Do I Hate RPGs?
The very first RPG I ever played was Super Mario RPG. To date, it remains one of my favorites games of all time, mostly because it did two things very well: character progression and story. I say character progression, as opposed to development, for a reason. There was no variety in the type of progression the characters took. The end party for anyone who played the game more or less consisted of the same characters with the same equipment, the same spells, and the same tactics. The game was very linear, but I loved it. And it was pretty much the last truly linear RPG I ever played.
The other RPGs of my gaming career have been much more open. They include games like Saga Frontier, Final Fantasy VIII, Diablo II, and Pokemon. Compared to Super Mario RPG, these games blew the notion of “character development” right out of the water, and if individual characters in the game had linear progression, you could bet you had non-linear party progression instead. So while most of the RPGs I play offer stories, very few of them offer linear character growth.
Evidently, I missed the train with Super Mario RPG, because character customization is essentially a hallmark of the RPG genre. And I love it. I love turning the open template that is your starting character into something specialized and unique. The skeleton-raising summoner. The mage who calls down giant fire storms. The monk who has way more health than he should and beats down monsters with his fists.
The job system in the Final Fantasy games is one of my favorite takes. In those games, you assemble a party and develop each character along a certain path until they become so specialized that their appearance changes, and they are forever denoted as “black mage.” That sort of progression just fills me with warm fuzzies, and my obsessive compulsiveness towards things having “their own place” is basically built for this type of gameplay.
Of course, therein lies the problem. I approach character development – and RPGs in general – with an obsessive fervor to unlock every job, find a use for every skill, and categorize everything. I’m like this in real life too; you should see me earnestly rearranging my drawer contents in my room. The problem with RPGs is that they are so completely open that the diversity of choices can literally overwhelm me sometimes, to the point where I become anxious.
It is especially obvious in highly customizable RPGs usually sub-divided into the action RPG and the MMORPG. I often end up with a character of every class in my roster. (Such was my luck that Final Fantasy XI did that for me; in that case, I felt like having a character of every race.) I frequently spend hours debating what kind of characters my roster will have; I am lucky, really, if I do not take it a step further and have characters for every possible class combo!
Yet, at the end of the day, when I escape my compulsive character creation cycles (usually following a flurry of deletions), I find myself hopelessly addicted to a character or two, watching with a strange inner satisfaction as they grow closer and closer to fulfilling my dream for their artificial life. A necromancer hits that high level, unlocking his last summon, and my army dances over the minions of Hell. A black mage learns that last bit of ancient magic, and I vaporize a banshee with wonderfully rendered flames.
I have often touted that I play games for their stories, and that remains more or less true. But I suppose I can admit that developing highly specialized characters is also up there as a motivation. And these combinations often appear in genres you wouldn’t expect them to either – sometimes to great effect.
But it brings up an interesting observation. People usually play games of certain genres for very specific reasons. We play shooters because we like to, well, shoot things. We play puzzle games because we want to think. We play adventure games because we want to see a world unfold before our eyes. But we play RPGs for very different reasons.
Some of us really enjoy finding the best items in the game to tweak out our characters with. We skip the story sequences and run straight past the nooks and crannies of the game world to GameFAQs, where we will find the strategies we need to get that one hidden item. We will run past the minions of Diablo over and over in order to pry those precious uniques from the Lord of Hate’s cold dead hands.
Others explore those nooks and crannies and are satisfied just to have an entire world to see. Others skip past as much content as possible just to get to the end game. Others absorb as much storyline and dialogue as possible – and put only what is necessary into their characters to progress.
When it comes to RPGs, I might break down the attraction to a few aspects (not extensive): exploration, story, pragmatism (specializing for solo play and changing to group play specialization when needed), role-playing (designing a paladin who uses only scepters and combat auras), min/max (putting out the coveted 9,999 damage), and prettiness (this axe looks cool!) Or there is simply having a kick with the RPG’s magic/skill system.
In broad terms, these types of approaches to RPGs always work. Exploring the world rewards often-missed items or quests. Stopping to read every bit of story enriches the rest of the experience. Role-playing a thief who wears only berets and carries only swords might actually get you to the last boss if done right. That all of these work (to greater or lesser extents) is what gives RPGs the potential to draw in large player bases for long periods of time. I hate RPGs because I cannot do everything at once, but I love RPGs because they enable me to satisfy that inner drive to fulfill a character dream, to craft the wizened summoner or the bold hunter.
Ultimately, I am still satisfied with a good story. That’s why I loved Super Mario RPG – or even the Subspace Emissary story in a party game. But sometimes, I just have to put the book down and create a time mage who never wears hats and loves casting white magic every other turn.
furrp said,
July 18, 2008 at 8:03 am
I can relate to what you say about different kind of RPG players. As you probably know by now, I like to take in the story of an RPG. Rarely does a huge reward side quest draw me in. If there’s an easier way, I’ll usually take it.
However, one of my good friends is totally into pimping out his character (achieving that min/max you spoke of). The most recent example was with FF7: Crisis Core. I finished the game with ease in the mid 40’s, but that wasn’t good enough for him. He had to get the most pimp gear from doing missions, fuse the best materia, and utterly stomp the final boss when he was at max level. Hardly worth the effort, in my mind. But, to each his own.
The only time I can think of that I took the time to be the best I could be was in FF3 DS. I took the time to unlock Onion Knight, level both the class level and character level to 99, and farmed up all the onion gear for each character. Then I took on the final dungeon. Looking back, I’m not sure why I did. I usually get so bored with the grind. I guess it was because it was tons easier to level in that game than it was in most RPGs I’ve played.
aekenon said,
July 21, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Being pretty darn OCD myself, I understand well your struggles with the open-ended games. Games like Super Mario RPG – where the characters always end up the same – are a nice change of pace when you just want to relax, eh? Though, even with that… I worry overly much about which stat bonus to give to each character when they level up. I’m hopeless. 8)!
Still, since more than anything I like to create characters and roleplay as them, the games with heavy customizations are definitely my favorite, despite how much they may drive me crazy at times as I try to figure out effective-but-suitable-for-my-character skill sets. It’s always worth it in the end, and I have a lot of fun.
Right now I’m playing Etrian Odyssey II, a game where you create entire adventuring parties from scratch. It’s a game intended at people like me, for sure. Not only are there endless party combinations and skill possibilities, but it’s a game that actually encourages you to come up with your own stories and personalities for your characters. It’s got a pretty intriguing plot, but it’s also intentionally vague enough for you to factor your characters into it any way you please. I’m having fun with it.
By the way, since you like the ‘open template’ style, you might should give FFXII a try. All six party members are basically a blank slate, so you can make anyone into anything you want, wielding any weapon you want. You can do the standard things, like a black mage with a staff, but you’re also free to do kooky things like a healer wielding a rifle… or a two-handed sword, even. And they can still be effective!