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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Top 10 Ways to Fix JRPGs

Kenryoku_Maxis said:
Senlis said:

I'm not saying video games are like movies, there are completely different.  I'm saying there are games that have bland gameplay and people only seem to like them for their cinematic like story.  To me, these are video games trying to be movies.  These certain video games fail at with their main strength because there is another medium that does what they are trying to do, but better.

Once again, games are not movies.  Only some games pretend they are.

Most definitely.  Some games try to make their strongest feature the story.  The creator of Final Fantasy even based his series on this fact and it shows in many of the games he's made since (Lost Odessey, Blue Dragon, etc).  And obviously plenty of WRPGs also fall into that formula.  But like Raichu was saying, just because story was the focus, the rest of the game shouldn't be neglected (including gameplay).  And as much as Final Fantasy or any game may focuses on the story, they still have to have some sort of player controlled hub or interaction to be called a 'game'.  Even porn games and those terrible old Panasonic/Sega 32X games had some form of player interaction, eventhough they were mostly just movies with a button to press for a yes/no trigger (which some would argue even certain RPGs end up being reduced to).

@Scoobes

Sorry, but while you don't own a DS, I unfortunately don't own a PSP.  So I cannot concretely suggest to you some PSP RPGs.  Best I could suggest are some remakes of SNES and PSX RPGs like Suikoden I-II and Valkarie Profile.

I was frozen today!

 

 

 

....damn, I waited too long to make that joke.




 

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Scoobes said:
RageBot said:
Scoobes said:
RageBot said:
Scoobes said:
RageBot said:
And I LOL about the pepole who think WRPGs "evolved", change isn't the same as evolution, WRPGs today are an extremely dumbed-down version of their former selves, and anyone who will play Planescape: Torment will quickly realise that I am right, and he was wrong.

Planscape Torment easily has the best story in gaming, period. However, what you call dumbing down, I call evolution and refinement. Part of the reason why WRPGs have become so popular isn't just the technology improving and allowing for more interactive story-telling, but also the fact that these games are now more accessible for people beyond the niche hardcore RPG players. The story-based decisions I'm making these days are far more involving than most old school RPGs (except Planescape).

So, you call going from niche to mainstream evolution, I call it dumbing down.

Now, the decisions seem more involving because, because of the technology, you can have "bigger things", but all in all, the plots, the characters, the costumization, everything is just so watered-down these days.

Pepole call Oblicion a good WRPG, but there's really nothing good about it except the graphics for it's time, the quests are less creative, the leveling system, everything just seems to be dumbed down so they can sell to the masses.

Consider it this way, five years from now, will pepole talk with more passion about PS:T or about ME? Will pepole even talk about ME five years from now? Pepole have pretty much stopped talking about Oblivion by this point.

Firstly, after playing Morrowind and Oblivion, I still preferred Oblivion. The Dark Brotherhood quests were great, and much praised at the time of release. The levelling system I did feel was dumbed down but not a huge amount. A seperate skill group for axes instead of just "Blunt" would have been nice, but at the end of the day was it really needed? The battle system not relying on an invisible dice roll as well I thought was an improvement as it plays in First-Person, so when you see an arrow hit, I expect it to do damage. If you really want an example of "dumbing-down" you should look at the Deus Ex series.

Secondly, people still are talking passionately about Oblivion, a quick look on TES nexus will show you that. People are still bringing out incredible mods for it. I'm still playing it from time to time because of those mods and I talk about it as passionately as Planescape Torment. Further, I think people will still talk about Mass Effect as it's the first part of 3 for one thing, and it's done a much better job of creating a universe than Halo, yet people will still talk passionately about Halo in 5yrs.

Another important factor is other people's ignorance. More people will have played Mass Effect and Oblivion than will have played Planescape Torment. Me and you will be in a minority (I think we are already). Sad but true.

The question is, if pepole will still talk about Halo more than a decade after the last game in the series will be released?
Same with Mass Effect, and Oblivion.

With Planescape we know the answer.

And about Deus Ex - This isn't a game that I liked because of the options, or gameplay, but strictly because of the story, and that's why Deus Ex still has that famous motivator pic:

 

I would make a bet with you, but 5 yrs is just too long to wait, lol. Honestly, with Mass Effect and Halo I think the answer is yes because the fanbase is so strong with the franchises. With Oblivion no, I think it'll be Elder Scrolls V/VI people will be talking about. Guess we'll see.

Love the pic btw! And yes, the story is the main thing, but didn't you find they messed up a few of the characters in IW? That and the terrible design choices really didn't help.

I never actually played IW, the guy who recommended Deus Ex for me said that IW sucks :P



Bet with Dr.A.Peter.Nintendo that Super Mario Galaxy 2 won't sell 15 million copies up to six months after it's release, the winner will get Avatar control for a week and signature control for a month.

^ he was right :D



RageBot said:
rocketpig said:
RukiSama said:
Garcian Smith said:
I would've taken it a few steps further...

1) And this is the most important: Cut out the filler. Nobody cares if your game is 50 hours long if 40 of those hours are spent mindlessly grinding easy enemies. Imagine a 10-15 hour JRPG where every enemy encounter was as unique, involved, and interesting as your average boss fight, and you've got the start of a winning genre-reboot formula.

2) Never make another "everyone stands in a row and takes turns pummeling each-other" battle system ever again.

3) Stop using generic anime character designs. Find artists who can produce something unique.

4) No more "save the world." Ever.

5) Heroes shouldn't be spiky-haired teenage boys, and not everyone over 30 is an "old man." Let your games star adults.

6) Stop drawing inspiration from a few specific genres (Tolkein-fantasy and steampunk are the biggest offenders). We've already seen it 1000 times before.

7) Embrace the ability to save anywhere.

8) Randomize loot, or at the very least find some way to make it more interesting than, "oh look another town guess I'd better upgrade my stuff at the weapons shop."

9) No more "fighter/archer/mage/healer" templates. Find some way to make your characters unique in terms of their ability sets.

10) No more friggin' annoying cute things, please. Yes, that includes moogles.

Basically, if developers and publishers want JRPGs to stop being increasingly irrelevant, they need to gear them toward a wider audience than teenage Japanese kids (or teenage American otakus).

I don't agree with a single word of all this.

at this point, just go play WRPG.

i still agree with almost everything IGN said

None of those things listed are what define "JRPG" and frankly, I'd LOVE to see a game break every one of those conventions. If done by a good developer, it could revitalize the entire genre and become a legendary game.

Why are some people stuck on JRPGs including all of these elements? Have you all been drilled in the head with these plot/game devices so many times that you're resistant to see someone smash the mold to bits and go in a new direction? It wouldn't make it any less "JRPG", it would just mean that someone out there was brave enough to try something new instead of relying on game elements that were created in the original NES generation.

I think I'd die of a heart attack if I ever saw a JRPG that featured adult characters, an old west setting, and a story about the quest to find a new home or something like that. If it featured one party (with characters that can actually die) and wasn't turn-based, I'd start shoveling money in that developers' direction. Not that it necessarily has to be the Old West, that idea just popped in my head while I was typing this. The game could even be linear, I wouldn't care. The entire premise would be so foreign for a JRPG that I'd snatch it up in a heartbeat.

In that case than, don't dare playing Vagrant Story, it will be quite a shame to see you die that way.

I recall Vagrant Story. It seemed interesting but that game threw an avalanche of numbers and concepts at the player so I never gave it a good go. Wish it had a better learning curve or a better tutorial.

 

Not having a DS probably doesn't help much then. If you could recommend me a few on PSP I'd appreciate it. I know I could probably look back over the thread and pick out some you've probably already mentioned, but in my inebreited state on a late Friday night I'd rather not

 

I'm not a PSP heavy player but here are some I reccomend:

Crimson Gem Saga: I haven't played this but a friend who is a JRPG veteran did and he says it's VERY good.

Jeanne D'Arc: A nice SRPG from Level5. Not terribly innovative but fun all the same.

Brave Story New Traveler: A homage to old JRPGs, Atk/Def/item/run menus and level grinding done right.

Dungeon and Dragons Tactics: Basically this is as close to the pen and paper D&D you can get. For D&D nerds only.



^ Thanks, I'll take a look.