RPG's: Past --> Present

[Sentenal]

I just couldn't get into Gaia.  If you want a REALLY good Action RPG, pick up Secret of Mana, or find Secret of Mana 2 rom.

[DeweyisOverrated]

Seiken Densetsu 3?  Owned it.  At least 50 times.  Great game.

Which actually makes a really good point.  I LOVED Seiken Densetsu (Secret of Mana) 3, so I figure, "well, Legend of Mana for PSX must rule, right?"

Wrong.  Exact same sort of gameplay, but it sucks.  I don't know why.  But it came out later, and overall was just... bad.  It's sad, really.

[Lord J Esq]

I've got a lot to say on this, but I'm afraid I just haven't got the time. If you'll allow me to sum up my most important point, I think the RPG VG genre has crystalized around a particular style of a particular theme. The fantasies have become mundane, the plots predictable, the characters hackneyed, the gameplay unoriginal, and the conflicts repetitive. If you're new to the genre you will have great fun for a while because there are many quality games to be experienced for the first time. But if you're an old-timer you may be feeling ready to move on, and thereby frustrated by the lack of engaging material. This is not directly the fault of the newer games so much as of the homogenity of the genre as a whole...but it can indirectly be a fault of the newer games inasmuch as developers may feel compelled to try and complete variation upon variation of the same theme while having already exhausted the best (apparent) possibilities long ago, in games like Chrono Trigger.

In a lifetime you will never run out of good books to read, and this is because literature is a lot closer to the essence of the human intellect, wrapped around it like an old, snaggly tree and trying to grow down through the centries ever closer and closer to the glowing center. In contrast, the RPG VG genre has cut itself off from that and instead wraps itself around its own conventions. RPGs simply must stop trying to appeal to their own sense of what constitutes an RPG, and instead appeal to the human imagination, the intellect. That requires originality, innovation, wit, intelligence, departure from the norms...risks!

[Edits: Spelling and clarity]

[Hadriel]

I'm fairly new to RPGs myself.  CT got me hooked; I bought a PSX mostly so I could play CC, as well as the Mega Man X games for the console.  I ended up buying FF7, FF8, and Xenogears as well.  Though Chrono Cross was a masterwork, I HAAAAAAAATED FF8.  The draw system just sucked donkey balls.  Granted, it was different from what had been done before, but sometimes going out of your way to be different is a bad thing.  Basically all you ever did was use GFs, and that got hella boring.  Some people diss FF7's Materia system because it purportedly makes every character the same except for Limit Breaks, but balls to that.  Call me a fanboy if you want, but FF7 is quite simply one of the most kickin' RPGs ever made.  CT's still my favorite, but there's barely anyone who's played CT and hasn't liked it.  Chrono Cross is dissed on by fanboys a lot because of the storyline; they somehow get to thinking that it's completely unrelated to CT.  In fact, without Lavos, the Crew, and Belthasar, CC's plot would cease to function.  Basically, they hate CC because it isn't a CT rehash.  What's even worse is hoping, desperately hoping, that a new game in a series will either do something new or improve upon something that already exists, only to buy it and find out it's the same damn thing again.

Even KOTOR, widely considered "fresh" and "the only good Star Wars game" is about as cliched as one can get.  Not only is it basically a standard "collect all the magic talismans/parts of some ancient archaic device/thumbtacks and bring them back to the holy temple/meeting place/enemy stronghold" shoehorned into Star Wars, the latter claim is a symptom of the same new age idiocy that plagues gaming and RPGs these days; haven't these mofos ever heard of Jedi Knight or TIE Fighter?

Honestly, every time I see a block puzzle in a new Zelda game, or a trading sequence in a mainline RPG, part of me gets pissed off.  Just...dammit.  Think of something else.  Why not draw from real life some more?  Why not have a puzzle based on fluid mechanics or kinematics or something?  Why not have a trading sequence based around the stock market and different economic systems?

[AuraTwilight]

Because then dumbass parents who can't discipline their children will say videogames are corrupting our children.

[SilentMartyr]

I don't have much experience with RPG's, only playing four. Them being Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Dragon Warrior and Earthbound. All of these I immensely enjoy and can play over and over.

I blame the immense popularity of DQ/W and FF. They are so popular and are considered the benchmark RPG series that every new one tries to copy the aspects of those games instead of trying to break the mold. I think that sometime soon when the generation of gamers that grew up with these games become producers is when we will see a revamp in the genre.

[AuraTwilight]

Earthbound was awesome >_> I remember some guy on an Earthbound forum wrote a fanfiction where Lavos and Giygas were the same species.

[SilentMartyr]

Earthbound was awesome >_> I remember some guy on an Earthbound forum wrote a fanfiction where Lavos and Giygas were the same species.

That would be some evil ass species. And Earthbound is probably one of the most underated games ever. No one gets the spoof aura that the game eminates heavily.

[AuraTwilight]

I once saw some bullshit review of a guy who didn't like Earthbound because it sucked when compared to other RPG's. He compared it to Final Fantasy 7 and blamed Earthbound for not having cinematic summon techniques. Dumbass.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/snes/review/R15382.html
This guy's just an idiot.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/snes/review/R20876.html
Ok, lemme get this straight. The guy buys the game for 10 dollars in 1999 for the Super Famicom? You sir, have no right to bitch if you're expecting high quality from a 5 year old game. Fuck you and go to hell.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/snes/review/R3781.html
Ok, I'm gonna actually dissect this guy's review, since it was the one I was bitching about above.

The graphics, sounds, and controls, along with the ability to rename about anything in the game was great, but I just didn't like the game. It was unbearable. A little boy, who's most powerful weapon is a baseball bat (put that against an Atma Weapon, ehh?) travels to many exotic places all because of a meteor. Ugh...

So, you gave the game a 4 for the plot, even though you said everything else was great? Fuck you, too.

Grapics= 8 The graphics were good. A little loony-toonish, but good overall. The only thing that bothered my about them were the battles. You couldn't see yourself. What about Final Fantasy Legends, you scoff? Well, keep in mind that FFL was on a GAMEBOY! Ugh...

Bet you wouldn't say that about Dragon Warrior, bitch.

Plot= 1 The thing that makes up an RPG. Hell, I've played text-based RPGs, so I know what I'm talking about here. I really hated it. Maybe because I was playing the role-model for every single RPG out there at the time, but I didn't like the modernization of things, and the incorporation of the stereotypical aliens (can we say politically INCORRECT?!?!). People seem to love this game, probably due to human's simple minds, but I guess I wouldn't mind having the chance to actually finish it, just so I can say I did. Wait. Evil thoughts, get out of my head!

how are aliens politically incorrect? They don't even follow our politics, jackhole. You call yourself a gaming guru and call everyone who liked the game a simpleton. Not even I have that big an ego, and it's pretty big. Bend over and offer thine ass, you're done with life.

[DeweyisOverrated]

I didn't really like Earthbound.  I'm not sure why.  My opinion has to be wrong though, because people having been begging for the sequel for a good 12 or 13 years.

[Agent 12]

I'm sure most people know this but Earthbound is Mother 2, Mother 1 I never finished but is SO similar to Earthbound.  My friend played it and said it was good but I never had the time to play through it.

Anyone remember reading about Mother 3, it looked kind of good.  The only part I remember was planting a seed at one point would allow a tree to grow that you could climb later in the game.  I don't know why that's the only aspect of the game I remember though

--jp

[DeweyisOverrated]

If you're talking about the one that was supossed to come out for 64, it got deep into development, but was cancelled for one reason or another.  Never even made any sort of comeback for GC, so that game has surely been completly scrapped by now.

[AuraTwilight]

They're planning to release Mother 3 for GBA.

[DeweyisOverrated]

They're planning to release Mother 3 for GBA.

I think that's a bad move.  The GBA is immensly popular, and everyone and their mother has one, plus another one lying around the house somewhere.  

I say make it for the Revolution.  That will get a ton of people to buy the system just for that one game.

[V_Translanka]

FFTactics <---new gen RPG that not only kicks ass, but more than competes w/our beloved oldschool games.