a feature all future rpg's should have is.....

[Alisha]

Alternate Costumes for all characters!
the only game i think of where it was kinda sad was xenosaga 2,and 3. its especially sad in xenosaga 3 since you cant even unlock the costume shion starts the game with. but enough of that this isnt a rant about xenosaga 3. i demand more games that let you change characters costumes!

[John]

There's one main issue with that: plane clipping.  If you create alternate costumes, they all have to be relatively geometrically similar to each other, as if you create costumes that are larger or wider in places, you get massive plane clipping.

[Dincrest]

Tales of Symphonia had alternate outfits you could find for each character.  They were amusing, but I hardly used them since the stat boosts were lacking.

[Alisha]

i used the kolona costume with presea and had no problems owning the game even on the highest difficulty. rogue galaxy also has alternate costumes. i believe tales of the abyss has them as well but they are no longer attached to titles or something.

[Crown Clown]

i believe tales of the abyss has them as well but they are no longer attached to titles or something.

I know that I've seen someone play with all the main characters dressed as Super Sentai rangers.

I very rarely use alternative costume in games. The originals just look better most times to me. Then again, most of the times alternative costumes are meant to be more humorous than the originals. The only upcoming title I can think of including alternative costumes would be Persona 3: Fes.

God I'm looking forward to that game.

[Ryos]

Shadow Hearts: Covenant and Star Ocean III come to mind as other examples.  Frankly I don't care for alternate outfits too much, I'd prefer development time spent towards...uh...useful features. :P

[Raze]

I wouldn't mind seeing it more, but only if a actual effort is made towards well designed alternate costumes. I might do one battle to see what they look like, but I'm not going to actually PLAY the game with the characters in their bathing suits, a tuxedo or a chef outfit. Or if I can help it, because sometimes it's their default outfit, a magical girl costume. Give me some cool looking options and I'd use them.

 Although one other thing is that it can't be some 1 defense armor. Regardless of how good it looks or if a games so easy it doesn't matter I'd avoid wearing it regardless. Unless of course, it's a shirt for Vaan.

[Alisha]

rogue galaxy has like 4-5 costumes for each character and all they effect are elemental resistances and if one you like has poor resistances you can fix that by equiping an elemental sheild. maybee its a girl thing but i love it when games have alternate costumes. and they can greatly effect how much i can stand a character.

[everluck]

I think a better feature would be anatomically disproportionate girls with optional clothing.

[Bernhardt]

Ar-Tonelico, Dark Cloud 2, and Star Ocean 3 had alternate costumes.

What would be really interesting is providing a character editor, so you could costumize color schemes for your characters, in addition to clothes and other features, for no other reason that aesthetic tastes.

In some games, like Ar-Tonelico, the costume actually changes the property of the character, so even if I like how one costume looks on the character, there's another costume that I'm tempted to use, since it gives the character better stats...I hate that.

In Dark Cloud 2, different costumes weren't easy to come across; you'd have shoes, hats, and clothes strewn across a bunch of different shops; it's kind of like, why not just offer them through one kind of shop, called a "tailor," instead of having them strewn randomly across a bunch of shops? Bah!

Then Star Ocean 3, it wasn't easy earning some of the better costumes.

[Willy Elektrix]

Any means to customize my characters is welcome to me. Why stop with costumes though? My not a full fledged character editor where you can change facial features, outfits, proportions, gender, ANYTHING! I want to have maximum control!

[Alisha]

yeah thats one of the reasons i loved the kotor games.

[CluelessWonder]

Oh, I love alternate clothing options.  One of my favorite things about Western RPGs is seeing the different armor you equip on your character.  Plus I loved that I could make my own character in Oblivion.  I spent like 2hrs making her.    

RPGs are so long so it's fun to change things up and not stare at the same character in the same outfit with the same weapon for 50+ hrs.

[Dice]

I always thought alternate endings were pretty sweet. =)

[Morwan]

Oh, I love alternate clothing options.  One of my favorite things about Western RPGs is seeing the different armor you equip on your character.  Plus I loved that I could make my own character in Oblivion.  I spent like 2hrs making her.

Definitely one of my favorite parts of any RPG, more games really need to do that. It makes grinding and getting new equipment a lot more rewarding-- taking 5 less damage doesn't really do it for me. I was talking about it in IRC earlier:

[01:43] [Morwan] I think I just prefer to play female characters, because they're like dolls to me.
[01:43] [Morwan] Getting new weapons, armor, and clothes is the best part of an MMO for me.
[01:43] <_Alisha_> same
[01:43] [Morwan] Which is why I liked Lineage II, every piece of armor or weapon had a different graphic.
[01:44] <_Alisha_> funny i never liked dolls when i was a little girl
[01:44] [Morwan] Yeah, neither did I.
[01:44] [Morwan] Or GI Joes.
[01:44] <Hidoshi> You're getting quoted.