WOULD THIS ANNOY YOU?

You have a bucket of Legos. What is the objective?

haha none of you played romancing saga

this is exactly what it does

down to the letter

Sandbox games don't need objectives. Give them a molotov and a lawless town and see if they don't get what's up.

chaos why are you tearing this topic apart

we are talking about RPGs where this is relevant not sandbox games where it is a sandbox

god will you ever stay on topic, you are so annoying

Valkyrie Profile is a good example of how it's done right in an rpg (other than the obvious fallout/oblivion). I guess you could say the game is kinda linear since there is a world map with only a select few locations (which eventually open up over time). You have to poke around to find quests, though. And the game doesn't specifically tell you where to go.

"21 DAYS UNTIL RAGNAROK. GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER"

Since there are only a handful of locations to go to, it's pretty easy to find quests and recruit people. Plus the areas are small, so it's not like you're wandering around in the dark.

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Valkyrie Profile is a good example of how it's done right in an rpg (other than the obvious fallout/oblivion). I guess you could say the game is kinda linear since there is a world map with only a select few locations (which eventually open up over time). You have to poke around to find quests, though. And the game doesn't specifically tell you where to go.

"21 DAYS UNTIL RAGNAROK. GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER"

Since there are only a handful of locations to go to, it's pretty easy to find quests and recruit people. Plus the areas are small, so it's not like you're wandering around in the dark.

This was pretty novel but the hard capped time limit made me somewhat paranoid about being strong enough for endgame and I spent way more time grinding than I should have by entering a dungeon each available free day. Ultimately my own fault but the game should probably have some kind of disclaimer that you don't need to resort that kind of behavior or it should have diminishing/no returns for it.

I know you played Visions & Voices. How did that compare, considering it is "TEN DAYS UNTIL THE WORLD IS LOVECRAFT'D. GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER" as well?

I think it's important to recognize why there is a linear formula in standard (j)RPG's. Objectives are given via cutscenes, and more rarely by exploration unless it's an area you're specifically told to go to in a previous cutscene. The purpose is simple; your interactive gameplay experience is being bridged together. In a very classic formula, it's town, dungeon, town, dungeon, etc. It roughly falls in work, reward, work reward structure also. Each town you get to establishes your next main objective (again through a linear sequence of scenes that you're likely required to trigger), and very often new sidequests are given, or access to complete previously given sidequests. You also upgrade your equipment and cash in on said sidequests. It's a planning/execution phase shift which are balanced to complement each other and check each other from occupying too much time and thus becoming boring.

What you are suggesting is theoretically possible, but requires a major overhaul of this dynamic. You simply can't have a standard RPG like we all know and love with this new formula. If you're taking the same game progression (town, dungeon, ad nauseum) and simply hiding the objectives from open view, you're needlessly crippling the experience. It really takes a game like Oblivion, where your "main quest" is treated in equal weight and magnitude as pretty much any other quest in the whole game, to make something like this work. It's hard to explain, but imagine there were no side quests in Oblivion, only the main quest. It's all of a sudden a much more dull game, and it doesn't work. It's defined by sheer content that weighs as heavily as the main quest.

To summarize, it seems silly to obscure the main objective without providing a clear and rewarding exploration experience. Finding out what to do next is not a reward, but stumbling into additional quest chains or providing a completely combat-independent system for people to play with at their leisure certainly can be.

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Would it irritate you, as the player, to be forced to explore the game world in order to make progress in the story, or do you prefer to be very clearly directed to where you need to go next?

If I don't get any sense of direction after a while of playing, I just quit. BUT if I know what I'm supposed to do next and where to go easily, but there are thousands of side quests- I'll have tons of fun doing them and continue the story whenever. You can "widen" the gameplay like that if you wanted so long as you told me what I'm supposed to be doing, and I would still possibly enjoy it.

As for the "NOT A MERE RPG COULD CONTAIN THE AWESOMENESS OF OBLIVION", you could actually easily implement the journal system into a typical JRPG model. In fact I wish more JRPGs did this because I love the simplicity and the Anime style they tend to have but would love if it were more open.

Seriously, if you take a look inside at the mechanics of Oblivion (and I have, of course) it's not that complicated. It's actually surprisingly simple at how they did things. Sure the construction interface is crap, but you can still make fun dungeons full of enemy factions and add in some quests/whatever.

Actually, if you want a more open experience without annoying players like me, you should actually get the construction kit for Fallout 3 / Oblivion and check out how they put stuff together. You don't have to learn how to make your own content, just poke around and experiment.

I thought that Oblivion/Fallout 3 were good non-linear romps until I played Dragon Age and the structure/story/characters/world blew them out of the water. Falloblivion is more what you're looking for, though, I think, and can be fun (if modded fairly extensively).