Gameplay Styles with no comparative equal

[aozgolo]

or "Can you make a Super Mario RPG without Super Mario?"


One of my favorite games of all time was Super Mario RPG, it did something amazing in translating what was strictly a 2D Action Platformer into a successful turn-based RPG, and did it without compromising it's integrity. It still played like a platformer albeit a pseudo-3D Isometric one, and even the excellent turn-based battles were heavily inspired by the platforming with Jump and Fireball being special attacks. It was the absolute perfect blend of Action and RPG for me.

and it saddens me that we'll probably never see a game like that again.

Aside from the fact that we'll probably never see Square team up with Nintendo again, I often wonder if that particular gameplay formula would even work without Mario? Could you capture the same charm and fun gotten from Super Mario RPG and have an isometric action platformer game with turn based battles and have it work again?

This has me wondering though, in a market oversaturated with copycats and clones what other games occupy such a very specific and unique gameplay style that was very successful for that game yet hasn't ever been imitated or tried again since?

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

Space Rangers.
A turn-based top-down space trading and combat simulator with a living and evolving universe that gives you the ability to engage (or not) in text adventures, real-time strategy and arcade shoot'em'up.

Drox Operative
A Starship ARPG set in an evolving 4X universe.

Depths of Peril
"Depths of Peril is a single player action RPG (role-playing game) with strong strategy elements. You play as a faction leader protecting the barbarian city, Jorvik, by destroying threatening monsters and completing quests. At the same time, you compete with rival factions to see who will rule the city. Barbarians choose their leaders by fighting to the death!

As a faction leader, you must deal with rival factions through diplomacy, trade, and in time, war. Between battles and raids against other barbarian factions, you build the most powerful faction possible, to withstand your enemies. Building the power of a faction involves exploring a fantasy world, slaying dangerous monsters, solving quests for the city, avoiding deadly traps, and plundering loot to share within your faction.

But in this world, actions actually have consequences, so take care. Annoying the powerful and aggressive Legion of Fear faction will cause them to declare war and destroy you. Ignored Orc uprisings in the Black Forest will cause even more trouble. Protect ally covenants that are being raided, because friends are hard to come by."

Last Federation
With only a single ship at your disposal you must employ diplomacy on the highest level to unite 8 warring factions into a federation, despite the fact that they just murdered your entire race.

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Hellgate? Magicka? Freelancer? Smugglers? Harbinger? Darkest Dungeon? Endless Sea?

 

[Keoul]

Summon Night Swordcraft Story did a really good job mixing RPG with a fighting game. The combat was great considering how many turn-based rpgs there were back in the day.

 

[Akytalusia]

the growlanser series has some of my favorite real time battle mechanics. it's the perfect blend of real time and turn based strategy. if time was moving at normal speed the whole battle, everyone would be moving and acting at the same time. but you pause and micromanage so often it feels turn based, but natural. haven't seen another game use this type of system.

vandal hearts 2 had a pretty nice system too. it was turn based strategy, but you and the enemy moved at the same time, so you had to plan around what you -thought- they were going to do. it added a pretty unique and fun level of strategy on top of the usual stuff. definitely haven't seen anything else use that system.

 

[The Madman]

I'd be alright with more games taking inspiration from Mount & Blade. Seriously, there's a game that did melee combat exceptionally well and while I can understand why it couldn't work for every action game, I'd certainly like to see more games at least borrowing some elements from it. The mounted combat at least, for example as much as I love Witcher 3 it's mounted combat mechanics would be infinitely better had they mimicked Mount & Blade's mounted combat.

More games like King of Dragon Pass would also be great. The whole strategy meets rpg idea isn't new and while Crusader Kings 2 kinda scratches that itch, I've yet to have played any games that combined these elements in quite the same compelling way as King of Dragon Pass did.

 

[Smygskytt]

I'd be alright with more games taking inspiration from Mount & Blade. Seriously, there's a game that did melee combat exceptionally well and while I can understand why it couldn't work for every action game, I'd certainly like to see more games at least borrowing some elements from it. The mounted combat at least, for example as much as I love Witcher 3 it's mounted combat mechanics would be infinitely better had they mimicked Mount & Blade's mounted combat.

That reminds me of Sid Meier's Pirates! (Never forget the!). M&B is just a remake of it with knights instead of pirates. I even think it works a lot better than M&B simply for the fact that balancing doesn?t matter when the four nations only really capture merchantmen from each other and maybe then go sieging once per decade. Whereas in M&B, the stronger factions usually deffeats the weaker ones and it only snowballs downhill from there (I have never had the Rhodoks last past early game, and I was even playing them at that time).

Sid Meier's Pirates! is one out of only two games that uses QTEs in a good way (the other is the Shenmue series). Speaking of which:

Shenmue 2 It is the best open world sandbox game I have ever played. It is also the best JRPG I have ever played. That's because it all comes down to focus and influences: It predates GTA3 and therefore didn't have to copy Rockstar's circus freak show. It is in essence an open world detective game - your mission is finding your fathers murderer in a foreign city where you know no one. You actually rent a room that you have to pay for, so every morning you're hauling crates at the dockyard and then search for clues during the afternoon.

It is a pacifist game where you don't even kill anyone (what I wouldn't give for one of those games today), and the fighting consists of basically a Sega fighting game (I've never played any of those, but it gave me a good incentive for getting good at it). All JRPGs have good stories, Shenmue has that, and much much more: Open world exploration, a deep fighting system, good use of QTEs and all in a fantastic package.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

Sacrifice: A 3rd person action game that is also an RTS game, which has choice elements which have enormous effects on not only the game's plotline, but also controls what units you'll have, and what spells you'll have access to, as well as your characters stats. All wrapped up in a bizarre story with the very distinctive Shiny entertainment aesthetic (they did Earthworm Jim and MDK). Great game and one I'd recommend to anyone to at least try it.

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

Almost forgot Giants: Citizen Kabuto.
A great game with a compelling and funny story that really shined when it came to multiplayer.
Chose between the weak but technologically advanced Meccaryns, the magic-wielding Sea-Reapers or the titled giant Kabuto which uses brute force.
Incorporates first/third person shooter with strategic base-building.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

Shadow of the Colossus.

It's hard to come up with examples of games that even tried to do something similar. I think that a God of War game had some sort of climbing giant creatures mechanic? Dragon's Dogma might have also done something similar?

Given its relative popularity, I'm actually really surprised that no one decided to do something like it. The climbing mechanics had plenty of room for improvement (particularly those in the HD version)

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I'd say Okami, because of the Celestial Brush. Though in DS touchscreen era they've probably come with similar concepts since.

 

[FPLOON]

Odama: A voice-commanded real-time pinball RTS set in feudal Japan... I fucking love this game and, despite it's little "sequel tease" of an ending card, I can't think of any video game [I've played] that has done anything like Odama... outside of the "like pinball but with X" concept like Rollers of the Realm, which was a pinball RPG...

Other than that, I kinda want to say Virtua Quest, but only through its customizable combat in the form of both special attacks aka "virtua finishes" and how you build your 3-by-3 cube with various upgrade shapes... (and then see it all play out like a 3D brawler...)