Arlen's List of "Things RPGs Need Moar Of."

[Moss.]

I just finished FFX, and it really put me in that "I wanna work on my game" mood, but since the only thing I can do well enough is write the music, storyline, and character crap, but have absolutely no ability to design with either pencil and paper or 3d modeling engines, I'll make this thread instead.


This will be an ongoing thread. And feel free to add your own ideas.

1.) Moar bad-ass, symphonic heavy metal final boss themes.
FFX was on the right track, even though Underworld, or whatever that metal song was called, really kinda sucked. But that kind of music really gets you pumped! I felt so awesome fighting Jecht with that DUN DUN DAAANAAA DUN DUN DAAANAA DUN DUN DAADUN DAANAAA DUNAAAAAA playing.

2.) LOUDER boss battle themes.
There's been so many times that I've been playing some RPG, and I'm at a boss battle theme, and I can BARELY hear the music! The sound effects tower over everything else, and the music's just kinda whispering in the background. Now maybe everyone's not with me in this aspect, but I like to crank the music, especially when it's a huge, final boss battle or something like that. The louder, the better! Maybe I just think this because FFX's final battle music was very quiet. =\

3.) Characters that actually become injured as part of the storyline.
I'm tired of a few potions bringing you from near-death to good-as-new-with-no-scratches. Maybe it would be too hard to work how low your health was in the last battle into the story, dynamically, but there should be more moments when the main characters get the shit kicked out of them, and we see some blood, or some ripped clothing, or some honest-to-goodness struggling to get back up off the ground. It's really not believable at all that Yuna's wearing the same white dress throughout the entire pilgrimage and it never gets ripped or dirty or whatever.

4.) Moar death.
Maybe I'm just desensitized, but I think we need moar mass death in videogames. The scene where sin obliterated operation Mi'hen was pretty awesome, because it was like *bam!* tons of people dead. It really put power into scope. And I like that. I like to see hopeless struggles, and over-powerful bosses kicking the shit out of expendable support characters.

5.) Moar epic struggles.
We need to find ways around all of this "just keep using normal attacks" nonsense. I hear FFXII has some pretty intense battles, but I haven't played the game yet, so...

6.) Moar flashy PHYSICAL attacks.
There's plenty of flashy and cool looking magic attacks, but normal attacks and special attacks need some flare, too! I wanna see more technical physical attacks, like takedowns, and feints, and basically just moar cool and painful looking attacks rather than the same downward slash every single battle. FF7 gave us a little bit of this with the doubleslash/4xslash abilities. Let's see some stuff like, I dunno, rushing, banking towards the left, pivoting and jumping way into the air back at the enemy, bringing your sword around and going straight through the enemy. I think I have some pretty sick normal attack ideas, but like I said, I've no way to really design them.
Tales of Symphonia did a great job with this problem.

7.) Moar little things!
Of course, with the option to skip it if you're the type that doesn't care about the little things in the game and just want to kill people. But, like, I dunno, I think it's neat to see the characters waking up in the hotel room and then gathering, signifying that they're ready for you to lead them out. Tales of Symphonia, again, did a great job with the little moments, even outside of skits. Let's see moar random funny, non-essential moments! Moar entertainment!

8.) Moar ... clothing?
Yuna's wearing the same damn thing she wore yesterday, and I KNOW she didn't wash it! I think it would be neat to characters NOT sleeping in the clothes they wear throughout their entire journey, or something like that. And I always thought it was cool when characters had alternate outfits, for some reason. Maybe I'm gay. lol.

9.) Moar AI controlled ally characters and coordinated battles!
Ever play the .hack games? Man, I love that battle system. It's a little plain sometimes, but I really like NOT having to tell my allies to attack every time it was their turn. You could tell them to go ahead and attack, but pull back if you're dying. Or tell them to hang back and support while the other two go crazy with physical attacks. I can see it now! Pluto hangs back and supports with curative magic. Serren rushes in to attack and go nuts. Arlen chills and waits until Serren has to pull back. Serren's HP and Stamina are winding down. He's pulling out to "recharge." Arlen rushes in. Pluto helps Serren with recovery. Arlen goes nuts with physical attacks. Galva's hiding somewhere, taking shots with his sniper rifle when he sees an opening. Arlen's running out of steam. He pulls back. The enemt follows! OH NO! Reia and Mercy intercept and keep him busy until Serren and Arlen are rea-yeah, you get the idea.



lol what a weird thread I made

Well, add to it if you want to, or whatever.

[&&&&&&&&&&&&&]

10.) Moar open endness. If a house catches on fire, then you can go put out the fire or, you can go to an in and the next day the house will be burnt down.

11.) Moar houses that are houses and not just one room with a bed.

[Yossy]

WHY IS EVERYONE SAYING "MOAR"?!  STOP IT.


Overall, I sort of agree with this list, but I can think of at least one example for each which breaks that rule.

I know that in Futaiten: Book of Days, one character does actually get seriously injured and retains the injuries, which become constantly referred to from that point on as you talk to townspeople and such, especially by characters who were significantly close to that character.  As I developed that idea, it occured to me I have never actually played a game wherein a character actually retains their injuries... I remember a few scenes where, after a narrow escape or something, a character or two might comment "Man, I mighta broken a few ribs" or "I think I twisted my ankle!"  but then they're completely fine in the next scene, or after a visit to a priest or inn or whatever.

As for louder boss themes... I always thought that was weird, too... Tales of Symphonia has a boss theme titled "Beat the Angel" and Baten Kaitos has one titled "Chaotic Dance," and both of them are some of the coolest battle themes I've ever heard, but they're played so quietly in the background!

[Roph]

2.) LOUDER boss battle themes.

courtesy of my guitar amp

[Blizzard]

1.) Moar bad-ass, symphonic heavy metal final boss themes.
FFX was on the right track, even though Underworld, or whatever that metal song was called, really kinda sucked. But that kind of music really gets you pumped! I felt so awesome fighting Jecht with that DUN DUN DAAANAAA DUN DUN DAAANAA DUN DUN DAADUN DAANAAA DUNAAAAAA playing.

Chaos Project has it.

2.) LOUDER boss battle themes.
There's been so many times that I've been playing some RPG, and I'm at a boss battle theme, and I can BARELY hear the music! The sound effects tower over everything else, and the music's just kinda whispering in the background. Now maybe everyone's not with me in this aspect, but I like to crank the music, especially when it's a huge, final boss battle or something like that. The louder, the better! Maybe I just think this because FFX's final battle music was very quiet. =\

Chaos Project has it

5.) Moar epic struggles.
We need to find ways around all of this "just keep using normal attacks" nonsense. I hear FFXII has some pretty intense battles, but I haven't played the game yet, so...

Chaos Project has it (even though it's turn-based !_!).

6.) Moar flashy PHYSICAL attacks.
There's plenty of flashy and cool looking magic attacks, but normal attacks and special attacks need some flare, too! I wanna see more technical physical attacks, like takedowns, and feints, and basically just moar cool and painful looking attacks rather than the same downward slash every single battle. FF7 gave us a little bit of this with the doubleslash/4xslash abilities. Let's see some stuff like, I dunno, rushing, banking towards the left, pivoting and jumping way into the air back at the enemy, bringing your sword around and going straight through the enemy. I think I have some pretty sick normal attack ideas, but like I said, I've no way to really design them.
Tales of Symphonia did a great job with this problem.

The Legend of Lexima 2 has it.

8.) Moar ... clothing?
Yuna's wearing the same damn thing she wore yesterday, and I KNOW she didn't wash it! I think it would be neat to characters NOT sleeping in the clothes they wear throughout their entire journey, or something like that. And I always thought it was cool when characters had alternate outfits, for some reason. Maybe I'm gay. lol.

The Legend of Lexima 2 has it.

9.) Moar AI controlled ally characters and coordinated battles!
Ever play the .hack games? Man, I love that battle system. It's a little plain sometimes, but I really like NOT having to tell my allies to attack every time it was their turn. You could tell them to go ahead and attack, but pull back if you're dying. Or tell them to hang back and support while the other two go crazy with physical attacks. I can see it now! Pluto hangs back and supports with curative magic. Serren rushes in to attack and go nuts. Arlen chills and waits until Serren has to pull back. Serren's HP and Stamina are winding down. He's pulling out to "recharge." Arlen rushes in. Pluto helps Serren with recovery. Arlen goes nuts with physical attacks. Galva's hiding somewhere, taking shots with his sniper rifle when he sees an opening. Arlen's running out of steam. He pulls back. The enemt follows! OH NO! Reia and Mercy intercept and keep him busy until Serren and Arlen are rea-yeah, you get the idea.

The Legend of Lexima 2 has it.

Wow, I realized my games are gonna be great someday if I put even more effort into it.

I want to add:

Moar bad-ass villians who really are bad-ass. (BTW, The Legend of Lexima 1 and 2 have it. )
PLZ no more guys like Seymour.

[Moss.]

I really should just delete your post, Blizzard, because Jesus Christ way to do nothing but plug your game and contribute nothing to the thread.

But instead I'll just smite you.


But then again, of course I made this list because they're all things I want to put in my game as well.

[Arrow]

I think that there should be BETTER VOICE ACTING. Tales of Symphonia was great, yes, but the voices are just awful...Also, I think it would be great if defending actually did something useful, other than in those situations where the enemy goes "HAY GAIS IMMA CHARGIN' MAH LASER!" and you have a whole turn to prepare yourself. Too many rpg battles feel like they are finished for you before they even start to me...like, you MUST do this this and this or you get raped. I think we need battles that...I dunno, BRANCH a bit more.

[Moss.]

Like OMG IM GUNNA FIRE Z LASER now you could attack the laser directly, but it has a lot of HP. You'll probably get killed before you killed it. You could attack the hydrolic device that's holding it up so it doesn't AIM properly! Or you could attack the guy in the cockpit. Or put him to sleep so he can't fire it. Or cast lightning on the control board to short it out!

And the game would actually GIVE you all those options, instead of only giving you the CORRECT/MOST EFFECTIVE/WHAT THE GAME MAKERS WANT YOU TO DO one, you know?

[:)]

I love this thing! I switch back and forth between my game and this

nice work

[Yossy]

Like OMG IM GUNNA FIRE Z LASER now you could attack the laser directly, but it has a lot of HP. You'll probably get killed before you killed it. You could attack the hydrolic device that's holding it up so it doesn't AIM properly! Or you could attack the guy in the cockpit. Or put him to sleep so he can't fire it. Or cast lightning on the control board to short it out!

And the game would actually GIVE you all those options, instead of only giving you the CORRECT/MOST EFFECTIVE/WHAT THE GAME MAKERS WANT YOU TO DO one, you know?

...which is precisely why I find turn-based battles mind-numbingly boring.

[SexualBubblegumX]

Moar bad-ass villians who really are bad-ass. (BTW, The Legend of Lexima 1 and 2 have it. )
PLZ no more guys like Seymour.

Darkwurld has it.

[ZaMullet]

Moar:


Mass Murderers, Genocides, and anything else that kills a lot of people. It adds more urgency to teh storyling.

[Syntax]

I agree i think RPG's should have moar of actualy everything Arlen said

[Yossy]

Haha, yeah they're pretty powerful plot points.

Welcome to the forum, Syntax. 

[Syntax]

heres something lets say a character was walking not paying attention to anything then.....boom no more character sudden changes i like those sudden changes. rock always a good choice for battle music i play rock when i play boss battles etc.

[Syntax1]

RPG's need more of everything arlen said and the background music in battle scenes umm turn it up try more rock songs HARDCORE woooooo!!!!! 

[Syntax1]

I agree why do they cut all the good stuff out and leave the dull boring things in

[:)]

double post..on crankeye, you have the option to edit your last post, so If you forgot something you can add it.

[Moss.]

Yeah, and it is just me, or do the three posts before Nouman's make, like, absolutely no sense at all?

[Arrow]

There are two syntax's. I smell a rat...

[Moss.]

Okay, here's something we need less of.


the heroic "HEY YOU" to catch the villian's attention after you've snuck up behind them. Especially if your only intention is to attack them, and not necessarily distract them or get them to chase you. What the hell is that crap? It's so lame! "HEY, YOU, BAD GUY!" "HUH IS SOMEONE CALLING MY NAME OH MY GOD ANOTHER HERO!"

Seriously, it would just be better to, like, have the hero behind attack or start running, and THAT'S how the villian realizes what's going on as he's all, like, "HEY WHATS THAT NOISE BEHIND ME!?!?!"

[:)]

Yeah, and it is just me, or do the three posts before Nouman's make, like, absolutely no sense at all?

Two replys, and the first one ment, I check to make sure The RPG I'm making is good, so I check your first topic and add some stuff. The second reply had to of made sense. I was telling him not to double post.

[Moss.]

Uh


I was talking more about the

heres something lets say a character was walking not paying attention to anything then.....boom no more character sudden changes i like those sudden changes.

and

I agree why do they cut all the good stuff out and leave the dull boring things in

.


What the hell were you talking about?

[:)]

wow, I guess I somehow managed to miss "before nouman" lol my bad

[Malson]

RPGs also need moar of not existing. There's like 50 a month coming out for all the systems these days.