Are the strategies in RPG's being removed slowly from our gaming?

[Damian79]

1. When was the last time you could equip an item that gives you life when you get hit by a certain elemental attack?

2. When was the last time you were allowed to change weapons in the middle of combat?

3. When was the last time you had any real difficulty with an RPG?

4. When was the last time you fought a battle with regular enemies that can really mess you up?

[Jeremy]

Legaia 2 meets some of those criteria. Go play that.

[Damian79]

I played that and completely "owned" it(AKA I even beat the 100 battle thingy). It really had no stragtegy except for mixing combos so that you don't run out of AP(I think that is what is was).

[Shin Johnpv]

FFX did some of those also

[MechDeus]

Originally posted by Damian79
1. When was the last time you could equip an item that gives you life when you get hit by a certain elemental attack?

That seems to be a primary standard of the FF series, and only occasionally used by other RPGs. And FFs still have that, so...

2. When was the last time you were allowed to change weapons in the middle of combat?

I actually can't think of any RPGs right now that let you. Maybe Koudelka.

3. When was the last time you had any real difficulty with an RPG?

Breath of Fire IV and Valkryie Profile.

4. When was the last time you fought a battle with regular enemies that can really mess you up?

Breath of Fire IV and Valkryie Profile. And Breath of Fire III. And Vagrant Story if you want to count that as an RPG (which would also classify it for the previous question as well).

But what does sheer difficulty have to do strategies being removed RPGs? Aside from the above listed RPGs, the last time I had trouble completing one was FF1, usually get beaten around due to not levelling up enough. The first two things you listed are minor nuances that have strategy as deep-ranging as, "I'm heading into Fire World. Perhaps I should equip something to help against fire. Boy, that took a lot of thought."

Oh, and if you're looking for pure challenge, perhaps you should check out Lunar 2 on PS. I've never played it but a friend of mine swears it's the hardest RPG he's ever played.

[Stone]

RPGs (generally) have never involved much, if any, strategy, beyond what MechDeus mentioned - "maybe I should hit the fire elemental with my water sword!" and that sort of stuff. Challenge in RPGs has almost always, in actuality, just been monotony.

A game that requires you to spend 10 hours doing pointless tasks before you can get past a certain point is supposedly harder than one that only requires you to waste 5 hours, so on and so forth. That's all that separates older RPGs from the gameplay of newer ones.

[Damian79]

Well some RPG did have a fair bit of strategy. Some RPG's aloowed some enemies to have the elemental change ability which meant that you had to find out which element works best on him(eg that FFX water blob boss). I think there has yet to be a boss or enemy since CT that rapes your characters badly if you decide to attack a certain enemy in the group before you kill of one of the others. The "trade off" attack from FF6 completely left the planet. I am pleased that the "bad breath" attack in FF's remain however.


As far as difficulty goes in relation to strategy. A lot of old school RPG's required you to kill off an enemy with a certain attack while the others attack another enemy to make sure that you didn't take too much damage and have to use heal spells. Todays RPG's heal spells are far too powerful and magic recovering items are too plentiful too. Thus the survival strategies are lost.

[Frogacuda]

I think RPGs have more strategy now then they did in the 8/16 bit days. The battle mechanics in those games were so simple, and the "difficulty" just meant more leveling up, not more thought involved.

[Damian79]

"The battle mechanics in those games were so simple, and the "difficulty" just meant more leveling up, not more thought involved."

With the exception of Chrono Trigger and FF6.

[MechDeus]

Originally posted by Damian79
With the exception of Chrono Trigger and FF6.

Because those two games are representative of all RPGs back then, huh? An exception does not make a rule.