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WHAT ELEMENTS FROM EXISTING GAMES WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE REUSED?
Posts
Desertopa
775
Desertopa
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CloseDescribe some elements (mechanical, story based, etc.) which you've seen in specific games, which you'd like to see used elsewhere. If it's an element that you've seen in numerous games, try to pick a game which you think did it in a particularly interesting way, and what you think was so good about it that you think it deserves imitation.
I'll offer a couple of mine to start.
Private Actions as used in the first and second Star Ocean Games:
Private Actions were a game mechanic which gave the option of splitting up your party when you entered a town, and wandering around with your main character to engage in interactions with NPCs or your own party members which wouldn't occur when visiting the town as a group. These events sometimes offered material rewards, but mostly offered a chance to watch your characters interact with each other and affect the relationships between them. It gave much more depth to the cultivation of relationship values between characters (another mechanic I like a lot when done well,) than the simple choices of "which character will you be nice to and spend time with?" offered by many other games, and made the chance to see the interplay between characters its own reward. Plus, new Private Actions become available over time in towns which have already been visited before as the plot progresses, encouraging a level of nonlinearity in gameplay.
(The paired character scenes in the epilogue of the game if you've built their relationship values high enough, on the other hand, I think are an inadequate payoff for the level of investment that goes into cultivating those relationship values, and I don't consider that to be an element worth copying.)
The character customization system from Suikoden III:
While a single player character with blank slate abilities can make for fun gameplay, giving the player leeway to customize a large cast risks making them boring and interchangeable in combat. Suikoden III, though, managed to offer the players significant leeway for customization while leaving a cast of several dozen combat characters meaningfully distinct in gameplay terms. Each character has a number of skills, which can be leveled up at training locations (martial instructors for fighting skills, rune instructors for magic skills) with skill points gained in battle. Skills enhance in-battle characteristics such as dodge rate, parry rate, running speed, number of times the character swings at the enemy per attack, speed and power with which you cast fire spells, wind spells water spells, etc., level of spell resistance or odds of nullifying spells outright, and so on. Simple and generic enough so far. But characters differ in
*How many skill slots they have available. Some characters may only have two or three skills to develop, while others may have as many as eight.
*Whether their slots are free or fixed. Some characters are stuck with certain skills; you can decide whether or not you want to sink your points into them, but you can't remove them and replace them with other skills. Other spaces will be blank, and can be filled by any skills available at the training center, or have default skills which can be removed and replaced if you so choose.
*How talented they are at various skills. Depending on a character's level of talent at a skill, the amount of skill points they need to level it up, and the maximum level they can attain in it, will differ. A character with the minimum level of talent in a skill will only be able to raise it as high as C class, and character's limits can fall at any of the intervening points on the way to the top, B, B+, A, A+, and S.
*Whether or not they have special skills. Some characters start with, or acquire as they level up, skills which cannot simply be selected at a training center to fill blank spaces. Note that just because a character gets a special skill doesn't necessarily mean that you have to choose to keep it.
All of this is apart from their differences in base stats, equipment types, and how many runes (which allow further customization) they can equip.
Suikoden III was my first game in the series, and I was tremendously disappointed when I found that the others didn't allow me to tweak characters in this way. Suikoden V attempts something like this, with skills affecting a character's stats, but it doesn't offer nearly as much leeway over characters' performance in battle.
I'll offer a couple of mine to start.
Private Actions as used in the first and second Star Ocean Games:
Private Actions were a game mechanic which gave the option of splitting up your party when you entered a town, and wandering around with your main character to engage in interactions with NPCs or your own party members which wouldn't occur when visiting the town as a group. These events sometimes offered material rewards, but mostly offered a chance to watch your characters interact with each other and affect the relationships between them. It gave much more depth to the cultivation of relationship values between characters (another mechanic I like a lot when done well,) than the simple choices of "which character will you be nice to and spend time with?" offered by many other games, and made the chance to see the interplay between characters its own reward. Plus, new Private Actions become available over time in towns which have already been visited before as the plot progresses, encouraging a level of nonlinearity in gameplay.
(The paired character scenes in the epilogue of the game if you've built their relationship values high enough, on the other hand, I think are an inadequate payoff for the level of investment that goes into cultivating those relationship values, and I don't consider that to be an element worth copying.)
The character customization system from Suikoden III:
While a single player character with blank slate abilities can make for fun gameplay, giving the player leeway to customize a large cast risks making them boring and interchangeable in combat. Suikoden III, though, managed to offer the players significant leeway for customization while leaving a cast of several dozen combat characters meaningfully distinct in gameplay terms. Each character has a number of skills, which can be leveled up at training locations (martial instructors for fighting skills, rune instructors for magic skills) with skill points gained in battle. Skills enhance in-battle characteristics such as dodge rate, parry rate, running speed, number of times the character swings at the enemy per attack, speed and power with which you cast fire spells, wind spells water spells, etc., level of spell resistance or odds of nullifying spells outright, and so on. Simple and generic enough so far. But characters differ in
*How many skill slots they have available. Some characters may only have two or three skills to develop, while others may have as many as eight.
*Whether their slots are free or fixed. Some characters are stuck with certain skills; you can decide whether or not you want to sink your points into them, but you can't remove them and replace them with other skills. Other spaces will be blank, and can be filled by any skills available at the training center, or have default skills which can be removed and replaced if you so choose.
*How talented they are at various skills. Depending on a character's level of talent at a skill, the amount of skill points they need to level it up, and the maximum level they can attain in it, will differ. A character with the minimum level of talent in a skill will only be able to raise it as high as C class, and character's limits can fall at any of the intervening points on the way to the top, B, B+, A, A+, and S.
*Whether or not they have special skills. Some characters start with, or acquire as they level up, skills which cannot simply be selected at a training center to fill blank spaces. Note that just because a character gets a special skill doesn't necessarily mean that you have to choose to keep it.
All of this is apart from their differences in base stats, equipment types, and how many runes (which allow further customization) they can equip.
Suikoden III was my first game in the series, and I was tremendously disappointed when I found that the others didn't allow me to tweak characters in this way. Suikoden V attempts something like this, with skills affecting a character's stats, but it doesn't offer nearly as much leeway over characters' performance in battle.
Evolution as buffs like in EVO: Search for Eden. That and glowing meat action platforming RPG mechanics in general.
RyaReisender
200
Chrono Trigger - Scripted Battle "Fade-Ins" - Basically each battles tells its own small story just via visuals. Battle will be on-screen but with a separate system (not an action RPG).
SaGaFrontier (or any Kawazu game) - Character growth - Characters get stronger depending on how you use them, impossible to skill wrongly, they will automatically become perfect in the style you play them.
Romancing SaGa (or RSG3) - Open World System - Basically there is an introduction and an ending, but whatever you do between that is completely up to you. You need to hear about a place from NPCs to be able to visit it, once unlocked you can visit it and solve its mystery. Anything you do affects the future (of the region at least). Multiple characters to start with all with their own small story and different starting positions. Extremely big feeling of exploration.
Ar Tonelico II - Rhythm Defense - Enemies attack in a certain rhythm if you press the button at the perfect time, you can reduce the damage by 95% (and it scales down the further you are away from perfect). Generally battle systems that combine strategy with rhythmic input are quite fun.
Shining Force - Game System - There are many things that are great about Shining Force and that make it much better than any other SRPG in existence for me:
a) You can walk around town and the world map - RPG style: talk to NPCs, find hidden passages, find treasures. You can visit shops and the church. Game has soo many secrets. You hardly see secrets in SRPGs otherwise.
b) You can retreat from a battle, revive your characters and try again while keeping the exp. Many SRPGs don't allow grinding at all and that often makes me stuck, I like it when they give me a chance to grind.
c) Very nice and simple controls - characters get automatically chosen by their Agility stat, you can just move them directly, and with one click you open an easy menu and can select the action with just one button press. Other SRPGs often have too much unnecessary menu browsing.
Phantasy Star - Setting / Atmosphere - A sci-fi RPG that actually makes use of sci-fi elements, but still has a traditional battle system (no action RPG or shooter!).
Phantasy Star III - Generation System - You can choose what woman to marry, you get different children (and kingdoms) depending on choice. Then you continue with your first-born male child that can later choose a partner once again.
Wonder Boy In Monster World - Minimalistic Story Telling - The game has an epic story, but still there is hardly any dialogue. Even major plot NPCs won't talk more than 6 lines of text. I like it!
Visions & Voices - Mystery Survival RPG - Basically the idea that you investigate a haunted place and you have to figure out the mystery before time runs out (and sleeping which passes time is the only way to recover). The execution isn't perfect here yet, but the idea is awesome.
(Emphemeral Phantasia is also a bit like this, but it's executed even worse.)
Shining in the Darkness - Game System - A dungeon crawler that isn't overcomplicated, has a fixed dungeon design, features "instant escape" spells, the world needs more games like this.
Suikoden - Characters in Battle - There need to be more games that allow 6 characters in combat (3 are too little and 4 is acceptable but toooo common).
I hate how games always try to argue why you can only fight with 3 characters despite having 6 people!
Valkyrie Profile - One-button Battle System - You only need button presses to do the battles, one button per character. Very simple gameplay, but awesome to watch.
GrimGrimoire - Game System - A game like GrimGrimoire (real-time strategy seen sideways) but playable with mouse.
Muramasa The Demon Blade - Graphic Style - VanillaWare's graphic style is amazing. They don't really grasp how to make games that don't repetitive and boring after 10 hours, but their graphic style is perfect.
Parasite Eve - Horror/RPG Hybrid - World needs more games that have an interesting and exciting horror story, but plays more like an RPG than a shooter.
Unlimited SaGa - Board Game Inspired - More games should take inspirations and ideas from board games or should play exactly like them. There are actually quite some very RPGish board games, too bad they rarely get 1:1 video game ports.
(I intentionally only referred to RPGs, otherwise the list would be huge.)
SaGaFrontier (or any Kawazu game) - Character growth - Characters get stronger depending on how you use them, impossible to skill wrongly, they will automatically become perfect in the style you play them.
Romancing SaGa (or RSG3) - Open World System - Basically there is an introduction and an ending, but whatever you do between that is completely up to you. You need to hear about a place from NPCs to be able to visit it, once unlocked you can visit it and solve its mystery. Anything you do affects the future (of the region at least). Multiple characters to start with all with their own small story and different starting positions. Extremely big feeling of exploration.
Ar Tonelico II - Rhythm Defense - Enemies attack in a certain rhythm if you press the button at the perfect time, you can reduce the damage by 95% (and it scales down the further you are away from perfect). Generally battle systems that combine strategy with rhythmic input are quite fun.
Shining Force - Game System - There are many things that are great about Shining Force and that make it much better than any other SRPG in existence for me:
a) You can walk around town and the world map - RPG style: talk to NPCs, find hidden passages, find treasures. You can visit shops and the church. Game has soo many secrets. You hardly see secrets in SRPGs otherwise.
b) You can retreat from a battle, revive your characters and try again while keeping the exp. Many SRPGs don't allow grinding at all and that often makes me stuck, I like it when they give me a chance to grind.
c) Very nice and simple controls - characters get automatically chosen by their Agility stat, you can just move them directly, and with one click you open an easy menu and can select the action with just one button press. Other SRPGs often have too much unnecessary menu browsing.
Phantasy Star - Setting / Atmosphere - A sci-fi RPG that actually makes use of sci-fi elements, but still has a traditional battle system (no action RPG or shooter!).
Phantasy Star III - Generation System - You can choose what woman to marry, you get different children (and kingdoms) depending on choice. Then you continue with your first-born male child that can later choose a partner once again.
Wonder Boy In Monster World - Minimalistic Story Telling - The game has an epic story, but still there is hardly any dialogue. Even major plot NPCs won't talk more than 6 lines of text. I like it!
Visions & Voices - Mystery Survival RPG - Basically the idea that you investigate a haunted place and you have to figure out the mystery before time runs out (and sleeping which passes time is the only way to recover). The execution isn't perfect here yet, but the idea is awesome.
(Emphemeral Phantasia is also a bit like this, but it's executed even worse.)
Shining in the Darkness - Game System - A dungeon crawler that isn't overcomplicated, has a fixed dungeon design, features "instant escape" spells, the world needs more games like this.
Suikoden - Characters in Battle - There need to be more games that allow 6 characters in combat (3 are too little and 4 is acceptable but toooo common).
I hate how games always try to argue why you can only fight with 3 characters despite having 6 people!
Valkyrie Profile - One-button Battle System - You only need button presses to do the battles, one button per character. Very simple gameplay, but awesome to watch.
GrimGrimoire - Game System - A game like GrimGrimoire (real-time strategy seen sideways) but playable with mouse.
Muramasa The Demon Blade - Graphic Style - VanillaWare's graphic style is amazing. They don't really grasp how to make games that don't repetitive and boring after 10 hours, but their graphic style is perfect.
Parasite Eve - Horror/RPG Hybrid - World needs more games that have an interesting and exciting horror story, but plays more like an RPG than a shooter.
Unlimited SaGa - Board Game Inspired - More games should take inspirations and ideas from board games or should play exactly like them. There are actually quite some very RPGish board games, too bad they rarely get 1:1 video game ports.
(I intentionally only referred to RPGs, otherwise the list would be huge.)
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
There are a lot of games out there with good systems, but the games just have almost nothing else going for them and are otherwise generic, hastily-assembled messes that hope you won't notice because of the one cool system
Some of my top picks:
- IP system in Lufia 2. Each piece of equipment in the game lets you use a different limit break when equipped; many of them only cost 25% or 50% of the limit break gauge. Adds a ton of extra interestingness to your equipment choices.
- Equipment that teaches you abilities in FF9 / FF Tactics Advance. For basically the same reason. Equipment is hella boring in so many games. Linking it to abilities just works.
- Geometric area attacks and moving enemies in Chrono Trigger. There are so many RPGs with ATB battle systems where the only effect of the ATB is that you sit and wait. In Chrono Trigger it actually adds an extra dimension to combat. It's like the benefit of a tactical RPG without the complexity.
- Back row system in SaGa Frontier. You had 5 characters in battle but could recruit up to 15 for your team. The ones not fighting recovered MP after each battle, and recovering MP any other way was often very difficult, especially if you were outclassed by the enemies or in a long dungeon. Only the characters who participate in battle get EXP though. It led to a legitimate choice between using one static party and cycling between anywhere from 6 to 15 different characters, depending on how much exploration I wanted to do. I liked the way it encouraged using lots of characters without forcing it.
Some of my top picks:
- IP system in Lufia 2. Each piece of equipment in the game lets you use a different limit break when equipped; many of them only cost 25% or 50% of the limit break gauge. Adds a ton of extra interestingness to your equipment choices.
- Equipment that teaches you abilities in FF9 / FF Tactics Advance. For basically the same reason. Equipment is hella boring in so many games. Linking it to abilities just works.
- Geometric area attacks and moving enemies in Chrono Trigger. There are so many RPGs with ATB battle systems where the only effect of the ATB is that you sit and wait. In Chrono Trigger it actually adds an extra dimension to combat. It's like the benefit of a tactical RPG without the complexity.
- Back row system in SaGa Frontier. You had 5 characters in battle but could recruit up to 15 for your team. The ones not fighting recovered MP after each battle, and recovering MP any other way was often very difficult, especially if you were outclassed by the enemies or in a long dungeon. Only the characters who participate in battle get EXP though. It led to a legitimate choice between using one static party and cycling between anywhere from 6 to 15 different characters, depending on how much exploration I wanted to do. I liked the way it encouraged using lots of characters without forcing it.
I like that SaGa Frontier idea. I might have to use that.
Another idea I thought was neat was in Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier where cities were represented simply as nice backgrounds and a menu. Like:
> Go shopping
> Talk to important NPC
> Rest and Save
> Leave town
I think it is an elegant way to handle the hassle and perception of towns/cities (mapping, realistic size, pointless NPCs, etc...) by streamlining a town's primary function in an RPG.
E:
here, I found an LP so I could take a screenshot. This is how cities/towns are done in Super Robot Taisen OG. PCs, nice background, and a menu of pertinent places.
Another idea I thought was neat was in Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier where cities were represented simply as nice backgrounds and a menu. Like:
> Go shopping
> Talk to important NPC
> Rest and Save
> Leave town
I think it is an elegant way to handle the hassle and perception of towns/cities (mapping, realistic size, pointless NPCs, etc...) by streamlining a town's primary function in an RPG.
E:
here, I found an LP so I could take a screenshot. This is how cities/towns are done in Super Robot Taisen OG. PCs, nice background, and a menu of pertinent places.
Desertopa
775
author=RyaReisender
SaGaFrontier (or any Kawazu game) - Character growth - Characters get stronger depending on how you use them, impossible to skill wrongly, they will automatically become perfect in the style you play them.
While the idea might be good in theory, in practice Kawazu's games tend to be known for having very poor implementations; Final Fantasy II, where he got his start, was particularly nightmarish. The systems tend to be both hard to balance and vulnerable to exploitation.
A couple more of mine:
Treasure chests as used in Suikoden III: Loads of games use treasure chests, they're a genre convention despite being largely nonsensical. What did Suikoden III do differently? It made them actual goddamn chests full of treasure. I mean, how much stuff can you fit in a chest, realistically? Quite a bit. A chest with a single bottle in it is just kind of silly. Treasure chests in video games are probably inspired by stereotypical chests of pirate booty, but in most games they've morphed into something very different, something which is both dead common, and frequently contains only small amounts of largely trivial stuff. The chests in Suikoden III are few in number, almost all hidden away in remote places and guarded by some terrible monsters, and are full of large quantities of valuable items. They're never explained in-game, but players can make sense of them as being some sort of thieves' treasure troves, or something of that nature (the fact that the chests are refilled every chapter makes much less sense, and is something I'd avoid copying.) Treasure chests are properly turned into something exceptional. The vast majority of valuable goods in-game, as you would expect in real life, are acquired directly from other people.
The party synergy of the early Wild Arms games:
When you have a cast of multiple player characters, I like to see them kept distinct, so that they each offer unique contributions to the party as a whole. The Wild Arms games have some of my favorite examples of this. In the first game, each of the main characters has their own set of abilities which are not only different in function from those of other characters, they're acquired in totally different ways. Not only that, each character has their own distinct arsenal of tools for dealing with puzzles and progressing through the game, most parts of the game require all of them pooling their resources in order to complete the challenges they face. It helps reinforce the idea that the main characters are interdependent and function as a team which is greater than the sum of its parts.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Rya, I think half your list is just games you like rather than features you like in those games.
Kentona, other games that deal with towns in that way include Final Fantasy Tactics and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego!
Kentona, other games that deal with towns in that way include Final Fantasy Tactics and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego!
RyaReisender
200
Equipments that teach you abilities is in my opinion a very very horrible system. It ruined some games for me. The problem with the system is that you feel forced to get every single equip, equip it and then master all its abilities. This causes an extremely high amount of menu browsing, continuously changing your equips and changing your equipped abilities. Argh!
(I hate menu browsing.)
Edit:
Oh and talking about Lufia II, I like one thing about it and also Shining Force: When a character levels up, it will list step-by-step the stats that increase. It's exciting! Worst thing is if it just tells you "Level up" with no other info.
(I hate menu browsing.)
While the idea might be good in theory, in practice Kawazu's games tend to be known for having very poor implementations; Final Fantasy II, where he got his start, was particularly nightmarish. The systems tend to be both hard to balance and vulnerable to exploitation.I'm personally a big Kawazu fan and while it's true that FFII still had a poor implementation of the concept, Kawazu improved with every game he made (except maybe SaGaFrontier 2).
Edit:
Rya, I think half your list is just games you like rather than features you like in those games.I like the games because I like their features!
Oh and talking about Lufia II, I like one thing about it and also Shining Force: When a character levels up, it will list step-by-step the stats that increase. It's exciting! Worst thing is if it just tells you "Level up" with no other info.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Why would you play RPGs if you hate menus!! Menu-based combat is practically a defining feature of the genre. I love it. I hate it when games try to add rhythm and timing bullshit into my RPGs! Just give me strategies and menus and decisions. If I wanted to play an action game I'd be doing that. RPGs are the thinking man's genre.
- Wild ARMS 1 through 3 were full of amazing puzzle labyrinth dungeons, as did Lufia 2. Legend of Zelda is of course the series known for these kinds of dungeons, but isn't an RPG. Lots of RPGs will have dungeons with a single easy puzzle or two, but the full-on Zelda style dungeons with puzzles in every room and tools you collect over the course of the game to manipulate the environment in different ways are awesome. That kind of dungeon gameplay just fits perfectly with the way RPGs already focus on exploration, problem solving, gaining more powers as the game goes on, and slow deliberation of your available options.
- Wild ARMS 1 through 3 were full of amazing puzzle labyrinth dungeons, as did Lufia 2. Legend of Zelda is of course the series known for these kinds of dungeons, but isn't an RPG. Lots of RPGs will have dungeons with a single easy puzzle or two, but the full-on Zelda style dungeons with puzzles in every room and tools you collect over the course of the game to manipulate the environment in different ways are awesome. That kind of dungeon gameplay just fits perfectly with the way RPGs already focus on exploration, problem solving, gaining more powers as the game goes on, and slow deliberation of your available options.
author=RyaReisender
Parasite Eve - Horror/RPG Hybrid - World needs more games that have an interesting and exciting horror story, but plays more like an RPG than a shooter.
I just have to state that i'm utterly saddened by the non-existance of games similar to PE.
The only one I can think of is Koudelka for the PS1, even so it's not exactly the same, since the setting is in 1950 and the gameplay is HORRID. (beautiful graphics with PS2 cutscenes, but HORRID)
RyaReisender
200
For me closests to PE is the Fatal Frame series (Project Zero). It is quite a bit less an RPG, but at it had all the you get exp for good attacks and can level up your abilities stuff. Plus every enemy required a certain strategy to defeat, which made it feel much less like the usual shooter horror survival game.
Yes, Fatal Frame is delightful, in setting and in gameplay, I agree~
It's one of my favorite games, ever. A very clever game (although repetitive as a series. ~sigh~ I'm still waiting for Fatal Frame V...)
STILL there's been plenty of time and room for someone to make the next "cinematic horror RPG", yet no one's done it at all. It shouldn't even be all that costly, because for a PEy game, you need far less diversity of ambients than average (for you're not exploding a vast world of an ice continent, lava continent, cyber continent and etc), and far less characters, so production-wise it is cheaper than your average RPG )=
Oh, another feature I LOVE in RPGs is being able to power up your habilities through usage.
Especially if it's something like the times you used the spell being inserted into the damage formula~~ (for star ocean, the Heal spell healed for its regular formula + (times used/4) =)
I remember running in circles like a retard and using Heal in myself~
Same thing applies to Firebolt~
It's one of my favorite games, ever. A very clever game (although repetitive as a series. ~sigh~ I'm still waiting for Fatal Frame V...)
STILL there's been plenty of time and room for someone to make the next "cinematic horror RPG", yet no one's done it at all. It shouldn't even be all that costly, because for a PEy game, you need far less diversity of ambients than average (for you're not exploding a vast world of an ice continent, lava continent, cyber continent and etc), and far less characters, so production-wise it is cheaper than your average RPG )=
Oh, another feature I LOVE in RPGs is being able to power up your habilities through usage.
Especially if it's something like the times you used the spell being inserted into the damage formula~~ (for star ocean, the Heal spell healed for its regular formula + (times used/4) =)
I remember running in circles like a retard and using Heal in myself~
Same thing applies to Firebolt~
Crystalgate
694
The way you switch characters mid-combat in Final Fantasy X. I have seen a bunch of CTB scripts, but I feel that it was the character switching that made FFX's combat into what it was. Further, I think that FFX only scratched the surface of what it's system could accomplish. I would really have liked to see more games use it and explore the possibilities that system presents.
I think half of my list is "steal everything from Legend of Cao Cao" for SRPGs. Mind, my experience with SRPGs isn't that wide so maybe they did! (bonus throwin for the entire Sangokushi series to get translated):
Moving through tiles adjacent to enemies costs more movement so you can form defensive lines to protect weaker characters without filling in every tile. Unless you were facing Lu Bu who, thanks to the Red Hare, could ignore all that. The same applied to you so you couldn't just scoot around the more durable enemies to go after other targets.
Equipment in LoCC has both experience and levels. Using them in battle (or having certain accessories equipped) gives them EXP and when they level up their primary stat goes up. The big thing with this is special equipment you can't buy but get early on can remain relevant throughout the game as long as you use it. I'd hate to drop the Dragon Mail or Mirror Armor just because their defense stats couldn't keep up. Even purchasable equipment has this but with a lower level cap. Getting them to max level and selling them is the best (only?) way to get stat up fruit, but that needs to be cleaned up to make it less esoteric and relevant in the late-game.
Moving through tiles adjacent to enemies costs more movement so you can form defensive lines to protect weaker characters without filling in every tile. Unless you were facing Lu Bu who, thanks to the Red Hare, could ignore all that. The same applied to you so you couldn't just scoot around the more durable enemies to go after other targets.
Equipment in LoCC has both experience and levels. Using them in battle (or having certain accessories equipped) gives them EXP and when they level up their primary stat goes up. The big thing with this is special equipment you can't buy but get early on can remain relevant throughout the game as long as you use it. I'd hate to drop the Dragon Mail or Mirror Armor just because their defense stats couldn't keep up. Even purchasable equipment has this but with a lower level cap. Getting them to max level and selling them is the best (only?) way to get stat up fruit, but that needs to be cleaned up to make it less esoteric and relevant in the late-game.
ricifidi
30
I'd really like to see more games dealing with permadeath like fire emblem (if a character dies, you lose it forever). It makes you really care about your characters, and adds a complete layer of depth to the way you face the challenges.
Old RPGs didn`t use permadeath, but revival was so expensive that it had a similar effect (albeit dungeon-wide, and not game-wide, but interesting nonetheless)
Desertopa
775
author=LockeZ
- Wild ARMS 1 through 3 were full of amazing puzzle labyrinth dungeons, as did Lufia 2. Legend of Zelda is of course the series known for these kinds of dungeons, but isn't an RPG. Lots of RPGs will have dungeons with a single easy puzzle or two, but the full-on Zelda style dungeons with puzzles in every room and tools you collect over the course of the game to manipulate the environment in different ways are awesome. That kind of dungeon gameplay just fits perfectly with the way RPGs already focus on exploration, problem solving, gaining more powers as the game goes on, and slow deliberation of your available options.
Puzzles in RPGs were really common in early RPGs, but I think their prevalence was already on the decline by some time in the PS1 era. Which is a shame, because back when they were at their most popular, I was still a stupid kid and it was a huge pain trying to figure them out on my own. I'd be happy to see some tough puzzles in RPGs now, but very few games have attempted to offer that sort of challenge for a long time now.
I'll add another idea from Suikoden III (which manages to be one of my top games for providing interesting ideas I'd like to see elsewhere, above many games which I actually enjoyed more.) The actual level up mechanics of the game rendered it fairly moot, but I liked the fact that the main characters all start significantly above level 1, so that when you're introduced to characters who're actually totally lacking in combat experience, there's a clear and significant difference. A lot of games feature protagonists who start out as badass army officers or knights or whatever who're actually about as un-badass as it's possible to be in gameplay terms, and I'd like it if more games would show you tangible evidence that your character doesn't actually start at the bottom of the totem pole.
I might just be insane, but I wouldn’t mind seeing a reworked version of the Junction System from Final Fantasy 8. With a little work I think it could be modified into something interesting that doesn’t completely suck.
On a similar subject. The Dijin/summoning system in Golden Sun. You can keep the dijin equipped to, which boost you’re states and give you new spells, or use them to power powerful (and awesome looking) special attacks. Unfortunately by the end you'd just use them for the awesome summoning attacks, or you'd just really on the weapon unleashes from your regular attacks as both were way better than any spell and cost no MP. Still points for tying.
On a similar subject. The Dijin/summoning system in Golden Sun. You can keep the dijin equipped to, which boost you’re states and give you new spells, or use them to power powerful (and awesome looking) special attacks. Unfortunately by the end you'd just use them for the awesome summoning attacks, or you'd just really on the weapon unleashes from your regular attacks as both were way better than any spell and cost no MP. Still points for tying.
RyaReisender
200
Oh, another feature I LOVE in RPGs is being able to power up your habilities through usage.
I'd put that into Kawazu's "characters should automatically grow the way you play them" concept. :-)
Puzzles
I wouldn't generally say that puzzles are a concept I'd like to see, many games are better off without them, especially if they are just push the boxes on the switches and stuff like that. Well executed and uniquely dungeon-themed puzzles can be fun, though.
Also what I forgot to mention:
SaGaFrontier - LP system - You have HP and LP. If your HP reach 0, you become unconcious and lose 1 LP. If you are hit while being unconcious you lose 1 LP. At the end of the battle you fully recover HP. This is an amazing system that combines "every battle is a challenge" with "resource management".
Generally I prefer "every battle is a challenge", so full recovery after every battle is pretty much one of the best imaginable systems for me.
@LockeZ
I guess we simply have a very different taste in games. :-)
I don't think menu browsing is the core of RPGs. In fact I think immersion is and any kind of menu destroys immersion a little.
(Though that's not the most important aspect for me personally. I'd actually say "good music" if you asked me what is most important to me in an RPG.)
TheNecromancer
3160
Castlevania game on GBA has a system where you collect cards of 2 categories, and the ability you can use depends on the combination of cards you pick. The first card determines that your whip will be elemental, and the second card determines which element. Stuff like that. I enjoyed that.
