bring peace. This is also brought across with a Breath of Fire 2-esque side quest allowing you to rebuild a ruined refugee town into a thriving one however you wish to (you choose which houses/shops are built, which people you allow to move to your town, etc.). However, he eventually finds out that humanity was not the only race oppressed by the old rulers, and that Nathan Grey might have had more than just luck on his side during his revolution. Namely, a deal with the devil(s). The overarching theme would be the value of freedom and what it truly means to people.

Here is a brief sample of some of the various 'puzzle bosses' the franchise has done in the past that could be emulated or improved on:

-A boss that is composed of three parts that fuse together to become a single invincible monster, de-fusing after several turns. The solution was to either keep them apart or use the spell 'Isolate' to separate them.
-A boss that uses his power over time to instantly avoid any attack by moving into a different hex. The key was to trap him against the border of the field so he couldn't move.
-A boss which is invulnerable from the front and sides.
-A boss which causes monsters to spawn on the Elemental Ley hexes (hexes that lend an elemental to any non-elemental magic used on it as well as defending against that same element).
-A boss who uses unstoppably powerful healing magic who is vulnerable to the game's 'zombie' status ailment. And his minions use that on your hexes in case you don't have it.
-A boss who regularly inflicts instant death to all hexes without a status ailment on them.

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

Honestly, I think RPGs have gotten "too big" without becoming very smart. We have games with these massive worlds and endless quests populated by uninteresting, flat, zombie-like NPCs and their cliched stories.

Take Skyrim, for example. Dozens of towns. Thousands of NPCs. Hundreds of quests. All forgettable. What if they'd left the massive game world but created just 2-3 towns and a few dozen NPCs? Or focused on 20-25 long, multipart quests that actually impacted the game world? There are plenty of stories that could explain away a more minimalist approach, and that would in turn allow for tremendous growth and development of fewer but far more interesting characters and stories.

 

[Azriel Nightshade]

Every Elder-scrolls game ever made. They have Skyrim level graphics, there are better animations. Fighting in third person works similarly to DMC, Revengance.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

Fallout 3/New Vegas style gameplay, but as a twist I want it to combine fantasy and scifi so while you can use modern looking guns and energy weapons, you can also use magic too. I'd like a post Apocalypse setting, yet I want it to be akin to -wait for it- Adventure Time. I like the idea of the world ending so dramatically that reality sort of breaks. Like Metro 2033 and Last Light now that I think of it. Ghosts, wizards, science experiments, robots, dragon, and mutants. It would amazing.

And for shits and giggles I want it to also be like the Persona series so all the characters are extremely interesting, and they dress like hipsters. The power of friendship will also play a role in this game

edit: also steam punk Mass Effect. That is all

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

Make instead some sort of improved Persona level up mechanic, so that our initial Persona would be viable option even at end game.

It already is. In Persona 4 Golden, I've been using Izanagi since the beginning because you can give him new spells via skill cards and there's a magic card that levels up your spells AND in card draws you can get cards that level his skills. He's seriously OP since I've been using him, he has megidolaon, the highest lightning attacks, lightning boost, and the strongest physical attacks

 

[lacktheknack]

O...OK.

http://textadventures.co.uk/quest/desktop

All smarminess aside, my ideal RPG would be one where a dual-shield-wielding ninja diplomat is a decent build.

 

[WanderingFool]

My perfect RPG? KotOR, Jade Empire, NWN, basically the older Bioware games.

However, I also enjoyed games like Diablo and Torchlight, with their procedurally generated dungeons. And that seems to add infinitely more to the game. So...

-Game is split between two types of areas, the "hub" area, and the "dungeon" area. For the dungeon area, it will randomly generate itself when you go to it, meaning that you will never be able to enter the same dungeon twice. I would imagine this game taking place on some unexplored world, the "Hub" being some kind of floating sky city/station, with shuttles that transport players to the planet surface. You would then have different areas of the planet, which possess different geological features that play a part in the type of terrain generated. You go to a jungle region, you?re in the jungle, you go to an ocean region, and you find beaches and islands as your main features.
-There would also be a weapon system similar to Borderlands. There would be several types of guns, and then you would have different ?origins?. Origins are basically the manufacture for the weapons, there would be two or three human types, and 4 or 5 alien types. Each origin would have its own unique look, not simply a color scheme, but one set of human guns would look like modern day military weapons, one set of alien guns would look like something like the covenant used in Halo.
-There would be your normal customization options for your avatar, including clothing and such.
-Game will be playable in both first and third person.
That?s most of it for now?

 

[5ilver]

Planescape torment with decent graphics. Boom, done.

 

[Terry Diamantis]

I'd say "a version of Planescape: Torment built for today's technology" would do it for me.