Spiderweb The best beginning in an RPG

[anvi]

I have a huge hardon for Eye of the Beholder 2 just because it is so straight to the point. I hate stories in games, and dialogue especially, so setting up a good plot and story in 30 seconds and sending you off to investigate the dungeon was perfect.

Also EverQuest has zero story and zero intro which was an experience in itself. You pick a race and class, I went with a half elf, and I started in an elven village in the tree tops. You get no intro and no guide on anything. (Actually there was an intro but it was mostly telling you how the world was created, it doesn't mention your character at all). So you start as an anonymous noob elf in a town full of elves doing elfy things. And from that you set out and figure things out for yourself, talking to characters in the town and other real players and going off to hunt.

Bloodlines was pretty good. It is the first time I had seen a game try to be funny and actually succeeded. I grew up playing games like Monkey Island and stuff which I enjoyed but I never found them funny at all, even though they really tried. Also the tutorial was decent and introduced lots of different game mechanics.

A clear mission and an impetus to complete it swiftly, yet with absolute freedom to go any and everywhere right from the start.

I still think this is one of the best games ever made. It really deserves a remake. Did you see one of the original devs is remaking the whole first part of the game in some slick new engine? He is doing it as an educational thing or something, not to be sold, but it makes me drool every time I look at it.

 

[luj1]

Arena/Daggerfall

 

[Sigourn]

It's a low-hanging fruit, but I honestly can't think of an RPG or even a game that could top the bombing mission in Final Fantasy VII for sheer style, momentum and expediency. The tracking shot of Midgar is more or less the single greatest FMV sequence in gaming

I think you may be seeing through nostalgia lenses. I don't think it holds up well at all:

The initial part with the sparks takes way too long, the graphics don't look particularly good, the music doesn't draw you in, and the random cuts to the train wheels feel random and out of place. The transition from the CGI to the in-game is kind of neat, except that the animations and sound effects lack any oomph. I do remember it fondly, but watching it now, it seems pretty bad.

Besides the sparks, which I agree (some times they feel too long, other times it feels like they were cut by half, it's weird), I think the intro sequence is excellent. I like the cut to the train wheels, it anticipates something big is going to happen.

I would have to rank them:

1) Vagrant Story, by far the best one.
2) Final Fantasy VII.

 

[MilesBeyond]

Morrowind by far. Minimal bullshit, and there's maybe five minutes between you clicking the "New Game" button and you being fully, 100% done with the intro stuff and starting the game. A lot of older RPGs qualify for that as well - most Wizardry and M&M games that I can recall. See, to me, that's the optimal intro. Short, sweet, and intent on giving the player the full experience ASAP. I rank Morrowind slightly higher than the rest just because of that first stepping off the boat experience, and the open world meaning that you're not funnelled into specific early game activities.

Conversely, the worst intros are the ones that take forever, where you can play for an hour or more and you still haven't reached the actual gameplay yet. Oblivion and Fallout 3 were both massive culprits for this, even moreso because they're open world games where whatever appeal either of those games might have (that is to say, very little) comes from the open world emergent storytelling, which is the exact opposite of what the intros put you through. In a game like PST you an easily spend at least an hour running around the monastery talking to everyone and exploring every nook and cranny, but that's different because that is, in many ways, the quintessential PST experience: Talk to everyone, search everything, and see all the cool shit that can happen as a result.

I suppose what I'm getting at is that intros have a bad tendency to be a watered down version of whatever the actual game is, and 90% of the time whatever makes the game great won't be obvious or super visible from the intro. So to me, the best intros are the ones that barely exist.

 

[ilitarist]

I suppose what I'm getting at is that intros have a bad tendency to be a watered down version of whatever the actual game is, and 90% of the time whatever makes the game great won't be obvious or super visible from the intro. So to me, the best intros are the ones that barely exist.

The real problem with long intros is the fact they are not skippable. Even if you don't want cheap "Do you want to skip tutorial" messages it's not so hard to do really, see Dark Souls 2 intro where you can go to various sidetracks to learn the game or just walk ahead and get done with it. The worst offender I remember was Skyrim, at least in Falout 2 and 3 you get to do something in the intro while in Skyrim you just sit and listen to stuff for 10 minutes and then follow a guy for 10 more minutes, it wasn't even interesting for the first time. Say what you want about Fallout 3 but this intro was at least interesting, don't remember any other game trying to write your biography in the intro without using a questionare. But when you know what you're doing it's tedious and allows you to start the proper game with maxed out karma.

While we're talking about intros that are better than the rest of the game - Dragon Age 2. It has a good way of showing you what a high level powerful character means (it starts with unreliable narrator explaining a story in a heroic fantasy way) and then throws some genuinly challenging battles at you. Maybe too challenging if you try high difficulty, but at least it's straightforward about it. It also teaches you that your choices in dialogue do not matter - an important lesson.

 

[Krivol]

Skyrim intro is great - you can grind sneak and weapons and spell on your dummy guide character and leave tutorial with lvl 50

 

[an Administrator]

Fallout 3

I mean, how many RPGs let you start the game as a child? It was a very innovative idea.

 

[Nutria]

in Skyrim you just sit and listen to stuff for 10 minutes and then follow a guy for 10 more minutes, it wasn't even interesting for the first time.

Halfway through that I had already stopped giving a shit about the main plot. Dropping the names of a bunch of characters and places without actually showing them to me is the worst possible kind of exposition. Pillars of Eternity had the same problem but at least I could just click through that if I wanted to.

I thought the intro of Fallout 3 wasn't that bad. It was the only part of the game where the story was actually well thought-out. And it made you really appreciate the freedom of the open world once you got out of the vault. It's all of the plot, setting, and characters from that point on that suck.

 

[ilitarist]

in Skyrim you just sit and listen to stuff for 10 minutes and then follow a guy for 10 more minutes, it wasn't even interesting for the first time.

Halfway through that I had already stopped giving a shit about the main plot. Dropping the names of a bunch of characters and places without actually showing them to me is the worst possible kind of exposition. Pillars of Eternity had the same problem but at least I could just click through that if I wanted to.

What do you mean about PoE? I remember you had a couple of characters in the beginning who served as the lore dump but they only had couple of paragraphs unless you actually ask questions, didn't they? Then you have a couple of fights and go into the dungeon that allows various solutions to problems and some secrets with good rewards.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

I liked the beginning of Wiz8 a lot, from full party creation to Monastery level design, to art direction and those amazingly charming talking portraits.

Gothic was also really good at setting the scene and tone.

Ultima Underworld was a pretty special beginning at the time as well.

 

[MicoSelva]

Whats the best beginning you have ever experienced in an RPG? Where you felt the most like it was the start of something special?

Planescape: Torment, hands down.
Dark Souls was pretty good too.

I guess I like the 'start as dead, be reborn during the journey' theme.

EDIT:
Baldur's Gate 2 was pretty good too. Many people hate the initial dungeon, but I have always enjoyed it, even on replays.
Also, the original Gothic got me hooked right away.
The beginning was also the best thing about Beyond Divinity - too bad the rest of the game was not very good.
And let us not forget Serpent in the Staglands.

 

[thesheeep]

Hmmm, what came to my mind first was Lands Of Lore 2.
The beginning really got you into a great mood of wonder and discovery.

The rest of the game wasn't that great, though.

 

[Morality Games]

The best beginning in an RPG

On the personal level of dreams and emotions, Final Fantasy VI. It was the first RPG I ever played and had the best beginning of any Final Fantasy game.

In Codex parlance, probably Arcanum. Maybe PS:T.

I see a thread here. Maybe I just like steampunk fantasy.

 

[PhlebasIskander]

Arcanum or Deus Ex. I'm a sucker for multiple ways to handle complex problems and having the game react around my choices.

 

[McPlusle]

Beginnings are really fucking hard, now that I think about it. Fallout's is excellent in that it basically (completely if you know how to end the story without the water chip) cuts you loose right from the start, with only a short cutscene and a tiny combat area standing between you and the rest of the game's world. VtM: Bloodlines also has a fantastic introductory section.

And now that I'm thinking about it, Bethesda has only ever made one good beginning and that's Morrowind. The character creation process is fucking lightspeed compared to the absurdly long prologues of Daggerfall, Oblivion, and Fallout 3.

 

[PhlebasIskander]

The character creation process is fucking lightspeed

Especially given that you can glitch your way through the census & taxes office in Seyda Neen to even skip the last step if you're a bad enough dude.

 

[Roscoe Scaggs]

A lot of great choices already covered, I'd like to add a few more:

Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession- You start off in normal FR setting and chase after a stolen relic, and when you catch and kill the thief you get sucked into the goth fog. It is made clear you are in a new world and you are in over your head.

Star Control 2- Wow! We finally made it back to Earth! Wait, what is that red thing? What is this probe? 'ATTENTION INTERLOOPER! HEED THIS RECORDED MESSAGE!'

Sword of Vermilion- Basically for the music on the first town. The title music isn't bad either.

 

[miles teg]

Kotor 2. I was expecting the classic lame tutorial and instead I got sucked in this investigation about what happened in this base. I remember having fun putting all the pieces together by myself. Although some might add that this was big intro rather than a tutorial.

 

[HoboForEternity]

Trails in the sky third chapter was badass

 

[Master]

Fallout 1 really had the best beginning. That intro video, then the overseer explains the situation and the Rat Cave which you can finish in 15 seconds. Its just perfect. FO2 was overly drawn out in all these areas but i liked that part when Ron Perlman says "...but the Earth has not forgotten" something like that. It gets me all pumped but then Temple of Trials just kills me.

 

[Chunkyman]

I like the beginning of Darklands because it doesn't shoehorn you down a particular path. Simple and allows you to RP however you feel like without feeling like you're doing something "wrong".

Fallout NV and Oblivion also had comfy intros but they didn't really stand out to me as exceptional.

Morrowind probably has the greatest intro of any video game. It really does capture the feeling of "stranger in a strange land" better than just about anything else that has been created.

 

[Ivan]

gothic 2

 

[SharkClub]

Daggerfall's starter dungeon is great, you can basically run through it in like a minute.
Fallout's rat cave is perfect for the game, the smallest possible "starter dungeon" that you can literally just run past all the rats or test out your combat skills on the weakest enemies in the game.

Any game where the starter area is informative/welcoming enough for a first playthrough and not obtuse/intrusive on repeated playthroughs.

 

[bylam]

How the fuck are people saying Fallout 3?
The brilliance of the original Fallout was that you (as the player) begin to play a character who is in the exact same boat as you. You know nothing of the outside world and you set off to explore it together. This, and it was done without use of the amnesiac mechanism which is the cheapest possible way of getting the same effect.

And then Fallout 3 takes a massive dump on that idea. Here is your birth. Your father. Your friends. Your vault. The player isn't even the hero of the story, their fucking father is and they just tag along in his footsteps. And the fact that the media praised it as some revolutionary introduction to the game... People go and watch the Transformer movies too, I guess.

 

[Nutria]

What do you mean about PoE? I remember you had a couple of characters in the beginning who served as the lore dump but they only had couple of paragraphs unless you actually ask questions, didn't they? Then you have a couple of fights and go into the dungeon that allows various solutions to problems and some secrets with good rewards.

Maybe it was just in the questions, but I was afraid that if I didn't ask I would miss out on something important. It's been awhile and I can't remember that well, but it seems like there was a lot of talk about places that I hadn't yet seen on a map and races that I hadn't yet encountered.