Name a game series and how you would improve it.

[Kecunk]

whether its a game you already think is good but could just use a little polish to achieve perfection or a game you thought had some good ideas but completely mess it up im sure a lot of people on here have some ideas on how to improve a game so lets share them.

My idea is for the persona series I think what those games could use is having some mini games thrown in. since most of the social links in the game already involve the main character participating in some sort of activity it seem like it would be a good fit and it would make going through the day to day routine of the main character a little more fun.

 

[Axmak]

My choice would be the Rock Band or Guitar Hero franchise. I would have it that when you bought a game, all you got was the engine and a code that let you choose up to 60 songs off of the store. This would cut down on people having to play a bunch of songs they hate (My unexplained vitriol towards anything Bon Jovi, for instance) in order to get to a bunch of songs you love. Also would allow personalization for your copy of the game.
Of course the downside would be that there's no way to implement this without making it that you need to buy the game new, or purchase the code, but I suppose that's the way the cookie crumbles.

Also if I had control of the Paper Mario series, I'd return it to the awesome turn based RPG action of Thousand Year Door. Also the insanely witty dialog of all the games up to Sticker Star. I'd like to extensively question whose idea it was to make Sticker Star have very little dialog, especially from Bowser.

 

[Zontar]

For the X series, go back to using the interface and mechanic that the other games before the latest one used. Fans of the old hated the new for being unplayable and a sequel in name only, and new fans don't exist because the game is unplayable and the core mechanics are terrible.

 

[Foolery]

Pokemon. Fuck HMs. It's a waste a of a move slot on a decent monster and I hate keeping party members around solely just to do the HM bits to access areas. I would make a secondary slot set for moves that you don't use in battles or just replace HMs with items that do the same thing.

Or just make it an ability. Why would you have an HM for Fly or Surf? Shouldn't a flying Pokemon know how to fly? Shouldn't a water Pokemon know how to surf?

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Does releasing Suikoden VI count? Because I'd do that. I'd release Suikoden VI. Make it go back to that feeling of, "There's more going on here," that II had, and to a lesser extent, III. IV was...we just don't talk about IV. V was good, but since it was a prequel, that sense of mystery was gone a bit.

Have Harmonia (is that the name?) play its final card. They've been after the True Runes since the first game, positioning players and straight up raising people to be nothing but a bearer for a Rune. They're up to something, and I don't think it's simple, "We shall rule the world," type of thing. This could be truly amazing, but alas, the series seems to have been lost to the bottom of the seas.

And make Xenosaga into the saga it was meant to be, not the trilogy that we got. Just...ugh.

 

[quakke]

I would make Duke Nukem: Forever how it was supposed to be. I didn't wait 14 years just to get some lameass Spunkgargleweewee CoD-clone. It was supposed to be the proper Duke 3D sequel.

I would take all the scenes seen in 3D Realm's DNF trailers 1998 and 2001 mostly, and i would put them in the game (naturally). I would make the gameplay old school how it is supposed to be. You collect medpacks and occasionally take a piss in WC to gain some health. You carry all the 10 weapons at once without any weaponlimits. You run and gun and still have perfect accuracy like you do in old school FPS. You have to pull switches, look for keycards and solve puzzles. Overall it would be kinda like Half-Life1 and Duke 3D combined. Duke 3D's freedom and Half-Life's linearity, because DNF's levels wasn't even supposed to be cool DOOM-like maze levels. They were linear like how it was supposed to be, but the thing is that they were WAY too linear, because Half-Life allows you to explore. This 2011 DNF didn't let you explore one bit.

 

[penguindude42]

Mass Effect. No third game, ridiculous unironic JRPG-style plotline.

 

[anthony87]

Legacy of Kain series.

I'd improve it by actually making a new game....

 

[JaceArveduin]

The Battle for Middle-Earth II. It'd be simple, just bring the servers back and start doing weekly balance tweaks while crushing bugs. Then I'd probably stop playing most of my other games, lol

 

[SnakeTrousers]

Metal Gear Solid: more sneaking, less gimmickry, less awful controls.

 

[Frozengale]

The Fable Series. Or at least Fable II and III. Fable TLC was fine, amazing even.

The first thing that I would do would be to remove that obnoxious dog. The dog is the cause of so many horrible things in that game. It removes all sense of exploration from the game when you have something yapping at you every five seconds telling you where all the secrets are. Having him around for combat is okay. But I wouldn't force people to have a dog, but rather just a familiar of their choice. Raven, Dog, Wolf, Warthog, a wide variety of combat ready pets, and MAYBE make it so that there are a few secrets that can only be found by your pet. But the dog in its current state is just horrible. It is worthless in combat, destroys exploration, and has horrible pathfinding which makes it hard to get access to the dig spots.

Second thing is to overhaul the combat. I once had someone tell me that Kingdoms of Amalur combat is everything that Fable should have been. And I pretty much have to agree with that. I mean you should give it a Fable twist and probably make the skill trees more concise but the fact is that Fable has many problems combat wise. One thing that MUST be done is remove all the auto-aiming for the guns and the spells. They make the game incredibly dull and boring. When my entire combat experience can be summarized as "Press Y until thing dies" then there is something wrong with your combat. I'm not even being overly dramatic. In Fable III if you just focus on your gun you can kill most things by spamming Y and moving a little bit every so often. No aiming or anything.

The next thing to do is remove the stupid "You can marry ANYONE" mechanic. For starters that's a flat out lie. You can marry any of the thousands of clones that have the same face, voice, and clothes. And sometimes they might own a shop or be gay. You know what is much more appealing. You can marry a bunch of story relevant characters and fill the world with a handful of interesting characters, that have no barring on the main story, but you can also interact with and marry. In Fable the fact that you could marry Lady Grey for slightly underhanded reasons was pretty cool. She was the only unique NPC that you could do this with everyone else was dull. In Fable II you could reanimate her corpse and marry her. That was a really interesting storyline and I did it just because it was unique. In Fable III... nothing. No unique NPC marriage. It's worthless. Marriage in that game is bland and boring, because the characters you can marry are bland and boring.

And lastly let me have fun with the Trophies. For pretty much every quest you get a Trophy. But they don't really do much. You can hang them in your house and show them off for a bit of renown, but otherwise they are just a little bit of fluff. Why couldn't I actually use them though? In Fable III one of the first trophies you get is a Bandit Banner. Why couldn't I wear that thing around like a Sashimono or something. I can't remember which game it is but at one point you get a Balverian head. Why can't I wear that as a mask/helmet? Why can't I use it as a shoulder pad or something? Why can't I have fun with it. In Fable III you get this awesome looking sword during a D&D spoof quest (Something like the "Sword of Baron Slaying +7"). But it is gone once the quest is over... WHY? I wanted to use that thing! You know one of the reasons I love games like Skyrim? Every item I get has a story behind it. Sometimes I will use armor or weapons that aren't that great just because I like the way they look and because they have a story behind them. Masque of Clavicus Vile being an example. I enjoyed the story behind it, using it made me happy, even though it wasn't what I needed. Why can't I do stuff like this in Fable? Why can't I keep and use that Sword of Baron Slaying +7?! It had a fun story behind it.


And yes, I've probably spent more time then is necessary thinking about how to redo the Fable games.

 

[Grach]

Legacy of Kain series.

I'd improve it by actually making a new game....

Like the one that coming out? The multiplayer one?

I'm just going to go with fruit so low hanging that it's basically a root: Battlefield. I'd improve it by letting DICE work on it longer, adding longer open betas and diversifying the settings even more.

Another one would be STALKER. By releasing STALKER 2, it featuring an expanded zone, more factions and a better gunplay.

 

[VeneratedWulfen93]

Space Marine missed a hell of an opportunity for a drop pod opening sequence. Just a couple of prompts telling you base controls and then *Slam, impact, you burst out of the drop-pod into a sea of orks firing wildly with about 6 or 7 other dudes with you.

I'd also give it a different plot than 'generic 40k plot that is in every 40k game' Get Dan Abnett or Graham mcneil (but not effing C.S Goto or Ben Counter) to write the bloody story.

I also think a terminator armour segment would have been awesome for the final portion of the game.

Finally I'd have the badass Daemon Prince final boss actually be a fight rather than a QTE where you punch his face in after fighting waves of mooks.

 

[joest01]

*.Souls - eliminate magic. Backstabs only for stealth kills

 

[The Crispy Tiger]

Mass Effect. No third game, ridiculous unironic JRPG-style plotline.

I would never, ever, ever buy that game...

 

[The Crispy Tiger]

The game I would choose right now, has to be The Movies. I remember this criminally underrtated game. But I feel there are things missing that should totally be included now. The ability to make sequels, take existing properties, buy other studios properties, make experience and performance two completely different things (experience having to do with your reputation (Action Hero, Scream Queen, ETC) and performance having to do with what they would deliver which depends on how good the writing is, and how well they work with the director. Not to mention, the acting school can improve their chance for a good performance.

 

[Mangod]

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is a series that would be greatly improved by releasing another one. Best 4X Ever.

 

[Qvar]

Or just make it an ability. Why would you have an HM for Fly or Surf? Shouldn't a flying Pokemon know how to fly? Shouldn't a water Pokemon know how to surf?

It's not the same flying/moving through water than carrying you with them.

 

[Bebus]

Pokemon. Fuck HMs. It's a waste a of a move slot on a decent monster and I hate keeping party members around solely just to do the HM bits to access areas. I would make a secondary slot set for moves that you don't use in battles or just replace HMs with items that do the same thing.

Or just make it an ability. Why would you have an HM for Fly or Surf? Shouldn't a flying Pokemon know how to fly? Shouldn't a water Pokemon know how to surf?

I've always liked the thought of each creature having one or more out-of-battle abilities it is able to do, which are unlocked by beating a Gym leader and having him/her teach how to do it. Eg you have a Squirtle or whatever, and once you've beaten Misty she teaches it how to carry you on water. No wasting a move slot, no frustrating permanent moves, and makes the gyms more like... gyms.

For another game... I think the worlds of the Dragon Age games could feel a little more "lived in". Many areas of both games felt rather sparse, with barely any people about just going about their lives: for a game that was designed specifically to take place in one city, DA2's Kirkwall sure did feel pretty barren. Why wasn't the market packed with people that I had to push aside, Assassin's Creed style? Why did I always run past the same 3 people having the same damned conversation? Why didn't the merchants ever have different stock? Why couldn't the Guardsmen help fight the thugs that jumped on me every single corner I turned around, instead of standing stone still and saying "greetings Champion" if I ventured too near them in the middle of combat? Why didn't the Templars notice that a dude wearing a dress and a staff on his back was sauntering about the Gallows? DA2 had a lot of problems, but I truly did like the core concept and feel the game simply failed to live up to so many promising ideas. A living, breathing city would have made up for a lot of what was wrong.

While I'm at it with those games, I'd like to see more non-combat solutions to problems. The few examples where this was (sort of) possible: eg being able to <Spoiler=DA:O Spoiler>duel Loghain after turning the landsmeet against him or <Spoiler=DA2 spoiler>either duel the Arishok rather than fight most of his army, or even have him leave without any further violence were nice in the way they broke up the constant combat, and depending on both your actions to that point, and your dialogue choices in the moment, the end result could be very different. But even they required endless battling to actually reach that point: combat has its place but for a game heavily driven by characters and dialogue some alternatives would be nice.

Finally with DA, there were a few moments when I really felt like the companions engaged with the plot. If I made certain choices during the Redcliffe incident, Alistair would be furious. If I treated the Urn of Sacred Ashes mission a certain way, I could potentially lose up to 3 party members. But on the other hand, it often felt like, in both games, the companions were little more than their approval metres: do a certain thing, lost 5 points. Do something else, gain 10. And, unforgivably, game content was often locked behind these! It completely shattered the feeling that I could truly do what I wanted: after a while I had to think "Ok, I'm going to be doing X but Y won't like that, but I did that other thing like liked and I know if their approval isn't + or - Z I won't get their mission..." which of course led to a sort of meta-gaming. Which I don't like.

So I'd like to see the approval ratings dropped entirely, and instead companion's actions being a lot more organic, evolving with the game: you can talk to them about your actions, attempt to explain yourself and your reasons after major plot points (or minor ones that might be personal to them), and also ask for their opinions before acting. If you just plough through, never consulting them, they treat you in a similar way and don't give you their missions, and might end up abandoning or even attacking you. If you treat them with respect, even though you disagree with their outlook on things, you end up with a grudging but respectful acceptance. And don't get me started on the "well you slaughtered that village but because you gave me a few gifts I still like you" thing...

I understand this would be a pretty big task on the developer's part, but frankly both games had a lot of "fat" that could be dropped, mainly in the form of long, dull, combat sequences. Combat isn't the games' strength; focus on the parts that people really like!