Sick and tired of generic RPGs!, Experiment! Options

[GreatWhiteWhale]

Seriously...it seems that so many games have such...boring and normal storylines and titles, usually using words like "War of ---" or "tales of" or something to do with a crystal or evil power...Why not create something unique, not some fan game, or attempt at making a new final fantasy, seriously, the FF series (Oh god, brace for trolling!) Is NOT as good as you may think, the story WAS innovative and so new at the time of FF1-6, now it blows, FF7, blows, (of course, this is my opinion) I only liked FF1, FF3 (Jap version) and FFX (cool gameplay) but now MOST RPGs are dumbed down with a drawn out, just boring story. And it always starts with a misfit teenager who doesn't "fit" being a hero, but gets sucked into it, meets friends, learn of "insert evil force here" and must use the "insert magical artifact, weapon, item here" to destroy said evil force, I haven't played many games here, so I may be wrong. But why is it most games never explore the most interesting things, like the mind or something, the Human psychology, not an actual evil, but a evil or trauma in your "hero's" mind...but I dunno, I can't speak for a lot, I know a lot of hard work is poured into these games, but I know if a game or movie is actually "good" if I feel moved, and it changes or adds a new part of thinking to me, something that matters, and pays off.

Who knows, maybe you guys like that?
I am in the process of making a game...but it might not be released
Opinions?

[heisenman]

now MOST RPGs are dumbed down with a drawn out, just boring story. And it always starts with a misfit teenager who doesn't "fit" being a hero, but gets sucked into it, meets friends, learn of "insert evil force here" and must use the "insert magical artifact, weapon, item here" to destroy said evil force

This doesn't sound particularly new, I don't know why you're associating this with newer games.

[elliott20]

wait, you are talking about games in general or RM games specifically?

[Sol Fury]

I personally feel it is a matter of execution. You can tell a story that has been told a dozen times before in a fresh and original way with some creativity and a few new twists. Like, say, a fellowship of heroes on a quest to destroy an artefact of untold evil power, which is an archetype, can be freshened up by doing any number of things, like revealing they were wrong about everything and they actually just destroyed the only connection the forces of good have with their world. Or they achieve their goal within the first 25% of the game and the rest is about resolving a larger threat that emerged along the way.

Or, y'know, something even better and more original than my slightly hackneyed attempts at playing with the standard format.

Story is important, but it is not the be all and end all. Presentation and gameplay is also important, and I can almost forgive a more generic story if there is a highly polished gameplay system under there that does something new, or takes an established "way of doing things" and finds a new way to make it work. I've played games which have done that and although their stories are generic, they are just plain fun to play.

And in the end, that is what really matters.


So I say, don't worry about making a un-generic, un-cliche game. Just make something that is fun and enjoyable to play.

[Unversed Angel]

I personally LOVE Rpg's, i wasnt as impressed with FFXIII as the others, but i enjoyed it all the same.

I am mostly disappointed with Square Enix, Square Soft and Square where fine, but i still like S.E,
i haven't really played many other games outside of S.E, about 1-5

but i get what you mean though

[SwiftPlay]

Personally, I don't mind the same game's over and over if that is what I like. I definitely expect someone different characters and settings, but their is nothing wrong with the basic rpg framework. Just make it fun, and keep the story and dialogue interesting.

The thing I hate is when creators take a concept that is cool and try to add a "twist" to it. Especially in sequels where the original was awesome.

[Adrien.]

I can give you two examples of games that your looking for.

War of the Souls and War of the souls, Destenies reach. Both deal with homosexual relations ships, scarred and damaged past of yes teen agers. who yes do come across and evil. but its not some weapon or magical item. its over coming there past and embracing whats infront of them that wins the fight.

[Gogon]

There is a solution to these kind of problems - make the game YOU want to happen yourself. If you want to see these kind of games made, perhaps experiment with your own skills in RM and see what happens? I myself am dabbling in the (admittedly outdated but interesting) concepts behind Freud's "Id, Ego, and Superego" as well as Carl Jung's "Anima and Aminus" for one of my games in pre-production, and I'm even attempting to draw the graphics myself to give it a different flavor other than "RTP, Kaduki, Mack, and Rips," all of which are overused.

Take some initiative. Be the change you want to see in the RM scene, especially if no one else is willing to.

[elliott20]

That's how I see it too. There is really no use to complain about these things here. It's one thing to rail against the latest FF featuring emo boy with pseudo new age hippy messages for being repetitive, it's another to complain about it at a community that is largely a group of indie developers all creating their own. Not to say that you CAN'T criticize people's work constructively, but rather you need to be aware that to levy such a general criticism towards the whole community, you kind of need to earn your stripes first before your word carries weight.

Also, you have to remember Sturgeon's Law here, 99% of everything sucks. That's just the way it is. 99% of everything will probably also reach for the low hanging fruit. Gotta remember, this is a website dedicated to people who do this for fun, not for work. You can only expect them to put so much into it.

As for me, maybe my sampling as been skewed but for every generic game I see here, I see another one that does something actually pretty novel with the engine. So I'm not even sure that criticism is a fair one.

[LockeZ]

Your topic is misleading! I thought this would be about games that use generic RPG game mechanics, but instead it's about story tropes. Oh well.

No one likes stories about thirteen year old "heroes" who are on a quest to abolish all established forms of government and religion and replace them with trying our best and believing in ourselves. No one, no one likes that. No one even thinks that anyone else likes that. The only reason it keeps happening is because game designers don't care about story. If they don't care about story, then they're not going to care about your complaints about the story. So either convince them that story is worth caring about, or give up and just accept that not all game designers treat all their games as a storytelling medium. Some of them just want to make games, not stories. (And some of them just want to make visually appealing art, and some just want to cash in on franchises.)