The flow in your typical RPG consists of Town-Dungeon-Town-Dungeon and so on until the game is completed, with some story scenes scattered here and there (usually in towns & at the ends of dungeons). The exact ratio of dungeons to towns to story varies from game to game, but this general formula is used in the vast majority of RPGs out there. Of course, predictability can become boring so a few RPGs have tried to spice things up.
One method that a few RPG series have used to make things more interesting is to include an entirely different gameplay system and then periodically switch between the alternate form of gameplay and the traditional RPG formula. For example, Persona 3 & 4 intersperse the traditional RPG gameplay with a light life sim game. The Atelier & Mana Khemia series add an intricate alchemy/item creation system that the player must use frequently to progress in the story. And the Suikoden series includes the occasional large-scale army battle and one-on-one duel to mix things up in addition to the more traditional RPG party-based combat & exploration.
By including multiple forms of gameplay, it’s much easier to hold the player’s attention since when they might start to get bored with one form of gameplay, another type of gameplay quickly appears. On the downside, this kind of setup is much harder for developers since they need to work on multiple systems and can’t just focus on one.
Another method to add variety is to just simply work on making each individual scenario more unique. Final Fantasy VI is perhaps one of the greatest examples of this approach. In addition to the more traditional dungeons, the game also featured more unique situations like the Opera House, the river raft escape, fighting off hordes of enemies to defend Terra, the Magitek armor sequences, and more. Throw in a large cast of playable characters that frequently join and leave the party and the game felt quite varied despite the fact that the core gameplay (LVing up and fighting turn-based battles) remained largely the same.
Of course, there’s nothing that says that your RPG has to be varied at all. In the hack & slash RPG subgenre, there’s usually very little variety in what you’re doing – you fight monsters, XP & treasure pop out, you get more powerful and then you fight more monsters. There’s something to be said for games with a laser-focus on one thing (fight & gain power) as long as they do that one thing well.
I’ve been thinking about how we can increase variety in our RPGs and the idea of treating an RPG almost like a TV series came to my mind. For example, break the game up into 20-40 minute “episodes” and then decide what each episode’s focus should be. For example, one episode might be a traditional RPG dungeon whereas another episode might be focused more on story & letting the player make decisions. One episode might be focused on a character’s backstory (complete with playable flashback sequence), while another episode might focus on letting the player explore. These wouldn’t have to be actual hardset episodes in game but rather they would be a useful way to help us focus on making the design varied and interesting instead of just falling back on traditional RPG design techniques.
Have you played any Telltale Games adventures? Specifically, Back to the Future and Tales of Monkey Island. These are 5-Episode adventures each and showcase an issue: Even though the story is great and the finale is satisfying, the need to have not 1 but 5 endings made some parts feel rushed or not well developed. That’s the thing with FF6 where e.g. Shadow underwent a bit of a transformation or of course FF7 where Cloud/Zack/Sephiroth made an interesting story triangle.
I think that episodic content by splitting up the _story_ is fine, but I’m not sure if splitting up by _gameplay_ is. It reminds me of some older C64 Games where you started in a car chase, then had some side scrolling action, a top down shooter and some logic puzzles. (I think that one of the Batman games had it, and of course, Contra’s 3D sequences, although at a much smaller scale).
The thing with that: It makes the linearity very obvious. I mean, every game is linear at some point (The entire first CD of FF7 until you leave Midgar is extremely linear), but you usually have the middle section that opens up the world to you, while still limiting you (e.g., the Zelda games give the illusion of an open world even though you can’t go anywhere unless you beat the single dungeon you have to visit next). And let’s not forget the mission-based structure that was just one of the reasons FFX-2 was such a trainwreck.
Variety for variety sake can cheapen the experience to the point of creating a Mini-Game collection. Adding gameplay elements sparsely for a great effect OTOH deepens the experience by masquerading the repetiveness of the core gameplay elements.
I don’t have a really good answer, but I think that you achieve more versatility by changing the setting of Town/Dungeon. Dungeon doesn’t always have to be deep underground, and Towns don’t have to be in the overworld either. A town can be hidden behind a waterfall, and a dungeon can be on top of an airship. As long as there’s plenty of story that makes me WANT to go through the dungeon (and as long as the dungeons aren’t just endless realms of repeating corridors), that works. Games that make me spend an hour in a dungeon without dropping in some story bits every now and then are awful.
Hey Robert,
Is there a book you can recommend about RPGs? I like your RPG articles and want to read more about the theme.
Thanks in advance!
I’m creating a rpg in rpg maker, and this post gives me plenty of new game design ideas I didn’t think of before. Thanks!
If you are looking at episodic gameplay for an RPG, you should consider Dragon Quest 4 as a great example. Each “Chapter” focused on one group of heroes that the final chapter brings together to save the world. Each chapter had a different goal or focus over the others. For Instance Taloon’s chapter focused on him opening up a store and the effort he spent getting to that. Alena spent the chapter building up strength so that she could compete and win a combat tournament.
Of course the final and longest chapter followed a more traditional “town/dungeon” formula, it allowed the player to explore already visited areas from a new perspective while adding new areas not previously seen. This helped to not only bring the whole world to life, but also provided a good variety for the player.
Nice post! Another interesting take is Live A Live. Seven chapters each set in different worlds, with different characters and abilities. But each of them ultimately involves the circle of exploring/fighting. I think even the definitions of town and dungeon get blurry in some chapters.