- Oct 9, 2020
- 335
- 213
that isn't what i really care about. saying that elona is summed up by "turn based combat", is like saying skyrim is A kings field clone(or the other way round. considering which came first!). because both feature first person action combat. even though ones essentially a hack'n'slash dungeon crawl, with leveling and puzzles. and the others a fully fledged, open world Roleplaying game, with a real dialogue system, and free world interaction, living npcs, and open ended gameplay, and leveling.
i'm asking about the experience it offers. in other words. what kind of game it is.
for example. is there a REAL dialogue system? or is it all "Yes, no. buy, sell, nevermind" only. or do you just prompt characters, for their 1 liners, or to be stuck in uninteractable cutscenes. and if there is a real dialogue system, how much freedom does it give you to roleplay? can you interact, attack, or perform your skills on any npc, at any time, or is the gameplay restricted? is there a crime system in place? is there a faction system(both joinable/sideable type factions. and the other definition of faction in games, being NPCS on different sides, so they can and will fight one another, or behave in a way that shows their relations. example being monsters and wild animals attacking townsfolk. or rival towns/groups/whatever attacking eachother. or do they just all attack the player.) is the game non linear? do the npcs have schedules, or any ai at all, or are they more akin to signposts? are the quests or events timed? is there multiple outcomes per quest, or "event"? can quests and events fail, or have negative, unique outcomes besides game overs? are there alot of ways to achieve an objective? are there tonnes of secret quests/locations/characters/abilities/whatever, that are unlocked based on your choices, or quests(an example is, as above. getting pregnant from a deep one. and then using the power of a witch to re-incarnate as it! as a user posted earlier)? does the game feature a linear Class system, where leveling progression just boils down to equiping the strongest weapon/armor/artifact your class allows, and grinding exp to buff up your levels, and get dulled out your stat increases. or do you have many different skills/attributes/etc to level and personalise your character, including NON Combat specific. and many abilities, spells, skill, etc. to buy, learn, achieve?
this is the type of stuff i look for, (among many other things this post is too short to show!) in an rpg. I of course would prefer "a combat system i like". but to me. thats the LEAST important thing in an RPG. "Role-playing", game.
it'd be so much easier to actually find games you like, if they were properly labelled. I mean. even on this site alone. theres very clear cut, mutually exclusive genres of games. Even among rpgmaker games utilising the vanilla turn based combat engine. they play extremely differently. some of them barely feature any combat at all, and are mostly made up of puzzles, riddles, secrets. others on npc interaction, affinity systems. and then you have others, which are wholely quest or mission driven. and of course, the ones I really dislike. the ones based around hacking and slashing your way through millions of random encounters every 5 steps, so you can grind and surpass the level gated requirement for the next linear main quest in sequence, and get enough money to buy the "diamond" sword. cause the old "oricalcum" one has 2 less attack.
I can say with 100% certainty. that just cause you like one vanilla turn based combat rpgmaker game. doesn't mean you'll like the others. even if they are considered masterpieces. because they aren't the same type of game.
