Little Things Every RPG Should Have @ Destructoid

Dhruin · October 9, 2009

It's very JRPG focused but Destructoid has a list of The Little Things Every RPG Should Have - such as this one:

Enemies that telegraph when their HP is low:
It's amazing that more RPGs don't do this. In nearly every roleplaying game, your own characters will start to wilt and pant when their HP reaches critical levels. The enemies get to know who is weakest and sometimes will capitalize on that, but why aren't players awarded the same advantage? In the RPGs that do include enemy HP telegraphing, there can be few things more satisfying than finally seeing a hard-fought boss begin to sag and indicate that he's about to give up the ghost. That's when you know to go on an all-out attack, showing no mercy and finishing the job.

More information.

Zloth · October 9, 2009

He's missing the most important thing - the thing we PC gamers got used to way back in the Zork days....

SAVE ANYWHERE!

Majnun · October 9, 2009

I apologize for commenting on something I haven't read but Destructoid is possibly the most idiot filled gaming site on the planet and I refuse to even bother.

GothicGothicness · October 9, 2009

telegraph, hp telegraphing,,, interesting choice of words.

bemushroomed · October 9, 2009

I get the impression that he's been playing too many/or only jRPG's

He doesnt even mention NPC schedules or day/night and weather cycles, which imo, are on the top 5 of the most important things to have in a RPG immersion wise. I do agree with the HP thingy though.

Zloth: Um, which PC RPG doesnt have this? Some shitty jRPG ports might not have that (because they're… shitty ports) but they're not interesting in the first place.

Bedwyr · October 10, 2009

Big props on the status spells thing. Good to have all spells with a reasonable amount of strength and weakness.

Wouldn't it be an interesting RPG where the only way you could get in any kind of damaging spell would be by first determining the combination of debuff spells that allow the offense to get through? Magic users' duels could be so much more interesting if certain buffs and debuffs combined in interesting ways and required an opponent to consider how to 'unweave' interlocking protective layers.

JDR13 · October 11, 2009

Boobs….. lots of them.

Alrik Fassbauer · October 17, 2009

I guess the author meant rather "telepathy" instead of "telegraphy", which might be a "Serious Science (TM)"-substitute word just for that (telepathy, I mean).

In that respect the author might be right : How comes that enemies do know about the weaknesses of the player characters ?

Little Things Every RPG Should Have @ Destructoid

Dhruin

SasqWatch

Zloth

I smell a... wumpus!?

Majnun

Sentinel

GothicGothicness

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bemushroomed

outlander

Bedwyr

Sentinel

JDR13

SasqWatch

Alrik Fassbauer

TL;DR