Infuriating Developer Decisions in RPGs

[Chippy]

Use this thread to post a list of things that create rage for you in RPGs. Ideally for all the prestigious developers who read the Codex and can use them to enhance their games, and for the retarded developers who...need help in avoiding basic pitfalls.

My top hate that makes me want to kneecap Bioware and Obsidian developers: magically teleoprting the main character to dialogue with an enemy (as per NWN2) and then ambushing them with enemies when combat was inevitable all along - as per ME & most Bioware games. Also seen in Obsidian's NWN2.

What's the point of having a party and stealth characters if you're going to gang-butt-and-face-fuck the main character everytime they talk to an enemy?.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

when they make rpgs that aren't scifi

 

[Tihskael]

Todd should have never cut back on radiant AI.

 

[JamesDixon]

Todd Howard should have never been allowed to touch TES and ruin it with his trash.

 

[agris]

Crafting

 

[DeepOcean]

Level scaling by far.

 

[Can't handle the bacon]

Allowing savescumming.

Having a difficulty level selection that forces you to pick blindly. What is "normal" - piss-easy combat for casuals or something that's actually reasonably challenging? What is "hard" - something entertainingly difficult, or ridiculously unbalanced garbage for autists with too much time on their hands?

Any RPG should have at most two difficulty levels - normal and easy. With normal being reasonably challenging but well-balanced and not a timewaster once you git gud, and easy for casuals and gamerthots.

 

[Arbiter]

1. Same animations played over and over again for no good reason, for example a character in Fallout always holstering their weapon before attempting to open a locker or a door.
2. Ancient evil/chosen one stories.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Real-Time-with-Pause combat systems, which inevitably combines the downsides of both real-time and turn-based systems without any redeeming value.

 

[undecaf]

Turning reknowned RPG franchises into scummy slow-witted first person shooters.
Revisiting other good old franchises and turning them into scummy slow-witted first person shooters.
Thinking that making RPGs into first person shooters/stabbers and that traditional RPG systems can't match with FPP view and that they have to be streamlined to hell, is all that can possibly be thought of.
(Fallout, Cyberpunk, Syndicate, TOW, and so on...)

Yeah, Syndicate isn't an RPG, but it bummed me that it was remade the way it was remade.

 

[Dorateen]

Developer companions. To the point in the OP, that scenario would not happen in the absence of a special snowflake main protagonist. Rather, the adventuring party should be treated like a team of individuals, each selectable by the player to perform actions dependent on situational context.

 

[purupuru]

Voiced custom protagonist.

 

[curds]

When the dialogue option is different to what the player character actually says. The worst part is that as far as I can tell there is not even any reason behind this. I blame The Witcher 2, but maybe there is an earlier game that does this that I'm not aware of.

Lengthy exposition.

Lengthy/lots of cutscenes.

Lack of basic reactivity. Total reactivity is a lot to ask for, I know, but you've gotta have the basics. Take any Elder Scrolls game, for example: You can join the Fighters' Guild after literally saving the world and they will not recognise you and will treat you like shit.

The absolute worst: When there is something so simple that you obviously should be able to do, but can't because the developer didn't think of it or (more likely) bother to implement it. For example, player character can't tell NPC #1 that NPC #2 stole from NPC #1.

 

[Zanzoken]

I have written about this before, but my #1 most hated RPG trope is Diablo-style loot treadmills, Divinity "item fever", and any other form of rampant itemization.

Some key features of this abortion of a design philosophy...

- Illogical, randomized item design: You got an Amulet of Fire Magic, Lockpicking, and Poison Resistance! Because that's totally something a person would enchant and find useful.

- Nonsensical item distribution: You looted the aforementioned Amulet off of a giant rat you just killed. But where did the rat get this? Why was he carrying it? And how, for that matter?

- Boring, linear, granular item progression: You just got a new sword. It's a Level 6 which does +2.7% damage, compared to the Level 4 you picked up a couple maps ago which only does +2.3% damage. After 50 hours of this, the reward centers in your brain are completely fried.

- Devalued artifacts: You explored the ancient castle of Dickendorf and managed to recover Belenfuck's Sword, a long lost artifact! A few levels later, you kill a bandit and loot a Plain Iron Sword that has better stats.

- Consumable spam: You are having a hard time in a particular encounter. Perhaps you should come up with a better strategy? Nope, just pause the game and drink 5 potions in a row so your health is refilled.

Could probably come up with more examples, but you get the idea.

 

[Mustawd]

Unskippable cutscenes.

In TB games, animation length that cannot be sped up or shortened.

 

[anvi]

Solasta could have been the most incredible RPG and sandbox RPG builder, but they wasted so much on the stupid voices, cutscenes, stories, babbling dialogues, over engineered map/travel system, etc. I wish devs would make the core game and get it good, then add extra things as they go, if they can. Much better than just trying to do everything with no money. Also storyfags have totally ruined gaming. Also why do studios assume every gamer is 12? I want to play action games even as I get older but all the stupid kiddie shit is really offputting. I am fine with stylized games but all the sunday morning cartoon characters are annoying as fuck. I'm sure Fortnite, and Overwatch and stuff is probably something I might like, gameplay wise, but the annoying voices and characters and stuff makes me stay well away. It also makes their audiences so young that I feel uncomfortable even playing the same game as them.

Gameplay wise I am bothered a lot by MOBAs. I love the idea of well tuned multiplayer battles, but the 3 lanes on the exact same map EVERY game and you grind for 20 minutes before the real action starts, and you have to find your own people to play with otherwise you get retards that ruin the game and stuff? Wtf! Did the dipshit that designed these things never play NOX?!!? I love the combat though, it's like a multiplayer action RPG. But so many infuriating decisions.

I was going to make a thread like this too because if a game is way off then screw it. But if a game is kinda good but could have been great, and was held back by some dumb design choices, that's infuriating!

 

[Siveon]

Allowing savescumming.

Having a difficulty level selection that forces you to pick blindly. What is "normal" - piss-easy combat for casuals or something that's actually reasonably challenging? What is "hard" - something entertainingly difficult, or ridiculously unbalanced garbage for autists with too much time on their hands?

Any RPG should have at most two difficulty levels - normal and easy. With normal being reasonably challenging but well-balanced and not a timewaster once you git gud, and easy for casuals and gamerthots.

All of this here really. I'm already annoyed that most RPGs start you off with exactly zero knowledge of the game but tell you to build a character anyway, then they ask you to trust their own judgement on difficulty.

 

[Tavernking]

I'm always disappointed by games that look great but insist on real-time combat.

Fates of Ort, Code of the Savage, etc.

Look, this one even uses a grid system but it's still real-time

 

[Wunderbar]

I think I've seen this thread like three or four times already.

 

[anvi]

Cuz they never learn!

 

[Alienman]

Removing the one cool thing from Neverwinter Nights 1 when they made Neverwinter Nights 2 - the combat animations. Will never get this.

 

[Irxy]

I'm always disappointed by games that look great but insist on real-time combat.
Fates of Ort, Code of the Savage, etc.
Look, this one even uses a grid system but it's still real-time

I'm always disappointed by games that give zero shit about proportions.

 

[Gregz]

Your Most Hated Gameplay Elements? (poll)

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/your-most-hated-gameplay-elements-poll.136581/

 

[alighieri]

- women
- minorities

can't think of anything else

 

[oscar]

Goofy lol random plots. I didn't mind Dungeon of Naheulbeuk too much because it's framed from the get-go as a parody (and fires enough humour that some manages to hit). But Larian shit is an atrocious mix of bad childish humour (a lot just plain weird) with a serious plot that didn't end up working at all.

Spending stupid amounts of time and resources on things like voicing every single banal line of dialogue (what means for indie devs that everyone sounds like shit and you skip through it anyway). Arcanum did it nice with great voice actors used sparingly at the introduction of the character and a few important moments.

Character customisation (where everyone looks fugly anyway). Bonus points if half the female haircuts are buzzed sides (what a dorky game developer 10 years out of trend sees as badass and edgy)>

Nostalgia-baiting shitty pixel art. Looks worse than stuff from the 90s anyway. Bonus points if dialogue becomes borderline unreadable from it.

Forced online elements or MMO-lite gimmicks.

Irrelevant survival/camping aspects.

Kingdom building in Pathfinder: Kingmaker.