The Legendary Role Playing Games - Uncovered! (RPG and Adventure Games in general)

Member Name: Squalls_Lover

Product:	RPG and Adventure Games in general
Date:	02/03/06 (305 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Wonderful, unique, fantastic, creative, interactive, enjoyable, lovable addictive

Disadvantages: Time, Patience, Passion, Perserverance

The Legendary Role Playing Games - Uncovered!

NOTICE: This is all due to my knowledge, if something is missing, I apologize as I was not aware - and any generalizations I make, I only make due to my own experience. Thank You.

GENERAL AND BACKGROUND HISTORY:

Where do we start?

Right, so you've never heard of a role playing game? Of course, or else you wouldn't be reading this - I will try to include all aspects of most role playing games, reference to some existing role playing games that are worth mentioning to give a basic gist of what this genre is all about.

Let me clarify what I think - role playing - playing a role - so you play a game in which you play a role - this means it could be any role - basically a character. You play a character. Role playing games, to my knowledge, in some countries such as germany, have also been played on pen and paper by multiple players where they create a story by writing down their character, actions and interacting with other players.

Of course they choose a setting, and location first on consensus. You could argue it is an interactive story - but nevertheless, very exciting because you're not reading a story already written for you - you're not writing one yourself all alone for others to read - your combining both elements, sharing ideas, thoughts and creating fantastical plotlines, intricate character interaction and relationships and all you do is write whatever you want at your turn.

This is a little background on role playing games - there are endless and ever expanding ways you can actually play role playing games - my favourite genre. Anyway, it does sound a little like those interactive, multiple path books you can find sometimes - I personally attempted to write a story this way and it was fun!

Basically I could say that those books are a lot like the "RPG" genre you find console games in. The books makes you read up to a certain page and then the book gives you an option to decide what the character does next – for example - a) go through the door b)turn back or c)wait till morning - etc and then accordingly you pick a, b or c and the respective page it directs you to continue the story in the chosen pathway.

That is very much like role playing games - the ones you play on consoles and PCs, as you play a character and sometimes in some games you get a choice or choices and according to your actions there are consequences, good or bad - sometimes it changes the whole plot of the story, sometimes it affects your ending or later status in the game.

Just to clarify on other such games - we have the ORPG - the Online Role Playing Game - which is the same concept as writing the story, but online - and in forums where all the writers unite that want to take part in a story, make up characters, and post chapters in turn, and then everyone reads along the storyline and every character contributes at their turn.

It's a long process, but slow, gradual, intellectual and most of all _rewarding_ fun, in which you're not allowed to harm, kill, elope with, negatively interact with other characters - without the author’s consent - which is usually easy to obtain because these communities are close-knit and talk to each other about their stories, their progress and have a general consensus on the fate of their invented stories and characters. This kind of RPG is good for writers who want to practice their writing skills and learn and get influenced by other writing styles by reading other’s work which is part of the whole.

If you can’t wait for things to start moving in role playing games such as the ORPG’s then there is also the Yahoo Messenger Chat Rooms. You will find in your Yahoo messenger, the option to join a chat. You click on chat, and you see a list in a big window, and there will be lots of categories, like home, leisure, romance, computers, religion, sports and so on, and there will be one called “Games” and when you click on that, you see on the right hand side lots of different rooms with different names, such as “neopets” where people discuss this, and other game related things people discuss, but there will also be something called “Role playing games” and when you enter that, you will find a room filled with people with names such as “Valina the vampire” or “Angel_of_Darkness” or “Knight” or other such character names.

And you will see these people interacting with another, talking about their own character (which is shown in their name) in the third person. For example:
If I were called “Countess” then I’d send a message to the whole chat room talking of my actions in the past tense, like… “Countess enters the room and looks around.” And when it appears on screen it is like narrating a story but many people are doing it simultaneously and reading each other’s actions and interacting with another, forming stories, battles, loves, romances, anything.

I’ve role played a lot on these chats and created loads of ingeniously interesting stories which I could never have done had I not done it with lots of different people. So that’s fun, to start, but the hard part is getting noticed, and usually people look at your yahoo profile picture, as many people find appropriate pictures for their character inventions. Like if I had Countess I’d put up an elegant vampiress picture (usually in anime or cartoon or graphic design art format) And alongside that, the age, location, etc to make up a background story of the character, give the character a lot of depth.

CHARACTERS:

Coming back to the electronic version, it isn’t much different only in the ones you buy usually – they are one player (But there are those you play online which enable you to interact with millions of different people around the world, but they are subject to subscription so I don’t know much about them).

So you’re up against the world, you’re a character, someone the game developer’s chose for you, or sometimes someone you pick yourselves and explore the story. Sometimes picking another character means the story will be the same in general but the pathway will be different.

For example in Unlimited Saga, by Square-enix (formerly known as Squaresoft – the creators of Final Fantasy VII), we have several different characters whose paths meet sooner or later in the game, but if you pick one character you will start at one point in the story, and if you pick another you will be in another – maybe a different location, maybe a different time point, you can only play to find out. Sometimes all the characters come one by one and join you or your party in your quest, depending on their motives – maybe they share your hatred against the archenemy and want to help you.

Tasks, quests, enemies, plot will also differ according to the character you choose. Consequently, there are those games in which it doesn’t make a difference what character you pick to the story or plot but it’s just a character with a different personality and you’re going through the same route as any other character would have.

Then you have the most common, as mentioned, the one in which you only play one character and there is a set path to follow – or there isn’t – sometimes yes, sometimes no, it all depends on the game developers and the story – it all fits in and role playing games, in this sense, are extremely flexible, enjoyable games. These are games in which you explore, rummage, think for yourself, are free, experiment, observe and interact to your heart’s desire with all else that encounters you.

Allow me to give an example of a unique “experiment” I did with one of my favourite role playing games – and I am doing this to give you scope into how role playing games truly are instead of just saying, “Wow they have magic, you can be a character, blah blah blah” as that wouldn’t actually be _showing_ you what it’s like, it’s just _telling_ you what it is.

Ok, so there is a point in Final Fantasy VIII in which you get to enter one of your friend’s room. Usually before this point in the game you were not allowed to enter his room, his mother, who was usually in the kitchen, would come and say Zell wouldn’t appreciate it – etc. So you get to go into his room. In Final Fantasy VIII you are always in a formation of three, you more around in three’s, for battle purposes, and sometimes one character is on their own, but if its more than 1 it’s usually three.

So Squall is automatically picked, as he’s the protagonist of the game, and of course, Zell as he leads you into his room and without which you wouldn’t be allowed – and one other character. Now you have a selection of three girls, and one other guy from whom to pick – the rest stay someplace else.

I first picked Irvine, and he’s a gun and girl fanatic (figures, he dresses like a cowboy) and when he enters Zell’s room, he get’s amazed by his grandfather’s guns display on Zell’s wall, and immediately we have a comic scene (in scenes like this you usually just watch) so he goes up to them and Zell yells and we hear a gunshot as if he’s trying it out and it all blacks out.

I found that funny, but then I thought…because I know the immense flexibility of role playing games, that what if I took different characters into Zell’s room. Instead of Irvine…what if I had taken Selphie (young girl, dresses weirdly in yellow, ueber cute).

So I did and we had yet another scene with a difference – she sat on his bed, and he told her not to and she insulted him by saying that he should be thanking her that a GIRL is sitting on HIS bed (as if he’s never going to get that far!).

Then I tried the other characters and different outcomes happened, which was extremely fun to explore. It also made me learn a lot about the characters, and you have a sense for them, almost like bonding with them – which is great – any author would like his/her readers to bond with his characters, so why not in videogames?

Role Playing video games, are to me, just like interactive novels. I play on to find out what happens next, who gets the girl, what the ending is etc. Every role playing game usually has a background story, which is made clear in the beginning.

FMV’S AND EASE OF MOVEMENT:

It is probably true that there are shed-loads of cutscenes and fmv’s and integrated movies in the role playing genre, and it makes it so rewarding to watch. The fmv scenes in Final Fantasy X were fantastic, and the story was also fantastical, different, and magical.

Depending on how old the game is, the fmvs are usually pleasant to watch. In older rpgs, there are no fmv scenes, rather scenes with the characters you play doing things on their own and speaking etc. Fmv’s in recent rpg titles are cutscenes which involve CG animated movies which you watch of your characters, the environment, or anything that the game is showing you.

You get to see a ball happening in FF8 where you see a breathtakingly close close-up of the protagonist and his love interest both seeing a shooting star together and then noticing that they both saw it and then getting to know each other – followed by a reluctant dance sequence – all in cg animation! You just sit back and relax and watch the show!

Most role playing games let you wander around in the virtual world. But in the beginning, most of them keep you in confined pathways, in order to teach you the ways of the game first, and then to let you roam as you wish. Most games are like this. In Final Fantasy VII you stay in Midgar (a big city where you start the game) for a real big chunk of the first disc, and then you get to explore other towns and landscapes.

You usually have a slanted top view which enables you to control your character to move back and forth over the world, for example travelling from one town to the other and seeing and exploring things on your way. You may not be guided to follow a strict path, and eventually find how to progress the story all by yourself anyway.

Sometimes when you’re walking around you see hidden things, secrets, caves not noticed before and you can go and come as you please – like in the real world you can move around fluidly rather than on a set path. You have choice. And many role playing games offer modes of transport for you to get around easily on the world, like horses, dragons, Chocobos (unique to FF series, big, ostrich like yellow birds you can ride), cars, planes, airships, magical transport, buggies, ships, submarines, sci-fi like mechanical vehicles, hovering aircrafts, motorcycles, boats and even trains.

Most role playing games have shops, some form of money which is usually called “Gil” in most games, sometimes called “GP” for gold pieces, or gil points, and so forth. This currency is available in various different ways – sometimes you end up with gil after killing monsters/enemies, in some games you get it through completing tasks, as part of the plot, a monthly salary (FF8), selling valuables you find, or even find it in treasure chests, boxes, vases, wherever.

You have all kinds of places to spend that gil – armor shops, food item shops (Dark Cloud), weapons and upgrades (FF8), Inns (FF7), magic power shops, post service (FF6), Pubs (Harvest Moon), Rent-a-car services (FF8) and many more.

Once you have been to a few places, or all places or acquired a certain vehicle, you can then choose to move around the virtual world as you please, and the people walking around, in shops, in houses, on trains etc – you can interact with them and hear what the say. Sometimes they tell you very interesting things, sometimes they get on your nerves, and sometimes they give you hints about how to get further, but they don’t make it sound like they’re some robot the game developer’s put in – they sound realistic (most of the time anyway).

WEAPONS AND RACES:

You also have all kinds of weapons to your disposal – and it all depends on the kind of game you’re playing – one thing that is definite to note is that role playing games are not always set in a medieval or old age setting, although that was a very fashionable trend in the 1980 when these kinds of games started flourishing.

The weaponry include, modern guns – everything from ak47s to rocket launchers, and also old-fashioned weaponry like clubs and swords and of course you have those that are unique to the game, like special wands, specialized, newly invented designs for example the Gunblade in Final Fantasy VIII, which is basically a long, thick sword but at the handle of it you have seamlessly lodged barrel, bullets inside and a shooting hole, just like a very unique gun and sword hybrid.

Sometimes there is no weaponry, or certain characters don’t use weaponry, because they have special powers, either naturally or acquired, magic, spells, curses, you name it. This in turn brings me onto class. There are many different classes you can belong to. In some role playing games you have animals and humans living together in the style of humans, so the animals are clothed and speak (FF9).

You have mages – these were particularly famous in medieval styled rpg’s in the 1980s, and a trend that was brought back in an attempt to please die-hard fans of this in the form of Final Fantasy 9. --- Mages are like sorcerers, they have a concentrated aptitude for magic and all related. This means, curing spells (white magic) and/or harmful spells such as Fire, Thunder (black magic).

Accordingly, we have the White mage (one who only practices, or mostly practices white magic) and the Black mage (the same with black magic). These can be human, animal, some other form of life or, in the case of Final Fantasy 9 – created from mist – which is interesting as it’s nothing more solid than air, but it lives – I like this fantastical creativity.

We have the mercenaries, who will work for money, the dragoons who are apparently very good with the spear and jumping (FF9), Knights and Generals, Kings (FF6), Human peasants, normal civilians, elves and other such supernatural creatures.

BATTLE:

One important thing to note is that many role playing games have a battle system which gives you time to think about your next move, rather than fighting in real-time and killing your control buttons to beat the enemy. It’s called the turn-based system, which means the enemy gets a turn to hit you, and you get a turn to hit them – it sounds a little odd – why give the enemy a chance to hit you? Because it’s all about your brains! You take turns in beating each other, so you choose your mode of harm carefully.

For example, many games have enemies with elements – such as fire, ice, wind, earth, thunder, water, holy and darkness. So if you know the enemy is weak against fire because it has an ice element you naturally attack it with fire. If you attack it with ice, in some games, it actually cures your enemy.

Whoever kills the other first, wins the battle. So you’re being tactical, rather than fighting on impulse, and that’s how this kind of battle stimulates your brain rather than your reaction speed. That’s an important thing to note. But not all role playing games have this – for example Dark Cloud – it is set in real-time battle a little like usual fighting games but you don’t have a screen with two bars decreasing and all that.

Speaking of decreasing bars - then we have Hit Points – probably the most crucial thing to know about role playing games – because when these points decrease to zero, you’re dead – or – in the rpg world as you can be revived with a potion or something, let’s call it KO’ed. In some games you also have Magic Points, which enable you to practice magic, and if that reaches zero you are unable to practice magic until you obtain some more from some source (potions, etc).

Both these points are vital to be aware of when you initiate in battle, some rpg’s have less battles, some more, but there’s always a boss or two, part of the nemesis thing. You have all kinds of potions, elixirs and such to revive, cure, make invincible, etc and also to help you against enemies. Like in some games undead enemies (zombies) don’t like curing agents, so you bombard them with curing potions or elixirs and they die.

Sometimes you can “summon” mythological entities to help you fight the enemy in some games – usually associated with the Final Fantasy series. So these entities are on your side – but sometimes you have to fight them and win in order for them to join you – and they deal powerful damage against your enemies. They too, can be KO’ed, so you have to watch out.

By mythological entities I mean Siren, Ifrit(fire), Queziquatl(thunder) (sp?), Leviathan(water), Shiva (ice), Minotaur(earth), Centaur(earth), Cerberus(poison), etc.

QUESTS AND SUBQUESTS:

OK, so you’re the hero (or even heroine! Example: FFX-2) and you have a cause to embark on a journey, or take some kind of action against something. Sometimes you’ll just be in for taking part in a rebel faction just for money (FF7) and then you’ll be strung into other events which will make you embark on an epic quest to find the villain/uncover some past of yours or something like that.

Sometimes you’ll be an ordinary boy who, after learning of a disaster will want to restore whatever he can and fight the evil that inflicted the disaster (Dark Cloud).

In some cases someone will be kidnapped and you and your friends try to get to that person, and in doing so uncover dark secrets and truths about yourselves and the person kidnapped (The Bouncer).

In some instances you’ll be a simple thief gang who tries to kidnap a princess and find she hops aboard because she was running away anyway! (FF9) And then the story uncurls, unfolds and you find out dark secrets about kingdoms, queens and so on.

In some cases you’ll be an elite mercenary trained by an academy to work for a third party who pays you – and you fall in love with the female boss! (FF8) and from there on the story goes further into conspiracies, sorceresses, time travel, dreams, lost fathers and unknown sons, love, hatred and war.

In some games you’ll already know the enemy and be in the process of sabotaging their plans right from the start (Alundra).

In others you’ll be a sorceress with huge powers who’s brainwashed by a magic band round her head which makes her into a slave, and other heroes around you find you and rescue you to fight the evil kingdom that tries to conquer the world. (FF6)

Sometimes your subquests, which are smaller things inside the whole rpg, will include things like finding certain items to help you, finding a whole collection of crystals/mystical items to help further your game, breeding animals (FF7 - chocobos), killing legendary monsters (Like those that are a real challenge but need not be completed to finish the game itself), sometimes subquests can be useless – like finding an alien (FF8) or collecting recipes (Harvest Moon), or playing card games (FF9&8) and so on.

ENEMIES:

Enemies can be anything – aliens, animals, animal-human hybrids, human emperors and kings, your twin brother *haha* (metal gear solid, but that’s not an rpg), male, female, short, tall, slim, fat, you name it. Sometimes there are many enemies, which are enemies to each other, or friends, working together or not. It all depends on the game. Sometimes you might think someone’s a friend, but they’re an enemy, and sometimes you think they’re an enemy but actually they’re neither your friend nor your enemy, or sometimes they turn out to be your friends.

This subject is very versatile, an enemy is only worth something if it makes a good impact, like Kefka from FF6, or Sephiroth from FF7, they were the true evil as they did evil things for no apparent reasons – pure madness is what makes these enemies shine above those who are just greedy to inherit the earth.

Sometimes there’s a lack of enemies, like in Harvest Moon…although I thought the sun was my enemy because I had to keep watering my crops all the time…
Kingdom hearts has many enemies, all from Disney and non-Disney backgrounds who all unite to bring you down.

The enemies can do mind tricks on you, beat you , set your home town on fire (FF7), try to rule the world, take away your loved ones, create diseases to spread the world, summon disasters onto the earth in their madness, take everyone under their control and many other things.

In nearly all the role playing games, you can beat the enemy, and that’s how the game ends and you finally get to see how the plot ending and what happens to whom.

LOVE INTERESTS:

Grandia and Grandia 2 have love interests, as do many of the FF’s, and many other rpg games. It usually is present, but some games don’t do it. It is usually interesting to note how characters act with each other and how you can make a difference.

In Final Fantasy 7 you can choose to give a flower to a girl, or not, depending on what you, the player, want, but you only get one chance, because there’s many other things you can do to raise affection levels.

Some games have affection levels – points earned towards a character by behaving in a certain way with them and reaping the consequences. Sometimes love is not returned, sometimes it is hidden but not said, sometimes it is out all open, sometimes both partners never find out they both loved one another and so on – all these can happen in a rpg game just like they can happen in a novel.

From time to time, you will get scenes in an rpg where both lovers have a “moment”, whether their love is revealed or not, you, the player, can take part in seeing how their relationship grows and contribute to it.

DIFFERENCES TO OTHER GAMES:

Games like bubble bobble have a minimalist story, are purely for platform fun and serve no other kind of purpose. They are strict, and confined without the ability to glide and be free like rpgs. Sports games…are exactly that, concerned with sports, there is no story, and once you’ve scored that goal, done that olli, and collected the points – then what? With action games you have action all the time – sometimes even from first-person-shooter point of view, and all you see is a gun being pointed in the direction you’re looking and you go around shooting targets, people, monsters, etc and onto the next mission, hurray! What’s with puzzle games? You puzzle here puzzle there and its over, done, I solved it. Now what?

DISADVANTAGE OF THE RPG:

Some rpgs have what I call, “random” monsters, and while you’re walking, they come up, and battle is initiated, which can get very annoying if you’re not in the mood for fighting or want to get somewhere quickly. You can escape, but it gets very repetitive getting into fights because the game sometimes gets into them automatically, and then always trying to get out of it.

Nearly all RPG’s take a long time to play, depending on how long you spend furthering the plot and how long you play at each play. You have to keep at it, know the story, play it through, fight, level up, increase your stats and get through to the main bosses and beat them and find out what happens next.

Games like Bubble Bobble are quick fun, whereas rpg’s take time, commitment, passion and patience. It’s like reading a book; it takes time – the deeper the storyline, the thicker the novel the longer the game will take.

I used to play a lot of rpgs, all the time, but now since I’m so busy, I usually avoid them, and when I get time again, I will definitely embark on the other members of the FF series that I have yet not completed, and other rpgs that are sitting on my shelves gathering dust.

You have to save often – on save points – wherever you find them, just save because you never know what’s going to happen next and sometimes, if you are in a situation where you can’t turn back, and haven’t collected enough healing potions and are just about to fight a boss, it can get difficult – and you may just have to play from the save point that was created earlier then that – and it can all get very repetitive or annoying when you forget to save often.

REPLAY VALUE OF THE RPG:

Depending on the rpg, it should be able to be played again and again until the dawn of our end, but like I said, it all depends. Some games let you explore different possibilities, so you can start again with a different character, pathway, etc. Or you can just solve puzzles, do sub-quests, find secret sub-stories and generally soak up all else you’ve missed.

Most good rpg’s can offer you 80+ hours of gameplay, which is pretty impressive, and beats practically all other genre’s maybe except simulation games (all that planning…heh).

I played FF7 a lot – I played it and played it again, and then again and still I found things that I didn’t know, cute surprises, hidden things etc that made me smile. Even after 5+ years of picking it up and putting it down now and again I haven’t fully completed the game – I know the story, though. I’ve completed the actual game, the ending, the boss, but not everything there is to see, hear, explore.

Most rpg’s reflect this and this is what makes them so mind-bogglingly fun and addictive. There’s always something to see, hear, explore, find etc.

OVERALL:

Role Playing Games are the coolest games around, try one, and judge for yourself, you will not be disappointed, unless you have the attention span of a fish or even worse, Homer Simpson.

And the patience of Homer too - then it’s a no-no.

But if you like stories, novels, interacting with plots, then go ahead and find yourself an rpg to relish and enjoy.

Rating: 10/10 for RPG’s!

Thanks for reading…if you got this far. Thank you Very much!

Summary: Sheer brilliance and intellectual stimulation in one word: RPG