Hey Yall.
I recently just finished my first playthrough on CP2077 and am now on my second playthrough, about halfway done. My friend and I have been discussing the flaws lately and it made me realize where so many RPGs in the past decade struggle to really have an impact.
I will talk about cyberpunk in this post, but I will blur the spoilers for it. Though fair warning. If you read everything else you will likely realize what im talking about and have it spoiled regardless to some extent. Please, if you have interest in cyberpunk, play it first. It has its flaws, but it still has a very good story that is worth experiencing for yourself, and I dont want to ruin that with this topic.
Spoiler Warning------------------------------------------------------
Anyways so now id like to list off some games ill try to bring up in this discussion, both good and bad, and try to explain why they succeeded and failed. Today ill be talking about Fallout 3, New Vegas, and 4, skyrim, witcher 3, KOTOR, Cyberpunk 2077, Detroit Become Human, and The Mass Effect Franchise. These are all games that im familiar with enough to speak on, but bear in mind my memory isnt great so not everything I say will be necessarily precise. All of these games stories will be talked about in some spoiler Capacity, but since they are all old, im not as worried about it as I am CP2077.
Alright now that thats out of the way we need to ask ourselves a question, What is an RPG? An RPG is a Role-Playing Game, Which can be viewed as one of two ways. For example, In the likes of most RPG Games, you are playing the Role of a Pre established character, allowing the player to make meaningful choices, Though This role can be very vague or very predefined. In the vague examples, Your characters origin doesnt matter as much or at all, as once you exit the character creator, Your “Past” serves as nothing but a backdrop for the story/setting at Large, And the character is yours to make what you will of it. In the Predefined examples, your characters origin greatly impacts not only the focus of the main story, but also what you do with your character, Choices are far more limited, and while there may be small variances, the story is mostly linear, and ends with very specific outcomes, regardless of the choices you make. I would like to put the games I mentioned under each category, but bear in mind, Not all games Suffer, or benefit, from the category they are under, As well as some of them Starting as one, and evolving into the other.
Vague:
Fallout: NV
KOTOR
Skyrim
Predefined:
Fallout 3&4
Witcher 3
CP2077
Mass Effect Franchise
Detroit: Become Human
All of these games, In my opinion are all good games, in some way. But some in my opinion struggle in the RPG Genre, If that is the focus. And as you can see, That is the purpose of this post. To try and analyze These games, and figure out how they can be made better going forward.
Take for example the difference between Fallout 3/4, And New Vegas. Fallout 3 and 4, Whilst still being Great games, Struggled to appease RPG players, Whilst New Vegas, Using the exact same engine, Managed to truly reach most RPG players. Why is this? Its because of the most important thing in an RPG. Choice. Whilst All three of these games have tons of meaningful choices throughout their games, Fallout 3&4 Follow Highly linear main stories, Centered around The Predefinition of their main protagonist. New Vegas, While it also has a Predefinition of the protagonist, Has a main story focused not on the protagonists story, but on the world, The setting. All roads in 3&4 Lead down paths that really dont make a vast difference in the story, Not only stripping the player of meaningful choices, But also creating the illusion of choice to attempt to make the Player feel that the protagonist is theirs, When its not. Where as New vegas, Allowed you to truly make your protagonist, into your character, And while all roads still converged, They didnt ride alongside each other, they took far different paths, and had vastly different outcomes (Though in fairness New Vegas is the only of the three that you cant actually play in the world of those outcomes afterwards).In terms of side content however, All of the Fallout Games, Are very good about allowing the player to make the protagonist theirs, Though in fallout 4 this was slightly less so, as choices were far less important.
Skyrim and the Witcher 3, are interesting to compare, in RPG elements, because they, whilst having vastly different approaches, End up with similar situations. Skyrim starts out with a Quite Vague Character, Whilst Witcher 3 (especially considering its the third in a Series) Had a Predefined Character, However both suffer from highly linear main stories, Where the choices you make have very little impact on the outcome. Yet both are considered some of the greatest games of all time, Because aside from those main stories, They are the best in their respective approaches, about giving you meaningful choices and consequences, that impact the world, and the characters.
Detroit Become Human is interesting. On this list, It is the most linear in a technical sense. All other games on this list, have Open, Or Semi Open worlds. Despite the Protagonists involved being highly Predetermined, Every choice you make, changes the road you take, from start to end, And Not only affects the outcome of said protagonists, but makes a significant impact on the world the game is set in.
KOTOR is also an interesting RPG, As it begins highly vague, but ends relatively Predefined, with one of the best twists in all of gaming. It is a great example of the best of both worlds, The Protagonist is both your character, and simulataneously not. This allows the RPG side of the game to flourish, without sacrificing a personal plot.
Next, The Mass Effect Trilogy, A Trilogy Predefined from start to finish, But with still enough vagueness, to allow for the player to make the protagonist theirs, and truly impact the outcomes of many of the characters the player comes to love. Once renowned as some of the best AAA RPG games, The dissapointment for this series, is because While the choices you make matter on a personal level, with the characters surrounding you, they end up amounting to little by the end.
Finally Cyberpunk 2077. A Game that Seems to start off vague, but is predefined entirely throughout. One of the better stories, That ive played through in a long time, A truly unique one that belongs up there with the greats, But Fails as an RPG very much so. The Main Story is so focused on two protagonists, that the side content doesnt really have room to breath. Where like mass effect before it, Choices you make, can impact the devolopment of characters the player grows to love, ultimately the outcome is relatively unchanged.
So what is the key takeaway from all of this? In my opinion it has to do with the approaches to the genre. The best games in this list, allow for meaningful choice that have consequences, And impact The protagonist, The characters, and the world All together. Where as the Most critisized games in this list, suffer across the board from their main stories and the linearity that comes with their predefined characters and story. Fallout 4, Cyberpunk 2077,And to some extent The Mass effect Series, Skyrim, Fallout 3, And Witcher 3, Suffer because of the linearity of the stories they tell. This is Prevalent in most games, All of which have massive pacing issues. In Fallout 4 The story is a rush to find shaun. In fallout 3 the story is a raced to find dad. In Cyberpunk Its a rush to get The Relic and Johnny out of your head. In Witcher 3 Its the race to find Ciri. In all of these games, while the main story isnt technically time sensitive, It makes little sense for the protagonist to be mucking about with side quests, rather than completing the Predefined goal. A goal that leaves very little room for choices and consequences, because the entire game is centered around it.
Where on the other hand, Games like New vegas, and Skyrim Give the player a World and a protagonist that is free to make an impact on the world through actions and choices, And make it to the finish on their own terms. And Games like KOTOR and Detroit, give the player agency to do that same thing, whilst still on more linear paths.
Overall, I think AAA RPG games, need to take a step back from the main stories they create, and focus not on stories that are Predetermined Rat races that the protagonist is forced to participate in, that all have similar outcomes, But To instead give us a world for the protagonist to inhabit, Influence, and play, as they see fit.
I know this was a rambling and a half, and not everything here is the most coherent of my works, But I hope you all enjoyed this, and I would love to hear your thoughts below