IS LESS MORE OR MORE LESS?

author=xeilmach
Then there was FF8 and Guardian Forces. The Guardian Forces seemed kind of really forced into it with that bit of the story attached just so that it would have a summoning system - oh and a junctioning system.

GFs were not the best system and yes, it genericized every character. HOWEVER, it was very involved in the story and not just stapled-on.

SPOILERS:


Now, was this worked into the story as smoothly as it could have been? No. But it was, in fact, a key part of the story. That's still a good example though - it's intrinsic to the story and plot, yet the actual gameplay implementation made it lackluster and ruined it. See above comments about extras needing to 'flow' with the game.

author=slashphoenix

author=LockeZ
If your game's systems don't introduce any new ideas, your game doesn't need to be made. Plain and simple, it's not a new game; it's a game we've already played. If I want to play Final Fantasy 4 or Dragon Quest 2 or Don Miguel's Adventure again, I can do so without downloading your game that plays exactly like it. So for the part of your question that had to do with customization: yes, customization is one of the most important things that you are doing. You can't drop it, or you just don't have a game any more. All you have is a series of cut scenes on top of someone else's game.

What is Earthbound, if not Dragon Warrior with a modern palette swap and sinus infections instead of poison?

That's pretty much exactly what it is! Well, Dragon Warrior 2. The first Dragon Warrior only had one party member you could control.

As a result I don't find the gameplay in one interesting after having already played the other. I played Earthbound first though.

Also I guess Earthbound added some unique things like Jeff's inventions, Paula's pray, visible enemies, fights that can be beaten without fighting them if you're strong enough, teddy bears, and guest characters who help you in battle like Buzz Buzz and Bubble Monkey. So if I'd played Dragon Warrior 2 first I'd have still enjoyed Earthbound. But having played Earthbound first? Man. I can't even give myself the motivation to download it, much less beat it.

I definitely sit on the "Less is more" side of the fence. While I think originality is fan-freaking-tastic, Squenix has proven pretty abysmally over the years that complexity for the sake of complexity is unintuitive, arbitrary, and likely takes away more than it provides.

One of the fundamental problems with many RPGs these days, is the dwindling audience that finds repetitive, "Go here, press X through a bunch of menus to kill, Go there etc etc" formula interesting any more, so we feel the need to add flashy systems of customization almost to, compensate for what the game naturally lacks (An inherant fun factor).

I believe it's more important to find a game hook that just, really captures that fun. Be it strategic thinking in a turn based game, some sort of parallel smack-talk system that runs while you fight, Exercising timing to hit the reticle in the right spot...Once you've found one of these that you can do a billion times without being bored of it, you don't need to add any more.

Story notwithstanding, I believe Materia just, captured the fun and held it more captive than the Draw system (which seemed arbitrary as all get out and in this gamers mind, made FF8 nigh unplayable, let alone the GFs)

Haha, you wouldn't like Disgaea then.

Spinning of of what Natook said, I prefer games to start low, and then get ridiculously high (such as disgaea where you can hit 100M+) with its damage.