Decline Shit in RPGs that piss you off

[Jick Magger]

Companions leaving your party permanently and taking all of the equipment you gave them.

 

[SniperHF]

Anytime the game takes my gear for ANY reason. I don't care if I'm going to jail or the dungeon. Don't have me put in jail or the Dungeon or let me keep my crap anyway.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

The worst I've ever seen in a CRPG is probably in Pool of Radiance : Ruins of Myth Drannor. Having the computer automatically attribute skill points and select feats when you level-up instead of you doing it is plain retarded. Character development is the main thing in a RPG. Killing it is pure madness.

 

[flabbyjack]

Confusing town layouts or lack of a map/direction of any sort.
Lack of clear direction to progress main quest. At least add a note to the journal or something.
Dumb puzzles that make no sense.

 

[Beastro]

Long spell or other kinds of combat animations like JRPG summons or Bethesda Fallout VATS.

Weight inventory where you're fine until you go over the limit and suddenly are reduced to a snails crawl, which is pretty much all implementations of it. Rather have it be like that until you reach a threshold and then when over it you progressively become slower.

The overuse of young characters, mostly in JRPGs where you have Generals and other prominent leaders that are in the 20s.

Moral choices that are extremes instead of being a good person that finds them-self having to be pragmatic or a terrible person needing to moderate themselves to manipulate people to get what they want.

WoW style quests where you hoover them up and do them as chores without any thought instead of having a few well done, interesting quests that matter.

I hate it when you have a really long dialogue (or cutscene) before a difficult fight and the game doesn't let you save at the start of the combat.

You then have to repeat the dialogue to get into combat again.

Not an RPG, but Odallus has a nice fix for that where if you die to a boss it skips the dialogue and goes straight to the battle.

 

[Vorark]

- HP sponges.
- Crafting.
- QTEs.
- Excessive use of cutscenes. I want a game, not a movie.
- Lore dumps & walls of text. Be concise.
- Gameplay shift, eg: real time segments in an otherwise turn based game. SRHK, I'm looking at you.
- MMO quest "design": go to X kill Y amount of Z.
- Trash mobs.
- High random encounter rate.
- Random encounters you can't run away from.
- Questions for which your response does not matter. Then why ask for player input at all?
- Poor UI.
- Obvious roadblocks. Like those statues in Dark Souls II -- they made no sense. At least puf some effort to explain it.
- Small or hard to read fonts.

 

[Talby]

The Bethesda logo.

Spoiler

But the Bethesda logo doesn't appear in any RPGs.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[ilitarist]

The biggest thing that pisses me off in RPGs is that they have multitude of systems which you often don't even have to understand to destroy the ultimate evil and become the strongest person in the world.

I find that JRPGs are often better about it. They at least have some truly powerful optional bosses so you know that you beating the story is not you becoming the real badass. But in Western RPGs you can usually roll over everything in the world without optimizing the equipment, understanding crafting and so on. Why then are those mechanics in there? I expect the game to demand me full control of everything to become the most dangerous guy in the world. And it's a great feeling when you manage to do this.

Pillars of Eternity sort of did it for me. You had to do a lot to fully upgrade Soulbound weapons, you had to respec characters to better suit their build, you have to use consumables and blessings to get through hardest fights, and those fights are optional. Same with Might & Magic X. Other modern RPGs don't do it for me though now that I think about it Dragon Age Inquisition probably wanted to do this with all its dragons and numerous crafting/enchantment systems. But their hardest mode is a slog. It's sad Witcher 3 doesn't have this as story-wised it's exactly what witchers do: use every available tool to handle strongest monsters. Nope, just attack and roll.

 

[Sacred82]

Skill monkeys.

 

[Sarastro]

Encounter design is what makes or breaks a game for me. I can't stand fighting against the same few enemies again and again and again.
Also I'm a bit of hoarder, who picks up everything he finds, so encumberance naturally infuriates me.
And most kind of minigames. They are usually just annoying and stupid.

 

[Falksi]

Encounter design is what makes or breaks a game for me. I can't stand fighting against the same few enemies again and again and again.
Also I'm a bit of hoarder, who picks up everything he finds, so encumberance naturally infuriates me.
And most kind of minigames. They are usually just annoying and stupid.

Argggh, encumbrance! Forgot that one. That and equipment degradation have become mainstays which rarely add any enjoyment, and usually just add busywork.
If done right both gave their place, but most devs can't be arsed to do them properly.

 

[ilitarist]

I hate it when liel, this dumb game dose this shit and like, you cant do shit either. and like, you try but rocks fall and everyone dies anyway. making me thank, dannnm tht some dumb shit

You should try Mask of the Betrayer, it's much better than original campaign.

 

[Master]

Comparing numbers on swords to see which is better/which will sell better.

 

[Cyberarmy]

WoW style graphic, I can't stand them anymore...

 

[Brancaleone]

- The retarded "Our 'Philosopher's Stone' system is so great that it will turn into gold any content you throw at it" approach, a guarantee for the shittiest content you could ever get, especially when it comes to combat encounters.
- The Diablo 2 Itemization School: kneel before the greatness of your "+2 fire damage, +1 divine resistance, 1.5% chance to kill left-handed dinosaurs, 5% chance to get a 1€ cumulative discount on GOG titles, +3 armour against dodos, + 20% hair regrowth, 10% reduction of body fat, cataract immunity, 15% cashback on selected purchases" end-game superweapon.
- level scaling
- everything else

 

[Carrion]

Unlimited or otherwise huge inventories. It makes you turn your brain off and turns looting into a chore, and having to sort through mountains of shit every time you access your inventory or sell something is much worse than managing a small grid.

 

[Falksi]

Unlimited or otherwise huge inventories. It makes you turn your brain off and turns looting into a chore, and having to sort through mountains of shit every time you access your inventory or sell something is much worse than managing a small grid.

Or maybe just include less bullshit loot?

 

[Sigourn]

Unlimited or otherwise huge inventories. It makes you turn your brain off and turns looting into a chore, and having to sort through mountains of shit every time you access your inventory or sell something is much worse than managing a small grid.

This is why I disliked Pillars of Eternity so much.

 

[Master]

Unlimited or otherwise huge inventories. It makes you turn your brain off and turns looting into a chore, and having to sort through mountains of shit every time you access your inventory or sell something is much worse than managing a small grid.

Hmm yes but Gothics for example had unlimited inventories and somehow i wasnt bothered by it. Maybe if the gameworld is huge then limited inventory would cause too much backtracking but in something cramped like System Shock 2 it would make sense.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

Real Time with Pause.
It should be TB or real Action like Hexen. Like male or female. Yin or Yang.

Not some weird in-between transgender shit like RTwP.

Also forced railroading and lack of freedom in terms of character development and exploration.

 

[Wulfric Pinewood]

What a great topic, let me share my toughts while im sitting in my dark corner.
My Name is Wulfric, im playing rpgs since late 80'a...

As i love whole crpg genre to the bone, both fantasy / steamp. / distopian like fallouts / etc. i love to play all kind of titles, even those called mediocre.

I really HATE, when my planned HOLY GAMING SESSION afterwork, while kids are sleeping already, along with good drink, some crap food, few hours of complete dive in to rpg universe etc.
is brutally broken by my fucking wife interruption of so called fucking important stuff talking, and for the fucking fuck sake yellin bout some freaking fucking shit like motherfuckin house cleaning,
more helping, more everything , more. more... more... fucking moreeee..... then i wish to have magic teleport out of this fucking world of misery straight to game world grab that oversized fucking
monster axe and made my "wife never changes" quest complete... ekhm.. hm.. hm.... myuaha. muahahahahahah...... muaahauhauhauahua............. muahuahauhauahuahauhauahauhauahuahauha.............. [run away naked to the outside, howlin to the moon ]

 

[Fenris 2.0]

Hard and soft XP Limits, like in D:OS or POE. Since I play at harder Difficulties it forces me to solve every fucking Quest in every Hub; getting Kitties out of the Trees, solving every marriage Problem in the Town, just for the few precious XPs... God damn, I'm a fucking Adventurer, don't bother me with this shit, let me do adventuring Stuff.

At the Moment I hate the fidgeting Mobs in the Battles of D:OS... I play Tactican Mode, I think that every AP counts, but i.e. this silly Snowmen are fidgeting so much that I miss my Click and my Toon walks around the Mob instead of hitting it...

 

[octavius]

What a great topic, let me share my toughts while im sitting in my dark corner.
My Name is Wulfric, im playing rpgs since late 80'a...

As i love whole crpg genre to the bone, both fantasy / steamp. / distopian like fallouts / etc. i love to play all kind of titles, even those called mediocre.

I really HATE, when my planned HOLY GAMING SESSION afterwork, while kids are sleeping already, along with good drink, some crap food, few hours of complete dive in to rpg universe etc.
is brutally broken by my fucking wife interruption of so called fucking important stuff talking, and for the fucking fuck sake yellin bout some freaking fucking shit like motherfuckin house cleaning,
more helping, more everything , more. more... more... fucking moreeee..... then i wish to have magic teleport out of this fucking world of misery straight to game world grab that oversized fucking
monster axe and made my "wife never changes" quest complete... ekhm.. hm.. hm.... myuaha. muahahahahahah...... muaahauhauhauahua............. muahuahauhauahuahauhauahauhauahuahauha.............. [run away naked to the outside, howlin to the moon ]

That's what you get for installing nagware in your life.

 

[Freddie]

- Trash mobs
- No games set in real life / near real life like universe