Things you can’t bear in RPGs

[Eusis]

I find that on a scale of 1 to 10, I'd only give SO3 a 7 or 8. It's decent, but a lot of games have done much, much better. Radiata Stories definitely looks better both from a technical and artistic viewpoint, for example. I do agree that awesome 2D is always desired, and I wish more developers would do it. But it's not like we have blocky messes that are far away from looking remotely realistic.

[Alisha]

I find that on a scale of 1 to 10, I'd only give SO3 a 7 or 8. It's decent, but a lot of games have done much, much better. Radiata Stories definitely looks better both from a technical and artistic viewpoint, for example. I do agree that awesome 2D is always desired, and I wish more developers would do it. But it's not like we have blocky messes that are far away from looking remotely realistic.

as much as i love radiata stories(hello being able to recruit lenneth owns your face,plus jack is my favorite male charachter in an rpg since ryudo) in terms of gameplay it's probally tri-ace's worst game yet.though admitedly i havent played star ocean 1,maybee it will show up on virtual console translated? the amount of times i got 1 shooted in the game must be against the law somehwere.

moving on...

some things i hate

rpg's with only 4 characters that you virtually start the game with.

what ever happened to secret characters?

games that force you to lose characters for half the game in the name of story-worst offender ff9.

when you get into a battle then when the battle's over you forgot wich way you were going.

traditional rpg's that dont have some form of limit break,overdrive etc. bore me. lol ffx-2...

companies that make games with the word shining in the title but there no strategy in sight

rpg's that use artificial means of increasing the difficulty such is the case in dragon quest 8 having no revival items,and when you finally get revival spells they have a % chance of working.

why are characters always standing still in battle? the horseback battles in wild arms 3 were freakin sweet!

more rpg's need team up attacks. these first appeared in chrono trigger yet to this day they dont appear much in rpg's.

difficulty levels with perks-valkyrie profile gave you incentive to play on higher difficulties in the form of characters items and an ending. i want to see more of this.

[James8BitStar]

I agree 100% with you James8BitStar. This seems to occur about the same time as every single rpg i have played starts the "free roaming mode" where you can go everywhere on the map. I hate it.

That's not quite what I was referring to.  Actually, I LOVE free-roaming scenes.

What I meant was... well, here's an example.  Recently I was re-playing FF7 (which I had beaten years before, but I'll be blasted if I remember most of the details), and I got to the bit where you have to find parts of a digsuise to dress Cloud up as a girl so he can infiltrate Don Corneo's mansion.  For the life of me I couldn't remember what you were supposed to do to get all the parts--I only managed to get one piece, and then got stuck.  I walked into EVERY building, and talked to EVERYONE at least twice, and tried my damndest to interact with every object I ran across... but I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do to get the other two parts of the disguise.

[Spoony Mage]

as much as i love radiata stories(hello being able to recruit lenneth owns your face,plus jack is my favorite male charachter in an rpg since ryudo) in terms of gameplay it's probally tri-ace's worst game yet.though admitedly i havent played star ocean 1,maybee it will show up on virtual console translated? the amount of times i got 1 shooted in the game must be against the law somehwere.

I'm going to assume you mean "1-shot killed".  I think I got killed more as a result of getting gangbanged by enemies than 1-shot kills.  Now SO:TtEoT, with its HP and MP kills, had me on my knees.

moving on...

some things i hate

rpg's with only 4 characters that you virtually start the game with.

what ever happened to secret characters?

Hell, I wish more games did the 3-4 character thing.  I rarely, if ever, use everyone in a game with 5+ playable characters.  Hence another annoyance of mine: games that force you to use a certain character due to story.

games that force you to lose characters for half the game in the name of story-worst offender ff9.

May I ask at what point in FF9 this happened?  I know there were points where the party separated and you only had control of one group for a while...but I don't recall losing anyone for half the game.  Maybe my memory is fuzzy.  :P

when you get into a battle then when the battle's over you forgot wich way you were going.

That's more an issue with the gamer than the game.  The developers shouldn't have to compensate for a gamers lack of attention span.  :P

why are characters always standing still in battle? the horseback battles in wild arms 3 were freakin sweet!

There are quite a few games that have limited or random movement in battle (Grandia series, Wild Arms 3 & AC:F, Skies of Arcadia), then there is near-full to full movement (Tales games, Star Ocean, Radiata Stories).  It actually seems like fewer games are going the traditional route of Side A vs. Side B.

[Eusis]

as much as i love radiata stories(hello being able to recruit lenneth owns your face,plus jack is my favorite male charachter in an rpg since ryudo) in terms of gameplay it's probally tri-ace's worst game yet.

I admittedly should've been more clear in the previous post, but if you read the post I was replying to, my intent was to talk about the /graphics alone/. I guess the same score could be applied to the game anyway, but I'm leaning way more towards an 8. It's a lot of fun, but gets frustrating at times and has several stupid design choices. Still, the amount of fun I had made it very worthwhile despite the parts I didn't like and those that were just plain stupid.

[MartinMM]

That's not quite what I was referring to.  Actually, I LOVE free-roaming scenes.

The thing i meant was that it is even more irritating when you don't know where to go next and the whole map is at your disposal. Do i need to talk to someone in the first town to have the story continuing or do i need to revisit the king in one of the countries etc.
I have nothing against the obligatory free roaming mode if you know where to go next.

[Cauton]

After playing some more Xenosaga Episode 3, I will have to add this item:

* Dungeon designs that don't make any sense whatsever when considering the dungeon's context in the storyline. Let me give you an example (MINOR Xenosaga Episode 3 spoilers here):

Merkabah. If I had designed a state-or-the-art battleship/mobile fortress, I sure as hell wouldn't have designed it so that the only way to access the core control room is by destroying a bunch of physical locks and making some big shaft stop moving. No, I would probably have created a nice series of corrids and blast doors and high tech electornical locks and, you know, stuff like guard stations.

I can understand game designer's need to create fun and interesting dungeons for us players, but I do I prefer it if the dungeon feel realistic, and not just like, well, puzzle.

[zain]

as much as i love radiata stories(hello being able to recruit lenneth owns your face,plus jack is my favorite male charachter in an rpg since ryudo) in terms of gameplay it's probally tri-ace's worst game yet.

I've always thought Radiata Stories more resembled a Tales game than anything else Tri-Ace made (They made ToP and -maybe- ToD, though that's unclear.) The hero's kind of an idiot, which is a big theme running through the Tales series, and with the action battle system, it seems to me more like what Tri-Ace would be putting out if Namco kept letting them develop Tales games instead of doing it in house.

And for the record, Radiats Stories is probably my favorite Tri-Ace game, and Tales is one of my all time favorite series (That and Gyakuten Saiban/Phoenix Wright)

[Dade]

I'm kinda with you, zain. I dont think Radiata Stories gets enough love, a lot of people hate on it cause the story is kinda nonexistant until half way through the game, BUT.....it's damned fun; isn't that the point of playing games?

[MeshGearFox]

I generally dislike minigames because they sort of take you out of the flow of the game, especially action based ones. Especially action based ones with bad control. Like FFVII.

I make a few exceptions.

Minigames are okay if.

A) It's Space Harrier.
B) They're something more turn-basedy, like a card game. Might and Magic 7 had the most amazing card minigame.
C) They're actually being displayed as a game within the game, and aren't some jarring complete change in gameplay. IE, not FFVII's motorocycle bit, but puzzle boy from SMT:N or the casinos from Persona are cool. IE games you could see your CHARACTER playing.
D) If they're inobtrusive or inconsequential if you feel like ignoring them. Namely the hunts from DDS, or the Amala Diver bits in SMT:N.
E) If it's a more actiony minigame, but it's more frequently and more well implemented. IE if the bike bit in FFVII had better control and WASN'T a once-off affair.

[Spoony Mage]

That cross country racing minigame from the Future tense of Chrono Trigger is probably the most annoying minigame I've played.  It doesn't even involve much skill, it just seems to be about how long you can keep yourself bumped in front of your opponent.  And using Boost at the right time.  And luck, because if you slip up even once, the guy will pull ahead and you lose.  Maybe it's just because I've never really gotten the hang of it even now, but it annoys me.

At least you can bypass it by walking all the way through the long way, but the minigame is still annoying.

[Alisha]

the swoop minigame on kotor was annoying to me because i was playing on pc.

in reference to forgetting wich way i was going after a battle. this only happens to me in rpg's that grant you a bonus for touching the enemy from a certain angle.

[Eusis]

The forgetting thing depends on the game's design really. Obviously those with maps that fill in as you go along aren't a big deal unless you're trying to find something specific or something. And those with diverse enough design tend to be recognizable really fast. But something like Sigma Star Saga, I keep getting lost because the map's a bit vague, the graphics get repetitive, and it's zoomed in enough taht you don't get a good, large view of the scenary.

[daschrier]

I really dislike childish sexual humor. Maybe I'm just getting older, but constantly seeing NPC's talk about wanting to see hot chicks, or other characters flirting needlessly with your hot female party members is getting old.

So many NPC's in town in Sui 5 had crap like this to say, and there is shockingly a lot of it in XS3 as well with Allen/Shion and towards KOSMOS.

[ZE GRAND MASTER]

games that force you to lose characters for half the game in the name of story-worst offender ff9.

May I ask at what point in FF9 this happened?  I know there were points where the party separated and you only had control of one group for a while...but I don't recall losing anyone for half the game.  Maybe my memory is fuzzy.  :P

You lose Quina for almost all of Disc 3. I know far too much... Though I can think of other games that are worse for that.

I really dislike childish sexual humor. Maybe I'm just getting older, but constantly seeing NPC's talk about wanting to see hot chicks, or other characters flirting needlessly with your hot female party members is getting old.

So many NPC's in town in Sui 5 had crap like this to say, and there is shockingly a lot of it in XS3 as well with Allen/Shion and towards KOSMOS.

You'd really hate Tales of Symphonia then... Though that was all from, y'know, Zelos so it wasn't all the NPCs like the games you mentioned.