GERKRT'S PROFILE

-Too easy games. After the 16bits, i think a few games has a nice difficult. Its the KEY to make the gameplay interesting. I dont understand why in modern RPG exist the dungeons or the battles at all. If you have 1.000.000 potions and the savepoints cure you in every place. The dungeon becomes boring when its utility is to fill storytelling.
In a older RPG like FFI, the dungeons, mazes, random battles or grinding were fun. ¿Why? ¿Because the dungeons and battles are the core of the game itself?

If you enter a dungeon thinking in go through all to watch the next scene, all the gameplay will be boring.
If you go thinking in improving your skills and beating all the challengues, then will be fun. But for this, the game have to be balanced and have good dificult.

-Generic things. Generic RPG plot in generic gampeplay and genereic setting and music. Generic games... boring, if you can't make your game longer just dont try it. Make it short and intense. Comercial games HAVE to be longer, because they cost money, but amateur no.
I think a lot of comercial RPG without the generic fill will be 1000 times better. A example is Grandia. It have some good characters, themes, myths, world, ambient, etc... but the good thing its totally filled and get's boring too easy.

-Unbalanced gameplay. Limit breaks, ultimate habilities, summons. Things like this. Also ultracurative items, or too accesible ones. Actual battle system's are more unbalanced and have less depth thant a 8 bit RPG.
Yes, they didnt have tons of filling customitzation, but all the options where STRATEGICAL. Who cares about 1000 options of FFX gameplay if you can kill all the bosses of the game with the aeons turbo? or if you can get defense to everything without any penalytzation? etc etc
I think FFV its unmatched, even today.

-We are amateur. Don't repeat all the mistakes of the commercial games! Make something for you, original, artistic, etc... dont pretend to clone the last Final Fantasy or anime.

What's the wrong with the history? The immersion and ambient its incredible, not all the games need a FF narrative to be good. This game is for relax...

The main problem are the bugs, this game its unplayable, its a joke somebody put a game in this state. Also the combat its too slow... other problem its the main style of gameplay. Its interesting to see a JRPG with this arts like a occidental one, but its too limited, i think it dont have to copy with limitations the gameplay of other games, but create unique and interesting complex JRPG style. Now, why play this game and not fallout or planescape torment? because its rpgmaker? the graphics? if he cant match these games in gameplay and depth make something different or more fun....

sry

Yes, but FFVI have a different spirit (more like FFII and IV, and later IX), and FFV tied up character habilities because it have only 4 playable characters. Think that when... the 5 character comes to the team it takes the role and all of Galuf.

You cant make a game with a great flexibility and also a individualitzation of the characters, because it will be too complex. One thing or other, not all. It need an equilibrium, and FFVII its less flexible than FFV, but have more unique elements in characters. I think its a good formula.

The things you say are ok, but i dont thing its bad. Flexibility its a option, an style, like any other.

As for unlimited, the point is that when you level materia, whoever uses it will gain the benefit. Magicite not just require you to level up the magicite, but you had to level up the magicite WITH the character so it gave stats boost and skills accordingly.

They are different styles, nothing more. In FFVII ALL its indendepent, they didnt create the 9 characters to give a lot of individual options, only to put a little variety and for the history.

In FFVII you dont level up a character at all, you level up materia, characters are equivalent, even with the limit breaks. They also autolevel and the limits (that advance killing enemies) are equalated with the level later.

In a game with a theme based in characteritzation, you cant do what FFVII does, but in a game with a flexible gameplay theme, its normal.

edit:

It's not bad, I just didn't like it. And you're right, it isn't unlimited, but I never liked how you could almost always obtain another Counter/All/Bahamut Materia. The customization in the game was good, but it was never unique except for the limit breaks (unique being the key word there).

FFVII its not perfect, i agree with that the game its too easy and some things are a litte simplified or inbalaneced. FFV its far better. Yes, you have alot of ranures, and materias, yes, its a problem of the game, but even of this it have a lots of strategy, only that you will have to play it extremly.

Personally, i think that the main problem of FFVII balance and strategy isnt the materia (that improves a lot in some ways and in general its a good system, like in combining habilitys and making formulas) but the Limit Break system that everybody likes.
The limit break its the trully "unlimited" thing in the game. ¿You have played some game where for playing bad you get rewarded? Well, here is FFVII, who with the other errors, it have a system that can make you win every battle with totally stupid strategy.

Limits are overpowred, give you a turn, have priority, not consume nothing, and also advance even if you kill enemies with magic. Even without fury stat, its too easy to have it. Just think in it, its like any other game have eternal PM. Some of the limits, like Tifa, are one of the worse balanced thing i never seen.

I think Square was thinking on making good only an spectacular system, because the cost in gameplay terms is terrible. And yes.. i like the idea and the graphics, but nothing more. All later games, except FFIX (that maybe was just too random) have this error. Like in FFX with the Aeons Turbo, reserving it you can kill all the bosses of the games in two turns...

A scene pass engine? If you don't want to play games that have storyline segments and scenes etc. then why are you playing RPGs?

1-There a lot of cRPG that aren't focused in history. A lot clasics where like this, even in 16 bits era. Roguelikes, MMORPG, dungeon crawlers, SaGa, etc.. the first and original were pure gameplay, like any other genre.

2-I play RPG because i like their gameplay, that i feel like and strategic adventure, also i like good historys, but i found good historys in a lot of places and genres nowadays. I think that RPG have more to offer other than scenes, i feel that a lot of people think that RPG are a genre that its no fun without history(and they just go through gameplay to view next scene), but i dont think the same.

3-The scene pass engine have a lot of utilites. If you don't care of history and get boring, you can just go to the action. Also, when you were dead, or replaying a game for improving your skills, the scenes and unforgatable dialogue are boring.

Well yeah, if there is no story, I feel like I am from our world just visiting another world for fun, like a tourist or like the guys in the old Dungeons and Dragons cartoon, and I hate that concept. I want to identify with a character who is born and has lived always in that world, so I can feel more like part of it. This also gives me a long term objective to look forward rather than just getting stronger (this actually works for MMOs since I do have ppl to compete or friends to protect).

¿And you cant play that just for fun? Well, i say the same, i like good history, i like gameplay-history coherence, i think this things improve the overall game but when im playing usually this things are less important.

... but NOT for those reasons Tongue Not that as I said before, my main reason to play RPGs is to live in the setting and feel like part of it, as books and movies won´t give the freedom of interaction to see everything beyond the story that RPGs do.

In fact I am the one who always say that if ppl think story is the center of an RPG, they should read a book instead.

I think our difference lies in what gameplay aspects we valeu more: To me it is all living in the game. I love games like Suikoden where I have to tend to my base/home, recruit other characters, have loots of minigames, have some strategy like battles and a lot of interesting places to visit. I just need however, something like guide so I have an idea of what to see/do first until I am presented to everything the game can offer and then do whatever I feel like. Having a story behind all that also makes me care for the places and characters which won´t happen if I am just an explorer.

I have only played Suikoden V, but i see that we dont coincide, i didnt like the game. The first part was the antivideogame, with...? 5-7 hours without a dungeon at all or a battle. Only more and more dialogues. I think the history was good, but lol, i need action. Later, the game feels too slow and the action its incosistent. The gameplay have some good points(strategic formations, character system or the item limitation) but in every battle i fell like the same, and the game its a joke, without a real challengue. I never beat it, 30$ to the trash..xD

Its a... mmm,

Same opnion as mine, except that coherence is a biggy for exploration, which to me is the essence of RPG gameplay, not battles, not puzzles, those are ways to enhance gameplay experience and can be found in other game genres. Only thing unique in RPGs, regardless of then having a story or just being free roaming, is a wide explorable setting. To that we can have RPGs with no battles, just puzzles or minigames as challeges as much as we have the opposite.

To me development start with setting, then comes gameplay and story, First I build a world, with as much detail as possible, than I try to come up with systems that are both intensily fun AND coherent to the story, which is absolutely fun to do since it gives some interesting challenge. tThen with that set I just create a story and characters.

I have a different idea from RPG. Think in a dungeon crawler in a tower, or even in one map. Its posible, with nothing more. Obviously i wont play it for the history, but if it had special and fun gameplay, yes.

But this game its a RPG, the basic of RPG its its core based on stadistic, the other things are just different styles or influences of gameplay. For example, in your description, i can put a lot of adventures, ¿they are rpg? No. Having a free setting its not the root of RPG, and im talking of Computer RPG (there are important differences from the originals) You wont find a crpg without stadistics.

Well, most of my cutscenes are at least a bit interactive, or rather, you don´t just sit and watch your hero move and talk and fight on his own, you have to move, talk to x person, then you actually fight someone and things like that, because I too hate long nom-interactive cutscenes.

However I may have some short animation like scenes here and there, but you can always save after then and they are really short and will not be just "move hero event" but show case interesting animations. If I need anything like that to last about a minute or more I will surely make it skipable for replay issues, but I do hope ppl watch everything first time Smiley

It's ok...