FMP RESEARCH: HOW TO MAKE AN RPG MORE INTERESTING

MP RESEARCH by Kenny Mays – 19/11/20Anyone on this site

How to make an RPG more interesting

Notes of Adam Millard’s study on RPG Games

Why do people not finish RPG

–        How RPG handle combat (easter and wester are all similar)

–        Levelling up stats

–        Item rewards

–        Boss fights

this makes it harder to make interesting mechanics as there are many different elements to focus on

and some games just make combat that can be very repetitive and boring like “the obligatory zubat genocide whenever entering a cave in Pokémon…boring slugfests against bandits in skyrim. Or the necessity of grinding boring fights in final fantasy just to get high enough level to see the next bit of the story” (How To Make RPG Combat More Interesting, 2020)

they all start out with very enjoyable combat mechanics; the problem is they cant sustain themselves over a long period of time.

Whats the antidote to this?

To start we will break down the average rpg fight in to its 3 fundamental components and analyse how we can streamline and tune up each one.

–        TOOLSETS

(your potential actions during a fight)

–        ENCOUNTERS

(The enemies you fight and/or interact with)

–        LAYERS

(The things you can do outside of battle)

TOOLSETS:

“Your Suite of abilities and options in an RPG is crucial to get right because it informs the scope of your actions when dealing with enemies. If your means of fighting aren’t interesting then players will get bored of them long before the end of the game…But equally, if combat is too complex then most players will get scared off long before they’ve really understood it” (How To Make RPG Combat More Interesting, 2020)

“A good example of a good balance are the paper mario and luigi games they manage to create mechanics that create accessibility for new players and depth to satisfy RPG veterans” (How To Make RPG Combat More Interesting, 2020)

Looking at the two basic attack options in both games, The jump, and the hammer. Jumping attacts can hit twice meaning that you can really make the most of attack boosts and can also strike flying enemies whilst the hammer attacks deal their damage in a single strike, making them much more effective at punching through armour and dealing with spiny foes.

Many RPGs have a single generic “attack” ability as your default move, but more often than not – when players are given free, reliable source of damage – it quickly becomes all they can use to get away with it.

The fact Mario doesn’t have a universally applicable default attack option means you have to think about how to most efficiently win every engagement, taking into account stuff like enemies changing their altitude and using bounce to knock out multiple enemies

–        Having stylish commands and moves also help to keep the battles engaging.

–        Pressing buttons at the right time allows you to gain bonus effects, mitigate damage, even counterattack.

Action commands need to be paired with a strong toolkit design otherwise it could just be needless padding.

MAIN POINT: DO NOT MAKE AN ATTACK THAN CAN BE SPAMMED TO WIN EVERY OPPONENT

Also have moves that can interact with other for example, you could throw oil on an enemy to slow them down or make them slip up but you could also use fire to ignite the enemy that is covered in oil.

Learning to manipulate the use of items can produce a higher damage counter on your enemy creating a much more satisfying play environment for the player. This can also be used outside of combat to access new areas and gain new items etc.

Action RPGs can apply many of the same principles to their toolsets aswell for instance Shulk’s Backslash in xenoblade chronicles require you to hit enemies from particular directions and powerful mechon enemies can only be hurt via the use of limited monado arts or by knocking them over by the tactical use of status effects, turning combat into a fast paced dance of positioning and skill cooldowns right from the outset.

ENCOUNTERS:

“Many RPG’s are lengendary for having dungeons filled to the brim with easy fights that take ages and that you barely need to think about in order to plow through. Not only are these fights boring, but they leave players critiacally underprepared for when their skills actually need to be tested.”

Remember that midway enemies aren’t just roadblocks and pinatas full of exp. Points, Normal enemies exist to set the pacing and tone of an area.

Chrono Trigger is a masterclass in doing this. Instead of chrono trigger’s areas being packed with a bunch of filler random encounters, they instead feature just a handful of tailor-made fights calibrated to the terrain and rising tension of a quest. Instead of simple trying to grind players down though attrition, chrono trigger can instead use its smaller number of handmade encounters to create specific challenges.

RANDOM BATTLES CAN ALSO BE ANNOYING FOR LAYERS SO KEEP THIS TO A MINIMUM

Giving enemies specific weaknesses and resistances can be a great way to encourage a diversity of strategies, but, because players are as lazy as they are clever – this can actually lead to encounters with only a single obvious solution.

A solution to this would be to mix things up and design encounters around enemies that can’t all be answered with the same strategy.

To add depth and replayability to an RPG is to as well zoom out from individual battles and expand what players get up to outside of them this can add LAYERS

LAYERS:

“Fire Emblem is probably the earliest innovator in this department, Adding a tactical layer to traditional RPG mechanics. The beauty of fire emblem is that combat mechanics are dead simple because you’re commanding 12 or so characters at the same time, each with different movement ranges, strengths and weaknesses – battles take on a much more strategic element. As you’re forced to contend with winning lengthy missions rather than individual battles. In addition, Permadeath encourages investing into a few powerful characters, leading to interesting choices as to which characters will end up being force fed exp and which characters will sit on the bench forever.” .” (A. Millard, 2020)

Adding long-term strategic consequences and decisions to battles can help tie them together and make them feel like a single contiguous narrative rather than isolated episodes.

While levelling up characters can do this to some extent, its pretty hard to relate to numbers alone – this is why Pokémon encourages you to catch them all, why path of exile makes you fill out that big skill tree.

“In Darkest Dungeon, characters begin as blank slates, but slowly develop a personality though the quirks they acquire. For instance characters that get trapped in an iron maiden might become claustrophobic, others might be compulsive thieves and all of these little statuses are accompanied by their own small dialogue snippets and in-battle consequences, really helping the otherwise anonymous characters establish a memorable identity you can get attached to as you play.” (A. Millard, 2020)

Because for many people the main draw of an RPG is the story, they might not focus too much on fighting. But when bashing goblins has knock-on narrative consequences and when your choices in the story determine how powerful your characters are players can suddenly become invested in both. Regardless of their initial preference.