Greetings, I have not played a Turn Based RPG in years, so I am a little out of the loop. For those of you who have played them recently and those of you who are avid TB-RPG players, what are their current status in the market and for the gaming community? 1) I can't help but think that TB-RPG's popularity has declined, or is this just in the western markets? 2) What are common gameplay trends in modern TB-RPGs? 3) Can anyone recommend any great TB-RPGs that have come out in the last two years, or any that will be coming out soon? 4) What do you feel is the future of TB-RPGs? I appreciate any feedback I can get, Cheers!

1) I can't help but think that TB-RPG's popularity has declined, or is this just in the western markets?

It has in the US of A. Pretty much, Turn-based games are niche market, only rarely finding room on a shelf (HOMMV, CivIV). I think Wiz8 was the last major release TB RPG.

However, judging from some of the games localized by Atlus, the Japanese market is still very much in love with them.

2) What are common gameplay trends in modern TB-RPGs?

Since mostly indie devs are making them, the trend is towards Ultima-esque isometric viewpoints. Or at least it seems to me. Compared to many of the classics, they also seem to focus more on story than they used to, but that's more dependent on game.

3) Can anyone recommend any great TB-RPGs that have come out in the last two years, or any that will be coming out soon?

Eschalon. Book 2 will be out soon as well. Grimoire has been "coming soon" since back about 1825. Spiderweb Software has a host of RPGs.

4) What do you feel is the future of TB-RPGs?

Impossible to say. On the PC, I see it remaining a niche market. With the advent of PSN and XBL, especially the latter's seeming devotion to promoting indie devs, they may have a future.

If you're thinking of making one, you're probably not going to turn a huge profit with it, or make a ton of sales. With mine, I just want to break even to start, and go from there. I'd love to do nothing but make games for a living, but that's not in my hands.

You can make money; in fact Spiderweb makes enough to make it a full time job. But the days of lone devs like Richard Garriot or Jon vanCangem making hugely successful RPGs is probably long over.

I can't honestly tell you, but it's more likely than not that it's popularity, has declined, there are still potential big names, like master of Orion that'll still probably cause a decent commotion.

There is a game I liked that came out recently, it's not super complicated. It's called Operation Darkness. Pretty much WW2 with vampires and werewolves, but if you're looking for lots of equipment and vast changibility, it's probably not what you're lookign for.

The turn based element of rpgs in modern games has been hidden from people and in my opinion changed into the strategy rpgs like final fantasy tactics advanced. fallout 3 has several turn based mechanics and there is an option to play the game in a turn based mode.

i don't think the genera is going to die, i just think it is just going to be masked by more interactive approaches where the user has the option to play as either style of game, the turn based or active based game. personally i still love going back and playing the Old Might and Magic, exile, eye of the beholder, castle of winds and ultima games :)

Part of the reason of the so called "decline" might be due to a shift in how developers are targeting people now.

With the rise of the casual gamer and calls for greater accessibility, developers are focusing on making games that people can easily jump in and out of for a few minutes of gameplay. On top of that, nearly everyone these days is trying to figure out how to incorporate multiplayer aspects or fostering an online community into their games, some with great success, others not so much (look at the Famitsu reviews for Level 5's White Knight Story... they practically slammed the game because of how the multiplayer was tacked on so recklessly)

RPGs take a lot of time to play, even for one session. Add the turn-based aspect (which is inherently single player) and it's easy to see why many might shy away from this.

I love turn-based RPGs. I want to see more of them. But at the same time, I know how rough the game industry is, how unforgiving the players can be and that game development costs are rising at an alarming rate. So I can't fault developers for not visiting TB-RPGs as much as they had in the past. Japanese developers are still churning out TB-RPGs, but they are also looking at developing with the Western markets in mind now since there's potential for more profit.

I hear what your all saying, I am not totally surprised.

What RT-RPG do you feel have inventive gameplay mechanics that I could review?

It's always slightly amusing to hear people talking about entire genres dying. I've seen it recently in relation to Diablo III and action RPGs, which completely baffles me. Look at it the other way: a dearth of good games in a particular genre = HUGE OPPORTUNITY.

Adventure games were dead dead dead until Telltale came along, snapped up some well-known licenses, and started making fantastic games. I dunno how much money they're making, but it's clearly enough to keep them in business.

Go back to the classics if you need ideas. Jeff Vogel is still making fun RPGs with turn-based combat. Better yet, do something innovative yourself.

Turn based RPG's add a flavour that just isn't found in todays real time games.

There are few issues with modern TB games that I want to point out.

1 .Graphics

I think it would great if turn based game developers at least doubled the polygon count on the creatures and landscapes. After all, there isn't a need for fps or a lot of movement. I would expect to see amazing (almost ray traced quality ) creatures and buildings.

2. Combat

As for the combat system, TB game developers should take a look at some old TB games. For example, I recently tried to play a few Gold box D&D games. Even though the graphics are poor, the combat system provided a lot of options that I don't see anymore.

3. Game play

The one thing I really like about older TB games is that you could control a party of up to 6-8 characters at once. We need more of these! I really miss creating an entire party from the start with the option of adding a few npcs later on. Having a party allows you to make use of most items found in the game. This makes the game play much more rewarding.

Finally, I find that modern TB games don't give you enough room to battle on the map. Take the game Kings Bounty for example, the battle area is far to small. That makes every combat exactly the same.

I actually have to disagree with 00Kevin to some extent on his graphics argument. While they're far less dynamic and it's probably technically possible to make vastly more impressive graphics, showing too much sometimes takes away from the effect. I like the simple battle animations of Fire Emblem over the elaborate summons of FFX because understated pixel art leaves more to the imagination, and is short and sweet, while the cinematic summons quickly feel dull and overdone after only a few uses because they're so lengthy and elaborate. It's the difference between hearing the bass guitar riff between every other scene in Seinfeld and hearing listening to an entire theme song every 20 minutes when you watch a show back to back.

Still, I have some ideas about keeping battle animations detailed, elaborate, and interesting, without becoming a bore, especially in large-scale battles.

Keep in mind, the typical RPG battle is mostly symbolic. Unless the parties in questions are companies of soldiers during the Seven Years' War, they probably aren't actually standing in line and taking turns slapping each other in the face. More realistically, the attacks will be occurring in rapid succession in close range. I hate to say this, because I'm not a fan of bullet time, but it would be extremely interesting to me to present the battle as a detailed slow-motion skirmish, perhaps portrayed in the style of Zack Snyder's 300, and each character's attack taking only a second or a fraction of a second in game time. This would give a realistic sense of a skirmish while still having turn based strategy.

Quote:

Original post by Portugal Stew Keep in mind, the typical RPG battle is mostly symbolic. Unless the parties in questions are companies of soldiers during the Seven Years' War, they probably aren't actually standing in line and taking turns slapping each other in the face.

Except when you control multiple party members where a turn based system is at least more immersive than watching my entire squad do a three stooges bit all trying to go through a door at once, getting trapped behind a open door or interpreting "cover me while I aim the rocket launcher" as "leap in front of me as soon as I fire the rocket launcher".

Quote:

Original post by Portugal Stew I hate to say this, because I'm not a fan of bullet time, but it would be extremely interesting to me to present the battle as a detailed slow-motion skirmish, perhaps portrayed in the style of Zack Snyder's 300, and each character's attack taking only a second or a fraction of a second in game time. This would give a realistic sense of a skirmish while still having turn based strategy.

Though no goo for multiplayer I was thinking of something that would work like a RTS except you could pause the game to give more complicated orders than move here and shoot that.