What elements make up the perfect RPG? Character development, multiple storylines, and magical spells discussed | Games

I I play a lot of RPGs (when I can make time), and have been doing so ever since I could read. I was an avid fantasy reader growing up, and that interest naturally carried over when I started playing games on the Super Nintendo, fascinated by the worlds and characters housed on those cartridges. RPGs are an exciting and diverse genre, encompassing everything from the nerdy D&D leanings of Baldur’s Gate 3, to the ultra-stylish Japanese RPG corner of Final Fantasy, to the story-driven Mass Effect (and Dragon’s Dogma, which has its own island and pays zero attention to what anyone else is doing). With so much variety, I’ve often asked myself how to define an RPG.

Is an RPG a game where you create your own character and customize its abilities to personalize a build that works for you? Is it a game where you can play in different ways, like Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls? Does it have to have a non-linear story? Does it have to have choices about how things play out? There are numerous exceptions to any of these features of a role-playing game. Sometimes you play your own character, sometimes you play a specific character. Sometimes you fight with magic and swords, sometimes you fight with guns and telekinesis. Sometimes you carefully plan your moves in turns, like a strategy game, and sometimes you run around and mash buttons, like an action game. I’m not a genre-obsessed person. For example, the debate about whether Zelda “counts” as an RPG puts me to sleep, but it’s still inconsistent.

If anyone knows the origins of RPGs, it’s definitely Feargus Urquhart, who’s been making them since 1991. He’s the founder of Obsidian, the studio behind many games including The Outer Worlds, Fallout: New Vegas (a masterpiece), and South Park: The Stick of Truth. The studio is currently working on Avowed (pictured above). Prior to that, he was one of the core members of Black Isle, the company behind most of the computer RPGs I played as a teenager. This includes the first two Fallout games, the original Baldur’s Gates, and Planescape: Torment. I was really excited to meet him at the Xbox showcase event in Los Angeles last month.

“A good RPG draws out all the different threads of your brain,” Urquhart says. “You can do this, you can do that, you should talk to that person, you can do the main quest, but you want to make your sword stronger… That kind of feeling makes you feel like you’re in the world. You’re not thinking about the real world.”

We had a long conversation about what makes an RPG great. For him, what matters most isn’t any particular element of the game – crafting, or your character’s skill tree, or being able to decide which companions to add to your party. “A great RPG is really the sum of its components: crafting, enchantments, dialogue, companions, reactions just right,” he believes. What matters most is whether and how those elements reflect the player.

“The most important thing in an RPG is agency,” he says. “The player enters a world, becomes whoever they want to be within its boundaries, makes decisions, and the game reacts to those decisions. RPGs work best when the player is rewarded either way, no matter what they do. The world should always respond to how the player is playing the game.”

The idea that role-playing games are a reflection of the player seems right to me. Whether it’s Dragon Age or Fallout 2, The Witcher 3 or Breath of the Wild (don’t attack me), I’m happiest when I feel like I’m part of the world I’m playing in, when I can see the impact I’m making and how the game is adapting to me. I’m not talking about boring binary good/evil moral choices here, I’m talking about more subtle reflections. Characters might talk to you differently if you do something to help their town. People might talk about something you did a few hours ago. You should have a choice about how to deal with a situation, whether it’s with words or weapons, magic or stealing. A good RPG should give you choices. That’s what makes it immersive.

“I played every game that came out, and I still play a lot of them,” Feargus told me. “I like the possibilities of a world.” Maybe an RPG is a world full of possibilities. That’s a broad definition, but one I agree with.

Amazon Games covered Keza’s airfare and accommodation to Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles.

What to Play

I spent a long time choosing my favorite Obsidian games to recommend here, as they’re all so unique. So, I’ll choose Deep Cuts: Spy Thriller RPG instead. Alpha Protocol, recently Back on Steam Now, after five years in limbo, GOG is back.

This is a messy, incomplete, buggy, unfriendly game, so be prepared, but it’s also the only game that attempts to simulate it. all It’s about espionage, and not just James Bond elements, but the main character, Mike, is a terrible guy. terrible You have to make a decision: you can try to break into the embassy by shooting at it, or you can openly brag about being a spy to impress the girl. If you try to ally with a character you don’t like, the other characters will either refuse to cooperate or won’t appear in the game at all.

all There are consequences, and the endings are often so terrible that you’ll curse yourself. This isn’t Obsidian’s best game, but it is its most entertaining. If you do play it, switch the difficulty to “easy” to minimize the frustration of the awful combat.

Available on: PC, or if you search for discs, PS3 and Xbox 360
Estimated play time: 8–12 hours

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Question Block

this week, Martha and Todmorden listen:

My friend and I live together and we are avid gamers. We love modern classics like GTA, The Last of Us, Uncharted, Days Gone, Horizon, Spider-Man, Stardew, etc. My friend hasn’t played since the 90s and wants me to help him get back into it, so something that’s fun and educational would be nice. Any games you’d recommend?

A common mistake when trying to introduce (or reintroduce) a friend to gaming is to recommend something too simple. I’ve done this before. But complexity and depth are often what people find most interesting about games. A friend of mine was recently amazed at how much his girlfriend was into gaming. Cyberpunk 2077 Despite barely having handled a controller, Shante Joseph, host of The Guardian’s pop culture podcast, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

So if I were you, I’d show it all to your friends. your Let her explore her favorites at her own pace. If she is interested, horizon for example, has a very good story mode where the combat isn’t too scary. Show her games in genres she likes from TV, movies, and books. Don’t be too worried that the game will be too hard or complicated for beginners. In 2020, Caroline O’Donoghue wrote an article about rediscovering games as a bored adult, which had some unusual suggestions.

Source: www.theguardian.com