it isnt just the combat system that makes FFXIII a terrible RPG. Its over halfway through the game before you are given any sort of freedom, you cant even choose your combat team until chapter 9, that isnt very RPGish is it? Also the characters arent very engaging, You have Captain Douchebag, Stone Lady, Cry Baby, and the Australians. Oh and Sazh, but ill exclude him from this, because he atleast has some personalityDefense said:
Poll: Who Do You Think is Best RPGs Between Bioware, Square Enix, and Bethesda?
- Thread starter HusaneFatal
- Start date
Bioware.
Bethesda makes good sandboxes but fail at npc interactions and storytelling.
Square Enix can write decent stories and characters (but have been steadily going downhill imo), but the games themselves become more and more boring and linear (story may be nice, but playing the game in order to get to it is a chore instead of fun).
Bioware however, does awesome characters (altough they have their misses as well), interesting worlds, good storylines and have decent playability on top of it.
Altough i admit that with the total disaster of DA2, and slight dissapointment of MA2 i have worries about them as well, hopefully SW:TOR and ME3 will blow me away and restore my confidence in my favorite game developer.
Bethesda makes good sandboxes but fail at npc interactions and storytelling.
Square Enix can write decent stories and characters (but have been steadily going downhill imo), but the games themselves become more and more boring and linear (story may be nice, but playing the game in order to get to it is a chore instead of fun).
Bioware however, does awesome characters (altough they have their misses as well), interesting worlds, good storylines and have decent playability on top of it.
Altough i admit that with the total disaster of DA2, and slight dissapointment of MA2 i have worries about them as well, hopefully SW:TOR and ME3 will blow me away and restore my confidence in my favorite game developer.
I never mentioned anything about it being an RPG. Stop spouting that linearity bullshit please, because it actually works considering the narrative of the game. You're not supposed to take your time on Cocoon considering you're hated and hunted by everyone. Bethesda games and recent Bioware games are just as linear, the only difference being that they give you a choice that doesn't have any impact.prince_xedar said:
Also, that's your opinion. I didn't care for any character in any Bethesda or Bioware game(except Garrus), but I liked the cast of FFXIII overall despite the archetype being done before.
Your question could easily have been interpreted as rhetorical, as there is only one obvious answer. There is no story-line choice in the main quest in Oblivion. I chose to address the issue I thought you were driving at rather than answer your apparently rhetorical question. I brought up Morrowind because I thought doing so helped explain what I was trying to say about making choices in OblivionChupathingyX said:
It's true we don't know if it will be good or bad, but that doesn't mean we cannot approve or disapprove of the direction they seem to be taking the series. If they told me Skyrim was going to be an Asteroid clone with a fantasy theme, I personally wouldn't be saying "well, let's just wait and see". I'd be calling them completely batshit bonkers.
Bioware gets my vote.
Bethesda releases games that are good, but they are buggy as all hell, and they never get fixed until the community does it.
Square Enix used to make good games back when I was in grade school. That was some 15 years ago. Almost every RPG they produce any more is nothing but shit.
Bioware although they have slipped into their games as of late, at least they still their game world insane amount of character and depth. That and their games don't crash when I enter combat, enter a room, run too fast between cells .. you get the point.
Bethesda releases games that are good, but they are buggy as all hell, and they never get fixed until the community does it.
Square Enix used to make good games back when I was in grade school. That was some 15 years ago. Almost every RPG they produce any more is nothing but shit.
Bioware although they have slipped into their games as of late, at least they still their game world insane amount of character and depth. That and their games don't crash when I enter combat, enter a room, run too fast between cells .. you get the point.
I'll vote for bioware. oblivion and morrowind I never really enjoyed, their story lines are pretty meh, and the combat wasn't my thing. doesn't mean I wont try skyrim thought =)
Captcha- in the box
Captcha- in the box
Bioware and Bethesda are pretty much tied in my book. Bioware games have better stories and writing, and Bethesda games have better immersion.
But I'll say Bioware because the gameplay of their games is generally more enjoyable on a minute-to-minute basis. And the storylines have more emotional impact.
I absolutely love Bethesda too, though. And I like Square in general, but they're really not what they used to be. Final Fantasy XIII and XIV sucked. Unless you count Deus Ex 3 as a Square Enix game (and I don't), they're not even in the race anymore.
But I'll say Bioware because the gameplay of their games is generally more enjoyable on a minute-to-minute basis. And the storylines have more emotional impact.
I absolutely love Bethesda too, though. And I like Square in general, but they're really not what they used to be. Final Fantasy XIII and XIV sucked. Unless you count Deus Ex 3 as a Square Enix game (and I don't), they're not even in the race anymore.
Defense said:
Soooooo, you think that Final Fantasy can´t put someone to sleep? Even 7 had the falling asleep label, and seriously 13, decent? That wasn´t a game that was a interactive film.
quoting someone that everyone on the Escapist know:"Someone told me that FF13 get´s good about 20 hours in, but that´s not really a point on it´s favor. Put your hand on a oven for 20 hours and you´re probably stop feeling the pain but you´ve done serious damage to yourself"
Well god forbid if someone has a different opinion than you. Seriously, if people are intelligent enough to post on a forum, they should be intelligent enough to understand what an opinion is.JamesStone said:
OT: I like all of them, JRPGs and WRPGs both. I have phases, so sometimes I'll want to play JRPGs for ages at a time and sometimes WRPGs. At the moment I tend towards Bioware more since I have a backlog of DA and ME to complete, but I suspect that will change when Skyrim comes out.
I never said that, but most WRPGs I played have boring combat. It's either D&D hacky slashy team based combat or a crappy cover based third person shooter.JamesStone said:
And yes, 13 was decent as a game. It's just slightly more linear than Mass Effect 2, if only because about 5% of choices in Mass Effect 2 actually matter. The only difference is that it makes sense in Final Fantasy 13. Mass Effect 2 is corridor TPS with chest high walls everywhere, by coincidence.
I love the Elder Scrolls universe. Morrowind was my first high fantasy RPG and I've been a huge fan ever since. My vote is for Bethesda.
holy crap, is this some thread necro or what? Anyway, I think I voted for BioWare, despite DA2 disappointing, though Bethesda was very close. Square however is still on a personal embargo, after killing JRPGs for me with The Last Remnant and FF13. That being said, I do think I'll have to buy Deus Ex, though I think I can wait a week or so and get it used, just because I am that petty.
Also, wow, I stand by a statement I said a while ago, RPG fans really are the worst fanbase there is. Say what you will about CoD fans, atleast they just shut up and enjoy their games. You guys are all fans of the same genre and you can't agree on shit.
Also, wow, I stand by a statement I said a while ago, RPG fans really are the worst fanbase there is. Say what you will about CoD fans, atleast they just shut up and enjoy their games. You guys are all fans of the same genre and you can't agree on shit.
Wow that was a tough one. Answer at the bottom for the tl;dr.
All three of those companies have great things about their own ways of doing RPGs.
Bethesda - What I love about these guys is they make very big worlds to explore with lots of side quests. Most of them implement a "karma" system of some kind: The Elder Scrolls has the Fame/Infamy thing going on for it that has effects on what side quests you can do and how different people will react to you. Fallout pretty much has the same thing with "karma" but mostly affects your ending if anything. But Bethesda has the problem for me that the story isn't very engaging. I can spend hours just traversing the dungeons, caves and forests of Cyrodiil and forget I'm suppose to be stopping the world from ending.
Square Enix - These guys are pretty much the biggest reason that the JRPG exists in the West and they rightly earn bragging rights to say they have one of the best known gaming series in the world, never mind just among RPG fans. What these guys do and do well is stories. Their games always remind you there is a reason you're fighting and throw in some pretty memorable characters. In later years, they've shown that they are among the masters of cinematography in gaming to the point they released a sequel to Final Fantasy VII as a movie. A pretty damn confusing movie if you don't own a Blu-Ray player but still a very pretty one. But they lack in one area. Side quests are very fun but they really put much of an emphasis on them. They're really only there for the people who look for them. Except in Dragon Quest... definitely there they're not. But even then, they don't have that appeal that Bethesda have. They don't really have much of a impact on anything. Whilst Fallout has side quests that a very engaging and lets you meet new people who will give you a helping hand, Final Fantasy and the like really only just have enough that make you want to play them and it's usually just "Go here, kill 10 of that and come back and I'll give you money".
Bioware - I think these guys have got the mid ground between these. Great stories with some great optional quests on the side. But they still feel some how as important as the story missions and quite often as fun. There are usually optional endings and now we have started seeing that these endings aren't just for the sake of seeing how things will play out. Transferring your save from Mass Effect 1 to Mass Effect 2 would really show just how much your actions matter by opening up new quests and dialogue options. It's a truly fun game to play through twice just to see how different you can make things.
tl;dr I chose Bioware because of how much you can experiment with the story.
All three of those companies have great things about their own ways of doing RPGs.
Bethesda - What I love about these guys is they make very big worlds to explore with lots of side quests. Most of them implement a "karma" system of some kind: The Elder Scrolls has the Fame/Infamy thing going on for it that has effects on what side quests you can do and how different people will react to you. Fallout pretty much has the same thing with "karma" but mostly affects your ending if anything. But Bethesda has the problem for me that the story isn't very engaging. I can spend hours just traversing the dungeons, caves and forests of Cyrodiil and forget I'm suppose to be stopping the world from ending.
Square Enix - These guys are pretty much the biggest reason that the JRPG exists in the West and they rightly earn bragging rights to say they have one of the best known gaming series in the world, never mind just among RPG fans. What these guys do and do well is stories. Their games always remind you there is a reason you're fighting and throw in some pretty memorable characters. In later years, they've shown that they are among the masters of cinematography in gaming to the point they released a sequel to Final Fantasy VII as a movie. A pretty damn confusing movie if you don't own a Blu-Ray player but still a very pretty one. But they lack in one area. Side quests are very fun but they really put much of an emphasis on them. They're really only there for the people who look for them. Except in Dragon Quest... definitely there they're not. But even then, they don't have that appeal that Bethesda have. They don't really have much of a impact on anything. Whilst Fallout has side quests that a very engaging and lets you meet new people who will give you a helping hand, Final Fantasy and the like really only just have enough that make you want to play them and it's usually just "Go here, kill 10 of that and come back and I'll give you money".
Bioware - I think these guys have got the mid ground between these. Great stories with some great optional quests on the side. But they still feel some how as important as the story missions and quite often as fun. There are usually optional endings and now we have started seeing that these endings aren't just for the sake of seeing how things will play out. Transferring your save from Mass Effect 1 to Mass Effect 2 would really show just how much your actions matter by opening up new quests and dialogue options. It's a truly fun game to play through twice just to see how different you can make things.
tl;dr I chose Bioware because of how much you can experiment with the story.