What are you tired of seeing in RPG Maker games?

[AwesomeCool]

@Little Adventurer - I agree that we need more non-flat protagonists.  They have there place (for projecting yourself onto the character), but it seems like devs are limiting to themselves to this.  You can make a much, much better story with a well developed protagonist.


Another thing to add: stupid names!


Does a character need a name 20+ characters long, confusing and/or nonsensical name?  I can understand avoiding names like Sam or Kris, but why 20+ characters long, confusing and/or nonsensical names?  Atleast make the name be an actual word with a definition (English or otherwise) and perhaps an actual real name.


I will never remember a name like Vovongoco or June van Nathaniel the fifth of the third order.

 

[Little Adventurer]

I like themed names and names with meaning behind them! For example, the game I'm working on now has everyone and all the locations with music themed names. My Bard is the main character and he's called Alto (though as he grows older he jokes that it's a misnomer now, since alto is a high pitch for men), my Mage is named Minuet (sounded like a very noble fancy name which fits because she is from a high class family), my Priestess is named Aria (an aria is a solo and Alto is entranced by her singing the first time they meet), and my Knight is named Quintus (comes from quintet apparently, and sure enough he was part of a group of five Knights including him at one time).


Makes me wonder if there's a thread that deals wth stuff we actually love to see in RPGs?

 

[Archeia]

- Black and White, Good and Evil. Gray doesn't seem to exist.


- Over the top aggressive female characters that are rude just because. Bonus points if they're black for some reason. Extra Bonus points if they whine for getting punished for their crimes lightly when in reality it could've exiled them or sent to a floating prison to die.


- Extremely meek female protagonist that they might as well be NPC characters for how boring they are. Bonus points if they exist solely for fanservice during dark times to lighten up the mood.


- Default RPG Maker Sound effects. Bonus points if it's the same cursor sounds every single time.


- Boring UI that doesn't reflect the theme of the game.


- SLOW Scrolling Text. I personally don't care if one uses scrolling text. Just don't be slow since I'm a very fast reader. Bonus points if every journal entry in a game are slow scrolling text.


- Memes or terms that doesn't fit the setting. "Forever alone" isn't something in Medieval Times.


- First shop will always sell beginner items that you already have....Because? (EDIT: This is the only thing they sell)

 

[AwesomeCool]

Makes me wonder if there's a thread that deals wth stuff we actually love to see in RPGs?

This is a dumb question, gamers do not love to see anything.


You should no better and if you don't go look for some user reviews (and then lose faith in humanity as a result).


Edit: 


Supposed strong female characters that are said to be incredibly strong and unmatched, but are never actually shown succeeding at anything significant and become a damsel in distress anyway (note that these characters are applauded by SJW groups for being good characters despite the fact that they are the exact type of characters they say is sexist with very minor differences). 

 

[stupid enough to like FF13]

Makes me wonder if there's a thread that deals wth stuff we actually love to see in RPGs?

I'd bet that 80% of the things listed on this thread would be also listed on that thread.

- First shop will always sell beginner items that you already have....Because?

Gameplay: In case someone pulls a stupid and sells their beginner items.


Logic: That's probably where the character(s) bought the beginner items in the first place!

 

[Little Adventurer]

*laughs* Oh yes, I forgot that the Unpleasible Fanbase was a thing. XD

 

[Archeia]

Gameplay: In case someone pulls a stupid and sells their beginner items.


Logic: That's probably where the character(s) bought the beginner items in the first place!

I am totally fine with them doing that. But is there a reason that one single shop doesn't have better weapons and you have to travel across a new town to get 'slightly' better items like bronze sword?

 

[Little Adventurer]

^ Makes logical sense to me, assuming of course, if we're talking about the hometown the protag grew up in.

 

[Archeia]

^ Makes logical sense to me, assuming of course, if we're talking about the hometown the protag grew up in.

It doesn't to me.


I am pretty sure a small backwards town can make a steel sword just fine. If you consider how mines are usually close to provinces as well as ancient blacksmithery techniques where the entire village usually fan the furnace at intervals to keep the heat up very high (depending on the area but it's a thing). :/


And during that time DIY is everything, I'm sure one can be super creative. It just mind boggles me how they keep business that way.

 

[Hoppy]

The typical RPG classes, put some spice in your classes unless it's a truly historical game you're going for or one that demands some historical accuracy and don't just say soldier in a military RPG, have ranks as classes and have them be promotioned to higher ranks from events, level up, or whatever else you can think of.


Poorly done romances, I can't stand them, it's also a reason for the decline of Eastern made RPGs.  Also, if you want romance in your game or a full on harem game, please make your main characters at least act normal when around their love interest or harem, they don't have to be a pervert or anything, just none of the spineless male or the unrealistically timid female you see in harem and reverse harem anime.

 

[stupid enough to like FF13]

This is a dumb question, gamers do not love to see anything.

Gamers love Things! Things are what make the games they love awesome! And it's Things that ruined all of the terrible games.


Gamers hate Things. Gamers have always loved Things.

I am totally fine with them doing that. But is there a reason that one single shop doesn't have better weapons and you have to travel across a new town to get 'slightly' better items like bronze sword?

Perhaps Petitvil is a simple little village, and as such they don't have the tools to make Steel Lances like Grandeton does, but they can make Wooden Spears.


Perhaps Petitvil's weapon shop is in fact stocked with products from Grandeton, but as Petitvil rarely sees trouble unless it's a random villager's sixteen birthday, they have no need for expensive Steel Lances when Bronze Javelins will do and are more affordable for the villagers.

 

[Archeia]

Gamers love Things! Things are what make the games they love awesome! And it's Things that ruined all of the terrible games.


Gamers hate Things. Gamers have always loved Things.


Perhaps Petitvil is a simple little village, and as such they don't have the tools to make Steel Lances like Grandeton does, but they can make Wooden Spears.


Perhaps Petitvil's weapon shop is in fact stocked with products from Grandeton, but as Petitvil rarely sees trouble unless it's a random villager's sixteen birthday, they have no need for expensive Steel Lances when Bronze Javelins will do and are more affordable for the villagers.

What I was thinking is like, Petitvil can totally stock on wooden and bronze javelins;


But for some reason won't and decided wooden sticks are the best thing ever when they are a hunting village/nomad.

 

[Corrupted Ralph]

Too little romance, I want a love story while I'm playing a game.


Blue dragon is able to pull off a type of romance I am talking about. One that is subtle, but can be seen. I'm not talking about the general "I love you soo much, lets marry!~~"


I'm rather talking about the romance that goes like Blue Dragon. In that game they female character will show small signs until you do something at the end of the game to gain their full affection, but even then it's realistic because they don't progress too far. It's not like you're having sex with her after crafting her something.


Another good example is final fantasy, where romance is somewhat randomly chosen by your choices. I love the thrill when I was a child trying to get Barret to ride with me xD


Some kid would come to our school saying he managed to do it and gave us detailed steps so we could also get him... it was the highlight of my childhood.

Spoiler

Hi


@Archeia :3 I don't think I have ever even said hello to you yet.

 

[Little Adventurer]

I just like building relationships within my party in general! I hope I can pull it off with my series... I'd really like it if you could look at Alto and Minuet and say, "Yeah, I can tell they're friends!" or Alto and Aria and say, "Yeah, they really DO love eachother!" same with Minuet and Quintus.

 

[resquinox]

Needlessly drawn out processes


Placebo choices - (games that offer various "choices" but whatever choice you make is irrelevant because they all lead to the same path/dialogue)


One line filler NPCs - (filler NPC who say something random and irrelevant like " I found a flower today." And that's all they ever say the whole game)


Worlds that always try to incorporate the four elements simply for "diversity" - (ocean region, ice region, desert region, volcano region, forest region)


Some of the logic in the game (random chests full of epic loot sitting in plain sight in a forest, why is a chest there in the first place and why has no one come to loot it before you?)


Stereotypical Amnesia Protagonist - (Where am I? Who am I? What am I doing here, What's going on?)


Unrealistic Camaraderie - (Hey stranger MC, I don't even know you but here have my family heirloom, feel free to loot my house too)

 

[Corrupted Ralph]

Needlessly drawn out processes


Placebo choices - (games that offer various "choices" but whatever choice you make is irrelevant because they all lead to the same path/dialogue)


One line filler NPCs - (filler NPC who say something random and irrelevant like " I found a flower today." And that's all they ever say the whole game)


Worlds that always try to incorporate the four elements simply for "diversity" - (ocean region, ice region, desert region, volcano region, forest region)


Some of the logic in the game (random chests full of epic loot sitting in plain sight in a forest, why is a chest there in the first place and why has no one come to loot it before you?)


Stereotypical Amnesia Protagonist - (Where am I? Who am I? What am I doing here, What's going on?)


Unrealistic Camaraderie - (Hey stranger MC, I don't even know you but here have my family heirloom, feel free to loot my house too)

Alright, I have few things to comment :3


I also hate worlds that try to force elements in their world without giving a valid reason for the world being that way... (Most of the time their reason is some stupid/silly overused reason.


Random chests... what type do you mean? There are multiple types of random chests... Are you talking about a random chest in the middle of nowhere containing a random potion for god knows why? I can agree on that one, but in another sense you could also mean random hidden chests with mythical gear... then it could be described as nobody finding it yet. Still stupid to find things in that sense.


Placebo choices are the bane of speed runners existence. If you take a look back on classic RPG games (I'm going to use very mainstream games) such as Final Fantasy 1 and Pokemon (Pretty much all of them) They include no choices at all. In the beginning of the game they give you a goal and say GO FOR IT! of course people will still tell you what to do, and point you in the right direction, but they understood that useless options did not have to be there. The only real reason placebo choices exist is to lengthen the game time. which is supposed to be more attractive to buyers... in the end however that is just a cruel example of mainstream game creators that will never change.


While amnesia protagonists are somewhat uncommon they are definitely overused. If you can't create a decent backstory for a character then your main plot is doomed to fail.


Finally unrealistic camaraderie... I know the enjoyment of being able to storm into someones house and just take all their **** as they sit unable to do a thing. I completely agree that it's overused though. I wish that games were still in their child days so games could be created with new ideas instead of following the "Hip Idea" such as minecraft back in 2012 when it mainly became popular. That's when the chaos started up with over 100 clones of it appearing over night. It's somewhat stupid how people are unable to find their own ideas nowadays, and when somebody does it's instantly taken over by swarms of clones.


Also... welcome to RPG Maker Forums

 

[Seacliff]

Fantasy Races following the same patterns every time.


EX:


Elves are almost always oppressed in some way (and generally slaves).  Also, almost always peace loving and bow + magic users.


Dwarfs are isolationists and want nothing to do with the other races.  Also, this race is bad with magic, but good with technology (every time).


Humans are the strongest current empire and almost always mistreat all the other races (generally for some bland humans are naturally evil reason).


Half-Elfs are always hated more then any other being in existence.


half-dwarfs do no exist... ...ever.


Dragons are always said to be incredibly smart and wise (although they almost never show any of these characteristics) and tend to be incredibly selfish and not care about current events (and tough).


Some god-like race that looks almost exactly like one of the other races (if shown), but way more powerful and more technological advanced (till some unnamed catastrophic event left only ruins which always happen to be the most essential part of the main plot).


All other races end up being pure evil monsters with very little intelligence (goblins, orcs, etc).\


Finally, Original races do not exist due to fear that the plot could be to innovative and stick out to much (meaning that expectations might make people except it to be a good story).

What strikes me is that a story for a future game I'm trying to make tries to ever invert or deconstruct a lot of these tropes. I'm glad I'm not the only one who's tired of generic fantasy.


As for me, one thing that grinds my gears are multiple races existing in a world, yet they are all so isolated from each other. Come to think of it, the only RPG that comes from the top of my head where races don't feel like other races are the plague and sometimes live in the same town is Paper Mario, especially the Thousand Year Door. Think about that, a Mario RPG being more innovated in an area most fantasy RPGs hardly touched.


While not as often brought up, are one/two dimensional side characters that don't feel like they add to the overarching plot, or at least another character's development. Sometimes you help them in a quest related to the player progressing the story, then they join you without never saying much about themselves again. This is a compliant I often made when analyzing Chrono Trigger, where I felt the only character that really had any motivation fighting Lavos was Magus. Robo, Frog, and Ayla just hang around after you help them out. I love the game, but the writing for it is far from perfect.


Finally, the sense that you are the only one who ever fights the bad guy. A ton of RPGs seem to make normal guards, people who are trained to defend, seem really weak early on in games. How the heck do the monsters not destroy every farming village in sight if a normal human is even less than that?

Cliche, non-realistic stories.

Chances are, even the most realistic RPG Maker game is miles away from being 'realistic'.


Or do you just mean 'believable'?

 

[Kyuukon]

Chances are, even the most realistic RPG Maker game is miles away from being 'realistic'.


Or do you just mean 'believable'?

Hmmm... let's see if I can explain this:


It has to abide to the rules of the world set and not place humor above story. For example, LotR is a good fantasy. It's far from being 'realistic' but it's 'believable', like you said. I'd hate to see Frodo joke about how Gandalf fell down the mines. Just, don't!


I've seen a few RM games around that are very anticlimatic when it comes to this. Humor is good (and even necessary) but when it starts to get in the way, it just ruins it for me. Not my style. I get it's a game and it's fantasy but please, take it seriously! I cannot immerse myself in the world otherwise -.-"

 

[Corrupted Ralph]

Hmmm... let's see if I can explain this:


It has to abide to the rules of the world set and not place humor above story. For example, LotR is a good fantasy. It's far from being 'realistic' but it's 'believable', like you said. I'd hate to see Frodo joke about how Gandalf fell down the mines. Just, don't!


I've seen a few RM games around that are very anticlimatic when it comes to this. Humor is good (and even necessary) but when it starts to get in the way, it just ruins it for me. Not my style. I get it's a game and it's fantasy but please, take it seriously! I cannot immerse myself in the world otherwise -.-"

So pretty much don't cloud the game play with excessive amounts of comedy. Keep it on point and serious, but some comedy is okay?

 

[Kyuukon]

So pretty much don't cloud the game play with excessive amounts of comedy. Keep it on point and serious, but some comedy is okay?

Yes. Comedy is secondary, don't overextend it.