RPGs: Game Mechanics

The curious logo that doesn't match the premade assets.

Recently I obtained a fully licensed copy of Enterbrain's RPG Maker VX Ace software suite. It's a simplified and all-in-one package for making classic style console role playing games. 

It includes: a collection of pre-made art assets, a completed menu/battle system, database tools, and a fully customizable Ruby engine (a style of coding language). What it does not include is alternate choices or the strength to actually commit to digital data the big dreams inside your head.

The standard party menu.

It should be obvious, but I am no writer of any great talent. Putting together a general story flow is not too difficult but creating dialogue and interesting worlds is not really something I shine at. So I put that on the back burner and began tackling the mechanical systems in place. Stats, numbers, items and registries are all things I got figured out. It was after delving into designing passive skills (perks, talents, etc.) and a class system that I hit a road block and thought "where do I go next?"

In many circles it is said that the story should evolve around the mechanics of a game, that the actual "gameplay" part should come first. This is completely reasonable, after all Call of Duty and Halo need to have tight controls for their run and gun style. Who cares why you're shooting the aliens or terrorists in their faces so long as it feels satisfying and looks great. Building block castles on some procedurally generated world without a single piece of text to be found made Minecraft a huge hit. RPGs though are designed to tell stories and one could argue that their stories are the primary draw and when that is coupled with how much of the RPG universe is ubiquitous between games it rings fairly true.

So I sat down and started thinking about just what sort of mechanics stood out and made RPGs different from each other. Generally I identified two prime sections: in-battle and out-of-battle.

In-battle Examples and Games:

Max Level = Pretty Girl Death Machine

• Power Leveling - Disgaea
• Class Changing - DQ9, FF3/5/X-2
• Positioning - Disgaea, Radiant Historia
• Pet System - Pokemon, Lufia 2, Bahamut Lagoon
• Alternating Party - Lufia 2, FF4, DQ Series
• Pick and Choose Team - Suikoden, FF6
• Create a Party - FF Legends, DQ9
• Transformation - Breath of Fire, FF8/10
• Character Specific Skills - FF6
• Timed Hits - Shadow Hearts / Super Mario RPG
• Team Attacks - Chrono Trigger
• Action Battle - Tales Series, Grandia, Star Ocean
• Free Roam Action Battle - Secret of Mana, Soul Blazer Series
• Strategy/Tile Based - FF Tactics, Tactics Ogre, Front Mission, Fire Emblem, Diagaea
• Diplomacy - Shin Megami Tensei
• Usage Upgrades Skills - FF2, Elder Scrolls
• Customizable Abilities - FF5/6/7, Romancing Series

Now most of these battle systems are functionally the same. Things will almost always boil down to "is it my turn" and "hit" the enemy, but these small twists do a lot to make these games feel different from each other. One of the biggest dichotomies is that of true turn based, I go then you go, or action turn based, where some quality influences how quickly your turns arrive.

Out-of-battle Examples and Games:

True villains don't leave clues.

• Mini-games - FF7, BioShock (hacking), Fallout 3 (lock picking)
• Crafting/Alchemy - Monster Hunter, DQ9, Atelier Alchemist, Star Ocean
• Collecting - Illusion of Gaia
• Skill Trees - WoW, Diablo, FF 10/13
• Alignment - Mass Effect, KotOR
• Puzzles - Lufia 2, Wild Arms
• Alternating Stories - Breath of Fire 4, Secret of the Stars, Romancing Series
• Map Interaction Abilities - Breath of Fire Series, Lufia 2, Romancing Saga, Wild Arms
• The Daily Grind - Elder Scrolls, Mount and Blade

The primary purpose of the out-of-battle aspects is to provide diversions from all that dungeon delving or to enhance the story in regards to how you interact with the world around you. In the case of Monster Hunter collecting pieces of monsters for crafting and the solid game play is all that exists, you kill bigger harder things to obtain newer better stuff with which to kill things. In Star Ocean and the Atelier Series crafting is reflective of the setting, how the characters need to smith out better items in a world because they don't exist yet. Sometimes puzzles serve a similar purpose like in Lufia 2 where almost every dungeon had strange mechanics or hard puzzles because what sort of villain leaves his or her palace unguarded?

Compiling all this information together in one spot really helped me consider the possibilities as well as highlighting what makes all these classic games feel rather different despite the rather similar bone structure. Think about your favorite RPG and how many pieces they mixed and matched from the two lists. Of course there are probably several examples of both that I've forgotten to include, but these really do make a difference when combined.