Would you play an RPG if it didn't have a main quest/storyline?

[StrawberryZebra]

If the gameplay is fun, sure. I could quite enjoy 'wander aimlessly killing shit to get loot and level up' as long as the process was entertaining.

Have to agree here. There are plenty of games where it's fun just to mindlessly murder everything in sight just for the shear fun of the combat. I don't see why you couldn't put an RPG into that kind of gameplay setup. Warframe was this for the longest time, you'd just keep playing it because it was fun to slaughter Grinner by the thousands and the RPG mechanics were there to help you decide how you wanted to go about doing just that.

Lots of ARPG's get away with a very minimalist story to begin with, and it's mostly there to lead you from one place to the next and give a sense of consistency rather than to be engaging by itself.

The elephant in the room is if anyone would buy an RPG without a story. I'd say probably no, since the story is usually the main attraction of the genre for most. Remove it and you're going to alienate a lot of the core playerbase.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

I wouldn't. I love character progression in RPGs but I like it because I know I need it get kick that guys ass that kicked my ass at the start of the game. Or else I feel like I sunk a lot of hours into something to improve my rabbit killing skills. That might float some people's boat but it sinks mine pretty quickly.

[Super Kami Dende]

A lot of open world RPGs have bad main quests: Skyrim, Fallout, etc.

Subjective, I enjoyed both Skyrim AND FO4's Main quests.

Though with your question, I play a LOT of 7 Days to Die. I'd consider it a Survival Sandbox RPG and it has zero Main questline.

[Cattleya]

Wouldn't a big sidequest questline be considered the "main storyline" then? Take the actual main story out of Skyrim and people will probably just consider the civil war thing the main storyline.

[Niroshi]

Not sure about a single player RPG with no main quest, but for an MMO that sounds like old school FFXI and that's the best MMO I've ever played. So yeah I'd fuck with it.

[scrangos]

Not sure about a single player RPG with no main quest, but for an MMO that sounds like old school FFXI and that's the best MMO I've ever played. So yeah I'd fuck with it.

Maybe ragnarok online but FFXI had an amazing story, probably second only to FFXIV. Considerably better than wow.

[Teostra]

Yes.... Ive played Kingdom come deliverance, morrowind, oblivion and skyrim all without ever completing the main story.. i did a bit of skyrim, but that was to unlock the DLC which required to at least get to the like 5th main story quest. but that doesnt matter to much.

[Dys]

I've been playing an old school MMO called Tibia. There's no main storyline/quest line to follow, but there's plenty of storylines to follow. It makes the world feel more alive, with threats coming from multiple directions and whatnot.

If it were done right, it could be a pretty good single player game type. Something along the lines of a cohesive, expansive sandbox world, with faction intermingling, and their forces rise and fall with time passing in game and player interaction. Open ended character progression more like Morrowind where you level different skills based on what you do. Give paths to eventual options that allow you to topple, unite, decimate or dominate the various factions of the world, or even create your own and compete for resources and such. I'd play that, for sure.

Like I said though, if it were done right. I won't hold my breath.

[Deleted]

That raises the question: Would you play an RPG if it didn't have a main quest/storyline? Something like: Hey, you wake up in your home. Now do your stuff.

You mean like "A Link to the past"?

But even that could be a (Main)Quest.

What you mean would be a playerdriven Sandboxrpg, like Ultima (Online). But even these kind of games presents you a villian (or something "evil") in the Intro.


Sidequests could also be some kind of "MainQuest" in/for a specific area with less content as the Big-Meta-Mainquestline. (e.g. Darrowshire-Questline).


The Problem with an RPG is that there has to be always a villian and the player as Hero. There motives could be strong or real flat.
The most Villians are evil with the motive :"I'm bad, because I do bad things and the designer wants me to be bad".
But when the villian has to do a bad thing to do many good Things (in his Eyes), he gets more deepness and a very bright spectrum of good and bad.
And so today i think the designers have a problem to design deep storylines and interessting villians, with strong (emotional) motives.