R P G A M E R . C O M   -   E D I T O R I A L S

Tired RPG Elements That Could Use a Rest

!

!

Jeremy Michael Gallen
FAN EDITORIALIST

Basic Things That Can Improve RPGs

GameFAQs, in recent time, has begun doing a daily feature where readers submit "Top 10" lists of certain things, such as best launch titles, best game characters, and so forth. One such list that caught my eye was "The Top 10 Reoccurring RPG Elements That Could Use a Rest":

I agree with some of the elements mentioned (such as mandatory tutorials), though there are some I disagree with (I don't think love stories have been *that* overdone in RPGs). Now, I present my own list, in no particular order, of ten other RPG elements I feel could use a rest:

To date, I have yet to play an RPG where, if the player is selling items, items actually sell at full price. I realize that doing so might make RPGs slightly easier since such a feature would probably eliminate money issues, but I do think there are some compromises to this, such as having items sell for different prices in different areas (like poor towns), or even auctions where the player can possibly sell off an item for a higher price and thus profit from it. I would absolutely love to see an RPG with such a feature.

Most RPGs have a "cancel" button that backs out of certain commands, but in a few instances, it isn't foolproof, and players might unintentionally find themselves pressing the "cancel" button over and over, wondering why the devil it isn't working. Then they'll notice that in order to cancel an operation, they have to select the "yes" option. I know it's but a minor flaw (one that I've noticed recently in Pokémon Diamond), but I just think that the cancel button should be foolproof and completely cancel out operations, even if they involve a yes/no decision.

In my opinion, fast battles are a must in RPGs, although there are elements that can bog down combat, chiefly long, slow spell animations. This was an issue I had with Xenosaga Episode I, where a lengthy spell animation accompanied just about every special attack. While I enjoyed Suikoden III's battle system, moreover, long spell, animations, too, while fairly flashy, could certainly bog down battles, especially when the player's battle party was facing a more powerful enemy party. Good compromises to this are either faster spell animations (like in Suikoden IV and recent Shin Megami Tensei titles), having different characters execute their commands simultaneously (like in the Suikoden games), or letting players turn off spell animations completely (as Persona 2 allowed during non-boss battles).

One thing that can piss off many RPGamers is the much-feared "Game Over" screen. If the player's characters die in the course of the game's story, theoretically something negative would happen in the game's plot, such as villains taking over the world. Unfortunately, instead of actually showing what happens when your party does die, RPGs, in just about every instance, simply show a generic "Game Over" screen that says absolutely nothing about the game's story. Perhaps the only RPG I've every played that actually broke from this trend is Chrono Cross, which, when the player's party dies, says something to the extent of "blah, blah, blah, Serge was never born, etc." I personally believe that multiple Game Over screens would be a good idea, since the place where the player dies would have different bearing on the plot.

I know that even the most mainstream RPGs have a habit of appealing to masochistic gamers by having extra-difficult mini-games and sidequests, although completionists might take annoyance at this. There's also a trend in such titles that the vast majority of final bosses in RPGs are not the most difficult enemies in the game. Heck, even some main story bosses are actually more difficult than their actual final bosses. The Suikoden series, in my opinion, effectively breaks this trend, with their final boss battles, in my experience, being their most difficult. In Suikoden IV, even the last ship battle, in addition to the last normally-fought boss, can be tricky. I know not all will agree with this, but I personally believe that difficulty should be consistent throughout the main storylines of RPGs, as is the case with the Suikoden series.

This is another problem in RPGs that could possibly damper inventory management, especially when the player's inventory is close to filling up. It actually isn't a problem in certain games such as most Suikoden titles, where inventory and depository space is generous, although in other games, such as Odin Sphere, where stellar battle performance results in endless item rewards, limited inventory can possibly be game-breaking. Good compromises to this, in my opinion, include unlimited inventory place with sufficiently stackable items like in most Final Fantasy titles, or a sack into which the player can limitlessly store excess items, like in the Dragon Quest games, where the amount of items each character can carry into combat is still limited. By the way, I don't think equipped items should consume individual inventory space since characters *do* have those items equipped, and would thus have other places to put items.

I know that many Americans can sympathize with this theme in RPGs since the United States fought for its independence against the then-tyrannical British Empire, and the Star Wars series very well documents the rise and fall of the evil Galactic Empire. The theme of the Evil Empire would find its way into RPGs as well, first with Final Fantasy II, whose story was decent for its time. Many other RPGs would adopt the theme of either overthrowing an empire (though it doesn't have to necessarily be evil, like in the very first Suikoden), or simply bringing about regime change (like in Skies of Arcadia). However, there are some instances that the empire really isn't "evil" or "ominous" at all, like in Suikoden IV (except for Kooluk's nasty weapon of mass destruction, effectively imitating the Death Star). The theme of the evil empire can be done right in RPGs, but in other titles, the theme can very much fall flat.

This can also be an annoying problem, since a friend or nature might call while a gamer is enjoying a game, and if they are unable to pause, they can miss key story elements. I really don't think a pause function during cutscenes would be all that difficult to implement, and shame on those developers that fail to include this. Another similar problem is cutscenes that the player can't skip, with the player sometimes having to fight a nasty boss after a lengthy cutscene, and forcing him or her to watch it over and over would be nothing short of infuriating. Granted, there are some RPGs that somewhat poorly attempt to resolve these problems: for instance, Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria allows players to skip cutscenes but not to pause them, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time asks players if they want to skip a cutscene *before* viewing it, and Suikoden IV only allows for skipping cutscenes in its New Game+ mode. Really, would it kill to allow players to both pause and skip cutscenes? I think not.

These can be annoying for RPG completionists, such as Yours Truly can be at times. First are items that enemies have a certain chance of dropping, sometimes forcing players to fight that enemy over and over to get it, such as the Sword of Kings in Earthbound, which has around a 1/128 chance of appearing after a battle with a Starman. However, as you fight battles with a particular enemy, your chances of getting that item do *not* get any better. A good solution to this would be, in addition to the probability algorithm, to feature a counter that increments each time you battle an enemy type. For instance, if after fighting 128 Starmen the player doesn't get the Sword of Kings, then *drop the freaking item*! After the enemy drops the item, then reset the counter and repeat the process.

The same goes for rare enemy encounters, such as those in Pokémon Diamond, which again apparently have only a certain chance of appearing. For instance, you have a 1/50 chance of encountering an enemy, but after fighting in an area over and over, your chances of encountering that enemy still do not get any better. As with rare item drops, have a counter that increments each time you encounter enemies in a certain area, and when it reaches the maximum of the probability, if it still hasn't appeared yet, then have it appear, and afterward reset the counter. I really don't think it'd be too difficult to implement this, but then again, most developers seem to utterly lack common sense in certain areas such as this.

This element annoys me in most turn-based RPGs except those with turn order meters (such as Final Fantasy X). Say that a character is low on HP, and you input a command to have a character heal him or her. Unfortunately, there is a great possibility that the enemy could beat the party to healing that character, which will cause a healing item to be wasted on a healthy character. One RPG that seemed to break this mold is the original Breath of Fire, where healing magic seemed to get the first priority. I think it would be a lot fairer to both the player and the enemy if healing magic and items always got the priority in any turn-based system.

Another thing that baffles me about many traditional turn-based battle systems is that player and enemy turn order can be inconsistent at many times. For instance, say you fight an enemy party consisting entirely of the same type of enemy. Theoretically speaking, character and enemy turn order depends on each one's agility or speed stat, so you would expect all those enemies of the same type to have consecutive turns, right? Unfortunately, turn-based battle systems almost never work this way, and turn order, regardless of each participant's speed stat, can vary constantly. I can understand this if characters and enemies use speed-adjusting spells, but why this happens in other instances is but a mystery to observant RPGamers.

Either the solution of giving healing magic and items first priority in each round of battle, or a turn order meter, would easily resolve this problem with unpredictable/inconsistent turn order. A bad way of doing turn order gauges, however, is the Xenosaga games, whose turn order meters ultimately run out of icons before refilling the following turn. Why they made this odd design decision is well beyond my comprehension.

In summation, I think the above elements could really use a rest in RPGs, and that the aforementioned improvements should be made. I know there are some old-school developers that are afraid to abandon these particular elements, but I think that if they can't abandon them for themselves, they should at the very least do so for the mainstream gamer, and perhaps even those who don't even normally enjoy RPGs would find themselves attracted to the genre.