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My Do's and Don'ts of Fantasy games (very mild-spoilers)

What I'm talking about are games like Final Fantasy, Summoner, and even games for the desktop computer market like Baulders Gate and Dungeon Siege where it's argueable if it's a roleplaying game or not, but the basic idea is there. Fantasy, magic, party based, and some kind of stepwise plotline, be it treasure hunting, linear or branching.


The Dont's (Since they are easier)

--Don't give me a party option and force characters into it down my throat. Unless the characters in my party already, I most likely think that member sucks and he's a complete waste of time. An acceptional option is to force all party memebers to be equal level to the main character or very close as to not be too weak. I hate it when my main character is almost 10 levels higher then my weakest character and I have to level that character up.

--Don't force me to play mini-games. I hate mini-games. People argued about them in Final Fanatasy, why are they so common in Summoner 2 recently? A few optional ones are fine, but even 1 required one is annoying. And don't think 'well you can't win or lose anyway, it's just there for fun' because many of us, think this ruins our fun. Specialy if we lose. It's no fun to be riped from the main game to play shoot-em-up target practiceing.

--Don't go on a wild tangent just to lengthen the game. I feel like the Realm of Twilight was just that. A tangent to had a few hours to the game length. All tangents should be optional quests. I should be on the main plotline 100% of the time, or at least tie it in better. Else I get frustrated like I did in this game.

--Don't put timers on in the game. I hate it when they say 'you have 15 minutes to do x!' THis is not a Summoner issue, just something I hate. Timers suck.

--Don't ever.. ever.. have a death spell. Period. I never use it, and I get really pissed when my characters get one shot killed. Never.. ever.. have them.

--Don't have multi-stage bosses without clear indication ahead of time that they are so. The mud boss is a perfect example of this. I hate it and it's down right confusing. If you want him to shift in some respect, make his HP bar reflect that so I know he's only X% really hurt.

--Don't have bosses with shifting weaknesses. Again, Keep him one way, and make him stay that way.

--Don't have invulnerability spells. They are very annoying and basicly make it very frustrating to play. At least here you could use your whirlwind attack to do something about it but I only found that out thru reading a faq.

The Do's

--Do allow us to save anywhere and have save points. Save Points are great reminders that people need to save more often. But allow us to save anywhere because sometimes we hit rough spots where we need to save every other step.

--Do help me try to think of things over then the obvious that a game should have... Ugh

Make your own in this thread.

Man if we did that there would be no thinking part of a RPG. that woudl be boring as all heck

There are still tons of things you can do in rpg's that don't include any of the above. Many of the old school pc games didn't do one lick of the above and where fun. Many games out today do the above and are fun. What I want removed are a lot of the stupid non-senceical elements removed from games and back to the basic gameplay itself and back to the basic plot.

Sentack

Well, I agree about timers, I hate doing stuff against the clock as well.

I think that there should be 2 or 3 major turning points in RPGs which will affect the outcome and behaviour of all other characters in the game.

For example: Lord of the Rings, it should be possible for Frodo to turn to the other side and ally himself with Saruman, or something like that.

I'd just like to see more than one possible outcome depending on the choices you make (bad or good).

I don't mind going off at a tangent, if there's something worthwhile at the end of it........

Death spells, well OK, they should not be common, but don't rule them out.

I don't like doing encounters in the same peice of ground over and over again (Summoner 1) I could live without the World Map (save as a reference) and would rather they made all the places join together (Baldur's Gate?) I know it would mean a lot more maps, but they would not have to be complicated if they were just paths from one place to another......

Anyway, just my two cents...

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No drama

I agree some...but...

-I agree with you for completely about mini-games. I like mini-games, but for them to be mandatory is just ignorant. Luckily in S2 there was only one I believe, but it sucked. Sure you had a option to BUY the hints but please... if you ever saw the prices, you'd realize that that wasn't really an option...

-I also, for the most part agree about the timers. I don't like timers, and find them stressful and annoying. During the timer portion of a game, it's just not fun. Again, if this was during an optional mini-game or something, fine. But not something mandatory.

-The City of Masks thing was sort of cool, but that was when the storyline got sort of skewed for me. Not to mention I got all these cool quest items that I couldn't use until I FINALLY got back to the real world or whatever. It could've been worse though...

-I don't agree at all on the bosses though... I like bosses to be different each time, and anyway that they can spice them up or make them more interesting is find with me.

-I would normally agree with you about the death spell, but not in this game. No way. Destroy Undead and Death kick ass in the Labyrinth of Guardians! Other than that, I've never used Death in an FF game or any other one until this one.
-I also agree about saving. You should be able to save anywhere. S2 basically did that...

Some new things... hmmm... 1. something that would be cool in video RPGs would be to turn off/on the fire/cold/elemental/etc. weapons. I would make sense that there would be a way to disable that. That way when you're fighting a fire enemy and have a fire sword it doesn't heal them or do nothing. Because games don't have this, I rarely use elemental weapons...

2. Quest diaries are good, because I rarely want to write something down, but make them list all the quests. An example in S2 would be those damn temples in Munari. I have no idea which ones I've done and which ones I haven't because it's not in the quest book, and I didn't think to write that kinda stuff down.

I'm sure there are some other things, but that should do for now.

Well, I suppose you can't make everyone happy. I just hate timers. Everything else is fine...

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Forever Confused.

Sure

Good game but that Vandal game part was the fist of only 2 parts in the game that made me scream cuss words and throw the controller....

SPOILER!!!

the second was when Even thoughj you are opeing a MAJOR CAN OF WHOOP @$$ on the last boss ...you are forced to turn from the 13th guardian summon (which you spent hours getting and totally is invicible, ) into that piace of *&$#@ robot thing that can barly take a hit and is slower than a turtle.


as far a instant death, i use it all the time saves hours fighting living armours ghosts, sentinals etc. Just use your death ward spell or item and you'll be fine to counter it.

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Vandal's Shooting Game really sucked

I know what Sentack wants...

Hey Sentack, why don't they just make all rpg's into movies, and at every scene change, all you have to do is press X. OoO, but don't forget to save inbetween acts, otherwise, when you turn off the system, you will have to start over from the begining...

I suggest you rent the FF movie, maybe that is more geared to your 'style of play.'