Guidelines RPGs Should Follow

by Justin Brown 

I have spent many years playing RPGs. And despite the fact they are my most favorite genre of games, I notice most of them have flaws which even the average Joe could see blindfolded. Here I have created a list of guidelines which all RPGs should follow, this should help you RPG developers in creating an RPG.

* No RPG should have more than 25% of its total length devoted to character building. Most players don't like spending hours upon hours building their characters to be strong enough to defeat a certain enemy, only to find the story in the game is not as long as stated.

* No enemy character in an RPG should have spells or abilities the player cannot get. All RPGs have it where the enemy is able to block your escape from a battle, but you cannot block theirs. And some enemy bosses have spells which the player cannot get (ex: Chrono Trigger, Hallunation or Skygate Lightning used by the enemy character Queen Zeal.)

* No RPG should have an overtly complex set of rules for getting the best rewards or endings (worst offender of this rule is Ogre Battle.) RPGs should NOT be restricted to expert gamers.

* No RPG should punish players for character building(ex: Ogre Battle.) No player likes to spend a lot of time building a character(s) only to find their efforts were for naught.

* No RPG should have enemy characters build levels to stay ahead of you (ex: 7th Saga.) Nobody likes an enemy who is impossible to defeat.

* No RPG should have stories or enemies who are in poor taste(ex: Final Fantasy 3's Kefka was the worst villain I had ever seen, I don't mean the worst as in the best villain, but the worst as in the worst taste.)

* Every RPG should have a system explaining the use of spells and items (ex: Final Fantasy Tactics) because not every game has the instruction manual.

* Unavoidable enemy encounters in a game is totally unacceptable. Too many games have this problem. Its disadvantages far outweigh the advantages and it is more annoying than enjoyable. No player enjoys trying to get their badly wounded characters back to safety only to run into a random enemy encounter from which they cannot escape.

* No RPG should have irreversible choices which the wrong choice could force players to either reset the game or start a new game all over (Ogre Battle again is the worst offender of this guideline.)

...and sadly, there are no games which follow all these guidelines. I hope RPG developers read these and consider these for future games.