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posted by takyon on Wednesday September 02 2015, @07:00AM   Printer-friendly
from the games-going-their-own-way dept.

Game history blogger Felipe Pepe is up to part three of a series on computer role-playing games (CRPGs) that did things differently. These games might not have been the best, or even really particularly good as a whole, but they did something in a way that hadn't been done before, or since.

Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Most of them are fairly old - evolution is most rapid when expanding into a new niche, after all - but there are a number of newer games as well. They range from the well-known and well-regarded (Ultima, Wizardry and Might and Magic all have mentions) to the obscure (ZanZarah, The Magic Candle). For the old-school gamer, it's a nice trip down memory lane. For the new-school, it's an interesting look at the things game designers tried that never really caught on. And for game designers, it's a treasure trove of mechanics that might deserve a second chance at success.

What are your own suggestions for interesting RPGs? I would personally go with On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode 3. It's a bit of a stretch to bundle with CRPGs, since it's much more along the lines of Final Fantasy than Ultima, but it takes a new approach to a number of common mechanics. The combat system is where it really shines - combat is turn-based with actions taking variable lengths of time, and taking a hit (as a PC or NPC) will delay your next action. Crucially, taking a hit in the period between queuing an action and taking it has a much larger "knockback" than taking a hit while recharging, which makes it a lot more strategic than your typical ATB system. It also changes up random encounters (all encounters appear on-screen, and only in the arena do they respawn) and items (your inventory of consumables refills after each battle). It simplified quite a lot, but that simplicity gave it a focus and elegance not often seen in RPGs.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Wednesday September 02 2015, @12:16PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 02 2015, @12:16PM (#231212)

    I thought it interesting that in page 2, Arcanum got the treatment I expected Vampire the Masquerade to get for the same reasons. In both games your selected class dramatically significantly affected gameplay. The example for Arcanum wan't too interesting but in the Vampire games you'd have to play sections of the game entirely differently.

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