[General Discussion] An Ideal RPG?

Quote:

*Turn based or real time battle systems

Turn-based. A lot of experimentation has been done in this realm, and results range from disastrous (FF ATB system) to bizarre (Koudelka's undersized grid field) to impressive (Star Ocean 2, Grandia series, SMT Nocturne/DDS). I'm going to have to go with the tried-and-true turn-based system of old, possibly with the Press-Turn mechanics of the recent Megaten games. Keep it simple, no funny business, and no insanely cheap "enemy cuts in and you can't stop it" XENOSAGA I AM LOOKING AT YOU.

Quote:

*Male or Female lead

Honestly, either way is fine by me. I've seen it done well with both genders. Phantasy Star 1 had a great female lead, PS4 had a great male lead. Parasite Eve, Persona 2, Koudelka, and Valkyrie Profile all had great female leads, and Xenogears, Digital Devil Saga, and Disgaea all had great male leads. Games like PSO and Neverwinter Nights got it pretty much right: When in doubt, have a silent protagonist whose gender and appearance are customizable by the player and go from there.

Quote:

*A single main character or party array

Small party of well-developed characters. See Lunar, Grandia 2, Wild Arms for examples. Single characters can work if they're done right, but there are serious plot constraints that are put in place as a result. Legacy of Kain, particularly the Soul Reaver story thread, is the best example I can think of off-hand of a single-protagonist story done right.

Quote:

*General Theme? (e.g. Futuristic or medievil)

Modern dark fantasy. Part of the reason I'm such an unrepentant fan-bitch of Atlus' SMT games and spinoffs is that they're set in the modern world, but that world has been twisted and darkened by the game designers to fit the mood of the games. Other series have done similar settings: Shadowrun springs to mind as the next-best example. It's slightly futuristic, but the world is still very recognizable and contemporary political problems and global concerns are still very much an issue.

Quote:

*Should there be transition between field screen to battle screen, or should battles take place on the field itself

I think there should be a transition, provided two guidelines are followed:
-The battle surroundings need to echo the map surroundings as closely as possible. Phantasy Star 2 had an excuse: it was an early 16-bit game. That excuse no longer flies.
-Transitions can be artsy, novel, flashy, show-offy of the hardware, whatever. If they take more than 2-3 seconds, I will hunt you down and beat you with a tire iron. To put it another way, FF7 good, Nocturne better. Legend of Dragoon BAD, and Xenosaga 2 un-fucking-forgivable.

Quote:

*Should it feature a world map, or should areas be interlinked/ linear

Most of the games I've played and really enjoyed made use of a world map. It may be an old convention, but it's a well-developed one and it really seems to work well. If you want to have interlinked areas, provide a means of teleporting/taking a cab/somehow-or-other getting to and fro quickly without wasting time on walking and fighting weak enemies.

Quote:

*Should there be more focus in RPGs - in other words, intergrating more gameplay genres - such as sport, racing, etc. Okay you see this in mini games, but should there be a grander focus?

IMHO, absolutely not. The RPG is a distinct genre because it has distinct gameplay mechanics and characteristics. Minigames are fine if there's an idea a developer wants to explore. With HD DVD and Blu-Ray on the horizon for game media, there'll be more than enough room to store minigame data. Otherwise, try spinoff games (if you really have to) or just let the other genres be. I've actually found that incorporating RPG elements into other genres works better than incorporating elements from other genres into RPGs. See Castlevania for a good example. The only games I've played that really successfully blur the lines between genres are/were Deus Ex and System Shock 2.

Quote:

*Cut out the cliched elements such as 'romantic love stories' or 'save the world storyline?' or the 'annoyingly pathetic heroine who is always in distress' - How would you go about changing these cliches?

Depressing games. Seriously. Save the damsel, only to have the hero realize he's played right into the villain's trap as said villain grins and unceremoniously shoots the damsel or detonates some kind of neurotoxin he implanted in her while she was unconscious. This serves a number of purposes: it gets rid of the clichés, it makes for interesting plot twists, it fosters strong feelings in the player (who didn't hate Luca Blight's guts as he slaughtered the villagers in cold blood?), and it enables one of my favourite plot themes: revenge. Part of the reason Soul Reaver was so gripping was that Raziel's unbridled hate and lust for vengeance were so well-developed and believable that they kept the player interested.

Alternatively, if you don't want to feed the teen-angst crowd, just leave romance out altogether. I've praised Nocturne enough for you all to know how I feel about it, and I'm not alone in thinking so. Incidentally, it has little to no romance whatsoever. If a developer/scriptwriter is at a loss for how to do a romantic subplot, please do us all a favour and instead of shoehorning it in via any lame means possible, just leave it out and focus on the prevailing story instead. The story will be that much better for the additional effort you can put into it, and we'll all be spared a whiny main character and a female supporting lead who we all want to string up and flay with a cheese grater 10 hours into the game.

Finally, one more thought on this one: this whole humorous-misunderstandings-leading-to-sexual-tension-with-timid-male-lead thing is really getting tired. See Lunar. Can we please, please, please have, just for once, a couple who are both sexually honest/assertive/mature and don't engage in these ridiculous and tired Love Hina anime cliches involving some hapless idiot getting his ass kicked by a female ally when not 5 minutes ago he singlehandedly ch0wned a 50-foot-tall axe-wielding cyclops? Please? It's not funny. It's not cute, it's not amusing, it's not interesting, it doesn't help to develop characters, it's completely fucking pointless. Maybe it's just late and I'm tired and blowing off steam, but for fuck's sake, newsflash: men and women generally like having sex with each other. Can we have characters who understand and acknowledge this fact, and pursue their relationship in a mature, educated, intelligent fashion? Or is this just asking way too much?

Quote:

*Should it be more about gameplay than storyline?

Yes. I love a good plot in my games, but for godsakes, make them playable. I enjoyed PSO far more than Xenosaga despite the near-nonexistent story simply because the gameplay was addictive as crack. Xenosaga was plot-heavy, but the slow gameplay and, in the case of Episode 2, insufferably overcomplicated battle system made playing to get to the next plot point a chore and when you finally got to that plot point, the cutscene lasted nearly an hour. PSO had a plot thinner than paper and more full of holes than Swiss cheese, but I logged over 1000 hours without even having to go online because actually playing, slaughtering beasties, hunting for rare items, and challenging bosses was so much goddamn fun.

Quote:

*Weaponry - What would you have, what would you cut out...like the main character almost always has a sword, and the heroine is a weakling with a staff

If you want weapons, why not have a single weapon the character has for the whole game? See Raziel and the Reaver, the cast of Wild Arms 3 and their guns, or Nocturne and the general absence of weapons. Failing that, do like the PC RPGs and have weapon classes that correspond to character types and that can be trained with experience or other gameplay mechanics. SaGa Frontier had a good way of dealing with this in that the more you used a weapon of a given type, the more proficient the character became with that type.

Quote:

*What would be an ideal battle engine - combos, limit breaks, magic system stc - how would you like it

KISS: Keep It Simple, Shit-wit. Don't overcomplicate. Desperation moves always seemed somewhat gimmicky, and I never once caught myself missing them in games that didn't have them. Combos can be cool, but I'd prefer a SaGa Frontier-style means of handling them over a Phantasy Star 4/Crappo Trigger style. Leave the individual moves alone and let them be chained together to hit harder overall. Magic system...has been refiend to a science. People learn spells that cost them magic points. Leave it be.

One thing you left out that I feel really warrants mention in this day and age, and I harp on this in every RPG thread I read: NO GODDAMN SAVE POINTS. Blah blah save-on-the-fly in DooM 1 on my 486 blah blah PS2 more powerful blah why need special point to write to external storage? Save-anywhere has been done in SaGa Frontier, Lunar, Persona 2, and a few others. It works. USE IT. Don't give me bullshit about "strategy" or "challenge," or else I'll be forced to give you reality about "dinner," "work," "errands," or that dreaded enemy of geeks the world over: "power outages." Give me my fucking save-on-the-fly. Or else. TIRE IRON.

Jam it back in, in the dark.