Are Bioware style party RPGs dead?

[Kerg3927]

Never played KOTOR but I can confirm that all your other examples were filled with a lot of tedious side quests. Followed the main story? There are 4 missions out of.... What a 100 that was related to the main story in ME2. Sure that's the worst example (a lot worse than ME:A or DA:I), but your detested examples were just doing exactly what they done before. About 10 main mission and a bunch of time wasters. BG 1 main mission had four steps. Survive the first battle. Get to the city. Get sidetracked by political in fighting. Kill Saverk. That was the COMPLETE main plot. Even ME2 had a more in depth main story (BG1 wasn't overblown with filler quests so it's not as bad in this instance.) Here's the funny thing, a lot of mission in ME:A were related to the main mission - making Andromeda viable. Clear enemies, deal with political intrigue, boost defences, hunt monsters, build alliances and gather resources. I think ME:A problem is that too many side quests are related to the main mission that it gets bogged down in boring quests.

As to characters, Liara was pretty trash from day one and only got cool through the sequels. I never cared about Garrus until ME2. Remember Jack, that trash fire. Wannabe Wrex? Freddie Prince Jnr? Or how Tali was interesting in ME1 and then was squandered. Anders and his absolute nonsense. Sebastian and Fenris having huge stick up their asses... Or Alistair, making the game pretty unpleasant. Oghrim is the worst character ever written by Bioware. Don't get me wrong. PB etc. is pretty bad. She's just par for the course.

Endless fetch quests can go suck an egg though.

I consider the dossier and loyalty missions in ME2 to be part of the main story. Your main objective is to form a party, help them with their own problems and make them loyal, to increase your chances of success in the final battle.

Since I am an uber-nerd completionist, I happen to have all of the missions in the ME trilogy plugged into a spreadsheet checklist. Here's the breakdown for ME2...

Plot, Dossier, and Loyalty Missions: 30
Other Missions (including DLC): 61

That's not a bad ratio. It's a pretty good balance, IMO.

I don't know the exact numbers, but for DAI, it was more like 30 to 300. And the filler quests were a lot more tedious because they involved exploring stupidly huge maps.

 

[CriticalGaming]

I don't know about their style of RPGs, but Bioware sure is dead. They died the minute they were bought out by EA and have been a programming flesh puppet ever since.

Basically this. I mean Bioware has gone to hell in a handbasket.

But on another note, wtf is a "Bioware-style" rpg? You mean a game with a dialog wheel? Or an Rpg with moral choice? I don't understand what Bioware's style was?

There are great RPG's coming out all the time. Cyberpunk 2077 is looking pretty fucking slick.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Dragon Quest 11 just came out and it's a long ass party based rpg so I think we're good.

Dude totally just started this game last night, and it is such a nice game. Like the art style is wonderful, but above all else, it is an easy-going laid back rpg that just makes you feel good while playing. It might be the best 2018 game so far.

 

[Kerg3927]

Dragon Quest 11 just came out and it's a long ass party based rpg so I think we're good.

This might be the answer. I just wish Japanese devs would make games more realistic looking, instead of everything being anime art style. I know it's very popular - to each his own - but I've never been a fan. I actually wish I liked it, because it would open up a lot more gaming options, but it all looks like Dragonball Z and Speed Racer to me.

 

[Bilious Green_v1legacy]

In the AAA gaming world, yes. They are still alive and well in the indies, however.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Dragon Quest 11 just came out and it's a long ass party based rpg so I think we're good.

This might be the answer. I just wish Japanese devs would make games more realistic looking, instead of everything being anime art style. I know it's very popular - to each his own - but I've never been a fan. I actually wish I liked it, because it would open up a lot more gaming options, but it all looks like Dragonball Z and Speed Racer to me.

See, Dragon Quest has been drawn by the DBZ mangaka since the 80s, so that's kinda the POINT haha. It's a huge selling point.

There's various art styles, some are more realistic than others. Maybe try final fantasy 15? That's the closest you'll get to a jrpg that looks realistic while still feeling authentically Japanese.

Dragon Quest 11 just came out and it's a long ass party based rpg so I think we're good.

Dude totally just started this game last night, and it is such a nice game. Like the art style is wonderful, but above all else, it is an easy-going laid back rpg that just makes you feel good while playing. It might be the best 2018 game so far.

Definitely! It's the most soulful and classic series and it had been missing from mainstay consoles for over a decade, since the ps2 era. It's such a joyous occasion.

 

[Trunkage]

Never played KOTOR but I can confirm that all your other examples were filled with a lot of tedious side quests. Followed the main story? There are 4 missions out of.... What a 100 that was related to the main story in ME2. Sure that's the worst example (a lot worse than ME:A or DA:I), but your detested examples were just doing exactly what they done before. About 10 main mission and a bunch of time wasters. BG 1 main mission had four steps. Survive the first battle. Get to the city. Get sidetracked by political in fighting. Kill Saverk. That was the COMPLETE main plot. Even ME2 had a more in depth main story (BG1 wasn't overblown with filler quests so it's not as bad in this instance.) Here's the funny thing, a lot of mission in ME:A were related to the main mission - making Andromeda viable. Clear enemies, deal with political intrigue, boost defences, hunt monsters, build alliances and gather resources. I think ME:A problem is that too many side quests are related to the main mission that it gets bogged down in boring quests.

As to characters, Liara was pretty trash from day one and only got cool through the sequels. I never cared about Garrus until ME2. Remember Jack, that trash fire. Wannabe Wrex? Freddie Prince Jnr? Or how Tali was interesting in ME1 and then was squandered. Anders and his absolute nonsense. Sebastian and Fenris having huge stick up their asses... Or Alistair, making the game pretty unpleasant. Oghrim is the worst character ever written by Bioware. Don't get me wrong. PB etc. is pretty bad. She's just par for the course.

Endless fetch quests can go suck an egg though.

I consider the dossier and loyalty missions in ME2 to be part of the main story. Your main objective is to form a party, help them with their own problems and make them loyal, to increase your chances of success in the final battle.

Since I am an uber-nerd completionist, I happen to have all of the missions in the ME trilogy plugged into a spreadsheet checklist. Here's the breakdown for ME2...

Plot, Dossier, and Loyalty Missions: 30
Other Missions (including DLC): 61

That's not a bad ratio. It's a pretty good balance, IMO.

I don't know the exact numbers, but for DAI, it was more like 30 to 300. And the filler quests were a lot more tedious because they involved exploring stupidly huge maps.

I could possibly count a couple of dossiers, only becuase you are forced to do them to continue the main story. But definitely not loyalty. That's only to get best results.

My personal count is 5. With the minimum 4 dossiers, its 9. For me, that's too little.

The problems with ME2 is the same problem as ME:A. They had a central idea and pinned everything to it. No side tracks. No freedom. ME3 is similar as well except they had Citadel DLC as a vastly different experience.