How to make RPGs better

[Warrenplat]

It'd be great if moral choices actually had some bearing on gameplay. For instance, in Mass Effect you could trust everyone and be a perfect trusting angel all of the time and coast along just fine. It would be cool to see some people who would take advantage of that and that would cause some serious problems. Also death. This was a topic a while ago on the Escapist. When your character dies they should take some kind of lasting damage or another of their allies should dive in the way to save them. It's way cooler to have permanent consequences than just reloading the game data.

 

[Flour]

An RPG should contain:
-decent story
-well definded characters
-free evolution, not levels only xp
(you fight you get sword xp, you use spels you get magic xp)
-beeing able to customize your character (and to name it)
-the ability to buy houses, shops
-public places (town hall, church)
-lots weapon skills
-lots of spells
-and it should be real time not turn based

I disagree with most of this, too much choice is never good.
Having a weapon skill for every weapon type means every quest needs to detect your highest skill and give the proper weapon type, those weapons also have to be equal in terms of damage per swing.
Making every weapon type get the same damage destroys the reason to have multiple weapon skills, and not giving the weapons the same damage means you'll be creating weapons 99% of the players will never use because one weapon type is stronger.

Character names aren't important, it's nice you can name your character Gordon Freeman but you'll always be known as "hero" or "stranger" which breaks the immersion more than when NPCs call you "Mr.Freeman" or "Gordon".

Why have thousands of spells? Yeah, it's nice to have a choice, but like weapon choices, every spell will have to be equal or you'll spend a lot of time creating spells that are never going to be used.

 

[frontier psychiatrist]

the option to name your character does not add to the role playing I mean if you play as yourself how can that be assuming the role of another personality.

Uh... wow. Where does it say that you have to, or are even supposed to, name the character after yourself? The idea is to create a character, and that tends to include a name.

I was going to type out a long wall of text, and I might still do so, but this is easier...

Tales of Symphonia, it did everything right.

Except it's a JRPG, and thus not actually a roleplaying game.

Character names aren't important, it's nice you can name your character Gordon Freeman but you'll always be known as "hero" or "stranger" which breaks the immersion more than when NPCs call you "Mr.Freeman" or "Gordon".

That's a modern problem stemming from voice acting, which can be circumvented by having other characters refer to the player by his or her last name or title (which may not be an option in a fantasy game where you can choose your race and class and so forth). That's what Mass Effect does, where it's always Shepard, Commander or Commander Shepard. But how does it break immersion when a NPC calls you Mr. Freeman or Gordon? It's your character's name. If you're trying to say that it's stupid for people in Fantasy Kingdom to refer to your as Gordon Freeman, then that's your problem. You're the one who chose the name.

 

[Shivari]

[

I was going to type out a long wall of text, and I might still do so, but this is easier...

Tales of Symphonia, it did everything right.

Except it's a JRPG, and thus not actually a roleplaying game.

So you need to "roleplay" as a character for it to count? When you make your own character it barely matters anyway since you're going to do whatever you have to do in the storyline. Even in Mass Effect where you're supposed to be able to do things differently, your only choices are to act like a dick or a somewhat nice douchebag. You're still following the same path.

Oh and have you played Tales of Symphonia? Because the story and characters were top notch. I don't care that you couldn't make a character that had a blue face and was named Fuckhead McPoop. Because if I could he'd probably be a bland character anyway with no personality just thrown in to say "OMG you can create a character!"

 

[LadyZephyr]

Let me craft my weapons.

Rune Factory on the DS was a boring game, but I played through the whole thing because it let you make your weapons and armor. Same with Star Ocean 2 on the PSX. If I'm able to completely and utterly break the game by making an overpowered sword early on, I'll play the game through. I enjoy being rewarded that way.

This is why I can never play MMORPGs. They have those bullshit level conditions. Do not tell me I can't use my +35 Sabre of Ass-Whupping I worked so hard to get because I'm not level 34 yet, you bastards.

ETA:

Tales of Symphonia, it did everything right.

Oh hell yes. My all-time fave. Only reason I still have my NGC.

 

[Flour]

Character names aren't important, it's nice you can name your character Gordon Freeman but you'll always be known as "hero" or "stranger" which breaks the immersion more than when NPCs call you "Mr.Freeman" or "Gordon".

That's a modern problem stemming from voice acting, which can be circumvented by having other characters refer to the player by his or her last name or title (which may not be an option in a fantasy game where you can choose your race and class and so forth). That's what Mass Effect does, where it's always Shepard, Commander or Commander Shepard. But how does it break immersion when a NPC calls you Mr. Freeman or Gordon? It's your character's name. If you're trying to say that it's stupid for people in Fantasy Kingdom to refer to your as Gordon Freeman, then that's your problem. You're the one who chose the name.

Now read it again, I worded it pretty strange. Allow me to explain it a bit better.

The second "Gordon Freeman" is the name the developers gave the character, which can be used to prevent the game from breaking the immersion because the crime lord who knows everything about you doesn't have to call you "stranger".
The first "Gordon Freeman" is the name you gave the character in the creation screen. That character will never be given an in-game name more advanced than "hey you".

 

[frontier psychiatrist]

So you need to "roleplay" as a character for it to count? When you make your own character it barely matters anyway since you're going to do whatever you have to do in the storyline. Even in Mass Effect where you're supposed to be able to do things differently, your only choices are to act like a dick or a somewhat nice douchebag. You're still following the same path.

The critical path always remains the same, but you have the ability to roleplay and make many decisions along the way. But, Mass Effect is just one game. Fallout gives you hell of a lot more freedom, and if you know what you're doing you can finish the entire game in about 12 minutes.

Oh and have you played Tales of Symphonia? Because the story and characters were top notch.

I don't see how this is relevant.

I don't care that you couldn't make a character that had a blue face and was named Fuckhead McPoop. Because if I could he'd probably be a bland character anyway with no personality just thrown in to say "OMG you can create a character!"

In a proper RPG character creation isn't something that's "just thrown in," and there's no reason whatsoever why your character would necessarily be bland in a RPG.

Now read it again, I worded it pretty strange. Allow me to explain it a bit better.

The second "Gordon Freeman" is the name the developers gave the character, which can be used to prevent the game from breaking the immersion because the crime lord who knows everything about you doesn't have to call you "stranger".
The first "Gordon Freeman" is the name you gave the character in the creation screen. That character will never be given an in-game name more advanced than "hey you".

Yes, and the reason why he won't have an in-game name is probably because the developers chose to go with voice acting and thus can't refer to the player character by his or her name (Jade Empire has this problem). Otherwise there's no reason whatsoever why the NPCs can't say "Hello %name."

 

[tobyornottoby]

I was going to type out a long wall of text, and I might still do so, but this is easier...

Tales of Symphonia, it did everything right.

Have to disagree here...

Cultures.

It's why I liked Skies of Arcadia (that one is exceptionally good in it) and Baten Kaitos on my GC, but Tales not so much. More so, why I like the whole RPG genre so much, so Tales doesn't do it for me. All the villages kinda look like each other.

Also, the ending had this one really really lame line in it I can't forget...

Mithos: "We half-elves belong nowhere, where could we live?"
Lloyd: "Anywhere you like!"
(Me: DUH like they haven't tried that for ages >.< doesn't work, come with a better answer)

I don't see what the big deal with immersion is. I don't want to be immersed in the game, I want to be ADDICTED to the game. I want it to be so gods damned fun that it wouldn't matter if the background switched to MSPaint line art. Graphics can come along for the ride, but only if they are an extra, not the focus.

And this is EXACTLY why there is not 1 answer to the topic question. Because there are people who want to be immersed in the world and people who want to be addicted to the game, and more often than not those 2 don't go well together...

 

[RebelRising]

A lot of people seem to think that complete Non-Linearity is what makes a great RPG; however, that shouldn't be confused with Aimlessness. Too often, developers create an oversized world with little in the way of substance. After all, if you are always given opportunity to stray from the the main storyline, isn't that an admission that your story isn't that good? This was one of my major irks with Oblivion.

There should be more open-ended combat though. say for example, you knew enemies were coming for you. Would you escape from the window, scale the building and make a dash for it? Or would you silently and stealthily evade your enemies the way they're coming. Or just mow them down. How you interact with people, friend or foe, should be open to many possibilities.

 

[frontier psychiatrist]

And this is EXACTLY why there is not 1 answer to the topic question. Because there are people who want to be immersed in the world and people who want to be addicted to the game, and more often than not those 2 don't go well together...

Er... why don't they go well together?

 

[Shivari]

I was going to type out a long wall of text, and I might still do so, but this is easier...

Tales of Symphonia, it did everything right.

Have to disagree here...

Cultures.

It's why I liked Skies of Arcadia (that one is exceptionally good in it) and Baten Kaitos on my GC, but Tales not so much. More so, why I like the whole RPG genre so much, so Tales doesn't do it for me. All the villages kinda look like each other.

Also, the ending had this one really really lame line in it I can't forget...

Mithos: "We half-elves belong nowhere, where could we live?"
Lloyd: "Anywhere you like!"
(Me: DUH like they haven't tried that for ages >.< doesn't work, come with a better answer)

Meh, I really don't need towns to be eyecandy as I'll walk right through anyway just stopping at the shops and hotel. It didn't bother me that they all followed the same basic idea except for it being snowy there or in a desert. As long as it isn't exactly the same it doesn't bother me. Different strokes I guess. If the rest is good I can overlook the environment.

And yes there were some cheesy and dumb lines, but I expected that from Lloyd as he thought that combining the worlds would fix everything, even though there's heavy tension between races and social classes so it would do nothing more than exaserabate the problem.

I think that's what the sequel is about though so at least they're going to address it. :/

 

[Gapperjack]

Why have thousands of spells? Yeah, it's nice to have a choice, but like weapon choices, every spell will have to be equal or you'll spend a lot of time creating spells that are never going to be used.

I've never understood why spells in so many RPGs seem to be all about combat or healing. I want to have a vast array of spells that all do individual things, each have a decent use. I want spells to levitate objects from a distance, spells to create water, to make a hole through a wall that I can use to bypass a locked door, to raise the dead, or charm an animal. If you look at the spells in D&D, only some of them are geared towards combat, the rest are much more versatile.

Why can't I come across a town that's been set alight by bandit raiders and be able to summon some water to put the fires out, thereby earning the gratitude and trust of the townsfolk.

Or, use a spell to make a sound to distract the guards at the front of the bank while I make a hole in the wall using magic and steal all the gold, scuttling up the wall and away over the rooftops using a Spider Climb spell.