What has happened to rpgs?

It just seems that for years developers have rolled out the same tired cliche storylines with updated graphics are there no more unique rpg storylines or are rpgs no longer the cash cow they once were. God I miss the ultima series from origin. It really immersed you

 

Hmm. I've had Oblivion on my desk for 2 weeks now. Not even installed it yet lol! I've fluttered around from various PC titles to FF. I would agree I would prefer to save something other than the planet. I'm all for self-promotion and a spot of heroism... but I don't know. Oddly enough I didn't enjoy an RPG until the 'Golden Sun' series on the GBA a couple years ago which also has a similar storyline!

 

It's true, rpgs are getting less and less in-depth, captivating, immersive, exciting, original, etc. The best ones, IMO, (Baldur's Gate, Fallout, etc) are years old and none of the recent, or current ones in development even come close to them.
The new ones just seem dumbed-down and superficial.

 

Yea true.. the last RPG tat i really enjoyed was FF7, Grim Fandango, and maybe MGS (if it is counted as RPG)... havent tried FF12 yet thou.. heard it is good.. now all i need to find is a PS2.. or maybe a 3...

 

Knights of the old Republic? And Fallout 3 is (hopefully) coming out soon.

That said, perhaps the problem is that you're only looking at one narrowly defined genre. Perhaps you'd find more varying storylines if you looked at more varied games?

Ultima had the same basic story as all the other RPG's, though. Nothng unique about that, it was still the good old "Mr. Unknown saves the world from ancient evil". And immersiveness is subjective. A lot of people found Oblivion immersive. I thought KOTOR was immersive. And some think the same of NWN 1 & 2. Nothing unique about Ultima there either.

 

The only RPG's I ever played were console ones. The last one I really enjoyed was Final Fantasy X and right now I'm replaying Star Ocean 2 (which is a lot of fun). I'm not sure if the RPG survived past the Playstation 1 era but that could be a function of my becoming more experienced in them and getting bored with the same old storyline.

 

FF 10 and 12 are awesome, im playing 12 as well as Dragon Quest 8 which I like. Ultima was different thought because it was really like a progression of a story mainly 4-9 which always carried over elements and people from the previous story and then culminated in 9 as a finale. I guess thats what i miss.

 

I've always enjoyed RPGs, but grew tired of the: select action/spell..execute..next turn: I like the real time combat system in Morrowind/Oblivion a lot more. Yesterday I started Playing Knights of the Old Republic 1, and I'm a bit unimpressed with the combat/action system. It's clunky. I'm surprised it isn't more like Jedi Outcast. Anyhow the classic story days are long gone. Back when graphics were blocky, story was all we had so it had to be good. Then again..Indiana Jones on Atari kinda sucked =P

If you want to try a really good and classic stab at an RPG you should go over to http://www.homestarrunner.comand play either Peasants Quest, or Thy Dungeon Man/ Dungeon Man3. These are meant more to be funny than real, but are quite entertaining

 

I don't see why better graphics mean the story is less important. I also fail to see why non-realtime systems are inferior, or "clunky".

In contrast, Oblivion's system was shallow, predictable, wide open to exploits, and deeply self-defeating.
KOTOR's system is far from perfect, but it allows for variation, and it makes sense (in that it makes good characters actually stand a better chance of survival). It also makes some element of tactics possible, which is more than you can say about Oblivion.

 

Fallout 3 is on the way..i hope.

 

Knights of the Old Republic (I of course, not II) was the best darned RPG I've ever played - I have Oblivion on my desk to try out as well, hoping to tonight, but at this moment nothing tops KOTOR. If you haven't tried it then that's what you want - it's like $10 now to buy and it's worth every credit

Now I hope they come out with KOTOR3 soon and it better not be XBox360 only like Mass Effect or I'll kill something

Cat

 

What I'd love is to see an RPG that managed to get rid of leveling, or at least make it less significant. Repetition = larger numbers = more winner. Yech!

The one thing that I really hate about Oblivion is that at no point do you have a sense of scale of your character vs the world. Unique supergreat items are worth pocket lint if you grab a few levels. "Rare" armor and weapons are commonplace enough that every bandit in the country has them. Extremely "difficult" characters show up malnurished and easily killable if you're a low level when you meet them.

I'm waiting until I've got three dimensions in high resolution with realistic AI and whatnot before I start throwing around words like "immersive". That, or text. mmm... Infocom...

I guess the RPGs being repetitive works under the same laws as movies. It's unfortunate that the art is run by businesses. Still, there are the occasional creative ones. I can't think of any recent ones... but I'm hopeful.

 

All the RPGs are going to consoles lately. Not that I mind, really, a lot of interesting looking ones are coming to PSP, so I can actually play them.

 

It is, but it's being developed by Bethesda; soo, it'll probably be totally lacking in everything that made the first 2 fallouts so awesome, and be closer to oblivion.

 

The only RPGs I ever played were KOTOR I and II. The first one was amazing (note I have nothing to compare it to), and very re-playable. I have beaten it five times and I did things differently every time.

KOTOR II was generally good but the chopped-off end was a severe disappointment. Overall though, enjoyable, but it does not match the first.

 

Yea, i read that too but one can always hope that they wont totally hose it. It seems that they dont have total control over so hopefully Interplay (?) will be able to stop any trainwreaks before it happens.

 

Oh god no.

 

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. anyone? It's a good game and I think it plays like Oblivion as well...

 

By plays like Oblivion, I take it you mean it plays like a RPG/FPS?

Oblivion: swords and magic

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. : guns and grenades

The last thing we need to do is start associating a game type with one particular game. Like everyone calling mp3 players **creates holy symbol for protection** iPods...

Please forgive me Maksin if it sounds like I am flaming you. Just trying to make a point and you are far from the being the only one guilty of this (sometimes I am as well).

I am also looking forward to Fallout 3 and hope that Bethesda is learning from thier past...

 

lol... By saying both are similar I mean both of them are open-ended games. ie. missions not linear. Sorry for misleading...

 

oblivion is great.

Fallout 3 should be really great.

 

I don't really care how good the graphics are as long as they have a good story and aren't as buggy as hell. I played a couple of rpgs on an old 386 about 100 years ago and found them enjoyable. One of my favorite rpg type games was System Shock 2 and Diablo 2 (Diablo 1 got on my nerves). It's nice to see that elements from adventure games have migrated into other genres.