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Lately I’ve been playing Chrono Trigger on my PSP Go.  It’s my portable game, which I am maintaining alongside Dark Souls, my console game.  Despite the years of progress in the industry between the two, they are not without their similarities.  The other day it dawned on me that there are certain familiar RPG moments and features that just make me feel good.

What’s Your Name?

With the influx of fully voice-acted titles, games that allow you to name your hero (let alone your entire party) are on the decline.  Some games worked hard to fit this in, such as Final Fantasy X — did you notice that despite full voice acting no one actually says “Tidus”?  Other games with silent protagonists can eek this out, but it’s clear the industry is moving away from voices that echo in our heads alone.

When presented with the option of choosing a character’s name there are several ways to proceed, each with their own benefits.

1. Simply select the pre-set name: This makes you feel good, like you’re playing the game the way you should.  The developers or writers clearly wanted you to do this, but were still kind enough to allow you an option.
2. Use your name: Oh yes, I had friends who did this.  Personally, I don’t like my name enough to force it upon any protagonist or character other than Roy from Fire Emblem, because well… that’s actually his name too.
3. Use a different name: For every playthrough of Final Fantasy VII, I have named Red XIII after my beloved house cat.  Said house cat happens to be named after a certain tiger from Calvin and Hobbes.  If you aren’t making the connection, then we can’t be friends, I’m afraid.  At this point, the thought of naming Red anything else on subsequent playthroughs is just ludicrous.  I also always name Vivi from Final Fantasy IX “Bob”.  Long story.
4. Use a herp derp name: We’ve all done it: ruined any seriousness a game might have simply by selecting silly names.  My first outlet for this desire was found with Pokémon Red.  You better believe my rival was not named “Gary”.

The King/Queen/Princess Want To Have You Over For Dinner

In RPGs the hierarchies of medieval Eastern Europe are a necessarily evil.  In some most games they bore me to tears — others, I can deal.  But there is one time when are they easiest to swallow (pun highly intended): when the man or woman at the top wants to host my party for dinner!

“300 Year War?  Oh yeah, it’s terrible.  Can you pass the chocobo wing?”

I may not get to eat it myself, but just watching my team being pampered makes me feel warm and relaxed.

My favorite instance of this occurs in Breath of Fire III.  In that game the silent protagonist is a young orphaned sprat adopted by a pair of thieves.  It’s tough times for the world of the game as food becomes very scarce.  Much later, after scrounging for food, taking odd jobs and the like, the party is rewarded with an epic meal that made my stomach growl.  Also, is it just me or does pixel-food look much more appetizing than HD-rendered-food?

Gearing Up

Is there any better feeling than finding a new weapon store and buying the best of everything for your party?  Or purchasing a stack of 99 potions for the long road ahead?  I really don’t think there is.  Well, finding a treasure chest off the beaten path is pretty awesome.  So is using some form of alchemy system to create new gear.  Oh, and we mustn’t forget stealing a weapon from an enemy.

While this euphoria is easy enough to provide to a player, a lot of games get in their own way by adding unnecessary depth to what should be a simple and enjoyable system.  It is perhaps the old school games who, with limited resources, best hone in on cultivating this satisfaction.

Hurt Me More

Advancing in the main story of a game is all well and good.  Enemies increase in difficulty slightly and the player is expected to keep up.  But some games offer a sabbatical from the straight and narrow in the form of an optional boss or dungeon.  One that in all likelihood will obliterate players on their first attempt, making it abundantly clear that the ceiling for your characters is far from having been reached.

I remember fondly facing off against Ruby Weapon in Final Fantasy VII.  I always made sure to go into battle with two dead party members, otherwise Ruby would remove them from battle.  Dragging two corpses into the fray made him stick his appendages in the sand so he couldn’t remove anyone.  I also came equipped with the Phoenix summon materia, naturally linked with Final Attack, which not only does damage but revives fallen allies.  Round that out with Knight of the Round, W-Summon (on a different summon, you can’t put it on KOTR, DUH) and Mime and you’ve got a strategy.  Speaking of which, there are oodles of them on how to take this guy out.

It always feels like an amazing accomplishment when you amass the strength to defeat one of these bosses, although the game suddenly feels void of a challenge as well.  Still, it’s better than a game that never offered an extra challenge.

To The Lions

There is a certain excitement that comes with an arena or colosseum scenario in an RPG.  Sure it’s a battle, but when it’s in an arena it becomes an event.  There are two ways the arena scenario is used.  The most common seems to be as a story device: the party learns there is a competition going on and decide to join for some reason.  In Legend of Dragoon, for instance, the player meets one of the most integral story characters by competing in an arena.  I remember mopping the floor with the foes leading up to him.  Even though I was alone, it felt as though what I was doing was really being watched by a mass of people to the sound of thunderous applause.

The other purpose for an arena is as an optional event allowing the player to test their strength against increasingly difficult enemies.  This we’ve seen in games which seek to really challenge players such as Final Fantasy X and Resonance of Fate.  Arena battles really provides a sense of excitement different from a standard battle of even a boss battle.

Conclusions

Naturally every RPG shouldn’t have all of these features or scenarios — that would just bring the genre even closer to stagnation.  But if games don’t have these specific elements, developers should still strive to create the same feelings for the player that these features evoke.  I want to be able to customize something.  I want to imagine a contrast of having nothing and then experience the highs and lows of the game’s world.  I want the simple joy of finding new weapons and armor.  I want to know that a challenge is waiting for me outside of the main story.  I want to experience a thrill that is accented by my environment.  These feelings are what inspire me to play games.