Games with mechanics you love, and want to see continue

[XSTALKERX]

I would love to see and RPG with extremely tight melee combat controls. No magic, ranged or stealth or any such bullshit, where the actual RPG comes in how you create your melee fighter. Think something like Dark souls in terms of "tightness" but much faster paced, a little bit like the Assassin's Creed or Batman: Arkham games without the one button counter.

The Witcher 2 is the closest game I played to what I'm describing. It just not very refined, but the withcer 3 looks like it's going to be what I really want in terms of combat.

I know it's a bit difficult to understand but the best way I can sum it up is: A combat system that looks like the Assassin's creed and Batman Arkham games but plays like Dark souls.

 

[Daft Ada]

The battle system from La Pucelle for one. As much as I like Disgaea, La Pucelle's battles just felt more fun. From the team up options, to the way attacks could be planned then executed one after the other, and the enviromental attacks from the elemental geo line things (can't remember what they were called in the game...). I also loved how every move would level up the more you used it.

I'd also LOVE the return of Baten Kaitos. I don't normally like card based battle systems but that one just felt right. Tactical, but still fast paced. The game also had a few other great mechanics, like the way cards would age over time and change their effects (food cards would rot and become poisonous for example).

Hybrid Heaven also had an interesting battle system. I liked how you could target different body parts, and the way your attack (uppercut, leg sweep etc) power would change depending on what stance you were in.

Also, Pokemon Snap, Little Kings Story and Boom Blox really need to make a comeback.

 

[Danbo Jambo]

I would love to see and RPG with extremely tight melee combat controls. No magic, ranged or stealth or any such bullshit, where the actual RPG comes in how you create your melee fighter. Think something like Dark souls in terms of "tightness" but much faster paced, a little bit like the Assassin's Creed or Batman: Arkham games without the one button counter.

The Witcher 2 is the closest game I played to what I'm describing. It just not very refined, but the withcer 3 looks like it's going to be what I really want in terms of combat.

I know it's a bit difficult to understand but the best way I can sum it up is: A combat system that looks like the Assassin's creed and Batman Arkham games but plays like Dark souls.

Risen 2 had the right idea when it came to sword fighting, but it just wasn't implemented very well. I agree, I'd love to see a more complex melee style successfully implemented in an RPG, where the higher your level the more moves you have access to, but where you still have to use those moves well to progress.

 

[Nazulu]

Yeah, I want another fighting game with the mechanics of Melee, because Melee is the only game in this entire world with the mechanics of Melee. No, don't bring up the other Smash games you smart ass.

And another I think went extinct (not that there were many to choose from in the first place), is Lineage 2's click to move in a 3D realm and double click to kill mechanic (or binding keys), for lazy sods like me. In a game where anyone can kill you it's faster than you think.

 

[XSTALKERX]

I would love to see and RPG with extremely tight melee combat controls. No magic, ranged or stealth or any such bullshit, where the actual RPG comes in how you create your melee fighter. Think something like Dark souls in terms of "tightness" but much faster paced, a little bit like the Assassin's Creed or Batman: Arkham games without the one button counter.

The Witcher 2 is the closest game I played to what I'm describing. It just not very refined, but the withcer 3 looks like it's going to be what I really want in terms of combat.

I know it's a bit difficult to understand but the best way I can sum it up is: A combat system that looks like the Assassin's creed and Batman Arkham games but plays like Dark souls.

Risen 2 had the right idea when it came to sword fighting, but it just wasn't implemented very well. I agree, I'd love to see a more complex melee style successfully implemented in an RPG, where the higher your level the more moves you have access to, but where you still have to use those moves well to progress.

Exactly!! In most RPG if you level up, all it really means is just you be able to do higher damage and use better weapons and items. I would love to see a RPG that gives you more moves and abilities, but when I say abilities I mean actual sword maneuvers that you can use in combat.

For example let's say you can dodge and attack, like any action RPG, but let's say you level up your blade skill, or agility or whatever. It will grant you a move where you can attack while dodging. So let's say an enemy attacks you with a thrust attack so you then dodge to the side(the dodge is a sidestep) but while the dodge animation plays you press attack and your character immediately attack in the dodge animation and that will serve as a counter attack and will do critical damage. If you didn't have this skills what would have happened is your character dodge but only after the animation Finnish would you be able to attack, and if your sword hits the enemy it will do just normal damage.

In addition to this the enemy might be very good at blocking so if you dodge and attack after the dodge animation the enemy will then automatically block your attack. So essentially to take this enemy down you have to use this "Dodge counter attack" to get through his defense.

 

[JagermanXcell]

I would love to see and RPG with extremely tight melee combat controls. No magic, ranged or stealth or any such bullshit, where the actual RPG comes in how you create your melee fighter. Think something like Dark souls in terms of "tightness" but much faster paced, a little bit like the Assassin's Creed or Batman: Arkham games without the one button counter.

Playing Bloodborne at Pax, I can confirm it's going in that direction. Dodging locked on is now strictly 60fps speed like dashing, it feels intuitive and as responsive as Souls' controls, a huge promotion on aggressive play, and has counters ranging from precision timing to charge up attacks to even counter hits that regen your HP if pulled off skillfully.
Not sure how numbers will factor into the game since it's partially an RPG, but the skill curve for this game is sounding right up your ally.

OT: God Hand's create your own moveset mechanic.

It's genius. Period. The fact that Remember Me seems to be the only game to use it again is baffling. But what can you do when you have one of the best character actions games labeled as a 3/10. A mechanic so great can only fly under the radar for so long so who knows. It might just be a matter of time before the mechanic is re-appreciated and implemented into something.

 

[Danbo Jambo]

Exactly!! In most RPG if you level up, all it really means is just you be able to do higher damage and use better weapons and items. I would love to see a RPG that gives you more moves and abilities, but when I say abilities I mean actual sword maneuvers that you can use in combat.

For example let's say you can dodge and attack, like any action RPG, but let's say you level up your blade skill, or agility or whatever. It will grant you a move where you can attack while dodging. So let's say an enemy attacks you with a thrust attack so you then dodge to the side(the dodge is a sidestep) but while the dodge animation plays you press attack and your character immediately attack in the dodge animation and that will serve as a counter attack and will do critical damage. If you didn't have this skills what would have happened is your character dodge but only after the animation Finnish would you be able to attack, and if your sword hits the enemy it will do just normal damage.

In addition to this the enemy might be very good at blocking so if you dodge and attack after the dodge animation the enemy will then automatically block your attack. So essentially to take this enemy down you have to use this "Dodge counter attack" to get through his defense.

It would certainly add a nice layer of depth to the games! They would have to keep it simple to start with to draw people in whilst they got used to the systems, but your dead right in that there's some real scope for this kind of depth in RPGs now. So long as they implement it right and don't over-do it then it shouldn't be a problem.

No reason why magic can't be the same either. It'd be nice to have to "weave" around the joy-pad a bit as you would if you were actually conjuring a spell. Doesn't have to be over-complicated, just designed to give you more of a feel for magic - eg. an "impact" spell like fireball would require say 3 buttons pressing together, whereas a heal spell would require a smooth gentle stroke on the d-stick. Nothing to complex so that you get bored like, just something slightly deeper, similar to Okami's brushstrokes.

For magic the higher your level, the more time you get and easier the conjuring becomes, and thus you get the feel of really mastering spells as opposed to the mathematical approach of "you're this level so thus allowed this spell"

 

[Cartographer]

Exactly!! In most RPG if you level up, all it really means is just you be able to do higher damage and use better weapons and items. I would love to see a RPG that gives you more moves and abilities, but when I say abilities I mean actual sword maneuvers that you can use in combat.

For example let's say you can dodge and attack, like any action RPG, but let's say you level up your blade skill, or agility or whatever. It will grant you a move where you can attack while dodging. So let's say an enemy attacks you with a thrust attack so you then dodge to the side(the dodge is a sidestep) but while the dodge animation plays you press attack and your character immediately attack in the dodge animation and that will serve as a counter attack and will do critical damage. If you didn't have this skills what would have happened is your character dodge but only after the animation Finnish would you be able to attack, and if your sword hits the enemy it will do just normal damage.

In addition to this the enemy might be very good at blocking so if you dodge and attack after the dodge animation the enemy will then automatically block your attack. So essentially to take this enemy down you have to use this "Dodge counter attack" to get through his defense.

It would certainly add a nice layer of depth to the games! They would have to keep it simple to start with to draw people in whilst they got used to the systems, but your dead right in that there's some real scope for this kind of depth in RPGs now. So long as they implement it right and don't over-do it then it shouldn't be a problem.

No reason why magic can't be the same either. It'd be nice to have to "weave" around the joy-pad a bit as you would if you were actually conjuring a spell. Doesn't have to be over-complicated, just designed to give you more of a feel for magic - eg. an "impact" spell like fireball would require say 3 buttons pressing together, whereas a heal spell would require a smooth gentle stroke on the d-stick. Nothing to complex so that you get bored like, just something slightly deeper, similar to Okami's brushstrokes.

For magic the higher your level, the more time you get and easier the conjuring becomes, and thus you get the feel of really mastering spells as opposed to the mathematical approach of "you're this level so thus allowed this spell"

What you're describing is almost the holy grail of interactive, interwoven mechanics but considering most pen and paper RPGs can't manage to do it I imagine it'll be a long time before we see anything like that in a computer game. A system in which the abilities learned at the start are not just relevant, but a necessity and a desired necessity at that, at top level would be ideal. With magic you'd start learning the "type" like fire, frost, force etc. then learn different ways to weave the conjuring to use it (a "stream" of fire would have an effect lie a flame thrower, whereas a "stream" of force would act more like a shield or barrier). With martial abilities you'd chain different combinations based on weapon, opponent, armour etc. (you'd have to start a "whirlwind" type move off by performing a horizontal slash that missed or was deflected, and lured opponents in close).

 

[XSTALKERX]

Exactly!! In most RPG if you level up, all it really means is just you be able to do higher damage and use better weapons and items. I would love to see a RPG that gives you more moves and abilities, but when I say abilities I mean actual sword maneuvers that you can use in combat.

For example let's say you can dodge and attack, like any action RPG, but let's say you level up your blade skill, or agility or whatever. It will grant you a move where you can attack while dodging. So let's say an enemy attacks you with a thrust attack so you then dodge to the side(the dodge is a sidestep) but while the dodge animation plays you press attack and your character immediately attack in the dodge animation and that will serve as a counter attack and will do critical damage. If you didn't have this skills what would have happened is your character dodge but only after the animation Finnish would you be able to attack, and if your sword hits the enemy it will do just normal damage.

In addition to this the enemy might be very good at blocking so if you dodge and attack after the dodge animation the enemy will then automatically block your attack. So essentially to take this enemy down you have to use this "Dodge counter attack" to get through his defense.

It would certainly add a nice layer of depth to the games! They would have to keep it simple to start with to draw people in whilst they got used to the systems, but your dead right in that there's some real scope for this kind of depth in RPGs now. So long as they implement it right and don't over-do it then it shouldn't be a problem.

No reason why magic can't be the same either. It'd be nice to have to "weave" around the joy-pad a bit as you would if you were actually conjuring a spell. Doesn't have to be over-complicated, just designed to give you more of a feel for magic - eg. an "impact" spell like fireball would require say 3 buttons pressing together, whereas a heal spell would require a smooth gentle stroke on the d-stick. Nothing to complex so that you get bored like, just something slightly deeper, similar to Okami's brushstrokes.

For magic the higher your level, the more time you get and easier the conjuring becomes, and thus you get the feel of really mastering spells as opposed to the mathematical approach of "you're this level so thus allowed this spell"

My only problem with magic is that it I think it will be incredibly hard to balance it out. The only way I can think of that will do a magic system good is, if your spells are extremely deadly and will be able to kill most enemies with one or two hits, but it will also be extremely limited. Let's say you cast a fire spray into a crowd of 4 enemies, what should happen is that the fire will ignite them they will start burning and they will flail around screaming. This give your spell a nice impact but, what's to stop you from using it every fight and just winning everything with ease?

In most RPGs they just lower the damage that the spell does but that takes away the "impact" of those spells. think back to skyrim when you used the flame spell on an enemy it did absolutely nothing to him. Your enemy would be on fire but and lose health, but he wouldn't react to it at all which is just so stupid. You then don't feel as a powerful arcane mage, your spells lacked that impact. And I can completely see why because if it did magic would be the most OP thing in the history of any game ever.

But I completely agree with on the conjuring thing rather than just press buttons and win.

Well in the beginning of the game you have the most basic of combat options like: Light-heavy attack, dodge, block and bash/kick/grab. As you level up you will unlock maneuvers and abilities that would almost combine all these options to defeat the higher level enemies. Not really combos per say like most other fighting games but rather combine these options to give more moves.


For example the higher our level is we will get things like: Parry(block and light attack, works only on enemies directly in front of you), Counterattack(Parry and attack), Counter-dodge(dodge and light attack), Push-back(parry and bash/kick), dodge-stun(dodge and bash/kick, will only work on enemies you're not facing), Rush(block then simultaneously dodge and bash, will only work if you have a shield ), Grab-counter(timed-block then immediately bash/kick and heavy attack, Very slow but very high damage).

 

[GabeZhul]

Personally I'm sick of playing games where I spend half the time hunting around for ammo & goodies, and think that the original Mass Effect's overheat mechanic was a brilliant way to keep the tactical aspect of being conservative with attacking the enemy, but cut out all the filler of having to keep ammo stocked up.

A big shame they removed it IMO.

I'm kinda torn about the mass effect mechanics.

I really loved the overheat mechanic in 1 and hated the fact they ditched it in 2 for the "ejectable Heat sink" thing.

I always wondered why they didn't let the two different systems meet halfway. I mean, the Doylist explanation is that they wanted to get the system closer to a Gears of War style cover-shooter, but the Watsonian excuse was actually logical (the attack on the Citadel traumatized the Council races, and the weapons manufacturers capitalized on this by offering tuned-up weapons with bigger stopping power, but traditional heat-sinks couldn't handle cooling them, therefore they used replaceable "clips" to speed up the process while still retaining the tuned-up performance).

All they needed to do was to use the heat clips like they did in ME2/3, but once you ran out of ammo the weapons would "revert" to ME1 mechanics, using an overheating gauge and possibly dealing less damage (because the weapons reverted to factory defaults to make sure they don't melt down in the user's hands). This would have turned heat clips into a resource that you collected so that you could use your weapon at its full potential instead of just "ammo". My only guess is that they either didn't have the time to implement, balance and test something like this, or more likely they were too busy being whipped by EA to care.

 

[Avalanche91]

I'd also LOVE the return of Baten Kaitos. I don't normally like card based battle systems but that one just felt right. Tactical, but still fast paced. The game also had a few other great mechanics, like the way cards would age over time and change their effects (food cards would rot and become poisonous for example).

Basically this. Really enjoyed the card and aging system in Baten Kaitos. Bamboo shoots turn into bamboo spears, milk turns into cheese, grapes turn into wine, etc.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

More Golden Sun please! I enjoyed the combat system immensely and liked messing with the rare weapons. I should replay them now...

 

[GabeZhul]

In most RPGs they just lower the damage that the spell does but that takes away the "impact" of those spells. think back to skyrim when you used the flame spell on an enemy it did absolutely nothing to him. Your enemy would be on fire but and lose health, but he wouldn't react to it at all which is just so stupid. You then don't feel as a powerful arcane mage, your spells lacked that impact. And I can completely see why because if it did magic would be the most OP thing in the history of any game ever.

To be fair, in most high magic settings like Skyrim, people throwing fireballs at you is pretty much an everyday occurrence. Hell, in TeS, anyone can be a mage with just a bit of training and most races get magical powers and spells as a racial trait. At that point a measly fireball flying at them is pretty much just Wednesday for most people of "dangerous professions", like bandits or adventurers and such.

As for balancing magic not to be overpowered, well, who says magic shouldn't be overpowered? Magic, by definition, is bending the rules of the universe to your will. I always found the idea of somehow scaling someone with the ability to spray flames from his hands to a guy with a sword to be ridiculous.

The best I can think of in terms of "balance" would be to make magic Difficult but Awesome (courtesy of the TvTropes terms). In short, pretty much what old-school D&D did: Your warrior might be able to whip your mage's ass ten times out of ten on lower levels, but on level 20 the warrior becomes a joke compared to the mage. In other words, make the mage really hard to play early on. Little health, no defense, weak and/or situational spells and possibly having to do a lot of tedious and/or demeaning work for advancement... and then you finally get your first flamethrower spell, and all your hard work pays off in troves!

Also, the other possibility, something that most games don't really explore that much (outside of sandbox games like Prototype of Infamous): have your mage be an one man army from the very beginning, and weave that fact into the actual story. Have people be afraid of him, make people give him quests that would be suicide for anyone else, have lords and kings treat him with awe and fear and allow him to use his reputation of power as part of his dealings with the world. In other words, make him a big-time power player instead of the errand-boy that most games treat the protagonists as.

 

[G00N3R7883]

I think Dead Space's HUD - or rather lack of HUD, was great. Most useful information was displayed in the world, such as the health bar being on your character's rear armour, ammo counter being display on your weapon. I thought it was really immersive and I haven't really seen it in any other games.

I also want to mention Dragon Age Origins' Origins. Lots of games give your character a backstory, many of those games let you choose which backstory you want. Origins is the only game I can think of that I've played where you can actually play through that backstory. It really helped connect me to my Warden and understand his motivations.

 

[Danbo Jambo]

What you're describing is almost the holy grail of interactive, interwoven mechanics but considering most pen and paper RPGs can't manage to do it I imagine it'll be a long time before we see anything like that in a computer game. A system in which the abilities learned at the start are not just relevant, but a necessity and a desired necessity at that, at top level would be ideal. With magic you'd start learning the "type" like fire, frost, force etc. then learn different ways to weave the conjuring to use it (a "stream" of fire would have an effect lie a flame thrower, whereas a "stream" of force would act more like a shield or barrier). With martial abilities you'd chain different combinations based on weapon, opponent, armour etc. (you'd have to start a "whirlwind" type move off by performing a horizontal slash that missed or was deflected, and lured opponents in close).

Aye, for me you could get a basic setup from a combination (and upgraded) version of Risen 2 for melee & Okami for magic, and you're post gives great ideas how to build on that.

I think we'll see it at some point tbh. It'll just require a dev to be brave enough to persist with the plunge.

My only problem with magic is that it I think it will be incredibly hard to balance it out. The only way I can think of that will do a magic system good is, if your spells are extremely deadly and will be able to kill most enemies with one or two hits, but it will also be extremely limited. Let's say you cast a fire spray into a crowd of 4 enemies, what should happen is that the fire will ignite them they will start burning and they will flail around screaming. This give your spell a nice impact but, what's to stop you from using it every fight and just winning everything with ease?

In most RPGs they just lower the damage that the spell does but that takes away the "impact" of those spells. think back to skyrim when you used the flame spell on an enemy it did absolutely nothing to him. Your enemy would be on fire but and lose health, but he wouldn't react to it at all which is just so stupid. You then don't feel as a powerful arcane mage, your spells lacked that impact. And I can completely see why because if it did magic would be the most OP thing in the history of any game ever.

But I completely agree with on the conjuring thing rather than just press buttons and win.

Well in the beginning of the game you have the most basic of combat options like: Light-heavy attack, dodge, block and bash/kick/grab. As you level up you will unlock maneuvers and abilities that would almost combine all these options to defeat the higher level enemies. Not really combos per say like most other fighting games but rather combine these options to give more moves.


For example the higher our level is we will get things like: Parry(block and light attack, works only on enemies directly in front of you), Counterattack(Parry and attack), Counter-dodge(dodge and light attack), Push-back(parry and bash/kick), dodge-stun(dodge and bash/kick, will only work on enemies you're not facing), Rush(block then simultaneously dodge and bash, will only work if you have a shield ), Grab-counter(timed-block then immediately bash/kick and heavy attack, Very slow but very high damage).

I think you could easily find the balance. To look at your fire spray example you only get say 1 seconds worth or casting time at Lvl1, so your fire spray would struggle to catch more than 2 people. But at say level 8 you've way more time to cast, so you could get most enemies on screen, by which time some enemies are immume to fire, or can block it etc.

Just one exemple, but I think the main thing it to give the gamer more of a feel of their role. Another example may be an earthquake - you "draw" as many upstrokes as you can in the time available. At lvl 1 you have but a few seconds, so may get say 3 strokes drawn which results in a slight tremmor and enemies being knocked of their feet, where at level 8 you get time for say 12-15 strokes which results in the ground opening up and swallowing the enemy (with all variables on that in between).

Whirlwind could work the same, conjuring could have you draw the beast you wish to conjure with bigger, more powerful one's taking more time. etc.

Dead on with Skyrim, impact is a key thing! And dead on regards the combination of melee moves too. Fighting a skilled fighter should feel that way, and defeating them would be very rewarding if done the way you suggest.

I always wondered why they didn't let the two different systems meet halfway. I mean, the Doylist explanation is that they wanted to get the system closer to a Gears of War style cover-shooter, but the Watsonian excuse was actually logical (the attack on the Citadel traumatized the Council races, and the weapons manufacturers capitalized on this by offering tuned-up weapons with bigger stopping power, but traditional heat-sinks couldn't handle cooling them, therefore they used replaceable "clips" to speed up the process while still retaining the tuned-up performance).

All they needed to do was to use the heat clips like they did in ME2/3, but once you ran out of ammo the weapons would "revert" to ME1 mechanics, using an overheating gauge and possibly dealing less damage (because the weapons reverted to factory defaults to make sure they don't melt down in the user's hands). This would have turned heat clips into a resource that you collected so that you could use your weapon at its full potential instead of just "ammo". My only guess is that they either didn't have the time to implement, balance and test something like this, or more likely they were too busy being whipped by EA to care.

The whole point in reloading is so that the player can just spam attacks, so overheat covers that nicely. Personally I don't see the value in searching round for ammo all the time. Bioshock is a great example of a game where I spent more time looking round than actually doing anything.

I'd love to see ammo-less games become more popular. The satisfaction of reloading can be incorporated into a similar type of "heat discharge" or something, there's no need to sidetrack us worrying about ammo IMO.

 

[Zetman]

A remake of sid meyer's pirates with asscreed4 water physics and boat navigation

 

[Lieju]

I really liked the spell system in Eternal Darkness and would have wanted it to be more complex with more experimentation.

I'm sure there are games like that, so if anyone can point me to the direction of spell-systems where you can experiment and it follows logic (like Recover+self+physical health = you recover physical health) that'd be nice.
I liked how it made sense.

And you could just come up with completely useless spell because they still followed logic.
like Recover+self+magic = you recover magic (but since you also use magic to do this it's useless.)

 

[Gray-Philosophy]

I really liked the combat mechanics in Dark Messiah.
The way enemies reacted to the different directional 'power'attacks was pretty great, and I loved how you could use your environment so much or just throw things at them if you didn't feel like putting up with swordfighting.

 

[Squilookle]

In UT2004, a shooter known for lightning fast movement, double jumps and headshots in midair, there's a feature where when crouched, you simply can't move off the edge of a ledge.

Why the hell don't more first person games have that!?

 

[V4Viewtiful]

I liked Xenoblade's gems system, adding them to clothes and weapons to get the best effect i'd like to see done in more RPGs or a variant on it.
The DeadSpace HUD was clever, I cosign that.

The World ends with you combat system was very creative and can work on the Wii U.