RPGs with cool failure states

[copx]

After playing the Age of Decadence demo, I realized something: For all the talk of C&C, AoD was shit on failure. You can succeed in various ways, partially succeed some more, but fuck up and you're either dead, locked out of a quest-line, or you just didn't get anything. That's it. Your C&C dead end.

So I want to know, can anyone think of some glorious moments in RPGs where you not only fucked up but actually had to suffer through some serious new shit for it?

 

[Infinitron]

Getting caught in Blackthorn's castle in Ultima V is the ultimate example, I think.

 

[OSK]

In Exile 3: The Ruined World if you took your time addressing the monster plagues, the world would become more dangerous and cities and forts would be overrun and turned into ruins.

 

[Gozma]

Darklands has some cool if minor shit for getting in trouble in cities. Escaping the city in various ways, getting thrown in jail, getting asylum in a monastery. It's cool to call a law-related saint to argue for leniency with a judge, etc.

 

[copx]

Dragon Age: Origins almost managed this, but then they had to ruin it by making failure almost guaranteed. In the Rescue the Queen quest, if you lose the fight to Cauthrien, you get a new quest (Captured!) where your character is in prison and you get to choose - either your main character breaks out or you play as your other party members rescuing your char.

 

[Kz3r0]

Dragon Age: Origins almost managed this, but then they had to ruin it by making failure almost guaranteed. In the Rescue the Queen quest, if you lose the fight to Cauthrien, you get a new quest (Captured!) where your character is in prison and you get to choose - either your main character breaks out or you play as your other party members rescuing your char.

The same as KOTOR.

 

[Balor]

Space Rangers prison quest comes to mind.

 

[eric__s]

We do some cool stuff with this in Barkley 2. I don't want to give too much away, but failing several quests in one area can get you permanently exiled. Thinking about having fucking up terribly getting you thrown into the mines to do labor, which you'd have to escape from. Also, there's no reload.

 

[Jaesun]

 

[Bruma Hobo]

Any game with reputation or karma meters (Daggerfall and Ultima IV for example). It's not that hard, people.

Also, there's no reload.

How will you...?

 

[granit]

RPGs of today need more possibilities for the character to fail such as critical miss. Let's say you try to swing at a monster with a very low stat in your weapon proficiency. Roll a sufficiently low number and you will instead hit yourself, possibly crippling your limbs making you unable to run/swing weapon/talk/see.

 

[BobtheTree]

Do you mean like in Arcanum where you critically fail for the first 6 hours of the game?

 

[Hoaxmetal]

Yeah, my tech character cut his face with a blade in the first fight.

 

[JarlFrank]

The problem with making your character fail all the time when using a non-proficient weapon is that nobody can actually be THAT clumsy or stupid to screw up so consistently. Using a gun or even a sword isn't that hard, and even the dumbest fool knows which end to hold and which to use against the enemy. And even the clumsiest don't cut themselves 10 times in a row. Regular failure with low-proficiency weapons usually feels like playing a goddamn emo.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

But you want to give a noticeable benefit to weapon mastery. And since the only way to measure it after some point is to pitch you against enemies who also mastered the weapon, then a low-leveled skill is best represented in you missing under most circumstances. If you can still cut up fools regularly with a pitiful 10 in Long Blades, why would you invest in it?

 

[Turisas]

If you can still cut up fools regularly with a pitiful 10 in Long Blades, why would you invest in it?

Because it does less damage with lower skill level. And you get cool perks when you level it up enough!

 

[Gulnar]

How will you...?

It probably means tha has a roguelike save/reload method - with just a single slot for saving game and enforced saves on exiting the game. Like the old good diablo2.

Annnnd Devil Survivor 1/2 has interesting effects when you fail to do a certain mission in a certain time, like the permanent loss of party members, or being locked in one or another ending.

 

[Excidium]

But you want to give a noticeable benefit to weapon mastery. And since the only way to measure it after some point is to pitch you against enemies who also mastered the weapon, then a low-leveled skill is best represented in you missing under most circumstances. If you can still cut up fools regularly with a pitiful 10 in Long Blades, why would you invest in it?

Because you want to be even better at cutting things?

 

[Clockwork Knight]

But if you're already good enough even at low levels, at mastery you'll have become an anime character capable of cutting tanks in half.

 

[Excidium]

If the progression is like that.

 

[agentorange]

I don't know if this counts, but wandering into the mutant base early on, in Fallout, you'll get thrown in a cell and have a really difficult time escaping.

 

[DragoFireheart]

Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion.

If you give up, you are spared the experience of a shit game.

 

[tuluse]

I think JarlFrank is fine with missing at lower levels, it's the critical miss = self harm that he doesn't like.

Here's my advice, just pretend it's an abstraction that's modeling missing so badly you open yourself up to attack and that's where the damage is coming from.

 

[Lilura]

I don't know if this counts, but wandering into the mutant base early on, in Fallout, you'll get thrown in a cell and have a really difficult time escaping.

This blew my mind when it happened to me, one of the best moments in RPG history.

 

[Jaesun]

True.

This thread really is not describing cool "failure states" though.