Is any RPG truly Bad?

[nightrnr]

Alright, so this is going to depend largely on your perspective on the matter.

But I've been contemplating whether even the most hated Role-Playing games are all that bad.
I mean, give me a world to explore and monsters/enemies to fight, maybe some treasures to discover, and I think there is an enjoyable experience in there. I don't even think you have to beat the game to get a decent play out of a game (the whole journey vs. destination argument). Sometimes, I don't even need a story or plot (Dungeon Hack comes to mind, but that's Dungeon Crawlers and Rogue's for you).

I don't have a lot of specific game examples to offer though. So maybe, I just haven't played the worst the genre has to offer. I admit that experience is as limited as my attention span.
I have sampled Drakken (SNES), but even though I didn't stick with it or really get anywhere, it still seemed interesting to me. I could say the same with the Wizardry games, which have a definite fanbase. There's Super Hydlide (Genesis), which I consider ugly and pretty rough around the edges, but can still be fulfilling if you give it a chance. And there's even games I've gotten extremely frustrated with, like 7th Saga, but I liked it well enough until I got to that point.

But then maybe a game doesn't need to be "good" to be enjoyable. For instanced, I've played a few bad fighting games (Battle Monsters, for ex.), that I had a ball with. Maybe it just depends on how you approach the game. Are you here to have fun, or do you expect quality? Most players expect both, which is perfectly reasonable, I agree.

Which leads me to my final point. I agree that we can't just accept any old trash that a developer throws at us. If anything with Exp points, HP, and monsters pleased us, we'd never see the genre evolve. In fact, we'd rarely see anything creative at all and everything would be Final Fantasy or Dragon Warrior clones.
I realize that this sentiment is almost an antithesis to my topic. I present it to acknowledge that it's besides the point. Just because something is contrived or uninspired, doesn't mean that there is no fun to be had (in fact, maybe that's what some are looking for...more of the same).

That's about all I have to say for now.
Feel free to post your thoughts, insults (at me or a game), or list games that you feel are bad or downright unplayable.

[brunoafh]

This is an interesting topic that I've thought about myself. Most of the time, if a team sets out to create an RPG, fully realizes it, and a publisher agrees to put their money down to get it out to the market, the game will probably have at least some semblance of quality. There honestly aren't many RPGs out there I can consider downright awful, but, Phantasy Star III comes to mind. There's just absolutely no reason to play it. I can't think of a single redeeming quality. Broken system, boring story, bad characters, ear splitting music, just awful in every way. The only reason I can think of that Sega could have possibly agreed to publish that game was because it had the name "Phantasy Star" on it.

As far as bad games in general, I'm typically very lenient on them too. I tend to enjoy bad games really, there's always some fun to be had, be it intentional or not. It's different with an RPG though, as you're going to be potentially sinking hours into it. A bad fighter or a bad platformer can just be laughed at for a play session. A bad RPG is just hours of wasted time, assuming you set out to complete it.

[noiseredux]

dammit, I love yr posts! Why don't you post more often man?

Two major points I agree with:

1. you don't need to beat a game to enjoy it. This is very, very true. I have many times spent hours on an RPG, not beaten it, but still love it. Maybe I'll go back and finish it, maybe I won't. But for the money I spent, I got hours of entertainment out of it. And really, as an entertainment device, that's all I expect.

2. a game doesn't have to be good to be enjoyable. There's plenty of so-called bad games out there that are still damn entertaining.

[dunpeal2064]

I feel the same way about shmups!

I think that some rpgs might not be worth completing, but that doesnt make them bad.

[noiseredux]

for me it's SRPG's. I don't care about story, I just love the gameplay of SRPG's. So yeah. I can be content playing any SRPG and I don't care if/when I beat it. It's just good gameplay to me.

[o.pwuaioc]

Even as a kid (~11 years old) I really did not like Mystic Quest. I've also taken out and put away EverGrace not 30 minutes into the game (bad voice acting, bad music, and as much as I like ARPGs, it just seemed dull), though I'll probably give it another go before I make a final verdict. The voice acting is worse than C:SotN.

Maybe I'm a harsher critic?

[dunpeal2064]

Mystic Quest should have just been an 8 bit instructional video. It was barely a game anyways.

[noiseredux]

I enjoyed Mystic Quest when I was younger.

[BoneSnapDeez]

RPGs are pretty elaborate, a lot of time and effort goes into the making of one. Thus, RPG shovelware doesn't exactly exist.

There are terrible RPGs though. Secret of the Stars for SNES is the first one that comes to mind. Absolutely abysmal. Can't believe I finished it.

The 7th Saga is awesome, but can be tough as nails. I wear a jockstrap when I play it.

And Mystic Quest is a decent, fun game. I never understood all the hate for it.

[dunpeal2064]

I enjoyed accomplishing anything when I was younger, so mq at least satisfied that.

Looking at it now, and the 3 other ffs to come out in th era, I don't think it offers much. I would recommend super mario rpg to a beginner over mq.

If they would have just let me equip my own gear, I think that was my main issue.

Its like my own game thought I was too stupid to play it