Has anyone overcome their initial boredom of an RPG?

[frajaq]

play dark souls 2

 

[SoupNazi]

Step 1:Go on a random codex thread.
Step 2: Scroll down with half of your brain on a comatose state and the other half semi awake, if you see something interesting or retarded, pay attention
Step 3: If it is interesting, it might get you to play Deus Ex again.
Step 4: If it is retarded, say the user is retarded.
Step 5: Start a butthurt war with endless quote posts being an even worse retard.
Step 6: Use the butthurt energy to motivate yourself to play a game.
Step 7: If in 10 mins you are too bored, go to another random thread and repeat the process.

lmao this was me this entire thread

 

[JarlFrank]

I got filtered by the first couple hours of enderal. It starts off with a spooky but long and pointless dream sequence, and then you're on a boat, then you get a long unskippable cutscene where you're thrown off the boat. The game then mercifully lets you explore a dungeon and the outdoors for a few minutes before you're forced into a long dialog with a pair of npcs who tell you everything you never wanted to know about enderal's religion, culture and politics. Then there's another dream sequence. Then you meet another NPC who tells you all about how he's investigating a murder in a city that's miles and miles away and he needs your help, along with all the detail about who he is and the political considerations that went into selecting him for the job. While all this is happening you're also getting tutorials for new skills, perks, leveling and arcane fever systems.

Its only after you get past all of that that the game starts getting really fun.

I just can't take games that want me to spend the first multiple hours of the game not playing the game.

I love Enderal but the intro is absolutely horrible. Some people praise it for being impressive in the Skyrim engine and some good early storytelling, but holy shit is it slow and tedious.

It's an open world exploration-focused RPG.

You don't start that off with half an hour of what's essentially interactive cutscenes.

You toss the player into the world and let him explore.

Do it like Morrowind. You create your character, get your first main quest, and off you go.

 

[curds]

Arcanum, ToEE, BG and PoE all have very slow starts. Arcanum is probably the least boring of the lot at the start, but the story takes a while to gather speed. ToEE takes a good couple of hours to really get going (unless you know exactly where to head). Baldur’s Gate is honestly quite boring most of the way through. PoE is boredom incarnate.

Maybe try something which throws you right into the thick of it, such as:

Knights of the Chalice
Wizardry 8
Dark Souls
Gothic II

All these games pretty much throw you some action and/or intrigue from the get go. You’ll be fighting and exploring within minutes in each game.

 

[oldmanpaco]

I remember the first time I played BG1 I got to the Cloakwood Mines and thought: "Another fucking mine?" and quit. Didn't play again until BG2 was about to come out.

 

[KateMicucci]

Arcanum, ToEE, BG and PoE all have very slow starts. Arcanum is probably the least boring of the lot at the start, but the story takes a while to gather speed. ToEE takes a good couple of hours to really get going (unless you know exactly where to head). Baldur’s Gate is honestly quite boring most of the way through. PoE is boredom incarnate.

Maybe try something which throws you right into the thick of it, such as:

Knights of the Chalice
Wizardry 8
Dark Souls
Gothic II

All these games pretty much throw you some action and/or intrigue from the get go. You’ll be fighting and exploring within minutes in each game.

PoE starts you off with a combat and a dungeon to explore. The narrative at the start is dumb but it at least lets you start playing immediately.

And this is a thread about games where you had to overcome initial boredom, not games where you're bored the entire time.

 

[Agame]

Fallout 1 is an exception - rats should have been boring, but for some reason, weren't bad

Its the beautiful sound they make when they die.

 

[laclongquan]

Icewind Dale 2 is of the type with its own tempo. You gotta keep up with it or it overwhelms you.

The key is, you play in short sessions, and stop when you are tired. Dont try to continue on after that because that's not going to be a fun run.

I also do it that way with most (tactical) games. Never be afraid of save the game and quit for 10-30 minutes doing something else (like reading or watching youtube).

Fallout Tactics, UFO Aftershock/light. With Fallout 1/2 the sessions can be longer, since the roleplaying part help, but for combat-heavy games the sessions always are shorter than RP games

 

[cr0mag]

Icewind Dale 2 is of the type with its own tempo. You gotta keep up with it or it overwhelms you.

The key is, you play in short sessions, and stop when you are tired. Dont try to continue on after that because that's not going to be a fun run.

I also do it that way with most (tactical) games. Never be afraid of save the game and quit for 10-30 minutes doing something else (like reading or watching youtube).

Fallout Tactics, UFO Aftershock/light. With Fallout 1/2 the sessions can be longer, since the roleplaying part help, but for combat-heavy games the sessions always are shorter than RP games

I found IWD2 super comfy but that was because I made a full RP group of retards, only played on normal and had fun making them struggle through life

 

[laclongquan]

If that works for you, that works for you~

I think my first run of IWD2 also on Normal diff. But that time builds played quite... struggling. Definitely not fun.

 

[curds]

PoE starts you off with a combat and a dungeon to explore. The narrative at the start is dumb but it at least lets you start playing immediately.

It starts you off collecting berries. Then you get to the (rather boring) combat and dungeon.

And this is a thread about games where you had to overcome initial boredom, not games where you're bored the entire time.

'K. I was talking about those games because the OP specifically mentioned being bored with them. Then I just suggested some games I thought might help circumvent that early game boredom. Actually, what's your point?

 

[Volourn]

"In Fallout 1, I was hooked in the first 5 minutes."

Because getting a fetch quest and fighting/avoiding rats is such an impressive first five minutes. LMFAO

 

[rusty_shackleford]

"In Fallout 1, I was hooked in the first 5 minutes."

Because getting a fetch quest and fighting/avoiding rats is such an impressive first five minutes. LMFAO

you didn't take the diplomacy route?

 

[Volourn]

Rats don't like me enough.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Just start out in a cool dungeon. Wizardry 8's starter dungeon is one of the best dungeons in the game and I love to re-start the game just to replay the beginning.

It's one of my favorite dungeon, not just in the game.
Visually, i thought it really worked, the OST really works too and it's dangerous, unlike most modern RPG.
Also, the demo version has a swallower as upper floor boss instead of the giant spider and when you walked in the sewers part, the screen was shaking and you could hear its footsteps when he was crossing the room.
By the way, i'm going to download the demo to experience it again, i don't know why they switched to a giant spider in the game but it's a big letdown, the swallower was so much more difficult and fun to fight, aside from hearing him ahead and trembling in fear of what lied beyond.

 

[Cyberarmy]

When I got bored, I simply finish the game as quick as possible (no side content)

 

[Volourn]

More seriously, it dpends on the game. There have been ones that I absolutely hated when I first played but retried them years later and ended up enjoying them. Divine Divinity is a big example of that.

 

[Black Angel]

"Gaining trust of SGS" is not a plot hook, or at least not a good one, because the fuck do I care about SGS and whether they trust me. I don't even know anything about them at this point.

Neither does the Vault 13 and retrieving the Water Chip for them, amirite? Especially with the time limit and all.

Now, I don't know if you actually like Fallout 1 in that regards, nor do I know if you even feel strongly about this at all so let's just stop here. Instead, I'm gonna carry on and put this out for everyone else who read the thread:

Spoiler

With Underrail's SGS, the recent earthquake completely cuts off your home station from everywhere else in South Underrail other than the Junkyard. You can sit and wait it out for your fellow Southgaters to clear up the rubble blocking the train tracks, but that's not how we do it around here, right? So one way to speed it up (and really, it's the proper way actually) is to clear up the rubbles with an Armadillo drill machine. Unfortunately for you and SGS, one of the drill parts is broken and you need to find a replacement because fixing it is out of question. Since everyone else are already busy with their own jobs, you're the only one available for the task, being their newest resident and all. But before tackling on such big responsibility, the station needs to see if you have what it takes, by first assigning you with the more mundane tasks. If you can at least get the job done, then you're in for bigger and bigger tasks.
And yet, even after assigning you to find the drill parts, together with the money to buy it (should it be available for sale amongst the merchants of Junkyard), Tanner told you that you can skip this task provided you return all the money he gave you. Now, I don't know if the game can actually progress this way, and I also don't know how it would progress from there if you do choose that option. But with you being stuck from being blocked off by the rubbles caused by the earthquake, is there anything else you can do other than helping them or waiting it out if you don't care about them?

 

[V_K]

"Gaining trust of SGS" is not a plot hook, or at least not a good one, because the fuck do I care about SGS and whether they trust me. I don't even know anything about them at this point.

Neither does the Vault 13 and retrieving the Water Chip for them, amirite? Especially with the time limit and all.

Yes, both Fallout games have terrible MQ hooks. Difference is, they open up immediately or almost immediately, not force you into a linear and inescapable succession of boring formulaic fetch/kill tasks.

Instead, I'm gonna carry on and put this out for everyone else who read the thread:

Sorry, I'm just gonna quote myself from a different thread here:

People rationalizing bad formulaic quest design as being "realistic" or "justified" never cease to amaze me.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

I got filtered by the first couple hours of enderal. It starts off with a spooky but long and pointless dream sequence, and then you're on a boat, then you get a long unskippable cutscene where you're thrown off the boat. The game then mercifully lets you explore a dungeon and the outdoors for a few minutes before you're forced into a long dialog with a pair of npcs who tell you everything you never wanted to know about enderal's religion, culture and politics. Then there's another dream sequence. Then you meet another NPC who tells you all about how he's investigating a murder in a city that's miles and miles away and he needs your help, along with all the detail about who he is and the political considerations that went into selecting him for the job. While all this is happening you're also getting tutorials for new skills, perks, leveling and arcane fever systems.

It actually sounds interesting. Is the game good overall?

 

[Black Angel]

Yes, both Fallout games have terrible MQ hooks. Difference is, they open up immediately or almost immediately, not force you into a linear and inescapable succession of boring formulaic fetch/kill tasks.

It's 'boring' and 'formulaic' for you, but do note that you're (oh God, what am I saying here to you who just don't care about anything)

1. Familiarizing yourself with how things are done in SGS (the outposts needs to be turned back on, here's a parts needed to activate the main power generator/they need to diversify their cavehopper livestock gene pool, so you need to capture more of them) while getting to know some the residents at the same time (Harold, Ol' Jonas, Big Bret, Mordre, Newton, etc etc)
2. Helping them deal with a loose end they thought the had with an enemy from ancient history (Omega Station), where you ended up getting involved with a small habitat getting raided and held in a hostage situation
3. Finally, the big task which also acts as a filter to see whether or not your build can handle the rest of your game. And even if you feel like you're being forced into a linear and inescapable situation, how you find the drill parts is up to you and you get to interact with 3 different faction, and can either shift the power balance or let it be.

Good Lord, why do I even bother doing this to a random schmuck on an internet forum who dismissed everything as boring formulaic kill-loot-return activities without much thought....

People rationalizing bad formulaic quest design as being "realistic" or "justified" never cease to amaze me.

To that, I say, "People dismissing everything as bad formulaic quest designs without actually putting much thought into it never cease to amaze me.", especially if you only talked about the narrative and quests designs, without even factoring in the gameplay mechanics.

I'd understand if you leave it at, "It's not my cup of tea." or "It doesn't hook me in the first hour or so of gameplay, therefore it's not for me." or "I don't care for the SGS, fuck this game for literally blocking me off from going somewhere else", but claiming the game's first 20 hours doesn't have *any* plot hooks in sight is just disingenuous. Still, the story of Underrail is not even half of what hooked me to the game in the first place, so much as its gameplay mechanic from combat to stealth, so I always sees pre-drill parts of the game as a stretch of session to see if the build is working or not. Hence, my confusion as to why you claimed that part to last 20 hours, whereas everyone else I saw on Underrail thread, including me, took not even close to 10 or even 5 hours to finish Depot A.

 

[V_K]

Familiarizing yourself with how things are done in SGS (the outposts needs to be turned back on, here's a parts needed to activate the main power generator/they need to diversify their cavehopper livestock gene pool, so you need to capture more of them) while getting to know some the residents at the same time (Harold, Ol' Jonas, Big Bret, Mordre, Newton, etc etc)

Zzzzzzzzz

Helping them deal with a loose end they thought the had with an enemy from ancient history (Omega Station), where you ended up getting involved with a small habitat getting raided and held in a hostage situation

The Omega Station quest actually starts out intriguing - which makes it a ton more frustrating when it just fizzles out without leading anywhere.

Hence, my confusion as to why you claimed that part to last 20 hours, whereas everyone else I saw on Underrail thread, including me, took not even close to 10 or even 5 hours to finish Depot A.

I have three possible answers to that. Take your pick:
1. Maybe that's because you're using Cheatengine speedhack?
2. Might I suggest you google the expression "figure of speech"?
3. Even 5 hours is a huge time to invest into a game waiting for it to start properly.

Anyways, my original point was not to shit on Underrail but just to say that suggesting the game to someone whose problem is that he gets bored with the games' beginnings was not a good idea.

 

[Black Angel]

The Omega Station quest actually starts out intriguing - which makes it a ton more frustrating when it just fizzles out without leading anywhere.

What 'fizzles out without leading anywhere'? The place has long since been abandoned. One of the habitat resident locked those vault, and turns out for a good reason. And even then, you can ask for the key, either by yourself with speech or telling on him with other NPC, so you can go on checking it out by yourself.

1. Maybe that's because you're using Cheatengine speedhack?

Not even once, since I first started playing the game on release, did I ever touch or installed Cheat engine on my laptop.

2. Might I suggest you google the expression "figure of speech"?

Look, here we don't have a common ground because I don't know when was the last time you played and thus I can't just demand checking on your last save after finishing Depot A, while I merely speaks from personal experience of having finished the game few times and observing everyone else playing the game for the nth time, on DOMINATING of all difficulty mode. Not to mention that you might've been a storyfag with how you keep complaining how games don't have a hook in the first hours of gameplay.

But I still think your little figure of speech didn't work because from the start, claiming the game not having fast travel mechanic is wrong, because even between SGS and Junkyard there's that boat. And with the most recent update, there's an out-of-combat speed slider accessible without even having to go to Settings, so 'sloooooooooowly walking from A to B' is not entirely true.

3. Even 5 hours is a huge time to invest into a game waiting for it to start properly.

Once again, 'it to start properly' is subjective. You might not see those pre-drill parts as anything remotely interesting, but we're here to minmax and either punch, shoot, stab, smash, unload our bullet chambers in mere seconds, throw a fireball, or fry brains, depending on how you look at it. Whether or not there's a plot hooks in sight within the first 20 hours of gameplay isn't even half the fun, so eh ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[V_K]

What 'fizzles out without leading anywhere'? The place has long since been abandoned.

Which could have been a perfect excuse to introduce some ancient mysteries - like, you know, the one in the main quest. It would have been piss easy to start the bigger plot there, without even changing the general quest structure. Instead even the nominal mcguffin turns out a dud.

I can't just demand checking on your last save after finishing Depot A

My last save file is after finishing GMS compound and fucking around side areas of SGS a little bit but before starting the Junkyard. It clocks at a bit over 4 hours.

Once again, 'it to start properly' is subjective. You might not see those pre-drill parts as anything remotely interesting, but we're here to minmax and either punch, shoot, stab, smash, unload our bullet chambers in mere seconds, throw a fireball, or fry brains, depending on how you look at it. Whether or not there's a plot hooks in sight within the first 20 hours of gameplay isn't even half the fun, so eh ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Good for you. Me, I'm more of an exploration guy. And there's enough fun stuff to explore in UR, which makes it even more frustrating that you're locked from doing that by a succession of inane tasks that don't lead anywhere. If you insist on putting the main quest on rails, at least make the rails interesting. Generators and hoppers could have been easily turned into side quests, while GMS and Junkyard could have easily included some anticipation of the larger plot, and that already would have made the beginning a thousand times better.

 

[Black Angel]

Which could have been a perfect excuse to introduce some ancient mysteries - like, you know, the one in the main quest. It would have been piss easy to start the bigger plot there, without even changing the general quest structure.

But going from there would be 1 main quest too early, even without changing the general quest structure, for reasons I'll elaborate further below.

Instead even the nominal mcguffin turns out a dud.

It wasn't a dud, so much that you can't comprehend the 5W+1Hs of it other than the Whos and Wheres. What's important isn't the mcguffin itself, it's the things around it. I do agree having it taken away at the last second because 'reasons' was dumb, but the DLC didn't repeat this crime at least.

My last save file is after finishing GMS compound and fucking around side areas of SGS a little bit but before starting the Junkyard. It clocks at a bit over 4 hours.

Your first playthrough or your nth?

Good for you. Me, I'm more of an exploration guy. And there's enough fun stuff to explore in UR, which makes it even more frustrating that you're locked from doing that by a succession of inane tasks that don't lead anywhere. If you insist on putting the main quest on rails, at least make the rails interesting. Generators and hoppers could have been easily turned into side quests, while GMS and Junkyard could have easily included some anticipation of the larger plot, and that already would have made the beginning a thousand times better.

I'm also an exploration guy, but at least know that there's justified reason for why the quest and narrative are designed the way they were. Go ahead and call me rationalizing badly formulated quest design here all you want, but hear me out first.
The earthquakes which cut off the SGS from northward was not a natural one, as you can immediately see right after finding the drill part. So right off the bat you were blocked by these seemingly natural earthquakes causing rubbles to fall on arbitrary places and blocking off certain pathways. At the same time, you're the new guy in the station. You can express your distaste at this all you want, but you can't deny them not wanting to immediately trust you with a big task. And then once you find the drill parts and the rubbles are cleared, you're immediately greeted with the cutscenes showing the Faceless attacking a major settlement. Hence why I said introducing the mystery immediately at Omega station is 1 main quest too early. There's also no logical way of putting the ancient mystery this early without being 'in your face', considering the Faceless has literally zero reasons to be there, and so does the concerned parties. Having woken up after days of your first works, you're immediately greeted to not only finding the missing SGS persons, but also finding out more about the earthquake, which turns out to be linked to one another.

And that's about it. You can express all your distaste of this, calling me rationalizing badly formulated quest designs, but I think not every RPG has to start with some world-ending plot device and mysteries immediately thrown in your face within seconds of starting a new game. Yeah, I'm exaggerating, but like I said introducing the Mcguffin at the Omega station would've been 1 main quest too early considering you're still stuck because of the earthquake which turned out to be caused by a faction closely linked with the Mcguffin. Not to mention they still need to test whether or not your build have what it takes, because that's the meat and mead of Underrail: the combat gameplay.