RPGWatch - Game of the Year Awards 2018

Originally Posted by SirJames
It does mean something. It means people see elements of RPGs, ARPGs and JRPGs in the game. I doubt many games have all three of those tags.

Troika, sirtech and all these classic dead developers who ship buggy rubbish that takes years and years of community patching to become good… It doesn't have to be like that. RPGs can be real games too. Capcom has been making games so long they don't know how to make a game that's buggy enough to be the next Arcanum. It's hard to explain how well made it is. As an armchair developer it's taught me a lot about games and I thought I knew it all.

You know you have unlimited stash space? It's so cruisy to play! No annoying RPG stuff like inventory issues. You even make Loadouts (for consumables AND gear) so you can restock and auto-deposit everything with a click or two. There's no wasted time sorting things and making space or walking long distances. All it wants to do is spoil the player.

edit: Recently I was starting to stress out because I'd almost filled my 5 pages of weapons. I was worried there were only 5 and I didn't want to sell them. You know what happened? It rolled over to 6 pages! Fucking awesome!

Meanhile my $50 or so of stash space in Path of Exile is all full of legendaries I might want for future characters and I feel like I want to buy more but I don't want to buy more. Why would I want my Action rpg to have crap like that?

Unlimited stash is the best!

edit2: Furthermore, there's nothing fun about carry weight limits, either, especially when it's tied to an ability score you don't want to raise. RPGs need to lose the weight and be more fun. Don't try to annoy the player for the sake of realism in a fantasy world.

Some people are annoyed by limits while others consider it needed. This is why there are games for one kind of players and games for another kind.
I don't go and tell you how your Monster Hunter World should be designed to be fun to me. I just don't bother playing it.

Originally Posted by Archangel
Some people are annoyed by limits while others consider it needed. This is why there are games for one kind of players and games for another kind.
I don't go and tell you how your Monster Hunter World should be designed to be fun to me. I just don't bother playing it.

Do you consider it needed? Do you like having to return to town because your bags are full?

Things like that are really just timesinks to make the game length artificially longer. They're messing with you.

I also prefer unlimited stash/inventory/whatever.

But look at survival games. The whole point of them is limits. Whether we like them is completely irrelevant, when obviously some people do.

Originally Posted by SirJames
Do you consider it needed? Do you like having to return to town because your bags are full?

Things like that are really just timesinks to make the game length artificially longer. They're messing with you.

No, they are things that force you to use your brain on the spot and decide what is of more value to you.

In case of Path of Exile we often have big discussion around if it is worth picking up stuff and taking them to town or just ignoring most and keep doing content in hope of really good stuff dropping. So at least in that game, limited inventory has a purpose.

EDIT: In case of Pathfinder, weight system also has a real purpose. Since many quests are timed and weight makes your travel speed slower you have to decide if you want to get all loot and waste more time or take some loot so you travel faster.

Use your brain on the spot? My brain is waaaaay overpowered for trivial tasks like inventory management. Drop the least valuable thing or the most heavy thing or some combination of weight:value. There's no thinking, only reading the weight of each item. It's boring work.

Anyway, everything you do is from your brain. Twitch reflexes require a sharper brain and "the spot" is smaller and more challenging to hit. If you want to exercise your brain then play a memory based game or an action game for some some hand/eye coordination. That'll keep away the alzheimer's disease.

In PoE you pick up nothing but uniques then you trade them. It's a trade game that uses 3rd party apps because theres no better way in game. Last time I played the group list was all sales and not real groups. There's no point even picking up items like 4 linked colours because you sell a unique for 1 chaos and u can have a crapload of lesser gems. Rush through to the end.

In the case of Pathfinder, I fail to see how that enhances the experience. Wouldn't it be better designed if you can carry it all, move full speed and give you something else to think about? I don't want to make the decision to waste time! Monster Hunter World wouldn't give me a choice of two bad options. It even has a hidden-ish materials bag so your main consumables bag isn't wasted with all the crafting mats you collect.

Check this out:

The voting for the RPG Codex's 2018 GOTY poll is now open: https://goo.gl/forms/iRugybmNxjKHFtJp1

2018 was a very different year, as we had more RPGs than ever before, but few "must-play" big releases. Instead, every sub-genre got its own niche title:

ATOM for Fallout fans,
Pathfinder & PoE2 for Infinity Engine fans,
Monster Hunter for Action-RPG fans,
Dragon Quest XI for JRPG fans,
The Bard's Tale trilogy remake for nostalgic people,
Battletech and Mutant Year Zero for Tacticool bros,
Kingdom Come for walking simulator fans,
and so on…

I agree that MHW was the best "niche" for ARPG fans that 2018 had to offer and the "must play" ARPG of the year. It seems obvious to me and I've been playing RPGs since I was old enough to read.

I really need to give ATOM a play!

edit: I don't frequent these sites, but I'm wondering what other RPG sites thought of the game and found this…

"Monster Hunter: World is a staggeringly interesting game, with a breadth of content and plenty complex mechanical options, it's a perfect fit for the PC gaming enthusiasts that like like to lose themselves in a game for months at a time."
https://www.rpgsite.net/review/7555-…orld-pc-review

Was shown some gameplay and already lost interest when seeing a character with a weapon of the size of a car.

And good or not, this feels like people discussing pokemon.

2018:

1. Kingdom Come Deliverance
2. Pathfinder:Kingmaker
3. Pillars of Eternity 2

2019:

1. Cyberpunk 2077
2. Outer Worlds
3. Wasteland 3
4. BioMutant

I don't think Cyberpunk will be out this year but it was on there so I chose it.

Any other topics besides MHW? The thread isn't about this video game. It's about Game of the Year contestants. Fallout 76 wasn't listed so I didn't vote, but I'm ready to read about some different candidates. I played KCD and Pathfinder but neither kept me interested past the halfway point of their product.

Looking forward to Starfield, TES VI, and Cyberpunk 2077. No idea when any of them come out, but those are what enthuse me.

1. PoE 2
2. Pathfinder
3. Disgaea 5 Complete

1. Cyberpunk
2. The Outer Worlds
3. Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition

Inventory management is fun for me. I like figuring out which items to keep, which are slowing me down, how many potions should I carry, swapping items in and out. It gives you something else to consider on a journey. Morrowind did it best with limited fast travel, so you have to make tough choices of what to carry when it was harder to just pick up everything and fast travel to sell it all and then fast travel back. That's good RPG stuff to me. But to each their own.

Originally Posted by TheRealFluent
Inventory management is fun for me. I like figuring out which items to keep, which are slowing me down, how many potions should I carry, swapping items in and out. It gives you something else to consider on a journey. Morrowind did it best with limited fast travel, so you have to make tough choices of what to carry when it was harder to just pick up everything and fast travel to sell it all and then fast travel back. That's good RPG stuff to me. But to each their own.

Really depends.
And I got two recent examples:
Aeon of Sands: You got item amanagement, but it doesn't really lead to any interesting decisions. You cannot stack any food or mana items. So you are constantly checking which food or mana item to throw away next and exchange it to a mostly better food or mana item. Also you cannot just swap items (drag one item on the other). You need to have empty slots to drag and drop.

Jagged Alliance Rage:
You also cannot swap items. Plus your inventory is tiny. Plus looting on the map is horrible. Plus you can stack most items only to 4. After a 40 Minute fight, you need to expect a 20 minute looting and inventory management session. You need to memorize every corpse on the map, then check it, and then exchange the few inventory slots you have. You also do not have a reasonable stash in your camp. So if you want to swap an 2 slot rifle to a different character you are already in a world of pain.

Originally Posted by Kordanor
Really depends.
And I got two recent examples:
Aeon of Sands: You got item amanagement, but it doesn't really lead to any interesting decisions. You cannot stack any food or mana items. So you are constantly checking which food or mana item to throw away next and exchange it to a mostly better food or mana item.

That's your conclusion. I found it very interesting to see what you needed to throw away. Second stacking is always a balacing thing. If you allow it, you need to balacing the game differently. So it's more a design decision than a feature that is needed. Anticipate what is needed on your journey is always the aim of this decisions.
Also there is no difference in having weight to items or a limited slot count. The last one is easier for all of us.

Originally Posted by Kordanor
Also you cannot just swap items (drag one item on the other). You need to have empty slots to drag and drop.

Sorry Kordanor, what you write is wrong. You can switch items (drag one onto another!). Just when you have two characters in party you cannot simply drag an item to another character when the slot is already equipped.

Needed is a loaded terms since no game is 'needed'. I think weight limits can add a lot of the game long term pleasure when done correctly. Did I curse icewind dale weight limit; yep. Did it make the game more memorable - yep. Do i regret it having weight limits; no.
-
If you don't like a game parameters don't play or mod it if you can.

Originally Posted by SirJames
Do you consider it needed? Do you like having to return to town because your bags are full?

Things like that are really just timesinks to make the game length artificially longer. They're messing with you.

And no one's forcing you to be OCD about picking up items. I leave stuff behind all the time in Kenshi because I'd rather travel lightly than pick up every single item worth something. But I do pick up valuable items when I can. Sometimes I don't even check a corpse if I know it has nothing for me.

And how you're suppose to know a corpse has nothing for you without checking it first?

Originally Posted by Kordanor
Was shown some gameplay and already lost interest when seeing a character with a weapon of the size of a car.

And good or not, this feels like people discussing pokemon.

There are smaller weapons. I don't know anything about pokemon and haven't played the games or seen a discussion so I'm not sure.

Originally Posted by crpgnut
Any other topics besides MHW? The thread isn't about this video game. It's about Game of the Year contestants. Fallout 76 wasn't listed so I didn't vote, but I'm ready to read about some different candidates. I played KCD and Pathfinder but neither kept me interested past the halfway point of their product.

Looking forward to Starfield, TES VI, and Cyberpunk 2077. No idea when any of them come out, but those are what enthuse me.

MHW is the GOTY and it has lots to talk about. No one else has this much to say about their GOTY pick.

Fallout76 was your GOTY? Great example of weight limit ruining a game! I know they raised the stash limit at some point, but I was bored with it by then.

Originally Posted by TheRealFluent
Inventory management is fun for me. I like figuring out which items to keep, which are slowing me down, how many potions should I carry, swapping items in and out. It gives you something else to consider on a journey. Morrowind did it best with limited fast travel, so you have to make tough choices of what to carry when it was harder to just pick up everything and fast travel to sell it all and then fast travel back. That's good RPG stuff to me. But to each their own.

MHW still has inventory management and deciding what loadout to take but none of it will slow you down. There are traps and buffs and anything you can think of from an RPG you might want to find in your inventory.

Originally Posted by you
Needed is a loaded terms since no game is 'needed'. I think weight limits can add a lot of the game long term pleasure when done correctly. Did I curse icewind dale weight limit; yep. Did it make the game more memorable - yep. Do i regret it having weight limits; no.
-
If you don't like a game parameters don't play or mod it if you can.

Wasn't this from archangel? Needed is his term.
I totally disagree. For me, the opposite is true. Unlimited weight means less tedium and less tedium gets more and more important over the long term. Imagine the weight limit is TINY. You can barely carry your armour then when you pick up 1 item you walk 50% speed. Not fun, right? How many items should you be able to pick up? 2? At what number does the game start to become less fun for letting you pick up everything you want?

Originally Posted by TheRealFluent
And no one's forcing you to be OCD about picking up items. I leave stuff behind all the time in Kenshi because I'd rather travel lightly than pick up every single item worth something. But I do pick up valuable items when I can. Sometimes I don't even check a corpse if I know it has nothing for me.

What ARE they forcing me to do? Why shouldn't the player be rewarded for searching a corpse? Would you like perhaps a Transmute spell to instantly sell trash items for a reduced cost? No point leaving them there in the world if you're done with it. Save memory and delete it. Kenshi reckons you need 16GB of ram? Wonder why….

Originally Posted by henriquejr
And how you're suppose to know a corpse has nothing for you without checking it first?

And if you take the time to check it why shouldn't you be rewarded? It encourages the player to do more checking. If checking results too often in nothing then it disparages the player from the action. In a looting game you don't want to put people off looting. You don't want people to think " I WANT to pick that up, but I won't because I don't want to walk slowly and lose the ability to fast travel". You just want them to get the most out of their gaming time. IF I have an hour to play games I don't want 30 mins of that to be preparation to play.

Originally Posted by henriquejr
And how you're suppose to know a corpse has nothing for you without checking it first?

In Kenshi I'm talking about. You know a starving bandit will have nothing good on him, at least not when at higher level like I am. But in general you start to understand what the enemies carry and don't need to check every single corpse. Now if I just took out some Cloud Ninjas, that's another story (all their ninja rags add up to some nice coin. )

Again another case of a gamer with not enough time to play RPGs so wants them to have no preparation/inventory management. No offense but I'm sure you can find games that cater to this preference.

Valkyria is KING. Dark Quest 2 was amazing! One Vision MOD for Tactics Ogre takes most awards. Looking forward to Cyberpunk's really well done naked bodies, what will the community do with them, video-related. Also Black-Geyser looks intriguing.