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Can a RPG be scary?

Wyrmlord

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Being scary requires a certain kind of atmosphere, and RPGs do have atmosphere often, but that aside, how scary can a game based on floating numbers be?

Moreso than other genres, you realize that you are just killing an entity of numbers.
 

racofer

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KotOR 2 - Paragus: when you're escaping the station through the battle cruiser that just docked, once you reach the lower decks (heading to the refueling lines) and everything is dark, the music is slow paced but heavy, you see in in the distance the silhouette of Darth Sion and immediately you think "OH FUCK I'M DEAD".

I thought that part was really intense and every time I go through it again I get shivers.
 

Malakal

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JarlFrank said:
Bloodlines.
Ocean House.
Case closed.

Good example. Got less scary after first playthrough but still...

Some rpgs can be scary, mainly those that let Player use the FPP since it is easier to invovle Yourself with the character.
 

Hobo Elf

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JarlFrank said:
Bloodlines.
Ocean House.
Case closed.

Even after beating it for the 20th time it still chills me. Not as bad as the first time, but it's still unsettling and creepy. A very well designed area, indeed.
 

Phelot

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But can a turn based RPG be scary? Perhaps intense, but I don't think you can get shock out of entering into combat. Of course, the atmosphere could still be scary. As already mentioned, Ocean House had no combat.
 

racofer

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phelot said:
But can a turn based RPG be scary?

KotOR2 is turn based.










































































9bizjp.gif
 

Gosling

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phelot said:
But can a turn based RPG be scary? Perhaps intense, but I don't think you can get shock out of entering into combat. Of course, the atmosphere could still be scary. As already mentioned, Ocean House had no combat.

I'd broaden the question to: can a top down (isometric) view RPG be scary?

And yes, one more vote for the Ocean House.
To me Daggerfall's dungeons could be scary too if I ventured too far and deep - I think it was the combination of the claustrophobic dungeon design and the excellent environmental audio.
 

JarlFrank

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Well, some people say the Glow in Fallout 1 was creepy/unsettling.

It all just depends on atmosphere, really. First or third person 3D has, of course, more potential to be scary than isometric games, but it all depends on good level design, creepy music and adding a sense of threat. Diablo 1 had some rather creepy places in its dungeon.
 

Hobo Elf

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One thing about RPGs is that you can't just slap in a scary looking monster and pray to god that the players will shit their pants by looking at a spooky floating ghost who hovers there waiting for his turn.
For an RPG to be scary, the monsters need to have terrifying stats. They need to have spells and abilities that will make you shit yourself when you see one creeping towards you.

So in short; for an RPG to have scary monsters, they must also be terrifying stat wise. Face rippingly horrifying. There's nothing more anti-climatic than a skeleton with 1-3 point(s) of HP and shitty rusty knife.
 

JarlFrank

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Hobo Elf said:
There's nothing more anti-climatic than a skeleton with 1-3 point(s) of HP and shitty rusty knife.

Skeletons are supposed to be weak. They're a bunch of magically animated bones, which should break easily when you hit them.

The dread of skeletons comes by them attacking en masse.

A Lich, on the other hand... holy fucking shit Liches in Daggerfall. *runs away before being fried by a single spell*
 

jaro

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Morrowind scared the fuck outta me when I first played, dark caves, ash vampires, all that shit. Seems kinda funny now :smug:
 

DriacKin

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Gosling said:
phelot said:
But can a turn based RPG be scary? Perhaps intense, but I don't think you can get shock out of entering into combat. Of course, the atmosphere could still be scary. As already mentioned, Ocean House had no combat.

I'd broaden the question to: can a top down (isometric) view RPG be scary?

Imo, Diablo did a great job of building a creepy atmosphere.
 

Zomg

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I found the Glow terribly creepy in my video game naivety mostly because I was convinced radiation would actually do something rather than just be an accumulating integer that I could trade money to reduce. Turning a mechanic into a "fair" gameplay concept (like radiation that's just a variable to manage) rather than obfuscated, capricious IF (U haf radiation poisoning u die randomly an hour from now blood from breathning a massive dose of alpha particle emitter dust) pretty much destroys horror.

Edit - So I say no an RPG in the capacity of an RPG (meaning spreadsheet management and grindan) cannot do horror, it can only do horror when you're talking about an RPG as a mechanical skeleton that you can paste other types of gameplay and IF onto.
 

WhiskeyWolf

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"Fallout Online Beta" was scary as shit, just entering a town gave me goosebumps. There was always a possibility that as soon as I entered I would get my head blown off because I looked funny as some Ruski.
 

Hobo Elf

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JarlFrank said:
Hobo Elf said:
There's nothing more anti-climatic than a skeleton with 1-3 point(s) of HP and shitty rusty knife.

Skeletons are supposed to be weak. They're a bunch of magically animated bones, which should break easily when you hit them.

The dread of skeletons comes by them attacking en masse.

A Lich, on the other hand... holy fucking shit Liches in Daggerfall. *runs away before being fried by a single spell*

It's just an example, sweetie. And no, a horde of skeletons is hardly terrifying either. You just land one fireball in the middle of them and they all crumble to dust.
 

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