I was watching my brother play the newest Star Ocean the other day and I realized why I haven't played an RPG in months, all of the ways battles are fought have become rather dull. I enjoy the Star Ocean series because it gives you the ability to control your character instead of just picking his moves, however, it has started to feel like something is lacking when you can only do a few power moves and mash buttons to do continuous swipes with your sword.
The "standing still" Final Fantasy type of gameplay bores the bejeesus out of me. Since FF7 was released for the PSP I've been playing through it and I realized just how dull the fighting was in that game after years of not playing. Sure, it's fun to choose materia and blow away your opponents with enemy skills but ultimately it is an easy game without much creativity in the way battles are fought.
I also recently replayed Star Ocean 2 (again, on the PSP) and I was less than impressed with that kind of fighting. Sure, it was more interesting than FF7 if for no other reason than your characters move, but I didn't feel like I was accomplishing anything amazing by mashing a power move button and swinging my sword a few times.
I recently re-discovered my old PS1 and was reminded of an old RPG I used to enjoy called Legend of Dragoon. The fighting in that game wasn't all that stellar and it got extremely repetitive but to accomplish anything you had to be paying attention. Attacks had to be executed by timed clicks of the buttons so if you weren't really paying attention to the game you would likely die and that little mechanic made the game far more interesting to me. When I defeated a boss and didn't miss a step it felt far better than just using Knights of the Round and sitting back to watch the damage roll in.
This brings me to my final point: I could easily get back into the RPG scene if it was mixed up a bit. This includes the latest wave of Western RPG/FPS's where most enemies can be taken out by a swing of a sword, a fireball or a shotgun. My idea of an RPG is a game where you feel like you are the character you are playing, where there is some level of immersion beyond a regular FPS or strategy game. Give me fighting like, say, Soul Calibur in an RPG where I need to use actual combinations of buttons to accomplish something or make me have to aim at specific locations on an enemy to do critical damage instead of doing it for me (I'm looking at you Fallout 3 you disappointment). The first person shooter elements of Fallout were so pathetically optimized that I felt like I was waving my gun around in molasses and shooting through a crooked sight.
I'm just sayin', gimmie some feeling of gratification when I beat the living daylights out of an enemy, don't make it so simple that I get bored with killing!
The "standing still" Final Fantasy type of gameplay bores the bejeesus out of me. Since FF7 was released for the PSP I've been playing through it and I realized just how dull the fighting was in that game after years of not playing. Sure, it's fun to choose materia and blow away your opponents with enemy skills but ultimately it is an easy game without much creativity in the way battles are fought.
I also recently replayed Star Ocean 2 (again, on the PSP) and I was less than impressed with that kind of fighting. Sure, it was more interesting than FF7 if for no other reason than your characters move, but I didn't feel like I was accomplishing anything amazing by mashing a power move button and swinging my sword a few times.
I recently re-discovered my old PS1 and was reminded of an old RPG I used to enjoy called Legend of Dragoon. The fighting in that game wasn't all that stellar and it got extremely repetitive but to accomplish anything you had to be paying attention. Attacks had to be executed by timed clicks of the buttons so if you weren't really paying attention to the game you would likely die and that little mechanic made the game far more interesting to me. When I defeated a boss and didn't miss a step it felt far better than just using Knights of the Round and sitting back to watch the damage roll in.
This brings me to my final point: I could easily get back into the RPG scene if it was mixed up a bit. This includes the latest wave of Western RPG/FPS's where most enemies can be taken out by a swing of a sword, a fireball or a shotgun. My idea of an RPG is a game where you feel like you are the character you are playing, where there is some level of immersion beyond a regular FPS or strategy game. Give me fighting like, say, Soul Calibur in an RPG where I need to use actual combinations of buttons to accomplish something or make me have to aim at specific locations on an enemy to do critical damage instead of doing it for me (I'm looking at you Fallout 3 you disappointment). The first person shooter elements of Fallout were so pathetically optimized that I felt like I was waving my gun around in molasses and shooting through a crooked sight.
I'm just sayin', gimmie some feeling of gratification when I beat the living daylights out of an enemy, don't make it so simple that I get bored with killing!
