RPG Maker Forums

Greeting gentle peoples of the interwebs,


I wanted to get your thoughts on a particular subject, namely playing as the hero, villain, the antihero, & the ability to chose between those options. Now with my current project I am not having my characters save the world from some impending doom, the apocalypse has already occurred, the world has been turned upside down, no one knows how to turn it back; & everyone is as individuals & groups working towards peace, stability, wealth, power, dominance, etcetera based on their own respective motives. Additionally my heroes aren't shiny heroic champions, they are to varying degrees ostracized, marginalized, or viewed with suspicion for various reasons; leading to them being used to clean up messes around the Empire. Mainly I was doing this to use it for points of character conflict with the world around them, to develop their characters. 


Now as these characters are already of the less than shiny variety, & are operating at the behest of an Empire whose motives & practices are less than ideal, as evidenced by the mistreatment the characters receive. As well as other plot points I won't go into here. I began asking myself why not allow the player some latitude in making decisions of dubious morality, darker subquests, thievery, maybe even some less than wholesome factions you can work for, etcetera? Better yet, why not allow the characters to switch sides, (aside from the absurd amount of work I am going to create for myself trying to pull this off), not just a "Yes big evil I chose you!" cutscene role credits, but actually work for an antagonist faction?    


However, I've noticed with most of the RPGs/JRPGs that are made in RPG Maker, & the games that inspire them; one is nearly always the shiny hero protecting the world for puppies, kittens, & Christmas. Those few games where you do play the "Villain", there seems to be a fair bit of humor involved as well.


So I thought I would pick your assembled brains on the matter.


In your own project is your main/mains a hero, a villain, somewhere in between, the players choice?


Why is your main/mains that role, story/game lore wise?


Why did you chose to set it up that way?