Modernizing the Classic RPG Thread

Hey all, some of you may recognize me from way long ago, back on these very forums where I posted some (frankly meh) ideas occasionally.

Well, today I am back. It's been a long time since I've participated in the IndieDB community in any meaningful way, but I think it's high time I came back with something substantial: today is that. Well, perhaps I shouldn't put so much emphasis on today in particular, as I've had this idea rattling around my head for a while, but you get my point.

Anyway, on to the real meat of this post: Modernizing the Classic RPG. What do I mean by that? Well, in recent years there have been a lot of RPGs (as there always have been), good ones, such as the Dark Souls series, indies such as Chasm (mind you that hasn't released yet, but I backed it on Kickstarter and have played the Betas, which are very good), and even Bloodborne and Fallout 4. But none of them have really captured the feeling I've had in mind for quite some time. The feeling that the RPG formula needs to be revamped, by using features prominent in Classic RPGs. It's grown a little stale and non-innovative.

Now, I know what you may be thinking, "how are you supposed to innovate a genre by doing things that have already been done in that genre?" Well, a lot of these things aren't necessarily implemented in games how they used to be, things like a new game plus, truly unique classes, and a great story. I've wanted to develop my own RPG for quite some time now, and I'm merely wondering if anyone has felt the way I've been feeling, or is even perhaps interested in helping make my vision come true.

Some of the things that I'd like to implement for this project include:

-16/32 bit style graphics (if you've ever played Pokemon Black/White, it'd be a little like that style)

-Action oriented combat, dodges, blocks, rolls, charge and special atks, etc

-Arena based combat with random and scripted encounters. What do I mean by "arena based combat"? I merely mean to say that the battles in the combat system will all take place in a circle/sphere of a particular size, the battle does not go outside of this sphere, and once combat is over, the player can continue to explore the over-world as normal (think almost like the old Final Fantasy combat screen, but with no menus, and action based combat, the environment in which those battles take place are the battlegrounds)

-Crafting

-Unique classes (not sure whether I'd like to implement character customization at this point or not)

-New game plus in the form of a unique class (will be displayed as new game plus option, or unlock after game has been beaten once)

-Procedural generated world?

-Story quests with multiple endings

-Resource collecting

Let me know your opinions on my idea so far, and feel free to leave comments, offer support/criticism, or propose improvements for the post/project going forward.

It's been too long folks, peace.

Edited by: Slicer224

There good ideas, and I have seen a lot of them implemented separately, but even if you mix them all together your still missing a bit of the ingenuity and original concepts that help drive the industry forward to greater heights. Don't get me wrong, I love old school rpg's the sudden battles, the building up of characters and plot, you think you get to the end but it turns out your only halfway through the game! The other sad thing is, the more new ideas and concepts you manage to put into your game, the further your going to get from that old school rpg feel.

What you could do is turn this into a post into something about peoples all time favourite rpg features and their ideas for rpg's and use them to create an 'ULTIMATE RPG', i mean that's what they did for snakes on a plane and that was fairly successful, right?

Hey Slice, just some of my initial thoughts after reading through.

-16/32 bit style graphics (if you've ever played Pokemon Black/White, it'd be a little like that style)

-Action oriented combat, dodges, blocks, rolls, charge and special atks, etc

Pokemon Black/White is from a top-down 2D perspective- so let's assume you going for that style and sprites. Additonally, with your intended for Action-Oriented Combat Dodges/Blocks, etc from a top-down 2D perspective, it becomes more of a Diablo-ish game- but with Sprites.

The closest thing I can think of is "Moon Hunters" : Youtube.com

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It would be something like this, right?

It would also be worth noting that a game played from a top-down, 2D platform will have its' limitations animation wise. If you want a combat system like Dark Souls, it'll be harder to implement simply because you don't have the same camera view as Dark Souls. A lot of Dark Souls' stuff comes from the visual que by the monsters/enemies. Imagine this in a 2D, Top-down, Sprite-styled setting and it might feel different.

That's all!

Edited by: HardHennesy

@TheClintHennesy That actually looks nothing like what I have in mind at all, no offense haha (save for kinda the graphics). That game does look interesting however. This rpg would be third person perspective. Think almost like Pokemon 3D perspective, but the pixel graphics are more detailed. What I was referring to Pokemon Black and White for, was an idea for how the battle screen would look. When you go into wild grass, there are random encounters with monsters that happen in a defined area, but the Pokemon can still move a little within that area. My combat system would allow the players and their enemies to move freely inside this defined area, as a 3D environment with retro style graphics. Sorry if I didn't explain that well enough.

and

@Thr111 Thanks for your feedback, that's actually a pretty good point and a nice idea, thank you. I might just do that!

So you want something different, but the same? Haha

I feel like your biggest hurdle with this concept is the idea of theming. What kind of experience are you trying to convey? Because with that list of features you stated it sounds like you picked a bunch of mechanics that you liked and are trying to glue them together into a game (no offence). Though I've been guilty of that in the past myself you have to really think about what your player is going to take from the experience you've created. An action RPG with instanced battles and crafting systems and procedural environments may sound great on paper, but what is the player supposed to feel while playing that. The reason Minecraft has a crafting system and procedural environments is because at it's core, it's supposed to be a survival game and creating objects from your environment supports that. However, action games are more conducive to power fantasy as opposed to the the feeling of vulnerability that the survival game provides. If you can come up with a good setting that enforces both of these concepts and solid mechanics that support that setting then it can totally work; but as is there just seems to be a lack of cohesion.

Actually reading over my post I realized that the game I'm currently working on (Broken Warrior) does something similar. It uses action oriented combat to juxtapose mechanics and designs that make the player feel more vulnerable. This is all to create a feeling of frailness and cognitive dissonance in the player so they can match the mindset of the character. If you're interested go to my downloads and let me know what you think

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