The smaller things that annoy you in RPGs

[rohand]

Making an optional side activity important in the overall progress (i.e. if you don't craft you'll be under-equipped, if you don't do boring sidequests you'll be under-leveled, etc)
So it's not that optional, is it?

 

[Van-d-all]

Stat changing clothes. +1 INT hats and shit like that, which makes you carry a whole collection of trash and play dress up before talking to NPCs.

 

[JarlFrank]

I hate lots of things. First off, I hate having to walk back and forth. If a character gives me a quest that requires running a mile to a dungeon or something, then I have to do the dungeon but then run all the way back to the quest character, then the game can get fucked. If the world is really interesting and run speed is fast, then I am fine with it. But otherwise it is obnoxious. Underrail got uninstalled in 10 minutes because it had far too much running back and forth. Fuckers.

I also really hate having too many containers in the world with stuff in. NWN was a fucking nightmare with this. You leave the first building and there are 4 barrels, a chest, 3 crates, and a plant pot, all searchable containers, and that's just in the first corner. And there are 10 corners because the area is a weird shape. If you ignore them then you end up broke and lacking in scrolls and shit, and if you decided to open all the containers you find, you spend hours clicking the millions of fucking boxes. Terrible.

I don't agree with everything in your post but those two are spot on.

If your game includes a lot of walking, either make walk speed fast or add various reasonable fast travel options (Morrowind's silt striders, boat rides, and of course the lovely mark and recall spells are great). I played Underrail with CheatEngine's speedhack at 2x speed because the normal walking speed was just too excruciatingly slow.

Also, container overload just sucks. There's nothing in these containers anyway most of the time, but occasionally there is something useful. Maybe one barrel contains nothing at all, another contains 5 gold (meh), and yet another contains a scroll of fireball which is both valuable and useful. But since all the barrels look the same you have to check everything if you don't wanna miss the one barrel containing something useful. Tedious and boring.

 

[JarlFrank]

Equipment that has a minimum skill level required to equip them. I hate miraculously obtaining a powerful item only to be told I can't use it.

God, Elex is so guilty of this. Playing through it now and enjoying it immensely, the exploration is top. But then you find a super awesome unique weapon, but it requires such high stats that I can't see myself reaching the requirements at any point in the near future. In fact, it has been at least 10 hours of play time since I found that weapon, and I still don't have enough character points to remotely reach the required stat scores.

Meanwhile I just upgraded a generic two-handed melee weapon twice, and that thing now does more damage than the unique legendary I found... and has lower stat requirements.

I will likely never get to use that unique, and I don't even have to because I found something better with lower requirements by now.

Hard stat requirements for equipment just sabotages the joy of finding a high level item early in the game. I defeated an extremely hard enemy to get my hands on that thing, but then I can't use it until 5 minutes before the endgame because the stat requirements are so ridiculously high? Give me a fucking break!

 

[Wunderbar]

Stat changing clothes. +1 INT hats and shit like that, which makes you carry a whole collection of trash and play dress up before talking to NPCs.

 

[Sigourn]

What are some of the smaller things that really annoy you about RPGs? Stuff that other people may not notice that much.

One of mine is when you can't turn down quests. So you talk to an NPC, they offer a quest that may be completely out of character for you to do so you say "no fuck you", and the game STILL gives you the quest with the NPC saying "Ok... but I'll be here waiting for you anyway!"

This makes me think that quests completing themselves is an underused mechanic.
e.g. someone asks you to retrieve a potion for their ill daughter, and you don't do it. Normally the daughter will stay alive indefinitely, instead of dying. It makes these kind of choices and refusals much more impactful.

OT: I hate loot as a way to make money. I hate loot overload. I want loot to be precious and useful.

 

[Wyatt_Derp]

What are some of the smaller things that really annoy you about RPGs? Stuff that other people may not notice that much.

One of mine is when you can't turn down quests. So you talk to an NPC, they offer a quest that may be completely out of character for you to do so you say "no fuck you", and the game STILL gives you the quest with the NPC saying "Ok... but I'll be here waiting for you anyway!"

Or maybe the game's writers could create a quest tree, where if you say no to a quest it could open up a separate line of dialogue OR even spark another quest that could tie in with the reasoning behind your NO answer. This might come closer to what we call human speech interaction. Imagine if every NO answer in human society was treated with a YES response. Can we say, RAPE CULTURE?! Heehee.

This ties in with one of my main gripes which is too many random fetchit quests and general busy work that's almost always designed to familiarize the player with the world while also creating a backlog of game time hours (more is more thinking). I'd rather play 15-20 interesting, well written quests in an RPG than slog through hundreds of random/radiant/we don't give a shit about quality NPC missions. Go here, kill/grab/fix/blow up thing, return to quest giver. It amazes me that in 2019 we're still using that formula as a mission base for most RPGs.

 

[Syme]

I hate it when games waste my time, so the most common offenders would be slow movement speed, overly long combat animations, and unskippable cutscenes. Thankfully, most single-player games can be sped up with cheat engine.

 

[Saduj]

Games that release as final version then come out with a real final version a year later.

 

[JarlFrank]

Games that release as final version then come out with a real final version a year later.

I don't care since I rarely buy games on release anyway

 

[Bad Sector]

Most have already been said, but one thing - that also contradicts a post above, but i guess we can't all like the same things :-P - that i really find annoying is time limits. I never liked them ever the first time i played Prince of Persia as a kid decades ago and the chances of that changing is pretty much zero. I play games at my pace, at a much slower rate that most (go to howlongtobeat.com, type in any game and if i have played it, it probably took me around 50% to 75% more than what you see there) and i get distracted easily. So time limits are simply not fun for me.

Things like "my daughter is dying, please bring medicine back fast" is just the writers not taking into account how the game plays. Though i'd rather have that than having a time limit (unless it is something like going to the doctor next door and i have a limit of three days or whatever - but at that point it becomes a question of why wont the parent go?). But preferably i'd rather have time be something abstract that doesn't get acknowledged in any specific terms (and really since most RPGs that have time treat it like that anyway, it gives me the impression that they mostly track time so that they can have pretty day-and-night visual effects rather than any gameplay reason, since you can wait/rest for the time you want anyway).

 

[Catacombs]

i really find annoying is time limits.

This is what made me despise the first Fallout so much. I didn't buy a game to be put under a time pressure. I, like you, want to take the game at my own pace.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

I hate crafting.

I.HATE.CRAFTING.

and voiceover.

 

[Atchodas]

Backtracking and travelling trough "dead" areas where nothing can happen while you are doing that, just make it instant fore fuck sake or design proper game worlds where traveling is part of exploration

 

[Verylittlefishes]

Backtracking and travelling trough "dead" areas where nothing can happen while you are doing that, just make it instant fore fuck sake or design proper game worlds where traveling is part of exploration

The only game that gave me delightful surprise in that matter was (sigh) The Crusaders of Might & Magic PC shovelport

 

[Silly Germans]

i really find annoying is time limits.

This is what made me despise the first Fallout so much. I didn't buy a game to be put under a time pressure. I, like you, want to take the game at my own pace.

Time limits suck if you don't have any way to estimate the time you are going to need to execute the required action and if it actually puts you under stress when playing. Otherwise they can be used nicely for CC. It can be used similar to action points in turn based system but
it is rarely pulled off properly which makes the aversion agreeable. Fallout is good example for wrong use, since you can't estimate how long it will take to get that water chip.
Actually i think it is one concept could add a lot to rpg's if it was implemented in a sensible way.

 

[JDR13]

Romances

It's mind-boggling that we're 42 posts in and no one had mentioned that yet.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

Romances

It's mind-boggling that we're 42 posts in and no one had mentioned that yet.

I thought it was obvious, sweetie.

 

[Serus]

Dialogue trees where NPCs do a long ass monologue that you have to mash 1 to get through.... and then when it does end, "1" makes you ask the question again restarting the entire monologue again.

Quest items that don't disappear from inventory after their single, scripted use case is complete.

When Run cannot be set to default and you have to hold down Shift or something the entire game.

Voice acting that cannot be turned off.

I want say that i agree with this 100%.

 

[Greenante]

One thing I noticed in Two Worlds 2 recently, but also seen it in other games, is dungeons with lit torches or stoves and shit but no reason for them being there is given. It's just "flavour" but it makes it feel emptier by design . Also pristine bookcases in old ruins etc.

 

[overly excitable young man]

Similar to the collect 10 of something:
Go to every city in the game and do the same thing quest.
Spend 10 minutes in fast travel screen.

 

[BING XI LAO]

i really find annoying is time limits.

This is what made me despise the first Fallout so much. I didn't buy a game to be put under a time pressure. I, like you, want to take the game at my own pace.

But don't you understand that a whole town getting deleted from the game before you reach it massively improves the experience? Why would someone want to take their time doing things in a game featuring free roaming exploration anyway? If you disagree you are a casual.

 

[Will Zurmacht]

Loot placement is often bad.

When a merchant's wares are scattered on the counter before him and the counter is too high and the objects are perilously close to the natural torso location that you want to click to interact with him. So 25% of the time you accidentally "steal" an apple off their counter which of course alerts the town guard, locks down the building, and dispatches a SEAL team to your position.

 

[taxalot]

Ok. I will say it.

I hate character creation.

Yeah, fuck you.

 

[Kalin]

It hates you too.