[General Discussion] RPG Elements: Characters

Good poll, this is one of my favourite things to discuss about RPGs.

Certainly with single-played RPGs I would definitely rather have an entirely customisable character (not just abilities, I get annoyed if I can't choose mundane things like sex, hair colour and clothes). If the game is made well, you don't lose anything in the story, and you feel about as much empathy for them as you can possibly get.

When it comes to RPGs where you control a whole party, I am in two minds. On the one hand, I did greatly appreciate Final Fantasy IV's system of unique characters, but that was helped by the fact that you were never given a choice of what character to use. In addition, I also liked Final Fantasy IX's system, despite the choice of characters I found myself using most of them at one point or another.

Final Fantasy X was actually an interesting hybrid, as the character development changed depending on which Sphere Grid you used. The normal Sphere Grid ensured that each party member developed unique abilities for most of the game, and the enhanced Sphere Grid allowed everyone to go in whatever direction they wanted to.

Character Development is also the area where I think Final Fantasy VII and VIII fall down most. The Junction system both games have (yes, I know it's called Materia in VII, but it's essentially the same system in both games), was deeply flawed in my opinion. It leads people to keep swapping instant abilities to their three favourite characters and, as I once demonstrated, the player just plays the entire game using three characters. Indeed, Final Fantasy VII is the only game in the series to force you to use specific characters at points just to make sure you use everyone. The end result feels somewhat forced and makes the game less fun to play.

With Final Fantasy XII, every character is customisable, but each have innate strengths and weaknesses. Penelo, for example, is three times as strong at using magic than Basch, and her attack power is calculated from her speed, so it makes sense to equip her with a dagger and spend license points on lots of magic. Granted, should you so wish, you can level up enough to give everyone every single ability, but it's a more interesting game to, with the option of customising every character.

Balthier became the clear party leader who used a gun to hit the enemy from a distance, ensuring every battle was pre-emptive, Fran was an expert at ranged weapons, Basch was a tank who only used magic when he was buffing up the party for boss battles, Penelo was a speedy and formidable mage, Ashe was a paladin who had a knack for restoring the entire party just before it was completely wiped out, and Vaan was a pure and simple thief who stole from every enemy he saw.

Personally, I think it would be interesting to see unique party members in a fixed size of party. This would allow you to pick up different characters and thus change the strategy for each play through. I know it's unlikely with the next game being spearheaded by Nomura though.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I know what you mean about Final Fantasy XII. I know they probably lowered the difficulty level so that people who weren't used to the fighting system wouldn't find it impossible, but I wish that they'd added an Expert mode for people who really wanted a challenge. Compared to Neverwinter Nights 2, Final Fantasy XII was a doddle.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I would say that in any game with a definitive main character, for example Planescape: Torment, that character should always be entirely customisable. I dislike being made to play a character in what is supposed to be an immersive game and then not having total control over what that character can and cannot do.

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