Dream team to develop the next great RPG

Well, no. I was just naming non-FF/non-KH SE franchises.

I did pick Square Enix for visual design in my list, specifically the person in charge of Legend Of Mana. I always that it looked rather pretty.

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Square Enix also made Star Ocean, Parasite Eve, Vagrant Story, Chrono Trigger, Valkyrie Profile, the Soulblazer series, The World Ends With You, Xenogears...

Welcome to th:|

True, although I attribute Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile to Tri Ace, Soul Blazer with Quintet, and Xenogears with Monolith Soft.

edited 6th Aug '11 2:28:43 PM by Meophist

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Yeah, I guess. Vagrant Story did have an...interesting art style and I genuinely liked the designs in The World Enda With You.

Welcome to th:|

Oh right, how could I forget about TWEWY and Parasite Eve.

For Parasite Eve, while it's gameplay was definately unique, there wasn't anything too special about the character designs. All the outfits were so bland and uninteresting. No cool hair accessory, no cool coat or whatever. Just boring normal clothes. Play this game for the gameplay and maybe for the story. Not for the character designs and outfits.

For The World Ends With You...I love the game. Gameplay, story, style(occasionally). But in terms of aesthetics, I'm kinda torn. The characters themselves, ignoring Beat, are generally pretty cool. But I hated all the hip hop music and "gangsta" vibe I occasionally get from the game...even if it's done intentionally.

But in terms of outfits and character designs, most look really nice. Joshua, Neku, Shiki, the lady in the 3rd Week, Sho, and Megumi all have nice designs and outfits. Just pretend Beat and some of those hoodie reapers never existed.

edited 6th Aug '11 2:36:38 PM by Signed

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

Chrono Trigger's art is also totally Toriyama Akira.

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I'd rather pretend Joshua never existed. Fucking unlikeable little prick.

As is his work in Dragon Quest. He has that signature style that I find so appealing.

edited 6th Aug '11 10:44:50 PM by MrPastry

It's more frustrating waiting for the asskicking than the asskicking itself.

In what way did Atlus poorly localize the Persona series?

They've re-released Persona and both parts of Persona 2 without cultural edits if those are what you're referring to.

For my RPG dream team....

• Writing/dialogue: Bioware.
• Worldbuilding: The Suikoden team collaborating with Bioware.
• Story: Yasumi Matsuno.
• Gameplay: Atlus if it were turn based, as I've never played a turn based game as engaging as a Mega Ten title. Ubisoft*
  ^{I'm not sure how well they'd handle an RPG, but Assasins Creed plays so smooth I'd love to see them give it a shot}
  if it's real time. Ubisoft can do the overworld gameplay either way.
• Music: Nobuo Uematsu, David Wise, Rich Kaus, Masafumi Takada, Jun Fukuda, Akira Yamaoka, and, since this is my dream game, the ghost of Nujabes.
• Publisher: Square Enix. Slap their name on a product and it everyone wants a piece, east or west.

edited 8th Aug '11 11:42:17 AM by Hashil

You know Matsuno actually did his own writing? And it was actually really good when handled by a competent translator (which never happened for FF Tactics). I could only see Bioware adding memes, romances and daddy issues for teammates. Nier.

edited 8th Aug '11 12:18:59 PM by Mammalsauce

You've got a point on the Bioware front, even if you are generalizing.

If you're familiar with Tactics Ogre or its remake, how well did that game handle its branching storylines compared to your average wRPG?

What do you consider the average WRPG?

While we're on the topic of RPG teams:

Someone needs to revive Troika(with the compromise that they need better combat designers).

I just completed Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines for the first time last week. So good.

edited 8th Aug '11 2:43:26 PM by JotunofBoredom

Umbran Climax◊

All the cultural edits and Race Lift. They rereleased it, but it was several years later.

Still, most their localizations have been decent compared to other companies.

---

I don't know, Assasins Creed felt far too streamlined to be any fun. And all the enemies died way too fast and easily.

As for Bio Ware...I don't know, the only good story they've ever done is Bio Shock, an FPS game. And even that game had a weak as hell climax and finale.

edited 8th Aug '11 4:26:21 PM by Signed

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

Just thought of this:
Localization and testing: Nintendo Treehouse.

Edit:

...Bio Shock isn't a Bio Ware game, to the best of my knowledge.

edited 8th Aug '11 4:29:26 PM by Meophist

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you can totally see why he made that mistake tho

they both have bio in the title!

i used to think that way

edited 8th Aug '11 4:51:58 PM by Tarsen

Hahahaha! Please tell me you're joking about the Bioware/Bioshock thing.

edited 8th Aug '11 4:52:33 PM by JotunofBoredom

Umbran Climax◊

It's a western company that isn't Blizzard. It's easy to make these mistakes with them.

If they didn't make Bio Shock, then they most likely never made anything that good.

edit:yep, nothing that great. And when they do make something with promise, they ruin it with the sequel.

Besides, I can totally see Bio Ware making a game and naming it Bio Shock. Like American Mcgee making his own game American Mcgees Alice. Or Tom Clancy naming something "Tom Clancy's military jargon"

edited 8th Aug '11 5:01:18 PM by Signed

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

@Meo: Out of curiosity, why exactly did you put Valve on there for Animation Design?

"Hipsters: the most dangerous gang in the US." - Pacific Mackerel

I think Valve is really good at character animations and such. I can't really think of anybody else, really.

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Ah, I thought so.

I only asked because Valve is probably better at level design.

"Hipsters: the most dangerous gang in the US." - Pacific Mackerel

I can see level design in an FPS, but level dungeon design in an RPG is fairly different.

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^^Meet the Team had really good animations.

As far as Assassin's Creed being too streamlined. While the first game was pretty streamlined each subsequent sequel has only been adding more and more features and increasing the complexity of the gameplay. There's still a lot of quirks they need to sort out but it's a good design philosophy to have in RPG development. Ubisoft Montreal seem to be one of the few companies that really know how to make a good sequel that adds on from the original.

Any game where decisions made by the player carry more weight than a Bioware or Bethesda title, I'm assuming. I can't say I've played many western RP Gs, so I can't give any one good example.

A few changes to my list:

• Bioware's out of the writing, Matsuno's in. have Neil Gaiman localize it.
• Civilian NPC programming: Shenmue's team and Bethesda.
• Monster AI programming: Ryzom's team for non-hostile behavior, at least.
• Monster design: Capcom's Monster Hunter team and Square Enix. They should be able to squeeze a good 30 or so non-palette swapped models between them.
• Game world extra content: Rockstar in their prime. Much as I like to parkour all over the place in Assassin's Creed, their cities' secondary content can't compare to what can be found San Andreas.

edited 8th Aug '11 6:14:01 PM by Hashil

DP

edited 8th Aug '11 6:14:04 PM by JotunofBoredom

Umbran Climax◊

But a lot of the stuff in AC Brotherhood felt tacked on and only served to throw off the balance of an already pretty unbalanced series.

TO certainly has those.

edited 8th Aug '11 6:14:17 PM by JotunofBoredom

Umbran Climax◊

I played the remake recently and it's my new favorite JRPG (Though not just because of the branching plot, mostly because it's damn good. FF Tactics was my previous favorite and Tactics Ogre has similar themes but isn't diluted with Final Fantasy stuff). I liked its choices better than every Bioware game. It even stacks up against the Fallouts just because of how different the choices are in nature: In Fallout the main quest is pretty barebones and the meat of the game is in the side quests (hence why I feel the main quest in Fallout is just for a win condition). In Tactics Ogre, the effects of your choices are significant and all relevant to the main plot. I've always considered the Fallouty sandbox approach superior to linearity (and it is) but this branching non-linearity is just as superior (in a different way) without sacrificing precious plot. I would fall in love with the genre if every JRPG was like this, even with a little railroading. For multiplayer games, yes. They have pretty atrocious level design for their front runner rail shooter series. The source engine wouldn't work very well for an open -world game unless it was in a city (e.g. VTMB) canyon, or something else designed to load tiny corridors (with branches).Psh. I'd say about half of their games are better than Bioshock, and I don't even like Bioware.I've found that most RP Gs have lousy or at least tedious combat, and EVERY BIS/Troika game was lacking in that department.

edited 8th Aug '11 9:22:54 PM by Mammalsauce