[General Discussion] An Ideal RPG?

Preface:

I've already had some fantasy RPG, in my head for over 4 years now, I have changed my mind and experience new genres and games.

The storyling of all Final Fantasy's captivated my mind since I was in gradeschool (Note: not too long ago), but I have figured the recent Final Fantasies have the same storyline trend, (-XII, XI), So i began reconfirming what made Final Fantasy a game that satisfied millions. (Never got the answer, yet)

The reason I began disliking, the the "Tales" series was after playing 3 games, the "big picture" was exactly the same. I still enjoyed the minor events characters played, but it became bland and predictable.

Lastly, my ideal storyline, has been a W.I.P. for over 4 years, and would be in final script in the future. I'm can only say I wish, I would make up my mind.

It's headline is:

A Tale of True Love, the Gears of Politics, the Heights of War, and Unfathomable Fantasy

Setting:

The setting of my choice, must be mixed of medieval time period with a semi-technological era.

What I mean is the cliched* setting of;

A world with swords and magic, ruled by ancient forgotten technology. It's always nice to see a sword and gun fighting along side, or opposing sides. Also where magic and monsters ruled.

Characters:

It would be nice to have male and female main characters. More so, A supporting character later becoming a main character. For sure, it would add to a lot of the plot.

But, male main character have to have the cliched* sword main weapon. Just because I always picture axe men as mindless brutes, and spear men careless heroes, and magicians isolated geniuses.

A sword always reminded me of an evened* out character.

The female could use "Healing" Magic, the typical cleric, or a Bow -- the rightful support a sword needs (Not implying the female main character has a supporting role towards the male)

Party System:

It always bugged me that, in some games, you traveled with a large group of people, e.g. - 8 characters, but only one showed up on the map. And they appeared only for certain events.

I was always like Where'd they go? Are they invisible? What?

FFXII, Xenogears, and several other titles, did it correctly.
(FFXII not including town maps, nor boss battle cutscenes*)
If you have a party, they should be with at all times. You should be able to see them and they shouldn't just disappear.

I mean if your max member limit is 3 than, have three character walk with you and have everyone else loiter at some location. At least they are there and you know they are.

Also, exp shouldn't be shared, for two reasons. It's cheap to PLVL weak characters that are underleved (FFXII) and two, if I don't like a character, I don't wanna level him.

But, the character max should probably be 3 in your main party* (and a Non-Playable Guest) so a total of 4, (FFXII style)

Puzzles:

Yes, But no backtracking.
Also the "Obstacle" style puzzles are annoying, but should be kept there because it adds challenge and realism*

Battle:

The Gambit system was amazing in FFXII, and I would love to use it.
That kind of A.I. surpasses that of Kingdom Hearts.
I enjoyed the MMO-esque battle fluency of Active-Dimension-Battle of FFXII, but it lacked passed that I enjoyed of Kingdom Hearts.

Also a nifty combo system would be great for fighting fanatics, like that of Xenogears, or such. (Just made compatible for real time)

Basically, I would have to go with the Real-Time Fighting, with an advance customizable A.I. system.

Levels:

I always enjoyed the customizing abilities in MMO's like Ragnarok, FlyFF, Maple Story. And games like Shining Soul, so I must say being able to input your own growth chart would be extremely nice.

Again, experience is not shared.

Shops:

Make it realistic, would a general store have guns and swords?
Seperate the Item shops and Weapon/Armor shops. (further even, Armor and Weapon)

Also, Magic should be bought, like scrolls (prefered title - book) because, I mean you don't learn something from nothing. I expect people to read something and learn.

And inns, Games now a days, I rarely see or use the inns. In Golden Sun I and II I not once used their inns. And in games such as Xenogear or FFXII, i didn't see an Inn where you to heal. FFX and others. But still, Have them they are there for realism* (I use that loosely), there are other people in the world, and wanderers and travellers need them.

Music:

1. RPG = classical orchestrated.
2. Techno, or Rave style music for battle music doesn't cut it very well. They aren't memoriable enough.
3. I love Rock, Zeppelin and Blues Rock... but they have no right barging in on something that they should not be found.

Save:

World Map = Yes
Dungeon = Save Point
Town = Save Point

The classic style is still the best for me

And boss retries should only be on loads* its fair.

Bosses:

Also I began noticing, in a few new games, Bosses don't give EXP anymore... Haha No more big exp boost for your weak party members.

I really dislike giant random enemies, that are bosses of caves and mountains. They hardly add to the plot and are useless in my eyes (Other than EXP)

Bosses should only ascertained when they will add a main plot line, and move the story-along. (And I don't mean, a town is scared of a giant animal, so you must go kill it to give peace to the town once again, that's a lame way of moving the story)

Bosses should, be as strong as your characters in every way. AS STRONG. I'm not sure how to put that, but in the Final Fantasy Series bosses, progressively get insanely rigged. As your characters growth remains the same it has been since previous bosses.

I mean too say, they should be strong enough to beat one time, but they do not drag a 30 minute battle because of its insane HP or insane DMG...

Normal enemies way weaker than your party, because you have to kill several of them. If they are your parties level, that means you'd have to heal after just beating one, and thats high-maintainance and tedious.

Lastly, The Final Boss Battle. Should be hard. That's all I can say. Not rigged, but Hard. Also they shouldn't drag into 3 (FFXII) seperate battles or 7 (KH). They should be one battle that ends all.

Finally:

RPG's are storybooks, where people choose the the story. The more ways you can end the book because of decisions the better. It's a story that you carved out from the pages that were given.

Jam it back in, in the dark.