JABBO'S PROFILE

Granted. You are fired from your job.

I wish I could conjure up lava lamps at will.

Pick the envelope up, seal it shut, and then tear it open.

author=BlindSight link=topic=1340.msg20597#msg20597 date=1213843642
Personally, I can openly say that weaving a *successful* narrative into the medium of a game is quite the task; and far separate than traditional writing... something many developers don't even seem to realize.

This is true, but has anyone put a lot of thought into WHY this is true? Is it pacing? Inability to let the hero do things the player wouldn't? Limited quantity of text? The necessity of a lot of fighting?

Having never actually tried to do this before, I know I'd benefit a lot if someone wrote out a guide or "things to watch out for" in regards to RPG stories. I mean obviously a good story can't be quantified, but maybe the pitfalls can. The whole "I can't tell you where the good shipping lanes are, but I can point out some of the rocks" deal.

As much as I don't like that guy's font and the way he talks, he's almost dead on, except for adventure, where he's not quite right. Here's the short list.

Action - Involves reflexes.

Adventure - There is a world, and in certain places throughout the world there are items to collect. These items are special and enhance your character's abilities, allowing him to reach new areas. Point and click adventure games are the origin of this, where you'd walk around clicking on things to pick up and use. It's ALL ABOUT THE ITEMS AND COLLECTING THEM!

RPG - Everything else (Note that whether or not you play a role has nothing to do with whether or not a game is an RPG). You collect items, but unlike adventure games, none (or a very small number) of items are absolutely required to beat the game. Stats, blah, blah, blah, everyone here knows an RPG when they see one, the trick is just not to mislabel adventure games as RPGs.

=Hybrids=
Action/adventure - Zelda (Zelda is not an RPG), Metroid, and Castlevania. Your reflexes matter, but your character progression depends exclusively on the items you find. Generally exploration-heavy.

Action/RPG - Any RPG that involves reflexes. Soul Blazer -> Terranigma are great examples.

Adventure/RPG - I can think of no examples, but I think one of these would be really fun and want to make one. Also, Wild ARMs? I might have to look in that.

And just because a game has elements of a genre doesn't put it in that genre. Tales of X-ia is hardly an action-RPG, even though the battles are action-based.


ANYWAY, back on topic.

10) Fire Emblem 7
9) Quest 64 (And not because it was good or anything)
8) Tales of Symphonia
7) Golden Sun 1
6) Soul Blazer
5) Paper Mario TTYD
4) Earthbound
3) Super Mario RPG
2) The Way (...what? I wrote a walkthrough for it, so leave me alone)
1) Chrono Trigger

Also I just realized how few classic RPGs I've played. Go figure.

No one is going to know the answer to this, but you know how in the chipsets for RM2k you have the forest, which looks something like this:

o O
xxx
|O|
xxx

Basically a 3x4 grid of various forest tiles? They have it for the mountains and other stuff too. Well the translation from your image into the actual tiles on the screen uses some sort of voodoo magic where each in-game tile is split into four corners, selected from various tiles here. And I can only see vague patterns in the algorithm. Does anyone know how this works?