What goes in to a good RPG?
Megan is out of town for two weeks.
As a newly graduated games designer, the only responsible response is to play as many 80-hour epic RPGs as I can, because that much time is naturally hard to come by.
Here's the current list, and some thoughts on each:
Neverwinter Nights 1 (all campaigns).
I have previously finished the original campaign as an underleveled, underpowered monk. The original campaign fits a certain mold. Each act, you acquire four quarters of a plot coupon, then shocking revelation, then boss fight. It's been soundly berated for being very generic. And yet, it is the only campaign I've actually finished, and more to the point, the only one I finished legitimately. Daelan is my henchmen of choice, but if I hadn't been a monk I would probably have thought Grimgnaw was the bee's knees trying to stay warm by wearing the cat's pajamas.
Shadows of Undrentide: I have previously played up to the zone-before-the-final-zone as an underleveled, underpowered monk (I didn't realise the long-term consequences of respawning at the time). I don't know why I quit, but I'm going to assume either a puzzle or a bug got in my way. I'm currently playing as a cleric and having loads more fun. In D&D 3.5, it's generally accepted that the best base class you can play is a Cleric or Druid, because Clerics have no weaknesses and Druids have 'abilities that are more powerful than your entire class' (Burlew, 2009). I liked Deekin as a character, but Dorna had the abilities I needed. Someone answer this for me: can she be unstoned?
Hordes of the Underdark: Being an impatient man who doesn't enjoy puzzles but loves cutscenes, I have console commanded my way through this by becoming a Monk 21 / Assassin 10 / Blackguard 9 with the occasional godmode and infinite money. I plan to buy everyone's true names, if that wasn't actually cut. I also wanted to do an evil playthrough, but beyond jumping straight to the rakshasa fight on level 2, I couldn't really get into the spirit of thing and I'm bordering lawful neutral now. Also, it's true, I have this thing for wanting to be able to play monks, and cheating was the best way I could think of, because I'm secretly quite terrible at games. In any case, I'm at the mimic maze, Aribeth disappeared halfway through my solving the puzzle, I quit. I liked Deekin, but for some buggy reason he didn't accompany me into act 3, and I'm a laaaaadyyyyy who's romancing Valen. Valen annoys me. On the one hand, he's a little less angsty than the other angsty henchmen you can acquire in various RPG games. On the other, it's very easy for him to betray you in the final battle.
I've also put some time into Neverwinter Nights 2:
Mask of the Betrayer: As displayed above, I'm aware that good character classes do exist and I should leave character optimisation to professionals. I wanted to try an Eldritch Knight, and I'm sitting at Wizard 7 / Barbarian 2 / Eldritch Knight 10, or something close to that. I'm wearing armor and I decided to Still Spell my entire spellbook, but I'm not sure if it's working, since I die a lot. That said, for all the prettiness of NWN and for all the assurances that this campaign is closer to Planescape Torment than anything else on this list, Neverwinter Nights 2 has always been a buggy mess. The loading screens take forever on my brand new laptop, it continually flashes a top down map of the game whenever I change zones and it crashes every so often. I want NWN2 to be a good platform, but it refuses to work with me on this one. I haven't really had time to get to know any of the characters, but I don't particularly like Safiya or Gannayev. I do think Kaelyn is kind of cool.
Baldur's Gate 2: I used to watch my Dad play this. I used to watch my Dad play everything. I think he got through most of chapter 2, but he had kids to feed, a wife who was in the same city as him, all wonderful things distracted him from the comparatively ignoble goal of getting 100% completion in every game, ever.
I do not remember the game being this difficult. I do not think it was worth making my character a thief. I do not have any idea what I'm doing when I play AD&D. I keep messing up Two Handed Weapon Style and Two Weapon Style. Sorry, Minsc. I'm playing a thief. I think that was a mistake since I'm fairly keen on having Yoshimo around until Imoen gets back. I hope he doesn't feel too bad when that happens. (Spoilers: he won't be in a position to feel bad)
What really intrigues me about Baldur's Gate is that the large number characters pull you in different directions. In other games, it feels as though if I want Henchmen X to love me, I just keep going with my main quest. At some point, there will be a chest. That chest will contain things that make Henchmen X love me. This isn't bad level design, but it is constrictive: As a player, I need to be able to acquire all the characters in one playthrough, and max the influence of all-but-the-token-bad-teammate or token-paladin, or else all this tight plotting is only contributing to a feel-bad moment for me.
In Baldur's Gate 2, there are sixteen NPC's all pulling in different directions. Nalia De'Arnise wants me to go to De'Arnise keep. Nalia will actually leave me if I don't go to De'Arnise keep, because her father is being held hostage there. Nobody else really has any reason to go to De'Arnise keep. In another game, Nalia would probably be wondering who had kidnapped her father, and you'd find the proof in a chest in the same room as a mini-boss on the main quest line. Or, the father would be one of the mini-bosses on the main quest line. Similarly, because each NPC is a generic action sprite, a static portrait,an extra day's work for Grey DeLisle/Jim Cummings and the labor of one college graduate to write the dialogue, they can have many, many more of these fleshed out characters demanding a space in your heart.
In conclusion, I think it's very important that I restart Baldur's Gate and roll up a character who hasn't put all his points into pick-pocketing. And learn some scripting so I can build a persistent world for NWN1.
As a newly graduated games designer, the only responsible response is to play as many 80-hour epic RPGs as I can, because that much time is naturally hard to come by.
Here's the current list, and some thoughts on each:
Neverwinter Nights 1 (all campaigns).
I have previously finished the original campaign as an underleveled, underpowered monk. The original campaign fits a certain mold. Each act, you acquire four quarters of a plot coupon, then shocking revelation, then boss fight. It's been soundly berated for being very generic. And yet, it is the only campaign I've actually finished, and more to the point, the only one I finished legitimately. Daelan is my henchmen of choice, but if I hadn't been a monk I would probably have thought Grimgnaw was the bee's knees trying to stay warm by wearing the cat's pajamas.
Shadows of Undrentide: I have previously played up to the zone-before-the-final-zone as an underleveled, underpowered monk (I didn't realise the long-term consequences of respawning at the time). I don't know why I quit, but I'm going to assume either a puzzle or a bug got in my way. I'm currently playing as a cleric and having loads more fun. In D&D 3.5, it's generally accepted that the best base class you can play is a Cleric or Druid, because Clerics have no weaknesses and Druids have 'abilities that are more powerful than your entire class' (Burlew, 2009). I liked Deekin as a character, but Dorna had the abilities I needed. Someone answer this for me: can she be unstoned?
Hordes of the Underdark: Being an impatient man who doesn't enjoy puzzles but loves cutscenes, I have console commanded my way through this by becoming a Monk 21 / Assassin 10 / Blackguard 9 with the occasional godmode and infinite money. I plan to buy everyone's true names, if that wasn't actually cut. I also wanted to do an evil playthrough, but beyond jumping straight to the rakshasa fight on level 2, I couldn't really get into the spirit of thing and I'm bordering lawful neutral now. Also, it's true, I have this thing for wanting to be able to play monks, and cheating was the best way I could think of, because I'm secretly quite terrible at games. In any case, I'm at the mimic maze, Aribeth disappeared halfway through my solving the puzzle, I quit. I liked Deekin, but for some buggy reason he didn't accompany me into act 3, and I'm a laaaaadyyyyy who's romancing Valen. Valen annoys me. On the one hand, he's a little less angsty than the other angsty henchmen you can acquire in various RPG games. On the other, it's very easy for him to betray you in the final battle.
I've also put some time into Neverwinter Nights 2:
Mask of the Betrayer: As displayed above, I'm aware that good character classes do exist and I should leave character optimisation to professionals. I wanted to try an Eldritch Knight, and I'm sitting at Wizard 7 / Barbarian 2 / Eldritch Knight 10, or something close to that. I'm wearing armor and I decided to Still Spell my entire spellbook, but I'm not sure if it's working, since I die a lot. That said, for all the prettiness of NWN and for all the assurances that this campaign is closer to Planescape Torment than anything else on this list, Neverwinter Nights 2 has always been a buggy mess. The loading screens take forever on my brand new laptop, it continually flashes a top down map of the game whenever I change zones and it crashes every so often. I want NWN2 to be a good platform, but it refuses to work with me on this one. I haven't really had time to get to know any of the characters, but I don't particularly like Safiya or Gannayev. I do think Kaelyn is kind of cool.
Baldur's Gate 2: I used to watch my Dad play this. I used to watch my Dad play everything. I think he got through most of chapter 2, but he had kids to feed, a wife who was in the same city as him, all wonderful things distracted him from the comparatively ignoble goal of getting 100% completion in every game, ever.
I do not remember the game being this difficult. I do not think it was worth making my character a thief. I do not have any idea what I'm doing when I play AD&D. I keep messing up Two Handed Weapon Style and Two Weapon Style. Sorry, Minsc. I'm playing a thief. I think that was a mistake since I'm fairly keen on having Yoshimo around until Imoen gets back. I hope he doesn't feel too bad when that happens. (Spoilers: he won't be in a position to feel bad)
What really intrigues me about Baldur's Gate is that the large number characters pull you in different directions. In other games, it feels as though if I want Henchmen X to love me, I just keep going with my main quest. At some point, there will be a chest. That chest will contain things that make Henchmen X love me. This isn't bad level design, but it is constrictive: As a player, I need to be able to acquire all the characters in one playthrough, and max the influence of all-but-the-token-bad-teammate or token-paladin, or else all this tight plotting is only contributing to a feel-bad moment for me.
In Baldur's Gate 2, there are sixteen NPC's all pulling in different directions. Nalia De'Arnise wants me to go to De'Arnise keep. Nalia will actually leave me if I don't go to De'Arnise keep, because her father is being held hostage there. Nobody else really has any reason to go to De'Arnise keep. In another game, Nalia would probably be wondering who had kidnapped her father, and you'd find the proof in a chest in the same room as a mini-boss on the main quest line. Or, the father would be one of the mini-bosses on the main quest line. Similarly, because each NPC is a generic action sprite, a static portrait,an extra day's work for Grey DeLisle/Jim Cummings and the labor of one college graduate to write the dialogue, they can have many, many more of these fleshed out characters demanding a space in your heart.
In conclusion, I think it's very important that I restart Baldur's Gate and roll up a character who hasn't put all his points into pick-pocketing. And learn some scripting so I can build a persistent world for NWN1.