What makes a good RPG?

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NQ 952

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I love role playing games, from the unique fighting systems to the immersive and often creative worlds ... there's just something about getting lost in those worlds that I love.

What do you think makes a great RPG?

For me it's about two things: a world with a decent story (I don't even need a really immersive story, just something that's fun and makes some sense) and I absolutely love open world games. It's just my style of play.
 
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Replayability is one thing that makes a good RPG. It would allow one to play with different builds outside of what they are comfortable with.
 
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The game's hypnotic qualities, and a reason to learn to play skillfully rather than just grinding your way through everything.

Many old favorites have a deficiency in the latter. Final Fantasy Tactics's second half is completely unbalanced compared to the first, presumably due to runnung out of time and money. Tactics Advanced had downright pathetic AI, and all the features they put in to make the series easier for kids compounded the ease of massacring those poor dum-dums. Tales of Symphonia hits a wall once you enter Tethe'alla that lasts until you get access to the flying motorcycles. Gen 1 Pokemon is effectively over once you figure out how to catch an Abra and get the little fella to level 16. But I still have many happy memories of these games because they made me feel like I was on a worthwhile adventure.

Now that we live in an era of better technology, we can prevent the flaws of said past games fom being repeated. But we should still look to them for the tricks they used to hypnotise players into forgetting their primitivism.
 
A good combat system, likable characters, and good writing. Now, good writing I need to clarify, good writing does not mean a good overarching story, the story can in all honesty be utter shit and the writing can still be good, see pre-ME2 Bioware, KOTOR had great writing for it's characters, but the story was hot garbage, same with Mass Effect 1 tbh. Also for a turn based system, some sort of meaningful impact for losses needs to be there, be it death of party members if you fuck up (Baldur's gate, Fallout 1&2), a razor thin inventory system (STALKER, which is FPS but bear with me), or something similar.

Finally anything not set in boring mideval land is an instant bonus, even just shifting to renaissance era like the Warhammer Fantasy system is a great change. Actually early gunpowder era needs more love if you ask me, why does every sword era RPG have to be knights and kings and bow and arrows etc.
 
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Likable cast
Interesting story
Fun to fight monsters that make you think (ie not just button mash the default attack)

But of course there are exceptions. Bravely Default is one of my favorites even though everything about the plot/characters is boring and predictable. The battle system was just interesting enough to keep me around despite the poor story.

Strelok said:
Finally anything not set in boring mideval land is an instant bonus, even just shifting to renaissance era like the Warhammer Fantasy system is a great change. Actually early gunpowder era needs more love if you ask me, why does every sword era RPG have to be knights and kings and bow and arrows etc.
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I agree with this so much.
 
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Good plot, likeable cast, enjoyable combat system.

Bonus: Good soundtrack.
Open world is optional because what works for open world games may not work for others.
 
Interesting character stories, interaction and development, interesting words and locations to immerse yourself in and explore, weapon/armor/spell/summon/etc management and battle systems and character stats, great musical scores, the feeling of progression, getting stronger and defeating enemies and monsters, not to mention all the silly and enjoyable RPG tropes we all know and love.
 
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WEEDle said:
Interesting character stories, interaction and development, interesting words and locations to immerse yourself in and explore, weapon/armor/spell/summon/etc management and battle systems and character stats, great musical scores, the feeling of progression, getting stronger and defeating enemies and monsters, not to mention all the silly and enjoyable RPG tropes we all know and love.
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I've got a question for you then. There are many wannabe RPGs created in RPG Maker that incorporate some of these ideas - mainly crafting, different elemental versions of the same skill and dungeons where you only fight monsters while there isn't any plot progression. Do you find these games fun as well?
 
Unique Otter said:
I've got a question for you then. There are many wannabe RPGs created in RPG Maker that incorporate some of these ideas - mainly crafting, different elemental versions of the same skill and dungeons where you only fight monsters while there isn't any plot progression. Do you find these games fun as well?
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I tend to not as they have such low production value and the stories are often cheap and a dime a dozen. The battle system is often the same across the board, very vanilla and boring. It might've been fun back in the SNES era, but now it's just old and dated (in terms of mechanics). Plus the default graphics are ugly.
 
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Unique Otter said:
I've got a question for you then. There are many wannabe RPGs created in RPG Maker that incorporate some of these ideas - mainly crafting, different elemental versions of the same skill and dungeons where you only fight monsters while there isn't any plot progression. Do you find these games fun as well?
Click to expand...

I've not really played that many games made in RPG Maker but I remember playing a few back in 2005, ones I downloaded from download.com and I can't remember what they were called sadly as I'd love to play them again for nostalgic reasons.

Anyway one RPG I remember playing was as basic as they come, simple 8 bit style graphics, simple turn-based combat and enemies were encountered by walking into them on the overworld map. You start off in a castle, you get 100 gold, it was as stereotypical as they come but at the time it satisfied my need for those RPG tropes.

There was quite a lot of cool stuff I remember downloading back then, other RPG Maker games (as well as the Columbine one), a battle generator where you could choose from multiple game franchises characters and enemies/bosses and change all the stats and music. Pretty pointless but I dunno, seemed cool at the time.
 
Customization.
The ability to alter and change any part of the character plays a huge part in an RPG for me. I want to be able to play as whoever I want. If an RPG lacks this aspect, I avoid it completely.
Also preferably in a sandbox environment where choices matter. (Fallout: New Vegas, Mass Effect, Saints Row, etc)
 
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Good exploration with actually interesting secrets. Nothing turns me off faster than hunting for generic collectibles.

I love games like Sunless Sea or Dark Souls or Deus Ex, which all hide major plot points from the player.
 
I tend to like it better when the protagonist (my character) is already established and I play within that framework. I like The Witcher and Deus Ex better than Bethesda's offerings for that reason. The latter's placeholder one-size-fits-all quests seem so generic
 
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I like it when an RPG is still a challenge even when characters are at maximum level -- if the whole overly complicated level/HP/attack/defense/speed/luck/magic/etc element is even used, that is.

Realtime is also more enjoyable than just standing there exchanging blows and selecting stuff from a menu.

Also having to do "level grinding" is annoying.

And like others said, an open world with a lot of replayability is pretty much essential.
 
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