JRPG Improvement

Lucid Lounge
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A JRPG is a game that involves menu-based combat (turn based or otherwise), random encounters, non-moving battles (as in, no grid system), and level grinding. Common examples of traditional JRPGs include the Final Fantasy series, the Dragon Quest series, and the Breath of Fire series.

Now, with the definition out of the way, let’s talk about JRPGs and their flaws.

First of all, the combat should probably be livened up. Yes, as time went on attacks became flashier and more exciting to look at, but what about adding in new ways to attack for different characters/classes? I’m one of those freaks who geniunely enjoys JRPG combat, such as when my main character one-hit-kills a boss with a super attack. But menu based combat has gotten old… after a certain point, there is no more strategy to it. You get used to how to kill enemies. But why not do things like add action commands, such as what the first two Paper Mario games did? Why not include debilitating enemy attack and randomized enemy formations that can leave you scrambling for a new strategy? You could have rolling HP counters, like Earthbound, so as to have the possiblity of saving a character about to die. One thing that can obviously be improved is status afflictions. Make them likely to hit! At least as likely as the enemies status attack. I want to actually use that instant death spell, instead of leaving it alone as “too unrealiable” or “too expensive”.

Getting to the second part here…

We should be allowed to customize our characters as much as we like. The original Final Fantasy, oddly enough, did a pretty good job of this. You could select four party members out of six different classes, meaning that each time you played the game through (assuming you switched the classes around), you had to adjust your strategy so that it would apply. Playing through with four red mages is a far different experience then playing through with a more traditional class set. And when we customize our characters, it should be just that: Customization. No MAX OUT EVERY AREA thing, unless we really work for it. Maybe we should be allowed to make all our characters from scratch, even if they are STORY IMPORTANT. This way, we can use something that works for us.

I’ve many other things that I can say could be improved upon (Random Battles, Stupid Decisions by Characters, etc.) but I think that’s enough for tonight.

What do you think could be improved upon?

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How about any and all status afflictions being worthless because common enemies aren’t worth the time they take, and bosses are almost garunteed to be immune to them? As for the combat thing, I rather enjoy menu scrolling. Beats games like ff12 where they seem to have tried to inject some action into it, but fell flat on their face with auto-attacking and npc allies. Felt like I was playing one character the whole time (mostly because I was), which destroys any strategy involving a wide array of abilities (any real strategy).
As for the customization thing, I much preferred FF3 to FF1. Hundreds of class to pick from, with the ability to evolve to any other class as soon as you have the proper crystal to unlock them. However, a system like that needs a LOT more tweaking than it ever got, because roughly one half of the classes were utterly worthless.
Real improvements in gameplay areas should come from strategy, which seems to be all but dead in most modern RPGs. Almost every boss fight is a boss immune to any status affliction, so it basically boils down to buffing your characters enough to keep up, then attacking and healing as necessary until the thing dies. There’s a thousand interesting ideas that can be used here, such as an enemy that is immune to physical damage and reflects magical damage. The answer? Get a mage to ensorcell a blade like Vivi could do for Steiner in ff9. Something that actually requires thought rather than button mashing and blind luck.
On the subject of customization. I am equipping a helmet, why is my character still flaunting his rediculously over-bloom-effected blonde hair around? I’d love to see my characters actually IN the armor I’ve put on them for once. It’s superficial, sure, but it actually lets you see the progress your characters make in growing stronger. That is probably a good part of the reason I like MMORPGs so much, each piece of equipment is visible to show off what you’ve accomplished. When it comes to stats, I miss the stat and skill points per level system for exactly that reason. I’d like to be able to assign my characters whatever abilities and stats I want them to have, and possibly even eventually get them all if I decide to waste a few hundred hours (just admit it, that’s essentially what you’re doing anyway). It’s a lot funner to have a battlemage if you can actually see him in heavy armor and give him the ability to do things such as place a fire spell on his blade (much like the example I gave above).
I could go on and on about this subject, but I have to agree that it’s enough for one post. Someone else come up with some ideas/suggestions now. :tongue:

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Well, more impact over the storyline (or any at all), as the player is always a spectator to the (usually) stupid decisions of the characters and extremely linear storyline.

Also, consistency. No being able to revive characters and then having some irreversibly dying in cutscenes, for one.

About visible equipment, Vandal Hearts 2 does show it. And in FFXII status effects actually work and are useful. Most of the time.

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Story definately needs to improve in areas of

a) not being so melodramatic all the damn time
b) the girl-men, seriously people is testosterone a banned substance?
c) in addition to the effeminate men they could also look you know…older than 14
d) actually telling the story through more than cutscenes

Also, another yahtzee fan! When did you get into him? i first heard of him when he did bioshock and me and some of the guys on a forum im on went to check him out (were all diehard bioshock fans) and loved it, been hooked ever since.

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The girl-men consist entirely of characters named “Vaan”, in my experience. I agree about the melodrama, although it’s fine in smaller doses. In my experience, only since FFIX did main characters start looking like kids. I’d personally prefer interactions with story to be more like a CRPG, where you define what happens, but keep the epic feeling of a JRPG.

How bout we make status effects 90% likely to work? This makes status defense actually useful. Not only that, but we make bosses vulnerable to statuses, so we can de-buff them, or even use it as a piece in a puzzle to annilate them.

I enjoy menu-based combat too, I’m just asking we inject something more then choose option, choose target like we’ve been having. The paper mario series did an excellent job of this with Action Commands, forcing us to pay attention. Hell, even FF8 battles were more lively when you pressed R1 as you swung the gunblade down to do extra damage. I’m just saying mix it up a little, and make people think and act instead of holding down the X button to hit attack for all their characters.

On your talk about customization… why not have that, but also allow you to view any piece of armor that you own equipped on your character? This way, they can keep the indivdual looks they have and still have visable changes.

Some games hand-wave this with 1 HP revives (Dragon Quest), or that the characters are meerly knocked out or something. It’s definitely an acceptable segregation of storyline and gameplay.

Addressing the issue of random battles: Don’t do them. There are a million workarounds out there that you can rip off of if you aren’t original enough to do your own. But sometimes I’m tired and don’t feel like fighting normal enemies on the way to the boss, or when I need to reach the save point because it’s almost time to go somewhere. Do it like Chrono Trigger, or Paper Mario, of FFXII, or anything. The battleground can be the area you are in. Just.
Stop.
Doing.
RANDOM.
BATTLES!

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I kind of want to agree and disagree on random battles. On the one hand, it’s kind of fun to not know- Ok I’m just lying to myself here, I have to agree. NO MORE RANDOM BATTLES! I have to agree I did love paper mario’s system of combat. Have the enemies chase after you and give you the ability to get away, however actually hitting them gives you the same old RPG style battle we all know and love.

Something storywise I always love to see but is rarely implemented, is multiple storylines. If a game only has one ending to it, and it took me 80 hours to beat it, why should I play it again? You can give a bit of a nod to games like FFX-2 for trying an alternate endings thing, but it’s not quite what I wanted. I’d like to see at least a couple of decisions in a game that actually have impact. Maybe you make a choice that kills a main character, and maybe next time you make a choice that kills one of the antagonists. Something that will make me feel like I’m actually in control of something, rather than just hitting a few buttons in the endless march to the same old end. I realize the amount of programming this would take, but even a 10 hour game is rediculously fun when you have to play through it 8 times to see all the things that could happen. Or maybe I’m just a stickler for free will.

If Vaan is the only girly man you’ve ever seen, might I suggest: Riku, Sepiroth, Cloud (the crossdressing scene?), Zidane (the crossdressing scene?), Squall (the crossdressing scene?) …wait a minute. They’re not only effeminate, but they’re all cross-dressers too? Hmmm… But really, I’d rather have a main character like Auron. Someone who looks like he’s actually fought something stronger than a rabbit in his life, rather than spending 2 hours a day on his (3 feet long) hair.

As for the melodrama…you really don’t get a game without it. If someone’s not dying or suffering every 5 seconds, where’s the drive to actually solve the problem? Yeah sometimes it seems like a little much…but I don’t think anyone would really be interested without it. Not in times like today, anyway.

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Only Cloud had a crossdressing scene. Squall I can confirm remained in male clothes the entire time. And if they are girly, then I’m a woman.

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Oh, come on, stop denying that JRPGs are overrun by “undernourished teenage androgynes who do their hair in the morning by sticking their heads in buckets of lead-based paint and dress like they stepped on a landmine in a trendy clothes shop”, as Yahtzee masterfully put it. (Don’t take this too seriously, I don’t care about being right on these matters…)

Enter Kuja and his thong of steel!

pelvic thrust

And if this being has a 46 XY karyotype, then I’m a velociraptor.

His Fable review on Youtube.

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EDIT:
woah… i missed the whole thing. I think I was confusing the term JRPG with a game called java classic rpg abbreviated JCRPG. Ignore me lol.

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I’d say Kuja was the only villan I actually thought was a girl. But compare Kuja to… I don’t know… Kefka? Or Sephiroth? Or Sin? Sure, Sephiroth may have pretty boy hair, but you wouldn’t actually mistake him for a girl… or even someone girly. Of course, this trope is much more rampant amoung protaganists, but I don’t consider a protaganist a “Girly Man” if it’s not almost completely androgyneous.