What makes a good RPG game?

I am transferring a discussion from the Announcements down here to a more appropriate section.

If you want to read my views, read the topic crank made regarding the new policies of the forums.

Comments on the topic anyone?  

A good rpg game is made from a good storyline and you build up from that.

Usually.

characters are equally important, and the best storyline and greatest characters are useless if the game has no fun factor.

The characters have to memorable. And unique in there own way. And the Villan must be of  the greatest importance, he/she needs a background and a logic in what he/she does.

Also this may sound odd, but music is very important. It creates a mood for your setting, i mean are you going to play a hppay song when some one dies? Errrrrr, no! Music has to be approraite in your setting. A good examlple is if your characets are in a battle againts a god and you play Valhalla by Blind Guardian.  Also if fighting a sea serpent, play Ryhme of the Ancient Marnier by Iron Maiden. But Mp3's aren't always needed, just make sure the music is appropraite.

Good music and fun gameplay are all that matter. Plot is nice, and can occasionally carry a bad game, however it rarely makes or breaks a game.

Yeah, but if the story is dumb, like " stop him before he destroys your town" what do you want to play for?

Yeah, but if the story is dumb, like " stop him before he destroys your town" what do you want to play for?

I think in theory 'stop the villain from destroying your town' premise could be fun if it was done correctly. Note that I said in theory.

I think the idea of the "stop the villian from destroying your town" has been played out way too much. Games nowadays need something fresh and unique to make a game interesting. As for those makers who have a game built on that type of story line they are just repeating history over and over again and is bound to get old (sometimes). Take the game Earthbound for instance...I can't really remember the entire point of that game (I think it was alien invasion), but it was fun. It was more along the lines of being unique as it was more set in a modern world rather than with swords and shields.

I argee it has been done too much. But I think some one could possibly find a way to add a little twist on the idea. Keep in mind I said possibly.

You would have to have a lot of imagination to make a twist on that.

Take the game that I'm making for example, there is quite a few twists in there that I can guarantee nobody would expect once they played it. You see it takes those types of things coming from a storyline to make the player go WHOA...wtf...never saw that one coming. Or actually you would probably get, OH COME ON!

Just the problem is, is that I have the story but don't have the maps lol. So pretty much I be stuck right now.

Yeah, Maps can be really time consuming. I may have to cancel Iris because I can't find appropriate tilesets. Maps if you think about it can make or break a game. If I can't get a casino tile set and a modern desert city tile set, I'm probably going to cancel a project for the first time.

I was thinking about doing a recruitment thing on rmxp.net but one of the mods locked one of the other member's topics because they found out he was using PK and told him to buy the legal version before he could actually recruit. Then I was like...greeeeaat....

You should try to recruit people here. Almost all the RM XP users have P.Knights. I don't think the mods would care about that, I doubt Crankeye would be bothered either, I mean you can download P.Knights here.

I've already posted a topic in the Resources section. But this is the negative about it. I'm too fricken picky   . I can't map worth a damn myself but as far as other people doing it for me, I can get a little picky. After all I'm trying to build a game that is worth playing. After watching some of the more experienced maker's demos at other forums, I was like.... .... ...... craaaaaap. I write myself, so I don't think the storyline is going to be an issue, it's just the graphically challenged that has gotten me into a bit of a pickle.

I don't map very well either. So i try to make up for it with a good story line and good soundtrack. Have the mood set more with audio than visual.

Also if you want to get better at maps make a project folder where all you do is make maps for fun. When I'm done with The story line, enemies and naming items and making skills. I'll make a project just for maps. So Dark Wurld will look better than all three Soul Refrain games put together.