GAME PET PEEVES

Posts

post=140130
I hate when games cling to dated mechanics to make their game seem more "old school." Serious offenders include: not being fully healed at save points, party members not receiving EXP if they're KOed, and party members not receiving EXP if they're not in the party. These mechanics do nothing but annoy the player. It's an artificial way of boosting the difficulty and it does nothing but piss me off.

This reminds me of one that often annoys me, not clearing status effects after battles in a game with practically unlimited curative items. I can understand not automatically removing status effects in games where the played has very limited resources, that's a way to add a threat. However, in games where the player will soon be able to buy 50+ status cure items, forcing them to manually cure status effects only wastes time. Seriously, does anyone feel how they are running out of resources when their stock of antidotes ticks down from 87 to 86?
The healing save points depend more on something like what Crystalgate mentioned: If resource management and attrition are important healing save points tend to fuck it up. I'm more bothered by games that give free healing moves in battle but no free healing outside of it. See any of those stupid games where defending recovers HP, WA3 is also a problem except it is awesome.

The stuff about EXP distribution I agree with though. Killing a boss with dead party members should be a time to put on the Hell Yes shades / give a sigh of relief of scraping by, not "dangnabbit now billybob is two levels behind". Non-party characters not getting EXP just discourages using different characters and promotes sticking to Your One Team. Persona 3/4 sidestep this by curving experience to get characters to a certain level quickly.
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
post=140130
I hate when games cling to dated mechanics to make their game seem more "old school." Serious offenders include: not being fully healed at save points, party members not receiving EXP if they're KOed, and party members not receiving EXP if they're not in the party. These mechanics do nothing but annoy the player. It's an artificial way of boosting the difficulty and it does nothing but piss me off.


Yes, I disagree with the idea that you should ever get repeatable free healing at any point in the game. This removes any difficulty of levelling up. And if you can get healed for free an infinite number of times in the *middle* of a dungeon, then not only does it remove all possible challenge from levelling up, but it also removes any necessity to manage your resources, which should always be a vital point of gameplay in any RPG that has dungeons. (If you don't have to manage resources, what is the point of a dungeon filled with repetitous random battles?)

In fact I would go so far as to say that unlimited free healing at save points is probably my biggest pet peeve in modern RPGs.

I have honestly never considered XP for dead/absent party members to be an issue. It's never even occured to me as something that could potentially matter. Does this actually bother people? I would like to hear more thoughts on this, as I've never thought about it before. If so, it is something I will steer away from in my next game. Or maybe even patch into Vindication.
Sounds like you're running with the assumption that the player -will- want to grind and designing the game around trying to prevent that. That...doesn't sound very fun.

Hint: "Levelling up" should not be the challenge, being a murder machine -without- grinding should be

this is not an all encompassing statement
post=140130
party members not receiving EXP if they're not in the party.


That stuff doesn't really bother me, as it makes some sort of logical sense, if you haven't participated in a fight, you ain't going to have no more experience about combat when it ends. Plus I've played enough RPGs to be used to it now.

For the whole 'That one team' the fact you have to fight the final boss of most games with just one team usually means you'll have selected which party members to develop by the time you recieve them all. Hell even with Persona 4 I had my one team right after I got Teddie, and I was ready even sooner on Persona 3.

Back on the line of the topic, if anything one of the main pet peeves for me is when the party I've used for most of the game suddenly seems to be far, far less usefull at endgame, with only a few enemy sets being good targets. Couple this with high encounter rates and you'll find me going 'Ugh' in the last dungeon as I run from a good amount of fights.
Sailerius
did someone say angels
3214
post=140224
post=140130
I hate when games cling to dated mechanics to make their game seem more "old school." Serious offenders include: not being fully healed at save points, party members not receiving EXP if they're KOed, and party members not receiving EXP if they're not in the party. These mechanics do nothing but annoy the player. It's an artificial way of boosting the difficulty and it does nothing but piss me off.
Yes, I disagree with the idea that you should ever get repeatable free healing at any point in the game. This removes any difficulty of levelling up. And if you can get healed for free an infinite number of times in the *middle* of a dungeon, then not only does it remove all possible challenge from levelling up, but it also removes any necessity to manage your resources, which should always be a vital point of gameplay in any RPG that has dungeons. (If you don't have to manage resources, what is the point of a dungeon filled with repetitous random battles?)

In fact I would go so far as to say that unlimited free healing at save points is probably my biggest pet peeve in modern RPGs.

I have honestly never considered XP for dead/absent party members to be an issue. It's never even occured to me as something that could potentially matter. Does this actually bother people? I would like to hear more thoughts on this, as I've never thought about it before. If so, it is something I will steer away from in my next game. Or maybe even patch into Vindication.

Unlimited free healing doesn't mean there's no challenge. Have you played Final Fantasy XIII? If you have unlimited healing built into the game, then you design the difficulty and challenges of the game around this concept in order to maintain the difficulty.

I personally think that not receiving XP for dead/absent party members is inexcusable. It's one of the features that makes me quit a game early if it annoys me enough. It just forces you to do repetitive, pointless grinding in order to make sure all of your party members are up to par. Grinding isn't fun.
Reserve members not getting EXP does annoy me if the game also expects you to use everyone at some point. I'd at least give reserve members a portion of the full EXP. That way, while they aren't completely getting stronger for twiddling their thumbs, it's at least better than sitting in the back at Lv. 9, when your main party is Lv. 58.
For solving that I like the way Digital Devil saga does it. You start out with fairly fixed parties, so party EXP distribution is no problem, then when you get your full party none-actives don't get EXP, but there are two skills that are obtainable from the Mantra system which gve you 50% and 100% EXP when inactive, which is useful as ALL characters have an use in battle.
post=140296
post=140130
party members not receiving EXP if they're not in the party.
That stuff doesn't really bother me, as it makes some sort of logical sense, if you haven't participated in a fight, you ain't going to have no more experience about combat when it ends. Plus I've played enough RPGs to be used to it now.
It's actually hilarious how some RPGs do this but their cutscenes still make no sense.

For example in FFXIII, the final boss scene (this isn't a spoiler). All 6 party members are there and are all like "OKAY GUYS, LET'S DO THIS!
YOU'RE GOING DOWN!"
*battle transition*
*fighting with only 3 people*

So what are the other 3 people doing? Sitting on their ass? Logic thrown out the window.
"hey they all died should we do something?"

"you're just saying that because I'm winning! got any fours?"

"go fish"


(FF12 was nice like this and it saved me a few times)
I think the no exp for dead characters made more sense back in the days when 0 HP meant death and not unconsciousness and revival in dungeons wasn't even available until about midgame. Nowadays it bring questions like "why does sleeping characters get exp?" and "why does being knocked unconscious right before the finishing blow somehow negate the fact that the character participated for 98% of the boss battle?"
Why does EXP need to be rewarded at the end of a battle? If I attack in battle I should get EXP immediately! :D
If you do hard work, you only becomes stronger after your body has had time to rest. Only a few games have you level up after resting once your EXP is full.
post=140333
It's actually hilarious how some RPGs do this but their cutscenes still make no sense.

For example in FFXIII, the final boss scene (this isn't a spoiler). All 6 party members are there and are all like "OKAY GUYS, LET'S DO THIS!
YOU'RE GOING DOWN!"
*battle transition*
*fighting with only 3 people*

So what are the other 3 people doing? Sitting on their ass? Logic thrown out the window.


Even more logic thrown out the window when they still get exp for sitting on their ass twidling their thumbs.

Atleast Persona 3 justifies this in the Nyx battle, your reserve characters spend the 1-2 Hours that you're fighting Nyx stopping shadows with their lives.
edchuy
You the practice of self-promotion
1624
I just thought of another personal game pet peeve: the teaser treasure chests you can't reach. They seem like a waste of pixels. One on the other hand, they doesn't seem to be as bad if in en route to supposedly going to open one of them, something interesting happens, such as the floor or bridge you're walking on collapsing or a trapdoor. In case, you're wondering, I have no problems with mimics.
I remember this one game where the remaining party members would walk in if all 3 of the front people died (and you could also switch at any time). But then there's FF10 and if three people die at once the rest of the people in your team just give up for some reason.
If I saw my friends die in front of me I'd be pretty devastated.
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
In a world of Phoenix Downs and Life? =|
I thought everyone knew that in RPGs you don't really 'die' in battle. Unless it's Dragon Quest, I guess.

Unlimited free healing doesn't mean there's no challenge. Have you played Final Fantasy XIII? If you have unlimited healing built into the game, then you design the difficulty and challenges of the game around this concept in order to maintain the difficulty.


That's 'if', though. Certain games may or may not. Some games, like FF XIII and Saga Frontier have their battle systems to work with unlimited free healing, because battles are 'in the moment' and less about attrition and resource management. In games where managing your resources and not overexerting yourself over time is important, unlimited free healing no longer really works.
GRS8
"hey they all died fell and can't get back up should we do something?"

"you're just saying that because I'm winning! got any fours?"

"go fish"


(FF12 was nice like this and it saved me a few times)


fix'd