Could a sports RPG hybrid work?

[Varolyn]

So for a few years now, the NBA 2k games have a "My career" mode which is sort of a storyline mode for your created character. While it's nice to see some story in these games, the story is very heavily cutscene driven and in between those you just play standard games of basketball.

But what if a game studio took this concept to the next step and created a sort of sports rpg hybrid. Due to how the particular sports work, I think Soccer and basketball would work well for this. The idea behind is that you would create your character, and he would start as a high school basketball player. You would obviously play games of basketball but in between those games, the game would turn into like GTA. Your interactions with other characters would increase you fame or infamy. When you would turn pro, if you could get a big contract you can buy and customize your own mansion. You could hang out at clubs as a pro and try to recruit free agents for your team etc. And of course you could customize your character's stats, which yes you can already do in 2K but the customization would be more in depth. And your team would end up like your party in an RPG.

So do you think a game type like this could work out? Or is it too niche/ambitious to pull off properly.

[Dakhath]

I think its too niche. While I'd love something like that, a lot of the people that buy sports games just want to play the sport itself.

[Skorpionss]

Something like this would probably be the only sports game I ever buy. I played fifa a lot as a kid, including career mode and it always left me wanting more and wondering how it would be like if you could actually train your character yourself, walk around and do different activities that boost your overall stats, interact with other characters in a open or semi-open world, buy different gear to make your training easier and raise your stats higher, learn different skills from other players (not people, npcs) or just come up with something of your own.|

But alas this industry is shit nowadays so chances are that something like this will never happen unless it's some small indie company making it with 0 budget and janky gameplay...

[TrollHunter3000]

So for a few years now, the NBA 2k games have a "My career" mode which is sort of a storyline mode for your created character. While it's nice to see some story in these games, the story is very heavily cutscene driven and in between those you just play standard games of basketball.

But what if a game studio took this concept to the next step and created a sort of sports rpg hybrid. Due to how the particular sports work, I think Soccer and basketball would work well for this. The idea behind is that you would create your character, and he would start as a high school basketball player. You would obviously play games of basketball but in between those games, the game would turn into like GTA. Your interactions with other characters would increase you fame or infamy. When you would turn pro, if you could get a big contract you can buy and customize your own mansion. You could hang out at clubs as a pro and try to recruit free agents for your team etc. And of course you could customize your character's stats, which yes you can already do in 2K but the customization would be more in depth. And your team would end up like your party in an RPG.

So do you think a game type like this could work out? Or is it too niche/ambitious to pull off properly.

What the other guy said. Most people who enjoy sports games like that don't typically go into RPGs. Studios like EA probably have completely different teams developing different genre games as well so they'd have to likely spend a lot of extra money on something like that. You'd essentially be creating two games in one. The sports side of the game would have to be just as good as any other normal sports game otherwise those fans wouldn't be interested and the RPG element would have to be immersive and good enough for RPG fans or they wouldn't be interested. GTA is a good example of an RPG game with sports. I know one of them had tennis but I'm not sure if there was anything else. I do think the tennis in the game wasn't actually that bad but definitely not on par with a game like top spin.

[Tech614]

Sports games are made on 8 month dev cycles and sell loads of copies.

It makes no financial sense for a company to make some massive multi year project sports rpg that would sell less due to being a niche. So for this reason, no it won't work.

Now an indy game could probably pull it off(something on a larger scale then Golf Story but not too large) but it sounded like you wanted AAA and well, that's not happening lol.

[Zmagoslav]

Well something like that (a sports-based RPG) exists, but not in the form you imagine it...

Inazuma Eleven games, they feature:
- a story mode
- an overworld mode where you walk around RPG style
- leveling up your characters
- building a team out of hundreds of players
- equipment and skill builds

[Dezerte]

The best game mode in the NHL series by far (for me) has been the Be A Pro-mode, and it has some light-RPG mechanics but I wish they did more. This year's version did add some significant changes - cutscenes, decisions etc (similar to 2K NBA) - but I wish they put more effort into it.

[Selastan]

A lot of the WWE games used to do this. Wander around backstage, level up your stats, choice-driven narrative where your character could become a face or heel at any moment. Trouble is that WWE is a little...fake. It makes sense that the whole thing could play like an RPG because it is a fantasy, just with an athletic focus instead of a mystical one. One could theoretically take this formula and make a decent sports RPG. There is enough overlap for it to work...however it would have to be build differently. It's a lot more than just throwing in RPG elements to a Madden or Fifa game, the two just don't have enough of an overlap. The RPG fans would be disappointed with all the sports crap and the sports fans aren't interested in character building and role-playing.

The answer is to make it a bit fantastical. Final Fantasy fans have wanted a dedicated Blitzball game forever. Sports anime like Haikyuu are quite popular thanks to the similar structure they have to traditional battle anime like Dragon Ball Z and Naruto. I think the answer lies there. Dump the connection to the real world. Create a fictional sport or just a fictional league for an existing one, and make an RPG from there with sports instead of battling. Could be quite a game, especially with a fire-emblem style relationship system where you build your teamwork skills by helping and interacting with your teammates outside of the field.

[Skizzit]

Isn't there a golf game like this? Golf Story? Never played it but I remember it being billed as a golf based RPG.

[Ausr]

Pyre kinda counts. Battles take place on a sports field.

[dope_danny]

Mario Golf says hi. It can totally be done.

[Pendulous]

A better example would be blitzball, since you actually level and see stats increase. Take something like that and expand it.

Isn't there a golf game like this? Golf Story? Never played it but I remember it being billed as a golf based RPG.

Yes and it's widely loved. I'd love to play it but no Switch.