What makes an RPG so great? No mater if its on a console or on computer, the role playing game can be the perfect masterpiece. It can successfully blend all most any kind of game in to a movie like story. RPG''s can be most impressive leaving endless possibilities for the gamer to explore and enjoy. The experience can be far more than just a game it can have the same awesome presence of a revolutionary movie or ground breaking novel. The Question is how? We have all seen it done before in many different successful games: Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy Tactics, Xenogears, Ogre Battle, and most recently Vagrant Story(The list goes on and on). What is the point you ask, I''d like to know what makes an RPG memorable to you (Example: Characters, General Story, Classes, Villains, or even Graphics). So just tell me what you like in an RPG and why... Keep conjuring the undead, my friends...

Character development definitely (Final Fantasy III and VII come to mind)

Also the musical score (i don''t have to provide an example. everyone has that game they play just so they can hear that boss music. or maybe just i do. i really like music)

Graphics are always good too although if the game has a FF3/7/8-like story, i''ll probably get hooked. Speaking of graphics, I rented Evolution for Dreamcast this weekend. Those special attacks are sweet.

Mainly i''d say Game Desing (including story, magic system, battle system, etc) is what keeps me hooked.

I think story is definetly up there, as well as characters. One of the great things about RPGs is the lack of a need for state of the art graphics, or highly optimized code. In fact, one of my favorite RPGs is Breath of Fire 2 for the SNES. Cool story, not too many mazes (I HATE those), good characters, and OK graphics for back then.

Now a days, I think innovation is also important. So many RPGs, they really need something cool to stand out.

Oh yeah, one other thing I really enjoy are job classes and strategic elements (FF Tactics is my fffffaaaavvvv! Flawless game )

For me, it is the character development as well as the atmosphere. If the game is created correctly, the game world actually lives

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
-Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft
"The Philosophers' Stone of Programming Alchemy"
IOL (The list formerly known as NPCAI) - A GDNet production
Our Doc - The future of RPGs
Thanks to all the goblins over in our little Game Design Corner niche

Contrary to popular belief, I have never actually seen a Computer RPG that I considered good. Mind you, the whole series of games you mention up there has been completely lost on me, I''m a PC gamer only.
The only ones I consider semi-memorable are Dragon Wars and Ultima 6. Dragon Wars because of the cheesy ending ( bad guy comes back three times, just like in any crappy horror movie ) and great magic system ( if you weren''t careful, you would run out of magic in the world before you got to the end ).
Ultima 6 because you KNEW the role you were supposed to play - you were the avatar, and the little twists in the story with the gargoyles.

So I guess story is no.1 - system doesn''t count for crap in my book. I don''t care if they have the best stat system this side of Alpha Centauri, they might as well have packaged doggie doo in a pretty box. Graphics, bah, overrated. Dragon Wars and Ultima 6 aren''t exactly cutting edge anymore. Same goes for classes/experience/advancement. I really couldn''t care less about them.

It can all be summed up in a simple sentence:
LET ME PLAY!
Don''t bother me with details.


Give me one more medicated peaceful moment.
~ (V)^|) |<é!t|-| ~
ERROR: Your beta-version of Life1.0 has expired. Please upgrade to the full version. All important social functions will be disabled from now on.

I like to see someone else with the same convictions about this topic. what trully make an RPG great.

It can be any number of things that can make a perticuler game great. To me, The characters make the game great.
I will elaborate.

Nothing in an RPG is possible without the characters. No story, no plot, bright shiny flashy things to look at or even beutiful music to listen to. The characters in the game are the key to them all.
Characters give us somthing to not only interact with but also to relate to as those characters are put through their trials through the coarse of the game.
To date I have never played a game that this has been explored to a very great degree. This is probably because when we see a movie or read a book we can see and feel the character through the actor or actress. There are an awful lot of things that make a character tangable. Look, expression, feelings, these all add to the characters tangability making them, them and allowing us to relate to them better.
Actully im starting to get a little sick of the 2 dimentional characters that I see in todays games. they lack true personalities and that is what makes them so individual and grand.
The perfect Rpg would be basically an interactive movie all the way through. the game flows like a normal game but everything is done as if it was to be a movie.

Oh incidently, those of you out there who like the compleately non linier games, this will not apply to you in the least seeing as how I cannot see there being any possibility for actull character development with no plot line...


Why does my life have to be so hard in every world?

A rich world to explore, and the lack of an overbearing, level-based stranglehold are what really make RPGs memorable for me. The amount of choice you have in solving problems makes them more realistic, and this realism, for me, becomes a part of my personal narrative. There''s a point in an RPG where I stop saying "my character" and start saying "I." At this point I''m immersed in the world and totally involved. When I played Diablo, it was always "my rogue leveled up," or "my mage can''t carry anything more." But in Fallout, I found myself saying "I snipered a Deathclaw!" or "I need more Radaway/"

This effect is hard to get to in most games (again, for me), so when this happens in an RPG the designers have a customer for life.

--------------------
Just waiting for the mothership...

quote: Original post by Fantasy Edge

To me, The characters make the game great.
I will elaborate.

Nothing in an RPG is possible without the characters. No story, no plot, bright shiny flashy things to look at or even beutiful music to listen to. The characters in the game are the key to them all.
Characters give us somthing to not only interact with but also to relate to as those characters are put through their trials through the coarse of the game.
To date I have never played a game that this has been explored to a very great degree. This is probably because when we see a movie or read a book we can see and feel the character through the actor or actress. There are an awful lot of things that make a character tangable. Look, expression, feelings, these all add to the characters tangability making them, them and allowing us to relate to them better.
Actully im starting to get a little sick of the 2 dimentional characters that I see in todays games. they lack true personalities and that is what makes them so individual and grand.
The perfect Rpg would be basically an interactive movie all the way through. the game flows like a normal game but everything is done as if it was to be a movie.

I agree with Fantasy Edge, that characters you can really care about are what make a game great for me. Although I would have to say the characters and the story are pretty intertwined, it would be tough to have good characters with a a lousy or non-existant plot.

And I would say that every game, no matter how good or bad to start with, is improved by beautiful high-res graphics.

And finally, I personally love it when a game has good puzzles. I think my ideal game would be a heavily cinematic RPG with a branching plot, lots of puzzles, and few to no monsters to bash.

quote: Original post by sunandshadow


Although I would have to say the characters and the story are pretty intertwined, it would be tough to have good characters with a a lousy or non-existant plot.

I totally disagree with this as far as the non-existant plot goes. I think you''re forgetting the tamigotchi effect. You could put players in a storyless environment and still have characters that they care about. Character is defined by things like goals, motivations, personality, and response to stimuli. Whether this happens randomly or with predesigned structure, character remains character either way.

--------------------
Just waiting for the mothership...