RPG Roundtable 5 part 2

Odin

Odin

Carbon Dated and Proud
Admin
RPGVault.ign have posted their part 2 of the RPG Roundtable 5, as you might recall the question for nr 5 is multi-platform development. Here's a quote from Josh E Sawyer:<blockquote>Also, the console RPG market is an interesting one. I'll go out on a limb and say that BioWare effectively dragged PC RPGers and PC-style RPGs into the console world. In overall style and presentation, Knights of the Old Republic is not like Final Fantasy X, Tales of Symphonia or the "typical" console RPG. The amount of player choice involved in many PC RPGs like Fallout and the Baldur's Gate games simply isn't found in a significant number of console titles. Before KotOR, I would have guessed that a PC-style RPG on console would crash and burn. Now, who knows what gamers might accept or even start to expect?

Simplification is not always bad, and explicit complexity is not always beneficial for a game. In my opinion, anything that engages a player and forces him or her to think and solve problems in the course of the game is great. You don't need 101+ keys to do this, and you certainly don't need 800x600 resolution. If we can keep what I believe is the heart of PC-style RPGs, player choice that has a meaningful effect on the state of the world, it shouldn't matter if the game is PC-only, Xbox-only, or ported to everything under the sun.</blockquote>So KOTOR is the turning point?!
Spotted at VoodooExtreme.
 
I would have responded to this over at DAC, but my account info there is lost/confused/sad. I wasn't trying to hold up KotOR as an example of a great PC game. I'm not really sure where I even implied it was good. However, it was a popular PC-style RPG on a console. If anyone can give examples of more successful RPGs on consoles that have strong aspects of PC RPGs, feel free to let me know.
 
Fable is being treated like the Second Coming and its not even released yet.

I don't own an Xbox, though, so I haven't bothered to see if it has something resembling a combat system like those in PC RPGs. Though, its emphasis on player choice and how it affects the game world is, suffice to say, ambitious.
 
J.E. Sawyer said:
However, it was a popular PC-style RPG on a console.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say that it's a pc style RPG, it's a first person shooter with pause for me. And I can't for the love of all that is holy understand why people liked KOTOR, it was boring and annoying to me. I must be getting old..

Console games should be short fun, ie a combat game, a shooter or like we called them before Beat'em up and shoot'em up. Sure the consoles have evolved and are crossing a border, but still whenever I fire up my Xbox I want to have easy, quick fix of fun nothing more, nothing less..
 
Odin said:
I wouldn't say that it's a pc style RPG, it's a first person shooter with pause for me.
Click to expand...
It's not first person and you don't do the aiming, your character does. Sounds more like a third person RPG to me. And the simple fact that you have actual dialogue options with different sub-plot outcomes (regardless of their perceived quality) is much different than the vast majority of console RPGs.
 
J.E. Sawyer said:
It's not first person and you don't do the aiming. I don't see how you reached that conclusion.
Click to expand...

Right I forgot, behind-view (3d person). Still it looks more like a first person shooter to me, or should I say 3d-person "shooter" with pause.
 
J.E. Sawyer said:
It's not first person and you don't do the aiming, your character does. Sounds more like a third person RPG to me. And the simple fact that you have actual dialogue options with different sub-plot outcomes (regardless of their perceived quality) is much different than the vast majority of console RPGs.
Click to expand...

I agree that KotOR is the best console RPG there is - which is not hard considering linear action-adventures like Final Fantasy. However, KotOR does not improve on anything that PC RPGs did already well - combat, dialogue options, non-linearity, adaptive gameworld. In fact it is a step back in some of these fields.
 
When I played KOTOR, I really wasn't feeling it as an RPG. Character development wasn't that hot, the story seemed a bit shallow, options available were few.

Seemed like the only thing I was doing was walking around and fighting every 3 steps.

And the ending....


Urrrgh.
 
J.E. Sawyer said:
I would have responded to this over at DAC, but my account info there is lost/confused/sad. I wasn't trying to hold up KotOR as an example of a great PC game. I'm not really sure where I even implied it was good. However, it was a popular PC-style RPG on a console. If anyone can give examples of more successful RPGs on consoles that have strong aspects of PC RPGs, feel free to let me know.
Click to expand...

What I get to thinking is while KOTOR did good on the consoles and was a PC style rpg... would that trend continue? Because KOTOR was the first of its kind, it may have filled a void that many console gamers were looking for. But now that niche has been occupied... are there still many console gamers who are looking for more PC like games? I mean, it may have just been the perfect fix for the XBox and pretty much a one time gig. What I'm more curious about, is if KOTOR was released on the PS2 where it would have to compete with a greater variety of console-RPGs. Would it still do good?
 
i played KOTOR all the way through about 3 times. it was 'ok', but that is probably because i had no expections at all about the game. i would never call it a real CRPG.

for me KOTOR = hack&slash game (- the blood & flying limbs) + some CRPG elements + star wars setting
 
Morrowind was the first to succeed on that, not KOTOR, but the game mechanics were so simple that it wasn`t dificult, i wonder what happened if someone tried to make a more complex RPG in the memory weak consoles.
 
Briosafreak said:
Morrowind was the first to succeed on that, not KOTOR
Click to expand...
Morrowind was made for PC and ported to XBox. Also, it's far more of a first-person shooter than KotOR was. Considering how much people have ripped Morrowind to hell and back on these forums, I'm not sure you'll find many supporters to the claim that MW successfully dragged PC RPGers into consoles.
 
Both those games have the advantage of perspective that's console friendly, i.e. first or 3rd person. I want Fallout to stay with the viewpoint it was made with.
 
I really liked KOTOR personally, but not in the sense that I thought it was some glorious advancement for CRPGdom. The replay value was almost nonexistent. I basically played it to mid game several time before finding a character I liked. I even tried being a bad guy after beating it, but I couldn't take the NPC's reactions. I could wipe out whole towns (children and all) in Fallout and feel just fine, but cheating some widow out of some money (in KOTOR) made me feel like a complete bastard.

I just liked it cause in my mind it was the ONLY Star Wars game worth playing that wasn't a pure shoot-em-up(oh and HK-47 was highly entertaining). Probably had something to do with playing it after SWG, I loathe the mockery that is Galaxies.

Grey_Ghost
 
Mr. Teatime said:
Both those games have the advantage of perspective that's console friendly, i.e. first or 3rd person. I want Fallout to stay with the viewpoint it was made with.
Click to expand...

Yep, good point.
 
I could wipe out whole towns (children and all) in Fallout and feel just fine, but cheating some widow out of some money made me feel like a complete bastard.
Click to expand...

Sounds like pretty good moral development to me.

Both those games have the advantage of perspective that's console friendly, i.e. first or 3rd person. I want Fallout to stay with the viewpoint it was made with.
Click to expand...

Games like Fallout Tactics and Disgaea have isometric viewpoints of battlefields, albeit with 4 camera positions. A game with tactically-oriented combat like Fallout is console friendly as far as viewpoints go.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top