Game Developers of Action/ RPG's don't understand the concept of Action/ RPG's

Why? Because here's the common Action/RPG game.

Either the story is good and the gameplay is repetitive. Or the story sucks and the gameplay is great.

Not a lot of games have been able to fill that gap.

Castlevania (Excluding a few)
And Raidou Kuzunoha

Here's why. Castlevania offers you good gameplay, great story, and all around a good experience playing it. While Raidou Kuzunoha doesn't offer solid gameplay, the fact is the gameplay is fun that you can combine demons, infuse them into your sword, and obtain new demons and find out which combination works good against what enemy and the story is pretty damn good.

Now the main problem with most Action/RPG's is that they have to find a way to make a good story while making the gameplay fun. Chances are you will be spending as much time with the story as playing the game. You can't just focus on the story or gameplay and call it a good Action/RPG. That defeats the purpose the of the Action/RPG genre. If you focus on the story and not enough on the gameplay then you've got the Final Fantasy, MegaTen, and Dragon Quest Franchises. Those are just RPG's (excluding some of the games in each franchise). And if you focus on gameplay and don't focus on the story as much then you've got the DMC, Ninja Gaiden, and GTA Franchises. Those are action games that don't need to focus on story much because you'll spend time playing the game than worrying about the story and you'll need to enjoy the game (Albeit the new Ninja Gaiden's are rather sad because the gameplay isn't all that great).

This is something most developers need to learn. In Action/RPG's you need balance. A fair amount of Gameplay and a fair amount of Story. If I wanted something solely about gameplay I'd pick up DMC4 and play that. If I wanted some good story telling I'd play some MegaTen games. When I play an Action/RPG I expect to have a fun time playing the game and have a good story.

And here's a side note. The Fullmetal Alchemist games released on the PS2 were utter failures as Action/RPG's. While the second improved over the first considerably. The fact is it was still a pretty shitty game.

Oh and the KH Series is another example of a good Action/RPG Series. The gameplay is fantastic. And well...when it comes to the story. it's pretty good when you consider they had to combine Disney and Final Fantasy together and Square is known for having pretty bitchy protagonists. And they preach too much about that heart bullshit. When I played the game sometimes I really wondered if 4Kids had anything to do with the amount of times they mention Light, Darkness, and Nothingness.

Still good series though.

I dunno. I never had a problem with the Final Fantasy series gameplay, or storywise...except FFX-2 which raped my ears. God dammit I hate their dialogue.
As for Megaten games, I'd agree that Devil Summoner was tedious and the story wasn't that great (mostly played it because I <3 DDS). But the more recent ones like Digital Devil Saga and Persona 3 I didn't see any problems with. I guess I could see how Digital devil saga could be tedious, but I never had a problem with all the fights. Though in P3 "the Answer" does get quite repetitive as there's nothing else to do but fight ><

i agree with baal
but i wren't to keen on KH2

DevilKingBaal wrote:

Why? Because here's the common Action/RPG game.

Either the story is good and the gameplay is repetitive. Or the story sucks and the gameplay is great.

Not a lot of games have been able to fill that gap.

Castlevania (Excluding a few)
And Raidou Kuzunoha

Here's why. Castlevania offers you good gameplay, great story, and all around a good experience playing it. While Raidou Kuzunoha doesn't offer solid gameplay, the fact is the gameplay is fun that you can combine demons, infuse them into your sword, and obtain new demons and find out which combination works good against what enemy and the story is pretty damn good.

Now the main problem with most Action/RPG's is that they have to find a way to make a good story while making the gameplay fun. Chances are you will be spending as much time with the story as playing the game. You can't just focus on the story or gameplay and call it a good Action/RPG. That defeats the purpose the of the Action/RPG genre. If you focus on the story and not enough on the gameplay then you've got the Final Fantasy, MegaTen, and Dragon Quest Franchises. Those are just RPG's (excluding some of the games in each franchise). And if you focus on gameplay and don't focus on the story as much then you've got the DMC, Ninja Gaiden, and GTA Franchises. Those are action games that don't need to focus on story much because you'll spend time playing the game than worrying about the story and you'll need to enjoy the game (Albeit the new Ninja Gaiden's are rather sad because the gameplay isn't all that great).

This is something most developers need to learn. In Action/RPG's you need balance. A fair amount of Gameplay and a fair amount of Story. If I wanted something solely about gameplay I'd pick up DMC4 and play that. If I wanted some good story telling I'd play some MegaTen games. When I play an Action/RPG I expect to have a fun time playing the game and have a good story.

And here's a side note. The Fullmetal Alchemist games released on the PS2 were utter failures as Action/RPG's. While the second improved over the first considerably. The fact is it was still a pretty shitty game.

You summed up Castlevania rather well.

i need to get symphony of the night

Believe me, it's very well worth it, too. Which version are you going for, though? Is it either of the following?

The PSP version that was included in Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles (PSP)

The original PSX version

The Sega Saturn version

PSX i guess

I also forgot there was an XBOX Live Arcade version, but it's the same as the PSX version, though. Either way, it's loads of fun, and it takes a good while to finish if you want to get a map completion of 200.6%, which is the official one.