|
So let's imagine: You and your stalwart companions are traipsing through an
ancient forest. Suddenly and without warning, from the bushes appear three
horrendous monsters! Quickly you and your team line up in a nice neat row on a
flat piece of ground that just so happens to be in the middle of this gnarled
bank of trees. The monsters line up likewise. Battle begins. Does anyone think
of this as realistic?
Now, were it me planning the battle, my faithful elven archer would take to the
bushes, using their cover to snipe at the enemy. Perhaps I could sneak around
large tree to attack one enemy from behind. The mage could scramble up into a
tree bough, where he could rain death and destruction safely. Meanwhile our
opponents are using the terrain as well to try and give them a tactical
advantage. Now THAT's a battle.
So why is that so hard for traditional RPG makers to grasp? Now, anyone who
knows me knows I'm a TRPG fanatic. And one thing tactical games have been doing
for ages is using terrain type, ground height, weather, etc to change the
effectiveness of a unit in battle. Often, it's almost as important to decide
where you fight as it is how you fight. And in table-top RPGs,
arguably the forerunners of all the console titles we know and love, terrain and
the environment have always been a deciding factor. So, where along the way did
this get lost in traditional RPGs? Perhaps in the days of the 8-bit Final
Fantasy, we accepted the "3-man line" standard because it was all the systems of
that day could provide. But now, developers can make RPGs that are 100+ hours
long, with visual quality bordering on photorealistic. Yet in game after game
the "lineup" standard of combat is still in existence.
Now I'll admit this isn't always the case. Action RPGs like Kingdom Hearts and
hybrids traditional action battle systems like the Tales and Star Ocean series
have made steps in this direction. In the case of ARPGs, the very platforming
nature of the games makes it possible to use terrain somewhat. You can climb out
of an enemy's reach and pound them with spells. In some of the hybrid games like
Star Ocean III, flanking maneuvers are easily possible and add another level of
strategy to combat. And of course, from what we've seen, Final Fantasy XII will
allow for flanking as well.
But why can't we do more? Companies spend millions on a game to make the
graphics more and more astounding and the story more and more in-depth, yet
change to make the combat engine of these games more immersive has been sluggish
at best. I'm all for respecting tradition; but still if software makers can
create such realistic worlds, can't they make the fights a little more realistic
too?
|
RSS feed
iTunes
