The Importance of Character Niches in RPGs

by Joseph Witham

One of the most important aspects of any RPG is its battle system; it is the one element that makes or breaks a game. A very large percentage of an RPG is its battle system, and in order for players to really have fun, this percentage must be executed in a varied, complex manner. The single most important part of a battle system is its character ability system. It is so important to present RPGamers with a myriad of options and deep customizability.

What exactly do I mean by a myriad of options? I'm not talking about having thousands of versions of one Fire spell, or four hundred different ways to swing your sword: I'm talking about unique niches that separate themselves from every other type of action in the game. I want to be able to cast an offensive spell, tempt a monster into joining my team, turn an enemy to stone, slap a monster with my triple edged sword, summon a beast from the beyond to aid me in battle, recover my injured party members with an item or spell, use the elements against my foe, tap into the holy powers of heaven, dance until my adversary drops, blow up a large group of enemies with a bomb, and karate chop a fiend to hell and back. While some RPGs do offer this kind of variety, the vast majority is lacking.

There are two examples I can think of that really sum what a good ability system comprises: Final Fantasy Tactics and Star Ocean: Second Story. In Final Fantasy Tactics players choose from over 20 classes, all with their own, unique set of abilities. Add that to all the exclusive character classes and monster classes and you have an innumerable amount of possibilities. I have never fought a boring battle in Final Fantasy Tactics: Something new is bound to happen every time. From the Lancer's Jump ability to the Mediator's persuasive skill, you are never limited in the way in which you decide to manipulate the system. Star Ocean: Second Story also presents the player with a huge selection of abilities. You can cook up an elixir that'll heal you completely in battle, you can steal from almost any towns person, and each character is separated with a unique set of skills that can't be used by anyone else in the game. These games can truly be called the pinnacle of ability systems.

There are, as I mentioned, many bad examples of ability systems. I can name several games, but I'll narrow in on two generally well known games which lack a polished, versatile ability system: Chrono Cross and Skies of Arcadia. Both of these games are spectacular in just about every category; they've both got great music, stories, and characters. However, their battle systems are, in my opinion, boring and repetitive. All the great things about the games could not make up for this one fact; they both rank very low in my book as a result. Both games have tons of spells to choose from, but these spells are just more powerful versions of each other with little more variety between each other than their conflicting elements. There would be nothing wrong with this labyrinth of carbon-copy spells if there was a steady list of other abilities to choose from; however, there are few options outside of magic. Characters have an average of three to four abilities each, and most of them are just upgraded versions of each other that are similar to every other character's abilities. Of course there are exceptions in both of these games, such as summons in Chrono Cross and ship battles in Skies of Arcadia, but overall the two games lack variety in the ability system category.

We all have to deal with our games' battle systems, there's no way around it. While we can put up with a lacking storyline, we can't just brush off a bad set of abilities. If in every battle you use the same strategy to defeat your enemies, you're not only playing a bad RPG, you're denying yourself the pleasure of experiencing a true taste of complex strategy. How can this be improved in the upcoming generation? To answer that question I'll have to hearken back to the "developers are spending too much time on presentation and not getting to the meat of a game" argument. The presentation part meaning graphics and story, and the meat of a game part meaning battle system. In the end, a complexly structured ability system where each character has a solidly defined niche is a lot more fun to deal with than a complexly structured polygon.