Things that need to die in Modern RPGs

[AppleQueso]

It's not really what needs to die in RPGs, but what needs to die in RPG fans.
W or J RPGS. Stop it. It's ridiculous to categorize a game or other media by where it came from. I know that Japanese RPGs and Western RPGs are (for the most part) different, but what do you do if a Western developer develops an RPG similar to Final Fantasy or Xeno Gears or if a Japanese developer develops an RPG similar to Elder Scrolls or the original Fallout?

How about JSRPG and WSRPG, "S" stands for style, but then people will think its stands for Strategy. I don't like wrpgs so having a quick name so I know to skip it helps. Come up with a better name that isn't long and I will use it.

Oh come on this is pointless.

Everybody knows that J and W refer to design style, JRPGs originated in japan, WRPGs originated in the west. Doesn't matter who develops it now.

[J T]

Ridiculous and clearly 'good-bad' moral choices need to go out the window.

I have never liked these situations where you meet someone and are given a series of options. Will you...

a.) Help this farmer find his lost horse so he can bring water to his crops.
or
b.) Kill his child in front of him, eat it, and then rape his wife.

That's not a moral dilemma. That is simply asking "do you want to be obviously good or horrendously bad?" They need to offer legitimately grey area moral predicaments. For example, you might end up in a situation where the Inn you are staying at has caught on fire. You have little time to act, do you go to alert your character's chief romantic interest who is sleeping upstairs, or do you alert your 3 best fighting companions sleeping in the basement. You only have time to do one or the other. Either decision will have consequences for your character in terms of party structure, plot path, and how he is treated by other NPCs.

[AmishSamurai]

Here's a thought: what if some company made an RPG that was just one big parody of the genre. For example, the game takes every cliche in the book, turns the dial up to eleven, and makes a silly and lighthearted story out of it. It can also ran poke fun at the things that people usually "hate" in RPGs, such as the emo stock character, grinding, the "Ye Olde English" setting and style, all that and more could be turned on its head and be made humorous, ridiculous or otherwise silly. Or, to add wishful thinking, what if someone wrote an over-the-top and ridiculous story a la Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann?

Earthbound is kind of a parody of the genre. Then it goes Lovecraft on your ass.

[MrPopo]

a.) Help this farmer find his lost horse so he can bring water to his crops.
or
b.) Kill his child in front of him, eat it, and then rape his wife.

I usually pick B. It leads to better dialog.

[gtmtnbiker]

At the moment, I'm playing Golden Sun on GBA. It seems to have a lot of those yes/no questions. It really doesn't seem to matter which answer you pick. Am I mistaken?

The game does have an interesting storyline but I kind of miss using the weapon interactively like I can do in the Zelda games.

[Hobie-wan]

Here's a thought: what if some company made an RPG that was just one big parody of the genre. For example, the game takes every cliche in the book, turns the dial up to eleven, and makes a silly and lighthearted story out of it. It can also ran poke fun at the things that people usually "hate" in RPGs, such as the emo stock character, grinding, the "Ye Olde English" setting and style, all that and more could be turned on its head and be made humorous, ridiculous or otherwise silly. Or, to add wishful thinking, what if someone wrote an over-the-top and ridiculous story a la Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann?

Didn't the re-imagined recent Bard's Tale do this op top of switching from turn based party to action RPG? I swear there's another example of exaggeration too that I'm forgetting.

[MrPopo]

Here's a thought: what if some company made an RPG that was just one big parody of the genre. For example, the game takes every cliche in the book, turns the dial up to eleven, and makes a silly and lighthearted story out of it. It can also ran poke fun at the things that people usually "hate" in RPGs, such as the emo stock character, grinding, the "Ye Olde English" setting and style, all that and more could be turned on its head and be made humorous, ridiculous or otherwise silly. Or, to add wishful thinking, what if someone wrote an over-the-top and ridiculous story a la Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann?

Didn't the re-imagined recent Bard's Tale do this op top of switching from turn based party to action RPG? I swear there's another example of exaggeration too that I'm forgetting.

So far Sakura Wars is going for the "We know we're totally ripping off anime and anime cliches and we love it" vibe.

[burningmice]

While I do really love MMORPG games I believe that developers need to stop making so many of them. Most MMOs end up being the same old feel with new areas and minor differences.
It's also not very smart, if you bring nothing original to the table then an MMO is definitely not a smart genre for that game to belong. The game is fighting for (most likely) the one and only spot in a persons collection for that genre. Since MMOs require such a large time investment, and most include monthly fees most people just can't play more than one MMO at any time.

[GSZX1337]

How about JSRPG and WSRPG, "S" stands for style, but then people will think its stands for Strategy. I don't like wrpgs so having a quick name so I know to skip it helps. Come up with a better name that isn't long and I will use it.

I usually think of RPGs like Earthbound to be Turn Based RPGs, games similar to Final Fantasy 8 to be Real Time RPGs, and games like the original Elder Scrolls to be a First Person RPG. So, RTRPG, RTRPG, and FPRPG. At least they're shorter than MMORPG.

You don't like Elder Scrolls or the old Fallouts?

It's already happened. Septerra Core was a Japanese RPG made by western developer Valkyrie Studios, and King's Field/Demon's Souls is a Western RPG made by Japanese developer From Software.

Doesn't that make things awkward?

While I do really love MMORPG games I believe that developers need to stop making so many of them. Most MMOs end up being the same old feel with new areas and minor differences.

If you go to a PC Gaming Forum, you'll find many users doom and glooming over 'how every game will someday be an MMO'.

[the7k]

It's already happened. Septerra Core was a Japanese RPG made by western developer Valkyrie Studios, and King's Field/Demon's Souls is a Western RPG made by Japanese developer From Software.

Doesn't that make things awkward?

Until we get to some universally agreed upon alternative names, it's the best we have.

It's just like how a lot of people refer to American comic books that are done in a Japanese style "Amerimanga". I still prefer to just call them comic books, but that doesn't change how most people think of them.