Trigger the codex with a statement.

[Vic]

visual novels without gameplay

Why would you do this to yourself? Just go read a book or a comic instead.

I do all 3 actually, though lately I've been more into reading manga. Currently reading Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
The last VN I've read was The House in Fata Morgana, which was mostly just romance stuff



I think a big draw of VNs compared to light novels or books is the music. The soundtrack of Fata Morgana is fantastic (68 tracks).

 

[Dadd]

Currently reading Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

How is it?

 

[Vic]

Currently reading Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

How is it?

The art is incredible, every page has so much detail and text it takes a long time to read. The chocobos in Final Fantasy were inspired by the horseclaws in that manga.

 

[Reinhardt]

The last VN I've read was The House in Fata Morgana, which was mostly just romance stuff

oh, you mean this kwality shit?

 

[Vic]

this reminds me I still have to read the sequel

 

[UndeadHalfOrc]

You can spam shots at the enemies when they're approaching you, before the actual encounter begins. I think the intent was that you could only get one shot off for each tile they move forward, but in practice it's more than that, and frequently the enemies die before reaching you. You can equip bows as secondary weapons on most classes, so it's not a real commitment to the archer lifestyle.

Unless you've discovered some game bug the enemies always move 1 tile per shot you take, and shots you take have always been weak as hell as I remember it. And enemies don't just walk forward, they attack at the same time.

It's true that bow attacks are only 1 shot per "turn" per character, but in MM3 there is a glitch that doubles your shots per turn if you keep the S button pressed. It's definitely an unintended glitch because using the mouse click doesn't do that, and they completely fixed it in Xeen, so I don't abuse the glitch.
And yeah, obviously it's pointless to use bows if the enemies have a strong ranged attacks, better to just charge forward then. This is true for all games with bows and magic that have a movement phase.

With that said, heroism and holy bonus both work wonders at boosting Bow accuracy and damage, respectively. I tested it, they make a huge difference, just as they do on melee physical attacks.
Especially holy bonus. Every cleric level is 1 more damage per bow shot.

In the M&M thread I said i downgraded all obsidian weapons to diamond, and diamond to sapphire, using a save game editor, to make the game harder for physical attackers. Well, I don't do that to bows, so Obsidian bows are the only obsidian weapons I keep around.

 

[Zlaja]

I purchased both Rage games.

 

[Wesp5]

I purchased both Rage games.

I loved the first Rage game! Great characters still better than anything Unreal can deliver today, beautiful graphics, vehicle combat, a kind of quest system and all of it combined with the usual id shooter combat. The problem was that my system couldn't handle it at the time which is probably what made the game fail! For once John Carmack didn't optimize enough for the concurrent hardware. It's a shame it never got the sequel it needed, Rage 2 was completely different and basically just mediocre open-world rubbish...

 

[Halfling Rodeo]

I purchased both Rage games.

I loved the first Rage game! Great characters still better than anything Unreal can deliver today, beautiful graphics, vehicle combat, a kind of quest system and all of it combined with the usual id shooter combat. The problem was that my system couldn't handle it at the time which is probably what made the game fail! For once John Carmack didn't optimize enough for the concurrent hardware. It's a shame it never got the sequel it needed, Rage 2 was completely different and basically just mediocre open-world rubbish...

Rage 1 was fun. We need more boomerangs in FPS games.

Rage 2 has a guy wearing a butt plug on a leash being walked by another guy with heavy sexual overtones. The gameplay has improved but the content was so revolting I didn't want to play any further. It wasn't even funny-GTA gross. It was Twitter artist gross.

 

[Wesp5]

I purchased both Rage games.

I loved the first Rage game! Great characters still better than anything Unreal can deliver today, beautiful graphics, vehicle combat, a kind of quest system and all of it combined with the usual id shooter combat. The problem was that my system couldn't handle it at the time which is probably what made the game fail! For once John Carmack didn't optimize enough for the concurrent hardware. It's a shame it never got the sequel it needed, Rage 2 was completely different and basically just mediocre open-world rubbish...

Rage 1 was fun. We need more boomerangs in FPS games.

Yeah, that weapon was really great! I didn't have more fun since Klingon Honor Guard who had something simular .

 

[Cancer]

D&D is still holding Western RPGs back. Games should explore new ideas and locations, not endlessly rehash what was a poorly conceived setting to begin with. The sooner we get rid of D&Ds limp class system and childish alignment system, the better.

"Leveling" is a lazy game mechanic that is primarily designed to trigger dopamine. Levels shouldn't exist. Only skills and attributes should increase, and of course only by using them, not by the equally lazy "XP" mechanic.

 

[solemgar]

D&D is still holding Western RPGs back. Games should explore new ideas and locations, not endlessly rehash what was a poorly conceived setting to begin with. The sooner we get rid of D&Ds limp class system and childish alignment system, the better.

"Leveling" is a lazy game mechanic that is primarily designed to trigger dopamine. Levels shouldn't exist. Only skills and attributes should increase, and of course only by using them, not by the equally lazy "XP" mechanic.

Happy that new blood keeps carrying the torch

 

[orcinator]

D&D is still holding Western RPGs back. Games should explore new ideas and locations, not endlessly rehash what was a poorly conceived setting to begin with. The sooner we get rid of D&Ds limp class system and childish alignment system, the better.

"Leveling" is a lazy game mechanic that is primarily designed to trigger dopamine. Levels shouldn't exist. Only skills and attributes should increase

Only skills and attributes should increase, and of course only by using them, not by the equally lazy "XP" mechanic.

 

[TedNugent]

D&D is still holding Western RPGs back. Games should explore new ideas and locations, not endlessly rehash what was a poorly conceived setting to begin with. The sooner we get rid of D&Ds limp class system and childish alignment system, the better.

"Leveling" is a lazy game mechanic that is primarily designed to trigger dopamine. Levels shouldn't exist. Only skills and attributes should increase, and of course only by using them, not by the equally lazy "XP" mechanic.

Yet we live in a world where D&D is probably one of the more sophisticated CRPG systems that you see still being made...

At least you know what you're gonna get with D&D and the various spinoffs.

It's funny, when people look back with rose tinted glasses at the golden era of RPGs and so many of them are D&D based (NWN, MOTB, IWD, BG, PS:T, ToEE).

On the other end of the spectrum, we have the diarrhea of modern MMORPGs, and shit like Larian Studios, Dragon Age, Skyrim, etc. My simple fear is that if you ripped the bandaid off on D&D, you'd get something that would be similar to modern button mash ARPGs in its place. At least with D&D, some studios and tabletop designers still have the annoyance of the wrong things that D&D does as the impetus to make minor improvements, or better yet, design their own systems.

Only skills and attributes should increase, and of course only by using them, not by the equally lazy "XP" mechanic.

Oh, yes, if only we had such a wonderful....

 

[Butter]

The TES system still uses XP. Each skill tracks its own XP and then levels up when it crosses a threshold. The game just doesn't tell you how much XP you're earning whenever you perform an action (can you imagine how obnoxious that would be, especially for Athletics?).

 

[Caim]

The TES system still uses XP. Each skill tracks its own XP and then levels up when it crosses a threshold. The game just doesn't tell you how much XP you're earning whenever you perform an action (can you imagine how obnoxious that would be, especially for Athletics?).

"+1 Athletics XP" scrolling from the bottom to the top of the screen like the Star Wars opening on crack.

 

[Dadd]

Only cookie clickers require less intelligence to play than CRPGs.

 

[IDtenT]

Only cookie clickers require less intelligence to play than CRPGs.

Cookie clickers are RPGs.

 

[Itoh]

An RPG is a game in which the player is offered multiple means of overcoming challenges, and must build a character or character in a way which favors certain methods over others. The key element is specialization - any point spent in a certain stat/skill locks you out of spending it on something else, so the player cannot access the full toolset in a single playthrough. So a game like Dark Souls(where it's effectively impossible to max every stat) is an RPG; a game like Bloodstained isn't despite having stats and levels. A narrative-heavy game like Disco Elysium is still an RPG, while a typical visual novel is not, unless your plot choices are somehow restricted by character builds.

(Incidentally, this is also why respec is the worst cancer to ever afflict the genre)

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Cookie Monster must go nutz wondering where the “cookies” are and why they don’t appear. Silly monster.

 

[Sweeper]

D&D is still holding Western RPGs back. Games should explore new ideas and locations, not endlessly rehash what was a poorly conceived setting to begin with. The sooner we get rid of D&Ds limp class system and childish alignment system, the better.

"Leveling" is a lazy game mechanic that is primarily designed to trigger dopamine. Levels shouldn't exist. Only skills and attributes should increase, and of course only by using them, not by the equally lazy "XP" mechanic.

D&D is still holding Western RPGs back. Games should explore new ideas and locations, not endlessly rehash what was a poorly conceived setting to begin with. The sooner we get rid of D&Ds limp class system and childish alignment system, the better.

"Leveling" is a lazy game mechanic that is primarily designed to trigger dopamine. Levels shouldn't exist. Only skills and attributes should increase, and of course only by using them, not by the equally lazy "XP" mechanic.

Happy that new blood keeps carrying the torch

Ban all newfags.
And before you start, I'm well aware. I'm perfectly happy to burn so long as they burn alongside me.

 

[Caim]

An RPG is a game in which the player is offered multiple means of overcoming challenges, and must build a character or character in a way which favors certain methods over others. The key element is specialization - any point spent in a certain stat/skill locks you out of spending it on something else, so the player cannot access the full toolset in a single playthrough. So a game like Dark Souls(where it's effectively impossible to max every stat) is an RPG; a game like Bloodstained isn't despite having stats and levels. A narrative-heavy game like Disco Elysium is still an RPG, while a typical visual novel is not, unless your plot choices are somehow restricted by character builds.

(Incidentally, this is also why respec is the worst cancer to ever afflict the genre)

An RPG where numerical growth is required to beat the game and the player gets to direct this growth in order to progress.

 

[Kiste]

Only skills and attributes should increase, and of course only by using them, not by the equally lazy "XP" mechanic.

Right. Swinging at the enemy and seeing skill numbers go up. Sneaking around town like a paedo to get Sneak up to useful levels. Bunnyhop around the place like a retard to get Athletics up. Stand in the corner and cast spells over and over to get the corresponding skill up.

Riveting gameplay. If you're an Oblivion-era Bethestard.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Yeah, TES leveling system is pretty silly.
Morrowind was great, but you also had to do some weird shit to level up in that game too. Like, constantly casting magic or jump everywhere. Still not as bad as Oblivion though, because the level scaling wasn't stupid so you don't get murdered by sudden level 30 goblin because you did squats to get nice thighs leveled up athletics by accident.

Maybe the Stalker or the FHunger is the better way to do it. No leveling, but gear and skill dependent. But then there's no actual character progression or growth, and your character will always be a noodle armed manlet :/

 

[Lemming42]

Morrowind was truly unforgiveable because of the way increasing attributes worked on level up. The thing where your advancement in each attribute is determined by skill use was fucking abominable, especially since you continue to level up without getting additional bonuses if you don't go to sleep. Duck-walking in someone's bedroom for two hours to reach 100 Sneak was dumb enough (especially in MW where plenty of NPCs can't even move to detect you), but the even worse part is that it propels you to like level 20 if you tagged Sneak as a major skill and your grand reward is a one-time dose of +5 to agility on your next level up, and the other 90+ levels of Sneak you gained are ignored for bonus purposes, because the bonus was only factored in for the next level up.

So you have to arbitrarily stop what you're doing and go sleep as soon as the level up message shows up, lest you end up with a level-up backlog that causes you to be spammed with unwanted, bonus-less level ups the next nineteen times you try to sleep, which offer you precisely jack shit beyond a crap +1 investment in any attribute, but also make the game slightly harder because of level scaling. Literally punishing the player for efficient and speedy skill training. Unbelievable. So you're encouraged to do really specific skill training to get the full +5 bonuses on level up, which means doing tons of inane gamey shit like spamming 1 mana custom spells for magic skills and auto-walking in water for Athletics. The Arena/Daggerfall way where you get a random number from 1 - 6 to spend on attributes was also completely terrible but somehow less offensive than whatever the hell they were playing at there.

I forget if it was the same in Oblivion, probably was, but regardless it's the worst thing ever devised.