When does fun occur in RPGs for u? Harder question, when do they feel rewarding/satisfying for you?For me it's when I'm walking around the map backtracking, fiddling with menus/inventory management and being lectured by npcs, also watching cutscenes.Battles are not the only gameplay or challenge, sometimes hunting for the next "event trigger" in town is harder than any dungeon or boss.
>>3928471>when do they feel rewarding/satisfying for you?When you try to figure them out - applying different builds, discovering new items, visiting new locations, overcoming seemingly impossible challenges, et c. Retreading and backtracking is when RPGs are at their worst for me.
>>3928485>overcoming seemingly impossible challengesCan you give some examples I've never encountered that.
>>3928471>ESL Thread
>>3928508What part don't you understand?
>>3928536Why you made this fucking thread
>>3928541>Why talk about RPGs on the rpg board?You'll get it one day...
>>3928471Exploring new areas especially if it's an open game and I'm let free to wander around, finding cool hidden stuff by paying attention to the map, balls to the wall combat combined with deep character customization, having to manage resources tightly to not get bled dry by encounters on the way to the end of a dungeon or area.Crystal Project was like crack.
>>3928545>Crystal ProjectLmao get some taste, spastic.
>>3928471I feel like this is more about ludology than narrative design. But every RPG has different modes of engagement. For example the older Final Fantasy games had systems geared towards "mastery". You see you just need 5AP to learn a new ability, so you fight a couple battle. Boom, dopamine. Will you use that new ability? Maybe. Maybe not. I think the satisfaction is in unlocking potential. This is stupid, but imagine a game only has 3 items, so it only has 3 item slots. Perhaps you have to unlock the slots in order to hold all the items at the same time. But I think there is still some psychological satisfaction in expanding the storage space beyond the reasonable 3 slots. Extra slots are completely useless. But the point is: you did it.
>>3928471When I hit a road block boss, have to re-evaluate my team/equipment/strategies, and then challenge them again. I like having to make decisions.
>>3928565Find me a better game first.
>>3928471When a video game waifu says something romantic to my character.
>>3928591queens blade (psp)
>>3928498Superbosses from Enchant Farm, Fear and Hunger 1 and 2, Maria Reiss from Hat World (as well is the 4 Ice Fiends, Kelly and Devilish Enu/Ino), low level dragon hunting in BG2 and Demogorgon from "Throne of Bhaal", Gothic:NOTR first playthrough, ADOM's Tower of Fire and Dark Forge, Dungeon Crawl's Pandemonium, Elvira 2's Insect Hell (Set 1) and figuring put the giant spider, no-guides London Level from Waxworks.
>>3928471I like building characters.Developing builds, coming up with synergies. Especially in large numbers. My happy place, is giving me a roster of 60 characters, giving me the tools to come up with interesting builds, and a reason to use all 60. It's criminal how few games really let this flow. Some of the Digimon RPGs are the closest to this itch I've ever had scratched, Digimon Time Stranger's NG+ Hard mode is sooooooo fucking close, and a few games that get very close when put under particular external stresses, like Disgaea if you play it without the hospital. I can see the shadow of my dream game, in some of Idea Factory's weird ass, grand strategy-rpg-managemant sim cluster fucks they make, like Generation of Chaos. If those games weren't afflicted with the curse of being made by Idea Factory, I might have known true joy. But, unfortunately, they were in fact made by Idea Factory, and are ass beyond imagination in ways that feel like deliberate torture of me, specifically. Lots of games cuck me. They give me the tools, but then design the game in a way that there's no opportunity to actually use that many characters. SRPGs are the most guilty of this, like Fire Emblem or Disgaea. With external rules and challenges they get very close, but it doesn't quite get there. Others have that many characters/slots, but then have paper thin build development, like Soul Nomad or Brigantine. Honestly the Idea Favtory games are here, too, they just have SLIGHTLY more depth. Some of the Gundam rpgs come close, too. *only* 20 some odd slots, but also usually thin/minimal development of pilots and mechs. Tactics Ogre specifically comes decently close, with simultaneous maps, that require having enough prepared party members to play two or three maps, and being unable to deploy the same units between those maps, but these maps are almost always pathetically easy.
>>3930714OhAnd, in a similar vein, I really, really like endurance tests in games. Scenarios where your resources get stretched to the absolute limit, where the fact that your entire squad can maybe cast a combined total of 30 heals, between spells and carried items, suddenly becomes very very relevant, and reliably conserving a bit more health for casts can actually be a make or break decision in the long run. Scenarios of barely limping over the end, with maybe one or two characters who can actually function moderately, a few more who are alive but basically non-functional besides being pairs of hands, and the two dozen incapacitated along the way. The ones who went down early, with unused abilities or something that you truly regret not having now, and not having been more "wasteful" with them when you had the chance. Maybe one or two of your crippled could be "functional" then. Front Mission, particularly 3, is the closest to this specific feeling I've ever gotten, where having to finish a map with one mech who can barely move but still fight, and one that can move but has no weapons or ammo left, is a thing you actually have to do sometimes, or getting a pilot kill matters tremendously, because now the empty machine can be commandeered for a few extra "free" combats. Again, I want those 60 some odd character slots I have built up to matter. I want the 33rd character on that list to be as important as the 3rd, the 12th, and the 57th.
>>3928471I only play games with a cc or where you have a team. Customization or experimenting with builds is the main fun. Basically earning xp to improve the character to earn xp faster. Skinner box at its finest. Story is needed to justify the effort.
>>3928565The game's ugly af, but it does do some things right, mechanically that is. Few games are on its level.>>3928545He just explained what it's greatest strengths are
>>3931101>He just explained what it's greatest strengths areIt's a miserable, tedious game that only impresses people who haven't yet played Enchant Farm.
>>3931130I would never play it, but I see the strengths he mentioned. A shit game can have good parts.
>>3928485>Retreading and backtracking is when RPGs are at their worst for me.I feel like OP is saying he likes retreading/backtracking when he's choosing to do it himself to find secrets, new dialogue, or sidequests.I'm in the same boat. I dislike when RPGs force me to backtrack, but if I get some new ability or form of travel that gives me an excuse to backtrack of my own accord, I love revisiting old locations to see what changed or if I can do something I couldn't before. Often times, its the best way to find new content as early as possible, if you don't want to use a guide.
>>3928508>>3928541>mongoloid subhuman has a melty over something everybody in the West does all the timeDie of some faggot disease
>>3928471I unironically love RPGs when I have no fucking clue what to do next. It's crazy that the genre has evolved to specifically preclude this aspect just because a majority of players are brainless dolts who hate exploration and expirimentation.
>>3931225Plots for RPGs have become so painfully predictive and paint by numbers I unironically could write a story with more originality. Not to mention RPGs are just used as a vehicle for "which party member do I want to fuck" ever since women have entered the space the quality and storywriting have decreased dramatically.
>>3931231If its not predictive, people will complain. These complaints will eventually make headlines and potential buyers will be repelled? The Hollywood jew says: audience forgives everything, except originality.
>>3930722i feel you anon closest i've found is xpiratezdominions to some extent thugging out mages and misc commanderstroubleshooter is good too but much smaller numbershave you considered /vst/ might be the place to look
