RPG Progress Report

[noiseredux]

Noise, the thing about Mass Effect is that compared to Dragon Age the RPG stuff is mostly in the dialog, not in the combat. Sure, your characters have levels, but it isn't as deep into the experience as it is in more traditional RPGs.

you make a good point. I loved (LOVED) the combat in DAO. But yeah this feels more like a third person shooter game to me - a genre I'm not a big fan of. I feel like my expectation was "Dragon Age in space," which would be something I'd really get into. The thing is, I actually really like the setting, the visuals, the story... I'm just not finding the gameplay all that compelling. I don't know, maybe I'll plan to give it another shot in a bit - maybe use a guide to get myself going at first. I'm now remembering that I should fire up DAO Awakenings again though...

[Ack]

Gonna try to roll through at least one short-ish JRPG before I go on vacation for a week..... I'll figure it out soon.

Was it you who told me you hadn't beaten Twisted Tales of Spike McFang? That one you could knock out in an afternoon.

Noise, the thing about Mass Effect is that compared to Dragon Age the RPG stuff is mostly in the dialog, not in the combat. Sure, your characters have levels, but it isn't as deep into the experience as it is in more traditional RPGs.

you make a good point. I loved (LOVED) the combat in DAO. But yeah this feels more like a third person shooter game to me - a genre I'm not a big fan of. I feel like my expectation was "Dragon Age in space," which would be something I'd really get into. The thing is, I actually really like the setting, the visuals, the story... I'm just not finding the gameplay all that compelling. I don't know, maybe I'll plan to give it another shot in a bit - maybe use a guide to get myself going at first. I'm now remembering that I should fire up DAO Awakenings again though...

What class did you chose to take Shepard as? I ran her as a soldier when I played Mass Effect, and I enjoyed it, but the gameplay style changes a bit depending on what you try out. I usually prefer the tanky characters anyway, so it makes sense I would give her a gun and tell her to put holes in enemies instead of using those pansy powers, but to each their own.

I think we should take this opportunity to spell out the key differences in gameplay between Dungeon Master, Wizardry, and Might & Magic game designs. As in, the base differences if you boil each game down to its elemental aspects. I don't have much experience with those original games, only things which evolved from them. Maybe we can get MrPopo to give us his insights on what differentiates these games from one another distinctly?

Actually I would enjoy this, since I missed many of them and have only just now begun taking an interest in going back to them.

[noiseredux]

What class did you chose to take Shepard as?

whatever the default class was - Soldier I think. I have guns.

[Ack]

What class did you chose to take Shepard as?

whatever the default class was - Soldier I think. I have guns.

Yeah, that would be part of the problem then. You're just not man enough to use guns. Go make a pansy magic user.

[isiolia]

Yeah, that would be part of the problem then. You're just not man enough to use guns. Go make a pansy magic user.

*ahem* Adept, and she's great at it.


It gave her something to bone bond with Kaiden over.

[Ack]

Yeah, that would be part of the problem then. You're just not man enough to use guns. Go make a pansy magic user.

*ahem* Adept, and she's great at it.


It gave her something to bone bond with Kaiden over.

Kaiden? KAIDEN?! PFFFT! Garrus and Wrex are the ONLY squad members. Everything else can eat a bullet. It's a big universe, and the only way to interact with another life form is by SHOOTING AT IT UNTIL IT DIES!

[Erik_Twice]

Yeah, I don't know anything about Might and Magic beyond the basics. I don't even think I've ever seen it running in person.

[isiolia]

Kaiden? KAIDEN?! PFFFT! Garrus and Wrex are the ONLY squad members. Everything else can eat a bullet. It's a big universe, and the only way to interact with another life form is by SHOOTING AT IT UNTIL IT DIES!

I didn't bring him on missions, as he'd be redundant. He was my Shepard's one and only though, romantically (made sense to me, for adept trauma reasons)...though I did have to shut down one of the women that apparently I was too nice to.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Gonna try to roll through at least one short-ish JRPG before I go on vacation for a week..... I'll figure it out soon.

Download Fairune for your Nintendo 3DS. It is an homage to classic Ys games, and it is only $ in the Nintendo eShop. (I got it a while ago, and I am itching to play it.)

[MrPopo]

Dungeon Master sets itself apart from the other two by being in real time. This completely changes how the combat works because now you can do things like use ranged weapons and spells before enemies can get to you and do the combat shuffle (attack and strafe away before the enemy can attack). You have to be far more cognizant of what the dungeon looks like because you will spend a lot of time going backwards through things. The other consequence of this is Dungeon Master games tend to feature a lot more navigational puzzles, like hidden switches, keys for all the doors, and remote pressure plates you need to chuck rocks onto to remove a pit in front of you.

Wizardry vs. Might and Magic is a much closer comparison. Wizardry is focused on exploring one or more dungeons, while Might and Magic is more about exploring a world that includes some dungeons. Wizardry dungeons are rather deep affairs, while Might and Magic dungeons tend to be only a floor or two. The actual dungeon crawling is pretty similar between the two, with persistent protection spells, chests you need to disarm after combat, unlocking doors, and fixed encounters. The biggest difference comes in the balance of combat. Wizardry combat is about the battle of attrition against your party; while individual combats might not be super nasty (though they are in later floors against spellcasters) they tend to wear you down, especially since you don't get dungeon exit spells for a while. Might and Magic combat tends to be more lethal because it's balanced around the fact that you can rest after combat to fully refill your health and magic. Sure, you can be ambushed while you're sleeping, but for the most part the tension is on the individual combats.