Game Play elements that should be buried

[the7k]

Random Fights: I never played an RPG, just checked it out. But one of the things that keeps me off are random encounters . You can't be just walking along and you have to fight some enemy. It would be nice if it happen once in a while as a surprise element, but if it is going to happen 3 to 4 times on each trip you take with same enemies then it sucks I guess. Though I understand RPG fans are attracted to this kind of thing.

Well, some of the best RPGs I've played have no random encounters. For example, almost every fight in Chrono Trigger, Earthbound and Persona 3 is foreseeable.

Of course, Breath of Fire II and III are two of my favorite RPGs, and they have random encounters... Hell, Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne I consider the best RPG ever and it has random encounters.

The real problem I have is when A) The random encounter-to-step taken ratio is way too freakin' high and B) Battles are nigh-impossible to run away from.

[MrEco]

I love freedom. Going anywhere and doing anything is a great idea that can be done very well, if done correctly. But if you don't tell me where I'm suppose to be going then freedom becomes the enemy. If I'm searching around wondering what the hell I'm suppose to be doing with the game giving no clue as to where I have to go next then something has gone wrong.

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[J T]

Most of my complaints are not so much things that need to die, but things that need to be alive and well more often than they are.

1. No button mapping configuration feature. Why can't I have the buttons control the action I want? It just seems lazy for developers to leave this out.

2. Cut scenes are great, but when they are like 30 minutes long (I'm looking at you Xenosaga), a player really should be able to pause, save, rewind, fastforward, or skip.

3. I should be able to save anywhere. I get the whole idea of the save point as goal/reward, but seriously. I'm a grown man now. I have things to do besides play videogames and sometimes I need to save and leave right away.

[Erik_Twice]

1. No button mapping configuration feature. Why can't I have the buttons control the action I want? It just seems lazy for developers to leave this out.

Agree

Cut scenes are great, but when they are like 30 minutes long (I'm looking at you Xenosaga), a player really should be able to pause, save, rewind, fastforward, or skip.

Agree

3. I should be able to save anywhere. I get the whole idea of the save point as goal/reward, but seriously. I'm a grown man now. I have things to do besides play videogames and sometimes I need to save and leave right away.

In fact that's console bullshit. PC games have even fast save button and nobody complains. I agree.

I also think there are tons of things that should be used but for some reason are not:

1) Different difficulty levels. There's no excuse at all not to have this but a good deal of games don't have any. Lazy developers as they don't even need to add more enemies but just make them stronger.

2) Custom soundtracks. Not that it would be exactly "hi-tech" but is a nice add-on.

3) SLOPES ON RACING GAMES. It's boring to race on a flat surface and helps making the game cooler.

4) Map editors. It gives games 10x life time so there's no reason not to add it.

5) Easy to use speed mods in music games. I'm looking at you Guitar Hero.

6) Game soundtrack included in the game itself. If you are not going to sell it and milk the cow do a favor to the fans and just put it on the "Sound folder" like Civilization does.

7) Auto-updater included in the game.

Original/Dub sound options. Because some dubs suck.

Also some things that should die now:

1) Strictly better weapons without any reason. You go to the shop and buy a sword that does 50 damage. You go to the next shop and it does 60 damage. It's far more interesting to balance things out and have pros and cons. This doesn't mean you can't have strictly better weapons but do not base the whole weapon system on that. This specially goes to economic simulators where upgrading is a no-brainer.

2) Bullet time in Need for Speed. Seriously.

[MrPopo]

1) Different difficulty levels. There's no excuse at all not to have this but a good deal of games don't have any. Lazy developers as they don't even need to add more enemies but just make them stronger.

I think it really depends on the game. In your standard JRPG the difficulty frequently turns into an exercise in "grind more", which really isn't that worthwhile.

4) Map editors. It gives games 10x life time so there's no reason not to add it.

Adding a map editor is not a trivial exercise for console games and some PC games. Frequently these types of dev tools are still hacky and in a perpetual alpha state throughout development. If they want to release them they need to clean them up and give them a better user interface. And on consoles they need to adapt them to the control methods, since the devs create the levels on a PC.

5) Easy to use speed mods in music games. I'm looking at you Guitar Hero.

DDR 1x for life!

6) Game soundtrack included in the game itself. If you are not going to sell it and milk the cow do a favor to the fans and just put it on the "Sound folder" like Civilization does.

You need to start hopping on Atlus releases. We've started getting a ton of soundtracks this year. But once again, this isn't necessarily a trivial thing. For PC games yes, it's easy to do, but console games would require an extra disk, which is extra cost. Possibly negligible cost, but it does add up.

Original/Dub sound options. Because some dubs suck.

There are space constraints. I agree, no PS3 game has an excuse to not offer dual voice, and since the 360 has already done a multi-disk precendence there's no excuse for them to not to do dual voice. However, looking it a game like Persona 4 and there's just not room for two voice tracks.

[vejita]

It's nigh time that video games got rid of the jump button.

Wha? Sorry, but when a game has a jump button it adds to the experience even though I may be jumping 30 feet higher than a normal person. When playing Zelda if I had to keep running around for a while I would jump and tumble just to make it more fun... I always feel gipped when there is no jump button.

[Briomoto]

Invisible walls aren't as big of a problem as they were in games a decade ago but it can still be annoying. I enjoyed Oblivion but I hated traveling around the borders of Cyrodiil, only to be stopped by a damn invisible wall! I understand that you have to end the game plain somehow (and not every game can be set on an island) but at least have some sort of clear visual boundary marker like some unclimbable mountains, a river, or a literal wall. Even a dotted boundary line on the HUD map would do the trick but in some areas you could be in the middle of a forest, able to see a ways ahead and still get the "turn back" message as it stops you in your tracks. Also, waypoint arrows are kind of dumb. It worked for Crazy Taxi (more or less) but I hate regular adventure games literally pointing me in particular directions. Just give me some verbal instructions and/or a map marker and call it good.