Lee

Are there elements to rpgs that, to you, have become incredibly tired?

For example, when I reached the final segment of the Grandia II (playstation 2) game, I had to sigh.

-"What? Yet another game that has the final battle staged on a moon or a giant, ancient tree? Why???"-

Another rpg element I would like to see change is, if there is going to be a romantic plotline, MUST the main character fall in love with the meekest, most naive female he comes across? How insecure is this male hero? Wouldn't it be grand if the player actually got to pick the fling? The closes I have ever seen a game actually give a player an active role in that department was Final Fantasy VII (playstation).

And why, in these types of rpgs, can't players pick the gender of the main character? The last time I saw that done was Dragon Warrior IV, and that was way back in the original Nintendo days. It also didn't have romance in the game.

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direghost

I think you can pick your gender in Morrowind...but it's a point well taken. My favorite part of RPG's is character creation, and that's why I can never get into Fable, etc. I also can't play most of the new rpg's these days for the same cliched reasons you mentioned. Give me 7th Saga or Secret of Mana anytime....

kyektulu

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Lee

No kidding. The main characters---excuse me, I mean "children,"---that seem to star in all the Japanese rpgs (of this type) seem way too young for the subject matter displayed in the games when a person remembers that "adult" themes are often edited for Western releases.

I am going to go ahead and drop Shadow Hearts into yet another gaming discussion. The games with small releases often don't get as heavily marked up when they travel across the ocean. The first Shadow Hearts had a handful of scenes where Yuri, the love interest, muses to himself over whether or not he should rape a sleeping or passed out Alice. Considering they are both only around the age of 16, it is disgusting and criminal on a couple different levels. The sequel, a game then geared to succeed internationally, certainly decided against writing in such character flaws.

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Winters_Sorrow

My main pet peeve with RPGs is really two-fold;
1) The montonous nature of some RPGs, especially dungeon based ones, where the only thing which seems to change is the colour of the walls and the size of the enemies. Even good RPGs suffer from this affliction, such as Diablo.
2) The story! It's rare I don't see the inevitable double-cross coming. It frustrates me that I have to go through with it anyway, to progress the story. Maybe I'm being spoiled by more open-ended games like Morrowind, but it really frustrates me at the poor quality of some RPG stories and the rigid plot structure. Most "choices" you are given in RPGs are shallow, superficial ones and make no difference to the end result.

I realise that the sheer size of some games make these problems inherent in their design, but I wouldn't mind paying a little extra, or having a shorter game experience but one which was more original.

Still the finest example of RPG I have ever played was FFVII, with it's superb storyline, fantastic mini-games and plenty of hidden extras to find.
However, even this had its flaws (especially with the random battles).
Even with it's flaws, for me it remains one of the finest examples of how you can innovate and succeed.

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kyektulu

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Death is just another adventure.....
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cornelius

that's sickening....

In morrowind you can choose your gender,direghost. It has quite a lot of choices, and they are bound to be expandedin the upcoming Oblivion...

Dead Riverdragon

Well in Shadow Hearts Yuri is 24 and Alice 20, so they're hardly appropriate examples of too-young characters. And while it's been a long time since I played it, I got the impression that Yuri had the odd lustful thought (during the opening sequence after he and Alice jump of the train-I don't recall anything particularly seedy thereafter), but I don't think there were any connotations of rape or anything so sinister. Then again, bearing in mind what Kyetkulu said, Shadow Hearts definately did not fit in the 8/12 year old bracket, so if Yuri was a bit of a morally ambiguous character then it was because the darkness of the game allowed for it.

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Jason_Taverner

doing a quest that is basically the same as ur last quest but with different colour monsters

cornelius

having to walk 4467567868 miles to do a quest and 4467567868 back to get the reward...

Foxtale

If you played Jade Empire then this peeve would be satisfied. You can pick the girl in that. Infact my friend found a way to pick BOTH girls. O_O

Lee

Dead Riverdragon,

If those are the correct ages for Yuri and Alice, then you are completely right: Shadow Hearts would not be a good example of the often under-aged heroes in rpgs. The musing allusions, however, were rape references. I don't know about the rest of you, but any nonconsenting sexual act is rape. Yuri mused about taking adventage of her passed out state at least twice---the first time was at the very beginning of the gameplay as you mentioned.

I don't know if Yuri meant it as jest or as an illustration of his demonic half. If in jest, it was a joke of very poor taste. I mean, can you imagine watching "Friends," and having Joey "go for the gold" while Rachel was sleeping? What laugh riot that would be. If as a devilish act, then the writers of the game certainly achieved their goal, but I don't know if it would have been appropiate for even its "mature" rating that it received. The point is that Yuri is meant to be a character that the players are to later like. Suggested rape musings may make that a little hard for some people.

Foxtale,

I can't say I have ever played Jade Empire, but it sounds interesting. Both girls? Where would be the fun in that? Wait. Nevermind...

That reminds me of a little secret programmed in Final Fantasy VII. If a player answers all the questions throughout the game correctly, and continuelly set up the battle formations in the right manner, Cloud can end up spending an intimate night with Barret (the big black guy) instead of one of the women.

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kyektulu

I was considering playing this game, however I have a bad taste about it now, think I will give it a miss.


A interesting and fun gimmick, it sounds hard to achieve it though.
Might give the game a whirl and try it out.

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Death is just another adventure.....
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topspin

Linearity. Yeah, I know, linear plots get on peoples nerves. You can only make so many choices before the game gets too complex to make work, but the way some people complain about it, you'd think they wanted to start one game and make choices that would turn it into something else.
There has to be an element of main plotline for you to stick to or it you might as well make all games like Morrowind, ie completely open ended and vulnerable to making fatal mistakes early on (and needing to load up old saved games later and playing through half the game again to get some minor plot/character event)

SOme games work better as an (often) cliched story you direct, and some make you want to play it your own way.

Animaiden

You can, but later in the game, as my friend found out last night, even if you are female, it still refers to you as male. The same thing with Star Wars KOTOR 2. It automatically assumes that when you played the first game you were male. It just irks me to no end.

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