"Why RPG's were going down the drain"

by Evan Coffey

In my opinion, the best RPG I've played is Lunar: The Silver Star Story. This game had it all: Love, suspense, mystery, and, yes, some really hot villains. This was a landmark in RPG's. The only game that was good like this one was Final Fantasy VII put out quite a few years ago. Ever since that game came out, most RPG's after it were horrible. The reason for this is simple: Companies are trying too hard to put good graphics in games. They need more of a story, and much better gameplay. I thought Xenogears was a horrible game because Square tried too hard to make it look good than to make it play good. Now don't get me wrong, Squaresoft is a VERY good company. I think that if they paid more attention to the story, and less attention to trying and make the game look good the game would have been much better. Take Zelda: A Link To The Past, for example. This game was very good. The graphics weren't that good, but the storyline, along with the gameplay, was fantastic.

Another reason that RPG's weren't very good was that you couldn't customize your characters enough. Sure, you can name the main character, and you can put weapons on it, but that's it. I think that you should be able to choose your character's personality, choose what he looks like, or even pick out his clothes! When I say, "What he looks like", I mean stuff like this: Hair, height, weight, etc. If you gave me a game with these things, I would be very happy.

Lastly, RPG's are becoming far too long. Whenever you see an RPG, you always look on the back, and you almost ALWAYS see something like this: "Over 40 hours of fantastic gameplay!" I think that if a game had less length, and more quality, it would be good. Take Tales of Destiny. This game was LONG. It had a whole bunch of side quests, and it took far too long to beat. I didn't like this game. There should be a relatively short RPG that I can beat maybe in a week, but can play again, because it was so good.

So, here is the perfect RPG for me: An RPG with great gameplay, and an awesome storyline, but not too short, so I can play it over and again and have just as much fun each time. It also should have a character customizer, and should be by I company that I know I can trust.

Thank you so much for reading my editorial, and if you agree or disagree with what I had to say, please e-mail me your thoughts at Ebo246@AOL.com. Please write me, I'd love to hear what you've got to say.