What are your favorite innovations in RPGs?

[A.I.]

For me some of the "nice" innovations were:

 Some rpgs allow you to reread sections of dialogue. Sometimes you accidentally hit the wrong button at the wrong time.. and basically lose an important part of the text.. and than you realize that you saved a couple of hours ago.... which leads me directly to another useful innovation..

 Autosave.. sure if you like playing the older shin megami tensei games and for example the prof. layton games.. you will get used to saving fairly frequently... but in some other games you may easily forget about saving because either the game is too easy and you don't think that you migtht actually lose or you are just consumed by the atmosphere.. and don't think about saving.

 Encyclopedia/Bestiary.. it is in fact not that important... but I actually do like to look at some descriptions every now and then.. and i also like to have some sort of info about my items and my enemies.

Side quests... this is actually a fairly "old innovation" however it has yet to be perfected. Many developers still think that it is enjoyable to just stop before the final dungeon.. and maybe go pick some flowers for a while... or run the whole way back just to deliver some letters.... and yet I would still prefer it for an rpg to have additional content..

[Darilon]

I always enjoy it when games let you listen to their music soundtrack. A lot of the FF ports allow you to listen to them. Replaying certain cut scenes is also awesome. 

I love games that let unused characters gain experience along with the rest of the party. It gives you the incentive to actually use the characters later.

[MeshGearFox]

Penalties for breaking from melee (and movement limits when engaged so you can`t break the line but can defend a doorway). Charm & Sleep that actually work (and are necessary). Encumbrance (even money has weight). Spellcasting that can be canceled by successful attack. Sweep. Battlefield-changing  spells that actually work (and are necessary...Stinking Cloud FTW). Haste spell that ages you and you might get too old for reviving. 3 moons, phases of which control spell power. Bandaging bleeding characters. Area Fireballs you can control with deadly precision and L Bolts that bounce off walls. And so on...

I thought most of those were only in the Savage Frontier games and later and not the original Pools ones (burning troll corpses is impossible in those, etc).

Anyway I think my main issue with Infinity Engine combat was that it felt like you were a slave to the random number generator a lot. I mean, yes, it's D&D, that's just sort of inherent to the system, but it was hard to tell what I was necessarily doing WRONG in BG2 that got my dudes killed.

Also I think I'd like to see CC's "you only get level-ups from bosses" mechanic used in more games.

[Aeolus]

For me some of the "nice" innovations were:

 Some rpgs allow you to reread sections of dialogue. Sometimes you accidentally hit the wrong button at the wrong time.. and basically lose an important part of the text.. and than you realize that you saved a couple of hours ago.... which leads me directly to another useful innovation..

 Autosave.. sure if you like playing the older shin megami tensei games and for example the prof. layton games.. you will get used to saving fairly frequently... but in some other games you may easily forget about saving because either the game is too easy and you don't think that you migtht actually lose or you are just consumed by the atmosphere.. and don't think about saving.

 Encyclopedia/Bestiary.. it is in fact not that important... but I actually do like to look at some descriptions every now and then.. and i also like to have some sort of info about my items and my enemies.

Side quests... this is actually a fairly "old innovation" however it has yet to be perfected. Many developers still think that it is enjoyable to just stop before the final dungeon.. and maybe go pick some flowers for a while... or run the whole way back just to deliver some letters.... and yet I would still prefer it for an rpg to have additional content..

This reminds me of Radiant Historia's cutscene skipping. Also a dialog fast-forward option is also appreciated.

Additionally the one good thing to come from Shadow Dragon (aside from basically letting you take whomever and whatever you wanted through the game without repercussion) was the option to completely skip enemy phases.

[Dincrest]

I love games that let unused characters gain experience along with the rest of the party. It gives you the incentive to actually use the characters later.

I loved that in Tales of Symphonia.  Especially since some boss battles required me to use a particular character, I didn't have to worry about someone being underleveled because I rarely used them. 

[Dice]

Encyclopedia/Bestiary.. it is in fact not that important... but I actually do like to look at some descriptions every now and then.. and i also like to have some sort of info about my items and my enemies.

Star Ocean 3 killed this, I loved it.  Anything and everything was there, I liked when it hit stuff from previous SO titles and when it came to more theoretical terms.

[blackthirteen]

And I like how in Eternal Eden, once you completed a battle encounter, that encounter was gone for good.  This made backtracking exploration (especially for all the endgame sidequests) much more pleasurable.

Oh thanks for mentioning Eternal Eden as a innovating RPG ^^ Eternal Eden: Ecclesia (the sequel of Eternal Eden) is almost ready. Let's hope it will live to the expectations :D I've build everything myself (story, programming, graphics, music), it's a pretty huge challenge. It's why there's an interval of three years between my two releases haha.
.

[beLIEve?]

That comment you made about shifting turn based to real time combat really antagonizes me. I am sick of the notion that real time combat systems are a replacement of evolution of turn based ones.Turn based combat has the potential to be incredibly strategic and tactical. It's a genre difference.

Same here. First witnessed when Bioware replaced genius battle system from GoldBox AD&D games with their pausable/realtime combat in Baldur`s Gate. It was not bad, but a far cry from total control and real tactics of SSI titles. Ok I`m a die-hard TB fan, but don`t mind a well done Action RPG - as long as it doesn`t ask me to control multiple party members at the same time without any pause button. How on earth are you supposed to compete against computer juggling all that? (Ok, Korean Starcrafters might, but thats way outta my league)

I just find that Turn Based combat can be dry.  Only a few games use it super well.  Grandia II, LoH to some extent, FFX (especially in terms of speed), and the occasional tactics game (I'm actually not a big fan of VC).  I consider real-time a bit of innovation, or at the very least a logical next step to some extent.

Consider it a personal taste for active time combat, than a poo-poo to turn-based.

i kinda feel like the same as Dice. when i read the topic, AB systems came to mind. now that's not so say i don't like TB cause i really do. i've said it on other threads, i think that strategy is required for both to be engaging. i think ffXIII could've used an AB system to their credit if the strategy was there. i mean that's what kept me going through SO games even though the characters are obnoxious.

i really liked the combat VC i thought that semi real time was pretty innovative before demon souls that was the last game i beat.

i may be a little biased, i love strategy games. i miss the old games like pools of radiance, curse of the azure bonds based on AD&D rules that shit was cool.

i think one innovation that i know keeps me busy is customizing characters. if i'm gonna be starring at something for hours i'd like it to look nice. i also really liked push turns in nocturne it definitely helped keep random battles from getting tedious. i think my favorite innovation though is autosave one at the begining of a dungeon and one before the boss fights is almost mandatory.