Thread: Linear RPG's

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  1. #1
    Herald of the Titans Lotus Victoria's Avatar
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    Linear RPG's

    Lately, I've been missing the old style of RPG's - The more linear ones (without open world and stuff like that), and more focused on delivering a single very good story, instead of a lot of small good ones (side quests). The last one that I've played was Undertale, and it was a blast.

    Does anyone feel like that too?


  2. #2
    nope, i dont have problems making my own choices.

  3. #3
    Open world is terrible. I've always said that and it's proven again and again. Even in an open world game, you need linearity to tie it together, but the story will always suffer. Games are supposed to tell a story and immerse you, is how I look at it. That's why I love Deus Ex HR/MD and the likes.

  4. #4
    Herald of the Titans Lotus Victoria's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Vespian View Post
    Open world is terrible. I've always said that and it's proven again and again. Even in an open world game, you need linearity to tie it together, but the story will always suffer. Games are supposed to tell a story and immerse you, is how I look at it. That's why I love Deus Ex HR/MD and the likes.
    Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines has "hubs", big areas where you can go to smaller, inside areas to explore for sidequests. The main story is great, and the sidequests are delicious.


  5. #5
    It depends on the game, really. If it maintains focus on the main story, yet gives you options to explore around that story, that's a winner. Then it's up to you.
    It easier having a linear approach sometimes, I'll give you that.

  6. #6
    A decent bunch of ARPGs are pretty linear - maps may be wide but it's just not Open World. You may enjoy one or two of them - just a few days ago Titan Quest Anniversary edition came otu and it's like 5 euros. And it's a great game.

    EDIT: i like "open world", meaning " a hugeass map with lots of interest points where i can roam for stuff and secret things". I think eploration has a lot of potential for making a good experience. Story itself doesn't really need to be linear, but it needs to wrap a lot of things around.

    Examples:
    - i see a very high tower in the distance, i want to get there because i know that likely something's there. The place itself is drawing me there, a sidequest or small adventure may start there and it's fine. It doesn't need to be part of the main story and can just sit there.

    - there are a lot of small villages all selling different reagents required for my crafts. I'm going there one way or another because the game points to them, but if there's nothing else but a shop for such reagents and NPCs, they are completely useless. there could be a single place with everything and nothing changes

    Just to say that a big map is nice, but it needs to be full of interesting stuff and not just travel checkpoints.
    Last edited by Coldkil; 2016-09-06 at 12:32 PM.
    Non ti fidar di me se il cuor ti manca.

  7. #7
    Yeah, I vastly prefer a more linear experience than that of the completely free roam open world ones.
    ..and so he left, with terrible power in shaking hands.

  8. #8
    It really depends how the open world ties into the main story. Witcher 3 did this pretty well with a few non mandatory things deciding if characters die further down the main story. I think FFX had a pretty good mix too. The story was mostly linear but later in the game you were free to revisit old places or new areas in those places to farm, grind or sidequest.

    What I totally hate are the checklist openworld games. Here you have 5 different types of collectibles all over the map, spend the next 5 hours collecting them all before you continue your main quest.

  9. #9
    I like ff, dragon warrior, and phantasy star games because they had a good balance of linear and exploration. I usually don't like pure open world but loved zelda 1.

  10. #10
    The Unstoppable Force May90's Avatar
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    If you only do the main story, then all Bioware and CDPRojekt games are like that. But especially, play Neverwinter Nights 1/2 community-made modules, there are literally thousands hours of excellent storytelling available.
    Quote Originally Posted by King Candy View Post
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  11. #11
    I don't like pure linear rpgs because it feels like the game dictates everything and you're just there to mash buttons.

  12. #12
    Scarab Lord Skizzit's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Vespian View Post
    Open world is terrible. I've always said that and it's proven again and again. Even in an open world game, you need linearity to tie it together, but the story will always suffer. Games are supposed to tell a story and immerse you, is how I look at it. That's why I love Deus Ex HR/MD and the likes.
    Yeah, that's the reason I just could not get into Just Cause 2. I kept hearing how amazing of a game it was so I finally picked it up and while blowing up bases is fun, the lack of a well told story left me feeling like there was no reason to blow up the bases. There is a story in that game, but the little story bits were spaced too far apart for me and it wasn't all that interesting anyways. Same think with games like Skyrim. It's almost like by giving me too many options I spent too much time trying to decide what the best thing to do first would be and giving up because I didn't want to make the wrong choice. I much prefer a more linear and well told story to lots and lots of open options.

  13. #13
    The Unstoppable Force May90's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Skizzit View Post
    Yeah, that's the reason I just could not get into Just Cause 2. I kept hearing how amazing of a game it was so I finally picked it up and while blowing up bases is fun, the lack of a well told story left me feeling like there was no reason to blow up the bases. There is a story in that game, but the little story bits were spaced too far apart for me and it wasn't all that interesting anyways. Same think with games like Skyrim. It's almost like by giving me too many options I spent too much time trying to decide what the best thing to do first would be and giving up because I didn't want to make the wrong choice. I much prefer a more linear and well told story to lots and lots of open options.
    I really liked stories in games like Fallout 3 and Morrowind though: even in an open world setting, a story can be coherent and interesting. And Witcher 3 and DAI had even more awesome stories, despite being even bigger in size than F3/Morrowind.
    Quote Originally Posted by King Candy View Post
    I can't explain it because I'm an idiot, and I have to live with that post for the rest of my life. Better to just smile and back away slowly. Ignore it so that it can go away.
    Thanks for the avatar goes to Carbot Animations and Sy.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Lotus Victorya View Post
    Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines has "hubs", big areas where you can go to smaller, inside areas to explore for sidequests. The main story is great, and the sidequests are delicious.
    I miss that game. I really wish that someone would make a modern day equivalent in a similar style with the same amount of depth and choices...

  15. #15
    You might like Xenoblade. It has a linear story, but still has a large world to explore if you want.

  16. #16
    Linear and open-world can work well. It's not the genre/sub-genre, it's the game alone. I've enjoyed linear games like DA:O, KOTOR and the Mass Effect series. I've also enjoyed open-world games like Witcher 3, Fallout and the Elder Scrolls series.
    The wise wolf who's pride is her wisdom isn't so sharp as drunk.

  17. #17
    Open world rpgs are mostly linear in design. Just because a game has an adventure hub, or huge world to explore, does not mean that your overarching storyline has changed at all. You will make your way to Mt. Doom and you will beat the only truly story relevant big bad, sooner or later. Otherwise the game doesn't end or actually go anywhere.

    It's more an argument about the perceived freedom of choice vs cinematic story design. Do you want Bob, the wandering merchant to eventually pop up in a small, hidden area, or do you want to trek across generic landscape to find him in a small, hidden Area?

    Peter Molyneux made a living selling the false hope and dreams of actual freedom of choice. He offered it in the best of the Kings New Clothes that we've seen. And it was still bullshit.

  18. #18
    The Lightbringer Ahovv's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Vespian View Post
    Open world is terrible. I've always said that and it's proven again and again. Even in an open world game, you need linearity to tie it together, but the story will always suffer. Games are supposed to tell a story and immerse you, is how I look at it. That's why I love Deus Ex HR/MD and the likes.
    Did you ever play the original Fallout games? There was open-world while you still had objectives, and the areas you discover in-between would help you along the way, while organically introducing new stories.

    Open-world is perfectly fine, but there still needs to be a hand-crafted nature to it allowing for carefully placed side quests, fresh dialogue introducing new quests, and getting help from people throughout the world.

    For example, most quests in RPGs involve a start point, specific progression points and a final end point. You're given a marker on the map and told to go there. The way a good RPG will handle this is, instead of relying on an objective marker you are given enough information about your task to find it yourself. The world will show you the way with both good landmarks, good storytelling and the ability to ask NPCs along the way for any advice.

    The whole issue of objective markers can be seen as a broader issue in something like World of Warcraft. You go out into these new zones, and, shit, you're forced to constantly check your minimap for resource nodes. It's the best way of gathering, so we do it. Instead of exploring the actual world for ourselves, we're told precisely on the map where our resources are, so we mostly ignore 90% of our screen and instead lock on the minimap.

  19. #19
    I'd be okay with open-world if the world was filled with interesting content. Witcher 3 was the closest to doing it properly but even still it had garbage like copy-paste bandit camps and smuggler caches. I hope one day there'll be an open-world game that encourages exploration through side quests instead of collectibles and shitty loot systems where you can steal everything in sight.

  20. #20
    Titan draykorinee's Avatar
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    My favourite games recently have all been linear as hell. TLOU, The walking dead telltale games, Tomb Raider etc, I did enjoy GTA 5 but I tend to find open worlds just...annoying mainly.

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