This is about the topic of RPG conventions I'd like to see gone (okay so I'm a day late, sue me). My choice would be something that I will probably get a lot flames from but if there was 1 thing in RPGs I could get rid of it would be the ATB from Final Fantasy games. Yeah I can just hear all readers gasping in shock but I really like to see it gone. Many turn away in disgust when playing a turn based RPG saying, "Hah this is so boring, it sucks." but what they don't realize that while ATB can add tension to the battles (and I do admit they do) it takes away one thing from battles too: strategy. In turn based RPGs you can think, "Hmm my enemy is gonna do this next so I'll counter with this," or "He might cast this so I'll cast reflect," and yeah this is all technically possible with ATB, just the fact you have to think fast, it's kinda frustrating when you panicking because you're down to your last character and your facing that dreaded boss everyone has problems with. Although I don't believe in turn based battles in the extreme form like Suikoden where your whole party gets a turn all at once, then the enemy, vice versa, I'd like something more along the lines of FFT (G-TASTIC GAME!!!) where where there is a time meter but once it comes up all time stops and you are free to choose, thinking about what you will pick. Kinda like Xenogears actually (oh oh I said the X word in front of Fritz, please don't send Chu Chu on me!!). Also I have a gripe about FF's ATB that's bugged me for a long time is how when you want to do a spell they count that as time and your enemy's bar fills up while you are PICKING A SPELL (if you set the ATB to ACTIVE)!!! This is something you should not be penalized for!! An RPG is doing you wrong because you can't move through the menus fast enough? That's insane and in no way adds to the enjoyment of the game. Even when you change the ATB to WAIT, although times stops for magic it doesn't when picking your opponenet and although it isn't very drastic to the game there was a few times in FF games and Chrono Trigger where I died because of taking to long who to hit (and alot of time you want to hit someone else instead of the "default" enemy the arrow goes to and since you are in a rush you accidently hit the wrong guy, further prolonging the battle unnecessarily...yup, that's gotta change). Now many might accuse me of just being too damn slow but these are reasonable demands that need to be heard, at least contemplated by many RPG makers (plus I'm kinda fast when I do other things with my hands..hehe). And hey, at least I liked Xenogears besides all the gameplay flaws, that's gotta count for something!!

Seong Kyu Whang a.k.a. T.G. Malak (no there's an oxymoron if I've ever heard of one)!-guy who picks WAIT in the option screen.

P.S. I've also noticed that in the Dual Shock manual too, damnit now I will forever be deprived of the joys of "vibration" in "other areas" besides my hands!!!

NO MORE RANDOM BATTLES

Who actually enjoys random battles? C'mon...don't lie. No one really does. Tedious, long, pointless, boring...all you really wanna fight is the boss anyway. Scatter a few key fights(only in dungeons) here and there that make sense.(sorta like Lunar PSX except 90% less battles) What about those who like to level up? If you wanna gain some real experience, go do your homework or shoot some hoops. Or play some freeware dungeon hack. FFT, Persona, Tales of Destiny...all ruined by random battles. But yeah, if you get rid of random battles and/or a large number of battles, that would be excellent. See ya.

-Valinoru

P.S. If I could change a RPG design convention it would be to vary the gosh-darn-it battle music. Why are there 40 tracks in FF7 when you have to listen to one track 30-40% of the time? Battle music should vary based on location, terrain, or something like that. Or do a system similar to iMuse that Lucasarts uses in their X-wing flight-sim games where the music changes according to the battle situation - sad and grim sounding when you're being thrashed or pumping it when you're dishing it.

Quite frankly, Neil is a tremendously bad Tic-Tac-Toe player and I really have no idea why you print his moves. Scratch that. You print them to make me sick.

Forgive me, I'm in a bad mood today.

In other groundbreaking news, just about every "RPG trend" mentioned has *already* been broken. EviLore came right out and admitted Chrono Trigger and Lunar (I'm taking his word on this) do not have random encounters. They aren't alone in this, and I'm sure you're going to get a flood of messages telling you so.

Several RPGs *do* take place only in one city. I immediately think of Menzoberranzan, which, while a PC game takes place entirely within the dark elf city. I know there are console RPGs that do this, too, but I simply can't name any of the top of my head. =D

Party limits serve primarily to keep the game going. Of course, no RPG can offer a truly limitless number of party members, but several RPGs that do allow relatively large parties (bordering on strategy games) loose much of the RPG appeal. You simply cannot develop characters as well in a huge party.

Practically all AD&D computer (and console -- NES/SNES) games do away with MP. They feature, instead, exactly the system Sugoi mentioned, where magic-users and clerics (and rangers, and paladins, and... etc) memorize particular spells in camp and can only cast a set limit of spells before having to rest and memorize yet again. The "macro" idea is also present in these games.

Bryan Carr's ideas, too, have been implemented in many an RPG (can anybody say Chrono Trigger?).

Perhaps you might have rephrased your question, instead asking "What kind of RPGs do you like?" Undoubtedly that's the lamer of the two questions, but at least it would have been accurate, since nothing mentioned was a true convention, in the sense that *every* RPG has it.

--magius

PS: I still haven't forgiven you for killing Cosmo Canyon.

For all the (admittedly provoked) griping and groaning about RPG cliches, people are spouting off their opinions of what they think RPGs should be, based of their experiences with games they've played, or only read reviews of and are jaded beyond recovery. However, in all the yearning for change and abolition of the core elements we've all grown to know, love, and expect, we forget about the element more important to gaming than the gamers. The people behind the games, the designers.

It's easy to say that an idea is old and should be replaced or upgraded, but it's never clear on how, if it's ever at all possible in the first place. Of the two basic types of RPG, standard (like Final Fantasy) and action (like Zelda), both have their own generic rules. Try to change them around and you come out with a horrible mess like Quest 64 (which would've sucked even if they'd done nothing new anyways). The simple fact is, you're asking them to not only reinvent the wheel, but to replace it with an octagon or some other ungodly shape. (Irregular polygons forever!) Paladin's Quest tried to eliminate magic points by using your HP as the source of spells as well, and, quite frankly, in my honest and completely unbiased opinion, Paladin's Quest was a complete royal piece of dog shit doused in a healthy serving of ammonia. EXP and levels really shouldn't be considered core elements, since Zelda has never had them and never will.

Okay, I've totally wandered off topic, but I still have faith that my letter is more coherent and eloquent than the onslaught of "PUZLEZ FUKIN SUX" letters you must be getting. But you probably won't print it anyways.

Also, I don't think the issue of gunblades should be the fact that there's a blade at all, but rather the complete and total lack of ammunition or barrel to fire it out of, for that matter.

Austen Lethbridge-Scarl
"My hands are in your children's pants!"
-- John LaRusic

NOOOO! Your well-placed O in the bottom-right corner has FOILED my evil plans for victory. Not only this, but in a cunning move, you seem to make your own attempt at victory.

Along with the Squaregamer staff, I have stayed up all night, considering my next move, getting drunk, and passing out, playing Wipeout 3. In a stroke of pure genius, our combined intellects have decided upon the following EVIL AND CUNNING MOVE :

Neil

I opened up my new Dreamcast and found Grape-nuts all over the inside. Someone must have castrated a LOT of grapes to make that mess!

But seriously...

There are many people talking about defective Dreamcasts. Discussion on newsgroups is really heated about the topic (and to think, they were worrying they'd have nothing to speak about when 9.9.99 rolled around!). Is there truth to any of these rumors? Could a significant portion of the Dreamcasts released be defective in some manner?

Is it the GD-ROM? Is it poorly made game CDs? Could is be Windows CE, or Windows CE in conjunction with 9.9.99--the date that had the media scammed?

Lot's of things to consider...I myself just want to see the Dreamcast survive and thrive for a while, 'casue I bought the darned thing...I want to see the next Phantasy Star game, damnit!

At any rate, I don;t want to see rumor damage the sales of a system...let it rise or fall on its own merit, not something artificial.

~~The Dreaded Rear Admiral~~

All this talk about ditching RPG conventions has got me thinking about how popular RPGs really are. My theory is that public acceptance of RPGs has improved only marginally in the past few years. This is because the aspects people find themselves liking are not aspects one would find in the RPGs whose unpopularity we used to ponder back in the day.

Before you go screaming "hardcore" and writing me off, just listen for a minute. With each RPG trend/convention/standard scrapped, we find the genre "moving forward" in new directions. What I notice, however, is that these mega-popular games are slowly evolving into action games with numbers instead of gauges. Every time I see some new RPG blurbed (and even FF8 is a little guilty here), the first thing I find myself doing is moaning because they're all the same.

Some kid (have you noticed how the protagonists keep getting younger in games?) has to save the world. It's never about some personal struggle or issue we can all relate to. It's always "save the world," which always bothered me about the older games, too. Secondly, the newer games all seem to feature some sort of monster breeding function. This is the dumbest replacement for old standards I've ever heard of. Do people want an RPG, or do they want a Tamagotchi? Just compare the sales of older and newer RPGs, and I think the answer is apparent. Thirdly, battle systems are being replaced with action-oriented ones. This can be as innocuous as making you time the way you push buttons (FF8's gunblades) or as insidious as taking a game that is cosmetically an RPG in every aspect but becomes a pure, all-out action game the second you enter battle (Tales of Destiny).

While I do find good graphics appealing, sometimes it strikes me as too much glitz and glamour. Go ahead and like fancy graphics in a game - it's as good a reason as any to like a game - but I just get so tired of hearing people say that the number one reason they bought the last two Final Fantasys was because of the graphics.

So instead of deciding which RPG conventions to abandon next, maybe we should start asking ourselves if we will even have RPGs anymore if these trends continue, or glorified Tamagotchis and shooter games.

-Rob Reebel

Wow.

I have been deliberately _not_ reading or looking at anything about FF8 so that the game wouldn't be ruined when I played it. So when the intro sequence started playing, my jaw dropped right into my lap and stayed there. Graphically, this is the greatest thing I've ever seen - and what I've seen so far of characters, story, and translation just backs it up. Maybe I was spoiled by Lunar, though... I feel a sore need for voice acting to go with the almost lifelike visuals.

I'm not too sure about the new battle system, but I'll wait until I get the hang of it before I make any judgement. It's different, all right, I'll give it that...

That said, back to the game! I just started my first day as a SeeD, and I can't wait to see what happens...

Long live Square!
Tekara