What is the most important thing in a RPG?

[Rainec]

Story, characters, combat system, length/re-playability, not particularly in that order.

And subjectively good art and music, of course.

Bravely Default was the last one I played that scored high in these.

[ProphetFlume]

Combat. Y u no poll?

[Skeppio]

Gameplay, doesn't matter the genre (expect maybe stuff like Visual Novels, etc, where the gameplay can only really go one way). The first rule of designing a game is: Work out the gameplay mechanics, limitations, innovations, etc before anything else. It's cool and all to say "I've got this game idea, it's about a prince who discovers he has the bloodline of a goddess and goes on an epic quest to discover more god-blooded folk, unite the kingdoms, and defeat the armies of the dreaded Demon King", but if I ask "so what's the gameplay like?" and you reply "...I 'unno.", you're going to have a lot of trouble making something good.

[Graeham]

I'd like to think that most people play RPG's for the sake of a decent story, so I'll go with that. Solid game-play is also very important but I can tolerate clunky and dated mechanics if there's a brilliant story waiting to be uncovered.

[pateuvasiliu]

Story/Plot is first, characters is second.

It's why Dragon Age Origins and Mass Effect are some of the best RPGs ever made.

The Witcher 2 brings a lot from both, but I can't help but feel that Geralt is the center of the universe. The rest are just sidekicks.

Garrus was awesome on his own. He didn't need Shepard to shine.

[Tojara]

Really good story, with amazing character development. This includes all characters, including villains.

Which is why I still really enjoy a lot of the classic SNES RPGs. Final Fantasy 6 and Chrono Trigger being my favorite because they both have a great story with amazing character development. Chrono Trigger at the time also had a really great combat system. Final Fantasy 6 not so much, but it was good enough and the story and characters by far made up for any small short comings in that game.

Something I feel that's missing from modern day RPGs is actual great sound tracks. Ones the just pour out emotion. Even though the sound quality was sub-par on the SNES, it's hard to dispute the power of the music/sound they made for games around the SNES era of RPGs.

On the other hand I can't help but love a game like Divinity Original Sin, despite not meeting what I consider important in an RPG. The story and characters themselves aren't all that interesting, but the combat is incredibly fun and propels the game forward.

[iddqd]

Combat, 100% the combat system.

[GennGreymane]

player choice

that will make or break an RPG, story is a close second with game play a very close 3rd.

Player choice is why I loved Mass effect, elder scrolls, fall out, etc.

[Deleted]

Immersion and graphics/animation quality.. gameplay too.

I wouldnt play anything thats severely lacking in any of those categories so I guess theyre all important.

[Baladash]

Gameplay.

If the gameplay is shitty i won't bother playing the game no matter how good the story is.

this is why I can't play Final Fantasy anything.