Poll: RPG's: Old vs New

[Confidingtripod]

I have been playing RPG's for as long as I can remember and I have to say older one's like neverwinter nights and baldurs gate really had me hooked but I found once I knew what would happen next started to lack the sense of mystery that I loved while new games like fallout 3 and mass effect 2 have more replay value but I dont have the will to explore that I had with older one's.

So I ask you which do you prefer and the games mentioned above are for example only this is more about the genre in genral.

 

[Tourette]

I have to say 'New' as they have become deeper and more complex but some old RPG's will forever remain greats.

 

[Radeonx]

What do you mean by old?
Because my favorite RPG was KotOR, which came out around 2003, but I don't consider 7 years old very old. Same with NWN and Baldur's Gate.
But I've liked Bioware games more than anything, so I guess I'll say newish?

 

[technoted]

Old, definately old, I grew up on them and they still have a massive effect on me unlike most of the new ones.

 

[Grey_Focks]

Well, before this turns into "Fallout 3 is shit compared to Fallout 1 and 2" I'm gonna say newer.

The sense of immersion and storytelling is just better, imo. I'm no graphics whore, but better visuals, facial expressions, and voice acting really improve immersion for me. Having an epic story with fun gameplay helps, too.

 

[Rewold]

I don't really know how to explain it but I think FF7(started replaying it yesterday) just has something I don't feel today's RPG's have. Everything is thoroughly planned out and there is so much to do. I like older because the graphics are such a fad right now that making the game look perfect is going to be in the way of gameplay/story. At least a bit.

And I want more backround on the characters so I don't just play with some unknown men of mystery.

 

[Snork Maiden]

Gonna come right out and say I haven't played many new RPGs (like Mass Effect and whatnot), but those I have (namely Fallout, Oblivion and KotoR especially) I thought were very good, but not really excellent.

Considering Baldurs Gate, Icewind Dale, Chrono Trigger, the FF games and so on are some of my favourite games ever I can't look past the old option.

 

[Johnny Cain]

I've got to say I stand by the 'new' RPG's. They're much more approachable, and for me have involved far less rage quitting.
Shameful I know, but go try Fallout 2. It's amazingly difficult compared to the first.
Along came Bethesda's fantacular third installment (people don't know how much of a miracle it is that Fallout 3 actually got made) which has lots of new-fangled features like scaling the difficulty of encounters based on the player characters skills, and the travel/navigation systems.

 

[Quad08]

Definitely the new ones. As great as the old ones were, the advancements that have been made to the genre make the new group of RPGs (Both Western and Japanese) more fun to play

 

[Dragunai]

I don't really know how to explain it but I think FF7(started replaying it yesterday) just has something I don't feel today's RPG's have.

A massive cult following of obsessive Cosplaying fanboys who refuse to let it go as a distinctly mediocre game with a predictable storyline and the least functional magic system in the series?

Final fantasy 9 had a better mystery story with a more intuitive magic system and while 8's magic system sucked the story was again much better and immersive. Hell even 6 had a better story line, although most FF games will ultimately wipe out the major badguy to replace him with a bigger bad guy at the last minute... FF9s Necron anyone? FF8s Ultimecia who replaced Edea half way in, FF6 replacing Garland with Kefka, in 7 it had to be seph because they spent so much time hyping him into this major badass that if he wasn't the endboss the game would have been even more disappointing that it was (in my view)

as for the RPG discussion - I agree with Radeonx, Kotor 1/2 are both awesome RPGs Ive played again and again. So I guess the transitional stage of RPgs where they went from being top down side scrollers to the early days of 3D gaming. Such as Diablo 2, the earlier morrowind games, Dungeon Siege is probably one of the best rpgs I've ever had the good fortune to play, 1 but not 2 as it just phoned it in trying to better the original perfect formulae and ofc NWN.

Think I'll add here that as out of topic as it is Fallout 3 had a very bland atmosphere in comparison s.t.a.l.k.e.r which is another quasi post nuclear game. Did a better job of making you feel like you were in some desolate wasteland in the aftermath of a horrible cataclysm.

 

[Humble85]

Shameful I know, but go try Fallout 2. It's amazingly difficult compared to the first.

What do you mean by that, exactly?
OT: Old. I have yet to see a current generation RPG with story/characters that even remotely compare to P:T, an atmospheres like Arcanums or the freedom of Fallout 1 and 2. Maybe its just me, but I have the feeling that the newer ones are just... too formulaic, idk.

 

[Valkyrie101]

New ones. Aside from the graphics and technical improvements, which do help immersion, they have better gameplay (helping with the fun factor), and generally better stories and more engaging characters/dialogue. Older RPGs in my experience are a dry mess of numbers and accountancy.

 

[Feylynn]

I vote old though not definitively.
Nostalgia as well as the sheer forgiveness and patience of childhood help to create very fond nigh unbeatable memories.
I'm not that old yet But FF9,8,7,Tactics,Crystal Chronicles were all long enough ago to count for this. As is Mario RPG, Legend of Dragoon, and all the ones I know I should be crediting but can't recall for sake of terrible memory.

As I don't imagine I'll ever be a child in that same respect again, save unexpected temporal anomalies, I don't think anything made in the future can match those games for me.
But at the same time, I still love games, I still love RPGs, everything by BioWare, I even liked FF13.

So I acknowledge some new RPGs may be better then my favorites in many ways, and that when I look back at them in the future they may have joined the list above. Right now, I think nostalgia is to powerful.

Memories of sitting down with my siblings, 4 GBA's, and a GameCube loaded up with FFCC, or hiding under cushion forts playing through more of FF9 long after we should have be asleep.
Those are kind of untouchable.

 

[Dragunai]

Shameful I know, but go try Fallout 2. It's amazingly difficult compared to the first.

What do you mean by that, exactly?
OT: Old. I have yet to see a current generation RPG with story/characters that even remotely compare to P:T, an atmospheres like Arcanums or the freedom of Fallout 1 and 2. Maybe its just me, but I have the feeling that the newer ones are just... too formulaic, idk.

The formulaic rpgs to which you refer seem to be mostly cloning good games such as anything by bioware or blizzard in order to leech the success of those games to a rather easily amused generation of gamers and I am proud to stand up on my snobby old school gaming veteran soap box and shout that the modern age of the games industry is pandering big time to the casual era of uninteliigent cry babies who ***** if the game requires more effort or thinking than point crosshair press button which is why we have to suffer this bile churning insurgence of FPS games who in turn breed the notion that these immature self righteous dumbasses are somehow gaming gods while they flee from the challenge of RTS / RPG games which actually require you to think all the while shouting "it sucks, you suck, get a life you nerd" from their bedrooms because its after 8pm and their mommy wont let them out their room after curfew.

 

[Humble85]

The formulaic rpgs to which you refer seem to be mostly cloning good games such as anything by bioware or blizzard in order to leech the success of those games to a rather easily amused generation of gamers and I am proud to stand up on my snobby old school gaming veteran soap box and shout that the modern age of the games industry is pandering big time to the casual era of uninteliigent cry babies who ***** if the game requires more effort or thinking than point crosshair press button which is why we have to suffer this bile churning insurgence of FPS games who in turn breed the notion that these immature self righteous dumbasses are somehow gaming gods while they flee from the challenge of RTS / RPG games which actually require you to think all the while shouting "it sucks, you suck, get a life you nerd" from their bedrooms because its after 8pm and their mommy wont let them out their room after curfew.

You took the term "zero punctuation" quite literally, didnt you? But I agree with you. Because, as for ...

New ones [...] generally [have] better stories and more engaging characters/dialogue. O

... I have to ask:"Where? Show me!" I may have missed some games in the past. As for Fallout 2, i dont know how it was "amazingly" difficult, except that the first dungeon was a bit of a more challenge than the cave in 1.

 

[Ewyx]

I have to say 'New' as they have become deeper and more complex but some old RPG's will forever remain greats.

WTB New complex RPG

They've only got less complex, with a few exceptions. Sorry.

 

[Mr. In-between]

Old. I have very specific types of games that I like to play and I haven't seen any new RPGs coming out that are anywhere near what I am looking for.

 

[SnowdensOfYesteryear]

Old. Paranoia, Dungeons And Dragons. Y'know, real roleplaying games.

 

[Axolotl]

Defin "old". I mean you say Neverwinter Nights is old I'd disagree (assuming you don't mean the AOL game) and say Planescape Torment was old but other people would disagree with me and say Bard's Tale is old.

Anyway I'd say old. Nothing inherent about it bur Bioware cn't seem to drag themselves out of mediocraty, Obsidian overeach themselves even when they're performing at their best and the designers at Bethesda are simply incompotent. Black Isle knew what they were doing and had the budget for it. Planescape still has the best story, the best writing and a unique and interesting setting. Fallout is still the most freeform and Ultima is still the largest in scope. Maybe it is an inherent property and modern tech makes creating good RPGs to expensive but modern ones just seem poor and half-hearted in comparison.