Why do RPG weapons suck now?

[TheGreenGoblin]

Growing up, FF4 was called FF2 and it was still one of the best times I had in my life. There were characters I grew attached to, dastardly treachery, redemption, inspiring music, and that sweet, savory thrill of powering up. It wasn't always the LEVEL UP, though. If you managed to not drink all your potions, conserve your MP, and scrap by in a world of fantastic and unfriendly creatures, you got to a town where you could buy a sword that was FIVE ATTACK POINTS HIGHER than the one you had.

Wow. Those EvilCells will be sorry now!

And they were. I spent my hard-earned gil on seeing higher numbers fall out of my enemies, and it was glorious--it's the closest thing mathematicians have to actually tasting battle.

I didn't know how much I loved that part of the game until Final Fantasy 13 took it away from me. So did Last Remnant and Dragon Age.

In FF13 I bravely navigated the...hallway...and discovered the Axis Blade. Sweet! A new weapon! It's awesome! It's shiny! It's...weaker? Even leveled up to match the current weapon, it's weaker. When I asked others what weapon they give lightning, they reply "oh I never change her weapon."

Tradeoffs suck. Why should I give up my attack power for a little speed? The difficulty curve is ramping up here, I want speed AND power. Remember Crono Trigger? The Rainbow Sword has more attack power AND raises your critical % rate to 70. Now THAT's playing with power. Remember Super Metroid? The Wave Beam is NOT weaker than the main gun.

There's no point in risking the team's collective behinds if finding a new weapon brings not joy, but a difficult question. Speed and power? Dexterity and protection? You might as well ask me to chose between my children (as soon as I have them).

I haven't even started on the evils of the loot systems. I get it, WoW wants you paying every month, Skinner Box (See Extra Creditz or Cracked.com), we all want rare stuff. But I paid $60 for FF13. It's mine. Forever. You don't have to keep me playing because there's no more money in it for you. So why is it such a long grind to raise 2,000,000 gil for a Trapezahedron? If they retail for 2 million, why is the sell price 10,000? What kind of economy is this? And once I get the Trapezahedron it takes another 4 million gil to buy enough reagents to power the weapon up fully. Why? I already made it to the end of the game. I killed your 16 million HP super duper monster. I don't deserve a fully-powered Omega Weapon for that?

At least FF13 has a simple loot system (almost as if they knew how much Last Remnant sucked). I am become Death, the destroyer of monsters, so why do I have to grind 2 hours to find 8 insect husks? And this is all to buy one weapon.

Loot systems and weapon leveling make the game longer, but they don't make it more fun. I'll hunt a dragon across the frozen wasteland for some magickal Youcanthitmeum Armor, but I'm not doing it 10 times because I need his rare drop item to buy a Meh Sword. So please, RPG makers, can we return to the days of reward being proportional to effort? Thank you.

 

[silverleaf81]

I Disagree, the Fat Man in Fallout 3 is super special awesome...although that's an entirely different matter.

 

[Judgement101]

You can't realy rate how much effort it took. Let's say in, I don't know, Borderlands, where weapons are very different from another, someone may have a gun that can kill something in 3 shots where as another person may have a difficult time with the same enemy. Random drop/Rare drop makes it more balanced because the devs don't want people to be able to get an item with zero effort when it could take a lot of effort from another person.

 

[Kashif Omer]

Trade offs make for more meaningful gamplay choices, its likehow in ff7 the nail bat was crazy powerful but had no materia, my materia was not very good during my first playthrough so i went with the nail bat. On my second play through i did not.

 

[guntotingtomcat]

I agree that RPG weapons should get incrementally better in tandem with the difficulty, and I'm not a massive fan of weapon customisation to be perfectly honest. Kingdom hearts was great. Weapons got better, but with drawbacks, high attack but no magic, worse attack value but extra combo hit etc.

 

[silverleaf81]

I Disagree, the Fat Man in Fallout 3 is super special awesome...although that's an entirely different matter.

Experimental MIRV ftw. Fire it at the ground at your feet, and to paraphrase Scott Pilgrim, you could see the curvature of the earth.

Fallout 3 had some awesome guns in general, especially with the DLCs. I mean, "Man Opener"? Even the name kicks arse.


BUT, as far as fantasy RPGs go, I don't know that any game has beaten 1992's Ultima VII. The Firedoom Staff, the Juggernaut Hammer, the glass swords, the Hoe of Destruction, the Magebane, the lightning whip, the hawk (yes, you could use a trained bird)... but obviously, best of all, this.

The Black Sword. You could even talk to it. and make it kill things. Because a demon lived in it.

Win.

haha, don't worry, i didn't forget the Experimental MIRV...

 

[Mr. Doe]

I disagree on Dragon Age having a bad weapon system of any kind. It gives more challenge when deciding speed over power and all out attack over defense. You have to strategize on whether or not your attack is going to hit, how fast you'll be attacking and how much damage you could deal given optimum circumstances. It adds a risk reward system that works well and can make for some interesting builds.

 

[loc978]

I'm sorry that my tabletop RPGs have contaminated your video game RPGs... developers certainly ran with it and made it their own lovely abomination...
Still, I will always prefer a system where a longsword is a longsword, dealing 1d8 damage to medium creatures, plus enchantments and player-based damage enhancements. I understand the desire to purchase incremental upgrades at every town... I just don't share the sentiment. I find my fun in different places. Relative realism=immersion=fun, for me. I've always found obvious Skinner boxes to be mildly insulting (which is why I tend to play through old Squaresoft RPGs without buying any equipment. I've never found one where it couldn't be done).

 

[Mr. Doe]

I disagree on Dragon Age having a bad weapon system of any kind. It gives more challenge when deciding speed over power and all out attack over defense. You have to strategize on whether or not your attack is going to hit, how fast you'll be attacking and how much damage you could deal given optimum circumstances. It adds a risk reward system that works well and can make for some interesting builds.

In practice it's more like an upgrade and downgrade at the same time. Which in my mind, is pointless.

Hey, thats just how you see it I see it more like how you cant swing a claymore around like a foil but you can cut off three heads in one swipe.