What is the most innovative thing you've seen in an RPG?

[motherfan]

I think that MOTHER 3's music combo system was pretty innovative because it adds a new level of interactivity in RPG's. What other things have you seen in RPG's that are innovative? Please reply.

 

[Wiseguy]

I really liked the combat system in the original Baten Kaitos on Gamecube. It's not every RPG that turns a turn based combat system into a game of high speed solitare. I had a lot of fun with it.

The "flip" mechanic in Super Paper Mario was also pretty great (if you want to call that an RPG...)

 

[Dark Link]

I like what SE did with Chrono Cross, and made an "gamble" as to your accuracy and damage with the three options of doing light (high accuracy) medium (medium accuracy) and heavy attacks (low accuracy).

 

[antimatter]

the ability to snare the world with its merchandise. (pokemon)

 

[Jammer]

The only RPG I've ever really played is Pokemon on the Gameboy Color. But Pokemon was innovative in many ways: the incredibly flexible/unconventional team mechanics (catch 100s of team members, store them in boxes, mix and match any way you want) was the major thing, I guess. I think it was cool that you were never actually involved in fights yourself, and you could "catch" the things you were fighting and add them to your own team.

On the surface, Pokemon seems like such a fresh experience, but when you look at it, I suppose it has almost everything in common with other RPGs that came before it. But man, I loved my Pokemon Yellow, even though I'm not really an RPG guy.

 

[limitbreak]

Final Fantasy 7's materia system and legend of dragoons attack system

 

[digitalmaster287]

I really liked the Unison attacks in Tales of Symphonia. I'm not sure if that was implemented in any other RPGs, but ToS was the first game I played that had it and it was an awesome move.

 

[Brightside6382]

Final Fantasy 7's materia system

hahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahha that true fanboyism at it's finest

 

[Dreadlord Santa]

I don't understand how people can say that Pokemon was so innovative. Its gameplay seems to me as if it was ripped almost directly from Megami Tensei, only made more kid friendly, thus making it far more popular at the time. The materia system, as well, was pretty much a dumbed-down version of the Esper system from FFVI, though I *do* wish the espers didn't give stat growths...

I'll agree with the battle system in Legend of Dragoon being somewhat innovative, considering how little room you seem to have to innovate in the RPG medium. Timing based combat has become kind of old hat by now, but it was pretty nifty at the time. Too bad that game was so horribly flawed in other areas...

Come to think of it, I don't believe there's very much innovation at all in the RPG industry. Mass Effect was sort of different with the whole it's-actually-a-first-person-shooter deal, but I can't really call that innovation. I'll edit this post if I can come up with something that I find truly innovative.

 

[Bendu]

Come to think of it, I don't believe there's very much innovation at all in the RPG industry. Mass Effect was sort of different with the whole it's-actually-a-first-person-shooter deal, but I can't really call that innovation. I'll edit this post if I can come up with something that I find truly innovative.

Really? I'd say that's pretty innovative. Not only did they make an RPG into a first-person shooter, but they made it basically all third-person too!

Those guys at Bioware must be really talented.

 

[TheFifthMan]

I really like FFXII's battle system, and I think that was one of the few best ways of getting rid of the random battle, while making combat more tactical and less "SPAM ULTIMA OVER AND OVER AGAIN I'LL WIN!" It was fresh for Final Fantasy, and you actually have to worry about movement and position this time around, kinda like a real time FF Tactics.

Persona 3's dual dungeon crawl/dating sim was really fun too. It's an awesome way to totally get sucked into a game. Are you getting tired of leveling your party at the Tartarus dungeon/tower thing? Go ahead, try and make friends with your buddies and sleep with as many of your teammates as possible... Tired of dating six girls at once? (I think it was six... Yukari, Fuuka, Chihiro, that kendo manager, Mitsuru, were there others?) Run back to Tartarus and start making Personas again... and repeat ad infinitum. It's so easy to get sucked in x_x

Fire Emblem supports are pretty awesome too. By having two specific units fight alongside each other, they develop a story which gives another side to the personalities to the multitudes of units you gain in the game, along with stat bonuses. Take that swordsman you picked up in front of the arena. Without supports, he's just a gambling mercenary named Joshua. If you have him fight alongside the right people, you'll find that he's head over heels for a cleric of the enemy country!

I haven't actually played Mass Effect, but it sounds like they took the FPS/RPG from the Deus Ex series.

 

[onlymaskde]

What Pokemon Red and Blue brought to the table was interesting, but I think it got a little dried out as time went on. I remember the first time I played one of the originals I was amazed with the concept of catching and training your own Pokes. I mean, I do think it's cool and innovative, just not anything huge. The gaming style is kinda like a fusion of several different RPGs.

Earthbound is probably the most unique RPG I've played (or the MOTHER series as a whole). During battle, each character's HP is shown with a meter that, when decreased, will lower by one HP at a time. I thought that aspect made battles extra exciting. I always find myself smashing buttons as fast as I can to try to heal//finish the battle before my character faints. The way humor is portrayed in this game is something I really like, as well. The whole game, from start to finish, is humorous. Enemies' designs, attacks, dialogue...

 

[Verde Coeden Scalesworth]

Although it was unpopular, Quest 64's use of the C Buttons was very inventive and quite original. It's battle system was very fun and well done, and you didn't have to worry about crazy and confusing stats. Although trying to figure out how much damage you would deal is quite a feat, but I digress.

 

[Tek32]

Digivolving (lol)

 

[Zevox]

Golden Sun's Djinni system was pretty amazing if you ask me. You absolutely needed them to get your characters up to appropriate strength levels, but there was so much more to it. Mixing them among various adepts rather than just assigning them to the adept of the same element yielded whole new sets of abilities for the characters, effectively giving each character a half dozen or so different variations, and their use in battle - leave them equipped and fight at full strength, unleash them for single-shot special attacks and effects, or set them on standby and leave yourself weaker but capable of summoning awe-inspiring attacks that could devastate your foes - was a wonderful way to round them out. It made the battles so much more exciting, and made exploring likewise since you never knew where you would find the critters and chasing them down and finding the various ways of catching them was always so much fun.

And I agree with TheFifthMan about Fire Emblem's supports. Such a pity they changed them in Radiant Dawn and took away the unique conversation aspect of it...

Zevox

 

[sync]

Fire Emblem was also the first series (as I recall, unless FFIII came out first) to use the class system, and changing classes. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[S2]

My favorite innovation is simply having enemies show up on screen that you had to bump into on the map in order to fight instead of having random battles.

I don't know what game started it exactly, but I Chrono Trigger was the first mainstream game that used this so that the public noticed. I'd bet some random Japan only RPG did it first, but sometimes its the game's that make it famous and not the first ones to do it.

 

[M3tr01D]

earthbound was probably the most unique RPG I've played. such a strange game but so awesome.

 

[Zeela12]

Tale's series, with action combat, it had always been one of my innoventions until I realized that someone already made games like those.

*cry*

 

[Thrillhouse-vh.]

I just love Valkyrie Profile's combo system and platforming qualities, as well as everything else about that game

 

[PhiyreBawl]

Not the most innovative thing I've seen, but Tale's of Destiny's PS2 remake was pretty awesome, with the CC gauge (which decreased as you comboed, then refilled at the end of your combo), combined with the aerial combo system. Tale's of the Abyss's Flex-Range battle system was also nice.