once again i must restate, if anyone here has played final fantasy 4,5,6,7,8, or 9 you dont get to choose how your character developes, it jjust happens, and those are some of the top rated rpgs of all time

Then in that respect you could say that FF wasnt a true "roleplaying game" then couldnt you? If you dont assume the personality of the character you cannot assume the role.

Final Fantasy wasnt at all popular for any roleplaying aspect what-so-ever. The series was a hit for original storylines and that feeling of accomplishment it gave to its players every time they found a new powerful item, gained a level, or defeated a boss.

Don''t think im trying to put down FF though, I believe its one of the greatest series of games. Although the fact is that the designers seemed to purposefully leave any true roleplaying aspects out of the game.

~Vendayan

Nah... forget about user driven character development if you''re playing Final Fantasy. They''ve even been classified(though I do not completely agree) as interactive movies. They are not about developing the player''s story, they''re there for developing the author''s story(which are prety good in most of them, if you ask me).

A friend of mine has this distinction between "Ocidental" and "Oriental" when it comes to RPGs. And I believe he is essentially right. Most RPG''s developed in Japan are much like FF(maybe it has to do with the educational system...).

Now, get a break from the Nihonjin and go play some "Ocidental" RPGs (and please, oh pretty please do not say a word about Diablo and the like). Try the Ultima series(try to avoid Ultima IX, at least before you try U7 or U6). Or go with Interplay, and try Fallout, or the Baldur''s Gate series. THEN you''ll know what is to let a player develop the character.

And of course, there are many RPGs that I have overlooked, and I bet people will be quick to appoint some



Gaiomard Dragon
-===(UDIC)===-

Ah... Black_Mage, your nick pretty much gives away that you''re an old, die-hard Final Fantasy player :D

Gaiomard Dragon
-===(UDIC)===-

Without getting into the argument about whether it makes it a good role-playing experience or not, having a game where the ''protagonist'' is actually a kind of anti-hero could be interesting. I mean, in most cases regardless of what choices you make in the game, you know you are driven towards taking the ''higher road'' in terms of player-character morality. But what if the game''s setting or storyline necessitated you be a ''bad guy''. I wonder if this is what blackmage is trying to get at. Sure, you can argue that a ''true'' RPG will give the player the choice, but what if the game has a fairly linear storyline (like Half-Life, for example), and the events are presented in such a way that you are obviously a badass looking for trouble?

I don''t think that this is fundamentally a weak idea.

R.

heehee...
you people seem to think that i am going to do this for every character, no, you see, you develope the main character. you. no one else.

when ever you are interacting with a group of people, i imagine that you dont try ang modify every bit of their psyche to make them a different or better person, no, you usually work on yourself. you can make the main character whatever you want, but the sopporting characters will only change slightly depending on your actions.

i just use the FF series as an example because you only do minor character developement. characters will change over the course of the game, just not that much. Much like i did in my first game, Bafl Crystal I . You could develope the main character a lot, and i had to make a lot of different scripts (lines and spoken words, not code) just so he would make sense. it worked well, but it was hard to code because i went through the trouble of making all of the supporting characters change drastically to make due. in this game they will change less than the main character but enough to consider them improving or not improving (i forget the exact word for this).

hmmm.... post number 3000.
maybe you could have to kill the character....

quote: Original post by Outworlder
Most RPG''s developed in Japan are much like FF(maybe it has to do with the educational system...).

Very curious, could you elaborate a little more on how the conclusion is made ? Personally the education I have receieved is half asian and half western. And my stand between the "Ocidental" and "Oriental" RPG is in the middle as I can see the advantage of both sides. I think it might have something to do with the writing style of the folklores and mythologies that''s passed down as asian stories usually have definate moral code that all the protagonist upholds while western stories dosen''t.

quote: There was an RPG character who was playable, and a complete badass? Like when an enemy says "kill me", one character say "No, we will spare you, because we dont want to sink to your level." and then the badass says "yeah, well its too late for me!" and then shoots the guy 3 times.

Come on, you need more than that. The guy also need some quirky sayings like Ash from Army of Darkness.