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What do you look for in an RPG?

  • Gameplay

    Votes: 18 31%
  • Graphics

    Votes: 1 1.7%
  • Soundtrack

    Votes: 3 5.2%
  • Storyline

    Votes: 36 62%
21 - 40 of 129 Posts
pretty strong statement considering all the really crappy games out there. i bet if it wasn't made by square, wasn't hyped and not called chrono anything, you'd have nothing against it.
 
probably the attribute i look for most of all is where i feel like i'm journeying with the rest of the group. I never really felt it as much as i have in FFX where i really felt like i was on the pilgrimage with Yuna and the rest.
 
Yeah a story line is really important. Gameplay is second for me since it takes most time of the game.
 
Paratech said:
Bare Knuckle / Streets of Rage III was a RPG?
No, but given the wording of Vanit's post, that's rather irrelevant.
 
Kaiser Sigma said:
Not really, I hate games where you have pretty much none character development...
it paid more attention to the plot development than to the characters' development. so i guess it depends what you're looking for the most.
 
Discussion starter · #29 ·
Its really strange. Suikoden 2 had more characters and less char dev than Chrono Cross and i still prefer that game to CC. it also had this amazing piano interlude when the lead characters get their runes in the begining of the game.
 
Kaiser Sigma said:
What's a plot without protagonists? That's Chrono Cross for you...
i think you're exaggerating the "lack of character development". is it simply the fact that the main character doesn't speak that you're not even naming him the protagonist? in the very least, you could state that kidd and serge are protagonists.
 
No, it's the fact that there are about 50 characters in the game, and you learn nothing of them, pretty much any of them, throught the entire game.
 
Exodus said:
i think you're exaggerating the "lack of character development". is it simply the fact that the main character doesn't speak that you're not even naming him the protagonist? in the very least, you could state that kidd and serge are protagonists.
I am exaggerating, uh? Then tell me asides from Chrono, Lynx, Kidd and Harle the only characters who had at best mediocre development what else do you know about the 40+ characters the game had? Serge was a protagonist for doing what...? Navigating through a story where people tell him who he is? That doesn't make it a protagonist per se... Take Seta-San's point for example: never when playing CC I felt that with my characters, I never got the feeling that I was travelling with them I only kept murmuring to myself "Lord of Darkness please don't let another NPC join my party"... character development? If you call CC's characters background anything more than mediocre (for the 4 characters I named... because most of the others didn't have one to start with) then the standards of quality we have differ greatly.
 
I choose gameplay, if its good enought, you can completely forget the fact that the story sucks. Course the story still has to be stuck together better than those orange penutbutter crackers that taste like...orange crackers...yeah, if a game has at least a somewhat new plot idea but really great gameplay, I will kind of make up the story in my head as I go. Sometimes I'll put a game down for months and forget most of the plot so I have to make it up.
 
thats definitely the first time i heard that u can "completely forget the fact that the story sucks" when playing an RPG.
 
Yeah, that's like saying gameplay can suck in a fighting game as long as there's a storyline :p
 
I voted for story. To me the storyline must be fully developed with characters who are more than cardboard cutouts. As the creator of Final Fantasy VII said, he "tells stories first."

You could easily say "if the gameplay is good enough you can forget about the story or lack of." I nitpick. I like a storyline, even a simple one such as Doom 3 will do. All I'm gonna mention is one game: Devil May Cry 2. The storyline was completley out of the woodwork, and the gameplay was very repetitve. I'll only really look for a story in non-FPS games though. (Painkiller...)

I think soundtrack is second though, my favourite OST is Final Fantasy VIII. Very emotional, artistic and with a wide range of styles. Also, i believe that unlike a lot of game soundtracks, it stands up on it's own as a good album. When used correctly, a soundtrack in a game, film or television programme can merge totally with other elements and elevate it beyond anything it was before. That's why i don't really like ambient soundtracks such as Parasite Eve 2.
 
RPGs are interactive storybooks, so it's natural the plot and the character development (which really go hand in hand) and the most important elements. Well composed music (it matters not about the performance, just look at FF6) sets the atmosphere, so is also quite vital. Gameplay affects your enjoyment of the battle scenes, so that is important, but in a far lesser format to the previous two. Graphics really are the least important, but good graphics can make a good game great and bad graphics can make a great game merely good.
 
I immediately discard graphics as a factor in any game. My reasoning: Tetris.

True about how a soundtrack is composed over being played. Programmed 16-bit soundtracks such as Chrono Trigger, Terranigma, Final Fantasy VI and even Sonic 1 & 2 are awesome.

Playability normally on RPGs is identical. Simple and with only occasional "newfangled" battle scenes and gimmicks like Junctioning. This does actually help the instant accessibility of the games though (if you've played one or two SNES RPGs you can play them all). You could also look on how the gameplay "formula" of RPGs exists simply to tell the story. (Formula = cutscene, walking about, fighting, puzzles, boss battle, cutscene, repeat until end of disk/game).
 
Kane-Sama said:
No, it's the fact that there are about 50 characters in the game, and you learn nothing of them, pretty much any of them, throught the entire game.
Kaiser Sigma said:
I am exaggerating, uh? Then tell me asides from Chrono, Lynx, Kidd and Harle the only characters who had at best mediocre development what else do you know about the 40+ characters the game had?
I guess neither of you are a fan of the suikoden series... shame, its one of the better ones.
 
21 - 40 of 129 Posts