How to make RPGs better

[yourkie1921]

AND LESS INVINCIBLES. I don't expect you to be able to kill everyone, but in elder scrolls there were invincible guards, no. I want the count to be invincible if I kill his heir and his heir to be invincible if I kill him, or however far the chain goes until no one can possibly take the job. I want characters only necisary for side quests that aren't guild quests to be killable.

Agreed. Given that you could actually kill the GODS in Morrowind? Can't believe they reneged on that.

Seriously, as long as you say 'You have severed the threads of fate by killing this character!' or something, just as an F.Y.I. to reload, I love being able to KFE.

KFE???

Also, you can seriously kill gods? and do you mean petty gods that only one person in the whole game worships or one of the main ones?

You should have the ability to rape, as well.
Gets you higher Personality AND Blade skills.

LOL. I agree if a game is getting an M rating, or if the AO rating wasn't taboo. But even then I only think GTA would do that.

 

[NeedAUserName]

Should be able to choose to be good OR bad, instead of almost always being the good stereotyped, cliched guy that has been played on every other RPG (albeit having plastic surgery and the occasional sex change in between games)

 

[Colton Caramihalis]

To make RPGs better people need to walk the line between being able to do everything and morality. People should have the choice to do anything they want, yet have to pay the conciquences. The problem with oblivion was that I once killed 200 people on one spree,then became the champion of cerodill.

 

[NeedAUserName]

But it had Sean Bean! Sean motherfucking Bean!

Who?

Maybe the greatest Englishman ever to live

 

[Saevus]

AND LESS INVINCIBLES. I don't expect you to be able to kill everyone, but in elder scrolls there were invincible guards, no. I want the count to be invincible if I kill his heir and his heir to be invincible if I kill him, or however far the chain goes until no one can possibly take the job. I want characters only necisary for side quests that aren't guild quests to be killable.

Agreed. Given that you could actually kill the GODS in Morrowind? Can't believe they reneged on that.

Seriously, as long as you say 'You have severed the threads of fate by killing this character!' or something, just as an F.Y.I. to reload, I love being able to KFE.

KFE???

Also, you can seriously kill gods? and do you mean petty gods that only one person in the whole game worships or one of the main ones?

You should have the ability to rape, as well.
Gets you higher Personality AND Blade skills.

LOL. I agree if a game is getting an M rating, or if the AO rating wasn't taboo. But even then I only think GTA would do that.

KFE = KILL FUCKING EVERYTHING. Using Boots of Blinding Speed, Sunder, and topped-out skills, you could blitz through all of Vivec and slaughter everyone in a few hours, just for kicks.

And you could actually kill gods. In Morrowind, the nation of Morrowind has 3 gods: Vivec, Almalexia, and Sotha Sil. Without giving away too much, you can beat the game and leave all of them dead in your wake. Seriously.

Morrowind actually let you murder the chief god of a nation, and in spite of telling you that he's a key NPC in the plot, they designed a way for you to complete the game even if you had killed him.

THAT is a good game.

 

[SimpleReally]

- NO random enounters, or give the player an early option to get rid of them (a la FFX-2, right after the first dungeon you can buy an item that nullifies them)

- Make mana passively regenerate, whats the point of having awesome spells / status modifiers if physical attacks and 'free' techniques are enough for every non-boss battle. i want to kill a bunny with a meteor spell without worrying whether i have enough ethers for the next boss battle

- Use an exp system similar to Chrono Cross:
every time you beat a boss you get 1 star, which increases the stat caps of your characters, fight 3-4 battles afterwards and your characters will get gain a few more stats. A simple and easy system that can't be abused by stat-hunters.

 

[Aerach]

To me, fixing the RPG genre is easy.

Quit with the fucking 3D graphics, and go back to what worked in the Dos-Win98 eras.

Sprites are fine, why did they get abandoned so quick? Or if you want 3D, it doesn't have to be full-on FPS style, if I wanted an FPS I'd play a mother frackin gods damned FPS! Stone Keep, Final Fantasy 3US/6Ja, Lands of Lore, Albion, hell, even the Nintendo cartridge "Robin Hood: Prince of thieves" were better than the so-called RPGs today. They weren't complex, they were fun.

Oh come on, good graphics add to the atmosphere, and having a good atmosphere helps you become immersed in the game. I'm not saying that good graphics are necessary, but I do think that it's absurd to think that they take something away from the gameplay.

 

[Gapperjack]

Say it with me F-A-B-L-E-2, said they were going for stuff like that, including heaps of grey decisions, like kill an evil kid or let him grow up to kill etc (more gray) could be good.

F-A-B-L-E-1 promised pretty much exactly the same things and failed to deliver in almost every respect on what the devs promised.

The major problem is that the two things people like about RPGs tend to conflict with each other when in computer/video game (henceforth game) RPGs:

Story and Freedom.

RPGs of course stem from table-top, where one of the huge attractions is the ability to play any character, and do anything. You pretty much have absolute freedom to play your character exactly as you want to in a table-top RPG, and the GM (Games Master) simply adapts to that.

Of course, that can't work in a game RPG, because it would involve the devs predicting everything a player might do and writing a ton of different storylines and events to fit with those actions. It would take decades to even come close.

For a story we want something that is pretty in depth, and hangs together really well, with decent structure, but the more the devs plan a story, the more they have to restrict player freedom, since letting a player kill character X in the first hour is no good if character X is vitally important to later elements of plot.

What I want to see, and I think KOTOR and Jade Empire have come closest, is a game that strikes the perfect balance between the two, allowing freedom for the player, but still having a deep and engaging storyline (and maybe some alternative storylines too).

Of course in the long term, what I really want to see is a story that adapts to a players actions when the player has total freedom. Not sure if this will ever be possible though.

 

[Gapperjack]

But it had Sean Bean! Sean motherfucking Bean!

Who?

Maybe the greatest Englishman ever to live

Certainly up there. The man is a legend.

 

[Arntor]

A virtual reality system that interacts with the mind of the GM and creates environments, scenarios, and possibilities that are only limited by the imagination of said GM. What? A guy can dream can't he?

 

[Dancingman]

How about an MMO where everything is created by the users? How about a system that respawns enemies in time, like enemies that can become wiped out of extistance because the players killed them all. How about players create the armor and weapons Spore style? After gaining experience, players could spend the points on tweaking the weapon or armor. Players could also gain alliances with the various creatures by preforming tasks for them or just staying nearby. Quests could be player generated. If fighting is not what you want to do, open a shop, open a hotel, create your own items. Did I miss anything?

I think the boy's got something here, Mr. Smith.

I like that idea, and since Spore is already a runaway success and it hasn't even been released, I am looking forward to devs who take the idea and improve on it, honestly, aside from the rare "It's a Spore clone!" accusations that would be leveled against it, an RPG with that approach probably would be a huge hit.

 

[Rag Doll]

They should do things like Fire Emblem. And by that I dont mean terrific strategy combat, forever dead allies, and the random level up. They should have characters with a past, present and future. And I DON'T mean stories like: "Yeah i've had a horrible childhood, I ran away from home and since then I've been standing here waiting for someone to talk so I can brainlessly follow them to death." I appreciate every game that bothers to try and give characters a soul, but damn to hell every one of them who doesn't and still bothers voice actors. Fire emblem has no voice acting altogether, is translated from japanese and still has some of the best dialogue I've seen in a videogame.

Most of the things above can very easily be done even if the game isn't as unforgiving or linear as Fire Emblem. Also, RPG's have one thing that need fixing and thats the endings. I played KOTOR 2 trough, watched the ending and wondered: "thats it?! WTF!". Seems to me the developers hire all the good writers to think of beginnings for stories so they look good in reviews and back cover. Then fire them and hire a bunch of loonies to do the second half for free. A lot of story based games have the problem: Dreamfall, Farenheit (Indigo Prophercy), and Condemmed 2 to name few. A good way to end a game is presented FE Sacred Stones: You defeat the evil (I wont spoil the fun) and after credits you are told the life stories afterwards for those of your characters that survived trough the game. The interesting part is that this stories might change depending on conversations between the characters. This adds 3-5 replay values until you get bored and about 20 if you want them all. This is only possible if you have interesting characters.

All and all tho you shouldn't copy any story or gameplay from FE. Some might find it boring

 

[diabloclock]

First: No level grinding.
Second: NO MORE GOD DAMN RANDOM ENCOUNTERS!
Third: More Epic looking armor. Fable was OK, TES III was kinda there, Oblivion blew it all to hell. Also in every RPG you should see the every little thing equipped on your character (earrings, rings, bracelets etc.)
Fourth: This goes more to Online RPGs, mostly free ones. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH HELMETS? I've tried 5 different free RPGs and none had helmets I could see on my character's body. What the hell.

Fifth and final: Epic spells. And I mean EPIC. Oblivion failed at this too by making all the fire spells look the same, all the ice ones too etc.

Sixth ( I lied this is the final): If you are gonna make it first person then realism is the way to go. Dark Messiah did it okay, Oblivion failed AGAIN.

 

[MalevolentJim]

1.No more random encounters,i'm sick of playing games that have enemies jumping randomly out of bushes-I call this "Pokemon Syndrome" because it's the only franchise that can get away with random encounters so most other game developers think it is okay to do so.

2.Better personality balance in character.It seems that in most madern day rpg's the women who have huge boobs have as much personality as a Nissan Sunny.Women who have smaller ones have more personality then let's say-YOU.

3.Make sure the game is not Dark Messiah.It sucked......

4.I want to see more mmo's for the consoles rather than a pc(mainly because i only have a laptop).

5.More summoning spells.I miss them from FF7.

6.If a game is going to go 'Oblivion' and make a huge environment with many trees and lakes,ADD MORE WILDLIFE!And give some of the animals raibes.That would stir things up.

 

[Breedbate]

Now, I shall shoot all your ideas out the window.

Random encounters add the feeling that the world is dangerous. After all is said and done, would you rather get to tell the game when you want a certain monster to spawn, or would you rather turn a corner, and have a giant spider guarding it's nesting ground bite your friggen head off? Yes, completely random encounters like in FF when you are walking through the woods are annoying, but honestly, taking out monsters takes out part of the game. If there's a monster there (not including FF) I'm sure there's a pretty damn reason he's there. If not, complain to the makers.

(Or atleast two ideas.)

If I could create my world and quests, I'd make a quest where I could get a stick for a certain guy, and he'd give me 5000 XP, and 4000 gold. Then I'd use it all for ungodly armor, and kill everyone with my fists. I hope you see where I'm going with this. The Elder Scrolls, and pretty much any RPG on the computer, probably has it's code open source so you can modify it. Try that, instead of having programmers waste their time on a system which will be abused, and simply will take to much time to balance, time in which they could be using to make the next trend-inspired RPG to help fill their wallets. Also, each role would have to be implemented. It'd be a shame to own an Inn, and they forgot the scripts to make people stop by your Inn.

 

[pieeater911]

Don't let the game makers use anime influences.
I know some people go absolutely ape-shit for anime stuff, but dammit all, it just kills every game that has it for me, even if it is, at its core, a fun game.

And no "lets-stand-in-a-line-and-take-turns-smacking-each-other-in-the-head" gameplay.

 

[Gapperjack]

Oh come on, good graphics add to the atmosphere, and having a good atmosphere helps you become immersed in the game. I'm not saying that good graphics are necessary, but I do think that it's absurd to think that they take something away from the gameplay.

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.

Well with RPGs, immersion is pretty much the whole point. The clue is in the title - role playing game. If you don't get to feel your that character, to really get involved with the storyline and care about the decisions you're making, then it's not really an RPG at all. Just because you improve your character and 'level-up' doesn't mean the game is an RPG.

@ Breedbate: You're making the mistake of assuming the alternative to random encounters is no-encounters. The alternative to random encounters is pre-positioned monsters, a status quo. The monsters are there and wander about on their own, regardless of whether the player visits that area. Then, when he turns up, the monsters are there already, so he can choose to skirt around them, sneak past them, or jump into a battle. What doesn't happen is that he's walking through a forest with not a monster in sight and then suddenly there's a monster. Random encounters were devised to allow the hardware to handle the game, but now we've got the power to have placed encounters, so random encounters are pretty much unnecessary and obsolete.

If I could create my world and quests, I'd make a quest where I could get a stick for a certain guy, and he'd give me 5000 XP, and 4000 gold. Then I'd use it all for ungodly armor, and kill everyone with my fists.

You've actually touched upon a personal pet hate of mine from RPGs, and bear with me because this is going to sound daft - the lack of realism. Yep, I know you've all just pissed your pants at me bringing up realism is a discussion about (currently) fantasy role playing. The thing is, just because something is set in a fantasy world, doesn't mean it doesn't have to make logical sense. In so many RPGs, the items you acquire have no real effect outside their basic stats. People seem to forget that full-plate armour is cumbersome as hell, even if you made it magically super-light, it'd still be a pain in the arse to wear, be noisy if you moved. It'd make a lot more sense to just wear a ring that offered magical protection equivalent to that of the armour, and not wear armour at all.