RPGMaker MV: Mina's Revenge

[Fariel228]

Originally Posted by zae

I disagree on the combat-less RPGM games being fine. While I appreciate the amount of effort that goes into some of them, I can't stand them. There is no gameplay, it's just "the relevant scenes" with a bunch of walking around in between them - regular stories, comics and animations exist, you're allowed to enjoy that media passively, people don't need to be fooled into thinking they're playing a game by holding a controller while reading/watching those. I honestly believe that if you're going to make a game without gameplay, you're better off just writing a story or drawing a comic or whatever.

I understand you, but for combat to be enjoyable the game has to have some deep lore and a detailed plot (games like Cursed Armor or Roundscape Adorevia), without it its just bland 2d combat. Maybe if you are deep into roleplaying, writing beforehand a long D&D scenario for this 4 characters, it would have been different, but in the game the plot is just about spanking your enemies.

With all respect, I like the art and the scenes, but I think its not okay when ratio between combat and text in RPGM game is 9 to 1.

[zae]

Originally Posted by Shirabaru

RPG is not defined by combat only. Three pillars of RPG is combat, exploration and social interractions.

Right, but exploration and social interactions at their core are just "move around, you don't even have to look at the screen" and "mash the button to advance dialogue". The only way to make them engaging or fun is to make them really high quality, which basically also means agreeing "The plot can't be to go spank some enemies", and from there "Actually, this should just be a regular game you could sell to the general audience" at which point it no longer exists here because it's no longer relevant. Because to facilitate the spanking content, you're already making concessions in regards to the plot and the world, simplifying them and turning them into a means to an end.

But one thing for sure, If you want your game to be popular you should probably listen to your players.

If you want your game to be popular, you shouldn't put any niche kink content in it at all. If I wanted it to be popular, it'd have nothing to do with this site, there'd be no spanking content, and it'd be about exploring worlds, some kind of calamity that has to be stopped and so on. I probably won't actually make another game with spanking content, unless maybe as a match-3 gatcha thing that can at least make some money, if I learn another engine.


And as for combat being enjoyable, it's a matter of liking systems and stuff. I like Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous in spite of their bad plots (to be fair, they picked some badly written adventure paths, the devs absolutely did what they could for the most part), because of character customisation and how turn-based combat plays out. I am willing to butt heads with the terrible UI of Low Magic Age because I like the turn-based combat. Indeed, at least three or four people play Pokemon (I don't know the exact number, let's say it's four people), and those games sure as hell don't have a good plot, they're 100% about the mechanics, and the battling, and building your team in different ways.


But I get it, the take away lesson here is people don't actually want gameplay, they want to read a story while being allowed to press buttons, and I should have stuck with my first instincts and not bothered sharing it here.