R P G A M E R . C O M   - R O U N D T A B L E

Tradition vs. Innovation

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Liv: Hello everyone and welcome to this month's Roundtable! The topic this time is Old vs. New RPGs!

Ian: Yes!

Ian: I love this game!

Liv: The first subtopic is...

Liv: When picking an RPG, do you tend to prefer one with more traditional or more new/innovative gameplay?

Liv: And go!

Michael: Tough call.

Ian: Yeah.

Ian: I usually play for the story.

Matthew: Right.

Michael: Traditional is good, but it can get stale.

Ian: I mean...innovative is good, but how much is there?

Matthew: Usually the first thing we see is story and character designs.

Tom: Agreed. I'm a story-RPGer myself, but I try to balance the two.

Rob: I play for both, but if I have the choice between traditional gameplay and something new, I'll take the new.

Ian: I suppose... actually... traditional.

Ian: I mean, I intend to write a ridiculously innovative RPG when I own the world, but I prefer to play traditional ones.

Tom: Too many new innovations make a game confusing and hard to play.

Derek: It varies for me, depending on what I'm in the mood for.

Derek: I like to play a bit of each.

Liv: I agree.

Matthew: There's new, and then there's new-for-the-sake-of-new.

Liv: When there's a really weird battle system or menu system, it usually just drives me away.

Tom: Well, I don't mind too much weirdness. The old "three guys in a line, turn based" gets old fast too.

Michael: I do like when companies try something new, but still stay in the frame of what works.

Ian: Yeah.

Derek: Yeah.

Liv: Me too!

Ian: Like Legend of Dragoon - that system rocked.

Tom: Exactly, Michael.

Josh: Michael:  But...what about FF2? ^^;

Michael: Ugh...

* Ian has never played that. ^^;;

Michael: That game doesn't exist. : P

Liv: Ahahaha.

Ian: : O

Ian: Lies!

Ian: FF2 = Santa?

Michael: I wonder if this is too soon to pull the FFXII card?

Tom: Oh, I can beat FFXII. Magna Carta? That's weirdness on a whole other scale.

Josh: Legend of Dragoon's system was interesting, but really dull because the combos were the same for each...uh...weapon, was it?

* Josh forgets.

Matthew: The FFXII demo played like FFXI offline...

Derek: Josh:  You can equip any combo you've unlocked no matter which weapon you have.

* Ian has a distaste for the newer FF's.

Derek: Even FFIX? That was more traditional.

Liv: FFIX was one of my favorite Final Fantasy's.

Michael: FFIX was a good throwback.

Ian: Bah.

Ian: Well, I've never played it, but I watched a friend.

Ian: The trance thing sucked.

Josh: I enjoyed FFIX quite a bit... Go Chocobo Hot & Cold! ^^

Josh: Trance did suck, though.

Liv: Yeah! That part was awesome!

David: FFIX was trying to get back to what FF was when it started out.

* Ian liked VIII better.

Derek: I spent way too long doing that minigame.

Michael: David:  Exactly.

David: VIII's story was confusing.

Ian: Yeah - the story in VIII was... meh, but the game itself was mucho fun.

* Matthew vehemently dislikes Final Fantasy VIII.

David: You're doing one thing in VIII, and then the next thing you know you're doing something totally different and you're like, WTF man!

Michael: But since we are just talking about gameplay...

Liv: What about games with gameplay like Arc the Lad?

Ian: Arc the Lad... never played. ^^;;

Matthew: Never played Arc the Lad.

* Ian has a shallow repertoire.

Liv: Arc the Lad (the first three) is one of my favorite RPGs of all time.

Liv: I just love the gameplay and everything!

Derek: Arc the lad was pretty bland, but it had a few high points.

Josh: We need more games like Shining Force.

Michael: I would have to say that one area of RPGs that hasn't really moved is Tactical RPGs.

* Ian sucks at SRPGs.

Ian: : (

Josh: Vandal Hearts! Very simple gameplay, but great.

Derek: Yup.

Michael: Indeed.

* Liv has never played that... er...

Rob: I think the major issue with SRPGs is that they need to slowly evolve them instead of completely jumping ship. Though I suppose not just SRPGs are part of that.

Ian: Secret of Mana.

Liv: YES!

Ian: Totally. Secret of Mana.

* Liv is in love with Secret of Mana.

David: Secret of Mana was fun.

Ian: Fun?

Ian: IT ROCKED

Liv: That one was great because you could just go around and whack stuff.

Matthew: I never cared for Secret of Mana.

Ian: O.O

* Ian banishes.

Rob: Secret of Mana was a nice change back then.

David: Heck, I could even beat the final boss with out calling on the Mana sword! XD

Tom: Ohh, Secret of Mana was fantastic. And the other Mana games too (like Final Fantasy Adventure/Sword of Mana).

David: God, no.

Ian: I didn't like Sword of Mana.

Derek: Me neither.

Derek: I liked FFA though.

Ian: I agree.

Ian: The different areas were cool.

Derek: They killed the fun of the original in the remake.

Michael: Well, we are looking at two subgenres with very little change in their gameplay.

Josh: Secret of Evermore was good if you ignored the story. ^^

Ian: SoE was...ok.

Matthew: I liked Evermore a lot. I liked the story.

Ian: Matthew is cracked.

Josh: Evermore had a broken magic system, but whacking things was cool.

Josh: Enjoyed the music, too.

David: Evermore had the worst diaologe in an RPG ever.

Liv: Ahahaha.

David: Other than that, it was a fun game.

Rob: Dialogue isn't everything!

Ian: This discussion seems rather chaotic.

Josh: "We may not stand a mouse's chance in a room full of cats, but we're going after that cheese!"

* Liv can't help it and cracks up.

* Ian pours glue on Liv.

Liv: What about games like Super Mario RPG?

Ian: : O

Ian: YES!

Ian: Traditional, with fun little button presses!

Derek: Yeah.

Liv: That took a traditional base and put a twist in it to make it more interactive.

Josh: "OH MY GOD YOU CAN JUMP."

Derek: That was a lot of fun.

Ian: Yeah.

Rob: Definitely.

Ian: They did good with that one. Even the story was wicked.

Matthew: SMRPG struck me as very traditional... I was never interested, since it was Mario, after all.

Liv: SMRPG is only the best RPG ever created.

Ian: It's not just Mario, though.

Liv: It's sooo much moooore.

Ian: It's Mario with a SWORD FALLING FROM THE SKY!! And other stuff... BUT THERE'S STILL A BIG SWORD!

* Matthew shakes his head.

Matthew: That's really got nothing to do with the topic at hand, though.

Ian: Meh.

Liv: It's true, let's meeeander our way back.

Tom: And theres always my favorites... the Tales series. Yay for LMB!

Ian: Tales, yeah.

Ian: The battles always seemed a bit... chaotic. In Tales, I mean.

Tom: That's the good part!

Ian: I was always like, "WTF?" and then it was over.

Rob: Better "wtf" and the battle be over than "wtf" and the party be dead.

Ian: True.

Liv: True true.

Derek: I enjoyed Symphonia.

Rob: Those were the best battles though.

* Ian has only played Phantasia.

Michael: Grandia.

Josh: Grandia was great... the timing of the battles was one of the best things.

Michael: Grandia III really stuck out as being original and fun.

Matthew: I don't even remember battles in Grandia. I know I played it a lot back in the day...

Ian: XD

* Ian has GIII, but has not played it : (

Tom: Yup... and many of the later games required you to have strategy, like ToD or ToL.

Ian: What about...Lufia!?

Ian: There's a series the world forgot!

Tom: Lufia was fun...

Rob: Foomy!

Derek: I enjoyed Lufia 2, but not so much the others.

Michael: I'm with Derek on this.

* Josh thirds Derek.

Liv: Ok, a few more comments and then we're going to move on to the next subtopic.

Rob: Capsule monsters were great.

* Ian liked the Lufia for the GBC.

Rob: Ewwww.

Ian: : P

Tom: Oh wait... Lunar.

Michael: The Sega CD ones or the PS ones?

Liv: I enjoy Lunar!

Michael: I loved the Sega CD ones.

Tom: Either, but I prefer the PS.

* Ian throws out random RPG series.

Derek: I only played the PS.

Ian: DARK CLOUD!

Ian: DRAGON QUEST!

Ian: Um... crap.

Liv: OK! New topic!

Ian: BALDUR'S GATE!

Michael: I'll take traditional gameplay, if it is not stale.

* Josh sedates Ian.